Still learning. My Bosnian remote antenna site has picked up strong signals that the muchhyped DARPA/DISA commercial Bosnian C2 network still has its share of problems. They're still having big problems with commercial power in Sarajevo and not enough backupgenerator capacity. The lesson learned
Still learning. My Bosnian remote antenna site has picked up strong signals that the much-hyped DARPA/DISA commercial Bosnian C2 network still has its share of problems. They're still having big problems with commercial power in Sarajevo and not enough backup-generator capacity.
The lesson learned on this one is simple: No juice, no commercial comm, no live UAV pictures, no terabytes of data flowing from the Pentagon to the warfighter. On the other hand, if the power is down, it does give the troops in Sarajevo time to head over to the Benetton outlet.
* * *
Out of Zagreb. The commercial comm situation in Zagreb (where they have more reliable juice) has improved enough that much of the Army 7th Signal Command, headed by Col. John Welch, has decamped back to Mannheim, Germany. The NATO IFOR CJCCC, staffed largely by 7th Signal personnel, has moved to Naples, Italy, where the pasta is definitely better than in Zagreb.
I hear Col. Scott Rodakowski, 5th Signal's chief of staff and CJCCC's chief of staff, now commutes between Naples and Zagreb on the NATO shuttle - flown several days a week with great precision by the Luftwaffe.
* * *
E-mail fixed. Reports from my remote Interceptor unit in Tuzla indicate that "miraculously," as of last Monday, the troops "down range" in Bosnia had no problems sending e-mail through the Internet to friends and family at the end of a Sprint pipe, thanks to a quick response by Sprint and high-level interest by Adm. John Gauss at DISA.
That's the same day FCW ran a front-page story detailing the problem. I wish I had that kind of clout back home.
* * *
Paige in Germany. The Interceptor hears ASD/C3I Emmett Paige Jr. was boffo at both the Signal dinner and the AFCEA luncheon last week in Germany. Here at Intercepts Central, we like to keep close track of Paige.
* * *
GCCS NT. They're really serious over at DISA about porting GCCS to Windows NT. Frank Perry, JIEO's technial director, expects the release of an NT version of the GCCS COE kernel, plus developers tools, next month. Maybe it's a coincidence, but this sure does play into the rollout of Wintel hardware by Hewlett-Packard, which holds the Navy's TAC-4 contract. Is there a Wintel TAC-4 machine in the offing?
* * *
AF GSA PC buys on hold? That's what I'm picking up from my Montgomery, Ala., Interceptors. They say Larry Sampson, the Desktop V program manager, has urged AF buyers to go slow on GSA orders, asking them to wait for resolution of the Desktop V protest.
I guess Sampson wants to see how many orders the system can handle in the six weeks between the ruling on the protest and the end of the fiscal year.
* * *
Year 2000 problem solved. Bob Guerra, Sysorex's veep extraordinaire, said he has come up with a simple solution to the Year 2000 problem that should save the Pentagon billions of dollars.
"All we need to do is find the guy who fixed the Year 1000 problem and ask him to work on this one," Guerra said.
NEXT STORY: Rules set limits on race-based methods