Digital Government
HUD to test handhelds in housing review
The Department of Housing and Urban Development this month launched a program that will rely on handheld computers to revolutionize the management of the nation's 14,000 public housing developments nationwide. Under the Public Housing Assessment System (PHAS), HUD plans to outfit contracted public
Digital Government
House backs telecommuting
With funds to operate telecommuting centers around the Washington, D.C., area almost depleted, a provision in an appropriations bill could breathe new life into the program. The fiscal 1999 appropriations bill (H.R. 4104) that would fund the Treasury Department, the U.S. Postal Service and other ag
Digital Government
INS picks 3 for mega IT deal
The Immigration and Naturalization Service last week awarded to three vendors the largest segment of its $1.2 billion program to continue development of the agency's full range of information systems from the computers by which agents verify the identities of border crossers to the systems INS workers use to process information on citizenship candidates.
Digital Government
Air Force's mega IC4I pact finds new home at Alabama
The $929 million program established to provide the intelligence and military command and control communities with information technology products and services recently pulled up stakes and moved to the Air Force's Standard Systems Group (SSG) in Montgomery, Ala., in a lastditch effort to breathe new life into the lagging contract.
Digital Government
IAC elects new board members
The Industry Advisory Council, a group of private companies that sell information technology products and services to the federal government and a member council of the Federation of Government Information Processing Councils, this week announced its new executive board members, who will take office July 1.
Digital Government
NSA to declassify two security algorithms
The National Security Agency plans to declassify two computer security algorithms one of which is the Skipjack encryption algorithm used in Fortezza PC cards clearing the way for commercial firms to work with the Defense Department on security products such as smart cards.
Digital Government
Social Security Administration's mega-modernization effort threatened, GAO reports
The General Accounting Office reported last week that continued success of the Social Security Administration's $1 billion modernization effort is threatened by significant technical and performance measurement challenges.
Digital Government
Letters to the Editor
Lack of balance in WLMP story I have been exposed to the Army's Wholesale Logistics Modernization Program, which was discussed at length in your story, 'Bill targets logistics outsourcing' [FCW, June 1], from a different perspective. I work at the Logistics System Support Center (LSSC) in St. Louis
Digital Government
Raxco unveils suite for Windows NT
Betting on continued growth of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT in the government market, Raxco Software Inc. has introduced an integrated suite of tools for Windows NT that is designed to help manage several essential functions that systems administrators often consider busywork. Systems managers and
Digital Government
Due diligence at cutting edge of contracting
You're convinced that performancebased contracting will save money for your mission and result in better vendor performance. And you're thinking big. You have a major systems development project that is going to modernize the way your organization does business. Or you're recompeting a contract to
Digital Government
Roster
David Tuttle, program director for the Federal Aviation Administration's Flight 2000 program, plans to retire from government June 30. His replacement has not yet been named. Neil Planzer has become associate director of civil aviation at the Directorate of Operations and Training for Air and Space
Digital Government
Microsoft provides sneak preview of new Office 2000 suite
NEW YORK Microsoft Corp. gave a sneak preview of the next version of its Office suite of productivity applications at last week's PC Expo in New York, in an event that was just like going to the movies right down to the tuxedoed ushers, the popcorn and the performance of the Microsoft officials
Digital Government
Editorial
Don't gun down a good deal An FBI proposal to charge for running computer background checks on prospective gun buyers has run smack into a highly charged political wall. Some members of Congress and representatives of the gun lobby have charged the FBI with levying an unfair tax on gun dealers an
Digital Government
IRS to merge 11 data centers into 2 sites
The Internal Revenue Service plans to move forward this month with the merger of 11 data centers into two sites that will handle 3 trillion mainframe transactions annually. As one of the largest mainframe consolidation efforts in the federal government and possibly in the world, the project will up
Digital Government
Intercepts
FIRST, BUILD AN INFRASTRUCTURE. That seems to be the motto of all the folks involved in the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) game. The nascent federal CIP effort already has spawned a highly complex bureaucracy and a new alphabet soup of acronyms, reaching from the National Security Council
Digital Government
New college president to lead IT charge
Vice Adm. Arthur K. Cebrowski, the incoming president of the Naval War College, said last week that he would enhance the school's role in supporting experimentation with cuttingedge information technology for the battlefield. At the TechNet '98 conference, which was sponsored by the Armed Forces C
Digital Government
When Lightning Strikes
As Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT server grows in popularity, major vendors have released a torrent of clustering solutions, which are either homegrown or based on Microsoft's own clustering technology. These new solutions provide federal users with a rich menu of choices at both the high and low en
Digital Government
What is an 'exempt' employee?
An employee with a contractor raised the following topic: Some of the employees in our company are paid on an hourly basis. They receive overtime pay for working more than 40 hours per week. However, many of the employees are paid on a salary basis and do not receive overtime pay. The company says
Digital Government
PC makers ramp up for new processor
NEW YORK Servers and workstations are about to get a boost in processing power with the expected release this month of the Xeon, the nextgeneration Pentium II from Intel Corp., which PC makers said will unlock four and eightway processing power. Computer manufacturers, including Dell Computer
Digital Government