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

Sunday 27/11/05 @ 04:59 pm

Holidays are coming...

December is fast approaching, and with it the hectic run-up to Christmas. Sitting here, armed with my advent calendar, and with plenty of Christmas shopping under my belt, it seems like I should be prepared for it. Unfortunately, it's precisely this apparent sense of security that all too often hits you from behind when you're least expecting it. Hopefully this year, that won't happen.

So, another two weeks have passed, and without much to say for themselves. My work seems to be progressing, and I'll be talking about it at next week's PEPA club, and teaching has continued as usual. Next week is the last week of teaching (woohoo!), but unfortunately for me, I've been roped into covering for a few people, so I'll be doing almost twice as much as usual. As much as I've enjoyed it, I won't be doing any demonstrating next semester (which is possibly a dangerous thing to say before things are finalised). I'm hoping to do some more tutoring however, which is much more fun that wandering around answering dumb questions for four hours. Example conversation:

Student: I'm stuck on this question.
Me: What particular part of it? Show me what you've done.
Student: I don't even know how to start.
Me: Well, this is very similar to [insert question] that you answered last week. Do you remember?
Student: No.
Me: Well, let's start from the beginning shall we...
[detailed step-by-step explanation follows, with student nods]
Me: So, do you see how to do it now?
Student: No.

Honestly, it's like banging your head against a brick wall!

Next weekend, Sandy and Elisabeth arrive, so it'll be great to see them again. Sandy's giving a seminar on Monday, and Jane and I have been sorting out arrangments for meetings with people etc. I'm hoping that it'll go really well! On the 18th December, Alex and Carl will be arriving, so we should have a great time. There's so much going on here at Christmas - Princes Street is all lit up, and Princes Street Gardens have been turned into a veritable Christmas playground. Big wheel, ice skating, Christmas markets, the whole lot. I'm travelling back down to Brid on the 21st (with Carl and Alex), so I'll then be back for a whole two weeks.

With any luck, this Christmas should be great, though I wonder whether the parents' dancing will be as wild as last year. Yes, I remember, and in case you forgot...

Let the countdown begin!

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