The Post-pandemic Canadian Armed Forces

[daftandbarmy]

Considering we've lost approx 7% to inflation since 2017, that'll be the nail in the coffin for most folks. Back to the 90s with Ptes at food banks?

If so it looks like they'll have alot of company. US data....

Hardship Remains High, Latest Census Data Show​

Hardship remains high across the board although some measures halted their upward trend in early January, Census data released today show. Millions of people report that their household didn’t get enough to eat, isn’t caught up on rent, or struggled to cover usual expenses. While the relief package enacted in December amidst surging hardship and a stalling recovery will provide important help to many people, another substantial stimulus and relief package is needed to address ongoing hardship and extend key provisions of the December package that will expire in coming months.

Our updated tracker features new data from the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey showing the pandemic’s ongoing impact. According to the latest Pulse data, collected January 6-18:

• Nearly 24 million adults — 11 percent of all adults — reported that their household sometimes or often didn’t have enough to eat in the last seven days.
• An estimated 15.1 million adults living in rental housing — 1 in 5 adult renters — weren’t caught up on rent.
• More than 80 million adults — 35 percent of all adults — reported it was somewhat or very difficult for their household to cover usual expenses in the last seven days.

Hardship rates are particularly high among families with children, raising serious concerns about the long-term consequences of persistent hardship for children’s health and their academic outcomes. Food hardship among adults living with children is four times above pre-pandemic rates, available data suggest. Between 9 and 12 million children live in a household where children didn’t eat enough because the household couldn’t afford it, according to our analysis of detailed Pulse data collected December 9-21 (the latest available for this measure). Nearly half of all children live in households that had trouble covering usual expenses. And more than 4 in 10 children living in rental housing live in a household that either isn’t getting enough to eat or isn’t caught up on rent.

Hardship Remains High, Latest Census Data Show | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Hardship remains high across the board although some measures halted their upward trend in early January, Census data released today show. Millions of people report that their household didn’t get...

www.cbpp.org

 

[BurmaShave]

Where's the pay freeze rumour coming from? Does it apply to civil servants, given that we mimic their pay? (cause PSAC is done negotiating and will be livid)

 

[dapaterson]

PSAC has received their pay increase, in fact...

The CPC did call for a General officer pay freeze, not an across the board freeze.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

So...what is the official work on a pay increase for the CAF? It's been almost 4 years...

From what I can tell; nothing. For the most recent pay raises, we knew around fall timeframe. This time around?

SFA. As mentioned...PSAC has their pay increase. We are the group that can get told to PFO and there's nothing that can be done about it.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

I'll very happily admit I was wrong, out of my lane, talking out of my butt.

 

[MilEME09]

I'll very happily admit I was wrong, out of my lane, talking out of my butt.

We can all be wrong from time to time.

 

[Weinie]

I'll very happily admit I was wrong, out of my lane, talking out of my butt.

I'm with you doing the happy dance, moving my butt.

 

[AKa]

So...what is the official work on a pay increase for the CAF? It's been almost 4 years...

From what I can tell; nothing. For the most recent pay raises, we knew around fall timeframe. This time around?

SFA. As mentioned...PSAC has their pay increase. We are the group that can get told to PFO and there's nothing that can be done about it.

Are you prescient? I guess you have the answer now. I was surprised that there wasn't any chatter about this as there was for previous pay raises. REgardless, I'm very happy to see it and the mood in our minimally manned office was upbeat today.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

I guess you didn't see my other post....

I'll very happily admit I was wrong, out of my lane, talking out of my butt.

 

[Lumber]

I decided not to create a new thread, but I'd like to bring up Microsoft 365.

Has everyone's computer performance dropped to absolute garbage on DWAN since we "upgrade to Microsoft 365"? I've almost put my fist through my screen multiple times because "this newer, better" product has resulted in it taking 30 seconds to open a word document, 30 seconds to change the font on an excel spread sheet, etc...

A friend of mine who's more tech savy than me said it primarily affects DWAN workstations that were produced 2018 and prior due to the nature of their NICs. Now, 2018 doesn't seem that long ago in real terms, and in DND terms, 2018 is like, yesterday.

So, is the whole CAF now putting in assyst tickets to get their 2018 and earlier workstations life cycled?

 

[FSTO]

I was wondering why MS Office apps were acting funky lately.

 

[Brad Sallows]

"Premature optimization is the root of all evil" (Knuth). I sometimes think MS dropped the first word and made it a guiding principle.

 

[Halifax Tar]

I decided not to create a new thread, but I'd like to bring up Microsoft 365.

Has everyone's computer performance dropped to absolute garbage on DWAN since we "upgrade to Microsoft 365"? I've almost put my fist through my screen multiple times because "this newer, better" product has resulted in it taking 30 seconds to open a word document, 30 seconds to change the font on an excel spread sheet, etc...

A friend of mine who's more tech savy than me said it primarily affects DWAN workstations that were produced 2018 and prior due to the nature of their NICs. Now, 2018 doesn't seem that long ago in real terms, and in DND terms, 2018 is like, yesterday.

So, is the whole CAF now putting in assyst tickets to get their 2018 and earlier workstations life cycled?

I haven't noticed that. But the Army reserve is streamlined and efficient. So maybe that's it

 

[rmc_wannabe]

I decided not to create a new thread, but I'd like to bring up Microsoft 365.

Has everyone's computer performance dropped to absolute garbage on DWAN since we "upgrade to Microsoft 365"? I've almost put my fist through my screen multiple times because "this newer, better" product has resulted in it taking 30 seconds to open a word document, 30 seconds to change the font on an excel spread sheet, etc...

A friend of mine who's more tech savy than me said it primarily affects DWAN workstations that were produced 2018 and prior due to the nature of their NICs. Now, 2018 doesn't seem that long ago in real terms, and in DND terms, 2018 is like, yesterday.

So, is the whole CAF now putting in assyst tickets to get their 2018 and earlier workstations life cycled?

So here is the long and short of it:

DWAN and it's server architecture is designed around on premise, Campus based services pushing already hosted software like Exchange for email and SCCM for software/licensing. Microsoft and other tech companies no longer support this kind of set up and stopped selling bulk licenses after Office 2016.

D365 is based on Office 365. This is all hosted within Microsoft Azure Cloud based architecture that interfaces with remote servers hosted by Microsoft. It requires authentication to be done through the "Cloud" and is user based subscription vice bulk licenses purchased by the company.

Now the conundrum. We have multiple levels of security that both ensure nothing comes in unmonitored or goes out unmonitored. This adds latency to all processes. It's why a Defence Intranet web page pops up in milliseconds vice cbc.ca taking a dogs age. Now imagine that any app that uses D365 (outlook, Excel, Teams) has to do the same authorization outside the firewall. It goes out, authenticates, then comes back in. Even with an exemption, it takes time.

Additionally, add on that our network architecture was designed strictly for internal web surfing and email, and is now being used for video conferencing across thousands of instances and users via Teams.... it's like trying to get an elephant through a straw.

Eventually, we will see a move away from DWAN. When that happens? No fucking clue. Until then.. we all kind of have to wait for ADM (IM) to fix this chimera of a network solution so that it's functional.

 

[dapaterson]

Plus MS writes code as if bandwidth and latency aren't issues, and as if RAM is unlimited.

Irony: Running the Teams client (OK wrapper) on Linux is faster and more responsive on 15 year old hardware than on a modern Windows box.

I try to avoid doing Teams when I am on the DWAN; on my home network, I have better latency and a better setup than at a desk in a DND office.

 

[Lumber]

So here is the long and short of it:

DWAN and it's server architecture is designed around on premise, Campus based services pushing already hosted software like Exchange for email and SCCM for software/licensing. Microsoft and other tech companies no longer support this kind of set up and stopped selling bulk licenses after Office 2016.

D365 is based on Office 365. This is all hosted within Microsoft Azure Cloud based architecture that interfaces with remote servers hosted by Microsoft. It requires authentication to be done through the "Cloud" and is user based subscription vice bulk licenses purchased by the company.

Now the conundrum. We have multiple levels of security that both ensure nothing comes in unmonitored or goes out unmonitored. This adds latency to all processes. It's why a Defence Intranet web page pops up in milliseconds vice cbc.ca taking a dogs age. Now imagine that any app that uses D365 (outlook, Excel, Teams) has to do the same authorization outside the firewall. It goes out, authenticates, then comes back in. Even with an exemption, it takes time.

Additionally, add on that our network architecture was designed strictly for internal web surfing and email, and is now being used for video conferencing across thousands of instances and users via Teams.... it's like trying to get an elephant through a straw.

Eventually, we will see a move away from DWAN. When that happens? No fucking clue. Until then.. we all kind of have to wait for ADM (IM) to fix this chimera of a network solution so that it's functional.

So, if my D365 processes are effectively being executed in the cloud, what happens to the files I'm working on if I unplug my DWAN cable? What does the processing that was being done in the cloud? Can I get faster processing of my D365 files/programs if I simply unplug my DAWN cord, then plug it back in periodically when I need my emails to refresh?

 

[rmc_wannabe]

So, if my D365 processes are effectively being executed in the cloud, what happens to the files I'm working on if I unplug my DWAN cable? What does the processing that was being done in the cloud? Can I get faster processing of my D365 files/programs if I simply unplug my DAWN cord, then plug it back in periodically when I need my emails to refresh?

Processes are being run locally on the machine. Authentication is happening external. If you unplug it, it should work. That said, from an IM standpoint, you get into issues with centralized storage and duplication if you start doing local copies for everything. Especially if your source documents are on SharePoint vice a network share drive (which most SMCs are shutting down).

What should have happened was a complete rollover to a purely cloud based system that is federated at the Cloud Point of Presence. COVID rushed the timeline because we had no remote option apart from the 1300 licenses we had for DVPNI (which...very quickly were used up and expanded in 2020).

It's coming, but like most things CAF, great idea meets piss poor execution.

 

[GK .Dundas]

So can someone tell me if if if I'm being hacked?
Or are they just upgrading the system again ....

 

[OldSolduer]

"Premature optimization

And I says "pardon"

 

[Lumber]

What is

Processes are being run locally on the machine. Authentication is happening external. If you unplug it, it should work. That said, from an IM standpoint, you get into issues with centralized storage and duplication if you start doing local copies for everything. Especially if your source documents are on SharePoint vice a network share drive (which most SMCs are shutting down).

What should have happened was a complete rollover to a purely cloud based system that is federated at the Cloud Point of Presence. COVID rushed the timeline because we had no remote option apart from the 1300 licenses we had for DVPNI (which...very quickly were used up and expanded in 2020).

It's coming, but like most things CAF, great idea meets piss poor execution.

What are "SMCs" and what is being shut down? The SharePoints or the network shared drives?

When I came back to the fleet from the reserves in 2018, EVERYONE was moving to SharePoint. The implementation was sloppy, but I understood the rationale and it made sense. I then went on course and then deployed. When I came back, it was like everyone forgot about SharePoint and was back to using network shared drives, at least for some units. Other units seem to be using SharePoint decently, but fuck if they aren't hard to navigate some times. Maybe it's a mellenial thing, but I much prefer navigating either a website, or a network folder structure, and SharePoint seems like a bastardization that is worth that either.