ThinkPad Updated 2025-07-16
This is Ciro Santilli's favorite laptop brand. He's been on it since the early 2010's after he saw his then-girlfriend-later-wife using it.
Ciro doesn't know how to explain it, but ThinkPads just feel... right. The screen, the keyboard, the lid, the touchpad are all exactly what Ciro likes.
The only problem with ThinkPad is that it is owned by Lenovo which is a Chinese company, and that makes Ciro feel bad. But he likes it too much to quit... what to do?
Ciro is also reassured to see that in every enterprise he's been so far as of 2020, ThinkPads are very dominant. And the same when you see internal videos from other big tech enterprises, all those nerds are running... Ubuntu on ThinkPads! And the ISS.
Those nerds like their ThinkPads so much, that Ciro has seen some acquaintances with crazy old ThinkPad machines, missing keyboard buttons or the like. They just like their machines that much.
ThinkPads are are also designed for repairability, and it is easy to buy replacement parts, and there are OEM part replacement video tutorials: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vseFzFFz8lY No visible planned obsolescence here! With the caveat that the official online part stores can be shit as mentioned at Section "Lenovo".
Further more, in 2020 Lenovo is announced full certification for Ubuntu www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2020/06/03/lenovos-massive-ubuntu-and-red-hat-announcement-levels-up-linux-in-2020/#28a8fd397ae0 which fantastic news!
The only thing Ciro never understood is the trackpoint: superuser.com/questions/225059/how-to-get-used-of-trackpoint-on-a-thinkpad Why would you use that with such an amazing touchpad? And vimium.
activatedgeek/LeNet-5 run on GPU Updated 2025-07-16
By default, the setup runs on CPU only, not GPU, as could be seen by running htop. But by the magic of PyTorch, modifying the program to run on the GPU is trivial:and leads to a faster runtime, with less
cat << EOF | patch
diff --git a/run.py b/run.py
index 104d363..20072d1 100644
--- a/run.py
+++ b/run.py
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@ data_test = MNIST('./data/mnist',
data_train_loader = DataLoader(data_train, batch_size=256, shuffle=True, num_workers=8)
data_test_loader = DataLoader(data_test, batch_size=1024, num_workers=8)
-net = LeNet5()
+device = 'cuda'
+net = LeNet5().to(device)
criterion = nn.CrossEntropyLoss()
optimizer = optim.Adam(net.parameters(), lr=2e-3)
@@ -43,6 +44,8 @@ def train(epoch):
net.train()
loss_list, batch_list = [], []
for i, (images, labels) in enumerate(data_train_loader):
+ labels = labels.to(device)
+ images = images.to(device)
optimizer.zero_grad()
output = net(images)
@@ -71,6 +74,8 @@ def test():
total_correct = 0
avg_loss = 0.0
for i, (images, labels) in enumerate(data_test_loader):
+ labels = labels.to(device)
+ images = images.to(device)
output = net(images)
avg_loss += criterion(output, labels).sum()
pred = output.detach().max(1)[1]
@@ -84,7 +89,7 @@ def train_and_test(epoch):
train(epoch)
test()
- dummy_input = torch.randn(1, 1, 32, 32, requires_grad=True)
+ dummy_input = torch.randn(1, 1, 32, 32, requires_grad=True).to(device)
torch.onnx.export(net, dummy_input, "lenet.onnx")
onnx_model = onnx.load("lenet.onnx")
EOFuser as now we are spending more time on the GPU than CPU:real 1m27.829s
user 4m37.266s
sys 0m27.562s Bilibili Updated 2025-07-16
Cool data embedded in the Bitcoin blockchain A Quantitative Analysis of the Impact of Arbitrary Blockchain Content on Bitcoin by Matzutt et al. (2018) Updated 2025-07-16
Semi-boring academic overview, but without reproducibility, or in a way that is too hidden for Ciro to have the patience to find it out.
Claims 1600 files found.
Mentions some upload mechanisms, notably AtomSea & EMBII and Satoshi uploader.
Cursive script (East Asia) Updated 2025-07-16
Eigendecomposition of a matrix Updated 2025-07-16
Every invertible matrix can be written as:where:Note therefore that this decomposition is unique up to swapping the order of eigenvectors. We could fix a canonical form by sorting eigenvectors from smallest to largest in the case of a real number.
- is a diagonal matrix containing the eigenvalues of
- columns of are eigenvectors of
Intuitively, Note that this is just the change of basis formula, and so:
- changes basis to align to the eigenvectors
- multiplies eigenvectors simply by eigenvalues
- changes back to the original basis
Ross Ulbricht Updated 2025-07-16
Ross Ulbricht's LinkedIn profile picture
. Source. Still up as of 2023: www.linkedin.com/in/rossulbricht/ BitTorrent Updated 2025-07-16
Black hole Updated 2025-07-16
Blaise Pascal (1972) Updated 2025-07-16
Episodes of the life of Blaise Pascal.
California Updated 2025-07-16
Einstein solid Updated 2025-07-16
One important quantum mechanics experiment, which using quantum effects explain the dependency of specific heat capacity on temperature, an effect which is not present in the Dulong-Petit law.
This is the solid-state analogue to the black-body radiation problem. It is also therefore a quantum mechanics-specific phenomenon.
Electrical impedance Updated 2025-07-16
Ciro Santilli distinctly remembers being taught that at basic electrical engineering school during Ciro Santilli's undergrad studies at the University of São Paulo.
It really allows you to do alternating current calculations much as you'd do DC calculations with resistors, quite poweful. It must have been all the rage in the 1950s.
Minnesota Updated 2025-07-16
Namecoin Updated 2025-07-16
Year 1 of the physics course of the University of Oxford Updated 2025-07-16
Adolfo Amidei Updated 2025-07-16
This dude mentored Enrico Fermi in high school. Ciro Santilli added some info to Fermi's Wikipedia page at: en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Enrico_Fermi&type=revision&diff=1050919447&oldid=1049187703 from Enrico Fermi: physicist by Emilio Segrè (1970):
In 1914, Fermi, who used to often meet with his father in front of the office after work, met a colleague of his father called Adolfo Amidei, who would walk part of the way home with Alberto [Enrico's father]. Enrico had learned that Adolfo was interested in mathematics and physics and took the opportunity to ask Adolfo a question about geometry. Adolfo understood that the young Fermi was referring to projective geometry and then proceeded to give him a book on the subject written by Theodor Reye. Two months later, Fermi returned the book, having solved all the problems proposed at the end of the book, some of which Adolfo considered difficult. Upon verifying this, Adolfo felt that Fermi was "a prodigy, at least with respect to geometry", and further mentored the boy, providing him with more books on physics and mathematics. Adolfo noted that Fermi had a very good memory and thus could return the books after having read them because he could remember their content very well.
Ciro Santilli really likes guys like this. Given that he does not have the right genetics, conditions and temperance for scientific greatness in this lifetime, he dreams of one day finding his own Fermi instead.
Advanced quantum mechanics by Freeman Dyson (1951) Updated 2025-07-16
Lecture notes that were apparently very popular at Cornell University. In this period he was actively synthesizing the revolutionary bullshit Richard Feynman and Julian Schwinger were writing and making it understandable to the more general physicist audience, so it might be a good reading.
We shall not develop straightaway a correct theory including many particles. Instead we follow the historical development. We try to make a relativistic quantum theory of one particle, find out how far we can go and where we get into trouble.
Blockchain Updated 2025-07-16
Born rule Updated 2025-07-16
There are unlisted articles, also show them or only show them.