Here's an easy upgrade for old but adequate PCs: new hard drives
Memory chips are fairly cheap now, and more memory usually boosts performance of Microsoft Windows applications. But installing memory is a delicate job that administrators may hesitate to try on an office full of PCs. If your applications run fast enough, consider upgrading your office's hard drives to accommodate today's Internet downloads and huge office suites. The disk capacity you bought a few years ago is probably pretty crowded by now.
Animation packages deliver the message with graphics, images
As the government perceived even then, animation sometimes is the only way to make a point succinctly. What explains a structure better than an animated walk-through? How else could you train workers to maintain aircraft that's still in the design stage? We're not talking about World Wide Web animation but about animated sequences that enliven presentations, help engineers visualize their work, and train workers for tasks that couldn't be described in a million words, let
Seat management draws near
LANCASTER, Pa.--By October, the General Services Administration will issue its final solicitation for agencies to buy a desktop's worth of computing services. GSA's Seat Management project calls for vendors to supply a full suite of desktop processing tools with agencies never having to install or take ownership of the PCs, hardware, software and peripherals. GSA officials are prescribing a series of technology classes and service bands for agencies to tailor buys based on user needs.
Middleware unifies publishing
Although the Standard Generalized Markup Language promised the same thing many years ago, converting all documents to SGML proved too time-consuming, said Bill Thornburg, vice president of publisher markets for Dataware Technologies Inc. of Cambridge, Mass. Dataware's Electronic Publishing Management System (EPMS) can accept documents in many non-SGML data formats, including active news feeds, by later this year. The text-based repository for the finished documents is an SGML document store, which maps non-SGML documents to
Over the long haul, the vendor's vision gains importance
GCN Lab staff held discussions with vendors of each of the three reviewed office suites to find out about their future directions. They told us that the Internet, thin clients and easier administration will be hallmarks of future suites. Here's how we graded their product vision. Vision grade for Corel WordPerfect Suite: B
False Claims Act misuse undermines its power
The False Claims Act (FCA) is an important weapon in the government arsenal against fraud, but, like any weapon, it is equally subject to abuse when used in the wrong situation. FCA permits triple actual damages and additional damages of $10,000 per invoice that constitutes the false claims. How does it work? Assume for the moment a vendor in a General Services Administration Multiple-Award Schedule contract negotiation negligently fails to disclose some piece of sales
Strong integration makes Netscape Communicator 4.01 a more robust Web tool
This version of Communicator rolls e-mail, newsgroups, Internet browsing, push and pull technology and Hypertext Markup Language creation into one integrated package. Plus, it has a fix for the security bug recently reported in many browsers. The Standard edition includes Navigator 4.0, the Messenger e-mail utility, the Collabra newsgroup reader, the Page Composer HTML editor and Conference, a powerful replacement for CoolTalk.
DOD combo fits one platform
"This demo is all about system integration," said Air Force Lt. Col. Tomasita Lahue, commander of the Pentagon's Combat Support Operations Center. "At last year's Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration, we were able to show some of the capabilities that we are showing today, except they were shown on separate platforms," she said. "Today, we're blending the operational command and control picture and the combat support picture on one platform."
Joint Staff urges DMS team to drop X.400-only approach
The high-level review team recommended expanding DMS, which is built around the international X.400 message protocol, to a dual-protocol architecture that would include the Internet's Simple Message Transfer Protocol. The review called an inclusive architecture a more flexible implementation of DMS that would not restrict the potential 2 million DOD users of DMS to the X.400 infrastructure.
EC group forms new chapter
CommerceNet, a nonprofit consortium of IT companies and Internet service providers, has formed a Washington chapter to promote federal EC initiatives. The new CommerceNet Northeast group is working with officials from the General Services Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Social Security Administration, the Defense Information Systems Agency, the Defense Logistics Agency and NASA to launch a series of pilot programs using the Internet to handle all aspects of electronic procurement.
Final 2000 regs are out
The government has turned back the clock to craft a standard procurement regulation for ensuring that all agencies buy commercial products that will work come 2000. The rule takes effect in mid-October. Borrowing from a warranty clause developed last year, the FAR Civilian Agency Acquisition and Defense Acquisition Regulations councils have refurbished the government's year 2000 rule regarding agency and vendor obligations for guaranteeing that federal systems will perform date and time processing tasks after
Revisions again delay FTS 2001 bid deadline
The moving target that has become the bid deadline for FTS 2001 proposals just jumped again by 30 days. General Services Administration officials said they will make a major revision this fall to the request for proposals for the long-haul telecommunications contracts. The already delayed bid deadline will move to Oct. 29, officials in GSA's Federal Telecommunications Service said.
New MAS policy promotes pre-award audits
But General Services Administration officials said the new MAS policy set for release last Friday modifies schedule oversight rules to stress pre-contract award audits while curbing requests for commercial sales records. "I believe we have clarified a number of things," said Ida Ustad, deputy associate GSA administrator for acquisition policy.
Surprise! Look who's got the best suites
This has been a banner year for new releases of the three leading office suites: Microsoft Office 97, Lotus SmartSuite 97 and Corel WordPerfect Suite 8. Microsoft Office has enjoyed a healthy federal market share without serious competition for the last couple of years. Lotus SmartSuite seemed to be floundering, but under IBM Corp.'s ownership, it is showing new strength. WordPerfect Suite, bought and then sold by Novell Inc., has finally become a version Corel
Army learns to drive on PCs
The Army Military District of Washington based its Defensive Driving Course-Personal Computer (DDC-PC) training on the National Safety Council's defensive driving workshop. Army personnel who drive General Services Administration-issued vehicles must take the training every four years. There are 35,000 active duty and civilian personnel in the district, said Cheryl A. Humbolt, safety and occupational health director at Fort McNair, and about 70 percent need training to drive nontactical military vehicles. More than 3,000 of
Voice recognition package says yes to 'Can we talk?'
Consider me impressed. It isn't perfect, but NaturallySpeaking is an advance over earlier speech recognition software. It took 30 minutes of reading a Dave Barry book aloud to train it to understand my voice.Some other recognition applications take as long as three hours to enroll, and their chosen text is less entertaining.
DISA changes to CIP routers
The Defense Information Systems Agency is midway through changing its megacenters to a routed environment. DISA expects to save on hardware and software maintenance as well as line charges by replacing mainframe front-end processors with routers equipped with Channel Interface Processors (CIPs) from Cisco Systems Inc. of San Jose, Calif.
Lay a Web site foundation before you start to build
Dilbert's pointy-haired boss suddenly appears at your desk and says, "I want a World Wide Web page for the unit. Make it interesting and just as impressive as the others on the agency server." First try pinching yourself to wake up. But if it's real and not a nightmare, what do you do?
Former senator to join IT security team
President Clinton has named Sam Nunn, the former Georgia U.S. senator, as co-chairman of the advisory team to the White House commission established to assess threats to the nation's computer infrastructure. Clinton also appointed Charles R. Lee, chief executive officer of GTE Corp. of Stamford, Conn., David N. Campbell, president of BBN Technologies of Cambridge, Mass., and Elvin Moon, president of E.W. Moon Engineering & Construction Management Industries of Los Angeles, to serve on the
A little ribbing goes with the territory in blazing new trails
As many of you know, Dr. K has been the Fearless Leader, Lord High Pooh-Bah and Instigator General at the National Federal Bureau of Buying Stuff Policy. He has done many things of note during his sabbatical from his post at the Very Important President School of Benign Despotism.
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