Military Grade Laptops 296
bllb writes "Slate has an article about the "waterproof, vaporproof, shockproof" laptops the military is using. It's not at the cutting edge of performance, but it's nice to see some bombproof hardware." Most of the laptops I've owned over the years died through dropping or drowning, so maybe I should look into something a little more sturdy ;)
Yes, but... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Yes, but... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Yes, but... (Score:4, Informative)
Apparently so.
when was the last time you hosed off your ibook? (Score:5, Informative)
huh? (Score:2)
These guys have invented a perpetual motion machine and they're only bragging about how hot it can get? Man, we need to have a chat with Marketing....
Re:when was the last time you hosed off your ibook (Score:2, Informative)
It decides to apply english to computer terms. That's a big mistake.
A list of his errors:
CD-ROM [wsu.edu]. A CD-ROM is a DRIVE, not a DISC. A CD is a disc, or, if one wants to use the long form, a CD-ROM disc is a disc that fits in a CD-ROM. This is extremely common usage by those in the know, therefore the author is de-facto wrong.
UFO [wsu.edu]. While I'm not a Raelian, I'm very sure the common usage of the word UFO by such people is to mean anything that is unidentifiable as human.
OK [wsu.edu].
Be more careful! (Score:5, Funny)
Seriously though, I've owned laptops for about ten years now and I've never dropped one.Stop coating your hands with butter before you pick the laptop up!
Re:Be more careful! (Score:3, Insightful)
Some of us are just clumsy though, and live in clumsy households. I have been known to break bits of my flat such as doorframes with my flailing limbs so I'm sure my iBook has a MTBA (Mean Time Between Accidents) of about 24 months, even without butter!
Re:Be more careful! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Be more careful! (Score:4, Funny)
So what is that, a total of three laptop sales?
Just a joke, I love Canada
Re:Be more careful! (Score:5, Interesting)
Pffff! Helicopters are inherently dangerous and malfunction-prone. ALL the armed services crash helicopters with unnerving regularity. When I was with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), we rode in helicopters a LOT, and I have personally been in THREE crashes/hard-landings. The problem with helicopters is that they're pretty much doomed if they lose power or if any of the control systems crap out. Compounding this is the fact that they vibrate like you wouldn't believe, which has a tendency to make things "come loose". In wartime, the helos are logging a LOT more hours than in garrison, so the number of failures resulting in crashes will go up. As awful as it sounds, a couple helicopters going down from mechanical failure is statistically inevitable on an operation of this scale.
Re:Be more careful! (Score:4, Informative)
March 2003, Texas [cnn.com] Jeff Bezos injured in helicopter crash
March 2003, Fort Drum, New York [cnn.com]11 army soldiers killed in Blackhawk training accident
March, 2003, Jakarta [cnn.com] 3 killed when helicopter crashes into hotel swimming pool
January, 2003, Afghanistan [cnn.com]4 killed in Army helicopter crash
January 2003, Mexican/Texas border [cnn.com]4 Marines killed in helicopter crash
Dec 2002, Kabul [cnn.com]5 German peacekeepers killed in helicopter crash
December, 2002, Honduras [cnn.com]Five die in army helicopter crash
Nov, 2002, Arizona [cnn.com]TV crew for the show "Ripley's Believe It Or Not!" crash while trying to film the bounce of the world's largest rubber band ball
August 2002, Fort Polk, Louisiana [cnn.com]2 Army soldiers die in Kiowa Warrior crash
August 2002, Grozny [cnn.com] 114 Russian servicemen killed in a single helicopter crash (they were shot down by the Chechens).
wtf?? (Score:5, Funny)
Who the fuck would buy a beaten up piece of shit like that??
54 times? (Score:5, Funny)
We drop each one 54 times from one meter
This seems rather time consuming. Why don't they just drop them once from a height of 54 meters? That would be the same, right?
Re:54 times? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:30%? (Score:5, Funny)
I guess after the 55th drop it was dead
Re:54 times? (Score:2)
No, silly, the relationship is obviously cubic. You should drop it from a height of 54^(1/2) metres, or about 7.4m.
Torture Testing (Score:3, Interesting)
crazy price... (Score:3, Insightful)
but hey, what do i know, my laptop weighs 9 lbs and never leaves my house.
Re:crazy price... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think I'd buy one of these laptops either because I'm not likely to be fighting a chemical spill or a fire while working on my laptop.
Re:crazy price... (Score:2)
Clearly you don't understand (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Clearly you don't understand (Score:2, Funny)
Re:crazy price... (Score:5, Insightful)
The panasonic toughbook and the military units contain priceless data and in the military people will DIE if it fails.
you are a consumer with absolutely useless and value-less data.
it is not for you.
I don't know about you... (Score:4, Informative)
But I've always dropped my laptops while carrying or transporting them, never while actually using them... so I went a different route.
Try getting a regular laptop, and putting it in one of the cases made by these guys [pelican.com] (No, I don't work for them)
I've taken my laptop to all kinds of places, including some inhospitable places in the very area of the world where lots of bombs are currently being dropped; no problems. Those cases come with a lifetime warranty... they're waterproof, shock-resistant, dustproof (VERY important in the desert), and have automatic pressure relief valves for that unpressurized tactical airlift you're sometimes required to use.
They cost about 150$, but that's chump change compared to the price of a Mil-Spec computer; the money difference is much better spent upgrading the actual laptop.
YMMV, but that's the way I solved the problem.
Re:crazy price... (Score:5, Informative)
If I'm called on to go to visit my colleagues who are already in Iraq, I'll be carrying over 130 lbs of protective gear, weapons, ammo, rucksack and equipment, and the bulk of it goes on my back. A plane and a parachute gets me to my DZ and I walk from there.
Military equipment is bulky and heavy. Take the PLGR [dla.mil] (Precision Lightweight GPS Receiver). The last picture [si.edu] shows it's size. This puppy weighs 2.75 pounds and is huge. Compare to any Garmin, Magellan, Lowrance and others whose products weigh less than a pound and are a quarter of the size. (Blah, blah, Selective Availability. Another discussion.)
Another example: The Mortar Ballistic Computer [155.217.58.58] weighs 7 lbs and makes my Gameboy Advance (cheap entertainment in the field) look like a Cray Supercomputer. Oh, and it's roughly 20x larger than the GBA.
So if I had the room in my ruck for a laptop (I don't), and I could justify spending $4500 on it - four months' pay (I took a slight paycut when I quit my sysadmin job in Silicon Valley for the opportunity to get gassed in Iraq), you could bet I'd be buying one of these and not FOUR pieces of crap that are going to break when I hit the DZ.
Cheers!
Re:crazy price... (Score:2, Informative)
Try that with a gameboy.
On the gripping hand, the amount of crap we're expected to carry nowadays is ludicrous. Someone tell the boys in R&D that we're not ALL mechanized.
Re:crazy price... (Score:2)
Chris
Nice! (Score:3, Funny)
Military computers... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Military computers... (Score:5, Funny)
There was an old story, possibly apocryphal, about the USMC evaluating a piece of kit from DEC. A marine driving a forklift accidentally dropped a fighter jet engine on it, but the VAX wasn't damaged. The Marine Corps signed the purchase order that day.
Makes sense (Score:4, Interesting)
I wonder how they have the hard drive set up, or if they use flash. Normally, any hard drive experiencing even a small shock can be easily destroyed if the head is reading.
700 MhZ isn't too great but you could always take it in the shower for some good 'ol pr0n.
Re:Makes sense (Score:3, Informative)
But, you probably don't want to shell out the $$$ for most civilian uses.
Sam Nitzberg
http://www.iamsam.com
http://www.Nitzb
Hardened hard drives (Score:5, Interesting)
Granted, I don't expect consumer-channel equipment to be that strong.
toughbooks (Score:5, Interesting)
How cool do they run? (Score:2)
"waterproof, vaporproof, shockproof" (Score:5, Funny)
OK, what about aweproof?
Thief proof? (Score:2)
What about (Score:2)
Infantry Proof (Score:3, Interesting)
A friend who worked in the radio repair shop reported less success with several radio sets that had been run over by tanks in the motor pool during vehicle maintenance.
Reliable Hardware Platforms Deserve Solid Software (Score:5, Insightful)
Having said that, it's also clear that some operating systems, owing to their monlithic architecture, will never improve. At least with Unix, you can discard what you don't need, reducing the volume of code that has to be checked. That's a major reason why Microsoft's "Trustworthy Computing" initiative is such a joke -- you can't get rid of the crapola, heck you can't even see the crapola!
I think you mean 'open' (Score:5, Insightful)
You say that on Unix you can throw away what you don't need but that on Windows you "can't even see the crapola". You certainly can't open up Solaris, cut out what you don't need, and recompile for a leaner version so I assume you meant Linux or BSD. But obviously you can only do that with those OSes because they are open source, it really has nothing to do with their architecture.
dan.
Re:I think you mean 'open' (Score:2)
Certainly, recompiling the kernel can slim it down, but that's not the whole story.
Beyond the kernel, any Unix is a collection of tools that fit together to make an OS. Need to embed it? remove X, replace init with the embedded app, remove all of the system tools and shells.
In contrast, with MS, it's a pain to even remove the stupid web browser, much less the entire GUI system.
Can too see the crapola (Score:2)
Re:Reliable Hardware Platforms Deserve Solid Softw (Score:4, Funny)
The old Bell Labs standard called for 1/3 of system faults to be ascribed to hardware, 1/3 to software, and 1/3 to operator error. Most available operating systems clearly aren't there yet
That doesn't sound quite right. At least, if the users at Bell are anything like the users where I work, hardware and software really have to fail a lot more frequently if they're going to keep up with the operator errors.Re:Reliable Hardware Platforms Deserve Solid Softw (Score:2)
I can see the crapola.
It starts "Welcome to Windows. Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to begin"
Military Quality Testing (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, would you like to test it out?
Yes, Put it over there.
[Officer aims a rifle at the laptop and puts a hole the size of a small tangerine through the case]
I'm sorry. Your product has failed our quality inspection. Have a nice day.
Re:Military Quality Testing (Score:2)
Does the Army trust its officers with rifles? I thought they only got to play with the M9's. . . :)
Re:Military Quality Testing (Score:3, Funny)
They get non-functioning replica's so they don't stand out to the snipers.
You might think that's unfortunate since now a hardworking NCO or private may get hit. However if officers stood out we'd soon run out of West Pointer and 90-day-wonders from ROTC and then some NCO would get a field promotion, have to fill the whole in the org chart, and we'd start loosing the really useful people at too high a rate.
[/weak humor]>
Soak in seawater, drag through sand ... (Score:4, Informative)
I somehow envision the Marine laptop evaluation to replace the 1 meter drop onto concrete test with bash-an-enemy-on-the-head test.
Re:Soak in seawater, drag through sand ... (Score:3, Informative)
I don't know about a
iBooks... (Score:5, Interesting)
My friend also sent his for a trip down the stairs (Screen open, iBook on), and it still works A.O.K.
So, you could also buy an iBook, and it will survive the same falls.
Re:iBooks... (Score:2)
Re:iBooks... (Score:5, Funny)
Did the dog survive after all this???
Re:iBooks... (Score:5, Insightful)
All your ibook has to do now is survive being baked in an oven, chilled in a freezer, vibrated, and submitted to a shower of hurricane proportions, and then it is relevant to this article.
Disclaimer: I own an ibook and am, in fact, typing on it now.
Re:iBooks... (Score:2)
If it survives being dropped from 1 - 1.5 meters onto asfalt or concrete a few times (say four or five), I'll agree that it's sturdy.
Hehe, regarding sturdy laptops (Or rather: Being lucky with your standard laptop)
A friend of mine got mad at his laptop at work, slammed close the lid, dropped it on the floor, stood on it with both feet and shouted at it a few times.
It still worked afterwards, without any errors. =)
On the other hand, we had other laps of the same brand and model that woul
Re:iBooks... (Score:2)
Buy me a test iBook and I'll be happy to try it out. ;)
Re:iBooks... (Score:5, Funny)
Come on... admit it... There really is no friend is there...
Re:iBooks... (Score:2)
It was his Mom's iBook he sent flying =p
Re:iBooks... (Score:5, Informative)
there are currently 3 ibooks in my immediate family, and all have been dropped several times(usually resulting from younger siblings wanting a turn). The highest drop mine has taken was about 2.5 meters and there is no notable damage aside from a few scratches here and there.
while I haven't tried myself I do remember reading that ibooks can survive some time in an oven, being run over by trucks, being hit in the screen w/ a baseball bat, in fact I'm fairly certain they can survive water, altho not when on(apples old 5300's could)...
THIS IS A DIRTY ROTTEN LIE! (Score:5, Informative)
Anyway, Apple's "wonderful" repair centers are refusing to fix it under warranty because it is "accidental damage or mistreatment." Since iBooks do not have PCMCIA ports, and usb ethernet devices only work with Macs, she has two choices. She can either pay the outrageous $775 that Apple is charging to repair an ethernet jack with a few broken pins, or else buy an AirPort card and 802.11b base station.
It should also be mentioned that the power connector is very fragile. Being stepped on can bend it completely out of shape, and it is very difficult to get back in the right shape, because it has to be basically a perfect circle.
The test of laptop sturdiness, IMHO, is not whether it can survive the dramatic falls, but whether it can survive the minor, day to day damage over a prolonged period. Can it survive being tripped over, carried around in a backpack, etc? I have a 4 year old Dell laptop that I have treated far more roughly than my girlfriend has treated her 6 month old iBook. The Dell looks a little worse for the wear, but works perfectly. The iBook still looks shiny and new, but has been completely crippled.
Re:THIS IS A DIRTY ROTTEN LIE! (Score:2)
I've seen more instances of people tripping over laptop cables, stepping on the machine, or other such things, than I have seen or heard of people dropping a laptop.
Think about it: when you use a laptop you often don't have a desk nearby. You might be sitting on a couch, or at a table. Tables are often away from the wall (at least in the 'kitchen table' sense) and don't have an electric outlet immidiately accessable - which means a cable will need to be draped across an area where
shock and awe (Score:5, Funny)
So another words, each one of these laptops receives the same treatment a Dell laptop does from the local courier company?
The Ultimate Portable - THE GAME BOY ADVANCE (Score:4, Funny)
Re:The Ultimate Portable - THE GAME BOY ADVANCE (Score:5, Funny)
Slate slashdotted already? (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps msn should invest in some military grade servers, it's already really hard to get trough...
Here's the text for those who can't get it:
The military's laptop of choice provokes shock and awe.
By Paul Boutin
Posted Friday, March 21, 2003, at 2:38 PM PT
Tough enough for war
Just as Desert Storm boosted the sales of Hummers and GPS handhelds, Gulf War II will spawn its own crossover hits, pieces of military equipment that become civilian fetish objects. A prediction: One of the war's big winners will be Itronix's GoBook MAX [gobookmax.com], a sort of Windows laptop on steroids. The GoBook MAX has already been spotted in video from the front, and Air Force firemen deployed in Turkey have them. If Gulf War II is the first Internet war, then a computer should be its first piece of military chic.
No wider than an entry-level ThinkPad [ibm.com] but much thicker and heftier, the $4,500 GoBook MAX is a waterproof, vaporproof, shockproof piece of field equipment. "We drop each one 54 times from one meter, bake it in an oven, chill it in a freezer, vibrate it, and submit it to a shower of hurricane proportions," crows the GoBook's brochure. Unlike most laptop makers, Itronix [itronix.com] specializes in handheld gadgets for hardhats, not wussy desktop PCs. The GoBook MAX is designed for civilian emergency-response teams as well as soldiers in the field. In my hands-on tests, it easily survived a few tosses across the floor of a local Starbucks--plus a spill of my third double espresso onto its keyboard. Its rubber-gripped handle makes it feel like sports gear rather than fragile electronics.
Itronix says the MAX is big among FBI bomb squads and NYPD anti-terrorist units. For government buyers, the MAX comes bundled with a restricted software package called CoBRA [defensegroupinc.com] (or Chemical Biological Response Aide), a search engine that can identify some 60,000 chemical agents, plus a few dozen biological threats. Select the symptoms of victims at a disaster scene, and CoBRA will tell you how long you have before your hazmat suit craps out.
For civilians, the MAX offers features to rival new Centrino [msn.com]-powered laptops. Its 700 MHz CPU isn't the fastest, but built-in Cisco Wi-Fi and a heavy-duty antenna are available as factory options. Dual USB jacks and aPCMCIA [google.com] slot, protected by sturdy latches, are standard. CoBRA sales reps claim eight hours of work time from one charge to its heavy-duty (and just plain heavy) battery. Chem-bio response teams can't take off lunch to recharge.
But the company's roughneck and military clientele belies its much larger potential market: professional parents. Finally, a laptop worthy of the term "toddler-proof." No disastrous crashes to the kitchen floor. No months of data lost to an incident with the sippy cup. Hazardous materials? Toss it in the dishwasher. Need to get out of the house? The handle flips back to mount the MAX open across the wheel of an SUV for mobile use. There's even an add-on DVD drive for movies.
With the amount of money office workers spend on their cars alone, a couple thousand dollars more for a droppable, dishwasher-safe laptop is a no-brainer bargain in total cost of ownership. The GoBook MAX gives new meaning to the phrase "homeland security."
____________________end copy__________________________ __
Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity
I spent 2 yrs playing IT guy for a tank battalion (Score:5, Interesting)
enough to keep it out of the rain and dust. Most of the components are sealed. The real problem was copiers and printers. If someone made a copier or printer that could be bounced around working in heat, cold and dust, they'd make a killing with the US Army.
I don't need a sig - I gave up smoking
No shit... (Score:4, Interesting)
Offical Specs (Score:5, Informative)
Mobile Pentium III/700, 256 MB of PC100 SDRAM, 20 GB IBM DJSA-200 hard disk, external 10x TEAC USB CD-ROM, external USB floppy, 4MB Silicon Motion LynxEM+ graphics, 10.4in SVGA touchscreen TFT, ESS Allegro PCI audio, integrated mono speaker, V.90 modem, integrated CISCO Wirelsss LAN PC Card, one Type II PC Card slot, plus support for VGA, serial and two USB, Windows 2000 Professional. Dimensions: 284 x 233 x 62mm (W x D x H) excludion handle. Weight 3.3 kg. [7.28 pounds]
Note: The PDF wouldn't let me copy and paste the text, but I think I got it all right.
Re:Offical Specs (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd have to see the hard drive compartment to believe it.
Check out these mega-lunchboxen. (Score:5, Informative)
Anyone else think this would be a good investment? (Score:2)
Bombproof hardware? (Score:4, Funny)
Since the US military never are the ones being bombed, but rather always the ones bombing.. what do they need this for?
Part of their image I guess.. "Oh yes, we're getting bombed all the time".
bomberclaad...
Used Itronix Available (Score:2)
Re:Used Itronix Available (Score:2)
Hmmm... (Score:4, Funny)
daylight and the screen (Score:2)
Must be good news for the insurance companies (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't think the TCO is an issue here; I'm sure that most insurance companies (who nowadays pay for broken laptops) will be seeing these robust laptops as a positive development.
Additionally, I really wonder if these laptops are protected against those EMP bombs..
Does anyone else find this disconcerting? (Score:2)
From the article:
The handle flips back to mount the MAX open across the wheel of an SUV for mobile use. There's even an add-on DVD drive for movies.
Driving to work in the morning is dangerous enough with people on talking on cell phones, putting on make up, shaving, reading the f*ing newspaper, or eating breakfast (cold cereal with milk...) all while driving. I don't need some soccer mom trying to watch a movie or write an e-mail to Johnny while driving her Ford Behemoth to work in the morning. For r
Could they make a faster version? (Score:4, Insightful)
I wonder if it's even possible to put a P4 in one of these things. If they're sealed ("waterproof, vaporproof") then I don't think they could cool a fast CPU. Even the new Pentium M laptops need fans and air vents.
i build similar machines (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:i build similar machines (Score:5, Funny)
Are you sure? It seems like something broke your shift key...
But is it EMP-proof? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:But is it EMP-proof? (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, if you can get your hands on a nonexistent EMP weapon. Aside from nuclear weapons, EMP devices are all theoretical.
Yes, I know about the Popular Science/Mechanics article where they made it seem like every terrorist could build a magic EMP bomb, and that the US was going to deploy them in Iraq. As soon as the war started, I saw a clip on the news where they asked
Re:But is it EMP-proof? (Score:3, Insightful)
Naw, anyone can make a coil of large gauge wire and a fast switched capacitor bank to make a high amperage pulse through it.....the question is, will it really be effective at damaging electronic equipment at a hundred yards or more away on a consistent basis? And even if it did, what if that equipment was in rugged military chassis, or more usually inside tank, armored transport, ship, concrete (with rebar) bunker, etc.
I can only conclude the military has tried this
Ewww (Score:4, Funny)
Ewww Taco... That's a little more information than we needed thank you very much
*goes to take long shower*
Huh? (Score:5, Informative)
Refurbished ToughBooks (Score:2, Informative)
TelePro PC Store [yahoo.com]
Not so rugged... (Score:5, Informative)
Pun (Score:2)
Sorry.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Depends on need (Score:2, Informative)
Now, Panasonic Toughbooks are NICE. They're completely touchscreen, you can use fingers, pencils, pens, the provided stylus.. just about anything. They have onboard peripherals that are in air-tight / wat
Different laptops for different purposes (Score:2, Interesting)
They forgot bulletproof (Score:3, Funny)
But can it handle the heat?? (Score:3, Interesting)
As a backbone router geek, I have had the liberty of working from my home for the last couple of years, usually keeping whatever hours please me, and often doing my work from my bed, while watching "Law and Order" reruns captured on Tivo. (Belated kudos to the couple of co-workers who heard the Tivo 'ding' and managed not to bust out laughing during those weekly staff calls)
I've attended conference calls while slouched in the hot tub, completely submerged except for my head, while occasionally muttering an approving comment into my headset, usually to cover up the noise of the filtering system kicking in.
I've done major configurations on well-known business portals while smoking a cigar and hoping the 802.11 link won't crap out before I 'wr mem'.
But I've always wanted to do late-night maintenance work FROM my hot tub. And it's within range of my 802.11 equipment. But I just don't have the guts to bring my beloved Dell laptop that close to water.
But now this piece of equipment may allow me to achieve my goal: Getting paid for being as close to a chronic vegetative state as possible.
Vaporproof (Re: Easy Karma) (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Here's my question: (Score:2)
Sorry, Iraqis aren't the target market here. More like, shock-and-awe-capable.
Re:Why only drop them 54 times? (Score:2)
The way it's written, it sounds like this is part of the quality inspection for each unit, so there's probably a good reason for doing it. Maybe they figure that 54 drops will shake loose any bad connections or something like that.
Re:Why only drop them 54 times? (Score:5, Interesting)
I am not a statistician, but I used to do test work, so I'll take a stab at answering this question.
Chances are, the number 54 has something to do with the desired confidence level and the odds of the product failing. While I do not know the math (I have only seen the charts) and it seems strange, statisticans have come up with ways to measure how confident one can be about certain odds being met.
For instance, I'm pretty sure the testing I used to do often required us to be 90% confident that a single-use item would have a failure rate of less than one in ten million. While a 100% confidence level would require us to have tested ten million items, at the 90% confidence level we only had to test about 22.
And yes, we did only test each item 22 times. I've always wondered what we would have done if the 23rd had failed - techinically, the item had passed the test.
Re:Taco, how the FSCK does one drown a latop?? (Score:2)