OPM finally gets rolling on a new retirement system
It has been a long time coming, but the Office of Personnel Management seems to be on track to revolutionize how the government tracks, maintains and processes retirement information for its employees.
Energy contract stirs conflict
Problems with large government IT contracts grab headlines every day, but small awards can be just as much trouble. Just ask the Energy Department. A recent award, to a software supplier whose offer was priced substantially higher than two competitors and rated lower on technical merits, is one example.
Defrag while you don't wait
Recently, an older client PC on the GCN Lab test network was running extremely slow. The problem, it turned out, was that we'd forgotten to install our usual disk defragmentation software when we'd added the system to the network'several years ago. What a mess. But it gave us an opportunity to test Diskeeper 10.0.<br><b><font color="CC0000">|GCN Lab</font> Reviewer's Choice|</b>
Military interoperability test begins
Cisco Systems is providing the core network infrastructure for the exercise, which started today in Lager Aulenbach, Germany.
GCN Lab Review: Acer TravelMate 4020WLMi
The TravelMate 4020WLMi is an adequate laptop, provided you don't push it too hard. Unfortunately, we designed our testing procedures to do just that. As a result, the TravelMate did not perform as well as other systems.
GCN Lab Review: Lenovo ThinkPad T60 2523-D2U
The ThinkPad T60 is a finely tuned machine'and the best evidence in this review that raw performance comes down to more than just gigahertz. Despite one of the slowest CPU clocks in the review (1.66-GHz) and just 512 MB of RAM (as opposed to 1GB), it managed to post the best performance marks of our roundup.
GCN Lab Review: Toshiba Tecra A7-S712
Toshiba's Tecra A7-S712 comes with decent features at an affordable price, but we weren't floored by this notebook. Its S-Video, FireWire and extra PC Card slot give users a fair set of options. There's also a fingerprint reader and requisite WiFi adapter. But on performance, the system doesn't stand out.
GCN Lab Review: HP Compaq nc6320
The HP Compaq nc6320 has a lot to offer in its roughly 6-pound package. With EvDO cellular and 802.11 wireless radios, Bluetooth, seven-in-one media card reader, S-Video, FireWire, extra PC-Card slot, etc., it packs more interfaces and ports than any other notebook in the review.<br><b><font color="CC0000">|GCN Lab</font> Reviewer's Choice|</b>
GCN Lab Review: Sony Vaio VGN-SZ180PC
Why on earth does the Vaio VGN-SZ180PC cost $2,499? Aside from the fact that Vaios, like ThinkPads, always cost more money, the VGN-SZ180PC, among other features, also has two graphics controllers.
GCN Lab Review: Gateway M465-E
If only gas stations were like Gateway. The company seemingly discounts energy throughout its notebook line. The M465-E's $1,674 price tag is fairly reasonable for this caliber of mainstream notebook. <br><b><font color="CC0000">|GCN Lab</font> Reviewer's Choice|</b>
GCN Lab Review: Dell Latitude D620
Despite sporting high-performance components including a 2-GHz processor and Nvidia Quadro video controller, Dell's Latitude D620 proved an average performer in the GCN Lab. Its benchmark score of 7,414 was solidly middle-of-the-pack.
Quick to the core(s)
Could it be that, finally, one of the biggest CPU claims of recent years has actually proved to be true? With dual-core notebook PCs, it appears that Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. might be right: Clock speed matters little'if at all.
Batten down the hatches
At the Merchant Marine Academy, better access control protects a wide-ranging network of seafaring mobile users.
Tech brief | Elemental leaps through hoops
Elemental Security Inc. of San Mateo, Calif., last month said its Elemental Security Platform 2.0 had been certified by the Center for Internet Security for the IBM AIX and Sun Solaris 10 platforms.
Tech brief | Entrust gets PKI OK
The most recent product on the Path Discovery and Validation Working Group's qualified validation list is Entrust TruePass 8.1 from Entrust Inc.
Tech brief | TeamQuest meets FIPS
TeamQuest Corp. of Clear Lake, Iowa, has inserted an RSA Security FIPS-140-2 certified encryption module into its TeamQuest 9.3 software.
Tech brief | Intel desktop CPUs
Intel Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif., has announced plans to release a line of processors aimed specifically at office desktop computers.
GCN Insider | Oracle con-Fusion?
GCN hadn't really caught up with Oracle Corp. since it finished consuming PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and, most recently, Siebel Systems'companies that may have developed the business systems you're either running now or thought you were migrating to in the near future.
GCN Insider | Sun no longer dreams of Jini
As everyone must have heard by now, Scott McNealy stepped down from the CEO post at Sun Microsystems Inc. following another quarterly loss, despite signs of a gradual turnaround at Sun.
GCN Insider | WiFi or super WiFi?
Interesting day of phone calls recently. We talked to a senior engineer at Motorola about the draft IEEE 802.11s standard for wireless mesh networks.
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