Older Feds Aren't Playing to Their Strengths
Is It Too Hard to Fire Misbehaving Feds?
Americans Still Like the Postal Service
A Forced 4-Day Weekend for Many Feds
No More Tax-Cheating Feds, Senators Say
Video: The Daily Show on Apple's Taxes
AUTHOR ARCHIVES
Walking the Talk
April 11, 2007 Interoperability among first responders is a state of mind. That is, the ability of emergency incident commanders to talk to their counterparts in other jurisdictions and disciplines is not simply a matter of buying new equipment. According to a December 2006 Homeland Security Department survey, technology is where the nation ...
The Cost of Commuting
April 10, 2007
FROM NEXTGOV
This week’s The New Yorker investigates the phenomenon of commuting, nominating Washington as a “worthy candidate†for one for the country’s worst commutes. (Article not yet available online.) The article, “There And Back Again,†reserves the worst commuting honors for Atlanta and analyzes the experience of commuting in general. Simply ...
Human Tendencies and Cybersecurity
April 10, 2007
FROM NEXTGOV
When choosing numbers, humans tend to choose certain types of numbers, such as prime numbers, more often than other kinds of numbers, a fact that impacts the way humans choose passwords and other security related features. For example, choose a number between 1 and 20. Is it 17? If you’re ...
Effect of Nuke Over Washington
April 9, 2007
FROM NEXTGOV
In the February issue of the International Journal of Health Geographics, two University of Georgia scientists mapped the possible effect of a nuclear explosion in metropolitan Washington, D.C., as well as three other cities (New York City, Chicago and Atlanta). According to the article, a 500 kiloton bomb detonated close ...
How to Recycle Those CD Spindles
April 9, 2007
FROM NEXTGOV
What’s a toasted bagel plus avocado in a CD container? Lunch! Click the link above for a neat way of re-using CD spindles (the plastic container for a pack of blank CDRs, for example) as a high-tech variant to the tin lunch box to bring your bagelwich to work. Hat ...
Change Means Explaining Yourself
April 6, 2007
FROM NEXTGOV
Col. Charles Lambert, program manager of the Army’s Logistics Modernization Program, recently gave a speech at a gathering of contractors about how to change business processes. “The first thing with any American worker, just like an American solider, is explain to them why they’ve got to do something, what the ...
Personal Laptop No Guarantee of Privacy
April 6, 2007
FROM NEXTGOV
Using your privately-owned laptop at work still doesn’t mean you have a right to privacy for non-work files stored on that computer, CNET reports. A technically-minded police officer in Glencoe, Okla., was troubleshooting a network problem on a laptop owned by city Treasurer Michael Barrows, who had been bringing his ...
Solar Flares Blamed for GPS Disruption
April 6, 2007
FROM NEXTGOV
Researchers now attribute a December 2006 disruption of the Global Positioning System to a solar flare, Reuters reports. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration “observed two powerful solar flares on December 5 and 6, 2006, emanating from a large cluster of sunspots,†according to the article. “A giant radio burst ...
IT Reshapes DLA Strategy
April 5, 2007
FROM NEXTGOV
The Defense Logistics Agency has a new strategic plan available online. In the plan, Army Lt. Gen. Robert Dail, DLA's director, reports that the agency seeks to extend “beyond its traditional wholesaler responsibilities.†The agency has just finished a multi-year information technology and business process modernization effort, merging six siloed ...
Russians to Compete With U.S. GPS
April 5, 2007
FROM NEXTGOV
Russia is making a serious bid to compete with the U.S. Global Positioning System, the New York Times reports. “By the end of the year, the authorities here say, the Russian space agency plans to launch eight navigation satellites that would nearly complete the country’s own system, called Glonass,†according ...
