By the numbers
Remember the musical, 'Annie Get Your Gun'? Nowadays, Annie would have to pass a computerized criminal history background check to buy a firearm. The National Instant Criminal Background Check system last year rejected 136,000 applications from among more than 7.8 million applications, a 1.7 percent rejection rate, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Another View: OMB's e-authentication policy isn't fully baked
A recent GCN editorial urged the Office of Management and Budget to complete its work quickly on revising its draft e-authentication policy, which closed for public comment in August. I would say, 'Slow down a bit so we can make a good product even better.'
The successes
For the past 15 years, Government Computer News has recognized agencies that do outstanding IT work'work resulting in improved service, processing efficiency and mission delivery. The coveted GCN Awards For Excellence in IT, which go yearly to 10 agencies selected from a field of more than 100 nominations, are given out at an annual gala in Washington.
Managers fret about security for wireless units
When the subject is wireless technologies, security vulnerabilities are what first spring to the minds of government IT managers.
OMB directs agencies to post grants
Starting Nov. 7, agencies will post all grant opportunity announcements on <i>www.grants.gov</i>, the Office of Management and Budget directed today.
Customs CIO Hall to retire
S.W. 'Woody' Hall Jr., who has led IT modernization efforts at Customs and Border Protection in five years as assistant commissioner of IT and CIO, will retire on Nov. 1. <br>
OMB officially names Haycock chief architect
The Office of Management and Budget officially hired Bob Haycock as its first chief architect.<br>
With 10g, Oracle latches onto the grid
Oracle Corp. is retooling its flagship product to embrace the grid-computing concept of pooled computing resources.<br>
Industry Executive of the Year: Weinbach's sharpened focus revived Unisys
Unisys Corp. was in a near shambles when Lawrence A. Weinbach took over in 1997.
Civilian Executive of the Year: Cooper brings a clear sense of mission to a complex task at DHS
The explosions of Sept. 11, 2001, touched off a series of events that led to the creation this year of the Department of Homeland Security.
Defense Executive of the Year: Boutelle's vision kept the military connected in Iraq
During the Iraq war, the Army's battlefield communications flowed with unprecedented speed and reliability, keeping nearly every soldier connected, Defense Department officials have said.
GCN Hall of Fame: Cohen changed the course of federal IT
Try to imagine today's federal IT without the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996.
Locator serves up a family's just desserts
For 15 years, a Washington state businessman paid his taxes but failed to send a single child support check to his ex-wife and three children'twins and a child with cerebral palsy.
Child support gets a support system
For five years, Northern California child support enforcement officials tried to collect child support checks from a surgeon whose debts topped $300,000 and whose home address kept shifting.
USDA furthers modernization with hardware buys
The Agriculture Department has bought more than 26,000 PCs since July from Gateway Inc., one of three vendors supplying hardware for the department's infrastructure modernization.<br>
The goal of FARES was simple, even if the project was not
When a team from the Farm Service Agency's Commodity Systems Office asked agencies for their system requirements for the Food Aid Request Data Entry System, they received a simple marching order: Just make it better.
Global delivery: Request system helps USDA deliver food
An automated food aid request system developed by an Agriculture Department office in Kansas City, Mo., helps relief organizations deliver billions of dollars' worth of food more quickly to foreign areas devastated by war and poverty.
Digital system keeps bombers on target
Two years ago, a crew flying a B-52H'the Air Force's long-range, large-payload bomber'dropped deadly munitions on friendly forces during a close air-support mission.
Battle-tested: Air Force battlelab's innovations prove themselves
The Air Force Command and Control Battlelab at Hurlburt Field, Fla., may be thousands of miles from Iraq, but the facility helped wage the fight against Saddam Hussein's forces.
Problems in first Gulf War spurred new system
In 1990 and 1991, more than 500 ships and 10,000 aircraft were unloaded in Southwest Asia to support 500,000 Operation Desert Storm troops. But much of the materiel never reached its intended destination.
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