Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Debian 10.0.0 is smooth

Debian 10.0.0 is smoothI have installed Debian 10.0.0 in my laptop and it is sleek and running smoothly.
I had Windows in this laptop and it did not (EFI configuration) let me dual boot Linux along with Windows (having configured partitions for Linux).

I erased Windows and the boot image was reserved for Windows, it won't let any other alternate installation.

Debian 9.9.0 could not figure out how to bypass Windows.
I used BSD and erased the boot record with BSD's ESP tool (but like windows it took over the entire disk).
With some fiddling I managed to boot two separate copies of Debian 9.0.

In the latest installation, Debian 10.0.0 had figured out how to deal with EFI record and it installed it along with already installed Debian 9.0.0.

Debian 10 has over 500 new files and after giving root password and user password it installed the GRUB boot record without asking for any PROMPT from me (whereas Debian 9.0 needed some manual help).
Thank YOU. Debian guys and girls for doing a wonderful update.

Look Back on Premadasa Time

Look Back on Premadasa

Look back on what happened to Prema Keerthie De Alwis and Richard De Zoyza (they were killed in their PRIME) by political agents.

What a loss?

Monday, August 26, 2019

TUX

 Tux, the penguin, is the generally accepted official logo for the Linux operating system. Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, chose Larry Ewing's design simply because he likes penguins. 
It is said that the name Tux was the winning entry in the "Let's Name The Penguin While Linus Is Away Contest" with the "T" standing for Torvalds and the "U" and "X" for Linux.

I am disturbed by the use of TuX in Stuxnet and this Simple Linux Guy (S.M.G) whom I adore. 

His girls are Penny and Gown.


Tux is a penguin character and the official Mascot of the Linux kernel. Originally created as an entry to a Linux logo competition, Tux is the most commonly used icon for Linux, although different Linux Distributions depict Tux in various styles. 
In video games featuring the character, female counterparts, named Penny and Gown, accompany him. 
The character is used in many other Linux programs and as a general symbol of Linux.

STUX, D.E.F.T, M.A.D and C.W.F (Cyberwarfare), Cyberparanoia and Stuxnet

Tux, STUX, D.E.F.T, M.A.D and C.W.F (Cyberwarfare), Cyberparanoia and Stuxnet

New vocabulary is entering general use with cyber attacks  becoming preemptive at international stage. I am not going to be expressive here  since hackers (they) might think my IP address is some defence attaché and attack with D.O.S (Denial of Service Attack).

Cyber space is free but it is not is not a fair play ground for a simple academic like me to engage in, who is nearer to the grave by natural causes and  do not need any interference to my intellectual exercises unless of incapacitated by natural illness or loss of memory.
I am disturbed by the use of TuX in Stuxnet and this Simple Linux Guy (S.M.G) whom I adore. His girls are Penny and Gown.
Stuxnet is the Virtual attack that was directed at Iran’s nuclear reactors.
Tux is a penguin character and the official Mascot of the Linux kernel. Originally created as an entry to a Linux logo competition, Tux is the most commonly used icon for Linux, although different Linux Distributions depict.
Tux in various styles. In video games featuring the character, female counterparts, named Penny and Gown, accompany him. The character is used in many other Linux programs and as a general symbol of Linux.
STUX
STUX is a bootable CD with a collection of software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and U.S.B devices and other peripherals.
STUX also contains an installation wizard on the Live CD for putting the distribution on a Pendrive and thereby booting from it. However, a 1GB pen drive is required to do this which is far larger than other U.S.B Linux distributions.
DEFT is a Linux distribution with Digital Evidence and Forensic Investigations tools attached. It is not at military level bu at simple desktop or server leve.
I was trying to download (point to point) it and I have failed in 5 attempts now due to abrupt termination of service.
MAD is Mutually assured Destruction
Mutual Assured Destruction is a doctrine of military strategy and National Security Policy in which a full-scale use of high-yield Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) by two opposing sides would effectively result in the complete, utter and irrevocable annihilation of both the attacker and the defender. becoming thus a war that has no victory nor any armistice but only effective reciprocal destruction.
C.W.F is Cyberwarfare.
There are very interesting articles and one who interested in can browse but suffice is to say even an innocent device like Play Station can be used for an attack.
Other interesting point is that proprietary operating system with the O.E.M guys can use a device to send secret message to the company or the country’s National security for spying on your web activities.
This is why I am strongly against Windows 8 attempt to invade and intrusion of One’s Freedom of Use (O.F.U).
Cyberparanoia is the word I coin today to describe this phenomenon from a doctors point of view.
That is my contribution to the jargon and vocabulary.

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Pigs are our closer cousins please adore them!


Pigs are our closer cousins please adore them!


These are little things that will be prohibited to teach in schools in Ceylon, soon.
Pigs are very similar to humans in genome study.
They are communal species ( not like in pig farms).
They look after their young in the wild.
There is hierarchy dominated by mums like in the elephant family.
They are not ferocious as depicted in the wild boar clan.
They keep clean if left to their own devises.
Pig’s diseases are similar to human diseases especially cardiovascular risks.
Pigs become chubby like our politicians.
They are an intelligent species to tolerate (not the pig eaters) humans and their survival in a increasingly hostile planet where elephants with big brain fail is a dilemma.
Their intelligence and brain size are similar to the comparison of dolphins to humans.
Pigs diverted from wild boar probably million years ago.

Why god created pigs and hate ham is open to question for some religions.

The miniature Wuzhishan pig is extensively inbred and individuals are genetically similar.
Its small size makes it easy to handle and useful for medical research. The team looked at genes and protein domains that pigs and humans share. These are important targets for drugs. The researchers found the physiology of the two is 84 per cent similar at the genetic level.
The studies identified 112 positions in the genome where pig protein has the same amino acid that is implicated in a human disease.
This supports the use of pig in studies on human diseases. Some of the protein aberrations that pigs share with humans are associated with obesity, diabetes, dyslexia, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.
This understanding of the genetic origins of modern pigs is important for their breeding and to find new ways to deal with old and emerging diseases.

Quality in Action


Quality in Action

This one is for our Commissioner of Elections and his cohorts!
I give a background of my entry into Quality in action.
From selection to execution it has to be perfect.

In other words Total Quality Management (TQM) of elections without fear psychosis (especially for Tamils and Muslims).

We do not won’t extraordinary measures but strict laid down (written instructions form declaration of intent to final closure and 10 days afterward) procedures (especially for police and I do not fear the armed forces).

If he has to shoot on the head (not below knee as stated) and eliminate them, be that so, we need to wean out bad genes before procreation and repetition for future generations to suffer.

Let me start with one of my school teachers (I was instrument in chasing him out from our school). 
He ended up in politics and cut a sorry figure. 
He published, university intellectual property belonged to the university as of his own.
Thanks to JRJ who demolished English department and Pali department, this guy became famous. 
This guy was recording the committee stage discussions of over 50 guys’ and girls’ intellectual property and he took the written notes home (never acknowledged as co-authors, which is a standard procedure in the universities) and published them as his own.

Stealing intellectual property at the highest level (not an offense in this country).
He ended up in quality control unit of the government and when I visited this institute many years after his retirement there was not a single balance (quality assured) in that unit (I verified personally).

Then to nepotism in style.
I was interested in becoming a reserved air force officer (seconded officer) as a young guy.
I loved flying or be with the flying guys, including drones and dragon flies.
I applied with few others and followed the papers to its final destination for selections.
I had all the qualifications including sports, cadeting, the height, the chest and the rest.

Sometime later, I heard a guy who was six inches shorter was selected (that to state that I am not a short guy and could clear a good distance in long jump; once I bettered the university (not national) champion’s jump by a few inches).
I did not pursue this any further and left this country in the first opportunity I had (but never to return home was in the back of my mind).

Many moons later, I met this guy who had retired as a brigadier but never served in combat zone (thank god they have to retire at 55 years).

I ended up as a flying doctor (that the level of my perseverance) in New Zealand. 
I chose the remotest hospital in there where local guys hate to serve with a good air strip and an annual air show.
New Zealand has over 20 off shore islands.
They may be bad in cricket but excellent in haka and flying small aircrafts.
I joined a leading private hospital in Colombo (before my sojourn abroad) and took over the laboratory performing badly in techniques and performance. 
I told the management that the hospital should enter the National Quality Award and I will train them with the help of a quality guy (recruited by me and paid him hefty) and I need three months of training myself. I entered for a seminar organized by a lady, through a paper advertisement (forget from where she came, not from the standard bureau, I visited personally) by shear chance occurrence.
This where I got a chance to have a head on clash with air force guys who followed the same course.

They had just won the quality award.

The same year they lost all but one aircraft in combat with LTTE in Jaffna.
I told them you don’t practice what you preach and surely you should practice quality (never to lose one), at least with foreign aid.

They did improve drastically some years later.

I was happy then, that I never got a officer batch to adorn, myself.

I took a little bite at the expense of the trainees.

Suffice is to say they became pals.

My teacher did not have quality.
The air force did not have quality approach and probably army in the distant past (used to kill JVP guys) did not.
The standard bureau did not.
The private hospital did not.
University did not.

Within three months I transformed the Unit to be the best in Colombo overtaking the rival laboratory run by a guy (not a doc) from Kandy.
I checked quality procedures with a Singapore institute.
A guy would go to Singapore every Friday (chemical tests) fly back on Saturday and would also purchase the best equipments available at that time (training done by the company who delivered the gadgets).

I was lucky to join the university under Professor Ranjith Mendis and twisted him arm to introduce Quality Teaching in Peradeniya.
We established a Quality Forum, it went into defunct state within three months of Rail becoming PM under Chandrika.
Now my grouse with the Ranil Wicramasinghe who like JRJ wants to destroy the universities (not only Pali and language departments, which JRJ initiated) is that he replaced Professor Ranjith and also the university reforms envisaged -long term- by the team of University Dons.
He put a stooge with no knowledge in Quality and University Education as the UGC Chairman and his selection of Ministers of Education is arbitrary.

Good guys are leaving and bad guys are coming to roost.
By the way I visited the private hospital years later for courtesy call and sadly quality had a nose dip with an Indian guy running the place.

Punchlines, Punch Bags (Boxing Bags). Punch Balls, Kick Bags and Kickbacks with Punch and Judy


Punchlines, Punch Bags (Boxing Bags). Punch Balls, Kick Bags and Kickbacks with Punch and Judy

Election is all over and every conceivable lie had being utilized for gains.
It is miracle that I survived without hearing loss since the decibel range was higher than the pitch I was used to.
Sometimes I think it is a blessing to be either deaf or blind or both.
Since I am not either this is to revive Punch and Judy not in his style but in boxing style.

It is strange to note that Punch and Judy characters never used Boxer the kids friendly dog nor the the real boxing characters like Cassius Clay (Mohamed Ali), probably fearing American backlash.

I am writing this not expecting any kickbacks from any living soul or any British soul sent to hell by Punch but I have to use English for the strength of the Punch but in boxing style.

I am not even light weight and not even super flyweight to have the physical (I was super bantamweight when I was abroad and having being here for over 5 years gone below the fly weight category without even having a crash course in dieting) presence felt in the ring.

I have to use the English punchlines (send our Buddhist MPs including monks to heaven – not to hell like in UK for them to evoke blessing for the millions of voters who are practically missing a meal-according to health Ministry statistics they never starve; they actually follow the Buddhist monks principle of eating once a day to go to heaven.

Sri-Lanka is not the heaven or paradise that it used to be.

The boxing categories including light weight was used by me to address the issue I have with the Microsoft / Open Office Office Package/s which is /are always super heavyweight and tax my computer’s limited resources including RAM.

Since I use Linux for my work I do many things (unlike Microsoft Windows) once at the same time (watching Football World Cup-not cricket now- do a distribution download while I do some pep writings like this) and the speed is a factor I rely for efficiency.
I use Abiword Light sometime which is portable too.
I have extended this to my Linux100 writing elsewhere in the Google’s blogspot- just type asoka and paraox- you are instantly there and I want the Linux Developers to produce Light Weight (700 MiB. Middle Weight is 1700 MiB and anything above is Heavy Weight (especially the commercial versions that tax resources even at boot time) and sometimes useless to say the least.

Just to take some respite from somewhat taxing job (100 is a big issue at my age, even though I have already 200 distributions in my USB hard disc) of testing and writing reviews for the wider web users.

I take life at an easy pace now!

To begin with my Punch Code (in computer terminology) we must have a nurse and a doctor appointed to the parliament.

The should weigh all new MPs (do not do that with the old foxes they are too heavy that the spring of the balance will break without any spring of surprises) now and every three months over the next 6 years and send that data to the Central Bank / World Bank and the WHO (Sinhalen whoooo) as real data.
They must be categorized according to the weight class of the boxers and see how they progress from flyweight to super heavyweight both in weight and money in no time.

Real progress of the country.

My argument for this is that our parliament truly represents the wishes of the population in real terms and numbers. 
It truly feel the pulse of the people and rule of the law but not the rulers image.

If we have donkeys in this country surely they should be represented there.

Then we must have an annual contest in front of the Diyawana Oya and get Indian actors to come and face them weight by weight.
Our voters can be used as the Punch Bags or Boxing Bag (it is done almost everyday if you look at the government TV Channel).

It is worth while that they must send a random sample of weight from school leavers for comparison.

But I think that is a waste since our Central Bank has the knack of manipulating any real data into abstruse elements for it to be presented at the Budget at any time of the day or night or if necessary for IMF’s consumption.

But my real punch line is not for the new MPs.

It is for the Ministers who were newly appointed.
It looks as if they are used as the Punch Bags especially the Foreign Minister.

I do not wish to tell who uses them as the Punch Bags.
It is a top secret except for one who is always vociferous in Sinhala for the cameras and destroy anything foreign except the oil he wears on his head.

If seems that boxers use kick balls and kick bags.
I like both of them (kick bag and kick ball) and in football style I can kick them in their vestiges!

Asoka
3rd July., 2010

Saturday, August 24, 2019

To Hell or Heaven

To Hell or Heaven


It is said
That when
A Sri-Lankan
Plans to go abroad
He becomes secretive
And almost paranoid
Does not tell anybody
Of his intentions
Lest somebody pulls a string
Under the carpet
To stop
His endeavour
But
Once he is abroad
And found
A filthy dwelling
For habitation
He is in all but praise
Of the new found
Hell sans freedom
Wants all his fellow beings
Left behind
To come, join him
In misery
And share his chores and concerns
I am told
This is so
In the Middle East
Or else as
A refuge
In the West
But,
What is significant?
And the most compelling fact
Is that
When one goes to hell
He makes sure
All his fellow beings
Are pulled out there from here
Like a magnetic attraction
To share the misery
But,
By chance
If he found
A decent and healthy place
As a habitat
He writes home
In shame and disregard
Of the place adopted
Lest he has
To share
The wealth and happiness
Of the New Found Land
This is not
In anyway
A warning for anybody
Who wishes to go out
And explore
The Sri-Lankan
Who wish for divine intervention?
All the time,
End up in hell instead
But,
When one goes to heaven
They go there all alone
Simply because
Increasing the numbers there
Would be antagonistic
To the Zero Growth Principle
Propounded by me
Here and now
The propensity
Adopted by,
The Sri-Lankans
Who are already there
Established in position and fame
Is truly different in magnitude
But,
Buddhist anthology and tradition,
Is the “Kalyana Mitta”,
The true friend who helps
The upward bound
Of beings
To high heaven
Come what it may
Now and always
Sans boundaries,
Of colour, caste, creed or class
Sadly.
It is known for its absence
In the modern world
Of material gain
Is it asking too much?
To go for zero growth
In activity, mobility and expansion
To save our mother nature
Using the eye of wisdom
To see and vision,
The guiding principle
Is “Small is beautiful”
“Less is more”
In Nature
To know this
The man doesn’t
Need a brain as big as
The nature has endowed
Upon him
To apply
The simple principle
Of cohabitation with
Mother nature
The mother of all

Friday, August 23, 2019

Passing the Baton and the beating the Police Baton Polla


Passing the Baton and the beating the Police Baton Polla

This piece is bit spicy.

We have moved from the community spirits of passing the baton (responsibility) to beating the baton (iron fist of the police) mentality.

It is all due to family brandism and now the baton is passed exclusively within a family.

This in addition has mutated to passing the buck dualism.

From DS it passed to Dudley.
Thanks to vociferous left Dudley left politics and lived up to old age as a common man.

JR was in the background and was incubating hate to the entire nation.

Real destruction started with SWRD who introduced racism and religion to politics and sadly Sirima took the baton after his demise and even the army was brought into the forefront to destroy JVP.
People were killed in the bread queues with socialist not having a recovery program to fill the empty coffers.

Manioc was the staple food of the poor.

Nobody helped except perhaps China with rice (started from Sir John Kotalawala)

Sir John left to UK saying it was far better to hunt foxes than doing politics in Ceylon.

It was then lovingly called Ceylon.
Only one who did not have a formal family (he may have fathered out of wedlock).

JVP was an aberration in our politics (one phrase is enough to describe it in entirety).

Ranasingha (called running (duvana) president by the LTTE) Premada having used army to throttle JVP extended his hands to LTTE and programed his own death.

JRJ was in between and introduced a bizarre constitution of his family.

His son was a STF man and is no more.

Anura to Chandrika was family brandism with a arm twist.
Chandrika twisted the arm of his brother and continued to cajole with the defunct left.

That is the period of anarchy in this country.

Unfortunately I was abroad and returned to see the rejuvenation of this country.

I was proved absolutely wrong.

The last stage of the family brandism is now in display.

We thought we reversed the trend in 2015.

MS who took the baton turned backwards on the masses and went backward and handed over the baton to the last man in the relay team.
He has a family but he could not brand it quick enough.

What an upshot and RW was passing the buck of the central bank and still have to form a family of his convicts.

Then the son of Premadasa is going to take the family baton in style and I bet he would fail (by ruining the party his father started by eliminating Gaminie and Athulkathmudali and many more).

While all these happening another family is benefiting while doing sweet nothing (except stirring racism) in the process but wanting to go back to beating the Police Baton Polla mentality.

We use the baton as a polla to hit or slavery and not as a proverbial relay of responsibility.

Reality

This is a lengthy answer for one of my friends.


Reality

Too many questions in one go.

To begin with there is no unifying theory of everything.

Steven Hawking tried all his life and he failed.

Newton's gravitational theory is wrong.

Dismiss it outright.
There is curving of gravitational force (it is not straight).

If we formulate Multi-Universe (not single Universe) the gravitational force will be different in each one.

Einstein was close enough but he was restraint by the Church.


He has to invent the Big Bang (to go along with God Creation)


He formulated the Dark Energy to establish a constant but did not elaborate on it.


Space and time was described as a fabric (by Steven Hawking (Who? I may be wrong) not as curvature.


Now the bombshell.


Matter is only 5%.

Dark matter and energy is 95% (just similar to genetic cord less than 5% is read and others dormant-why?).

Hubble is the first one to describe redshift and that the Universe is expanding..

He thought it was at a constant rate but the current understanding is it is accelerating fast and widely.

My contention is that disorder is PRIME and order is RARE (except in Biological systems).

It is on that PRESUMPTION (not a theory) I expand the discussion.

At a particular point of rapid expansion matter will disappear and gravity cannot hold onto matter.

Then there are black holes with enormous gravity (let us say big eater) that will eat up every possible matter it encounters.

That is the other end of the spectrum (it is not linear by the way) contracting universe.

I believe nether expansion theory nor contraction theory explains the current state of affairs.

We need to study other galaxies (on top of our space fabric and below) and formulate new mathematics and expand on Einstein's efforts.



Space and time linear model won't help.


That is why Steven Hawking suggested Imaginary Time.


Now another bombshell of mine in summary.


There is nothing called SPACE, it is a self grandiose model to visualize Reality


Space is immediately occupied by some form of energy.


They had to formulate nuclear forces for atomic theory.


Dark energy for universe was Einstein's only entry without explanations.


Dark Energy and Dark matter are REAL but we have not yet visualized it to understand their workings.


We are visual model thinkers and limited by three dimensional view of reality.


We cannot understand fourth or fifth dimensions.

Mathematics describes at least 13 dimensions.


Reality is not constrained by dimensions and we will never understand (not even by meditation practice) Reality.


So accept our inborn LIMITATION of thinking capacity.

So I do not bother and pose a question and have a hearty laugh.

Laughter (my domain is satire) is the best medicine of all.
Just laugh at our ignorance and enjoy the little present or Now Now we have.

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Continue the Course Correction, Already Started, Without Fear


Continue the Course Correction, Already Started, Without Fear

Can we do that?

Yes we can.

Just take examples from the animal kingdom.
Ants and spiders are very clever.
They have a strategy and weapons.
They never use the weapon of fear first.
Approach of the animal kingdom is very simple.
When they are confronted with they do not attack first.
They pause and assess the pros and cons quickly.
They take a slight cause correction, knowing very well that may be wrong.
Then advance slowly until the angle of diversion is large enough.
When they are safely away they accelerate at rapid space until the energy of fear that initiated is exhausted.
Then they take a pause and correct the course diversion (going for food or prey) and advance.
Humans have lost this trait by wrong examples, particularly in Ceylon.
We have advanced just enough to avoid counterattack possible.
What we need is slight course correction and advance at easy pace to the desired goal.
Fear has lost its value, since it was used inappropriately and in large quantities in the past.
But there is still a long way to go especially in the legal sphere.
Politically there is no retrogression.
It is counterproductive but progress is historically and metaphorically slow.
Perseverance is the correct strategy.

Order of Disciplines


Order of Disciplines

Philosophy is the First Order Discipline.
Its asks the appropriate question at the appropriate time.
If the wrong question is asked (Does the God really exist or is he the creator?- only he no she) one is beheaded 2400 years ago.

If you DO NOT ask this question NOW you are considered as a fanatic.

Atheists have not resorted to beheading strategy since they are still persecuted by the Church.

The second order discipline is Science.
Science is still evolving.
It has not grasped even the 5% of the total.

If one considers matter as 5% and Dark matter as the rest 95%.

The third order discipline is religion and it is redundant.

Why?

It cannot provide answers to neither the questions raised by philosophers nor science.

That is the bottom line and its threat to the survival of the human species is real.

Imagine a high priest having the nuclear bomb arsenal for his disposal.

He would detonate it for easy passage to heaven.