Military exchange shops savvy
The Army and Air Force Exchange Service is one of the world's biggest retail operations. "We are a monster," said Ovidio Trevino, section chief and supervisory computer systems analyst at the service's headquarters in Dallas. Boasting 8.7 million customers at military installations throughout the United States, Europe and the Pacific, and 50,000 employees, AAFES stores earned $337 million last year from sales of everything from home electronics to jewelry.
FEMA automates property inspection scheduling
A telephone registration process and a custom PC application let the Federal Emergency Management Agency help disaster victims begin rebuilding their homes, businesses and lives quickly. The process automates the sign-up for applying for aid. During phone interviews, FEMA agents gather the data in the PC application, which runs under Microsoft Windows NT 3.51. By using the teleregistration app, FEMA agents cut paperwork, said Glenn Garcelon, chief of FEMA's National Processing Services Center in Denton, Texas.
PowerPoint expert's secrets revealed
If a pot of strong coffee is the only thing that keeps listeners awake for your briefings, here's how to make a mundane presentation motivational. Microsoft PowerPoint 97 is one of the most robust presentation applications around. A few simple steps in PowerPoint can enliven even the dullest demonstration. Delve in just a bit deeper to bestow animation, sounds and actions that make a presentation jump off the screen.
Nine FBI systems professionals receive kudos for their successes
The FBI and GCN recently honored nine bureau employees for excellence in systems development, management and implementation of information technology. The FBI employees received their awards at the monthly GCN Forum luncheon in Washington. The bureau's new information technology environment supports major mission-critical administrative and investigative applications, including the Automated Case Support System, Bureau Personnel Management System and Financial Management System.
Olympus digital recorder: a good idea that gets lost in translation
TEST DRIVE Pros and cons: + Clever use of flash card as voice recorder - Voice recognition quality not yet acceptable Real-life requirements: Windows 9x, Pentium-class PC or notebook, 32M of RAM, CD-ROM drive, 125M free storage, sound card, PC Card slot What a great idea: Put a flash memory card into a tape recorder and use it like a miniature cassette to digitize and transfer spoken words to a computer.
SEC begins three-phase upgrade of its financial data filing system
The Securities and Exchange Commission has moved its electronic filing database and filing capabilities in-house, the first phase in a two-year modernization project. The Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval system manages and stores financial data that publicly traded corporations must file with SEC. EDGAR data is stored on a server at Lexis-Nexis Corp. in Arlington, Va.
DISA establishes portal for telecom satellite system
HONOLULU—The Defense Information Systems Agency has installed a dedicated ground station here at the Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station-Pacific to act as a terrestrial gateway for Defense Department users of the $5 billion global Iridium cellular network. DISA bought the gateway from Iridium LLC, a consortium of international investors led by Motorola Inc. of Schaumburg, Ill., for about $15 million to handle nearly 2,000 simultaneous DOD users.
DISN to award multibillion dollar Pacific transmission services IDIQ
HONOLULU—The Defense Information Systems Agency is on track to award a 10-year, multibillion dollar Defense Information Systems Network Transmission Services-Pacific (DTS-P) contract early next year. DISA's DISN program office last year expanded DTS-P areas of coverage outside of the Pacific to include places not covered by the DISN-Continental United States and DISN-Europe contracts. The coverage includes the Pacific Command's and Southern Command's areas of responsibilities, such as Alaska, Hawaii, Australia, Guam, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Central
THE COMMUNITY
Packet Rat R. Fink Wouldn't you just know it? Microsoft Corp. went and changed the name of the operating system formerly known as NT—let's just say TOSFKANT. The new name: Windows 2000. The Rat wonders whether anyone at Microsoft learned anything from the Windows 95 fiasco. Putting an actual year in the name of a major revision of an operating system creates a misbegotten belief that it will ship before or during that
Army sets its sights on making ammo supply data easy to track
AMROTS pools data every six hours to give users up-to-date information about specific items. The Army this month will hand over new software tools to 3,000 ammunition supply personnel who have survived military downsizing. "I'm trying to get them some tools that make their job easier in today's trying times," said Geoff Myers, chief of the Army implementation team for the Defense Department's Joint Ammunition Management Standard System. Because the new Virtual DB tools
Navy: Calibration flaw crashed Yorktown LAN
PASCAGOULA, Miss.—Human error, not Microsoft Windows NT, was the cause of a LAN failure aboard the Aegis cruiser USS Yorktown that left the Smart Ship dead in the water for nearly three hours last fall during maneuvers near Cape Charles, Va., Navy officials said. The Yorktown last September suffered an engineering LAN casualty when a petty officer calibrating a fuel valve entered a zero into a shipboard database, officials said. The resulting database
Advances in Layer 3 switch technology are boon to LAN security, load balancing
Layer 3 switches are beginning to ship to folks other than beta testers. Now there's a much newer technology on the horizon trying to eclipse them: Layer 4 switches. But unlike the obvious role that Layer 3 plays in building faster, more cost-effective networks, the benefits of Layer 4 aren't as clear.
NOAA computer modeler stays step ahead of El Nio
Ming Ji, a native of China, says science has always come easy to him. He now uses complex weather models to predict El Ni'o's patterns. Ming Ji has a reputation for burning the most computer time of any scientist at the National Center for Environmental Prediction. The meteorologist, a U.S. citizen born in China, works 50 or more hours a week running climate models on a Silicon Graphics Inc. Origin2000 server. His job: predicting
FTS 2001, warts and all
Should the General Services Administration's Federal Technology Service bother to award the FTS 2001 contracts on which it has toiled so long? Some are asking this question as the delay-plagued program appears to be headed for awards, possibly by the end of this month. Isn't there a better way? Although its popularity isn't proven, wouldn't GSA's Seat Management Program, with its eight contracts, be a better model for future governmentwide contracts? Maybe the Multiple-Award Schedule program,
ENTERPRISE COMPUTING
TECH REFRESH GCN November 9, 1998 The Veterans Affairs Department Procurement of Computer Hardware and Software contract now lists Compaq Computer Corp. Deskpro EN systems. After purchasing Digital Equipment Corp. earlier this year, Compaq has been replacing the Digital PCs sold on most of Digital's government contracts, including the indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity PCHS.
LAB NOTES
The pen is mightier than the PC? Weary users of 8-pound notebooks who want something lighter should take a look at a computer pen that claims to replace mouse and keyboard. British researchers developed the Smartquill, a literally handheld pen that records text as you write on paper—or air—by processing changes in pen position.
Education awards CSC four task orders for consolidation of financial aid systems
The Education Department last month awarded four task orders worth $150 million to Computer Sciences Corp. to consolidate and operate systems that support five of the department's financial assistance programs. Education awarded the task orders under the General Services Administration Virtual Data Center contracts. The department previously awarded a $71 million VDC task order to CSC to run the National Student Loan Systems, which tracks loans after students receive them.
Senate official rallies troops to tackle year 2000 fixes
What's Bennett's plan? Buy eight new year 2000-ready PCs Upgrade four PCs Buy two new servers Buy or upgrade nine software packages Remove or make contingency plans for four other applications What he has ready 26 workstations: 10 ready 9 printers: 1 ready 2 network servers: None ready 26 applications: 16 ready, but not WordPerfect, Windows 95, Excel and cc:Mail
SSA tests system for employers to file wage data electronically
The Social Security Administration is testing ways to electronically gather wage information from employers. SSA is running a limited pilot with about 5 percent of employers, each of which file their data electronically using dedicated circuits, deputy associate commissioner Kim Mitchel said. The nation's 5.2 million employers must annually submit wage information for each of their employees, whether they employ one person or thousands.
BRIEFING BOOK
Digital photography. Holloman Air Force Base in Alamagordo, N.M., is the service's first base to eliminate wet processing by digitizing photography operations. The 49th Communications Squadron's Visual Information Center has moved its photography unit away from using chemicals and paper to electronic imaging using state-of-the-art digital technology. Photographers at Holloman are using high-resolution Kodak Professional DCS 420 digital cameras, film and flatbed scanners, a Kodak Digital Science 8650 color printer, as well as a CD-ROM writer and
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