About Me
My name is Andrew Taylor.
That doesn’t tell you much, as there are many of us around. There are authors, scientists, businessmen, footballers, and Duran Duran members sharing my name. I might tell you I hail from Leeds (that’s in England, my US chums) but that would still leave the possibility that I am the lead singer of The Sisters Of Mercy, which is really only slightly less wrong than the footballer guess.
I have a Master of Physics degree from the University of Leeds (no, not the Met, thankyou for nothing) am currently doing a PhD at the University of Manchester in 2D and 3D image analysis. I am a scientist, a skeptic, a cynic and an atheist, and I have increasingly long hair because I find the less I have it cut, the more compliments I get and the cheaper it is.
I’m this guy. Hats make me look gay and I don’t know why.
October 14th, 2007 at 18:40
[...] , from Andrew Taylor, in [...]
October 22nd, 2007 at 22:29
Hi there,
I was in the middle of an internet forum discussion with somebody when Dave Hitt interjected and offered to decide the veracity of a study by reading the abstract. He did say that the whole study would be better, but still, on an abstract! Arrogant bastard. (I’ve posted a link to it his offer below)
http://www.skepticality.com/vboard/miscellaneous-discussions/6603-how-open-minded-skeptics-6.html#post91312
April 13th, 2008 at 20:53
Hi Andrew. I found your site via the b3ta link. The coin redesign article is absolutely fantastic - clever and intelligent. I’ve got some brilliant advice for you, from one PhD to (almost) another. Do you have a phone number I can call you on?
Dr Karl Blanks
September 27th, 2008 at 04:05
get my fucking name off of your bloody site
September 27th, 2008 at 09:58
listen up piled higher and deeper - remove my name from your sight immediately if not sooner you creep
September 30th, 2008 at 16:33
Andrew-
I saw your comment on twitter regarding MATLAB and math with integers. Using R2008a, I can do this:
>> a = uint8(magic(3))
a =
8 1 6
3 5 7
4 9 2
>> b = uint8(magic(3)) + 12
b =
20 13 18
15 17 19
16 21 14
>> a’+b
ans =
28 16 22
16 22 28
22 28 16
>> whos
Name Size Bytes Class Attributes
a 3×3 9 uint8
ans 3×3 9 uint8
b 3×3 9 uint8
but perhaps that is not what you are looking for.
–Loren
September 30th, 2008 at 16:40
That looks like it. And maybe one day we will upgrade to R2008a…
If it also polls for input events without waiting for a pause(0) then that would be better still.
December 10th, 2008 at 02:43
Oh I forgot to say.. How about a simple crossword clue combined with an anagram captcha or maybe an odd one out puzzle of the type you find in IQ tests?
Or. I may write this one next for the hell of it. You display random notes and coins in random position (some overlapping) - and ask for the total amount?
Or… How about recognising celebrities?
or… analysing the data given in other form fields?
or… testing that the entered email address exists?
It’s a fascinating subject - I believe the fatal flaw may in the first two letters of the Captcha acronym - ie: Completely Automated. We are asking a one computer to test another.
December 10th, 2008 at 02:45
Damn sorry, my last message on this page was posted on the wrong page. I will now go and post in on the page I meant to post it on. That’s what you get for having too many browser windows open!
January 4th, 2009 at 09:06
Hi,
I saw your Captcha break using “Bank”. I can’t find it in Matlab.
I am working on removing slant stripes from Captcha characters and that’s the reason your coding methods of finding adjacent color are useful to me.
If you would like to try, I have some images that I can send you, which i believe they are much harder than your example shown in your page. :)
Thanks.
February 8th, 2009 at 16:19
Oh, ‘bank’ was simply the name I used for the variable that held the image. Feel free to send me some other images and I’ll have a go at attacking them. It’s not exactly my area but I like a challenge.
April 15th, 2009 at 15:58
It’s easy to tell by your smirk on the photo you base your self-image and social role on noticing faults anywhere you can.
April 16th, 2009 at 22:57
You say that like it’s a bad thing!
April 17th, 2009 at 08:43
Isn`t it amazing what you can tell from just a simple photograph?!!