DESKTOP COMPUTING - Power User weighs the chips and dips into the Pentium debate
Many readers sent e-mail asking for advice after a column on how I chose a PC for my office [GCN, March 23, Page 55]. I don't believe Intel Inside and Pentium MMX mean much when it comes to purchasing decisions. In the real world, there's no more reason to pay extra for a Pentium MMX PC than to insist on a V-6 engine vs. an equally powerful four-cylinder model in a car that's just for commuting.
New Yorkers can argue anywhere with video hearings
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York has decided to expand its pilot video system linking the court in Manhattan to remote sites on the circuit. The videoconferencing demonstration began in October 1996. Second circuit judges have heard arguments from court sites in Albany and Mineola, N.Y., and Hartford, Conn., and even from a copy center outside Rochester, N.Y.
Gigabit Ethernet vs. ATM: Which one will survive?
BOSTON—Ethernet's inventor does not believe in peaceful coexistence, at least not among networking superpowers. "I think asynchronous transfer mode and Gigabit Ethernet are going to fight it out," Robert M. Metcalfe said this month at the Gignet conference. Metcalfe said he's putting his money on Gigabit Ethernet. He declared the ATM to the desktop campaign dead, adding that ATM is nearly dead on the LAN backbone and under attack on the WAN.
Voice recognition software is turning into standard fare with office applicationsuites
Lotus Development Corp.'s SmartSuite Millenium edition adds voice recognition and Web publishing to office applications. A headset and microphone come in the box to use with IBM Corp.'s ViaVoice Gold voice recognition application. Competitor Corel Corp. includes NaturallySpeaking from Dragon Systems Inc. of Newton, Mass., in one edition of its WordPerfect Suite 8. Market leader Microsoft Office does not yet have voice recognition software.
Plug-in for Acrobat Exchange and Windows rescues redaction process
Box Score B+ Redax 1.5 Digital Applications Inc., Aldan, Pa. tel. 610-284-4006 http://www.digapp.com Price: $279 Pros and cons: + Only product that redacts .pdf files + Easily customizes redaction codes – Redacts rectangular areas only Real-life requirements: Adobe Acrobat Exchange 3.0 or later, Windows 3.x, Win95 or NT, 16M RAM, 24M for NT, 486 or faster PC; System 7 or later, Power Mac, 16M RAM, 24M for System 8, less than
Users get immediate access to FERC documents
Between two databases, the commission has close to 2 million files available online. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is putting rulings online within hours of a commission decision. "People who want this information really need it badly," said Bo Pierce, software engineering team leader for the project.
FAA ascends to new IP levels
The Federal Aviation Administration's information technology office is turning to an IP load balancer to relieve strain on a Web server that gets nearly 2 million hits each week. "We have nine servers in the FAA that do Web service," said Gus Cornell, senior adviser for Web services. "Right now, one machine is shouldering most of the load, and it's nearing the limit of its capacity." The machine hosts the home page at http://www.faa.gov, through which
BorderManager lets users maintain local control over authentication, authorization
Novell Inc. last week issued a border-crossing passport between Novell NetWare or Microsoft Windows NT LANs and the rest of the networked world. The cross-platform BorderManager Authentication Service software uses the Remote Authentication Dial-in User Service, or Radius, protocol to exchange user information securely with Radius-compliant firewalls, remote-access servers and Internet-routing equipment.
Senate kills info warfare funds in DOD spending bill
"The funding is critical to DOD's information assurance," Wells said. The Senate's Defense Department oversight committees have thrown DOD's Information Assurance Program into budget limbo by slashing proposed fiscal 1999 funds that the department requested to protect its systems from cyberattack. The House last month approved the full $69.9 million request as part of the fiscal 1999 Defense appropriations bill. But the Senate Appropriations and Armed Services committees axed the
Federal CIOs need more authority, IT official says
Elected officials are often not equipped to make IT decisions, says Donald W. Upson, Virginia's secreary of technology. IRVINE, Calif.—Federal chief information officers need more decision-making power, an information technology manager told a gathering of IT professionals at the recent Management of Change conference. Elected officials are often ill-equipped to make IT decisions, said Donald W. Upson, Virginia's secretary of technology, at the Federation of Government Information Processing Council conference.
K6 test units prove average in lab test
Government computer buyers always confront a dilemma: power or price? Systems with the K6 processor from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., are a bargain pricewise but not necessarily powerwise. Other considerations for administrators buying network clients are expandability and ease of access. The GCN Lab examined three systems built on the 300-MHz K6 and one with a preproduction 333-MHz K6-2. The lab found almost no differences between the two generations of processors. Overall, AMD's K6
DOD creates new office to battle cyberterrorism
Deputy secretary John Hamre says that cyberspace has no definable geographical borders. In what deputy Defense secretary John Hamre called a radical departure, the Defense Department is creating a new office to defend the United States' infrastructure from cyberattack. It's radical because the scope of the work is outside DOD's jurisdiction, he said last month at the Defense Special Weapons Agency's Annual International Conference on Controlling Arms.
President makes year 2000 stump speech
Using the bully pulpit for the year 2000 problem for the first time, President Clinton last week promised the public that agencies would finish their date code work on time. "The solution, unfortunately, is massive, painstaking and labor-intensive," Clinton said in a speech at the National Academy of Sciences. "It will take a lot of time to rewrite lines of computer code in existing systems, to buy new ones and to put in place backup plans
JWID demos become jewels
"The C4I technologies will boost interoperability," said Gen. Henry Shelton, Joint Chiefs chairman. The 1998 Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration begins a new chapter in the short history of the annual exercise designed to mine Gold Nugget—or outstanding—information technologies. JWID '98, sponsored by U.S. Atlantic Command, runs through July 30. Though this year's demonstration is smaller than last year's monthlong exercise, Defense Department officials are calling it a groundbreaking event.
Like an la carte menu, today's system management tools
System management tools are the glue that keeps an enterprise network together. Whether for software distribution or capacity planning, these tools are what systems administrators rely on to manage the computers on the network and often the network itself. The network has become such an integral part of the work environment that many system management vendors have added some network management ability to their products. Network management vendors have begun including system management tools in their
Flowchart app eases mail flow
With an eye to keeping costs in line, Postal Service officials have turned to diagram and flowchart software to streamline the sorting, processing and delivery of mail. "A lot of little improvements add up to a lot," said Cris Dreher, a USPS quality specialist. The independent agency launched the effort more than three years ago, because an organization with 800,000 employees can save millions of dollars a year from small changes, he said.
coming UP
Are you planning to give a presentation anytime soon? Will you need to explain, teach, train or persuade your audience? Check out the July 27 Super Buyers Guide to learn how the proper hardware can help you create a presentation that does more than just fill time. You might recognize government reformer John Mercer as the speaker in a new training video making the federal rounds. Catch Federal Data Corp.'s deputy director for government performance planning
Feds were hip to PC leasing before Seat Management
PC leasing had already picked up momentum before the General Services Administration awarded its Seat Management Program contracts this month. The Office of the Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs has a new blanket purchasing agreement for leasing in place and plans up to five more during the next month, said Kevin Friel, a contract analyst for OSDHA.
Faxes are low on Army's priorities list
Congress wants the Army to replace thousands of fax machines with new fax technology, but the Army envisions the digital battlefield of the future as one without fax machines. The Senate Armed Services Committee requested a report from the Army on the future of secure fax machines, including the cost of replacing legacy systems in the fiscal 1998 Defense Authorization Act. The Army, however, told the committee that fax technology doesn't play a big part in
Verification system sniffs out false subsidy claims
The Housing and Urban Development department is using a system to crack down on residents who receive housing subsidies illegally. The Tenant Eligibility Verification System (TEVS), rolled out nationally this year, collects recipient eligibility records filed with local housing authorities and checks them against Social Security Administration and IRS records, said David L. Decker, supervisory auditor for HUD's Office of Public and Indian Housing Controller. It also lets local housing authorities and HUD exchange the information
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