With commissioning season just around the corner you might be looking for a unique gift idea. Officially dubbed the M-73 Liquid Prismatic Compass, it is manufactured from aluminum, glass, and brass by the firm Francis Barker. This liquid filled compass is accurate to within 1 degree and features a prismatic aiming system as well as five tritium light sources. In addition to the M-73, Telluric Group offers several other compasses including the highly sought after SAS survival compass.

To order contact Telluric Group.

The Army is sponsoring an internal applications development challenge, called Apps for the Army or A4A. Open to all Soldiers and Department of the Army civilians, A4A offers Army personnel the opportunity to demonstrate their software development skills and creativity. In return, the Army hopes to improve its current capabilities or to add new ones.

“We’re building a culture of collaboration among our Army community to encourage smarter, better and faster technical solutions to meet operational needs,” said Army Chief Information Officer/G-6 Lt. Gen. Jeff Sorenson.

“Soldiers and Army civilians will be creating new mobile and web applications of value for their peers—tools that enhance warfighting effectiveness and business productivity today,” Sorenson said. “And, we’re rewarding their innovation with recognition and cash.”

Participation in A4A is limited to the first 100 Army personnel (active duty, Army Reserve and Army National Guard on active duty, and civilians) who enroll. Teamwork is encouraged but not required. The Army will recognize the top submissions at the LandWarNet Conference in August 2010 and winners will receive monetary awards; the total cash pool is $30,000. There is still room to enter the contest.

A4A applications may tackle any aspect of Army IT – distributed training, battle command, career management, continuing education, or news and information distribution, for example. A4A will further deviate from traditional development practices by utilizing the latest in collaborative development media.

“Apps for the Army features an innovative cloud computing service for participants to use during software creation,” Sorenson noted. “This is key because it eliminates the constraints of hardware provisioning prior to prototype evaluation.”

The service, provided by the Defense Information Systems Agency and known as the Rapid Access Computing Environment (RACE), offers access to on-demand virtual Windows and Linux development environments. Participants will be able to pursue Web application development using all available programming languages supported by Windows Server and the Linux, Apache, MYSQL and PHP (LAMP) frameworks. They also will be able to build emulated Blackberry, iPhone and Android applications.

Forge.mil will serve as the collaborative software repository for competing teams. The tools inherent in milBook and AKO will facilitate the cross-pollination of ideas, problems and solutions relevant to the Apps for the Army initiative.

The registration form, rules and instructions are located at the Apps for the Army Web site on the AKO portal: http://www.army.mil/ciog6/armyapps. Rolling registration begins March 1, 2010. Apps must be submitted by May 15, 2010. Questions can be addressed to CIO/G6ArmyApps@conus.army.mil.

TOPS Knives recently introduced the their take on the tactical writing instrument, the Spec Ops Pen (SOP). Not only is it a unique design it is also uses the commonly available fisher Space pen refill, which writes anywhere; literally. There are two versions, the standard model (shown) and the elite model. Both are available in Black or Coyote Tan.

In addition to a great introductory price of $19.95, 10% of sales proceeds will go to the WOUNDED WARRIOR
PROJECT.ORG. Check it out at www.TOPSknives.com.