Stupid Air Force Tricks

The following email came out at work today. I’ve cut the sensitive and boring parts:

In order to facilitate a successful upgrade of AMC's Exchange 2000 e-mail environment to Exchange 2003, the AMC NOSC will implement a new and improved Outlook Web Access (OWA) logon procedure starting 25 Feb 2005.

A new logon page will be displayed that will require all users to enter their username and password and then select two of the following options:

· The first option allows users to select which client they prefer to use:

· Premium: provides all OWA features available (most features will not be available until the upgrade to Exchange 2003 is completed, schedule TBD). This is the default option when logging in.

· Basic: provides fewer features than the premium client, but offers faster performance (use basic client for slow connections, ie, dial-up).

· The second option allows users to select what type of computer they are using:

· Public or shared computer: select this option when accessing OWA from a computer whose security settings cannot be confirmed (Internet kiosk, computer at a library, etc…). This is the default option when logging in.

· Private computer: select this option when accessing OWA from a computer whose security settings can be confirmed (home or office computer).

Once the user is logged on to OWA, the look and feel of the interface will resemble the old interface.

I always find these things interesting as they are entirely representative of the Air Force mentality. This is a “new and improved” logon procedure. What is improved about it from the standpoint of a general user?

Actually, near as I can tell, nothing. It requires me to go through two additional steps that I did not have to go through before to check my email from home. While it allows me to choose a faster-performance option, it’s worth noting that the former system offered only that option, by offering no options at all. Since the AF won’t let me telecommute anyway, I don’t see why anybody cares much about “all the OWA features available” just to check email from home, which less than 10% of the force does anyway.

This is typical of AF improvements. Improvement is, in fact, a synonym for change, and has nothing at all to do with whether the change is an improvement or, as is so frequent, not.