Army Information Technology, part 1
I was without internet for a while - the satellite modem that provides internet to about 25 people in our housing area on the FOB went down on the same day that MWR's air conditioner caught on fire. Since I know of an Army computer that actually connects to the ordinary internet, I got to try that out a few times to check my email. Some things I noticed:
1. They kinda try to block "blog/personal page" websites, but it doesn't seem to make any sense to me. Bloglines is blocked, but not Google Reader. Sites with "blog" in the url are not necessarily blocked, but they HAVE blocked The Internet Food Association. I can visit most of the blogs I care to read, but not the web-based aggregator of choice. This causes me to waste more time than necessary on the government network.
2. AKO doesn't work from the computer I was using. This confuses me, because I have since confirmed that it works just fine from every other computer.
3. I can't open attached documents in Gmail in Google Apps, because web applications are blocked. Even if it's work related.
Well, then again, Army IT jobs are one of those things where I'm convinced I can do a much better job than the status quo, without the benefit of actually attending their MOS's training.
1. They kinda try to block "blog/personal page" websites, but it doesn't seem to make any sense to me. Bloglines is blocked, but not Google Reader. Sites with "blog" in the url are not necessarily blocked, but they HAVE blocked The Internet Food Association. I can visit most of the blogs I care to read, but not the web-based aggregator of choice. This causes me to waste more time than necessary on the government network.
2. AKO doesn't work from the computer I was using. This confuses me, because I have since confirmed that it works just fine from every other computer.
3. I can't open attached documents in Gmail in Google Apps, because web applications are blocked. Even if it's work related.
Well, then again, Army IT jobs are one of those things where I'm convinced I can do a much better job than the status quo, without the benefit of actually attending their MOS's training.
The DoD firewall is so haphazard it's just stupid. I'm a big fan of how the computers in our language lab, where we're supposed to study the foreign languages key to our jobs 1) don't have the proper non-western font sets installed, 2) block just about every kind of streaming audio and video.
So... I can't read anything. And I can't watch or listen to anything either. And I'm supposed to be studying Arabic how, precisely?
I finally found some video clips I could download. Recorded speeches of Hassan Nasrallah, off of Hezbollah's official website. Sigh.
Posted by
Evan |
March 23, 2009 5:38 AM
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Posted by
Anonymous |
December 11, 2009 12:14 AM