Digital Government
United States, Russia cooperate on Year 2000 nuclear risk
Concerned that the Year 2000 millennium bug could cause computer screens in nuclear command and control centers "to go dark" at the turn of the century, the U.S. Defense Department plans to set up a cooperative program to share early-warning-system and missile-threat data with Russia and other nuclear powers, a top Pentagon official said today.
Digital Government
Rep. Horn gives agencies 'F' for Y2K work
The Clinton administration's overall grade for handling the Year 2000 problem dropped to an F in the quarter ended May 15, according to a report card issued today by a House Republican.
Digital Government
Intercepts
* Spectrum czar. Cindy Raiford, currently deputy director for communications in the ASD/C3I office (awaiting congressionally directed renaming), will soon become manager or director of a beefedup DOD spectrum office, according to a memo from Art Money, the senior civilian official in the ASD/C3I s
Digital Government
Congress praises, admonishes DOD in 1999 bills
Both Houses of Congress strongly endorsed the ability of information technology to enhance U.S. military capabilities in separate versions of the 1999 Defense authorization bills passed last month. The House and Senate strongly backed efforts such as the Navy's Information Technology for the 21st C
Digital Government
The Relevant IT Plan
Plans have a high mortality rate. That's partly because while they are made for longterm results, shortterm payoffs are usually limited to abstractions, such as a better understanding of an organization's goals. But if a plan cannot be kept vibrant, daily routine will dampen commitment to those g
Digital Government
Java Makes an Entrance
Hailed as a giant step forward for software code reuse, Java, the objectoriented programming language launched in 1995, is just starting to creep into state and local governments as a development tool for enterpriseclass, missioncritical projects.
Digital Government
EDS protests award of DTS contract
Electronic Data Systems Corp. filed a protest with the General Accounting Office last week against award of the $263.7 million Defense Travel Systems contract to TRW Inc. An EDS spokesman said the company believes it could provide the Defense Departmemt with better service at a lower overall cost.
Digital Government
Agenda
12 Disaster Preparedness and Response for Records Managers. National Archives and Records Administration. Archives II Building. College Park, Md. For information, call Scott Roley, (301) 7137200, Ext. 249; email, scott.roley@arch2.nara.gov. 14 11th International Conference on Industrial and Eng
Digital Government
Roster
Stephen Elbert has been appointed director of the National Science Foundation's Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure. He comes from the Energy Department, where he was program manager for grand challenge applications. PACI was launched by NSF last year to fund collaboration among U
Digital Government
Leadership void for national security computing, comm
At a time when we are becoming increasingly aware of the vulnerabilities of our national sanctuary related to our unprecedented dependence upon inadequately planned and defended national and Defense information services and infrastructure, the Defense Department's lack of strong, capable leaders as
Digital Government
FEDERAL BYTES
A dumb purchase The Social Security Administration is holding a fire sale on 15yearold IBM Corp. 'dumb terminals,' which are being replaced as part of a nationwide modernization project. Dumb terminals were installed widely throughout many organizations before the dawning of the PC era. SSA is re
Digital Government
Small competitive areas limit options during RIFs
When agencies downsize, they classify employees in groups called 'competitive areas' and forbid employees from competing for jobs in other areas. A decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [Case 973249; John J. Markland v. Office of Personnel Management, April 2, 1998] said ag
Digital Government
CDC Bolsters Public Health Network to Fight E. Coli Illness
CDC Bolsters Public Health Network to Fight E. Coli Illness
Digital Government
Sterling buy improves Army C4I opportunities
Sterling Software Inc. made a major step into the Army command and control arena with the planned acquisition of Mystech Associates Inc. in a $25 million stock deal announced last week. Mystech, a Falls Church, Va.based company founded in 1971, holds several Army contracts, including the Army Inte
Digital Government
Texas Twist
It may sound like a dance, but Texas' TWIST is a system that actually eliminates steps for the state's citizens to get from welfare to work. TWIST, a.k.a. The Workforce Information System of Texas
Digital Government
Clinton overlooks the obvious: Y2K
When President Clinton last month unveiled his plan to protect the nation's critical computer systems from cyberattacks, he left out what is arguably a bigger threat to these systems: the Year 2000 problem. In a speech delivered to the graduating midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, Clinton outlin
Digital Government
New switch products from GDC, Fore improve ATM bandwidth
Asynchronous Transfer Mode technology, still viewed as the preferred future networking technology by most agencies, continues to move forward with announcements by General DataComm Inc. of an upgrade to its voiceoverATM technology and by Fore Systems Inc. of a new highbandwidth switch. GDC offic
Digital Government
Wang unveils Tempest version of Cisco router
Wang Global introduced two new Tempest networking products, including its first Tempest router, for the intelligence community and other agencies that are concerned about the security of their data. The Wang Tempest router is based on the Cisco Systems Inc. 2514 router, and the Tempest 10/100 megab
Digital Government
AMS to update financial management system
The General Services Administration in May began switching its decadesold, mainframebased financial management system to a new offtheshelf, client/server system provided by American Management Systems Inc. Bill Topolewski, director of GSA's Office of Financial Management Systems, said the agenc
Digital Government