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 27/05/05 @ 10:17 pm

In the beginning Tarski created the monotonic function...

And the function was without limit, and unhappy; and darkness was upon the face of the powersets. And the Spirit of Tarski moved upon the universe of functions. And Tarski said, Let there be fixed points: and there were fixed points. And Tarski saw the minimum fixed point, that it was good: and Tarski intersected the prefixed points of the function from the darkness.

The truth of the matter is, as John and I have determined, Tarski's fixed-point theorem is the basis of all computer science, and more generally, the basis of the entire universe! In fact, we're not studying for degrees in Computer Science, but rather Tarski's Fixed-Point Studies with a minor in Computer Science. And so, in avoidance of revision, I offer this tribute to the man himself.

This is all rather an impressive claim, I here you ask. Well, let me provide some examples of how Tarski's theorem affects our everyday lives:

1. Making a sculpture is a maximum fixed-point of the chisel function - you chip away until you get a finished sculpture.
2. Making a painting is a minimum fixed-point of the paint-on-canvas function - you shove more paint on until you get a finished painting.
3. Revision is a least fixed-point of the memory function - you continue to fill your brain with crap, until you can't fit any more in.
4. Exams are a maximum fixed-point of the ability-to-answer function - you eliminate all the ones that elicit wtf-responses, to leave the set of questions you answer.
5. Getting drunk is a least fixed-point of the stomach-and-liver function - you continue to drink until you reach a fixed-point of inebriaty, otherwise you throw up and pass out.
6. Having a shower is a maximum fixed-point of the wash function - you scrub all the dirt away until you're just left with your own skin.

So you see, wherever you go, and whatever you do, you can't escape fixed-points!!

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