Confessions of a researchaholic

March 29, 2025

Taking a break at SIGGRAPH 2025 technical papers PC meeting

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 4:21 pm
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Reviewing/handling 20 papers plus attending an intense multi-day program committee meeting is probably a lot of work for some people, but nowadays it is almost like a break to me – reading papers in topics that I might not usually pay attention to, participating in a gathering of about 100 people (like a small conference) to catch up with old friends and get to know new faces, consuming more sweets in 3 days than I would normally do in a year, and temporarily stepping away from my usual product/leadership responsibilities.

https://www.behance.net/gallery/222673301/Your-SIN-is-required-to-claim-any-tax-refund-?

March 22, 2025

Trend following II

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 1:21 pm
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Joining a hot research trend is like buying a stock when the price is high.

These neural network pioneers (like Hinton, LeCun, etc.) started their works not when the field was hot, but when it was considered a dead end. And they stuck with it for decades until the right circumstances (e.g., GPU compute finally became feasible). Now, every time a new idea (about generative X or whatever) pops in the head, there might already be 10 arXiv papers on it.

It is important to know any significant new advancements, but it is even more important to figure out what and how to apply these into our own research and be able to formulate our own (unique) vision.

March 16, 2025

Clipping mask for watercoloring

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 8:08 pm
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I haven’t figured out how to control the spread and mixing of watercolor painting (physically or digitally), and thus conducted this experiment to use clipping masks for regional control using a mushroom that I spotted in the neighborhood.

https://youtube.com/shorts/Vs3G2c5770I

March 13, 2025

Pleasant surprise by a party companion

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 8:28 pm
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I have been to three main types of parties serving food: buffets, small bites, and sit-down meals.
Buffets offer maximum flexibility as I can walk around eating whatever and talking to whomever.
I usually have difficulty with small bites as I don’t know what, when, and where will be carried by the waiters.
Sit-down meals tend to have the best quality, but also be most time-consuming and least flexible.

However, in a recent sit-down party, I was seated next to someone who has an unexpectedly interesting background as program managers working for several major tech companies. I learned about stuff that I wouldn’t usually hear from other researchers/engineers.

I guess this is one example benefit of stochastic sampling in social events.

February 18, 2025

Holiday time for exploratory fun

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 3:29 pm
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Monday the 17th is a holiday and I was pondering whether I should start a work task that I aimed to finish by the end of the week or spend time on more exploratory research. I decided to go for the latter as I realized that during my usual workdays I often feel enough obligation towards my collaborators for the former and I am the only one who can push myself for the latter.

My decision turned out to be correct for this particular one, as on Monday I had some fun tinkering with \href{https://glicol.org/}{computer music language} (that I have zero background with) and on Tuesday I immediately hit on issues that required responses from my colleagues upon starting the work task.

And I also spent some time doing some silly doodling:


February 16, 2025

Sports-themed Sunday

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 5:42 pm
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While walking to visit this sports-themed exhibition at SFMOMA today before its closing, I noticed some black-chauffeured cars in the neighborhood and realized that the NBA All-Star weekend was happening around.

February 10, 2025

Scam Inc

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 6:21 pm
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Fascinating podcast series of the scam industry located in the Thailand-Myanmar border, from the victims (whose psychological weak spots are exploited), the scammers (who often deceived job seekers), to the crime syndicate behind.

This BBC report provides a good visual on the ground.

February 1, 2025

Sticky rice ball

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 9:29 pm
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A sticky rice ball with a fried dough stick and sweet or salty filling is a traditional breakfast in Taiwan.


January 29, 2025

Pencil-style experiment with structural reference

Filed under: Imaginary,Real — liyiwei @ 4:38 pm
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Pencil-style experiment following this earlier one with structural reference via line-art ControlNet, essentially drawing portraits of one family member via the artistic style of another.

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