Route Fifty

Working day and night, FBI finishes IAFIS code

That's when they will start processing digital fingerprints, using more than four dozen Hewlett-Packard Convex Scalable Parallel Processor 2000 and HP 9000 K-Class servers in a secure computer room the size of two football fields. In the final building phase, the $640 million Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System is scheduled to come online this summer at 90 percent of its final functionality.

By Florence Olsen, GCN
May 10, 1999

Multimedia projectors show their stuff

The GCN Lab put four of the brightest and lightest units through their paces. One test consisted of showing to several audiences the Apple QuickTime video trailer of the movie "Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace." The high-quality video file revealed the light sides as well as the dark sides of the four test units.

By Michael Cheek, GCN
May 10, 1999

Strengthen security by putting CPUs on lockdown

The Austin, Texas, company's Remote Desktop product multiplexes the keyboard, mouse and monitor signals as far as 1,300 feet over Category 3 or 5 unshielded twisted-pair cable. Several CPUs can be co-located with minimal impact on the users, according to the company. The Postal Service is testing Remote Desktop at its processing and distribution facility in Buffalo, N.Y., to keep PCs off the main floor of a truck terminal.

By William Jackson, GCN
May 10, 1999

Langston plans $1b IT initiative

DOD maintains a Cold War-era management structure that is resistant to change, lacks reliable databases and has failed to build an information technology infrastructure to support systems it needs, said Paul Brubaker, principal director in the office of CIO Marvin Langston. He spoke last week at the Air Force's Software Technology Conference.

By Thomas R. Temin, GCN
May 10, 1999

WinFax Pro is still best fax software

Real-life requirements: WinFax Pro is still the Lexus of PC fax software in spite of Microsoft Windows 95's inferior fax bundle, which has to be installed manually under Windows 98, by the way. Users who send faxes frequently need and appreciate the features in WinFax Pro, now up to Version 9.0. Installation is as easy as it gets.

By William M. Frazier, GCN
May 10, 1999

HP's portable CD-sized scanner can edit, e-mail or fax document afterit's captured

The $699 Hewlett-Packard CapShare 910 mobile 12.5-ounce scanner runs Microsoft Windows CE 2.0 and can capture a page in about six seconds. The CapShare stores up to 50 monochrome, letter-sized page images in Adobe Portable Document Format or Tagged Image File Format. Users view the pages on the unit's LCD monitor and transport them to a PC or printer through a standard serial port or infrared port. Once captured, a document can be edited, e-mailed or

By Bill Murray, GCN
May 10, 1999

USDA nears completion of comm phase of its service upgrades

The Agriculture Department next month will complete its $130 million LAN and WAN Voice projectthe first component of the $3 billion Service Center Initiative, USDA officials said. LAN and WAN Voice provides a common telecommunications infrastructure for approximately 2,500 consolidated USDA service centers across the country. The infrastructure consists of new cabling, routing and switching equipment, telephones and private branch exchanges, and Internet access software for PCs, said Rich Roberts,

By Frank Tiboni, GCN
May 10, 1999

Weather research group stretches computer power

Without paying any direct costs, the National Center for Atmospheric Research has expanded its computing power tenfold through a loan agreement with a Compaq Computer Corp. reseller. Late last year, NCAR's weather research group in Boulder, Colo., borrowed 42 Digital Equipment Corp. 600-MHz Alpha workstations, seven multiprocessor Digital AlphaServers and two Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 7000 units, worth $8.7 million. The equipment was loaned by iMSC Corp. of Colorado Springs, Colo.

By Bill Murray, GCN
May 10, 1999

App finds holes in IP network security

Box Score B Security Analyzer Enterprise Edition WebTrends Corp., Portland, Ore.; tel. 888-932-8736 http://www.webtrends.com Price: $4,499 for Enterprise Edition, $1,999 for Professional Edition, $11,999 for Traveling License Edition Pros and cons: + Excellent auditing and automatic security updates + Concise, customizable reports  Other tools needed to implement fixes

By Jason z_rne, GCN
May 10, 1999

Agencies say security is a bigger task than Y2K

The extent of network security vulnerabilities will dwarf the year 2000 problem, predicted industry and agency officials late last month at a General Services Administration seminar in Washington. Readying systems for 2000 has monopolized agency resources. Now the crisis in Kosovo, computer virus attacks and insider leaks of U.S. nuclear secrets are spotlighting security instead.

By William Jackson, GCN
May 10, 1999

Cabletron's stackable token-ring switches let users pick up speed on slownetworks

The stackable SmartStack switches come in four models. The Rochester, N.H., company also makes a higher-end SmartSwitch 9000 token-ring chassis switch. "We are targeting the wiring closet," said Tedd Frechette, Cabletron's token-ring product manager. The 20-port SmartStack units combine to provide as many as 224 ports. They will be useful on small network segments of 20 to 30 nodes, he said.

By William Jackson, GCN
May 10, 1999

Reform hones business, federal alliances, Lee says

Government agencies' increased focus on core missions has propelled information technology procurement reform, said Deidre Lee, Office of Federal Procurement Policy administrator. Government must remember that it is ultimately responsible for making the lives of citizens easier, she said. "It's all about matching the systems with the core missions of the agencies and then with the average citizen," Lee said, speaking at a recent luncheon sponsored by the Association for

By Jonathan Ewing, GCN
May 3, 1999

Make the workgroup switch connection

On a shared 10-Mbps hub, each client computer gets only about 3 Mbps of bandwidth on average. If all ports are busy, the number drops because each client's network interface card is trying to get a free line through the hub. Contrast that congestion with that of a switched network. Each switch port receives dedicated bandwidth, similar to a dedicated phone line. A server that needs more bandwidth and handles high-priority traffic can connect directly to the

By Jason z_rne, GCN
May 3, 1999

One man's legacy lives on in copyright laws

Lobbyists, opinion polls, the press, campaign contributions and other political, social and economic forces all bear influence on legislative decisions. Yet sometimes a single, passionate individual can make a difference. Morris Schnapper was such an individual. I first met Morris in 1978 when I worked on the staff of the then House Government Operations Subcommittee on Management, Information and Technology. Nearly 70, he ran Public Affairs Press, a small but influential book publisher. His office was in

By GCN
May 3, 1999

Navy finds that commercial games have potential for other military training uses

Although the Navy is focusing on the use of desktop PC simulation for pilot training, such applications also could benefit other military uses. There are simulation games in production for training in surface and submarine warfare, Navy officials said. The Navy's submarine organizations, for example, use 688I Hunter/Killer, a game from Sonalysts Inc. of Waterford, Conn. The game, which replicates the Los Angeles-class Attack submarine, gives sailors a tool to help develop tactical skills and knowledge. Junior

By GCN
May 3, 1999

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