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.
VRCreator helps novices, experts create virtual-reality scenes at a low price
VRCreator lets you design World Wide Web pages, online presentations or training programs in which users can walk through and manipulate objects. VRCreator follows the Virtual Reality Modeling Language 2.0 standard. A VRML tool is to virtual reality as word processing is to text reports with embedded graphics, or as Hypertext Markup Language programming is to hypertext documents.
House date code watchers shine light on selves
Some members, House computer specialists and the Inspector General's Office are complaining that the work has been slow so far. They cautioned that if House leaders do not commit adequate financial and political capital to the project, the work may not be finished on time. The House's slow progress with the year 2000 problem is attributable to many factors, said House staff members familiar with the issue.
New Defense CIO will weave IT, buying
Gansler, former director of Tasc Inc. of Arlington, Va., was sworn in Nov. 10 as DOD's new acquisition and technology chief. The same day, Defense Secretary William Cohen announced plans to implement DOD reforms, including a reorganization of the office of the assistant secretary of Defense for command, control, communications and intelligence that gave Gansler CIO responsibilities as well.
This year, larger LCD screens on portable computers will rule
Flat-panel LCD displays have transistors built right into the screen from cheap, amorphous silicon splattered on the glass. They aren't very good transistors, but they do the job. The active-matrix class of LCD displays has behind-the-screen control circuits made of slices of crystalline silicon, just like memory and other chips.
Get hip, cop some more e-mail accounts--you know what I'm sayin'?
You too could probably use a second or third account for times when your mail server is down or you can't easily get into your mail on the road. The newest free e-mail accounts are available from the World Wide Web site at http://www.yahoo.com. Other free mailbox sources such as Juno, Hotmail and RocketMail have been available for some time.
Project managers get a hand
KnowledgePlan 2.0 from Software Productivity Research of Burlington, Mass., measures three variables in software development--cost, quality and schedule--using a knowledge base the company has built over years of software consulting. Unlike its Checkpoint predecessor, KnowledgePlan requires no expert knowledge of how software function points relate to programmer productivity. "To get this into lots of hands, we needed to simplify the interface and put in more wizards," company president Charles Douglis said.
FAR Part 15 rewrite leads to confusion as much as conclusion
I am of two minds about the revised Part 15 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. For that matter, the new rule seems to be of two minds. It points in opposite directions on several important issues. The schizophrenic nature of the new regulation appears in its first change. According to the rewrite, "All contractors and prospective contractors shall be treated fairly and impartially." So far, so good.
FAA corrects system bug, averts holiday travel crisis
FAA recently found and corrected a date-sensitive bug that would have brought the Enhanced Traffic Management System (ETMS) to a halt Nov. 2. "What we learned with this problem will be invaluable to us as we work on the year 2000 problem," said Bob Voss, FAA's chief of air traffic management.
NIH gives long-distance care
That's the task of a telemedicine project in the Information Systems Department at NIH's Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center. NIH set up the center in 1948 to bring patient care closer to its research facilities. Now videoconferencing has put the clinic in touch with other research centers, and remote doctors and their patients in touch with NIH experts.
SSA posts date code help
A date code database, developed by the Social Security Administration, will open for browsing Dec. 1, SSA officials said this month. The home page for the site, at http://y2k.policyworks.gov, is active now. "We are doing a lot of testing in the federal government and thought this could be a way to share that information," said Kathleen Adams, SSA assistant deputy commissioner for systems.
Biz opportunity knocks online
"This type of thing is not unusual in industry,'' said Michael O'Hara Garcia, chief information officer for the Commerce Department agency. "We wanted to get a system to match contracts with minority businesses that could fulfill them.'' In the past, local minority development offices would try to find out about contracts and alert businesses, Garcia said.
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