Navy decimates data overload
Under contract with the Navy, Muse Technologies Inc. of Albuquerque, N.M., will adapt its Multidimensional User-oriented Synthetic Environment (Muse) to cut training time at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center and improve sonar interpretation and decision making. The Navy requested a version of the multisensory Muse environment to run under Microsoft Windows NT on the desktop PC. The Unix-based shell software, which includes user interface tools and controls for interactive devices, currently runs only on high-end
Out hunting, Power User nabs big game at bargain-lover's price
I recently got my hands on a 233-MHz MicroFlex Pentium II with 64M of memory, 56-kilobit/sec modem, large hard drive, large low-radiation monitor, nice keyboard and other goodies priced to make a miser smile. You may not know the maker, Micro Express of Irvine, Calif., because it isn't a leading government vendor. But it also isn't one of those instant PC companies that appear and then disappear next month. It's been around for years selling
Smaller, stronger--Internet devices edge closer to Star Trek
The most exciting gadgets are handheld devices that support TCP/IP, the Net's underlying communications glue. Getting the most attention these days is 3Com Corp.'s $350 PalmPilot Professional. Read about it at the World Wide Web site http://palmpilot.3com.com/. The Professional lets you dial up your network with an optional modem and check mail and schedules from anywhere on the Internet. Developers are working on Internet news readers and intranet search tools for the device.
Put 'C' in CIO
Consider the progress on four seemingly unrelated initiatives: Viewed as a group, these items create an unflattering picture of a bureaucracy that's strangely out of sync with the mandates and policies under which it should be operating. A closer look shows a bureaucracy operating under competing forces it can't control.
Transport becomes an IT lab
The Coronado has a unique shipboard environment for testing computers, communications and other information technologies, Navy officers said. As the test bed for the Joint Maritime Command Information System '98 program, the Coronado pioneered the Navy's use of Pentium PCs running Microsoft Windows NT for the service's Information Technology for the 21st Century initiative.
Reservists lead ATM charge
"We are in the process of switching over from [the Reserve Component Automation System] and moving everything to the ATM backbone," said Lt. Col. Philip E. Vermeer, the Guard's Technical Division chief. Plans call for wiring 112 classrooms by March and 600 more by 2000, putting all reservists within a 60-minute drive of an interactive distance-learning center.
Will Katzen retain year 2000 oversight?
But some lawmakers and industry officials said last week that the White House is considering keeping Katzen in charge of year 2000 oversight. The White House announced this month that Katzen, administrator of the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, will become the deputy director of the White House's National Economic Council.
Consolidation drives evolution of dispute boards
Risk, of course, raises the issue of potential costs. To cover them, companies have to charge higher prices for their goods and services. To limit the risk, we have to make sure that the dispute resolution system is sound. Although the contracting community has been swept by a tempest of procurement reform in recent years, the dispute resolution structure--not associated with bid protests--has remained intact.
Defense adds IP to the DMS mix
Defense previously based compliance on the X.400 and X.500 international standards. The goal was to ensure all products would meet DOD's messaging and directory service requirements. Besides X.400 and X.500 high-assurance products, the Defense Information Systems Agency will add medium assurance messaging products based on secure, interoperable commercial standards for Internet and World Wide Web services.
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.
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