Diagnosis for First Aid 97: Beef up hardware diagnostics
The interface had a Win95 look and feel, but the underlying code remained firmly rooted in the Windows 3.x world [GCN, July 15, 1996, Page 40]. One year later, First Aid 97 has a more sophisticated back end and a more refined interface. The tool fills a niche for government users who lack technical support and techies who crave diagnostic tools.
FTC gets earful from NASA, forces nasa.com off the Web
Soon thereafter, Internet domain registrar Network Solutions Inc. of Herndon, Va., pulled the plug on the nasa.com domain. The real NASA site is at nasa.gov. NASA, citing the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, threatened legal action last October against Host Networks of Hewlett, N.Y., the owner of nasa.com and other government-style domain names.
With a satellite, gain speed on the Web, but you must pay the price
Hughes' DirecPC, marketed by many resellers, is a $500 package that comes with an ISA interface card for your PC and a 21-inch satellite dish designed for home installation. Dish and installation costs are only the beginning. Monthly fees range up to $130 per month for unlimited access. In addition, the per-megabyte download fees will raise users' eyebrows.
Hill, Treasury clash over bills to restructure IRS
Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) and Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) introduced identical IRS Restructuring and Reform Act bills based on the recommendations of the bipartisan National Commission on Restructuring the IRS. Kerrey and Portman were commission co-chairmen. At least three House and Senate committees, the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means and Finance committees, will review the bills. They will schedule hearings after Congress returns from its August recess.
Get the upper hand when faced with spam overload
Spam. For many, the word evokes fond memories of opening a tin of Hormel spiced ham at camp. But for those of us on the Internet, spam is a four-letter word of ill repute, the term used for those unsolicited--and unwanted--mass-mailed messages that clog our in-boxes and consume precious hours of time to read and delete.
Let government marketplace dictate MAS use
Several years ago, at the behest of the Clinton administration and in bipartisan fashion, the Republican-led Congress passed a procurement reform bill. In the bill was a provision permitting, but not requiring, state and local governments to buy goods and services through the General Service Administration's Multiple-Award Schedule. For those who keep score, the process began with Section 1555 of the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act. It was a generous and appropriate act, letting states and
Fed buyers try leasing their IT from resellers
Through leases ranging from a few thousand dollars to several million, agencies have begun using the new option available on more than a dozen General Services Administration schedule contracts. So far this year, GSA has given 15 vendors approval to lease products under Multiple-Award Schedule contracts. Last month, the Defense Department Health Affairs Office at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., agreed to pay $258,000 to lease 100 Dell Computer Corp. Dimension desktop systems from
Data mart makes a PowerPlay
The New York consulting firm will deliver its Performance Executive data mart and query tools this fall, following a beta test of the client-server software this summer in Wade County, N.C., and elsewhere. Peat Marwick built Performance Executive's data model and warehouse around its 29-year experience in federal, state and local government systems design, said William Blaustein, a partner in Peat Marwick's Public Service Practice.
GSA's Ortego takes NFC director post
John Ortego is the new director of the Agriculture Department's National Finance Center in New Orleans. Ortego, deputy assistant commissioner of the General Services Administration for Information Technology Integration, will assume his duties later this month. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman cited Ortego's experience in devising innovative IT procurement initiatives--such as the pending seat management contract for desktop computing services contract--as key in his appointment.
Intranet links command staff
"Through the intranet, we provide the mechanism for the senior leadership to make decisions quickly by giving the right information to the right people at the right time," said Air Force Lt. Col. Richard Anderson, chief of the command's JX Unit. Via its intranet, users at USACOM can share information freely among the command's eight directorates, Anderson said. The intranet gives the staff improved access to timely and accurate information, he said.
About to buy a firewall? Read this first
Guarding publicly accessible areas such as World Wide Web sites is as important as protecting an internal network. So managers need something between these areas. That's where a firewall comes in. A firewall's job is to enforce a network access policy by monitoring all traffic going to or from the network. The firewall should let through only the traffic authorized by the security policy and should itself be immune to attack.
Procomm Plus 32 is boffo but it limits users to a single browser
The dial-up capabilities include terminal emulation, file transfer, fax, remote control and scripting to automate communications sessions. If you intend to use the Internet tools, then pull together the names of your e-mail and news servers, log-on names and other data before installing the package. Unless you're familiar with your LAN, go through a dry run first. Keep a pencil and paper handy to note what information you're missing on various screens.
Don't be easily wooed by all this lovely talk on commercial buying
The program manager for the Cyclical Modular Upgrade of All Things Digital has just received an e-mail. Actually, she received it two years ago and is taking the month of August to catch up on her reading. The e-mail is from the GS-2 contracting officer. The function has become significantly less than clerical over the years because only commercial items are being bought. The traditional elder has been replaced by a part-time high school sophomore
Foil thieves with CompuTrace
The General Services Administration regional office in Atlanta has bought 150 copies of CompuTrace, a theft prevention program from CompuTrace Inc. of Vancouver, British Columbia, for its notebook users. GSA paid less than $3,000 for the software through an IMPAC card purchase in June, said Noel Walton, a GSA contracting officer.
Navy will spend $2.9b on its nets
The winners of the Voice, Video and Data (Vivid) contracts were AT&T Government Markets of Washington, Bell Atlantic Federal Integrated Systems of Washington, GTE Government Systems Corp. of Needham, Mass., and Lucent Technologies Inc. of McLeansville, N.C. After receiving news they had won contracts to provide only local telephone services, AT&T and Bell Atlantic withdrew. GTE won a contract to provide long-haul hardware, software and services. Only Lucent won a contract to supply all goods
USPS moves to a TCP/IP net
"At the stroke of midnight, I had my wife in one hand and a keyboard in the other, watching the network die," said Rick Yost, telecommunications program manager at the USPS National Network Service Center in Raleigh, N.C. On schedule, the IBM Systems Network Architecture network went offline and the new WAN went into business, with PCs replacing dumb terminals to run applications on mainframes at USPS data centers. The TCP/IP conversion was the first
Private vs. public? In contracting, the details are the deal
Certain core functions are the sole province of government. No one expects to see foreign policy handled by a contractor, although the government is often willing to pay for advice. Recently, however, more and more jobs are mentioned as outsourcing candidates. Vendors are running public schools and doing other novel things.
Honesty on the record
Lord knows that in journalism we hear enough of it--and not just from the government either. That's why I particularly enjoyed some recent GCN stories in which folks said what was really on their minds--for the record. I give my first award for honesty to Elizabeth McClenaghan, chief information officer for the State Department, who told GCN she loses sleep thinking about the department's year 2000 software problems. Maybe the tone is set by Secretary
Ergonomic keyboard holder prevents wrist strain
The solidly built AKP Adjustable Keyboard Podium will hold your keyboard, mouse and even mouse pad in the wrist-neutral position that relieves repetitive-motion strain. You can sit or stand at the AKP and roll it about to give presentations. The height adjusts via a lever-controlled, gas spring cylinder similar to those on office chairs.
The government lags behind on Internet spending
First, let's summarize what the report said. GAO spent a year collecting data on expenditures in fiscal years 1994 through 1996 for Internet and BBS activities, the number of government World Wide Web sites and BBSes, and the number of employees with Internet e-mail and Web access. The expenditure data for Internet and BBS activities were estimated because agencies do not typically account for these activities separately.
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