Confessions of a researchaholic

2023-06-12

How to invite reviewers

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 10:46 am
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Are you a paper committee paper or journal associate editor (AE) who want to increase the likelihood of reviewers responding positively to your invitations?
Here are some tips based on my own experience:

Instead of a machine-generated generic email, craft a custom message telling the candidate reviewer why you think they are a good fit for the paper, such as their background respect to the topic or specific components of the paper.
You should have this information already when deciding to invite that particular reviewer.

Add some personal greetings such as if the reviewer has a recent job change or life event, a new paper, or someone you both know, which could be found on their social media or personal website.
Do so particularly if you know the reviewer (or someone close to them like their collaborator/advisor) personally.

If you already read the paper, provide some estimation of the time commitment required for reviewing the paper, e.g., “I think it will take you about 2 hours to review this paper”.

If you have accepted review requests from that reviewer in the past, mention this as well as a hint of reciprocity.
This is another reason to accept review requests if you have the bandwidth.

2023-06-10

Primitive emotion and advanced technology

Filed under: Imaginary,Real — liyiwei @ 3:14 pm
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“We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology.” – Edward O. Wilson

Natural human evolution might not be fast enough for our primitive emotions to catch up with our advanced technology, and I predict pretty soon we will use technology to accelerate our evolution, e.g., by using AI to augment our intelligence and CRISPR to edit our genes.

2023-06-06

T-bill auction

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 11:12 am
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I was trying to buy some short-term t-bills around the time of the debt-ceiling negotiation as the yields are likely to be higher than usual and the government might need more money from us.

I placed an initial bid (about 20 percent of my target) just to check the process, and at the end the system gave me some server error message, so I repeated the process a few times.
Later, I realized that all my (five) bids actually went through and it was just the server that was responsible for the survey at the end that was down.

2023-06-04

Quick sketching while waiting

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 10:27 am
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My dad did a lot of quick pencil drawings on papers while waiting, and I did the same with fingers on a mobile phone (moto-x4 with Autodesk Sketchbook installed).

2023-06-01

Caltrain rides

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 5:14 pm
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I have been taking Caltrain recently for commute while my car is in the body shop, and thus could resume a favorite activity of mine – quick portrait sketches of fellow passengers during the rides.
These are obviously not the best sketches in terms of absolute quality, but I like them given how much I can achieve in such a short amount of time (at most a few minutes and sometimes only a few seconds).

The train schedule has become sparser (and less convenient for passengers) since the pandemic, likely for cost saving due to reduced ridership, which in turn could cause further ridership reduction in a negative feedback loop.
I hope both the ridership and schedule will pick up again soon.

2023-05-28

A history of graphic design

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 9:08 pm
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I bought this book in year 2004 but did not finish reading it until now.
Overall, it is an excellent overview of the main developments in graphic design, including styles, technologies, and people.
In long run I will probably remember more of the many beautiful image examples than the detailed text descriptions.

The book focuses mainly on static layouts and touches upon animations and interactive interfaces in the end, which, together with recent generative technologies, will probably be worth another book in the future.



Layered motion path experiment

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 9:19 am
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Since each motion path is on a single layer, I created two separate paths, one in front and another behind the character, to approximate each circular path.

2023-05-25

When a programmer needs an extra break

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 6:07 pm
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// when a programmer needs an extra break
// inspired by real code I saw
switch(day)
{
  case "Mon":
    doWorkA();
    break;
  case "Tue":
    doWorkB();
    break;
  case "Wed":
    doWorkC();
    break;
  case "Thu":
    doWorkD();
    break;
  case "Fri":
    doWorkE();
    break;
    break;
}

It took me a few days later to realize how to achieve this effect via motion graphics.

2023-05-20

Headbutt

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 7:44 pm
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This work is inspired by this funny scene from the replay of a recent NBA playoff game.

Given that a headbutt would expose both parties to a very vulnerable physical configuration, I guess evolution-wise it signals pure posturing without the intention of getting into a real fight (yet).


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