I'm sorry to say that I have little of interest to put on the web. I just don't seem to produce useful content. However, since the alternative is for people to just not get any recent information about me, I thought I should provide a little for the extremely bored....
I used to be a PhD student in the Cambridge University Computer Laboratory, working in the Rainbow Group, and at least partially associated with the Cambridge Programming Research Group. I started my research in October 2000, and worked in the area of reconfigurable computing. More specifically, I looked at hardware synthesis from a limited pure functional language. The remains of my research web pages are available here.
Since then, I've joined the big, bad corporate world. Now I try to make the Monte Carlo compute clusters work efficiently and smoothly for a fairly large investment bank. Quite a fun programming job, although not really the kind of stuff to write lots about on a website.
Beyond work, I think it's hard to create a web page that creates an accurate impression of a person, so I won't bother, and instead I'll just give a disparate and incomplete collection of my interests. I'm not photogenic, and don't tend to take photos, so you're spared the picture gallery, too. The photo is from a recent trip to New York. It was fun.
I'm afraid I'm pretty much a complete computer geek, but I occasionally like to pretend that I'm not, so I've now got a separate computer stuff page. Go there at your peril. :p
I do a lot of reading. Mostly it's computer science texts, with the odd bit of science fiction thrown in, but recently I've been trying to read a little more in the way of classic fiction. Trying to get some culture, or something. :)
I started playing Go (also known as Baduk or Wei-Qi) in December 2000, and seem to be slowly getting better. I'm an active member of the Cambridge club, and have played in the Varsity match, although rather less effectively than in Quake. No Blues for Go, either, unlike Chess. Ho hum.
More recently, I decided that I really wasn't getting enough exercise, and so I took up Judo in October 2002. I'm now, at the time of writing, 4 kyu (lower blue belt). I'm kind of in shock at this. It's good fun, though, and seems to be getting me a little fitter, even if I seem to be covered in bruises, cuts and sprains half the time. (I have a photo of my last grading - I'm only putting it up 'cos it's quite so comically poor. I need to work on my posture, I think)
Then I decided I was doing enough other Japanese stuff, so I thought I'd learn Japanese. Last year, I had lessons with St. John's College Japanese Society. Nothing seems to have been organised for this academic year, though, so I'm getting rather rusty. However, this is a rather amusing way to learn kanji.
Other things I enjoy are real ale (which is like normal beer, only it tastes nice), cooking (mostly chinese, thai and recipes from Delia) and sleep (which I am a world expert in). I like typography, but don't understand it. Same with some of that graphic design stuff. The Designer's Republic are my heros. Or something. I like seeing films, but can hardly afford it given the wonderful rip-off prices. I only go to see films I want to see, rather than see any old rubbish 'cos I'm bored. My DVD collection's here. (I'd just like to say Kill Bill is perhaps my most favouritest film ever. Hooray for ludicrous violence.)
My musical tastes are rather disjoint, with a representative selection being Aphex Twin, Beethoven, My Bloody Valentine and Radiohead. Life has been slow, so I've catalogued my CD collection here. Sad, eh? I used to play the piano to a reasonable level, but I really need to practice more. I've got a guitar, but I never seem to remember to practice. I'm not really a musical natural, but enjoy having a go anyway. I like chocolate too. Lots. Mmmm.
My housemates bitterly complained that they're not on my web page. So, "hello" to Alex Simpson, Alex Navid and Matt Kelly. I hope you've included me on your web pages. Also, a great big extra-shiny hello to Caroline (who does not bitterly complain).
I polished up my Curriculum Vitae, since my PhD was finishing soon, and let people find it on this site. Now I have a job sorted, at least for the short term. The web's really incredibly useful. :) (My old version is here. I'm only including it because I recently rediscovered it, and was amused by the dual-format text/PostScript. Tragically, it's a bit temperamental, the company I applied to used a mail system that somehow mangled it and it broke. Darn.)
Last updated 14 March 2006. Mail me at random.user@arbitrary.name.