I know someone who did. As an aside all the site asked for was your email address. It's not like they were asking for people to give up their SSN or bank account numbers.
The basic High Mobility Multi-Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV or Humvee) costs the US Army $35,000 (doors not included). Note that these are not the armored ones that they're using today in Iraq. They're designed to last 13 years in a combat environment with expextations set rather low. If you've ever been in a military HMMWV that's not less than a year old you'll know what I mean. Additionally, the Army has plenty of mechanics who are quite adept at replacing engines, transmissions, body parts such as the hood, frame sections, etc. So after 13 years, if you're lucky, you'll have the original chassis. While I'm not an expert on the Prius maintenance program, I'm pretty sure that's not what they had in mind.
The Army will take a very long time to switch to anything but Microsoft IT products. Putting anything other than a windows machine on the unclassified network is simply not allowed and will result in your computer being confiscated. To further drive this point home Microsoft holds an annual conference for the Army signal community on the Redmond campus about what new "oppurtunities" are available to the signal corps. I don't think you could get any more in bed than that.
Just to clarify this isn't the pentagon being lazy. There are only so many Bugle/Trumpet players in the DOD. Having been the officer in charge of many funerals I'll explain a little of what's given as far as military honors for the Army. For someone who served in a war and later dies (mostly WW2 vets now) they get an NCO and and officer to render honors. They simply fold the flag, and present it to the widow. Taps is played, usually with a CD player, but we're given the "bugle player" when they're available.
For someone who retires and later dies they receive a team with an officer, NCO, and six soldiers to render honors. The six soldiers render the salute with the rifles. Once this is done, taps is played. Frequently this is done by the device which fits into the bugle like a mute. Before we had these we had to use CD players and it is indeed the thought that counts. The rifle team also doubles as the pall bearers when required.
A soldier who dies in combat receives a full team with pall bearers, rifle squad, bugler, an officer and an NCO.
A soldier who receives the Congressional Medal of Honor (before he/she is buried) is given a burial by the "Old Guard" which includes a caisson (horse team).
The simple fact is that there aren't enough buglers in the Army to attend every funeral for every person that ever served in the Army.
For all those arguing about trumpets and bugles, they frequntly use a Trumpet for Taps.
This never happened to me back in the US but here in Iraq it happens all the time. I thought it was just the frequencies they use here. As far as I see it there are five solutions to this problem:
1) Keep your phone away from your speakers 2) Buy better shielded speakers 3) Enclose your speakers in a faraday cage and ground the cage 4) Enclose your phone in a faraday cage (note this may make it difficult to dial, oh yeah and it will negatively affect your signal quality too) 5) Get a new phone
Personnally, as stated above, I find it rather conveniant to get an early warning when I'm going to get a call. Besides, if you think of it as sounding like music they'd play at a rave it's not so bad. Bip bada-bip bada-bip bada-bip. Sounds kinda like techno.
Just for the record, I used ROTC to pay for my Computer Engineering Degree. I'm now branched field artillery and shoot rockets. I do absolutely nothing with my major.
Would I do it again? Yes. 4 years of indentured servitude is much better than being a slave to student loans for 15 years. If you REALLY want to use your degree, go through the airforce. They have nicer housing to boot.
If all you want to do is control eight LED's from your copmuter, get eight resistors which will keep the current at what the LED's can handle, a SN74LS7405 IC chip (that's an open collector inverter) and of course eight LED's. Build the circuit like: +5 -> resistor -> LED -> outputs of IC chip. The outputs of your IC chip will be the ground of the circuit. That way if you put a logical high on the input of the IC chip, the output will be GND otherwise it'll be +5 and current won't flow (turning the LED off). Now simply connect the DATA pins to the inputs of the IC chip and voila. To control the parallel port from within windows, you can use a driver called tinyport. I'm sure you can find it on google.
They don't link to the NYT registration page. If you aren't registered then the NYT site forwards you to the "Login" page. Once you do that, it takes you to the article.
The answer for me is nothing and this leads me to my second question. What can be done, other than not buying the product when it comes to market? Are there any groups that are fighting these measures? There's more than one way to vote with your wallet. I think supporting these groups might be more effective.
How a minefield is cleared by humans.
on
Robot Mine Smasher
·
· Score: 5, Informative
There seems to be a lot of misinformation here about the removal process of landmines. As a combat engineer for the US Army I have been trained on such procedures (though never having done them, thank god!). I'd like to explain how the process of breaching a minefield works.
Your basic tools are the ANPSS-12 Minedetector (basically a metal detector), and a ceramic rod. The detectors are sent out in groups of 3 (there are 4 more people in the group for command and control purposes, but they aren't the ones doing the detecting) and they move forward in a diagonal formation and they sweep in a circular arc around them searching for the mines. When one of those people finds a mine, the other two go back to the rear of the formation while the other lies down in the prone (face first) and starts poking the mine with his ceramic rod(having checked for trip wires and things of that nature of course).
Keep in mind that it takes only a few pounds of force to detonate an antipersonel mine. Something easily achieved with a little stick!
When the mine is found, if it's buried(not all are, I'll cover that in a minute) then the soldier uncovers the top of the mine and goes about checking for Anti-Handling Devices(booby traps). If the soldier finds one, he(I say he becuase women are not allowed to be combat engineers) must disarm because he's already handled the mine. Yes they can be that sensitive! If he screws up, he has several pounds of explosives blow up in his face.
Not all mines are triggered by pressure. There is another type of fuse used to trigger a mine called a tilt rod. It stands on top of the mine and when tilted a few degrees, which for US tilt rod fuses requires only 10 lbs of force, detonates the mine. These are used exclusively in anti-tank mines, the theory being that the vehicle rolls over the mine causing the mine to detonate under the belly of the vehicle. These add something else to the mix. Now first you have to disarm the tilt rod fuse before defusing the rest of the mine.
Is this job dangerous? VERY!!!
In fact, combat engineer is one of the most dangerous jobs in the military (for a variety of other reasons too:) )
All traditional US Mines have metal in them to make them easier to find by our guys once the war is over. Other countries don't play so nice. They use wood and plastic. So our little mine detectors won't find them, but our feet will! Also some of them have magnetic fuses, which operate similarly to the sensors for traffic lights. When our metal detectors go over them they go "boom!"
Having explained all this I'm sure you can see why the army (and other services I'd imagine) continually look for better and safer ways to disarm mines. There have been several items that have been tested and are being tested right now. We tested a South African device only to discover that it performed horribly:) They're now testing a minedetector that uses radar instead of just a regualr metal detector and I remember seeing on CNN that there is a European company that has a remote controlled mine remover.
This japanese robot is a great device that deserves a serious look. For those critics who think that the detector will get caught up on terrain, they've never seen what a tracked vehicle can do. Wheeled vehicles can be very reliable too (remember the mars rover?)
Now before you start flaming me about misinformation, this is as I remember it, so there is no warranty:) If you'd like to check out more about mines and such you can refer to: FM20-32
.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the Galago platform holds a lot of promise. It is very new though so you may suffer from early adopter syndrome.
http://logiblock.com/
Do you have to sign the contract in blood?
I know someone who did. As an aside all the site asked for was your email address. It's not like they were asking for people to give up their SSN or bank account numbers.
Freescale is a subsidiary of Motorola. That does not make them a separate company.
The basic High Mobility Multi-Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV or Humvee) costs the US Army $35,000 (doors not included). Note that these are not the armored ones that they're using today in Iraq. They're designed to last 13 years in a combat environment with expextations set rather low. If you've ever been in a military HMMWV that's not less than a year old you'll know what I mean. Additionally, the Army has plenty of mechanics who are quite adept at replacing engines, transmissions, body parts such as the hood, frame sections, etc. So after 13 years, if you're lucky, you'll have the original chassis. While I'm not an expert on the Prius maintenance program, I'm pretty sure that's not what they had in mind.
The Army will take a very long time to switch to anything but Microsoft IT products. Putting anything other than a windows machine on the unclassified network is simply not allowed and will result in your computer being confiscated. To further drive this point home Microsoft holds an annual conference for the Army signal community on the Redmond campus about what new "oppurtunities" are available to the signal corps. I don't think you could get any more in bed than that.
Just to clarify this isn't the pentagon being lazy. There are only so many Bugle/Trumpet players in the DOD. Having been the officer in charge of many funerals I'll explain a little of what's given as far as military honors for the Army. For someone who served in a war and later dies (mostly WW2 vets now) they get an NCO and and officer to render honors. They simply fold the flag, and present it to the widow. Taps is played, usually with a CD player, but we're given the "bugle player" when they're available.
For someone who retires and later dies they receive a team with an officer, NCO, and six soldiers to render honors. The six soldiers render the salute with the rifles. Once this is done, taps is played. Frequently this is done by the device which fits into the bugle like a mute. Before we had these we had to use CD players and it is indeed the thought that counts. The rifle team also doubles as the pall bearers when required.
A soldier who dies in combat receives a full team with pall bearers, rifle squad, bugler, an officer and an NCO.
A soldier who receives the Congressional Medal of Honor (before he/she is buried) is given a burial by the "Old Guard" which includes a caisson (horse team).
The simple fact is that there aren't enough buglers in the Army to attend every funeral for every person that ever served in the Army.
For all those arguing about trumpets and bugles, they frequntly use a Trumpet for Taps.
This never happened to me back in the US but here in Iraq it happens all the time. I thought it was just the frequencies they use here. As far as I see it there are five solutions to this problem:
1) Keep your phone away from your speakers
2) Buy better shielded speakers
3) Enclose your speakers in a faraday cage and ground the cage
4) Enclose your phone in a faraday cage (note this may make it difficult to dial, oh yeah and it will negatively affect your signal quality too)
5) Get a new phone
Personnally, as stated above, I find it rather conveniant to get an early warning when I'm going to get a call. Besides, if you think of it as sounding like music they'd play at a rave it's not so bad. Bip bada-bip bada-bip bada-bip. Sounds kinda like techno.
Just for the record, I used ROTC to pay for my Computer Engineering Degree. I'm now branched field artillery and shoot rockets. I do absolutely nothing with my major.
Would I do it again? Yes. 4 years of indentured servitude is much better than being a slave to student loans for 15 years. If you REALLY want to use your degree, go through the airforce. They have nicer housing to boot.
If all you want to do is control eight LED's from your copmuter, get eight resistors which will keep the current at what the LED's can handle, a SN74LS7405 IC chip (that's an open collector inverter) and of course eight LED's.
Build the circuit like:
+5 -> resistor -> LED -> outputs of IC chip.
The outputs of your IC chip will be the ground of the circuit. That way if you put a logical high on the input of the IC chip, the output will be GND otherwise it'll be +5 and current won't flow (turning the LED off).
Now simply connect the DATA pins to the inputs of the IC chip and voila.
To control the parallel port from within windows, you can use a driver called tinyport. I'm sure you can find it on google.
They don't link to the NYT registration page. If you aren't registered then the NYT site forwards you to the "Login" page. Once you do that, it takes you to the article.
I hear everyone griping but what have you done?
The answer for me is nothing and this leads me to my second question. What can be done, other than not buying the product when it comes to market? Are there any groups that are fighting these measures? There's more than one way to vote with your wallet. I think supporting these groups might be more effective.
There seems to be a lot of misinformation here about the removal process of landmines. As a combat engineer for the US Army I have been trained on such procedures (though never having done them, thank god!). I'd like to explain how the process of breaching a minefield works.
Your basic tools are the ANPSS-12 Minedetector (basically a metal detector), and a ceramic rod. The detectors are sent out in groups of 3 (there are 4 more people in the group for command and control purposes, but they aren't the ones doing the detecting) and they move forward in a diagonal formation and they sweep in a circular arc around them searching for the mines. When one of those people finds a mine, the other two go back to the rear of the formation while the other lies down in the prone (face first) and starts poking the mine with his ceramic rod(having checked for trip wires and things of that nature of course).
Keep in mind that it takes only a few pounds of force to detonate an antipersonel mine. Something easily achieved with a little stick!
When the mine is found, if it's buried(not all are, I'll cover that in a minute) then the soldier uncovers the top of the mine and goes about checking for Anti-Handling Devices(booby traps). If the soldier finds one, he(I say he becuase women are not allowed to be combat engineers) must disarm because he's already handled the mine. Yes they can be that sensitive! If he screws up, he has several pounds of explosives blow up in his face.
Not all mines are triggered by pressure. There is another type of fuse used to trigger a mine called a tilt rod. It stands on top of the mine and when tilted a few degrees, which for US tilt rod fuses requires only 10 lbs of force, detonates the mine. These are used exclusively in anti-tank mines, the theory being that the vehicle rolls over the mine causing the mine to detonate under the belly of the vehicle. These add something else to the mix. Now first you have to disarm the tilt rod fuse before defusing the rest of the mine.
Is this job dangerous? VERY!!!
In fact, combat engineer is one of the most dangerous jobs in the military (for a variety of other reasons too :) )
All traditional US Mines have metal in them to make them easier to find by our guys once the war is over. Other countries don't play so nice. They use wood and plastic. So our little mine detectors won't find them, but our feet will! Also some of them have magnetic fuses, which operate similarly to the sensors for traffic lights. When our metal detectors go over them they go "boom!"
Having explained all this I'm sure you can see why the army (and other services I'd imagine) continually look for better and safer ways to disarm mines. There have been several items that have been tested and are being tested right now. We tested a South African device only to discover that it performed horribly :) They're now testing a minedetector that uses radar instead of just a regualr metal detector and I remember seeing on CNN that there is a European company that has a remote controlled mine remover.
This japanese robot is a great device that deserves a serious look. For those critics who think that the detector will get caught up on terrain, they've never seen what a tracked vehicle can do. Wheeled vehicles can be very reliable too (remember the mars rover?)
Now before you start flaming me about misinformation, this is as I remember it, so there is no warranty :) If you'd like to check out more about mines and such you can refer to: FM20-32
.