Digital Government
N.E.T. introduces frame-relay products
N.E.T. Inc. hopes to improve its standing in the framerelay market with a new set of products that will reduce the perport cost of frame relay over the company's IDNX switch by 50 percent. Sandy Orlando, N.E.T.'s manager of internetworking products, said the company has developed an entirely new
Digital Government
OFPP touts DOT pact as model for agencies
The Office of Federal Procurement Policy wants agencies to copy a recent Transportation Department procurement for computer services as a way to expand contracting opportunities for small and small, disadvantaged businesses (SDBs). In a memo to government procurement executives and agency directors
Digital Government
Symantec returns to GSA schedule
After a threeyear hiatus, Symantec Corp. has placed its products back on the General Services Administration's Schedule B/C, the company announced today. The Cupertino, Calif., company's entire product line is now available on the 19961999 schedule. ASAP Software Express, Government Technology Se
Digital Government
GSBCA upholds protest of $100 million SSA procurement
The General Services Administration's Board of Contract Appeals has ordered the Social Security Administration to change the way it evaluates software licensing fees on its $100 million mainframe contract. The order was included in a decision issued last week granting two of four items in a preawa
Digital Government
Informix to build 4-D database manager for EOSDIS
For Informix Software Inc., designing a NASA database means leaping into the fourth dimension. Tapped to supply a primary database management system (DBMS) for NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), the Menlo Park, Calif.based company has promised NASA it can catalog a
Digital Government
NASA tracks heavenly bodies, reconstructs human faces
As scientists continue to scan the heavens for asteroids and comets moving in Earth's direction, NASA has developed a home page on the subject. NASA's "Asteroid and Comet Impact Hazards" home page, at http://ccf.arc.nasa.gov, gives you the rundown on NEOs (near Earth objects) and a look at how sc
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FEDERAL BYTES
The return of the blue and redeyed zombies A NASA press release popped out at us as soon as it arrived. It was an announcement of uploaded pictures of an exploding star, Eta Carinae, on the Internet for public viewing. Even more interesting, the release urged computer users to examine the explosi
Digital Government
Revamped e-mail system will ease communications
The Transportation Department this month will roll out a system that will let 70,000 users of different electronicmail systems communicate regardless of what email package they use. "Messaging is the most important application on a user's desktop," said George Ramick Jr., DOT's messaging manage
Digital Government
Merlin promises improved GUI, Net integration
IBM Corp.'s next generation of OS/2 Warp, codenamed Merlin, promises to bring some innovative technology to the federal workplace. In my last column, I looked at how the voiceenabled technology that is integrated into Merlin's core will help the disabled and people like me who are "keyboard chal
Digital Government
JPAV helps officials tap services' personnel databases
As part of Operation Joint Endeavor and as a preview of the Global Command and Control System (GCCS) the Defense Department this week will deploy a new application that extends the concept of asset visibility from supplies to personnel. Like supplyoriented systems, the Joint Personnel Asset Vi
Digital Government
Bill moves PTO closer to corporate status
The Commerce Department's Patent and Trademark Office is one step closer to becoming a government corporation. Last week the House Judiciary Committee reported out of committee H.R. 3460, a bill sponsored by Rep. Carlos Moorhead (RCalif.) that would make PTO a government corporation but keep it un
Digital Government
Alpha Software releases beta Internet e-mail product
Alpha Software Corp. has released the beta version of NetMailer, a product that lets users merge different mailing lists and send personalized mass mailings of electronicmail messages over the Internet. "The only thing that exists today are list servers that send a generalized message to all subs
Digital Government
Boeing captures $2B DISN contract
The Defense Information Systems Agency last week awarded Boeing Information Services Inc. a $2 billion services contract to support the deployment of the Defense Information Systems Network (DISN), a worldwide telecommunications backbone for the Defense Information Infrastructure. Under the DISN Su
Digital Government
Server sales surge throughout federal market
Sales are off the charts in the federal server market. At Zenith Data Systems, a company that entered the server market two years ago, sales have jumped from $2.5 million in 1994 to $11 million in 1995. 'In 1996, we are projecting that in our federal world, sales be well over $60 million,' said Ray
Digital Government
InPower markets human resources product governmentwide
InPower Inc. announced last week it would begin marketing months ahead of schedule its federal human resources management system throughout the government. In introducing InPower Federal, the vendor joins such companies as Oracle Corp. and PeopleSoft Inc. in chasing after what is expected to be a g
Digital Government
Laptop lease will stretch funds, expand tech access
The Commerce Department's Census Bureau plans to release a solicitation Tuesday for as many as 29,000 laptop computers and for the first time wants to lease the machines instead of buying them outright. Through its Laptop Project Agreement, Census will supply data collectors in the field with an in
Digital Government
Mission impossible
The news that government computer systems are vulnerable to hacker attacks is hardly news: More than two years ago, FCW reported on a series of breakins to DOD systems. However, in the intervening years there has been a growing awareness of how serious the problem could become. Now a Hill subcommi
Digital Government
Unisys apparent winner of $300 million IWS/LAN
Unisys Corp. is the apparent winner of the Social Security Administration's sevenyear, $300 million Intelligent Workstation/LocalArea Network program, the core of the agency's modernization effort. A central part of SSA's ambitious reinvention effort to streamline the agency, reduce administrativ
Digital Government
FEDWIRE
Justice names two to IRM posts The Justice Department last week filled two top information technology posts. James Price was named director of the Computer Services Staff and will manage the operation of two data centers that provide services to more than 60,000 customers worldwide. He formerly was
Digital Government