TV to CPU to GPU to NPU to Video Games

 TV to CPU to GPU to Video Games

Within 3 hours I covered all these on YouTube. 

All due to boredom created by our political commentators.

Everybody is trying to be good Samaritan including Naganada Kodituwakku.

I have moved from Radio Shack to Texas Instrument to Atari to Sinclair to  Commodore to even to Apple Globe.

 

I must say I was a Tech Guy all my life. 

Only restriction was things were not a available in Ceylon.

I went to England when explosive innovations were (Amstrad, Sinclair in UK and Texas Instruments, RadioShack, Atari and Commodore in USA) made and DOS based Video Games were popular.

Intel Pentium was not in existence.

RadiShack went into bankruptcy in 2017.

It's Tandy computer was one of my interests.  

After long lapse of interest due to my professional commitment come late nineteen's enter Intel Pentium and my first PC. 

Of course now, Good Bye to proprietary stuff including Microsoft to fully functional Linux Operating system without bonds to big companies.

I used to walk down the Tottenham Court Road in London from one end to the other end  for geeky gadgets. 

Other obsession was Medical Books. 

Foyles Bookshop was the tallest book shop. I bought even few books on DOS Operating System.

Let me dispensed with the TV. 

I did not have a TV in UK except Hospital TV. They very expensive. I bought t a second hand shop soiled Sony TV for a huge sum. Cannot remember how much I paid. 

There were no TVs in Ceylon, then.

Fast forward, apart from Cathode Ray Tubes (3 of which caught fire due to poor voltage in Ceylon)  to digital TVs to a cheap Chinese portable TVs, how these TVs work is of simple logic.

It is input and output scenario.

I was a user never bothered to see how they work mathematically. 

 

Assembling my first PC to NUC was easy progress.

Mother Board

CPU

Graphic Card

SRAM

DRAM 3 to DDR 4.

I won't go for DDR 5. It is waste of money for a new gadget.

Never bothered to work out how a CPUs and Graphic Cardd  work except, I knew CPU can work on binary (machine language) arithmetic (in future quantum logic) and simple program logic in combination with the RAM to booster it performamce. 

Ultimately all RAM or Random Access memory.

ROM is Read Only Memory from Floppy Disks, CDs, HDD and SATA.

CPU generates heat and thermal paste and heat sink are mandatory.

GPU was an enigma.

Guys who presented YouTube presentation, on CPU and GPU are not good teachers.

They could not simply explain either in binary logic or simple mathematics.

GPU works on computational magic and that is why ordinary Video Game cannot be like a Live TV Signal. 

Representing pixels in 3 dimensions is never accurate. 

To this one has to add movement and rendering.

What happens is there are large number of computations from GPU causing lot of heat in the system, environmentally not a healthy at all.

 

The information flow from GPU, to CPU to RAM has to be either parallel or serial and above all, synchronized to nano seconds.

If not a catastrophe.

Murphy's Law

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong when on this rapid advancement of technology after Coronavirus Pandemic recovery period.

There was shortage during the pandemic and glut after recovery.

The manufacturing guys had a dual problem of making good the loses and adjusting to the new market needs.

Moore's Law

There is rapid increase of new technology every two years but this law seems to have slowed down still more.

I did the right change for NUC discarding the old PC before the Coronavirus and bought bare bone NUC to which I could stuck old SATA disc. 

I had three of them.

Now new Mini PCs are coming with NVMe and .nvme and the lot which are expensive.

I am not a gamer and adding GPUs especially external NVidia has become a bottle neck and proprietary flame wars with Intel and AMD.

Not worth the expense.

DO NOT throw away your old computer.

DO NOT get involved with Graphic Card War.

Having said that there is a Mini PC with Camera on top which a classic innovation.

I have a separate piece here on that.

I see guys adding various old an new components and making a hash of it.

Fortunately voltages are very low and not electrocution of guys trying them. 

Then there is what is called static electrical that builds when assembling them.

I do not think there are books on how to assemble things.

NPU

NPU is a buss word.

It has no value on a PC.

The Chips are getting smaller and smaller especially in mobile or cellphone units. 

Their RAM is limited any cellphone less than 8GB RAM is not AI compatible. 

The graph cards are integrated and their load balance is limited.

In comes the NPU, where mathematical calculation in voltages are transferred to a separate portion to speed up activity and minimize the excess heating CPU and GPU. 

Thermal throttling come into play when video games are played whete every component of the mother board become active. It seems even the RAM chips need thermal protection. 

In the early days fans were enough to cool the GPU.

More power more heat is a simple physics principle.

Additionally battery capacity is the limiting factor unlike in a PC working on the wall current.

Bottom line is smaller the unit more NPU necessary to load balance.

The concept is borrowed from how neuron networks work in our brain.

Unlike a cellphone our brain has lot of redundant newworks and they work even when one is asleep.

Our brain does not work on batteries but on sugars and ATP.

Biological energy is very efficient and we cannot duplicate them let alone neuronal activity with an advanced computer.

It is far better to play a game in the open with some friends.

At least one can make friends but Video Games make unknown enemies in the Web.

Just like our YouTube guys fighting and presenting inaccurate political stuff to lite gullible audience.

I am bored and I want the election to be over with so that I can get on with my normal life.

I am currently working on three books.

Election is a huge distraction.

Now to facts. We are three dimensional beings with limited visual capacity. 

We can never see everything in the energy spectrum and nothing beyond limits of light travel. 

Infinity is not within our grasp.

We can use certain energy frequencies in the spectrum to even develop an atomic bomb.

But we do not know how to control our mind.

We are unable to harness dark energy and dark matter.

We can never visualize what in in the fourth or fifth dimensions.

What I am saying is, we have limited capacity and the moment we go beyond that capacity we destroy ourselves.

That is why I am against Artificial Intelligence.

Wars can destroy the entire planet in matter of 3 hours of insanity and it's living system which evolved over billions of years .

We are in that Insanity Zone.

 

That is why I am against video games.

Guys brought up on video games can push the button of a nuclear bomb in a frenzy or panic mode.

Types of Ceylonese Buddhists

This very old piece. I am posting it with minimal edition to coincide with the elections. 

It is especially aimed at one guy who made millions selling Buddhism in Politics.

Types of Ceylonese Buddhists

Eggo Buddhists

The eggs and not ego!

There is no Ego or self in true Buddhism, but phenomenal existence of beings of numerous kinds.

This is something as a little brat not even going to nursery school I have heard and seen at first hand. There was an intense debate over eating eggs before and during 1956 and the Eggo Buddhists won the day. 

The argument was that we Buddhists can eat eggs as long as we eat the eggs not fertilized by a cock. 

This is where cock’s right to sex is violated not any cock but the bird’s variety. 

We are “cock sure” that every egg we eat is NOT fertilized before our consumption and we can see it through the shell with our meditative instinct.

This is where cocks rights are violated by default and cocks are not allowed to screw since, if they do that we Buddhists won’t be able eat eggs. 

This is the cork screw solution we extend to Non Buddhist rearing animals for our consumption. If we Buddhists are not there to consume the products made by Non Buddhists their livelihood is lost to our economy. 

 

The logic pops out like a cork screw of a campaign bottle.

 

With this point of confirmation we Buddhist over the next 70 years evolved to the Modern Buddhism, to kill even our fellow beings Tamils, in the name of a Single Nation and National Building. 

The guy who was instrumental in building (with the help of another guy who was very good at introducing Vulgar Sense to Local Literature) this Hegemony (the word Concept is inappropriate)  or Saga died in America, looking for Western Treatment.

Alcohol Buddhists

Then came the Mujja Pama Dharshanaya which culminated during the period of Mrs. Kumaranatunge, where the highest amount of alcohol was on sale and produced in Ceylon (except wine).

This is coming out of the 5 precepts where one takes intoxicating beverages and depends on one’s liver’s powerful enough mechanism to detoxify them and as long as one does not show signs of intoxication, it is not a bad thing.

A little bit is OK, philosophy!

I have written a book on alcohol and drugs where I state that, even one tot will cause “Fatty Changes in the Liver” which lasts over 8 hours, after ingestion of any type of alcohol.

In the “First Pass” of the liver, it causes metabolic changes.

The rationale here is one must train the liver to identify alcohol early enough ideally during pregnancy and then when the big match (cricket the national game) comes one must train the teenagers to indulge.

If the training is done early on, one can consume alcohol even on the Dalada Perehara (except elephants on 4 legs) and specially on May Day Perehara.

Lottery Buddhists

The third one is the most powerful economic wise. 

Arogyasala Lottery or the Hospital Lottery and this has now progressed into Lotto Game and extend even up to World Cup and I.P.L Cricket and bidding for players.

SWRD was the chief architect. 

The Casino Buddhists.

The owner can be a Buddhist as long as the players are not Buddhists. 

All the above are for the powerful Buddhists in the Colombo 7 and around.

Thera Vada Buddhists

This is the category of Sri-Lankan Ego Buddhists with copyright to Thera Vada.

Now that the sole authority (copyright) on Buddhism is with Sinhalayas and there is a category of Buddhists who protect the Copyright of Buddhism (without practicing precepts and principles) of Theravada, come what it may and promote practices exclusively mentioned below and resistant to spread of Buddhism to other nations and countries and monopoly with Theravada. 

It is the tendency to spread arguments for and against or Vada for the total monopoly and commercial consumption.

I must say Buddhism was not recorded for over 1100 years after Parinibbhana of Buddha and it was probably done first in China (Chinese texts disappeared after Mao Zedong) and it was recorded in Aluvihara,  Matele, Ceylon, probably 1700 years later. 

What is relevant is there is no copyright or Pure Buddhism in existence in the present or in the past.

In the 11 year, Bemintiya Seya or the Great Famine, it is said Buddhist monks who were starving tried to memorise the Dhamma Texts.

Beminitiya Seya

Beminitiya Seya, also known as the Great Famine (103–89 BCE) was a major famine which occurred in the Anuradhapura Kingdom during the rule of the Five Dravidians, shortly after overthrow of King Valagambahu. For over a decade, the irrigation systems of the Anuradhapura Kingdom had failed as a result of invasion, corruption and neglect.

It was undoubtedly one of the darkest eras of Sri Lankan history. 

Long periods of drought coupled with South Indian invasion meant that maintenance and repair of the once advanced irrigation systems of the kingdom were now completely neglected. The situation eased after the death of the last of the Five Dravidians and the return of King Valagambahu. As soon as Valagambahu returned to the throne in 89 BCE, many reforms were introduced to repair and reconstruct the ill fated irrigation systems of the kingdom, which eventually brought the Beminitiya Seya to an end in 89 BCE.

 

To this day, Valagambahu is regarded as one of Sri Lanka's Greatest Kings.

 

The rest of the five types are as follows.

 

Bodhi Puja Buddhists

Bodhi Puja Variety is the most popular one.

This is the category who get round the Bodhi or the sacred pipal tree (not papal or pupal or phallus) chanting and pouring milk on it roots (which leads to rotting of the aeriel roots and the tree prefers dry or arid soil with roots growing very deep in search of underground water).

 

This chanting done without understanding the difference of water and milk to a living tree.

The Chicken Buddhists

The next variety is the most common.

If you ask them do you eat meat.

They say no, no and not for beef but if you prompt and ask what about fish and chicken, then they come out with the circular theory and logic that broilers live for 42 days and if it was killed on the 41st day and we actually contribute to its well being by reducing the misery of the chicken by one day and that helps them to evolve into better life, next time round, by making a hungry human happy at meal time.

This was the best philosophical tenet that evolved from Eggo Buddhists to modern Technical and Computer Buddhists.

The answer goes like this.

The small fish is fodder for the larger fish, in the food chain and man is the last in that chain because we are terrestrial and the fish on a muddy pool is saved from cranes and they have no business to be on our domain or the terrestrial footing, anyway.

Confused Buddhists

The next is the Confused Buddhist (I come under this category)  where part of me is ancient Buddhist Thinking and the other part is Modern Buddhism but with age catching up with my own intellectual interpretation,         I am becoming more and more of an ancient Buddhist, good for an ornamented coffin, in a few years time.

The last two if I try to explain fully I will be expelled from this blessed country (I am out of the country presently)  like the Buddhist monk who wrote poems instead of Gatha in ancient times, the Vidhagama Rahula Thera who ended up as the Saint of Mumbai.

Political Buddhists

They are the Political Buddhists in the Parliament.

National Buddhists

The National Buddhists are mainly in the Army.

International Buddhists

The better term for them is Web Based Buddhists or WebbOS. 

They are various international guys and girls from UK to USA to some EU countries who had gone through meditation merely (6 to 12 weeks Meditation Course) and then open up a WebPage and dish out Meditation Courses "for a Fee". The whole idea of this piece was inspired (not conspired) to discourage ordinary guys and girls becoming gullible suckers, to these undesirable guys.

My tenet here is, one should have a basic understanding of 

Principles of Dhamma.

Number one is belief in Rebirth (it cannot be proved or disproved by scientific means) and the Mind cannot be destroyed (an entity of its own) and survives after death by re-linking (Pati-sandhi) to another being of many kinds (not only human).

The basic idea of Buddhism is to extinguish this re-linking flame or mechanism.

Meditation is one of the many mechanisms available to extinguish this desire for Rebirth.

I have several books on Buddhism in English at Amazon Books and in them I have gone into detail, especially the Mind which is my scientific interest.

Emerging Buddhists

Type 12 and above are the Emerging Buddhists from ashes (of ruined practices) of Phoenix, some of whom are already in the Parliament and devising various means to portray that Buddhism is extremely difficult to understand by the ordinary.

There is some truth to it, but exaggeration of that fact is undesirable. 

What they are trying to convey is only the intellectuals can benefit from Buddhism, which is not true. 

So called lesser beings are probably more amenable to the Truth of Buddhism than the more elite Emerging Buddhists.

Basic tenet of Buddhism is the vehicle for simple but practicing Buddhists.

There are of course various cults, BBS is only one of them.