Good morning tech

Executive notes

OMB scaling back big IT projects. Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra unveiled a list of high-priority IT projects Monday that will be scrutinized by the administration in an attempt to save money and improve the government’s management of large-scale IT projects, an area in which the government has historically struggled. Kundra said the goal is not to kill the projects, though work has stopped on some, including the costly FBI case management system Sentinel. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is meeting with agencies individually to discuss the best path forward for each of the 26 projects. http://bit.ly/9xGl4u

Industry notes

Dell to up bid for 3PAR. Dell is expected to raise its bid for the data storage firm 3PAR in response to reports of a higher bid from HP on Monday, according to a report from Bloomberg. Dell appeared to have closed a deal to purchase the cloud storage provider last week, only to see Hewlett-Packard swoop in with a cash offer of $1.6 billion, more than 33 percent higher than Dell’s bid of $1.15 billion. The latest offer is expected in the coming days. http://bit.ly/btTF25

Gates orders coordinated cyberspace policy. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered a new policy on cyberspace information sharing designed to identify military personnel who pose a threat similar to the shooter at Fort Hood, Texas, last November. Internal reports show the Army was aware of the shooter’s emerging radicalism as early as 2005 but failed to identify him as a threat. The new policy uses e-mail and other cyberspace counterintelligence techniques to identify military personnel who could pose a threat before they take action. http://bit.ly/by6rfH

WATERCOOLER 

STILL NOT SURE — From the most recent episode of “Mad Men”: Young account exec Pete Campbell scrunches up his face and asks, “Who the hell is Dr. Lyle Evans?” Don Draper gives a puzzled look. In 1965, the best recourse was to glance down the table to the ever-informed Joanie for clarification, but to no avail: “I have no idea,” she says. In 2010, however, no need to stay puzzled. After the show aired, “Dr. Lyle Evans” lit up the search engines, with Google declaring it a “spicy” search query by its official rating system. Look at the spike in searches here: http://bit.ly/ctNYzI. As for who is Dr. Lyle Evans, ask him yourself on Twitter: http://bit.ly/bPIijs