Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), originally part of Xerox, has been home to numerous influential figures in the field of computer science, technology, and design. Some notable individuals associated with PARC include: 1. **Alan Kay** - Known for his work on object-oriented programming and the Smalltalk language. 2. **Robert Metcalfe** - Co-inventor of Ethernet and a pioneer in network technology.

Charmaine Dean is a recognized statistician and academic, known for her contributions to the fields of statistical modeling and applied statistics. She has held various academic positions and has served as a leader in promoting statistical education and research. One of her notable roles includes being a past president of the Statistical Society of Canada. In the context of higher education, Dean has also been involved in administration, including positions such as a dean at various universities, where she has contributed to the advancement of academic programs and research initiatives.

Erica Moodie is a public health researcher known for her work in epidemiology, particularly in the areas of health disparities, health services research, and the impact of social determinants on health outcomes. She is affiliated with institutions that focus on public health research and often contributes to studies related to chronic diseases, health policy, and the effectiveness of health interventions.

As of my last knowledge update in October 2023, there is no widely known public figure, organization, or concept specifically referred to as "Kimberly Sellers." It's possible that it could refer to a private individual, a fictional character, or a less-publicized entity that may have come into prominence after my last update.

Lynn Kuo is a Canadian violinist and conductor known for her versatile performances in classical and contemporary music. She has gained recognition for her artistry and has participated in various musical collaborations, performances, and festivals. Kuo has also been involved in educational initiatives, sharing her expertise with students and emerging musicians.

Rajeshwari Sundaram could refer to a number of individuals, as it is a name that may belong to various people. Without more context, it's difficult to determine who or what you might be referring to. It could represent a professional in fields such as academia, arts, or business.

The Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS) is a professional organization that promotes the development and dissemination of the theory and applications of statistics and probability. The presidency of the IMS typically involves leadership in the organization's activities, including promoting research, education, and scholarly communication in the field. The presidents of the IMS are usually prominent figures in the statistical community, and their terms reflect their contributions to the field. Information about past and current presidents can often be found on the IMS's official website or in their published materials.

Jun S. Liu is a prominent statistician and professor known for his contributions to the fields of statistics and machine learning. He has worked on a variety of topics, including Bayesian statistics, non-parametric methods, and computational statistics. Liu has published extensively in academic journals and has been influential in advancing statistical methodologies and theories.

Ingrid Van Keilegom is not a widely recognized public figure or concept in readily available information up to October 2023. It's possible that she could be a professional in a specific field, a private individual, or a local figure not covered in global news sources.

"Lan Zhang" could refer to different things depending on the context. It might typically refer to: 1. **A Person's Name**: Lan Zhang is a common name in Chinese-speaking regions and could refer to various individuals. Without specific context, it's challenging to determine which person you're referring to. 2. **A Concept or Term in Literature or Culture**: It may also be a term or phrase that appears in literature, art, or cultural references, although it's less common.

Mary Ellen Bock is an American statistician and a notable figure in the field of statistics and applied mathematics. She is recognized for her work in statistical modeling, particularly in the context of environmental statistics and her contributions to educational practices in statistics. Bock has also been involved in various professional organizations related to statistics and has published research papers on statistical methodologies.

CIJ can refer to various things depending on the context. Here are a few possible meanings: 1. **CIJ (Criminal Justice Index)**: A metric used in law enforcement or research related to criminal justice, focusing on crime rates and trends. 2. **CIJ (Centre for Information Journals)**: An organization or institution focused on the dissemination of information through journals and publications.

Zohar Manna is a notable figure in the field of computer science, known for his work in the areas of algorithms, data structures, and distributed systems. He is particularly recognized for his contributions to the theory of algorithms and for authoring significant research papers and textbooks related to these topics. In addition to his contributions to theoretical computer science, Zohar Manna has been involved in education and has played a vital role in teaching and mentoring students in the field.

When Ciro Santilli was very young, about 6, he was a fatty, and other evil boys picked on him.

Ciro was even more stupid than as of 2020, and continued to try and hang out with those evil kids to show them he was cool too or that he was strong, and so continued to get hurt.

Advice to his children: stay away from evil people.

The bullied sometimes feels an almost masochistic desire to overcome the bullies' contempt, and to try and either become friends with the bullies, or to overpower them.

You must never give into those thoughts.

If you come across evil people, smile a fake smile to them, and walk away, but never give your back to them, and always be ready to fight.

If they laugh at you, know that you are shit like everyone else, pretend to laugh with them, take their post and repost it on your public profile, and silently stay away from those idiots.

Never show any weakness.

If a fight is likely, always be ready, always have your friends nearby, be as well armed as the enemy, and never be outnumbered.

On the Internet, never care about e-bully posts, either block them immediately, and anyone that likes their posts, or follow Ciro's reply policy.

Call parents or other authorities as soon as there is risk of physical harm. Better a living free pussy than dead or in youth detention for murder. Similar advice applies if you are going to jail I guess.

If a physical fight is inevitable however, ignore Jesus this once and don't give the other face, but rather follow the Talmud and fight all out on the beaches:References:

The Sikh knife, the Kirpan, which Sikhs must carry at all times as a religious obligation, also comes to mind. The Sikh must have been bullied out of the their minds at some point in history, Ciro understands.

Non-violence only works when you have bodies to spare from your followers.

Perhaps it was good to learn those lessons early, before the stakes were too high. Adults fake it much better, and therefore it is harder to learn those lessons from them, but they are still just as evil on the inside.

These experiences might have contributed to Ciro Santilli's self perceived compassionate personality.

These are websites that offer somewhat overlapping services, many of which served inspirations, and why we think something different is needed to achieve our goals.

Notably, OurBigBook is the result of Ciro Santilli's experiences with:OurBigBook could be seen as a cross between those three websites.

Quick mentions:

Static website-only alternatives:

Conceptual:

TODO:

A major difficulty of getting such this to work is that may university teachers want to retain closed copyright of their work because they:

Therefore the only way is to find teachers who are:The forced option therefore seems like a more bulk efficient starting point for searches.

No matter how much effort a single person puts into writing perfect tutorials, they will never beat 1000x people + an algorithm.

It is not simply a matter of how much time you have. The fundamental reason is that each person has a different background and different skills. Notably the young students have radically different understanding than that of the experienced teacher.

Therefore, those that refuse to contribute to such platforms, or at least license their content with open licenses, will inevitably have their work forgotten in favor of those that have contributed to the more open platform, which will eventually dominate everything.

Perhaps OurBigBook.com is not he killer platform that will make this happen. Perhaps the world is not yet ready for it. But Ciro believes that this will happen, sooner or later, inevitable, and he wants to give it a shot.

Also worth checking:

Many subjects have changed very little in the last hundred years, and so it is mind-blowing that people have to pay for books that teach them!

If computers are bicycles for the mind, Ciro wants this website to be the Ferrari of the mind.

Since Ciro Santilli was young, he has been bewildered by the natural sciences and mathematics due to his bad memory.

The beauty of those subjects has always felt like intense sunlight in a fresh morning to Ciro. Sometimes it gets covered by clouds and obscured by less important things, but it always comes back again and again, weaker or stronger with its warmth, guiding Ciro's life path.

As a result, he has always suffered a lot at school: his grades were good, but he wasn't really learning those beautiful things that he wanted to learn!

School, instead of helping him, was just wasting his time with superficial knowledge.

First, before university, school organization had only one goal: put you into the best universities, to make a poster out of you and get publicity, so that more parents will be willing to pay them money to put their kids into good university.

Ciro once asked a chemistry teacher some "deeper question" after course was over, related to the superficial vision of the topic they were learning to get grades in university entry exams. The teacher replied something like:Ciro feels that this was one of the greatest compliments he has ever received in his life. This teacher, understood him. Funny how some things stick, while all the rest fades.

Another interesting anecdote is how Ciro Santilli's mother recalls that she always found out about exams in the same way: when the phone started ringing as Ciro's friends started asking for help with the subjects just before the exam. Sometimes it was already too hopelessly late, but Ciro almost always tried. Nothing shows how much better you are than someone than teaching them.

Then, after entering university, although things got way better because were are able to learn things that are borderline useful.

Ciro still felt a strong emotion of nostalgia when after university his mother asked if she could throw away his high school books, and Ciro started tearing them all down for recycling. Such is life.

University teachers were still to a large extent researchers who didn't want to, know how to and above all have enough time and institutional freedom to teach things properly and make you see their beauty, some good relate articles:

The very fact that you had very little choice of what to learn so that a large group can get a "Diploma", makes it impossible for people to deeply learn what the really want.

This is especially true because Ciro was in Brazil, a third world country, where the opportunities are comparatively extremely limited to the first world.

Also extremely frustrating is how you might have to wait for years to get to the subject you really want. For example, on a physics course, quantum mechanics is normally only taught on the third year! While there is value to knowing the pre-requisites, holding people back for years is just too sad, and Ciro much prefers backward design. And just like the university entry exams, this creates an entry barrier situation where you might in the end find that "hey, that's not what I wanted to learn after all", see also: students must have a flexible choice of what to learn.

We've created a system where people just wait, and wait, and wait, never really doing what they really want. They wait through school to get into university. They wait through university to get to masters. They wait through masters to get to PhD. They wait through PhD to become a PI. And for the minuscule fraction of those that make it, they become fund proposal writers. And if you make any wrong choice along the, it's all over, you can't continue anymore, the cost would be too great. So you just become software engineer or a consultant. Is this the society that we really want?

And all of this is considering that he was very lucky to not be in a poor family, and was already in some of the best educational institutions locally available already, and had comparatively awesome teachers, without which he wouldn't be where he is today if he hadn't had such advantages in the first place.

But no matter how awesome one teacher is, no single person can overcome a system so large and broken. Without technological innovation that is.

The key problem all along the way is the Society's/Government's belief that everyone has to learn the same things, and that grades in exams mean anything.

Ciro believes however, that exams are useless, and that there are only two meaningful metrics:

Even if you wanted to really learn natural sciences and had the time available, it is just too hard to find good resources to properly learn it. Even attending university courses are hit and miss between amazing and mediocre teachers.

If you go into a large book shop, the science section is tiny, and useless popular science books dominate it without precise experiment descriptions. And then, the only few "serious" books are a huge list of formulas without any experimental motivation.

And if you are lucky to have access to an university library that has open doors, most books are likely to be old and boring as well. Googling for PDFs from university courses is the best bet.

Around 2012 however, he finally saw the light, and started his path to Ciro Santilli's Open Source Enlightenment. University was not needed anymore. He could learn whatever he wanted. A vision was born.

To make things worse, for a long time he was tired of seeing poor people begging on the streets every day and not doing anything about it. He thought:which like everything else is likely derived subconsciously from something else, here Schindler's list possibly adapted quote from the Talmud:

So, by the time he left University, instead of pursuing a PhD in theoretical Mathematics or Physics just for the beauty of it as he had once considered, he had new plans.

We needed a new educational system. One that would allow people to fulfill their potential and desires, and truly improve society as a result, both in rich and poor countries.

And he found out that programming and applied mathematics could also be fun, so he might as well have some fun while doing this! ;-)

So he started Booktree in 2014, a GitLab fork, worked on it for an year, noticed the approach was dumb, and a few years later started building this new version. The repo github.com/booktree/booktree is a small snapshot of Ciro's 2014 brain on the area, there were quite a few similar projects at the time, and most have died.

Ciro is basically a librarian at heart, and wants to be the next:

Can be used to detect single photons.

Richard Feynman likes them, he describes the tube at Richard Feynman Quantum Electrodynamics Lecture at University of Auckland (1979) at one point.

It uses the photoelectric effect multiple times to produce a chain reaction. In particular, as mentioned at youtu.be/5V8VCFkAd0A?t=74 from Video 1. "Using a Photomultiplier to Detect single photons by Huygens Optics" this means that the device has a lowest sensitive light frequency, beyond which photons don't have enough energy to eject any electrons.