X-ray diffraction Updated 2025-07-16
Often used as a synonym for X-ray crystallography, or to refer more specifically to the diffraction part of the experiment (exluding therefore sample preparation and data processing).
We've come across a few shallow and stylistically similar websites on suspicious ranges with this pattern.
No JS/JAR/SWF comms, but rather a subdomain, and an HTTPS page with .cgi extension that leads to a login page. Some names seen for this subdomain:
  • secure.: most common
  • ssl.: also common
  • various other more creative ones linked to the website theme itself, e.g.:
    • musical-fortune.net has a backstage.musical-fortune.net
The question is, is this part of some legitimate tooling that created such patterns? And if so which? Or are they actual hits with a new comms mechanism not previously seen?
The fact that:
  • hits of this type are so dense in the suspicious ranges
  • they are so stylistically similar between on another
  • citizenlabs specifically mentioned a "CGI" comms method
suggests to Ciro that they are an actual hit.
In particular, the secure and ssl ones are overused, and together with some heuristics allowed us to find our first two non Reuters ranges! Section "secure subdomain search on 2013 DNS Census"
The impact of the work is greater when you examine what one single new technology would do to existing society, as in Primer (2004), rather than "start on a society with severl new technologies", like in Star Wars.
Diffraction Updated 2025-07-16
Can AGI be trained in simulations? Updated 2025-07-16
Or is real word data necessary, e.g. with robots?
Fundamental question related to Ciro's 2D reinforcement learning games.
Bibliography:
Daniel Sank Updated 2025-07-16
Started at Google Quantum AI in 2014.
Has his LaTeX notes at: github.com/DanielSank/theory. One day he will convert to OurBigBook.com. Interesting to see that he is able to continue his notes despite being at Google.
Excretion Updated 2025-07-16
Existence and uniqueness Updated 2025-07-16
Existence and uniqueness results are fundamental in mathematics because we often define objects by their properties, and then start calling them "the object", which is fantastically convenient.
But calling something "the object" only makes sense if there exists exactly one, and only one, object that satisfies the properties.
One particular context where these come up very explicitly is in solutions to differential equations, e.g. existence and uniqueness of solutions of partial differential equations.

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