Bellows

Burrow Hill Green

Chobham

Surrey  GU24 8QP

England

Tel:      +44 (0) 1276 857 599
mobile: +44 (0) 7957 101 430

e-mail: idkk@idkk.com

 

 

 

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idkk Consultancy Ltd.

CURRICULUM VITAE

Ian D. K. Kelly

 

Computer System Professional with over 30 years experience in the appli­cation of technical excellence to data processing systems to the improve­ment of profitability, the solution of operational and technical problems, and the fulfilment of marketing re­quirements. Background includes:–

·          Interfacing with the end-user client to determine the business requirements of proposed and existing computer systems;

·          Identification of technical problems;

·          Management of technical resources (personnel, equipment and systems) to­wards the resolution of these problems;

·          Devising and executing programs of technical education;

·          Analysis and reportage at a government level;

·          Presenting technical information in sales situations at varying levels of techni­cal and management involvement to enable a sales message to become a sub­stan­tive reality;

·          Deep technical and systems programming in a variety of languages on a wide range of equipment.

 

EMPLOYMENT & CONSULTANCY

November 1999-Date uc.com Consulting Ltd / FileTek UK Ltd.

Technical head of a team who are designing, writing and supporting the interface software for the world’s largest database, requiring security clearance (to SC level) for an MoD site. This is the MASS archive system at the Meteorological Office, Bracknell. The MASS system archives data from (currently) five different operating environ­ments – NEC, Cray, IBM MVS, HP/UX and Windows NT –  and has to be able to restore data back to those environments. Data archived from one environment may be restored to another (with all the implications this has for number for­mats, and character sets, etc.). The controlling software (called mouse – Mete­orological Office Unified Storage Environment) is written in highly portable C, SQL and Unix scripts (with a small amount of IBM Assembler language too), and has been designed to be extremely robust, and able to cope with many peta-bytes of data simultaneously.

The central archive system itself is the StorHouse system (produced by FileTek Inc.), which uses a Sun Solaris attached to a Powder Horn tape library and robot. This is yet a sixth operating system added to the mix (and from which the mouse central scheduling is performed). The StorHouse system is unique in its approach to archiving and managing very large amounts of data, and has no real upper limit to its capacity. The current MASS system at the Meteorologi­cal Office will be loaded – at the most conservative estimate – with at least 1.7 peta-bytes (that’s seventeen hundred million megabytes) within its first five years – and possibly very much more than that.

The work includes liasing with the user, analysing technical requirements, pro­ducing coherent technical designs that both match those requirements and also leave room for future expansion – even though the directions of expansion are not yet known, managing a team of experienced technicians who are producing the software, overseeing the documentation and ensuring that milestones are met without compromise in quality.

The user in this project is not just one user, but several theoretical meteorologi­cal and analytic teams, each of which has its own viewpoint, and differing tech­nical needs. Each of the base operating environments has its own “sub-culture”, and balancing the wishes and perceptions of each of these groups of users is a political, as well as a technical, job.

The technical side of the job requires expertise in systems design, man man­agement, quality C programming, integration across differing operating sys­tems, database design, and the production of quality documentation at all lev­els.

Languages and systems on this project: C, SQL, Unix shell scripts (C shell, Borne shell), awk, MVS JCL, StorHouse control, Sun Solaris, HP/UX, Windows NT, Cray, HTML, Linux.. The data has to be accessible to and archivable from C, Fortran and Assembler programs in all of these environments.
Web References: Met.Office: http://www.meto.gov.uk/ with particular infor­mation at http://www.met-office.gov.uk/sec1/sci_tech_9899/index.html,  uc.com: http://www.uc.com/, FileTek and StorHouse:  http://www.filetek.com/ (with specific information at http://www.filetek.com/PRUKMet.htm).

August 1999-October 1999 Eurobase Systems Ltd

Technical analysis and systems updating on Eurobase’s Client-Server system, which is sold specifically into the insurance market, which involves C++ and embedded Oracle SQL. The Eurobase systems (including “Synergy”) use Win­dows NT Client stations, and Unix Servers. The Unix varieties currently sup­ported are Dynix (Sequent), AIX (IBM) and HP/UX (Hewlett Packard).

Was involved in the analysis, construction and documentation of additions to the system, using both C++ and embedded SQL, and of internal routines, in­cluding those for safe floating-point arithmetic (e.g. ensuring that no division was by zero, that no operation overflowed, etc.). Was involved in quality-im­provement for existing, legacy code.

June 1998-June 1999 DST International Ltd

Technical consultant and developer on systems involving DST’s system AWD (Automated Workflow Distribution), which involved work at several of DST’s clients, in­cluding Centraal Beheer (Holland), NatWest, Barclays, Prime Health, EFDS and (for about six months) Legal & General. Added client-spe­cific sys­tem components written in C and C++, running under various operat­ing sys­tems, including Unix (HP/UX, DEC and SCO), Windows (NT and 95), OS/2, and IBM’s MVS. These new components also involved MVS JCL, Unix con­trol shell scripts and SQL scripts. The AWD system uses (largely) the Ora­cle database, and at Legal & General, within the FPF system, it is interfaced with a large number of other, different operating environments, in­cluding VMS and CICS. AWD systems are Client/Server, and are connected by a vari­ety of dif­ferent connection protocols, including Ethernet, Novell, Token Ring and Mi­crosoft Networking.

Was involved in the correction of problems discovered by clients in parts of the (rather complex) AWD system, which involved analysing the origin of the problems, correcting the source code or control files, testing the corrections, implementing the updates at the client site without interference with their pro­duction running, and documenting the altered systems.

Because of the complexity of the AWD system, several C/C++ compilers are used: MSVC 1.5 (16-bit), MSVC 2.0 (32-bit, Server code), MSVC 4.0 and above (32-bit, Client code), Visual Age under Windows (OS/2 code ported to NT), Visual Age under OS/2 and C/Set under OS/2. One of the requirements of development is to produce code compatible across all of these environ­ments.

April 1998-May 1998 Ç-Dilla Ltd

As an independent consultant on short-term contract, was responsi­ble for ad­vising on the method of converting software from an “English language” only environment to one capable of using far-East languages (including Japanese and Chinese). This was a con­tinuation of the technical experience previously gained at The Dodge Group.

Was involved in the production of (a) conversion tools, for the automatic modification of Windows-based software, and (b) advi­sory reports, indicating the scope of the translation problems and their solution. The Ç-Dilla systems are written in C++ and PC Assembler language, and are primarily aimed at the Windows 3.xx, Windows 95/98 and Windows NT systems.

April 1997-March 1998 The Dodge Group

Senior Technical Manager, responsible for the conversion of an in­tricate soft­ware system from an “English language” only environ­ment to one capable of producing messages – and handling data – in Japanese. This software is writ­ten in Oracle and Sybase SQL, C, C++ and Visual Basic, and runs on a variety of Unix platforms, as well as the client front-end on PCs (under Windows NT, 95 and 3.1). The Dodge software deals with banking and accounting, and is in­stalled in several countries, including the UK, USA, France, Hong Kong, South Africa and Japan. Job functions included:

·      planning the conversion techniques to be adopted,

·      specifying, writing and managing the creation of conversion utili­ties,

·      managing the group performing the conversion and testing,

·      interfacing technically with the end user (the client), and

·      specifying and documenting the standards to be used in future development.

Also involved in planning the technical parts of future development projects, prior to their being undertaken by the development teams.

October 1995-March 1997 Cedardata plc.

Systems Programmer, involving work with both in-house and client Unix and VAX/VMS systems, and Y2K verification. The software produced by Cedar­data uses Oracle, and is written in both the Oracle languages (SQL, Pro*C, De­signer/2000), and in C, as well as being supported by substantial scripts in the Unix shell languages (for the “make” proc­ess). Responsible for the pro­duc­tion of the software for both build­ing and installing the latest GUI version of the cfacs system, as well as evaluating enhancements to, and fixing problems on the internal LAN (Ethernet and TCP/IP).

1987-date LaserPrint Services Ltd.

In a consultancy rôle, which still continues, responsible for the de­sign, pro­duc­tion and support of the ROLO (XPFC) laser-printer support package, which operates under IBM MVS/JES2, Unix and Windows NT. This involved dis­cussing with users their require­ments within the use of large laser printers, de­signing and specifying a system satisfying these requirements, and the pro­duc­tion of soft­ware written in IBM Assembler language, and in C, suitable for easy transfer between many different versions of the Unix system. User docu­menta­tion, training and support for users in several coun­tries were undertaken. More detailed information about this (rather complex) software system may be ob­tained from the web site http://www.xpfc.com/.

Experience prior to idkk Consultancy Ltd.

1983-1995 GSI (UK) Ltd.

Technical Services Manager (and later, Head of Research and Development) firstly in the UK, then in Paris. The work involved both the management and production of complete systems as well as systems programming under both VM and MVS on GSI’s international network of IBM (and IBM-clone) ma­chines. Some of the design and development work was carried out on Unix systems (SCO, AIX, Sun and HP), as well as on networked PCs. During the twelve and a half years with GSI the programming lan­guages used included: Cobol, Fortran, MVS JCL, C, VM control, REXX, Pascal, Basic, IBM Assem­bler, MS/DOS control, PL/I and for­mal notations for language description. In addition, a great deal of French was spoken (especially during the 18-month secondment to Paris).

GSI produced its own e-mail system (“GWEN”), and has important Internet connections, all of which were fully explored, and to which numerous design ideas were presented.

GSI had a large number of interconnected LANs, creating a multi-provider WAN, integrating IBM mainframe and PC technologies. These networks were used for the internal movement of data, and access to remote computer centres, and also to provide transparency to the external users whose systems may be run in any of the GSI coun­tries, irrespective of the country requesting a run. One of GSI’s aims was to provide con­nectivity for every kind of device at every technically possible speed in every country of service to all of its com­puter centres.

The use of networking involves a great deal of remote management – largely from the company’s centre in Paris – of the outlying systems. This includes the day to day support and problem solving, and the remote updating of installed software.

One responsibility was the provision of an auto-dialling system, which inter­connected remote PCs and the IBM mainframe network (both MVS and VM) by means of HP machines in France and the UK. The software for this was written in Fortran, Cobol and IBM Assembler language, and had to take ac­count of the differing international regulations for auto-dialling, and real-time recovery, automatic rescheduling, multi-tasking, and the generation of excep­tion reports.

Was involved in the updating, and correcting for Y2K, of the internal machine accounting system for the MVS mainframes – a suite of PL/I and Assembler programs which take the SMF records generated both by IBM’s own software and by GSI’s enhancements to MVS.

1980-1983 Quantime Ltd.

Programming Manager of a company specialising in the production of com­puter software for market research. Responsible for identify­ing, designing, re­sourcing and managing the production of software to support Computer As­sisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI). This job also involved liaison with prospects during the initial selling, and support of the customers thereafter – a substantial amount of this being overseas. During the development phase of this software, responsible for a team of eight (including a technical author). These very successful software systems were implemented in Fortran, Assem­bler and ‘C’ on Prime, VAX, Perkin-Elmer and various micro-computers. Op­er­ating systems included Primos, CP/M and Unix.

1975-1980 Solvfield Ltd.

Director of a private company providing consultancy and technical support to users during software conversion. Responsible for identi­fication of problems arising from language and machine incompati­bilities; for client education, the design and construction of compil­ers for translating automatically between high-level languages (using our own, very sophisticated compiler-compiler), and reporting at all levels in the terms appropriate to those levels.

During this time researched and wrote for a very substantial report for the Commission of the European Communities on software con­version tools and aids, as part of the large three-part “Studies in Software Portability”. This in­volved interaction with colleagues in France and Germany to obtain a broad European picture by inter­view, questionnaire, literature search, and commer­cial analysis.

1972-1975 Advanced Information Access Ltd.

Chief Analyst, reporting directly to the board, responsible for the design and initial implementation of a multi-user real-time operating system. Tasks in­cluded the specification of job-descriptions and the selection of requisite per­sonnel, technical design of the operating system and its interfaces, the evalua­tion and selection of hardware, the design and implementation of user lan­guages, and the day-to-day management at a technical level of the writing, in­tegrating and test­ing of what became the ADAM system – the first micro-com­puter system to support PL/I.

1969-1972 Olympic Computer Services Ltd.

Technical Support Analyst, firstly with Computime Ltd., and then (after the dissolution of that company) with OCSL, which was set up by a selection of the technical staff of Computime. Responsibili­ties included answering clients’ technical queries, systems pro­gramming for the various IBM OS/370 systems, with the mainte­nance of user interfaces on a range of machines. Also involved were user education, program realisation, and considerations of opera­tional ef­ficiency.

1966-1969 CEGB

Systems Programmer with the Central Electricity Generating Board. Responsi­bilities included the running of a technical advice “clinic” for more than 150 programmers, the provision of support software in providing clean user inter­faces, and the measurement of system usage and performance statistics. Exten­sive use was made of train­ing courses, including OS Internals.

 

EDUCATION

1963-1966 University College, London

Read for and obtained a B.Sc. honours degree in Mathematics, after a course which included as specialist subjects Numerical Analysis, Computing and Mathemati­cal Logic. Was a “Generating Board Scholar”, receiving a grant from the CEGB awarded after competi­tive interview.

1956-1963 Sloane Grammar School, Chelsea

S-Level: Pure Maths.

A-Level: Pure Maths., Applied Maths., Physics, Chemistry

O-Level: Maths., Physics, Chemistry, French, Latin, Music, English Language, English Literature

PROFESSIONAL

Member of The British Computer Society, and was (for seventeen years) Chairman of its Natural Language Translation Specialist Group

Associate Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications

 

PUBLICATIONS

1977      “PROTRAN – A generalized translation tool for natural and algo­rithmic lan­guages”, in Overcoming the Language Barrier, Verlag Dokumentation, Munich. Proceedings of the third European Con­gress on Information Sys­tems and Networks, EEC. ISBN 3-7940-5184-X.

1979      “PROTRAN – An Introductory Description of a General Transla­tor”, in Practice in Software Adaption and Maintenance, Proceed­ings of the SAM workshop, Berlin, April 1979. North-Holland Publishing, 1980, ISBN 0-444-86449-5.

1982      “Translation by computer of open-ended responses” in Proceed­ings of the 35th annual ESOMAR congress, Vienna, 1982. Euro­pean Society for Opin­ion and Market Research, Amsterdam, 1982. ISBN 92-831-0082-4

1987      Computer Translation of Natural Language (with W. Goshawke and J. D. Wigg). Sigma Press, Wilmslow. ISBN 1-85058-056-1

1989             Progress in Machine Translation – Natural Language and Personal Comput­ers. Sigma Press, Wilmslow. ISBN 1-85058-156-8

2000             C Unleashed (with Richard Heathfield, Gus Miklos et al.), MacMillan Publishing, USA. ISBN 0-672-31896-2 (anticipated publication date August 2000). Three chapters on Arbi­trary Precision Arithmetic, Compiling Arithmetic Expressions and Natural Language Processing.

 

PERSONAL

Date of Birth:                  22nd April 1945

Health:                           Excellent

Marital Status:                Married, with two children.

Other:                            Car owner and driver, clean licence.

                                      Passport (with USA Visa)

Speaks very competent French.

Has a deep interest in music, playing the piano, church organ, violin and recorders. Sings counter-tenor in a male-voice quintet. Conducts a ladies choir. Reads a great deal: philosophy, linguistics, poetry, science-fiction, law, fairy-stories, general science and comparative religion – indeed, al­most anything to hand – as well as considerable technical updating.

Has the ambition, one day, to learn many more languages and more about linguistics, and is currently studying Sanskrit. Already has a smattering of Russian and Italian, together with extremely rudimentary Spanish and German – but can explain comput­ers only in English and French!

 

EXPERIENCE

Fully fluent in the following computer languages: Pascal, C, Cobol, For­tran, IBM As­sembler, MVS JCL, PL/I, and the various Unix shell script lan­guages, as well as make and awk. Also able to deal effectively with perl, C++ and VM REXX.

In addition (although a little rusty on these, their not having been used for some time): Algol 60, Algol 68, basic, RPG, PLAN and Lisp.

Has made technical study of HTML (for the Internet), TCP/IP and Ether­net, as well as the various techniques for interconnecting PCs in Local Area Networks.

Is fully competent in the use of the various tools now widely used on PCs and net­works (e.g. Word, Windows [3.1, 95, NT, 2000 etc.], Ex­cel, Visual C++, Powerpoint), the Internet (active site at http://www.idkk.com/) and of e-mail systems (with active account attached to web site [idkk@idkk.com]). Primary, and preferred, e-mail address is idkk@idkk.com.