| Thursday,
October 5, 2000
Jerry:
It has been fascinating to follow
the discussion on Light Infantry and Land Warrior on your Chaos Manor
Infantry Report page. Prior to May of this year my connection to the
military has been limited to reading popular press, news, and of course
Military Science Fiction. Since May I have been working as the
contractor's Sr. Test Engineer on the Army Land Warrior program. Based on
my admittedly short-term personal knowledge here is a quick, and biased,
view of the LW 0.6 system, that just PROVED itself in the Army Advanced
Warfighting Experiment (AWE).
Here is the URL for the official AWE website.
<http://www.tradoc.army.mil/pao/AWE/AWEIndex.html>
Yes I know these reports tend to paint all the
systems in the best light possible, but please check out the sections on
Land Warrior.
This LW is not the Raytheon system! That system,
although shown on a GI Joe action figure, was totally unacceptable and is
no longer under consideration.
A new team of contractors was formed to produce, as
far as possible, a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) Land Warrior. This team
was composed of small high tech non-traditional-government contractors and
they were given a very specific mission to design, build, test, deliver
and train a platoon with a COTS 60% functionality Land Warrior system.
Program success was measured by how well our platoon performed in the AWE.
In fact when I was hired it was with the understanding that this 0.6 LW
need not be usable after AWE. It was not expected to be true fieldable
system. This was an experiment to find out what COTS could do and then
decide what else would be required, before anyone would consider sending
soldiers into combat wearing a Personal Area Network (PAN).
The contracts for this program were officially
signed in February and March of this year 2000. First units were delivered
to the Army for training early June. We continued to improve the system as
the platoon trained all summer. Then at the AWE (September 8 through
20th.) our platoon, with NO CONTRACTOR support, proved more successful
than we expected.
Please read the reports on the above AWE URL for
details on how well they performed. The highly trained OPposition FORce (OPFOR)
was taken by surprise by the effectiveness of our LW-Platoon lead by a 2nd
Lt. who was newly assigned, just before this summer's training,
This platoon was quickly assembled from other
elements of the 82nd Airborne, they had not been a cohesive unit before
our training started. Specifically the army did not recruit techno
literate soldiers for this platoon. One of the things we were being judged
on was the ability to train normal soldiers to use this high-tech gear.
At AWE our LW platoon had superb situational
awareness, they were natural pathfinders for the majority of the troops
who were not LW equipped. . Just like Heinlien describe in "Starship
Troopers" they had digital terrain maps that were overlaid with their
own and the team teammates positions, provided from their individual
military GPS receivers automatically communicating over the wireless LAN.
The LW did not have and did not need a compass. Each LW soldier's personal
icon was in the shape of an arrowhead, with the point oriented in the
direction the soldier's body was pointing. Soldiers had the ability to
digitally mark enemy positions and pass these positions to the team and up
the chain of command. He knew where he was, where his team mates were, and
where the enemy was.
Operations orders were passed down from the tactical
Internet through the RTO to the platoon leadership. The Lt. and his
sergeants made plans, again on digital map overlays, and sent them to all
the platoon members over the wireless LAN. Each platoon member had a radio
(high frequency very low power line of sight voice over IP) that allowed
configuring, via pull-down menu options, who in the platoon would receive
radio traffic. Usually the squad only communicated with them selves, or
just their team, but could quickly reach any platoon member in range. The
planning overlays and radios allowed them to know what their leaders
wanted them to do, minute by minute, if necessary.
Each rifle team member had a very small Daylight
Vision Site (DVS) on his weapon. Some also had either the existing medium
weight or the brand new Light Weight Thermal sites. Digital sight images
and cross-hair adjustment reticles were presented to the soldier in his
Helmet Mounted Display (HMD). A LW can and did make kills at 300 yards
while only exposing his hands and weapon. This new style of indirect
weapon firing will make the soldier much more survivable since they do not
need to expose their heads for normal cheek to jowl firing.
Clearing buildings and reaching objectives in the
military operations in urban terrain (MOUT) exercises went much smoother
than expected, but the army referees were not fully cognizant of the
capabilities of the LW. In one case our LW soldiers were in direct
team-to-team radio communications coordinating who proceeded when and
where. The referees were just about to call a safety halt since, to them,
it did not look like one LW fire team knew the other team was about to
enter their field of fire. Next time the referees will need to be on the
platoon net as well.
The weight of this new system (batteries for nearly
24 hours of full operation included), when combined by a new lighter
weight helmet, new lighter weight more flexible interceptor body armor,
new modular load bearing system and Light Weight Thermal Weapon site, was
within 2 pounds of a currently equipped line soldier. Everyone realizes
that today's soldier is expected to carry too high a load into combat so
this is not good enough! We do have program requirements to continue to
reduce the weight and manprint. But that is just what COTS technology has
been doing for the whole computer field.
The next contract will be for a few hundred fully
fieldable robust reliable Land Warriors; that must pass DOD tests and be
accepted for real combat. The Army and the contractor consortium know this
doable if the specifications are kept reasonable and do not require the
contractors to build out of unubtanium.
Today we are truly seeing the communications layer
of the Mobile Infantry suite become real.
Land Warrior will give the American soldier
significant overmatch against any opponent in the world, from set piece
heavy maneuver battles to "Peace Keeping" missions.
Chuck Cady Land Warrior Test Engineer Home Email:
CECady3@aol.com
I make no doubt this will start a new round in the
debates and I look forward to that. Mr. Cady sends this attachment as well:
Good Web Sites for the new version 0.6 land Warrior
Not the failed Raytheon system.
http://147.71.210.21/adamag/August%202000/ibct.htm
http://www.wral-tv.com/news/wral/2000/0720-modern-warfare/
http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/08/10/computer.soldiers.ap/
http://www.pstripes.com/ed082400f.html
http://www.fayettevillenc.com/foto/news/content/2000/tx00jul/n20land.htm
http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/20000401landwarrior2.asp
http://www.armytimes.com/stories/army18.htm
http://www.armytimes.com/stories/army19.htm
Dead Reckoning Module part of Land Warrior http://www.pointresearch.com/accelera.htm
land Warrior batteries http://www.engineeringtalk.com/news/saf/saf108.html
Note these disposable batteries were a failure at AWE. In fact some of
them caught fire one burned up a soldiers pack, luckily the soldier was
not wearing it at the time. The disposables were taken from the soldiers
and they completed the AWE mission on rechargeable Batteries.
Here is a GAO description of the failure of the
previous Raytheon system : http://www.gao.gov/openrecs99/abstracts/ns96190.htm
Dear Jerry,
I have a little problem, which I was hoping you
could help me with. I have in my house two PCs, one of which is
considerably newer than the other. Each PC has a modem, but the old PC has
a better modem than the new PC. I was wondering if you could tell me how
to switch the modems over, how easy is it to take a modem from one
computer and install it into the other.
I know a little bit about the architecture of the
Pc, as I am currently studying Computer Systems Engineering at university.
But modem instalation hasn't come up in the course yet.
It would be a great help to me if you could solve
this problem as I much prefer using my new PC on the WWW.
Yours Sincerely
David Brockwell
Depends on the operating system. Windows 98 if at
all updated, and Windows ME almost certainly, will know about any modem
you have. But to be sure, get on line and download the appropriate drivers
for each modem, then put the driver files on the proper machine that will
have that particular modem. Now shut down each, and swap modems. When you
turn them, on the system ought to detect new hardware and want drivers.
You will have provided those (although the OS may have perfectly good ones
already). Now you will have to tell applications that use modems to
use the new one or they will vainly try to find the old.
I would myself go to Control Panel / System /
Device Manager / Modem on each machine and remove the old one before doing
the shut down and swap; that should make most applications depend on the
new one. But you never know some apps remember too much: like the Bourbons
after Napoleon they have learned nothing and forgotten nothing...
re: Planting dummy files into piracy networks
Steve Stirling speculates (suggests?) that
"Wouldn't it be possible to design programs to go onto these systems,
copy files containing copyrighted material (books, music, games, etc.) and
then upload corrupted files indistinguishable from the originals until
opened?"
I have heard that the Canadian band "Bare Naked
Ladies" is planting demo versions of several of their songs into
Napster servers for just this reason. If the demo/partial song is
everywhere, then you get the marketing boost of having a downloadable
version, but people still need to buy the "real" one if they
like it.
- Greg Goss (mailto:gossg@mindlink.com
Indeed. Rather clever. Of course it will not be
long before the "real" one will bo available through Napster
also.
> We have an AMD Athlon system. It locks up with an nvidia Gforce
board. Trying new drivers.
You may want to try to reduce the speed of the card.
I recently acquired a brand-new system from GamePC (www.gamepc.com), whom
I recommend, using an ASUS A7V KT-133 mainboard, an AMD
"Thunderbird" 1-GHz chip, and an ASUS GeForce2 AGP-V7700 video
adapter. The GamePC people told me that it kept locking up the system
until they tweaked the speed down from 200 MHz to 198 MHz (I subsequently
tweaked it down further to avoid some additional lockups, to 180 MHz). As
I understand it the card should be able to perform all the way to the FSB
speed which is 200 MHz but apparently it cannot.
With the ASUS card this is easy to do, it comes with
a "Tweak Utility" that allows this. I do not know whether you
can do the same easily. However suffice it to say that Baldur's Gate II:
Shadows of Amn, which used to lock up about every fifteen minutes or so,
has not done so in many hours of play since I went all the way down to 180
MHz. YMMV.
Very respectfully,
David G.D. Hecht
Good point, and I must look into all this. I
wonder if it's possible to reduce the speed of a Voodoo 5 as well? I have
no need of THAT much board speed. Just enough to win the loving cup...
You may already be aware of this issue, but just in
case... Some video cards render images darker than others. And good games
usually offer an option to change a "gamma correct" setting that
compensates for this difference. I found that without this setting, early
first-person shooters I played would have been basically unplayable on my
computer. Too dark to see anything. So if it's image darkness that is
affecting the depth of what you see, look for a "gamma correct"
setting and see if that brightens things up a bit.
- Ron Kyker
A happy reader of your columns for some time...
Yes, and thanks to you and others I have been
playing with gamma corrections for the past couple of days. It's a black
art.
Dr. Pournelle,
Visit this site, click the "Explorer"
button, punch in your neighbor's address, see a satellite photo of your
neighborhood.
http://www.globexplorer.com/
Don McArthur
And indeed I was able to make out our block and
the park above us. The interface will drive you mad if you have a slow
connection, but it's pretty neat. And free. Thanks!
Jerry, After reading "Gaming, Graphics, And
Problems Chasing More Problems Down" on the Byte Web site I was
caught by the statement "if you have goofy problems with your system
you can be sure it isn't memory." Have you really come across bad
memory in any of your systems? How did you determine it was the memory
that was at fault, by swapping with known good memory or by diagnostic
software? If you used diagnostic software why did you use and if you
didn't do you recommend any products that will find bad memory.
Trayz Gredner, MCSE ASE
Yes I have come across bad memory. I scrapped a
perfectly good Cheetah because of bad memory; I thought it was the hard
drive. And in another machine replacing the el cheapo memory with Kingston
cleared up some mysterious and random problems.
I do not have any recommended memory tests. I
used to use them, but memory tests generally will find only gross
failures, not small slips and errors. The best insurance against bad
memory is to buy good memory. I currently recommend Crucial and Kingston.
There are probably other good sources, but those I know are reliable, and
I trust them. When I build new machines the last thing I need is to
have problems I can't find, and memory problems are usually the kind you
can't find because they can't be reliably reproduced. In the past I have
wasted considerable time before swapping out memory and having the
problems go away; so now I don't bother with el cheapo to begin with. When
I built Phillip's Persian Gulf system, I told him, "If it goes bad,
save the disk drive and the memory and fling the rest
overboard..." Your mileage may vary.
Dear Jerry:
No apologist for Microsoft I, but my experience with
Microsoft support this afternoon was so excellent that I would like to
place it on the scales of your readers' opinion.
I had a problem installing Outlook 98 (US English
version) on a new computer to which I have to transfer all my files and
applications. The new computer uses Win98 SE, French language version. I
reported the problem to Microsoft's no-charge web-based support. I had an
answer in less than an hour, referring me to the order department for a
newer version of Outlook 98. Next, a toll-free call, no waiting, and a
brief conversation with a courteous customer service rep, who offered to
ship me the newer release that Support had recommended. No charge. Should
be here in a day or two - and I know from past experience that they keep
their word.
I'm no one special, just an obscure, individual user
of Microsoft products. But I know when I am being treated right, and I
think I know excellence when I see it. And I was, and I did.
Speaking of excellence, I would like to thank you
for all the years of great service to people who use small computers, and
for your fine, lively writing. I often marvel at what you manage to get
done in a day. Please don't burn out. You have a lot of friends who like
to check in with you often.
Sincerely,
Charles Fitzsimmons
Nice to hear sometimes things go well! And thanks
for the kind words.
The following is a new policy at Columbia, adopted without objection
from the Faculty Senate. One Columbia professor said of the Senate meeting
that when he questioned this abrogation of the basic rights of Columbia
students to face their accusers and be given timely notice of the charges,
he was told that he favored red tape over justice and ought to be glad of
tenure. There were also veiled threats of taking tenure away.
Sexual Misconduct Policy and Disciplinary
Procedure
Policy
The University's Policy on Sexual Misconduct
requires that standards of sexual conduct be observed on campus, that
violations of these standards be subject to discipline, and that resources
and structures be sufficient to meet the physical and emotional needs of
individuals who have experienced sexual misconduct. Columbia University's
policy defines sexual misconduct as nonconsensual, intentional physical
contact with a person's genitals, buttocks, and/or breasts. Lack of
consent may be inferred from the use of force, coercion, physical
intimidation, or advantage gained by the victim's mental and/or physical
impairment or incapacity, of which the perpetrator was, or should have
been, aware.
Disciplinary Procedure for Sexual Misconduct
A student charged with a violation of the
University Policy on Sexual Misconduct is entitled to notice of the
specific charges, an opportunity to be heard, and an opportunity to appeal
a disciplinary decision to the Dean of his or her School.
Ordinarily, a disciplinary proceeding begins
with a written communication from the Coordinator of Sexual Misconduct
Prevention and Education, requiring the student to attend a disciplinary
hearing to respond to a specified charge. Charges shall be timely if
brought while the accused student is still enrolled in the same school as
at the time of the alleged violation, but in no case longer than five
years after the occurrence. In rare cases, the proceeding may begin with
an oral communication requiring the presence of the student at a hearing.
The hearing is held before two deans and one student, from a pool of
specially trained individuals not affiliated with the school attended by
either party unless otherwise mutually agreed. The student member may be
excluded by agreement of the complainant and the accused, and either
student may object to the membership of any specific panelist on the basis
of acquaintance or other conflict. Either party may be accompanied by a
nonparticipating member of the University community as support. The
hearing must commence within10 days of the Coordinator's receipt of the
complaint, unless the University is not in session.
The hearing is not an adversarial
courtroom-type proceeding; the student does not necessarily have the right
to be present to hear other witnesses and does not have the right to
cross-examine witnesses or prevent the consideration of relevant evidence.
In addition, although students are always free to consult with an
attorney, they are not permitted to have an attorney present during a
disciplinary hearing or at any appeal. Confidentiality about identifying
information regarding the participants in the hearing must be maintained
by all individuals involved.
The complainant bringing the complaint must
inform the hearing panel of the facts of the situation, and answer any
questions from the panel. The accused student is informed of the evidence
that led to the charges against him or her and asked to respond. The
student may offer his or her own evidence. This includes the student's own
appearance at the hearing and may include the appearance by others on his
or her behalf and any written submission or relevant documents the student
may wish to submit. Each party will be informed of statements made and
evidence presented by the other party, and by witnesses, and will have a
full opportunity to respond.
After the panel has heard testimony from both
students and any others, and has considered all of the evidence, it
reaches a determination and notifies both parties in writing of that
decision. Both deans on the panel must agree on the determination. The
panel will also submit a written report, summarizing the evidence and its
findings to the Dean of Students of the accused student's school, and
recommending a penalty. If the student member of the panel disagrees with
the determination, he or she may write a dissenting opinion, which will be
submitted to the Dean of Students together with the written report. If the
accused student is found to have committed a disciplinary infraction, the
penalty can include probation, suspension, or dismissal, and may include a
prescribed educational program. Both students will be informed in writing
of the Dean's decision, and the penalty imposed.
The student has the right to appeal a
decision that results from a disciplinary hearing to the Dean of his or
her School. The appeal must be made in writing within thirty days of the
time he or she is notified of the decision, and it must clearly state the
grounds for appeal. Normally, on such an appeal, the Dean of the School
relies solely upon the written record and does not conduct a new factual
investigation. However, the Dean is free to discuss the matter with the
panelists if questions about process or proof are raised by the appeal.
The Dean focuses upon whether, in the Dean's view, the decision made and
the discipline imposed are reasonable under all of the circumstances of
the case. There is no further right to appeal within the University.
Breaches of the confidentiality of the
proceedings, or retaliation against any person bringing a complaint, will
constitute separate violations of the Sexual Misconduct Policy.
I attach also an open letter to the President of
Columbia:
Dear President Rupp:
In my capacity as Professor of Chemistry and research adviser to a
group of very bright undergraduates here at UNL, please be informed
that while your current policies on sexual misconduct, which
effectively abolish due process for accused Columbia students, are
in place, I will be advising students not to attend graduate school
at your institution.
--
Gerard S. Harbison
mailto:gerry@setanta.unl.edu
Home page: http://setanta.unl.edu/harbison.html
Professor of Chemistry,
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
I'm not sure further comment is needed. Under
this policy a senior could be accused of date rape taking place when he
and accuser were freshmen, and be convicted without hearing the testimony
of the accuser. Fascinating.
Greets, Doc.
Columbia students who don't like the new policy
should protest by filing huge numbers of spurious complaints of sexual
misdeeds. Each complaint would have to be handled by a panel; even if they
took only five minutes each to dismiss as baseless, ten thousand
complaints * five minutes * two deans = a whole lotta time. The policy
printed in your mail page didn't mention any penalty for a false
accusation; that might be covered in a different policy.
Another form of protest would be for each accused to
file a civil suit against the school and the original complainant. I'm not
sure how well that would work, especially with a "conviction"
from a kangaroo court to show that the accused was an obvious low-life.
I noted that the deans and student sitting on the kangaroo court
were to be specially trained. Want to bet that trainees who don't spout
the party line that no one ever makes a mistaken or malicious complaint of
sexual wrong-doing will not be certified as trained? I've seen that in a
few similar situations.
As usual, feel free to display my name and/or email
address if you "print" this.
Regards, SRF
-- Steve Furlong, Computer Condottiere Have GNU,
will travel sfurlong@acmenet.net
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