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

Friday 17/06/05 @ 11:03 pm

Living the American dream...

So, It's now the end of the week, and as promised, I have photos! Work is going well - there's lots of interesting ideas floating around, plenty of pi calculus (mmmm, pi...), and plenty of SPIN! All looking promising! Tomorrow, I'm heading to see the giant piece of fruit (aka New York) with John and Dave, so that should be nice.

Let's start with a few pictures of the apartment:

Since we don't yet have a toaster (Elisabeth is going to lend us her's sometime soon), I've learnt to make toast over a hob. Rather a cunning skill to have, even if I say so myself.

We've also had to learn to move juggle laptops around to get the best signal from next-door's wireless connection, as is illustrated by John, below:

Now, the lab is only a short walk away from our apartment, and John and I have taken great amusement in the typical Americanisms along the way. Think American flags. Think patriotic American neighbours. Think good ol' American knowhow!

The last photo above is the approach (around the back) to the building in which Fraser Research is located. Here is the main entrance room of the office:

And here is our office (with my desk shown on the left):

Right, so having set the general scene, what have I been up to the last few days (other than work)? On wednesday evening, Sandy and Elisabeth invited us all (John, Dave, Chee Wei and myself) over to their's for copious pizza, salad and assorted goodness, on the patio outside their apartment. After a very filling meal, we then went to an icecream place around the corner, which does exceptionally good stuff - very Italian, and very flavourful (almost like sorbet). We sat around Palmer Square for a bit (which is very pretty - I'll have to get some photos), before retiring for the night.

Yesterday evening, after work, Dave, John and myself went to a little noodle place called Tiger Noodles for dinner. They do a very good sweet and sour chicken.

We then went to a great little coffee house (from which Dave purchases all his coffee), called Small World Coffee - here is Dave and John, with a lovely picture of a pink dress in the background, and John looking very prim and proper!

So, that was that for this week. It's now Friday evening, and I'm not sure what the plan is yet, but New York is a definite for tomorrow. Let's just hope we don't get arrested for being too British!!

Oh, and let me leave you with a fantastic store for a compsci - it's something you really ought to checkout, though it's perhaps best not to commit to anything ;-)

Comments