Ciro Santilli's e-soulmates Updated 2025-12-25
Some other idealists that are a bit further out but with some similarities:
Ciro Santilli also things of those people as being part of his 108 Stars of Destiny troupe.
Ciro sometimes ponders why is it so hard to find people online that you truly love and admire. Maybe it is for similar reasons why it is also hard in the real world: the great variety of human interest, and the great limitation of our attention spans. But online, where we have access to "everyone", shouldn't it should be easier? Not naturally finding such people is perhaps one of the greatest failings of our education system.
Ciro Santilli's film tastes Updated 2025-07-16
Ciro Santilli has already watched all the best films in history, and as a result any of those new movies that is full of clichés and has no innovative aspect at all (99.99999% of all modern movies) makes Ciro want to puke and to start Googling TV Tropes to classify as many clichés as possible.
Good movies are those that teach you mechanisms of the real world. Willing suspension of disbelief must be maintained at all costs.
Or of what could happen a world where a single sci-fi element is added and explored to its limits.
Love is not an interesting aspect of the world. You solve your love life at university, Tinder or Tango.
The actually interesting aspects of the world are:
Movies with a lot of action scenes, with exception of some war movies, are shit.
The Sliding scale of idealism vs. cynicism must be close to Cynicism max at all times. Movies with pure good and pure bad are shit.
Knowing spoilers has no effect in the film's enjoyment. The interest of storyline concepts is all that matters, visuals and acting are useless.
In a multi-language film, when two foreign characters speak English to each other when they obviously would have spoken their native language, that is a crime. Original language + subtitles is a must!
Ciro Santilli's given name Updated 2025-07-16
"Ciro" is "Cyrus" from Cyrus the Great in both Portuguese and Italian (although with very different pronunciations), thus doubly appropriate given that Ciro Santilli was born in Brazil, and has Italian ancestry.
After he conquered Babylon in 539 BC from the hands Neo-Babylonian Empire, Cyrus the Great did a great service to the Hebrews by allowing war prisoners that were held in Babylon to back to their home Judea, thus terminating the Babylonian captivity. These Jews were imprisoned because they had previously fought a war or revolted against the Neo-Babylonian Empire and lost. As Wikipedia puts it:
According to Isaiah 45:1 of the Hebrew Bible, God anointed Cyrus for this task, even referring to him as a messiah (lit. 'anointed one'); Cyrus is the only non-Jewish figure in the Bible to be revered in this capacity.
He is therefore viewed extremely positively in the good old book. Ciro was quite happy about this name choice by his father, given the human rights connotations of the figure and Ciro Santilli's self perceived compassionate personality.
Particularly fun things related to modern Cyrus are:
Because it belongs to some relatively obscure character of the Bible, the name it has been mostly passed on by writing to every single Christian country, and every single language came up with different way of saying it, because the only place they would possibly hear that name said out loud would be in Church!
As of 2020, the country in which the name is most popular in undoubtedly Italy. In Brazil, it is definitely not common, but also not completely unheard of either, e.g. Ciro Gomes is a notable Brazilian politician.
And Ciro responds to all the versions of the name that he knows of. These include:
  • English:
    • direct English reading of "Ciro" as "See Roll". Not the most cultured, but its what things tend to converge to, especially in highly international environments where it would be impossible to try and learn the origin of everyone's name! So it's fine. Slightly too close to "zero" for comfort.
    • Cyrus, the actual English version of the name. Ciro was so happy when his elderly English neighbour who went to Eton College, upon recognizing what Ciro was, immediately said: "Ah, Cyrus the Great!" He was the cutest, and he had some culture. Many/most English speaking people can't or won't be very sure about the spelling, but the sound of the name has a distinctly exotic feel to it, and the sounds are immediately recognized without sound ambiguity (unlike Ciro vs Zero).
  • French:
    • direct French reading of "Ciro" as "See Rho" with accent on Rho. This sounds exactly like "Sirop", i.e. Syrup in French, which can be good or bad depending on how you look at it.
    • Cyrus, the actual version of the name in French. Similar remarks to those of English apply.
  • Portuguese: "See Ru" with accent on See, and rolling r, and very weak "u". Some people might have some doubt of how to spell it and will ask for confirmation if needed, though many/most will get it right. Not particularly exotic like it is for English speakers.
  • Italian: "Chee Ro" with accent on Chee and rolling r. Widely understood and correctly spelled, more than in any other language. Not exotic at all, could be any random dude from Naples.
  • German: Kyrus. Because Cyrus the Great is known Kyrus II. (Cyrus the Second, his grandfather was also called Cyrus), Ciro once joked to a German friend that he should call him Kyrus III! He liked that.
and glad to add any new ones as they come.
  • Persian (spoken in 2020s Iran): something like Kurush. Likely the closest sound one to the original, though not sure how certain we can be of this.
He is actually quite happy when people use the name in their own language, because that means they understand the origin of the name.
Some Ciro's of interest:
Ciro Santilli's hardware Updated 2025-07-16
One day, someone will invent a way to take the hash of a piece of hardware and see its history log, like software engineers do with version control. Until then, this is as close as you can get.
Ciro one day guessed that hardware would certainly be a slang for something naughty, and yup, here we are: www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Hardware, drug paraphernelia. Read on!
Amazing shoes! Wore them to their destruction.
Shoestring length: 1.185m
Replaced with after bicycle ate it: 1.0m, also worked but at limit.
Size: EUR 45.
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07VL2MLYY DECARETA Pedal Spanner Bike Pedal Wrench Three-in-one Function Bicycle Pedal Spanner 24mm Front and Rear Axle Spanner Pedal Install Spanner Repair Tool with Anti-Skidding Long Handle (Silver) £10.99.
Got dented the first time I tried to use it in the Kross bicycle (2017). All Amazon reviews say the same thing, should have read first, and bought instead known brand like Park And Tool which is the same price. Material advertized on Amazon: "Steel alloy and rubber".
2021-01-28: used this show for the first time after wearing dhb Dorica MTB Shoe (2020-12) exclusively for a while. It felt much much more comfortable, the Dorica is too narrow. Also this one is much more recessed, and walking with it is much easier. Also, I notice that the intentional asymmetry I had put on cleats is not necessary anymore now that my saddle height is not way too high
It is not possible to do long walks with this, unlike some websites suggests, especially on hard surfaces like rock, that would be very dangerous because the cleat area will slip. But it is good for shorter walks on grass/mud, and that does open up some good short walk exploration possibilities compared to a road shoe.
Color "Black/Red 20" (but it's actually orange), size 46 www.wiggle.co.uk/giro-rumble-vr-off-road-shoe (archive). Manual says to use Loctite 243 medium strength, first 2.4 Nm bolt torque to test it out and find good position, and then final bolt torque 5-6 Nm unless cleat says less. Starting with Shimano SM-SH56 cleats (archive), which also says provisional torque 2.5 Nm, tightening torque 5-6 Nm.
The P51 is a bit too heavy, and the battery could be better!
Ciro Santilli's hardware / Backpacks Updated 2025-07-16
2024-04: got two backpacks "for free" with the Lenovo reward points from buying the Lenovo ThinkPad P14s gen4 amd, not bad, that was already cheap and now I got some extra swag:The sport backpack has a fatal flaw: no strap to hold laptop in place, wo it just tumbles back and forth as you walk.
Neither of them have very good padding below the laptop, but at least the Elite one has a slightly elevated inner bag which woudl likely help a lot in case of a drop.
December 2023: found the keys for the Kryptonite Kryptolock and the Abus in the house, so now I've got backup!
2023 lost one of the two keys to Kryptonite Kryptolock and to the Abus padlock:
2018 Kryptonite Kryptolock. Looks like: www.kryptonitelock.com/en/products/product-information/current-key/002031.html Includes Transit Flexframe-U Bracket carrier
2017 Abus Sinus Plus 471/150 HB U-lock. Sample seller with image: www.lockshopdirect.co.uk/products/abus-sinus-plus-471-d-lock-230mm-shackle-62620/
2017 an Abus chain and padlock, can't see marking easily. Chain length: 82cm.
2019-11 www.amazon.co.uk/B00I8JC4WC Mr Muscle 5 in 1 Shower Shine, 500 ml
2019-11 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00FGOY51A Lakeland Moth Stop Moth Killer Carpet & Fabric Spray, 500ml
2019-10 Mykal Sticky Stuff Remover 250ml. Helped remove sticky tape adhesive from surfaces. Still required a lot of elbow grease, but worked. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000TAT4GM (archive).
Ciro Santilli's hardware / Computers Updated 2025-07-16
Machines used extensively while developing the Linux Kernel Module Cheat will be documented there for reference performance.
In degrees Celsius:
  • 25+
    • palm tree shade and coconut water. Seriously though, if there's some shade or earlier morning/later afternoon it's OK, but if it's on an open road at midday, be careful, and stop early if you start getting slightly dizzy, it only gets worse!
  • 18-25
  • 15-18:
  • 10-15:
    • dhb Classic Thermal Bib Tights 10 and under. TODO this is a bit too warm for the upper range, need something more intermediate
    • "dhb Lightweight Mesh Long Sleeve Base Layer"
    • Castelli Perfetto RoS Long Sleeve - Cycling jersey. TODO this is a bit too warm for the upper range, need something more intermediate
    • "Karrimor X Lite Run Black Headband"
    • "Nike academy hyperwarm gloves"
    • "Nevica Skuff". A bit too hot on upper range, but easy to take off.
  • 0-10:
    • dhb Merino Long Sleeve Base Layer
    • Castelli Perfetto RoS Long Sleeve - Cycling jersey
    • dhb Classic Thermal Bib Tights 10 and under
    • dhb Dorica MTB Shoe (2020-12)
    • "Karrimor X Lite Run Black Headband". Head a bit cold on lower range.
    • "dhb Neoprene Nylon Overshoes". Feet a bit cold on lower range.
    • "Extremities XDRY gloves". Hands a bit cold on lower range.
    • "Nevica Skuff"
Black EUR 44, 1 smaller than normal size as recommended by website.
Bought SM-SH56 cleat to accompany.
When it arrived, it felt a bit too long, around 2cm maybe free space after toe, and when I walk and the front part touches ground, heel comes off a bit, which is annoying. But I was too lazy to give it back and take the risk of a second try, also it felt correctly tight on sides. During first test ride it felt good.
It is slightly water proof. But if it rains a lot, it will get soaking wet. And once it does get wet, it feels like it is very very hard to dry, there don't seem to be any holes underneath.

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