Welcome to lanther.co.uk

Welcome to my website. Please feel free to browse at your will, using the menu on your left. The main page below is home to my (long neglected) weblog for those of you that are bored enough to take an interest in what's going on in my life :-). I'm currently a Principal Scientist at Adobe, working on the architecture for asset management and collaboration in Creative Cloud. Prior to this, I was the lead developer for Creative Cloud Libraries - a revolutionary new way of sharing creative content between different applications, devices, and people. I previously helped to develop Adobe Scout, which was a visual profiler for Flash and AIR applications. Prior to this, I was a researcher in the Language Based Technology group at the Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen. I was part of the MT-LAB project, which is a collaboration between DTU, Aalborg University, and ITU, investigating formal verification techniques for advanced software systems. My particular research was concerned with probabilistic and stochastic analysis of distributed systems. I did my PhD in the Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, University of Edinburgh, supervised by Professor Jane Hillston. Previously, I studied at Robinson College, Cambridge. I originate from Bridlington, a little sea-side town on the Yorkshire coast. In the summer of 2005, I was a Senior Technical Associate at Fraser Research, in Princeton, New Jersey. Non-academically, I've been studying Japanese since January 2006, and I have been playing the fascinating game of Go since September 2006. I was previously the president of the Edinburgh University Go Club, and was a member of the Japan-UK 150 sub-committee for Scotland. My current grade is around 3kyu. Other than that, there's not much else to say. Feel free to enjoy the site! 楽しんでください！ Michael Smith

Thursday 30/12/04 @ 08:29 pm

Merry Christmas and all that...

Ok, so I've had numerous complaints that I should update more often, and I must admit that two months without an update is pretty poor. So, I'm going to make it my New Year's resolution to update more frequently, which may or may not please you. In addition, I'm going to cheat a little, and put some holiday reports etc in place (plus photos), in the relevant month. So keep an eye out.

Anyway, Christmas was a rather jolly affair. I've been back in Bridlington since the 11th, and managed to get a fair bit of work done before the festivities kicked in completely. My project, SemCom as I call it, is progressing nicely, though there is still much to be done (hopefully most of it before I return to Cambridge mid-January). I also had a nice little holiday in Paris at the start of December - Sarah showed me all the sights and I had a really good time; more information will appear soon. It's been nice so far to have a quiet Christmas, with the family, as a change from running all over the place like a headless chicken. Carl and Alex are both around at the moment - we had another of our film nights yesterday/today, though we only lasted until about half past 3 or so. After watching Shrek 2, and Back To The Future, Alex was thouroughly asleep and snoring, so Carl and I managed to sneak in Phase 2 of Final Fantasy Unlimited - with much thrilling summon-guessing. We're going round to Amanda and Andrew's for the New Year tomorrow night, which should hopefully be somewhat less eventful than the previous two years' adventures.

Getting back to the subject of Christmas (yes, I know I'm jumping all over the place - you have my permission to slap me with a wet haddock), there isn't really very much to say. On Christmas Eve, we had our traditional fish and chip lunch in Filey, and then went to Midnight Mass in the evening. However much I enjoy going to that festive service, I must still make a point of not partaking in the mass chanting. Organised religion is, in my humble opinion, no different from any cult following (except that it's been around a lot longer), and I find it quite disturbing to be surrounded by masses of people saying "I am not worthy to be the crumbs beneath your table" in unison. Yes, I know many people will disagree with that, but I have as much right to my opinion as they have to theirs. By all means eat the wafer, but don't blame me if you choke on it. Despite all that, I did have a good sing-song, so I was happy.

Christmas Day was a low-key affair. I got my parents a DVD player, which they were pleased with, though my Dad was particularly overjoyed with the DVD of 'The Brave Little Toaster' that I bought for him. Chrismas dinner was very nice, and I had a relaxing afternoon full of turkey and chocolate and alcohol, and all those other fun things you do.

So, with the 2005 approaching, what words of wisdom do I have to offer? Of course I'm obliged to say, don't drink and drive... you might spill some.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

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