Nothing in particular prompted this, just a thought lately. I understand why veterans don't like to talk about the military and the war except with other vets: it's a frustrating, slow and sometimes painful
process to explain things to people who haven't been there. With a vet, they can ask three questions and know more about me in the war than my parents do.
22 November 2011
20 November 2011
Digital publishing
Okay, so old media is finally adapting to the new world. New York Times articles no longer show up on Google searches. Full Time articles are no longer available online for free. They are getting paid for their product online. It's a good first step.
But, they are still being pretty dumb about things. Aren't they trying out their own services? Do they really think the things they're doing currently are adequate? They are still 19th century in their thinking. Here's two things they are screwing up:
1. The digital edition isn't paired with the paper edition. I have a Kindle. I have a Time subscription. But I can't get Time on my Kindle without paying for it again (same is true of the Economist). Customers
should get the digital along with the paper, and vice versa at their option. Sure, there's a place for a cheaper, digital only subscription. So make one.
2. Digital materials aren't associated in any way the way hardcopy stories are. The great graphics they produce in hard copy aren't available online. I can't go online and read a Time magazine as easily as I can read the paper copy at my own desk - the graphics and pictures are missing, stories aren't easy to set in the same order they are on paper, etc. The paper edition serves as a vital guide to the collection of stories for the edition. Look at Stars and Stripes (stripes.com, digital editions), which produces a pdf
version of the paper every day, searchable visually page by page, with the option to download any set of pages or the whole thing.
On a positive note, their search functions were terrible, but are getting slowly better.
But, they are still being pretty dumb about things. Aren't they trying out their own services? Do they really think the things they're doing currently are adequate? They are still 19th century in their thinking. Here's two things they are screwing up:
1. The digital edition isn't paired with the paper edition. I have a Kindle. I have a Time subscription. But I can't get Time on my Kindle without paying for it again (same is true of the Economist). Customers
should get the digital along with the paper, and vice versa at their option. Sure, there's a place for a cheaper, digital only subscription. So make one.
2. Digital materials aren't associated in any way the way hardcopy stories are. The great graphics they produce in hard copy aren't available online. I can't go online and read a Time magazine as easily as I can read the paper copy at my own desk - the graphics and pictures are missing, stories aren't easy to set in the same order they are on paper, etc. The paper edition serves as a vital guide to the collection of stories for the edition. Look at Stars and Stripes (stripes.com, digital editions), which produces a pdf
version of the paper every day, searchable visually page by page, with the option to download any set of pages or the whole thing.
On a positive note, their search functions were terrible, but are getting slowly better.
14 November 2011
The budget
Apologies my my long absence on the blog. I haven't made it regular part of
my schedule, and thus it has fallen by the wayside.
For those of you without regular contact with gov't or military workers, the
email below testifies to the current state of the budget and the havoc it
wreaks on them. Since we have no budget or continuing resolution, our
leadership has to start controlling money at a higher and higher level,
which gets more and more inefficient.
We are a teaching squadron, have probably 60-70 people working in our
building and here's how we're forced to save money, by scrimping on toner
cartridges. It's a poor plan. (This, of course, is after the last round of
personnel firings.) I'm glad Iraq will finally be wound down before the
super committee deadlocks and the real budget pain begins.
-----Original Message-----
From: X Maj USAF ACC
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 8:50 AM
To: ALL Personnel
Subject: HOT! Toner Use
Importance: High
[All],
We are emergency fuel on printers. The base is out of money to purchase
toner, and we were forced to return two of our four remaining toner
cartridges to the [operations group] to distribute to other squadrons.
Limit all printing to mission essential use only. If you can read it on-line
then don't print it out. Please use the Sharp copy machine in my office to
the max extent possible. It is on a DAPS contract so the toner and MX is
paid for.
When and if, Congress approves a budget we will go back to normal ops. Until
then please help us preserve what little toner we have.
-Maj X
my schedule, and thus it has fallen by the wayside.
For those of you without regular contact with gov't or military workers, the
email below testifies to the current state of the budget and the havoc it
wreaks on them. Since we have no budget or continuing resolution, our
leadership has to start controlling money at a higher and higher level,
which gets more and more inefficient.
We are a teaching squadron, have probably 60-70 people working in our
building and here's how we're forced to save money, by scrimping on toner
cartridges. It's a poor plan. (This, of course, is after the last round of
personnel firings.) I'm glad Iraq will finally be wound down before the
super committee deadlocks and the real budget pain begins.
-----Original Message-----
From: X Maj USAF ACC
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 8:50 AM
To: ALL Personnel
Subject: HOT! Toner Use
Importance: High
[All],
We are emergency fuel on printers. The base is out of money to purchase
toner, and we were forced to return two of our four remaining toner
cartridges to the [operations group] to distribute to other squadrons.
Limit all printing to mission essential use only. If you can read it on-line
then don't print it out. Please use the Sharp copy machine in my office to
the max extent possible. It is on a DAPS contract so the toner and MX is
paid for.
When and if, Congress approves a budget we will go back to normal ops. Until
then please help us preserve what little toner we have.
-Maj X
23 August 2011
Sullenberger into the Hudson
This has circulated via email already, but thought I'd add it here with a note. It's a computer graphic reconstruction of US Airways flight 1549 / Cactus 1549, ditching in the Hudson River by Capt Sullenberger on 15 Junary 2009. There's a couple things I like about this, like how he goes from
touching the ground to in the water in just over 7 mins, not a lot of time to react and make a decision. Also, it shows how obvious a choice it was to put it in the water vice trying to make one of the airports. Can you
imagine what news coverage wouold be like if one of our crappy 24 hour news channels would show this instead of bringing on every idiot dingaling to give his opinion?
Incidentally, right about this time (2-3 years ago), I had a buddy in Iraq who lost all four engines on a herc at low altitude after takeoff and had to put it on the gound, a fairly similar type of emergency. Saved his whole
crew and 7-10 passengers. Military does a terrible job of PR for itself - why didn't we tell that story?
touching the ground to in the water in just over 7 mins, not a lot of time to react and make a decision. Also, it shows how obvious a choice it was to put it in the water vice trying to make one of the airports. Can you
imagine what news coverage wouold be like if one of our crappy 24 hour news channels would show this instead of bringing on every idiot dingaling to give his opinion?
Incidentally, right about this time (2-3 years ago), I had a buddy in Iraq who lost all four engines on a herc at low altitude after takeoff and had to put it on the gound, a fairly similar type of emergency. Saved his whole
crew and 7-10 passengers. Military does a terrible job of PR for itself - why didn't we tell that story?
20 August 2011
Veterans
Just read an article by Joe Klein, "The New Greatest Generation," good
stuff.
If you want to know about the good things in the US military, this is a
great place to start.
Some quotes:
'"The toughest part of leadership is telling people they have to do
something that involves pain," says Eric Greitens, a former Navy SEAL...'
'The inevitable military acronym for the five-paragraph memo is SMESC, and
the mnemonic device is "Sergeant major eats sugar cookies." Situation:
What's the problem? Mission: What's our strategy for solving it? Execution:
What tactics are we going to use? Support: What are the logistics; how many
troops and what sort of equipment will we need? Command: What other
organizations (air strikes, aerial reconnaissance, Afghan security forces)
will have to be involved?'
(I just read about this in ACSC; this is the same format used in CONPLANs
and OPLANs, that is to say, formal war planning documents.)
'They feel closer to one another than they do to either political
party...most of my friends feel politically homeless...neither party
reflected the combination of service and get-it-done pragmatism most
veterans value.'
'I once asked Moore whether the skills he learned in the Army had any
influence on his life as a civilian. "Absolutely! On every big decision I
make," he said and began to tell me about his tour as a counterintelligence
officer in a difficult section of eastern Afghanistan. "People have the
wrong impression of the military," he said. "It is extremely
entrepreneurial. I had more freedom to make decisions there than I do at
Citibank. My commander would tell me what needed to be done, and then it was
up to me to figure out how to do it." '
'There is a basic altruism. Gallina intuitively expanded the notion that you
don't leave a fallen comrade in the field to include the veterans of other
wars; from there, it's a short jump to including civilians as members of
their community too. Veterans are trained to believe that everyone in their
unit rises and falls together. "In the military, it's never about you,"
Lewis told me. "It's always about something larger." '
'"I was looking for something to fill the void. It was like losing your
family." Then McNulty invited him to join an Alabama tornado-relief crew. "I
rented a chainsaw, and within 20 minutes it felt like I was back in the
service again. We shared a common language and knew how to organize
ourselves to work efficiently... '
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2089337,00.html
Tags: links, leadership, war, history, pers, psychology, politics
stuff.
If you want to know about the good things in the US military, this is a
great place to start.
Some quotes:
'"The toughest part of leadership is telling people they have to do
something that involves pain," says Eric Greitens, a former Navy SEAL...'
'The inevitable military acronym for the five-paragraph memo is SMESC, and
the mnemonic device is "Sergeant major eats sugar cookies." Situation:
What's the problem? Mission: What's our strategy for solving it? Execution:
What tactics are we going to use? Support: What are the logistics; how many
troops and what sort of equipment will we need? Command: What other
organizations (air strikes, aerial reconnaissance, Afghan security forces)
will have to be involved?'
(I just read about this in ACSC; this is the same format used in CONPLANs
and OPLANs, that is to say, formal war planning documents.)
'They feel closer to one another than they do to either political
party...most of my friends feel politically homeless...neither party
reflected the combination of service and get-it-done pragmatism most
veterans value.'
'I once asked Moore whether the skills he learned in the Army had any
influence on his life as a civilian. "Absolutely! On every big decision I
make," he said and began to tell me about his tour as a counterintelligence
officer in a difficult section of eastern Afghanistan. "People have the
wrong impression of the military," he said. "It is extremely
entrepreneurial. I had more freedom to make decisions there than I do at
Citibank. My commander would tell me what needed to be done, and then it was
up to me to figure out how to do it." '
'There is a basic altruism. Gallina intuitively expanded the notion that you
don't leave a fallen comrade in the field to include the veterans of other
wars; from there, it's a short jump to including civilians as members of
their community too. Veterans are trained to believe that everyone in their
unit rises and falls together. "In the military, it's never about you,"
Lewis told me. "It's always about something larger." '
'"I was looking for something to fill the void. It was like losing your
family." Then McNulty invited him to join an Alabama tornado-relief crew. "I
rented a chainsaw, and within 20 minutes it felt like I was back in the
service again. We shared a common language and knew how to organize
ourselves to work efficiently... '
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2089337,00.html
Tags: links, leadership, war, history, pers, psychology, politics
11 August 2011
Password Strength (xkcd)
"Through 20 years of effort, we've successfully trained everyone to use passwords that are hard for humans to remember, but easy for computers to guess."
http://xkcd.com/936/
20 Aug 11: Update:
Joel Stein on the difficulty of using safe passwords: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2089349,00.html
And, a link to gauging the difficulty of cracking your password using brute force:
http://www.grc.com/haystack.htm
http://xkcd.com/936/
20 Aug 11: Update:
Joel Stein on the difficulty of using safe passwords: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2089349,00.html
And, a link to gauging the difficulty of cracking your password using brute force:
http://www.grc.com/haystack.htm
03 April 2011
Libya
So, an old friend of mine recently wrote to catch up and noted there'd been no new entries here since nov'10. I have been very busy with work (in spite of my new years resolution.) I had another friend write to talk about what was going on in Libya and it was an interesting convo. I will post it here when I get home(currently on the road).
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