Digital Government
FEDERAL BYTES
The Check's in the EMail Mail has a way of getting lost at times, and when it does, people get angry. One citizen recently complained to the U.S. Postal Service when some important parcels intended for her daughter got shipped to the wrong address. USPS responded via email. Unfortunately, the res
Digital Government
Get the time and expand your mind with Web pages
Set your clocks and synchronize your watches for the New Year with a little help from one of those jumbo clocks an atomic clock that is operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. You can get NIST's correct time maintained at the institute's Boulder Colo. site by pointing you
Digital Government
GAO questions long-term success
The 2yearold reorganization of the Office of Management and Budget brought closer attention to agency management issues in 1995 according to the General Accounting Office but it is questionable if this new emphasis will last beyond the current administration. Based on interviews with more than se
Digital Government
FEDWIRE
Clinger wants firm FTS expiration Rep. William Clinger (RPa.), chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, wrote late last week to General Service Administration chief Roger Johnson, urging him to ensure agencies transition to the PostFTS 2000 contracts as soon as possible af
Digital Government
New bus eases connections
Sick of the tangled mess of wires on the back of your PC? Starting this year, vendors plan to replace it with a single connection for all external peripherals, including keyboards,mice, printers, scanners and modems. Like an electrical outlet, the Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector will simplify
Digital Government
Senate offices set to offer Web access to employees
The Senate has given its employees access to the World Wide Web, its latest effort to keep pace with technology being used by the private sector. Each Senate office will determine which staff members in Washington, D.C., and offices throughout the country will be linked to this expanding section of
Digital Government
Revamp plan combines business planning, IRM
The Agriculture Department has completed a draft information resources management modernization plan that includes the possible appointment of a department chief information officer (CIO), an executive board and a seniorlevel technical council. Anne Thomson Reed, deputy assistant secretary for adm
Digital Government
ROSTER
Ed Hart, former deputy director for information systems security at the National Security Agency, has joined Science Applications International Corp. as a vice president and director of the company's Center for Information Protection. SAIC also named Mike Higgins, formerly chief of countermeasures
Digital Government
Informix acquires Illustra for complex data management
Informix Corp. accelerated its development of database software for managing complex data with the acquisition late last month of Illustra Information Technologies Inc. Informix plans to build a Universal Data Engine by integrating its Dynamic Scalable Architecture with Illustra's objectoriented d
Digital Government
Second shutdown hurts vendors, agencies
Information technology providers last week reported dampened profits and displaced personnel as the partial shutdown of the federal government stretched into its third week. The impact of the longest government closure in history has made itself felt around the Beltway and beyond. So far services v
Digital Government
Intercepts
Buy a lot of gangplanks. President Clinton did the DOD acquisition work force a big favor by vetoing the Defense authorization bill. A provision buried in the boilerplate (Sec. 906) calls for reducing the acquisition work force by 15,000 people by Oct. 1. Think of the savings if the same language o
Digital Government
Eight to share $840M support services contract
The General Services Administration ended the year in keeping with the holidays, giving contracts to all eight finalists on its $840 million Multiple Award Indefinite Quantity (MAIQ) support services program. The announcement is part of a growing trend toward awarding federal contracts to multiple
Digital Government
Alter the shutdown process
As this editorial is written the federal government is well into the third week of the second shutdown in a year. The word filtering back from the country at large is that few people care mostly those dependent on the government for their livelihood: contractors tour guides and hotel operators.
Digital Government
Young aims to steady GTSI
Industry watchers praised Government Technology Services Inc.'s recent hiring of Dendy Young as a move that will boost company morale and customer satisfaction. While most people wait until Jan. 1 to seek a clean start GTSI jumped the gun revamping its executive management by hiring Young to be its
Digital Government
DOD set to award $2B in PC, workstation deals
The Air Force and the Navy plan to award personal computer and workstation contracts over the next three months with a combined value of $2 billion, continuing a technologyrefreshment cycle that comes close to mirroring the commercial marketplace. The Air Force Standard Systems Center, Gunter Anne
Digital Government
AT&T fires off protest against DISN
On the last day before bids were due on the multibilliondollar Defense Information Systems Network contract AT&T filed a protest against the procurement with the General Accounting Office. Reaction from DOD was sharp. Emmett Paige Jr. assistant secretary of Defense for command control communicatio
Digital Government
SPSS ships for Windows 95
SPSS Inc. last month began shipping a Microsoft Corp. Windows 95 version of its statistical software. SPSS 7.0 for Windows is available on SPSS' General Services Administration schedule, the Immigration and Naturalization Service's Personal Workstation Acquisition Contract through Telos Corp., and
Digital Government
GTE nabs $200M networking pact
In a move that surprised the information technology vendor community, the Justice Department last month named GTE Government Systems Corp. the apparent winner of an estimated $200 million office automation contract. GTE topped five other vendors to win the sevenyear Justice Consolidated Office Net
Digital Government
Standard Supports Faster Transfers
Most of today's infrared ports operate at the standard 115 kilobit/sec specified by the Infrared Data Association (IrDA). The association, however, recently approved two extensions to the standard that will allow higherspeed file transfers and will open a new application for IR as a network con
Digital Government