Digital cameras bring a computer-photo synthesis to light
Along with Internet and intranet fever is the bug for digital cameras that's going around. These easy-to-use devices eliminate the drudgery of shooting 35-millimeter film, waiting for processing, laboriously running prints through your optical scanner, then working for hours in Adobe Systems' Photoshop or other image-editing software. For a computer hobbyist like me, whose other hobby is conventional 35mm photography, it's exciting to see a blend of computing and photographic technologies.
Briefing Book
That is how Maj. Gen. David Richwine, the Marine Corps' chief information officer, says he feels at the end of many a workday. Without intelligent e-mail filters that perform the incoming message triage usually assigned to human staff, Richwine thinks we'll all end up buried in "administrivia." Somebody has to start thinking seriously about this problem, he said last month at the Defense Department's Software Technology Conference (STC) in Salt Lake City.
IT offices too often harbor 'the managerial deadzone
Dilbert is not a cartoon; it's a documentary. This nationally syndicated feature depicts a complex mix of altruism and cynicism in the life of a software engineer. It seems that Dilbert's frustrations and occasional triumphs resonate with the experience of fedearl IT workers, if the frequency that the comic strip appears on their walls and doors is any measure. As a body, the cartoon series could be called "Dilbert's Guide to Managing Information Technology."
Before the Flood
When they're finally all in place, agency chief information officers will have a bewildering array of issues facing them. As we reported in our April 29 issue [Page 1], two-thirds of these important jobs remain vacant even as the Aug. 8 deadline approaches. Agency decision-makers ought to get off the stick.
Browsers limber up only to clutter your drive, tracking mud
If you like to experiment with Microsoft's Internet Explorer or Netscape Communications' Navigator, you're familiar with the incredible flexibility of Web browsers today. Plug-in modules add even more flexibility, letting you view special files and sometimes full applications right inside your Web browser. This seems so practical and gee-whiz fun that most people ignore an important side effect--file management nightmares for your enterprise.
The buying detective finds out how to use a fee to cover costs
The Federal Middle-person Agency (FMpA) has announced the new fee schedule for access to government buying activities. King Oxnard, procurement detective, was dispatched to interview the head of FMpA. This is his exclusive report: KO: You are Constant Leigh Fleecum, acting director of FMpA, is that correct? CLF: Yes, and you're just in time to witness the unveiling of our agency's new logo, voila!
Veterinary Service takes waiver on DSS, embraces RSA instead
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is the first agency officially to exempt itself from the government's Digital Signature Standard to use commercial signature application. Instead of the mandatory DSS, the Veterinary Service at APHIS will rely on the digital signature program from RSA Data Security Inc. in Redwood City, Calif., already embedded in the forms application the service uses.
IT budgets approved, agencies go shopping
After seven months in budget limbo, agencies are poised to leap into a year-end IT shopping spree--for off-the-shelf items at least, vendors and industry analysts predict. But agencies are likely to keep some of their biggest information technology acquisitions on ice until late summer, when the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals finally cedes its jurisdiction over IT bid protests to the General Accounting Office.
A workstation broadens the Desktop V mix
With the award this month of the Desktop V contracts to Hughes Data Systems Inc. and Zenith Data Systems, the Air Force appears to have succeeded in stretching the customary definition of the PC requirements buy. Hughes will supply a 64-bit reduced-instruction-set-computing workstation and not a PC for its high-end desktop system. E.O. Knowles, president of Hughes Data Systems, told GCN his company bid a 166-MHz AlphaStation 200 4/166 from Digital Equipment Corp. for advanced
Large-screen PC not quite ready for conference room
The Destination Big Screen PC is looking for a place to go in the government market. With its 31-inch monitor that doubles as a television, jet-black Pentium CPU, wireless keyboard and remote mouse, the $3,499 Destination may revolutionize home computing. But the concept doesn't go far enough yet to spark a similar revolution in the conference room.
Overzealous criminal investigations abound
Everyone supports prosecution of a crook in the public contracting community--whether it is a corporate official who offers envelopes of cash or a public official who, while making big decisions about a contract, asks a would-be contractor for a job. But I see too many inappropriate and overzealous criminal investigations of government and industry people involving investigative tools and power more suited to busting La Cosa Nostra than your local software buyer or seller.
Hackers wreak havoc on systems
Ah, spring. The Rat, enjoying relief from the worst winter on record, has been observing the time-honored rites of the season: cherry blossoms, high pollen count and courtship rituals among phreakers and hackers. The Rat is taking advantage of the season to do some spring cleaning and change all his PIN numbers and passwords. A rodent can't be too careful in this dial-up, Webified world. Just ask New York's finest.
Olympic system will show NWS' mettle
The National Weather Service is using this summer's Olympic Games in Atlanta as a testbed for advanced forecasting technology. The Olympic Weather Support System, which will provide detailed forecasts for areas as small as a two-kilometers square, is an example of what NWS can do given the resources, said Lans P. Rothfusz, meteorologist in charge of the Olympic Weather Support Office in Peachtree City, Ga.
What's your take on CASE tools and the Win95 help screens
Is CASE closed? Federal data center managers haven't gotten much help from computer-aided software engineering tools on the year 2000 problem, caused by early Cobol programmers who never expected their software--or their computers--to be around in 2001. The ledger now seems to be nearly closed on CASE. Has anyone had a thoroughly good experience with a CASE tool? If so, please drop me a line at the address below.
Unsettled market
In one of the color flyers in my Sunday newspaper a couple of weeks ago, Page 4 showed a Hewlett-Packard Deskjet 600C printer for $249. On Page 9 of the same flyer, the same printer was $239. These days you never know when you're getting the best deal. The incident--symptomatic of the craziness of the PC market--somehow reminded me of the General Services Administration and how much energy it's putting into promoting the ""new'' Multiple-Award
Expect vendors to modify products slightly for agencies
The big winners in the latest round of procurement overhauls are surely sellers of commercial items. As defined by the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act last year, such items include commercial products modified to meet government needs and a few types of commercially offered services. Now new provisions, enacted as part of the Defense Authorization Act of 1996, will make it easier to buy and sell such items.
Treasury, GSA agree on FTS cutover plans
The Treasury Department and General Services Administration last week reached a broad accord on when and how Treasury users will shift to AT&T Corp.'s portion of the governmentwide FTS 2000 network. Sandra Bates, assistant commissioner for service delivery in GSA's Federal Telecommunications Service, said Treasury has agreed to move all its dedicated and consolidated locations using FTS 2000 switched voice services from Sprint Corp.'s Network B to AT&T's Network A by the end of next
For now, GSBCA still has jurisdiction over ADP bid protests
Agency attempts to challenge the jurisdiction of the General Services Administration's Board of Contract Appeals are premature. Agencies must abide the board's authority under the Brooks Act a bit longer. The Defense Commissary Agency and the National Library of Medicine both disputed the board's authority and asked it to set aside recent protests. The agencies made their cases on other grounds, but neither justified their arguments that the board lacked jurisdiction.
Timing is everthing for Intel's powerful multimedia chip
What a horrible thought--all those brand-new, 133-MHz Pentium machines you just ordered are about to go obsolete. Why? Because Intel Corp. has developed a super-multimedia Pentium chip with nearly 60 new instructions to multiply video and multimedia performance as much as fourfold. The multiprocessing capabilities of the Pentium MMX (multimedia extensions) chip aren't just for home game computers. What should you expect from the upcoming 200-MHz Pentium Pro MMX?
Two-thirds of CIO posts remain vacant
The government's new information technology management scheme takes effect in three months, but so far only five of the 15 Cabinet agencies have named chief information officers as mandated by law. President Clinton ignited the management make-over when he signed the 1996 Defense Authorization Act, which repealed the Brooks Act and eliminated the official IRM executive in each agency. The 1965 Brooks Act put GSA in charge of federal computer procurement and laid out an
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