Internet, Intranet, bandwidth, storage: The mantra is 'more'
Communications people have a herd mentality. Two years ago, at a NetWorld+Interop in Las Vegas I attended, all the vendors were reciting the ATM mantra. I remember sharing a bus ride from the hotel to the show with an Israeli visitor. I popped him the question everyone was asking: What's the silver-bullet application that will really launch asynchronous transfer mode? He looked at me incredulously. "It's already here," he said. "The Internet."
Easy-to-use Net tools might make us all page-building fools
Wouldn't it be great to just click on a button and make the word processing, spreadsheet, database and presentation files you've spent so many hours perfecting all Internet-ready for your agency's Web server? In its quest to become a player in the Internet market, Microsoft Corp. has released a set of free, downloadable tools to do that. They're so easy, even your boss can use them. You'll look like an expert in the Hypertext Markup
Go West, young Rat,and beware the Web bandwagoneers
The developer faithful made a pilgrimage on Tax Day, gathering in Los Angeles for Microsoft's TechEd conference. The city was waiting to greet them. One visitor nearly was carjacked at knifepoint, and the LA Convention Center's doors were cut open so computers could be stolen. It was as if IBM owned the town, the Rat mused.
They could be monitoring your every Web move
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. That is a slogan from a world described by George Orwell in his book 1984. The watching was done by the Thought Police through the telescreen, a television monitor that received and transmitted simultaneously, observing every action of each individual within its sight. Orwell offered a chilling vision of a future world.
With InContext's WebAnalyzer, you can peek behind the scenes
Web site analysis seems to be hot right now, with several companies introducing products to help Webmasters control their ever-expanding page collections. InContext WebAnalyzer for Microsoft Windows 95 deserved a look because of its price: At $149, it could pay for itself by saving just a few hours of management time. After testing it, I realized this tool could do much more than just save time--it gave me an overview of GCN's Web pages that
Don't expect to see new federal IT standards
Top officials at the National Institute of Standards and Technology are asking the agency's computer experts to stop devising standards and instead become experts in conformance testing. NIST officials said they will work more closely with industry and standards organizations to design tests to determine whether products comply with standards. Rather than lay down rules, agency officials said, they want to give computer users the tools to become smarter shoppers.
Briefing book
Air Force Brig. Gen. John Meincke is the new commander of DISA-Western Hemisphere, the Defense Information Systems Agency division that runs the Defense Department's 16 regional data processing megacenters and manages the deployed portions of the Defense Information Systems Network. If senior DOD officials have their way, Meincke will have the unenviable job of further consolidating the megacenters, perhaps contracting out some work to vendors. Meincke, who most recently was director of mission systems and
New rules, old complaints: SSA aquisition encounters protest
The Social Security Administration is accepting requests for Personal Earnings and Benefit Estimate Statements (PEBES) through its World Wide Web site. Anyone whose Web browser has the Secure Sockets Layer can ask for a PEBES electronically. For now, SSA mails out the statements to preserve confidentiality. When better security and electronic signature capability are in place, SSA will respond on line.
Keep your Social Security number as secure as possible
It has not only my picture, but also my Social Security number, my date of birth, my employer and, of course, my name. Should my badge fall into the wrong hands, I could lose my savings, my credit rating, my house and even my job. If I wanted to harm someone, I'd rather have his ID badge, loaded with such personal data, than know his greatest, darkest secret.
Don't close U.S. courthouse doors to protests
The Defense Department and Office of Federal Procurement Policy are seeking to finish off a legislative agenda by getting rid of Scanwell suits. What's this all about? In the government contracts arena, we have grown accustomed to specialized courts, such as the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals. For the past few years, the thrust of public policy has been to elevate efficiency at the expense of due process and judicial checks on the
Info Share now is a ghost of its grandiose self
For all intents and purposes, the Agriculture Department has done away with the Info Share program. Info Share still exists as a smaller project within the department's broad Field Service Centers Implementation Plan. But it no longer is the ambitious scheme USDA officials laid out more than five years ago to integrate the department's administrative and program systems from the top down.
DMS is facing revolt by its intended users
Even as the Defense Message System nears initial operational capability, targeted users are warning that they won't use it unless time-consuming security procedures are revised or eliminated. The Defense Department designed DMS a decade ago as a replacement for the aging AUTODIN message system. Since then, office PCs and unclassified Internet messaging have proliferated.
DOD Briefing Book
Loral Corp. last month won a $16.2 million contract to produce 68 additional tactical engagement simulation systems for the Army. The contract is a follow-on to Loral's Laser Engagement System/Air-to-Ground Engagement System II contract. The Army will use 62 of the systems to simulate flying in the AH-64A Apache helicopter. The other six will be used to simulate the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter during advanced warfighting experiments for the Army's Force XXI digitization program.
Agency Internet fairs dole out awareness rather than ribbons
You won't find an apple pie or a prizewinning heifer at an agency Internet fair, but you might bring back a wagonload of ideas. Several agencies now organize annual Internet fairs to fire up employee interest in sharing public information. A cross between a town meeting and a high school science fair, they usually take place in a cafeteria or lobby with a temporary phone line to the Net or a connection to the building's
LapLink has bulked up with Win95
Playing with the multifunctional LapLink 7.0 for Microsoft Windows 95 turned out to be a mixed blessing for this fan of streamlined software. LapLink made its reputation as a fast, cheap way to move files between PCs without a network. The only requirements: proprietary communications software installed on the PCs, plus distinctive yellow-and-blue cables to connect them.
Govt. buyers, vendors eye EDI links via Net, bypassing VANs
NEW YORK--Electronic commerce in the government now relies on value-added network (VAN) providers to deliver solicitations and execute purchases, largely because of systems incompatibility between buyers and sellers. But on the horizon are EC products that would bypass the VANs and let government buyers interact directly and securely with suppliers over the World Wide Web.
Duck! The Rat, at a trade show, collects eggs and throws some
The Rat spent last week coaching the ratlings for the annual White House Easter egg roll and setting his e-mail filter to screen out all hype of messianic proportions. That was almost easy to do, thanks to the now-finally-no-longer-vapor Microsoft Exchange messaging software that bounced into the bunker. The Exchange developers were so proud that they all took the time to autograph each box of software sent to the press. The Rat imagines their pride
Fairness should go first to the customer, not to the contractors
OK, here's an image: A man standing in front of a dollar-bill changer, an intravenous bottle and several portable electronic monitors in tow. On the face of each of the monitors is a slot over which the legend "Quarters Only" appears in bold type. A sign on the door reads "VA Hospital."
On port street, SCSI will be hit by the Universal Serial Bus
It figures. Just as our SCSI and SCSI-2 connections finally were causing fewer conflicts, SCSI is on the way out. That's right, we have another standard coming down the pike--two of them, in fact, and both look like good bets. I'm talking about the new Universal Serial Bus (USB) I/O architecture that will provide a single four-pin, 12-megabit/sec connection for mice, keyboards, joysticks, scanners, printers, digitizers and even telephones.
Soldiers take their offices to the battlefield
When soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, conducted their largest-ever battlefield exercise over 10 days in February and March, they didn't have to give up any of the office capabilities they're accustomed to back at the garrison. Forty soldiers with minimal training set up more than 60 Microsoft Windows NT servers to handle 500 desktop and laptop clients in the field. The client machines ran standard word processing, e-mail, file transfer, scheduling, presentation graphics and database
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.
Manage Consent Preferences
Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies
Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link
If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.
Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.
Cookie List
A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:
Strictly Necessary Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Functional Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Performance Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Social Media Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Targeting Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.