Route Fifty

U.S. Transportation Command uses Web as a gateway to logistics data

A Web-based logistics system developed by the U.S. Transportation Command has only been in operation for a year, but it has already changed the way the Defense Department tracks and moves troops, equipment and supplies around the world. The Global Transportation Network, headquartered at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., integrates command and control, transportation and logistics data so commanders can track the identity, status and location of cargo and passengers. The network also gives commanders airlift,

By Gregory Slabodkin, GCN
August 31, 1998

House report rebukes HHS, Treasury on year 2000

The report said that Treasury has made inadequate progress. Jan. 3, 2000, will more likely see a disruption in Medicare payments than in Social Security checks, according to a House Ways and Means' Subcommittee on Oversight report. The report evaluates the year 2000 status of agencies under the committee's purview.

By Merry Mayer, GCN
August 31, 1998

Programmers say knowing process is fundamental to their art

Even the world's best programmers get no help from automated test tools until they have first worked their way manually through the software processes in question. John Woodruff, lead software architect for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's $1.2 billion National Ignition Facility and Integrated Computer Control System, said automation tools are useful "only after the process is so well understood that you can be confident of what is going to happen."

By Florence Olsen, GCN
August 31, 1998

Notebook PC power boosts silently lap those of desktop PCs

If you haven't taken a serious look at notebook computers lately, you may not know that their power has risen even faster than that of desktop systems. A year ago, you would have paid about $4,000 for a 150-MHz IBM ThinkPad. This summer, 266-MHz Pentium II notebooks with 13-inch screens commonly cost less than $3,000.

By GCN
August 31, 1998

Users get best of two OSes on a Power Mac G3

Box Score B Power Macintosh G3 Apple Computer Inc.. Cupertino, Calif.; tel. 408-996-1010 http://www.apple.com GSA price: $1,863 with 32M RAM, 4G hard drive, 24X CD-ROM drive and Zip drive; no monitor Pros and cons: + Fast performance for optimized apps + Moderate performance for PC software  Very slow for some PC apps and Java

By John Breeden II, GCN
August 31, 1998

Call it a comeback for 2000 crackerjack

Kathryn "Kitty" Guion took an early retirement from her federal job in 1995. Now she is back at full salary, helping her former colleagues meet their year 2000 project deadline. Guion downplayed her new role, which is to manage the entire mainframe code validation effort at the Agriculture Department's National Finance Center in New Orleans.

By Florence Olsen, GCN
August 31, 1998

Emergency funding for 2000 remains uncertain

Replacing the money in the House bills during a Senate and House conference is out, Morra said. The House Appropriations Committee hasn't moved to create a separate year 2000 funding bill after House conservatives stripped emergency year 2000 moneyneeded for date code repairfrom three appropriations bills.

By Merry Mayer, GCN
August 31, 1998

CAD use helps AF bodybuild

An Air Force hospital is using computer-aided design and manufacturing to create 3-D models of human body parts so surgeons can practice complex surgical procedures before cutting real patients. Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, isn't the only medical facility to use stereo lithography, a CAD process of producing physical models from medical imaging. But it is the only medical center in the world, military or civilian, that has its own in-house

By Gregory Slabodkin, GCN
August 31, 1998

AF unit gets long-awaited mobile access to manuals

After 13 years of trying, the Air Mobility Command finally has a system that lets flight-line technicians read manuals on their mobile terminals. "This is the first time we've been able to field it across AMC," said Capt. Stan Griffis, chief of logistics integration initiatives for the Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base, Ill. Previous systems provided data or voice access at only one point, Griffis said.

By Bill Murray, GCN
August 31, 1998

Among 19-inch monitors, three perform as champs

A quick peek at Acer America Corp.'s AcerView Vivid 99c, NEC Technologies Inc.'s MultiSync E900+ and Panasonic Communications & Systems Co.'s PanaSync SL90 confirms it: Price and performance are at their peak with a 19-inch monitor. Each of the three monitors is a flat-screen, shadow mask CRT with a full 18-inch diagonal viewing area. All have a maximum resolution of at least 1,600 by 1,200 pixels, although their optimal resolution is 1,280 by 1,024 pixels.

By J.B. Miles, GCN
August 31, 1998

ZDS may be gone, but its PCs live on at several AF sites

Thousands of Z-248 systems are still running at DOD agencies. In the heyday of the Air Force's massive desktop indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity procurements, Zenith Data Systems sold more than 1 million PCs to the government. Thousands of the old Z-248 systems are still running at Defense Department agencies, and a dwindling number of ZDS notebook PCs also are still in service, primarily in the Air Force.

By Bill Murray, GCN
August 31, 1998

For customizable apps, try getting vendors to take some of the risk

It's a common scenario: An agency needs a custom network application, but up-front development funds are limited. So the agency persuades a systems integrator to foot the development bill in hopes of selling the result to other users in the future. It has worked many times for many government departments. But when an application is highly customized, the idea is a tough sell.

By GCN
August 31, 1998

NIST lists 15 algorithms to compete for standard

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has selected 15 algorithms to compete for the honor of being the federal government's next encryption standard. The Advanced Encryption Standard submissions from companies, scientific organizations and individuals meet requirements the institute outlined in its September request for proposals, NIST officials said. NIST unveiled the candidate algorithms at its First Advanced Encryption Standard Candidate Conference in Ventura, Calif., this month.

By Christopher J. Dorobek, GCN
August 31, 1998

The Rat comes clean for past actions, but do not worrywords will flow

The atmosphere in Washington being what it is, the Rat figures it's time to clear the air about his own personal scandals. Confession is good for the soul, or at least for deflecting investigation. To avoid being investigated by Ken Starr for recent comments about online betting on Monica Lewinsky's testimony and to avoid becoming the target of the next cover story for the Brill's Content Web site, the cyberrodent is coming clean.

By GCN
August 31, 1998

Agencies, find ways to lower buying costs

Frye, who has worked in uniform and as a civilian for the service for three decades, says the strategy requires that SSG use a mix of blanket purchasing agreements and indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts. Frye came to SSG in 1995 after seven years as head of the Communications-Computer Systems Directorate at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass. SSG, part of Hanscom's Electronic Systems Center under the Air Force Materiel Command, has 1,700 federal employees. It manages three major

By GCN
August 31, 1998

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