Saw https://museum.stanford.edu/exhibitions/printing-protest and immediately visualized the ladybugs moving in my mind.
I extracted the foreground (ladies and bamboo sticks) and several individual ladybugs via https://segment-anything.com/ to, and animated them via Adobe Fresco Motion.
2023-08-20
Ladybugs
2023-08-16
Water lavender
I am starting to experiment with https://feather.art/ which is an app (based on https://doi.org/10.1145/3528223.3530092) for painting in 3D via a 2D interface by specifying the support surfaces first followed by projecting the (screen) strokes onto them.
It took some time to get used to the workflow, but I like it so far.
2023-08-13
The gap in the curtain
I heard from a podcast/blog about this book offering important lessons for finance, so I borrowed the annotated digital version from the local library and read it via hoopla.
In a nutshell, the book is a fable (or a collection of individual but connected fables) where having partial information about the future can be more perilous than having no information at all, as one may misinterpret the information, take actions with unintended consequences, or just be psychologically paralyzed by the uncertainty and eventuality.
From the perspective of CS/ML, the book is also a cautionary tale about the dangers of over-fitting, as the characters in the book are trying to fit the information they have to their own actions and narratives (or vice versa).
And the danger of partial information applies not just to the future but also to the present and the past, as we often have to make decisions based on incomplete information.
2023-08-12
Mapping a fly’s mind
Swatting a fly can be a fun and vigorous exercise, but here is an alternative way that is more relaxing: wait until it is dark outside, turn off all the lights inside, and then turn on a single light source which the fly would tend to follow.
You can carry a single flashlight or turn on the room lights one by one towards the outside.
2023-08-11
Acquitting myself fromContinuing review duties for a venue
During a recent gathering people have talked about how some of my works have been unfairly treated.
Beforehand I was actually not aware of the situation, in any case these are already published works for everyone to judge, and I don’t see how it could have any tangible impacts on my life and career at this stage.
However, since now it has been brought to my awareness, I feel that I should do something about it for the sake of sportsmanship, as it does not seem proper to leave it as is.
Thus, I have decided to stop reviewing duties for that venue until the situation is remedied.
As far as I remember I have never turned down review/committee requests (aside from potential conflicts) and I am pretty sure I have done my fair share of services for that venue even if I stop right now.
If I want to continue volunteering my time for a cause, I need to know it is at least fair.
Update: I realized that the decision was made by a few individuals who do not necessarily represent the whole community, and in any case this event seems quite insignificant in retrospect. Plus I still enjoy reading and discussing about research, so I have yet to turn down any paper review and committee invitations so far.
2023-08-10
SIGGRAPH Thursday
Great talk by Efros about big data + nearest neighbor algorithm.
Take out lunch from Cow Cafe, my favorite vegetarian restaurant in downtown LA.
Great poster for blue noise engraving.
Andrew Glassner gave an accessible talk about quantum computing.
The last new techniques in animation session was well attended and my first non-paper talk (aside from the appy hour in 2017) received more questions than my past paper talks.
The 411 theater is also a nice place for talks given the staggered seating arrangement.
Almost got hit by a car while crossing the Pico-Figueroa intersection, but fortunately the driver screeched to a stop in time.
Bumped into a guy whom I chatted with in the afternoon, realized that we will be on the same flight, and took the metro to the airport together.
2023-08-09
SIGGRAPH Wednesday
Any talk from NASA about astronomy fascinated me; a particular interesting point for this one is about artistic rendering which is needed to visualize far-away exoplanets.
In fact, we need some sort of artistic touches for almost all scientific visualizations, as the raw data is often invisible to the human visual system (e.g., out of the visible light spectrum).
Chaired the “colorful topics in imaging” paper session in the morning.
(I actually did not know if one of the presenters will actually show up until the turn of that paper, but fortunately she was there just not in the front row.)
The committee lunch in Sol Agave took too long and the place was too noisy for conversations, so I ended up chatting with the guy sitting opposite me via a mobile app, even though the food is decent (salad, fish tacos, and churros).
In a noisy party, everyone can try to talk over other voices, causing a positive feedback loop for volume.
The exhibition is smaller than past years, but I still found some interesting demos about digital painting.
The https://feather.art/ app looks worth trying.
The Rebelle watercolor did not seem as realistic as Fresco’s equivalence.
I skipped all the dinner parties, bought some vegetarian food from a nearby Whole Foods, and ate my dinner in my hotel room while watching the electronic theater streaming.
(The content is OK, not as great as previous years.)
2023-08-08
SIGGRAPH Tuesday
Highly recommend the Eniac 6 keynote talk; pay particular attention to the part about how they did not receive the recognition they deserved.
TVCG editors lunch in Pine and Crane DTLA: the food turned out to be quite authentic (I tried dan-dan noodle, seaweed salad, and shaved ice), and saw Jensen Huang in the same restaurant.
Most of the bouncers in downtown LA finally stopped asking me for ID (probably thanks to my white hair threads) but I might have reached the age for which attending 3 consecutive parties would be too much for my stomach/brain to handle all these party food/chats.
Fortunately, my soul can still enjoy all the LA street art.
2023-08-07
SIGGRAPH Monday
The quantum computing keynote is excellent!
A future direction is about combining classical and quantum computing to solve problems that are more suitable to tackle by individual components via a hybrid approach.
Took two former advisees to El Patroncito Mexican Cuisine for lunch.
Last time I enjoyed their fish tacos and the relative quietness compared to other restaurants closer to the convention center.
I tried their fish soup this time, which was good, even though the wait was long.
Many more conference attendees showed up than I thought would given the relatively remote location of the restaurant.
Tried several very interesting demos in the VR village.
A year ago on a flight for SIGGRAPH 2022 the passenger sitting next to me told me that he was a student also attending the conference but his paper submission was rejected. I told him just to resubmit.
I bumped into him again tonight at a party. He told me that he resubmitted the paper and it got accepted this time, and he will present it in a paper session that I would be chairing.