Existential risk of AGI Updated 2025-07-16
www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/the-best-or-worst-thing-to-happen-to-humanity-stephen-hawking-launches-centre-for-the-future-of
The rise of powerful AI will either be the best or the worst thing ever to happen to humanity. We do not yet know which.
University Updated 2025-09-09
One major issue is that teachers don't have the right incentive to, nor are selected to, teach well. Thus the existence of Rate My Professors! But we can do better...
Which is why Ciro Santilli wants to destroy its current format with OurBigBook.com. He believes that we can find a more efficient organization to achieve both the social and research functions of university, by first doing as much as possible online
Ciro Santilli has an undiagnozed condition where his upper legs and lower torso often start to itch when he runs, to the point of being extremely annoying and removing all pleasure form the activity.
If some doctor knows why this could be, please tell him!!!
The problem is a bit hard to reproduce however, and Ciro hasn't been able to determine which exact condition triggers it: temperature, nutrition, something else?
Ciro believes that this is not chiefly due to transpiration, but rather to the impact motion that running does on the muscles, as he has felt something similar on his arms some times while cycling in very rough terrain, which made his arms shake in a similar fashion. or for example if he has a water bottle on a tightly tied backpack that rubs his back, then the back itches at that point.
Also, running on a threadmill is not a problem at all. Ciro believes that this is because the threadmill is better amortized, and therefore does not cause the same mechanical stress required to create the itching as running on pavement.
Interestingly, Ciro didn't feel that at all when he played soccer enthusiastically as a child, and he was one of the fastest runners of the group for sure at that time. So he's not sure if it started when he got older, or if it is just because the difference in workloads between soccer and running.
youtu.be/PNgYW5N95z8?t=945 "My back itches" after riding on a bumpy makeshift motorcycle.
Fabless manufacturing Updated 2025-07-16
In the past, most computer designers would have their own fabs.
But once designs started getting very complicated, it started to make sense to separate concerns between designers and fabs.
What this means is that design companies would primarily write register transfer level, then use electronic design automation tools to get a final manufacturable chip, and then send that to the fab.
It is in this point of time that TSMC came along, and benefied and helped establish this trend.
The term "Fabless" could in theory refer to other areas of industry besides the semiconductor industry, but it is mostly used in that context.
Guqin player Updated 2025-07-16
FFmpeg Updated 2025-07-16
FFmpeg is the assembler of audio and video.
As a result, Ciro Santilli who likes "lower level stuff", has had many many hours if image manipulation fun with this software, see e.g.:
As older Ciro grows, the more he notices that FFmpeg can do basically any lower level audio video task. It is just an amazing piece of software, the immediate go-to for any low level operation.
FFmpeg was created by Fabrice Bellard, which Ciro deeply respects.
Resize a video: superuser.com/questions/624563/how-to-resize-a-video-to-make-it-smaller-with-ffmpeg:
ffmpeg -i input.avi -filter:v scale=720:-1 -c:a copy output.mkv
Unlike every other convention under the sun, the height in scale is the first number.
Fiat currency Updated 2025-07-16
A useless piece of paper (or digital version of it) that you can pay taxes with :)
As opposed to:
Lie algebra of Updated 2025-07-16
This is a good first concrete example of a Lie algebra. Shown at Lie Groups, Physics, and Geometry by Robert Gilmore (2008) Chapter 4.2 "How to linearize a Lie Group" has an example.
We can use use the following parametrization of the special linear group on variables , and :
Every element with this parametrization has determinant 1:
Furthermore, any element can be reached, because by independently settting , and , , and can have any value, and once those three are set, is fixed by the determinant.
To find the elements of the Lie algebra, we evaluate the derivative on each parameter at 0:
Remembering that the Lie bracket of a matrix Lie group is really simple, we can then observe the following Lie bracket relations between them:
One key thing to note is that the specific matrices , and are not really fundamental: we could easily have had different matrices if we had chosen any other parametrization of the group.
TODO confirm: however, no matter which parametrization we choose, the Lie bracket relations between the three elements would always be the same, since it is the number of elements, and the definition of the Lie bracket, that is truly fundamental.
Lie Groups, Physics, and Geometry by Robert Gilmore (2008) Chapter 4.2 "How to linearize a Lie Group" then calculates the exponential map of the vector as:
with:
TODO now the natural question is: can we cover the entire Lie group with this exponential? Lie Groups, Physics, and Geometry by Robert Gilmore (2008) Chapter 7 "EXPonentiation" explains why not.
Lie algebra of Updated 2025-07-16
We can reach it by taking the rotations in three directions, e.g. a rotation around the z axis:
then we derive and evaluate at 0:
therefore represents the infinitesimal rotation.
Note that the exponential map reverses this and gives a finite rotation around the Z axis back from the infinitesimal generator :
Repeating the same process for the other directions gives:
We have now found 3 linearly independent elements of the Lie algebra, and since has dimension 3, we are done.
Lie bracket of a matrix Lie group Updated 2025-07-16
This makes it clear how the Lie bracket can be seen as a "measure of non-commutativity"
Because the Lie bracket has to be a bilinear map, all we need to do to specify it uniquely is to specify how it acts on every pair of some basis of the Lie algebra.
Then, together with the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff formula and the Lie group-Lie algebra correspondence, this forms an exceptionally compact description of a Lie group.
The author seems to have uploaded the entire book by chapters at: www.physics.drexel.edu/~bob/LieGroups.html
Overview:
Light-emitting diode Updated 2025-07-16
Video 1.
How LEDs work by VirtualBrain
. Source. 2021. Good 3d schematics clearly explaining part of the LED electronic package.
Skullcandy earphones, first one circa. 2016 most likely. Used them a lot, these are good.
2023-07: one of the sides broke near center, rebuying.
2021-07: wire half broke near connector, only works in some positions. The funny thing is: only voices seem to be blocked out! Rebuying.
2021-06: a small bottom piece of the left earpiece broke. Wire seems find, that is like a little extension to protect wire. Let's see for how long.
2020-20: wires at one of ears broke, not sure how.
Tech specs:
Connection Type: 3.5mm AUX Cable
Impedence: 32 ohms
Driver Diameter: 9mm
THD: <0.1% (1mW/500Hz) (0.0234)
Sound Pressure Level: 95 dB (1mW/500Hz)
Frequency Response: 20kHz - 20Hz
Headphone Type: In-Ear
PCIe TLC OPAL2.
sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/nvme0n1p5 on Ubuntu 20.04:
 Timing cached reads:   29812 MB in  1.99 seconds = 15007.00 MB/sec
 HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
 Timing buffered disk reads: 6328 MB in  3.00 seconds = 2109.00 MB/sec
Nominal maximum sequential read speed: 3,000 MB/s
Lin Chong scene Updated 2025-07-16
Lance instructor of the 800,000 Imperial Guards (八十万禁军枪棒教头). TODO understand the "枪棒" part: zhidao.baidu.com/question/206659649.html.
The adopted son of Gao Qiu wanted to fuck his wife, and because of this they frame him of planning to take revenge by killing Go Qiu, even though Lin Chong had decided not to take revenge to avoid harming his wife further.
They just keep trying to kill him, until at one point he just gives up and becomes a fugitive.
His story is well told in The Water Margin.
Usually called by others as 林教头 (lin jiaotou, literally Head Instructor Lin, but usually translated as just Instructor Lin).
Linear differential equation Updated 2025-07-16
The name is a bit obscure if you don't think in very generalized terms right out of the gate. It refers to a linear polynomial of multiple variables, which by definition must have the super simple form of:
and then we just put the unknown and each derivative into that simple polynomial:
except that now the are not just constants, but they can also depend on the argument (but not on or its derivatives).
Explicit solutions exist for the very specific cases of:

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