Lotus delivers Web-integrated 5.0 versions of Domino Server, Notes
Lotus Development Corp., after several missed deadlines, this month delivered the 5.0 releases of Domino Server and Notes, capping the company's most ambitious software effort to date. With the announcement, Lotus officials reported the Environmental Protection Agency will install the new version. The release, coming 18 months after Domino and Notes 4.6, is a one-stop shop for Internet messaging, electronic commerce, global collaborative computing and knowledge management, Lotus chairman Jeff Papows said.
Answers to Quiz:
RTC and CMOS. A ready BIOS will update the CMOS date code information without a hitch. 3. True. Most Pentium systems have updated BIOSes you can download for free from the manufacturers' Web sites. A 486 or older PC needs a software patch that corrects any errors. Again, most computer makers offer this for free.
Tracker Pro takes file management a step further
Tracker Pro is a one-of-a-kind utility. Similar utilities at the server level do data mining or knowledge management, but this seems to be the first designed for the desktop PC user. Tracker Pro periodically looks at your hard drive, network drives and the Web, tracking and organizing the data created by business programs, e-mail and personal information managers.
Win95 users have a few 2000 worries—after all
Microsoft Windows 95 users will have a closer shave with the year 2000 than expected. All current versions of the leading desktop operating system, it turns out, lack patches for several date-related items. Microsoft Corp.'s Web site recently notified users that Win95 "remains compliant with minor issues," with or without downloadable updates. Most of the company's other OSes are considered 2000-ready, if free downloadable patches are applied.
PTO awards $35 million support contract to Galaxy Scientific Corp.
The Patent and Trademark Office recently awarded the five-year, $35 million Information Technology Product Assurance contract to Galaxy Scientific Corp. of Falls Church, Va. Galaxy will handle PTO systems support services, including independent testing and assessment of applications and hardware, year 2000 analyses and testing, and data and records management, PTO contract specialist Dave Sibik said.
Focus in on the costs and quality of digital cameras
I've spent a couple of months working with two megapixel digital cameras and am impressed. But I have reservations. That is not a ringing endorsement. I own a dozen cameras, including studio view cameras and an aerial camera. To me, a digital camera's biggest fault is the delay while it stores images between shots. That's now a thing of the past. The fast memory in the two megapixel cameras
SSA revamps interface with Windows-like visual aids
The Social Security Administration has updated its national toll-free customer service by giving a graphical face-lift to dozens of older mainframe databases. Associate Commissioner Charles Wood said retrofitting the green screens with Microsoft Windows-like command buttons and drop-down menus, though technically challenging, was well worth the effort.
NASA supercomputer contributor forms Linux clustering company
Donald Becker, a 33-year-old NASA contractor who helped build some of the space agency's famous homegrown Beowulf supercomputers, has formed a company to bring Linux clustering to other government organizations. Becker is chief technologist of Scyld Computing Services LLC of Columbia, Md. The company was incorporated in December as a for-profit subsidiary of Universities Space Research Association, also located in Columbia.
Report: C4I heavy on vulnerability, thin on interoperability
The Defense Department has done too little to protect its command, control, communications, computers and intelligence infrastructure against attacks, a recent National Research Council study concluded. Nor has DOD succeeded in making C4I systems interoperable across the military services. The study, requested by Congress in the Defense Authorization Act of 1996, recommends that DOD's leaders place a higher value on defensive activities, retool their acquisition practices and set more practical standards for interoperability.
GCN INTERVIEW | Stephen Colgate, Justice's IT beat cop
| Colgate, assistant attorney general for administration, is responsible for Justice administration and management, including financial management, human resources, information technology, facilities and security. During two decades of government service, Colgate has worked his way up the management ladder. At Justice, he has been executive officer in the Civil Rights Division and assistant director of the budget staff. Before coming to Justice, he worked at the Treasury Department as director of finance and at the Federal
Sonic security appliances do job with little management
Sonic Systems Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., has introduced a network security appliance that extends its SonicWall products to as many as 1,000 users on enterprise networks. The SonicWall hardware security devices supply firewall services, virtual private networks, content filtering and applet blocking on small to midsize networks. The SonicWall Pro appliance will serve branch offices and larger single-site networks that cannot afford a full-time firewall manager.
OCC's data warehouse will be the sum of its marts
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has created an information architecture to help it build a data warehouse, one data mart at a time, over the next several years. The warehouse has to be built as a multimart environment, the office's senior data analyst Vance Kane said. "We have different lines of business—financial institutions, human resources. To have one database warehouse is fantasyland from my perspective," he said.
SPSS statistics company buys into business data mining
SPSS Inc. is in the business intelligence market with its $7.1 million purchase of Integral Solutions Ltd., a British data mining company. "The data mining market is rapidly consolidating down to a small number of vendors," said Don MacTavish, a senior research analyst at Meta Group Inc. of Stamford, Conn. "SPSS has the potential to be one of the leaders."
Briefing Book
Toss out the Erector set. The Navy plans to use ActiveProject, a collaboration package from Framework Technologies Corp. of Burlington, Mass., to manage its service construction projects via the Internet. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command is buying 200 licenses, and the Midwest Regional Contracting Office has set plans to use the software on three construction projects this year. The use of the collaboration software dovetails with the command's plan to
Let the market rule
Microsoft Corp. has been sending feelers to the Justice Department about settling its antitrust case. No one knows where this will lead. From the perspective of GCN, it's been a curious case, given that the federal government is one of Microsoft's biggest customers. I won't comment on either side's position. That's for the judge to decide—purely, one hopes, on the legal merits. But a few observations spring to mind.
VA tests medical smart cards
The Veterans Affairs Department is piloting a program to put medical records on smart cards to speed care for veterans outside VA's health systems. VA's HomeCare program in Charleston, S.C., stored brief medical histories for 80 patients on smart cards with 8K of memory apiece. Card readers and software were installed at Charleston-area hospitals and clinics where patients go for after-hours or specialty treatment, and on portable computers used by
ENTERPRISE COMPUTING | Beat the Clock
| Beat the Clock Despite the intense public focus on Jan. 1, 2000, GartnerGroup predicts that only about 10 percent of all year 2000-related problems will show up in the two weeks after Jan. 1. Most organizations' contingency plans are overly concerned with Jan. 1, ignoring other critical dates, said Lou Marcoccio, year 2000 research director for the Stamford, Conn., information technology research firm.
FCC has its failings, but who else could police the Internet?
The Federal Communications Commission is coming under fire this month as the House Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Trade opens hearings on whether the commission is due for a major overhaul. Does the aging agency still merit a position of power in the new, convergent telecommunications world? Congress wants to know how well FCC is handling the fallout from this explosive trend.
Firewalls are still vulnerable
Computer security products are worthless unless installed properly, a security expert told a FOSE trade show audience in Washington last month. Agencies should devise a checklist of effective security practices, recompute their technology risks every two weeks and constantly verify that their systems are reasonably secure, advised Peter S. Tippett, president of the International Computer Security Association Inc. of Carlisle, Pa.
OMB orders Y2K tests of critical services systems
OMB identifies must-run services As the March 31 deadline for year 2000 readiness becomes a memory, federal agencies have two primary targets: high-impact services and systems deemed important if not mission-critical. The Clinton administration announced last month that 92 percent of the government's 6,123 mission-critical systems met the deadline. But a staff member for the House's special Y2K Task Force said the administration needs to move its focus
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