Alistair Watson died last Thursday. He had worked in Physics, in Psychology and in Environmental Science at Stirling University , from where he retired quite some time ago. But my recollections of him start from the Stirling University Vision Group days of the mid 1980’s.
I started at Stirling University in September 1984, with a PhD, and (officially) interests in parallel computing and VLSI design. But what actually happened was that I met up with a group of slightly older researchers at Stirling and we formed (perhaps it was already formed, and I joined it) Stirling University Vision Group. There was Bill Phillips from Psychology, Francis Pratt, the artist (who had earlier been Cottrell Fellow at Stirling University), Alistair Watson, and myself. I had a lot to learn – and these were people from whom I learned a lot. The artist’s perspective on image analysis, how multi-dimensional signals from satellites could be analysed like images, ideas from neural systems, mathematical morphology, computational neuroscience. The new ideas that were invading Computing, now that the machines were becoming more powerful and affordable, and the computational ideas that were invading Psychology and art. For me these were really exciting times, and were the basis upon which my own later work has been placed.
Of course Alistair was more than just a colleague: he was excellent company (particularly over a few pints of good real ale – though I could never keep up with him), with a ready wit and an excellent sense of humour. I know he played piano as well, though I never heard him play. I shall miss his company, his conversation, and his intelligence and wit.
He is survived by his wife, Janet, and children Peter and Lucy.
Lestheprof's Blog 
My problem with blogs
January 17, 2010I started this blog thinking it would be a bit like a diary. Not that I’ve ever successfully kept a diary for more than about a week, but I thought that the technology might encourage me. But the difference is that I can ensure that only the people I want to read a diary – or even that no-one else at all reads it. But a blog? A blog is a public document. Worse, it’s a copiable public document that takes on a life of its own: it’s indelible. Even if I delete the blog – even in WordPress closes permanently, there will still be a record of whatever I write, readable by those who want to. So I can’t write anything I don’t want to make public. And that’s a problem, because all the interesting things that I might want to write are things that I don’t want all and sundry to be able to read. Yes, I know that my name and identity are not directly visible, but I’m quite sure that anyone who really wanted to know who I was would have few problems in tracing me. And there are a few people who already know who I am.
I’m told that on facebook, security can be set on a friend by friend, post by post basis (as is the case on some other portal-based repositories that I work on). And, of course, on facebook, most users hide more or less everything from the casual non-friend visitor. So perhaps I should give up the blog and go on to facebook. But then I’d have to manage my friends, and manage my posts: and that’s even more work.
So? I’ll settle for making bland entries, and attempting a little humour (see: English spelling, implies UK educated).
It was a dark, dark night, and three men were sitting on a log. One of the turned to one of the others, and began:
It was a dark, dark night, and three men were sitting on a log. One of the turned to one of the others, and began:
It was a dark, dark night, and three men were sitting on a log. One of the turned to one of the others, and began:
It was a dark, dark night, and three men were sitting on a log. One of the turned to one of the others, and began:
and so on. Surely I can do better than this?
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