military tech

Overheard - Military COTS are not for sleeping

Military training rooms that once would have housed purpose-built, machine-based systems now resemble internet cafes, with up to 100 standard desktop PCs in a line networked together to let trainees explore the boundaries of collaborative training scenarios. David Braue, Behind Pretend Enemy Lines

Every once in awhile I come across some marketing term that pushes some button and I feel compelled to talk to a vendor and ask “What were you thinking?”  Case in point: Microsoft’s Hailstorm.  (Ironically, Hailstorm was probably Microsoft’s first venture into what we now refer to as cloud computing.  I have to say, they did a much better job picking their new name, Azure.  I’d rather have blue skies than hail stones ruining my garden and denting the hood of my car any day.)

But I digress.

Last week when I was posting a new BigDog video from Boston Dynamics,  I went to their corporate website and saw a large graphic image for their military simulation COTS.  (COTS is just an industry term for custom commercial-off-the-shelf software.)

Now, my son just entered the military and one of the things I’m interested in learning more about is how the military is using virtual worlds and simulation games for training.

I’ve seen some video clips of how the military has been using video games and 3-D simulation in centers called The Army Experience, so when I saw that Boston Dynamics had developed a COTS for training, my first thought was to read more. I was actually kind of excited.

That is, until I saw that their product is called DI-Guy.

What an unfortunate name. It pushed some button deep inside me that I didn’t even know I had.

I wrote to the company, asking why they would name their military simulation COTS DI-Guy (DIE GUY???) and a very nice man named Marc Raibert wrote back — almost immediately — to inform me that the product’s name is pronounced D. I. Guy and that D-I is a military acronym for dismounted Infantry.

I understand the name better now — but I still don’t like it.

The military is notorious for its use of acronyms.  I find it hard to believe that the only good fit was DI. But what do I know? I’m just a mother.

Overheard: The secret history of Silicon Valley

Warning: This video is quite long and runs more like an hour TV show.

Steve Blank offers a glimpse behind the curtain, historically speaking. This recording is part of a lecture series called Google Tech Talks. It caught my interest because it had a great title and because my father was a pilot. The talk isn’t so much about business as it is about military R&D.

Overheard: Why NORAD started tracking Santa back in 1955

“It was more than half a century ago, on Christmas Eve in 1955, that a Sears Roebuck & Co. store in Colorado Springs advertised a special hotline number for kids to call Santa.What the company didn’t know at the time was that they had inadvertently misprinted the telephone number. Instead of Santa’s workshop, the phone number put kids through to NORAD…Worse, it wasn’t just any number at NORAD: it was the commander-in-chief’s operations hotline.” Carrie Farrell, Tracking Santa, then and now

This is a great story — Carrie’s grandfather was the commander-in-chief who got the calls. To get directions for how to follow Santa this year using Google Earth, follow Carrie’s link above.

Overheard: How the US Army uses video games

“Gaming visualization may also unlock the key to the elusive holy grail of military simulation: designs that are accurate and accessible enough to be used for mission-planning rehearsal. Most important is the ability to rapidly import geospecific terrain.” Michael Peck, U.S. Army embraces games — sort of

The US Army made tech news this week when it opened the Training and Doctrine Command’s (TRADOC) Project Office for Gaming. The Army got into the game business back in 2002, when it released America’s Army as a recruiting tool. The goal of TRADOC is to create an Army simulation tool kit that allows users to build and customize their own training scenarios without needing a third-party contractor to do it for them.

Overheard: I didn’t know if I would like the Army. Turns out, it was the kick in the butt I needed.

“I work as a movement controller for helicopters. I help coordinate all the helo flights in and out of here, track the people, and load the helicopters. It’s a great job, I love it! I have a great team. I work over 70 hrs a week…ugh…so on my “down days” I sleep! Today was a down day for me and I slept until 530 pm! It was great! Insurgents are everywhere. That sucks. We just keep our eyes peeled.” Michelle Murphy

Last Friday I got an unusual email: “Hi! It’s Michelle Murphy from HTS! I found Lisa on MySpace and she gave me your email address, I hope you don’t mind. What have you been up too?! I miss you mega! I’m out in Iraq!”

Michelle is a former student. She’s just one of many soldiers serving in Iraq right now, but she’s the only one I know. And until Friday, I didn’t even know she was there.

Over the weekend we caught up a little and she shared some photos and anecdotes about what her life is like right now. She wrote about the extreme temperatures, living in pods instead of tents, and a little about what her days are like. She offered to send me a video of a camel spider but warned me that it was pretty gross. I looked up camel spiders and they are, indeed, gross.

Michelle has a gift for writing. It’s like her computer keyboard has no backspace button. And the darndest thing is, she has no idea how well she writes.

Our generation is just now discovering the wealth of written correspondence left behind by our fathers and grandfathers and it got me thinking — who will compile the emails left behind from this generation?