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Endless Os

I have tested the Endless Os (basic) and the comments are below.
If you have Internet access, it is far better to buy (cheap by all standards) a computer installed with Endless Os.
I give my reasons below.
I want the guys and girls developing this Os to put a Light Weight Live version, for testing and luring the enthusiasts young and old.
I am an OLD Linux Enthusiast who has gone to slumber due to the tablet I have.
I have given almost a total retirement to my desktop computer.
I use it for watching downloaded films and browsing the email.
But all these can be done on the move and I do not need a keyboard to type.
Touch typing on a tablet is a treat and it looks after my typing mistakes well, often completing the words with valuable prompts.
That is one reason for not writing about Linux in general but I read the Linux Magazine from cover to cover.
Thanks guys and girls for writing a note about Endless Os.
It made me to do a search on it's web site.
It has taken over the concept of OLPS, the One Laptop Per Child to its limits.
You probably know OLPS was killed in its infancy by the corporate might but not its underlying concept.
Endless Os not only has a Linux platform but port with affordable hardware.

 
That's it's strength.

 
I have not yet tested or downloaded it yet but why bother.
It has enormous resources and multi-language capability including Chinese.

Please visit it's web site and make your own judgment.
Comments after testing.
Overall it is a very good distribution with limitless resources for general educational  (not Linux in particular) purposes.
It is for single use and does not live side by with other operating systems including Linux itself.
Now I know why it is not in the Distrowatch List.
It is a solid distribution to be installed into hardware and used daily.
Not for a hobbyist to play round.
It takes over your hardware and all its partitions in full swoop and that's it.
I do not like any operating system which lives by itself Microsoft and Apple included and not coexisting with the other ecosystems,
 around.
On the plus side, it has the look of a mobile phone.
No particular desktop, even though the base is from Gnome.

I want the guys / girls  to develop a mobile version and a phone to go with it, now that both (crowd funded) Ubuntu and Firefox abandoned their mobile platform.
There should be something to compete with Google's Android platform (originally based on Linux but now proprietary) since desktop will be in the past tense with the way IoT is moving.

Food, Beverages and Life Style

 ලංකාවේ ආපනශාලා

ගෙදර උයන ආහාරවලට පමණක් නොව කඩෙන් මිලදී ගන්නා ආහාරවලටද ප්‍රමිතියක් තිබිය යුතුය. නිවසේ හා ආපනශාලාවල බදින ලද ආහාරවල ඇතුළත තෙල් ගතියක් තිබෙන්නේ නිසි ප්‍රමිතියකට බදින්න නොදන්නාකම නිසාය. ලෝකයේ හොඳම තේ තිබෙන්නේ ලංකාවේය. එහෙත් අපි නිසි ප්‍රමිතියකට තේ කෝප්පයක් හදාගන්නවත් දන්නේ නැති ජාතියක් ලෙස සැලකිය හැකිය. එක්කෝ කහට මදිය. නැතිනම් සීනි වැඩිය. ගෘහණියන් අතරින් රසවත් තේ කෝප්පයක් හදන්න දන්නේ කලාතුරකින් කෙනෙකු පමණය. මේ ලක්ෂණය ආපනශාලාවටද පොදුය. ආපනශාලාවලින් තේ බොන විට හොඳ තේ කෝප්පයක් බොන්න ලැබෙන්නේ කලාතුරකින් තැනක පමණය. අප පුනරුදය වැඩසටහන් සඳහා දුර ගමනක් ගොස් ආපසු එමින් සිටියදී අප්‍රියාවකින් තොරව මුහුණ කට සෝදා ගැනීමට ලැබෙන පහසුකම් සලකා අපි අඹේපුස්ස තානායමට ගියෙමු. එය විදේශ සංචාරකයන්ට බර තබා පවත්වාගෙන යන තානායමකි. සරල ආහාරයකින් පසු අපි බොන්න ඇණවුම් කළේ කෝපිය. කෝපි කිරි හා සීනි වෙන වෙනම ගෙනාවේය. ඒවා මිශ්‍ර කොට කෝපි කෝප්පයක් හදා ගෙන එය බොන්න ගත් විට රසවත් කෝපි කෝප්පයක් වෙනුවට අපට බොන්න සිදුවූයේ පල්වතුර වැනි කෝපි කෝප්පයකි. කෝපි බඳුනේ තිබූ කෝපි ප්‍රමාණවත් තරමින් ඝනව හදා නොතිබුණි. කිරි භාජනය පරීක්ෂා කළ විට එය අඩුවෙන් පිටි දමා හදා තිබෙන කිරි බව හඳුනාගත හැකිය. මා තානායමේ සේවකයන් අතර සිටි ප්‍රධාන පුද්ගලයකු කැඳවා ඔහුට ඒ ගැන පැමිණිලි කළෙමි. අපට ඉක්මනින් ඝනට හැදූ කෝපි බඳුනක්ද, හොඳින් උණු කරන ලද නැවුම් කිරි බඳුනක්ද, ඒවා පිළියෙළ කරගැනීම සඳහා අලුත් පීරිසි කෝප්පද ලැබුණි. වැඩි මුදලක් ගෙවන විට ඒ සඳහා ලැබෙන දේද මුදලට සරිලන උසස් තත්ත්වයක තිබිය යුතුය. අවසානයේ අපිට හොඳ කෝපි කෝප්පයක් බීමේ වාසනාව හිමිවිය.

 I did not read the above piece from Victor Ivan.
What he stays is true!
Unfortunately he does not say anything about our spirits, that is our Arraku.
Food, Beverages and Life Style

This a post from my Lenovo Tab.
Thanks to IBM for selling its copyright to China that I can afford a good tablet for one tenth of the price of Apple's iPod.

Since the title contains life style, I will cut through and swipe at everything including cricket.

Yes cricket was a life style and gentleman's game.

 
Not any more since corrupt bookies and politicians riding high.
 

I took a wise decision not to watch Ceylonese Cricket and almost simultaneously not writing about it.
That has saved me lot of good time and diverted my interest to high spirits especially wine.
I know Ceylonese enjoy spirits more than cricket now.
When we lose the solace is within the bottle of spirits too.
The other aberration was stop drinking Ceylon Tea.
I used to drink over 20 cups when the blend was pretty good with excellent flavor.
But that all changed since all the local blends are adulterated and horrible.

 
Let me bare the facts.
 

All the good tea is auctioned in the bourse and what was not purchased is sent back to the dealer.
He mixes this with tea dust that was used as manure in the good old days and wraps it with Kheels, Arpico and other supermarkets brand names.

The locals have no option but to drink this dirt daily.
 

Just like all the high grown tea, the high quality rice is exported and rice with high content of arsenic, especially the brown rice is left for local consumption.
I do not eat rice now and I am trying my best to convert the near and dear ones from this rice addiction.

It is the best health advice that I dispense only in private circles.

So, tea is out  and the rice is out.
 

Any other option left?
 

Thankfully Ceylonese coffee is still very good not like the dirty horrible Indian Nestcafe.
 

I was a coffee addict and it took many years of sustained effort to wean myself off.
 

I was a living example of caffeine syndrome which I read in a nursing journal.
 

I found  a good Thai Brand.
 

I am back to original myself except no lack of sleep.
Unlike my dog my liver can deal with any amount of alcohol and coffee.

That was an ominous sign in twilight years.
 

So, I decided to cut on caffeine.
Starting with Coca-Cola.
 

There is not a single brand of soft drink without caffeine in the local market.
 

That is the very reason our youth are bad in sports including cricket.
 

The good old king coconut is not within the reach of the poor since our developers are clearing the remaining coconut plantations and there is no regeneration program in sight for coconuts.
 

I would wound up with banana cakes.
Except in one place in Kandy all the banana cakes are horrible.
I had good hope that UNP would resurrect the economy.

I was sadly mistaken.
 

They are not worth the paper money they print from borrowed money.

Everything, is horrible including food, life style and politics.
I excuse myself off from my blog post several years ago, in this site praising Ceylonese delicacy's including banana cake.

Sorry guys and girls.
  
 Reproduction

What has happened to our (Short Eats) Food Industry? 

With lot of tourist coming to Ceylon, they love our delicacies food and this piece is current and relevant.

Yesterday I found a foreign tourist looking for Kassipu.
 
I do not think he will come back.

It is afflicted by the "Seven Deadly Diseases"  mentioned by the “Quality Guru”, W. Edwards Deming.
 
Let me be brief about his impact on industry and the service sector.
His power of non judgmental analysis and the statistical prowess in doing so made him famous in Japan.

He laid the foundation for post war recovery of Japan and its rise as an industrial country.
 
He was ignored by the Americans till late eighties and he was honored after his death. 

This piece is about our retail food outlets, especially in Kandy not about any industry.

It is a waste of time talking about Colombo food habits.
 
Kandy food vendors were known for good quality food except of course during the Sirimavo’s time.

It was good until latter few years of Mahinda regime when it started coming down.

Let me give few examples.

1. “Parrippu Wade” was of good size and one would fill your tommy.
 
2. “Umbalakada Wade” was fabulous even during war time.
There was a big sized Umbalakada (Maldive Fish).
 
3. Egg roll had a full egg.
 
4. Sandwich had enough cheese and butter.
 
5. Banana cake was fabulous.
 
6. Tea was of good quality.
 
7. Coffee was excellent.
 
8. Pol Sambol had Umbalakada and real chillies.
 
9. Thala Guli had real Thala (Gingerly Seed).
 
10. Kithul Hakuru and treacle were out of heaven.
 
I have stopped drinking OUR liqueur in mid nineteen eighties, when I realized all were adulterated including toddy.

I have to refrain from talking about milk rice, Aggalas, Kavums and few more items.

Home made stuff became commercial entities and I stopped eating them.
 
What happened towards the end of the regime,

I will give an indication.
 
The wade started becoming smaller and flatter.

“Suduru” disappeared.
 
Umbalakada became lean.
 
Egg became half and later quarter and still later tiny bit smashed in.
 
No spices at all but a rotten piece of chili without (only the covering) the seeds.

Then we got rid of the regime and for about six months the food quality went up marvellously.
 
Then with the Coalition government well established, the rot and the food quality started going down.

I think this is a deliberate ploy spearheaded by Mahinda Golays and Balayas, within the regime.

 
My latest grouse is, I bring some cooked fish for my dog.
The portion has become very small and there is hardly any meat but bones (I remove them thinking my blind dog will choke).

He is just close by me and I haven't got any to give.
 
Kiri Hodda is dilute and no spices except lot of Karapincha.
 
I think we should start burning Karapincha with a bit of chillies to get the devil out of the current flamboyant system.

W. Edwards Deming
The "Seven Deadly Diseases" include:
    1. Lack of constancy of purpose
    2. Emphasis on short-term profits
    3. Evaluation by performance, merit rating, or annual review of performance
    4. Mobility of management
    5. Running a company on visible figures alone
    6. Excessive medical costs
    7. Excessive costs of warranty, fueled by lawyers who work for contingency fees

Stream of Consciousness is mind boggling?

Stream of Consciousness is mind boggling?

This piece is a Hypothesis not a Concept to arouse investigation of the mind and its underlying force.

Some of the things proposed are outrageous but one should not throw away the basic tenet of the hypothesis due to inconsistencies.

I do not want to use the word consciousness and specially the subconscious mind with only two layers of mind (essentially matter or brain bound).

I prefer the eminent philosopher James William’s theme, the stream of consciousness as a near enough hypothesis.

The most outlandish statement to begin with is that the stream of mind (consciousness as stated in modern western terminology) does not necessarily need a brain or matter for its existence.

It can exist without the matter principle.

Even though, in Indian and Buddhist cosmology there are many domains of existence of beings, I would like to narrow it to three levels for the purpose of simplification but would dare say, the the potential and the sphere of the stream of mind is so limited.

In actual fact, it is very difficult to comprehend.

The three levels for discussion are;

1. Mind without matter principle, essentially an energy form with unlimited extensibility.

2. Mind with matter principle invariably bound to the matter in the form of neural system extending to the level of many “brain forms” (human brain is not supposed to be the ultimate and the highest).

3. The third is the transitional or subtle form, there is neither matter nor no matter but interaction of the stream of mind in many forms.

Why this subdivision?

It is all, to explain, the behavior of the mind of gifted individuals, mediums, those cultivated by meditation, those who posses ability to remember past lives, telepathy, hypnotic transgression and such experiences like tunnel vision in near death syndrome.

In the way, we look at in modern science, many of the above cannot be explained or disputed by mere conjecture or by preposition or hypothesis.

I won’t go into many details but start with few examples.

Take the case of amoeba. 

It is the simplest of living forms but it has an enormous amount of DNA material for its simple survival. The genetic pool is enormous for its simplicity. It does not have a brain or brain material to think and to do purposeful workout.

But seemingly handicapped, as it may sound, it does all what is necessary for living, reproduction and survival.

There is a purpose for survival and “the purposeful activity is not too different from a higher order animal with a primitive brain”.

The will for existence and purposeful collection of genetic material for future evolution into a higher form of being, yet without a brain.

I call this form of existence, “the brainy mechanism of sustenance” what a single cell accomplishes on its own. 

 

The single cell is the brain for its own existence.

When we take multiples of these cells when organized purposely as brains in different species including aliens that may exist in other worlds, the potential of the brain systems and stream of mind is enormous.

So one should not get surprised for somebody having telepathic ability or to communicate with the dead or subsequent lives or departed dear ones (assuming rebirth as distinct possibility) with paranormal ability.

Simple disputing of paranormal ability is not the way about it.

There were many in our history and often disputed (deliberately for vested interests)Ana Blasticova is a case in point.

We have not developed sufficiently sensitive instruments to detect these “energy forms” and EEG is not the “be all and end all instrument of detection”.

My personal view is we need a finely tuned ‘another higher brain’ to monitor these activities.

Not all of us have these abilities inbuilt.

It is the duty of the psychologists and psychiatrists to invest in these areas and training, instead of denial and disputation.

One way of developing this power is through meditation but only a few of us can sustain it to such a higher levels.

My own conviction is that the practice of meditation has many other benefits apart from achieving goals mentioned above and one should use it for one’s own higher transition rather than using it as a diagnostic tool.

But I won’t condone anyone who is pursuing scientific and diagnostic pathways.

Now let me dish out some outlandish views.

The mind on its own without a material base.

Can it exist on its own?

Where does its energy come from without a biological base?

If the cell can survive without a brain (amoeba) why not a mind without a brain?

In the material world there are so many energy forms including cosmic radiation.

In that spectrum not having an energy form called stream of mind (James William’s own description of the mind as a stream) is unacceptable to an inquiring mind.

If the medical world (I do not) could formulate something called subconscious mind for centuries, above hypothesis is an antithesis.

In the eastern cosmology, beings with subtle bodies with spiritually developed minds are tenable.

It is often said people who had attained different level of absorptions through meditation are born in these worlds and live a long life. It is also said these beings can travel vast distances from their mother planets and visit alternative universes.

In literal terms they are the Devas or Gods.

Extension of that theory is what I am proposing not the alteration of the eastern cosmology.

If that scenario is possible, that mind stream would penetrate atomic, subatomic and quantum levels of uncertainty and comprehend everything the modern science delve in.

So what?

That mind should theoretically (mind’s behavior is attachment to entities or ideas) be able to merge with subtle material and change (shape change described in alien films) its form at wish or will.

I think my hypothesis is going well beyond this world to other dimensions.

Is it 7, 10 or 13 or string theory of mathematics?

The possibility of the stream of mind is incomprehensible and vast.

Binding to a dogma, idea, religion, culture, politics, race or science is very narrow.

Try to discover your own mind potential but remain within the limits, lest you get virtually mad.

Come to think about it, this world is full of mad guys/girls especially in the political field.