Know your NeRD: What submariners can expect from their new e-readers
navytimes.com
navytimes.com
> Nonfiction: “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” (Tom Wolfe); “Halsey’s Typhoon” (Tom Clavin); “Band of Brothers” (Stephen Ambrose); “Into the Wild” (Jon Krakauer); “Guns of August” (Barbara Tuchman).
about 300 titles (not sure what the proportion of navy specific material, public domain and commercially licensed title are).
Note the high price -- $3k/unit. That is typical in that domain. It is funny because a lot of things they assert to have is actually lack of features -- lack of wifi, lack of cameras. And probably most important -- presumably made in US. In that market there are really ridiculous markups. You just have to know someone who knows someone to get the contract. It (this market) is also mostly immune to being exported overseas -- just due to basic security and trade regulations.
Informally one can say, "a new mac is cheaper than that!". And yeah it is. But this is a mac built to spec, all made in Ohio probably. Interesting what macs would cost in that case if there built to order in smaller batches and made in Ohio, all having strange requirements like FIPS-140-2 compliant crypto libraries enabled and other random red tape restrictions slapped on them....
Given what they did say, $3K per box is a screwjob if there ever was one. Somewhere in the neighborhood of a $2800 per box screwjob.
You cannot deploy portable electronic devices on the submarine fleet without being absolutely certain there is nothing in it logging any data (sound, g-forces, pressure etc.).
Interestingly, the opposite is also true. The Navy SEALs (and everyone else) use consumer GPS devices because they cannot risk losing a classified M-code capable GPS device.
And presumably because they can eschew many rules that others are bound by. If they wanted iPhones, they could probably get iPhones. They also often have black budgets and it is a real nice if you can sell to them. They release the money quickly, less red tape. Those deals are hard to come by though.
Even the reading times of the crew in a submarine would provide precious patterns.
Incidentally, should we consider this would be the cost of consumer electronics if we needed proper privacy?
No, don't be fooled in thinking "oh, that must have included software licensing costs for X Y or Z."
NOPE
That was millions in separate fees... literally a $25 charge for $2,500 in equipment costs at their RETAIL value (i.e. not what the actual cost TO Lockheed was, as they were bought in qty)
This is a prime example!
30 years from now, will anyone make the RAM those systems use? The LCD panel? The motherboard? The processor? The battery? The pointing device? Probably not. Much of that high price might be going to dealing with that.
Still, I wonder how many of the titles were free, or nearly so, and what kind of price break one could get on 100's of titles.
For those wondering: why not a Kindle/Android/etc.? - same reason you can't bring a Furby toy into a secured area - it contains a recording device!
Well, technically speaking, a Furby doesn't contain a recording device at all. But the important thing is that it might. It doesn't, but it might! Can America take that risk?
Seriously, it's not worth calling something a secured area if you ignore the most obvious attack vectors. Banning Furbies is a reasonable action.
Thus, you could talk state secrets to it all day every day for a year and all it would learn would be its internal list of words.
Having said that banning furbies is probably a good way to remind people about recording devices and banning furbies was probably a sensible thing to do.
General-purpose computers are capable of doing anything if the right (wrong) code is executed, so it makes sense to be paranoid about them even if you believe the code you put on them is safe. A Furby is not a general-purpose computer and does not contain a recording device. It is no more capable of recording conversations than a plastic spork is. I'm sure someone could open a Furby up and install a recording device, but at that point you've just committed to banning all physical objects from secure government installations.
I think it was later worked out they did no such thing, but by that time they were already banned from secure installations.
It's actually a good selection of books and the Navy would be better for it if the soldiers digest them
Also, Sailors rarely enjoy being referred to as Soldiers. Use service member in all cases where the proper reference is uncertain.
What I'm surprised to hear is that they're including a bunch of military reading on these. While I love war books and tactics, when I'm off doing military shit 24/7, the last thing I want to do with my rare free time is read a military book. Give me something that gets my mind off it all.
Indeed. I was in the Navy six years, and a large portion of "people who opened my eyes" I met in the Navy.
In general, people are not what you see in the movies. Just because people look the same doesn't mean they are the same. Variety is everywhere.
Let's assume that you're a software engineer and for the sake of argument that your employer has to provide you with your reading: If that reading compendium included SICP and Code Complete (besides a large selection of mainstream fiction and sci-fi etc), would you be "surprised to hear" that, too?
But yeah, you are right, there are some people who can do it all day and night and still not get enough. War movies and books are very popular with Soldiers.
It's not like Tom Wolfe is a raging radical. Interesting reporting, yes, colorful prose, yes, burn-it-to-the-ground calls, no.
Check out his book Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers. Probably applies better to current practices.
It seems submariners have a pretty wide berth (pun intended) to bring on all sorts of stuff if they can fit it in their very tiny personal spaces.
If I had to guess, I'd bet most of the folks on board a sub have "solved" their e-reader problem in various ways already. I'm also kind of surprised various manuals and procedure guides haven't found their way onto official e-readers/tablets in each compartment already.
And besides, to get a secure device, they could take an ordinary Kindle, load it up, then physically remove the wifi and usb circuitry.