Friday, October 11, 2024

Becoming a Publisher Using Linux Utilities

 Reproduction

Becoming a Publisher Using Linux Utilities

I have had a crash course of writing.
Four books after two year lapse and ideas not opinions flowing at a tremendous speed.

I have almost stopped blogging and if I do not sit down and write them, the very next day,     I have forgotten all.

I use forgetting as a method of encouraging new ideas.

Ruminating on the same old opinion is not a good thing for a writer.
One gets bogged down mentally or mental block ensues.

I was down with myocarditis on the first dose of vaccination but thankfully my mental faculties remained intact and that made me to go through the rest I needed, since there is no treatment for myocarditis which may even end up in death.

Initially it was fear but then reality dawned on me that Uncertainty Principle in stock market will fit in nicely with life events as well.

It was not fatigue that made me to go into hibernation.
Having worked 24/7 schedule all my life as a medical person, I needed a long rest, especially because the demise of our dog Zimba put me down low.

He was wonderful companion and I may not write a book about him which was more personal agony than glory.

In fact, I finishing a book about three Ceylonese -afterlife- Dogs and all three now are in Heaven and one as the Maha Brahma's Assistant.

It is strange that I always end up with a Rebirth Episode and that does not spare dogs.

This book would be published soon when I go back to Ceylon for a break. It was hectic holiday and I could not finish the book.

I have for the past 20 years, dissociated with medical activities and I pretend that I am a PhD Guy (of course I have research work to my credit) and not a proper medical guy. Having worked my last years in the University, that ploy worked very well for me and gave me time for blogging, if not writing.

The corona virus pandemic was the correct antidote and I stopped drinking and loitering in the city, aimlessly in book shops, the coffee shops and the tea shops which were mushrooming in a tiny city of Kandy for foreign tourists.

Unfortunately my classmates are either living on medical drugs and are deprived of alcohol due to their medication or have become alcoholic addicts.

I hate the cellphone (gossip channel) and have almost switched off the land phone for good.

The telephone only brings bad news, never good and the rest is gossip.

That made me to write pretty or petty books on alcohol, publishing of books, fact files void of fat, mother nature and about 30 unique guys, I have met in my life including guys doing gem business, union activities, loafing, mountaineering, fishing, vendors, farmers, jokers, petty office assistants, librarians, sportsmen and many more.

Unlike the young days my memory is failing and I have to jot down ideas, in a tiny note book, which I found in New Zealand 30:years ago. and never used but kept it like a souvenir.

I did not bring this book to Australia and I am going back to collect it and enlarge upon the ideas jotted down.

It has all the passwords recorded for posterity.

It has come handy and me forgetting PIN numbers of all the bank accounts made me to write down all the lengthy passwords for my email, except one email (which I remember well due to frequent use), I have forgotten all the other passwords.

I cannot log into CreateSpace account with one email which I have many books published.

Even though, I can some how get to my email by circuitous methods, I cannot get to the bookshelf of mine at CreateSpace.

Finally, I got round of that hurdle and here I am publishing again.

I begin to hate digital books with ugly black and white typeface.

For a long time I used Google's fonts with color to add colour to my blog pieces.

I have resisted buying a Kindle and my tablet battery has gone dead and it cannot be replaced.

I have collected quite a number of Nokia cellphones and a tiny  cellphone (this I have disposed) for calls for Taxi or sending SMS and had a problem with responding to the Amazon's text messages for verification of my book page.

I have many SIM cards (15 in number, I guess a CIA guy do not have that many) for my various activities and have to use at least two of them to coordinate my writings.

The keyboard is a problem and cursor point of the mouse jumps recklessly to unwanted places and editing correction to this entry took more than an hour.

Thank You Amazon, the spell checker did a good job highlighting the mistakes.

Life is getting complicated and paranoid in this modern age,

The pandemic has made lot of guy/girls becoming paranoid.

It is not an evolutionary trend but a bizarre  malady of  modern age!

Thursday, October 10, 2024

Pendrive Linux My Love

 There is a current Debian MultiBootLinux Utility to perform this simple job. 

It is a Python Utility. It works on Linux and I do not know about other non-Linux operating systems.

UnetBootIn has GONE DORMANT.

Reproduction of a Very Old Piece

Pendrive Linux My Love
The name Pendrive Linux has disappeared from the web scene but the www.PendriveLinux.com is there if you need some help for mounting any Linux distribution.
Long ago, I went in web search for 100 Linux distributions, my only aspiration (inspiration too) and last thing I wanted in my possession was to have a Linux booted from a 1 GB Flash Drive.

Flash Drives were expensive then and our download speed was hopeless  and only thing I wanted to bring home was a Mandriva  Globe Trotter and a Mandriva Pendrive Linux when I went  abroad on a different assignment.


By that time I had (with some trial and error) got a Puppy Linux on a Flash Drive but all the efforts of preparing a Pendrive Linux were not successful.
 

Then of course in one of my friends room abroad, I got my Pendrive Linux loaded well pass midnight and I still have it and it is still working.
All these were done on a Windows computer with Gemu (Gnome emulation) executive EXE file on board.


It was a huge achievement for me then.


But I ended up buying a Laptop without Linux for one third of the price then with hard bargaining and almost fighting with the dealer.
Doing this on a Linux was painfully long process for a busy person like me and I never tried it on Linux having got few of my favorite Linux distribution in few of the Flash Drives. 

The again everything on FAT partitions and  not on Linux partitions with /boot, /root, /home and root permissions.
My bad experience with vendors abroad got me into firm resolve to promote Linux Globally but not in this country (Ceylon) where they use pirated copies as a rule (which I detest as a simple Buddhist) and it is the Banana Republic's futuristic motto (Bana is daily sermon and Na is not following or listening but not the slippery plantain we eat to avoid constipation  by listening to the Bana of the politician who do not practice virtues but the voter has to do that on daily basis.

I am glad to see most of the visitors to this site are from abroad and many from USA and they get Linux and healthy dose of anti-capitalistic views which even Obama is pursuing for betterment of the down trodden masses.

My venture into Linux 100 was bumpy but and I am in a better position to talk about Linux and Cloud Computing.

All what you need is a CD/DVD and a Pendrive to be be cloud ready  a savvy or newbie guy/girl and not Android Craze or HP WebOS.

However the distribution I talk about need to shed some fat (client) and become thin clients.
 

Follow Me.

STEPS.
What one's needs are  CD/DVD and two (2) Flash Drives and little free time and one need not do that in one go.

1. Download CloudUSB DVD (1.2 GB).

2. Download your favorite CD/DVD of Linux distribution and copy as an Iso file not as bootable Live CD/DVD.

3. Find a  computer (ideally with USB booting to test your work) DVD writer.

4. Boot Up CloudUSB.

5. Use Boot DVD / USB creator; click and follow instructions.

6. Now you have a USB stick to clone many Pendrives.

7. Boot the Flash Drive with CoudUSB.

8. Go to UnetBooiIn click and follow instructions.

9. Load your favorite Linux CD/DVD containing Iso file into the DVD/CD ROM.

10. Plug in your Second USB Drive

11. Give the path of the CD/DVD Rom as to where the Iso file is.
Wait a while and in the second USB drive you have a new Live distribution of your choice.

12. Then register your company and start selling your products (Live Linux Distributions on a stick). 

But do not jack the price up like our Buddhist monks who sell Bana on a pirated copy of Microsoft CD.

I have not given the finer details which vary from distribution to distribution and why I used CloudUSB is that it promote Cloud computing in style including Ubuntu One and Dropbox  and it has all the utilities (FAT Client though).


In my case I use Ping Eee which has more laptop friendly utilities.

Puppy Linux Studio

Reproduction

Tuesday, October 5, 2010
 

Puppy Studio
Even though, I used PCLinux as my gold standard (it has some problem with its new partition tool-not recognizing some partition types) for live CDs for its versatility and the availability of many versions at disposal, the record for most number of CDs downloaded goes unquestionably to Puppy Linux (I have, more than 20).
Puppy Linux Studio is the latest I downloaded.
It has lite version which is 288MB.
The full version is 376 MB.

It is pretty good and has taken most of the useful packages from TeenPup and LeagcyPup.

Both over 650MB.

Puppy less than 200 is always in my front pocket even when I travel abroad.

I rarely carry a heavy Laptop.

 Even though I carry a flash drive (pen drive) I rarely use it for any problem solving.
Puppy is enough and it is amazing in doing simple and complex things.


Why carry a laptop when one can avoid it.

Before I buy something I load Puppy and see whether everything works before paying in foreign currency. If Puppy fails I do not buy that f0r sure however much the market hype.

As far as I am concerned I categorize (like any other Live) Live CDs based on Puppy MBs.
Is it less than 200 MB?
I love the ones below 200.

NimbleX is one of them. 

NimbleX has become bit fatter recently but still less than 500MB.

The next category is 200 to 500 MB (little less or more).
CRUX, Peppermint and many more out there now.
What annoys me is why try to compress into 700MB CD which is impossible unless one use compression used by Knoppix.

If it goes beyond 700 MB might as well double it to 1500 and go for a decent DVD like Mint rather than no man's land.
There is another problem with trying to compress into 700MB.
Unless one has 1GB RAM, live session is slow and painful.
Many people do not have more than 512MB RAM.
Many of the old machines can be revitalized with 500MB input.
I am glad to see Linux distributions are catering for these machines.

Having said that with or without your own machine all Puppies are adorable.

I will be with you on Pendrive Linux soon.

Linux History

Linux History

Chronology

1991:

The Linux kernel is publicly announced on 25 August by 21-year-old

Finnish student Linus Benedict Torvalds.

1992:

The Linux kernel is re-licensed under the GNU GPL. The first Linux

distributions are created.

1993:

Over 100 developers work on the Linux kernel. With their assistance, the kernel is adapted to the GNU environment, which creates a large

spectrum of application types for Linux. The oldest currently (as of 2015)

existing Linux distribution, Slackware, is released for the first time. Later

that same year, the Debian project is established. Today it is the largest

distribution community.

1994:

Torvalds judges all components of the kernel to be fully matured: he releases version 1.0 of Linux.

The XFree86 project contributes a graphical user interface (GUI).

Commercial Linux distribution makers Red Hat and SUSE publish version 1.0 of their Linux distributions.

1995:

Linux is ported to the DEC Alpha and the Sun SPARC systems. Over the following years, it is ported to an ever-greater number of platforms.

1996:

Version 2.0 of the Linux kernel is released. The kernel can now serve several processors at the same time using symmetric multi-processing (SMP), and thereby becomes a serious alternative for many companies.

1998:

Many major companies such as IBM, Compaq, and Oracle announce their support for Linux.

The Cathedral and the Bazaar were first published as an essay (later as a book), resulting in Netscape publicly releasing the source code to its Netscape Communicator web browser suite. Netscape’s actions and crediting of the essay brings Linux’s open source development model to the attention of the popular technical press. 

In addition, a group of programmers began developing the graphical user interface KDE.

1999:

A group of developers began work on the graphical environment GNOME, destined to become a free replacement for KDE, which at the time depended on the then proprietary, Qt GUI toolkit. 

During this year, IBM announced an extensive project for the support of Linux.

2000:

Dell announces that it is now the No. 2 provider of Linux-based systems worldwide and the first major manufacturer to offer Linux across its full product line.

2002:

2004:

The media reported, “Microsoft killed Dell Linux.”

The XFree86 team splits up and joins with the existing X standards body to form the X.Org Foundation, which results in a substantially faster development of the X server for Linux.

2005:

The project openSUSE begins free distribution from Novell’s community. In addition, the project OpenOffice.org introduces version 2.0 which then started supporting OASIS Open Document Standards.

2006:

2007:

Oracle releases its own distribution of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. 

Novell and Microsoft announce cooperation for better interoperability and mutual patent protection.

Dell starts distributing laptops with Ubuntu pre-installed.

2009:

Red Hats market capitalization equals Suns, interpreted as a symbolic moment for the “Linux-based economy.”

2011:

Version 3.0 of the Linux kernel is released.

2012:

The aggregate Linux server market revenue exceeds that of the rest of the UNIX market.

2013:

Google’s Linux-based Android claims 75% of the Smartphone market share, in terms of the number of phones shipped.

2014:

Ubuntu claims 22,000,000 users.

2015:

Version 4.0 of the Linux kernel is released.

 

I have posted here the Debian releases which were missed by the Statistics of Ubuntu version distributions for France.

My belief is Ubuntu sources deliberately suppressed the information of Debian.

2021 Linux kernel 5.10 L.T.S

32-bits PC (Intel x86) operating system

    Mageia 8 (DVD) Linux 5.10 (Release 28 February 2021, end of life 31 august 2022)

64-bits PC (AMD64) operating system

    Mageia 8 (DVD) Linux 5.10 (Release 28 February 2021, end of life 31 august 2022)

    Please do not confuse Debian Version with Kernel version.

Debian Version 11 in August 2021

    11.0.0-live/ 2021-08-14 22:21

    11.0.0/ 2021-08-14 22:21

    11.1.0-live/ 2021-10-09 22:53

    11.1.0/ 2024-02-19 19:01

    11.2.0-live/ 2021-12-18 21:44

    11.2.0/ 2024-02-19 19:01

    11.3.0-live/ 2022-03-26 22:21

    11.3.0/ 2024-02-19 19:01

    11.4.0-live/ 2022-07-09 18:33

    11.4.0/ 2024-02-19 19:01

    11.5.0-live/ 2022-09-11 00:59

    11.5.0/ 2024-02-19 19:01

    11.6.0-live/ 2022-12-17 20:06

    11.6.0/ 2024-02-19 19:01

    11.7.0-live/ 2023-04-29 22:47

    11.7.0/ 2024-02-19 19:01

    11.8.0-live/ 2023-10-08 01:37

    11.8.0/ 2024-02-19 19:01

    11.9.0-live/ 2024-02-10 23:07

    11.9.0/ 2024-02-19 19:01

    11.10.0-live/ 2024-06-29 22:46

    11.10.0/ 2024-06-29 22:46

Debian Version 12 in June 2023

        12.0.0-live/ 2023-06-10 15:57

        12.0.0/ 2023-06-10 15:57

        12.1.0-live/ 2023-07-22 18:50

        12.1.0/ 2024-02-19 19:01

        12.2.0-live/ 2023-10-07 22:24

        12.2.0/ 2024-02-19 19:01

        12.3.0-NEVER-RELEASED/ 2023-12-10 18:29

        12.4.0-live/ 2023-12-11 01:45

        12.4.0/ 2024-02-19 19:01

        12.5.0-live/ 2024-02-10 21:12

        12.5.0/ 2024-02-19 19:01



Myths, Mirage and Marriage

Reproduction

Read My Book on Amazon Books

Myths, Mirage and Marriage

 It is said married life with kids (not without) prolong one´s life of existence.

I reproduce here posted in asokaplus at wordpress where no one visits.

I cannot remember when I posted this or whenever had I written this, being a married man.

All the same it is worth repeating with some editing and formatting.

The 3Ms here have common ancestry.

None of can be achievable and each one of them is shrouded in mystery.

For example one who is lost and disorientated in desert sand would not know for certain whether he is arriving at a water hole or not.

Myths of can be expanded to any direction or dimension one who is seeking the miracle go to any extent to believe what in reality is not achievable and where the reality is the major casualty.

Some common practices and beliefs merge into day to day life sometimes almost imperceptible to reality.

Marriage is an institution that has gained such a reputable credence that writing anything against is amounting to desecration and sacrilegious.

That is the myth I am going to expose and explode.

There is no intention of disrupting any healthy harmony that may exists in any relationship or institution.

Healthy relationships can exist and lasting friendships can be developed without this institution existing its power over individuals but when something is institutionalized and when it is bound to the common law and practices and finely tuned with ethical and moral practices of a culture aforesaid myth and mirage also will get entangled with it.

Idea here is to disentangle certain myths associated with marriage.

1. Marriage is a perfect union

2. Marriage works because of give and take

3. Marriage is a stable institution

4. There is freedom in marriage

5. It does not grow old but remain live

6. It gives security

7. It has common goals

8. It makes life complete

9. Without this institution human relationships cannot be developed

10. Everyone must commit to this institution at one stage of his or her life


This list can go on but suffice is to disentangle the entangled myths.

These arguments are not for one who is already entangled since with the wedlock there is a legal deadlock.

This is for one who leaps into deep water without addressing his or her own issues.

The first casualty in war is truth.

Similarly the first casualty in marriage is freedom.

If you love freedom and lot of hobbies thinks twice before taking the plunge.

1. The first casualty is your hobbies.

2. The second casualty is your friends.
If you have lot of friends and love their company think twice.

3. Third casualty is one’s finance (unless both are bankers with good investment funds for life like the Murdoch).
If you cannot manage finances alone two of you will not mange it better
.

4. Fourth myth is the stability and security.
There are no institutions in this world which is stable and secure.
Even the best banks can bust. 

The Uncertainty Principle rules.

In marriage finances would bust first, especially when the kids come home.

5. It makes life complete is the biggest myth of all.
It makes simple life more complicated in marriage life and you never complete the set targets or your obligations, even if you live beyond 100 years.

That is why I have set my target at 80. 

Living beyond 80 is a burden to this planet.

6. In marriage more you give in more you have to give and less you have to take. 

One never get a chance to take in, if you are the giver.
It is like putting water into a bucket with hole in the bottom.

7. Marriage does not get old.
It is not true it is the institution that gets older by the minute.
Moment you tie your nuptials and finishes the honeymoon it is old enough to be called a marriage.

That is why we have so many marriage jubilees from its inception. 

This is written with the impending royal wedding in mind.
You know what happened to Diana.


As long as you are a commoner please do not do what royals do.

Remain a commoner for life and you may advise the royals (couples) in trouble.

Better still you become a divorce lawyer.

Hope the royal couple reads this one day after the honeymoon (too late by then).

I wish Good Luck to them all the same.

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Dementia Research In Heaven

Dogs and Dementia Research In Heaven 

I have never been to Heaven and what is told here is only a hearsay and not a heresy. 

I had some connection with the Heaven for a very short period of time when one of my dog friends ended up in heaven and that story for completeness sake is told, as an addendum elsewhere, when the current and the latest story is told for public consumption. 

That dog is no more and has attained Nibbhana by stroke of luck and a very clever strategy. It is not divulged here but you have to read my book on dogs.

He has extinguished his life flame in the way of Buddhist Tradition.

My connection to Heaven is through email facility, which the Maha Brahma granted me while the dog who “Exited” was acting as the Maha Brahma’s Assistant. 

I still have this connection and there was no email facility in Heaven, at that time and with my Linux connection, I established a Server in Heaven to assist Maha Brahama who is on eternal holiday.       

Nobody can contact him direct when he is on holiday but emails can be forwarded for perusal whenever he decides to return. 

Before my inadvertent contact and Establishment of Linux Server, Maha Brahma had to remember everything by simple rote memory and that was a gigantic task even in heavenly terms.

By the way, my interests are not on Heaven but on Hell where I was told by our Paraya Dog that manipulations of sentences in Hell are made by surreptitious mechanism by Ceylonese Lawyers who entered there by default Karma. 

This is of course relating to the sentences to our politicians who invariably enter Hell.

The lawyers continue the habit of rearguard action for unfortunate politicians.

I have gone into to depth unlike our judges and to ease my work I have written a software in Linux to screen all applications made from Ceylon to both Heaven and Hell. 

All the acts of vandalism caused by Lawyers currently in Ceylon and those Lawyers who entered Hell have being aborted by this software.

Apaya Server is very well maintained.

I am Acting Director of Apaya Server, until I kick the bucket from this existence. Maha Brahma himself requested me to take up the post before, he went on a long vacation. 

The Establishment of this Server 24/7 Schedule made Maha Brahma to avail himself of leave.

The current agreement is, I will hold the Acting Capacity until I exist from here and I am only interested in meting out justice to our current politicians who are ace manipulators of our affairs. That post would fall vacant after my demise and a new guy would be elected at the discretion of Maha Braha himself.

I have no interest in continuing in that post, since the Server and the Software I created would last aeons and aeons, since it is made out of Linux Code.

 

Let me deal with the heaven in general.

All the Gods have a good time when they are there but descend to lower realms the moment they exist. They know it very well and that is why they want us to give them live wire as merits when we dish out Dhana when one of our guys or girls do exit from this planet earth.

I have no intention of letting lose any of my merits left. 

Similarly, I have no intention of coming back to earth as a lowly animal.

I wish something better.

I wish to have the full exit, just like our Paraya Dog.

 

But there is a caveat here.

Our dog Zimba is supposed to be in heaven and I wish to see him at least once or twice because he was  such a good soul.

I lost my “temper tantrums” thanks to his demeanor while he was with us.

 

That is my entry point to this book about current dogs. 

It is said that all dogs go to heaven and very few humans go there by default. 

The dogs who go there also realize their plight when they do exit from heaven. 

When the time is up it is also dicey for them too. 

Nobody has any control our Rebirth Protocol which is automatic and instantaneous, even for Maha Brahma.

He has no say but to store the Karma capacity of all subjects of hell and heaven.

What Maha Brahma tries to accomplish is to allocate the remaining merits (Kusal) or demerits (Akusal) in accordance with Cause and Effect Principle and nothing more.

It is not a laborious task but a boring task.

Nevertheless, he enjoys the sequence of events and he lives longer than the other gods to see things in Evolution of the Rebirth Cycle.

In other words, he has more merits and he does not wish to extinguish his life flame as the boss of all gods. 

This is where bit of rivalry happens in heaven but that is not the topic of this book. 

He is interested in Dementia in humans.

There is no Dementia in Gods, they do remember everything big and small. All what Maha Brahma (no vetting at all) does in heaven is monitored by other Gods who wish to take his place, when he exits to a lower plane.

This has created some issues to Maha Brahma who wish some of his cohorts develop some form of Dementia so that he can get on with his activities without any snooping by other Gods.

Gossip is prevalent in heaven.

He is considering some form genetic manipulations in a few of his aspiring God candidates without any malice. 

I have been working with children all my life except for a brief period in New Zealand where I had to deal with geriatric patients. For the first time, I saw lot of them with Dementia and had developed some interest in preventing dementia which is not a problem for the victims but to their non demented kith and kin.

I have to make some reference to Dhammapada here and it is relevant. 

It rare to be born as a human and do not waste that instance with mundane affairs. That is where the “Exit” dog put a stamp of approval of Buddha’s Teaching.

This dog who was frequenting the Temple in Kandy had heard some wise sermons in his time as a dog. 

Rest of the dogs including Pedigree dogs only realize their plight only when they have reached the mighty heaven.

My interest in Dementia is ongoing until, I succumb to it.

Story of The Three Dogs 

If it is successful a portion of its proceeds would be donated to Independent Dementia Research on Dogs in this world of our own.

There are so many demented guys in American politics, I consider using them as my research data base after their retirement from politics (i.e; after two terms in office). Ceylonese politicians are excluded since they are in advanced stage of Dementia Documentosa Stage III for any benefit to their souls.

They are better off dead for a long rein in hell.

For the sake of their young (USA citizens) family members wishing to take up politics in the future, I am going to have a Secure Linux Database (SLD for short) in Hell.

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

The Menace of Microsoft UEFI

The Menace of Microsoft UEFI

This is an Old Piece.

Debian is on again in my Laptop

I inadvertently erased my Debian Distribution in my Old Laptop.

I had problem installing it without Internet connection.

It is all due to this UEFI boot loader of Microsoft incarnation, in fact, trying an incarnation in reverse gear, on my laptop which I erased 5 years ago.

It (boot loader) does not let me install Linux without Windows.


The records in the UEFI haunted me.


Thanks to BSD but specifically TRUE OS I erased the UEFI, boot loader.


I had a installable DVD in my archive made in 2017, December.

Other DVDs I have shy of erasing the UEFI boot record.


Finally Endless OS erased it but won't let me, dual boot Linux.

 

This is how to do it.


1. Boot TrueOS and install it.


2. Boot Gparted and delete the tank root partition.


3. But leave the ESP made by TrueOS untouched.


4. Boot Debian 10 latest CD1 (you do not need other Debian.CDs).


5. Install Debian in the free space by deleting tank partition.


6. Again do not touch ESP made by TrueOS.


7. Install Debian and let it do its partitioning.


8. It takes the remaining space for a huge /home partition.


9. I delete
/home partition and resize it and make also a /boot partition for safety.


10. BIOS partition does not function in this scenario.


11. Debian install its base system and once it is over, it lets you select from the Taskel. the desktop types.


12. I select all except web server.


Hit install and it takes a bit of a time and I either sleep or browse my emails.


But remain nearby.


It stops and asks a few options for you to confirm including root password, user passwords and a few more questions.


Say NO to them since you are not connected to the Internet.


It wastes your time and your first DVD has everything you need.


It installs and eject the DVD.


Thanks again to TRUE OS developers.


Do not try Ubuntu or any other Linux distribution they hide behind UEFI,  even though they claim UEFI compatibility.


This is true to Peppermint.and Mandriva.

I tried all of them and only Debian succeeded.

Thanks to Debian and Debian developers please take a leaf out of BSD overtures (by default) and do NOT feel shy to erase UEFI.


The U or Unified is not TRUE, it defies Unification logic.

Monday, October 7, 2024

Albert Schweitzer on Peace

Albert Schweitzer

Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (German: 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was a German-born, French polymath from Alsace.

He was a theologian,

organist,

musicologist,

writer,

humanitarian,

philosopher and

a physician.

As a Lutheran minister, Schweitzer challenged both the secular view of the historical Jesus as depicted by the historical-critical method current at this time, as well as the traditional Christian view.

His contributions to the interpretation of Pauline Christianity concern the role of Paul's mysticism of "being in Christ" as primary and the doctrine of justification by faith as secondary.

The Problem of Peace

Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize of 1952, accepting the prize with the speech, "The Problem of Peace".

With the $33,000 prize money, he started the leprosarium at Lambaréné.

From 1952 until his death he worked against nuclear tests and nuclear weapons withAlbert Einstein, Otto Hahn and Bertrand Russell.

In 1957 and 1958, he broadcast four speeches over Radio Oslo, which were published in Peace or Atomic War.

In 1957, Schweitzer was one of the founders of The Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy.

On 23 April 1957, Schweitzer made his "Declaration of Conscience" speech; it was broadcast to the world over Radio Oslo, pleading for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

His speech ended, "The end of further experiments with atom bombs would be like the early sun rays of hope which suffering humanity is longing for.

Medicine

At the age of 30, in 1905, Schweitzer answered the call of The Society of the Evangelist Missions of Paris, which was looking for a physician. The committee of this missionary society was not ready to accept his offer, considering his Lutheran theology to be "incorrect". He could easily have obtained a place in a German evangelical mission, but wished to follow the original call despite the doctrinal difficulties. Amid a hail of protests from his friends, family and colleagues, he resigned from his post and re-entered the university as a student in a three-year course towards the degree of Doctorate in Medicine, a subject in which he had little knowledge or previous aptitude. 

He planned to spread the Gospel by the example of his Christian labour of healing, rather than through the verbal process of preaching and believed that this service should be acceptable within any branch of Christian teaching.

Even in his study of medicine and through his clinical course, Schweitzer pursued the ideal of the philosopher-scientist. 

By extreme application and hard work, he completed his studies successfully at the end of 1911. His medical degree dissertation was another work on the historical Jesus, Die psychiatrische Beurteilung Jesu. Darstellung und Kritik [The psychiatric evaluation of Jesus. Description and criticism] (published in English in 1948 as The Psychiatric Study of Jesus. Exposition and Criticism. 

He defended Jesus' mental health in it.

In June 1912, he married Helene Bresslau, municipal inspector for orphans and daughter of the Jewish pan-Germanist historian Harry Bresslau.

In 1912, now armed with a medical degree, Schweitzer made a definite proposal to go as a physician to work at his own expense in the Paris Missionary Society's mission at Lambaréné on the Ogooué river, in what is now Gabon, in Africa (then a French colony). 

He refused to attend a committee to inquire into his doctrine, but met each committee member personally and was at last accepted.

Do we, the Mankind need a religion in the 21stcentury?

 Do we, the Mankind need a religion in the 21st Century?

Strangely, an incident of recent origin, in West Coast made me to blow up mildly.

Real details are withheld.

We were about to get into our car and three women one White, one mixed African descent and one of Chinese stock approached us, in reality bold incursion, wanted to recite the Bible to us.

They did not ask what our religion is, which should be the correct protocol of any bold incursion.

They kept on reading the Bible ad nauseam.

After a while, I said "It is time up" and we are Buddhists and we do not believe in God (did not say your God).

Then the Chinese one in turn, asked who is your God and I turned a sarcastic gesture and said, "I can be Nasty'' and they disappeared.

What had happened to “Freedom of Thought" in the 21st Century?

Are we still slaves to dogma, faith, belief, a mad conviction to a band of religion or War in the name of Pseudo Gods, in the Middle East?

Do we, the Mankind need a religion?

My simple answer to that is a big NO.

Before I enlarge upon this topic, I need to bare some neurological facts.

There is  No Religious Center in the brain but there is a Language Center in the Cortical brain.

I tend to believe that the appearance of Hair on the Head (this is unusual compared to other mammals) and  Language Skills and Prematurely Born Infant (needing prolong breast feeding) facilitated communication skills of humans from birth. 

Brain is neuro-ectodermal in origin and association of hair on head is nothing but a simple association.

Religion divides people and it was a creation of mankind somewhere around 3000 years ago, in the rich and fertile Middle East.

The time scale of three thousand years is statistically insignificant, if the man’s current estimated evolutionary diversion, if we assume, it had taken place 50,000 years ago.

Drastic genetic change occurred around 3 to 5 million years ago and it took minimum of two and a half million years for establishment of humanoids.

In that sense 3000 years is nothing.

From the time man started counting millenniums, 3000 years had become historically important. 

I believe it was the time of resurgence of the idea or the need for some form of arbitrary religion for  human exploitation.

After 40,000 (10,000 years ago) years from that point, the agricultural civilization beginning to emerge (in which part of the world, I would not guess), man had ample time to create new ideas.

Religion was one of these ideas.

 Agricultural adventures could have been anywhere, given the evolution of grasses to the present day grain producing wild cereals.

This estimation goes haywire, if we assume humanoids were galactic explorers, in the style of    “Star Wars” and visitors from the outer space or aliens.

My classification during this period of 50,000 can be simplified.

1. Man hunted by the beast.

2. Man hunting the beast including woolly mammoth. 

The woolly mammoth coexisted with early humans, who used its bones and tusks for making art, tools and dwellings.

This species was also hunted for food.

It disappeared from its mainland range at the end of the Pleistocene Era, 10,000 years ago, most likely through climate change and consequent shrinkage of its habitat or hunting by humans or a combination of the two. 

My gut feeling is tuberculosis did intervene to decimate the woolly mammoth and the early humans. 

The elephants contracted it from the humans.

Isolated populations survived on St. Paul Island until 6,400 years ago and Wrangell Island until 4,000 years ago.

3. Gatherer

4. Trader

Around 5000 years ago trading elephants hunted from North Africa. 

They were supplying war effort of Romans before their decline. 

These traders coming from Middle East, probably did not have a religion.

5. Current civilization was seeded around Egypt. 

Sumarians laid the foundation.

6. Theory of God emerged somewhere around 3000 probably nearer Israel. 

This may be after alien visitation and aliens were considered as Gods.

7. Explosion of religions in Indian subcontinent except in Russia and China, 

It is also related to alien visitation.

The hidden literature in Vimanas is a living monument. 

8. The current working religion is Money.

There is no place for any other religion other than Money.

Whichever way one looks this scenario, the final working philosophy is to Generate Money.

The concepts of Capitalism or Socialism does not mater, if they are weighed with money.

My analysis is based on right and wrong principle. It differs from the good or bad principle of all the religions. My definition is completely different. 

Right is neither good nor bad or neutral.

Coming to current world, the might is right.

Its appropriateness is to the current needs and not to the past needs.

If a Muslim can kill another as an infidel and say it is godly thing and good, there is something radically wrong.

Killing or War is not the right way.

It is the beastly behavior in our gene makeup expressed at random.

In the 21st century we need our animal genes to be suppressed.

The religion originated in the name of God and Good but it has not delivered its key concepts to the current needs of the mankind.

Christianity and Muslim Divide started the Bible War. 

Judaism in the Middle East and the Oil needs of America instituted the ongoing terrorism and War in the Middle East. 

The way UNO drew lines in the world map quite arbitrarily after the World War II and made countries to it's whims and fancies of UK, USA and France (Italy, Germany and Japan, the losers were left out) and they left  Palestinians to their own devices.

It is not rectified to this day.

So it is time for the UNO to declare “A day for People Without Religion” (in other words people without division) is timely and appropriate.

China did not have a religion for over 5000 years. 

Buddhism reached there about 1700 years ago and was established there for nearly 1400 years and over the last 1000 years it gradually disintegrated.

For some reason or other, they hated Buddhism and MaO Se Dung did the finishing touches. 

I reason this out on the basis that Chinese eat any animal species including dragons.

Does it mater to Chinese citizens?

Russia did not have a state religion for the last 150 years, after the demise of the Tsar and Rasputin, the devil in the Church of Russia.

Does it matter to Russians?

According to one of my Indian friends, there are 1 billion Indians and one billion gods.

Does it make an Indian free of abject poverty.

The whole African continent did not have a religion until Muslims from the North and Christianity from the South, almost by force (Belgium was the biggest culprit) converted them.

Does it mean now the Africans are liberated?

I suppose Nelson Mandela (astute vision) never declared his religious status.

For him humanity was more important.

The right thing is to decimate terrorism be that it may be, white supremacists, black activists, JVP,  LTTE, ISIS, Mossad, Nazy Hitler or any other dictator.

In fact, we got rid of one dictator in Ceylon by popular vote but he is waiting in the wing for another fling, his God willing.

I sometime think, this tiny country was the breeding ground for radicalism and terrorism.

It is the minority in each religion who rules the majority.

Even in this country, Buddhism has fallen prey to politicians with ulterior motives and corrupt monks trading elephants.

This country would become a better place if we declare once a months a holiday for people without a religion, just like the Poya (including Satara Poya for Buddhists), Friday (for Muslims) and Sunday (for Christians).

Unfortunately there is no day for Hindus and they are all peaceful beings.

If one set off 12 days for the above and another four the Tamils we still have 14 days left.

We must reserve at least one day a month (before these 14 days are grabbed by various extreme sets of religious or political groups) in the coming Constitution for the non believers of religion and specially for the non believers of our politicians and politics.

On that day, the government should keep all liqueur bars open for only non believers (believers should be restrained in their own houses or in the Church, Mosque or Temple).

Come to think about and looking at the budget figures of alcohol sale, I am convinced believers (all religions combined) drink much more than the non believers. 

The non believers although in the minority should contribute to the state coffers by enjoying a drink once a month.

For some in this country democracy is as sacred as religion but we find a way to send only the corrupt people to the parliament by default.

For me, it is one fool out 100 non fools who makes the decisive vote (49 against 51). 

He is often the most foolish of the lot but ends up as the leader of the country.

This is why, I never registered for the vote (for over 40 years) come elections and feel proud that I am liberated from not only religion but also from DUD political leaders of this country. 

In other words, I am emancipated by default, not out of convention, contention or context or conviction.

I suppose all the other guys and girls consider me gone nuts. 

It does not matter to me, this country is full of nutty people and they are in one asylum called august assembly or the parliament.

There is a section in the Apaya International reserved for them when they demise. I wish I become the Director General there, since our Solicitor General always sees lines between lines in the interpretation of our law and set free all the culprits.

It is called transparency.

Our Minister for Justice say hooray to this mediocre guy in the name of non interference. Strangely, he happens to be the Minister for Buddhism. 

I think he is trying to attain Sovan or higher sublime state during his term of office.

I hope he will give up the post when that happens.

An average citizen until then should bite his/her teeth (not in he courts of law, he will be prosecuted and charged).

 

Sunday, October 6, 2024

Ornamental Threatened Fish in Ceylon

Ornamental Threatened Fish in Ceylon 

I was a avid fish keeper with over 20 to 40 little and big glass tanks and two cement ponds. 


Gouramis and Zebra fish were my interests.

I thought we had only a few endemic fish types.

Giant Danios in Hantana Stream and Rosy Barbs in Matale and Galagedera streams in Upcountry were the one two I did know.

I am told there are over 100 endemic species in the West Zone.

Quickly I became an Environmentalist and strongly opposed fish vendors selling local species except for those who are empowered to breed them and release them back to the wild.

I turned only to water plants especially lilies and Guppy fish.

I use guppy fish to control mosquitoes and periodically release them to the local streams.

Guppy fish is not an endemic species.

The biggest danger to guppy fish is the use of Washing Machines which releases large quantities of toxic material which are toxic to the gills (breathing apparatus).

Once the gills ate damaged there is no recovery.

I forgot to put an entry in Road Maps for Ceylon, on our ornamental fish. I am going to rectify it immediately.

Saving our Endemic Ornamental Fish

The biggest danger is the Fresh Water Aquariums and foreign species of Scavenger fish. 
They either escape from aquariums inadvertently or are released deliberately (feeding them with guppy fish I abhor) due to economic reasons of not being able to feed them.

With economic downturn keeping ornamental fish is a luxury in Ceylon.

When the imported fish food went up, I moved to guppy fish who need minimum of care and they rarely become carnivorous.

Before I left Ceylon I put a couple of beautiful guppies in a plastic tank with lot of water plants expecting the plants to retain water (I was expecting to return home in 3 months) in the tank without drying up.

I think the tank may have dried up in no time.

The plastic tank or box was the one I used to care for injured birds and animals.

With air fare going up an election covering the holiday season, it is Good Bye to Mother Lanka.

I honestly, do not believe there going to be any recovery in a foreseeable future.

Politics in not my domain but philosophy is. 

I am currently working on a book of  "Betrayal of Philosophy".

I could not find the book on Das Capital by Carl Marx after 10 years of searching.

Strangely, an incident yesterday in West Coast made me to blow up mildly. 
Real details withheld.
 
This incident does not warrant a single blog piece.
We were about to get into our car and three women one white, one mixed African descent and one of Chinese stock approached us, in reality bold incursion, wanted to recite the Bible to us. 

They did not ask what our religion is, which should be the normal protocol of any bold incursion.

They kept on reading the Bible ad nauseam.

After a while, I said "It is time up" and we are Buddhists and we do not believe in God (did not say your God).

Then the Chinese one in turn asked who is your God and I turned a sarcastic gesture and said, "I can be Nasty' and they disappeared.

I suppose this is a good entry point to my book on "Philosophy Betrayed".

What had happened to "Freedom of Thought" in the 21st century?

Are we still slaves to dogma, faith, belief, a mad conviction to a band of religion or War in the name of Pseudo Gods, in the Middle East?