Digital Government
Hill threatens to cut IT funds
Congress may cut off funding for some of the Defense Department's missioncritical information systems after March 31 unless the Pentagon's chief information officer can prove the department is managing the systems in compliance with the 1996 ClingerCohen Act. That legislation was written to force
Digital Government
FileMaker good for small workgroups
There are times when you want to have a desktop or small workgrouplevel database on hand. Perhaps you need to quickly construct a report from a small amount of data or test an interagency data transfer procedure. In these instances, it does not make sense to contact your enterprise database admini
Digital Government
Feds say funds needed for security
A group of federal technology managers last week said one of the biggest obstacles to making the government's computer systems more secure is lack of money and that Congress should fund security efforts in much the same way it funded the effort to fix federal computers for the Year 2000 problem. Do
Digital Government
Industry Watch
Northrop wins JSTARS pact Northrop Grumman Corp. last month won a $199 million contract from the Air Force for 10 retrofit kits under the Computer Replacement Program for Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System aircraft. The program will replace and upgrade servers, operator workstations, sel
Digital Government
Federal Bytes
NOT TOO INVENTIVE. During the opening debate of the 2000 presidential campaign season, Vice President Al Gore was asked what he thought was the biggest mistake of his political career. His reply certainly wasn't debatable. 'If I was going to pick one right off the bat,' Gore replied, 'I would say t
Digital Government
NSA emerges from the shadows
For many years, the National Security Agency has specialized in developing security solutions with ultrasecret requirements for its users, far removed from the services required by the vast majority of government applications. But that is beginning to change. With commercial products and services
Digital Government
North Carolina Judges CourtFlow a Success
North Carolina is one of the few states in which criminal superior court judges rotate from district to district, forcing courtroom clerks in the state's 100 counties to be extraordinarily fast and accurate with the forms that require a judge's signature before a ruling can be enforced. Despite the
Digital Government
PIII Entry-Level Servers: Great Performance at Great Prices
Testing by Andreas Uiterwijk and Pat McClung For our latest server roundup, the Test Center took a look at 500 MHz Intel Corp. Pentium III entrylevel workgroup servers. These fileandprint servers are not meant for departmentlevel use or critical data storage. Rather, they are basic workhorses g
Digital Government
Breaking the mold
Maj. Charles Wells, developer of two online knowledgesharing projects for the Army, is not your typical Army computer expert. Wells' background, career, motivations and avocations quickly prove that few people, even in the Army, fit into a stereotype. For example, one of the musical instruments he
Digital Government
Cable firm wired for federal business
Cox Communications Inc., a company known best for its cable TV business, has made a foray into the federal market over the past year, bringing highspeed Internet connections to users in the Air Force and the General Services Administration. The company which has focused its federal business on p
Digital Government
Who is allowed to challenge a sole-source procurement?
A reader raised the following topic: What is the procedure for challenging a proposed solesource acquisition? Who can do so? In general, the rules for challenging a government agency's intended procurement on a solesource basis will be similar to those of any other bid protest. However, as discus
Digital Government
Speed to burn: Intel debuts new chips
Intel Corp. last week announced 15 processors based on a new generation of technology that increases speed, reduces power consumption and makes it possible for manufacturers to offer completely new classes of systems, even as they lower prices. Computer manufacturers are ramping up to deliver serve
Digital Government
Federal IT czar position gets boost
A top federal chief information officer last week called on the government to create a federal IT czar, whose job would be to establish a common vision for information technology programs governmentwide. The idea has drawn cautious support from other federal CIOs. Roger Baker, the Commerce Departme
Digital Government
LapLink transforms itself into LapLink.com
LapLink from Traveling Software Inc. has been the easiest to use file-transfer and remote-control program for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system. Now the company has a new name?LapLink.com?and a new version of LapLink.
Digital Government
Intercepts
LONDON KOSOVO CLEAN SWEEP. Spacelink International, a small, privately held company based in Washington, D.C., but focused on Europe, has captured most of the military commercial satellite Earth terminal business in Kosovo, according to strong signals my mobile unit picked up here at TechNet Eur
Digital Government
Officials tackle technology in procurement
Don Upson, Virginia's secretary of technology and Dick Thompson, the director of Maine's division of purchases, shared their views on the status and future of technology in state government procurement at last week's Fall Procurement Conference sponsored by the Coalition for Government Procurement.
Digital Government
Linkbot takes on the enterprise
The best just got better. TetraNet Software Inc. recently released a new version of its industryleading World Wide Web site linkchecker, Linkbot Enterprise 1.0, which offers new tools specifically designed for large enterprise sites.
Digital Government
Managing E-Commerce and the Digital Content Dilemma
The rise of electronic commerce, for all its benefits, has created problems for state and local IT procurement officers. The question has been how to properly structure an agreement to purchase rights involving such nontangible products as software programs, databases and other electronic contents
Digital Government
EEOC answers complaints
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, long criticized for its bureaucratic and weak enforcement, has streamlined the way it processes discrimination complaints. Federal workers, managers and labor representatives have complained that the EEOC's process for reviewing charges of discrimination
Digital Government