In Defence of Bart Sibert

According to Bill Kaezing odds were 1 to 10.000.

Van Allen Belt.

No records.

Could not repeat it for another 50 years.

People in the command center could not say the images are real or fake.

No independent Media.

Only 3 persons had access to the photos.

Americans were good at lying and C.I.A. was their intrumeny for both lying and bullying

Debian the clear winner-The Gold for Light and Heavy Weight Championship

Debian the clear Winner

The Gold for Light and Heavy Weight Championship
Posted on July 26, 2011
 

Now that the industrial action is over, we brought the Hero to Gyro (not giro and we could not be bought by money circulating on illegal hands or corruption) except perhaps few individual who had vested interests and wanted to be heroes at the expense of the general body politics of our action perpetuated by sheer needs and not aspirations (fell far short of aspirations of accountability, transparency, fairness).

These instant Heroes had unassailable lead and they had to be pulled down to base level and gyrate them on the correct path lest all of us would be heading for disaster.
 

We never had the political will to bring Heroes to Zeros but the vision to come to the base level we reached way back in 2008 and gyrate in correct orbit instead of asking for miracles which we will never achieve the way we sink into dirty tricks and manipulations by undesirables.

I hope senses will come to body politics of the country, unless of course the voters will bring the Heroes to Zeroes in double quick time at the correct gyroscopic orbit and time and they are not stupid or donkeys who carry burden.

We are of course in the minority in that context and what we can provide is wisdom if not vision.

We came to equilibrium position neither zero nor hero but a position of comfort from where we can gyrate to greater heights if correct recognition is extended.
 

Otherwise history will take us backward (like in cricket) instead of forward.

Debian

Coming to IT industry where there are commercial heroes but the clear winner which gyrate at the correct orbit is Debian.
It was no surprise.
Score of above 3000 and well above the Gold Standard of 2500 for the standard CD.
For the heavy weight category it is within the Gold Mark where no other distribution has all the components at hand with over 30,000 package well tested.
It has gParted which is around 100 MB with partition and security features.
It has Blender, Scribus and Inkscape.
Only missing component was O.E.M. component.
It did not have a printed book but thanks to French and the English translation is due soon and available on line as open source.
It has all the versions from Mini to KDE to Server.

It has multi-language support including Sinhala.

It does not pretend to be a (commercial) hero but the wise counsel to all the other distributions which include Ubuntu and extending a hand to Linux Mint currently.
Additionally it is forging with FreeBSD, too.

It is the clear winner.
 

If I said without my marking scheme everybody will say I am biased. 

Now it is vindicated and flame wars are not the necessity but a feature of Linux and its multi-faceted distributions..
 

Now I can say with or without bias it is the one that guides us and the Gyroscope for years to come.
 

If you need a solid, stable and secure enhanced Linux, there is only one and only one.

It is called Debian.

 
It is not for the lazy souls and it is the one who wants to dig a lot, sweat a bit and enjoy a lot of the hard labour.
Nothing is easy in the IT World.

One has to go into simple command line and give commanding orders till midnight commander sleeps like a sleeping beauty!


Debian Collection-Sinhala Capability

Debian Collection-Sinhala Capability
Posted on July 15, 2011 

 
I am afraid you are not going to hear, I relate, any good dreams for a while and I was under the weather, this time not due to verbal diarrhoea of a political variety but really runny bottoms which virtually dehydrated me and the forced starvation had caused even hypoglyaemia to the extent, I have a slight headache even interfering my prolonged sleep on a Poya Day.

What usually happen is I have a good invigorating dream on Pre-poya day and I go straight to the computer and an email to Maha Brhma who virtually responds instantaneously to my dreams.
You may remember, we had an agreement unless the dream content has some humour, both ways my actual dreaming of it and its interpretation by Maha which makes the earthling practically starving of a good laugh, keep amused away from our boring politicians.
Suffice is to say I had some little fragmented dreams of no significance but a good one is long due.
Probably our cricket team’s poor performance and Sanga’s muted Revelations of Sri-Lankan Cricket would get no Sri-Lankan into a good mood awake or in dreams.
I have to agree with Sanga that Cricket was not something alienated with power politics or racial overtones whether it is South, North, East, West of in the Central Hills in the past but it seems under the present regime it has become alienated to extent one who is a Buddhist and coming from deep south only will get a chance to play for Sri-Lankan team as a newcomer and  s/he should be in the ruling party as a member of the parliament or avid supporter to get some contracts to fatten his or her foreign exchange illegally.

Corruption is ripe and only difference is unlike Indians our officers are cushioned by political maneuvers.

This is what Sanga could not state (not the 9 O’clock News item) but his resignation at a time when we had not groomed a viable successor, is an indication of his disgust how cricket is manged here in Sri-Lanka.

Well done Sanga, you come from the hill capital was the only one like our  Late Kadhiragarman who value principles of good governance. 

I suppose you should  now concentrate on law rather than cricket.

Be a chip of the old block.

Time will tell who with the political backing will get the baton but who ever who comes with political baton will be sure to fail, since cricket is the only game where power politics has no place.
England has shown us how it is done with transparency and I won’t be surprised if England will lift the Cup next time around if they persevere with combination of youth with talent and senors with grit.
Just for record the criticism of of Trot was unwarranted and he is the one who helped to lift the cup and silenced English armchair critics.
Well done Trot you have more to offer as a Senior Player, if Sanath can play at 41 plus you should be playing at 38 plus if you keep your fitness, technique and solid temperament to win the game for your country right, in the shorter version of the game.
But if you are not up to it don’t wait like Peterson but follow the Thescovic example and play for your county till 40 plus and enjoy the gentleman game.
I hope you will be in the team which lift the next world cup and I will be following you very closely if not the others in your team and if you need a push I will certainly give it, far away from your home from the East.
Make sure you beat Indians this time round in summer like what you did in Australia.
Indian money and politicians are ruining the game and only English can save the game from disgrace, IPL included.
We should never allow Bolliwood to fashion the game!
 

Please do not follow Chandimal and Mathews methods and they have learned these very, very bad habits from our politicians who have nothing but using fallen soldiers for their grandiose acts posthumously.

I am far off the target from Linux and Debian in particular.
 

Reason for diversion is nothing but I am waiting for the download of the last two DVDs in 386 version (I have 64 bit version) which is pretty fast due to so many seeders.
Now I have array of CDs/DVDs to promote Sinhala Linux and devoting my time for Debian during our industrial action which has given me ample time to sit in front of the computer.

Debian has produced bug fixes and I have downloaded them too.
 

I am gland they have followed my advice to break the distributions into Bonobo to Gorilla versions and Light Weight Chimp Versions of 500 MB is the one that is going to rule the world for next 20 years with “Cloud Computing” on the horizon and Tabloids invading the market with very very cheap hardware.

I think Deann fork should follow Unity experience while maintaining Linux Mint under Debian fold.
 

Next 10 years should be the Linux Penetration Decade (L.P.D) of the masses which is only 1% currently. 

If Linux can make it to 10%, it is going to be a market force and the other 90% should be the “Cloud Servers” which will dominate the next 20 years until another innovation hits the web.

Flying

Flying
Posted on June 7, 2011 

I was very fond of flying.
I could have ended up as a good Flying Officer (not a fighter pilot) and I had all the right ingredients but I came close to it.

The day my father took a flight to India on good old Air Ceylon (Avro, I believe) and watched the the take off from the Air Control Tower, I new I was going to fly a lot.
I never told anybody especially my father (he would have never allowed me) but did my own survey and found that it was humanly possible for me to break in without a big connection.
I gave up that idea.
However, even though I did biology I made it a point to offer applied mathematics (I was very good in my mathematics and in fact I beat all the maths students from my biology class) and mathematics, in case one day fortune favours me.

Then of course moment I passed out and confirmed in service I applied for Volunteer Air force but I was not enlisted.

I had all the qualifications including physical and sports and was sure of getting enlisted.
When final selection came guy who was almost one foot short was selected and I was not even called for the interview.
Then when I did my own search and I found that somebody had a hand in not forwarding  my application to the board.

Not only that somebody was enlisted without maths and applied mathematics (he was unceremoniously thrown out later after having being in Uniform for many years). I do not know who instigated his fall but I made a decision I will chuck the Government Service moment I finish my compulsory service, which I did with my father’s vehement protest.

That decision I always cherish and three months after the compulsory service I left the service for good saying myself I will never join it again.
I had been in service I would have ended up in a regrettable high post where corrupt practices are the norm.

The cost of my first flight to UK one way was less than Rs.4000/= and luckily for me  by then my brother who scooted off before me without a red cent in his hand was very well settled abroad and not married too.
It took another almost five years for me to get all the training in accident and emergency service to qualify to become a flying doctor (before I changed my course radically to enter academic sphere) and my last job abroad had a quota of flying doctor and doctor for horse racing (I liked horse racing more than flying) if I was not otherwise engaged officially.

But before that I have flown from Northern Hemisphere to Southern Hemisphere on my own money and I never got a free ticket or a free ride but I never could qualify as a frequent flyer like most of the Arabs and American CEOs.

What could not dream here in spite all qualifications I could do it in a foreign country down under.

Funnily enough now I hate flying mainly because of the pricing of the tickets which has not come down in spite of stock market crisis and fall.
 

I always flew on my own money and never ever taken a red cent (I am entitled) from government coffers unlike our MP who go on entourage (rather pilgrimage) and make a mess out of our foreign affairs.

That is something my family is very proud of.
 

It is  shame to fly on public money and that is a norm today.

Simply Mepis

Simply Mepis
Posted on August 14, 2010
 

Simply Mepis is one of the distributions I have installed in my laptop and desktop on a regular and permanent basis.
The other is Berry Linux. 

I must confess that I use them for demonstration of cute little distributions and not for daily work.

(Edited today 15-08-2010)
I think I have touched upon some intuition.
What is written below was before the download of Mepis DVD.
Thanks to Guys and Girls in Mepis for sweeper (which I call a Mind Sweeper).

Making me happy Mepis has introduced a package named Sweeper to clean up the system.

It is a welcome I had being waiting for a long time. 

I had been doing this manually until now even with PCLinux.

This utility should be developed into MinD Sweeper for others to follow.
I use PCLinux (now 2o10-01) on daily basis and it does not give any problem because it has the nice habit of deleting unnecessary files in tmp on a regular basis (at boot up) and there is no clutter or clogging due to large log files (large log files that are essential for a server and should not be used obsessively in a desktop.

I of course on a regular basis look at the available memory after three or four downloads and having archived the images delete big files keeping the distribution robust and up to date.

Whereas my wife and daughter who also use two different (both PCLinux-2009) desktops on a regular basis come up to me saying that Linux sucks memory since they download many photos and like files.

Luckily I have not given them the administrative rights and when things are bad in five minutes I clean up the unnecessary files and get the box running like new.

The cardinal mistakes everybody makes is that, not running the box over 24 hours at least occasionally and to let the Cron jobs run. that do the clean up jobs in servers and desktops.

This is something that Linux desktop developers should look at and develop cron jobs, akin to frequent savings in office utilities.

I think a utility of this nature is essential for laptops.

What they should do is to send a message at random fashion while when the desktop is being used and asking the user whether it is safe to activate the cron jobs (name it the clean up jobs) without compromising the downloading and downloaded files still in the tmp.

Sorry for the diversion but I feel this piece of advice is vital for the newbies.

Coming back to Mepis it is one of the best distributions in a single CD and has everything one needs and sometimes things that are missing in PCLinux.

That is why I use them for some special occasions.

Mepis has a new DVD and bit 32 and 64 versions, I am currently downloading them and write few lines about them soon (having tested them).

Mepis is something one ought to have to get the fresh and Debian feel like Morphis.

Spacesuit and its Occupant

Spacesuit and its Occupant
Posted on February 9, 2011 

Mind this is an introduction for anybody who is running short of an idea to write about in WordPress blogging site.

This is an idea I hit upon by reading a blog writing of a experienced civil pilot not a fighter pilot.

Have you ever thought of the 50 things that the spacesuit occupant in space won’t share with his body soul?

You probably have not but I was one who was very much interested in this in my school days and in early days as medical student.

I cannot remember what I wrote then but this is an attempt to revise some of those physiological constraints not in particular order or in any order of merits.

Suffice is to say I get a sickly feeling when I think of space (occupied especially by alien elements).

Imagine yourself trapped in a escalator without illumination (light) and the computer circuit controlling the up and down movements gone haywire and it is going up and down in an erratic fashion.

That is a the feeling I get moment I put on a spacesuit for travel.

That is one thing you must consider when paying for, an enormous amount for a single trip in space.

Is is worth the experience and the money?

Probably not but having said that I have tremendously high regard for those guys who trained for years end on to go to space. 

They are a dedicated lot and give them the due respect they deserve if you happen to meet anyone of them.

They were the human guinea pigs in space.

I often wonder how many times they felt sick and vertiginous even in their sleep.

Probably many many times and uncountable and that is the feeling I get if I am invited to wear a spacesuit and come hither for a go.

I will list the feeling inside my head with little imagination and some understanding of my own physiology if not of another being.

1. I hate the space constraint. 

This is the feeling one gets if one has to stay in a tiny hotel room in Singapore overnight due to some delay, cancellation or transit. I have had that feeling once or twice traveling by cheap air flights (a budget air line or Mihin -Hemin- Lanka. When you fly on a good wide-body aircraft it is reasonably OK.

2. I hate heights. Imagine you are in a hotel overnight on the 21st floor room due to flight cancellation. You are well away from a fire exit and there is a blackout and fire drill. 

You don’t have a pen torch. 

If you are on floor one, you can think of jumping out and breaking your legs but not on 21st Floor. 

That is why rooms are cheap as you go up. 

Please pay a good some and ask for a room down below. It is better even if you go to Colombo taking a pen torch with you with these high rising development projects. 

Born to this earth with feet firmly grounded and ample space to breath pristine air (not now even in Kandy) as an embodiment, getting into a spacesuit is the luxury I do not want to avail myself not even in my incarnation.

3. Now about the daily routines I enjoy. Sleep to begin with. I think I can manage sleep upside down on space inside a spacesuit since there is nothing else I can do there except dreaming coming home. 

I can do this since I have learned how to sleep standing on an express bus plying from Kandy to Colombo on a Monday morning. I believe all Sri-Lankans are good at this. Only if you do not have money in your back pocket. There are plenty of pickpockets in this country including politicians who pick our vote without our knowledge. 

They are called pick-votters or even better pick-potters (stuffing the ballot boxes).
These two are new words, I have coined for the Oxford Dictionary with local elections due now).

4. What about food. I won't enjoy the high calorie, high protein dehydrated      food-fads of space travelers especially they are floating about and not placed on a plate with a well laid out nice table. 

My worry is not the quality of food but how am I to partake them in a more sociable way. 

Not empty them to my mouth from paper carton after paper carton.

5. Coming to spirits (if they are allowed like a commercial flight) and drinks. When I suck (not drink them) a little, I want them to stay a while in the mouth and esophagus and stomach and not go flushing down like a vacuum cleaner on full throttle to the colon, in one go..

6. After meal I want to brush my teeth as my good dental friends tell me with a tooth brush floating in air and the toothpaste all over the face with me trying to reach as far as it goes to the third molar.

7. That also I can manage but how about a quick spend a penny in the loo with my prostrate pushing hard on the correct track inside but the squirt getting between my spacesuit and the underwear. 

That is my major worry since I will never master my physiology how ever much I train on earth and mid air.

8. Then the master job of course I have decided one last one here and never in the shuttle till I come home and take some constipating medicare one a week before the departure. I do not want my smelly secrets floating in air and taking pictures of me in flight.

No thank you.

9. Last but not least I fear the algae and the fungi I have been accustomed on earth and living with me with mutual understanding all along my life for years taking advantage of the flight and growing all over me. 

In nails, wind pipe, mouth and all of my privates.

10. Last of all I love scratching my skin, just for fun and any other accessible point from my crown to the rump. 

With these fungi floating around and waiting for a breach, I won’t be able enjoy that luxury.

11. As for the rubbish I collect on flight no problem. We are trained to drop at any advantage point in the town and the Municipalities never clean them. I just open the window and drop it down when we are centering round Sri-Lanka with a note stating “coming from space shuttle in orbit no valuables dropped but destined for Sri-Lankans”.

This is why when President Obama invited me for a flight in space, I refused and gave over 100 volunteers from our parliament elected and wanting to get elected. He of course refused nay for parliamentarians after the Health bill was bailed out out.

Stux

Stux

Origin: Italy
Category: Desktop
Desktop environment: 

Blackbox, 

Fluxbox, 

KDE, 

WindowMaker
Architecture: x86
Based on: Knoppix, Slackware
Wikipedia:
Media: Live CD
The last version | Released: 2.0 | June 5, 2007

Stux – a LiveDistro (CD) Linux distribution from Italy which is based on Slackware and Knoppix. 

Deployment can automatically load and save configurations and files on writable partitions.

The live system provides a combination of packages of Slackware Linux and kernel, modules and scripts of Knoppix. It includes automatic hardware detection and supports a vast majority of graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals.

STUX allows a full system configuration and usage through the STUX-Utilities, an unique, easy-to-use graphical interface specifically designed for STUX distribution.

Slackware users can use and configure STUX as they have always done with normal Slackware installations.

STUX GNU/Linux supports i386 platform and features Blackbox, Fluxbox, WindowMaker and KDE desktop environments on a single CD.

Version 0.5.3 was launched on December 16, 2003, the last version 2.0 was launched on June 5, 2007.

CYBERPARANOIA

 CYBERPARANOIA
Tux, STUX, D.E.F.T, M.A.D and C.W.F (Cyberwarfare), Cyberparanoia and Stuxnet
Posted on November 5, 2011

New vocabulary is entering general use with cyber attacks  becoming preemptive at international stage. I am not going to be expressive here  since hackers (they) might think my IP address is some defense attaché and attack with D.O.S (Denial of Service Attack).
Cyber space is free but it is not is not a fair play ground for a simple academic like me to engage in, who is nearer to the grave by natural causes and  do not need any interference to my intellectual exercises unless, incapacitated by natural illness or loss of memory.

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

His girls are Penny and Gown.

Stuxnet is the Virtual attack that was directed at Iran’s nuclear reactors.

Tux is a penguin character and the official Mascot of the Linux kernel. 

Originally created as an entry to a Linux logo competition, Tux is the most commonly used icon for Linux, although different Linux Distributions depict.
Tux in various styles. In video games featuring the character, female counterparts, named Penny and Gown, accompany him. 

The character is used in many other Linux programs and as a general symbol of Linux.
STUX
STUX is a bootable CD with a collection of software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and U.S.B devices and other peripherals.
STUX also contains an installation wizard on the Live CD for putting the distribution on a Pendrive and thereby booting from it. 

However, a 1GB pen drive is required to do this which is far larger than other U.S.B Linux distributions.
DEFT is a Linux distribution with Digital Evidence and Forensic Investigations tools attached.

 

It is not at military level but at simple desktop or server level.

I was trying to download (point to point) it and I have failed in 5 attempts now due to abrupt termination of service.

MAD is Mutually assured Destruction
Mutual Assured Destruction is a doctrine of military strategy and National Security Policy in which a full-scale use of high-yield Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) by two opposing sides would effectively result in the complete, utter and irrevocable annihilation of both the attacker and the defender. becoming thus a war that has no victory nor any armistice but only effective reciprocal destruction.
 

C.W.F is Cyberwarfare
There are very interesting articles and one who interested in can browse but suffice is to say even an innocent device like Play Station can be used for an attack.
Other interesting point is that proprietary operating system with the O.E.M guys can use a device to send secret message to the company or the country’s National security for spying on your web activities.

This is why I am strongly against Windows 8 attempt to invade and intrusion of One’s Freedom of Use (O.F.U).
Cyberparanoia is the word I coin today to describe this phenomenon from a doctors point of view.
That is my contribution to the jargon and vocabulary.

Can one be anonymous in the Wider Web?

 Saturday, November 5, 2011
 

Can one be anonymous in the Wider Web?

 
Below was comment (by me) to a dad who was trying to keep him and his son in anonymity which is impossible.
 

Moment one open page one loses one's privacy and also integrity if one writes something sadistically.

Causing pain to an animal who is defenseless whether at home or in sport is a sadistic behaviour.

I agree with the dad being anonymous for the sake of his son but his I.P. address is known by all and sundry.
One cannot hide it unless one has a virtual network but that again is in relative sense and even the virtual network's outlet is visible.
 

What I am saying is that the browser watches your every move.

In the web one cannot protect the privacy.
Then there is Cyber crime at global scale.
I have coined a word Cyberpranoia today.

One should not be paranoid to the extent that one shuns the use of Internet and humour.

Like music is essential human ingredient but unfortunately some kids cannot take gross and cruel humour.
No son can give degree to the pain it causes to the animal it is illogical.
 

Pain is pain whatever the degree.

My dog hate even the slightest of pain.
I have never hit him or punish him.
He has learned what is good and what is bad and unlike human behave more appropriately.
Lapses are very rare.
Nobody at my home ill treat him and he grew up with them.
From the time he inhabited our house there had not been any  violent arguments.
He takes the side of the oppressed and has become our trusted and good referee.
He hates pain (every living  being's entitlement) and violent arguments.
Visit my site parafox and asokaplus for Cyber crimes (posted today).