Defense database is under fire
The ABA's Section on Public Contract Law has concluded that the CCR program isn't broad enough. The program, which requires that all Defense contractors provide company data to DOD, should be governmentwide, not just Defense-wide, the ABA group concluded recently. "We are unclear why the proposed rule is being issued only by the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council and not jointly with the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council," said Marcia G. Madsen, Public Contract Law Section chairwoman
Microsoft backs away from tech support of NDS for NT
The areas of tech support affected are in NT user directory and security services, NT Server product managers said. Both areas are essential for use of NT's strong password option and for replication between NT domain controllers. Microsoft recently announced the tech support limitations through a market bulletin circulated to the company's field sales force. In the bulletin, the NT Server product team warned users that installing Novell Directory Services for Windows NT, a product
DOD is behind schedule in key date code size-up
According to DOD's third quarterly report to the Office of Management and Budget, DOD still is assessing code for 148 of its mission-critical systems. The department failed to meet its self-imposed June deadline for completing the assessments. The itemized list of these mission-critical systems is classified. In a November letter to OMB, deputy secretary of Defense John Hamre attributed the delay to the department's size, the variety of functions performed and the multiplicity of systems
So who's minding the store?
At least that's what participants said during the annual Government Information Technology Acquisition Conference held recently in Falls Church, Va. Amid widespread concern that a faulty buy could turn back the clock on procurement reforms, information technology contracting officers asked the Office of Management and Budget to step up supervision. But OMB officials demurred, saying that oversight belongs to agency CIOs.
Explorer 4.0 is easy to launch, unstable in use
Not long ago, character-based MS-DOS hid behind a Windows 3.x facade that sometimes crashed without warning in dreaded General Protection Faults. Internet Explorer 4.0 doesn't go that far, but it does follow the unstable, old-fashioned model of a shell on top of an operating system. When I made a full installation of IE 4.0 on a factory-fresh PC that had been working flawlessly for a week, Win95 began to hiccup and cough. IE 4.0 did
Washington Post buys GCN, other properties
The Washington Post also acquired GCN/State & Local, GCN Shopper, GCN's annual Contract Sourcing Guide and Reseller Management magazine. FOSE and Fed Imaging, annual information technology trade shows in Washington, were also part of the deal. Other publications in the PNBI group are Washington Technology, Integration Management and Tech Capital. The Washington Post is publisher of the Washington Post newspaper and Newsweek magazine.
Fed tests will soon show if NT, Unix can interoperate
Results from 60 federal pilots of OpenNT are expected early this year. Before the Defense Department or NASA approves any large-scale deployments, however, Windows NT 4.0 and OpenNT must first prove their prowess as interoperable platforms. The trials could last at least six months, government officials said. "The OpenNT product would let me get off Unix" and potentially save the Navy lots of money, said Capt. Michael Bachmann, program manager for the Naval TacticalCommand Support
To boost computer security, let's try tough love - As a society, we use criminallaws to control unwanted behavior.
People who break into computers can be jailed. But inadequate security makes many agency computers vulnerable. Studies document a continuing problem with computer security. We need to do better, and the traditional criminal law approaches are not helping. The current computer crime laws are directed only at those on the outside of the computer systems that we are trying to protect. The law may create a deterrent to dangerous or unwanted conduct.
Energy aims sights on ATM
The Multipoint, Gateway and Control-100 unit from Accord Video Telecommunications Inc. of Atlanta does proprietary transcoding that lets sites with different equipment and algorithms connect at their optimal speeds rather than at the rate of the lowest common denominator. The MGC-100 supports international H.320 video telephony standards and eventually will support the H.310 standard for ATM videoconferencing.
Army revs up its biggest iron
The Army center will receive the first Cray Research Inc. T3E-1200, a liquid-cooled supercomputer with 256 600-MHz Digital Equipment Corp. Alpha processor nodes and 16 internal system processors. Cray Research of Eagan, Minn., the supercomputing subsidiary of Silicon Graphics Inc., will deliver the machine with 139G of 50-nanosecond distributed RAM, 500G of internal disk storage and 1 terabyte of High-Performance Parallel Interface-attached RAID storage.
Official standards are imminent; it's time to shop for 56K modems
After a year of jockeying, modem makers have agreed to agree on an industry standard for 56-kilobit/sec modems. The big players, 3Com Corp., Motorola Inc. and Rockwell Semiconductor Group, will likely permit adoption of a preliminary determined standard for high-speed modems at this month's meeting of the International Telecommunications Union. This stage comes before a final, official standard.
Feds have $63 billion in spare change--the furry one has an open paw
Maybe it's a bit early to start spending a surplus that hasn't materialized yet. But the Rat doesn't want to risk letting Congress do something silly, such as giving it back to the taxpayers. He's been running his department on old cheese rinds for way too long. So, figuring it never hurts to ask, the cyberrodent started drafting a wish list for Santa Newt, who was so frugal with last year's budget.
Marines map out an IT master strategy
With all the talk about the Navy's Information Technology for the 21st Century initiative, the Marine Corps again seems in the shadow of its larger sister service. Not to be outdone, the Marine Corps has devised a plan for modernizing its IT systems for warfare in the next century.
Even PC users need to prepare for 2000
No, that isn't a typo. For many software programs, the so-called millennium bug will strike a year earlier than most people think. That's because programmers and users often have entered a "99'' in the year field to indicate an exception or incomplete date. So the end of 1998 could bring problems galore to all kinds of applications.
Telecom clears up over Pacific
The Hawaii Information Transfer System will give Hawaii-based military services units switched voice, switched data, Integrated Services Digital Network, and digital and analog transmission services at bandwidths of T1 and higher. "The current Oahu Telephone System is not able to provide ISDN services and the futuristic type data services. But when we bring up HITS, we'll start connecting our islands in the Pacific," said Norman Nazworthy, HITS program manager for the Defense Information Systems Agency.
Make sure it all adds up
Luckily, buying information technology is more subject to logic than buying stock in computer and software companies. I don't own Oracle stock, but I know. In the market aftermath--when it's common to view with suspicion everything up to and including the color of a company's wallpaper--observers questioned Oracle's network computer strategy. Some pundits consider network computing, as Ellison defines it, dead on arrival. Others think it's a good idea but note that an IP server
Navy site tries to make history
United States forces had launched Tomahawk missiles into Iraq, and the president would hold a 9 a.m. press conference to announce the strike. Goldstein hung up the phone, scrambled out of bed and hurried to his Pentagon office to post photos and text on the Navy's World Wide Web site at http://www.navy.mil so the public could view them by 9 a.m.
Of course the emperor has clothes--in Washington
The majority of GCN readers don't live in the greater Washington area. So, in an attempt to explain some of the inner complexities of Washington to those who live outside the Beltway, I have reworked a classic fairy tale. I offer my sincere apologies to the Brothers Grimm, but no royalties since their copyright has long since expired and their stories entered the public domain.
Installation problems make Exchange upgrade fall flat
The GCN Lab recommends sticking with the current Microsoft Exchange Server software and not upgrading to Version 5.5 until Microsoft Corp. fixes the installation application. Version 5.5 will likely work fine, however, if you intend to do a brand-new installation. The lab's transition from Version 5.0 was far from fault-tolerant--a virtue Microsoft has claimed for 5.5. In the end, a Microsoft engineer recommended we go so far as to reformat our server drive and make
Agencies lag in E-FOIA efforts
Plagued by limited funds, personnel and resources, agencies have found that although the Freedom of Information Act may be going electronic, many government documents are not. An informal GCN survey of 19 agencies found seven had not yet met E-FOIA's November mandate that agencies create an online reading room for frequently requested documents and document indexes.
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