Military Convoy Etiquette

Military Convoy Etiquette:

Over the past few months of driving along various interstates through Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana I’ve come across a few military convoys. Each time the convoys have been led and trailed by a hummer. Inbetween the humvees there have been a numerous trucks: semis carrying tanks, bradley fighting vehicles, and heavy machinery, fuel trucks, personnel carriers, and others. These convoys have also been numerous lengths.

As I’ve been driving I’ve noticed that the front humvee carries a sign stating something to the effect of “convoy following”: in addition the humvee at the end of the convoy carries a sign with something to the effect that it is at the end of the convoy. The real question that came from all of this is that I began to notice a pattern and have not been able to find any answers to my questions anywhere online. I’m hoping someone can answer these questions:

1. Is there some form of standard following-distance rule in the military? It seems that each vehicle in each of the convoys I’ve passed have all been approx. the same distance from one another.

2. Is there a standard speed at which a convoy travels? I assume it’s the max speed that the slowest vehicle can travel…some research has shown that in Ohio the convoy must maintain at least 45mph.

3. Is there some sort of unspoken rule that a civilian vehicle should not (or is not allowed to) enter into a military convoy? No matter the length of the convoys I’ve encountered, from 6 vehicles to 21 vehicles, I have not seen a civilian vehicle (be it a passenger car or semi) enter into the convoy.

If anyone can answer those questions it’d be appreciated, especially my military friends. As I said I can’t find any answers on line and am curious about this, at least perceived, etiquette.

Get Your MacHeist Bundle

Today is the last day to get your free download from macheist.com. There’s a set of applications for your mac that won’t cost you a penny. Some of them I’ve already got, and some don’t fit my needs, so I didn’t download them. Depending on your needs you may want all 6 six of them.

Let’s take a look at each of these apps in short:
ShoveBox, WriteRoom, Twitterific, TinyGrab, Hordes of Orcs, and Mariner Write.

(1) ShoveBox – Think evernote on this one: well, kinda evernote. ShoveBox works on the same principal as evernote, that we have too much crap flooding our brains while we sit at the computer. From twitter, facebook, chat tools, websites, email…and now that google came out with Wave, there’s always something flashing or popping up on our screens. ShoveBox is designed to help you capture those small pieces of information that you want to revisit, but don’t have them time to get to at the time. Like, when you’re at work “working” and you aren’t supposed to be browsing CNN to see what’s happening in the world. Rather than forgetting it, the makers of this application want you to highlight the URL, or image, or chunk of text and throw it in your cardboard box (which sits in your menu bar) so you can go read it later. The trick, then, is to remember that you put things there. There is a ShoveBox app for your iPhone too, $3.99 in the app store, which will sync what you’ve captured. This application has some promise: the real trick is remembering that you put something in it. I suppose if you make a habit of checking it during your lunch hour or free time it won’t be an issue to remember. I haven’t played with it yet, but I hope it’s better than evernote which I’ve tried twice and uninstall twice.

(2) WriteRoom – I’m actually writing this entry in WriteRoom, and so far I’m enjoying it. WriteRoom also considers the fact that there’s usually too much crap on our screens and we’re frequently distracted by our computers while we’re working. The app designers are very clear about the purpose of the tool in this posting on their website:
“Is WriteRoom the right tool for you?

WriteRoom is designed for distraction free writing. If you are looking for a programmer’s text editor or tool to help you manage large writing projects then there are better choices. If you need syntax highlighting and command line integration try TextMate. If you need to manage large writing projects try Scrivener. If you just need to block out distractions and write then I think WriteRoom is a great choice.”

I appreciate that they aren’t trying to be all things to all people. This is a writing tool, not a designing, editing, layout tool. You write with it, and that’s it. Plain and simple. I’m able to focus well on what I’m writing as WriteRoom is launched in full-screen, thus eliminating all the other pieces that get in the way. It also auto-saves. Every 5 seconds, 10 seconds, all the way to “never”. That’s up to you, and it’s a good thing. My current color scheme is lime-green text on a black background, just like the old Apple IIE. It doesn’t get much more basic.

(3) Twitterific - A nice little program for you twitter account(s). I started my tweeting days with the free version of twitterific then changed over to tweetdeck. Not to say that this isn’t a good tool, it just didn’t quite “fit” my liking. Give it a shot though, it might suit your desires.

(4) – TinyGrab – A simple-to-use screen capture program. It doesn’t operate any differently than your built-in Mac OS X screen capture tool, except that in pushing command-shift-4 and doing the screen capture the software automatically creates a link to the images to be posted and shared with your friends. It’s not one of the applications I downloaded because I don’t need an extra piece of software to launch to preform the functions that I already can use with my OS. Besides most twitter apps will automatically create a URL for you if you tweet an image. Beyond that using google wave or email will get the image to someone just as easily and sending them a link.

(5) Hordes of Orcs – Ummm…I don’t get it. I’m not a gamer, not will I ever be one. There’s something about building towers and defending a kingdom or some such thing. I’m not going to do it any justice so just check the website.

(6) Mariner Write – While I didn’t download this program, it’s description puts it somewhere between WriteRoom and MicroSoft Word. It is capable of writing and reading word files, so if you don’t have Microsoft Office it may be worth a look…at least for the next few hours while it’s free.

I’m not exactly an authority on Mac software, but I can talk about what I’ve used and what it’s done for me. Some of these are worth the installation and some aren’t so much. Anyways, for the time being they’re free, so it can’t hurt to give them a shot, so take a journey over to MacHeist and take a look.

Technorati Tags:
apple, macintosh, reviews, software, twitteriffic, writeroom, shovebox

Inmates Save Guard’s Life

via CNN:

Inmates in a Florida prison save 64 y.o. guard’s life. Read the article/watch the video.

Technorati Tags:
news

Silent Senate

less than one week after impeaching former governor rod blagojevich, my visit to the state capitol and the senate gallery found an eerily quiet and empty floor.

various images from a visit to Springfield, IL.

An Photographic Inauguration Story

just 6 days after pres. obama took office i came across this website telling the story of a day through photos. not only was this an incredible event, but it’s told with amazing photos. take a look.

iLife ‘09 Available Jan. 27

Apple reports that the ilife 09 suite will be available tomorrow at all apple stores and your local apple retailer. check out the article.

Where Does Accessability Balance Availability

google to release “GDrive”, a service that will allow a user to access his/her personal computer from any internet connection.

read the article

the observer

The Governor’s Mental Health

the springfield state journal register reports:

Is Gov. Rod Blagojevich crazy?

The answer: Not exactly, according to experts in mental and personality disorders. But that doesn’t mean Blagojevich qualifies as normal.

“I’m not sure the question is about (mental) stability,” says Dr. Joe Bohlen, a Springfield psychiatrist. “It may be more about personality.”

…from what he’s heard, seen and read, Bohlen and others say they believe Blagojevich may have a narcissistic personality disorder.

read the whole article.

College Football Recruiting Maps

sports illustrated has put out a very interesting article in last week’s magazine showing the recruiting trends of some of the nation’s top football programs. out of interest i followed a link they’d provided at the end of the article. the link led me to a site that allows for recruiting information for all bcs schools. you can view the article and look into more maps at http://www.si.com/recruitingmaps

the first image below is a map of university of illinois football recruits (over the past 5 years) . each pin on the map represents one recruit.

picture 2 is an image of big 10 recruits over the last 5 years.

this third image is a map of bcs recruits from illinois over the past 5 years.

What Is Your Virginity Worth?

“Natalie Dylan’s” virginity is reportedly worth $3.8 million. a cnn report.