Hoop dreams soothe harsh reality of remote systems management
March Madness has infected the Rat. No, it isn't the NCAA basketball tournament that's driving the cyberrodent into seasonal insanity. It's his section head's seasonal gullibility disorder. After attending a day-long sales pitch by a management software vendor, the Rat's boss has been chanting "lights-out management, lights-out management" as a prayer to the budget gods.
Expect only beta versions of Windows NT 5.0 this year
Whether the Windows NT 5.0 operating system brings revolutionary change to the enterprise or not, Microsoft Corp.'s survival rides on it. That's one reason the OS won't be rushed to market before early 1999. With server clustering (see story, Page 31), NT Server and Workstation 5.0 will make or break client-server computing. Many government sites are delaying upgrades until they see NT 5.0.
Oops--there's no tech refresh for IWS/LAN
Social Security Administration officials face a dilemma: kill a seven-year, $280 million contract with Unisys Corp. or risk protests by upgrading the contract's PCs without a technical refreshment clause. At issue is the Intelligent Workstation/LAN contract, an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity buy in its second year. Industry sources said if SSA were to let Unisys substitute faster PCs, IWS/LAN would turn into a sole-source acquisition.
OMB pushes year 2000 cost estimate up by $785 million
The government last week raised by more than three-quarters of a billion dollars its cost estimate for preparing federal systems to handle dates after Dec. 31, 1999. Based on the latest quarterly reports filed by agencies, the Office of Management and Budget now expects to spend $4.7 billion on year 2000 programs, up $785.5 million since OMB's last projection in November.
Quigley takes the helm of GCN publications
Frank Quigley is the new publisher of GCN and its associated newspapers, GCN State & Local and GCN Shopper. He succeeded Gary Squires. Before joining GCN, Quigley was publisher of Windows Sources magazine for Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. in New York. Before that, he was eastern advertising director of Ziff's PC Magazine.
Never fear, upgrades for newest systems advances are coming
Reader Jim Pratt of Fort McCoy, Wis., recently e-mailed me. "I have yet to see or hear anything to suggest Intel will offer an upgrade chip for the 200-MHz Pentium Pro," he wrote. "Now that 333-MHz Pentium IIs are out there, we Pentium Pro owners are feeling a little neglected. Can you shed any light on this situation?"
FAA's Donohue flies govt. coop
George Donohue, the Federal Aviation Administration's nominee for associate administrator, is leaving the agency to work in the private sector. Donohue was hired in 1994 to fix FAA's acquisition management system and modernize the air traffic control system, tasks at which he was successful, FAAofficials said. Presently the associate administrator for research and acquisition, Donohue joined FAA after a stint as vice president at the Rand Corp. of Santa Monica, Calif.
Help desk gets closer to users
Some National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees now report system troubles through a World Wide Web browser instead of making a telephone call. The Systems Support Branch in NOAA's Office of Finance and Administration assists about 650 users at four Washington locations handling finance, payroll, personnel and procurement, branch chief William Ross said.
Air Force bolsters net security
Despite recent hacker attacks, Air Force officials said they are confident that commercial security products can create a highly secure network and protect it from attacks over the Internet. The $1 billion Combat Information Transport System, which will be used at 108 air bases around the world, is undergoing modernization. The security products will protect the external connections to the redesigned CITS network.
Replacing a system is often a wise 2000 move
I have been retrained to understand that when a VCR breaks you have two choices. You may, in a fit of optimism, bring it to the VCR repair shop. You pay your $25 for an estimate and have the shop tell you it can or cannot be fixed. If it can be fixed, you must weigh an $80 to $100 charge for repair against buying a new, more-easily programmable model for the current price of
Print Studio beats office suites at some office tasks
It pays to buy a package that duplicates capabilities you already have--if it's much easier to use. Micrografx Inc.'s Draw6 Print Studio falls into that category. A Corel Corp. or Microsoft Corp. office suite can make World Wide Web pages, calendars, certificates and everything else Print Studio can make, but not nearly as fast or easily.
FAA probes citizen space race
Lower information technology costs have made it possible for private companies to develop space programs, a trend that has piqued the interest of the Federal Aviation Administration. Patricia Smith, FAA's associate administrator for commercial space transportation, said two commercial space facilities are already operating in the United States and more private companies are expected to join the space community.
It's about time to look at legalities of date code flaws
Superstitious people who believe that the cosmos is attuned to the Julian calendar expect a cataclysm of apocalyptic proportions when the calendar flips over to the year 2000. They probably don't have computer failures in mind, but software crashes are much more likely than earthquakes, deluges or collisions with asteroids.
Standard is set; XML awaits search engine for procurement info
Government procurement offices could be the force that pushes the Extensible Markup Language (XML) onto agency World Wide Web sites within a year. It's likely to happen that fast because XML can speed up searches for equipment and best prices. But we'll need new search engines to take advantage of it.
Remote-access servers protect your net
Now that most offices have at least one road warrior, the trick is to make network access efficient enough that users won't be tempted to construct their own back doors. Connecting modems to computers inside the firewall invites disaster. Few users worry about this kind of security breach, and the network administrator cannot see a hacker entering from behind the firewall until it's too late.
GSA figures show Dell as MAS sales leader
So far this fiscal year, Dell Computer Corp. has a $100 million lead on its closest competitor, Gateway 2000 Inc., in sales through Multiple-Award Schedule contracts. Citing long-standing questions about the accuracy of MAS sales figures tallied by the General Services Administration, industry analysts questioned the figures that GSA released this month. But GSA officials stand by the numbers.
SHARP(G) is MIA
What if they had a contract and nobody came? That is precisely what has happened with the ill-fated SHARP(G) contract administered by the Defense Department's Tricare Management Activity. The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity vehicle has been open for orders for more than six months but has generated not a lick of business--not one order, nada [GCN, Feb. 23, Page 6]. SHARP(G), which stands for Support Hardware and Automation Related Products (Generic), was designed to let military health
DOD task order system is ready for Iraq air strikes
If American warplanes eventually carry out air strikes against Iraq, Defense Department planners will use a newly completed system to pick daily targets and manage the air campaign. The Contingency Theater Automated Planning System is a portable network of workstations that links aircraft, weapons, terrain and target databases. The information is combined to create daily air tasking orders. Each day's ATO runs to several hundred pages and lists air strike targets.
$99 package can translate 25 languages with aplomb
One of Star Trek's most fascinating devices was the universal translator that let the crew communicate fluently with alien life forms. Many World Wide Web surfers today wish they had one for deciphering Web documents in different languages. Wouldn't it be handy to push a button on your PC and see a rough translation? Language Force's Universal Translator package makes it almost that easy.
It's OK if Java turns out to be just another programming language
I like Java. As programming languages go, it's relatively easy to learn, and its code has the virtue of running on several hardware platforms. Its strong object orientation lets me reuse my own code or build software from libraries of prewritten code. Of course, I could say all the same things about C and most of them about Visual Basic.
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.
Manage Consent Preferences
Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies
Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link
If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.
Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.
Cookie List
A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:
Strictly Necessary Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Functional Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Performance Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Social Media Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Targeting Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.