Route Fifty

Flat-panel monitor dips under $1,000 price barrier

Box Score B Sceptre FT15 Sceptre Technologies Inc., City of Industry, Calif.; tel. 626-369-3698 http://www.sceptre.com Price: $950 Pros and cons: + Breaks price and footprint barriers + Good enough for most office tasks  Image distorted when not viewed straight-on

By John Breeden II, GCN
August 31, 1998

GSA sustains Boeing protest of Seat Management awards

The General Services Administration last week upheld Boeing Information Services Inc.'s protest of the agency's Seat Management Program contract awards. It is unclear, however, what the ruling will mean for the company, the PC outsourcing program or the eight winning Seat Management vendors. In agreeing that the Vienna, Va., company's protest had merit, a senior GSA procurement official did not opt to halt work on Seat Management, award the company a contract or nix the contract

By Christopher J. Dorobek, GCN
August 31, 1998

Informix Software sees Linux going enterprisewide

Linux, the freeware operating system that has made it through a few federal doors, is starting to look much more commercial now that several leading application vendors have declared their support. "We believe there will be a wave of Linux moving into the enterprise," said Steve Lambright, senior server product marketing manager at Informix Software Inc.

By Florence Olsen, GCN
August 31, 1998

Octane graphics unit has a full tank

Pros: + Best-of-class visual rendering + Designed to maximize throughput + Impressively flexible features and connectivity A substantial group of government computer users do their daily work at Unix workstations. Most users, however, have no experience beyond Microsoft Windows running on PCs with Intel Corp. chips.

By Jason z_rne, GCN
August 31, 1998

Enterprise distribution send client apps over the Net

Lucent Technologies Inc. has an enterprise software distribution (ESD) system with the same name as the Murray Hill, N.J., company's intellectual property business manager, Noel Terranova. Terranova Expresswhich runs under Microsoft Windows NTorders, upgrades and distributes client applications via intranet. Its secure client and server software bypasses download hazards inherent in Web browsers and Internet protocols.

By Mark A. Kellner, GCN
August 31, 1998

Adobe improves on an already good thing with Photoshop 5.0

Pros and cons: + History Palette finally allows multiple undo + Vastly improved text handling  Not for novices Real-life requirements: Win95, NT or Apple System 7.5.5 or higher, at least 32M RAM, 80M free storage, CD-ROM drive Now that Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect have reached their eighth editions, Adobe Photoshop 5.0 sounds like a relative newcomer. Surprisingly, though, the image editor has been at the top of

By William M. Frazier, GCN
August 31, 1998

Agriculture: Paychecks will get doled out come 2000

Government employees often wonder if they'll be paid after Dec. 31, 1999, Agriculture CIO Anne Thomson Reed says. The year 2000 problem won't stop the National Finance Center from getting paychecks to hundreds of thousands of government employees, the Agriculture Department's chief information officer said recently.

By Frank Tiboni, GCN
August 31, 1998

Another View | Agencies must begin planning for FTS 2001

There is some controversy in the federal information technology arena regarding whether agencies are ready to make the transition from the FTS 2000 contracts to the pending FTS 2001 ones. Now that the General Services Administration has released its solicitation for the FTS 2001 worldwide long-distance telecommunications service, Dennis Fischer, commissioner of GSA's Federal Technology Service, is exhorting agencies to get on the stick with their preparations for switching over to the resulting, nonmandatory contracts. The

By GCN
August 31, 1998

Toll-quality voice is now a measurable specification

The final judgment always rests on human opinion, Steve Voran said. Toll-quality voice is a big selling point for voice-over-IP and other computer telephony products. But who decides what toll quality means? The Commerce Department's Institute for Telecommunications Sciences (ITS) has been working on the question for several years. ITS has come up with a set of digital signal processing algorithms to evaluate the quality of audio transmissions.

By William Jackson, GCN
August 31, 1998

AF test ranges fall behind in date code work

Systems officials at some ranges seek more funds to fix mission-critical systems, the report said. Managers at some of the Air Force's test ranges were unaware of year 2000 problems and failed to manage date code repair, the Defense Department inspector general reported this month.

By Gregory Slabodkin, GCN
August 31, 1998

Squabbles over date code funding threaten fixes, year 2000 czar says

A budget battle could doom code work, says John A. Koskinen, chairman of the president's year 2000 conversion council. The budget battle between the Clinton administration and Congress could doom the government's year 2000 efforts, the administration's year 2000 czar said this month. "If this money gets tied up in the endgame, that's a real problem," said John A. Koskinen, chairman of the President's Council on the Year 2000 Conversion.

By Christopher J. Dorobek, GCN
August 31, 1998

Satellite kit lets you create fly-over simulations in 3-D

Satellite Tool Kit/Visualization Option 3.1 software can perform fly-over 3-D simulations, create real-time video and observe detailed renderings of terrain data. The add-on from Analytical Graphics Inc. of Malvern, Pa., works with the 2-D Satellite Tool Kit 4.0, which is downloadable free from the Web at http://www.stk.com. With STK/VO 3.1, users can view scenarios from several perspectives simultaneously by opening different windows. The interface lets them select map backgrounds without editing separate files.

By Bill Murray, GCN
August 31, 1998

This Exchange preps you for next year's OS

Exchange Server 5.5 stores directory information. REDMOND, Wash.Installing Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 could ease the path to next year's Microsoft Windows NT Server 5.0 network operating system. In briefings at Microsoft's corporate headquarters last week, Exchange group product manager David Malcolm said the Active Directory Services component of NT Server 5.0 will pull user information from the current version of Exchange.

By Michael Cheek, GCN
August 31, 1998

Army finishes tests on two combat notebooks

The Army last month completed a test of ruggedized notebook computers for combat vehicles. The 4th Infantry Division's 1st Brigade at Fort Hood, Texas, evaluated computers from Litton Data Systems of San Diego, Calif., and Phoenix Group Inc. of Hauppauge, N.Y. The Army used the notebooks on about 230 vehicles, including Humvees, M-1 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles.

By Gregory Slabodkin, GCN
August 31, 1998

GAO exec: Feds must get it together on 2000

Independent reviews are the key to accurate date code data, GAO's Joel C. Willemssen says. The government still must establish priorities for year 2000 work, a General Accounting Office auditor told a House panel this month. Agencies also have not yet tackled the issues of ensuring that data exchange points are ready or developing adequate contingency plans, said Joel C. Willemssen, director of GAO's Civil Agencies Information Systems Division.

By Christopher J. Dorobek, GCN
August 31, 1998

@INFO.POLICY | Agencies ought to get on TRAC with their data

How many dresses did Bloomingdale's sell last weekend? I don't know, but I am willing to bet that Bloomingdale's does. They also probably know where they were sold and the price, color, style and vendor of each dress. Businesses spend a lot of money installing point-of-sale terminals and bar code inventory systems so they have the ability to collect and use detailed information needed for better management. Some of them, like Wal-Mart, do it with legendary success.

By GCN
August 31, 1998

The latest monitors are well-priced sites for sore eyes

Optiquest's V95 19-inch monitor has 0.26-mm dot pitch and a maximum 1,600-by-1,280 resolution. Side bars and related stories Minor tweaking will correct some monitor ailments. Among 19-inch monitors, three perform as champs. Behind every outstanding monitor lurks the power of a graphics card. In the Be Prepared category, here's some advice: If anyone asks what kind of monitor you want, say, "a big one." Just as a large hard drive is preferable to a small one

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

As part of overhaul, Pentagon to get ATM backbone

Over the last 55 years, the Pentagon has accumulated more than 100,000 miles of copper and fiber cable. In the next decade, the cable will be torn out and replaced with new wire and a high-speed asynchronous transfer mode network that Defense Department officials predict will last for another half-century. The Defense Supply Service awarded the $110 million contract for rebuilding the Pentagon's information and telecommunications infrastructure to GTE Corp. GTE Government Systems will install the ATM

By William Jackson, GCN
August 31, 1998

Smart Ship inquiry a go

All new apps must run under NT, Navy CIO Ann Miller says. The Navy's systems chief has begun an investigation into the computer failure that left the Aegis cruiser USS Yorktown dead in the water for several hours last fall. Navy chief information officer Ann Miller is conducting a detailed inquiry of the incident. The Yorktown is the Navy's test bed for its Smart Ship program, which seeks to reduce crew

By Gregory Slabodkin, GCN
August 31, 1998

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Box Score B Sceptre FT15 Sceptre Technologies Inc., City of Industry, Calif.; tel. 626-369-3698 http://www.sceptre.com Price: $950 Pros and cons: + Breaks price and footprint barriers + Good enough for most office tasks &#150; Image distorted when not viewed straight-on

Systems officials at some ranges seek more funds to fix mission-critical systems, the report said. Managers at some of the Air Force's test ranges were unaware of year 2000 problems and failed to manage date code repair, the Defense Department inspector general reported this month.

Box Score B Sceptre FT15 Sceptre Technologies Inc., City of Industry, Calif.; tel. 626-369-3698 http://www.sceptre.com Price: $950 Pros and cons: + Breaks price and footprint barriers + Good enough for most office tasks Image distorted when not viewed straight-on