GCN INTERVIEW: Ray Long, FAA's year 2000 pilot
Long said he loves challenges and was delighted to take the promotion after managing the year 2000 effort for the Federal Aviation Administration's Air Traffic Services. After a year in college, Long shipped out to Vietnam where he served as an air traffic controller in the Army. He started his government career 18 years ago at FAA after attending, in his words, the "school of hard knocks, where I earned a Ph.D."
Air Force's new BPAs give service chance to try commercial practices
The Air Force's blanket purchasing agreement with Dell Computer Corp. and Micron Electronics Inc. demonstrates that the service is willing to try new contract vehicles, a leading Standard Systems Group official said. "They have been looking for ways to put in place best commercial practices," said Kenneth Heitkamp, SSG technical director at Gunter Air Force Base Annex, Ala. "The BPA allows the Air Force to offer its customers quicker turnaround and gives them the advantage of
CIO Council wants IT execs to learn skills in school
In the hopes of providing government information technology executives the skills to oversee their multifaceted tasks, the Chief Information Officers Council is working to create a virtual CIO University. Online classrooms will only be one element of the CIO University, as the project has been named. Program officials want to include a number of universities and colleges as well as the public and private sector. Late this year, the CIO Council will issue a solicitation to
CIOs set IT framework
Alan Proctor, agency liaison, says the council expects compliance. The Chief Information Officers Council has issued a draft governmentwide systems architecture that its members expect agencies to adopt after a final plan is issued this fall. "Whether you call it best practices or guidance, … in fact, it's what we would expect agencies to do," said Alan Proctor, the CIO Council's liaison to agencies. The model represents the council's statement on
Use Visual Explorer to get your files in order—almost
Pros and cons: + Easy file manipulation and visual browsing – Weak network interface – Manual setting required for each folder Real-life requirements: Windows 9x, 16M RAM, CD-ROM drive, 35M free on hard drive Putting Visual Explorer on your computer is like flipping on a light in a dark room, even if the bulb is a little dim.
USDA says bank errors stalled IMPAC service
Vendors rejected U.S. Bank-issued IMPAC cards when Agriculture users tried to buy supplies, department officials say. Overbilling was partly to blame. Accounting errors and a computer glitch by the provider of its IMPAC credit cards left Agriculture Department employees without use of their cards for three days recently, USDA officials said.
People
Government Technology Services Inc. of Chantilly, Va., has appointed Carolyn L. Redmon to the post of senior vice president of its sales operations unit and has promoted Stephen L. Waechter to senior vice president. Redmon will be responsible for inside sales functions; the acting chief information officer reports to her. Waechter is also chief financial officer of GTSI.
This year, GSA's FAST is a speedy moneymaker
Kansas City's FAST program for GSA's Heartland Region has been the strongest earner. The General Services Administration's efforts to make the Federal Acquisition Services for Technology program a speedy as well as profitable fee-for-service organization are succeeding, FAST's director said. "We lost our shirts last year, but that's changed this year," said Claude Garmon, the program's director.
Rugged GridCase notebook withstands dust, shock
The GridCase notebook computer has endured plenty of shocks and vibrations in its long and rugged federal career. The magnesium-cased notebook also is sealed against dust and water. A base 1580XGA unit has a 166-MHz Pentium MMX processor, 32M to 192M of synchronous dynamic RAM, 32K of Level 1 cache and 512K of Level 2 cache. The removable 2.1G hard drive is expandable to 5G.
Correction
An interview with Jon Klem of PeopleSoft Inc. that appeared in the June 1 edition of GCN included incorrect personal information. Klem is the vice president and general manager for the Pleasanton, Calif., company's federal business unit. His hobbies are golfing and fly fishing. His favorite Web site is http://www.nasdaq.com, and he recently read Primary Colors by Joe Klein.
Book shows rosy future due to, or in spite of, IT
Vice President Al Gore's campaign will be highly attuned to nurturing growth of the so-called new economy. Sustenance of this new economy, Gore assumes, will be based on certain hopeful trends. A cornerstone of new-economy thinking is that the computing and communications industries—where technology is rapidly converging—will continue to be one of the main thrusters pushing an unprecedented and long-term economic boom. If the economy remains sound, it will be an uphill struggle for any
No two organizations are alike, but these 10 rules help everyone
Although the steps to take in deploying system management can differ from one organization to another, some are cross-organizational. Here's our Top 10:
Unravel 2000 marks date code errors in Oracle apps
If Oracle database applications are not yet on agencies' year 2000 radar screens, they should be, said David Ghosh, chief executive at Ravel Software Inc. of San Jose, Calif. Oracle Corp.'s date-data types simplify date handling in its development environment. But agencies should examine their Oracle Forms for hidden two-digit year dates that could affect arithmetic operations, Ghosh said.
EPA CIO tackles data quality flaws in indexing project
IT workers and data gatherers at EPA offices will help write the data accuracy plan, agency CIO Al Pesachowitz said. The Environmental Protection Agency's chief information officer has a new charge: improve the data quality of EPA's Sector Facility Indexing Project. "There has been a big controversy about the SFIP's data quality," CIO Al Pesachowitz said. "Either the sources or the states have made mistakes in reporting or correcting the records.
NIH changes online shopping to let the seller beware
When users log in, they fill out a form describing what they want to buy. The National Institutes of Health has unveiled what it believes is an easier way for federal buyers to buy hardware and software online. The system, called Procurement Vehicle Management, rejects the standard shopping cart method of online purchases in favor of a system that puts the burden on the vendor—not the buyer—to pick the right
Create network-centric apps
Tim Hoechst, an evangelist for network computing, says the federal government eventually will reap maintenance benefits and save money by adopting a network-centric computing model. Hoechst, vice president of technology for Oracle Corp.'s government, education and health sectors, joined Oracle in 1989 after graduating from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in computer science.
DOE earns kudos for building fast supercomputer from spare parts
An international survey has ranked a home-brew Energy Department supercomputer as one of the 500 fastest in the world. Last month, the Los Alamos National Laboratory's Avalon grabbed the 315th spot on the top 500 list at the Supercomputer '98 conference in Mannheim, Germany. Four Los Alamos employees in April built the Avalon over a three-day period, said Michael Warren of the Theoretical Astrophysics Group at the Los Alamos, N.M., lab.
Highly rated and intuitive Suite 8, speech software harmonize
Pros and cons: + Speech processing speeds up word processing + Lots of extras in the package – Separate installation required for speech program Real-life requirements: Win95 or Windows NT, 133-MHz or faster processor, 64M RAM, 60M free on hard drive Corel WordPerfect Suite 8 makes a perfect match with Dragon NaturallySpeaking, from Natural Speech Co. of Newton, Mass.
Panda Software supplements a network's security
Pros and cons: + Compatible with existing virus protection; daily virus updates – Works only with Microsoft Outlook and Exchange – Updates require much user interaction Real-life requirements: Win95 and Outlook or Exchange When it comes to computer viruses, you can't be too careful. Panda Software has a virus scanner that installs itself seamlessly into Microsoft Outlook or Exchange and gives good virus protection plus something few scanner programs can boast: It
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