Some agency Web pages were not on furlough this time
Congratulations to all agencies that made the effort to keep their Internet servers up and running during the furlough. Face-to-face and telephone services might have been out, but much of on-line government remained functional. It reflects well on agency personnel that, of dozens of government Web and gopher servers I tested in January, only a handful failed to respond. Those I couldn't reach included the Census Bureau at http://www.census.gov and the Environmental Protection Agency at
DOD News Briefs
Science Applications International Corp. may have snared information security hot shots Mike Higgins and Ken van Wyk, but the Defense Information Systems Agency had expertise in reserve. Higgins, former chief of the vulnerabilities staff at DISA's Center for Information Systems Security, has been replaced by Ken Danckaert, a National Security Agency employee and former deputy commander of the center. Ken van Wyk's successor as chief of CISS' Vulnerabilities Analysis Assessment Program is Army Lt. Col.
Hot-potato report advises DOD to outsource all its processing
T he Defense Department would save at least $1 billion over 10 years by consolidating its data processing at six industry-run megacenters, according to drafts of an independent study now circulating among senior Pentagon systems officials. The study, conducted by Coopers & Lybrand, was commissioned last May by Emmett Paige Jr., assistant secretary of Defense for command, control, communications and computers. He asked for the study after suggesting to Congress that DOD would consider outsourcing
AF decree: Win95 is Desktop IV upgrade
The Air Force has decreed that Microsoft Windows 95 is a software upgrade under the terms of the Desktop IV contract and must be provided free to as many as 300,000 users. The Desktop IV contractors are required to provide free software upgrades for all systems they sell through the contract. The multimillion-dollar contract has brought 486 and Pentium PCs bundled with Windows 3.x and the Microsoft Office suite to desktops throughout the military services
Without IT Service, agencies are left to their own devices
Although the Brooks Act remains in effect for now, the General Services Administration is sloughing off its systems procurement oversight authority like so much dead skin. The first wave came last month when--without the expected law change--GSA Administrator Roger Johnson approved an organizational change dismantling the Information Technology Service and shifting most of the ITS oversight staff to running GSA's own systems. Yes, GSA still must grant agencies authority for any IT buy greater than
Changing th FAR won't necessarily change the rules
Every now and again, what passes for truth in the acquisition business is much stranger than fiction. As an example, consider a plan to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation by deleting a sentence. The removal of this sentence has been proposed by none other than--no kidding, folks--the Department of Defense Procurement Process Reform Process Action Team.
The real train wreck
The most recent month-long furlough would have been bad enough without the probability, at this writing, of yet another shutdown after Jan. 26. As more than one observer pointed out, once a new low is reached, as it has in the 1996 budget negotiations, there's the danger of its becoming routine. Just as presidential appointees are regularly ""Borked,'' shutdowns of indeterminate length threaten to become a routine part of budgeting, at least when the government
Test Drive: No user should be without the utility that peeks
Quick View Plus for Microsoft Windows 95 is one of those utilities you wonder how you ever got along without. Previously known as OutsideIn for Windows 3.x [GCN, July 3, 1995, Page 33], it's now offered by Inso Corp., which bought developer Systems Compatibility Corp. earlier this year. The $49 utility opens files so you can peek inside without needing the application that originally created them. Support for Windows' Object Linking and Embedding 2.0 lets
Test Drive: Lotus Notes 4 is like a daisy-now you love it, now you don't
I love Notes, I hate Notes, I love Notes. Notes users know what I mean. This groupware can assemble a team scattered around the country to do otherwise impossible tasks quickly and efficiently. Then there's the rest of the time, when Notes moves like a slug uphill. The best thing about Notes 4.0 is that only changed fields are replicated between documents. You'll never again have to wait while an entire 10K document replicates after
Agencies face serious game of catch-up when shutdown ends
Although the second government shutdown was affecting fewer agencies and government personnel than the first, the impact proved more focused and intense for some federal computer operations. Nine cabinet departments and 38 agencies and commissions had their doors shuttered as a result of the budget showdown. Information technology officials at some of those agencies said the shutdown, which passed the 20-day mark last week, would have significant repercussions for their operations.
Intelligence systems designers combat wartime snafus
If the Defense Department had a better intelligence data network, Capt. Scott O'Grady might not have been shot down over Bosnia. That was the implication of reports, leaked in the days following O'Grady's rescue, indicating that a U.S. intelligence agency had detected anti-aircraft missile batteries in the area O'Grady was scheduled to fly over before he ever took off. For reasons unknown, that information failed to reach him in time.
AF and DT IV contractors still asking: Is Win95 an upgrade?
As users debate the pros and cons of Microsoft Windows 95, Air Force Desktop IV contractors have a more pressing debate under way: Must they foot the bill to supply the new operating system for hundreds of thousands of existing federal PCs? Desktop IV stipulates free software upgrades for all systems installed during its life. However, Microsoft Corp. calls Windows 95 a "migration" to a 32-bit platform, which leaves the definition of an upgrade open
The CASE files
The demise of the I-CASE program says a lot about what's going on in the Defense Department when it comes to software. I-CASE--for integrated computer-aided software engineering--was designed to impose a uniform methodology and toolset for all DOD software development. It took five years from conception to award in April 1994. Yet last month DOD brass reduced the ambitious program to merely an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for software products in the I-CASE catalog.
DOD News Briefs
Bowing to the pleas of sleep-deprived bidders still cooking up appetizing proposals, the Defense Information Systems Agency again pushed back the deadline for bids on the bandwidth manager portion of its Defense Information Systems Network acquisition. Bids were due last Tuesday, Jan. 2. Proposals for the $400 bandwidth management contract, considered the technical cornerstone of DISN, originally were due Oct. 30. DISA pushed the deadline to Nov. 17 and then Nov. 30. According to DISA
GSA dismantles its IT Service
The General Services Administration is dismantling its Information Technology Service and has put ITS chief Joe Thompson in charge of GSA's internal systems strategies. The move took place last month after the Clinton administration decided not to wait for enactment of procurement reform legislation that would strip ITS of most of its governmentwide oversight responsibilities.
Adopt-a-surplus-PC program earns an A in nation's schools
Worget camouflage tents and build-it-yourself jeeps--the hot military surplus item these days is a battered 286 PC. The orphaned offspring of the Reagan-era procurements that introduced tens of thousands of military staffers to the computer age are piling up all over the Defense Department. Many of the PCs are being left behind at facilities shuttered by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, but most have been pushed aside by newer equipment.
Defense drops bomb on lofty I-CASE plan
The Defense Department is abandoning any plans to make the Integrated Computer-Aided Software Engineering environment a mandatory DODwide standard for software development. Instead, the $670 million I-CASE contract held by Logicon Inc. will become an indefinite-quantity contract for individual CASE tools and products, senior DOD and industry officials said.
Let Web bots do the grunt work
If you want to know the World Wide Web today, talk to a robot. So-called bots are a cheap source of labor if you'd like to stay up-to-date on various kinds of information but don't have the time to search hundreds of Web home pages every day. Also known as Web-walkers, spiders or wanderers, these software agents fall into two types: personal bots set up and operated by end users, and bots offered by Internet
Dear Santa: Feds have visions of Pentium dancing in their heads
What if Santa--presumably more benevolent than, say, Newt Gingrich--made stops at agencies across the government? What would all those good program managers and systems execs like to find under their office trees? For starters, Santa had better forget musky colognes or lime-green sweaters if he wants to make Defense Department techies happy.
Tax Systems Modernization gets $300 million less than IRS wants
To far, the biggest systems loser in the fiscal 1996 budget negotiations is--once again--the Internal Revenue Service. Congress approved and President Clinton last month signed a Treasury appropriations bill that allocates roughly $300 million less than the $1 billion the agency had requested for its Tax Systems Modernization program. What's more, Congress created a new commission to review the overall plans for TSM.
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.