OK, So Here's The Deal...

A Marine Major, Running Fool, and All-Around Smart-Ass.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Brainiatrics

A new Lieutenant checked in to our G6 (communication) a few months back and they assigned him to figure out why our network connection to MCRD San Diego was so crappy. Here's what he sent me:

"With regard to San Diego, it wasn't so much of an individual machine issue as it was a network issue. They were having lots of network problems to begin with and because their machines weren't caching static content (i.e. images and javascript files), each time they loaded up a page, it would try to download that content again. That could mean 100 copies of the same image being downloaded from the server just to load one page!"

For those of you that are not tech savy, that might sound impressive but for those of you that are, you might view it as elementary. Well, he's come up with a dozen more intricate fixes that make my head spin just trying to keep up with.

Now, he's a Lieutenant so how does he know so much? I mean, he's supposed to be a dopy LT like we all were, right?

Well, I set out to ask a fellow Captain and he tells me that the kid hasn't even been to the comm school yet.

WHHHHHHAT?

I couldn't stand it, I had to ask him. Here is what he had to say.

"Before I came in the Marine Corps, I worked for 6 years as a network engineer for a backbone Internet company doing network testing for data and voice-over-IP. I also worked as a system administrator/network engineer/software engineer for a financial services company that specializes in integrating online trading systems (i.e. making Etrade talk to NASDAQ). So, I happen to have quite a bit of network/software troubleshooting experience."

I feel double-digit IQ points dumber now.

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4 Comments:

  • At 10:08 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    1. An LT should not make a Captain look bad.
    2. Where does he get off knowing more than a Captain.
    3. Hang on to that kid, good techies are a commidity beyond price.
    4. How do I get one of those.
    5. I look forward to the day when I can directly download that kind of knowledge.
    6. This one (#6) was just to ramble.
    Ray

     
  • At 12:16 PM, Blogger Viper said…

    1. He didn't. He was very gracious and unassuming about it.

    2. I absolutely disagree with this. If he smarter than I am (and he is) then I was beat in this arena. Good on him. But I assume you were being facecious.

    3. That's the secret. You don't have to know everything but you have to surround yourself with people who do. That's why the best Officers have the best enlisted around them. They are external brains.

    4. $$$$$$$$$$

    5. I'd start with foreign languages.

     
  • At 5:15 PM, Blogger CoastingThroughTheSouth said…

    Sir, everyone in my engineering classes is a grade or 2 below me. (This is because I decided to try out an engineering class when i was a junior physics major. I also had a semester in there where I was a CS major.) And they are all smarter than me. I feel stupid around these people who, although not actually that much younger than me, behave leagues more immature at times. I am surrounded by people smarter than me who do the things I do better than me, and they are all younger than me. Yeah, I'm going to stop rambling now. Sorry about filling up your comments with my monologue

     
  • At 7:40 AM, Blogger Viper said…

    Ryan, I hear ya, bud. I was a college freshman in my mid-20s, an active duty Sergeant with a wife and two kids, and had been to war.

    It was tough delaing with kids right out of high school who in many cases were quantum leaps smarter than me.

    Humbling.

     

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