OK then, here it is.
I used to be a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Manchester (and before that I worked for Ferranti/ICT, and before even that I was a Research Student at the Mathematical Laboratory in Cambridge). In September 1992 I took Early Retirement, with the grand title of "Honorary Fellow" (which means whatever I want it to mean).
And I also brought home my SPARCstation, so that I could continue to do interesting things on it.
And I can still provide you with my own ALGOL 68 compiler, if you want to have a play. Or, for other compilers, see Malvern's free A68->C offering (actually, it is hidden inside a package called "Ella" which is written using it, but it is not hard to disinterr it). Or you could try the Peter Craven / David Lloyd offering (not free AFAIK) which runs on PCs under various systems (notably OS/2) and also under SPARCs under SUNOS4. And there is also another Algol�68 to C compiler available from Sian Leitch and an interpretive one from Marcel van der Veer.
It is my belief that Domain theory can be formulated in a much simpler manner. But to prove that I need to understand the conventional treatment, and that is hidden away, behind a mountain of mumbo-jumbo in unreadonable papers, and even more unreadable textbooks. I believe I now see how to do it, but don't hold your breath just yet.
I have been taking an active interest in Hartree's Differential Analyser, a mechanical analogue machine built in 1936, part of which is on display in the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. Hopefully, they can be persuaded to let it be restored to working order (but some more pressure in that direction might come in handy). Museums are torn between putting on "interesting working displays" and "preserving things untouched for posterity". Trouble with that approach is that posterity won't get to see them working either.
In early 1995, when the present explosion in Internet Connectivity was taking off, the uk.* hierarchy was in a shambles. It was originally the creature of Uknet, which was fine when they were the only ISP around. Now everybody was in on the act, people were clamouring for more groups, but there was noone to decide what was, and what was not, an "official" newsgroup within uk.*. Everybody was talking, but nobody was actually doing anything, and new and worthwhile groups were not getting created.
So I decided to do a bit of Banging Together of Heads. I set up a mailing list known as 'Newscoord' of people who seemed willing to look at the problem seriously, and I got the three main UK ISPs (now four) on board. Then we produced some Guidelines, and a Voting procedure, and a suggestion for a Committee to oversee them. And we put it all before the readers of uk.net.news where, after much debate and argument, the proposals were voted on and adopted by a substantial majority.
So now the uk.* hierarchy is run by this Committee, of which I am a member (having recently been re-elected to a fourth three year term). And now the uk.* hierarchy is strong and healthy, and growing like Topsy.
See the Committee's official Web Page for all the details.
When the Bill was finally published, I prepared a series of Scenarios to expose the weakness of that Bill. The particular version you will see by following that link was produced as the Bill entered the House of Lords, and it has now been somewhat overtaken by events (and most of its links no longer work). I worked closely with various member of parliament, in both houses, and prepared many amemdments. Whilst these amendments did not directly affect the form of the Bill, the collective furore created by my colleagues on the UKCrypto list and by others involved as ISPs of as practitioners of E-Commerce was effective in persuading the Government to make signficiant changes to the Bill (notwithstanding which, the Act as finally passed is still a Dog's Dinner).
Other documents produced during the course of the Bill's passage include:
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