Treasury's Flyzik gets down to business
The appointment capped a months-long process during which Treasury's top echelon sifted through dozens of applications for the vacancy created by the departure in January of the department's first CIO, Wushow "Bill" Chou. Flyzik said his promotion, which had been expected for months, does not add to his power but that it will have other advantages.
Coming soon: 233-MHz MMX notebook PCs
Leading vendors such as Compaq Computer Corp., Dell Computer Corp., Gateway 2000 Inc., IBM Corp. and Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. plan to upgrade their notebook computers for government buyers as early as October. Formerly code-named Tillamook, the chips had 20 percent to 30 percent faster performance on Intel benchmarks than the 166-MHz Pentium MMX did. The 166-MHz chip was until now the fastest processor for mobile computers.
Make sure FTS 2001 is continuously competitive
The General Services Administration currently has the solicitation for the successor to the FTS 2000 telecommunications program on the street. FTS 2000, conceived in the mid-1980s, was a great success. It saved the taxpayer lots of money, provided good service and demonstrated a model of continuing competition between two winning vendors.
Tender care will bring valuable data resource to life
Begun in December 1994 with the issuance of Office of Management and Budget Bulletin 95-01, this well-intended but unfunded requirement depended on commercial investment in unproven technologies. During the past two years, federal agencies have struggled to understand and implement this networked information service for "structured metadata for agency information sources," as the bulletin describes it. With such a complex requirement and no money, it is little surprise that GILS has had trouble getting off
Los Alamos buys Web-style with AMS app
Lab users with Java browsers running under Microsoft Windows, Macintosh and Unix can send requisitions, receive approvals, obtain status reports and route requests using American Management Systems Inc.'s PDWeb. AMS of Fairfax, Va., built the PDWeb requisition and workflow module into its commercial Procurement Desktop application at Los Alamos' request.
System keeps tabs on trainees
The Corps manages the training for these weekend warriors, who train one weekend per month and up to 20 days per year, on a budget of $20 million. Last year, reserve units deployed to Haiti, Bosnia, Okinawa and Australia for joint training with the Army, Air Force, Navy, active-duty Marines and NATO forces.
VA office takes surveys online
A Veterans Affairs Department office has responded to the National Performance Review's call for performance measurement systems by adopting electronic surveys to measure customer satisfaction. Charles "Dick" Potter, a management analyst in the Performance Analysis Service at VA's Budget Office, said he likes Raosoft 3.2 from Raosoft Inc. of Seattle because it can do things that would usually be done by hand, such as tabulating results of open-ended or narrative questions.
Let's all open the book again and mark off our favorite Web addresses
Earlier this summer, I told you about my favorite bookmarks for finding government information and conducting government business on the World Wide Web [GCN, June 16, Page 55]. I asked you to share your favorite bookmarks--not necessarily the flashiest sites but ones that draw you back to relevant information presented in an understandable way.
CRI-X reads disks in real time
Two large Defense Department projects managed by Lockheed Martin Corp. and McDonnell-Douglas Corp. are beta testing the CRI-X software, CD ROM-USA Inc. president Roger Hutchison said. One by-product of the Golden, Colo., company's compression process is an extremely high level of data encryption. Another by-product is "a proportional benefit, so that the more compression you get, the faster the retrieval is," Hutchison said.
TSM shapes up as bidders' duel
Teams led by Lockheed Martin Corp. and Computer Sciences Corp. have emerged as the "prime" contenders for the multibillion-dollar TSM contract, IRS chief information officer Arthur Gross said. In working with industry over the past few months, IRS has held many meetings with members of the Lockheed and CSC teams, he said.
DOD policy pushes buying power down into trenches
The IT acquisition policy replaces the interim plan, the Information Technology and National Security System IT Acquisition Oversight Policy, that the department issued in August 1996 just as ITMRA took effect. Although Defense has made progress implementing ITMRA, much work remains, according to Defense Secretary William Cohen, who helped author the law when he was still a member of the Senate.
HHS tries buying on the Web
Ecweb.net, developed by EC Web Technologies of McLean, Va., does all the electronic data interchange translation, so agencies can use their EDI infrastructures. At the other end, vendors need not invest in EDI software or work through a FACNET value-added network. "The acquisition people like it a lot better because of the wide range of vendors" they can reach, said Amen Hillow, head of HHS Information Technology Services' Systems and Network Management Group. "You don't
If Java just doesn't jibe, maybe you're missing the applets' real appeal
"So, in the words of the Human Torch, 'Flame on!' " the Rat quoth. The caffeinated one likes Java; there's no secret about that. And it has nothing to do with his fondness for a good, cup of black coffee. Considering the many systems he supports, the write-once, run-anywhere idea has a certain appeal.
IRS enrolls in contract school
When IRS unveiled its long-awaited Tax Systems Modernization blueprint this spring, one of the first questions was: What's the cost? To help keep the TSM price tag low, Treasury Department officials said they turned to an office that has proven its usefulness. Treasury and IRS will rely on the Treasury Acquisition Institute for training TSM staff.
If it looks and smells like a contract, is it a contract? Ask GAO
The suspicion that the Federal Supply Service's nonmandatory, multiple-award, indefinite-quantity, indefinite-delivery information technology contracts really are contracts seems to be playing out in the protest decisions of the comptroller general. In recent GAO decisions of protests from Severn Companies Inc. and LA Systems Corp., the comptroller general wasn't even subtle.
HHS unit distills its IT wisdom into free booklet
The agency, part of the Health and Human Services Department, last month began distributing a self-assessment tool for high-tech upgrades and IT needs, to 2,900 community health care providers. It also will give the workbook to any government agency. Claude Earl Fox, HRSA administrator, said the 172-page booklet lets organizations that don't want to hire consultants examine IT needs on their own.
IBM voice input package is OK for nontypists
Nontypists will prefer Simply Speaking to one-finger keyboard entry. Decent typists probably will find this Microsoft Windows 95 program more trouble than it's worth. To translate what you say into text, Simply Speaking comes with a microphone headset and VoicePad, a re-engineered version of Microsoft Windows' WordPad. Simply Speaking does not let you launch applications verbally or dictate directly into a word processor like its big brother, VoiceType Dictation. Instead, you must use VoicePad to
Lava's serial port may bring 56-kilobit/sec modems closer to speed
The summer doldrums are over, so you won't be reduced to reading my long-threatened column about cute things my dogs have done. An interesting new product that might boost the disappointing performance of the new 56-kilobit/sec modems and other serial port devices is the LavaPort 16650 UART, a chip-based serial port from Lava Computer Manufacturing Inc. of Rexdale, Ontario, Canada.
Don't sacrifice performance on the road
Just substitute one system for two. You can pack all your files when you travel and save $1,000 to $2,000 overall, depending on the notebook docking combo you choose. While your notebook is docked at the office, you'll have all the trimmings, including 166-MHz Pentium MMX performance that rivals full desktop systems.
FAA will replace system for small-plane tracking
FAA plans to use the Operational and Supportability Implementation System (OASIS) to store weather information and track warning messages for private aircraft. Under the 10-year OASIS contract, Harris of Melbourne, Fla., will replace the Model 1 Full Capacity (M1FC) mainframe computers at 61 large FAA sites and several small facilities.
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