How We Built on Shoulders of Giants -John Haddock

 This piece is in devlopment phase.

This am accountant given by John Haddock  in 2018.

MIT

GE

HP

Berkeley came in lately but was involved in BSD. 

Denis went on sabbatical to Berkeley with his magnetic tape and there Unix became BSD and at AT &T it became  Unix System 3,4 and 5.

Bell lab was interested in transistors, fiber optics and laser and not on  operating system or applications.

 

Computers were considered not useful to Telephone Companies at that time.

 

It started in Bell's Lab in New Jersey.

The idea was to develop a Portable Operating System that ran on many platforms by Brian Thompson and Dennis Richie.

 

They used a cast-off PDP7 computer for their work. 

There was no assembly language. They used machine language which was written on a paper tape on another computer and ported it to the PHP7.

Up till then, operating system were fixed to the hardware  or the applications they ran.

In around 1983, Digital Equipment Company, IBM and HP saw Unix has commercial space outside academic environment. 

However, they had to pay a hefty fee for the Source Code to AT & T and the serial number of the computer using the Source Code had to be given to them for scrutiny.

Later on Sun Micro Systems requested them to lower the fee by offering them the Binary Code and a request to wave off the serial number of the computer.

BSD had TCP / IP and ManPage Virtual Memory wherease AT&T had swapping protocol called UCCP which needed a modem. No direct Internet link.

A company called BSDI thought using BSD Unix would not violate the AT&T code and went into independent production. There was expensive litigation by AT & T on a BSDI company over copyright issue.

Aparnet came in 1969 and it was the forerunner of the Internet.

 

1984 Richard Stallman came in and objected to Source Code changing to Binary Code which he could not understand and use for his work. He objected to copyright tag and wanted the Software to be Free. 

He started rewriting all the Unix code without proprietary tag.

He developed EMax and software languages and compilers for them. 

They were platform independent. 

He brought the concept of Free or Open Source software.

In 1995 he formed the Free Software Foundation which upsetted the Commercial Apple Cart.

In 1991 Linus Torvalds in Sweden wrote the Kernel so that the Free Software could be stitched into a proper Operating System.

Tim Bernalee was the one (30 years before 2019) who started the Internet in 1989.

John Haddock wrote his first program in 1959 on a Fridge sized computer with punched cards in Fortran. 

He could write one program at a time.

That is the beginning.

FPGA

1. Flexible and Adaptable

2. Efficiency and Performance 

3. Scalable 

4. Cost Effective

5. Programable 

6. Security

7. Fast output  Market

8. Hardware Acceleration 

9. Prototyping 

10.  Longevity 

Field Programmable Gate Arrays

Reprogrammable IC

Efficiency

Scalable

Programable

Reconfigurabilty

Hardware acceleration

Prototyping

AI compativilty

Longevity and scalability

Flexibilty

Parallel Processing 

Real Time Application

ASIC

Application Specific Integrated Circuits 

Objectives.

They fixed at manufacturering level

Make the kernel small so the coding is free of errors.

Applications to be on User Space and any crashes when running does not affect the kernel.

What food I miss from Ceylon

Ceylonese are Food Addicts and there are a lot foods for everyone's taste.

The list is numerous and all the types of food and delicacies from the City of Kandy.

Let me make some provisions.

I stop eating rice for a very long time. 

There are at least 5 poisons in each grain of rice and I was reacting to one or many of them for long time. When I stopped eating even milk rice I recovered from my malady.

Second reason is I stopped drinking all types of liqueur. That helped the taste buds that were damaged to recover. Along with that I used to taste of every type food I tasted to make good the rice deficit

What is relevant in Ceylon is we are an Alcoholic Nation and spend more on alcohol than food. Big rice meal with chicken became our life style. Except for bread ordinary people would not try anything other than string hopers and hoppers. That is the sad part.

This coincided with foor portion becoming smaller and prices going up by leaps and bounds.

My simple example is wade.

Prawns omitted first.

Umbalalakada disappeared next.

Spices omitted thirdly.

Ultimately size and shape.

It was true of Egg Buns.

Full Egg became Half an Egg.

Half an Egg became Quarter of an Egg.

Ultimately the bun was just called Egg Bun without any garnish of egg at all.

Strangely, none of these happened during internal conflict

I would only list my favorites.

All these were tasted long before food and economic crisis.

1. Cashew Nuts with Karapincha (curry leaves)  from Queens Hotel's  Side Bar, which no more.

2. Ceylon Tea with Cheese Cake or Cheese Sandwich from Mesna Tea Center.

Earl Grey Tea at Mesna Tea Center

There is no Mesna Tea in Australia.

Cinnamon Tea at the Air Port.

By the way, I HATE Thai Tea 

Heladiv Tea

Now owned By George Steurt and Company Limited

Heladiv commenced operations in 1990 as HVA Lanka Exports Pvt. Ltd., an affiliate of a Dutch-based agricultural development company, Handels Vereniging Amsterdam (Amsterdam Trade Association).

In 1993, the company reverted to 100% Sri Lankan ownership.

In 2001, they introduced the concept of Tetra Paking of Iced Tea in Sri Lanka. 

In 2007, the company received an ISO 22000 accreditation by Bureau Veritas and was awarded the Lanka Star, for Packaging Excellence from the Sri Lanka Institute of Packaging, and a Soorya Sinha Award from the Mawbima Lanka Padanama.

In 2011, the company was publicly listed on the Sri Lankan stock exchange.

The brand name, Heladiv, is derived from the word "Heladiva", which means our land.

The Heladiv product range includes ice tea, regular tea bags, flavoured tea bags, green tea, flavoured green tea, herbal infusions, leaf tea in pouches, pet jars, metal canisters, wooden boxes and gift packs.

The company operates over fifty tea cafes across in China and a tea lounge in Colombo.

The brand Heladiv is registered and sold in over 40 countries.

This was the first  Peach Tea (under Rs.50/=) Drink.

I believe it was a One Man Company, long before others ventured into the market. 

He produced a Flavoured TEA in glass bottles (not in plastic containers) which can be diluted to taste. 

It was fabulous. 

Of course, this changed due to practical and economic issues.

Yes Lipton and Dilmah are here in Australia but they can never match with HelaDive.

I promote Ceylon Tea world over and wish them good luck. 

3. Hoppers at ARPICO Food Stall

4. Fish Kottu and Masala Wade at Royal Mall Food stall

Of course Spring Rolls, bread, cakes sweets (Cheese Flan), Thala Guli (Gingerly Rolls), milk and poll toffees and good cup of Ceylon Coffee

Not to forget the long queue at the Liquer Bar on Saturday, evening.

5. Vegetable Rotty, Kimbula Banis, Croissants, Doughnuts and French and English delicacies from Kheels Super Market (located near Royal Mall) in Gatambe.

6. Then the String Hoppers with lovely "Amu Miris Sambol and Pol Mallum" from the lady who comes to Kandy City acrossing the right side of the Mahaveli River.

I think she came from a place in between Sirimalwata and Tennekumbura. That was the best Pol Sambol in the City of Kandy.

7.  Prawn Wade and Masala Wade from Devon Restaurant.

Chees and Egg Kottu included.

8. String Hoppers  with "Alahodi and Pol Sambol" from Bentota Bake House. 

This restaurant has a Tall Tower like (in a Singapore Hotel) structure. 

It has a open rooftop and I avoid the lovers time.

I go to the top floor and have a Superb Yogurt drink.Some time I have an off hour Beer (allowed for foreign tourist) when string hoppers are late to come. The guys who run this hotel come from my village.

Alcohol is banned for locals and I have to wait till 4.30PM to enter bar at ARPICO for a Sweet Wine.

With Mangala Samaraweera as Finance Minister one peg went up from Rs.190/= to Rs.420/=. I had two pegs and gave one peg to the bar tender and ordered big sized omelette with chips and dished our Rs.2000/=. No balance requested.

I drink alcohol and not taxes and abruptly stopped drinking all types of liqueur.

I still thank Mangala for my courage and never tasted any except only once on a grand birth day party. That is also a type of spirits I had never tasted before and I was staggering to the toilet on that occasion.

9. Then Balaji Samosa, Dosai and Pol Sambol.

10. The best of course, the Paper Dosai and Masala Dosai made by an Indian Cook in Captain Cook Corner at Devons Hotel's Top Floor.

I have to wait until 6.30PM when this special cook comes on duty. 

I am happy I gave my Tamil lawyer a good meal at this place. He did not know it existed. He enjoyed it very much. I think it was a special booked lunch. I did not want him to go home late. His brother had a jewellery shop at Colombo Street. Lately, I did not see him, too. May have transferred his deeds to somebody else with no money coming from his brother.

Strangely he passed away after a rotten (sepsis) tooth abscess. I met him on the way to Peradaniya Hospital. I volunteered to take him to Dental Hospital but he declined.

There are a few more places that I used to visit.

1. Queens Pastry Shop and Queen Bar

 2. Bentota Bake House

3. Devon Bakers Best

4. Central Bake house

5. Casamara Hotel (very rarely before it changed the location, it was situated near Senanayake Library, before and for Rs. 250/= we had a lovely meal and beer). I think they changed the name, too.

6. Hotel Topaz

7. Oak Ray of course for Beer and Hoppers

8. Mahaveli Reach Hotel for Billiards or Snooker game

9. Suisse Hotel for Billiard or Snooker game

All these are concentrated in The City, yet if you go down 5 to 10 kilometers away from the city one cannot find a good place to dine and wine.

Below are how Kandy City turned in to village setup. 

1. Ampiya, Katawala, Lewla, Thalathuoya, Godamunne

2. Tennakumbura, Gurudeniya, Haragama and beyond to Mailapitiya

3. Kundasale, Balagolla, Kengalla, Digana, Teldeniya and beyond to Karalliyaddha

4. Mawilmada, Polgolla, Madawala Manikhinna and Kundasale

5, Gatambe,  Dangolla, Rajawatta, Gakaha Junction, University of Peradeniya, Mahakanda and Hindagala Temple.

6. Peradeniya, Panideniya, Kossinna, Angunawela and Gelioya

 7. Katugastota, Akurana, Nugapitiya Alawatugoda and Ukuwela.

8. Nugawela, Aladeniya Hadeniya turn off before Galadgedra to turn to Walalhenna Junction to Warakagda and Bokkawela

9. Aladeniya, Weuda, Galagedera, Pilessa, Mawatagama, Mallawapitiya and Kurenegala

10. Hadeniya off Arambekade Junction, to Walathenna Junction to Warakagoda, Ambaruppa off Harankahawa Junction to Molagoda Maha Viyalaya.

The last place is where I went to see one of my relative and an elder brother, before leaving Ceylon. He left to Canada week after my departure. I do not think he will come back.

We had a lovely meal at Kadyan Arts Restaurant where I stayed overnight from where I left to the Katunayake Airport. I was worried the Van Driver who picked me up would miss our house in Panideniya. I had one on my old time school mates to accompany me from this hotel to the airport.

I booked a room for him but he did decide to come in the morning. He did come from Mawilmada and it was a considerable distance.

He did not want me to spend money. However, I have him my Ceylon Surveyor's Map as a souvenir since I probably want write another book on Rivers and Water Falls of Ceylon. There are over 100 rivers and revelets in Ceylon and many of them are drying up, one by one every year.

Tragedy!

In fact, he walked to the hotel in the morning. He is marathon walker and walking is his hobby. I used to walked to Kandy to catch early morning train when I was  at Aruppola. 

Marathon running was a speciality in our Ampitiya St.Marys School. Nobody except teachers in this school new I was medical guy. 

One of my wishes was to address current students (get some in to the University) but even though the Principal was a family friend, it never materiallised.

He was a middle distance runner and I was a short (100/200) distance runner we never compete against but joined in relays. 

I go first he goes last and there is time to change spikes in between. 

I did not have a pair of spikes and my father won't buy me one, let alone even a running short. It was the Burgher lady next door who made me a lovely velvet running short.

I used to hide the Championship Cup of Under 12 and Under 14. I used to do only 100 Meters and Long Jump as a Senior. I was not good in 200. 

With Hop Step and Jump, I could barely touch the pit, at the Standard Set for the age.

Only,  one jump (Hop Step and Jump), win or lose and that is usually my best and enough to get a place. 

Long Jump is different.

First to Qualify.

Second to get the marking.

Third the Full Jump.

Skip Fourth and Fifth.

Last or the Sixth Jump to make it, a sportsman like finale. 

Only once, I bettered my Third Jump in a Qualifying for Russians Tournament. 

It was my best jump all my life and I could have qualified to Go to Russia but I let it slip through since, I was well below the International Set Standard. 

I had my Final Examination and I could have waved it off and sat the repeat and got better results overall. That meant I miss the first Merit List and miss my batch and join the rest. 

Come to think about it the best guys in our batch were in the second Merit List.

Could not fathom it, then.

I was caught in the Rat Race. However, in latter years I paced myself down to easy pace and I did my research work well past 50, mature enough to do Real Research which includes Linux which I am persuing to this day.

I was STUPID, I should have gone to Russia then, which was one of my lifetime dreams which I would not be able to fullfil in this life.

I had some hoppers at the Kandyan Arts Residency for my last dinner.

Hoppers are for my last meal whenever, I go abroad for a long stay.

HelaDiv Tea, A brand of Ceylon Flavoured Tea

Heladiv Tea, A brand of Ceylon Flavoured Tea

Now owned By George Steurt and company Limited

Heladiv commenced operations in 1990 as HVA Lanka Exports Pvt. Ltd., an affiliate of a Dutch-based agricultural development company, Handels Vereniging Amsterdam (Amsterdam Trade Association).

In 1993, the company reverted to 100% Sri Lankan ownership.

In 2001, they introduced the concept of Tetra Paking of Iced Tea to Sri Lanka.

In 2007, the company received an ISO 22000 accreditation by Bureau Veritas and was awarded the Lanka Star, for Packaging Excellence from the Sri Lanka Institute of Packaging, and a Soorya Sinha Award from the Mawbima Lanka Padanama.

In 2011, the company was publicly listed on the Sri Lankan stock exchange.

The brand name, Heladiv, is derived from the word "Heladiva", which means our land.

The Heladiv product range includes ice tea, regular tea bags, flavoured tea bags, green tea, flavoured green tea, herbal infusions, leaf tea in pouches, pet jars, metal canisters, wooden boxes and gift packs.

The company operates over fifty tea cafes across in China and a tea lounge in Colombo.

The brand Heladiv is registered and sold in over 40 countries.

This was the first  Peach Tea (under Rs.35/=) Drink  I believe it was a One Man Company, long before others ventured into the market. He produced a Flavoured TEA in glass bottles (not plastic bottles) which was fabulous.

Yes Lipton and Dilmah are here in Australia but they can never match with the Original HelaDiv Tea.

Debian-13 Testing is Pretty Good

 I have tested this on a 4GB Live USB.

Thanks for keeping within 4GB and I do not want to waste 32GB USB.

 

1. Live session is smooth with a crisp introduction.

 

2. WiFi Configuration has  no problems.

 

3. Firefox is still the default browser but it has Dillo, Falkon. Konqurer  but my ancient light weight Midori is not there.

 

4. Software is Flatpac and Synaptic Package Manager come as a Flatpac App Image which was not to my liking.

 

5. Manuskript, Focus Writer, Paper Works and all notes including Red Note are available.

 

6. Gparted is not available.

 

7.  Calamara Installer which I hate (very SLOW due to too much graphic), is now the default (Distribution Independent Installer) Installer.

8. AbiWord is under Flatpak and most likely libs and dependencies are not checked properly.

They are in individual container which I am not happy with.

 

9. Blender, scribus

 

10. Emac, Vim and gambas

11, My belieft is Debian 13 has taken a leaf out of Netrunner 25.3 and integrated most of the KDE utilities in its Gnome. In other words best of both worlds of KDE and Gnome in one desktop. That is creditable.

 

12. On those grounds I would stick to Debian 12 and would not move to Debian 13 unless if I  go for a Advanced NUC, perhaps MSI (Minisforum) platform. 

 

I do not consider 13 as a bad number but it is generally a folklore.

Thank YOU guys and Girls for your Hard Work.

Keep it up.

Ubuntu and its derivatives- an update

 

Ubuntu and its derivatives- an update

Posted on March 17, 2013 | Comments Offon Ubuntu and its derivatives- an update.

Ubuntu and its derivatives- an update.
It is more than 3 years of critical writing on Linux.
I am going to call it a day soon since the electricity bill is up and I have decided to cut down on my carbon footprint on this planet.
I have few books and the collection of ideas are put in print and digital forms.
That is in expectation of these blog ideas will vanish into wilderness when new form factors and new ideas hit the market. 
That is natural and one has to move on.
Only book I have not done yet is TQM-Quality for the Developers.
Linux is now matured fully and Quality as an inbuilt system should come into effect since tablets will hit the market and poor old 32 bit computers and many 64 bit computers will be relegated to the attic.
The Quality Cycles of 5 years would do the job and when the Linux community gets a complaint from window’s migrant (Linux guys will quietly will find a fix) one should investigate whether it is due to hardware or software or user learning curve (steep or flat)  or Quality issue.
If the issue is not of quality the developer should leave the community to address the problem leaving his or her precious time for consolidation of issues related the platform he/she is involved in developing.
Equally he / she should see the penetration of the distribution among newbies.
If the distribution does not penetrate there is a fault in marketing the PLUS Points.
May be virus or aesthetic values or damn indifference of the user.

Ubuntu 12-04

First time in my life I am using Ubuntu as a base for introducing it to resistant users like my daughter.

If they run into problem at home with any issue with Windows, they are now independent to sit in front of a Linux Box and sort them out themselves, while I am away doing things not related to Linux or house work.
Ubuntu’s Unity has matured enough to be recommended to a newbie (if old Linux guys are grumbling, let them do it at their own peril and at lib) and canonical should invest its resources on Mobile Market and Cloud Computing.

1. I recommend Pinguy Linux since it has many derivatives including light weight distributions for netbooks.

2. Linux Regal Titan is a very good one for 64 bits.

3. Black Opal (Ubuntu mix) has sorted out many of the windowing and workplace problems.

4. UberStudent 64 bit is heavy (4 GiB) and I am glad to see they have put out a 32 bit one with less packages (2.5 GiB).
It used to have a CD version too.

5.Ultimate Linux light is  a good one for games.

6. ArtistiX is for Video, Audio and the Artists

Then, there are Dream Studio, Ubuntu Studio and many more distributions to cater for many tastes.
Ubuntu is still the number one that has penetrated the mind and soul of average users.

For specialist Linux users there over 300 other distributions which is not Ubuntu, to have a go.

Unfortunately Gentoo derivatives except Sabayon is falling behind and TinHat has to do lot of catch up.

Linux100-OH-GOD-Iso

Posted on October 28, 2010
Linux100-OH-GOD-Iso

If you a Christian newbie this is for you.
 

Now that I have secured an iso for myself and the full copyright of that iso’s name as Go.Go-F.O.F. Linux I am thankful to God and all Linux Developers for providing me with the download facility of AOGOS Linux.

This is a Christian Slackware Linux which is fantastic to learn Linux Tricks.

It is a version that you can carry your Linux Distribution and the Bible in a Pendrive or a DVD.
I was bit unhappy that this was a zip image especially thinking that I have to learn the Bible to perform Linux tricks.

Being a Buddhist I was more than irritated.

Even though it was three (3 AM) in the morning I did not want to go to sleep without burning an iso.

I am safe doing this since all the other Buddhists are fast asleep now.

I went to Softpedia.

Looked at the page description.

This is a good web page and I could find the way to do it / make an iso.

1. Extract the zip file to a folder named AOGOS.

2. Then go to the boot folder and open it.

3. Find the make-iso.sh file.

4. Open a terminal window in Linux

5. Drop the make-iso.sh into the terminal window and hit enter.

6. Find the iso and make a boot CD in K3B.

Presto!
It writes an image in the download folder as a boot.iso.
It gives an option for you to give a name for the iso.

Please do not do that. just for now.

It took ages for me to find the name of the new iso (name is boot.iso) but I knew it was there since my download folder was almost full.

Eventually I booted up the DVD.

It is good as gold.

It is new NFlux box.

right click not writeclique and go to Firefox and then you are at FreeBible web site.

Well done Boys and Girls (Good Christians) who developed this iso.

Only downside is even the Christians in this country are poor in money affairs but not in virtues, they cannot afford a DVD drive and DVD (twice the price of CD).

I hope a CD iso can be made since nFlux is not heavy in its armaments (sorry, for my terminology this is a post military country now, habits are too ingrained and diehard).

Now let me tell you why I did not want you to name the iso file.

I renamed it as the Oh-GoD-Linux and saved it in my archives for any Christian friend of mine who asks for it will have it free if he or she gives me a blank DVD.

Or I can rename it as Do-Do Linux and give it to any friend of mine.

The most interesting part of this CD/DVD is that it has Laminin as a logo (in its desktop image ) that binds all the cells to basement membrane as an anchor) which is almost a replica of the Cross.

Unlike Buddhists who are deeply divided with all the Laminins broken this DVD and the Laminin will bind all the Christians of this country together.

It is a good Christmas Gift for kids.

P.S. (5-11-20100)
Sorry for the glaring mistakes in English which I think were corrected today (5th November).
Who cares for Queen’s English in this country especially 3 A.M in the morning, me half awake and trying to burn an iso and run it to see its virtues.
Even the Telecom and the kids who say I am Sri-Lanka would be proud of my English.
When we begin to say “We are Sri-Lankans” but not “I am Sri-Lankan”

God save the Queen and her English!

SUMO Linux

 Posted on July 6, 2011

SUMO Linux
 
SuMo Linux is a compilation of 4 security Linux headed by Backtrack 3, Helix, Smurai Linux, Damn Vulnerable Linux and DBAN.

Even though Backtrack is into version 5 (five) and even backtrack 3 which is a Ubuntu derivative is good enough to track compromised computer and deliver offensive counter attack when a hacker tries to enter into your system.

This is for the Geeks and Savvy Linux developers but even a newbie can download and learn the geeky stuff like a professional guy.

As far as I was concerned I used it once when a guy from India, probably with the knowledge of some proprietary commercial distributions initiative tried to stop my download of Linux which I detected in about 3 hours and traced it back to India.

Since then, I have used certain amount of firewall and I am not paranoid about attacks now and if somebody attacks me I will trace back and counterattack appropriately even if the computer happen to a be zombie and destroy its ability to act as a zombie or destroy it totally out of web context.

I hope nobody ventures that far so that I have to explore the dark side of Web episodes and Linux pro-activity.
Even Samurai will do the needful for me.

Zenwalk Linux Update

 Posted on September 14, 2011

Zenwalk Linux Update
I have said earlier that if I did not discover PCLinux (first discovery of Desktop Live) I would have chosen Zenwalk as my standard and Live Linux distribution and lived with it while experimenting with all the other Linux distributions for fun.
If I do not make special mention of it here I am doing disservice to Slackware which is as old as Linux.

20 years to the count and Zenwalk is a derivative that took its roots from it but now can stand on its own right in Linux World.
 

I have used Knoppix, Puppy Linux and Demo Linux before going back to year 2003 but none of them were desktop oriented at least at the beginning.

The differences are basically PCLinux is KDE based an it has full blown FullMonty.
Five CDs
1. Standard                                       323 MiB
2. Zenwalk Core                               329  MiB
3. Zenwalk OpenBox                       503  MiB
4. Zenwalk Gnome                          665  MiB
5. Zenwalk Live                               688  MiB
If you look at the difference between the Live CD and the Gnome CD the difference in MB is only 30 MB and that is the amount of memory needed for including the Live Script and I cannot understand why some developers do not include it in a CD or DVD.
Installer script and UnetBootIn are other utilities that should be essential part of a  Linux CD without much a do.

Copied from their Home Site
Modern and user-friendly (latest stable software, selected applications)
Very fast (optimized for performance capabilities)
Rational (one mainstream application for each task)
Complete (full development/desktop/multimedia environment)
Evolutionary (advanced network package management tool – Netpkg)
The Zenwalk Project aims to create a lightweight Linux distribution (through using only one application per task on the release ISO image), optimization for a specific processor architecture to increase execution speed, and introduces a comprehensive package management system with dependency resolution.
Zenwalk is a Linux distribution founded by Jean-Philippe Guillemin. It was originally based on Slackware. Since its creation, the distribution has become very different from Slackware in most regards while still maintaining compatibility with its binary packages. 

Zenwalk aims to be a modern and multi-purpose Linux distribution by focusing on Internet applications, multimedia and programming tools.
 

Xournal?

 Posted on October 17, 2011

Xournal?

Why I am writing about Xournal?

Xournal is a GTK+ application for note taking, sketching and keeping a journal using a stylus.
It can also be used to add annotations to PDF files.It is because when tablets come small utilities become very useful andthey will be the mainstay.

    Repository: Debian Main
    Download size: 259,69 KB
    Installed size: 892,00 KB
    Package filename: xournal_0.4.5-2_i386.deb
    Source package: xournal

ROBIN says this.

It’s a kid-friendly pdf annotator that will make your pdf forms look snappy and professional!

Here is a really fun, kid-friendly application that is not only great for taking notes in class, but it’s also an easy pdf annotator for filling out those fancy forms (college or employment applications) that expect you to fill in tiny little spaces with legible writing. Now when the teacher draws a diagram on the chalkboard and you need to copy it down, you can do it on your laptop or netbook instead of a piece of paper that can blow away when you drop your books (I’m clumsy and lose a lot of stuff that way, lol) or get lost among all the other stuff you have to carry around in your backpack.

The default is Sans 12, but in this example I selected size 9 for this college application with the teeny weenie boxes they want filled out LEGIBLY. Ha, not with my big loopy handwriting! That’s another way that Xournal is so helpful! Now just place the cursor in the space and type away. Cursor placement is a little tricky at first, but once you get it in your mind that the letters go on top of an imaginary baseline determined by where you click the cursor, it’s effortless. Just think vertically instead of horizontally and put the cursor where an underline would go: “I want the letters on this line. Now you’re ready to start filling out the form.

And you can sign the form using the pencil option. You can choose the thickness! Ball-point pen thin or Sharpie-like thick, and in whatever color you like. For this you need a stylus (or a closed ink pen on a laptop touchpad). But just for fun you can even do it with a mouse!
 

Danny Stieben says this (posted on April 14, 2011)

Xournal, simply put, is a note-taking Linux application. However, instead of getting a blank box to enter information into, you get a blank piece of “paper” every time you open it up. And that’s all it does, aside from giving you all the tools you could possibly need to pour your heart out on that virtual piece of paper.

And surprisingly, Xournal is a lightweight application, even with the large range of options.

With a barely marked page open, Xournal takes less than 5MB from your RAM! 

Tablet owners will have even more pleasure while using Xournal.

With the right hardware, it can literally become your virtual paper that you can write on without any issues. Xournal even goes down to subpixels instead of just pixels to create the cleanest, smoothest, and most accurate lines that, when using a tablet, will make up your legible handwriting.

Thanks you, young guys, keep us informed, the old guys like me with your discoveries.

Mark Shuttleworth, the Ubuntu founder

Mark Shuttleworth, the Ubuntu founder

Of course, there are bound to be radical opinions every time such a dramatic change takes place. 

But what does Mark Shuttleworth, the Ubuntu founder, thinks about Unity? 

Here is an extract from an interview by OMG! Ubuntu!, published last week: 

"Q: Are you satisfied with Unity in the recent Ubuntu version? 

Shuttleworth: Yes, though I recognise there are issues, and I would not be satisfied unless we fixed many of them in 11.10. In the end, when we reviewed bug lists, stability and experience, Unity was the best option for the average user upgrading or installing. There are LOTS of people for whom it isn't the best, but we had to choose a default position. I think we walked that line admirably. I appreciated the open discussion that was had, and it made me more confident in the final position; that decision is best taken by the desktop team, and they were arguing in favour of Unity, and they had my support for that." Nevertheless, even with the positive tone, the Ubuntu leader accepts that there are things that will need to be addressed in the next release: "There's lot to learn, that can only be learned in reasonable time by getting code into a wide deployment. Some decisions I regret and we'll evaluate alternatives, some we'll tweak."

Ubuntu Unity Experience-11.10-Update

 Posted on December 20, 2011

Ubuntu Unity Experience-11.10-Update

Ubuntu Unity Experience-11.10-Update
I think then the “Ubuntu Bashing” that is going on is coming from not Linux users but by Windows guys.

 
First of all I never used Ubuntu for my regular work.

I did not like when it disposed of root log in and that was the very reason I never used it on regular basis, coming from Red Hat base.

I have used many Linux distribution and my Linux 100 was an attempt to highlight many distributions as possible.
 

Even though, I did not use Ubuntu, every time a new Ubuntu comes I download the new image test it and keep it in my archive.

The other two I regular downloaded were Puppy and Knoppix.

Then I went into full gear and I started downloading every possible Linux from Turnkey to eyeOs.
 

After all this, one thing I must make it clear.
 

Every time a new Ubuntu come it was much better than the previous best Linux except my idiosyncrasy or the basic nuance no root log in.
 

Ubuntu 10 is pretty good and its L.T.S 10.04.3 is a very stable distribution.
The we have a lot of Ubuntu derivatives out there of with Ultimate Linux and Ultimate Linux Gamers scored heavily on my point scheme.
What is most striking for me was Ubuntu was Cloud Ready from its version 9.
 

Now the Ubuntu One has over million users.
 

Now I believe there are over 10 times or may be 20 times Ubuntu users worldwide.

That is 10 to 20 million users.

Most remarkable achievement of Ubuntu was it was the distribution that made some impact on Microsoft.
So bashing Ubuntu now using UNITY is the game they (Windows guys) play in tandem with some not so regular Linux users.
I think Ubuntu is going from strength to strength and its Unity for me is pretty good and novel experience.

I LOVE that experience.
 

Managing change even in business world is difficult.
I think Ubuntu should hire a small team to manage this change. 

That will come good on the long run.
Its web site is doing an excellent JOB.
Visit it if you have time.
I for one join that team to promote all Ubuntu derivatives especially Unity and Cloud Service.

Not only that it is making Linux Mint popular.

I see that as a good byproduct and a very good plus factor for Ubuntu and a market hype.

Both are Debian derivatives and they indirectly make a slow moving Debian also target for newbies.

It is all good for Linux.

My worry is that the other 97 Linux I promote are not given a hearing due to this HYPE.
There is another good one on the market which I am currently downloading (very slow with only one seeder) and it is called Onyx64.
If you are bored visit my blog spot here.
Please do not forget Knoppix, Puppy my favorite and PCLinux FullMonty.
Do not forget EyeOS and EyeNUX.

This time even Suse has a done an excellent job and its derivatives that one can make from SUSE STUDIO is another attraction.

LINUX is well ahead of all the other commercial distributions (including ANDROIDS), come this Christmas.
 

The best Christmas gift one can give this time round is Linux from UNITY to Vanity.

Vanity is not a Linux distribution.
 

Thank you Guys/Girls (developers), your hard work is paying dividends.

Ultimate Edition (Ubuntu) 3.0 / Tango Studio-Christmas Edition Update/Christmas Update

Posted on December 9, 2011
Ultimate Edition (Ubuntu) 3.0 / Tango Studio-Christmas Edition Update/Christmas Update

Ultimate Edition (Ubuntu) 3.0 / Tango Studio-Christmas Edition Update/Christmas Update
Ubuntu derivative Ultimate Linux 3.0 has done a quiet JOB for Linux Lovers by producing a wonderfully GOOD all-purpose DVD (both torrent and point to point available).
If you don’t like and find difficult to use Debian 6.0.3 update (I suggest you have both editions with you).
If you do not won’t to change this Christmas and do not want to try Unity or Gnome 3.0 these two will do all the honours for years to come.
Ultimate Edition 2.9 has both 32 bits and 64 bits versions and this one is only one DVD.
This has  limited number of games.
Only missing thing is cloud utility of Ubuntu One (Dropbox is there).
Please do not confuse with Ultimate Game Edition, which is different but very good too.
If you are Video Audio Artist, there is another Ubuntu derivative which is pretty good and have new features (without office packages).
That is Tango Studio with 32 bit and 64 bit versions.
Please do not confuse with Ubuntu Studio.
Thanks guys and girls for keeping Ubuntu roots alive and well.
I have one warning though.
Linux Mint 12 i386 32 bit ( 1 GB) image does not boot.
I downloaded it from Linuxtracker Torrents (twice)

Ubuntu’s Unity-Dream Studio- Is it a dream Come true for newbies?

 Posted on August 29, 2011

Ubuntu’s Unity-Dream Studio

Is it a dream Come true for newbies?
 
Ubuntu’s Unity-Dream Studio- Is it a dream Come true for newbies?
I think so and thumbs up for this distribution which I could download overnight with 2.1 GB.
there were only four Seeders but it was pretty fast.
Go and download it and increase the number of seeder proportion in relation to Leechers and enjoy Unity experience.
It is new experience for old hand of Linux like me who never used Ubuntu on regular basis except for demonstrations.
Regular Ubuntu users will grumble but I have told you what to do go ahead and have both old version and new version in the same box and enjoy the difference.
Sinhala capability was there which I did not test but probably need some smooth ironing which is another plus point.
It has Libre and Blender new version (Maya).

Please do not call it Apple like but call it this Linux Unity desktop.

It sure is a winner at the time of debt and cash crisis.
For good effects find a good compatible graphic card.
that may be the only thing you may have to change in your computer.
My old computer graphic was enough to take advantage of Unity.
few glitches I had with the unity CD with Terminals has been reasonably taken care of and I could load all the workplaces with a a running program and with a click it goes into full screen image.
Play with it and I do not know how far one can configure it to one’s needs but it is good as   it is why configure and make a mess?
Thank you guys and girls for doing hard work.
You guys and girls also need a rest and do not worry about complaints and by Christmas we all be saying well done to you.

Cloud Computing-Ubuntu One

 Posted on August 6, 2011

Cloud Computing-Ubuntu One

Below is a caption I enclosed for getting a PDF file from a web hosting service in America.

“Assuming that there is no power outage or failure and download speed is instant and fast (both these premises are hard to come by and ensure in the Third World) cloud computing is the next best thing that happened after World Wide Web.

This can be better utilized in a school setup or in a University (I call it the Virtual University where everybody is a graduate or undergraduate).

The potential is enormous once the infrastructure is laid down and maintained with a stable cloud”.

I have decided to support Ubuntu Unity and Ubuntu One.
I hate the Free Books often outdated (especially in Science and IT) by 30 years dished out by the Education Department and the recently politicized new entrants (inculcation) discipline program (Yes Men and Yes Sir Program).
It is an insult to freedom of thought and exercise of free mind in creative work.
That is another reason for promoting Ubuntu One.
Without duplicating of information Cloud Computing can bring whole world together.

I am believer it can be done cheaper than the Government’s Free Text Book Program.
I hope Mark Shuttelworth, the Guru can initiate it in South Africa and take few of our teachers from here for training there (instead of the English Instructors we got from India to teach English to teachers of English) and send them back with Ubuntu Unity CD/DVD (No more free CDs from Canonical now) and IT and English Training.
He does not have to spend South African Money.
All he has to do is to give a free laptops to all opposition MPs with music streaming charged at 10 times the priming price instead of the basic customer price.
That alone is enough to finance the project and voters get money back guarantee.
The money we pay them as pension after five yeas and pay while they are not doing anything except fighting for the top post-leader of the opposition).

They are not doing anything except singing local Baila (variety of song in this island and also use as substitute for lies -usually used by policemen) instead of actively engage in voter / consumer based politics.

Regards to the MPs in power who are more often abroad without even not knowing how to fill airport form in English should be sent to moon or given a satellite telephone to keep in contact with aliens.
The money for those utilities should come from President Fund to which our Lottery money is diverted.
All of them have become alien to the average voters needs.

But the language of instruction has to be Universal and it cannot be Sinhala or Tamil.

I hope present day parents, teachers and above all students should realize this.
We do not want to be like frog in a deep (Enclosed Island) well.

Ubuntu One and Cloud Space

 Posted on August 4, 2011
Ubuntu One and Cloud Space

Update on Ubuntu One
I am glad to say Ubuntu One is available in all the Ubuntu derivatives I have installed in my laptop, namely Pinguy and Vinux.
It took a long time for me to find where it is in the Menu List, the Ubuntu One is placed and it is under preferences.
In Pinguy it is in the Graphic Menu List in the bottom panel and moment you log in with Ubuntu One a folder is open in the left side panel.
I have Dropbox downloaded / installed in Pinguy and that means I have 8 GB of Cloud Space Free 5 in Ubuntu One and 3 in Dropbox.

Now I can drop a DVD image of a Linux distribution in Ubuntu One to share with Linux friends.

In Ubuntu Unity one can at the time of installing Ubuntu One, the shared folder can be added to the left side panel which is a very nice Apple like feature.

Thanks guys and girls of Ubuntu Community for doing wonderful things.

Not only Ubuntu is getting ready for the next phase of computing with Unity desktop it is also ready with cloud space.

Ubuntu has Ubuntu One, it’s built-in cloud file, both Client and Service, since Ubuntu 9.10 which was released in October 2009.
One does not need another cloud service if you are using Ubuntu.
There is also a distribution called CloudOS based on Ubuntu.

For those who prefer more storage, Ubuntu One Basic, the free service, has changed its name to Ubuntu One Free and it now comes with 5GBs of free storage instead of 2GBs.

If you opt for the paid Ubuntu One Music Streaming service in addition to music streaming, you’ll get an additional 20GBs of storage.

For $3.99 a month that’s not bad.
Need more room?
It’s $2.99 a month for each fresh allotment of 20GBs.

On top of that there’s also now Ubuntu One file and music streaming clients for Android.
There’s also an Ubuntu One iPod/iPhone/iPad music streaming client.
Very soon iOS too.

This is what I call hit three birds with one stone.
So do not grumble saying Ubuntu has changed.
Yes it has changed for good with tablets in mind.
I am less and less reluctant to say no to Ubuntu now.
I have already installed Ubuntu 11.04 in my laptop.

Scoring Update on Ubuntu and Unity

 Posted on July 27, 2011

Scoring Update on Ubuntu and Unity

I have downloaded Ubuntu L.T.S and Unity and have tested them on my old and relatively new IBM computers and hardly anything to write home except 3 new introduction to Unity. They are
1. Cloud support with (Ubuntu one) 2 GB space.
2. Clean up utility
3. New Desktop (already made some comments)

Total score for L.T.S is 915 and for Unity 1255 (300 points for new desktop) both well below Gold Standard.
Linux Mint score is 1235 and difference between Unity and Mint is negligible and Mint is more robust than Unity.
The relative increase of downloads of Mint at Distrowatch may be a reflection of this lack of outstanding difference.
The difference is only cosmetic at the expense of stability.
At least if they had introduced Sinhala capability I would have given another 100 points and the lack functionality for visually handicapped (at least ORCAS) is a glaring omission.

Now you have a choice either go for Debian proper at Debian Mint as alternative.

My prediction is Ubuntu is going to lose its fan base like what happened to Red Hat when Fedora was thrust upon Linux addicts, like me.

Having said that I still support Ubuntu’s innovative approach and with touch screen and tablets coming it will make a serge in the customer base.
 

Till then Ubuntu fans Multiboot with at least 3 Linux distributions in one box.

With hard drives going to 500 GB and cheap now what other option one has?

Mind you both CDs did not boot with my old IBM and there was loss of font functionality.

Ubuntu Fans, You have a way out!

 Posted on July 24, 2011

Ubuntu Fans, You have a way out!

With the coming of age of Ubuntu and the entry of the new fashion lady Unity, ardent Ubuntu fans should not be disappointed.

You have a way out.

Ubuntu L.T.S (Long Term Support ) 10.04.3 is now available for download from Softpedia and Distrowatch and you should download it/them and update your systems.

If you want to be like me (I have not tried this yet) who has many distributions in one box except windows, you should try dual or ideally multi-boot several Linux distributions (my advice is Linux Mint or Kubuntu for Ubuntu fans) including PCLinux.

For a Linux guy or girl learning curve is almost flat and over time decide what he/she wants to use.

Alternatively wait for my future comments at parafox and asokaplus on all the Linux distributions I have downloaded and tested, recently.

New point scheme is devised to eliminate person bias and make it somewhat scientific (qualitative and quantitative analysis).

I may be bit slow since our industrial action is over and I will be busy getting new entrants to learn Academic English in addition to my core work.

When they come from the English Program (ad hog) hastily devised I will have an uphill task, making conditions right for them to understand the scientific messages not political, I have to dish out.

I will keep my promise in 100 days (one a day would do) or within three (3) month since I have downloaded all except Linux Mint and my hard disk is chockablocked.

In the mean time I have to promote Sinhala Linux too (Debian 6.0.2 plus+), too.

Softpedia

Softpedia 

I found a referrence to Softpedia in one of my very old articles. I think it is based on Windows Software.

Softpedia is a software and tech news website based in Romania. It indexes, reviews and hosts downloadable software and reports news on technology and science topics. It is ranked as among of the top download portals on the internet.

History

Softpedia was started by two Romanian students, Bogdan Gheorghe and Cătălin Garmacea as softnews.ro. They realized that the Romanian audience was too small so they shifted the website to English and changed the domain to softpedia.com. The Romanian version was eventually discontinued because advertisers wanted a solely English website. The site got around 950,000 visits in 2005.

Softpedia's revenue in 2006 was 1.6 million euros, with 95% of the revenue coming from outside Romania.

In 2007, the Romanian website monitoring service Traffic.ro reported Softpedia as getting 3.5 million visits a week, mostly from outside of Romania. Softpedia chose to stop being monitored by Traffic.ro in June of that year.

Features

The site is owned by SoftNews NET SRL, a Romanian company.

Softpedia features reviews written by its staff. Each review includes a 1-to-5-star rating, and often a public rating to which any of the site's visitors may contribute.

Products are organised in categories which visitors can sort according to most recent updates, number of downloads, or rating. Softpedia serves the most recent binaries and promotes software that is recently downloaded on its front page. Free software and commercial software (and their free trials) can also be listed separately. Softpedia displays virtual awards for products free of adware, spyware and commercial tie-ins. Products that include these unrelated and/or unanticipated components and offers (which are known as potentially unwanted programs) are marked as such.

Softpedia does not repack software for distribution. It provides direct downloads of software in its original provided form, links to developers's downloads, or both. It hosts some products on its own servers in case they become unavailable from their developers' sites.

In December 2008, SoftNews NET SRL launched Autoevolution, an automotive news and reference web site.

Safety

Softpedia has occasionally been used to distribute malware, such as a spyware program named OSX/OpinionSpy that was hidden in screensavers uploaded there along with MacUpdate and VersionTracker in 2010. A 2018 report found that Softpedia was relatively safe compared to other download sites, with only 4 of 148 programs tested containing unwanted Internet Explorer add-ons and stating that Softpedia was less vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks due to serving more stand-alone installers that do not download executable files. Softpedia displays virtual awards for products free of adware, spyware, and commercial tie-ins.

How come a Pelican becoming a Flying Trainer in Ceylon

 Posted on January 26, 2011
How come a Pelican becoming a Flying Trainer in Ceylon

The pelican was his annual pilgrimage to Ceylon to avoid harsh winter and got trapped in the Batticoloa floods and was waiting to devour some unfortunate sea fish that have come ashore. When he was about to partake the first mouthful of fish in came the Tortoised Chief Minister (T.C.M) from nowhere and warned him not to do so.

He was puzzled.

I have been eating fish all my life how dare you intervene in my cuisine.

Brother do not be annoyed.

Be calm.

I will tell you the reason.

They are poisoned by accident and not by purpose or design.

We got a consignment of food for flood victims from UNO and in the transport of it on a vehicle with fertilizer by some strange coincidence the bags’ label changed from UNO to USA and a certain politician in Colombo decided that they were no good for human consumption and not even for animals.

Then the local politician requested that they were to be dumped into sea.

The transport man designed a coup.

The food items were quickly changed hands with a label UREA and UREA was changed to USA by substituting S for EA. Then only a few UREA bags that contained deadly cadmium were dumped with political acumen to the sea in front of starving residents and they were asked to go fishing in troubled waters!

So you may now go fishing in troubled waters!

The pelican was visibly annoyed.

I traveled over 8000 miles to land hear on my holidays and you guys spoil it for me.

Don’t you people advertise come here and tither?

Sorry for the misadventure it would have been a different story if the weather gods did not intervene.

The TCM said in a quiet voice.

You may go down further and find another island he suggested.

There are no islands till Antarctica and I haven’t got the strength to fly that far.

Then he asked are you good in navigation.

Yes of course and if I may ask you why you raised that question?

Even though, I am here I still have some connection with the Air Force Top Brass and I can fix you a job with them till spring with full on board service.

He was not happy but picked the crab instead and took to flight and landed on a tree top.

He tried hard to pierce the shell bone but could not and in with anger dumped the fellow down but it landed with a thud and turned upside up downside down and side tracked safely to water.

This he has never seen before and went back to the now friendly TCM and asked how come the shell of a Sir-Lankan crab is so hard?

Elementary my dear!

He was in charge of my armed car when in service.

He was also in charge of making service to my vehicle with three quotation in hand which is the usual practice.

He was given the bullet proof metal sample for verification.

He without my knowledge changed the specification to inferior quality metal and hid the real metal sample under his helmet and pocketed out the contract extras.

Then in the final blast of which we all died in an unfortunate accident the metal got stuck to his skin.

He is a hard nut in any case and was difficult even for me to pierce his intentions!

In that case I say yes to your offer with some reservation.

That was how the pelican was made a the flying trainer for healthy remuneration.

You have to wait why he quit and deserted the post for my next edition on web.

Keep counting the Sirs please.

Good bye!

Please note even though these stories are quite akin to Buddhist stories and anthology, they are not designed for Dhamma sermons and any recitals without my implied consent will be strictly prohibited.

PS.
The chief minister who took over from the TCM was mildly hurt when in a routine test a bullet pierced the serviced part of the vehicle and went inside. It was an indirect hit; that is why the injuries were minimal.

He quickly dumped the vehicle to junk and bought a new one from the fresh quota allocated to him. He did not forget to send a telegram to the ex-officer thanking him for his service acumen.

I had to deliver it through my special courier service in conjunction with Apaya International.

Flying Officer Grounded

 Posted on January 25, 2011

Flying Officer Grounded

You may think that the war efforts are accomplished that most of the flying officers are grounded and not flying any more.

Nothing of that kind but a flight record of a blackbox conversation of the final 5 to 7 minutes of ill fated flight of S.L. (UL-Usually Late) named P.P.P.

Thank god it is not a civilian flight but a training flight with only two involved one surviving and the other succumbing to injuries ending at Maha Brahma for another round of life cycle.

I have to put the middle of the story first (but the beginning will related briefly in the flight record) to make it brief and interesting and I may have to go for another record for how Maha Brahma (his assistant-that part would be interesting) dealt with the emerging crisis.

Flying is a pastime for some (politicians on our money and government coffers) and fantasy for many Sir-Lankans. Many a Sir-Lankan young blood wants to become a flying officer but never get a chance to get there.

I remember I wanted to become a volunteer officer many moons ago but even though I had all the qualifications and the paper work my application never got to the scrutiny table when Public Service  Commission was in operation.

In my case, I was able to make amends and fly almost once a year or more on my own money never a red cent redeemed from the Government and one of my posts  abroad down under was almost a Flying Doctor on distress calls (not me in distress but with adrenaline high and mood elevated)

It is a different story now that the Chief Minister decides the fate of everybody.

In this story Chief Minister also has a fair share of involvement.

Sit tight and listen to the flight recorded data.

The conversation is between a pelican (Flying Instructor) and the flying officer in training.

You may wonder what the hell the pelican doing in the cockpit.

He was not trapped in air but he was the trainer in white suit with beautiful avian stripes to adorn.

Yes he was the trainer.
Then who was the trainee?

The trainee was a typical Sir-Lankan man who went up the ladder by being a yes man all his life without any decoration or qualification to boast about

He was somewhat similar to Bun Ki Moon who is a yes man for the big nations and red bully for small nations.

I hope you got the picture.

If he say yes to big shots he will be sure of another term in UNO.

Our man of course did not have applied mathematics but a forged certificate to say he passed the “O” Level in mathematics applied and general.

The conversation went on like this rudely terminated in mid air.

Hello Sir!
You are my trainer?

Yes is there any problem?
No Sir have I got to Sir you.
It depends!

If you end up passing with flying colours yes but not otherwise.

He was bit confused but continued to say SiR to which the pelican with good senses did not object.

He was wanting to count how many times he Sirs him during the first flight.

Sir, you have a big beak but no hands.

So Sir, how are you going to help me with the joystick?

I have good eyes and a small brain and that were enough to navigate from Europe to Sir-Lanka to escape from harsh winter believe me I can navigate you if you listen to me carefully instead of saying Sir.

He firmly ascertained his navigation skills.

Besides you have too hands, don’t you?

Now nose up, flaps up and raise off the ground.

Yes Sir.
Now they were in flight in the first few seconds and the flying officer was inquisitive  enough and wanted to find the loop holes in his flight instructor’s credibility to get some bonus in the first flight itself.

Sir how you come you become a trainer in Ceylon (In heaven they still call it Ceylon coming from Cinnamon Garden).

It is easy any foreign joker or a bird can get a job in Sri-Lanka even in supermarkets without knowing the  food habits of locals. You just put a label for export and that works.

I had a export label tagged from my childhood he said.

Sir who appointed you and turned his head around to the right and the plane  the two seater veered to the left?

Look what you  are doing get the nose straight not your butt.

OK Sir!

It is your Chief Minister who appointed me and it is a long story.

But Sir, I would like to hear more, thinking one day he might become a trainer himself by getting in good books with the Chief Minister and twisting his arms.

But your ex-chief Minister is a tortoise now.

How come Sir, I thought he went to heaven by the celebration we had after his death.

He never got a chance. The way he abused official vehicles and the way he drove with the entourage annoyed the Maha and he decided to pace him down to earth and made him a tortoise.

Sir my goodness will the Maha makes me also a tortoise in my next birth Sir!

In the first place you have to die!
Are you ready for that.

Yes Sir!

This answer pleased the pelican very much since he knew he did not have to train this guy for long.

Where did you meet this Tortoised Chief Minister, SiR?

Near a lake flooded in Batticoloa with a water crab with him.

The water crab was his escort Police Officer. on entourage who could always bend the law of the country for his master’s favour in real life in Sir-Lanka.

But he could not prevent the premature death of the entourage who met with a fatal accident.

SiR why he was made a crab

Two reasons.
It is a delicacy in Sir-Lanka.
This officer could never walk straight with the law he always side stepped and went horizontally instead of straight.

By birth right he had to be a crab in next life.

SiR will I become a crab in next life.
This was too distracting for the pelican that the plane was in full speed now in turbulent weather.

He said autopilot now!

My friend in excitement put the nose down.
He was only educated in Sinhala and could not read the English word autopilot and he pressed the button right under his nose without reading it in the first place.

Pelican was very happy now that his flying lesson would end abruptly.

Pelican opened the cockpit door and before making a nose dive himself said, your first and the last flying lesson are over.

Good bye and slammed the door closed.

To which our yes man said.
Yes Sir!

The rest is history and the blackbox is the only evidence we have now.

Incidentally this plane was taxied from Hambantota and landed nose down in the newly build port at Hambantota.

The blackbox was traced within minutes since the water level of the harbour is deep enough to see even a blackbox from above and our pelican friend hovered around it as if he was looking for a dead body of fish that helped the Navy very much.

Unfortunately the body of the victim was never found and the air force is still looking for the deserted officer in flight training and the flight trainer.

Our flying officer trainer, the pelican disappeared from his post.

I will tell you the rest of the story if you could count correctly the number of times this unfortunately grounded officer said Sirs in his first flight lesson instead of concentrating on flying and why the pelican deserted his post!

Flight P.P.P stands for Paksheta Pashsha Pora and I hear even the Pakshaya is having a nose dive now!

Please note even though these stories are quite akin to Buddhist stories and anthology, they are not designed for Dhamma sermons and any recitals without my implied consent will be strictly prohibited.

P.P.P can  even stands for Paksheta Patata Pakshapatha (Pora)

Why one should use DuckduckGO-Bodhi Supports it

Posted on December 26, 2011
Why one should use DuckduckGO-Bodhi Supports it

DuckduckGO has a trendy support of Linux community.

 
With cloud computing in full swing soon, the emergence of DuckDuckGO is a healthy attribute.
Bodhi and lot of  Debian derivative which port light weight Midori as a browser by default support DuckDuckGO including Puppy Linux.
By the way Bodhi enlightenment desktop has produced and excellent distribution come this Christmas.
It is light weight and has beautiful desktop effects.
Bodhi supports Sinhala too
 Below is the information reproduced directly from DuckDuckGO home page.
It has a strong Privacy Policy.
DuckDuckGo is a search engine that is based in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania and uses information from crowd-sourced sites (like Wikipedia) with the aim of augmenting traditional results and improving relevance. The search engine philosophy emphasizes privacy and does not record user information.
At other search engines, when you do a search and then click on a link, your search terms are sent to that site you clicked on (in the HTTP referrer header). We call this sharing of personal information “search leakage.”
For example, when you search for something private, you are sharing that private search not only with your search engine, but also with all the sites that you clicked on (for that search).
In addition, when you visit any site, your computer automatically sends information about it to that site (including your User agent and IP address). This information can often be used to identify you directly.
So when you do that private search, not only can those other sites know your search terms, but they can also know that you searched it. It is this combination of available information about you that raises privacy concerns.
DuckDuckGo prevents search leakage by default. Instead, when you click on a link on our site, we route (redirect) that request in such a way so that it does not send your search terms to other sites. The other sites will still know that you visited them, but they will not know what search you entered beforehand.
At some other search engines (including us), you can also use an encrypted version (HTTPS), which as a byproduct doesn’t usually send your search terms to sites. However, it is slower to connect to these versions and if you click on a site that also uses HTTPS then your search is sent. Nevertheless, the encrypted version does protect your search from being leaked onto the computers it travels on between you and us.
At DuckDuckGo, our encrypted version goes even further and automatically changes links from a number of major Web sites to point to the encrypted versions of those sites. It is modeled after (and uses code from) the HTTPS Everywhere Firefox add-on. These sites include Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon to name a few.
Another way to prevent search leakage is by using something called a POST request, which has the effect of not showing your search in your browser, and, as a consequence, does not send it to other sites. You can turn on POST requests on our settings page, but it has its own issues. POST requests usually break browser back buttons, and they make it impossible for you to easily share your search by copying and pasting it out of your Web browser’s address bar.
Finally, if you want to prevent sites from knowing you visited them at all, you can use a proxy like Tor. DuckDuckGo actually operates a Tor exit enclave, which means you can get end to end anonymous and encrypted searching using Tor & DDG together.
You can enter !proxy domain into DuckDuckGo as well, and we will route you through a proxy, e.g. !proxy breadpig.com. This feature is part of our !bang syntax. Unfortunately, proxies can also be slow, and free proxies (like the one we use) are funded by arguably excessive advertising.
Because of these drawbacks in HTTPS, POST and proxies we decided to take the redirect approach to combat search leakage. However, we leave the choice up to you. You can deviate from the default on our settings page by toggling the redirect or address bar settings. You can also use our encrypted version.
Other search engines save your search history. Usually your searches are saved along with the date and time of the search, some information about your computer (e.g. your IP address, User agent and often a unique identifier stored in a browser cookie), and if you are logged in, your account information (e.g. name and email address).
With only the timestamp and computer information, your searches can often be traced directly to you. With the additional account information, they are associated directly with you.
Also, note that with this information your searches can be tied together. This means someone can see everything you’ve been searching, not just one isolated search. You can usually find out a lot about a person from their search history.
It’s sort of creepy that people at search engines can see all this info about you, but that is not the main concern. The main concern is when they either a) release it to the public or b) give it to law enforcement.
Why would they release it to the public? AOL famously released supposedly anonymous search terms for research purposes, except they didn’t do a good job of making them completely anonymous, and they were ultimately sued over it. In fact, almost every attempt to anonymize data has similarly been later found out to be much less anonymous than initially thought.
The other way to release it to the public is by accident. Search engines could lose data, or get hacked, or accidentally expose data due to security holes or incompetence, all of which has happened with personal information on the Internet.
Why would search engines give your search history to law enforcement? Simply because law enforcement asked for it, usually as part of a legal investigation. If you read privacy policies and terms of service carefully you will notice that they say they can give your information on court order.
This makes sense because they may be legally obligated to do so. However, search engines are not legally obligated to collect personal information in the first place. They do it on their own volition.
The bottom line is if search engines have your information, it could get out, even if they have the best intentions. And this information (your search history) can be pretty personal.
For these reasons, DuckDuckGo takes the approach to not collect any personal information. The decisions of whether and how to comply with law enforcement requests, whether and how to anonymize data, and how to best protect your information from hackers are out of our hands. Your search history is safe with us because it cannot be tied to you in any way.