PowerBook, Because Lives Are On The Line 150
WCityMike writes "Major Shawn Weed, an intelligence planner with the Third Infantry Division, eschewed his Panasonic Toughbook because it wasn't fast enough in processing giant satellite and reconnaissance images. He put in a requisition for and received a PowerBook G4, the only Apple currently being used in the entire Middle East theater. 'Frankly, lives are in the balance here, so the quicker I can get stuff done accurately, the better,' Weed says."
Bullet Proof (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
You think Apple's prices are high? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:You think Apple's prices are high? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oddly, I'm going to attempt to explain this...
Most of the equipment that the Armed Services pay "too much" for aren't your run-of-the-mill items. It's not like they can run out to Home Depot and pick up a crapper capper.
We have tie hooks that are rated at 2 or 3 thousand pounds, yet are made of titanium, to keep weight down as much as possible.
Imagine designing that same item in your garage. How much would it cost if you had to make such item from scratch, with a guarantee that the item would work as intended, under such extreme circumstances? Factor in the engineering, labor work, logistics, and planning and see how much a "simple" item like a titanium tie-down hook (with a 2k weight rating & MTBF rate of 1000 flight hours) would cost.
Re:You think Apple's prices are high? (Score:1)
Re:You think Apple's prices are high? (Score:5, Interesting)
However, aside from the fact that the initial post was intended to be humorous, the military spending is still out of control, and full of pork.
From: Price Trends for Defense Logistics Agency's Weapon System (GAO November 2000), which found that between 1997, and 1998, prices of 2,993 different spare parts purchased by the military increased over one thousand percent, and 14 percent of the total spare parts ordered from defense contractors increased at least 50 percent in price in that one year. Contractors have been underbidding the prices, then jacking up the prices upon time for billing. Parts like a bolt, initially quoted at $40, ended up being $1,887, or a self-locking nut, quoted at $2.69, ended up costing $2, 185. These are not nearly the worst examples of cost increases . . . A linear microcircuit, original 1997 price $0.11 cents, cost $5,788.76, thermal insulation that really cost $1, ended up costing $3,390, or the boss nipple, costing $1, cost the US military $1,498.48.
Re:You think Apple's prices are high? (Score:1)
Re:You think Apple's prices are high? (Score:2)
Re:You think Apple's prices are high? (Score:5, Insightful)
The costs for these "other" projects are absorbed and hidden by other purchases in some cases.
This means that when they're paying $1,000 for a $20 hammer, they're only paying $20 for the hammer, and the rest is being used elsewhere.
Re: (Score:2)
Apple makes it easy for the govt to buy (Score:5, Funny)
A: About the same as Apple's academic discounts!
Apple Federal Home Page [apple.com]
How to buy for federal agencies and miltary [apple.com] - Includes:
Using a GSA SmartPay [gsa.gov] purchasing card
Apple Federal Store [apple.com] (for SmartPay) or Apple Retail stores [apple.com]
Federal Employee Purchase Program, via Apple Federal Employee Purchase Store [apple.com] or Apple Retail stores [apple.com] at Tyson's Corner, Clarendon, VA, or Towson, MD
Any number of various federal, GSA, and military contract resellers [apple.com]
Re:You think Apple's prices are high? (Score:2)
Re:You think Apple's prices are high? (Score:2)
It's not ruggedized. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's not ruggedized. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:It's not ruggedized. (Score:1)
Hey, it still worked. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It's not ruggedized. (Score:5, Insightful)
then again, who knows.
Re:It's not ruggedized. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It's not ruggedized. (Score:2)
Re:It's not ruggedized. (Score:1)
If a TiBook will work in Arizona or Israel or Egypt or the middle of Australia, it'll work in Iraq.
Besides, right now it's not bad in the KTO, my Widget for Kuwait City says it's 68 there right.
Re:It's not ruggedized. (Score:1)
Re:It's not ruggedized. (Score:5, Insightful)
Sand and dust gets into every single nook and cranny. The non-moving parts might last a long time, but his DVD drive will be toast if he uses it too much. Same with the hinge of the screen.
Re:It's not ruggedized. (Score:5, Funny)
New Army officers directive: Do not watch pr0n during sandstorms?
Re:It's not ruggedized. (Score:2)
Re:It's not ruggedized. (Score:2)
So it's toast if he uses Toast?
Re:It's not ruggedized. (Score:5, Informative)
On the other hand I had a G3 Wallstreet for 5 years and it looked and operated as good as new at the end when I passed it on. I wish sometimes that I still had it with me.
Apple puts out lovely stuff but sometimes design flair and form is not sacrificed to necessary function. I will have to think very hard before I spend so much money again on a Mac beauty. And don''t get me started on function versus form of the iPod. I'll wait until a degree of everyday ruggedness is built in again for my next Mac laptop.
I wish the US military all the best and hope they go with Mac. But . . .
Re:It's not ruggedized. (Score:2, Interesting)
In fact after 1 year of using the 400 everyday at home and work and transporting it back and forth, and taking it back and forth across 1,500 miles in MR-2s and United Airlines 737s the person I sold it too thought it was brand new.
I've always used either a Burton DJ bag - http://www.burton.com/gear/pr_bags.asp?productID=
Or an Oakley Computer Bag - http://www.oakley.com/ostore/apparel/spring_02_co
I also use a piece of foam between the keyboard and screen.
After two years my laptops have gotten a few little scratches.
Re:It's not ruggedized. (Score:2)
Also, it is clear that this soldier had a good reason beyond brand loyalty or better UI or better stability/security to have a PowerBook, because he's working with big high-resolution images. The PowerPC CPU itself was designed with image manipulation in mind, because Apple was famous at the time for being the only computer with a graphical interface and also for being a great platform for artists. Rotating a huge image (and many other common image-manipulation functions) on a G4 takes a very short time compared to Intel chips. If you ever see a "Photoshop bake-off" between a Mac and Intel system, watch for the first image rotation
Re:It's not ruggedized. (Score:2)
Re:It's not ruggedized. (Score:2)
Spare the marketing for Apple. I love my TiBook, but it doesn't have any of the ruggedness that my old Wallstreet did (going well until this last year when the hinge gave up-and I was lucky on that from what I've heard).
Re:It's not ruggedized. (Score:1)
The only mac laptop I've ever had fail on me was a Duo 280c (which wasn't designed anywhere near the stuff I put it through) which cracked its LCD when I was driving through Baltimore (more details on this city at my website) and it slammed against the back of the passenger side seat. The data was recoverable and everything worked fine, except the display. I now carry all my laptops in nice bags (About $20) rather than a bookbag or a "My-Arm" bag.
Re:It's not ruggedized. (Score:2)
Re:It's not ruggedized. (Score:5, Insightful)
Military Intelligence (Score:5, Funny)
So he's in military intel? Isn't this among the most famous oxymorons in existence? The jokes are too numerous to mention, all with Apple or the Army as the brunt of the jokes.
I can see the switch ads now...My name is Shawn Weed and I find Iraqis in the desert.
btw, I'm not trolling. I'm writing this from a TiBook using an Airport, behind a Linux server.
Re:Military Intelligence (Score:3, Funny)
So he's in military intel? Isn't this among the most famous oxymorons in existence?
With "Microsoft Works" coming a close second...
Re:Military Intelligence (Score:2)
Is this a good idea... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Is this a good idea... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Is this a good idea... (Score:4, Interesting)
Duct tape was originally developed for military use to keep water out of ammo cases, and it was called "duck tape"
It wasn't called "duct tape" until the 70's when some company advertised it as such, and it stuck.
Re:Is this a good idea... (Score:5, Funny)
Tank Different. (Score:1, Funny)
Heh, Weed (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Heh, Weed (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Heh, Weed (Score:2)
Army vs. Navy (Score:2, Funny)
In the Navy, the only they doled out were annoying uniforms and silly hats.
With my luck... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:With my luck... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:With my luck... (Score:4, Informative)
That was not the point I was trying to make - for Photoshop on a laptop, it is easier and faster than most of the alternatives - but it is different - menu behavior specifically. I traveled with a Tadpole [tadpole.com] (sparc based laptop running Solaris) for a while. We all ran the same app server / ldap / database, but most of the SE's were lost trying to start things up as soon as they saw it was not Windows (or Linux for that matter). With gobs of RAM I was able to get more work done than the others who had to drag around multiple standard issue Dells that had a physical limit of 512M RAM at the time. When I got pulled into another project leaving my environment (which was a fair mimic of the production system), chaos ensued. Solaris was just enough of a curve ball to miss the deadline. It is not like they were not qualified, the tools were just a bit different.
In the mean time, he's going to get his work done quickly enough to save lives (US soldiers and Iraqi innocents.)
This is a bit of a straw man, but I'll bite. The reality is the US Forces have a limited budget. More lives could be saved by having better satellite uplinks, better lenses on the recon equipment, tanks that went faster on less fuel, more powerful targeting lasers... the list goes on and on. Every standardization is a compromise somewhere down the line. You are a former RATT operator, so why did they not hand everyone an updated set rather than tuning both the old and new series so they could co-operate? Budget would be my guess. I suspect your CO would also have you peeling potatoes if you swapped personal equipment for older gear 'because it would save lives'.
I'm not comforted that your platform bigotry extends so far that it has you placing more importance on some tired two button mouse arguement than on people's lives.
Again - this is not about mac's sux, bill rulz! In an environment where you have to work with a fluid team, you cannot always select what you consider the perfect tool for the job.
Damn mods smoking crack again...
Re:With my luck... (Score:5, Insightful)
This case, however, is an exception, one of the times where Weed *could* select what he considered the perfect tool for his job.
You have to trust his judgement, since he's the one out in the desert doing his photo-manip stuff (probably), and as such, if his need for a PowerBook will let us win, and the military agrees, it's really out of our hands other than to backseat drive.
The issue here is that we're comparing a 1.8GHz (max) P4 to a 1.0GHz G4, where the speed delta is small enough that cache, ram, Altivec, and code optimization might make a difference. I mean, we don't know how fast the Toughbooks they can get, they may possibly get 1.3GHz P4s, or 1.2GHz P3s, in which case the performance/benefit analysis is much different than if they could get 3.0GHz P4s.
Also note, I think there's ram limitations; a G4 can get 1.0GB, I don't think the Toughbooks can. And a Toughbook actually costs more, to the public, than a G4.
Now, could he have gotten a Dell instead? Sure. However, he is also most comfortable with a Mac; he *knows* he can get his job done with the PowerBook-at this point then, we have to trust him that he is performing his soldierly duties, and performing them well.
Re:With my luck... (Score:2)
He said flat-out that the Panasonic machines would "slow to a crawl" when he tried to do his work on them, so he ordered a PowerBook G4.
Why would you even want to bring MHz or GHz into it? This is a real-world case where a guy traded in his Pentium for a Mac so he could get his graphically-rich work done. For Mac vs PC discussion (ugh) it is not that great. If he got it for encryption then Mac fans could high-five, because it is also faster for that and that's not well-known. The fact that a Mac is a better choice for graphics is, like, duh. You boot a Mac and the first thing you see is a graphical screen with an Apple logo on it, then a boot-up progress bar that's totally graphical, then an OS that's totally graphical to operate. It's no secret that Macs do graphics.
Re:With my luck... (Score:1, Informative)
Solaris was just enough of a curve ball to miss the deadline. It is not like they were not qualified, the tools were just a bit different.
Talking about straw men, you are equating the ease of use of a Macintosh with the ease of use of a Solaris. My 74 yo, life-time housewife mother-in-law bought an iMac because she wanted to see what this internet thing was all about. She had it up and running without any help. I wonder how she'd do with a Solaris. You are also comparing the ease of operating the same program (Photoshop) on two different platforems with the ease of manipulating the same database on two platforms. What client did you use on both platforms? Was it the same? Was it command line? If so, do you believe that comparing Photoshop with Photoshop is the same as comparing the command line environments of unix with that of NT?
Photoshop on a laptop, it is easier and faster than most of the alternatives ? but it is different ? menu behavior specifically
If you extend this logic, this means that if the entire army is not on the same version of Excel a replacement who is use to Excel 2000 on NT won't be able to do his job on Excel XP on a faster computer. Back to the software at hand, I am sure the amount of time it would take to find the Adjust Levels menu item on a Mac when you are used to finding the command on a PC will be negated by the speed difference. In the past, I have had no difficulty using PC versions of Mac software when it's required. I'm reasonably certain that professional users of PC technology can make the transition.
I suspect your CO would also have you peeling potatoes if you swapped personal equipment for older gear 'because it would save lives'.
Ummm...no. He would have had me do extra duty if I made modifications he didn't allow. We are talking about a rear echelon office analyst who has traded a chair in some Brigade or Division headquarters for a stool in a tent with a little more sand around it. You honestly think this Major snuck the Powerbook overseas? At that level, things are much more flexible than at the infantry squad level. Hell even our Batallion Admin office was a mixed platform environment. BTW There was a healthy mix of technology at all levels of RATT operations from Batallion level all the way up to Command level. We were expected to know how to use all of it. Some units still used Korean war era technology with Vietnam era encryption. The problem is, you are thinking about this as if you knew what you were talking about, and you don't.
In an environment where you have to work with a fluid team, you cannot always select what you consider the perfect tool for the job.
But he did, and his superiors let him because they saw merit in his logic, and the people who work with him are not as dumb as you think. You are acting like he's using Filemaker while everyone else is using Foxpro, when he's actually using two versions of the same program, a situation you can easily find on identical hardware.
Re:As a former US Army Ranger and RATT rig op... (Score:2)
The guy did not say he wanted a "prettier interface". He said the Toughbook "slowed to a crawl" when he worked on it and the PowerBook actually works. You don't need to do a bake-off to compare "slowed to a crawl" with "actually works". Get over yourselves.
Re:With my luck... (Score:2, Informative)
OT, but...
I'll be the one pulling the laptop out from underneath the Major's corpse trying to figure out where the heck is the second mouse button went.
Then just plug in a standard USB two button mouse and be done with it. I'd recommend a scroll mouse, personally.
I'm using a Logitech optical scroll mouse right now on my iMac. No drivers to install or anything. The right button brings up context menus on just about anything, and AppleWorks is the only program I have that doesn't respond to the scroll wheel.
I love the look and feel of the Apple 'Pro Mouse', and I'd pay Apple $50 for a two button scroll wheel version, but I'm perfectly happy to put up with this one piece of ugly beige plastic to get its superior functionality.
Re:With my luck... (Score:3, Funny)
In which case, yes, the Panasonic would have been a better choice, being that it's both bigger and heavier than the PowerBook. But you've gotta make some compromises, you know?
Re:With my luck... (Score:1)
Anyhow, I'll be popping over to your side of the pond next week to finish/fix some code that someone dumped without warning. I spend most of my time on the J2EE side of the fence, so nothing like a crash course in MSSOAP and VBScript with a hard deadline approaching. Guess I'm still a little bitter about someone doing their own thing. Still beats camping in the desert however...
Beauty of the Mac... (Score:4, Funny)
So there.
I'm most impressed not that this guy wanted a Mac, but that he actully got one. The military is rightly known for a plodding mentality, and what's he going to do if he needs an extra battery? Steal it from CNN? Of course, had the guy simply called Apple to say, hey, I'd like to place the first Mac in the field, they would have sent over ten gratis.
Clicking away on my deweaponized iBook...
Re:With my luck... (Score:2)
I'm assuming that the two-button mouse thing is just a tongue-in-cheek jab - it's easy enough to get a two-button mouse and plug it in. The Mac OS has recognized two-button mice for a while now, but Steve still believes that Ma and Pa Kettle are going to get confused, so you don't get one in the box. Personally, I couldn't live without my IntelliMouse Explorer - 5 buttons and a wheel, baby!
More interesting to me, however, is that the Mac might be a better fit and a lot more useful to the military than it would appear at first blush. With its Unix underpinnings, it lends itself nicely to mission-critical applications when needed, and a lot of the Unix geeks I know really like the PowerPC chips. I'm sure the military has been recruiting a lot more Windows programmers over the last 10 years or so, but its foundations lie in the older "big iron" OSs. There are probably a lot of soldiers that would feel comfortable knowing that a Unix shell is just a click away.
Not that I know that for sure... but it seems logical to me.
Re:With my luck... (Score:2)
Mac OS supports pretty much any USB mouse you can find just by plugging it in, no matter how many mouse buttons (I think the actual upper limit is 32), so nobody is denied their $9.99 right to a two-button scrolling mouse. The single-button optical mouse you get standard with your system goes for $30-40 on eBay, so it even pays for a high-quality, third-party mouse.
It does make some sense... (Score:4, Funny)
Or vice versa...
It also kinda goes with the whole "Power of One" ad campaign the Army has going on.
Used to be SSG Nichols
Sure the hardware's good... (Score:1, Insightful)
matched set...best choice (Score:4, Insightful)
Since we don't know exactly what his 'mission critical' tasks are, exactly, we have to take his word for why he chose a G4. It sounds like this guy already has reason to trust his choice. After all, it's not just the hardware nor just the software...it's the combination, and in this case, they are strictly made for each other. I know of no other examples that come close...
Re:matched set...best choice (Score:1)
Re:Sure the hardware's good... (Score:2)
I can see it now. . . (Score:1)
Re:I can see it now. . . (Score:1)
Mac fanatics take over the military! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Mac fanatics take over the military! (Score:1, Funny)
Ok serious question (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Ok serious question (Score:5, Interesting)
I mean, even if it's just simple stuff:
Overlays of two images taken in different spectrums (IR and visible)
Time-lapse animation (multiple layers transformed into an animation, not unlike an animated GIF)
Edge detection/feature enhancement
Cropping to remove useless data
Rotation, perspective, and skewing to transform poorly captured or framed images into more easily understood images
Overlay of before/after shots (perhaps using difference blending)
Comparison of two different photos with an identical feature (perhaps identifing buildings, known vs unknown, performed again with overlays and blends)
Scaling of a photo so a comparison to a similar photo, taken with different settings, can be accomplished
Enhancement of a photo to compensate for low light levels (levels, etc)
Normalization of a photo (perspective, levels, colors, scale) so comparisons between two different photos can be accomplished
All of those are trivial with Photoshop.
Re:Ok serious question (Score:2)
True... I'm just wondering if they ARE in standard image formats.
I know that some of the GPS work/fun (fishing and hunting trips) that I do involves non-standard (as in non-photoshop-compatable) formats, and requires the use of some software like Fugawi, so I can only imagine what format some military satelite images might be in.
It would be interesting to see what kind of formats the images really are in...
Re:Ok serious question (Score:4, Interesting)
It'd be interesting to see what software he's using since he can do the same job on both the Winows 2000 and the OS X platform... I wonder if it IS photoshop that they're using, of if it's some internal military app?
If it was some internal, special app, maybe it's been ported to both Unix and Windows, meaning the OSX box just had to recompile it.
Maybe all he did was install Fink and then recompile the thing, and now it works. Wouldn't THAT be a story!
In a way it'd be kind of boring to think that all he did was use Photoshop. *sigh*
Applications (Score:2)
The Imagery Product Library [fas.org] can serve JPEG images via a Java-capable web browser to any machine on the network that is granted access. Cross-platform.
The actual analysis is done on Sun workstations, of course. Real mission-critical work is never trusted to anything but real machines.
Re:Applications (Score:2)
Re:Ok serious question (Score:2)
You can take a Mac out of its box and start it for the first time and it already knows how to read every common graphics format and many that are only common to professionals.
This article only says "Macs are better for graphics". Everybody already know that, and so it's weird to see PC bigots being so outright bigoted about it. He isn't running Microsoft Access; he's working with HUGE graphics. That's what Macs are used for. Go to LucasArts and you will see Macs doing still graphics; go anywhere. If you can't accept that a Mac is better for graphics, you have some issues of your own that you might want to check into psychologically. You might be buying the wrong system for the job if you can't even choose a Mac for graphics.
Photoshop is to graphics what UNIX is to moving files around. QuickTime is to rich-media what Apache is to spitting out Web pages. If you don't know this, or can't accept it, then you are really just hurting yourself. You're the guy running IIS and complaining that he can't switch to Apache because open source is un-American. When you know better, you can't help but wonder why that guy would punish himself with Windows. Kids are playing in the Apple Store at iMacs while their parents buy some serious tools. It is not a hard platform to approach and try for yourself and dispell the multitude of a) myths, and b) old information.
Re:Ok serious question (Score:2)
Where did that come from?
Firstly, I've got over 7 years graphic design experience using Photoshop on a Mac.
I've done Oracle Spatial based GIS implementations for the Canadian and US governments.
I'm writing this on a PowerBook as we speak.
When it comes to graphics formats, some GIS based images are NOT your run-of-the-mill Photoshop-ready images. It wouldn't be THAT far of a stretch to think that satelite images might be similarly encoded.
Try using _some_ marine electronic charts, for instance... I've got 4 formats off hand that I can't open in Photoshop, and wouldn't expect to be able to because it has specialty information embedded in it. Fugawi, on the other hand, deals with them with no problem.
Also, Fugawi is used by the military. Check out this link [fugawi.com] for information on their second generation targeting-navigational system.
My point was it would be interesting to see what apps and file formats they WERE using.
Man... take a pill and grab a clue.
Re:Ok serious question (Score:4, Interesting)
You certainly *can* use Photoshop for many of these functions and I know/have used it for these purposes. Photoshop is one of the most powerful applications in the history of computing for its intended purpose. In addition, there is other software that performs specific GIS functionality (image classification, image registration etc...) on OS X. Some of it written *by* folks in the U.S. Army, the NRO and NIMA.
Imagery (Score:2)
Now, I knew Major Weed a number of years ago, and he is really in MI but he was a journalist when he was enlisted. He may be doing some work in Photoshop just because it's not an imagery analyst's task but is useful and he knows the program. Imagery analysts, by the way, are never
Imagery (Score:2)
Except that the military satellite system doesn't really use normal file types. Check out this tutorial [164.214.2.51] on the image format that is used by NIMA (sat imagery folks).
Now, I knew Major Weed a number of years ago, and he is really in MI but he was a journalist when he was enlisted. He may be doing some work in Photoshop just because it's not an imagery analyst's task but is useful and he knows the program. Imagery analysts, by the way, are never officers.
Re:Ok serious question (Score:2)
What's the guys address? (Score:3, Funny)
Durability, then vs. now? (Score:3, Interesting)
So I pose, if this is true, and the Army buys computers in bulk for general-purpose use without regard to what applications they might be used for, a.) why they chose the iBook then, and b.) why they didn't this time. Are the old iBooks somehow more durable than the new (they're definitely a lot heavier)?
Regards,
John
Re:Durability, then vs. now? (Score:2)
Not the only... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not the only... (Score:2)
Who knows? Perhaps they get them first?
The New iPod Fatigues (Score:4, Funny)
We've got to get our troops as many of these new uniforms [ipatterson.com] as we can. Do it for little Jimmy American on the front lines, darnit!
(Nothing like a little ruthless self-promotion to get a day started right!)
Re:The New iPod Fatigues (Score:2)
No kidding though, my roommate got an apple and now I don't have any of the computer issues I have when he uses windows. Hell I don't hear him complain at all except that the wireless conneciton is slow, and I tell him to use the lan cause it is much faster ;-).
Site navigation... (Score:1)
-Jeff
Major Weed / Mac (Score:4, Funny)
Bob
Re:Major Weed / Mac (Score:3, Funny)
The muezzin, he sounded like weep, weep, weep. I wanted a drink and I couldn't have one. Islam is a dry religion. It was kind of bummer. Now I respect the American Way Of Life. And I have better drinks. My name is Osama and I am a logistics consultant.
The only Macs in the Middle East? (Score:1)
Now if that only meant something to be proud of...
Not the only one by far (Score:2)
there's a Mac presence within the Army, which can't be a bad thing.
"now, drop the little bomb icon on the little tank icon and they blow up"
Lives are "on the line"? (Score:3, Insightful)
Most of the planet is up in arms about this invasion of Iraq and the declared intent by Washington to make no part of Baghdad safe (at the inevitable expense of untold numbers of citizens). And this trained killer says lives are "on the line"?
Correction: lives are about to be wasted, made trash, disposed of, terminated. Let's at least be honest about that much.
Re:Lives are "on the line"? (Score:2)
Re:Lives are "on the line"? (Score:2)
http://www.phrusa.org/research/chemical_
Wasted lives are the Kuwaiti civilians killed during Iraq's invasion of Kuwait:
http://www.meforum.org/article/238
On the other hand, people who offer up their lives in the hope that another will have a life of liberty is what I'd call a noble sacrifice---here's hoping there won't be many in this conflict if it comes to that.
Note that many Iraqis have already so lost their lives---look up struggles for the city of Kirkuk since the Gulf War, and note especially how Saddam Hussein has attempted to stack the deck there by moving in people loyal to him.
William
Re:I sure hope he's using MacBibbie... (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh yes, and we also all know that benchmarks are the be all and end all of performance evaluation. Especially those benchmarks that conform to no known standard, and aren't terribly well documented.
Please, spare me.
Benchmarks can give you a general idea of how performande might compare if you used exactly the same programs, input files, OS configuration, network load, other running processes, etc...
What are the chances that the military uses Photoshop for their image processing? I'd think not very high (unless there's a series of photoshop plugins I am unaware of that will process an image looking for convoys of trucks, bunkers, and other such things that the military cares about satellite images for). If he is not using photoshop, then the benchmarks you're getting so excited about are meaningless.
MacBibble has shown us that a Macintosh can perform quite well on image processing, if you run optimized code.
Benchmarks are just that, benchmarks. If this guy finds that for his application a Macintosh is faster, then let him use a Macintosh.
Re:benchmarks are a metric, not a be all end all (Score:1)
Fortunately for Apple, the printing field is chock full of pre-press nerds.
Re:actually, its a moot point (Score:5, Informative)
If he's utilizing Altivec optimized code (quite possible), it's quite possible that his 1GHz PowerBook can outperform a 1.8GHz P4.
Which tasks are Altivec optimized? Photoshop, for one. Certain encryption/decryption tasks are another. Certain video tasks, as well.
It's certainly within the realm of likely possibility, given the description that "Weed declined to specify what he does exactly, but said he works with giant satellite and reconnaissance images,"
Sure, a P4 is fast but when you're talking about a 800MHz difference, the other things (like cache, registers, Altivec, pipeline depth, etc) make more of a difference.
Now, if they were talking about 2.4GHz P4Ms or 3.0GHz P4 (desktops), that would be different. However, Toughbooks don't scale that fast (yet).
Re:Macslash is great, I mean Slashdot (Score:2)