Route Fifty

GAO report prompts HCFA to take battle stations

HCFA in November set up the war room and assigned employees to do nothing but track year 2000 progress and solve renovation problems. The agency has also stationed employees at sites run by contractors to track their progress preparing Medicare systems, said Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, HCFA administrator. "Ensuring that Medicare beneficiaries will continue to receive services after Jan. 1, 2000, is my No. 1 priority," DeParle said. "To achieve this goal, we are doing whatever it

By Frank Tiboni, GCN
January 11, 1999

In the market for adapter cards? Be in-the-know before you go

To make an informed purchase of a PC Card modem/LAN adapter card, you need to know some basic terms and facts about them. Both versions of Ethernet are shared-media LANs, where all nodes use the same bandwidth. Most desirable are modems that support the Group 3 standard, offering various levels of fax processing.

By Mark A. Kellner, GCN
January 11, 1999

Red Cross opens military communications center

The humanitarian service organization transmits more than 1.4 million messages every year to DOD personnel and their relatives. The new center will change the way the Red Cross administers its Armed Forces Emergency Services, officials said. "This center will provide one-stop, emergency communications services to all military installations, from Maine to Florida, and to overseas, fleet-based and operationally deployed destinations, utilizing the latest available computer and telecommunications technologies," Red Cross

By Gregory Slabodkin, GCN
January 11, 1999

Crystal ball reveals lots of activity on the communications front

I'm looking forward to the next millennium, although most people plan to celebrate it a year early. Astute readers know the start of the new millennium, strictly speaking, is Jan. 1, 2001, about two years from now. Within a few years, the only way phone companies will be able to hang onto their profitability will be to offer high-speed Internet connections everywhere and at much lower prices.

By GCN
January 11, 1999

NARA backs DOD electronic records storage policy

The National Archives and Records Administration in November endorsed the Defense Department's standard for electronic records management as a helpful aid for agencies governmentwide. Although widely anticipateda NARA official helped write the DOD regulationthe standard is a tool agencies can use now while they await a final policy from NARA. The agency has been working on a policy on archiving electronic records since November 1997, when U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman ruled NARA's existing

By Christopher J. Dorobek, GCN
January 11, 1999

Not a desktop replacement, lightweight Vaio 505 is a traveling machine

The guard behind the airport X-ray machine opened my bag suspiciously and pulled out a slim silver computer no bigger than a 300-page spiral notebook. "That's a PC?" he demanded. I brushed the switch on the ultralight Sony Vaio 505, and the 10.4-inch thin-film-transistor screen lit up. The guard balanced it on his palm as the line came to a halt behind me.

By Cynthia Morgan, GCN
January 11, 1999

DOD supports Unix messaging with user agent

Nexor Inc. has released its Messageware Defender for Motif, a military-grade user agent for Unix platforms that are part of the Defense Department's Defense Message System. Defender now is the only mail client that supports military messaging standards on Unix workstations, company officials said. Nexor's Messageware server is already certified for DMS use, but the Defender client has yet to undergo interoperability testing, said Tony Roadknight, senior technical consultant for Nexor of Gaithersburg, Md. He said Defender's

By William Jackson, GCN
January 11, 1999

Connecticut outsources its systems to EDS for $1 billion

In a milestone move for government outsourcing, Connecticut has hired Electronic Data Systems Corp. to run most state systems under a seven-year, $1 billion agreement. The plan is the first of its magnitude among state governments and follows a politically charged two years since the state accepted proposals, including a bid from the state's union of information technology workers.

By Claire E. House, GCN
January 11, 1999

DOD puts commanders in charge of Web sites

The Defense Department last month released a new Web site policy designed to safeguard sensitive information posted on the Internet by making commanders responsible for the content of their organizations' sites. Commanders, not webmasters, will have final authority on establishing and maintaining unclassified DOD Web sites with tight security controls and information that matches their organizational missions, Defense officials said.

By Gregory Slabodkin, GCN
January 11, 1999

GSA dips toe in PC outsourcing with PRC award

Just before year's end, the General Services Administration selected Litton PRC Inc. as the lead contractor under the Seat Management Program to take over PC operations for GSA employees. It is the first contract under the program, which GSA set up last year and for which it awarded contracts to eight vendors [GCN, July 13, 1998, Page 1]. To promote the outsourcing of PC work, GSA stepped up as the first customer.

By Christopher J. Dorobek, GCN
January 11, 1999

Be wary of agencies' per-seat price figures | GCN

Since the award of the General Services Ad-ministration's Seat Management Program, the Outsourcing Desktop Initiative for NASA (ODIN) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' seat management contracts, many in government have eagerly awaited the first wave of by-the-seat pricing to see where they might fall in terms of total cost of ownership.

By GCN
January 11, 1999

Sprint favors digital subscriber lines for ION

Sprint Corp. plans to open up local access to its Integrated On-demand Network by installing, wherever possible, its own high-speed digital subscriber lines for end users rather than leasing links from local providers. "The cost of doing the last mile for ION is more affordable than we thought," Sprint spokesman James Fisher said. The company will seek an amendment for ION services in its first-round FTS 2001 long-distance contract.

By GCN
January 11, 1999

FTS IT Solutions program picks 10 vendors for $25 billion global ANSWER contracts

Ten vendors last month won contracts with a combined $25 billion ceiling under the Federal Technology Service's IT Solutions Concept of Operations program. Through ANSWER, which stands for applications and support for widely diverse end-user requirements, FTS will replace many contracts that underlie its Federal Information Systems Support program. Awarded by the General Services Administration's Pacific Rim Region on Dec. 30, the 10 indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts will run for two base years with eight one-year options.

By Bill Murray, GCN
January 11, 1999

Justice's IT guru returns to private life

Mark A. Boster's efforts toward better cooperation among Justice bureaus bore fruit, a Justice administrator says. This time Mark A. Boster says he is leaving federal service for goodhe thinks. Boster, who has overseen the Justice Department's information technology operations for the last five years, will leave his post as deputy assistant attorney general for IRM and deputy chief information officer this month to return to the private sector.

By Christopher J. Dorobek, GCN
January 11, 1999

Novell weighs in with hearty NetWare 5

How do you hide an 800-pound gorilla? Make it compete against Microsoft Corp. The joke pretty well sums up Novell Inc.'s situation. Once undisputed king of the LAN, Novell has been overshadowed by Microsoft in the network operating system market. Ironically, Novell only left the hardware business to develop NetWare because, at the time, IBM Corp. ruled the PC industry.

By Jason z_rne, GCN
January 11, 1999

Backers of thin-computing movement tout slim servers, tightened terminals | GCN

"Even engineers use Windows," Gilbertson said. Thin is in. Again. If you looked carefully amid the clamor over 450-MHz CPUs, 34G hard drives and superfast 3-D graphics subsystems at the recent Comdex trade show, you saw signs that the thin-computing movement is far from dead. The avalanche of new handheld and portable computing devices could be construed as part of the movement, but more than one vendor focused on thin clients in

By Thomas R. Temin, GCN
January 11, 1999

Navy CIO: '99 budget is hampering IT efforts

SAN DIEGO A congressional directive in the fiscal 1999 Defense appropriations bill is wreaking havoc with Navy efforts to modernize and sustain its systems, the service's chief information officer said. House and Senate lawmakers ordered the Defense Department to spend no information technology funds on developing or modernizing systems that are not year 2000-ready.

By Gregory Slabodkin, GCN
January 11, 1999

This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. / Do Not Sell My Personal Information

Accept Cookies

NWS creates systems bridge