Activities partaken during daylight hours

I work for Google as a Technical Writing Manager on Google Cloud.

Being a technical writer at Google is more than just writing documentation, meaning there are few days where I'm not learning something new or being amazed by the work being done by my colleagues. It almost goes without saying that Google has some of the finest engineers, writers and minds and I am very lucky to work with some of them on a variety of products and services.

If you are a developer and touch Google Cloud services, there is a good chance you have seen the work of my colleagues.

Aside from my work at Google, I'm a pretty keen photographer, though enthusiasm doesn't relate to skill. Any spare change is spent to support Nikon's balance sheet.

The highlights in my camera bag are:

  • Nikon D3S
  • 14-24mm f/2.8
  • 24-70mm f/2.8
  • 80-200mm f/2.8
  • 300mm f/2.8
  • 200mm f/4.0 micro
  • 85mm f/2.8 PC-E
All my lenses are Nikkor. My "support" system comprises of Swarovski Optik carbon fibre tripod legs, a matching pan/tilt head and a Manfrotto Digi ball head.

Other things I quite like:

  • Lenovo Thinkpads (still the best laptop keyboards around)
  • Vim
  • IBM Model M keyboards
  • Single-origin espresso
  • 1920s-1970s modernist furniture (Van der Rohe, Charles and Ray Eames, Jacobsen, et al.)
I am lucky enough to able to sit on an original Herman Miller Eames Aluminium Group lounge chair (circa 1970s), an Eames LCW, a Herman Miller Aeron (series 1) chair and a Herman Miller Embody chair (both the Aeron and Embody are co-designed by Bill Stumpf). I'm on the lookout for an Eames Lounge Chair and matching ottoman circa 1960s with Brazilian rosewood shells and a Jacobsen 'Egg' chair. Obviously this is a multi-decade plan of mine, and one that will probably never be realised.

I also have a passion for coffee, specifically espresso. My current setup is an La Marzocco GS3/1 mechanical paddle coffee machine with a Compak K10 Fresh (conical burr) grinder. In England my coffee beans typically come from Square Mile Coffee and in the USA I tend to use George Howell coffee based in Boston and now that I am an Oakland local, I typically try my hand at roasting my own beans after purchasing them from Sweet Maria's.

Activities partaken during non daylight hours

Sleep.

Past life

August 2013 - May 2016

I worked for Advanced Micro Devices as a member of the technical communications team. AMD designs some of the most innovative semiconductor devices on the market and has a rich history of innovation. I was fortunate enough to work across numerous products including server, embedded and graphics processors, being able to talk to, and learn from, some of the finest electronic engineers in the industry.

November 2009 - August 2013

I used to be a technology journalist primarily covering the semiconductor industry and have written for the following publications:

Technology Confidential
UKGamer.com
The Inquirer
IT Pro
V3
TrustedReviews
PC Retail
Hexus.channel
Thinq

I have appeared on national television news on More4 News.

My work has also appeared on The Register, Computing, Yahoo News, SC Magazine, ITNews.au, ITWire.au and PC Authority.au and has been linked to from The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Slashdot, Groklaw, Ars Technica, Engadget, Gizmodo, ExtremeTech, Electronics Weekly, PC World, Computer World, eWeek, USA Today, CNN, Barrons, Reuters, Forbes, Guardian and the Wall Street Journal.

Studies

I have a PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from University College London. My research was conducted as part of two projects (Peerlive and Envision) that my colleagues in the Communications and Information Systems Group in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering were a part of.

My research areas were:

  • Structured and unstructured overlays
  • P2P Gaming
  • Anycast

Publications

E. Mykoniati, R. Landa, S. Spirou, R. G. Clegg, L. Latif, D. Griffin, M. Rio, Scalable Peer-to-Peer Streaming for Live Entertainment Content, IEEE Communications, Feature Topic on Consumer Communications and Networking - Gaming and Entertainment, vol. 46, no. 12, pp. 40-46, IEEE, December 2008.

E. Mykoniati, L. Latif, R. Landa, B. Yang, R. G. Clegg, D. Griffin, M. Rio, Distributed Overlay Anycast Table using Space Filling Curves, to appear in the Proceedings of IEEE INFOCOM Global Internet Symposium 2009, Rio de Janeiro, April 2009.

My work has been presented at

2nd EMANICS Workshop on Peer-to-Peer Management, April 2009, London
Multi Service Networks, July 2009, Abingdon
London Communications Symposium, September 2011, London

I have a BSc in Computer Science with Management from Kings College, London and a MSc in Systems Engineering Management from University College London. That was before I moved over to the dark side, the Electronic and Electrical Engineering Department at UCL. Where the Computer Science Department merely writes on paper, we build (or something like that).

Thanks to my colleague, Richard Clegg, I somehow have an Erdös number of 4. It's nice when you can bend the system to get something you really don't deserve :)

In the past I have played semi-professional Quake and Quake 3, being a member of the following clans: 4Kings and The Collective. For a while I played a lot of Conquer Club, an online, turn-based RISK-esque game. Very rarely I play Urban Terror though not at any respectable level and increasingly sparingly.

Wanderings

I like to travel but I really don't get around as much as I should due to my workload, however I have visited the following countries:

United States of America (Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maryland, Pennsylvania, California, Oregon, Nevada, Kentucky, Vermont, Montana, Washington, Illinois, Arizona, Ohio, South Dakota, Indiana, Wyoming, Michigan, Minnesota, Texas, Wisconsin, Utah, Iowa, Nebraska)
Canada (Lethbridge, Montreal, Niagara, Toronto)
France (Cannes, Paris, Lille, La Rochelle, Dordogne)
Germany (Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hannover, Koln, Munchen)
Switzerland (Basel, Geneve)
Italy (Bologna, Milano, Monza)
Spain (Barcelona)
Czech Republic (Prague)
The Netherlands (Amsterdam)
Belgium (Antwerpen, Brussels)
Ireland (Leixlip)
United Arab Emirates (Dubai)
Bangladesh (Dhaka)
Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Yokohama)