Big storm forces FEMA to beef up Web service
The Federal Emergency Management Agency got some emergency assistance of its own last month when Hurricane Bonnie threatened to swamp the agency's Internet connection. Our Web site was under siege," content manager Marc Wolfson said. As the storm moved up the North Carolina Coast, traffic at http://www.fema.gov grew to 2 million hits on Aug. 26—10 times the daily average and more than the T1 connection could handle.
BRIEFING BOOK
Marching orders. Deputy Defense secretary John Hamre late last month issued a memo holding the services, Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defense Department agencies accountable if they don't finish specific year 2000 management tasks by Nov. 1. The tasks include end-to-end testing of functional capabilities in the areas of logistics, personnel, health and medical, communications and intelligence. In addition, Hamre wants the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and DOD agencies to certify that they have
CIO Council issues IT investment guide
Agencies implementing capital planning processes for systems investments need to develop well-rounded approaches, the Chief Information Officers Council recommends. Agencies that have already rolled out capital planning processes generally have not used integrated approaches, the council said in a new report, Implementing Best Practices: Strategies at Work. The council's Capital Planning and Information Technology Investment Committee developed the best-practices guide and posted it on the Web at http://cio.gov.
Voice over IP services come calling on networks
Cisco Systems Inc. began integrating IBM Systems Network Architecture networks with IP networks eight years ago. Its InterWorks Business Unit now controls nearly 80 percent of the SNA router market. "We're going to be repeating that process" in bringing voice services onto IP networks, said Paul Sikorski, InterWorks product line manager for the San Jose, Calif., company.
Government users are among the first to buy Sun's mainframe-class Starfires
Sun Microsystems Inc. has reported selling more than 500 Ultra Enterprise Starfire systems since the first Starfire came out in March 1997. One government intelligence site alone bought about 20 Starfire systems, a Sun Microsystems Federal official said. The intelligence users snapped up the air-cooled Starfires for data centers as well as high-performance technical computing applications such as signal and image processing apps, said Joanne Heider of Sun Microsystems Federal's high-performance computing division.
Guard words to avoid false statement charges
Should the country adopt use of federally-issued patient identification numbers? The question has been the focus of much attention lately, as Health and Human Services Department officials begin work on a massive new system [GCN, Sept. 7, Page 82]. I want to use the issue to make a broader point about framing complicated information policy problems. No matter what kind of information system you operate, you will ultimately have to confront a challenge involving overlapping, conflicting
Wavelet image, video compression technology address file size problem
Wavelet algorithms compress video files and boost their transmission speed. Although video phones are a long way from widespread acceptance, full-motion video over standard telephone lines has started to close the gap. Universal Serial Bus and FireWire ports in PCs solve the connectivity problem, but what about file sizes? Static image files are the largest in common use on PCs, and video files far outscale them. Without some kind of automatic compression utility, video
Norton AntiVirus 5.0 lets users analyze their viruses
The research center sends out tracking info via e-mail. In addition to new ActiveX and Java detection capabilities, Norton AntiVirus 5.0 now can isolate infected files on a hard drive. Users will more easily receive analyses of unknown viruses they send to the package's vendor, Symantec Corp. of Cupertino, Calif.
Warner leads effort to gain support for bill
The Senate Rules and Administration Committee is trying to gain lawmakers' support for a bill that would dramatically change how agencies publish government documents, whether on paper or electronically. The committee earlier this month postponed a markup of the Wendell H. Ford Government Publications Reform Act, S 2288, to build consensus for the proposal, lawmakers said.
RAID subsystems
They say if you sit long enough at a cafe on the Champs Elys'es in Paris, everyone you know will pass by. I say, if you listen long enough to an information systems manager, you'll eventually hear the same lament—data by the ton and every single user wanting immediate access to all of it at all times.
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
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