Linux Distributions and Their Compatibilty

This is a scathing remark on some distributions except Debian which I regularly use in my SSD on PC and the Laptop and Ubuntu I never used but has spawned many good forks including MutliSystem DVD that I use to make Multiboot USBB and SD cards both standard and micro.

I must recommend Emmabsntus Debian.Edition for you at the beginning.
Once installed unlike Peppermint it has large number of applications on first boot and one need not waste downloading missing applications.

Having said that AbiWord is missing in all.

I hope, in the near future Androids will have AbiWord.

Most of the distributions except Debian and BSD while very subservient EEFI booting Menu disregard other Linux distributions to promote one particular distribution of one's interest which is against the general common spirit Linux.

I use AbiWord for my work but no distribution except Emmabantus supports it.

Of course one can download AbiWord after base installation but I have pulled out the faulty Ethernet wire.

No Internet.

Additionally no WiFi gadget in my old PC and the Telecoms and Dialog do not support a pure Linux PC with WiFi USB.
.
Only Windows, they support.

I decided to update with Peppermint, PCLnux one my old favourite and perhaps Mandriva.

BSD takes over the hard disk with tank pools and won't dual boot and is out on first count.

I have downloaded these long before Coronavirus pandemic and no need for me waiting for a iso.

Now my decision not to use UEFI was a very prudent decision.

Mind you SSD does not have a MBR partition like rotating disks.

SSD boots only one distribution.

While old rotating disk can boot up to 15 distribution (for testing in my case) but I rarely go beyond 7 distributions in one terrabyte disk.

One for root and one for the home partition mean only 7 installations possible.

If you have rotating disk do not discard it for a SSD, keep it as a precious possession.

I always have two huge NTFS partition for DATA and never touch them while making changes to the partition.table, many times round.

I think latest Debian support reading Androids, I believe but I have not tried my cellphone on Linux for a long time.
There is no data except photos in my cellphones which have been transferred to the NTFS..

I think, without a USB port due to Android's thin design cellphone cannot be used as a workhorse.

1. Leaving those comments behind, Peppermint has minimal utilities and without Internet, it is useless to me.

2. PCLinux is a pain and boots without a separate  ESP but in one mega partition.
It won't let you partition the disks to one's own needs.
So without BIOS help it is redundent.

3. Mageia has problem with GRUB.

4. Ubuntu I have already commented.

5. MXLinux I did not try.

6. SuSeLinux I have not tried but an old copy on a 8 GB USB is pleasing.

7. Knoppix does won't to be on a FIXED hard disk but mobile and portable.

8. Pupply is very similar to Knoppix but Light Weight.

9. Redhat and Fedora I have given.up long time ago.

10. Emmabanrus, the Ubuntu version I have not tried for a long time.

11. PinGuy has gone into latency.

12. ZorinOS I do not have a copy but I never liked it.

13. ARCH is too difficult to handle.

14. Absolute Linux takes over the hard disk.

15. Endless OS is good but it takes over the hard disk and no.dual.booting like BSD.

One need Internet to make full.use of its enormous software store, all pulled out from the Debian repository.

My advice for a novice is to try one distribution and.master it before going for another distribution.
They almost have the base from Debian.except Slackware, Absolute Linux  and Arch.

So me Debian is the Winner after all and trying other distributions is just a hobby for academic reasons and a bit of nostalgia for a guy.who used Linux for 10 years less than Linus Torvalds.

Linux MultiSystem DVD.

One need not have a DVD if MultiSystem is an.application of your distribution.
The best English distribution is Debian Emmabantus.

Emmabamtus desktop edition is in in FRENCH..
.
If for some reason DVD boots into French, what one has to do is to press F2 at the start of the booting.

Live DVD is based on Ubuntu and it has lot of other utilities including Gparted.

Emmabantus has more utilities than any Linux distribution and one need not waste time downloading software like Peppermints which I have totally lost interest.

MultiSystem DVD is an amazing utility.
Of comes in both 32 and 64 bit configurations.
Uses DOS partition to boot multiple Linux distributions.
It supports UEFI.
It uses GRUB file to boot.
The GRUB file gets automatically configured every time a compatible iso file is added.

It makes sfs file to boot.

It lets you delete a distribution and then that iso is deleted automatically.from the.GRUB.

It is bit slow in execution but once the  USB is configured file will last a decade or more.
I had a 16 USB made in December, 2012.

I removed all.32 bit.distributions and added cittently.using Distributions.

It does not support Puppy Linux, Debian and.BSD.

Biggest Downturn of Coronavirus is PC Sales

I wish I may be wrong but the biggest downturn of Coronavirus is PC industry including Laptop sales.

So if you have a Laptop or PC running Windows, either erase Windows like I have done and boot lovely Linux distribution with many Desktops to lure you or worse dual boot old Windows with Linux before Linux 11 series start ruling the computer world.

The Strawberry Pi 4 is hit buy production delays and emerging entry of Debian 11 series.

It has tuned to software for survival.for 2021 and beyond.

Video conferencing is.the new trend and cellphone with long duration.battery will eliminate PCs with many clumsy peripherals.
Even I.am becoming.addicted to Androids and all my blogs are coming out of cellphones, since I deliberately pulled out the Ethernet wire to save electricity consuming PC.

It is stupidity to run a PC to.send few emails.

Apart from many peripherals power plugs and monitors, the fire hazard due to overheating is my concern.

One forgets to switch.off the computer, whereas, the cellphone goes to sleep mode automatically if you forget to switch off.

New batteries have overcome fire hazard when.charging.

Who will spend 1000 dollars and buy and carry a heavy laptop loaded with Windows?
One can have two cellphones in your trouser pockets and save bit of cash if you have 1000 to spare.

Before Coranavirus, hit I bought two previous version of Nokia phones since new version will hit the market if not for the intervention  of Coronavirus.

PC and laptop sales will go down and cellphone sales will skyrocket with the easing of lockdowns and money saved on.cancelling the holiday trips.

What a turnaround?

Aliens and Microtechnology

I have a strange feeling that aliens have visited this planet for eons and they were not interested in following progress of us.

What to us monkeys feel to them we are galactic humanoids less interestingly than to our own monkeys.

I also has a strange feeling that sometime in 1940s after the atomic bomb testing they visited us to warn us, the benovelent type.

That means not only one type many had been visiting us some recharging their strange vehicles using earth magnetic field, uninvited of course, on their  way forward to other arenas of their interest.

How they bypass the Van Allen Belt is a mystery.

Somewhere down the line there would have been a major encounter with the use of scalar x-ray technology by the humans. 

Having known our aggressive intents they have kept  abey.

I see nothing wrong with our aggression and this is our planet and we have the every right to defend ourselves, whatever the counter argument of galactic diplomacy.

We have not yet fused into a galactic federation but they being early galactic travellers may already have formed such avenues to avoid full blown conflicts.

Then there is a possibility of sinister secret human organizations  that may have forged alliances with not so benovelent aliens who want the earth to themselves and want to decimate the world population.

They could bring in a galactic virus in the range of heat resistant RNA.

There is no need for us to have stations in Mars but the Moon must be a base already in possession of aliens who inhabit there and keeping a check on us.

The Americans and Russians failure to establish a base in the moon speaks volumes.

Apart from hostile physical environment Van Allen Belt is a major obstacle.

These are the questions I would like to have answers as a global citizen before I kick the bucket.

I think except for radar, integrated circuits, laser beam, night vision glasses and cellphones are reverse engineered toys captured by us from encounters with aliens.

It took a very long time for us to develop a nice looking cellphone.

I am not saying Steve Job is an alien but he was one who could figure out making alien technology on earth.

Aliens would have destroyed their intergalactic radio communication equipments for fear of reprisals and location of their origin.

The early visitors are like men in black type of secret service guys.

They must be visiting us only in the night to avoid capture.

Their  bases probably are in space not visible to us and metals they use must be transparent like our glass.

It is the atomic arrangement that gives the strength of materials and transparency.

All.these are vivid speculations and a few are plausible but my gut feeling is we are not alone in this universe and those who know the facts and keep them away from public eye are doing a disservice to humanity and its progress.

One fact in this list is true.

Aliens had been.visiting us for eons.

Pyramids in Egypt and south American monuments are the vestige of previous encounters that are recorded in mysterious ways.

Even the Ruwanweli Stupa is a monument to aliens if we take the Buddhist label away.

Buddha never wanted massive structures built in his name.

If that was the case then India would have had many built soon after his demise but all big structures came during King Asoka, the great.

I believe big religious organizations who want the public to be in the dark and protect their private domains untouched, to be blamed for this secrecy.

The secret organizations (CIA,  KGB and MI5-6) should protect the masses not their masters.

Truth may be bitter but  not knowing it is even bitter.

Comparison of Linux Operating System to Microsoft Windows

This piece comes thanks to BSD and I am installing BSD on.a 16 GB USB stick.and it has clocked over three hours.

Painful but Coronavirus has taught me to be patient, not going out for Window Shopping for over one year and more.

There is no comparison.

They are poles apart.

Windows are inherently vulnerable.

One of my loose potential student but who was disqualified since he boasted he attacked Sirisena's Web site using Windows.

Immediately I gave him a call and told him no more emails from me or Linux updates.

One is a robust operating.system that has gone to the Moon and Mars.

The other is earth bound PC host that started playing DOS games mounted on Windows.

I was in UK in 1980s.

I did not have much money to buy even a Sinclair's Spectrum  or an Amstrad,  leave alone RadioShack gadgets.

Instead I spent money on old HiFi system with 4 pieces.

The Commodore Amiga 128 was coming and they dumped the Commodore 64 in a supermarket store, name which I forget.

It was a perfect bargain for a doctor who knew nothing about computing then.

But I knew the computer was the future and not having kids I encouraged my wife to learn word processing correspondence course.

I knew nothing about word processing and our medical clerk did all the typing of GP correspondences.

I knew she was secretly learning Word Processing.

The Commodore had to be supported by a external floppy driver with the old large format.

I bought a small format floppy driver,too.

Within three months due to voltage swings in Ceylon Electricity Board, the power pack went bust and ended my computer versatility.

It was good but I still did make a small database of addresses on another computer piece, name of which I forget.

Then I gave that piece of gadget to one of my friends who is no more, free with all the books.

I also bought Atari to play DOS games.

Then next my entry point was my son wanting an upgrade for gaming, a real PC.

I did some homework and assembled a computer with the help of a Muslim friend of mine.

This guy was a sweet guy he used to give all the PCs without down payment and his company went bust, in.spite of my warning.

He took up car sales. 

The RAM.was 2 MB, I could not upgrade by another 1 MB then, parts not available.
Two disk drives.
A floppy drive.
2 GB Hard Disk.

Now the crunch point 40 odd Windows floppies to boot windows 95.

I did not try Windows 3.1.

Fed up I booted Linux live CDs and Knoppix.

Managed to find 6 CDs of Debian and got on with Linux, never stopping.

I gave up Debian since I did not have manuals, books or Internet connection.

I did go to Redhat 8 with two CDs and Mandrake was my favourite.

I gave up Redhat after Fedora.

I still have a Mandrake in a USB and it still boots live.

Live booting Linux was my ultimate goal.

Then I was into all out Linux and had 13 computers (13 is a lucky number for me, computationally speaking) and a Linux network at home without a server.

I dismantled this network due to high cost for electricity which all the IBM computers consumed and contributed.

I bought all IBM computers dished out by Alpha Digital Company branch in Kandy.

This company bought all the discarded computers from America.

I never paid more than Rs.12,000/= for a computer except the Apple Globe, I spent Rs.25,000/=(I never used it except testing Redhat).

By that time, I had migrated to Peppermint Linux and never Ubuntu.

PCLinux was my workhorse.

At that time configuring a server was difficult without a terminal wizardry and router extension was enough for my functionality.

Our Telecoms (modem connection with a call) did not have a router then and I bought a good router from Singapore.

I had some connection in Singapore due to frequent visits there under Rs.8000/= return  ticket, then.

Unfortunately router had to be configured using Windows and Telecoms did not support Linux, then.

Coming back to comparison witn Windows.
Linux uses resources amicably and intelligently.

It is smooth and fast in executing as many as 8 functions (may be more but I only used a maximum 4 functions) then in 4 workplaces.

I really loved the workplaces which Windows have no substitute.

Windows is bulky and even mounting a word file with many macros is painfully slow.

I started using OpenOffice from Solaris which became LibreOffice.

If I open a word file in office, I immediately remove the macros.

I had two computers of my own at office, one for office work and the other for Linux testing and installing.

I even used XandrOS which supported Windows for a  while.

My real craze was partitioning two hard disks and having as much as 8 current Linux distributions running but finally settled down to Debian which almost every distribution (except probably Slackware, the oldest Linux distribution, I believe and Arch) descended from.

Ubuntu is Debian based.

I never used Arch due to its strict architecture and lack of desktops.

Use one of its derivatives, instead if you like.Arch.

I can write a book on the differences and it is a total waste of time.

I have erased the last copy of Windows of my Laptop 5 years ago.

You see how much I hate Microsoft.

I have few books published and the cheapest and the smallest is "Linux in a nutshell", I wrote using AbiWord.

I could not download AbiWord to my Android but use WPS instead (not LibreOffice which is bulky now).

I hope AbiWord wake up from slumber, after reading this piece and put a light derivative to run on all Androids.

Then, my next book will come from an Android (I have several Androids in my possession).
I have several.books planed but having.a long break.thanks to Coronavirus.

Nobody in bad frame of mind and paranoia will read a book, nowadays.

Booting BSD from a USB

TrurOS can be booted from a DVD but one cannot make a bootable USB from a Live Session.

What I did was to Install it on the USB.

It took two hours or more,  to make a ZFS tank pool on the USB.

I think BSD was looking for a big hard disk and when it realized it is only 16 GB, it resized its protocol handling, on the go.

BSD does not dual boot with Linux.

I hate CD/DVD booting because  it makes an irritating  hissing noise like a snake.

I love quiet booting from a USB.

Fortunately, BSD booting icon option was available in the ESP boot partition.

When I clicked YES, it recognized the USB and booted the TrueOS.

One has to configure the first time booting and you are on with Lumina Desktop, for sure.

It is very slow in booting and installing on my Laptop, most likely due to ZFS partition is meant for fast spinning ROM for access and it reverts to slow spinning mode, almost inaudible

Lot of patient is required, and it worth the patient waiting to see the Lumina Desktop.

I am very patient when installing any Linux distribution, since I know if a wrong driver is selected by automated booting the display is going to be ugly.
Only Debian.has mastered the display to very elastic and soothing to the mouse in hand.

The mouse and keyboard have become extension of my soul in front of a VGA monitor..

No radiation sickness like when watching a cathode ray tube in full gear.

That patient I have improved due to Coranavirus incarceration has stood good while installing Linux on a USB stick.

The most important in this scenario was that I had bypassed the Internet while installing.

It waits few minutes for a ping signal but I also wait for it to boot without Internet.

No need to answer system calls, every few minutes from the server side which is also automated.

It is not like all days where a guy in the community sitting behind a dumb terminal volunteer help.
No video calls then.

It is a dedicated community we never see face to face except in a big conference in USA or Germany.

I have forgotten all the command line work including partitioning two hard disks with minute details.

There was no turning back for me from the graphic mode.

But with lot of time in hand I will use my Unix Cook Book to go back to old days.

Using Linux and Linux Bible's last edition are also worth mentioning and Rebate books were dispensed with after Fedora.

It all started with a Unix book long time ago I fished out from discarded book sale of the  British Council Library.

The word ping was my entry word to Unix and Linux world.

I have misplaced that book and wish I had that book in my bedroom as a reminder.
Mind you I have over 4000 books which I fish out for reference with my failing mind.

I did not have to buy brand new books when British Council Library was there.

Our book sellers got together and forced the British Council to close that section and made the Library, a Language Center and.with that the demise of British influence but Victoria dam and Victoria falls that feeds the Pollonnaruwa and Minneriya are empty reminders of old days.

Many thanks to British Council and our English standard is far below Bangladesh and we are burrowing money from Bangladesh on credit loan basis.

It should have been with Britain and France.

Years gone by I had all that in my head and not now.

Mind you learning a second language at 55 was painful to begin with but it stimulated the creative side of my brain.

I passed O Level in French without spoken language and it is sad in UK spoken part is not tested due to Coronavirus scare.

Spoken language skill is daunting in French.

The diversion is necessary since one cannot master Unix and Linux on the Web alone.

At least a handbook should be at one's disposal.

Their is a digital version of Linux Learning in my computer still.

With copyright law in existence with big penalties, books are becoming extinct species at least in Unix and Linux.

Python, USB Pendrives and Portabilty

To me small.is beautiful.

Physical not Virtual portability is innovative and a blessings.

Python is long and is longer than an anaconda.

But a very small script of Python is stable and reliable and one cannot erase it.

That is the virtue of Python unlike other programming languages.

I am looking for a Python instruction book for three years.

The idea was to fiddle with Python in my free time.

Instead of trying Linux on a gaming environment.

I wanted to carry my Linux operating system in a USB stick long time ago when USB sticks hit the market.

It was a difficult preposition.

The Pendrive Linux site changed my outlook.

It had a Python script that one can download and add seamlessly any supported Linux distribution to boot from a USB stick.

This was difficult with Debian and Debian is not light weight to fit a sfs file.
Debian is meant for installing but some Live DVDs in GNOME and KDE are available.

Before that only Puppy Linux could do that in small scale with less than 100 MB.

Knoppix can do that in a big scale with persistent volume.

I still have two of those primitive USB sticks booting on a Legacy BIOS device or PC.

I decided to organise my numerous USB sticks and erase duplicates except that contained bootable USB with bootable sfs files made by MutliSystem (French Utility).

Only one could not be erased and it contained the one Python expanded file and a MultiSystem Linux file and a few of my text files written in Abiword.

Python takes over the booting mechanism of the USB and all my attempt to erase or clean the stick was not possible.
I tried even FATPup and I get an error message only readable not writable.

So beware and be careful with Python.

I hate bulky Word Processes especially Microsoft and do my work with AbiWord.

It is tiny compatible with Windows but essentially a programs interface, that can be shared in the Internet and make tiny text files.

In my case books written by me for publication.

LibreOffice, again coming from France, I use ONLY to add a few features to the ported AbiWord file, ready for publishing in a book format.

Problem with Microsoft Macros is they are bulky and their page format cannot be resized to Thesis Specifications.

In other words Microsoft Macro are not compatible with each other but sits on top of another making it a very bulky end product.

I used AbiWord for my thesis,too.

All self learning which I have perfected from childhood.

Now Python for heavy work and AbiWotd in program mode for tiny work like writing a book not a leaflet or brochure.

Now there is bulky T Text for working on mainframe computers.

WPS is a good alternative in an Android environment with classic and light weight downloads with lot of features.

Linux is always a text file easy to handle.

Mind you I could not format one MicroSD locally purchased.

All the others SD cards are in my cellphones or mounted on a USB compatible mounters.

Why one should have more than one cellphone?

This may sound strange.

From a guy who who posts blogs posts here, why I hate cellphones, little over two, years.ago..

It is all due to, common sense, economics and more importantly Coronavirus incarceration.

You must also.read why I hate cellphones, posted here.

I won't repeat them.

I have more than 20 reasons.

Biggest one is money.

You have been using a cellphone with old Android version and you have dropped it on the bathroom floor and its liquid crystal front is getting rough for your fingers.

In fact, my third cellphone, the 12 year old screen got unresponsive and would freeze.

Reason, limited RAM and more applications than it can handle.

Solution, go for factory reset having backed up the data.

Google does a good job holding the back  up data in the Google Drive.

Coming to economics, all cellphone prices have gone up in Ceylon due to.depreciation of our rupees and debt crisis (individual and national level).

You do not have the money to buy the next generation cellphone.

Solution.
Sell, not pawn your wedding ring before you kick the bucket and buy the cellphone which is more usefully than the gold ring.

Due to debt crisis you get a reasonable sum for your ring.

If you do not do that,  you have to settle for a cheap Chinese  built cellphone that won't last till you kick the bucket in less than.a decade or so due to age, if not to Coronavirus.

The Coronavirus itself drives you to have a better cellphone to keep in.toich with your loved ones and the family.

Now coming to my argument one should have two cellphones instead of one, if you put all your money on a.fancy new cellphone which you do not know how to operate to begin with, it is far batter to have two of slightly more advanced but cheaper ones with which you are comfortable with.

One for rough use and you carry it with you, mainly for calls, the other you keep it at home for fancy IOT stuff and play a few games when you are bored or watch YouTube.

I.hope you got the message loud and clear and cellphone have become an extension of your soul or an extra limb with more digits to hold the World Wide Web  tightly under your control.

Now this piece is in development and other points of advantage I will add at my pace and time and you.can revisit on weekly basis till.Mid July and it will end abruptly.

Reason.
My finger tips are getting shorter and stumpy, the simple wear and tear effect which is getting faster due to aging.

1. Reason one for me before Coronavirus hit us is, one is on charge while the other is being used.

There is no stop gap in communication with your carriers.

2. Number two.there are two SIMs in use.
They are prepaid and not postpaid on a monthly basis  (I am reticent to paying for cold time of not serving you or on hold).

3. The charging time of old phoned are long. I used to use the computer while I am typing busy with my large  keyboard and mouse.
The mouse is something I love simply because I can squeeze it hard, if the page is slow to download.

4. The bottom line is it is stupid to use energy hungry PC to send an email.

5. Number 5 is the charger can 6be used when power is out due to lightening.

6. Point six is that there are so many handy typefaces some with French letters. But I love the Grammerly Typeface.

7. I can.blame the typeface for all my mistakes and  typos and some put words into your mouth.

They.are a mouthful when you are typing fast.

8. It has made me to shorten my lengthy desertations .

9. It saves me time and sometimes boredom.

10. It is good as TV news but downtime is brisk and save electricity.

11. I sleep a lot probably due to.eyestrain and hand strain holding on to the phone, when typing.

12. Bridge has become an.addiction of mine and have improved my bidding techniques.

13. Unlike the land phones I can switch off the regular phone and still use the other one to browse the web, in the loo, especially if I am constipated (instead of morning paper with comparatively old news)

14. Now I do not read the Sunday paper with old news and I get my regular news and Google knows my interests better than me.

15. My Linux and Tech updates are reasonable if not perfect.

16. One cellphone is for gossip collection and the other is for mission critical work.

17. The third cellphone I am using VNC for updating Unix commands that I have forgotten due to lack of use.

18. The Updating my French has become easy with.Minsky.

19. Music downloads are extremely fast in spite of advertisements.

20. Importantly I am not learning anything NEW more of the old stuff.
Now guys are talking about black holes and a film going to be out in June.
I am keeping my New Physics to myself fearing they might have a another film and spoils my latent interests.

21. One can have a good lovely discussion if one has a friend or two  who is/are  intellectually at par with you but also have opposing and contradictory views on any matter, not only Coronavirus.
I.am.getting.fed up with Coronavirus clinically and academically.

This is written with Somanasda
Citta and not Somanassa of Coronavirus and I have given enough clues to why I am quitting the Web, soon.
I do not want more of the same and ruminations but some critical and cheerful stuff.
They are in.short supply.
Good Bye.

Digital Competency and Linux

I have some good things to say about Microsoft.
 

Not about its operating system.
Many moons ago, there was a public exhibition in Kandy.
I wanted to display, few Linux desktops to school kids in public.
 

I prepared a small leaflet and a PowerPoint presentation and a set of FREE DVDs to be dished out if any body asks for FREE disk.

I spoke to a guy who was a businessman who was dishing out Windows in Kandy to reserve me a vacant spot and only a desk and not a HUT.

He promised me.and also gave me an invitation card.

I went there with a friend of mine, who knew nothing about Linux but a Windows guy.

There was a rush and we had to fight with children to get in.

Having got in I could not find that particular  organizer inside and after waiting for some time  and looking for a particular spot for getting on with Linux Introduction and not finding a place was bad enough.

Coming to digital competency Linux is way ahead.

Take desktops that there are many currently KDE plasma is ruling even the GNOME.

Knoppix is my favourite.

Its elastic windows implementation  is simply superb.
It is boxed,too.

Even to the surgical touch of my fingers they are soothing.

That is what call real digitalization.

Western Digital, Seagate, Transcend and Sandisk have Linux behind their framework not Microsoft.

Microsoft is only front-end stuff, for the monitor but never back end-stuff'.

So my.sincere thanks to.Microsoft for doing underhand stuff with school kids.

I would have never got engrossed in Linux to my ripe old age.

Coming.back.to the Microsoft vendor guy, I could not see him inside the exhibition hall for the entire day, most likely avoiding any direct confrontation with me inside if not.the bar.

His stall was there with all Windows software but not him.

I realized I was taken for a sucker and decided that the outcome was void and.went with my friend for a beer.

Of course I had more than my share to douse my anger.

I was actually wanted to meet the guy when the event was coming to an end and of course, face to face confrontation (he was not an academic guy but a crafty businessman).

While we were at the bar school kids less than half of my age (my friend was few years senior to me) were having a booze.

Thanks to Microsoft Donations.

Shutting me out I could take but bribing school kids and offering them liqueur on top of that made me furious.

That day I said Good Bye to Microsoft and I never turned back even for Apple (except briefly testing with Apple Globe with Redhat 6).

Linux was my assault weapon to Microsoft guys and.girls.

Debian on an External SATA Disk

I have tried Debian on 16 GB USB stick and I could not.

Generally Debian does not support USB booting, like Puppy Linux and Knoppix, for good reasons.

It has enormous repository of over 60,000 parts and stating them as Android phone is improper.

Some parts are a few MB but other parts are heavy like language support and kernel.

I had few problems with my Laptop but using TrueOS I have got a two copies in my laptop.

Currently I am installing it on a one terrabyte SATA having resized the home partition to satisfy my needs.

I did not mount a ESP partition of my own creation first by using BSD but let Debian.does the honours.

Hope it will work that way.

I am installing all the Desktops and it takes over one hour to finish installing.
If you are busy do not rush its installation buy plan it ahead.

Yes it does seamless integration of.Three type of Desktops and it has kept the TrueOS Boot Flash to remind me of how it all began.

Moment I.find an.external case for the 120 SATA, BSD will be booted from it.

Running Short of Ideas

It is strange that I do not run short of ideas to write.

This piece is about portable multimedia gadgets of yester year when they were very expensive and not available in Ceylon.

Usually I buy two or three.
One for use two for reverse in engineering, in other words, do things that they were not intended to do and three as a spare part if one breaks down.

It is rare that they breakdown, since I strictly follow instructions of use and buy market leading products, not the cheap Chinese imitations.

Now after two years or so I lose interest and go for next thing that hits the market.

This media player I bought two but second one came six months later since the guy had only one piece and its cost was Rs.25,000/= and there was no rush in my part, even though money was not a problem then.

This was the early SATA  model which I knew nothing about then and it fitted my front shirt pocket and that was the attraction.

I could carry my power point lectures in addition which was a vogue then.

I remember loading two pirated copies is home alone and few more short video fills not Indian films, which I hate.

One was 120 GB and it was full in.no time and the second for the same price was 320 GB.
It was clear the vendor who goes to Singapore cheated me first time round.
I have become very friendly with him he was early tech guy in Kandy who converted his patent's house to a shop and parents moved to a more cosy residence probably.

A son of a rich guy but a sweet tiny guy half of my size.

He was brainy to fit into the schooling system of this country.

I soon lost interest due to complicated RF jack output and needed a few more minutes  of setting up on a cathode ray tube.

In fact several of cathode ray tubes caught fire due to poor electricity voltages supplied by our Electricity Board.

In 1980s I lost 5 lacks worth of pantry gadgets in one night.

It was not lightening but due to two 240 vaults wires touching each other due to illegal tapping of electricity by hooligans of Ceylon.

To cut short this story, I removed them from the original holdings and I am.looking for two external.cases with USB 3 output preferably USB 3 which is very unlikely.

I have formatted all my 1 terrabyte SATA disks and each one doing a specific task in Linux or BSD terminology.

I think.I will boot BSD on.the 120 GB disk.
I have not decided what to do with 320 GB since Linux need little more than.4 GB USB sticks for booting.

It took 4 hours for  the Debian 10 copied from hard disk  to an.external NTFS partition.

One hour for I GB.

My guess is computers work on optimum temperature and with this cold and rainy weather, the external SATA disk does not spin faster to write even Linux text files.

I here they.are developing disk with two read and write heads.

Good on them and hope they do not heat up in both price and temperature control.

I prefer SSDD but they are costly.

Debian is on again in my Laptop

I inadvertantly erased my Debian.

I had problem installing it without Internet connection.

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

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

The records in the UEFI haunted me.

Thanks to BSD but specifically TRUE OS.

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

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

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

Here is how to do it.

Boot TrueOS and install it.

Boot Gpart and delete the tank root partition.

Leave the ESP made by TrueOS untouched.

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

Install Debian in the free space by deleting tank partition.

Again do not touch ESP made by TrueOS.

Install Debian and let it do its partitioning.

It takes the remaining space for a huge home partition.

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

BIOS partition does not function in this scenario.

Debian install its base system and once it is over let you select from the taskel the desktop types.

I select all except web server.

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

But remain nearby.

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

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

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

It installs and eject the DVD.

Thanks again to TRUE OS developers.

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

This is true to Peppermint.and Mandriva.
I tried all of them.and only Debian succeeded.

Thanks to Debian and Debian developers please take a leaf out of BSD overtures (by default) and do feel shy to erase EFI.

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

Coronavirus, Me and My Miniaturization

The Coroavirus was a blessing in disguise for me.

I pulled out all my USBs and SATA external disks (miniaturized now) and made all of them bootable.

Not only that some of them I have loaded with my favourite films.

Only a few games but  Computer Bridge was at top of the list.

I was very bad bidding and financing in Bridge as an undergraduate, since I learnt bridge watching  engineering students playing.

I have a very good understanding the card  pack watching my father playing local and primitive games.

I hated children card games.

They were two simple for my physics and mathematic brain.

52 cards little over 100 that our teachers wanted us to count was boring and repetitive.

But my mathematical brain was more suited to files and programming in Linux.

Little over 100 MB USB stick was packed with Linux executive files in Pendrive Linux, that, I used to carry in my front pocket.

It started with floppy disks and 40 odd Windows 95 operating system, I started hating from the very beginning.

In, reality I started with Debian 6 on a 4 MB RAM.

The first computer of my son.

Even though, I was not a.computer guy my brain was a better computer to figure out a solution for a problem.

Try posting again.
Why this is going to draft instead of posting?

All what you need is Network and a.networks of files to boot an OEM.

Loading them with Windows on defective HDD drives dumped on the University by ComputerAge and  other companies that have gone bust in Colombo which names, I forget for good reasons.

Kandy did not have computer companies then and ComputerAge was a little company in Kandy, owned by  one of those guys from Kandy who pioneered it at the business end of the spectrum.

I do not go there except for curtsey call, since he only knows windows and nothing else.

He used to go to Singapore and bring some good stuff which I used to buy.

I learned the TRICK of going to Singapore for a shopping spree and not UK business but books and.academic stuff.

Singapore also has good book store the Popplar, which I visit every time, I visit there but not like Foyles in UK.

Two of those gadgets I removed were  the early versions of SATA, one was 120 GB and the other was 320 and I am still looking for  external casings to put them in.

I can mount them with various sort of external jumpers but at my age bit risky with live wire.

I have burned a few speakers and I only have the external casing of them now to remind me my wrong connecting skills, right in front of my kids.

I have burnt a few media gadgets, too but never a HDD or SATA drive.

The nifty 320 Imation Drive I bought in Singapore on a nice casing is still working and I have our dog and cats live drama recorded there.

Too, expensive to burn them.

If you buy from a reputable company, they last but not the cheap Chinese Duplicates.

DO NOT buy cheap Chinese stuff.

Coming back to gadgets only a few USB sticks are not booting or reading the files invariably, they are Chinese Made.

Imation 16 GB stick I have all the Linux.distributions, I use for trouble.shooting.

SCAN disks 32 GB SD Card has Peppermint  Linux.

Its boots live on BIOS system not UEFI, which, I never fancy.

Scandisk is another good company and I do not know where it comes from.

500 GB old DATA disk I removed from a proprietary gadget has all my Linux distributions that I can boot with my Laptop without Windows OP which now has Endless OS booting well and all my favourite films stored in a NTFS partition.

Who says Coronavirus was not profitable for me intellectually.

By the way, one terrabyte SATA has Endless OS.

When I get Data back.on my broadband WiFi, I will get BSD to boot it and finally Debian on it, which I accidentally erased but will have  the latest Debian 10, well before Linus put his kernel 15 for testing and kernel 15 and Debian 11 born.

I am not going to buy a fancy Apple pod but instead, I will taste real breadfruit for breakfast.

Bye, Bye!

China's Cyber-Spy Network is Deadly and Exposed

China's Cyber Spy Network is dangerous.

It is extensive and has tentacles spread globally.

It has developed a secret backdoor for sending information back to China's servers,  through innocent looking cheap equipments, routers, cellphones and in future (globally) using 5G.

This is the reason for Australian secret  service's warning and banning Huwawei.

I have a Huwawei Mobile Broadband and I have pulled out the Lanka Bell SIM.

In.any case Internet it's is disconnected by me using a Dialog SIM.

Both MobiTel and Dialog are already engrossed and overtaken by Chinese invasion.

They use simple techniques like building an infrastructure or a tall building inland off shore and leave gaping holes in them which Army, Navy and Air Force cannot  plug effectively.

They have no human guys in presence and that is why I say Do not buy Cheap  Chinese  stuff including margarines (odd numbers of fatty acids in them cause dementia and that is how they control an average Chinese citizen).

These are all their plans and thanks to Coronavirus, it has caused a temporary halt to their  Silk Road initiative.

Mind you, Chinese vaccine is very expensive and will increase our debt toll.

Russia has ambitions but not so deadly.

When I see this invasion our privacy, Microsoft domination of the world was a minor matter.

American computer hardware had secret backdoors for commercial advantage but not for espionage.

Facebook is doing that for American secret service gracefully.

I am not paranoid but bit sceptic in my beginning and that is why I will close this plug in mid July for good.

I am into BSD and BSD's primary concern was data security in the universities in early 1960s.

The world has moved on but with a lot of interference to our private security.

I used to say every time you open your email you lose your privacy but Chinese manipulations are much more dangerous and on.a wider scale  and global and our leaders are stupid enough not to realize the Chinese Goal Post ambitions.

They will win football in.Olympics.

That is why I agree with Handy Pelosi's call for boycott Chinese Olympics.

I do not like her personally but she is trying to.mitigate her unpopularity among Democrats in House and Senate.

She has some primitive Communist ideas that are not Democratic and she is old not to understand them.

She should retire along.with Anthony Fauci with Faucism.

But we must support Japanese Olympics and that may be the last Olympics without political dimensions.

Very Basic of any Operating System

There are five basic of any Operating System.

First is the Booting Environment.

Second Is the Fire Wall Protection

The Third is Service or Software Environment.

Fourth is the Tasks Environment.

Fifth s the User Environment.

The Booting Environment is the basic OEM or the Equipment part which can be small like a cellphone but may be a cloud of computer network.

The firewall is the basic protection against the malecious intrusion or evesdropping.

The Service Environment is the minimum  Operating System and Utilities or Software that runs on the hardware and connect them into a seamless Physical or Virtual Environment.

The Software Environment is the multitude of functional utilities that do some real work on top of the basic platform.

The Environment that perform some simple or complex Tasks is the next level.

The most complicated environment is the User Environment that start with one or millions individuals from different linguistic  backgrounds.

Every.language has to cope with 25 English letters and F-1 to F-12 function keys and other input keys of the keyboard.

But the biggest Conflict Zone is the Booting  Zone where UEFI wants to rule.

This was not a problem with original BIOS.

Called sensible Basic Input Output System.

It is Input from the Keyboard and Mouse and output prom a dumb (before graphic cards were in place) or video terminal.

Now the Operating System has to be very simple depending on the equipment.

Android Operating System is very basic whereas computers with much horse power need more robust systems.

Depending on the human needs it is the software system that adds value to.the system.

Coming to the desktop needs are very simple.

Browser.

Email facility for communication.

Legible Language to communicate.

Basic Office utilities like word processor and financial or mathematical formats.

Visual or Virtual Desktop.

Mouse and the keyboard for inputs.

The computer environment at basic level should not be complicated.
Unlike the old days with mathematical geniuses running them.but now ordinary peoples are using them.

The cellphone is a minicomputer.

Using it for talking or calling or video conferencing is an absolute waste of millions of hours of developers day and night sweat and work output.

It is much more robust and useful piece of equipment and when it is overused, it becomes a nuisance.

It already is with iPhones and Google Pixel.

Do not buy them.for show off but buy some beer or wine and enjoy life now that lockdowns are easing (not in Ceylon).

Be mindful when using technologies like Apple iPods, Googles Pixel.devices and Androids who are constantly evesdropping every fraction of a second.

Is it worth the sum total?

Or ones individual sanctity?

That is the very reason I am out of here by Mid July.

TRUE OS has done the Job

After three weeks of struggling I got my UEFI strangled Laptop to boot True OS without internet connection.

I have over 400 hundred (books of course 4000) CD and DVDs with Linux distributions but fishing out a bootable BSD DVD was difficult.

I have used BSD to erase Windows Boot's Strapping but never installed it on my PC.

For three reasons, it is destructive, it does not dual boot and has limited software at boot time.

Only 23 of large tank files.

Furthermore, it's file system is ZFS and dedicated to BSD.

Mind you True OS is BSD derivative.

It's  booting is like Linux but very specific and not at all flexible like Linux and one missing file or a wrongly configured file makes it to stop installing.

I have figured it out a few years ago, how to boot it from the Laptop and now I have forgotten, the boot time specifics.and BSD logics and logistics.

It prefers, I believe a FAT 16 file system.at the head of the SATA disk not GPT.

I may be wrong but only thing I did differently today was deleting all the partitions and having at the head 4000 MB FAT 16 partition(not FAT 32, in other words DOS).

It was a double whammy since Windows hidden boot script could not figure out how  to block BSD boot DVD.

Mind you, I do not have the password installed by Singapore OEM guy to change the booting option which is a a very simple thing.

Do not be paranoid to have a boot password.

If you do please give up being a computer administrator and become a priest.

I had made this DVD in 2017 and all DVDs of 2018 and 2019 found shy of UEFI and won't  try erasing, it at installation.

I think both Linux and BSD Developers  should get out of the mentality that "MacOS and Windows rule the World Paranoia" or poor psychology.

For over 15 years they do not exist in my sphere of influence.

To me they do not exist or even if they exist I do not care like others.

I am a totally FREE guy and nobody could boss me even at cadetting camp in Diyathalawa from the age of 16.

Mind you Endless OS did erase everything and I knew it could be done by BSD but finding the correct DVD was my problem.

I had few Other DVDs with TrueOS but they all failed.

I have run short of DVDs to make a few more copies of the 2017 DVD.

TrueOS configures a USB at  install time with all configurations  of your laptop or PC and please do not forget to have a USB at install time.

By the way, its desktop Lumina is beautiful and elegant.

I gave up cadetting after one visit there.

The bread the gave us for breakfast probably came from hell.

Now there, a supposed to be a Linux Guy who speaks good about the UEFI and there is nothing good about it, and is simply a pain in the ARxx.

The long article takes and hour to read ( I am good at reading.any rubbish but won't even remember five words of what he wrote) BUT if one cannot put it in five minutes it not worth reading it.

It is called  "In a nutshell".

Billions of years of evolution is in the seeds of the grass,too.

A computer should be like a lawnmower  in.your garden.

Debian on an Android Phone

Yes it is possible to install Debian Desktop on a Android phone.
Googles UserLand does this effortlessly touching nothing on Android as a layer on top of Android.

Kali
Alpine
Arch
Debian and
Ubuntu are supported.

Knoppix the Ultimate Game Changer in Linux

If I do not write few lines in my memory lane of Linux Topics and ignore Knoppix as opposed to my current workhorse Debian, it is truly unfair.

Let me say, I settled with Debian mainly due to laziness in old age and significant memory loss, to lot of wine, and not forgetting the demise of our dog.

Debian in my PC runs seamless and without any need for updates but with Linux kernel 15, I installed Debian 10 as a safety precaution.

No fiddling with it staying on 115  SSD and no data writing on it.

But my torrential experiments were done with Pupply Linux and Knoppix.

I must say Knoppix outstanding features has caused me to neglect Puppy except FATPup 64 bit version with UEFI.

What you all need is Knoppix 8.2 with and most beautiful flexible desktop.
I call it flexible since windows can be lifted up in the desktop in a most elegant way.

It is the Brain Child of Knoppix and comes from Germany.

I am.currently used it on my Laptop to transfer large amount of Data to a SATA disk.
It can be booted up from a USB.
Its persistent mode with reserved block makes it easy to run on RAM over and over again.
Whereas Puppy makes a large but consistent sfs file every time you save (I never do that since I forget what I did last) it.

Let me list the Knoppix utilities I use.
Unfortunately it does not have AbiWord my favourite.

1. GNOME gpart for partitioning

2. File Manager for File Transfer en mass.

3. Play Pingus and Solitarre.

4. Use LibreOffice for PDF files.

5. Play VML with media and audio.

6. I just transferred all my data in 30 minutes from Imation Apollo Expert I bought in 2009 in Singapore to a terrabyte SATA disk with NTFS partition.

Remember to use good quality hardware.
Scandisk is pretty good.

Do not use Cheap Chinese stuff.

7. Lot of programming language  WIMP included.
.
8. Putty file transfer utility

9. Installation in internal and external devices but prefer external.

10. Tor private browsing utility.

11.  Many browser utilities.

12. Torrent facilities.
And thousands of other utilities you can carry in your pocket instead of a heavy and bulky Laptop.
I hope one day I can boot it on my tablet effortless in RAM.

Data Quality is not a Concept Now

Data Quality is not a Concept Now

 

I used to say during my research days,
 

If.you put garbage in to a computer garbage out invariably happens.

I used to detest meta analysts.

They are the ones who takes sets of  data from others and create a new set of data and assume that the new set is their own creation.

Assumption is a dangerous preoccupation.

It is like religious beliefs.

In reality they have not contributed a single bit of data.

So I collected each piece of data myself and double checked every piece.

No secretary was involved.

I was the secretary.
I was the data collector.
I was the data analyst.

It takes time but reliability stands out.

In big business these three are done by three different guys or girls and a single error is multiplied by three.

Multiple errors leads to multiplex of no validity.

This is where I am against the AI or artificial intelligence.

If you feed inaccurate and inadequate data the outcome is a singularly of nonsense.

Really I was against the medical data formats.
 

An accurately kept Bed Head Ticket with a ongoing problems and outgoing problems summarised, ideally on weekly basis and if not monthly basis is adequate.
 

A database is only good enough for retrieving and sorting out two or three cases with identical names.
 

Nothing more.

The rest becomes redundant statistics.

This does not underscore a simple database kept by a GP with regular contacts of subjects.

Unfortunately most GPS become data collectors and referral agents of substandard quality.

I was obsessed about a database from birth  in my research work but my attempt at extending beyond was futile since the responsibility of tying the knot  was delegated to midwives (mind you, there were a few good ones) who were poorly trained about accuracy, globally, as regards to the biodata collected and recorded on BHTS and the nurses are busy with birth certificates and the rest and the final record book had simple but many errors including the sex of the baby.

Mind you, I cracked the NUT that of the global belief that male babies are bigger and healthy, but in reality the womb of the mother is non discriminatory to the sex of the baby, if BMII are compared with the lengthy  and weight (a bit  heavier  male babies) of the baby irrespective of the sex .

There was no SEX difference except the slight excess of death of male babies of small mothers, who.worked until the onset of parturition.

Especially so of mothers who were essentially labourers.

The remedy is simple no work after 35 weeks, plenty of sleep and good food.

Iron treatment had no relationship and one or two mothers were anaemic (excluded from the main database).

But B vitamins especially soluble ones are important and until.6 months after stopping  breast feeding.

The lactating mother is often neglected and baby is the center of attraction globally.

Regarding Biodata

No immediate cross checks and sometime with inordinate delays due to frequent shift changes.

Palming the buck to next shift is the name of the game.

Whenever I found discrepancy I used to correct them and mothers are really a patient lot in Ceylon but not the fathers.

Instead of a huge database  with errors multiplied but never knowing at which particular point of entry or contact that has happened, a lots of tiny databases with inbuilt validation algorithms are more effective and functional.

It is interesting to know that, a few guys are calling for data quality at entry point.

Like in purifying water by using filters the data pipeline at every point should be narrowed so that very little pass through to the next level.

Less data means easier is to validate and interpret and understand the clinical consequences.

The checking of data quality is a very good step in the right direction.

Like diplomats who lie for a living every day of the week and develop fake news for human consumption, media also take the baton forward in the relay cycle but inappropriately magnified.

I am fully with Donald Trump (he with a different objective) attacking the established system which need a total revamp.

For me single voter fraud is big enough and in Ceylon it is systemic and built into the system.

My dead father in law and mother in law voted, probably from heaven, ballot papers taken there, in their luggage to heaven, if not Kamma Compendium.

The above concept is alien to politicians.

They thrive on lies.

Of course people in general love lies in Ceylon especially if magnified by the media.

It is like our 550 Jathaka Katas.

Princess Diana's case in the past and currently "now not royal" Harry's case highlights this scenario in real life.

Unfortunately the medical media also has fallen into this trap deeply and the Coronavirus is a classic example.

Can we believe the data coming from China?

That was my first question when the pandemic begun.

Can we believe WHO?

Can we believe data from Ceylon.

I never believed in our doctored (by the army) data.

The current level of infection is the unfortunate end result.

Do not blame others.

Blame thyself.

Olympics in Japan 2021

Big thank you to Chairperson of Olympic Committee for holding fast.and beating the Japanese popular protest and holding it with due care given to the safety of the participants.

I think CNN should ban the Japanese Train Advertisement as a form of protest to the Japanese who are grumpy to the Olympics.

All athletes should participate BUT if they show any signs of mild illness they should withdrew giving written excuse and sort medical opinion immediately.

Any death, even.coincidential may be a big blow to Olympics especially.and sports in general.

Do not let your Dutch courage overtake your common sense and responsibility your   officials and fellow athletes safety.
The competition spirit should not deter the responsibility to the country you represent.

You are a sporting ambassador.

You.should love that image at trying.times.

They have trained for four years and waited another year.

It is a massive blow to moral of argyles and.sports in general.
Unlike team games athletics is a solitary game and toil.

With Coranavirus curtailing sports, I think 4 year gap is a non starter for many.
They should have more at least in yearly basis locally and internationally every two years.

By fiddling with regional politics and having a game at each.continent one can have 5 events.

This will allow athletes to have more opportunities.

Most burn will out they best will remain in good shape.

Now few words about R.J.K.Karunananda, who represented Olympics in 1964 in Japan.

He competed in marathon, 5000 and 10000 but became famous for the 5000.
He was lapped several times but completed  one before last lap with jeers and thunderous applauds.

He kept the Olympic Moto.

Participation not winning that matters.
He added a new proviso,.finishing what one started is also important.

Then we had S.L.B. Rosa who was looked after by two adopting mothers who were better than biological mothers.

Our officials ruined his participation in Montreal 1968.

Mind you both of them come from Roman Catholic Schools in Ampitiya where I schooled in the primary.

I went to Dharmaraja later and it was pleasing to see him winning the Dharmaraja cross country race.

He beat Karunananda and that is how he went to Montreal.
I was never good at long distance and I know why.
Genetically my glycogen stores are enough for 180 meters and nothing more.
These athletes have different long lasting glycogen in the heart and calf muscles.

Taking glucose at the beginning of.the race has no physiological value.

I remember that was the only incentive we had as kids.

My father was a big hindrance to sports and I.used to hide my running shorts.

All tailored by our next door Christian aunty. Finally, when I brought the under 12 and under 14 championship cup.
He began to understand bit of sports.

He hated us listening to BBC cricket commentary.
He rudely switched it off hating English accent.
His English accent was very poor and luckily my teachers at Roman.Catholic School put me on the correct track including sports.
I hated the Christian Bible reading and I was thrown out of the class.
I.conspired with my Buddhist friends soon they joined me.
While our Christian friends toiled with the Bible we played games in the.school grounds.
Mind you the above famous athletes trained in bare foot on the one and only road and mile posts were their targets.

We used to make yearly balloon and kites with adult help and also Wesak lanterns.
The bamboo blasters were our new year tools that were cut to pieces to male lanterns of various shapes and sizes.

With Coronavirus rampaging I do not see the kids even making kites.

I hope they  will at least.make lanterns come this Poya.

Lack of Scientific Strategic Point of Convergence

 Lack of Scientific Strategic Point of Convergence

This piece is.written with empathy.

I started  with skepticism bit mingled with sarcasm, especially, for all politicians of a large spectrum, globally spread.

I am gearing for equanimity but no where near it.

There are basically four fears.

Loss of one's belongings or greed of possessing more and more (it is called Americanism and Trumpism is its latest mutant) including power spectrum.

Anger or hate that has no limits (currently Israel but it shifts its location globally).

The worst of it is the idealism that come as various form of religions, now wanting women not to wear underwear but males excluded.

The worst is the fear of death and finding no space to bury the death, in India is escalating.

I think all humans deserve a final resting place, if not in place but in our memory.

They are our fellow beings irrespective of their birth or origin (I mean cultures).

They are not simple statistics but a product of two, a mother and a putative father.

We are sure of our mother but never the father according to Abraham T Kouvoor, an Indian skeptic or a rationalist, long gone with his establishment.

I simply believe  one can be a skeptic but but never a fully accomplished rationalist.

As a medical man every death recorded  is a sting on our expertise challenged to the very core.

Every man or woman is counted and they are not "Vote Bank" to exploit.

Every leader in the developed and developing world is accountable and culpable and it is applied to current President Biden and blaming Trump or scapegoating him is not the scientific way around.

We all fallible human beings, it is part of our nature but that rule does not apply to guys and girls clamouring for power keg.

The political powder peg!

The Coronavirus has exposed us to the way we use ad hoc management strategy to any human crisis, let alone a communicable disease.

It all started in London with cholera epidemic  and it took a decade or more to trace the series of deaths to a common tap used by Londoners.

The primitive Public Health was born but now with tons of antiseptics condiments it has proved ineffective.

It is long before Simpson's forensic principles which I loved in total, that put the foundation of my Pathology Stint.

Realizing that I could add only 20%  after full postmortem examination to the already existing 40% which put breaks to the scientific medical  brain of mine was a welcome recipe.

It broaden my outlook and opened me to Linux and Free Software.

Medicine was a boring subject that I never said while in practice.

With Coronavirus that gut feeling of mine has resurfaced.

I am not saying it to put off anybody who wants to become a doctor or nurse.

But the Coronavirus will diminish the entry into this field for a very long time.

It has exposed the public sector's lack of commitment in UK and private sector's vulnerability in USA.

Insurance corporations will rewrite their small prints to exclude Coronavirus deaths, if not care.

Their premise majority will not fall ill and the premiums are good source for investments falls on the floor, if not the on the face.

I always discouraged psychology and psychiatry not because their is significant lack of pathological footprints but the shear number of the population.

There are more than 7 billion living psychologies on this planet and their should be billions of psychiatrists.

Only Buddha who could read minds of others but that is also one at a time, with rebirth and it's consequences examined in.detail but ordinary psychology guy generally projects his perspective to the gullible subjects.

It has many inherent risks.

The psychiatrists commits suicide  more often than a pathologists.

That is why I always discourage somebody wanting to do psychology.

Now a bit of intermission.

Guys and Girls do not be in a rush to buy an Apple device or Google's Chrome device.

They are all bloatware padded with bubbling new icons and touch finger pads.

It is a waste of money and my version 8 and 9 if not 10 is sufficient for my work with fancy typefaces that takes the strain on my fingers and finger tips.

But if you want hard work performed it is the PC not your Laptop  that takes  you to the winning post, with Grammerly Typeface ruling with grammar.

Apart from my interest in Linux, I took the trouble to improve my English (especially after my retirement).

During my workdays, it was all about correct technical English and exact definition that mattered.

It is now more of both since I have broaden it to Ultra Science and Physics of mine.

I may have to coin new words to add the 4th dimensional view and perspective.

We are unfortunately trapped in 3 dimensions and there is more to this Universe than three dimensions.

It is a big mathematical puzzle.

Universe does neither stop at pictures and video conferences nor the speed of light.

It is much more.

One has to get rid of all religious beliefs and tendencies.

We have to drop political conventions that all men and women are equal.

We have enormous potentials that are suppressed by political, religious and broadly speaking scientific views.

I have already said we may be able to unravel the 20%.

I am not trying to be philosophical here.

The philosophers  are good at posing good questions and not expecting a ready made answer.

Quite the opposite here in my expansive projections.

Those projections are applied  to Coronavirus spread.

My current view is 50% blame goes to the politicians who govern and the other 50% who believe them as gospel truths.

We must make people less believing the plausible government side of the argument and find big holes in that argument.

I think there is a big hole in the big bucket of lies spread by paranoid doctors.

The big bucket cannot hold the current fluidity of the argument, since the virus is finding new ways explore the human predicaments.

Its fluidity in existence is existential.

There is no tailor made answers.

The answers have to be evolving with the trends and statistics.

I have a few points for argument.

The population is fast expanding and WHO has no population policy to begin with.

UNO is a Big Failure.

The nature's answer is Coronavirus to control the over population.

But a successful virus never exterminate it's host.

Less than 0.001% is it's normal strategy.

The Coronavirus far exceeds the limit of nature's tolerance.

That is my argument for human made or laboratory made virus argument.

It is also of 20 to 30 nanometer size very easy to spill out of the unregulated genomic laboratories all over the world.

Craig Ventor may have made millions, if not billions but that genomic cat has gone savagely wild now.

I do not fancy the argument that the virus was present and incubating in USA, well before 2014.

The Chart's extrapolation is in error.

Extrapolating without real data but imaginary data is totally  unscientific!

That is the Chinese side of the argument.

But nobody talks about Singapore planes taking the virus all over the world from China and its lack in house plans to spread inside the cabins.

I have no sympathy for few airlines going bust.

The current trends in technology and video conferences put lead weight on airlines trying to open up logistically again.

The priorities are changing fast and I have no grouse about Air Ambulances which was a part of my work in New Zealand.

This industry is only for the super flyers.

Not for an average Indian who does not have a regular place for logging and share a room or dormitory.

Lack of housing is a global problem, especially for migrant workers.
I need to expand on global housing and how architects have no inspiration as regards to human predicament in a global pandemic.
Their esthetics may have high value for rich customers but majority in this world does not have a proper roof above them.

Sharing toilets is a common problem.

A house with 4 should have at least three toilets if we are to avoid domestic transmission of any infection.

They should not be on the same level but at different levels, at least four with a rooftop garden to support robust plants that cool the house and capture at least minute amount that was released during construction.

I do not believe in Premadasa type of "Block Cement" compartments with common toilets.

I hate high rising buildings.

If a high rising building.catchers fire it is catastrophe.

See the film Towering Inferno.
I was once incarcerated overnight in Singapore due to mishandling of the flight schedule by Sri-Lankans Airline

I.was in the  21 or 23rd floor and I could not sleep having explored the fire exit twice.
I caught up with my sleep inflight to London.

Those days airfares were cheap and only a few traveled.

Middle seats were empty and space was enough to spread out.

Coming to ground level, in my neighbourhood there is a common toilet which is an eyesore.

There is a house built on Premadasa style near it without a toilet.

Our Grama Niladhari's office is nearby.
 

He has no toilet.

There was a public water tap like in London, there.

I was instrumental in closing it to save water.

Why somebody get free water while I pay the water bill? 

Mind you, our last water bill was over Rs.5000/=.

So this joint is a ideal breeding or spreading ground for the Coronavirus and the quarantine site or the teacher training college is nearby.

No wonder three wheeler drivers were the first to catch the virus.

Little beyond is the University.

Thank God,  it is closed to students and would have been  an epicenter.

We have mismanaged this crisis from the very beginning.

There were big holes to plug but they.plugged the easy ones.

It is our Navy who started it.

Of course army helped it spreading.

I finish with a sore point.

I have nothing against LGBT people but homosexuals spread this virus globally.

It is simply a Enterovirus that slips the gear to respiratory mode  having switched to Adenovirus methodology (this supports my original argument that it is a laboratory virus which escaped from China).

AIDS was a classic example.

It was tree monkey virus to begin with.

The German  Nazis had a base in Western Africa before Second World War.

They used poor tree moneys for experimenting.

Gods only know for what?

May be for biological weapons.

They picked up the virus from the monkeys.

They were homosexuals whereas Africans were not.

Poor Africans were subjects of vaccination program without sterilizing needles and instruments and not by sexual route.

They passed the Mutant AIDS virus to all Africans.

History repeats and this time, it is in Communist  China.

The bat was the source if not civets.

UEFI is a pain compared to Legacy BIOS

UEFI boot loader is a pain.

Luckily my PC has the option to remain in BIOS mode.

BIOS supports duel booting with Linux.

I had no problem after erasing Windows from the system with BIOS.
I used to have at least 8 Linux distributions in with the 15 partition limit, it has.

By using swap partition one can make faster page transfer.
Usually swap partition should be twice the RAM one  has.

BIOS has 2 terrabyte limit for the disk.
If you have two disks you can have 30 partitions and it is more than ample for a simple guy.

I use NTFS partitions for Data storage which Linux can read.

(FAT partition is bit dicey).

One terrabyte is ample for a Linux guy who uses resources effectively.

Now come to my 5 year old Laptop it supports UEFI for Windows only.

It effectively blocks duel booting with Linux.

I have used BSD to erase the Windows boot menu but it secretly keep the Windows script in the hardware, I believe.

Certainly, not in the hard disk which I have  erased  and it says there is no bootable media.
I cannot go to BIOS and it is password protected and the vendor who sold it in Singapore did not give me the password.

Had I known.this scenario, I would have asked.

In any case it was for my son and he soon lost interest after two.years.

Then I used my normal techniques and erased everything and I could not boot Linux.
Then by accident I discovered BSD CD and it erased using Internet connection and installed ESP partition and BSD.

At that time BSD had only limited software and I finally got the Debian 9 booted with the help of the ESP created by BSD.

It also had PCLinux.

Then I lost interest mainly due to the demise of our dog (its pictures in the laptop contributing to shutting it off)  and I used my PC exclusively for my routine work.

Now Coronavirus made me to revisit the Laptop and I updated it with Debian 10 and booted OK.

I erased PCLinux in the processes and one day I installed Ubuntu 20-10 and it destroyed the ESP booting and reverted me to Windows booting with password protection.

I could not boot Debian 10.

Then deliberately, I pulled the defective Ethernet wire that connected to my PC and burned it and I lost all Internet connections to boot BSD.

I thought of booting with WiFi but I did not have data having exhausted all with two failed downloads of Knoppix 9.

Now nothing else to do I booted the  Endless OS and it erased everything and installed its Ostree but it won't let Linux duel booting.

Even Knoppix 8.2 won't touch the Windows UEFI boot record or and GRUB utility failed.

Endless OS can be booted on an external disk and it has limited software from the DVD.

Without Internet I cannot install new applications.

Finally I used  MultiSysyem Linux on a FAT partition and booted the Laptop with a 16 GB USB and a 600 GB SATA disk.

Peppermint is on.
Pinguy OS is on.
Multisystem is on.
Gpart is on.
Knoppix is on.
Emmabantus is on.
All Puppy Linux except FATPup.

I am.back to full orientation even without the Internet.

I think, Coronavirus incarceration was a blessing in.disguise.

Me and my humble beginning of Linux

I cannot believe that I am posting this from an elegant  Nokia (pioneer of cellphones or it was called a brick those days) cellphone and not from a dumb and dark terminal of a PC with a standard keyboard.

1. Linus Torvalds's Linux is three decades old.

2. I entered it 20 years ago, 10 years after him.

3. Thanks to the loads of books at that time including Redhat 8.

4. My first book "Using Linux,  5th Edition" by four authors, namely Jack Tackett, Steve Burnett, Rob Napier and Jeff Tranter started  the spin.

Now I am good at spinning a Googly like Mulathiran.

Cricket was my only obsession then and now total disinterest, thanks to Indian IPL, terminated by Coronavirus.

5. No waning of my interest in Linux.

Since I am winding up my blog here  by mid July, it is fitting tribute to Google for allowing me to post Linux 100 here.

6. This piece, is for those guys/girls who have learnt only a few Linux commands and did not read a book at all, but posting as WEB GURUs (really bogus guys/girls) to read how Linux community including Ubuntu Community developed the Linux enthusiasm globally.

Read my books on Linux which even describe partitioning using Partition Magic under Windows hood to begin with.

7. Thanks to Emmabantus for extending its outreach to even Africa.

8. Thanks to MultSystem from France for helping me to carry all my favourite Linux in a USB stick or SATA disk.

Of course I am still struggling with my French accent but persevering.

9. Now to nitty gritty of Linux.

10. It is truly multiuser, multitasking with full implementation of  ITP/TC protocols, which windows could not implement or handle, then.

11. I started with dumb terminal using and editing fsdisk (Caldera) and cfsdisk (Debian) and particularly Partition Droid of Redhat.

I hate dumb terminals and thanks to X-Windows for Graphic interface that I love.

12. The book had 3 CDs and it all started with this book.

13. Of course, I used Knoppix and Pendrive Linux (humble beginning on a 100 MB USB with Puppy Linux booting) extensively from Knoppix 3.9 to 7 to 8.2 on USB sticks.

I still could not download Knoppix 9 English version due to bungling of MobiTel and Dialog.

14. As a dog lover, Puppy Linux  is my ultimate favourite including FATPup in 64 bit version.

15. There were no CDs then Internet and Floppy Disks were the installation methods.

16. Linux is text based and not resource hungry and my son's first computer had only 4MB RAM and could not find another 2MB RAM extension then.

I used Debian 6 with six or seven CDs to boot it dual with Windows 95 which I hate to this day.

The book recommended 16 MB but ideally 32 MB RAM.

I still have that PC in my bedroom as a souvenir.

Windows destroyed  three or four hard disks of my office computer, with the then Dean who was a friend of mine over my shoulder.

To begin with over 40 floppies to install, taking full 8 hours.

17. Partitioning the disk either using partition magic or fdisk or partition droid was the first step.

18. It needed 64 MB  Swap and 128 MB for root files.
Rest of the MBs of a 1 GB space of my hard disk was for user partitions including home partition.

Now my SD card booted with Peppermint Linux has 32 GB (bought in Singapore).

19. It was LILO boot menu and but it became easy with with the GRUB boot loader.

20. I am into BSD using ZFS partitioning on tank structure routine on my Window's Laptop devoid of Windows but booting well to BSD only alone or Linux multiples if I desire.

21. I have Endless OS on a SATA disk but it won't dual boot with Linux.

22. I think that winds up 20 years of perseverance but not one night on 10 or less Linux commands to fiddle with in the web.
Linux has over 60,000 utilities in it's repositories but mastering a few will get your job at hand done especially with a server clouds now in operation.

I am fully retired now but with an eagle eye on what is going on.

23. What is annoying with Windows is that the operating system once installed is bare of any useful software and one has to install piece by piece often paying money.

Linux distributions have multitude of applications already installed with the first boot. 

I rarely need anymore except Abiword that is deleted due to popular LibreOffice.

24. What I like most is to run my PC over decade without losing a single file (in spite of this ability I make copies and copies of my books on preparation ) in my PC.
It is a different story with the laptop, I test and erase numerous distributions but boot with USB, often with Knoppix.

I do not format my home partition and it's files remain with same home name over and over again and the password is rarely changed a bit as a precaution.

This strategy was useful when I was busy working with lot of responsibilities  including  conducting examination under a strict protocol.

25. Other odd thing that stand out with virtual keyboard is that they have already forgotten how to use F1 to F12 function key layout.

It used to be F1 to F8 then.

26. If you need the latest in Linux subscribe to Linux Magazine and Linux Voice that comes from Germany not USA.