Service has GIS, will travel
The Marshals Service has installed a desktop mapping system to plan the sometimes dangerous task of transporting federal prisoners. "We needed a visual mechanism to analyze where our resources were" and to match them against shifting prison populations, program manager Jeff Cotter said. The Marshals Service houses about 32,000 pretrial prisoners in 1,500 contract jails nationwide. It takes over responsibility for people apprehended by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Customs Service, Drug Enforcement Administration,
AID creates electronic maps of Balkans
To give relief workers assisting the thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees displaced by the conflict in Kosovo a clear picture of the region, the Agency for International Development this month issued detailed electronic maps created with a geographic information system. The agency's disaster assistance response teams are working at refugee camps at Kosovo's borders with Albania and Macedonia. The teams are armed with color maps made with ArcView GIS 3.1 from Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc.
Feds see flexibility as key factor to PC outsourcing
DENVER—In the government's first brush with desktop PC outsourcing, managers are finding that communication is critical to success. PC outsourcing is in its infancy, but project managers for two major programs said they have already learned that the rollout requires flexibility between contractors and agencies' users.
MasterConsole IIs connects multiple CPUs to one monitor
Like many other users, I enjoy being in control of lots of systems. But the clutter of monitors, mice and keyboards recently started to get to me. I needed to simplify. Before installing Raritan Computer Inc.'s MasterConsole IIs, I had five monitors crowding three desks. Now, I have one monitor and two clean desks.
DOE signs four BPAs and starts Web buying pilot
The Energy Department has trimmed its PC blanket purchasing agreements from six to four and has set up a Web buying pilot. Energy signed the new BPAs—with Dell Computer Corp., Gateway Inc., Government Technology Services Inc. of Chantilly, Va., and Micron Electronics Inc. of Nampa, Idaho—in late February and early March, said Jeffrey Rubenstein, Institutional Services Division director at Energy headquarters.
PageMaker 6.5 Plus is not just for the graphics expert
Adobe Systems Inc.'s PageMaker 6.5 Plus, the first new release of the electronic pagination package in two years, aims at the typical user rather than the graphics expert. Microsoft Windows users can browse and search PageMaker 6.5 Plus image and template files through a palette. The package comes with 4,700 stock illustrations in Adobe Illustrator format and a file converter for Microsoft Publisher 97 and 98 programs. The toolbar resembles that of Microsoft Office, with shortcuts
DOD aims to protect unclassified network by speeding traffic and limiting protocols
DENVER—The Defense Department is beefing up its Non-Classified IP Router Network to protect traffic on the network from attack. DOD wants to more quickly move traffic that could be used maliciously, said Col. John Thomas, chief of the Defense Information System Agency's Global Operations and Security Office. The redesign of NIPRnet, which the department uses for unclassified but sensitive communications, will likely be finished this month, Thomas said recently at the Government Information Technology Executive Council's Information
Enterprise Computing
The government last month added two more financial management packages to its schedule of approved general ledger accounting software. Financial management packages from PeopleSoft Inc. and SAP America Public Sector and Education Inc. earned places on the General Services Administration's Financial Management System Software Schedule. That brings to 11 the number of vendors offering financial management packages approved for federal use in core accounting systems.
Lab Notes
The chip that could. The Celeron pro-cessor jumped from desktop to portable processing this month when Intel Corp. announced three new chips for notebook PCs. Bargain notebooks will start at around $1,200 with the new 333-MHz mobile Celeron. The affordable chip has already dropped desktop PC prices to less than $1,000, and a similar drop could reward notebook buyers.
Mapping system links pictures to exact locations
Sometimes it's good to know exactly where you stand. The Video Mapping System 200 from Red Hen Systems Inc. ties a map location to a still picture or video via Global Positioning System readings. The mapping system is in a little black box the size of a cigarette pack, weighs about a pound and has a long, flexible antenna that can wrap around you or a dashboard. At the end of the antenna, a
CDC's database project pays off in fast, paperless searches
In not much more time than it takes to read this sentence, an employee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can find a record using the agency's records database. In the past year, the agency turned the corner on a seven-year effort to improve records management. It saw the time it takes an employee to find a record, or figure out if it even exists, drop from three days to 20 seconds, CDC officials
In turnabout, McCain sponsors bill to ease crypto export limits
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a long-time proponent of export controls on encryption products, is one of a group of senators proposing a bill to liberalize encryption export limits. McCain, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, joined Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) to sponsor S 798, the Promote Reliable Online Transactions to Encourage Commerce and Trade Act.
Organizer puts planning in motion
As business card holders and daybooks have evolved into personal information managers, Lotus Organizer is still a standout. Version 5.0 integrates the functions of its paper-based forebears with Internet calendaring and scheduling. It has matured without turning stodgy. The interface, based on the familiar day planner metaphor, is transparent to anyone who can page through a calendar, to-do list, directory or notepad. Organizer's call-scheduling component will dial phone numbers
Marines swap faulty servers
Despite server glitches that delayed some installations by as much as six months, Marine Corps officials expect to complete a migration to Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 and Exchange messaging by year's end. The Corps last year bought about 400 Digital Equipment Corp. Digital Server 5200 models for the transition, through Digital's Navy Tactical Advanced Computer blanket purchasing agreement. The $4 million the Corps paid represented bargain basement prices, said a Marine Corps Systems Command official at
Letters to the editor
In your Buyers Guide on imaging [GCN, March 15, Page 67], you incorrectly state that JASC Software Inc.'s PaintShop Pro has no layer support. Version 5 does indeed support layers. We have used PaintShop Pro in our office since Version 3 for Web site and computer-based training development, and it has proven itself an excellent, low-cost alternative to Adobe Photoshop.
Many IT chiefs will spend New Year's Day at work
Do you know where you will be on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2000? As the government moves beyond year 2000 tests of mission-critical systems, agencies are formulating plans that detail New Year's Day responsibilities. The so-called Day 1 plans are an integral part of overall agency contingency and business continuity plans, federal information technology executives said.
Netscape reassures DOD after takeover by AOL
Netscape Communications Corp.'s acquisition by America Online Inc. will strengthen Netscape server and application software development—a concern for the Defense Department as its largest single customer, said John Menkart, Netscape director of government sales. Netscape formerly had to divide its focus between server and application software, leading to some government worries about its ultimate direction, Menkart said. AOL of Dulles, Va., the world's largest online service provider with 14 million subscribers, will help Netscape deliver in
IRS Web site is a hit—767 million times over
Between Jan. 1 and April 18, taxpayers hit the IRS Web site 767 million times—a 123 percent increase over last year. The IRS defines one hit as one Hypertext Transfer Protocol transfer. The site, at www.irs.gov, drew 25.4 million hits on April 15 alone, said Linda Wallace, chief of Electronic Information Services.
Unicor uses law to handcuff the competition
The arm of the Bureau of Prisons that employs inmates wants to keep 25 percent of all federal inmates employed at labor rates of 25 cents to $1.25 an hour. Unicor—the trade name of Federal Prison Industries Inc.—sustains itself by exercising its legal right to make federal agencies buy products it chooses to manufacture. This mandatory preference is at once Unicor's lifeline of customers and its political Achilles' heel.
EPA, HUD webmasters offer up lessons learned
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Housing and Urban Development Department, two agencies that pioneered the dissemination of information online, had to make up the rules as they went along. EPA started its Web site as a "science experiment—no rules had been written," said Emma McNamara, the agency's webmaster. In the summer of 1994, she posted the site's first page.
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