Support NeoGAF

[Tommie Hu$tle]

We were expecting an arrival of new Dells.
We got a call from the Fed Ex guy that our Dells came in.
We said we would come get them tomorrow.
We took some indirect fire, thankfully no one was hurt.
Got to the depot and there was a smoldering crater where our Dells were. They took a near direct hit from the IDF.

Shrapnel cut through the Dells like butter. However most of them are still operational with holes in them that punched through the base of the laptops and the moniter.

Pictures coming soon.

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

 

[Rlan]

That'll be something good to put up on Ebay when you return

 

[Deg]

You stole these?

 

[goodcow]

You stole these?

He works for the government in Iraq.

 

[Phoenix]

You guys need to buy ruggedized laptops. We learned our lesson when working I was working for the government. The heat and sand will kill these puppies off pretty quick Also will want something that will better fit a tempest enclosure... though they may have become more flexible on those sizes and SCIF requirements since I left.

 

[Pellham]

Wait, I don't get it, so Israel bombed Iraq?

 

[cubicle47b]

IDF (in his post) = Indirect fire.

 

[Pellham]

oh LOL. I was thinking Israeli Defense Force or something.

well that sucks, but i'm sure you can get them replaced.

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

You guys need to buy ruggedized laptops. We learned our lesson when working I was working for the government. The heat and sand will kill these puppies off pretty quick Also will want something that will better fit a tempest enclosure... though they may have become more flexible on those sizes and SCIF requirements since I left.

We used to use the Panasonic CF-28s. They are extremely expensive and the ruggedization process puts them 18 months out of what is current technology so by the time we get them they are already underpowered and overpriced.

The Marines have complained about them ever since we have been in theater and we have found that ruggidized laptops last about 2 months longer than ruggidized laptops. Proper PM pretty much eliminates the need for ruggedization in our case also the cost savings is about 2500 dollars. We find that 2500 dollars isn't worth 2 months more of underpowered use.

The Marines put more emphasis on realiablity over durability. The Marine Corps lives and dies off of COTS USB hard drives and we have seen them here in theather for over 2 years with 0 problems.

Besides no amount of ruggedization is going to protect from a IDF blast anyways.

 

[sc0la]

glad to hear you are OK. when do you wrap everything up over there?

Everytime I read one of your posts it makes me think of those army commercials where the recruit says "Actually, I work with computers" *friends in awe* and yes I know you are not enlisted.

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

glad to hear you are OK. when do you wrap everything up over there?

Everytime I read one of your posts it makes me think of those army commercials where the recruit says "Actually, I work with computers" *friends in awe* and yes I know you are not enlisted.

I'll be done on Dec 20 I'll leave Iraq sometime before that. I just got back from 3 weeks in the states and 1 week in Kuwait which was an "experinece" like no other. I've hit the ground running so I haven't had time to update my blog.

But, my time in Kuwait made me realize how important freedom of speech is and the fear that can come from knowing that you can't say what you want when you want. When casual observations can get you locked up You know something is wrong.

 

[Phoenix]

We used to use the Panasonic CF-28s. They are extremely expensive and the ruggedization process puts them 18 months out of what is current technology so by the time we get them they are already underpowered and overpriced.

We played around a lot with the Toughbook line. We didn't go with their full ruggedized line because we didn't expect them to fall down a cliff or anything. The Toughbook line is pretty much in line with technology spec for laptops for about $200 in fluff. Not too bad for what they provided.

The Marines have complained about them ever since we have been in theater and we have found that ruggidized laptops last about 2 months longer than ruggidized laptops. Proper PM pretty much eliminates the need for ruggedization in our case also the cost savings is about 2500 dollars. We find that 2500 dollars isn't worth 2 months more of underpowered use.

Yeah, apparantly your requirements were different than ours. Actually during the Gulf War days the CNN folks had to use ruggedized equipment as well. For them it was more of a "it needs to stay alive as long as possible" situation because there was no maint. team to de-sand their equipment. Sand was really the number one problem - it got into EVERYTHING and killed the fans. That coupled with the heat would kill the machines off pretty quick.

The Marines put more emphasis on realiablity over durability. The Marine Corps lives and dies off of COTS USB hard drives and we have seen them here in theather for over 2 years with 0 problems.

Besides no amount of ruggedization is going to protect from a IDF blast anyways.

Yeah, we use that too. Same for the USB dongle things that can go onto Microdrives and SD cards.