unexpected results

A few things I’ve picked up after spending two months in Afghanistan.

• Deployment is really 50% Stripes, 50% Groundhog Day.  
• Trucks were not meant to hold up a lot of the equipment the US Army fields.  There’s a lot of money to be made if it could.
• Dust+water=wet dust
• The best day to test bandwidth is Monday morning.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a strong nostalgia for old computer technologies.  Old hardware, old software, or old ideas, they all appeal to me for some strange reason.  Even now, I spend time becoming proficient using software or tools that were obsolete 20 years ago.  For me, the value is not in the ability to utilize this skills in my career but to appreciate the evolution of current technology and learn more about how things used to be done.

What I’ve come to realize about a lot of the early computer science innovations is that they were making the absolute most out of a very limited set of resources.  At the dawn of the computer age, every little bit counted.  As a result, a lot of very, very clever programmers were able to develop some very, very clever technologies.  Memory was prohibitively expensive, so programmers learned to get by using very little memory and reusing it where they could.  We would not have the IT we have today if not for the creativity these early engineers had to use.

Now that I’m deployed, I’m starting to see some value in a number of these old techs.  I run a tactical communications network, so I know just how precious bandwidth can be.  Every megabit of bandwidth I can offer comes not only at great financial expense but is a precious resource that must be shared.   My systems are designed to absolutely push every last ounce of information out of my tubes.

While the current generation of commercial and consumer IT technology is quite impressive, it is not nearly as impressive as some of this early tech.  Waste, like everything else in the US, is the norm.  Because the costs have come down on computing resources, there is no longer the impetus to write tight, efficient code.  In my opinion, this lack of focus is not only waste of resources but the root cause of our computing security problems.

Silicon Valley hot-shots quite often forget that for most of the world, especially the developing world, broadband technology is not ubiquitous or cheap.  For those communities that have only begun to utilize computers and the internet, scarcity is still the order of the day.  To get megabytes of data is a challenge for many markets, and the terabytes of traffic Americans consume every day is simply unfathomable.

We would be well served to revert back to these old ways.  Information efficiency, like energy efficiency, is not necessarily about getting less; it’s about getting more out of a precious, finite resource.

I’ve been away from home for 31 days now. As I begin my second month in Afghanistan, I feel I’m starting to get the hang of this place. I’m learning my job, I’m getting to know people, and I’m confident I’ll do well here.

The positive:

• Excellent soldiers
• Helpful colleagues and superiors
• The heat is starting to break (~90° every day, instead of 100°+)

The negative:

• Missing my family
• It’s Groundhog Day here
• The food is repetitive
• All my water comes from a bottle

Still, everything’s going along smoothly.

Quote of the day: “There’s no curry today. That’s okay, though.  Curry for you everyday is no good.” — The DFAC server who knows me as “that soldier who eats curry every meal”

I’ve been deployed for about three weeks now, with about two weeks in Afghanistan Ever so slowly, I’m starting to get into my stride. There certainly has been a lot of adjustment for me, but I think the biggest change is not being wired up 24/7 (broadband internet, iPhone, etc.) It’s easy to forget how nice things are back in the US.  Small comforts from home and the little luxuries go a long way.  In this environment, even the smallest tasks take time and coordination.

What makes this all worthwhile are the people. I’ve gotten to work with some of the best soldiers in the world under some of the worst conditions imaginable. I certainly can’t say that 100% of people are performing to what they need to be, but the vast majority are going far beyond what should be expected of them, and I’m very lucky to work with them, work for them, or have them work for me.

I’m going to be here a while, but I think I’m going to get a lot out of this tour.