IT software in Antarctica on the example of one station

My regards! Recently, I was asked to talk about how to control the flow of information in Antarctica. After a little consultation with myself, I decided to talk about all the problems associated with computers and communications. The story will relate mainly to the situation at the Mirny Observatory, although most of the problems are also characteristic of other wintering stations. I don’t know anything about seasonal stations in this regard.

I'll start a little from afar - with climatic conditions. At Mirny Observatory, where I wintered, an average of 220 days per year wind power exceeds 15 m / s. This wind constantly carries snow dust from the glacier dome, which causes many different troubles, it is important for us that it charges with static electricity at home. All items in the houses accumulate static, and people as well. Before you take the door handle, for example, you need to slightly touch it with the palm of your hand - to discharge, otherwise the spark will click - and it is quite painful.

Before you start working with electronic devices, you need to be discharged - you can burn. I personally watched as one of my winter comrades sat at the computer, put his hand on the mouse, the cursor immediately began to randomly scramble across the screen and in 3-4 seconds stopped. Everything, a mouse in junk.

It is also not recommended to stick network cables and flash drives into included machines. But all many do it. One character “on the hot” stuck a wire from the satellite dish into the map to receive satellite pictures costing a few kilobax, and even in a storm (wind> 25 m / s) when the static goes through the roof. Burned the card, of course.
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Equipment fails frequently. Network cards, for example, there simply can be safely counted on the category of consumables.

Under these conditions, the supply of components and new equipment is a question of the normal operation of the station (it’s not just worth it - the specialists work, they receive information on their areas, they process, they send institutes to the Center ). So, if someone else has illusions, I hurry to dispel them. New computers for Mirny are not purchased. Updating the computer park takes place something like this: at an AARI institute, some employee becomes obsolete ([begins to act up], [something else]) comp. He submits an application, after some time the money is allocated and a new computer is put to him, and his old one is sent to the station. If an application for a new computer comes from the station, the same thing will happen: a new car will be delivered at the institute, and the old one will be delivered to the station.
For the stations they buy wires, paper, cartridges for printers ... Evil tongues say that rollback is thicker with expenditure.
In some services, 386 and 486 machines under DOS of different versions work at the station. Or Win95.

By the way, about OS: * nix did not smell there (I mean only Mirny, I don’t know about other stations). Who said that licensed Windows is not there? There is - on personal laptops at wintering workers, I myself personally saw licensed Vista. Station cars, all as one - the dream of the "K". And in fact, well, who will send a check to such a distance? Moreover, it is not the territory of Russia?

And what about our connection? Well, the radio stations, the gray classic - there are antennas near the houses, in the radio room there are several transceivers, from modern to elderly (but they are also “in shape”). Not a Morsech, of course, although there are keys just in case, and radio operators can work on them.

Telegrams can be sent. Of course, there are satellite phones of different systems - Iridium, Inmarsat, Fleet. There is also a fax, of course.

The phone is installed in the radio room (such as a payphone, cards for 10 minutes at 8 cu). You come, you take a card from the radio operator (two, ten), next month the corresponding amounts are deducted from your salary.
Here we find for the first time that our personal negotiations with the house are not so personal. Both radio operators and the queue in the corridor perfectly hear everything that you want to say to your supervisor in foreign intelligence services to relatives and friends.

Internet - satellite. There are two nuances: first, $ 40 per megabyte. I do not know the price of the services from the provider (simply because I don’t know what satellites have done everything there), but the end user (station) pays so much. There is a limit at the institute - N dollars per month per station. If necessary, you can climb into account next month. Download the news (they are then printed out and posted in the mess-room, in the rest rooms, you can print it yourself or drop it on a USB flash drive / network), update antiviruses, especially before the arrival of the new shift.

Secondly, only a radio operator and a sysadmin have access to a computer connected to the Internet. Access of the others is forbidden by direct order. That is, even if you want to spend your money on checking mail (at least) - they will not.

E-mail is a separate song.

A letter to the station is sent to a special address at AARI, where special employees make a text file from it (read, of course - otherwise how can we explain that some letters do not reach?), Files are collected and sent to the station once a week. There the radio operator (does he read them?) Distributes letters over the network, on flash drives or in printed form.

Letters from the station are sent on the way back - you need to give the text file to the radio operator, he, along with the rest, (not looking at the little eye, well, what are you!) Sends to the institute, where special employees open files, carefully looking only at the first line, where you wrote the address where you need to send, and in no case reading the rest of the text, and send a letter to the right place you ordered.

There are several guaranteed ways for the letter not to come - criticism of the bosses (stationary, at the institute), notification of relatives that an emergency happened at the station, but you are fine, and the like.

How much does it cost to send / receive an email? Yes, penny! 32 rubles per sheet. A sheet is 70 lines. The string is 60 characters. If the letter contains 71 lines, it is already 64 rubles, because the new sheet has begun. If the line for one or two characters jumped to a new line - no one cares. In the end, no one forces you to write emails. For letters, as well as for telephone conversations, the corresponding amounts are deducted from your salary. Yes, for the missing letters, too. Again, evil tongues talk about the cost of writing and even become personal.

However, this is all about Mirny, East and Progress stations. There is an airfield on Novolazarevskaya, which does not belong to the Russian Antarctic Expedition, but to another organization, there is an Internet connection - slow, but with free access (you can send mail, and even surf, but not for long). It seems that it is even free (in the sense that the company only pays the subscriber and the limit on the thickness of the channel), but I will not lie. But the station personnel used, it means that if it is paid, it is not ruinous. At Bellingshausen station is still more interesting, there is cellular communication and GPRS - there is a Chilean station nearby, and there is just a cell on it. People fly to this station through Chile and buy Chilean sims so as not to go broke for roaming domestic opsocks. Unfortunately, I lost the link, but one journalist who wintered on Bella led her LJ directly from the station.

So, dear readers, if you are going to spend the winter at three dysfunctional stations - a laptop and satellite communications to help you! And my advice to you - beware of static electricity, to the nearest service of 5000 km.

UPD: A small clarification about "* nix'om did not smell" - I forgot myself. Linux was in my car ...