Agencies push IMPAC IT buys to new heights
Charges on the popular federal Visa card grew to more than $4.8 billion from $2.9 billion in fiscal 1996, and transactions rose to 11.5 million from 7.3 million in 1996, according to the U.S. Bank of Minneapolis. The bank's subsidiary, Rocky Mountain Bank Card System, issues the cards through a General Services Administration program.
Congress threatens a strategic plan redo
Originally, the GPRA called for submission of the plans every three years. But House leaders said the plans are inadequate and need fixes sooner. "Most agencies do not seem to know where they are, where they are going or how to tell if their programs are improving the nation in tangible ways," House Majority leader Richard Armey (R-Texas) said.
Census counts on doc system
"With all the documents that Census has converted into electronic form, there's a strong need for such systems," said Janette Mon, a project manager at the Economic Planning and Coordination Division in Suitland, Md. The division conducts an economic census every five years and compiles monthly, quarterly and annual updates on business activity in the construction, manufacturing, minerals, retail, service and wholesale industries.
CEMT hits a home run with its domain name registration services
CEMT, part of the General Services Administration, took over registration services for all .gov addresses Oct. 1. Since then, it's had about 60 inquiries about new .gov names. The online registration forms appear on the World Wide Web at http://registration.fed.gov. Obviously, it's not an overwhelming volume of requests that makes this effort a success. There are only about 500 .gov domain names. But the service offers something that wasn't available back when contractor Network Solutions
Download files without bandwidth bother
Many new users limit themselves to the graphically presented information on the Net. As they gain experience at finding information, however, they grow impatient with bandwidth-wasting and time-wasting graphics, sounds and animations. They start getting into protocols. This article is not about the Internet protocols referred to collectively as TCP/IP, which are so technical that fooling around with them is like trying to modify your modem.
Court ruling will lead to broader records storage
GRS 20 was issued in August 1995 by the National Archives and Records Administration to cover the disposition of electronic records. The controversy leading to the court case was over provisions that let agencies print electronic documents, file the hard copy as the official record and delete the electronic version.
Use ColorSafe1.1 filter plug-in to draw up Web-safe palettes
I soon discovered that World Wide Web browsers such as Mosaic, Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer can use only 216 distinct colors out of a 256-color palette--and not the most visually pleasing ones, either. When you design a page that has a color not in the 216, what users see varies depending on their browsers and platforms.
Norton's Uninstall Deluxe deals with pesky, misplaced apps
Microsoft Windows Dynamic Link Library files don't want to disappear, executable files can't be removed and links won't let go. All that misbehavior was supposed to cease under Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT, which have a Registry file that's like a Motor Vehicles Department for computer applications. When a Win95 or NT application is installed, it makes entries about itself in the Registry file so the operating system supposedly knows everything it needs to
Speed bumps slow e-mail routes on Capitol Hill
At agencies, correspondence can often be ignored without major consequence. But members of Congress neglect voters at great peril. Capitol Hill is a special case in the ongoing adaptation to communicating via e-mail. There are some real problems and perhaps some lessons for other parts of the government. Congressional offices are vast mail machines. A distressingly large percentage of the staff spends its time sorting and answering mail.
The sky's the limit at Defense
"If you look at what drives the engine of the information age, I would argue that it is driven by space. In the information age the lines of communication will no longer run on the surface of the Earth but they will run into space," said Air Force Gen. Howell Estes, commander of service's Space Command, at the MILCOM '97 conference this month.
USPS will spend $14 billion to keep IT edge
USPS needs to spend more money on IT to ensure private-sector competitors such as DHL, Federal Express and United Parcel Service will not siphon off USPS' business, Postmaster General Marvin Runyon recently told the service's Board of Governors at a September meeting in Boston. "There are those who do not want a strong Postal Service," Runyon said. "It is clear: 1995, 1996 and 1997 will go down as the best three years so far in
Let 'em type
You'd have thought he proposed leading in a camel by a nose ring, given all the indignant and bipartisan opposition he aroused. It turns out there is a Senate rule barring mechanical devices on the floor. Maybe the rule was written in a time when senators dueled, and they wanted to keep pistols out of the chamber.
Visions Corp. changes the face of the PC security
Try Visionics Corp.'s FaceIt PC 3.0, which works with a digital video camera to secure a desktop computer against intruders. The GCN Lab staff members were skeptical at first. After all, OCR and voice recognition are still not mature technologies, and face recognition applications are greener still. FaceIt surprised us--pleasantly.
Semper Mobilis--Marines test Windows CE for battle
During Gates' keynote speech, Marine Corps Maj. James C. Cummiskey of Camp Pendleton, Calif., said the Corps has tested the Microsoft Windows CE 1.0 operating system on what he called Marine-resistant handheld computers. The Corps used the portables last summer to feed near real-time situational data to troops over wireless intranets.
Dell's OptiPlex is first with a tower that's easy to open
Not anymore. Dell Computer Corp. has improved on what we thought was already an administrator-friendly system with a minitower chassis for the easy-access OptiPlex line. The OptiPlex GXa has only one button. When you press it the side panel opens. The interior, as in previous OptiPlex models, is neat and accessible with a card cage for three PCI, two ISA and two shared PCI/ISA slots.
DOD will recognize IT management structure
Under the organizational changes, the office of the assistant secretary of Defense for command, control, communications and intelligence [ASD(C3I)] will split into separate C3 and intelligence components, while the undersecretary of Defense for acquisition and technology will take over duties from the ASD(C3I) as DOD's chief information officer. Jacques Gansler was sworn in Nov. 10 as the new undersecretary of Defense for acquisition and technology. He is the former executive vice president and director of
Hey Larry, you better rethink Oracle's grand plan for selling the NC
During downtime, he happened to see the most incredible piece of fantasy ever to air on television: Oracle Corp.'s advertisement for its network computer. Based on the ad, the cyberrodent figures NC must stand for "no clue." Oracle's ad showed a kid in a housing project coming home to the friendly glow of a network computer and participating on an equal footing with rich kids in a chat room, which seems to be equated with
Geiger: Civilians add continuity to Navy
Continuous Acquisition and Lifecycle Support practices have transformed naval logistics in only a few years, according to Cliff Geiger, the service's chief logistician. The outgoing assistant deputy chief of naval operations for logistics spent more than 25 years in the Navy before his Nov. 6 retirement. He reported to Vice Adm. William Hancock and helped oversee an OPNAV staff of 160 with a budget of $10 billion a year.
Adopting China's ideals could cure office ills, but workers would see red
"My networks would really buzz," he mused as Jiang explained once again how the Chinese had emancipated the Tibetans and raised their standard of living. Utopia revisited The Rat drifted off into megalomaniacal fantasies. Why, if it weren't for all the clutter in the Constitution, he could even use Bureau of Prisons labor for his help desk.
DOD three-star wants to fine bandwidth hogs
If DOD doesn't find a way to constrain its communications demands, supply will never catch up, said Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Buchholz, the Joint Staff's director of command, control, communications and computers systems, at the MILCOM '97 conference last week. How would the tax work? Simple, Buchholz said. He gave an example of an office presenting a system plan to the Joint Requirements Oversight Council and saying it requires 5 megabytes/sec of throughput, when the
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