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Martin Wasserman

Dick "Skip" Dunn

Well, I pressed the "Post Response" button.  Big fun!  Try it!  Yee!!

Dick "Skip" Dunn

Here's a question:  What was your first home computer, and when and why did you get it?

1982 Apple II+  because it had upper and lower case letters...  I've been a die-hard MacMan ever since.

Robert Furey

my first computer was the mac 512. we bought it in 1984 and it has been macs ever since. now i am on a macbook air that my kids gave me for my retirement last month.

Dick Gardner

I waited 'til IBM's PC came out and got the hi -powered DUAL floppy disk version!  $3500 if I remember, and stolen by a furniture delivery guy six months later.

Skip, it's got to be an artifact of the boilerplate/template for this reunion site, but the introductory post welcomes us to the Williams College High School Reunion. [11/12/13: all fixed I see] . I'm still going to come, tho'.

Dick

Tom Stites

My wife's and my first computer was an Osborne I.  It had 64K of memory, ran the CP/M operating system, came with WordStar and VisiCalc software, and was portable -- small enough to fit under an airline seat.  We bought it in August, 1981, the week that the IBM PC was introduced.  In those days computer stores sold all kinds of computers, and we asked the salesman whether we ought to go with the IBM.  He recommended against it.  "We know IBM is good at big computers," he said, "but we don't know whether they can make little ones that work.  If I were you I'd go with the market leader."  We took his advice and got the Osborne.  Osbonre was a company that couldn't handle its success and flamed out:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_Computer_Corporation  

James de Jongh

My first computer was a Xerox II, purchased in the early to mid 1980s.  It had a small black screen with a cursor, 64K with dual 8” floppy disks and the DOS operating system.  I used it mostly for word processing with Word Star.  I still have the monster in storage; it still worked the last time I set it up a few years ago. In retrospect, I’m astonished at how much  I was willing to spend for such a primitive, complicated and inefficient device with such limited capabilities but at the time it seemed so much more convenient to use compared to a Selectric typewriter. The whole set up cost nearly $8000 with interest and fees.  In 1980 dollars!  Just the daisy wheel printer cost more than an expensive computing device today.

John Cannon

My first, and still favorite, computer was/is an abacus.

Gay Mayer (Mayer)

Our first one was that little Apple device with a pin feed paper printer. Tiny screen but seemed easy to use.

We went away for a trip and our daughter  stayed home... Junior high school perhaps. She has taken and hated a course in "computer"  mostly simple diagramming. Our son lived it. Kate also disliked writing and typing papers for school. We came home and found a long note from her... Printed  out and also that she had done her homework  using the Apple II

i asked her at breakfast how she figured out how to use the computer and got the usual teenage reply...  Dad,  you don't understand... It was easy and all I did was sit down and start to use it!

Rich ... Saw your note about that other school that uses Eph in their website... That is why we are EPHS1964.  hard to believe there is some other place that finds "Eph" interesting.

Peter deCourcy Hero

Hi all,

Some of you recall Woody Knight, '63. He was good friend of mine, and very close to m brother Andy, '62. The Knight clan has had several generations attend Williams. Woody died in 2003.

It was his grand daughter, Lexie, to whom our President and Dean of the College  in their recent posts to "all the Williams family" were referring regarding a student rape. She has spoken in public about the incident. I breach no confidence here. This is public information, via the Boston Globe and WBUR, among many others. There is also an online petition, you may have received it, about the incident.

Saying that "other schools have this problem",  (think Penn State) and  that "everyone feels just terrible" about it, that, but after all "we know that all our good procedures in place were followed", etc does not quite do it for me.

Sorry.

After this creep/rapist was slapped on the wrist with a 3-semester hiatus, during which Lexie was personally assaulted on campus, with thrown full beer cans, by the men's hockey team, for reporting the rape in the first place, and get this, then the creep in question was re-admitted, having spent his hiatus playing on a  hockey team (called the "MILF Hunters", named after a misogynistic and highly pornographic website) and,on the side, had been also arrested for drugs. No re-calibration of his life there.

So now he is again, now, a 23 year old freshman. 

Gee, he is the kind of Ephman we want (!?).  Right??!!  

LIghten up, for I am told he can really play hockey!!

Meanwhile Lexie has transferred to Columbia.

I am asking for no response to this email, which may get censored by the Alum Dept, at least not to me anyway, but I am dismayed, and I hope you are too.

Will not be at rour reunion, alas.

Peter

Peter Buttenheim

Peter,

Williams' loss is Columbia's gain to be sure!

As a former teacher and school administrator, I know how complex and difficult these situations can get.

in the case in question, however, the young man sounds as if he does not belong at Williams College.

I wish you were going to be at the 50th reunion. You have always been both a spark plug and a raconteur in the Class of 1964, and our reunion will be diminished greatly without your presence. I have just been able to schedule 48 hours in Williamstown amidst grandchild duties -- the thing I am enjoying most in the world right now.

Best personal wishes to you and yours, and thanks for sharing your strong feelings!

Peter Buttenheim

Terence Finn

If what Peter Hero reports is correct, shame on Williams College.

Terry Finn

Peter deCourcy Hero

Thanks for your expressions of concern, please understand, this is an emotional issue for me, both for my love of the College, and especially for the Knight family.

This is a (another) time I wish Peb Bloom was still with us, for I know he could have figured out what next for us makes sense, he always did, and we know we could count on a Gargoyle AND Gurgle to do no less!

Best to you all.

Joel Reingold

This is a bad time for strong points of view.  Not when we are about to gather together to celebrate each others' lives, and our shared experiences.  Not quite the moment for red-faced differences of opinion.

But at the absolute least, there are clearly many, many things that are extremely troubling about every aspect of Woody Knight's granddaughter's experiences as recounted by Peter, and by the press.

Significantly to me, assuming any of the events as told are true, it does not sound like anything has been done to prevent the next such events.  President Falk's letter seemed unfocused and unconvincing to me.

So many of you have been so generous to Williams' future over the past few months especially, that it seems to me that you have established a voice for us in that future whether or not we already had one.

Many of us have wives.  Sisters. Daughters.  Granddaughters.  I am pretty sure we all have had mothers.

Do you think -- in the midst of our wonderful all boys' school camaraderie -- that we should use that voice to ask?  To speak?

joel

John Cannon

Rape at Williams – thoughts

What I don’t know:

The facts of the incident. 

What I do know:

1. Rape is a heinous, violent crime.

2. Victims of rape should be supported emotionally, attended medically, and encouraged -- NOT discouraged -- to report the incident immediately to official, impartial law-enforcement agencies (in this case, probably, the Criminal Investigations Unit of the Massachusetts State Police).

3. All bureaucracies have a horrific reflex tendency to cover their own ass and protect their own vested interests.  (This knowledge is based on 35 years of living and working in Washington, DC, the world’s epicenter of bureaucracies).

What I believe:

If individuals in the Williams College Administration behaved in the way reported by Peter Hero and the Boston Globe, then those individuals and the Administration as a whole need to be investigated by an impartial, outside group not only for a totally irresponsible and self-serving response to this incident, but for possible obstruction of justice (certainly morally, if not legally).

And yes, Joel, we sure as shit should ask and speak.  And we should ask what is being done right now to change the College’s approach to preventing and responding to future incidents.

John Cannon

Stephen Bowling

I do not know Peter well, but I do know he is not only highly regarded in the Williams family, but he is a recognized community leader in the SF Bay Area.  And I think community is the key here.

Sexual assault should not trigger an issue of whether the guilty party should be ejected from college, but why he/she is not in jail.  It seems that rape on campus, or in the military, has been viewed as parochial problem to be dealt with by a subset of our society. 

Rather than be comforted by following procedures, Williams should take the opportunity to lead a collaborative community effort, establishing a model to prosecute under criminal statutes – and making that a clear consequence of any assault

Joel Reingold

John is quite correct in every way.  Stephen also.  No balanced viewpoint or two ways about it.  The real authorities are the ones to be making determinatioons.  Perhaps if the young lady did not make a formal charge... I personally don't know about this aspect of legalities.  But no matter how well meaning, school administrators have no business stepping in to make judgements and, essentially, control the spin.

What to ask, what to say...   hmmmmm.  Going to consult some of you. j.

Paul Kritzer

I missed the story in the Boston Globe and the report on NPR.  Can someone share the links?

Paul Kritzer

Bruce Birgbauer

As a Father of two daughters and Grandfather of 3 and 1/2 Granddaughters, I am very moved by Peter Hero's comments. As a member of a Higher Education Initiative at a law firm which represents many colleges and universities,  I am very concerned about how this matter was handled by the College. On the one hand, Williams has to be careful not to leap to an unfair judgment as Duke University did to  its men's lacrosse team in the Exotic Dancer fiasco. On the other hand, colleges and universities such as Penn State have been ignoring some of their core moral principles (such as educating students and the public in a safe environment free from sexual predators) to protect football or other teams,  and colleges and universities, from bad publicity. The balancing act for Williams is  taking the high moral ground while avoiding legal minefields.

On another subject, did any of you see the article in the Weekend Wall Street Journal (5/31/14, p. A11) containing the comments of former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg  at Harvard University about students and faculty members   protesting graduation speakers  to such an extent that Freedom of Press and Expression have become seriously impaired. He raises the question of whether college students are receiving a proper education when only one point of view is expressed and learned . As he stated,  "Requiring scholars-and commencement speakers, for that matter- to conform to certain political standards undermines the whole purpose of a university." I strongly agree with his comments. What do you think?

David Macpherson

For Paul: a link to a WBUR analysis. http://www.wbur.org/2014/05/12/williams-sexual-assault-case

We are adding a new item to our reunion schedule. On Saturday at 1:00, Dean Sarah Bolton will meet in Griffin Hall Room 3 to talk with us about sexual policies and initiatives at the college. 

Bruce - hope you can make it. Your paragraph gives us several examples of these issues at other schools. I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts and experience.

We also need to remember that Dean Bolton will talk of how Williams is addressing sexual violence on campus and the policies of the college that address it. If the policies are well thought out and effectively communicated and implemented then we can have confidence that Williams is taking the moral high ground.

Nicholas Goodhue

Two items of particular interest:

http://bit.ly/1tExBeK

https://www.wbur.org/news/2014/05/16/williams-sexual-assault

John Cannon

Another short piece relevant to Rape on college campuses.

http://www.care2.com/causes/what-miss-america-got-wrong-about-college-sexual-assaults.html

Gay Mayer (Mayer)

Thanks John for adding to the conversation. There teems to be a problem with the link you posted.... Some of  us have been directed to the XXX rated site. And at least one other just cannot get to.the article. Would be good if you might resend the link.

AS a general update... Our webmaster is recovering from an emergency operation for a burst appendix en route to Reunion. Skip was able to join us Saturday evening for the memorial service honoring the 36 classmates who have died and stay for dinner. BUT, he is still recovering and It may be a while before we get photos and the rest uploaded.

We have had a wonderful reunion with laughter,  tears and just a a really nice time reconnecting.

John Cannon

The gist of the article is that Miss America trivialized Rape by suggesting that women just need to learn self-defense skills.

Here, again, is the link that works for me --

http://www.care2.com/causes/what-miss-america-got-wrong-about-college-sexual-assaults.html

David Macpherson

Our long awaited reunion has come and gone. It was really great to see old friends - Rick Rosan, Paul Riecks and Dave Newbury. Old friends can pick up as if time were no barrier. And to have a chance to speak with Rich Lyon was eye opening. What an interesting guy! My loss in not knowing him 50 years ago. I am sure others have similar reactions. Can we use this forum to document our memories?