CLASS OF '57 NOTES FOR JUL-AUG 1998 TECH REVIEW

From Alan M. May

Answered prayers! No sooner had I pled for a volunteer Class Webmaster than

Marty Zombeck responded. Within a week our Class Homepage was functional.

There is more still to be done; but what we have is a great start. Dial

http://alumweb.mit.edu/classes/1957/ on the Internet and try it out! Thanks

Marty! When Marty isn't designing Internet home pages for his friends he can

be found at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics where he designs

telescope lenses.

Speaking of design, does anyone still have a year 2000 problem? One

classmate who does not is Allen Burgess. Allen solved the year 2000 problem

some time ago. Allen is President of Data Integrity, Inc. which he started

in 1984 to provide management consulting expertise to the high tech

industry. In 1995 he solved the year 2000 problem and is now solving it for

others. Allen counts among his clients some of the big boys including

NationsBank, Citicorp and Credit Suisse First Boston to name just a few.

Allen's approach to solving the problem has been quite different from the

majority of practitioners, but typically Tech. Instead of throwing masses of

people at the problem Allen used his brain and came up with an elegant

mathematical solution. It involves an automated mathematical scan, special

date recognition algorithms, and automated review. Conventional year 2000

problem solving methods involve either Date Expansion (expanding the year

date to four digits which could affect over 90% of the source module) or

windowing (which could involve 20-30% of the source modules and affect 6-10%

of the source module lines) while Allen's solution typically involves less

than 15% source module changes affecting less than 1% of the source module

lines. But, hey! Don't take my word for it. You can read all about it on the

Internet. Dial http://www.dii2000.com and read Allen Burgess's Millenium

Solution White Paper entitled "Mathematical Solution to the Year 2000

Problem."

Don Park writes that he resigned as an Associate Professor at the Long

Island Learning Center of Empire State College (SUNY) and has been living in

Fort Collins, Colorado ever since, taking official retirement in 1990. While

most of us enjoy music, Don is doing something about it. Don recently

arranged a lieder concert in Fort Collins featuring Wolfgang Holzmair

singing songs by Schumann, Ravel, Debussy and Fauré. Don's interests run to

classical music, railroads, personal investing, reading and architecture.

Don is currently writing articles on railroad history. John Armitage writes

that he retired as an IBM senior engineer in 1989 since which time he has

lived aboard a sailboat in the U.K. and Norway for considerable periods.

John sailed solo across the Atlantic in 1990. He authored a Norwegian

Cruising Guide in 1996. John has what sounds like a comparatively landlocked

address in Cedaredge, Colorado. George Borrmann writes that he retired as an

engineer in 1991 from the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (GE). George and

his wife, Dottie live in Louisville where George's interests run to

computers, duplicate bridge, and tennis. Richard Kain writes that he has

just retired from teaching EE at the University of Minnesota where he has

taught since 1966. His goal is to spend more time in photography. Towards

that end he traveled with 45 other photographers to the Falkland Islands,

South Georgia Island and the Antarctic Peninsula last December.

The very first undergraduate has been chosen for the award from the Class of

1957 Endowed Scholarship Fund. Not having (asked) permission to use her name

I'll simply report that she is a junior who came to MIT from New Jersey.

Born in North Viet Nam she is now a U.S. citizen. A chemistry major who

hopes to pursue graduate studies. She works part time, is an active member

of student government, participates in numerous campus activities, plays the

oboe and engages in several intramural sports. ---*Alan M. May, secretary,

3601 Turtle Creek Blvd., Dallas, TX 75219; (w) tel: 214-746-4677; (h) tel:

214-528-8812; (w) fax: 214-746-4754; e-mail: alanmmay@aol.com.