I n the deserts of Kuwait, the US military readies itself for action. The strategies field commanders use against opposing forces depend largely on the ability to gather and analyze intelligence data quickly and accurately. In todayis Army, computers are essential in helping to gather and process intelligence data, but for Major Shawn Weed, Army issued Panasonic Toughbooks arenit good enough. According to an Article in Wired News, to get his job done Major Weed uses an Apple Titanium PowerBook G4, perhaps the only one used by the US Army in the Middle East. From the article, titled "Armyis Apple Shine in the Desert:"
In the entire theater of operations, involving nearly 300,000 troops and hundreds of tanks and aircraft, one lonely Macintosh shipped out, according to the major who took it there.
The Mac is a Titanium G4 PowerBook, and it belongs to Major Shawn Weed, an intelligence planner with the Third Infantry Division , which is preparing for action in the deserts of Kuwait.
"It is the only one out here in the desert," said Weed. "The problem with computers in the Army is they are bought by the gross and not necessarily purchased to accomplish certain functions. The Army doles out laptops in the same way we dole out boots, tents or any other class of supply."
According to Weed, he was issued the rugged Panasonic Toughbook , but it didnit work fast enough. Weed declined to specify what he does exactly, but said he works with giant satellite and reconnaissance images, presumably for battlefield planning. When he opened these giant image files on the Toughbook, it would slow to an excruciating crawl, he said.
"Frankly, lives are in the balance here, so the quicker I can get stuff done accurately, the better," Weed said. "The Mac makes this work simple, quick and efficient. The other laptops either canit open the files or lock up halfway through, losing whatever I was working on at the time, and then (I have) to restart the computer and start over."
Read the full article at Wired News.