Linux-100-Extras-Knoppix-6.4-Update

In spite of work, Cricket World Cup, I found time to test Knoppix 6.4 CD/DVD and both are equally good and can be installed into the hard disk.

In the past after various tricks I managed to install Knoppix in a FAT partition of my laptop.

Since I have number of distributions in all my computers getting any new distribution installed is a bit of a hassle.No wonder the developers cannot keep pace with my finicky behaviour.

This is equally true when I have two hard disks.
I am yet to find a distribution except perhaps Debian which can detect multiple distributions in the same computer and the correct boot record.
Each distribution has its own way to figure out and configure the boot record. Distribution counts hard disks a and b , c for hard disks and in one distribution a become b and b become a and another a is a and b is b at boot time.

This is confusing for me and I have to figure out how to sort it and edit boot message. I do not like this happening.

If you have no distribution in your hard disk the installation is straight forward but my installation are very complicated since I have to figure out how the distribution configure thing and sometime try trial an error method.

I never give up but after many trials I get the distributions to behave in the way I want them to be.

New Knoppix was no different I had several failures but finally I got it in my hard disk cohabiting with various other distributions this time in a native Linux partition not FAT.

It is derivative of Debian squeeze and is pretty good.

Who says Debain is bad.

It has no administrative constrains, like Puppy can do anything without root permission sometimes with superuser status. Please do not get angry with me these are Linux vocabulary.

So be careful (it gives a brief warning every time it does something drastic).

It needs a swap partition and at least one reiserfs partition (big enough to accommodate the wast resources it has). Small partition for CD but a very big one for the DVD.
It need at least 1 GiB swap in the first partition, but I gave 2 instead.
It's partition tool Gparted sometime find it difficult to partition the hard disk.

So I booted Debian's Gparted and did the changes and booted Knoppix.

Its actions are almost automatic and instantaneous and moment you press ENTER it gets down to work so if you have data in your hard disk please take special care.

It's compiz is excellent and I will install it in every one of my computers when they are undergoing major changes. I went down for a cup of tea and when I returned the monitor was going berserk with scintillating graphic and thought the graphic card has gone. Not so its graphics are pretty good.

It has lot of games too.

Pingus is excellent. I kept playing it while it was being installed which one can never can do when windows are being installed.

Who says one day cricket is dull?

We had a fascinating game of cricket today.

The match was between cricketing fanatic India and the game's originator England.

It was nice to see England captain Strauss take man of the match award beating, the legend of India, Sachin Tandukar.

There is is no match for the young blood of England and it was no fun for Sachin and his weary legs.

I suppose when time comes one has to retire and there were guys in this side of the Palk Straight who wanted to join the team and we were wise enough to spare him the agony. Trying to entertain your fan base is not good for your physique and health our Sachin also will retire and become a sporting ambassador to the Asian continent who are keen on betting and bringing bad name to the game.

I hope Indian spectator would be nice to him the day he fails and retire.

Anyway cricket was the winner taking the game to the wire and making a tie was a big achievement and neither side deserved to lose this match.

It was a good stater for the tournament.

A star was born and that is Andrew Strauss and English fans should be proud of him.

Not only he brought ashes home (team game) but brought the 50 over game to its heights.

But you boys must make sure you beat Australia in this tournament.

We will be cheering for England all the way.

We are fed of Australian arrogance and I saw somewhere England was written off.

I predict a final with England and South Africa and it does not matter who wins if you make it into that point even though I favour South Africa.

Blessing in Disguise-Linux Games

I have avoided using games as a plus point or a weakness of Linux.

You may wonder why?

Whether we like it or not games are essential for life.

Too much of any game or demanding sports may break a marriage.

Similarly lack of games can terminate a marriage.

So when I talk about games, I always start with that advantage point which is neutral to begin with.

We tend to associate games with children and young adults and as a growing up process.

But I would like to disagree.

Even animals love games as young ones and they start playing with the mum and the litter and not only that process teaches them cooperation and learning to avoid dangers when the leave they adults as solitary animals.

Dogs digs the earth when they are bored.

For them this process is essential and leaving some stuff dug up and hidden and getting the dog to discover the bones is a standard game.

That takes the boredom out of their system.

The very same pattern of boredom sets into adults if we do not occupy with some gaming activity.

The Cricket World Cup is now in full swing and every body who is somebody is now slowly making their entry into the fray.

If you cannot play at least watch the game.

It is good for your health if you are not gambling with the outcome of the game.

Regarding Linux of course one of the weak points as I saw in the early stages was its lack of games. For me who had by that time almost addicted to DOS and Windows was a blessing in disguise.

That made me to delve deep into Linux and I am now almost daily writing something or teaching somebody its virtues or doing some activity with Linux (in dropbox) and the 24 hours of the day not is not enough for me.

Similarly if one is introducing computer science to a young one not having games is an advantage. So the child can concentrate on learning nitty gritty points of computing.

In the same tone in very young child, the games can be a vehicle for introducing learning techniques.

What is important is that the games should be age appropriate and should be of short duration and easy to perform.

There are lot of little games in Linux but but there is paucity of very advanced games.

The context is so bad I bought a book that dealt with Linux games thinking one day when I have time I will start making an attempt to produce at least some elementary games for kids.

Mind you making games for very young kids is difficult. There attention span is short unlike the bigger children. In the bigger children their attention span is so intense and they get absorbed so much gradually game becomes an addition.

I have a very simple solution for that.

When we played it was a habit that the entire extended family get involved in the game and the computer games that we played were of the group category. We used to take turns, those watching will help with the clues.

Most of the Waltz Disney games come under this category.

Tarzan, Lion King and Zero to Hero were few of them and gradually migrated to Italian Job, Raider of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones.

Mind you all of them were windows based and none of that intensity was found in Linux.

Then I discovered Tux Racer, Pinguy and a few others in Linux.

There are big Linux game packs.

I have not seen a single yet.

It takes at least two weeks to download them. When I have finished addressing the Linux 100 and Linux Extras, I may consider downloading.

I have eventually decided to download the big game pack even if it takes a month to do so.

Or else if I happen to go abroad I will keep two days for that activity.

I have tried few friends outside.

Unfortunately the are not versed with Linux.

Ten (10) plus nuances that annoys the desktop user

From its origin Linux was developed by developers for the developers.

Its architecture and file hierarchy is archaic and resistant to change.

I have been using it long enough, it is stable, robust and I do not need to worry about it except running it 24 /7 schedule in spite of electricity bills going up to get its maximum. Since I am doing regular download of Linux distributions for testing (a hobby of some sort) this rigmarole is OK. All the CRON jobs are (regular maintenance) done for me and I do not need to worry about configuring it to suit my needs.

Since I am not a Server Master but only a Desktops User (perhaps as workstation) how the developer can figure out what I do with my computer in the 24 hour schedule is something I ponder.

I would like the computer to be my slave rather than it masters things for me.

1.That is one of the weaknesses. Linux is a work horse but my horse is very finicky in its behaviour what he eats and what schedule he follows .

He follows the developers schedule and not my finicky behaviour schedule. One can say in that case you configure it yourself. That is a good argument but with file architecture being streamlined, rigid and resistant to change, one cannot change a cabinet and put it in an less obtrusive place for me. If I do that whole file system crashes and even with the root permission when the system boots next time it goes back to its preferred protocol.

I need to know like a developer every bit of file structure and of scheduling routine. I love to do that but I am a professional in another field not computer field. My field needs and structures are completely different form automatic response of a computer.

2. My needs are customer based. That is the second nuance. The file hierarchy and resources are good for a Server but not an ordinary human being like me.

I do not want to go to the loo exactly at the same time and same place and void exact amount of void. In other words I need some personality to my voiding or consumption habits that vary from day to day.

Not the way the developer voids and eats.

The file hierarchy is stable and is not customizable.

3. The sames goes with programs. I cannot change a system program and go for a more flexible program. In that case I have to go for a different distribution or for a different desktop (Gnome or KDE or LXDE).

I cannot interchange desktop experience. It can be done by installing Gnome and KDE versions in the same computer separately but one can use only one session at a time. They do not speak to each others library systems and GTKs are different. That is the third.

4.The real disadvantage is its package management system. One has to be satisfied with one grand package version and and cannot go back to old or new one without radical change to the system and install procedure. One has to wait for the rolling system or to a new radically changed system. For example I have been using Redhat for years (not really I cut my teeth with it and changed with Fedora evolution and migrated to PCLinux) and the company changes its protocol from Fedora 13 to 14 with sea of changes (like Microsoft) and file formats. The other distributions resident in the same computer cannot mount them or effect changes to the files in the home partitions. This is ridiculous change for the user who had being doing something as a routine is changed without his feed back.

It is a corporate decision not a community decision or request.

I am not resistant to change. I am for it but uses are not scape goats or made vulnerable like what Microsoft or Apple does to its customer base.

This is the change that make Microsoft user looking for other avenues like Linux. If Linux distributions also on commercial bent use that strategy it will certainly misfire.

GoBo Linux had been trying to address this issue by radically changing the file architecture and ability to use old and new in versions (say Open Office and Libre Office libraries are organized in a structurally different architecture with sharing (common) and not sharing independent (Java Suite).

This can be done but this distribution has not received the backing of the rest of the community. In fact I have been waiting for its new release over last three years and it does not seem to be coming. It is long overdue.

I hope Libre Office coming it to its existence they should attempt to reorganize the library system (at archive level and user level) and make innovations.

It is hard work but worth a try.

Then we can have long term (LTS) support for 10-15 years instead of the present 3 to 5 years instead.

5. Other nuance is the release cycles. It is at its extreme from months to years to decades. There is no agreed protocol and they have this rolling system also. It is OK for distro-hoppers but not for old people like us. I of course hopped distributions at a regular interval and I have 5 to 8 distributions in my laptop, that does not mean that I use them regularly.

They are for a particular purpose.

I keep GoBo Linux and Yoper because of their original approach and I love their changes and that gives me some opportunity for research material to engage in.

Then I can give perhaps some visionary advice.

GoBo thinks of the file architecture and its rearrangement.

YOPER thinks of truncating file extensions and throughput.

Linux is a visionary approach.

It needs new vision and dimensions for the current century.

Live CDs was a vision (demo to begin with) but now it is a universal approach.

Try it before you use it.

Then speed of booting is another vision.

6. With big hard disk coming we must make not 15 to 60 partitions but 1000 or more partitions.

Linux can handle it but not Microsoft. The number of partition a distribution uses (the minimum and the maximum) changes constantly.

7. Hardware compatibility is a major issue. This is not due to the fault of Linux. It is the manufacturers and vendors ploy to support one particular operating system over the other. It is time we should have legislature to regularize this at least in the European community if not America and UK.

8. Cloud Computing is taking a corporate stand now with Google taking a bigger bite. Linux User must be ready for dual purpose. One is browsing, the other is using Linux utilities like Gimp, Sribus and Inkcape and Blender for personal use. We must not let these excellent utilities disappear with Cloud Computing.

9. There are over 300 very good distributions and reviewers review only a few and the reviews are also not balanced, They do not do it at a research level. They do it at the level of blogging not professional to say the least. Gut feeling like in politics and daily papers.

Review means reviews (pros and cons and neutrals) and not shoddy hasty writing. There is professionality attached to this word.

Nothing more nothing less.

10. Last but not least. many distributions do not have a multilanguage capability. Only recently Sinhala has two distributions supporting it. This is essential for children programs doudoulinusx is attempting it.

Others should follow..

There are many other minor matters but this is to highlight no operating system is perfect. We only have to know the good and the bad and drop all the ugly ones.

LinuX Discussions and Forums

I Love this Lovely Discussion going on at the beginning of the year, unfortunately Cricket World Cup is on, hence, my contribution is mild and muted.
Being a medical man I look at problems in a practical way.

Poor patients need simple solutions not elaborate diagnosis and surgery.

This applies to Linux community and computer users too.

I feel Linux community's service to it user base is better than what the WHO offers to medical fraternity.
There (WHO) contribution, I feel us very, very poor.
Because there is no scrutiny.
We are experts and "nobody can contribute better" is their attitude.

When it comes to Linux (not Microsoft) everybody is an expert in one sense or the other as a user who has some good and some very very bad experience (pain and suffering of medical patients).
Unless Linux Guys and Girls voice their frank opinion (if patients do not tell us their difficulty we cannot help them) we cannot improve.

We should not pretend we are the best.

If we assume that scenario like WHO we are going to be doomed.

One voice had opined that Linux biggest strength is its wide variety of choice. And he turns round and say its biggest weakness is also that.

That is a professorial comment but taking a cue from Professor De Bono it is Lateral Thinking at its best! (Read his books Lateral Thinking, Beautiful Mind).

Linux Guys and Girls have beautiful minds (not like Microsoft) and Ideas.

That is why I love this forums and lively arguments (for and against).

Some people are not good at Lateral Thinking but I think these "flame wars" are part and parcel of Linux Evolution. I am of the opinion it is essential for the generation of new ideas. It is the Live (Love / Hate) Wire as long as nobody takes it personally (keep the evolved opinion "floating" for some time, till it finds a suitable land to settle).

That is why we have over 300 Live distributions.

There are over 200 inactive ones where discussions have ceased or died a natural death and new directions are not sort for.

That is where I come in and promote Live Linux 100 (like the 100 fortune companies).

MYAH, MORPHIX, TAOS, Video Linux and ADIOS are examples of good distributions that have gone inactive.

I push young ones to go to the dormant repository and have a good look at them and jump start them with new direction or fork them to new offspring.

They are too good to be in the archives.

My vision for future Linux is every one should be customized to individual (like medicine is tailored to young, old and the pregnant) needs,

We were going in that direction and unfortunately Cloud Computing is making a definite twist and turn to this need with corporate (not community) influence.

Keep on "bashing a bit" we are going to be none the wiser at the end of the exercise.

I work with young people and their enthusiasm lasts (unlike old ones like us) only a brief period. If we do not tap them at the right moment they are lost for ever.

In my case I go to the grave with a several inactive distributions in a sealed PENDRIVE (somebody could discover their potential a century later like Myahs of old Americas.

Good luck with your future discussions.

Linux in Sinhala-Hanthana Linux included-Debain Update

Reproduction from Distrowatch
(by Dr.Asoka Dissanayake (Medical) on 2011-02-22 22:52:30 GMT from Sri Lanka)


I have to confess now I support Light Weight Distributions and PCLinux is my my favourite,

But I love its Gorilla (dearly) Edition PClinuxfullmonty too.

I use it (PCLinux) as a Gold standard (not bench mark) for 32 bit hardware and Texstar is about to release the 64 bit version but he is keeping it close to his heart.

Coming back to Sinhala Linux Debian is the winner by neck and half length (horse racing terminology). I downloaded all of the CD and DVD and had a trial run of them and they are pretty good and elegant especially the KDE.

Again I confess I am a KDE fan especially because of its looks and the K3B burner which does not harm the hardware. Before I started using it I used to lose a CD/DVD writers almost every two to three months.

Both PClinucx and SuSe are KDE based. Suse is damn slow like windows but PCLinux is pretty fast.

Unlike you guts I have about 8 distributions in my laptop and I use them in rotation to get best out of them.

I have Debian also and I will tell you now why I use Debian.

It is the only distribution which can cohabit with all the others distributions and arrange the partition table so nicely in the GRUB and boot all the others.

Unlike Windows and Ubuntu, Debian does not fear other distributions.

SuSe cannot read more than 15 partitions and in the beginning they used to have over 60 (I stand to correction) partitions. PClinux some time cannot read FAT partitions and its partition formats are limited.

So I install Debian one before the last distribution and to get a nice boot flash I use PCLinux the last.

Debian make it easy for the PCLinusx to read the partition table.

There are many other strong points about the Debian that is why we use it in the Server Level in the University.

Regarding the downloading of Hanthana Linux I just checked it a few minutes ago with only two seeders it takes 3 days plus.

Fedora 13 (the 6 CDs) version with many seeders it takes little over one day. I will download Hanthana Linux after the Cricket World Cup which is my preoccupation currently.

Following is a summary of download times for your perusal.

Last there (3 days)
1. Bodhi 3 hours
2. Kubuntu 7 hours
3. EB4 9 hours
4. Pinguy 4 and a half days
5. Monty 2 days
and fastest was ArtistX one day and probably Fedora 13 too (also little over one day (according to estimate).
These are facts and not gut feelings,
I am struggling with pixie which has taken one day but still not finished.

Feeling the Temperature-01

by S.B.Asoka Dissanayake Visit www.writeclique.net

There is a bizarre (somewhat insane) discussion going on local English Papers. This is something .I penned down many moons ago. Reproduced here for any sane person's perusal.

Finding a suitable Thermometer

I lost my email connection due to no fault of mine but that was a blessing in disguise. It was a painful experience and I could not gain access to my writings at www.writeclique.net It forced me to have an alternate email which was useful in any case and I registered myself again dropping my professional designation.

So all my relatively scientific writing would be at this alternative space from now onwards. This would be one of my opening writings that would be posted there.

I had some interest in temperature ever since the indoor temperature of my room hit 90 degrees (90º F) and when I could not sleep. Since then I kept a record of the indoor temperature at random and it has became almost an obsession.

The other reason is that I should have a record of Kandy temperature for future perusal when the coal power plant is operational in three years time. My record for the next three years if I am alive and well by that time would be an eye opener to our future energy planners.

My gut feeling is that there would be drastic and erratic changes in temperature even though Kandy is far away from that site.

I do not want to delegate this responsibility of recording the temperature to the meteorology department since I am told some of the filed officers never take any interest in recording accurate data. I am also told some of them look at old data and send a doctored report to head office and they are like our foresters who are never found in the forest where lot of illegal felling of trees and gem mining is going on.


After the tsunami the little respect I had for them also evaporated with the waves.


I had two red alcohol thermometers which bought for less than two pounds a piece at Woolworth Stores. One of them stopped working but the other one is still in working order and accurate (to 0.25º F) for domestic purposes.

My intention is not to write about it but to write about how I found a new one.

After surveying the entire Kandy city I found one Jumbo Size thermometer at a supermarket (Chinese made) but its recording got stuck at 78 º F and during the period it was recording the temperature it had an error of 2º F.

There supposed to be more than five Super Grade Schools teaching science in Kandy and I wonder how many of them have a thermometer in their laboratory.

I went to all the reputed pharmacies and only a few of them had clinical thermometers but none had an ordinary thermometer.

THAT WAS A REVEALATION.

When I asked few of the shop assistant I need a thermometer and not a clinical thermometer one of them sent me to an electrical shop thinking it is some sort (form) of a meter that record electricity.

That brings me to a point of an anecdote and the standard of English as it is taught (I come to that point later in an article) today in our schools.


I was barely fifteen years old still wearing shorts (those days one starts wearing a trouser when one is competent enough to speak in English and not before. Now when I come to think about it some of them are wearing it inside the mother's womb) and a young bloke (wearing lounge) came to me and asked me "what is your chronometer?

I was not amused and I told him the time and asked him why you can't speak in simple English. This bloke never gave me eye contact again and I never saw him in any academic circles too, thereafter. This was the way some city boys took Mickey out of those who could not speak English (and were not wearing lounge suit) and if the same yardstick is raised again how many of our English Teachers would pass this acid teat I wonder and wonder.

I have become chronic and teach my students acute and chronic inflammation to begin with and any word with meter aliased with electricity is a reminder how science is taught in our schools.

However, with some soul searching I managed to find a digital thermometer with two sensors and a clock and by January first I started recording the temperature both at home and my room in the faculty.

By the way the university is also not without blame. When I joined the university after long lapse I wanted to find a digital balance for some research purpose and I could not find one in our university (faculty).

It took three years for me to get one that is also from "Japanese Aid".

By that time I had finished my data collection.

I paid my own money to buy a suitable electronic balance that also after six months of searching in Colombo.

This is the way we do research in our universities. So we (higher education) are no better than the education department.

This is where I have a "hearty laugh" when people in Colombo are talking about nanotechnology.

Teaching Science-03

by S.B.Asoka Dissanayake Visit www,writeclique.net

There is a bizarre (somewhat insane) discussion going on local English Papers. This is something I penned down many moons ago. Reproduced here for any sane person's perusal.

Even though the discussion would end up with the illustration of the basic scientific tenants of uncertainty principle, the change and the chaos inherent in any physical or biological cycle, the conceptual development of the themes that are involved are giant steps for young minds.


The frog leap attempt is the way to reach the summit of discussion.

To come to the final conclusion one has to go through the layers of scientific concepts and behaviour pattern of nature.


The fact of the matter is constant change.

But because these changes have patterns that tend to recur in somewhat of a predictable pattern, the sequence of events that recur are called cycles and the term equilibrium is introduced to bring a concept of static nature to a dynamic change that would be chaotic if not for the patterns of regular behaviour.


The persistence of patterns gives order and consistency to recurrent events.


Weather is an ideal ground to base the conceptual thinking. That was the reason for its choice in the first place.


Having said that the professional meteorologists meager capacity to predict the weather and his negligible ability to control it warn against the complacency of the scientific notions and the teachers (myself in this discussion included) limitations.


Equilibrium states

A man with science would like to simplify facts of life for the purpose of explanation. The equilibrium states is a model well tried out for stating concepts. Sometimes in this process of simplifying facts he destroys the true tenants of reality but that is beside the point at this stage of discussion.

For the purpose of discussion we take few examples of equilibrium states.

Cycles
1.Day and Night
2.Diurnal rhythms
3.Circadian rhythms
4.Rain and the Monsoons
5.Populations and the Birth and Death of individuals
6.Photosynthesis and the Respiration
7.Clouds and the Rain
8.Wind and Pressure
9.High tide and Low tide
10.Chemical Equations

Concepts

1.Pressure
2.Temperature
3.Gravity
4.State of the Matter
5.Radiation
6.Energy
7.Thermodynamic Principles
8.Entropy
9.Atmosphere
10.Air (water vapour )and Matter (dust)

Only term not listed up there is the Time for a valid reason. To explain the day and night we need a artificial measurement be that it may be seconds, minutes, hours or days, weeks and months and years. The seconds (small but perceptible enough) and days have a meaning for the clock manufacture but the minutes and hours are arbitrary ingredients. Similarly hours and days have a meaning to the teacher and the parents and the weeks and months have no meaning (to the child).

For the child it is the play and no play (work) or the schooling and holidays and the rest of the classifications (weeks and months) are arbitrary and meaningless approximations in his life's experiences.

In a scientific sense what the child needs is to be exposed to enough experiences adequate for his perceptual (development) thinking capacity and certainly not a rigid science syllabus. I have no intention of discussing each scientific principle except a few that would have some meaningful expression in the child's mind.

Exploration

The explanations of the themes can be attempted by studying a model or an exploration. A cloud chamber in the laboratory can be a model (difficult to simulate) but in real terms unnatural for a young mind. I would go for an exploration (observation, adventure and discovery) instead of demonstration with a virtual class of students.

This exploration is laid in the in the neighbourhood of the Hantana Ranges.

Why the Hantana Range?

It is simple.

A living laboratory to investigate the laws of nature?

How the modern man is destroying it or trying to restore it to order is an object for further discussion.

Perspective

The knowledge is incremental and the wisdom is not. Acquisition of knowledge without the ability to shed prejudices (be that it may be colour, creed, class, sex or the knowledge itself) already ingrained in the conceptual development is the biggest hindrance to modern day learning.

If the correct conditions are provided the development of wisdom (peace associated with it) will ensues and of course the harmony of the world at large.

Experiment an Eco friendly one

There can be many variations to this skeleton of experimental inquiry. This is something I would have wished as a child but never was given thought by the scientific teachers of the yesteryear. But I made my inquiry not necessarily in a scientific sense but silently (rationally as was feasible at my age ) in my own time and space.

There are many more like me in this generation who are left without a guide in the search for knowledge for fun and game.

The exploration should consist of small teams. Should be limited to 5 to 10 for easy administration and division of labour without duplication of efforts and the efficiency of management.

First of all they should obtain a contour map of Kandy city (I doubt any school in Kandy have it except some understanding of the perimeter of 2 mile radius).

Then the team should identify sites for exploration for either 250 or 500 feet ( Kandy-Peradeniya bridge as a base of 1500 to 1600 feet)elevation intervals (altitude.

They should camp in these sites initially on day time (cycle) and subsequently at night (parents would go berserk.

With the day time data and their imagination they should be able work out their predictions and strategies for night. With the integration in mind, the Boy's Scouts and Girl's Guides in schools should have their own contribution to this thematic learning and experience.

I have few site for the students to investigate. They are as follows.

1.Hantana Peak (with Radio Ceylon organizing the infrastructure requirement).
2.Peradeniya River Basin (at the Campus, Peradeniya Garden and the Water intake- with Peradinya Garden, University and the Teaching Hospitals providing the infrastructure requirements).

3.Kandy Lake and the surrounds

4.And many more sites.

The equipments necessary are the minimal and what would be used by the meteorologists of Kandy. For the data the students could not obtain, the meteorologists should provide inputs of basic data (especially nocturnal).

Thermometers, barometers, compass and litmus paper would suffice.

They should make some weather balloons and few kites themselves for fun and experiment.

The whole exercise may take months of planning and execution but at the end of the day the students are enriched with meaning and understanding why we do something.

All the concepts mentioned above and many more that would arise from simple questioning and inquiry would cover the entire syllabus with minimum of theoretical knowledge.

Since the education department have canceled the advanced level practical examinations for many decades and the university has no intention of recommencing them this is the only way to rekindle the scientific inquiry and true scientific breeds.

It is the need of the day I believe.

I have avoided the exact methodology (things to be recorded by the students ) since it may look like the passage I have used for discussion.

However just to illustrate a point the student should gather at the bridge that lay across the court complex in Peradeniya and study the contents of the stream (The KUNU Ela).

It is an ideal place for a pilot project for the students before embarking on an ambitions project.

I have used this for a theoretical discussion in a global sense to make aware of the complexity involved in doing research and weather reporting.

It should not be taken in literal or metaphorical sense but with open mind to discover the uncertainty principle which is the binding rule of the Universe.

The words that I have encountered in the passage are given below for objective examination by the teacher who may think like me and the list is not comprehensive.

In every 20 words there was a technical term and it is staggeringly high for a small mind.

Would clutter even an adult mind.

If the conceptual understanding is introduced in a half baked manner the damage it does for conceptual thinking is irreversible.

List of words

1.liquid
2.solid
3.states
4.vapour
5.content (zero to about 4 percent)
6.atmosphere
7.air
8.temperature
9.dust
11.condensation nuclei
12. nuclei
13.ingredients
14.precipitation
15.The Precipitation Ladder (model)
16.stages
17.processes)
18. form
19.Ascent
20. Expansion
21.cooling
22.air parcel
23.air pockets
24.wind
25.flowing
26.horizontally.
27.vertically
28.weather processes
29.currents
30.reversing
31.air mass
32.convergence
33.convection
34.frontal lifting
35.physical lifting.
36.Convergence
37.surface
38. space
39.Frontal lifting
40.warmer
41.dense
42.ascending air
43.frontal boundary
44.Physical lifting
45.orographic lifting,
46.topographical
47.barrier
48.(volume - quantity)
49.pressure to be in equilibrium
50.expands
51.condensation
52.relative humidity
53.humidification
54.saturation
55.threshold,
56.vapour content
57.Mixing of more humid air mass.
58. Boundary
59.Supersaturation
60.condensation
61.Condensation of water onto condensation nuclei
62.deposition of water vapour as ice on freezing nuclei
63.altitude
64.cloud base
65.lifting condensation level.
66.ice crystals
67.average cloud droplet
68.terminal fall
69.velocity
70.Buoyancy or Cloudiness
71.property of water
72. latent heats of condensation
73.deposition
74.Freezing
75.heat
76.cumulus clouds
77.vertical growth.
78.continued condensation
79.collision
80.Turbulence
81.currents
82.bounce off
83flow around
84.updraft
85.collision opportunities.
86.conditions for drop growth
87.optimal conditions
88.co-exist

Teaching Science-02

by S.B.Asoka Dissanayake visit www,writeclique.net

There is a bizarre (somewhat insane) discussion going on local English Papers. This is something I penned down many moons ago. Reproduced here for any sane person's perusal.

Weather as a Model for Scientific Investigation
As an example the weather can be investigated in a scientific way. This examination is not complete or comprehensive but taken as an instruction model for discussion and refinement. The limitations inherent in any model in illustrating a scientific fact (as a form of analogy) is also discussed briefly.

Whether one studies mathematics, chemistry or physics, science teachers are very comfortable in using equations to explain scientific themes. These equations have well balanced structures and are ideal for explanation (not investigation) of scientific notions but may fall short of that reality. That is something I would like to delve into.

My intention is to highlight the fallacy of using equations and equilibriums to state scientific facts as absolute truths (In a philosophical sense - the meaning of the word meaning?).

This approach of equations and equilibrium fails miserably when discussing the pattern weather and its behaviour.

This was what I have encountered as a child and still do and the recent tsunami was an eye opener to rekindle my latent interests in science of weather reporting. Even though this is not and attempt of in depth to analysis of weather or its reporting, an oblique reference is made to weather as a focal tenants of disagreement with the way the science is taught in our class rooms.

I have started addressing this in the Part 1 of the essay and this should be read in continuity with that and the Part 3 of my own observations that follow.

In weather an equilibrium state is never achieved in a scientific sense. It illustrates the uncertainty principle in general. Instead of an equilibrium state, cyclic phenomena are evident in weather patterns Weather is discussed in some detail below. The order and change (chaos) can be grasped without any difficulty unlike other scientific principles. The cyclical nature is apparent when one talks about monsoons and inter-monsoonal rain. What is evident is constant change but the order only becomes apparent because of repeated sequence of events (change and cyclic change adequately fits into this notion).

The cyclic nature of the phenomena is studied when forecasting of weather and it behaviour.

The model is the cyclic pattern of the water cycle.

Discussion is based on a scientific description of clouds and their behaviour which I copied from a web site with modification to suit the current discussion. To begin with there were over a hundred new scientific and technical words in in a short space of few passages. That is what I consider as the biggest handicap to a student or an average inquirer with open mind.

I would attempt to put that in perspective in simple terms as is possible but there is no guarantee.

It as a bold attempt since the few passages that I cover involve the entire package of scientific domains form physics to chemistry to mathematics to dynamics and logic and logistics.

Building Clouds

Although the formation of clouds can be quite complex in full detail, it can be simplified for a wider nonscientific audience.

There are two basic ingredients to satisfy formation of clouds; water and dust.
On earth naturally occurring clouds are composed of either water in its liquid or solid state. On other planets, where the surface atmosphere is different from that of the planet earth clouds may form from other compounds and that is not under discussion.

Thus, the primary recipe in forming clouds is water.

Collection of a sufficient quantity of water in a given space in its vapour state at a given time when the essential prerequisites (the temperature, the altitude, the pressure and the movement of molecules) are met the water vapour is transformed into clouds in either liquid or solid state.

The water vapour content of the atmosphere varies from near zero to about 100 percent, depending on the moisture on the surface beneath and the air temperature and condensation.

The water vapour content at a certain point of time and space needs to be ideally saturated to form clouds.

Next, recipe one needs is some dust.

Without "dirty air" there would likely be no clouds at all or only high altitude ice clouds. Earth atmosphere is never clean as one would expect it to be for healthy living (man's perspective). Even the "cleanest" air found on Earth contains about 1000 dust particles per cubic meter of air.

Neither a large amount nor large particles nor all dusts would satisfy the primary needs of forming clouds. Dust is needed for condensation (nidus or the nucleus) sites on which water vapour may condense or deposit as a water droplets (liquid) or ice crystals (solid). Certain types and shapes of dust and salt particles, such as sea salts and clay, make the best condensation nuclei. With proper quantities of water vapour and dust in an air parcel, the next step that has to be satisfied is the cooling of that air mass (i.e; cooling of the air parcel having a dust content of particular size and shape ) to a particular temperature conducive for the formation of cloud droplets or ice crystals (suspended in air in as a massive aggregation).

Viola, the clouds are formed.

Just as there are many ways to prepare a recipe, there are many different ways to form clouds. The recipe can be expanded with new ingredients for the precipitation to occur.

Professor John Day, the Cloud Man, has taken the simple cloud recipe, added a few more details and continued it until it makes precipitation(rain).
He calls this The Precipitation Ladder.

As with a simple recipe, he begins the process with the basic ingredients of dirty air and water vapour. As with cooking it is regulated (in real sense there is no regulators but changing states) to achieve the desired effect. He takes the ingredients through the rungs of the ladder in several stages (several processes) to form a cloud.

Ascent and Expansion are two of the main processes that result in the cooling of an air parcel in which clouds will form. We mostly think of moving air as wind flowing horizontally across the surface. (The movement of air is almost chaotic in a scientific sense but not random).

Air moving vertically is extremely important in weather processes, particularly with respect to clouds and precipitation. Ascending air currents takes the process up the Precipitation Ladder. The processes are assumed to be reversible. With descending air currents the process comes down the ladder reversing the effects until finally water vapour and dust are left in the air stream (mass of atmosphere) of movement.

There are four main processes occurring at or near the earth's surface which give rise to convergence, convection, frontal lifting and physical lifting of the ascending air.

Convergence occurs when several surface air currents in the horizontal flow move toward each other to meet in a common front. When they converge, there is only one way to go and it is upwards only. An area of low pressure (cell) build up on the surface of the earth is an example of where the converging air currents result in rising of air at the center of the converging currents. The air at the center rises to accommodate the redistribution of various air pressures (wind) that build up due to variable degree of cooling and warming of the atmospheric air creating low and high pressure points in the atmosphere. Convection occurs when air is heated by contact with a warmer land surface until it becomes less dense than the air above it. The heated parcel of air will rise until it has again cooled to the temperature of the surrounding air.

Frontal lifting occurs when a warmer air mass meets a colder one. Since warm air is less dense than cold, a warm air mass approaching a cold one will ascend over the cold air. This forms a warm front.

When a cold air mass approaches a warm one, it wedges under the warmer air, lifting it above the ground. This forms a cold front. In either case, there is ascending air at the frontal boundary.
Physical lifting, also known as orographic lifting, occurs when horizontal winds are forced to rise in order to cross topographical barriers such as hills and mountains. Whatever the process causing an air parcel (volume or quantity) to ascend, the result is that the rising air parcel must change its pressure to be in equilibrium with the surrounding air. Since atmospheric pressure decreases with altitude, so too must the pressure of the ascending air parcel. As air ascends, it expands. And as it expands, it cools. And the higher the parcel rises, the cooler it becomes.

Now that the cooling has begun the air parcel is almost ready to form a cloud.

The air parcel cools until condensation point is reached.
The next several rungs of the Precipitation Ladder describe the processes through to the condensation of liquid water.
As the air cools, its relative humidity will increase -- a process Prof. Day terms humidification. Although nothing has yet happened to change the water vapour content of the air, the saturation threshold of the air parcel decreases as the air becomes cooler. With decreasing saturation threshold the relative humidity increases proportionately.

Cooling is the most important method for increasing the relative humidity but it is not the only one.

Another is to receive more water vapour through evaporation or mixing with humid air that come in contact (cloud that has already formed) with the result of moving air currents containing more (various degrees) water vapour.
To form a cloud, humidification may eventually bring the air within the parcel to saturation. At saturation the relative humidity is 100 percent. Usually a little more humidification is required to bring the relative humidity above 100 percent, a state known as supersaturation, before a cloud forms. When air becomes supersaturated, its water vapour condenses out.

If the quantity and composition of the dust content is ideal, condensation may begin at a relative humidity below 100 percent. If the air is very clean, it may take high levels of supersaturation to produce cloud droplets. But typically condensation begins at relative humidity a few tenths of a percent above saturation.

Condensation of water into condensation nuclei (or deposition of water vapour as ice on freezing nuclei) begins at a particular altitude known as the cloud base or lifting condensation level.

Water molecules attach to the particles form cloud droplets which have a radius of about 20 micro meters (0.02 mm) or less. The droplet volume is generally a million times greater than the typical condensation nuclei.
Clouds are composed of large numbers of cloud droplets or ice crystals or both. Because of their small size and relatively high air resistance, they can remain suspended in the air for a long time, particularly if they remain in ascending air currents. The average cloud droplet has a terminal fall velocity of 1.3 cm per second in relatively still air. To put this into perspective, the average cloud droplet falling from a typical low cloud base of 500 meters would take more than 10 hours to reach the ground.

Forming Precipitation

We know that all clouds do not produce rain that strikes the ground. Some may produce rain or snow that evaporates before reaching the ground, and most clouds produce no precipitation at all. When rain falls, we know from measurements that the drops are larger than one milli meter. A raindrop of diameter 2 mm contains the water equivalent of a million cloud droplets (0.02 mm diameter). To get some precipitation from a cloud, there must be additional process within the cloud to form raindrops from cloud droplets.

The next rung of the Precipitation Ladder is Buoyancy or Cloudiness which signifies that the cloud water content must increase before any precipitation occurs. This requires a continuation of the lifting process. It is assisted by the property of water of giving off heat when changing from vapour to liquid and solid states, the latent heats of condensation and of deposition, respectively. If the vapour first changes to a liquid before freezing, then there is the latent heat of condensation released and followed by the release of the latent heat of freezing. This additional heat release warms the air parcel and adds to the lifting effect. In doing so, the buoyancy of the parcel relative to the surrounding air increases, and this contributes to the air to rise further rise.
Now in the cloud, there must be a Growth of cloud droplets to sizes that can fall to the ground as rain without evaporating. Cloud droplets can grow to a larger size in three ways.

The first is by the continued condensation of water vapour into cloud droplets and thus increasing their size until they become droplets. While the first condensation of water onto condensation nuclei to form cloud droplets occurs rather quickly, continued growth of cloud droplets in this manner will proceed very slowly.

Second, growth by collision and coalescence of cloud droplets (and then the collision of rain drops with cloud droplets and other drops) is a much quicker process. Turbulent currents in the clouds provide the first collisions between droplets. The combination forms a larger drop which can further collide with other droplets, thus growing rapidly in size. As the drops grow, their fall velocity also increases, and thus they can collide with slower falling droplets.
A 0.5 mm-radius drop falling at a rate of 4 m/s can quickly overtake a 0.05 mm (50 micro meter) drop falling at 0.27 m/s. When drops are too large, however, their collection efficiency for the smallest drops and droplets is not as great as when the drops are smaller in size. Small droplets may bounce off or flow around much larger drops and therefore do not coalesce. A drop about 60% smaller in diameter is most likely to be collected by a large drop.
Clouds with strong updraft areas have the best drop growth because the drops and droplets stay in the cloud longer and thus have many more collision opportunities.

Finally, it may seem odd, but the best conditions for drop growth occur when ice crystals are present in a cloud. When small droplets form, liquid water should be cooled well below 0º C (32º F) the freezing point. In fact, under optimal conditions, a pure droplet may reach - 40º C (or 104º F) before freezing. Therefore, there are areas within a cloud were ice crystals and water droplets co-exist. The ideal condition necessary for precipitation, in other words, rain has been duly satisfied.

The technical terms that were associated with the passage I obtained from a web page (which I have changed to make the flow as I would have wished) are enormous and even with a mastery in English language and grammar one may find it difficult to understand the scientific concepts in its entirety. Put that into simple English is difficult enough but I would make an attempt to simplify the contents.

Summary

For the synthesis of the above discussion in simple terms simple enough for younger age group (instead of 7 stages) person to understand I would break it down the concept of cloud formation into 3 or 4 essential stages without upsetting the authors description of the events in a hypothetical environment.

1.Formation of water vapour in a focus of dust particle of a particular shape and size.

2.Ascent of that tiny water vapour mass enclosed around the dust particles with the change in wind currents

3.Cooling and Condensation at high altitude

4.Acquisition of a particular size when gravitational pull brings it down (down to earth attitude) to the earth surface.

Next part of the discussion I would make my observations on the basic scientific tenants of uncertainty principle, change, chaos, gravity, entropy and thermodynamics in a superficial and philosophical point of view.

Teaching Science-01

by S.B.Asoka Dissanayake Visit www,writeclique.net

There is a bizarre (somewhat insane) discussion going on local English Papers. This is something I penned down many moons ago. Reproduced here for any sane person's perusal.

Approach to teaching science is changing in the West. It is realized that in spite of the rapid advances in science (in the past century) the
benefit of science has not filtered down to the masses, specially to the young (in and out of school). When out of school the young adult has
no way of furthering his or her basic learning in science for ones own benefit functionally and socially. The school should be a place to make young people learn in a constructive way (not irrelevant factual knowledge) and apply that knowledge with common sense and with a scientific approach. There are inherent
religious, ethnic and educational prejudices that one has to circumvent to achieve these goals without upsetting the social sensitivities. Young children are brought up in various ways according to the way of life they are born to. Some are enriched and others are deprived of valuable opportunity due to many factors beyond the control of the child. The school should be the ideal place that can change this social disadvantage and teaching science with a new and scientific way is desirable and is found to be wanting.

The art of teaching science has to change form what it is now in our schools.

The top down approach and the the assumption that the teacher as a sage knows all what the students should know has failed in this country and elsewhere whether it is the East or the West.

In the West however, there is a changing attitude to teaching science (in a more pragmatic way). My attempt here is to look at this problem in a child's perspective rather than the teachers perspective. It is not possible for a teacher to know (for that matter even a doctor to know all the aspects of medicine) all the aspects of science.

A mixture of integrative approach and pooling of resources rather than training pure science teachers is what is intended. Instead of a purely scientific and academic exercise it should be broad based taking the child's development stage and the social background.

The medium of instruction and the command in whatever the language that is utilized to teach is also important. Bombarding factual knowledge to young is not what is required.

What should be tested or trained is not the memory and factual contents but the way of thinking based on scientific reasoning.
It is the thinking capacity that should be developed not the retention capacity.


Even though I attempt this at the university level the outcome is not as it is expected by me in general.

What is required is to make students ready for acquiring concepts appropriate for their psychological development. Children vary in their stage of development not only in the capacity but also at what level they achieve certain milestones of conceptual development.

Brief description of the psychological development is necessary before discussing the outcome based teaching (OBE). One should not expect the children to grow developmentally in a rigid programmed pattern. Even though they follow a general pattern some are slow and some are fast in acquiring conceptual skills. It is a normal behaviour of conceptual development and it is not that a particular child is stupid or very smart. It is the way they are born with and teachers task is for the whole class to achieve a certain level of competence (achievement) in thinking science.

To cover a particular syllabus forced on them by the hierarchy in the education department who do not have a good understanding (but just follow what was prescribed for the past 40 years without any revision) of the current trends and thinking in education. Changing requirements of the higher education should be balanced by the new way of thinking and approach in teaching science.

From concrete operational (direct experience) thinking to formal (acceptable to science) operational thinking is a very big step in psychological development. This change occur around 5 to 7 years of age and go on until 16 years of age. What is amazing is that children (and many adults too) do not shed their direct experience (and their thinking with it) when the conceptual development is progressing in their development (which has inherent variability).

This is a handicap (in a way blessing in disguise) the children from the age of 8 to 16 years undergo and overcome. Bombarding with factual knowledge at this stage of development is a serious problem from the point of view of the child. It is believed that conceptual development occurs at around the age of 16 and many do not develop this even up to 30 years of age and even then the conceptual development function at a very rudimentary level.


There is another barrier that is associated with psychological development. It is the language barrier itself. The language and grammatical structure did not evolve in parallel with science and its development. Language development and acquisition pre-dated the development of science by more than 2000 years. It is only in the last hundred years that the Language of Science started integrating with the standard languages of the West. Scientific terms that emerged in the West were not kind to Eastern languages and if not for the Pali Language (specially Abhidhamma terminology) teaching science in Sinhala would have been much more difficult. Unfortunately the people who started translating scientific terminology went in tangents to the tenant of Pali which was meant for a different purpose. By doing this they not only destroyed Sinhala but also the teaching of science by distorted interpretation of an ancient language.


The end result is that we are producing poor quality scientific thinkers and educators. I am one who believe that science should be taught in English very early in children's education. Not only this will help improve the English that the children would learn to use and would be an advantage in grasping difficult concepts in later life (especially when they proceed to higher studies).

Having seen students struggling to understand simple concepts in their first year at the university and the introduction English language learning before commencing their academic career has not improved or remedied the problem as it is today my impressions are somewhat biased and the reader should excuse me for that.

Having said that English is not an difficult language to learn and English is a very good supplement even if one wants to learn purely in ones own mother tongue.


Conceptual Development

Modeling is an acceptable way of expressing situations which we cannot observe directly. Models help us to understand what we observe and predict what will happen in situations that we cannot observe. Modeling a scientific concept is an acceptable scientific tool in advancing a concept or an idea. Eventually we may become so convinced of the reliability of the model or the security of the model image. Then we tend to accept it as total reality without any objection or question. The distinction between the model and the reality disappears in our teaching of science and this in turn inhibits the acceptance of new ideas. The atomic model is a good example and everybody accepts it as a good model and almost certain reality but few thinkers deviated from this mode of thinking and went into talk about quarks and antiparticles and the like.

Our educationists in science have gone into hibernation after the atomic model and canceling the practicals at the university entrance for the advance level examination (due to inherent inability to hold examinations full proof so that some elements can doctor the results) compounded the already deteriorating approach to teaching science in schools. This is one example of the examples of skewed (squint) eye view of the teaching and education in general. We have let this phenomenon (science teaching without experiment and investigation at least at a rudimentary level) progress for nearly 40 years without a review.

It is high time at least from "middle school age" the children are brought up looking for both knowledge and wisdom with open mind rather than "programed minds"of the education department. Restricting them to free books published by the education department which are probably 30 years outdated is not the panacea for a long term problem of "learning on the go" especially in science.

Australian teachers researching in science teaching are introducing many models of art of teaching science and I would like to jot down some thoughts about one of them in some detail with my own adaptation of that model. It is called the 5E Model (I am quite at ease with the Japanese 5S model of Quality Training) and worth some elaboration. Students acquire a certain level of conceptual development on a scientific phenomenon that is discussed based on 5E Model. The focus is on a observable topic or phenomenon.

Engage
Students express their views and grasp of a particular phenomenon (or a topic) and study any connection with what they already seem to know at a particular age of their development. The teacher generate the new idea or the concept without any factual information.

Explore
Students explore the phenomenon and use their own language to express and discuss the phenomenon in their own understanding and experience without any hindrance from the teacher who act as a facilitator rather than a disseminator (discriminator) of knowledge. Students generate new ideas based on hands on activities.

Explain
They explain the phenomenon in scientific terms and teacher help to develop new ides and concepts and terminology.

Elaborate
The teacher introduces new challenging situation and students apply what they have learnt to a new situation and modify their concepts accordingly. This is the application of the newly acquired knowledge to a given problem. Problem oriented but evidenced base learning is gradually introduced and facilitated.

Evaluation
The students reflect on the preconceived views (ideas) to the post conceptual development of the new scientific theme and teacher allows ongoing development of the theme as and when the experience of the class improves with new situations and problems (the class encounter). Building on a sound base of conceptualization children learn and understand more complex phenomena.

A layer of conceptual (idea) development is formed on top of the already existing concrete operational thinking which each student inherit differently without upsetting their own previous preconceived ideas and thinking capacities. There is no label attached to the previous conceived idea as either right or wrong but a modified version of the previous concept is laid on top the previous experience which each student inherited with their own experience or lack of it. The thinking capacity is developed instead of retaining capacity. Unfortunately there is tremendous variation of memory capacity of children. The top or the surface (outermost) layer is kept open ended for further ongoing improvement and development of new ideas and concepts. The approach is not rigid as it is in the book oriented learning expectation of the department of education.

In effect there are there layers of conceptual development.
Layer 1 Students already perceived thinking and ides
Layer 2 The new concepts developed with exploration and explanation
Layer 3 Open end for further facilitation with new experience and understanding

The third layer is kept open in true scientific spirits that what is understood is kept for further development and refinement. With this level of understanding and maturity students could enter what ever the type of further education they wish in their life. It should not be a static and should not end up abruptly at advanced level examination. The concept of continuous learning should be ingrained in the minds of school leavers who are encouraged to learn in their own pace and time rather than regimented time scale as prescribed by the education department.
Before elaborating with some examples that can be used in the class room

I should introduce few of my own 5ES to make the grand total ten.

The

1)Evidence based
2)Expansion of the
3)Experience of the individual to
4) Encourage true
5) Emancipation of knowledge leading to right thinking and wisdom.

Whatever the field of study one is free to apply this framework of exploration.

My intentions are to promote open discussion.

Linux in Sinhala-Hanthana Linux included

I have waited over a decade to see a Linux version in Sinhala and finally it has arrived.

Our own Anurahdha who was an expert in Linux and especially Debian initiated it well over a decade ago and he produced an experimental version named Sinhala Linux(I still have a copy).

Then after 1994 tsunami he was drawn into presidential task force (had nothing going on at that time) to steer all web applications and e-commerce and the Sinhala project was push to a back burner.

I have been testing Live CDs (over 150 now, except Ubuntu) for the last 18 months and when I tested Debian 6, I accidentally discovered Sinhala Installation Capability which was a pleasant surprise. I downloaded all the Debian CDs and some DVDs for testing and they were pretty good.

Immediately blogged this fact at parafox and asokaplus (using them for promoting Linux 100) my rambling spaces in the web.

I am trying to distribute these Debian CDs / DVDs after thorough testing.

But I personally prefer to install them in English which is second nature to me and activate the Sinhala capability afterward since the Sinhala terminology is somewhat GREEK to me.

Mind you Debian is not for the weak minded and certainly not for a newbie or a novice.

And today I find Hanthana (I live down the Hanthana Range- on the other side of the University) Linux 3.6 GiB DVD released which is Fedora 14.

It takes 3 to 10 days to download a DVD in Sri-Lanka and very few will bother to download it.

Now I have tested all Fedora 14 releases and Fubuntu (installed only Fubuntu for further testing) and all Fedora CDs freeze in installation (tried on several of my computers) but did not bother to see Sinhala capability.

In fact because of this nuance in Fedore 14 I decided to download all the 6 (5 CDs and one netboot) Fedora (13) CDs for posterity.

It has some problem with the Grub file too.

I cut my teeth with Redhat 8 and 9.

Debian I learned many moons later.

Then again Fedora 3 was the first Linux to allow Sinhala font in Open Office and later Mandrake.

I wonder whether the introduction of Sinhala font into an experimental Linux distribution is a wise decision (hope my reservation prove wrong).

Anyway we have two robust distributions having Sinhala capability.

I hope Ubuntu will pick the trend and run faster than both of them.

I won't pass my judgment just for a little while!

Ten (10) Plus points about Linux Distributions when in Use

It is time I should write some important things about Linux that you may not read in books but only experience with regular use.

Even though most of the proprietary guys do not provide the necessary drivers for Linux or support Linux, the modules that are used in new kernels are robust and reliable and never fail. They look after the hardware without breaking them down even if you use the system 24 /7 schedule unlike Microsoft counterparts.

Linux kernel is made to run 24 / 7 schedule without braking down (except normal maintenance). The maintenance jobs are done in the early hours of the day (they are called CRON jobs) when system is not in use but with idling with power on. One of the biggest mistakes Linux newbies do is to switch off the computer in the night. Unfortunately running 24 hours is not practiced in our university setup since by evening and over weekends servers are switched off and junk that should have been removed automatically get collected, overnight and over the weekend.

1.One is able to run your computer 24 / 7 schedule is its strongest point and its strength. No need for restarts every time a minor configuration change is made unlike in windows. These changes are done in real time and no delay is contemplated, the moment a command is activated.

2. Linux look after the time scheduling to nanoseconds. For example if one is using K-torrents for downloading several files, it shares time allotment with the files. Faster files get a bigger share and slower files get a smaller share and the full band width is used. One can limit the upload and download speeds if it is used in a network.

3. Looks after the hardware and the processor well and if there are problems they are reported at boot time (one should be able to read these messages at boot time which are displaced for a fraction of a second). Once a major problem is detected the Linux has the canny habit of switching off instantaneously.

Once after a lightening and power outage (it ran through even the UPS battery) one of my computers had some electrical burns. They system never ran more than few seconds after this power outage, not even for me to read the boot menu. After three days only I realized the problem but it had been telling me that the cooling had gone wrong on the first few seconds which I was not able to read fast enough. This problem was solved with the help of a young guy but I was all the time thinking of a boot virus since I fixed a second hand sata hard disk 3 days before to up the capacity. Linux boot and grub file have a good warning systems, if one is careful to read them at boot time.

Not only Linux is a work horse it looks after minor injuries tiothe horse.

4. What I really like about Linux is it looks after CD ROMs and CD/DVD writers well. It usually run on default setup but at write time it tests both the CD/DVD and uses the best and safe formula and writes the job in incremental or decremental speed. It does not start writing even if there is a minor fault in the CD or DVD. It does not do a job blindly, it assesses the process and resources even to minor seconds.

5. It is really a multitasking Operating System unlike Windows and work with other computers in a network and synchronize work.

6. It is multiuser operating system (Ubuntu lacks this due to changes to the desktop system and that is one of my reasons not favouring it in spite of the wider user experience).

7. It records (keeps a history) and everything is measured to nanoseconds.

8. It uses RAM efficiently and when things are not favorable uses SWAP partition (not swap file as in Windows) to swap files and data. This is why it is much efficient than Windows.

9. It is secure from attack if the firewall is properly configured and it is almost free of viruses.

10.It keeps everything in a designated place and file structure is stable even though rigid and your data is in (need to be partitioned accordingly) a home partition. I can upgrade or reinstall the system without any changes to the home (data) partition. That was one reason I really liked it when I was testing many distributions in the early days of my Linux adventure.

I have never lost a file for 10 years. Would you believe it. Only problem is now I am short of short term memory and I forget with what name I have named the file. I have downloaded over two (200) hundred images and made mistakes in only 3 out of the fist 100 and nothing after that. It is almost zero after I started using K-torrent.

If you want a work horse to do your jobs. It is always Linux.

I will come back with minor nuances of Linux sometime later.

The Gadgetmania or a Matter of Choice

There is a Gadget Mania going on unabated in the West.

While in some developing countries having a square meal for a kid is something wanting, the craze for gadgets is something evident, like in the West.

It is not the work the gadget does but it is the status symbol that carry with it that matters.

For a fancy iPod or a laptop may costs a lot. The money spent can be better utilized to buy some school equipment to help children's education but again the money somehow get channeled out.

For example money spent on a flashy Apple Macintosh computer could have been converted to about 25 to 30 OLPS (one laptop per child) but what matters again is the profit per each item sold but not the number of uses or users the item provides,.

This is true in the developing world too, unfortunately.

Following is a summary of gadget mania, I once suffered but somehow I transmigrated this phenomenon.

I have gone through this phase of mania in a mild and moderate manner as a young one.

I had to buy the correct brand , when I buy something new, say a camera.

Then when the camera prices came down I had several and found that if one has a "good camera eye" it does not matter what camera one uses.

One can always catch the moment in a snapshot with any makeshift camera if one is prepared.

In came the video camera, the whole ball game changed.

This was the time I was a bachelor.

The money and choice were not a problem then.

Then came the computer.

They were expensive but I had to buy (Commodore 64-128, Amiga, Atari) what was available.

When the notebooks of old era came I could not afford them.

I thank god for that.

I lost interest in them till Windows came into existence.

We were hooked to it and trapped beyond our control till I discovered Linux and meaning of freedom and correct choice.

Then followed the period of transition in my mind along with struggling with money matters.

When there are money matters there is no choice left, one has to survive preserving only a few of one's favorite hobbies that included computers to me.

Common sense, pragmatism and rationalization take precedence over the trends, emotions an attachment.

When the comparatively cheap laptops hit the market, I had to make a choice.

My calculations told me I can have there desktops for the price of one laptop. One for me in office, one at home for me and one for the kids, all assembled to my specification with the hardware available at the time.

Now I have 6 out of 7 old computers all doings (thanks to Linux) some useful function at home.

One computer busted while recording Cricket World Cup in 2007.

The rationalization that was, I don't have to carry any heavy luggage (laptop) on the move.

Then I bought the first laptop (I needed one to test Linux distributions) IBM of course, one third the price in Singapore without an operating system and booted it with Linux at the airport on my return home.

Another second hand laptop (for testing Linux) and new netbook (for my daughter) were added to my armoury without feeling the pinch.

This is my rationalization going berserk.

I carry a cell phone (it is a hindrance to my peace and wellbeing) only when I travel abroad and feel like dropping it into a dustbin in the airport but resisted and gave it to my wife instead.

My transmigration boils down to 3 phases.

1. Choice with lot of spare money in hand

2. Pragmatism with barely enough money in hand to survive

3. Rationalization while enjoying all the intellectual freedom that one get with Linux.

If Linux did not come into existence I would not have known what I mean by freedom of choice.