Knoppix and My Puppy Linux Love

My first love of Linux is Puppy Linux which.was less than 100 MB and I could boot a 32 bit computer with ease.
Then went through a period of Pendrive Linux (the site is still present in the web) and gradually settled downed to Debian having discarded Side and Redhat.
But looking at my records I have more Knoppix distributions or CD / DVDs than Puppy Linux.

Puppy has grown in fat or MBs and FatPUP is full of graceful utilities.

My migration to BSD was accidental but thoughtfully integrated since it destroys Microsoft Laptops with ease.
Latest of course is Endless OS that gives scant regard  to Microsoft.

I used to get Knoppix on a regular basis with Linux.Magazine.

It has the most beautiful of all desktop and nothing to beat its flexible and pleasing windows and workplaces.

Linux, especially Knoppox is creatively multitasking and working  on several workplaces has become second mature to me.

Try this on this on Microsoft it FREEZES.

I am.amazed of such a shoddy operating system dominated the world for so long.

Android has become a part of my life and blog scenario (which is going to come to an.end by mid July).

But working in.front of a PC monitor is not like watching TV but intellectually gratifying.

Writing a book with Android is impossible but laptop or PC is entirely different ball game.

That is why I was annoyed botj witj.Mobitel and Dialog for rudely interrupting my Knoppix download twice.

This would.not have happened with wired Ethernet connection which I pulled down hastily.

But I.will survive without wire pulling.

If you have not used Knoppix at least once you are missing a lot.

It has this amazingly unique persistent volume and you never lose anything that you have been working on.

Knoppix comes from Germany and it takes the name from its original.developer.

What a road journey it had covered  for almost over 3 decades.

I think one should send a wireless  USB stick with Knoppix running a Drone on Mars instead of an Android Droid.

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Tiny Utilities

When I travel abroad I go almost empty handed except money and a few USBs and Small CDs.

I was looking for Linux utilities and they had nothing in 2009 in Singapore.

It is true even today.

They cater for big companies and hardware and not for OUR needs.

Instead I look for a good Laptop or some fancy handheld scanners.

Coming to small utilities I bought two small CD cases holding only 12  small CDs.

Two of them I did not look for some time and we're full of Puppy Linux, Gparted and Linux Partition Magic CDs.

Now with 64 bit computers running most of the Puppy Linux CDs we're unusable.

The RW CDs I formatted and I kept only Precise 5.5 series Racy Pup 5.5 series and Slako Pup that could boot on a 64 bit computer.

Even Wary was not bootable.

Mind you these CD had only 200 MB capacity and only Puppy could write a sfs file under 200 MB into the R and RW CDs.

It is sad to see these Puppy derivatives dysfunctional except on 32 bit computers.

I wanted AbiWord for my work and even FATPup support LibreOffice.

While I was doing that I found a Data CD with some of my blog writing made in AbiWord.

Accidentally I clicked a file and to my amazement LibreOffice current version reads AbiWord but won't save an edited version in AbiWord format.

This is in Debian 10 distribution and I do not have to convert them NOW to LibreOffice or Words format to read them or edit them.

Thank you very much LibreOffice and you should allow saving new AbiWod documents under LibreOffice hood.

Both backward and forward compatibility.

It is all about removing Macros.

I used Open Office to remove Macros from Words but lately it was only AbiWord.

Since Android cellphones do not support AbiWord, the strategy for LibreOffice should be to support AbiWord and it (a MUST) going to be a real booster for AbiWord users like me.

I am getting tired with Polaris and WPS word formats.

They are bulky.

This is ready not a draft.

Bees are coming again

First of all let me say that *Early bees store the pollan and honey instead of early birds catches the worm.
Two varieties. One comes for pollen from lilies and the other from the palm blossoms.
I'm fact the smaller bee I could record in my  spare cellphone camera.
Before I could bring my real camera it had gone away.
Not only early it is quick.
Within one hour they disappear.
Then there is a single wasp or bamara who roams daily in two visits.

Origami Guy and My Japanese Connections

Origami Guy

Meeting this guy was a chance occurrence, most likely through MW, I believe. He may have ask some favours from MW and he would have duly helped. Perhaps getting his daughter to a Kandy school with talent in swimming. This guys daughter, I use to buy treats, since she was a good swimmer and spend lot of time on swimming lessons.

Sitting with this friend who is an expert on Origami and having a tea and treat was to put importance of education and not sports. Only a few can rice up the ladder of sports. Doing sports for fun is a different matter. I used to the points point blank but now I use gentle and pervasive mode.

She was tiny and I told him, what she needs is good food and good education and her teachers are using for their fame and not his daughter.

In fact. the teachers are using her.

She gets up at five and come to Kandy, before six thirty in the morning to have half and hour of of swimming lessons from 7AM to 7.30AM the school opening, time. Then he waits until 2.30PM to pick her up with after lessons. The school closes at 1.30PM.

This schedule exhaust both the father and the daughter and his hard earned money in Japan is down the drain as it were. He has a another kid I think a boy.

I told him not to give Origami lessons free of charge and advertise it and earn some money. I could not follow a single lesson and my target was to get my memory back and develop a skill in old age to help my coordination in old age. I am losing bit of coordination and I realize keyboard is my my friend.

Besides, it will make me to finish few more books in double quick time. I also try to master new English words and synonyms are my favourites and I try to avoid using the same word repeatedly but instead use a synonym to go with my fast flowing ideas

I told him she has no energy left to concentrate on lessons. It is far better to lean English and Japanese instead.

Of course, corona virus put and end to swimming lessons and me meeting him for a cup of tea.

I should end this with the all the Japanese Guys and Girls who helped the Dental Faculty to its present standing. It is also closed due to corona virus and a blessing in disguise for the guys who are practicing.

My target was only 50 dental surgeons a year and export them and they went up to 100 not heading my advice.

The first is Dr. Handa and he was an amiable guy and I used to tell him instead of JICA, he should become a diplomat. I lost touch with him and he never game me his email and I did not ask in any case.

The other was Miss Hagiwara, opposite Dr. Handa very reserved and difficult to make any tangible friend. She was a computer lady and had all the Windows proprietary software including statistics with her. She was stingy not necessarily due to copyright issues but her nature. I gave up trying her but got Professor Asoka Ekanayake to demand from her all the software needed for student education in the small computer unit we had.

She had to give in and I built a small network in Linux at home with 14 computers. 

I had lot of time and was doing research work and most of my time in the morning was used in the computer laboratory with SPSS, only available in Windows. Linux has limited software in statistics and SPSS was a proprietary software. 

I also found pirated copies in Kandy streets.

It was no big deal for me to master statistics in six months, only to finish my thesis.

The third guy was with whom I shared my official  room. He was a retired Professor of Pathology and had lot of publications in Japanese but his English was hopeless to say the least. 

I used to do develop my private statistics database on placenta which I did not give to the university. 

All morning two days of the week, I was in Teaching Hospital, Peradeniya getting my data and specimens collected and then I come to Faculty and finish entering them. 

No conversation at all with him but got him to train our technicians in special staining techniques (demonstrations and no talking involved), through Dr. Handa. He was of course was fluent in English. He stayed with us for six months. There was an intensive crash course in English for him by  Dr. Handa and sure enough he made an English presentation and a booklet to go with it. 

I was instrumental in getting the text in the instruction booklet edited. We sent three of our technicians abroad one to two Japan and another to Korea for hands on training on special staining techniques.

I never wanted to go to Japan and learn Japanese or Korean in my twilight years and English and French are my mode of exchange of ideas but fall behind in French as compared to English.

But my cellphone keyboard is In French which I can switch to English effortlessly but my grammer in French is hopeless. 

I thought I could not get one page on KJ in my book of Unique Guys but here I  am ending with 5 pages.

I have inadvertently deleted the entry on Japanese Contribution to Dental Faculty. 

I am going to cut and paste this as a replacement for future reference but I will trim this site to 300 entries moment I finish publishing books at Amazon and have only Linux entries and few on other topis.

This site is named Linux 100 and 300 is three times that target.

I think I have done my honours to Linux in style. 

Tails and its Book Maker

I down loaded, torrent files of Tails and FreeNAS.
Unfortunately my DATA finished and larger of FreeNAS fell short of few MBs.
Thanks FreeNAS for your torrent file.
I do not like direct download.
For Tails I used image writer writer to boot.
It booted well but failed integrity its software.
From the booted OS I made another bootable USB.
Its image is only 1GB but expanded to 4.3GB.
It has a bookmaker utility and makes A 3 to A 5 books.
I tried a book file made of AbiWORD for conversion to book but it failed, saying EOF or end of the file error.
I will do a bit of editing to my big file and see I can make A 5 Book.
I hope Tails improve bookmaker identify ABI and LibreOffice long file.
I hope Tails add custom utility to get real book sizes printed out.

Jumping for Joy

This one is small.
Food is scarce for them due to extremely dry and hot weather not   due to Putin's War of Words and Guns.
Only place they can breed is my fish tanks.
She was going for the rooftop.
Bad idea since my plants pots are  dry and have only two buckets which are used to propagate Vallisneria.
Vallisneria also slowly die.
Frogs need clean water for laying eggs.

Clan of Six

The seventh guy mentioned above was not in the original six but we jumped a ride to Kandy city in the  car which came to pick him.

They were from the south who came to Kandy for business and never went back. They bought land in Haragama which is where our last king escaped from Kandy from British capture on his way to Mada Maharuwara (where he was captured eventually).

It is fitting to end this chapter with a real story.

Three of us were invited for the house warming ceremony. We were broke those days and we decided to walk from Gurudeniya to Haragama (Haragama means a tunnel dug under a steep hill).

We assumed it was a little walk but found it daunting and we reached there at 1PM, an hour late.

Luckily for us, the sumptuous lunch was not ready and we had one hour to refresh with sweat pouring underneath our clothes.

Additionally one of the three chunky bars of chocolates we decided to eat and not donate as a gift. It would look like one has not contributed to the simple gift. We never told him this story and it was top secret and before I kicked the bucket it should be recorded somewhere, for posterity.

Rebirth that baffles me

I working hard on book a "Why I believe in rebirth and do not believe in rebirth.
It will be out soon on Amazon Books  once it is proof ready.
Rebirth cannot be proved on scientific methodology.
It does not mean science has all the tools.
Mind is cosmological and knows no boundaries.
Brain is gravity bound and need oxygen and high pressure suits on the moon.
In zero gravity CSF fluid flows in opposite direction and effects sleep diurnal rhythm and critical decision making capacity.
But mind can function in outer space effortlessly.
What is the connection with rebirth.
The mind can exist without brain but brain cannot exist without mind and heart beat.
Mind can travel in space but for betaine to travel it need a spaceship and the brain cannot travel in a cardboard box.
Mind can travel out of the body (Near Death Experience) and with this ability it can find another body another vector or host including animal form.
I tell my son I will be born next time round as a chameleon.

Can you guess the next round of birth for Putin and all politicians?

Let your imagination run riot.
It is a good mental exercise during the current wave of corona virus.

It is spreading fast in Colombo.

Get out of Colombo.

Orchids

This took 18 years to bloom

This bloom came after 18 years

It was a long wait to see this orchid flower.