Confessions of a researchaholic

2023-08-08

SIGGRAPH Tuesday

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 9:16 pm
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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

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 9:14 pm
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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.

2023-08-06

Arriving at SIGGRAPH 2023

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 8:17 pm
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I took the LA metro for the first time today from LAX to downtown LA via line C (light rail) and line J (bus).
The whole trip took about 1.5 hours, and the cost was only \$1.75.
(I guess I only paid for line C, as the operator of the J-bus told me that the ticket machine was broken and waved me through.)

The experience is not bad; the TAP app actually worked on my moto-x4 (for both trip planning and payment), the cars were clean and (aside from the bus connecting the airport to the metro station) not too crowded (on a Sunday afternoon).

I noticed that I was one of the few passengers who are not black or brown for the whole trip.
On the J-910 bus I saw a druggie couple sitting right opposite to me, who seemed physically weak and dozed off all the time.

There was a union strike right at the front door of the hotel where I stayed.

There is a Whole Foods store right near the hotel, so I bought some hot takeout for dinner while watching the paper fast forward in my hotel room.

I felt a bit too low on battery to attend the SIGGRAPH 2023 paper committee party tonight.

2022-07-24

Lufthansa inflight snacks

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 9:26 pm
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A 1-hour flight between FRA and PRG would naturally not provide much food or drink, but I like the quality and simplicity of a bottle of water and a piece of chocolate.

2022-07-09

EGSR in Prague

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 6:16 pm
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I have thoroughly enjoyed the EGSR conference and the Prague visit, and wish to have more time to explore this fantastic city.

I did not have time for drawings aside from a few very quick finger sketches on my small mobile phone, but plan to draw some from visual impression later.

2022-07-04

Kronberg

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 11:28 am
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Upon arrival at FRA I learned that my connection flight to PRG was delayed to the next day, so I took Lufthansa’s offer for free taxi rides and hotel stay in Kronberg, which turned out to be a very nice town with a historical district (including a castle) and nice restaurants.

2022-06-18

Pavement cubes in Prague

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 9:22 pm
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I noticed that sidewalks in Prague are predominantly paved by the same types of stone/concrete cubes, whose size and shape might cause (or at least less effectively prevent) the underlying layer to gradually deform over time.
I also saw a construction worker manually put one cube next to another to pave a surface.
So I guess these cubes have low enough manufacturing/material costs (via economy of scale) without too high manual labor costs (low hourly wage for construction workers and/or the curved streets are less amenable for machine construction).

2021-01-16

Not found

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 4:03 pm
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2019-07-07

Luxembourg

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 11:11 pm
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This citadel city contains many museums, cultural heritages, and great views, all within walking distances.

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