To Friends, Family, and Teammates, Here is your chance to show your support for our fellow airmen that have lost their lives in order for us to maintain our freedom. The proceeds of this Memorial Ruck march are going to the families of our fallen Airmen to help them further their education and lives. Below is an description of the march. SSgt Tim Davis and Will Jefferson lost their lives in the line of duty, Tim20 Feb, 2009 and Will 22 Mar 2008. They were selfless heroes who consummate quite professional. The teams are honoring their memory and the other men of USAF Combat Control (CCT) that have made the ultimate sacrifice. Twelve highly motivated men will relay across 5 states two at a time carrying 50lbs packs. We will begin our 804 mile journey, 7 October 2009, where all CCT team members begin their careers, Medina Annex, Lackland AFB TX. Our mission will be complete approximately 8 to 9 days later at Hurlburt Field Florida, where we will meet our brothers at the annual CCT reunion. 17 Oct, Tim's name will be added to the Combat Control memorial at the Hurlburt Field Air Park. The two man team will be walking 170.6 miles of the 804 mile ruck. (more...)

Windows 7 might be getting all the attention lately, but Windows XP is having a quiet little renaissance of its own -- not only have sales of the venerable OS been extended until 2010, Microsoft is selling an ultra-secure version to the Air Force. The custom build ships with over 600 settings bolted down, and a security patch turnaround of just 72 hours compared to the standard edition's 57 days -- all because Steve Ballmer personally stepped in and approved the project at the Air Force's request. The effort's to standardize and preconfigure the OS has paid off: 85 percent of previous known exploits have been blocked, support call volume has dropped 40 percent, and the USAF has saved some $100 million in costs. Nice -- but don't get your hopes up, since it doesn't seem like Microsoft has any intention of selling this version to the public.

In Germany, the file-hosting service Rapidshare has handed over the personal details of alleged copyright infringers to several major record labels. The information is used to pursue legal action against the Rapidshare users and at least one alleged uploader saw his house raided.

GeoCities, a free Web hosting service that achieved fame in the mid-90s, died Thursday at the Yahoo headquarters in Silicon Valley. GeoCities was 15 years old.

GeoCities had suffered a long and drawn-out battle with its health over the past decade. An antiquated service model and outdated technology are widely blamed for the struggle. An official cause of death, however, has yet to be determined.

The US Defense Department is enlisting an open source approach to software development — an about-face for such a historically top-down organization. In recent weeks, the military has launched a collaborative platform called Forge.mil for its developers to share software, systems components and network services. The agency also signed an agreement with the Open Source Software Institute to allow 50 internally developed workforce management applications to be licensed to other government agencies, universities and companies.

Ephazi writes

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Provides identification/fixing of problems within existing systems and enhancement of existing systems. Responsible for understanding the needs of the customers and the realities of commercially available products, and creating requirements that will allow implementation by the HQ development teams. Must have solid technical background with a focus on RF systems. Skill areas include HF, UHF and VHF collections systems. Antenna and RF Distribution system troubleshooting and maintenance. Coordinates/conducts post installation operations and maintenance support. Clearance: Candidate must possess TS/SCI clearance with FS Polygraph.

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A file-sharing program in a defense contractor's computer system allowed outside access to data on the U.S. president's helicopter, a monitor says.

Bob Boback, the chief executive officer of Tiversa, told WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh his company found blueprints and avionics information on Marine One at a computer network in Tehran. Tiversa, based in Cranberry, Pa., traced the information back to a Maryland company where an employee apparently downloaded a file-sharing program.

"When downloading one of these file-sharing programs, you are effectively allowing others around the world to access your hard drive," Boback said.

Boback said his company notified the federal government of the security breach.

In addition to Iran, China, Pakistan, Qatar and Yemen appear to be looking for sensitive information made available by file-sharing, Boback said.

Marine One is one of several Navy helicopters used to transport the president.

On 14 Oct 08, the President signed the FY2009 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This Act authorizes 10 days of permissive (non-chargeable) paternity leave to married members of the armed forces on active duty whose wife gives birth to a child on or after 14 Oct 08. (more...)

Deployment data will be removed from senior NCO evaluation briefs effective with the February 2009 SMSgt promotion board and when system modifications are complete, with the June P0509B Lt Col LAF and MSC and the P0409B Major MSC promotion boards. (more...)