Confessions of a researchaholic

November 11, 2024

Acorns

Filed under: Imaginary,Real — liyiwei @ 8:29 pm
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Process: paint one acorn in Adobe Fresco from which create custom brush in Adobe Capture and paint back many acorns in Adobe Fresco.

Inspiration: witnessed the prodigious quantity of acorns on the ground and wondered about its potential as a food source (edible by humans after leaching out the tannins).


November 10, 2024

Chewie visit weekend 1 of 2

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 8:10 pm
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The dog slept a lot and thus remained stationary for a good drawing subject. I would like to capture his waking moments as well but still drawing live instead of from photos.


https://www.behance.net/gallery/212212201/Chewie10Nov2024

November 4, 2024

Sapiens: a brief history of humankind

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 8:03 pm
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Just (belatedly) finished this book, which I found to be very easy and enjoyable to read, and full of interesting insights and perspectives.

The humans are essentially programmable and thus can advance faster than biological evolution which constrains other kinds of life forms on earth.

Our language and writing systems facilitate the preservation and transmission of knowledge across space and time beyond our individual brain capacity, and our ability to cooperate in large numbers allows us to build complex societies and technologies as well as to wield great damages to our environments.

November 3, 2024

Bing concert hall

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 2:26 pm
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25 years ago when Sergei Brin and I were in the same piano class I wouldn’t have predicted that one day there will be a concert hall named after him.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/PLMBHRJeHauxvjjq5

I like the circular setup of the Bing concert hall, with the stage in the middle and the audience surrounding it, which makes the performance more intimate and engaging, and the sound effect is great. It also doesn’t hurt that Stanford is much closer to where I live than San Francisco (with performance venues that I have attended).

November 2, 2024

Tesla versus Waymo

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 7:02 pm
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Passive versus active (computer) vision.
Software versus hardware.
Assisted/driver-present versus autonomous/driver-less driving.
Passenger versus business target market.

November 1, 2024

Purposes of different social medias

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 10:58 am
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Do you use different social medias for different purposes?

For example, I (mostly) use Instagram/Behance for art, LinkedIn for work, Facebook for life, Twitter for news, and blog for thoughts.

I see others use social medias in a mixed way which seems suboptimal to me because people are on different social medias for potentially different purposes under different moods.
For example, when I am on Facebook I am usually looking more for travel photos than research papers or technical presentations, but tend to see the reverse in my social feed.

I could think of a few reasons for this mixed use: some people might be (active) on one or two social medias only, some people might have a different interpretation of the usages (e.g., their work might be a main part of their life), and some people might not care about the differences.

October 29, 2024

Two sides of a scam

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 9:29 pm
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A 60+ years old ordinary joe is divorcing his wife and moving to a different part of the world after meeting a 35 years old beautiful woman claiming to be a millionaire living in a posh house.

I can picture you rolling your eyes now, but this is actually happening right now with an acquaintance of mine.

For that scam to work, he has to be stupid enough to believe it and cruel enough to ditch his wife. Would she have the kindness and generosity to take him back in the end?

October 26, 2024

Should newspapers inform or opine?

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 11:31 am

If a newspaper has been endorsing political candidates in the past and suddenly stops doing so due to the owner’s concern about the potential consequences for his personal interests, I can understand the frustration from the readers.

Personally, though, I would prefer newspapers to inform me about the facts and let me make my own decisions instead of telling me what to do.



October 25, 2024

Golden berries and blue gum-ball

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 9:39 pm
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I noticed this interesting color combination of golden berries and a blue gum-ball in a bento box and decided to draw it.


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