FlowCharter 7's templates ease chart-building
Pros and cons: + Easy run-through chart checking + Lots of templates + All chart text together in data window – Needs more computer equipment icons Real-life requirements: Win95 or NT, 16M RAM, CD-ROM drive, 75-MHz or faster processor Flowcharting programs have been around as long as computer graphics. Most are just advanced drawing programs with few intuitive links between elements, so that each new chart has to be designed pretty much
DOD COMPUTINGBRIEFING BOOK
DISA Y2K. Defense Information Systems Agency systems could fail if DISA doesn't fix date code, a Defense Department inspector general report said. "Without a greater effort by DISA to revise its Y2K program to better comply with federal and DOD requirements, DISA faces increased risks that its information and technology systems may not operate properly in the year 2000 and beyond," said the report, Management of the Defense Information Systems Agency Year 2000 Program.
Get systems secure
Remember the TV sitcom "Get Smart," about a bumbling spy? For security, Agent 86 and his boss would enter a cone of silence—but they couldn't hear each other. In one scene, the boss offered to write a note. Agent 86 cautioned that a note could be stolen. The boss offered to swallow the note afterwards, but Agent 86 said his stomach could be pumped by enemy spies. All right, I'll burn it, said the exasperated boss.
GSA targets small businesses
GSA has adopted a tough-love approach toward small businesses, agency administrator David J. Barram says. GSA wants to usher disadvantaged and small businesses into the mainstream, FTS commissioner Dennis J. Fischer says. The General Services Administration wants small businesses to take part in its Seat Management Program.
Using electronic agents as eyes and ears keeps the furry one keyed up
The Rat has detected a distinct thickening in the atmosphere of paranoia inside the Beltway. He is acutely aware that feeling paranoid doesn't necessarily mean somebody isn't out to get him. Just ask the hordes of angry agency users looking to get a hold of a piece of his furry hide. To cover his tail, the Rat has been forced to deploy an elite platoon of allegedly intelligent electronic agents that act as his eyes.
American Mobile adds security to federal satellite telephone service
American Mobile Satellite Corp. of Reston, Va., in June began selling Secure Telephone Unit III service with its satellite communications. The service can secure links over wireless and public switched telephone networks. The STU III dedicated telephone is the federal standard for secure telephone communications by military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies. It encrypts analog voice signals for transmission over ordinary telephone lines.
New NOAA system will act as backup satellite data server
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last month awarded a two-year, $3.2 million contract to Integral Systems Inc. to build a backup system for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite Program. The Lanham, Md., company will build the backup system at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. It will process weather data and images from the satellite if weather or other problems threaten or bring down systems at the primary operations center in Virginia.
Ethernet switch and router competition intensifies
Hewlett-Packard Co. and Bay Networks Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., have introduced dueling Ethernet desktop switches that will compete on a dollar basis. And for the backbone, Cabletron Systems Inc. of Rochester, N.H., has begun an aggressive promotion for its SmartSwitch Router. Hardware, software and power supply all sell for $12,995.
Dodd, FTC team win honors from peers for superior IT achievements
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.—Army Maj. David E. Dodd and members of the Federal Trade Commission's Consumer Information System Project Team last week received the honor of their peers at the Interagency Resources Management Conference. Dodd won the IRMCO Chief Information Officer Council's Individual Achievement Award for developing the Joint Network Management Program for the Defense Department.
Marines put big plans online
Maj. Mark Cantrell of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command says intranet documents can replace the 8-foot charts that are cumbersome in the field. The Marine Corps' Architecture Branch, charged with fitting together all the Corps' command, control, communications, computer and intelligence structures, had to find a way to keep reams of documentation from becoming shelfware.
AID awards contracts for global PC upgrades
The Agency for International Development last month awarded three companies contracts worth $50 million in total to upgrade AID's desktop systems around the globe. Government Technology Solutions Inc. of Placerville, Calif., Vanstar Government Systems Inc. of Fairfax, Va., and World Wide Technology Inc. of St. Louis will supply hardware and software for the upgrade, said John Streufert, the agency's IRM director.
Treasury creates site on the Web for selling bonds
The Treasury Department will begin selling Treasury bills, notes and bonds over the Internet next week under a new service called Buy Direct. To buy bonds online, users must already have an account with the department, said Peter Hollenbach, spokesman for Treasury's Bureau of the Public Debt. The Treasury site will ask for proprietary information to identify buyers.
We must have laws for lawyer-client e-mailing
There is a critical need for Congress and state legislatures to protect e-mail communications between clients and lawyers. With all the scandal investigations going on in Washington, you may think this issue is only for high-level politicos. But the fact is, anyone who may communicate with an inspector general or agency counsel on a contract dispute could get into trouble.
Work begins on Government Computer-Based Patient Record
The goal is a "seamless exchange and access to information." Litton PRC Inc. will develop the first version of the Government Computer-Based Patient Record, under a one-year task order that could set broad new standards for health care records. Six of the seven Lot 3 prime contractors for the Defense Medical Information System/Systems Integration, Design, Development, Operations and Maintenance Services II contract submitted GCPR proposals to the Defense Supply Service–Washington in June, said Col.
Database update | BUYERS GUIDE
In recent years, many database management system vendors struggled to move their products from a relational to an object-oriented model. Now the dust has settled a bit. Most databases described as O-O actually are what end users consider O-O, but this hasn't always been true. For a while, any remote link to object-orientation, including relational DBMSes created in an O-O language, were categorized as O-O.
VA expects to meet March year 2000 deadline
VA's Harold Gracey says VA's success is due to department-wide planning and an early start. The Veterans Affairs Department will meet the administration's March deadline for year 2000 readiness, VA's senior systems officials said last month. VA has renovated 94 percent of its 319 applications, which support 11 mission-critical systems, said Harold Gracey, acting assistant secretary of VA for information and technology. VA has tested 84 percent of the systems and
GAO: Sloppy oversight lessens accuracy of spending data
Data on agencies' procurement habits is still unreliable despite improved financial systems, GAO said. Procurement reform and budget cuts have slowed agencies in their end-of-the-year race to spend, but bad data makes tracking the trend difficult, the General Accounting Office said in a recent report.
Theorizing atoms as a computing tool is like taking a quantum leap
Over the years, I've followed research in photonics (using light instead of electrons for transmissions) and quantum-molecular computing without finding anything of practical use. That may be changing. At some point we'll reach the scientific speed limits of solid-state computers that use very large-scale integrated chips. I'm not talking about hard-drive or bus speed limits, both of which have lots of room to grow. What I mean is that circuit components inside a processor can't get
HCFA develops draft standards for protecting privacy of medical data
HHS Secretary Donna Shalala says the department must expand the legal protections for patient medical information. The Health and Human Services Department last month proposed what it called a carefully developed set of new national security standards to protect electronic medical records in the United States. The standards were ordered under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The law doesn't mandate the kind of technology that must be used because
Services agree on a proposal for modeling architecture
JMASS is a tool box that lets you build simulations. The Army, Navy and Air Force last month approved an operational requirements document that could result in a common simulation and modeling architecture. The document outlines the elements needed for the Joint Modeling and Simulation System and provides a framework for analyzing the engineering, design, testing and evaluation of weapons systems the Defense Department wants to buy.
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