Technology simultaneously has made job hunting simpler and more daunting. Many readers may remember the days of scouring the help wanted ads, typing résumés on vellum and hoping for a phone call requesting an interview. Computers and the Internet transformed that process into one that involves clicking one’s way through applications for hundreds of job openings in only a few days. The hope factor still exists … except now it’s in the form of opening emails.
June 2012
UPDATED 6/18/2012: The U.S. Defense Department announces winner of new defense network operations contract.
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has announced that Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Solutions Division, Manassas, Virginia, has won to the potential $4.6 billion Global Information Grid Services Management-Operations contract.
The new plan lists goals and objectives for exploiting commercial technologies.
Advanced 4G mobile service, the use of personal mobile devices and its own dedicated apps are among the objectives of Version 2.0 of the U.S. Defense Department’s Mobile Device Strategy. Released Friday, June 15, 2012, the strategy lists three major goals and several subset objectives designed to bring the benefits of mobile systems to the department.
As U.S. military organizations and the private companies that support them struggle to adjust to decreases in funding, they are searching for efficiencies even in seemingly small matters. One area easily overlooked is office printers, but by making thoughtful selections through a well-planned process, information technology administrators can cut costs while simultaneously enhancing security.
As recently as a few years ago, Second Life was a vital, flourishing virtual community in which users carried on their lives, interacting with others and “living” fully imagined existences within the memory of a large computer server.
In fact, Second Life caught the imagination of the U.S. military, and in some cases, members of the services began using Second Life for real-world collaboration and to solve problems shared by all services.
The AFCEA International board of directors elected Alfred Grasso, president and chief executive officer of The MITRE Corporation, to serve as the association’s chairman of the board. In this position, Grasso will oversee the association’s Executive and Compensation committees as well as participate on the AFCEA Educational Foundation’s board of directors.
Grasso has been an AFCEA member for more than a decade and has served as the vice chairman of the board for the past two years. In addition, he has been a member of the association’s Audit and Government committees and most recently as the co-chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee.
Called a “rare gem” by a fellow member of the Atlanta Chapter, Johnnie Young tirelessly juggles his career and volunteer responsibilities. But it’s the silent moments Young makes time for each day that truly allow him to reflect on and be grateful for everything in his life.
Whether above, on land or in cyberspace, mission assurance is the goal behind advancements in power sources.
U.S. Navy sailors learn cryptologic elements in a Joint Cyber Analysis Course at the Center for Information Dominance. The Navy’s multibillion-dollar Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN) program is a major step in the service’s drive toward information dominance.
At the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Mission Partner Conference in Tampa, Florida, last month, the discussion focused on the enterprise and jointness and coalition. If it did not cause attendees to have an epiphany, it certainly should have triggered a re-awareness.
A participant operates an unmanned aerial vehicle as part of the Maritime Interdiction Operation experiment conducted in Souda Bay, Greece on June 6-10, 2011.
Maritime first responders receive assistance sizing up a possible nuclear weapons threat at sea.
The U.S. Army is partnering with graphene researchers to enable low-cost thermal imaging for all warfighters.
The Reaper remotely piloted aircraft carries Gorgon Stare, a first wide-area motion imagery that can videotape a 4-kilometer radius of the surveillance area from 12 angles.
The U.S. Air Force crafts plans to harvest knowledge from increased information flow.
The single spiral image is an off-angle scanning electron microscope image of a fabricated circular polarizer. A circular polarizing camera could help warfighters filter out unwanted light.
Technology may shed new light on situational awareness.
The U.S. Coast Guard’s Underwater Imaging System (UIS) displays 3-D imagery of a sunken vessel.
A precision imaging system is poised to gain wider exposure.
Soldiers from the 4th Sustainment Brigade use the largest ground vehicles in the U.S. Army’s Transportation Corps to haul an M1A2 Abrams Tank. The unit experienced severe network disruptions during the drawdown in Iraq.
Signal officers offer advice gleaned from a chaotic drawdown in Iraq.
Brig. Gen. David Coffman, USMC, former commander of the 13th Expeditionary Unit who currently is assigned to the National Military Command Center, prepares for a presentation in March at the AFCEA TechNet Land Warfare Southwest Conference in Tucson, Arizona.
Growing military reliance on data presents challenges.
In March, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) delivered to the House Armed Services Committee a report on enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. These ERPs would be replacing legacy systems costing $890 million per year. Replacing such systems would take anywhere from seven to 14 years. However, when the ERPs finally are installed, they would cost up to $207,561 per user and have a payback time frame as high as 168 years.
Planners need to realize it cannot be ordained, imposed or enforced.
Today’s approach to the issue of cybersecurity is totally wrong. For years, experts have been propounding similar solutions to the problem of securing the virtual realm. Yet, that realm is less safe today than it was when the first calls for improved security achieved urgent status. The changes that define cyberspace—and what cyberspace in turn has wrought on society—cry out for a new approach rather than add-on measures to the same strategies that continue to prove unsuccessful over the long term.