HUD uses schedule to standardize on Dell PCs
Housing and Urban Development Department users have been using Dell Computer Corp. PCs exclusively for three years now. HUD began buying Dell OptiPlex systems exclusively in 1996 and 1997. Users now are getting 450-MHz Pentium II systems with 128M of RAM, 10G hard drives and Microsoft Windows 95, said Randall Graham, director of HUD's Customer Service Division in the Office of Information Technology.
SSA sets mature example for Web sites
It's difficult to make a best-practices list for government Web sites because they all have different constituencies and different missions. Many agencies maintain one Web site for interacting with citizens, another for conducting agency business and a third for trading information with other government organizations. What's best practice for one type of site might not work for others. But certain successful strategies span multiple Web operations because they ensure easy use, logical navigation and timely data.
Make PC use a perk
You've got to give credit to the Chief Information Officers Council—and particularly Social Security Administration CIO John Dyer—for proposing a policy on personal use of agency computers. It takes chutzpah to even touch this perennial third rail of government computing. The mere discussion of personal use of government equipment will conjure up visions of employees with their feet up on their desks, browsing Web shopping sites for hours, or Pentagon tunnel rats indulging in long games
ENTERPRISE OPERATING SYSTEMS
The operating system isn't only the software that runs your computer anymore. In the typical computer-driven organization today, the operating system on your desktop computer, notebook PC and server is part of a much larger platform for applications and data that extends across the LAN and WAN and out onto the Internet.
Professional Calendar
Conference. San Francisco. Contact Nadel Phelan Inc.; phone: 831-439-5570; e-mail: karin@nadelphelan.com. Luncheon address. Washington. Contact Government Computer News; phone: 301-650-2000; Web: www.gcn.com. Conference. Chicago. Contact CTST; phone: 301-654-0551; e-mail: ctst@ctst.com; Web: www.ctst.com. Army briefing. East Brunswick, N.J. Contact the Army Communications-Electronics Command; phone: 732-758-9009; e-mail: apbi@tmsg.sytexinc.com. Symposium and exhibition. Reno, Nev. Contact the National Defense Industrial Association; phone: 702-356-3300; Web: www.ndia.org.
Defense BPAs offer PCs at steep discount prices
Agencies are reaping discounts as high as 22 percent for PCs and peripherals through new blanket purchasing agreements. The Defense Logistics Agency in recent weeks set up four BPAs open to all federal agencies. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service signed two-year BPAs with four General Services Administration Information Technology Schedule vendors.
Postage is on sale on the Web
E-Stamp Corp., the first company to sell U.S. postage over the Internet to desktop PC users, plans a midyear nationwide rollout of its SmartStamp software-hardware postage product. The Palo Alto, Calif., company began beta-testing SmartStamp with about 500 users last year. A PC acts as a meter to download and store the postage and print out the indicia—or postal marking—on envelopes, labels or documents.
Agencies test a voice-activated telephone system
Bell Atlantic Federal enlisted federal users to test its voice-based dialing system that automates internal telephone directories of up to 20,000 listings. Connect@once can find names, place calls and manage voice mail by spoken commands. It uses speaker-independent voice recognition and natural language technology from Nuance Communications Corp. of Menlo Park, Calif.
DOD reserves gateway to Iridium's global satellite service; other agencies mayfollow
The Defense Department is the largest single customer for Iridium LLC's financially troubled global satellite communications service. DOD has reserved one of the consortium's 12 ground gateways capable of serving up to 120,000 users and 1,000 simultaneous calls. The Army, Navy and Air Force are testing ways to integrate the Iridium satellite network into their communications plans.
Compaq will offer Linux version to work with its own high-end Unix
Compaq Computer Corp. said last week it will deliver Unix servers at all price points by providing compatible versions of open-source Linux and Tru64 Unix. Tru64 is a high-end Unix operating system that Compaq obtained last year as part of its acquisition of Digital Equipment Corp. Initial demand for Linux on Compaq servers will likely come from high-performance technical computing users and Internet providers that already operate distributed environments, Compaq officials said.
Lab Notes
Jason Byrne jbyrne@gcn.com Michael Cheek, mcheek@gcnlab.com Connection failed. If you're among the Microsoft Windows 98 users who installed the operating system's critical-up-date notification feature, you probably are regretting it now. Microsoft recently released a Java Virtual Machine update, and Win98 users with critical updates are receiving a daily reminder to download it to patch a year 2000 readiness problem.
IGrafx package contains thousands of business graphics
Graphics professionals will find Microsoft Office add-ons galore in the iGrafx System from Micrografx Inc. of Richardson, Texas. The $100 iGrafx Share package lets users improve flowcharts and other Office documents with a choice of 5,000 business graphics. Users can organize graphics and photographs using more than 40 file filters including an animated Graphics Interchange Format filter.
Professional Calendar
Course. Arlington, Va. Contact the Federal Web Management Institute; phone: 703-524-0099; Web: www.fwmi.org/FWI_Courses.html. Lecture. Gaithersburg, Md. Contact the National Institute of Standards and Technology; phone: 301-975-3293; e-mail: marianne.swanson@nist.gov; Web: sales.nist.gov/conf/secure/CONF116/conf_register.htm. Seminar. Dallas. Contact the MIS Training Institute; phone: 508-879-7999; e-mail: mis@misti.com; Web: www.misti.com. Luncheon address. Washington. Contact Government Computer News; phone: 301-650-2000; Web: www.gcn.com.
Joint air forces team beefs up NATO network
Personnel from six air forces in Europe have converged on Cervia Air Base, Italy, to support the communications needs of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Operation Allied Force. The services are providing NATO troops and commanders with classified as well as unclassified Internet access and e-mail over a LAN. Although it could use more capacity, the LAN has been operating virtually without errors, said Maj. Tim Williams, commander of the 48th Expeditionary Communications Flight.
Desktop Computing | New Products
| New Products Isys:web with Rich HTML can display fully formatted, converted word processing documents in Web browsers without add-on viewers. The software from Isys Odyssey Development Inc. of Englewood, Colo., does Rich Hypertext Markup Language conversion for documents in Lotus Ami Pro, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Word, Rich Text Format and Corel WordPerfect.
TeamSite promises control of Web content
The premature Web postings that recently embarrassed the Bureau of Labor Statistics twice within three months could never have happened on sites with automated workflow, according to the chief executive officer of an Internet software company. Martin Brauns, CEO of Interwoven Inc. of Los Altos, Calif., said the posting errors by BLS employees showed "the Web has become as mission-critical as accounting systems, whether agencies realize it or not. Updating with a shout across the cubicle
When Microsoft and the government talk, the walls have Rat ears
Packet Rat R. Fink The Rat's well-placed sources have reported back to him the state of ongoing negotiations between Microsoft Corp. and the Justice Department. Using modern surveillance technology stolen from the movie set of Will Smith's "Enemy of the State," plus the usual array of allegedly intelligent agents, the Rat has obtained a transcript of a recent negotiating session—or so they called it.
DOE builds firewall at lab to fend off hackers
What's in Los Alamos' firewall Los Alamos National Laboratory has hidden most of its unclassified network behind a custom-built firewall to stop hacker attacks on the Energy Department facility at Los Alamos, N.M. Public information is consolidated on about 150 Web servers outside the firewall. The rest of about 17,000 networked devices now are off-limits to the public, said Gina Fisk, a
Army's contract offers HP deals to all agencies
The Army Infrastructure Support 1 contract, launched by Telos Corp. last week, has some good deals for federal buyers. How good? How about a $1,195 Hewlett-Packard Co. PC server or a sub-$500 PC? Telos of Ashburn, Va., bid Hewlett-Packard systems in winning the indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract last year. It fended off an agency-level protest by Vanstar Government Systems Inc. of Fairfax, Va., now known as Inacom Government Systems. IS-1 is open to all agencies.
DLA supply center keeps track of office software
In the second year of its Defense Logistics Agency electronic software distribution contract, Beyond.com Corp. has gotten a thumbs-up from supervisory computer specialist Michael Ryan at the Defense Supply Center in Richmond, Va. Ryan praised the Sunnyvale, Calif., online software reseller, formerly known as Software.net, for improving its Cache Server 2.0 configuration tool. "It's a good tool for upgrades," he said, and users no longer have to run Microsoft
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