As much fun as it is to give Comm crap (Hey, double meaning with today’s comic!) I have to take a sec and tip my hat to the ones who really do the job well. I’m not saying every Comm troop is a computer genius – I know several who will be the first to say they’re lucky if they press the right button when trying to turn their PC on – but I imagine their job isn’t easy, and I’m sure glad it isn’t mine.
This ass kissing has nothing to do with the two trouble tickets I had to file today because my computer decided it no longer liked several drivers installed on it and just dumped them. It has nothing to do with the fact that someone from Comm is expected to come fix my machine (as best they can) while I’m TDY these next few days.
I swear.
-Farva
LOL dog crap.
I know the commo’s on my base work their butts off with our garbage computers and their always in the office within five minutes of a call.
Buy them a beer for me.
Man, love the comic and shout-out all in one!
Installing Vista on dog crap will result in an even bigger pile of crap!
Ditto!
You’d be shocked…. or maybe not…. to see some of the dinos that even the guard has sitting around.
I’ve been out of the service too long. Enlighten me on these Jurassic PCs.
The reason not all “comm” troops know how to fix computers is simple… In the Air Force we lump anyone who works on any communications device into that category even though a lot of us are Radio or SATCOM troops (now RF Transmission Systems) and were never trained on computers. However most of us eventually learn the computer stuff just because the rest of you bug us so often to fix them. Ok I’m done, sorry about getting on the soapbox.
Don’t apologize. Billet detailers know how to move people aqround like checkers on a board, but neither they nor their high-falutin’ PersOs have to know what each specialty entails. Either or, seeing how you already know the FM (F—ing Magic) that drives RFTS, why not take a class on computer repair? For a real Tron Chaser like you, it would be like fingerpainting. Do it while the brass can pay for most of it.
I fix radios. I break computers out of spite.
I hate going from my cable modem at home to the 26.6kpbs network in the office.
How is it that we’re fighting, flying and winning with this slow garbage?
Also . . . I hate being called a “RF Tranny”. Screw RF Transmissions! I’m a Ground Rat!
If anyone called me that their radios would suddenly have malfunctions that I just wouldn’t be able to find the time to fix…
Hahaha, No Sir, I have no idea why you can recieve but not transmit….
Next shitbird to call you that should be goaded into drunkenness, ganged upon, and dressed in drag. Bonus if you tie him up to the lightpole closest to the base commander’s house. That’ll tranny him!
You just need to get into a rapid deployment unit. We get some sweet systems, PRC-152′s for example. Now if only the operators would finally understand the concept of “line of sight” we’d really be in business! Also, keep the Ground Rat pride alive!
And I wondered why did the Swiss disband their carrier pigeon units! Twenty-six-point six? In 2010? I want my tax money back!
you’ve got to understand…as bad as our systems are, theirs are worse. You should see the crap the other countries give their military folks.
That’s like stuffing a 64-bit Windows Me ‘flash-in-the-pan’ turd into a pile of dog crap. Meh. Just go Windows 7.
What? And use the latest software that might fix current computer problems!?
Actually the AF is already working on the process of migrating to Windows 7 but like all things in the AF it will take several years to get “approved” properly. Problem is, they will still be putting SDC (Standardized Desktop Configuration) on top of Windows 7 which, just like it did with Vista, will screw with the system itself. The biggest problem with the AF computers now isn’t that it has Vista…it is that SDC screws Vista up even more than it already is. And yes, I do know I’m a loader, but having worked for a couple years out of pocket as a Functional System Administrator and being in charge of the MXG CSAs cuz of that, I learned a lot of what’s going on and still talk to some of my old CSA troops to keep up on whats going on.
thats not what f’d up Vista… Vista was just F’d up to start with and we were putting an f’d up OS on an F’d up computer system… go figure!
I like windows 7… finally an ok product by windows… like first one since 98… Xp was alright too :0 personally im a *nix fan
my Background on my computer at work is always something making fun of windows
I am a comm guy who works on networks… happen to pull 60 hour weeks or more all time especially pre-UCI time
Prior 2E2? You can keep the routers, I’ll stick to radios! Best of luck! I hope you survive your UCI!
@Farva:
I was at the commissary (sp) yesterday lookin for coconut kona coffee…couldn’t find it. without having to find that really old post, am I delusional in thinking it was coconut you mentioned or perhaps another flavor? I’ll grab some for ya and send it your way.
You’re right – it was coconut. Only place I’ve seen it was Hawaii. I appreciate it, though!
yeah im stuck in hawaii for the next 3 years, but no luck. I’ll keep an eye out though, i figure a few bags of it, if i find it, might be worth some extra time in the members section;-) hahaha
I do have one question… Why is it ok that a computer/networking/switching troop can’t work on radios or satcom systems but when a radio troop says they can’t fix a computer we’re treated like we’re either lying/lazy or don’t know our job? I know it’s all PFM to the rest of you but why is it so hard to accept that radios and routers are 2 entirely different things?
It’s the same in Public Affairs. We have photographers and writers, and although some of us can do both, I feel bad for the photographers who are asked to write a feature or writers told to take the commander’s official photo if it’s something they don’t do.
Unless tearing field replaceable units down to component level is USAF SOP, there should be no need to sweat a logical fault isolation and parts swap job. Granted, software can have its own “FM”, but treat it like learning new slang.
To kick it up one notch, Find an old MS-DOS dummy book and learn some of that lost “command line” language. It’ll come in handy when you learn the “FM” of networks, like I’m doing this semester. Computers, like children, have outgrown the needy egotism of their own little world and have joined their peers in society. A computer without internet access is nothing more than a juice sapping, heat emitting, box that mimics mental defect.
Well, I must say that my job (2T3) experiences the same difficulties. i.e. I fix the vehicles everyone uses (up until I started working at the sq level) and they break, alot. Then we have the operators nagging about when it will be fixed. Plain and simple, that crap is expensive to maintain. Especially here in the UK. If the AF upgraded to the latest and greatest every time it came out (STS) Comm and transportation would be at eachothers throats for the funding to keep up with the latest equipment to maintain it. I for one will have to agree with Farva the guys that know the systems get it fixed – and they do a hell of a job when they do.
To “piggy-back” on Commguy (not literally): I’ll be the first to say I am a Comm troop with very little to no experience “fixing” a PC. That is because I retrained as a Communications Project Manager (old 3C3) and we are (were) not expected to know how to, just find who can, fix it. Now with the combining of AFSC’s we are expected to learn (OJT) how to do that job. With only 3-1/2 yrs left, I doubt I’ll be able to hone any sort of skill out of it though. On the bright side howerver, I did build my own personal PC (from scratch) and learned quite a bit more than I knew prior to. The hardware part is easy though, its the software and OS that a pain in the arse.
And that is why I ran away from 3C as fast as I could, when given the opportunity
I was a WIREDAWG when I joined, I am going out a WIREDAWG next year. They may have added computers to me, but have no idea other than VISTA sucks big time, and when they bought it, Windows 7 was already coming out cause they new VISTA sucked. But that is military thinking for ya.
…If I can just get your computer name and building number, I’ll have your computer disabled and building network shut down as soon as possible, Sir!
Yes but I am ORDERED to screw you computer up!
Yes XP works.
But I am ORDERED to destroy your XP computer and install Vista on it.
Why? I have NO idea. Vista is inferior in every way.
Your rather, spellcheck fail.
Rather off-topic, but saw this one today and thought it might be at home here. ;C)
What do you get when you cross a pig with a dinosaur? Jurassic Pork!
I am a comm troup and I can say that not all of us are a computer genuis. There are some people that I know that I just wonder how the hell they are in a comm career field. I am not saying that I am a computer genuis. Some of us (like my supervisor) who is a computer genuis. I really didn’t know much until I deployed. I have really learned a lot since then. Now I am training our new people who got here like I did (knowing nothing).
Three BSODs, a paper jam, and a PC LOAD LETTER in one day! A new personal best.
Am I a jerk, or why do people panic when they see a BSOD? Hmm… then again, the worst that can happen is someone who knows enough to be dangerous and tries to “fix it” himself…. Chief reason I don’t let my brother near my mower after he Frankensteined it! But a paper jam? Pleeease!
While I’m not in the Air Force (my husband is) and I don’t work on computers for a profession, it is my hobby. My whole family and all my friend’s look to me as their Computer Guru. Except that I tell them all I know about computers is hardware related, not software. And they still come to me with software problems.
Software and hardware are not the same!! Not even close! I thought at first they just didn’t understand the difference so I explained it to them. That’s when I learned lots of people I know have selective hearing. ~_~;
Google and I now have a very very close relationship.
divedawg64, I am a Cable Dawg so I know how you feel. I work on phones and fiber-optics, not computers. Though, I do laugh at how many times I get the question, “You are a cable guy right? Who do I need to talk to in your office to get cable tv installed in my office?” Even when I tell them we do not do that, they come back with, “Well, you guys have done it in the past.”