Navy negotiates three BPAs for PC products
The Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command has negotiated blanket purchasing agreements with Gateway Inc., Government Technology Services Inc. and Tracor Information Solutions Inc. to supply notebook and desktop PCs, peripherals, servers and software. Under the New Technologies for Office and Portable Systems (NTOPS) agreements, Gateway will sell its own notebooks, PCs and servers.
SSA gets kudos for making systems more accessible
The Social Security Administration last month received the Siemens Award for Excellence for its use of devices that help disabled SSA employees. "We're happy that our initiative and hard work was recognized," said Clare McAndrew, assistive technology team leader in SSA's Office of Telecommunications and System Operations. "This [$35,000 award] helps us continue to use current and future assistive technologies to hire disabled workers."
Army base eases network jam
We're trying to get people to stop using e-mail as a way of passing PowerPoint files Information technology plumbers at Fort Monroe, Va., are trying several methods to unclog a local network. In a move from shared 10-Mbps LAN segments to a 100-Mbps switched environment, technicians at the Army base are replacing three routers from Bay Networks Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., which cost $15,000 a year each to maintain, with year 2000-ready Cisco
SEC sets up new team to battle net fraud schemes
The Securities and Exchange Commission has created a new office to help chase down a growing number of financial fraud complaints tied to the Internet. The Office of Internet Enforcement will also train law enforcement officials in other agencies to search for and recognize online fraud, said John Reed Stark, director of the office and special counsel for Internet projects in the Enforcement Division.
Coast Guard adds Fast Ethernet connections to ship, shore LANs
The Coast Guard has launched a $52 million project to upgrade LAN infrastructures aboard more than 300 ships and at more than 400 shore sites over the next year. The Workstation 3 LAN Cabling Project will bring switched Ethernet to the desktops of Coast Guard users via a Fast Ethernet fiber backbone.
DOD's new frontiers - SPOTLIGHT
Imagine if you will a robotic rucksack—a rugged, highly mobile, computerized device dutifully trailing an officer around a 21st century battlefield and carrying most of the load. A kind of digital Jeeves. Welcome to the world of the Defense Department's new high-tech frontier. The robotic rucksack was one of the scores of ideas—real and surreal—conjured up for warfighters of the future by players in the Army's avant-garde Technology Seminar Game, staged recently at the Army War
IT is 'an innovator's dream environment' SPOTLIGHT
Name: Frank Doe Agency: Defense Information Systems Agency Title: Chief, Counter-Drug Integration Division Length of Service: 22 years, 20 in Defense Intelligence Agency Age: 49 Education: Bachelor's degree in economics, College of William and Mary; master's of science in administration, international business, Soviet studies and information management, University of California at Irvine; numerous computer science and management courses at Defense Department and academic schools.
BREAKING NEWS
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority is putting the final touches on proposed bylaws for a nonprofit corporation that will assume much of the management responsibility for the Internet's Domain Name System. IANA holds a government contract to coordinate the numeric IP addresses that route Internet traffic. Under a National Science Foundation contract that ends this month, Network Solutions Inc. of Herndon, Va., handles the top-level domain names that map to IP addresses.
No bull: Furry one can't bear to see volatile tech market take big plunge
Once upon a time, fellow federal employees would see the Rat ensconced in his cubicle reading computer trade rags and ask him general computer questions such as, "What computer should I buy?" or "What's the best modem?" In the last couple of years, however, a new breed of question has emerged to tax the cyberrodent's wisdom: "Which tech stock should I buy?" It's a sure sign that blatant capitalism has invaded the federal workplace.
GAO: Lack of adequate management hinders SBA loan system
The Small Business Administration's new Loan Monitoring System faces implementation problems, according to the General Accounting Office. SBA faces difficulties because it lacks software project management and will have to implement the system without having a satisfactory information technology architecture in place, GAO said. In its report, Small Business Administration: Planning for Loan Monitoring System Has Many Positive Features but Still Carries Implementation Challenges, GAO recommended that SBA get the participation and support of senior program managers
DOD picks single-chip Rosetta as encryption card for DMS users
The Defense Department has selected the Rosetta Smart Card for use within all branches of the armed forces as a personal identification, authentication and encryption device for the Defense Message System. The Rosetta card, from Spyrus Inc. of San Jose, Calif., is an alternative to the company's $100 Fortezza Type II PC Card.
Is 2000 a budget victim?
Date code funding should be protected, John A. Koskinen says. The Clinton administration will propose that any fiscal 1998 budget extensions take year 2000 funding into account, the White House's year 2000 czar said last week. "If emergency funds have to be offset, we are going to have a funding problem," Koskinen said.
Digital atlas serves up transportation infrastructure data
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics has released a CD-ROM atlas of transportation facilities in the United States, Canada and Mexico for use in geographic information systems. The North American Transportation Atlas Data CD-ROM contains geographic and infrastructure data in about 20 data sets for use by transportation planners and researchers, said Robert A. Knisely, BTS deputy director. The data sets include information about public use of airports, shipping ports, highway and railway networks, he said.
OPM told to focus more on ends, less on means
OPM Director Janice R. Lachance called the GAO report unfair and too negative in tone. The Office of Personnel Management can improve its performance goals by focusing more on results, a report by the General Accounting Office said. But OPM Director Janice R. Lachance called the report, Results Act: Observations on the Office of Personnel Management's Annual Performance Plan, unfair and criticized it for its negative tone.
House offices face own hurdles to fix date code
Members of the House of Representatives are responsible for fixing the date code in their own office systems, but most have not even begun the work, a House technology staff member said. Most members have not even thought about fixing their systems, said Harrison Fox, a staff member with the House Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology.
CIO Council gives its OK to federal IT architecture
In a major step toward creating a governmentwide systems architecture, the Chief Information Officers Council this month unanimously approved the Federal Enterprise Architecture Conceptual Framework. The framework provides a bird's-eye view of an architecture that promotes federal interoperability, agency resource sharing, capital acquisition planning and improving the government's ability to share information across agencies.
Supercomputers make new aircraft simulations fly
Technicians at a state-of-the-art modeling and simulation facility at the Naval Air Station in Patuxent River, Md., are using high-performance computers to help develop and test advanced aircraft and weapons systems. The Air Combat Environment Test and Evaluation Facility, managed by the Naval Air Warfare Center's Aircraft Division, is colocated with a supercomputer center built as part of the Defense Department's $1.3 billion High-Performance Computing Modernization Program. The HPC Center processes data for ACETEF at the
Agencies get help testing code
Agencies rushing to fix year 2000 date code problems will increasingly rely on independent validation and verification to ensure systems are fixed, experts said. Many agencies realize that it is impossible to completely test systems for year 2000 readiness, said Robert Deller, president of Market Access International Inc. of Chevy Chase, Md.
LAB NOTES
JavaScript flubs one of three Rs. A Web developer recently ran across an interesting arithmetic problem: When the latest versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator run JavaScript, certain numbers do not multiply correctly. The errors are small. But users seldom go back and check computer math, so wrong answers might go unnoticed.
Visual Basic 6.0 produces custom apps in a snap
Box Score A- Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Edition Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash.; tel: 425-882-8080 http://www.microsoft.com/vbasic Price: $549 Pros and cons: + Excellent rapid programming environment, good run-time performance, good database support, useful for Web as well as standalone applications. – Less object-oriented than Delphi and less portable than PowerBuilder
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.
Manage Consent Preferences
Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies
Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link
If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.
Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.
Cookie List
A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:
Strictly Necessary Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Functional Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Performance Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Social Media Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Targeting Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.