Background
I currently work as a Senior Lecturer at the Royal School of Signals in Blandford, where I am Course Tutor for the MSc in Communications and Informations Systems Management.
I previously worked in research at ORL and the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, and in product development at Virata, Marconi and BAE Systems. I am interested in the psychology of programming, computer security, and functional programming.
I have a BA and a PhD in computer science, both from the University of Cambridge.
Work in progress
In order to try tease out some half-baked thoughts about programming and cooking, I decided to put these thoughts down in a blog, called On Food and Coding. (I know this is a bit retro. Really, who starts a blog these days? Isn't this 2013, the Year of the Comet?) You might find some related code in my repositories on GitHub.
I've finally finished a draft of a paper/article that I've been thinking about for a long time, called Bugs with Long Tails, which looks at how the ideas of Benoit Mandelbrot and Nassim Taleb can be applied to software development. I also have a revised version of Tyrants and Hackers in the pipeline, but that probably won't see the light of day until the summer.
Writing
Bugs with Long Tails (2013)
Software is fractal. What are the
consequences? What should we do?
(This is a DRAFT. Comments very welcome.)
Not a Tool, but a Philosophy of Knowledge (2012)
What should everyone know about computing? And why?
(See also these comments on
reddit.)
What can we learn from Bluffdale and Oak Ridge? (2012)
Analysis of an article by James Bamford on NSA surveillance in the USA.
Tyrants and Hackers (Draft Beta 3) (2011)
“I am just going outside and may be some time.”
A book about politics, history and hackers.
How pair programming really works (2010)
IEEE Software, January/February 2010, pp50-55.
Four mechanisms that explain the power of pair programming.
(See also these comments on the
IEEE
web site.)
SQ minus EQ can predict programming aptitude (2007)
Proc 19th Annual workshop on Psychology of Programming, July 2007.
A measure of autism correlates surprisingly well with programming ability.
On the nature of pair programming (2007)
An older, longer version of the above pair-programming article.
Uolevi Nikula, Jorma Sajaniemi, Matti Tedre, Stuart Wray
Python and Roles of Variables in Introductory Programming (2007)
Journal of Information
Technology Education, Vol 6, pp192-214, 2007.
A teaching experience report.
Is This Really “How to Make Wealth”? (2006)
Analysis of an essay by Paul Graham on start-ups and taxation.
COMP128: A birthday surprise (2003)
Cryptographic analysis of the GSM authentication algorithm.
For other material, see papers, patents, etc.