DIS-II INFORMATION UPDATES, OCTOBER 1995 To: "E - All WRD Employees" Subject: DIS-II STATUS UPDATES - OCT 1995 Date: Mon, 16 Oct 1995 17:27:25 -0400 From: "Gloria J Stiltner, Chief, DIS Suprv Hyd, Reston, VA" DIS-II INFORMATION UPDATES, OCTOBER 1995 This document contains approximately 451 lines. The following is included in this update. 1. GEOMAIL USER DATABASE CONTAINS ALL USGS EMPLOYEES (electronic mail) 2. CONTRACT AWARD FOR GEOMAIL MAIL READER AND CALENDAR SOFTWARE 3. DIS APPLICATIONS SOFTWARE TAPE 8 STATUS 4. STATUS OF USGS-G2 REVISION 3.0 (charting software) 5. SPREADSHEET SURVEY RESULT SUMMARY 6. DISTRIBUTION OF DIS COMPUTER HELP RESOURCES REFERENCE CARD 7. STATUS OF DIS-II+ PERIPHERALS PROCUREMENTS 8. DISCUSSIONS NEWSLETTER AVAILABLE ONLINE AND NO LONGER PRINTED BY DIS 9. PRIME HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE CONTRACT STATUS 10. DIS-II/DIS-II+ END-OF-YEAR ACTIVITY 11. DIS-II CONTRACT STATUS 12. DIS-II DG HARDWARE MAINTENANCE QUESTIONNAIRE 13. WINDOWS NT SERVER AND WINDD EVALUATION STATUS 14. STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR INTERNET DISSEMINATION, EXPLORATION, AND RETRIEVAL (SPIDER) TEAM APPROVES USING HTML 3.0 1. GEOMAIL USER DATABASE CONTAINS ALL USGS EMPLOYEES (electronic mail) ----------------------------------------------------- This note is a reminder that the Geomail (email) user database has been expanded to include email information for all USGS employees. This means that WRD Geomail users can now send email to employees in other Divisions by addressing to the user-id only. The use of "user-id@usgs.gov" is no longer necessary for email sent by WRD employees to employees in other USGS Divisions. However, the recommended email address to give to people outside of the USGS (e.g. on your business card) is user-id@usgs.gov. This database change also means that information for all USGS employees can be obtained through the use of the "search_id" and "sid" programs, which previously contained information for WRD users only. 2. CONTRACT AWARD FOR GEOMAIL MAIL READER AND CALENDAR SOFTWARE ---------------------------------------------------------------- The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) awarded a contract for Geomail-related software on September 19, 1995, to Spectrum Office Systems, Vienna, Virginia. The contract includes a mail reader program called Z-Mail and a calendar/scheduling package called Synchronize. This contract was awarded as part of the bureau-wide effort to provide an integrated electronic mail (email) system known as Geomail, to all employees of the USGS. Z-Mail Z-Mail will be available for purchase by all USGS email users for use on multiple platforms. These platforms include: PC MS Windows, PC MS DOS, Apple MacIntosh, Sun Sparc OS, Sun Sparc Solaris, Novel Univel, DEC Ultrix, Windows NT, IBM OS/2, HP UNIX, and the Data General AViiON. The Z-Mail software is fully compliant with SMTP, and therefore, should communicate well with the Water Resources Division's (WRD) existing MH email reader programs, exmh and plum. Z-Mail is similar to exmh in functionality and ease of use, but is a more polished commercial product. The Distributed Information System (DIS) Program Office has purchased a limited number of Z-Mail licenses. These software licenses will be tested on the PC and MAC. There is a possibility that Z-Mail will become the DIS-recommended email package for PC and MAC users instead of Eudora. The DIS Program Office will also test Z-Mail on the Data General to determine if it is a cost-effective alternative to exmh and plum. PLEASE NOTE that WRD will not be required to buy and use Z-Mail on the Data General. WRD personnel can continue using exmh and plum. The cost of a single-user Z-Mail license is $37.74. There is no charge for maintenance during the first year of the contract, however, in subsequent years, the maintenance cost will be $7 per license. Synchronize The calendar/schedule package is to be minimally integrated with email. The cost of a single-user Synchronize license is $54.24, and the maintenance is also free during the first year of the contract. However, in subsequent years, the maintenance will be $13.50 per license. If you need more information concerning the contract for Z-Mail and Synchronize, please contact Angela Hall by Geomail (aehall) or by phone (703) 648-5625. 3. DIS APPLICATIONS SOFTWARE TAPE 8 STATUS ------------------------------------------- The DIS Applications Support Unit (ASU) released the beta version of Application Software Tape 8 to six WRD sites on October 4. Other beta sites have been identified and will receive the software in mid-October as part of the second round of Tape 8 beta testing. Tape 8 will include a new revision of USGS-G2, among many other software updates and new programs. The general release of Tape 8 is expected to occur in November. The latest list of scheduled contents of Tape 8 can be found at: URL:http://wwwqvarsa.er.usgs.gov/tapes/tape08/contents.html 4. STATUS OF USGS-G2 REVISION 3.0 (charting software) ---------------------------------- DIS Applications Software Tape 8 will contain a new version (3.0) of the USGS-G2 Charting Package, developed by Jim Fulton of the DIS Applications Support Unit. This revision contains many enhancements over the existing revision, 2.2.10. The most noticeable change is in the user interface, which has been enhanced and streamlined significantly. USGS-G2 Rev 3.0 also provides many new features including new axis types, new plot types, including box plots, interactive graphical data editing, and many new properties that can be used to control the appearance of graphics. USGS-G2 Rev 3.0 fixes many bugs, provides improvements in graphic appearance, and provides better support for publication standards. For a list of what's new in G2 Rev 3.0, see http://wwwqvarsa.er.usgs.gov/~jfulton/g2/g2.1.1.1.html#HDR3. 5. SPREADSHEET SURVEY RESULT SUMMARY ------------------------------------- A Survey of Spreadsheet Software Usage was sent in Geomail from the DIS Program Office to all WRD employees on July 17, 1995. As of August 29, 1995, 551 responses were received. The most widely used package among WRD users is Excel (265), followed by Tactician (195), Lotus (147), and QUATTRO PRO (84). The most used spreadsheet software on the DG platform is Tactician. Out of 551 responses, 195 people indicated that they used Tactician on the DG, while only 3 people indicated that they preferred Tactician on the DG. The second most used spreadsheet software on the DG is Exclaim. Responses showed that 71 people used Exclaim on the DG, while 19 indicated they preferred Exclaim on the DG. Lotus is used on the DG by 15 people. However, Lotus has decided to no longer support Unix versions of its software. That's bad news for the 94 people who responded that they would prefer Lotus on the DG. Nine responded that they used other spreadsheet software on the DG: Wingz (5), Xess (1), S20/20 (1), SAS (1), and Quattro Pro (1) via soft PC. The three most popular spreadsheets on PC/Windows are EXCEL (174 use, 40 prefer), LOTUS (124 use, 20 prefer), and QUATTRO PRO (79 use, 18 prefer). The most popular spreadsheet on the Mac was Excel (91 use, 27 prefer). The second most popular software on the Mac was Lotus (4 use, 1 prefer). A few people indicated that they use spreadsheet software on platforms other than the DG, PC/Windows, and the Mac. On the Prime, 7 responded that they use S20/20. On PC/DOS, 3 use Quattro Pro while 2 prefer Quattro Pro and 3 use Lotus. On PC/OS-2, 1 uses Lotus and 1 uses Quattro Pro. Most respondents indicated that they used Scientific data (2453 responses) vs. Financial data (740 responses) on activities such as data management, data conversion, data reduction, data collection, data analysis, data prediction, data graphing, presentation graphing, hot links with word processing and graphics packages, SQL queries to database(s), and macro language capability Because few spreadsheet software packages have been or will be ported to the Data General UNIX platform, the DIS Program Office is researching, evaluating, and testing alternative solutions to provide access to the popular spreadsheets from within the DIS-II environment. For example, a user could effectively use Excel from a DIS-II X-Terminal accessing a Windows NT application server machine. The software to allow this capability is still under evaluation. For more information on this subject, see URL: http://wwwqvarsa.er.usgs.gov/~clbarnes/NT/ntpage.html on the World Wide Web. 6. DISTRIBUTION OF DIS COMPUTER HELP RESOURCES REFERENCE CARD -------------------------------------------------------------- During late September and early October all WRD employees should have received a DIS Computer Help Resources Tri-Fold Reference Card. The card was developed by the DIS Program Office as a direct result of responses received from system administrators to a questionnaire on the subject of how to improve user awareness of DIS computer-help resources. The DIS Computer Help Resources Card is designed to serve as a convenient reference for the DIS computer-help resources available to ALL WRD computer users. The card is intended to be separated from the accompanying cover memorandum, folded in thirds, and kept in a visible location at the user's computer work area. Card topics include: - a listing of electronic mail software help files - a listing of USGS network news groups - reference to the DIS World Wide Web pages - reference to man pages, tip sheets and other on-line computer usage documentation - reference to DIS-II software training - a listing of DIS Office contacts - a listing of the Regional Computer Specialists The DIS Program Office distributed a quantity of the cards to all DIS-II system administrators. The system administrators were asked to give a card to every one of their users. Please notify your DIS-II system administrator if you have not received a card. 7. STATUS OF DIS-II+ PERIPHERALS PROCUREMENTS ---------------------------------------------- Color Plotters -- Contract awarded August 21, 1995, to Southern CAD/CAM of Knoxville, TN, for the Hewlett-Packard 650C inkjet color plotter. -- WRD ordered from the contract with fiscal year 1995 funds, totalling $146K. We have already exceeded the minimum required purchase under the contract. -- For orders and questions, Pat McAlwee of the DIS Program Office, can be contacted at 703/648-5609 or by way of email to pmcalwee. For technical questions, contact Joyce Solomon at 703/648-5606 or send email to jsolomon. Color Printers -- Contract awarded September 20, 1995, to Severn Companies, Inc., of Lanham, MD, for the Tektronix Phaser 340+ (8.5x11", 600x300 dpi), Phaser 540+ Color Laser (8.5x11 and 8x5.14), and Phaser 300i (4x6" to 12x18" with universal media tray and 300x300 dpi). -- WRD ordered from the contract with fiscal year 1995 funding, totalling approximately $47K. -- Estimated lifecycle cost was increased from $2-4K to $6.5-10K ea. due to the quality of the color printers available on the contract. -- For orders and questions, Pat McAlwee of the DIS Program Office, can be contacted at 703/648-5609 or by way of email to pmcalwee. For technical questions, contact Joyce Solomon at 703/648-5606 or send email to jsolomon. Color Scanners -- The Color Scanner procurement package was cancelled. -- A recommendation for individual sites to buy the HP Scanjet 3c color scanner from GSA schedule was sent from Joyce Solomon in email to all sites on September 8, 1995. Film Recorders -- The Film Recorder procurement package went through the procurement process. Due to the lack of proposals, the solicitation was cancelled. Further investigation will have to be done on film recorders as to what would be the most cost-effective solution. Once this is complete, a recommendation will be made. The DIS-II+ Peripherals Workgroup has recently prioritized the remaining peripherals to be submitted during this fiscal year. They are as follows: 1. CD-ROMs 2. Jukeboxes 3. RAID technology 4. WMRM's The specifications for these peripherals are under review by the Workgroup to ensure that they are realistic requirements for the bureau. For additional information on DIS-II+ peripherals, contact Joyce Solomon (jsolomon, 703-648-5606), Coordinator of the DIS-II+ Peripherals Workgroup. 8. DISCUSSIONS NEWSLETTER AVAILABLE ONLINE AND NO LONGER PRINTED BY DIS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Starting with the next issue of the DIS Newsletter DIScussions, planned for release in November, the information will be available on the World-Wide-Web (WWW) and printed copies will no longer be mailed to each site. The release will be announced to all users by way of electronic mail. Users will be able to browse the newsletter with mosaic or other web browsers using the hypertext capabilities. Users will also have the option of printing a hard copy if desired. 9. PRIME HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE CONTRACT STATUS ----------------------------------------------- The competitive procurement for Prime hardware maintenance for fiscal years (FY) 1996 and 1997 was awarded on September 28, 1995 to Computervision Corporation. The sole source procurement with ComputerVision for Prime software maintenance for FY 1996-1997 is in the final stages of negotiations. Until the new software maintenance contract is in place, the existing contract for software maintenance has been extended to cover software maintenance until the final award is made. There has been a change in the contract regarding the scheduling of preventive maintenance (PM) calls. The contract now states all sites are required to make every effort to schedule PMs once a month. Any site that misses three (3) consecutive PMs could be responsible for potential maintenance charges at the hourly rates stated in the contract if service is required due to the missed PMs - unless written notification is provided to the Contractor by the Contracting Officer explaining the circumstances. This notification must be provided BEFORE missing the third consecutive PM. Therefore we are asking all sites to notify Sandra Hite (sshite) via email when you have PM on your PRIME each month. This will enable us to track the missed PMs and alleviate any reason for sites to incur additional expenses. In the next month or so, we will be reviewing current hardware items under maintenance and making suggestions to sites on possible equipment that could be removed from maintenance after January 1, 1996. After January 1, 1996, WRD sites can remove equipment and software from maintenance at any time. 10. DIS-II/DIS-II+ END-OF-YEAR ACTIVITY ---------------------------------------- The following table lists the contracts activity for FY95. FY95 FY95 Qty Ordered Money Spent DIS-II DG: Servers 38 Workstations 28 $4,208,585.00 DIS-II XTerms 504 $1,055,261.00 DIS-II+: Plotters 15 $ 144,315.00 Color Printers 5 $ 46,879.62 11. DIS-II CONTRACT STATUS -------------------------- There are a few contract modifications pending approval. Although we can not give you the details until the modifications have been approved (the details frequently change prior to approval), it appears that DG is going to lower the price on the 128MB memory daughter card for the AV8500/9500 servers. We are also expecting DG to propose a new offer for sites that have 45MHz CPU boards to upgrade to 50MHz CPU boards. If the proposal is accepted, it will proceed as a modification to the contract. As you may already know, sites that order new AV8500/9500 servers are getting systems with 50MHz CPU boards at no additional cost. 12. DIS-II DG HARDWARE MAINTENANCE QUESTIONNAIRE ------------------------------------------------ The DIS Program Office surveyed the DIS-II DG system administrators (DAs) last month by questionnaire concerning DG hardware (hw) maintenance. The questionnaire revealed that overall, the DAs are satisfied with DG maintenance support. There were several "popular" issues that we will be following-up on with DG. Those are: response time at remote sites; availability of spare parts; AV530 maintenance prices; and printer reliability. A few sites had some specific concerns that will also be forwarded to DG. We will continue investigating and pursuing options for the end-of-life equipment no longer available on the contract. A more detailed summary of the responses to the questionnaire will appear in the November issue of DIScussions. As you know, the DIS-II DG contract purchasing period ends September 30, 1996, but DG maintenance continues through February 1998. We will share the information on your needs, issues and level of satisfaction with DG at the next contract meeting in early November. 13. WINDOWS NT SERVER AND WINDD EVALUATION STATUS ------------------------------------------------- The DIS office has tested and evaluated Tektronic's WinDD-XNT beta release. WinDD is being tested as a solution to integrate Microsoft Windows applications in the DIS environment. WinDD is software that makes Window's 16 & 32 bit applications available on any X device, including Data General systems and NCD X-terminals, which are available to USGS through existing procurement contracts. WinDD is delivered from Tektronics bundled with MS Windows-NT. It also has Chameleon's 32-bit NFS product bundled for connecting to remote file systems via NFS. There is no need for a DOS diskette, NT is an operating system with multitasking and other abilities unavailable with DOS. WinDD comes with 7 diskettes and 1 CD. The whole package is available on diskettes if needed. WinDD is Windows NT Server 3.5, so you get the benefits of this 32-bit operating system, including preemptive multitasking, C-2 level security, fault tolerance, and support for NTFS, HPFS, FAT file systems and it supports RAID 5 fault tolerance. NT has support for TCP/IP networking as well as NetBEUI software. Most of the ethernet adapters are already supported, so getting your NT system on your network is relatively painless. For continuing information on all testing and evaluations of MS Windows solutions, see the following URL: http://wwwqvarsa.er.usgs.gov/~clbarnes/NT/ntpage.html 14. STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR INTERNET DISSEMINATION, EXPLORATION, AND ------------------------------------------------------------------- RETRIEVAL (SPIDER) TEAM APPROVES USING HTML 3.0 ----------------------------------------------- At its meeting in Carson City, September 13-14, the SPIDER team approved the use of the draft HTML 3.0 standard for WRD documents on World Wide Web. The new standard will give page designers considerably more tools to display tables and to merge graphics with their text. Proprietary extensions, such as those of Netscape, however, were not approved because they would ignore at least 30% of our WWW "customers." The revised guidelines may be seen at http://h2o.usgs.gov/usgs/dist999.html. Gary Fisher, the WRD WWW Training Coordinator, presented a plan for a series of training courses on WWW subjects. See http://wwwdmdtws.er.usgs.gov/~gfisher/mosaic_training/training_plan.html for a full report.The SPIDER team also identified a number of workshops and training sessions to be held at the National Computer Technology Meeting next May. Full minutes of the SPIDER meeting, as well as a continuing discussion of WWW guidelines, can be seen on the usgs.www newsgroup.