Is the World’s most powerful army really using Vista?

That is indeed the terrifying news coming out of Washington this month after the official ‘Army News Service’ admitted it is “migrating all of its Windows-based computers to Microsoft’s Vista operating system to bolster Internet security and standardize its information systems.”

Vista isn’t the only change however as Office 2003 is being swapped out for Office 2007 after the rule was – military speak time: “mandated in a Fragmentary Order published Nov. 22, 2008. It was sent out Army-wide as FRAGO 2 to Department of the Army Executive Order 056-05.”

Typing & Grand Turismo now core army skills

Training will begin on the 2 ½ year old operating system and productivity suite immediately.

In all fairness Vista with two service packs now under its belt is a much more compliant animal but still why the US military would want an OS which is targeted by almost every virus on the planet is beyond me. Haven’t these guys heard of Linux? Perhaps a custom build?

Ho hum.

Anyway, hackers across the globe unite: the US military has now advertised that a) it is running one of the most insecure operating systems in the world and b) most of its staff don’t know how to use it.

Just don’t re-route the nukes over London please…

Army Press Release

I won’t be using this blog to post many links to quirky videos, cute animals and retarded celebrities (you know, the bad kind) it’s more about what I can bring to the table for you ladies and gents, but I will make the occasional exception for the odd gem.

Here’s one such example from David Pogue, the usually thoroughly irritating knowledge ‘lite’ New York Times & CBS tech correspondent. With no vindictiveness and no little self parody Pogue shows us that maybe, just maybe, he isn’t the jerk you suspected…

(Like so many things in life, the good stuff is in the first 3 minutes)