Personalized learning Updated 2025-07-16
Inferior compared to self-directed learning, but better than the traditional "everyone gets the same" approach.
Video 1.
Project SOCRATES at Illinois University Urban-Champaign (1966)
Source. It is 2020, and we are not there yet. God!
Phi Updated 2025-07-16
Two lower case variants... both used in mathematical notation, and for some reason, in LaTeX \varphi is the one that actually looks like the default standard modern lowercase phi, while \phi is the weird one. I love life.
Physics journal Updated 2025-07-16
The strongest are:
Telegram (software) Updated 2025-07-16
You can't sync secret chats across devices, Signal handles that perfectly by sending E2EE messages across devices:This is a deal breaker because Ciro needs to type with his keyboard.
Desktop does not have secret chats: www.reddit.com/r/Telegram/comments/9beku1/telegram_desktop_secret_chat/ This is likey because it does not store chats locally, it just loads from server every time as of 2019: www.reddit.com/r/Telegram/comments/baqs63/where_are_chats_stored_on_telegram_desktop/ just like the web version. So it cannot have a private key.
Allows you to register a public username and not have to share phone number with contacts: telegram.org/blog/usernames-and-secret-chats-v2.
Self deleting messages added to secret chats in Q1 2021: telegram.org/blog/autodelete-inv2
Can delete messages from the device of the person you sent it to, no matter how old.
Telephone-based system Updated 2025-07-16
This section is about telecommunication systems that are based on top of telephone lines.
Telephone lines were ubiquitous from early on, and many technologies used them to send data, including much after regular phone calls became obsolete with VoIP.
These market forces tended to eventually crush non-telephone-based systems such as telex. Maybe in that case it was just that the name sounded like a thing of the 50's. But still. Dead.
Video 1.
Long Distance by AT&T (1941)
Source. youtu.be/aRvFA1uqzVQ?t=219 is perhaps the best moment, which attempts to correlate the exploration of the United States with the founding of the U.S. states.
Point-contact transistor Updated 2025-07-16
The first working one in 1947 by John Bardeen and walter Brattain in Bell Labs Murray Hill.
People had already patented a lot of stuff before without being able to make them work. Nonsense.
As the name suggests, this is not very sturdy, and was quickly replaced by bipolar junction transistor.
Censorship of pornography Updated 2025-07-16
Video 1.
What is more obscene: sex or war? scene from The People vs. Larry Flynt
. Source. 1996
Text-based user interface Updated 2025-07-16
The perfect Middle Way between command-line interfaces and GUIs. A thing of great beauty.
btcdeb Updated 2025-07-16
Tested on Ubuntu 23.10:
sudo apt install libtool
git clone https://github.com/bitcoin-core/btcdeb
cd btcdeb
git checkout 4fd007e57b79cba9b5ffdf5ffe599778c0d63b88
./autogen.sh
./configure
make -j
Patch submited at: github.com/bitcoin-core/btcdeb/pull/143
Then we use it;
./btcdeb '[OP_1 OP_2 OP_ADD]'
and inside the shell:
btcdeb 5.0.24 -- type `./btcdeb -h` for start up options
LOG: signing segwit taproot
notice: btcdeb has gotten quieter; use --verbose if necessary (this message is temporary)
3 op script loaded. type `help` for usage information
script  |  stack 
--------+--------
1       | 
2       | 
OP_ADD  | 
#0000 1
btcdeb> step
                <> PUSH stack 01
script  |  stack 
--------+--------
2       |      01
OP_ADD  | 
#0001 2
btcdeb> step
                <> PUSH stack 02
script  |  stack 
--------+--------
OP_ADD  |      02
        |      01
#0002 OP_ADD
btcdeb> step
                <> POP  stack
                <> POP  stack
                <> PUSH stack 03
script  |  stack 
--------+--------
        |      03
btcdeb> step
script  |  stack 
--------+--------
        |      03
btcdeb> step
at end of script
btcdeb>
bsub on foreground Updated 2025-07-16
Run bsub on foreground, show stdout on host stdout live with an interactive with the bsub -I option:
bsub -I 'echo a;sleep 1;echo b;sleep 1;echo c'; echo done
Ctrl + C kills the job on remote as well as locally.
ludicrains/deep-gaze Updated 2025-07-16
This just works, but it is also so incredibly slow that it is useless (or at least the quality it reaches in the time we have patience to wait from), at least on any setup we've managed to try, including e.g. on an Nvidia A10G on a g5.xlarge. Running:
time imagine "a house in the forest"
would likely take hours to complete.
bsub get job stdout and stderr Updated 2025-07-16
By default, LSF only sends you an email with the stdout and stderr included in it, and does not show or store anything locally.
One option to store things locally is to use:
bsub -oo stdout.log -eo stderr.log 'echo myout; echo myerr 1>&2'
as documented at:Or to use files with the job id in them:
bsub -oo %J.out -eo %J.err 'echo myout; echo myerr 1>&2'
By default bsub -oo:
  • also contains the LSF metadata in addition to the actual submitted process stdout
  • prevents the completion email from being sent
To get just the stdout to the file, use bsub -N -oo which:
  • stores only stdout on the file
  • re-enables the completion email
as mentioned at:
Another option is to run with the bsub -I option:
bsub -I 'echo a;sleep 1;echo b;sleep 1;echo c'
This immediately prints stdout and stderr to the terminal.
Mainsbury’s Updated 2025-07-16
The relatively large Sainsbury's located at 42-45 Sidney St, Cambridge CB2 3HX. Existed in late 2010's and early 2020's Ciro Santilli witnessed.
Being the only relatively large grocery shop in central Cambridge near several colleges, where manu students live, makes this one of the most popular grocery shopping location for many of the students.
The Oxford equivalent has to be the Tesco Express on Magdalen St, Oxford OX1 3AD, but not sure if there's a name for it.
Booda Bike Updated 2025-07-16
Updates Updated 2025-07-16
This section contains the a list of cool things Ciro Santilli has been up to in chronological order, including small quick ones. Many/most of those are also posted on Ciro Santilli's accounts such as:
For a more theme-oriented version of the best results see: Section "The best articles by Ciro Santilli".

There are unlisted articles, also show them or only show them.