Marines swap faulty servers
Despite server glitches that delayed some installations by as much as six months, Marine Corps officials expect to complete a migration to Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 and Exchange messaging by year's end. The Corps last year bought about 400 Digital Equipment Corp. Digital Server 5200 models for the transition, through Digital's Navy Tactical Advanced Computer blanket purchasing agreement. The $4 million the Corps paid represented bargain basement prices, said a Marine Corps Systems Command official at
PageMaker 6.5 Plus is not just for the graphics expert
Adobe Systems Inc.'s PageMaker 6.5 Plus, the first new release of the electronic pagination package in two years, aims at the typical user rather than the graphics expert. Microsoft Windows users can browse and search PageMaker 6.5 Plus image and template files through a palette. The package comes with 4,700 stock illustrations in Adobe Illustrator format and a file converter for Microsoft Publisher 97 and 98 programs. The toolbar resembles that of Microsoft Office, with shortcuts
DOE signs four BPAs and starts Web buying pilot
The Energy Department has trimmed its PC blanket purchasing agreements from six to four and has set up a Web buying pilot. Energy signed the new BPAs—with Dell Computer Corp., Gateway Inc., Government Technology Services Inc. of Chantilly, Va., and Micron Electronics Inc. of Nampa, Idaho—in late February and early March, said Jeffrey Rubenstein, Institutional Services Division director at Energy headquarters.
Service has GIS, will travel
The Marshals Service has installed a desktop mapping system to plan the sometimes dangerous task of transporting federal prisoners. "We needed a visual mechanism to analyze where our resources were" and to match them against shifting prison populations, program manager Jeff Cotter said. The Marshals Service houses about 32,000 pretrial prisoners in 1,500 contract jails nationwide. It takes over responsibility for people apprehended by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Customs Service, Drug Enforcement Administration,
Firewalls are still vulnerable
Computer security products are worthless unless installed properly, a security expert told a FOSE trade show audience in Washington last month. Agencies should devise a checklist of effective security practices, recompute their technology risks every two weeks and constantly verify that their systems are reasonably secure, advised Peter S. Tippett, president of the International Computer Security Association Inc. of Carlisle, Pa.
SPSS statistics company buys into business data mining
SPSS Inc. is in the business intelligence market with its $7.1 million purchase of Integral Solutions Ltd., a British data mining company. "The data mining market is rapidly consolidating down to a small number of vendors," said Don MacTavish, a senior research analyst at Meta Group Inc. of Stamford, Conn. "SPSS has the potential to be one of the leaders."
NASA supercomputer contributor forms Linux clustering company
Donald Becker, a 33-year-old NASA contractor who helped build some of the space agency's famous homegrown Beowulf supercomputers, has formed a company to bring Linux clustering to other government organizations. Becker is chief technologist of Scyld Computing Services LLC of Columbia, Md. The company was incorporated in December as a for-profit subsidiary of Universities Space Research Association, also located in Columbia.
DLA supply center keeps track of office software
In the second year of its Defense Logistics Agency electronic software distribution contract, Beyond.com Corp. has gotten a thumbs-up from supervisory computer specialist Michael Ryan at the Defense Supply Center in Richmond, Va. Ryan praised the Sunnyvale, Calif., online software reseller, formerly known as Software.net, for improving its Cache Server 2.0 configuration tool. "It's a good tool for upgrades," he said, and users no longer have to run Microsoft
Army's contract offers HP deals to all agencies
The Army Infrastructure Support 1 contract, launched by Telos Corp. last week, has some good deals for federal buyers. How good? How about a $1,195 Hewlett-Packard Co. PC server or a sub-$500 PC? Telos of Ashburn, Va., bid Hewlett-Packard systems in winning the indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract last year. It fended off an agency-level protest by Vanstar Government Systems Inc. of Fairfax, Va., now known as Inacom Government Systems. IS-1 is open to all agencies.
Joint air forces team beefs up NATO network
Personnel from six air forces in Europe have converged on Cervia Air Base, Italy, to support the communications needs of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Operation Allied Force. The services are providing NATO troops and commanders with classified as well as unclassified Internet access and e-mail over a LAN. Although it could use more capacity, the LAN has been operating virtually without errors, said Maj. Tim Williams, commander of the 48th Expeditionary Communications Flight.
IGrafx package contains thousands of business graphics
Graphics professionals will find Microsoft Office add-ons galore in the iGrafx System from Micrografx Inc. of Richardson, Texas. The $100 iGrafx Share package lets users improve flowcharts and other Office documents with a choice of 5,000 business graphics. Users can organize graphics and photographs using more than 40 file filters including an animated Graphics Interchange Format filter.
Army firewall contracts near
The Army's contracts for licensing intrusion-detection and firewall software for all its LANs and WANs will be awarded within weeks, perhaps days. Bids were due in early February in the full-and-open competition, said Connie Avallone, a contracting officer at the Army Communications-Electronics Command Acquisition Center–Southwest Region at Fort Huachuca, Ariz. The service may award as many as four one-year contracts with four one-year options, she said.
Training need not be taxing
If any agency faces a training nightmare, it's the IRS. As part of its year 2000 readiness efforts, the tax agency acquired about 50,000 PCs last year and plans to buy an equal number by midsummer. As employees move up from Microsoft Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS to later versions of Windows, they will have to learn to use them on a schedule that does not interfere with tax work, said Patricia McCormick, employee development specialist at
Army arms recruiters with 14,000 notebook PCs
"How can we be the high-tech Army if we're filling out forms with a pencil?" asked Lt. Col. Gary A. Minadeo, functional director of the Army Recruiting Information Support System at Fort Knox, Ky. The recruiting command initially selected Vanstar Government Systems Inc. of Fairfax, Va., to preload special software on IBM ThinkPads, but the contract was canceled within four months because of software integration problems, Minadeo said. Mark O'Donnell, vice president of Vanstar, now known
Campbell: Army won't limit product choices
The Army's chief information officer wants it clear that the service will not standardize on specific products, such as Microsoft Exchange, for messaging and other applications. "All products have a future in the Army," said Lt. Gen. William Campbell, director of information systems for command, control, communications and computers. "We don't standardize on products; we standardize on standards. That's the driver."
Two agencies see future in NetWare 5
Countering a federal drift toward Microsoft Windows NT Server on departmental networks, the Customs Service and the Postal Service have made major commitments to the Novell NetWare network operating system. Customs has installed NT Workstation 4.0 on its desktop PCs. But the service last year decided to postpone a planned network migration to NT Server 4.0 in favor of a NetWare 5 upgrade, said Luke McCormack, acting director of Custom's Infrastructure Services Division.
GTSI upgrades ordering site for federal users
Leading reseller Government Technology Services Inc. last month upgraded its Web ordering site to attract electronic commerce orders, particularly IMPAC credit card orders of less than $10,000. The Web site at www.gtsi.com maintains supporting links at the left side throughout and links to GTSI's government information technology portal on the right side, said Karla Knickerbocker, Web marketing manager for the Chantilly, Va., company.
Marine Corps lays the groundwork for shift to BPAs for buying PCs and servers
Following close on the Air Force's switch from requirements buys to blanket purchasing agreements, the Marine Corps Systems Command will issue a request for quotations for one or more mandatory BPAs for servers, PCs and notebook computers. The Corps could release the RFQ as early as this week, Marine officials said. Marine Corps buyers until now have used the Navy's Tactical Advanced Computer contracts to buy most PCs.
HUD uses WinBatch launcher to connect to mainframe apps
The Housing and Urban Development Department has found a software launcher that simplifies connecting to mainframe applications and improves desktop PC productivity. WinBatch from Wilson WindowWare Inc. of Seattle can perform pre- and post-actions when calling an executable file, said Douglas R. Reese, a HUD computer specialist. Reese said WinBatch starts up internally developed applications as well as commercial apps for computer-aided design, online research and travel management. It also launches Sybase PowerBuilder and Microsoft SQL Server
Agencies keep secret data out of wrong hands by wiping the data off drives
A degausser/eraser device acts like a paper shredder for computer hard drives, floppy diskettes and other magnetic media. When agencies replace their PCs, some erase any hard drives that have stored data classified as confidential, secret or top-secret. Other agencies physically destroy the drives, said Terry Creek, regional manager for Security Engineered Machinery Inc., a Westborough, Mass., seller of degausser/eraser products.
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