The library is open 24 hours
The system at http://thomas.loc.gov has become a well-known World Wide Web resource for bills, the Congressional Record and committee proceedings. The library chose InQuery software from Sovereign Hill Software Inc. of Dedham, Mass., to perform Boolean and relevancy searches in Thomas as well as the Library of Congress' American Memory Collection.
Mirror sites let NASA keep Mars in view on Web
NASA officials said they were prepared for the popularity of the Mars Pathfinder's World Wide Web pages and have set up mirror sites to handle the deluge of visitors from around the world. Between July 4, when Pathfinder landed and began snapping pictures, and July 9, the Pathfinder Web pages logged 265 million hits.
Let's find a new CEO who will transform Apple down to its core
Think of all the fun commentators will be missing. The Rat certainly is. Apple Computer Inc.'s chief executive officer departed just after the Rat had received an advance for The Gil Amelio Joke Book. Example of the punnery: Why does Gil Amelio need someone to drive him? Because he has a lack of vision.
FTS 2001 bid deadline slips 2 months as vendors squawk
Once again, the General Services Administration's $5 billion FTS 2001 procurement is facing delays as the agency continues to iron out disagreements with vendors over the requirements. In its most recent move, GSA extended the bid deadline. Proposals are now due Sept. 29 instead of July 31. Federal Telecommunications Service commissioner Robert J. Woods said the postponement was necessary because "all the likely players have asked for extensions in one form or another."
Compaq's 133-MHz Armada shines in video
Compaq Computer Corp.'s Armada 1550DMT bears little resemblance to earlier portables with 133-MHz Pentium processors. Just for clarification, I'm talking about regular Pentiums-not MMX chips. The Armada's GCNdex32TM benchmark scores showed a bipolar split unlike anything we've seen before in the GCN Lab. Some scores were very high, others very low.
Starfish Software offers a $20 grab bag of utilities for users
The $20 Internet Utilities 97 from Starfish Software is like a grab bag for geeks. It's stuffed with utilities, some more impressive than others. Individually, most of the tools don't match up to their commercial or freeware rivals. But the grab bag holds a couple of winners and, as a whole, the collection is indubitably useful.
OMB demands IT architectures
The Office of Management and Budget has laid down the law: Agencies must set systems architecture plans within a year or the administration will rein in information technology funding during the fiscal 1999 budget process. In a new IT architecture guide, OMB said agencies must show how systems investments will promote interoperability, eliminate duplicative operations and bolster security.
Bundling Web pages could make future surfing much faster
What actually happens, of course, is far more complex. I didn't go into detail earlier because there's little more that users or even webmasters can do to speed things up. Loading speed depends on how the Hypertext Markup Language pages work their way through the layers of Internet protocols. It isn't the amount of information on the Web page that matters so much as how efficiently it moves across the Net.
Software bloat
Its sheer immensity, complexity, ambiguity and incomprehensibility make it a scourge on the economy and on people's lives. Its mas- ters tinker with it constantly to benefit vested interests, yet they proclaim the changes are for the public good. In fact, the whole thing sounds like PC software. Software on the average PC is so bloated and conflicted that any given user is on the verge of a crash at any time. If systems don't crash, then annoying
Army is set to kick off $1b networks upgrade
"DSSMP will replace older electronic switches that were put in in the last 10 to 15 years that aren't ISDN-capable. It will provide a vehicle to put in metropolitan area networks, ATM and LAN emulation technology at installations worldwide," said center director Thomas Michelli. "It includes the most mundane telecommunications up through the latest ATM Synchronous Optical Network capability," Michelli said.
MathSoft package mines data
The package visually models data on desktop computers, said Shawn Javid, director of marketing and business development for the Cambridge, Mass., company's Data Analysis Products Division. Besides statistical modeling, S-Plus can do nonparametric modeling, clustering, classification and summarization of data. The package runs on any Microsoft Windows 3.x, Windows 95 or NT platform with 16M of RAM, and it works with Open Database Connectivity-compliant databases. Javid said versions for five Unix platforms are in the works.
Bring in big guns for virus eradication -
How about a minute and a half a day? That's the time it takes to do daily virus scanning of executable files. There's no need to remember to scan, because most programs can be set up to execute automatic scans. The GCN Lab staff took a look at five anti-virus programs designed for end users to run under Microsoft Windows 95. We tested the programs on a Hewlett-Packard Co. Vectra VL 166-MHz Pentium PC with a 1.2G
Jot notes, check e-mail, travel light with MessagePad
If you liked the earlier Newton except for its slow response, you'll love the MP 2000. Its 162-MHz reduced-instruction-set-computing processor operates much faster than other personal digital assistants (PDAs). Newton Inc., Apple Computer Inc.'s newly spun-off subsidiary, has targeted four markets for the MP 2000: health care, sales, service and delivery workers.
DOD swaps shopping advice
The Defense Department measures the success of its Standard Procurement System program in increments. DOD's Major Automated Information Systems Review Committee has approved the first of three incremental SPS software enhancements for use at 137 contracting sites throughout the department. The software from American Management Systems Inc. of Fairfax, Va., will let DOD contracting offices within the Army, Navy, Air Force and Defense agencies swap data with other organizations in the department.
Gauss to leave DISA after 3-year duty tour
Air Force Brig. Gen. Gary Salisbury will replace Gauss. Salisbury last worked at the U.S. Transportation Command at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., as director of the Joint Transportation Corporate Information Management Center. Before that, Salisbury was commander of the 38th Engineering Installation Wing at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla. "I feel very good about my successor, and I'm not saying that because it's the politically correct thing to say," Gauss said.
Why not make GSA Advantage the online catalog?
Can a commercial company make a Web shopping mall fly? Years ago, American Airlines' fabled Sabre system showed how the owner of a system can use it to put its competition at a disadvantage. It is easy to stack the deck by sorting competitors at the end of the search results. We would need more than one of these sites to keep the market fair.
GILS report tells how to evaluate Web usage
As interesting as the GILS report might be, even more compelling is one of its appendices that details innovative work done by the authors in measuring World Wide Web site usage. Every webmaster should pay attention. There is now a way to find out more about your users and the way they use your Web site.
Oracle leapfrogs petabyte barrier with release 8
Oracle databases can balloon up to 500 petabytes-500,000 terabytes-before they hit the ceiling of Oracle Corp.'s new object-relational database management system. Current federal Oracle users should see immediate performance and scalability improvements when they upgrade to Oracle8, even if they don't need its object features, said Tim Hoechst, vice president of technology for the Oracle public sector group.
Groups clash over mapping agency's role
When users and producers of federal mapping data met recently, sharp disagreements arose over how information technology can best meet national policy demands. It was with some trepidation that Defense and civilian agencies viewed the creation last October of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, which combined Defense Department and intelligence mapping organizations into a single group. Though NIMA's outreach efforts have somewhat alleviated anxiety, tough talk on Capitol Hill about NIMA budgets is generating new
Aratsy-craftsy new uses for hardware will keep the kids happy at home
A mid-Atlantic heat wave has taxed the wiring, and stifling humidity keeps the cyberrodent busy mopping condensation off the walls of his home command bunker. An even hotter threat to the Rat's peace of mind goes unchecked: The ratlings are home all day now. And the Rat has found himself spending a lot more time working at home after recent problems with toxic fumes at his office bunker.
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