Route Fifty

The Rat finds millions of good reasons not to fix faulty date code

Packet Rat R. Fink The year 2000 crisis has finally gained our chief executive's attention, at least budgetwise. The Rat rejoices that his late-night rap sessions with Al and Tipper have paid off, but it is a little late. The fiscal 2000 budget proposal, even if approved on time, doesn't kick in until October. That leaves three months to apply the information technology funds to emergency triage.

By R. Fink, GCN
February 22, 1999

USPS hands mail supervisors Windows CE on handheld PCs

A Postal Service handheld computing initiative, designed to streamline mail delivery, has become one of the nation's largest Microsoft Windows CE deployments. About 2,000 supervisors in the service's Great Lakes region, which covers Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, use Hewlett-Packard Co. 320LX and 620LX handheld units to track daily mail deliveries. Each unit runs Windows CE 2.0 and pocket versions of Microsoft Excel and Word, plus calendar, calculator, e-mail and tape recorder functions.

By Bill Murray, GCN
February 22, 1999

Some feds can't live without handhelds

Feds using handheld computers still make up a small installed base. Very small. But regular users can barely suppress their enthusiasm for these mighty mites. "I can't live without it now," said Tom Polak, systems administrator at the Geological Survey in Anchorage, Alaska, about his 3Com Corp. Palm III, the top-rated handheld in GCN's survey. "It's my alternate brain."

By Richard Walker, GCN
February 22, 1999

Data mining prospects for diamonds in the rough

The Army's Scott Optenberg says data mining has saved $1 for every 11 cents invested in the CHAMPUS medical system. Data, data everywhere. Your data warehouse is awash in data. How do you dig deep into that data, discern patterns and trends, and apply what you learn to advancing your agency's mission?

By Richard W. Walker, GCN
February 22, 1999

GSA expects its first Seat task order to provide better serviceinvisibly

The General Services Administration has begun preparing its employees for the transition from in-house run PC operations to the outsourcing of its PCs under the Seat Management Program. As GSA implements its task order, the first under Seat Management, the agency wants to alleviate users' concerns that there will be significant changes on their desktops. Officials said at an orientation for users that they expect outsourcing of the agency's PC operations to Litton PRC Inc. will

By Christopher J. Dorobek, GCN
February 22, 1999

Data visualization tools give form to the content

The human eye allows us to see objects and pictures of objects quite well, and we can absorb an astonishing amount of information from what we see. Unfortunately, we do not see nearly as well the information contained in masses of numbers or similar data. It's an old problem in scientific research. And we do what scientists have donewe use charts and graphs to help us interpret the data. But consider the mass of information in

By Russell Kay, GCN
February 22, 1999

The new CIO in town must gain credibility

You're a federal chief information officerperhaps new to the jobwith several top-priority action items and a to-do list so long that reading it requires making an appointment with yourself. Staff members are complaining about cost overruns and technical delays on a key software project. Congressional committee wonks are breathing down your neck about whether your agency is complying with the Information Technology Management Reform Act.

By GCN
February 22, 1999

Software changes delay rollout of FAA satellite navigation system

The Federal Aviation Administration recently delayed by more than a year the deployment of a $475 million satellite navigational system because it wants to further refine the system's fourth and final software module. FAA originally wanted to roll out the Wide Area Augmentation System in July, but it has pushed the deployment back 14 months to September 2000.

By Frank Tiboni, GCN
February 22, 1999

Power User sings praises of a few of his favorite things

This column so often holds gripes about software feature bloat and hardware glitches that it's only fair to praise the good stuff once in a while. The items below bring joy to me and every other user lucky enough to have them: Another positive is the wealth of well-written computer books.

By GCN
February 22, 1999

Patience is a virtue when building data warehouses

"It's the biggest issue," said Pat Garvey, director of the Environmental Protection Agency's Envirofacts data warehouse team. "Don't think too big, and don't start off too grandiose. Keep expectations lowered." The much-lauded Envirofacts data warehouse has been online since 1995. From the EPA's six national mainframe systems, the warehouse application extracts information on about a million sites handling or discharging potentially harmful substances, and pulls regulatory, spatial and demographic data

By Richard W. Walker, GCN
February 22, 1999

NASA IG looks into Internet services buy

NASA's award of a $2.9 million Internet services contract to a vendor that last year gave the agency free Web site service has prompted a review of the buy by the NASA inspector general. NASA last month awarded PSINet Inc. of Herndon, Va., the five-year Managed Internet Services contract to maintain Web sites and Net services at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

By Frank Tiboni, GCN
February 22, 1999

Cascade server app lets users mesh Unix and NT platforms

Sun Microsystems Inc. will add a new dimension to Unix and Microsoft Windows NT integration with its Solaris Sunlink Server application, code-named Cascade. Cascade is meant to provide scalability for Windows NT networks and a platform for NT server consolidation. Solaris supports up to 64 processors.

By Florence Olsen, GCN
February 22, 1999

IT-21 supplies smooth sailing

SAN DIEGOHigh-speed asynchronous transfer mode LANs, secure e-mail and Web capabilities aboard shipsall made possible through the Navy's 2-year-old Information Technology for the 21st Century initiativeare dramatically improving Naval operations, service brass said recently. "Despite the usual growing pains, the payoffs of IT-21 were immediately apparent in the areas of morale and operational capabilities," said Adm. Jay Johnson, chief of Naval operations.

By Gregory Slabodkin, GCN
February 22, 1999

His warehouse wows USDA managers

- J. Norman Reid Name: J. Norman Reid Agency: Office of Community Development, Agriculture Department's Rural Development Agency Length of service: 22 years Age: 53 Education: Bachelor's degree from Muskingum College; master's degree in political science from the University of Missouri in Columbia; doctorate in political science from the University of Illinois in Urbana.

By GCN
February 22, 1999

GSA employees recognized for work in systems, implementation

The General Services Administration and GCN honored 44 employees for excellence in systems development management and implementation. The GSA employees received their awards at a recent GCN Forum luncheon in Washington.

By GCN
February 8, 1999

CIO Council says it will focus on achieving new short-term goals

In the coming year, the Chief Information Officers Council plans to focus more on meeting short-term goals than on setting long-term objectives, according to the council's latest strategy update. Late in December, the council issued an update to its 1998 strategic plan, laying out what the plan called "long-range goals and specific initiatives of the council as it prepares to submit its first formal budget request to the Congress."

By Christopher J. Dorobek, GCN
February 8, 1999

Group yet to reach consensus on setting new Net naming policies

ICANN's chairwoman Esther Dyson says a consensus on domain names will give registrars more power in the long run. Internet leaders gathered in Washington last month to hammer out management policies for the vast Domain Name System under the Internet's new governing body. A Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO), the key to Net privatization, will be one of three new policy groups formed to advise the board of the Internet Corp.

By William Jackson, GCN
February 8, 1999

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