FAA plan for modernizing en route centers has Greek flavor
When Federal Aviation Administration officials had to choose a name for their five-year, $450 million en route modernization program, they wanted an ambiguous one. Then they learned about Eunomia, the goddess warden of the sky in Greek mythology. "Eunomia moved all the clouds and directed the chariots," said Cindy Skiles, FAA's Eunomia team leader. "Her name also means harmony in the sky. We thought it was a perfect fit."
HP rolls out a 32-ppm LaserJet printer, three other new printers and a Mopier
In its largest-ever printer rollout, Hewlett-Packard Co. has released two new color laser printers and one color ink-jet printer, plus a monochrome LaserJet and a Mopier. The $2,499 HP Color LaserJet 4500, which replaces the Color LaserJet 5, can print four color pages per minute and 16 ppm in monochrome. It has a 133-MHz processor and HP's JetDirect 600N internal print server to work with leading network operating systems.
Transportation bureau awards
The Transportation Statistics Bureau recently awarded a $50 million contract to Vistronix Inc. of Vienna, Va., for systems services. The agency will issue task orders under the indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract, said Walter Manning, the bureau's assistant director for IT and contracting. Vistronix will provide a variety of services, including software and database design, product research, geographic information systems support and training.
Coming UP March 29
What does your network look like from the inside? Network diagramming tools work automatically to put it all in perspective. In Product Reviews, the GCN Lab examines three such software tools. And check out what else is happening in information technology around the government. In Desktop Computing, for example, see how three agencies are working with small businesses to customize mapping applications without spending much money.
Enterprise Computing
ComTeq Federal Inc. has listed Hewlett-Packard Co. PCs, servers and printers on its General Services Administration Information Technology Schedule contract. ComTeq prices the HP LaserJet 4000 workgroup monochrome printer, successor to the LaserJet 5, at $1,065. The printer has a 100-MHz RISC processor and prints 17 pages per minute at either 600- or 1,200-dot-per-inch resolution, through Hewlett-Packard's FastRes. Adobe PostScript Level 2 and HP Printer Control Language 5e and 6 print drivers are included.
Microtek touts scanners for image rerouting, push-button formatting
Priced from $99, the Microtek International Inc. SlimScan C6 36-bit color scanner claims 600- by 1,200-dot-per-inch maximum resolution. Users can rout scanned images or documents to optical character recognition, e-mail, fax or image editing programs. The Redondo Beach, Calif., company bundles Adobe PhotoDeluxe and Ulead PhotoImpact image editing software as well as Caere OmniPage Limited Edition OCR software and Caere PageKeeper Standard document management software.
Notebooks' faults weigh heavy on feds
—Gene Mercer, unit LAN manager, Air Education and Training Command, Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., on his Micron GoBook "I'd like it to be about half the weight.'' —Robert Allan, integrated logistics support manager, Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command, Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., on his Hewlett-Packard notebook
Viking 56K External Modem stands tall, works at near-maximum rates
Pros and cons: + Space-saving design + Fast and automatically compatible with different protocols – Cord plug-in area cramped Real-life requirements: Windows 9x, Windows NT, or Mac OS 7 or 8; 3.5 inch floppy drive for driver installation I've never been a big fan of external modems. They take up too much desktop space. But an external unit can travel, and its active LCD status monitor gives more information than an internal device.
Geostationary satellites offer virtual networks
For about a year, Celso Azevedo has been briefing potential government users, mostly military ones, about instant broadband networking via forthcoming geostationary satellites. Azevedo is president and chief executive officer of Astrolink International Ltd. of Bethesda, Md., a venture of Lockheed Martin Corp. that expects to begin launching new geostationary satellites in 2002.
BREAKING NEWS
The scalable storage clusters will integrate Box Hill's RAID Box 5300 Turbo+ storage arrays and Magna Box 100 Digital Linear Tape media changers with Legato NetWorker enterprise backup software from Legato Systems Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif. The bureau will use the high-speed, automated capture systems to scan and read census short forms. The project contractor, Lockheed Martin Corp., will build the clusters to handle daily peak loads of 82,077 forms, Box Hill officials said.
Dell names Buchsbaum its federal division chief
Dell Computer Corp., the top General Services Administration Information Technology Schedule contractor in fiscal 1998, has named Thomas Buchsbaum vice president and general manager of its federal division. Buchsbaum replaced Robert McFarland, who became vice president of sales for enterprise accounts. Buchsbaum had served as vice president of education for Dell.
Navy tries out tactical toolkit
The Navy plans to install a prototype of its new Area Air Defense Commander module on the cruiser USS Shiloh this spring. The AADC toolkit for operational and tactical planning will go on board 12 Aegis cruisers over the next five years. The hardware and software toolkit is designed to smooth out joint operations by U.S. military branches and allied forces. It integrates real-time situational information from existing Defense Department systems with databases of geographic and
Enterprise Computing | New Products
| New Products Crystal Ball Predictor, a time-series forecasting add-on to the Crystal Ball decision-support suite from Decisioneering Inc. of Denver, can distribute its computations over multiple networked stations if given permission. Chief executive officer Eric Weissmann said Crystal Ball tools are in use at the Defense Department, Environmental Protection Agency and World Bank.
We're still taking baby steps on the Internet
The Internet entered our personal and professional lives much like a summer storm, almost without warning. It replaced traditional conduits for information and transformed large pieces of our transactional businesses. We now depend on the Internet. The Net is credited in various journals with driving a $2 trillion global information and communications industry. Its use—and the market capitalization of the start-up companies it has spawned—account for roughly a third of U.S. economic growth in recent years.
Lab Notes
Digital Dr. Doolittle... Did you know your PC might be harboring wild animals, cartoons or wedding an-nouncements? The designers of silicon chips have a tradition of etching tiny drawings of interesting things into the blank spaces between circuits. In the software world, similar whimsies are known as Easter eggs, and they usually reveal the programmers' names.
Funding hold up delays joint patient record effort
Funding setbacks have pushed the Government Computer-Based Patient Record program off schedule by three to four months. Funding hit a snag last fall when the Defense Department reviewed its $10 million share for the program, said Peter Groen, GCPR project manager and deputy assistant chief information officer at the Veterans Health Administration.
Survey: CIOs gain acceptance across the board
What ITAA survey of CIOs suggests The government's chief information officers say they are becoming more visible within their organizations and are gaining clout with management, a new survey reports. CIOs increasingly find themselves with a place at the table of senior agency executives, according to the survey by the Information Technology Association of America. ITAA, an Arlington, Va., industry group,
Defense worries insiders are helping hackers
The recent string of well-publicized attacks on Defense Department systems seems to indicate a new, more complex modus operandi for perpetrators, security experts warned last week. Defense officials confirmed last week that a major cyberattack against its critical information systems has been under way for several months. Deputy Defense secretary John Hamre briefed the House Armed Services Committee on the cyberattacks during a closed meeting Feb. 23, committee staff members said. Hamre warned lawmakers that the hack
Get the inside scoop before deciding to fix or replace your BIOS
Whether a PC will boot up correctly next year depends on its basic I/O system, or BIOS. Each time a PC starts after a cold or warm boot, it checks the BIOS software stored in nonvolatile read-only memory. For faster booting, it might copy the BIOS information to RAM and work from the copy, but in any case the PC cannot communicate with its keyboard or drives until it
Air Force offers online shopping via six BPAs
Defense Department users can buy servers, PCs and peripherals online through six blanket purchasing agreements the Air Force has negotiated under its $435 million Information Technology Tools program. The Standard Systems Group last week announced the two-year IT2 PC and server BPAs it has set with Dell Computer Corp., Gateway Inc. and Micron Electronics Inc. of Nampa, Idaho.
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