I'm an Honorary Reader in the Department of Computer Science at The University of Manchester. Having worked at the University since 1983 and been Director of Undergraduate Studies (Computer Science) from 2011–2019, I took early retirement in 2020.

From 2008–2018 I established and led the team running the annual UK Schools Computer Animation Competition.

My academic field is computer graphics (projects|publications) but I'm a general-purpose geek. These days I enjoy fiddling about with generative computer arty things.

Together with Emeritus Professor Jim Miles I'm working on a University project cataloguing the history of the computers developed at Manchester since 1948. I built the searchable image catalogue.

From 1989 to 1998 I was joint editor (with Steve Donnelly) of The Skeptic magazine.

I founded Elephant Talk, the newsletter/wiki for Robert Fripp/King Crimson enthusiasts.

My interests are guitars, photography (flickr|license my stuff), cooking, crosswords, 日本語, old films (especially British B-movies), recreational maths, reading, pondering, writing, walking, prog rock, dogs. I'm a keen Wikipedian.