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 24/06/05 @ 07:31 pm

Results...

Ok, so this morning I came into the lab slightly early, so I could head over to the bank to do a wire transfer before our 10am meeting. Of course, John was quick to check his email and got his result (a 1st - well done!), so I was compelled to check mine. All I had was an email from Tom saying conngratulations to Sam and myself. So I replied asking if this meant I had gotten a 1st. The answer was "yes, of course", so I was naturally relieved, and had a good meeting/presentation of our work.

On returning to check my email before heading to lunch, I was greeted with a message from Alan, saying "congratulations on prizes." So, John had won an "outstanding dissertation" prize, and I found that I had won the "MSR prize for Best Student". What did this mean, I wondered? Possibly just some random prize for my dissertation, or similar, perhaps.

I was then greeted with another email from Alan, giving the following:

p7/p8/p9/diss 81+88+94+89 = 352/400 = very top first.
Wonderful.

So, it appears that (of all things), I got the top first in the year! Pretty amazing... I still can't believe it, and I certainly wasn't expecting it!

Sunday 19/06/05 @ 11:15 pm

New York, New York!

Yesterday, John, Dave and myself headed through to New York for an action-filled all-American adventure of a lifetime. Or some close approximation to that. The day started off with us meeting in the lab at about 9.45, after having watched copious Look Around You and Death Race 2000 the previous night. Incedentally, the latter appears to have knackered the sound on my (work) laptop, but personally, I blame it on the French.

At about 10, we set off to the train station, hoping to catch the Princeton 'Dinky' - a little one-carriage train (ah, reminds me of Yorkshire) that takes us to 'Princeton Junction' the main station on the line between New York and Philadelphia. Walking there, we went past the delightful Princeton University site, including the 'doghnut of death'.

Unfortunately, when we got there, the cupboard was bare, so to speak (metaphorically), as the Dinky left just as we were waiting for our tickets to be printed. So to kill the hour we had just aquired, we went and had a coffee at Small World.

Luckily, when we returned to the station, we were just in time to get on the Dinky, and so we were happy - John in particular, as you can see below:

The rest of the train journey was entirely uneventful, and we arrived in New York a little after 12.30, just in time for a hearty New York lunch. We found a little place to eat, and enjoyed the initial experience of setting foot in the city, complete with lots and lots of cabs!

After lunch, we decided to do the obligatory thing, and go up the Empire State building. It's rather an impressive site, although the queues inside were more than a little annoying.

At the top, I was luckily able to buy some more batteries, after previously buying some from a dodgy dealer that lasted a mere half hour or so. The views were very impressive, a sample of which you can see below:

We were in the building for a couple of hours, due to the massive wait, but once we got out, or next item on the agenda was to see the hole in the ground. We took the metro/subway to get there (or rather to the nearest stop we could), and had a jolly time walking around the entire site. We managed to find quite a good view at one point.

We then walked downtown, to Battery Park (the bottom bit of Manhattan), and found a fitting tribute to John along the way:

Once we got there, we decided to get on a 'New York Taxi Boat', which took us close to Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty, and gave some good views of the Manhattan skyline.

By this point, it was rapidly approaching dinner time, so we walked up through the financial district (Wall Street, the New York stock exchange, and other flashy buildings) to get to Little Italy and Chinatown.

Little Italy was incredibly lively (considering how dead the financial district was), with restaurants opening onto the streets, and throngs of people milling around:

In the end though, we went to a nice little restaurant in Chinatown for dinner.

After dinner, it was getting late, so we decided to get the Metro up to Times Square, and then walk down to the train station from there. Unfortunately, once we found the correct tube station, a helpful American kindly advised us that we were on the wrong platform. So we changed over, hopped on the train, then found that we were heading in the wrong direction. The upshot, was that we had to jump out, change platforms, then wait a while for the next train. In the end, we did arrive at Times Square, and it was worth it - puts Picadilly Circus to shame!

So, at the end of a long day, we got the train back to Princeton, and arrived home at about 1am - in time for a quick shot of the 'blue stuff' before going to bed. All in all, a fantastic day!

Today has been a pretty low key affair by comparison - especially since I only got up at around 1pm. Other than coming into the lab to use the facilities, and a trip to CVS, I haven't really done anything. It's back to work tomorrow, so hopefully it should be another fun week!

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 ;-)

Wednesday 15/06/05 @ 12:31 pm

God bless America

Just a quick update to say that I'm safely in Princeton. Just got up for the start of a new day (it's 7.30 here) after the incredibly looong yesterday - in the end I was up for over 24 hours, having gone to bed at 12.30, and awoken at 2.30 to get the 3.45 bus to the airport. Funnily enough, I met Michael Compton at the bus stop - who was on his way to Stansted for a holiday in Barcelona! Also, my arms were surprisingly not aching after swimming on Monday with David and Ruth.

I arrived into Newark at about 12 (local time), and was out of the airport by 12.45 - Elisabeth met me there, and we drove to the lab in Princeton. We then went for lunch (the third in my case, after food on the plane ;-), before spending the afternoon doing boring stuff like paperwork and setting up bank accounts - yes, I now have an account with the Bank of America!

After the bank account setup, I went and had a chat with Sandy for a while - there's loads of really cool/interesting stuff that I could potentially be doing. In any case, he's going to give a series of seminars throughout the rest of this week to get us in the mood and such! After work, Dave, John and myself went out for a meal at some restaurant place that I forget the name of, and John kept on bursting out laughing whenever the waitress asked us anything. We went to an icecream parlour for dessert, which was nice, then headed back to the apartment for some wierd blue American juice thingy, and an early night.

So, the weather here is sweltering (I had to sleep with the fan on last night), but the town of Princeton is great, the apartment is great, and the lab is great (with very good air conditioning ;-). All in all, looks like it's going to be a great summer.

By the way, we don't have an ADSL line in yet, but picked up a wireless network somewhere, so using that ;-). Pics will appear soon, when I've had chance to take some, etc.

Have a nice day! :-P

Monday 13/06/05 @ 12:40 pm

Fun fun fun, in the sun, sun, sun!

So, this weekend has been great, but absolutely hectic! Alex arrived on Friday, and after a morning of rushing around town (and umbrella exploding chaos), I met her at the plodge at around half one. Alex, Matt, Ruth and myself, then headed into town for a slap-up lunch at Charlie Chan's!

After an exciting trip to the post office, and to Moss to rent Matt a dinner suit for the May Ball, Alex insisted we go straight to River Bar, for much drinking and cocktails. However, being only 4.30 in the afternoon, River Bar was closed, so we had a walk through Jesus green

and ended up at Clowns. There, we had a nice coffee, and a slice of some rather delicious cake, which had mysteriously disappeared during the time I took a photo of Alex with it...

We then headed to River Bar at last, and enjoyed many fine drinks. Matt had to leave us, but Alex and I waited around a loooong time for Nick to show up, and we ate there - lovely!

After the meal, we waddled back to college, via Threshers to pick up some champagne (originally 1 bottle, but since it was buy 2 get 1 free...;-). Nick braved the journey with his bad back; a sure sign of old age! When we got back to Matt's, we found that he had been baking tiramisu, so we enjoyed it over a glass of champagne.

The night was then whiled away playing frisbee - outside, in the dark, at half past midnight ;-). Oh what fun!

The next day, Alex and I arose at the not-so-early hour of 11.30, and went into town for a late lunch (by the time we were ready) at Bankok City. To illustrate, here is a picture of before, and after:

Matt then joined us for another coffee at clowns.

College-bound, Alex and I headed back via the scenic route, where we met up with Nick for a bit.

Matt arrived, and we had strawberries and cream and champagne, then Nick had to leave. A little later, David and Ruth popped round, and we had much sword-fighting silliness.

That evening, Alex and I decided just to stay in and watch a film (Kiki's Delivery Service) and call for a pizza. So we had a quiet end to the day.

Sunday required us to get up reasonably early, as the plan was to have a picnic lunch at the botanic gardens. Due to various people being late getting up and such, David, Alex, Ruth and I eventually left college at about 10.30, and went to Sainsburys to get (much too much) food for the picnic. We walked from town to the gardens, and met up with (other) David there. Matt joined us a little while later, and we had a nice champagne toast to the future.

After the picnic, we had a nice wander round the gardens, including the delights of the scented garden.

All too soon, it was time for Alex to head to the station, so we made our farewells, and set off. Promptly afterwards, I had to rush back to college to begin paking in time for my parents arriving. Luckily, with some much needed help from David and Ruth, we managed to pack everything up in reasonable time. In the evening, I went with David and Ruth to the bar for a bit, but then had to get laundry done, which was incredibly enthralling as usual.

So, here I am today, and have my flight to Princeton tomorrow morning. The plan today, is just to get a few things done, and also go swimming and bowling and stuff with David and Ruth, so should be fun!

Saturday 11/06/05 @ 11:42 am

Who's this dodgy fella?

He was found gallovanting around Matt's garden at half past midnight. Any information should be directed to the police, to help in their enquiries. He is wanted for charges of severe Austrianness.

Wednesday 08/06/05 @ 06:50 pm

Is this an exam I see before me?

Just a quick update; the last few weeks have been hectic revision and stressing about the exams and such. I've just finished two of them, and have the final one tomorrow, so I'm feeling less stressed already, and looking forward to the end-of-exam-and-degree celebrations. This time tomorrow, I hopefully won't be sober, and this time next week, I'll be in America!!

I'm not one for lengthy post-mortems, but the two exams I've done have gone fine. Sure, I've made a few silly mistakes, but there haven't been any disaster questions (i.e. half marks or less), and there have been a few that I ought to get close to full marks on. Basically, I estimate about 73% to 86% for the first paper, and 72% to 88% on the second. They seem to be pretty fair bounds, so I'm willing to bet my 95% confidence interval there. So long as tomorrow's paper goes well, I shouldn't have too much problem getting a decent first (though how well will be down the generosity of the examiners... or possibly the wad of �20 notes cunningly attached to my script ;-p).

So, in 24 hours I will be as free as a substituted variable that avoided capture. Don't ask me whether that's free as in 'free speech' or as in 'free beer'... though given that I can speak even more freely after drinking the free beer, I'd opt for both. Yay for positive feedback!

Well, given that this is the first update in a while, I ought to give you something to think about. Take a look at this image:

Look carefully in the top left-hand corner now (you'll have to click on it to enlarge it)... see what I mean ;-). I noticed this while watching the Chronicles of Narnia - don't you just love the BBC ;-). And for those of you who think I'm loony...

You're probably right.