E-Reader and E-Books

It is sad we lost over 30 year a futile war and we are still spending more for defense budget. In the process we cutting our budget for education. If that is not enough we got a Minister who instills fear on students who tend to disagree with his views.

All this is enough for young ones to go abroad and see how education is done in the rest of the world.

If we take Singapore they have developed their own e-reader and over 900,000 books in the Library are converted to e-books and could be accessed free on the e-reader.

They do not boast that they give free textbooks but make available all the resources for young people to learn.

One can see young Singaporeans studying in the University (their accommodations are not as spacious like in our country) do their home work at the airport lounge.

The e-readers available there include Kinder 2 which is driven by Linux kernel (Amazon device). That is the very reason I wanted to write about it. It is black and white and has wireless connectivity and a browser.

I believe all the other devices are also using Linux kernel.

Then there is another called Nook which is available in both colour and black and white.
I would like to see our kids also get a chance to use them.
This in only a wishful thinking.
Our educators go on holiday just before their retirement wasting out resources.
I wonder how many of them have at least seen a e-reader at least in the airport.
Mind you one need not go there, just browsing the web is enough to see an array of devices.

Celebrations without Microsoft

I am celebrating the third anniversary without Microsoft, this Christmas.

Is there anybody other than Anuradha doing work only on Linux in Sri-Lanka?

Please post an email or comment below so that we can have a private party.

I was trying to catch 100 students (school leavers to train free) from Kandy.

That was a total failure (blessing in disguise for me) but welcome free time for me to enjoy life with my kids.

Science Education and Linux

One of my first articles on Linux was based on Linux in education.

Then, I was grumbling about not been able to find a Linux Guru either in Kandy or Colombo.

Result at that time was an appallingly negative outcome.

Of course I found a few Gurus from abroad which included Cristopher Naegus.

Unfortunately he has stopped writing or updating the Linux Bible.

I want blame him for his delay. (I bought his new edition few months ago which came after almost after 5 years).

The way Linux is progressing, nobody can keep pace with, including books on Linux.

Moment you write something on Linux and post it, it is outdated by many a miles.

My entry today is to talk about contribution of Linux to Education in general and Science in particular.

With the introduction of One Lap Top for Child (OLPS) project there was proliferation of educational products from France to Germany to Poland and Spain.

Material included from preschool to university level.

Unfortunately due to interference of Microsoft and they being able to port their product on OLPS with the sole object of destroying the initiative is hindering the progress of the OLPS.

For OLPS there is SOAP (Sugar On A stick or Plastics -means Flash Drive) packages but unfortunately nobody seems to streamline and organize these educational material in a systematic and stepwise manner (Built on an existing platform and add on serially to suit the different age groups and needs).

I found few packages very interesting and deal with them first before proposing a scientific way to establish this scenario of Open Source Science and Education.

I call it OSSE-U (Open for Students, budding Scientists and Explorers of this Universe).

There is is a serious of 7 to 10 Linux CDS for Science which I have not downloaded yet. (I have done it now-writing on science may be not in the immediate future)

Therefore, I am not going to talk about science at the moment but education in general.

To begin with there is gCompris from France with a definite French accent for Linux and Microsoft.

But my best in Knoppix for Kids (probably originated form Germany) but unfortunately there are no updates after 2005 or 2007.

There are packages from Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Greece, Spain, Poland and Italy and many other countries(including China-Taiwan-Linpus Linux-now become commercial).

But all these are catering for the domestic audience with their language bias without international clout.

Unfortunately UNICEF and UNO is Dumb and Numb about producing educational (Freeduc-that originated probably from France died in infancy at the hands of UNO) material at least for children and doctors of the Third World.

There is nothing from England and USA, who still with the colonial attitude and mind that they are the repository of Education, which is not so, now. If Open Source take a root in the Developing World their monopoly in education would slowly diminish in importance (European countries are embracing Linux, Spain in particular and Latin Americans including Brazil) but

Unfortunately India also has failed because Indian Maha Rajas also think education is money like their colonial Past Masters.

In this context Russia without a global outlook has failed to catch the market.

I am still to get a live CD version of ALT Linux (they have a DVD version in English-I have the Russian version, though) from Russia in spite of contacting them on several occasions. I have got a CD in Linux now.

I think my Linux 100 and critical comments on the web are bearing fruits in less than 6 months and stock market crisis is a blessing in disguise for the third world except U.N.O pundits who have succumbed to the pressure and insinuation by Microsoft.

Everybody think that once a CD ISO is posted at their web site for free download the job is done.

That is not so.

They do not realize that the Telelom Industry is still in infancy in the Third World and download speed is appallingly slow.

(This has become appalling after the introduction of PEO TV in Sri-Lanka).

It took 12 to 14 hours for me to download SuSe Sugar (please do not download SuSe Sugar, it is slow and has a serious bug in the Grub File).

Because of the proliferation of mobile industry Telecom Industry cannot think of a Giga bite download speed for another decade or so.

That is also if one pays a hefty fee.

UNICEF has failed.

UNO has failed to impart emphasis on education because education from preschool to university is big money spinner.

Unfortunately, even in this Banana Republic of Sri-Lanka it is true.

They are not thinking digitally (Brain Atrophied).

Currently trying to destroy the existing system and the students..
I think many more children will go abroad and will never come back with the budget for education going down while budget for defense is going up.

They think by giving outdated free education material to students free that they have solved our Education Problem. It is not so!

They do not pause to think why our brightest students and the children of rich families with foreign connections go abroad paying massive sums.

With this digital age that information can be had for 10% of the price.

All what the student should have is a laptop with Apple Approach (I would write about Apple computer in preference to Microsoft in due course).

This I have to defer since the price is not within the reach of average Sri-Lankan who has to pay almost 50 Rupees for a coconut now!

Mind you now Linux is porting free Linux distributions for Mac too.

We have to import English Teachers from Hyderabad to teach our teachers, having killed the English Education for the last 35 years.

If one wants to learn about Linux and Education, just go to Google and type Linux and Education you get a heap of material form nearby Australia to Germany and France.

This is only a glimpse. I would give a list below and wind with some hints for the Educational Developers with a Linux bent.

1.OLPS with my new OSSE-Universe Linux

2.SOAP

3.Knoppix for Kids

4.Look for defunct Freeduck

5.gCompris

6.Alt Linux form Russia

7.Pardus Linux from Greece and many more.

Even though SuSE Community assembled many of these resources from the repositories they have done a poor job.

Educational package should in my opinion should have they following as the base.

Mysql.

Mysql PHP

Mysql Admin graphic face

My Admin as the front end for student to play with and develop a database of packages.

Gbasic as a front end of Visual Basic application

gFlash as or Flash as a front end.

A Quick time simulator for playing Apple Education software.

Some way to hack itunes.

Kind of Play Station based on Wine and similar emulators.

Then divide the material as preschool, Junior, Intermediate, Higher and University Level to begin with.

Common software repository with series of Levels (for the Linux Distribution in mind) to download.

I would like the distribution to named as OSSE-U Linux (Open for Students, budding Scientists and Explorers of this Universe).

That is my contribution for the time being!

Asoka
Edited 0n the 15th of November. 2010

Original 14th of October, 2009

Open for Students, budding Scientists and Explorers of this Universe).
Copyright name of OSSE-U belongs to me anyway!

Google you can improve on this idea with cloud computing in mind.

Microsoft do not steal this idea.

I will be on your tail!

Education and Linux

It is worth writing few lines on education and its relationship with Linux.

Even though we do not have teachers trained in Linux to help with education including computer literacy, it is evident that in many other countries including Latin America and Australia are investing on Linux in a major way.

Education is big business in America and in the West and neglecting other avenues are deliberately done with the help of Microsoft.

Only in this spring that Americans are awakening to the fact that in eduction at least monopoly should be negated by using Linux. They have highlighted the Seven Sins of Microsoft and I will talk only about their insinuation in educational institution (other factors are well known to an average soul).

First they donate few computers, then they give a scaled down version of words package and the carrot and the stick approach is done to the politicians and the teachers abroad (as well as this country).

Ultimately teachers are hooked to the bait.

With words there is a proprietary format for Microsoft.

Why UNO or UNICEF is not pushing for a standard word format is an open question.

Are they caught up in the myriads?

How I stumbled upon education (there are many utilities of education value in any Linux distribution) utilities in Linux is quite an accident of some sort.

I was downloading almost one live distribution (of Linux) a day for testing with a view to (I may have hundred by December at the rate I am going on) sorting out the best ten for a web article.

What is written in the web is all about standard and well established distributions but there are many flavours (Gloria, Myah, Chacra, MoonOS, SuperOs, PCLinux,SAM, Mepis and many more) of Linux used by newbie and the savvy.

They are excellent in their own way but very few people write about them except listing them in a Live CD list.

I accidentally typed Linux and Education got an amazing list of Linux distributions that bundle in one package all the educational utilities.

One of them is ADIOS originated from Fedora Core 2.

Once I saw that all the anger I had with RED HAT due to their departure from Linux average community disappeared into thin air. Unfortunately this is done by voluntary basis and not updated frequently. I believe they (ADIOS) are waiting for Fedora 14 (newest version of Fedora with radical change in approach to coincide with the new needs and trends) to upgrade the systems.

They have done a wonderful job and what I downloaded yesterday had the Red Hat look and feel which was dear to me not many moons ago.

Unfortunately it cannot be installed into hard disk but very soon I believe ADIOS Community would do that.

That is not the only distribution Ubuntu has its own version called Qimo.

The Sugar on a stick approach (SOAS) was amazing it can be booted in a CD as well as on a Pendrive (Flash Drive).

Knoppix for Kids (2003) is another, unfortunately not updated for nearly five years.

The community should reactivate it.

Youknowforkids is another.

If you type Asoka and Linux you get me in the web.

But if you type Linux and Education, you get much more.

Pleas note that Microsoft has taken arms against the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) Project which is based on Linux distribution and Latin American children are carrying them on their shoulder with pride and SOAS (Sugar on a stick) are meant for that Laptop.

Why our politicians fail to visualize that is due to their indulgence with Microsoft and ignorance.

Edited today, 15th November, 2010
Asoka - First published at www.writeclique.net before my adventure with Google.
21, September, 2009

Pendrive Linux, Textbooks and Gambling

Even though I spent nearly 9 months investigating (could have been 3 months if our Telecoms provided Express Highway- 3 distributions a day in 3 hours) Live CDs my single interest was carrying a Flash Drive in my pocket (not more than 4-8 GiB) in my retirement and that is the only thing I can afford then with the government expecting me to kick the bucket sooner than late.

How can a pensioner who spent over 40 years serving the average masses could have his or her head above water with cost of living showing an upward spiral?

I do not know.

My old professor in sick bed could not afford the expenses having served over 40 years service.

I used to bring him medicine from abroad and he could not afford a good English detective novel (that is the only thing he wanted me to bring from abroad).

Thank god he is no more suffering but he taught me a few lessons which I carry to this day.

Honesty, integrity and above all outspoken and confident in all what he did.

I hope he is in heaven for the way he changed my outlook, in life and matters of importance and integrity.

The bonus offered to lure the old cronies is no more and many old guys did not know how to get the 2%.

So, Pendrive not a Laptop that I carry in my old age and to my grave and they should be sealed,

for a century for historians to study our way of life if human race could last that long

It was over one year I prepared number of Pendrives with various Linux distributions but unfortunately I cannot use then in the University since none of the computers can be booted from a Pendrive (they are pretty old and some of them we purchased just before the bomb blast at Katunayake.

We have not had an upgrade since then.

We could not afford to network the rooms and the cost was prohibitive.

What we did was get some help from Lion's and bought all the equipment for networking and trained few of the guys in networking and got the work done.

We only paid them over time and that was also stopped abruptly.

This is the way the University functions.

This job would have cost us 2 millions.

I knew the price very well. Just before joining the University I was in private sector and we wired the entire hospital and we had to get some things from Singapore since our IT industry was not even considered existing, then.

All the rooms were networked except my room.

You may wonder Why?
I was fed up.
I did my own network at home (very simple one-climbed the roof and wired myself) and my network is faster than the University.

Even now I cannot download a Linux distribution in the University even at night.

So why bother leave the University if one want to upgrade oneself.

That was what I did I left the University in my youth and I was earning my professor's salary on a weekend locum in London, England.

Unfortunately. things have not changed much for the younger generation.

Now that the Government has legalized betting it is imperative the internet access should be fast and open to everybody.

I saw an Indian betting gentleman was inquiring from Indian Express whether online service is available, in Sri_Lanka.

Come Cricket World Cup, everybody will be betting except watching and enjoying cricket.

My impression is that this is going to be the Worst Cricket World Cup.

You wait and see.

Weather, grounds, umpiring and betting going to be diabolical.

Now that I was off the target a lot but not without any reason.

Instead of me talking about Pendrive Linux please visit the home of Pendrive Linux and see it for yourself.

I have copied part of the page of introduction of their website below.

But my last comment is that if I am the Minister of Education, I will have a distribution of Linux on a Pendrive with all the dictionaries and and texts for then the children do not have to carry a gunny load of old outdated government text books on their back.

Not worth reading with the fast changing and expanding universe of knowledge.

Copied from Pendrive Linux

Easily install your favorite Linux operating system on a flash drive or USB key no larger than your thumb (Thumb Drive). Your Portable Linux operating system can then be taken with you, and run from any computer that can boot from the Pendrive device. Bring your entire operating system, desktop, applications, files, email, personal settings, favorites, games and more with you. It’s your own personal operating system you can carry in your pocket.

The Pendrivelinux focus is to provide simplified portable Linux flash drive installation tutorials and custom USB Linux installers, making is easy for anyone to install, boot, and run their favorite Linux from a flash drive

!

Linux Activator and Linux-100

My approach to Linux 100 was purely academic but I never thought that lot of guys. especially the guys developing Linux would care to listen to my comments with any enthusiasm and would take them with good spirit and add utilities that I tend to like the most.

One of the utilities was PHP / MySQL Admin. since in my age and time I am tired of working on a terminal with poor eyesight and trying to work only on command line.

It is imperative that to encourage newbies that come from Microsoft background to get a hang of (good example is myself- having worked with SPSS and Access especially for my research work and trying to do some work only on terminal was anathema by itself) Linux before delving into commend line and scripts.

This is especially so when admirable utilities with graphic front has or being developed are available for wider use.

When these are incorporated in a distribution that make life easy for lot of users who are not full time administrators but have to get involved in administrative functions, especially database management ( for example in Medical Practice).

I thought only a few Linux guys especially the newbies would be interested in my comments as a way of grumbling and wining especially coming from the windows background like a spoiled brat.

Judging by the Linux outputs recently my reservation was ill founded.

There are lot of guys /girls with a global picture with lot of dynamism.

Another reservation is for us in the countries where download speed is hopelessly inadequate downloading a DVD is a nightmare and lot of little CDs are much better than a FAT DVD distribution with lot of utilities rarely used.

This where PCLinux was a trend setter on its own right.

It is nice to see even Fedora 14 has taken a leaf out of PCLinux history and following its foot paths.

Sabayon is doing it (of course they have been doing it independently).

Salix is introducing Live KDE.

I never thought this will happen in my life time.

There is lot of convergence in spite of the diversity.

That is the beauty of Linux.

I hope I never made a comment to hurt any guy / girl doing hard work for Linux with shear dedication.

All my comments were in good spirit since I am a Linux fanatic by choice and not by descent.

If I had made any comments sharp, they were to tone the commercial trends and subtle insinuation by rival distributions to undermine the advance of Linux.

This is happening everyday.

Beware!

I believe in small is beautiful and small (bet on the strength of the hand but not what others have-re-rival companies) is powerful when chips are down and the stock market is tumbling.

It is nice to see UK stock market is following the footsteps of US stock market even 3 years later (US probably anticipated the crisis 2 years before the event, I guess!)

Linux on a low budget and RAM

I was somewhat obsessed with the variety of live CD distributions on offer that I have overlooked the Linux on a low budget and computers both old and new with little and inadequate RAM.

There are many to list but I will mention a handful of them to conclude my investigation of user friendly tiny vinny distributions that I have come across.

1. Geebox come to my mind that is similar to gamebox or media player with needing 0nly 25 MiBs.

2. My favorite is Puppy which is 90 to 120 MiBs and there are over 30 varieties.
The last of which I downloaded was EliteOS (with a commercial presentation included).
It is pretty good.
In the Puppy 5 series, the lupu is another celebrity.

3. Damn Small Linux (the one I use when I am in trouble booting and partitioning) is a beauty on its own with only 50 MiB.

4. Astrumi (120 MiB) is another good one. I think it is a Polish distribution.
The older version cannot recognize LCD monitors.

New ones are coming by the dozens.

5. 4MLinux-Gamer is only 11 MiB and and the standard is 25 MIB.

6. Voyage is only 45 MiB.

7. xPUD a web browser and media player is 65 MiB.

8. The xin-v1 is only 52MiB

9. SliTas

10. Tiny Me

11. Finnix is another

12. WiFiWay small 285 MiB and Standard 408 (Spanish).

13. Minix is 385 MiB.

14. CRUX is 220 MiBs.

15. NimbleX was less than 200 but now is bit fatty and has doubled itself to 400 MiB.

16. Feather Linux is also another flag bearer (like DSL) of small and beautiful Linux.

Then come to the the partition tools, there are many and one does not need a proprietary software to do partitioning (I have dropped MS partition magic for good but it was the one that saved many hours of sleep (sleepless nights before that) in the early days of Linux experience)

17. gparted

18. partmagic

19. pmagic

20. R.I.P. Linux

20 is a magic number for me. In studies of evolution (my personal work) if there are 20 related species in a locality that 20 would circumvent any adverse climatic change at least temporarily but if that figure is 3 the species is critically endangered.

With the same context in time to come Microsoft is an endangered commercial species. may be catering for other planetary systems in space.

The host of Ubuntu derivatives that come as TURNKEY should be the fitting end to my list.

The list is endless and my favorites are Puppy. DSL and Feather Linux.

They are the ones I have used comfortably and on a regular basis and have used in demonstrations to show my prowess.

Sorry guys and girls that I have only mentioned your names only and they are much better than my GoGo.F.O.F. Linux which is still under construction with my workforce on extended Christmas holidays enjoying other Linux for relaxation.
They are allowed to copy any good idea free of charge or copyrights.

It is an understatement when I say that they are the most useful when one (I am in trouble) is in trouble or on low in RAM to do the tit bits (not bits and bytes).

Bye till new year!

Linux and the RAM

It is not so long ago with 4 MB on board VG and RAM 64 I was able to boot Redhat 8. Mandrihe, Debian, Xandros (no live CDs except Knoppix, I had not yet discovered the Damn Small Linux) with some difficulty SuSe in my desktop.

The Linux is somewhat bloated now.

Without at least 512 RAM one is not able to boot and install Linux now.

This is not a good recipe for average Sri-lankan who cannot afford to eat rice with Pol Sambol now (due to surging RAM on Pol Pol Arrakku and Pol -Coconuts).

If anybody makes a Linux distribution called Pol Sambol Linux. nobody will care to try it even if it is given free of charge (nothing is free in this country liberated except daily headaches).

So RAM is important for a low budget person like me.

Let me talk about the type of RAMs before relating my story.

I started with 100 BUS SDR RAM.

Those days finding two 128 RAMs was extremely difficult especially 100 BUS speed.

I had to wait for years and hacked them out of junk computers imported to Sri-Lanka.

Then came the SDR 133 (BUS) speed RAM and somehow I could find 256 of RAM with an assortment of 128's and 64's.

This was just enough for me to boot all Linux distributions without a hassle.

Then came DDR 1, 2 and 3 and the RAMs were hefty in size.

The other day my daughter's computer with Linux installed was out (the reason is the usual overl0ad and with 20 GB hard disk -over the last one year she had collected junk files (no viruses) and she does not want me to clean the junk files and she does not do it herself and one or two years of IDE hard disk is good throughput, anyway).

I dismantled the hard disk and put a new 80 GB hard disk that I have kept for future use.

I was trying to partition (not with dos now) the new hard disk with PCLinux-2010 and I could not.

Then I tried LXDE and could not.

Finally I had to go back to DSL and later to Linux partmagic to get the new disk prepared.

I did not enjoy all this at late night and gave her the computer with Sata 20 GiB and 80 GiB IDE (dual) with newly installed PClinux 2010-10 and downloaded, few of the softwares she needed for her work.

This was also bought from a junk deal and of course I added 512 graphic card to get it in prime condition.

I asked her whether we buy a new one and she was not that keen on a new one (now that she is very much comfortable with Linux without viruses and dropping her bad Microsoft habits was a welcome change for me).

The new Linux (PCLinux 2010) distributions are cravy on RAM and use the full 256 RAM and after that could not do anything useful including install.

This is why I call KDE the Gorilla Linux with some affection for Gorilla and the KDE (I am a KDE fan now except when I do repair work on old computers),

So if you are using Live CDs have at least 1 GB of RAM if you are thinking of installing the same.

Otherwise it will freeze down the installation process. This is true of Ubuntu 10.10 and SuperOs (DVD) too

SuSe needs minimum of 512 (but ideally 1 GiB) and that is also with CD and not DVD.

SuSe of course can be installed (very good feature) from the live CD without loading into RAM which most of the Linux Live distributions do not include or offer including PCLiniux.

Ultimately I decided to use the computer as a TV box in addition to using it as a web outlet with 1 GB RAM added.

Unlike those days there are plenty of unused second hand SDR RAMs in the market without buyers.

For Linux newbies and savvy this can be a Treasure House or Goldmine.

The Linux is far behind in configuring variety of TV cards now on the market and I hope developers will be looking to this aspect since it is cheaper to use a computer as a TV box instead of an expensive and flashy LCD TVS now in the market.

OH-GOD-Linux-112

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!

Clockwork Precision

Clockwork precision is something lacking in this country in workman's skills as well as in time management.

I leaned it from my father and the colleague principal who taught me the basics of it and the value of it which I perfected it in the Western World.

In the Labour Era (not the current one that ended recently) which ended with Mr. Arther Scargill, Mr. Tony Ben, Mr.Ken Livingston and many other names that I forget workers were well organized and down to earth and work to precision in London and suburbs (with the inflow foreign migrants including Eastern Block this tradition of working according to clock and round the clock has slowly and surely disappeared, with conservative's sweeping role of market reforms and greed instead of welfare society eroded to an extent that I decided coming back home was better option than of becoming a Senior Citizen there shivering in cold winter expecting the summer to sooner than late) and maintained the British economy vibrant.

It is no better here for a Senior Citizen except for politicians with clout.
The time and time management was ingrained in the minds of workers then.

Then came the goals, finishing targets and profits that ended up in stock market crisis.

Strangely now Americans are talking about social welfare and they cannot achieve the targets of their choice in time frame before elderly succumbs in ill fate.

What I am writing is not about the time management mentioned above but about the clock itself.

That itself is not the grandfather clock but the tiny digital wrist watch of mine which I used for the the last 16 years.

Before that I must write a few of the stupidest things I have done.

The things I did before going abroad was more ridiculous.

When ever I go abroad the first thing I used to do is to buy the most expensive wrist watch I could afford somewhat like a status symbol (I once lost one of them but was able to claim insurance-that was the only time I had claimed insurance in spite of heavy premiums I paid) and when I leave again buy something bit expensive.

This has become a liability when I come home.

I used to hire a taxi from Kandy to Colombo for Rupees 600 those days and I had several favorite and good drivers to take me all round the country (I was true tourist not the stingy white skinned ones that come here for boys now) and when ever I leave the drivers ask me,

"Sir Mata Oya Wage Orolosuwak Denna Badida; Sir Can you give me a wristwatch like what you have".

One fine day I was in a good mood I gave it to the driver and told him it is expensive and take care.

This is the guy who used to take a famous films star around the country and he never got any presents for the film star guy.

He was happy and I was bit unhappy, to tell you the truth but overcame that attachment in good time.

When I came the next time he was very unhappy. the reason being his lodging was ransacked within a few months and he lost most of the valuables including the wrist watch I gave him.

This incident changed my outlook completely and from then onwards I used to buy the most inexpensive (sometimes children's ones) for daily use and disposed all my other comparatively expensive wrist watches whoever who had some liking for them (mostly relatives).

This change (buying the cheapest and not looking at it) was consolidated when Ms. Chandrika was the President and her clock work activity was in direct competition with that of mine for 11 years.

The story about my clock is very simple.

One of my cheap (not the cheapest -I had brought from abroad) watches stopped working.

I went to a watchmaker in Kandy who was very good and showed him the watch.

He looked at it and said nothing can be done.

I walked in, to buy a new one and he called me back and said he can put a circuit for Rupees 240.

I asked him how long will it last and does it keep the time correct.

Ten years without a problem and it is Korean one he said.

I obliged and it was working for the last 16 years except for the brief period of one month.

I was busy and yesterday I went to another shop to change the battery.

The inexperienced girl there checked the battery and said it is OK but the circuit was faulty.

I could not believe it.

I asked her to check it with a new battery.

Result was the same.

She fiddled with the contact points then called an older lady to help and she fiddled with it some more and put some anti-corrosion oil and said, nothing doing.

After all this I told them for 16 years this worked all right and I paid only rupees 240 and I cannot find my favorite watchmaker and I left saying that my eyesight is weak, otherwise I would have found what was wrong.
All in all I now made my own diagnosis.

It is mechanical and nothing but.

I came home late and I left the watch in the drawer but only after a little fiddling and thinking that I would attend to it sometime later.

So. did I find the time and fiddled with it and it is working now perfectly.

This how Sri-Lanka operates.

Either the workman / work woman was / were not properly trained or they were trained to cheat.

I will not pass the judgment on this issue but only state that honesty has no place in this country.

The man who ran the shop with the honest watchmaker vanished within five years.

The owner raised the rental and I never so him after that not even in the pavement.

This is the status of life in this Serendib.

I am almost in my retirement I want the clock to stop lest I get older than now.

Tea and Cookies

It is time for me talk and Tea and Cookies, now that I am well above my target of 100 Linux derivatives with lot of cookies in them.
This is not about the cookies that are behind one's browser or cookies that Linux developers put out almost everyday but real cookies we love at tea time.

But unfortunately Sri-Lankan cookies are getting expensive by the day with American flour is up roosting on top of the roof and coconuts are hitting the ceiling in prices, I am bound by duty to talk about cookies the kids love.

If not my grandpa role is of no use.

If I talk about baby rusks it is beyond the reach of our average citizen mother and father.

The ordinary cookies are also expensive and their quality is getting poorer. If a packet is above rupees fifty (which is the price of bread now) we Sri-Lankan prefer bread and sambol to American cookies.
The reason for the cookies getting poor in quality is probably due to the companies cutting corners with all the ingredients making cookies going up in price to save expenses and maintaining the profit margins within their target range.

I am now down two or three varieties that maintain the quality but with the price well above what it used to be. If the price keeps going up perhaps I have to give up eating them.

As regard to tea, it actually sky rocketed well before the budget and with milk is up in price we have to cut down our habit of drinking tea.
In the office now it is black tea and I have stopped drinking it by default.

With this all gloom, there is a silver lining in the sky.
Reason for writing this is to highlight that fact.

One of our Sri-Lankan companies just celebrated its 20 years in existence.

It produces an excellent ice tea priced little above Coca Cola.
Coca Cola is the number one company in America and this Sri-Lankan company can beat it if they do a good market adventure and aggressively promote the tea here in Sri-Lanka and abroad in Middle east and then slowly hit the markets in America.

Coca Cola is junk.
Nescafe is bad for your heart.

  Ceylon Tea is healthy and protects our hearts should be the motto.