"U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Wesley Carrow, 52nd Communications Squadron client systems technician”
Had to read that twice
‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds
221–230 of 264 posts
Re: ‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds
#222I clicked through to the linkedin post [0] and airforcemag was clearly not reading this carefully. Not sure how they missed that, but Mr Kanaan never once in his letter wrote "Fix My computer" as is stated in the airforcemag title (and in quotes) but rather every. single. line of this letter ends with "Fix our computers." Quite a different tone. He seems desperate, but he's not self centered. [0]: https://www.linkedi…
The article does mention that: “ Each barrage ending with the same invocation: “Fix our computers.””
The title is the part that does not match the quote, and I agree, it does sound a little bit different that way.
Re: ‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds
#223I will never understand when a company/government entity pay people a high salary then give them crap or low-end hardware. You should be maxing out dev machines and the rest of the company should rarely see a spinner or have to wait on their tech. It's a huge waste of time that you are paying for. I once calculated how much time I wasted waiting on slow processes at a job and then multiplied it by my effective hourly…
In places such as Air Force, I always assume that kickbacks and other corruption are part of the culture. I'm not going to be surprised if they pay higher $$ for shittier equipment.
Re: ‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds
#224> Currently the service uses both McAfee and Tanium software packages to scan and protect service-issued endpoints like laptops. The problem isn't hardware, it's that they're using the worst antivirus known to mankind. It's not throwing money at the problem, it's about what can be removed.
I'm currently on an engagement at a retail bank for a project that went entirely off the rails (they brought me in to right it). All of the following are currently running simultaneously:
* McAfee
* Tanium, which is constantly firing off massive Python scripts
* Aternity
* Windows Defender (which is well-behaved as expected)
The system is effectively I/O bound all the time. The quad-core (8th gen Intel core) idles at 70% utilization, constantly spiking to 100%. The commit charge for getting into the Explorer shell is 13.8GB of the 8GB of physical memory. The laptop itself appears to have a street value of about $240 on eBay. Quality unit with a 1366x768 TN display.
-----
The 30 day discovery period is about to end. I am not supplying an SoW for any further work. I told them the reason nothing gets done by their teams is because the hardware they give everyone is trash, and I can't solve their architectural issues when IT doesn't supply tools to get work done. I wish them the best of luck.
Re: ‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds
#225For perspective: I work in a difference armed force but with basically the same issue. We once had a problem with soldiers stealing memory sticks from workstations (unclassified systems). Take only one stick and the machine still works. The theft problem goes unnoticed long enough that we cannot nail down who stole what when. Answer: Give the computers only one memory stick. Thefts will then be noticed quickly. Now,…
I had something similar happen to me at IBM in the late 90s. I came to my cubicle one morning to find the PC case slightly ajar. I set the monitor aside and opened it. The sole 8 MB RAM stick was gone. I reported it to my boss who explained that someone would've taken it because getting an upgrade was an impossible bureaucratic feat, but getting a fix was trivial. Probably I was picked because I was obviously the youngest person in the office, so I must not have any power. I did indeed have a repaired PC the next day, though.
Re: ‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
I shouldn't take that personally, but I manage Tanium and my experience doesn't mirror yours. That said, I know they have some HUGE deployments in the Military and my piddly little 25000 client install may not be comparable.
I used to help Tanium manage their stuff for the US Navy on NMCI. I stand by my statement. But it’s not personal at all. Neither you nor I made Tanium, and I’m sure your deployment is the gold standard of Tanium deployments that would change my mind.
Noooo, Tanium gets blamed here for everything, all the time. We call it “Tanium got my dog pregnant”
99% of the time it’s not Tanium, but 1% of the time is very much is.
Re: ‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you tried using Windows 10/11 with on-access and behavioral AV (not defender) on 4gb of RAM and a 5400rpm spinning disk? I find it entirely plausible that they have to wait an hour plus for the machine to become remotely responsive.
I probably have experienced something close to this. You're right; it doesn't take many steps to make a modern machine slow. Reading the article was indeed surprising and depressing - it certainly is a plausible scenario! The question is: is such a disfigured desktop experience an acceptable result, given that the physical hardware enables much, much more productivity?
When NASA switched from internal IT to a third-party contractor, their laptops and desktops got replaced with worse hardware that somehow cost more. This is the Republican way.
Re: ‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds
#228It's not the hardware, it's the crap that runs on it. You want a system which is secure and usable? Time for the DoD to commission their own OS. "Nobody will know how to use it!" is an objection which can be overcome by training, which is a thing that the armed forces understand. "It won't be compatible with the COTS!" is an advantage, not a disadvantage. "It will take too long and cost too much!" means that they are…
> lots of jobs will be created Invoking the broken window fallacy is not a good sign for the coherence of your argument. I'm not entirely sure whether I should interpret this post literally or as a satire of NIH syndrome.
Literal, please.
Competing software ecosystems can constitute valuable economic activity. Broken Windows is, if anything, the current state of affairs: running important things on Microsoft Windows is becoming intolerable, with layers of expensive (dollars and computrons) fixes being applied. Is it economically better to start over or to keep trying to defend the indefensible?
Re: ‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds
#229It's not the hardware, it's the crap that runs on it. You want a system which is secure and usable? Time for the DoD to commission their own OS. "Nobody will know how to use it!" is an objection which can be overcome by training, which is a thing that the armed forces understand. "It won't be compatible with the COTS!" is an advantage, not a disadvantage. "It will take too long and cost too much!" means that they are…
>Time for the DoD to commission their own OS. I am shocked that governments are not investing mega-bucks into getting a microkernel OS built that could be run on internet routers, tanks, power plants, aircraft, water treatment facilities etc. Even if microkerenel design has some impossible to overcome performance limitations, for utmost security, it would be a small price to pay knowing that hacking the OS was nearly…
Your shock assumes there is leadership at the top that sees the big picture with respect to enabling technology. While not in the US, I have seen the inner workings of other nations armed forces, and there is an overwhelming urge to farm everything out to contractors - so there are going to be at least two competing microkernel designs (proprietary of course) for each the army, navy and air forces under the current leadership structures.
Re: ‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds
#230It's not the hardware, it's the crap that runs on it. You want a system which is secure and usable? Time for the DoD to commission their own OS. "Nobody will know how to use it!" is an objection which can be overcome by training, which is a thing that the armed forces understand. "It won't be compatible with the COTS!" is an advantage, not a disadvantage. "It will take too long and cost too much!" means that they are…
>Time for the DoD to commission their own OS. I am shocked that governments are not investing mega-bucks into getting a microkernel OS built that could be run on internet routers, tanks, power plants, aircraft, water treatment facilities etc. Even if microkerenel design has some impossible to overcome performance limitations, for utmost security, it would be a small price to pay knowing that hacking the OS was nearly…
> Even if microkerenel design has some impossible to overcome performance limitations
It doesn't. There's no inherent hit on microkernel performance. What exists are limitations of hardware that wasn't designed for it, and a complete lack of interest on creating hardware optimized for them.