Bureau of Prisons, NOAA ink equipment, services BPAs
Bracing for a rush of fiscal-year-end orders, the Bureau of Prisons and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently negotiated blanket purchasing agreements. The Justice Department's BOP signed BOPNet 2000 BPAs with IntelliSys Technology Corp. and Vanstar Government Systems Inc., both of Fairfax, Va. Under the BPAs, the companies will supply PCs, printers, servers, software and related peripherals, said Ron Williams Sr., BOP's director of ADP contracting.
Rat roars a rallying cry: 'Parts, shmarts—we gotta replace servers!
The dawn of yet another ozone action day found the Rat sweltering in his server room. When the air conditioning had gone out over the weekend, three servers had stewed in their own juices. The Rat managed to switch the applications over to standby systems but at a lower performance level than the users had accustomed themselves to, and they didn't like it.
FEMA runs its Web page as a news site
Starting with this issue, GCN will periodically review government sites on the Web, chronicling new Web management ideas and the technology behind them. Best and worst features + Daily news appears on the front page and on lead pages of several sections. + The local communities library details things such as arson investigation resources.
Software helps create an inventory of network assets
The NetworkCharter Pro diagramming tool draws all the products on an IP or IPX network and supplies their corresponding addresses. The information lets administrators keep an inventory of PCs, peripherals and servers for year 2000 readiness and other tasks. The package from Micrografx Inc. of Richardson, Texas, gives precise names and other data for Simple Network Management Protocol devices. When the administrator indicates a device on the network, NetworkCharter can link it to specifications in its
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Call or write to the appropriate editor DiGiorgio denies reported statements Regarding your story on the USS Yorktown [GCN, July 13, Page 1], just for the record: I did not say that the Yorktown was towed into Norfolk. Logic does not allow the combination of the words "self-proclaimed whistle-blower." It may sound good, but there is no such thing.
Not every agency considers UPS protection a priority
The gospel of uninterruptible power systems has yet to win converts at all agencies. Early on, data centers installed proprietary UPSes for their mainframes and minicomputers. But most agencies do not routinely connect UPSes to client PCs or servers, although data loss from power problems is 15 times more common than from virus attacks, according to a survey by Contingency Planning Research Inc. of White Plains, N.Y.
Graphics app's upgrade caters to Web designers on tight budget
Pros and cons: + Supports most new Web graphical formats, such as PNG and progressive JPEG + Compatible with after-market plug-ins – Some common operations harder than they should be Real-life requirements: Win95 or NT (24M RAM for NT), CD-ROM drive, 65M free on hard drive
Feds eye single sign-ons for full access to network apps
Federal users have a growing need to simplify their password access to dozens of applications, according to industry officials who develop access control software. "Last year it was mostly tire-kicking. This year there are funded, dedicated projects for single sign-on," said Michael McLaughlin, federal sales manager for PassGo Technologies of Boxborough, Mass.
GSA gives technology service a face-lift
FTS' Charles Self says sellers have a personal interest in a contract instead of in customer needs. GSA will change that. Just eight months after a major reorganization, the General Services Administration is again tinkering with its Federal Technology Service. This time the effort focuses on streamlining FTS operations.
FEMA opts to make Windows 98 standard
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has become one of the first agencies to standardize on Microsoft Windows 98 as the operating system for any new PCs it buys. Concern about year 2000 readiness prompted FEMA's Information Technology Policy Branch to approve a plan to buy new PCs with Win98, said Paul L. Alberti, a computer specialist in FEMA's IT Services Unit. The agency's installed PC base, however, will "bite the bullet" and stay with Windows 95,
ENTERPRISE COMPUTING | New Products
| New Products IdealScanOS software, which indexes images as it scans them, now works on all Ideal/Context scanners from Ideal Scanners and Systems Inc. of Rockville, Md. The IdealScanOS provides index fields—File Name, Scan ID, Operator Names and Scan Time—and lets users print scanned images directly to a large-image plotter.
Sen. Bennett lauds Clinton's 'call to arms' for 2000
Sen. Robert Bennett praised President Clinton's speech, but warns that agencies must hunker down for the next 17 months. The chairman of the Senate's year 2000 committee praised President Clinton for speaking out on the date code issue but warned that the next coming months are critical.
Who will grab a seat?
The contracts for the General Services Administration's Seat Management Program are going to be the most heavily touted buying vehicles in a long time. Charles Self, assistant commissioner of GSA's Information Technology Service, said GSA would put its own dollars behind selling the program and encourage the eight contractors to do the same. I just hope I get a Seat Management mug.
To find time to fix date code, HHS delays other work
The Health Care Financing Administration is 70 percent through rewriting 49 million lines of code, an agency spokeswoman said. HCFA hired retired federal employees to work on the code under a $128 million budget that runs through September, HCFA administrator Nancy-Ann DeParle told the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem last month.
Dolch Computer sells a 400-MHz rugged notebook
Dolch Computer Systems Inc. has released one of the first ruggedized 400-MHz Pentium II notebook PCs. The MegaPAC-P2 has Intel Corp.'s new 440BX chip set and 100-MHz motherboard bus. It can hold as many as nine full-size ISA/PCI expansion boards. The notebook runs on 120- or 220-volt alternating current or on 160-watt Power Anywhere power supplies or uninterruptible power systems. The 25-pound, shock-mounted unit has an alloy chassis and composite case.
Tripp Lite helps unravel knotty UPS management
Pros and cons: + Can monitor any UPS remotely – Software not available separately – Only one UPS monitored at a time Real-life requirements: A Tripp Lite UPS; Windows 95, Windows NT, IBM OS/2, Unix or Novell NetWare Strength without direction is weakness. Having enough uninterruptible power systems for all the computers on your LAN isn't necessarily to protect your data from power failures and fluctuations. You've got to have a way
Breaking news
The IRS has selected Lucent Technologies Inc. of Murray Hill, N.J., to network 25 geographically dispersed customer service call centers into a virtual call center. The IRS receives about 60 million taxpayer calls a year, 25 million of them between Jan. 1 and April 15. Marilyn Soulsburg, the acting assistant commissioner for customer service, said the IRS needs to improve the efficiency of service to callers.
LAB NOTES
You make the call. Microsoft Corp. has argued that the Justice Department's antitrust actions are stifling innovation. After working with the new Windows 98, the GCN Lab wonders whether it means innovation or renovation. Some Win98 users that the lab has talked with describe it as the biggest bug fix of all time and express surprise that Microsoft can charge $89 for it.
Illustration app duel ends in near draw
Version 5.5: rix and Solaris Current version: NT or Alpha (Mac coming soon) Version 3.5: Irix, HP-UX, Solaris and AIX Overall grade B+ B- Price $325 GSA $82 upgrade GSA $448 NIH ECS2 $225 upgrade GSA Microsoft Windows' Paint function can't always do the job when you need an illustration program. But Adobe Illustrator 7.0 and CorelDraw 8 can daunt even the techno-savvy.
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