A little about me
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Me |
I'm originally from South Africa, where I went to school at St Stithians College in Randburg. I then studied maths and physics at the University of Cape Town (UCT), including an honours degree in applied mathematics. This was followed by an MSc in physics - particularly quantum information theory - at the University of Stellenbosch; my MSc thesis is on the arxiv, and also right here in source form.
I've now spent a little over 5 years in the UK, first spending a pleasant year in Cambridge getting a qualification variously called a diploma, the CASM, or Part III of the Mathematical Tripos. I've recently completed a doctorate at the University of Oxford about the quantum mechanics of systems containing relatively small numbers of electrons. Here's my DPhil (doctoral) thesis.
I am a serious fan of free software, and maintain a network of Fedora Core 5 computers plus my home computer running Xubuntu. I help out with TheOpenCD project and a little with Software Freedom Day (diarise 16 September 2006), as well as contribute to the Ubuntu wiki and a few other aspects of the Ubuntu enterprise. I do a bit of consulting about computers running MS Windows in order to determine why people seem to use it compulsively. I've recently become something of a champion of using wikis for organisational communication. I'm also trying to raise the profile of open source software in Zambia through an organisation called, curiously, Open Source Zambia.
I occasionally play waterpolo, fly gliders, ride a vintage 1939 bicycle around Oxford, and I'm trying to develop a wireless technology to localise players on a sports field.
You can see MyPagesOnOtherSites or you can find out what my favourite links are. Unfortunately only special people are allowed to see my Private page, but the rest of you are welcome to speculate on the wisdom hidden there. Masonic Lodges? Dan Brown and the Sang Raal? JFK? It's all here, but you're not allowed to see it.
Email me at <robert AT SPAMREMOVE cantab DOT net>.