Incoming links: Ciro Santilli
Lie group Updated 2025-07-16
The key and central motivation for studying Lie groups and their Lie algebras appears to be to characterize symmetry in Lagrangian mechanics through Noether's theorem, just start from there.
Notably local symmetries appear to map to forces, and local means "around the identity", notably: local symmetries of the Lagrangian imply conserved currents.
More precisely: local symmetries of the Lagrangian imply conserved currents.
TODO Ciro Santilli really wants to understand what all the fuss is about:
Oh, there is a low dimensional classification! Ciro is a sucker for classification theorems! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_low-dimensional_real_Lie_algebras
The fact that there are elements arbitrarily close to the identity, which is only possible due to the group being continuous, is the key factor that simplifies the treatment of Lie groups, and follows the philosophy of continuous problems are simpler than discrete ones.
Bibliography:
- youtu.be/kpeP3ioiHcw?t=2655 "Particle Physics Topic 6: Lie Groups and Lie Algebras" by Alex Flournoy (2016). Good SO(3) explicit exponential expansion example. Then next lecture shows why SU(2) is the representation of SO(3). Next ones appear to eventually get to the physical usefulness of the thing, but I lost patience. Not too far out though.
- www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRlVmXqzHjURZO0fviJuyikvKlGS6rXrb "Lie Groups and Lie Algebras" playlist by XylyXylyX (2018). Tutorial with infinitely many hours
- www.staff.science.uu.nl/~hooft101/lectures/lieg07.pdf
- www.physics.drexel.edu/~bob/LieGroups.html
What is Lie theory? by Mathemaniac 2023
. Source. Limtless (2011) Updated 2025-07-16
That makes Ciro Santilli most mad about this film is the fact that the dude was passionate about writing, and when he became a genius, rather than write the best novels ever written, he decided instead to play the stock market instead. This paints an accurate picture of 2020's society, where finance jobs make infinitely more money than other real engineering jobs, and end up attracting much of the talent.
Another enraging thing is how his girlfriend starts liking him again once he is a genius, and instead of telling her to fuck off, he stays with her.
The other really bad thing is the ending. He fixed the drug by himself? He scared off De Niro just like that?
LinkedIn Updated 2025-07-16
Ciro Santilli's LinkedIn profile: www.linkedin.com/in/cirosantilli/ see also: accounts controlled by Ciro Accounts.
LinkedIn fully complies with censorship imposed locally by the Chinese government, and does so in a non-transparent way: cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship/linkedin.
It is hard to understand what the point of that website is, as it is basically just a more closed version of Facebook, but alas, it has flourished as the only place where people post more useful content compared to Twitter and Facebook. In any case, Ciro just applies the same unfollow policy to all of them: aggressively filter your social media follows.
Linker (computing) Updated 2025-07-26
Linux Updated 2025-07-16
From a technical point of view, it can do anything that Microsoft Windows can. Except being forcefully installed on every non-MacOS 2019 computer you can buy.
Ciro Santilli's conversion to Linux happened around 2012, and was a central part of Ciro Santilli's Open Source Enlightenment, since it fundamentally enables the discovery and contribution to open source software. Because what awesome open source person would waste time porting their amazing projects to closed source OSes?
Linux should track glibc and POSIX command line utilities in-tree like BSD Operating System, otherwise people have no way to get the thing running in the first place without blobs or large out-of-tree scripts! Another enlightened soul who agrees.
Particularly interesting in the history of Linux is how it won out over the open competitors that were coming up in the time: MINIX (see the chat) and BSD Operating System that got legally bogged down at the critical growth moment.
You must watch this: truth Happens advertisement by Red Hat.
xkcd 619: Supported Features
. Source. This perfectly illustrates Linux development. First features that matter. Then useless features.Bill Gates vs Steve Jobs by Epic Rap Battles of History (2012)
Source. Just stop whatever you are doing, and watch this right now. "I'm on Linux, bitch, I thought you GNU". Fandom explanations. It is just a shame that the Bill Gates actor looks absolutely nothing like the real gates. Actually, the entire Gates/Jobs parts are good, but not genial. But the Linux one is. Linux Foundation Updated 2025-07-16
The fact that this foundation has a bunch of paid, closed, certification courses makes Ciro Santilli not respect them at all. They should be making open access content instead!
Linux kernel Updated 2025-07-16
Linux Kernel Module Cheat Updated 2025-07-16
This is the most important technical tutorial project that Ciro Santilli has done in his life so far as of 2019.
The scope is insane and unprecedented, and goes beyond Linux kernel-land alone, which is where it started.
It ended up eating every system programming content Ciro had previously written! Including:
so that that repo would better be called "System Programming Cheat". But "Linux Kernel Module Cheat" sounds more hardcore ;-)
Other major things that could be added there as well in the future are:
- github.com/cirosantilli/algorithm-cheat
- computer architecture tutorials with gem5
Due to this project, some have considered Ciro to be (archive):which made Ciro smile, although "Linux kernel documenter God" would have been more precise.
some kind of Linux kernel god.
[ 1.451857] input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /devices/platform/i8042/s1│loading @0xffffffffc0000000: ../kernel_modules-1.0//timer.ko
[ 1.454310] ledtrig-cpu: registered to indicate activity on CPUs │(gdb) b lkmc_timer_callback
[ 1.455621] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid │Breakpoint 1 at 0xffffffffc0000000: file /home/ciro/bak/git/linux-kernel-module
[ 1.455811] usbhid: USB HID core driver │-cheat/out/x86_64/buildroot/build/kernel_modules-1.0/./timer.c, line 28.
[ 1.462044] NET: Registered protocol family 10 │(gdb) c
[ 1.467911] Segment Routing with IPv6 │Continuing.
[ 1.468407] sit: IPv6, IPv4 and MPLS over IPv4 tunneling driver │
[ 1.470859] NET: Registered protocol family 17 │Breakpoint 1, lkmc_timer_callback (data=0xffffffffc0002000 <mytimer>)
[ 1.472017] 9pnet: Installing 9P2000 support │ at /linux-kernel-module-cheat//out/x86_64/buildroot/build/
[ 1.475461] sched_clock: Marking stable (1473574872, 0)->(1554017593, -80442)│kernel_modules-1.0/./timer.c:28
[ 1.479419] ALSA device list: │28 {
[ 1.479567] No soundcards found. │(gdb) c
[ 1.619187] ata2.00: ATAPI: QEMU DVD-ROM, 2.5+, max UDMA/100 │Continuing.
[ 1.622954] ata2.00: configured for MWDMA2 │
[ 1.644048] scsi 1:0:0:0: CD-ROM QEMU QEMU DVD-ROM 2.5+ P5│Breakpoint 1, lkmc_timer_callback (data=0xffffffffc0002000 <mytimer>)
[ 1.741966] tsc: Refined TSC clocksource calibration: 2904.010 MHz │ at /linux-kernel-module-cheat//out/x86_64/buildroot/build/
[ 1.742796] clocksource: tsc: mask: 0xffffffffffffffff max_cycles: 0x29dc0f4s│kernel_modules-1.0/./timer.c:28
[ 1.743648] clocksource: Switched to clocksource tsc │28 {
[ 2.072945] input: ImExPS/2 Generic Explorer Mouse as /devices/platform/i8043│(gdb) bt
[ 2.078641] EXT4-fs (vda): couldn't mount as ext3 due to feature incompatibis│#0 lkmc_timer_callback (data=0xffffffffc0002000 <mytimer>)
[ 2.080350] EXT4-fs (vda): mounting ext2 file system using the ext4 subsystem│ at /linux-kernel-module-cheat//out/x86_64/buildroot/build/
[ 2.088978] EXT4-fs (vda): mounted filesystem without journal. Opts: (null) │kernel_modules-1.0/./timer.c:28
[ 2.089872] VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly on device 254:0. │#1 0xffffffff810ab494 in call_timer_fn (timer=0xffffffffc0002000 <mytimer>,
[ 2.097168] devtmpfs: mounted │ fn=0xffffffffc0000000 <lkmc_timer_callback>) at kernel/time/timer.c:1326
[ 2.126472] Freeing unused kernel memory: 1264K │#2 0xffffffff810ab71f in expire_timers (head=<optimized out>,
[ 2.126706] Write protecting the kernel read-only data: 16384k │ base=<optimized out>) at kernel/time/timer.c:1363
[ 2.129388] Freeing unused kernel memory: 2024K │#3 __run_timers (base=<optimized out>) at kernel/time/timer.c:1666
[ 2.139370] Freeing unused kernel memory: 1284K │#4 run_timer_softirq (h=<optimized out>) at kernel/time/timer.c:1692
[ 2.246231] EXT4-fs (vda): warning: mounting unchecked fs, running e2fsck isd│#5 0xffffffff81a000cc in __do_softirq () at kernel/softirq.c:285
[ 2.259574] EXT4-fs (vda): re-mounted. Opts: block_validity,barrier,user_xatr│#6 0xffffffff810577cc in invoke_softirq () at kernel/softirq.c:365
hello S98 │#7 irq_exit () at kernel/softirq.c:405
│#8 0xffffffff818021ba in exiting_irq () at ./arch/x86/include/asm/apic.h:541
Apr 15 23:59:23 login[49]: root login on 'console' │#9 smp_apic_timer_interrupt (regs=<optimized out>)
hello /root/.profile │ at arch/x86/kernel/apic/apic.c:1052
# insmod /timer.ko │#10 0xffffffff8180190f in apic_timer_interrupt ()
[ 6.791945] timer: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel. │ at arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:857
# [ 7.821621] 4294894248 │#11 0xffffffff82003df8 in init_thread_union ()
[ 8.851385] 4294894504 │#12 0x0000000000000000 in ?? ()
│(gdb) Literature Updated 2025-07-16
Ciro Santilli used to read books when he was younger (Harry Potter up to the 4th, Lord of the Rings), but once you are reading code, technical articles and news the whole day, you really just want to watch videos of people doing useless things on YouTube to rest, enough text.
Luxury goods Updated 2025-07-16
One of the things Ciro Santilli most deeply despises.
Real luxury is to understand quantum field theory and number theory.
MacArthur Fellows Program Created 2025-06-12 Updated 2025-07-16
Holy fuck what a eye watering amount, $800k over 5 years as of 2025, this is exactly what Ciro Santilli would need to push forward OurBigBook! He also fits the requirements quite well, as a "creative person". For Americans or US residents only though, sad. Outdated requirement given the Internet age.
Machine learning Updated 2025-07-16
The main reason Ciro Santilli never touched it is that it feels that every public data set has already been fully mined or has already had the most interesting algorithms developed for it, so you can't do much outside of big companies.
This is why Ciro started Ciro's 2D reinforcement learning games to generate synthetic data and thus reduce the cost of data.
The other reason is that it is ugly.
MacOS Updated 2025-07-16
Nice looking and expensive operating system by Apple. Ciro Santilli believes that:
- if you want to be ripped off, just use Microsoft Windows which has more software available
- or if you want to attain Enlightenment, just use Linux, which is free and open source
Magarena Updated 2025-07-16
Ciro Santilli wonders how legal it is. They very explicitly do not mention the words Magic: The Gathering anywhere.
No online play.
Magic: The Gathering Updated 2025-07-16
Magic is the best card game of all time. Ciro Santilli agrees with this fact, and this has nothing to do with the nostalgia factor of having played it while being a teenager.
It is also the one with the most cumbersome name possible, containing even a bloody colon punctuation in it!
However, besides that, Magic has another major flaw: the cards of old formats (Legacy and Modern), which are the only really interesting ones, are fucking expensive: Section "Magic: The Gathering is too expensive".
Like in mathematics, the most beautiful decks are those that do crazy things:All of this comes to a certain extent from the deep asymmetry that permeates the game.
- infinite combos
- semi-infinite combos that allow you to likely draw your entire deck or deal 20 damage
- all-in decks that either win or lose on turn two
- and lands
It is also really interesting to watch as new sets as spoiled and try to guess if certain cards will have any impact on the Modern or Legacy metagame.
Here are some cool decks:
- Cheerios, Modern. Meryn MTG, 2019
- Lands, Legacy. Channel Mengucci, 2019
- Belcher, Legacy, Jeff Hoogland, 2019, Channel Mengucci, 2017
- Ops All Spells
- Gyruda Cannon - Legacy - April 18th, 2020 www.youtube.com/watch?v=PefRTsRRi6w
If Ciro were to ever overcome his cheapness and play the legacy forma (which will never happen), he would likely play one of the following decks when trying to be able to win at all:Both of this decks focus on cheating a huge creature into play in one go, and both have combo protection methods (discard for turbo depths, and counterspells for sneak and show). Ciro believes that those decks reflect his personality well, notably Ciro Santilli's self perceived creative personality. Related decks that don't appeal as much to Ciro:And above all, Ciro would never play a fair deck. Grinding victories is not for him. He'd rather quickly decide win/lose status and move on.
- reanimator: you have to worry about graveyard hate all the time, worrying is bad
- storm: you have to play too many spells, it's tiring. Ciro would rather put a fattie into play and swing once.
Competitive commander is also interesting, although matches tend to be much more random so the format is harder to digest, see for example this channel; Playing With Power MTG channel.
In Ciro's mind, Urza's block is the most epic of all, followed by the masques block. Those sets had a ridiculous power level and epic art, and they happened just before Ciro Santilli started playing during Invasion, which had an extremely low power level in comparison. So Ciro saw some cards from those slightly older formats floating around, but not many, and they felt so mystical and awesome.
ChannelFireball is one of the best Legacy resources out there, but they have too much crap filling in between legacy videos unfortunately.
The following creators share many of Ciro's interests and output large quantities of interesting content covering all memes/overpowered combos of new sets:
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u5yzmta2oA BoshNRoll (Brian Coval) is basically Ciro Santilli's favorite MTG streamer of the early 2020's very good Legacy focused content, with occasional Modern and Pauper, good spicy deck selection. And he says nice and intelligent things the hole time, it's the type of person Ciro would be good friends with in real life. It sometimes makes Ciro said to see such a person wasting their lives with Magic. Twitter: twitter.com/BoshNRoll
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eKSg5HAfC4 UNDEFEATED BRAIN POWER! Legacy Hive Mind Combo 5-0 Trophy! Sudden Substitution Show and Tell. That's fire!
- Magic Aids
- Squa Chief. He does a lot of cool decks.
- Jeff Hoogland. Not Ciro's favorite personality though, too rambly/matter-of-fact. Also was going too much into MTGA.
- www.youtube.com/channel/UC2hkmJr2x--IiMfozqj6VdQ Meryn MTG. She's too much on the jank side for Ciro's taste, but for that reason she covers some decks of interest that others don't. She's cute, and a Timmy at heart. Which makes you feel really sorry for her as she gets crushed by more competitive decks.
- CalebD. Legacy and Modern. Too much drafting in the middle of actual videos. Sometimes decks slightly too janky/experimental. Amazing channel soundtrack.
- Nikachu has some decent commentary. His endlessly rambly persona is a bit annoying, but the content of the commentary is still good.
Ciro was pleased when he learnt that Steve Wozniak plays magic the gathering.
Magic's competitive play became a mess in the late 2010's. They had a clear tournament structure, but they decided to start changing things every 6 months, and give tournaments meaningless names like "Mythic championship", and it just became impossible to follow what is what.
- www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/disorganized-play-and-the-magic-pro-league
- mtg.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_PT_events
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXUHaXiZ0HI The Moment Professional Magic Came to an End by Nikachu MTG (2021) has a good perspective. Magic is never going to have enough viewers to actually allow pros to make consistent ammounts money. And Magic's variability is just way too high for anyone to consistently win few large prizes on annual contests. Therefore they just killed such contests.
The mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Card_frame#Original_frame is the best, much more epic all others (notably since 2003 update) ware bullshit, good overview medium.com/@raphaelaleixo/the-graphic-design-for-magic-the-gathering-card-frames-b3b6da4cd003
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hk3IOQiisg Crazy MTG Scandals That Changed The Game by Nikachu (2021). Good list:
Magic: The Gathering is addictive Updated 2025-07-16
Luckily, early teens Ciro Santilli was partly protected from this by Ciro Santilli's cheapness.
But Ciro distinctly remembers one day in his early teens that he couldn't sleep very well, and he got up, and the was decided that he would become the greatest Magic: The Gathering player who ever lived. Can you imagine the incredible loss that this would have been to humankind? And talk about the incredible lack of development opportunity present in poor countries, related:
Magic: The Gathering is too expensive Updated 2025-07-16
Ciro thinks this is idiotic, and that Wizards should sell all cards individually with unlimited supply and all with the same prices, especially online where there are no printing costs. But because Wizards made the silly promise never to reprint certain cards with the reserved list in 1994, they can't even correct this mistake legally! (TODO maybe, see further discussion at: www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/contract-from-below-promissory-estoppel-and-the-reserved-list). There is however one simple solution: create and promote a new no reserve list format, and let reserve list formats rot away:One interesting outcome of this would be to have card cost limited formats. Penny Dreadful puts a super low limit, on individual cards, but it would be cool to have a max cost per deck version of it.
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIq0NWSLAJA Magic TV - A Look at Non Reserve List Legacy by ChannelFireball (2015). Notably, they suggest the workaround of printing very slightly differently functional reprints, e.g. "Snow covered duals". Genius.
- www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/8gtoj4/no_reserve_list_legacy/
A cool thing is when they printed Garth One-Eye, which allows you to make imaginary copies of some of those restricted list cards during play. This is the type of "flirting with the rules", that Ciro Santilli admires. The introduction of online-only cards such as XXX has pushed that even further as of 2021.
This was especially insane when Ciro was young and the Internet was not very widely available in Brazil yet, and Ciro did not know how to check the values of cards on online markets, and would trade cards with older much more knowledgable teenagers, based solely on his appraisal of a card's strength! Can you imagine how many young Timmys got ripped off in this manner, trading useless one million mana spells for ultra expensive black lotuses?
Another option we could pursue would be to make governments consider TCG pack opening a form of gambling, which it obviously is:
There is however one good solution to Magic's insane cost: watch people who have nothing better to do in their lives play on YouTube.
And as Internet formats dominate more and more, if they have any brains at will they will migrate to a subscription model where you pay to play for a given period of time, and have immediate access to all cards. It could even be a tiered access, with older formats being more expensive (more bugs to fix on different cards), but you must get access to all cards of a format at once.