Digital Government
Disks, adieu: Software distribution goes electronic
When the Air Force Personnel Center needed to distribute updates to its myriad personnel programs on servers around the globe workers used to have to log in to each server post the data and then rely on individual offices to download unzip and install the upgrades by hand. No more. Now the center r
Digital Government
DOD to test IT system performance measures
The Defense Department last week launched a project designed to test its methods for measuring the performance of its information systems. Under the CIO Performance Executive Pilot Program Defense Health Affairs and the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) will spend nearly a year defining the best measu
Digital Government
Retiring feds: Don't get greedy for incentives
A recent court case illustrates that earlyretirement incentives are a pleasant but not necessarily mandatory benefit of government service. The case involved Dewey Wotring head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service's office in Louisville Ky. On May 2 1994 Kenneth Rath executive associate c
Digital Government
Letters to the Editor
In defense of religiousfreedom regulations Bureaucratus' column about President Clinton's executive order on religion in the federal work place 'Religiousfreedom regs poised on slippery slope' [FCW Sept. 22] is an example of one of the reasons why the executive order is necessary. Although the ex
Digital Government
Roster
Morley Winograd has been appointed the new director of the National Performance Review replacing Elaine Kamarck who left this summer to take a position at Harvard University. Winograd will retire in November as Western region sales vice president for AT&T Corp.'s Commercial Markets Division. Joan S
Digital Government
Navy's 'Smart Ship' passes tests
ANNAPOLIS, Md. After a fivemonth voyage earlier this year, Navy officials believe its prototype 'Smart Ship' has demonstrated the potential for reducing onboard manpower by rigging a ship with highspeed networks and using PC applications to steer the vessel and carry out other critical operati
Digital Government
Intercepts
* New and improved IT21. My Crystal City antenna site has picked up strong signals that Rear Adm. John Gauss has now taken over as the CNO N6 lead on the Navy's IT21 project with the Gauss effort dubbed 'IT21 Plus.' Gauss who spearheaded the Global Command and Control System program during his D
Digital Government
Industry Watch
WorldCom bids for MCI WorldCom Inc. last week offered to purchase MCI Communications Corp. for $30 billion in stock in a bid to thwart British Telecommunications PLC's plan to buy MCI. MCI had federal IT revenue of $500 million in 1996. The company's federal contracts include the U.S. Postal Servic
Digital Government
Bills back Y2K fix, restrict IRS funding (Part 2)
Conferees on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees' Subcommittees for Treasury Postal and General Government last week agreed on a bill that repealed cooperative purchasing declined to ban games on federal computers and placed tight restrictions on funding associated with the Internal Reve
Digital Government
Hummingbird unveils revamped PC X server
Hummingbird Communications Inc. last month introduced a new version of its Exceed PC Xserver software that allows users to access Unix or other Xbased applications over the Internet. Hummingbird's Exceed software allows users to give PC clients access to X applications running on a server.Exceed
Digital Government
Fedwire
Langston to become DARPA official Marv Langston the Navy's chief information officer (DON CIO) has as expected accepted the position of director of information systems at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Last week the secretary of the Navy designated John Douglass as the acting DON CI
Digital Government
Gochenour leaves his mark at DLA
The Defense Logistics Agency last week lost an integral component of its data center operations. Lee Gochenour a DLA computer specialist retired at the age of 77 after 19 years of civil service. He spent the last 17 years at DLA's data center in Richmond Va. Gochenour left the facility now called
Digital Government
FAA's Donohue defends WAAS schedule, budget at hearing
Federal Aviation Administration and Hughes Aircraft Co. officials last week assured a House panel that the WideArea Augmentation System (WAAS) the agency's major satellitebased navigation program is on schedule and on budget despite recent reports to the contrary. At a hearing of the House Commit
Digital Government
PC, workstation utilities flood federal market
Software vendors are bringing to the federal market a range of tools that run the gamut from distributing software electronically to uninstalling applications. Symantec Corp. Cupertino Calif. this week will ship its first uninstall product Norton Uninstall Deluxe and plans to target federal accoun
Digital Government
INS displays IT to fight dismantling
Amid calls to dissolve the agency and merge its functions into other agencies the Immigration and Naturalization Service last week showed off its technological muscle to illustrate that enforcing immigration laws and providing benefits and services to newcomers are virtually inseparable. A congress
Digital Government
Bills back Y2K fix, restrict IRS funding (Part 1)
Congressional appropriators are offering strong words and solid funding to some federal agencies struggling to address the Year 2000 computer problem. Language specifically addressing the Year 2000 issue appeared in bills pertaining to the Internal Revenue Service the Labor Department and the Depar
Digital Government
NIH details plan for online grants
The National Institutes of Health last week outlined a plan to automate the receipt of grant applications from researchers and the distribution of those applications to review panels. The plan described to a panel of scientists and grants managers from universities and research institutions is part
Digital Government
Cisco nabs secret NSA switch pact
Cisco Systems Inc. last month won a key network infrastructure contract with the secretive National Security Agency blowing away a field of competitors with prices at least 50 percent below the nearest bid. The contract dubbed "Light Core" by NSA calls for Cisco to install "literally thousands o
Digital Government