Software will test PCs, servers for 2000 readiness
New releases of PC asset-management software will include BIOS and real-time clock testing utilities that could help agencies avert PC failures in 2000. Some of the integrated suites can monitor for year 2000 readiness after they distribute fixes. Periodic monitoring almost certainly will be necessary to ensure that PC desktops and servers on a network remain year 2000-ready, said Chris Jesse, president of Tangram Enterprise Solutions Inc. of Cary, N.C.
Army tests a new hospital net | GCN
"The medical community is changing faster than a lot of industries." The Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center at Fort Gordon, Ga., is headquarters for the Southeast Regional Medical Command and for a pilot to improve networks in hospitals servicewide. The 13-story, 176-bed hospital has almost 15,000 inpatients a year and more than 60,000 outpatients. It provides consulting and referral services for the Army's medical service in the Southeast.
Today, everything comes down to the same thing: Are you ready for 2000?
The Rat continued to ply the summer trade show circuit, taking a fast train to Beantown for Database/Client-Server World, Focus on Windows NT, the Knowledge Management Conference and other assorted sideshows. He soon began wondering if it wasn't time for vendors to drop the term "client-server" entirely. Good thing the cyberrodent had other business in the Boston area, because his strong moral fiber would have prevented him from trying to justify the jaunt just for the conferences.
News Roundup
The Census Bureau has awarded Oracle Corp. a five-year, $12.17 million contract to help the bureau expand its financial, administrative and survey databases. The company will make Census databases and other applications available on the Internet so the bureau's field offices can share data. The bureau is licensing Oracle's enterprisewide software, including Oracle Database Server, Oracle Parallel Server and Oracle Application Server. The company will also provide Oracle Developer, Designer and Discoverer tools, company spokesman Michael Sperling
Martin takes over as Air Force CIO; Muellner retires
Lt. Gen. George Muellner, the Air Force's chief information officer and acquisition executive, retired late last month after nearly 30 years of military service. Lt. Gen. Gregory Martin replaced Muellner. Before becoming CIO, Martin was a major general and director of operational requirements for the deputy chief of staff for air and space operations at Air Force headquarters in the Pentagon. Martin, whose nickname is Speedy, is an accomplished pilot and master parachutist who has little
VA creates new chief information post
Keep the focus on veterans, says Harold F. Gracey Jr., VA acting assistant secretary of information and technology. The Veterans Affairs Department has created a new office to oversee systems and telecommunications. The head of the new Office of the Assistant Secretary of Information and Technology will also be VA's chief information officer. Current CIO D. Mark Catlett, who is also the department's chief financial officer, will become the assistant deputy
Gen. Hartzog, digital battlefield backer, to retire
Gen. William Hartzog, commander of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command, will retire in October after 35 years of military service. Lt. Gen. John Abrams, deputy TRADOC commander, will receive a fourth star when he replaces Hartzog. Hartzog has been the chief advocate for the Army's Force XXI battlefield digitization effort.
BDM will modernize EDGAR for $49 million
Under a three-year, $49 million contract, BDM International Inc. will modernize the electronic filing system it built for the Securities and Exchange Commission. The McLean, Va., company built the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval system, one of the government's first expansive electronic filing systems. "The EDGAR modernization will substantially improve the presentation, quality and structure of SEC filings," said Mike Bartell, SEC chief information officer. "Filers will realize reduced costs and effort associated with the preparation
Major HUD Programs
Major Programs HUD 2020—Information technology plays a big role in Housing and Urban Development Department Secretary Andrew M. Cuomo's management reform plan. The plan relies upon significant technology improvements in HUD information systems and expanded use of electronic communication with clients and companies that conduct business with the department.
House lawmakers feud over date code monies
A Capitol Hill power struggle has put proposed emergency year 2000 funds in limbo. A group of conservative House Republicans want lawmakers to offset proposed emergency monies with budget cuts. But House lawmakers are at odds over what constitutes an emergency. Under House rules, emergency funding requests don't require budget cuts. The fight has the overtones of a partisan battle, some industry analysts said, adding that some Republican lawmakers might be trying to use the year 2000 issue
Microsoft's vigilance makes it king of the desktop
The information technology architectures of most offices, including those of federal agencies, are written in Washington—Redmond, Wash., that is. Microsoft Corp. supplies 95 percent of all desktop PC operating systems and a majority of the software titles installed on them. Microsoft Windows NT networks are challenging Novell Inc. and other competitors in the LAN market. Microsoft has nearly wrested the browser market from Netscape Communications Corp. The integration of Windows 98 and Internet Explorer into a seamless
OFPP needs to move forward, inspire others
In naming a candidate for administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy at the Office of Management and Budget, the Clinton administration appropriately focused on finding a candidate to improve the government's procurement process. Former OFPP administrator Steve Kelman moved the office ahead with such speed and skill that he attained near-mythical status. But he's been gone more than a year.
Horn: Agencies will get funds for code work
The chairman of a newly formed House year 2000 task force said last week that Congress will give agencies whatever funds they need to fix their systems. Rep. Steve Horn (R-Calif.) and other Republicans also chided the Clinton administration about the government's progress on year 2000 work during a hearing of the House Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology.
Here's where to find the best ways to find anything on the Web
Faster Internet connections make a difference for serious Web searches, but software helpers can do better and are easier to acquire and install than, say, an Integrated Services Digital Network link. If you have to wait forever to get to hot links, try a browser accelerator. These handy utilities store locally the pages you most recently visited, but their best feature is preloading pages.
New systems sharpen investigative edge
GCN: What is information technology's role at the Drug Enforcement Administration? CAMERO: It is fairly substantial. I recall a number of years ago when the special agent in charge of the New York bureau was visiting headquarters. We were talking about the role of technology in his operation. His comment was very telling. He said, conservatively, 70 percent to 75 percent of the cases in DEA could not be made without the
BRIEFING BOOK
Experiment at sea. The Navy last month tested software that can let the service plan and coordinate joint theater air and missile defenses. The Navy used the prototype software, called the Area Air Defense Commander module, during Fleet Battle Experiment Charlie in the western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The module, developed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., lets a commander quickly gather data on missile and air attacks and
Data transformer package now works for enterprise
The individual spokes map-specific data to target structures. The Data Junction data transformer package, around since early MS-DOS days, now has a graphical Enterprise Edition that the company said can handle conversions from mainframe databases from IBM Corp., Oracle Corp. and Informix Software Inc. of Menlo Park, Calif.
LAB NOTES
Virtual Security on VPNs? A consulting company recently released a report that found major flaws in Microsoft Corp.'s implementation of its Point to Point Tunneling Protocol, which is used to create virtual private networks. The company, Counterpane Systems of Minneapolis, said in its report that the version of PPTP in Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT has security holes. Among the problems, Counterpane said, the operating systems base packet encryption on a user's password, which is
Bid it or ignore it
Is too much competition a bad thing? Some systems vendors apparently think so. The baldest example was a letter from the Coalition for Federal Procurement to Rep. Steve Horn (R-Calif.) asking that Congress kill a Transportation Department commodity systems and services contract [GCN, June 15, Page 69]. In the letter, the Washington coalition's president and executive director appealed to Horn, chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology, to halt
rat
The Rat took his annual masochistic jaunt to PC Expo in New York this month. Having set his expectations low, the cyberrodent wasn't too surprised to find himself wandering across a crowded wasteland: 10 acres of nothing new on the banks of the Hudson River. As usual, though, there were plenty of pagan rituals to watch.
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