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

Monday 25/10/04 @ 06:22 pm

"Warum bin ich so fr�hlich?," sagte die Ente

And speaking of ducking, I seem to have avoided the effort of writing any updates in the recent past. Suffice it to say, that I had a great time in California, and am now once again stuck with the typical Cambridge/English weather of rain, rain, wind and more rain. I miss the sunshine state...

Of course, there were a couple of 'incidents', amongst the fun of San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco, such as a text-book super-flippy bike stunt (yes, I know it's dangerous to brake too hard whilst travelling at high velocities downhill), which cost me two sprained wrists; double ouch! Not forgetting the return flight being cancelled, resulting in me being stranded in Philadelphia airport for 24 hours, under the not-so-caring care of a bankrupt airline. Needless to say, I won't be flying again with *cough* US Airways *cough* anytime soon. I eventually arrived back in England (after taking a rather Irish route back), though it took them another four days to get my bag back to me...

Other than all that excitement, not a great deal to say. Lectures are going, project is going, work is piling, etc etc. One of these days I will find peace. Until then I will just have to live with my oxymoronic existence; my insanity is the only thing that keeps me sane. Well, that and the Columbian blend.

Tsch��!