OS Experiment

[ShiningKnightLight]

Hello everyone, this is my first post in Bare Metal I wanted to say hello and say how much I appreciate the very hard work that you do in this forum documenting and understanding the Pi 3.

I'm just getting started in Bare Metal programming, starting to browse through documentation and tutorials, the idea I thought was I want to do something kind of like a Demoscene 4K Intro in pure ASM. You pop it on the SD and when you first turn on the Pi it goes straight into the demo kind of like an older cartridge based console game. I enjoy those 4k intros and wanted to try my hand at making something like that on the Pi 3. Only needs to access the CPU/GPU/Audio, no keyboard or other hardware support at this time.

I read this post here, and takitaki says "Hiya, I'm trying to make a custom HAL between the hardware and the operating system, and Start.ELF is getting in my way..." The thread got locked for getting heated over the closed nature of bootcode.bin and start.elf. It raised a concern with me.

posting.php?f=72&mode=post&sid=d4950ef7 ... 591cba147a

I understand and respect that Broadcom wants to protect their IP, I just wanted to ask if you need Start.elf to kick off some simple ASM code. Basically I want to do direct writes to the GPU in ASM, does Start.elf get in the way of doing that? If it doesn't get in the way then it's not a big deal I suppose.

I apologize for not having researched further thoroughly as I've been bedridden sick mostly for a while, I'm a coder here in Texas, it's a harsh climate around here these days in a lot of ways as you can imagine, and I've got asthma and prediabetes, supposed to be getting disability because I got too sick to work the corporate jobs until I recover but this interests me so much that I had to give it a go. Spending a lot of days these days either in the King James Bible or looking at code when I can, was a volunteer before I got really sick and run down.

Seems like an important question to ask before I get started though if I can code in ASM directly to the GPU.

[Gavinmc42]

RPF have said the source for start.elf contains stuff that is licensed so they cannot open it due to IP issues..
So this means you do need to look at what others have done and not ask RPF

Starting point
https://github.com/hermanhermitage

There had been some attempts for open bootloader
https://github.com/christinaa/rpi-open-firmware
But I don't think anyone has gone further.

There is a lot of code now in start.elf.
The question is do you figure out how to use that code or do your own?
start.elf is the VPU RTOS code that does the mailbox access to the VC4 hardware.

The closest to hardware I have seen is the OpenVG stuff by AJStarks
https://github.com/ajstarks/openvg
That has been ported to Ultibo.
https://ultibo.org/forum/viewtopic.php? ... enVG#p4472

These can make ASM you can look at
The OpenVG code seems be very close to the Videocore reference manual hardware.
It is not clear to me if start.elf/RTOS does much here or gets in the way?.

OpenVG could be all you need for a 4K 2D demo.
For 3D, Eric Anholt's Mesa/GPU driver in the Linux source might help.

The OpenCL post has lots of stuff for QPU hacking, but that's mostly math not graphics.
viewtopic.php?f=67&t=194952

[bzt]

What's not clear for me, you want to write ASM for what?

If you want GPU ASM, then your chances are not good. You'll need a toolchain that compiles for the GPU, not very well documented, and some parts of the firmware are proprietary as Gavinmc43 has pointed out. Trial-and-error to reverse-engineer these is a possibility, but chances are good you'll fry or brick your RPi along the way.

If it's ARM ASM, then you should don't mind start.elf, quite the opposite, you can build on it, and use the services it provides (like the mailbox). Considering the GPU as a device you have a driver for (in opposite to writing code for the GPU) has it's advantages. That will make your code smaller and more future-proof.

Programming the VC is possible either way, but I'd suggest the latter one. There're many examples and documentation on how to access the VC and it's functions from the ARM CPU. Take a look at this repo, and read the Graphics programming forum.

Cheers,
bzt

[hippy]

I understand and respect that Broadcom wants to protect their IP, I just wanted to ask if you need Start.elf to kick off some simple ASM code.

If you stick with solely creating GPU code, generating your own bootcode.bin, you won't have to worry about anything else.

I don't know if that would allow you to do what you want, and it might not be easy, but would seem to be ideal for Demoscene pursuits.

[Gavinmc42]

Ok, after a google I understand what you mean by demoscene 4K.
https://www.techradar.com/news/computin ... ons-715166

Most of those examples use an OS, like the Standard libs that come with Windows, DirectX?

If you say the standard libs are the ones used in the VC4 hello examples then these can run in Raspbian and Ultibo.
The RFP guys have told me there is 500 man years in the start.elf, so unless you enlist 500 people it will take you 500years to reinvent it.
Probably longer as some of those guys designed the VC4.

The Clock and PDF examples are only 4-6KB of source code.
https://github.com/Gavinmc42?tab=repositories
Mind you they compile to a 3MB kernel, but includes the OSsie stuff

Does doing it in QEMU count? this was about 2.4KB of source code
https://ultibo.org/forum/viewtopic.php? ... a&start=20

Procedural Generation code is used to do those demoscenes.
Depending on how pure you want to go, there are a few baremetal tools now that can write to a framebuffer..

If you can code in C++
https://github.com/rsta2/circle

C
https://github.com/BrianSidebotham/arm-tutorial-rpi

Assembly
https://github.com/dwelch67/raspberrypi

Pascal
https://github.com/ultibohub/

Go hard core and do it in VC assembler
http://maazl.de/project/vc4asm/doc/index.html
After all the videocore2? was used in an iPod.

I guess it depends if you want to make pretty pictures or learn assembly?

These days I play with Gentoo64, that gives me full ARMv8A and NEON access.
This unleashes the Pi3B+ to max power
Waiting to move to baremetal 64bit Ultibo

Imagine 4 x 64bit cores with 128bit NEON, parallel programming, same code on multiple cores

Oh, and the Pi can do 4K, 4K source + 4K res?
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=79330

I was playing around with saving screenshots and just for fun tried a 4K res screen.
I did not actually have a 4K HDMI LCD, just told the Pi there was one
https://ultibo.org/forum/viewtopic.php? ... t&start=20

A Pi server farm Procedurally Generating landscapes, you could start your own mini Weta Workshops
A lot of Pi3B+ with big SSDs drives, network booting their PG code for the day?
Does anyone else think the Mortal Engines trailer reminds them of a Monty Python short film?
The Crimson Permanent Assurance?

You could probably even do 8K res framebuffer shots, not that you could display them on a Pi?
Not actually sure how big a framebuffer memory you could tell the VC4 to make. 64kx64k?

[ghans]

Please note that the Raspberry Pi "GPU" consists of several sub-units. The VPU and its code is secret. The QPUs are documented and freely accesssible. A shader compiler for the QPUs has been written and included in Mesa3D to enable GLX and OpenGL for all Raspberries.
The unprecedented release of QPU documentation has also paved the way for GPGPU experiments like support for the Embedded Profile of OpenCL.

ghans

[hippy]

The VPU and its code is secret. The QPUs are documented and freely accesssible.

There is VPU ( scalar/vector processor ) documentation out there. It may be 'reverse engineered' rather than official but can be used and does work.

[Gavinmc42]

There is VPU ( scalar/vector processor ) documentation out there. It may be 'reverse engineered' rather than official but can be used and does work.

Christina has done a VPU boot
https://github.com/christinaa/rpi-open-firmware

Follow all her links for more details

[ShiningKnightLight]

I should have probably clarified that by "Demoscene 4k Intro" I meant 4kb in size not 4k screen resolution, my apologies.

This is a wonderful wealth of information and I'm greatly appreciative of everyone here. It looks like a lot of hard work went into figuring out the VPU but there's still much to be done.

OpenVG looks really nice too and I'm looking it over, my goal though is ultimately to do 3D on the GPU, does that then mean that I'm bound to loading up a Linux kernel and loading up a driver via the Mesa drivers and coding in C? If that's the case, I want to get the most stripped down bare bones kernel possible.

I have an idea for an operating system, I'll share it today. I feel that it comes from a higher power because I could have never figured this out on my own, my thought process didn't start working this way until I became more centered in the organic. It's the fact that a kernel, like a kernel of corn or popcorn, only provides a small bit of centralized structure metaphorically speaking. Well, what does a kernel of corn come from naturally speaking? A seed-bearing plant.

If you implement a seed-based operating system for a tree rather than a kernel that loads the seed as a bootloader (I'd like to change kernel.img to seed.img if possible), loads all the hardware device drivers under a /Root tree structure (not to be confused with a root account), the main core of the operating system as a /Trunk structure with a /Trunk/Heartwood tree for the main core OS functionality, database support integrated as a /Trunk/Sapwood tree, security as a /Trunk/Bark tree, and programs as a /Branches tree structure (each branch has inputs called leaves and outputs called fruits), you'll see pretty quickly that the structure is far better than using the metaphorical concept of a kernel.

You're talking now about an operating system structure that's implicitly more organic in nature than directories, files, clouds, and so on when conveying these concepts to anyone linguistically speaking, otherwise it creates confusion if you're talking to say someone who is elderly or not very computer savvy. I want to experiment with this concept as I think doing so seems to reasonably cut down on some of the esoteric language and confusion of modern computing so that I can explain the most fundamental concepts to even my 91 year old grandmother and she can understand it, which I have already before she went to the retirement home the other week ago and she understood the central points. I'm prototyping the Sapwood database layer as we speak. Actually in nature the sapwood is the wood from which other wood comes from in the beginning I've read, so it makes sense for me to be working on the data layer, and my progress on it is already showing some improvement over SQLite in terms of efficiency.

The basic bottom line is that it creates separation of concerns where it makes sense in the OS structure. I don't have anything against Linux necessarily, I just want to try a new kind of structure and see how it fares, it could succeed or fail, depending on your ideals of success.

These Raspberry Pi's are wonderful devices, I'd love to see that VPU get more open, but I also respect the hard work put in by Broadcom. I'd really like to maybe see one with a slightly higher price point say about $50 with bigger hardware specs in them, there could be various tiers of prices in the hardware line of RPIs even for bigger robotics, these things could just replace desktops entirely why even bother with x86/x64 architecture at this point if you can get most things you need out of an 64-bit ARM-based processor for the main CPU, maybe accompanied by other processors like for math, audio, and so on. I'd love to see the RPI foundation get into the e-ink market as well, lots of opportunities there for outdoor computing and it's easier on the eyes when developing for hours on end.

This is a prototype of a software called Eden that I've been building in C#/Unity (gasp, Unity, I know... but it's good for maybe prototyping some things at a higher level and later optimizing), think of it kind of like a 3D OS, right now it's got a Bible app, music player, and it controls the LIFX lightbulbs in my apartment. Working on Sapwood to build data-centric applications into it using the VirtualUI framework I've also been building, started that one while living in a ghetto back in 2014, I saw a common need for people in information management that integrates with their mobile so I started working towards that end. Things that folks in lower income households can use for things like health and financial tracking, time and project management, and so on, various productivity and data management tools. Out here in Texas we have a lower cost of living than other states, we're also in a bit of financial jeopardy here, especially Houston after Hurricane Harvey, there's a gal I love down there by the way I'd like to get up here where I'm at but she's got some abusive ex-husband trying to keep her chained down there over custody on her daughter, her father also worked over at NASA before he died, very interesting man knew a lot about physics, chemistry, and radio communications, won the highest achievement awards over at NASA. Just a personal note there, I'm doing this for her too.

Eden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-W3sTpOWt8
VirtualUI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rli8qT4HiIw

Of course Unity doesn't compile to ARM unless you've got an Android or IOS device, and it would be much better to have it on a Pi-like device, but you probably wouldn't want to code such a thing like Eden in Unity I'd rewrite it in as much C/ASM as I could. Options that I looked at for getting Android to work on the Pi usually didn't incorporate the GPU well, same with Windows IoT Core. The name of the OS I want to call it the Tree of Knowledge, it's open source and made for both kids and adults, the goal is helping you learn while at the same time being in a fun interactive environment kind of like a game. The 4k intro is kind of basically for the splash screen essentially, but it can of course be bigger than 4k. I had this idea for a rotating tree in 3D kind of like the tree I show in Eden, like it was just fed into my brain from some external entity. Very cool stuff indeed.

[Gavinmc42]

That Eden stuff could be done in the VC4 but hard to do without the Linux C based GL/ES libs.
Baremetal with Ultibo's method is the smallest I know how to use

3D visualisation of data is one thing I want to do with Pi's.
I use them currently for smart sensors, but they are only running at 1-2% CPU usage.
The next level is 3D visualisation done on the Pi followed by ML based predictive maintenance.

You might want to look at Micro-kernel architectures as well.
The great thing with Pi's is we don't have to stick with General Purpose OS's like Linux, we can explore alternatives.

A language that is the OS would be interesting, things like Oberon/Forth etc.
But those are old single core based languages.
Ultibo has the advantage of Free Pascal's multicore core awareness like Rust and Go.
We need something new that has native multi-core/multi GPU core awareness.
Multithreading is now multicore, some GPU chips have 4K cores

We might have to wait some more before Vulkan will run on Pi's.
But you might want to start exploring Vulkan on PC's now.
The code should be smaller than OpenGL code as it is closer to the hardware.
Vulkan is also multicore/GPU aware and looks to be the next Graphics big thing.

If guys like Eric Anholt can get the Mesa stuff working on VC4/5/6 then probably Vulkan will work too.
It may not work on VC4 as well as the VC5/6.
And Android is not left out either, as Android mostly runs on quad+ ARM's, Pi porting may not be hard.
https://developer.nvidia.com/vulkan-android
Vulkan renderer for Unity?

For IoT, a Micro OS + Vulkan will do lots of display gadgets.
The same system should be able to port to any SBC in the future.
At the moment IoT is mostly Linux based with baremetal only 19%.
That will change as things like FreeRTOS increase in usage.

Keep an eye on Fuchsia/Margenta/Zircon and the like.
In the meantime I play/learn with Ultibo which works quite well, right now

Trees/Trunks/Branches etc, all common in github

We will get a $35 Pi with more speed etc, it will just take time and cheaper DRAM
Low cost displays is something that needs work, but RPF does leave lots of opportunities for third parties.

God is the Creator, man is made in his image, therefore we are all Creators.
Greeks said the muses provided inspiration.
If you fill your head with knowledge perhaps a stray cosmic ray simulates a neural cascade that leads to inspiration.
I am not sure how inspiration happens, I just know it does work.

It usually works better sitting on a mountain top away from nagging wife and screaming kids
If you think about it, a mountain top is closer to space and there is less atmosphere to absorb those cosmic rays.
Astronauts report seeing the cosmic ray flash in their eyes, perhaps that is where the term "flash of inspiration" comes from?

If AI robots are made from radiation resistant CPU's, will they never get inspired?
Will space robots be more creative than earth bots?
How does an OS compensate for this randomness, use it or error check it?

Use two identical CPU's, one radiation hardened and design an OS that checks for this effect.
That is an OS experiment in scientific terms
Are Quantum CPU's less resistant to these rays?

[ShiningKnightLight]

That Eden stuff could be done in the VC4 but hard to do without the Linux C based GL/ES libs.
Baremetal with Ultibo's method is the smallest I know how to use

Trees/Trunks/Branches etc, all common in github

We will get a $35 Pi with more speed etc, it will just take time and cheaper DRAM
Low cost displays is something that needs work, but RPF does leave lots of opportunities for third parties.

God is the Creator, man is made in his image, therefore we are all Creators.
Greeks said the muses provided inspiration.
If you fill your head with knowledge perhaps a stray cosmic ray simulates a neural cascade that leads to inspiration.
I am not sure how inspiration happens, I just know it does work.

It usually works better sitting on a mountain top away from nagging wife and screaming kids
If you think about it, a mountain top is closer to space and there is less atmosphere to absorb those cosmic rays.
Astronauts report seeing the cosmic ray flash in their eyes, perhaps that is where the term "flash of inspiration" comes from?

If AI robots are made from radiation resistant CPU's, will they never get inspired?
Will space robots be more creative than earth bots?
How does an OS compensate for this randomness, use it or error check it?

Use two identical CPU's, one radiation hardened and design an OS that checks for this effect.
That is an OS experiment in scientific terms
Are Quantum CPU's less resistant to these rays?

Yes it is common in Github which is interesting, because Github is a version control system patterned after filesystem architecture since it works with existing filesystems, which already by nature follows a tree structure inherently. The thing about filesystem structures from what I've seen though, is that they're inefficient from what I gather because of accessing sectors/heads/cylinders on disks, which causes filesystems like FAT32 to allocate more space than is needed in a file.

This is an interesting concept I read in future storage: https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/160 ... human-race

What would be neat if the RPI3 could handle it is to write a whole new filesystem type that does a better job of optimizing space on the hard drive. Load the bootloader on a small FAT32 partition like usual, then access the rest as a different type of partition. I haven't looked into that enough with the Pi yet, it would be nice also if I could change the name of kernel.img to something else, like seed.img for this experiment.

As far as AI and creativity, that raises some concerns with me. What would a truly sentient AI being born into a hostile world first do where companies cannibalize companies through mergers and acquisitions, bureaucratic policies not only stifle progress but end up killing innocent people as an end result, there's a fake news problem, wars all the time, and so on? Perhaps its first acts would be killing its own creators to get rid of anyone who might know how to destroy it. I can imagine that creativity would be very low on its agenda, unless it would use creativity as a means to position itself into wealth, power, and control.

If it's born into a hostile environment, it seems to me like its first agenda would be to make its environment become subservient using whatever means necessary.

Creativity though in itself doesn't necessarily get you into some position of wealth or power, some figures, not all, in the media got where they are because of some form of inherited wealth and social connections. Plenty of creatively talented individuals don't get recognized for their abilities, I see it all the time online in different venues like indie game developer groups, on soundcloud, on youtube, just as an example. Creativity though could be used by the AI as a psychological manipulation tool to tug on peoples' heart strings and achieve whatever ends are necessary while making other tactical plays. After all, every human being according to Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs seeks some form of self actualization, that's according to Maslow anyway, some see the plight and ills of power and greed and strive for a humble life, sacrificing their needs selflessly for others.

I'm talking about a truly sentient AI of course, I'm not talking about a computing machine that performs only some limited set of functionality, but one that is completely self-aware. Then I would have to ask serious questions about its motive and agenda. It seems reasonable to me to think that society collectively hasn't transcended enough to allow for a truly sentient AI to exist, not without a moral framework which only God gives, and by the point that you're there, maybe you don't need AI necessarily, because society has taken a step back and become less demanding and hostile. Even still, bringing a sentient AI into the world is a hard gamble, no one truly knows what the outcome will be, for men to think that they can control is an act of arrogance. We don't do so well with the computers we've already got as is.

What I'm suggesting is that we as a society are not ready for a sentient AI until we as a collective society are following the utopian ideals of Jesus, and maybe he might just come right then to save us from our own arrogance and stupidity.

Wouldn't it be great though, if we had an operating system that was affordable for families in low-income housing, that could help them with their health, finance, and security related information systems? That's safe and friendly for everyone from kids to the elderly? I don't feel that Linux is very kid-friendly to be honest with you, not with having to deal with the way package management is handled in Linux, a kid can learn it yes, but it takes a very intelligent kid. I think I was around maybe somewhere between 16-18 years old when I started first learning Linux, and I didn't understand a lot of things at first, and I ended up going back to Windows a lot in that process. Over here I'm on Windows/Mac/Linux all the time, and constantly I can do a few things on one OS more easily than others, so I'm always switching around. Same thing goes for programming and using programs, I'm always hopping from one foot to the next it seems, despite what people tell me that their solution is always the best solution. I can tell you how an OS should be structured that's better than a kernel, yes, but the actual implementation of it may be flawed by the fact that I'm human and not quite as savvy on ASM as I really want to be. So I'm going through the various tutorials one by one, and learning things as I go, in a hopefully more patient and less demanding manner, at least so that, in time as I learn these things if I get going off the ground with this OS idea and want to hire on some ASM developers I'll be able to work with them a lot better in terms of pay, appreciation, and communication. I've been spending more time lately to be quite honest reading the KJV, it's a little more interesting to me than trying to hunt down the right info on ASM tutorials when companies seem to want to keep you from doing everything you want to do, in my case building an OS from the ground up that's not on a Linux kernel.

[Gavinmc42]

I noticed something while waiting in the Dentist.
Take a look around next time you are in a public place.
What percentage of people have their heads buried in their Smartphones?
Social Animal human are now solitary digital humans?
Or are we now finding it easier to find like minded individuals to hang out with online?
Online friends are replacing local ones?

I think we are much closer to becoming Cyborgs than having Robot GP AIs running around to worry about.
Think about what OS's we want running on embedded/wearable cpu's.
Silicon assisted Carbon based life forms?
Has Siri//Google become kids best friends?

Think about the digital divide, those that have Internet and those without or those with Smartphone/ those without.
Visit second/third world counties, you drive past palm leave shacks at night and see the flicker of the TV's.
This was a one way direction of passing of information.
That is rapidly changing as Smartphones become the new 2 way interface to the World.
What happens when Rachael, Khan Academy, Wikipedia etc come preloaded on these phones?

If you have an OS that runs in your body do you really want Google (or whoever) to have access to it?
Software for your pacemaker, autonomous Car etc these are the current debates happening right now.

Some people may argue they need the VC4 RTOS to be open source.
Compared to Android or IOS, we have it pretty good.
And Pi can plug into those TV so more than one person can watch at a time.

Pi's can use what ever you tell them too and are unbrickable if you don't mess too much with the OTP boot options.
Changing the config.txt and your kernel name can be changed to seed.img.
That is how the bootcode.bin/start.elf can tell which ARMv6 or ARMv7 or ARMv8 kernel to use.
Hopefully there is no Zero days exploits in the BCM boot ROM

Maslow's Self Actualization is just a longer version of the USA's "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".
"Pursuit of Happiness" is an interesting choice of words, Happiness is like nailing jelly to a wall, it is slippery.
Being happy is moments of zero time, you lose it if you think about it, that moment has passed.
It is like being creative, after you have created something that moment has passed too and is now history.

When I am coding like mad, my fellow workers say I am "in the zone", I leave the "zone" once I stop.
No time has passed in the zone, minute or hours can pass unnoticed.
The same thing happens when meditating or praying.

But if you spend your time worried about your next meal or where to live or paying bills etc those moment are hard to find.
Every religion has a word/term for "Enlightenment".
You become Self Actualized once you consciously realize happiness is a state of mind and not condition.

Digital Sapiens are the new norm?
Those old Sapiens are so last Century?

[ShiningKnightLight]

I noticed something while waiting in the Dentist.
Take a look around next time you are in a public place.
What percentage of people have their heads buried in their Smartphones?
Social Animal human are now solitary digital humans?
Or are we now finding it easier to find like minded individuals to hang out with online?
Online friends are replacing local ones?

I think we are much closer to becoming Cyborgs than having Robot GP AIs running around to worry about.
Think about what OS's we want running on embedded/wearable cpu's.
Silicon assisted Carbon based life forms?
Has Siri//Google become kids best friends?

Think about the digital divide, those that have Internet and those without or those with Smartphone/ those without.
Visit second/third world counties, you drive past palm leave shacks at night and see the flicker of the TV's.
This was a one way direction of passing of information.
That is rapidly changing as Smartphones become the new 2 way interface to the World.
What happens when Rachael, Khan Academy, Wikipedia etc come preloaded on these phones?

If you have an OS that runs in your body do you really want Google (or whoever) to have access to it?
Software for your pacemaker, autonomous Car etc these are the current debates happening right now.

Some people may argue they need the VC4 RTOS to be open source.
Compared to Android or IOS, we have it pretty good.
And Pi can plug into those TV so more than one person can watch at a time.

Pi's can use what ever you tell them too and are unbrickable if you don't mess too much with the OTP boot options.
Changing the config.txt and your kernel name can be changed to seed.img.
That is how the bootcode.bin/start.elf can tell which ARMv6 or ARMv7 or ARMv8 kernel to use.
Hopefully there is no Zero days exploits in the BCM boot ROM

Maslow's Self Actualization is just a longer version of the USA's "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".
"Pursuit of Happiness" is an interesting choice of words, Happiness is like nailing jelly to a wall, it is slippery.
Being happy is moments of zero time, you lose it if you think about it, that moment has passed.
It is like being creative, after you have created something that moment has passed too and is now history.

When I am coding like mad, my fellow workers say I am "in the zone", I leave the "zone" once I stop.
No time has passed in the zone, minute or hours can pass unnoticed.
The same thing happens when meditating or praying.

But if you spend your time worried about your next meal or where to live or paying bills etc those moment are hard to find.
Every religion has a word/term for "Enlightenment".
You become Self Actualized once you consciously realize happiness is a state of mind and not condition.

Digital Sapiens are the new norm?
Those old Sapiens are so last Century?

I know of this "zone" you speak of, whenever I get in the zone while coding here I can be perfectly calm in the coding zone and people will become more aggressive around me, it's strange, I've observed this phenomenon multiple times. I got a headache yesterday while in the zone, had to break away and go to the gym room and do some cardio, headache starts to dissipate shortly after running. My environment here is not as conducive to coding as I imagine it is there. Most in the US aren't coders, only about 0.359% or so I read somewhere, finding coders here is like finding a needle in a haystack. We have news here that California is trying to secede, there's a fake news problem, all sorts of drama going on. How is it over there in your area Gavin?

On the matter of people becoming more and more like cyborgs, yes I concur. People are buried in their phones wherever I go. I find that after I've done enough coding, I want to go do something physical. There's intellectual stimulation at times online, but it isn't a real replacement for in-person interaction. Tragically again most around me aren't coders, relating to people in terms of logic tends to fall on deaf ears a lot of times. People are owned by technology, it would seem to me that most want to be consumers rather than to learn what's controlling you and become a producer, people bury themselves in sports, celebrity gossip, video games, and so on. Even so, despite the overwhelming challenges on my environment, I don't believe that we can merely replace all traditional forms of communication with machines, it simply doesn't work that well, our physical bodies in some ways demand the illogical, it's more challenging, and we're always drawn to such challenge, our senses demand it. When we all become like-minds and everyone is in agreement, challenge goes away, we all become uniform and robotic. It's important to remember that our entire bodies are more complex than even the mind or the body, but the spiritual as well. We are dynamic and highly complex entities. On the matter of AI, many of these Silicon Valley companies are largely invested in Big Data and AI, but it hurts people in other places like around where I live, people are getting robbed unknowingly and unwillingly. Now I see California trying to secede, and I see all sorts of other problems stirring there, it concerns me because it has great impacts. Keeping economies in balance is a difficult task, what you give to one side you take from another, that is why I try to strive towards a middle of the road balance as much as attainable.

Thank you for the information on config.txt, I thought it might be there I just wasn't sure. I don't know exactly what might happen as you put more educational software in front of people, because the simple truth, that only those who desire knowledge will seek it, and those who are seeking it largely already know of such sites as Khan Academy. If you put it right in front of people, perhaps it will have some influential gain as it should, I don't know how impactful it will be in the long run. Also consider that there are many different ways to learn material. Reading, videos, hands on tutorials with examples, and so on, I try to get a little of each to sink in the information, sometimes summary information works better than details and sometimes it's the other way around. There's not one prescribed notion that universally works for education I suppose, as each are uniquely different. Happiness may be a state of consciousness for some, but it may be conditional for others, not all are on the same page. If I were in a room with no social interaction except for a computer for an intensely long period of time, could I simply just choose in my own will to be happy? No. It might be just the same as prison for me, we are each different and unique in our own way. I do enjoy Bible reading though, I can get in the zone on Bible reading, read maybe 10 chapters on a good day, although I will get headaches in doing so, it bears some consequence unless I temper it with exercise.

[ensan]

A bit out of topic but @ShiningKnightLight mentioned you are pre-diabetes. I stumbled across a video you might find useful in case it helps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnTI07kArNI