The division on Friday announced the award of a $9 million contract that could see it purchase as many as 18,000 32 gigabyte iPad 2s, at $520 apiece. Granted to computer services outfit Executive Technology, the contract is one of the military’s largest tablet purchases to date.

That said, it’s starting out small, with an initial order of 63 iPad 2s, which are to be used for testing. If they perform as expected, effectively replacing the 40 pounds of manuals and navigation charts typically carried by pilots and navigators, AMC will order more, outfitting even more flight crews with the device.

News of the purchase comes just days ahead of the expected announcement of the iPad 3.

The Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) on Wednesday canceled without explanation a plan to buy nearly 3,000 iPad 2s to be used as electronic flight bags.

Announced in January, the initiative would have seen AFSOC purchase 2,861 iPad 2 units for use in the Command’s fleet of surveillance aircraft and helicopter gunships. As in the commercial airline industry, the devices would have been used to replace 40 pounds of manuals and navigation charts typically carried by pilots and navigators.

That seems a sensible plan, and it’s not clear why AFSOC has scrapped it. Some theorize that the Command’s decision to outfit the iPads with GoodReader, a popular iPad document reader created by a Russian software developer, raised security concerns and questions about how well the plan had been vetted. Others wonder if the agency has simply postponed the initiative until the iPad 3 debuts.

According to AFSOC spokeswoman Capt. Kristen Duncan, the Command is still very much interested in using tablets to lighten the load of flight crews. “[The Command] continues to explore options to develop the electronic flight bag program,” she told Nextgov.co. “We continue to look at each component of the [electronic flight bag] program to ensure we do the right thing for our airmen, don’t introduce unnecessary risk into operations and provide the best tools available to conduct the mission.”

But if you’re in a hurry, you might consider this no-nonsense guide from the U.S. Army, which has a couple dozen boards of its own (via the Atlantic).

As I’ve noted before, the first instinct when you see military institutions writing about Pinterest, or Twitter, or offering flowcharts that explain how to comment on blogs might be a giggle. But once you actually look at the stuff they’re writing, it seems much more reasonable.

Unrelated: I have had a weird twinge of nostalgia for the ’80s vintage “Be All That You Can Be” campaign. Maybe some kind of madeleine thing triggered by those Will Ferrell Old Milwaukee ads.

They aren’t the only ones to send their Internet followers through Libya. So have House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio), Stanford University, Charlie Sheen, the White House, Kim Kardashian, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Paul McCartney, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and thousands of others.

The reason is a linguistic anomaly that might be Col. Gadhafi’s most unlikely asset: Libya’s Internet domain happens to be the English language’s adverbial suffix: ly.

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Air Force users who try to view the websites of the New York Times, Britain’s Guardian, Spain’s El Pais, France’s Le Monde or German magazine Der Spiegel instead get a page that says, “ACCESS DENIED. Internet Usage is Logged & Monitored,” according to a screen shot reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The notice warns that anyone who accesses unauthorized sites from military computers could be punished.

The Air Force said it had blocked more than 25 websites that contained the documents, originally obtained by the website WikiLeaks and published starting late last month, in order to keep classified material off unclassified computer systems.

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Earlier this week, the reliably erudite PBS public affairs program, “Frontline,” aired a documentary called “Digital Nation,” which I caught on television in one of the rare moments I find myself actually in front of one.

Produced by Rachel Dretzin, in collaboration with tech author and pundit Douglas Rushkoff, it’s the second in a series–the first, which aired in 2008, was titled “Growing Up Online”–about how the inevitable digital onslaught is affecting everyone.

As the site for the show describes itself, in part:

Over a single generation, the Web and digital media have remade nearly every aspect of modern culture, transforming the way we work, learn and connect in ways that we’re only beginning to understand…Dretzin and her team report from the front lines of digital culture–from love affairs blossoming in virtual worlds, to the thoroughly wired classrooms of the future, to military bases where the Air Force is fighting a new form of digital warfare. Along the way, they begin to map the critical ways that technology is transforming us–and what we may be learning about ourselves in the process.

And, indeed, Dretzin and her team race hither and yon interviewing a pile of smart folks–most of whom, thankfully, are not from Silicon Valley–to uncover what’s up with this Internet thing, which the kids seem to love.

There are ruminations on the out-of-focus students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the evils of multitasking, fretting over how this digital submersion is affecting the brains of schoolchildren and more jaw-dropping over the creepily compelling oddness of virtual worlds and online relationships.

Dretzin even features and–natch!–clucks over her own computer-savvy children and what it all means to them. She plays the role of the less-plugged-in mother, complete with a furrowed brow about it all, although the kids are obviously sharp as tacks, digital French flashcards or not.

This egads-no-one-know-where-this-geekery-is-taking-us worrywartness is probably appropriate, and though nothing new, is well told.

Perhaps the best part is a visit to the spanking new gaming-heavy center the Army has built that sucks in teen boys like nobody’s business.

While the piece has aired, you still can watch the whole thing on the well done Digital Nation Web site, the best part of which is the contributions of regular people who added their own voices to the digital conversation.

Which is remarkably robust, as far as I can tell, so perhaps we have not gone to hell in a cloud-computing handbasket quite yet.

Here are two of the more adorkable of those videos:

Here is the whole “Digital Nation” doc, in nine chapters:

Distracted by Everything

What’s It Doing to Their Brains

South Korea’s Gaming Craze

Teaching With Technology

The Dumbest Generation?

Relationships

Virtual Worlds

Can Virtual Experiences Change Us?

Where Are We Headed?

An odd turn of events, considering Hathaway led the administration’s 60-day review of governmentwide cybersecurity preparedness and seemed its likely choice to head up the new cybersecurity office. With the post now vacant and the list of candidates who’ve been considered for the job rumored to have reached at least 30, the administration may have a tough time finding the right person for this difficult job–and convincing him or her to accept it.

“As it stands right now, the cyber czar would have two bosses, the National Security Council and National Economic Council, as well as a chief information officer and chief technology officer,” Greg Garcia, former assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications at the Department of Homeland Security, told Dark Reading. “In addition, that individual would have to herd all of the cats at DHS and other agencies. Those are big shoes to fill–in fact, I’m skeptical that anyone could succeed in the [cyber czar] job.”

And Garcia’s not the only one. Among other potential candidates who’ve reportedly told the White House they’re not interested: former Republican U.S. Representative Tom Davis of northern Virginia, Microsoft (MSFT) executive Scott Charney, Symantec (SYMC) Chairman John Thompson and retired Air Force General Harry Raduege Jr., the former Defense Information Systems Agency director and co-chair of the Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency.

An odd turn of events, considering Hathaway led the administration’s 60-day review of governmentwide cybersecurity preparedness and seemed its likely choice to head up the new cybersecurity office. With the post now vacant and the list of candidates who’ve been considered for the job rumored to have reached at least 30, the administration may have a tough time finding the right person for this difficult job–and convincing him or her to accept it.

“As it stands right now, the cyber czar would have two bosses, the National Security Council and National Economic Council, as well as a chief information officer and chief technology officer,” Greg Garcia, former assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications at the Department of Homeland Security, told Dark Reading. “In addition, that individual would have to herd all of the cats at DHS and other agencies. Those are big shoes to fill–in fact, I’m skeptical that anyone could succeed in the [cyber czar] job.”

And Garcia’s not the only one. Among other potential candidates who’ve reportedly told the White House they’re not interested: former Republican U.S. Representative Tom Davis of northern Virginia, Microsoft (MSFT) executive Scott Charney, Symantec (SYMC) Chairman John Thompson and retired Air Force General Harry Raduege Jr., the former Defense Information Systems Agency director and co-chair of the Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency.

On Monday it seemed it might happen again–but with advance warning from a little-known city service. Downtown New Yorkers received two messages via email and text from Notify NYC, an emergency public communication system of New York City, alerting them that a military plane had requested to fly a plane over the Hudson River around 10:30 a.m.

When the Federal Aviation Agency denied the request (ostensibly because the notice was too short, but maybe because April 27’s memory was too fresh), Notify NYC sent another message to keep subscribers in the loop.

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Now I think I get it: They help people at big, hidebound organizations wrap their heads around the Web. Depending on your perspective, this is either a ridiculous boondoggle of a profession or a worthwhile pursuit, given the right parameters.

Here’s a good ink blot test–what do you think of this chart (click twice to enlarge), designed by Capt. David Faggard, Chief of Emerging Technology at the Air Force Public Affairs Agency?

My gut reaction was to assume this was a parody. And the next was to deride it as some sort of post-Yossarian artifact that ought to be a parody.

Then I read it. It’s actually quite reasonable.

I operate in a hothouse world of bloggers who tend to type first and think later. And none of that tends to matter much, because, well it’s just bloggers typing.

But for people with real jobs–and real bosses, some of whom may handle weapons–weighing in on the Web isn’t a natural act. And so a guide like this may not be the worst thing. Perhaps some people I know ought to read it, too.

Thanks to Ellen McGirt, Joey DeVilla and David Meerman Scott.