Teaching Science-03

 Teaching Science-03

by S.B.Asoka Dissanayake Visit www,writeclique.net

There is a bizarre (somewhat insane) discussion going on local English Papers. This is something I penned down many moons ago. Reproduced here for any sane person's perusal.

Even though the discussion would end up with the illustration of the basic scientific tenants of uncertainty principle, the change and the chaos inherent in any physical or biological cycle, the conceptual development of the themes that are involved are giant steps for young minds.


The frog leap attempt is the way to reach the summit of discussion.

To come to the final conclusion one has to go through the layers of scientific concepts and behaviour pattern of nature.

The fact of the matter is constant change.
But because these changes have patterns that tend to recur in somewhat of a predictable pattern, the sequence of events that recur are called cycles and the term equilibrium is introduced to bring a concept of static nature to a dynamic change that would be chaotic if not for the patterns of regular behaviour.

The persistence of patterns gives order and consistency to recurrent events.

Weather is an ideal ground to base the conceptual thinking. That was the reason for its choice in the first place.


Having said that the professional meteorologists meager capacity to predict the weather and his negligible ability to control it warn against the complacency of the scientific notions and the teachers (myself in this discussion included) limitations.


Equilibrium states

A man with science would like to simplify facts of life for the purpose of explanation. The equilibrium states is a model well tried out for stating concepts. Sometimes in this process of simplifying facts he destroys the true tenants of reality but that is beside the point at this stage of discussion.

For the purpose of discussion we take few examples of equilibrium states.

Cycles
1.Day and Night
2.Diurnal rhythms
3.Circadian rhythms
4.Rain and the Monsoons
5.Populations and the Birth and Death of individuals
6.Photosynthesis and the Respiration
7.Clouds and the Rain
8.Wind and Pressure
9.High tide and Low tide
10.Chemical Equations

Concepts

1.Pressure
2.Temperature
3.Gravity
4.State of the Matter
5.Radiation
6.Energy
7.Thermodynamic Principles
8.Entropy
9.Atmosphere
10.Air (water vapour )and Matter (dust)

Only term not listed up there is the Time for a valid reason. To explain the day and night we need a artificial measurement be that it may be seconds, minutes, hours or days, weeks and months and years. The seconds (small but perceptible enough) and days have a meaning for the clock manufacture but the minutes and hours are arbitrary ingredients. Similarly hours and days have a meaning to the teacher and the parents and the weeks and months have no meaning (to the child).

For the child it is the play and no play (work) or the schooling and holidays and the rest of the classifications (weeks and months) are arbitrary and meaningless approximations in his life's experiences.

In a scientific sense what the child needs is to be exposed to enough experiences adequate for his perceptual (development) thinking capacity and certainly not a rigid science syllabus. I have no intention of discussing each scientific principle except a few that would have some meaningful expression in the child's mind.

Exploration

The explanations of the themes can be attempted by studying a model or an exploration. A cloud chamber in the laboratory can be a model (difficult to simulate) but in real terms unnatural for a young mind. I would go for an exploration (observation, adventure and discovery) instead of demonstration with a virtual class of students.

This exploration is laid in the in the neighbourhood of the Hantana Ranges.

Why the Hantana Range?

It is simple.

A living laboratory to investigate the laws of nature?

How the modern man is destroying it or trying to restore it to order is an object for further discussion.

Perspective

The knowledge is incremental and the wisdom is not. Acquisition of knowledge without the ability to shed prejudices (be that it may be colour, creed, class, sex or the knowledge itself) already ingrained in the conceptual development is the biggest hindrance to modern day learning.

If the correct conditions are provided the development of wisdom (peace associated with it) will ensues and of course the harmony of the world at large.

Experiment an Eco friendly one

There can be many variations to this skeleton of experimental inquiry. This is something I would have wished as a child but never was given thought by the scientific teachers of the yesteryear. But I made my inquiry not necessarily in a scientific sense but silently (rationally as was feasible at my age ) in my own time and space.

There are many more like me in this generation who are left without a guide in the search for knowledge for fun and game.

The exploration should consist of small teams. Should be limited to 5 to 10 for easy administration and division of labour without duplication of efforts and the efficiency of management.

First of all they should obtain a contour map of Kandy city (I doubt any school in Kandy have it except some understanding of the perimeter of 2 mile radius).

Then the team should identify sites for exploration for either 250 or 500 feet ( Kandy-Peradeniya bridge as a base of 1500 to 1600 feet)elevation intervals (altitude.

They should camp in these sites initially on day time (cycle) and subsequently at night (parents would go berserk.

With the day time data and their imagination they should be able work out their predictions and strategies for night. With the integration in mind, the Boy's Scouts and Girl's Guides in schools should have their own contribution to this thematic learning and experience.

I have few site for the students to investigate. They are as follows.

1.Hantana Peak (with Radio Ceylon organizing the infrastructure requirement).
2.Peradeniya River Basin (at the Campus, Peradeniya Garden and the Water intake- with Peradinya Garden, University and the Teaching Hospitals providing the infrastructure requirements).

3.Kandy Lake and the surrounds

4.And many more sites.

The equipments necessary are the minimal and what would be used by the meteorologists of Kandy. For the data the students could not obtain, the meteorologists should provide inputs of basic data (especially nocturnal).

Thermometers, barometers, compass and litmus paper would suffice.

They should make some weather balloons and few kites themselves for fun and experiment.

The whole exercise may take months of planning and execution but at the end of the day the students are enriched with meaning and understanding why we do something.

All the concepts mentioned above and many more that would arise from simple questioning and inquiry would cover the entire syllabus with minimum of theoretical knowledge.

Since the education department have canceled the advanced level practical examinations for many decades and the university has no intention of recommencing them this is the only way to rekindle the scientific inquiry and true scientific breeds.

It is the need of the day I believe.

I have avoided the exact methodology (things to be recorded by the students ) since it may look like the passage I have used for discussion.

However just to illustrate a point the student should gather at the bridge that lay across the court complex in Peradeniya and study the contents of the stream (The KUNU Ela).

It is an ideal place for a pilot project for the students before embarking on an ambitions project.

I have used this for a theoretical discussion in a global sense to make aware of the complexity involved in doing research and weather reporting.

It should not be taken in literal or metaphorical sense but with open mind to discover the uncertainty principle which is the binding rule of the Universe.

The words that I have encountered in the passage are given below for objective examination by the teacher who may think like me and the list is not comprehensive.

In every 20 words there was a technical term and it is staggeringly high for a small mind.

Would clutter even an adult mind.

If the conceptual understanding is introduced in a half baked manner the damage it does for conceptual thinking is irreversible.

List of words

1.liquid
2.solid
3.states
4.vapour
5.content (zero to about 4 percent)
6.atmosphere
7.air
8.temperature
9.dust
11.condensation nuclei
12. nuclei
13.ingredients
14.precipitation
15.The Precipitation Ladder (model)
16.stages
17.processes)
18. form
19.Ascent
20. Expansion
21.cooling
22.air parcel
23.air pockets
24.wind
25.flowing
26.horizontally.
27.vertically
28.weather processes
29.currents
30.reversing
31.air mass
32.convergence
33.convection
34.frontal lifting
35.physical lifting.
36.Convergence
37.surface
38. space
39.Frontal lifting
40.warmer
41.dense
42.ascending air
43.frontal boundary
44.Physical lifting
45.orographic lifting,
46.topographical
47.barrier
48.(volume - quantity)
49.pressure to be in equilibrium
50.expands
51.condensation
52.relative humidity
53.humidification
54.saturation
55.threshold,
56.vapour content
57.Mixing of more humid air mass.
58. Boundary
59.Supersaturation
60.condensation
61.Condensation of water onto condensation nuclei
62.deposition of water vapour as ice on freezing nuclei
63.altitude
64.cloud base
65.lifting condensation level.
66.ice crystals
67.average cloud droplet
68.terminal fall
69.velocity
70.Buoyancy or Cloudiness
71.property of water
72. latent heats of condensation
73.deposition
74.Freezing
75.heat
76.cumulus clouds
77.vertical growth.
78.continued condensation
79.collision
80.Turbulence
81.currents
82.bounce off
83flow around
84.updraft
85.collision opportunities.
86.conditions for drop growth
87.optimal conditions
88.co-exist

Teaching Science-02

 Teaching Science-02

by S.B.Asoka Dissanayake visit www,writeclique.net

There is a bizarre (somewhat insane) discussion going on local English Papers. This is something I penned down many moons ago. Reproduced here for any sane person's perusal.

Weather as a Model for Scientific Investigation
As an example the weather can be investigated in a scientific way. This examination is not complete or comprehensive but taken as an instruction model for discussion and refinement. The limitations inherent in any model in illustrating a scientific fact (as a form of analogy) is also discussed briefly.

Whether one studies mathematics, chemistry or physics, science teachers are very comfortable in using equations to explain scientific themes. These equations have well balanced structures and are ideal for explanation (not investigation) of scientific notions but may fall short of that reality. That is something I would like to delve into.

My intention is to highlight the fallacy of using equations and equilibriums to state scientific facts as absolute truths (In a philosophical sense - the meaning of the word meaning?).

This approach of equations and equilibrium fails miserably when discussing the pattern weather and its behaviour.

This was what I have encountered as a child and still do and the recent tsunami was an eye opener to rekindle my latent interests in science of weather reporting. Even though this is not and attempt of in depth to analysis of weather or its reporting, an oblique reference is made to weather as a focal tenants of disagreement with the way the science is taught in our class rooms.

I have started addressing this in the Part 1 of the essay and this should be read in continuity with that and the Part 3 of my own observations that follow.

In weather an equilibrium state is never achieved in a scientific sense. It illustrates the uncertainty principle in general. Instead of an equilibrium state, cyclic phenomena are evident in weather patterns Weather is discussed in some detail below. The order and change (chaos) can be grasped without any difficulty unlike other scientific principles. The cyclical nature is apparent when one talks about monsoons and inter-monsoonal rain. What is evident is constant change but the order only becomes apparent because of repeated sequence of events (change and cyclic change adequately fits into this notion).

The cyclic nature of the phenomena is studied when forecasting of weather and it behaviour.

The model is the cyclic pattern of the water cycle.

Discussion is based on a scientific description of clouds and their behaviour which I copied from a web site with modification to suit the current discussion. To begin with there were over a hundred new scientific and technical words in in a short space of few passages. That is what I consider as the biggest handicap to a student or an average inquirer with open mind.

I would attempt to put that in perspective in simple terms as is possible but there is no guarantee.

It as a bold attempt since the few passages that I cover involve the entire package of scientific domains form physics to chemistry to mathematics to dynamics and logic and logistics.

Building Clouds

Although the formation of clouds can be quite complex in full detail, it can be simplified for a wider nonscientific audience.

There are two basic ingredients to satisfy formation of clouds; water and dust.
On earth naturally occurring clouds are composed of either water in its liquid or solid state. On other planets, where the surface atmosphere is different from that of the planet earth clouds may form from other compounds and that is not under discussion.

Thus, the primary recipe in forming clouds is water.

Collection of a sufficient quantity of water in a given space in its vapour state at a given time when the essential prerequisites (the temperature, the altitude, the pressure and the movement of molecules) are met the water vapour is transformed into clouds in either liquid or solid state.

The water vapour content of the atmosphere varies from near zero to about 100 percent, depending on the moisture on the surface beneath and the air temperature and condensation.

The water vapour content at a certain point of time and space needs to be ideally saturated to form clouds.

Next, recipe one needs is some dust.

Without "dirty air" there would likely be no clouds at all or only high altitude ice clouds. Earth atmosphere is never clean as one would expect it to be for healthy living (man's perspective). Even the "cleanest" air found on Earth contains about 1000 dust particles per cubic meter of air.

Neither a large amount nor large particles nor all dusts would satisfy the primary needs of forming clouds. Dust is needed for condensation (nidus or the nucleus) sites on which water vapour may condense or deposit as a water droplets (liquid) or ice crystals (solid). Certain types and shapes of dust and salt particles, such as sea salts and clay, make the best condensation nuclei. With proper quantities of water vapour and dust in an air parcel, the next step that has to be satisfied is the cooling of that air mass (i.e; cooling of the air parcel having a dust content of particular size and shape ) to a particular temperature conducive for the formation of cloud droplets or ice crystals (suspended in air in as a massive aggregation).

Viola, the clouds are formed.

Just as there are many ways to prepare a recipe, there are many different ways to form clouds. The recipe can be expanded with new ingredients for the precipitation to occur.

Professor John Day, the Cloud Man, has taken the simple cloud recipe, added a few more details and continued it until it makes precipitation(rain).
He calls this The Precipitation Ladder.

As with a simple recipe, he begins the process with the basic ingredients of dirty air and water vapour. As with cooking it is regulated (in real sense there is no regulators but changing states) to achieve the desired effect. He takes the ingredients through the rungs of the ladder in several stages (several processes) to form a cloud.

Ascent and Expansion are two of the main processes that result in the cooling of an air parcel in which clouds will form. We mostly think of moving air as wind flowing horizontally across the surface. (The movement of air is almost chaotic in a scientific sense but not random).

Air moving vertically is extremely important in weather processes, particularly with respect to clouds and precipitation. Ascending air currents takes the process up the Precipitation Ladder. The processes are assumed to be reversible. With descending air currents the process comes down the ladder reversing the effects until finally water vapour and dust are left in the air stream (mass of atmosphere) of movement.

There are four main processes occurring at or near the earth's surface which give rise to convergence, convection, frontal lifting and physical lifting of the ascending air.

Convergence occurs when several surface air currents in the horizontal flow move toward each other to meet in a common front. When they converge, there is only one way to go and it is upwards only. An area of low pressure (cell) build up on the surface of the earth is an example of where the converging air currents result in rising of air at the center of the converging currents. The air at the center rises to accommodate the redistribution of various air pressures (wind) that build up due to variable degree of cooling and warming of the atmospheric air creating low and high pressure points in the atmosphere. Convection occurs when air is heated by contact with a warmer land surface until it becomes less dense than the air above it. The heated parcel of air will rise until it has again cooled to the temperature of the surrounding air.

Frontal lifting occurs when a warmer air mass meets a colder one. Since warm air is less dense than cold, a warm air mass approaching a cold one will ascend over the cold air. This forms a warm front.

When a cold air mass approaches a warm one, it wedges under the warmer air, lifting it above the ground. This forms a cold front. In either case, there is ascending air at the frontal boundary.
Physical lifting, also known as orographic lifting, occurs when horizontal winds are forced to rise in order to cross topographical barriers such as hills and mountains. Whatever the process causing an air parcel (volume or quantity) to ascend, the result is that the rising air parcel must change its pressure to be in equilibrium with the surrounding air. Since atmospheric pressure decreases with altitude, so too must the pressure of the ascending air parcel. As air ascends, it expands. And as it expands, it cools. And the higher the parcel rises, the cooler it becomes.

Now that the cooling has begun the air parcel is almost ready to form a cloud.

The air parcel cools until condensation point is reached.
The next several rungs of the Precipitation Ladder describe the processes through to the condensation of liquid water.
As the air cools, its relative humidity will increase -- a process Prof. Day terms humidification. Although nothing has yet happened to change the water vapour content of the air, the saturation threshold of the air parcel decreases as the air becomes cooler. With decreasing saturation threshold the relative humidity increases proportionately.

Cooling is the most important method for increasing the relative humidity but it is not the only one.

Another is to receive more water vapour through evaporation or mixing with humid air that come in contact (cloud that has already formed) with the result of moving air currents containing more (various degrees) water vapour.
To form a cloud, humidification may eventually bring the air within the parcel to saturation. At saturation the relative humidity is 100 percent. Usually a little more humidification is required to bring the relative humidity above 100 percent, a state known as supersaturation, before a cloud forms. When air becomes supersaturated, its water vapour condenses out.

If the quantity and composition of the dust content is ideal, condensation may begin at a relative humidity below 100 percent. If the air is very clean, it may take high levels of supersaturation to produce cloud droplets. But typically condensation begins at relative humidity a few tenths of a percent above saturation.

Condensation of water into condensation nuclei (or deposition of water vapour as ice on freezing nuclei) begins at a particular altitude known as the cloud base or lifting condensation level.

Water molecules attach to the particles form cloud droplets which have a radius of about 20 micro meters (0.02 mm) or less. The droplet volume is generally a million times greater than the typical condensation nuclei.
Clouds are composed of large numbers of cloud droplets or ice crystals or both. Because of their small size and relatively high air resistance, they can remain suspended in the air for a long time, particularly if they remain in ascending air currents. The average cloud droplet has a terminal fall velocity of 1.3 cm per second in relatively still air. To put this into perspective, the average cloud droplet falling from a typical low cloud base of 500 meters would take more than 10 hours to reach the ground.

Forming Precipitation

We know that all clouds do not produce rain that strikes the ground. Some may produce rain or snow that evaporates before reaching the ground, and most clouds produce no precipitation at all. When rain falls, we know from measurements that the drops are larger than one milli meter. A raindrop of diameter 2 mm contains the water equivalent of a million cloud droplets (0.02 mm diameter). To get some precipitation from a cloud, there must be additional process within the cloud to form raindrops from cloud droplets.

The next rung of the Precipitation Ladder is Buoyancy or Cloudiness which signifies that the cloud water content must increase before any precipitation occurs. This requires a continuation of the lifting process. It is assisted by the property of water of giving off heat when changing from vapour to liquid and solid states, the latent heats of condensation and of deposition, respectively. If the vapour first changes to a liquid before freezing, then there is the latent heat of condensation released and followed by the release of the latent heat of freezing. This additional heat release warms the air parcel and adds to the lifting effect. In doing so, the buoyancy of the parcel relative to the surrounding air increases, and this contributes to the air to rise further rise.
Now in the cloud, there must be a Growth of cloud droplets to sizes that can fall to the ground as rain without evaporating. Cloud droplets can grow to a larger size in three ways.

The first is by the continued condensation of water vapour into cloud droplets and thus increasing their size until they become droplets. While the first condensation of water onto condensation nuclei to form cloud droplets occurs rather quickly, continued growth of cloud droplets in this manner will proceed very slowly.

Second, growth by collision and coalescence of cloud droplets (and then the collision of rain drops with cloud droplets and other drops) is a much quicker process. Turbulent currents in the clouds provide the first collisions between droplets. The combination forms a larger drop which can further collide with other droplets, thus growing rapidly in size. As the drops grow, their fall velocity also increases, and thus they can collide with slower falling droplets.
A 0.5 mm-radius drop falling at a rate of 4 m/s can quickly overtake a 0.05 mm (50 micro meter) drop falling at 0.27 m/s. When drops are too large, however, their collection efficiency for the smallest drops and droplets is not as great as when the drops are smaller in size. Small droplets may bounce off or flow around much larger drops and therefore do not coalesce. A drop about 60% smaller in diameter is most likely to be collected by a large drop.
Clouds with strong updraft areas have the best drop growth because the drops and droplets stay in the cloud longer and thus have many more collision opportunities.

Finally, it may seem odd, but the best conditions for drop growth occur when ice crystals are present in a cloud. When small droplets form, liquid water should be cooled well below 0º C (32º F) the freezing point. In fact, under optimal conditions, a pure droplet may reach - 40º C (or 104º F) before freezing. Therefore, there are areas within a cloud were ice crystals and water droplets co-exist. The ideal condition necessary for precipitation, in other words, rain has been duly satisfied.

The technical terms that were associated with the passage I obtained from a web page (which I have changed to make the flow as I would have wished) are enormous and even with a mastery in English language and grammar one may find it difficult to understand the scientific concepts in its entirety. Put that into simple English is difficult enough but I would make an attempt to simplify the contents.

Summary

For the synthesis of the above discussion in simple terms simple enough for younger age group (instead of 7 stages) person to understand I would break it down the concept of cloud formation into 3 or 4 essential stages without upsetting the authors description of the events in a hypothetical environment.

1.Formation of water vapour in a focus of dust particle of a particular shape and size.

2.Ascent of that tiny water vapour mass enclosed around the dust particles with the change in wind currents

3.Cooling and Condensation at high altitude

4.Acquisition of a particular size when gravitational pull brings it down (down to earth attitude) to the earth surface.

Next part of the discussion I would make my observations on the basic scientific tenants of uncertainty principle, change, chaos, gravity, entropy and thermodynamics in a superficial and philosophical point of view.

Teaching Science-01

 Teaching Science-01

by S.B.Asoka Dissanayake Visit www,writeclique.net

There is a bizarre (somewhat insane) discussion going on local English Papers. This is something I penned down many moons ago. Reproduced here for any sane person's perusal.

Approach to teaching science is changing in the West. It is realized that in spite of the rapid advances in science (in the past century) the
benefit of science has not filtered down to the masses, specially to the young (in and out of school). When out of school the young adult has
no way of furthering his or her basic learning in science for ones own benefit functionally and socially. The school should be a place to make young people learn in a constructive way (not irrelevant factual knowledge) and apply that knowledge with common sense and with a scientific approach. There are inherent
religious, ethnic and educational prejudices that one has to circumvent to achieve these goals without upsetting the social sensitivities. Young children are brought up in various ways according to the way of life they are born to. Some are enriched and others are deprived of valuable opportunity due to many factors beyond the control of the child. The school should be the ideal place that can change this social disadvantage and teaching science with a new and scientific way is desirable and is found to be wanting.

The art of teaching science has to change form what it is now in our schools.

The top down approach and the the assumption that the teacher as a sage knows all what the students should know has failed in this country and elsewhere whether it is the East or the West.

In the West however, there is a changing attitude to teaching science (in a more pragmatic way). My attempt here is to look at this problem in a child's perspective rather than the teachers perspective. It is not possible for a teacher to know (for that matter even a doctor to know all the aspects of medicine) all the aspects of science.

A mixture of integrative approach and pooling of resources rather than training pure science teachers is what is intended. Instead of a purely scientific and academic exercise it should be broad based taking the child's development stage and the social background.

The medium of instruction and the command in whatever the language that is utilized to teach is also important. Bombarding factual knowledge to young is not what is required.

What should be tested or trained is not the memory and factual contents but the way of thinking based on scientific reasoning.
It is the thinking capacity that should be developed not the retention capacity.


Even though I attempt this at the university level the outcome is not as it is expected by me in general.

What is required is to make students ready for acquiring concepts appropriate for their psychological development. Children vary in their stage of development not only in the capacity but also at what level they achieve certain milestones of conceptual development.

Brief description of the psychological development is necessary before discussing the outcome based teaching (OBE). One should not expect the children to grow developmentally in a rigid programmed pattern. Even though they follow a general pattern some are slow and some are fast in acquiring conceptual skills. It is a normal behaviour of conceptual development and it is not that a particular child is stupid or very smart. It is the way they are born with and teachers task is for the whole class to achieve a certain level of competence (achievement) in thinking science.

To cover a particular syllabus forced on them by the hierarchy in the education department who do not have a good understanding (but just follow what was prescribed for the past 40 years without any revision) of the current trends and thinking in education. Changing requirements of the higher education should be balanced by the new way of thinking and approach in teaching science.

From concrete operational (direct experience) thinking to formal (acceptable to science) operational thinking is a very big step in psychological development. This change occur around 5 to 7 years of age and go on until 16 years of age. What is amazing is that children (and many adults too) do not shed their direct experience (and their thinking with it) when the conceptual development is progressing in their development (which has inherent variability).

This is a handicap (in a way blessing in disguise) the children from the age of 8 to 16 years undergo and overcome. Bombarding with factual knowledge at this stage of development is a serious problem from the point of view of the child. It is believed that conceptual development occurs at around the age of 16 and many do not develop this even up to 30 years of age and even then the conceptual development function at a very rudimentary level.


There is another barrier that is associated with psychological development. It is the language barrier itself. The language and grammatical structure did not evolve in parallel with science and its development. Language development and acquisition pre-dated the development of science by more than 2000 years. It is only in the last hundred years that the Language of Science started integrating with the standard languages of the West. Scientific terms that emerged in the West were not kind to Eastern languages and if not for the Pali Language (specially Abhidhamma terminology) teaching science in Sinhala would have been much more difficult. Unfortunately the people who started translating scientific terminology went in tangents to the tenant of Pali which was meant for a different purpose. By doing this they not only destroyed Sinhala but also the teaching of science by distorted interpretation of an ancient language.


The end result is that we are producing poor quality scientific thinkers and educators. I am one who believe that science should be taught in English very early in children's education. Not only this will help improve the English that the children would learn to use and would be an advantage in grasping difficult concepts in later life (especially when they proceed to higher studies).

Having seen students struggling to understand simple concepts in their first year at the university and the introduction English language learning before commencing their academic career has not improved or remedied the problem as it is today my impressions are somewhat biased and the reader should excuse me for that.

Having said that English is not an difficult language to learn and English is a very good supplement even if one wants to learn purely in ones own mother tongue.


Conceptual Development

Modeling is an acceptable way of expressing situations which we cannot observe directly. Models help us to understand what we observe and predict what will happen in situations that we cannot observe. Modeling a scientific concept is an acceptable scientific tool in advancing a concept or an idea. Eventually we may become so convinced of the reliability of the model or the security of the model image. Then we tend to accept it as total reality without any objection or question. The distinction between the model and the reality disappears in our teaching of science and this in turn inhibits the acceptance of new ideas. The atomic model is a good example and everybody accepts it as a good model and almost certain reality but few thinkers deviated from this mode of thinking and went into talk about quarks and antiparticles and the like.

Our educationists in science have gone into hibernation after the atomic model and canceling the practicals at the university entrance for the advance level examination (due to inherent inability to hold examinations full proof so that some elements can doctor the results) compounded the already deteriorating approach to teaching science in schools. This is one example of the examples of skewed (squint) eye view of the teaching and education in general. We have let this phenomenon (science teaching without experiment and investigation at least at a rudimentary level) progress for nearly 40 years without a review.

It is high time at least from "middle school age" the children are brought up looking for both knowledge and wisdom with open mind rather than "programed minds"of the education department. Restricting them to free books published by the education department which are probably 30 years outdated is not the panacea for a long term problem of "learning on the go" especially in science.

Australian teachers researching in science teaching are introducing many models of art of teaching science and I would like to jot down some thoughts about one of them in some detail with my own adaptation of that model. It is called the 5E Model (I am quite at ease with the Japanese 5S model of Quality Training) and worth some elaboration. Students acquire a certain level of conceptual development on a scientific phenomenon that is discussed based on 5E Model. The focus is on a observable topic or phenomenon.

Engage
Students express their views and grasp of a particular phenomenon (or a topic) and study any connection with what they already seem to know at a particular age of their development. The teacher generate the new idea or the concept without any factual information.

Explore
Students explore the phenomenon and use their own language to express and discuss the phenomenon in their own understanding and experience without any hindrance from the teacher who act as a facilitator rather than a disseminator (discriminator) of knowledge. Students generate new ideas based on hands on activities.

Explain
They explain the phenomenon in scientific terms and teacher help to develop new ides and concepts and terminology.

Elaborate
The teacher introduces new challenging situation and students apply what they have learnt to a new situation and modify their concepts accordingly. This is the application of the newly acquired knowledge to a given problem. Problem oriented but evidenced base learning is gradually introduced and facilitated.

Evaluation
The students reflect on the preconceived views (ideas) to the post conceptual development of the new scientific theme and teacher allows ongoing development of the theme as and when the experience of the class improves with new situations and problems (the class encounter). Building on a sound base of conceptualization children learn and understand more complex phenomena.

A layer of conceptual (idea) development is formed on top of the already existing concrete operational thinking which each student inherit differently without upsetting their own previous preconceived ideas and thinking capacities. There is no label attached to the previous conceived idea as either right or wrong but a modified version of the previous concept is laid on top the previous experience which each student inherited with their own experience or lack of it. The thinking capacity is developed instead of retaining capacity. Unfortunately there is tremendous variation of memory capacity of children. The top or the surface (outermost) layer is kept open ended for further ongoing improvement and development of new ideas and concepts. The approach is not rigid as it is in the book oriented learning expectation of the department of education.

In effect there are there layers of conceptual development.
Layer 1 Students already perceived thinking and ides
Layer 2 The new concepts developed with exploration and explanation
Layer 3 Open end for further facilitation with new experience and understanding

The third layer is kept open in true scientific spirits that what is understood is kept for further development and refinement. With this level of understanding and maturity students could enter what ever the type of further education they wish in their life. It should not be a static and should not end up abruptly at advanced level examination. The concept of continuous learning should be ingrained in the minds of school leavers who are encouraged to learn in their own pace and time rather than regimented time scale as prescribed by the education department.
Before elaborating with some examples that can be used in the class room

I should introduce few of my own 5ES to make the grand total ten.

The

1)Evidence based
2)Expansion of the
3)Experience of the individual to
4) Encourage true
5) Emancipation of knowledge leading to right thinking and wisdom.

Whatever the field of study one is free to apply this framework of exploration.

My intentions are to promote open discussion.

Linux in Sinhala-Hanthana Linux included

I have waited over a decade to see a Linux version in Sinhala and finally it has arrived.

Our own Anurahdha who was an expert in Linux and especially Debian initiated it well over a decade ago and he produced an experimental version named Sinhala Linux (I still have a copy).

Then after 1994 tsunami he was drawn into presidential task force (had nothing going on at that time) to steer all web applications and e-commerce and the Sinhala project was push to a back burner.

I have been testing Live CDs (over 150 now, except Ubuntu) for the last 18 months and when I tested Debian 6, I accidentally discovered Sinhala Installation Capability which was a pleasant surprise. I downloaded all the Debian CDs and some DVDs for testing and they were pretty good.

Immediately blogged this fact at parafox and asokaplus (using them for promoting Linux 100) my rambling spaces in the web.

I am trying to distribute these Debian CDs / DVDs after thorough testing.

But I personally prefer to install them in English which is second nature to me and activate the Sinhala capability afterward since the Sinhala terminology is somewhat GREEK to me.

Mind you Debian is not for the weak minded and certainly not for a newbie or a novice.

And today I find Hanthana (I live down the Hanthana Range- on the other side of the University) Linux 3.6 GiB DVD released which is Fedora 14.

It takes 3 to 10 days to download a DVD in Sri-Lanka and very few will bother to download it.

Now I have tested all Fedora 14 releases and Fubuntu (installed only Fubuntu for further testing) and all Fedora CDs freeze in installation (tried on several of my computers) but did not bother to see Sinhala capability.

In fact because of this nuance in Fedore 14 I decided to download all the 6 (5 CDs and one netboot) Fedora (13) CDs for posterity.

It has some problem with the Grub file too.

I cut my teeth with Redhat 8 and 9.

Debian I learned many moons later.

Then again Fedora 3 was the first Linux to allow Sinhala font in Open Office and later Mandrake.

I wonder whether the introduction of Sinhala font into an experimental Linux distribution is a wise decision (hope my reservation prove wrong).

Anyway we have two robust distributions having Sinhala capability.

I hope Ubuntu will pick the trend and run faster than both of them.

I won't pass my judgment just for a little while!

Ten (10) Plus points about Linux Distributions when in Use

It is time I should write some important things about Linux that you may not read in books but only experience with regular use.

Even though most of the proprietary guys do not provide the necessary drivers for Linux or support Linux, the modules that are used in new kernels are robust and reliable and never fail. They look after the hardware without breaking them down even if you use the system 24 /7 schedule unlike Microsoft counterparts.

Linux kernel is made to run 24 / 7 schedule without braking down (except normal maintenance). The maintenance jobs are done in the early hours of the day (they are called CRON jobs) when system is not in use but with idling with power on. One of the biggest mistakes Linux newbies do is to switch off the computer in the night. Unfortunately running 24 hours is not practiced in our university setup since by evening and over weekends servers are switched off and junk that should have been removed automatically get collected, overnight and over the weekend.

1.One is able to run your computer 24 / 7 schedule is its strongest point and its strength. No need for restarts every time a minor configuration change is made unlike in windows. These changes are done in real time and no delay is contemplated, the moment a command is activated.

2. Linux look after the time scheduling to nanoseconds. For example if one is using K-torrents for downloading several files, it shares time allotment with the files. Faster files get a bigger share and slower files get a smaller share and the full band width is used. One can limit the upload and download speeds if it is used in a network.

3. Looks after the hardware and the processor well and if there are problems they are reported at boot time (one should be able to read these messages at boot time which are displaced for a fraction of a second). Once a major problem is detected the Linux has the canny habit of switching off instantaneously.

Once after a lightening and power outage (it ran through even the UPS battery) one of my computers had some electrical burns. They system never ran more than few seconds after this power outage, not even for me to read the boot menu. After three days only I realized the problem but it had been telling me that the cooling had gone wrong on the first few seconds which I was not able to read fast enough. This problem was solved with the help of a young guy but I was all the time thinking of a boot virus since I fixed a second hand sata hard disk 3 days before to up the capacity. Linux boot and grub file have a good warning systems, if one is careful to read them at boot time.

Not only Linux is a work horse it looks after minor injuries tiothe horse.

4. What I really like about Linux is it looks after CD ROMs and CD/DVD writers well. It usually run on default setup but at write time it tests both the CD/DVD and uses the best and safe formula and writes the job in incremental or decremental speed. It does not start writing even if there is a minor fault in the CD or DVD. It does not do a job blindly, it assesses the process and resources even to minor seconds.

5. It is really a multitasking Operating System unlike Windows and work with other computers in a network and synchronize work.

6. It is multiuser operating system (Ubuntu lacks this due to changes to the desktop system and that is one of my reasons not favouring it in spite of the wider user experience).

7. It records (keeps a history) and everything is measured to nanoseconds.

8. It uses RAM efficiently and when things are not favorable uses SWAP partition (not swap file as in Windows) to swap files and data. This is why it is much efficient than Windows.

9. It is secure from attack if the firewall is properly configured and it is almost free of viruses.

10.It keeps everything in a designated place and file structure is stable even though rigid and your data is in (need to be partitioned accordingly) a home partition. I can upgrade or reinstall the system without any changes to the home (data) partition. That was one reason I really liked it when I was testing many distributions in the early days of my Linux adventure.

I have never lost a file for 10 years. Would you believe it. Only problem is now I am short of short term memory and I forget with what name I have named the file. I have downloaded over two (200) hundred images and made mistakes in only 3 out of the fist 100 and nothing after that. It is almost zero after I started using K-torrent.

If you want a work horse to do your jobs. It is always Linux.

I will come back with minor nuances of Linux sometime later.

The Gadgetmania or a Matter of Choice

There is a Gadget Mania going on unabated in the West.

While in some developing countries having a square meal for a kid is something wanting, the craze for gadgets is something evident, like in the West.

It is not the work the gadget does but it is the status symbol that carry with it that matters.

For a fancy iPod or a laptop may costs a lot. The money spent can be better utilized to buy some school equipment to help children's education but again the money somehow get channeled out.

For example money spent on a flashy Apple Macintosh computer could have been converted to about 25 to 30 OLPS (one laptop per child) but what matters again is the profit per each item sold but not the number of uses or users the item provides,.

This is true in the developing world too, unfortunately.

Following is a summary of gadget mania, I once suffered but somehow I transmigrated this phenomenon.

I have gone through this phase of mania in a mild and moderate manner as a young one.

I had to buy the correct brand , when I buy something new, say a camera.

Then when the camera prices came down I had several and found that if one has a "good camera eye" it does not matter what camera one uses.

One can always catch the moment in a snapshot with any makeshift camera if one is prepared.

In came the video camera, the whole ball game changed.

This was the time I was a bachelor.

The money and choice were not a problem then.

Then came the computer.

They were expensive but I had to buy (Commodore 64-128, Amiga, Atari) what was available.

When the notebooks of old era came I could not afford them.

I thank god for that.

I lost interest in them till Windows came into existence.

We were hooked to it and trapped beyond our control till I discovered Linux and meaning of freedom and correct choice.

Then followed the period of transition in my mind along with struggling with money matters.

When there are money matters there is no choice left, one has to survive preserving only a few of one's favorite hobbies that included computers to me.

Common sense, pragmatism and rationalization take precedence over the trends, emotions an attachment.

When the comparatively cheap laptops hit the market, I had to make a choice.

My calculations told me I can have there desktops for the price of one laptop. One for me in office, one at home for me and one for the kids, all assembled to my specification with the hardware available at the time.

Now I have 6 out of 7 old computers all doings (thanks to Linux) some useful function at home.

One computer busted while recording Cricket World Cup in 2007.

The rationalization that was, I don't have to carry any heavy luggage (laptop) on the move.

Then I bought the first laptop (I needed one to test Linux distributions) IBM of course, one third the price in Singapore without an operating system and booted it with Linux at the airport on my return home.

Another second hand laptop (for testing Linux) and new netbook (for my daughter) were added to my armoury without feeling the pinch.

This is my rationalization going berserk.

I carry a cell phone (it is a hindrance to my peace and wellbeing) only when I travel abroad and feel like dropping it into a dustbin in the airport but resisted and gave it to my wife instead.

My transmigration boils down to 3 phases.

1. Choice with lot of spare money in hand

2. Pragmatism with barely enough money in hand to survive

3. Rationalization while enjoying all the intellectual freedom that one get with Linux.

If Linux did not come into existence I would not have known what I mean by freedom of choice.

Linus100-Extras-ArtistX-06

ArtistX was not in my original 100 purely because of its heavy weight and my inability download. But I downloaded it after completing Live CD/ DVD 100 and was impressed by it. Capacity was 2.4 but the new version is 3.7 GiB. Luckily we had 2 days of holidays and good weather I downloaded it in little over 24 hours.
Thanks to all torrent clients and seeders the downloading was fast. It is hugely popular in the EU countries.
It comes from Italy and is an Ubuntu derivative.
It is Live installable DVD.
It is packed with almost everything (Only PCLinuxfullMonty can surpass is quota of packages) and I have decided to install it in one of my spare computers.
I am having it in my other computer for another 4 weeks for seeding.
Download and enjoy it.

Lost Opportunity for Indians-Cricket World Cup

I am made to believe that India is the home for computer experts and it has a home base of IT literate who can dish and dash Linux at the drop of a hat.

I have to reserve that judgment now.

I have been looking at who is grabbing the opportunity that Linux has opened up.

It is not India.

It is not Pakistan.

It is not Sri-Lanka.

It is not Bangladesh.

To my surprise who is leading the field.

It is America.

Obama is quietly but effectively spreading the message of wisdom.

Education, Education in IT.

I won't tell you how I gather the information.

That is top secret.

Even though, it is not at all significant statistically and in numbers who are the people who visit my blogsite with Linux information.

It is again Americans who top the list.

I have been very vocal and forthright with American diplomats and their way of dealing with international affairs.

If one is an American he or she would be very annoyed with what I usually write about Americans but I am glad I have to complement the Americans who would search, gather information and reach for anything that is useful academically.

Then who are the people who disseminate this information to others.

It is again Americans.

It is not these big Universities like Harvard that spread the message.

It is the up and mobile ordinary Americans.

Thanks guys, even though some of your diplomats and politicians are bringing bad name to America you guys are spreading the message of goodwill, especially related to Linux.

Why I say Indians lost a trick.

This is the time all the guys from the West come here to watch cricket and enjoy the warm holiday.

All of them love to carry a netbook or a laptop with them.

Indians could have sold large number of netbooks and laptops to these guys for a very cheap price, if they mastered the Linux Operating System and Utilities.

The idea that the operating system is free could have galvanized them and the amount of saving on each buy / or purchase would have made them to buy not one but three for the price of one they pay in their countries.

Once they got the idea of the price and the use of Linux they would be coming back to Asia for bargains for the next 10 to 20 years to come.

All they have to do is to entice the buyer with wireless dongle and a Flashy Linux Distribution installed in the laptop or the netbook. If they provided a flashy media player to watch the matches (recording and playback) and the value added would have been infections.

This could have been easily accomplished in India, Bangladesh and Sri-Lanka.

But nobody wanted to explore and promote Linux in this part of the world.

In Sri-Lanka the reasons are many and I do not want to waste my time discussing that.

Why Indians lost this trick is my amazement.

There is no incentive to learn Linux in Asia because of pirating of software.

There has been an explosion of Linux utilities from last December to now, to Music, to Guitar, to Video to Graphic Rendering like Maya.

If the can at least sell some netbooks with GutaristX installed, that will get the ball rolling, even now.

It is not too late, even now but one should sell the hardware for OEM price and show that you are a good an honest businessman.

We are lacking that type of gentleman businessmen too due to pirating.

For the visitors who come to enjoy cricket and holidays I have a warning,

Please do not buy laptops and netbooks with pirated copies installed.

You cannot take them back to your country. You will be charged at your airport of entry. Same for videos and music and films. Watch them, listen to them while you are here but drop them to a dustbin before you leave.

But if you get a computer with Linux installed, buy that without any fear or get somebody to install Linux for you here. We have few guys in the University (undergraduates) who can do that for you and most of our Sri-Lankan vendors are clueless as regard to Linux.

But please make sure to install KDE desktops like PCLinux, Suse, Mepis in additions to Ubuntu which is Gnome and perhaps Pinguy for glamor.

For information as regard to Linux visit my blogspot at Google (parafox) or WordPress (asokaplus).

In the 6 weeks you are here if you can learn Linux (it can be achieved in 4 weeks) that is something that you can take home without any fear.

Good Lick with Cricket and Linux.

House Sparrows, a vanishing species?

I had been looking for an answer for why our house sparrows have become a vanishing species?

I have not found any luck.

Our ornithologists and bird watchers have not done enough.

I put the question to myself and these are the emerging facts.

1. This coincided with the disappearance of the migrant bird species which I counted over 30 in 1984.

2. Last 5 years I have not seen more than five species coming to our neighbourhood.

3. The last species who lost the habitat due to development was a type of robin who makes nests in the paddy fields. I call them the paddy birds and dearly as the last of the singing Bohemians. Once they lost the paddy field they started nesting on grass and when the remaining little waste land (now there is a three story building there) was encroached upon they disappeared. Till then I used to see at least 4 to 6 of the young ones yearly.

4. The house sparrows are more close to human habitat but they disappeared some 20 years ago.

Why?

That was my question.

I have seen one or two sparrows in Kandy City Center occasionally but none in the suburbs.

1. Unusual predator

2. Unusual predator of the eggs

3. Unusual destructor of their nests

4. Poison in our food and grains

I come to the last conclusion.

The amount of poison we eat every day in our food is sufficient to kill all the house sparrows over the last 30 years.

By way of aggro-economics we are killing our birds.
The story is true for pigeons too.

K-Torrents

There are many clients for torrent downloads.

Below is how to make good use of K-Torrents
1. One needs a Linux distribution with KDE desktop.
2. Look in the Internet Section and open K-Torrents (K stands for KDE)
3. Use Firefox or the web browser and access www.limuxtracker.org
4. Click torrents (not Linux distributions)
5. You are now in the first (the latest) download page
6. Look for the distribution of your choice
7. If necessary go to page 2 or 3 or …....
8. Click
9. Now you are in the download page of the distribution
10. Click the image link and in a few seconds a log file link to image is made (do not forget to click and say Thank You)
11. Go back to the download folder (if you did not change your preferences where to download, elsewhere)
12. Click the log file which automatically start the K-Torrent
13. Decide where to download (I make a separate folder ) and click OK
14. As you click OK it start downloading
15. Select Group View from the Graphic interface
16. You will have to click Active Downloads to see how active and the speed
17. If nobody else is using the network, I configure preferences to (speed of the download) to both upload and download to unlmited. Otherwise adjust it to 25 to 50% of the maximum speed, to prevent choking others in the network).
18. Then go to sleep if there are enough seeders and and download is to the maximum of my bandwidth (download speed depends on the seeders)
19. Otherwise go and repeat the procedure and find another distribution with at 10 seeders
20. Configure the graphic interface to your liking and see what is happening every nansecond and enjoy the bight sleep.

10 or more good things about K-Torrents

1.It lets one controls the download speed so others in the shared network has band width

2.It is timed to nanoseconds of bit and bytes transfer

3. It is graphical

4. It is a workhorse

5. It never breaks down and starts automatically after shutdown.

6. It checks the data for integrity

7. It lets one shares with the entire globe and there is no discrimination-Give and Take both.

8. It is a community

9. It is open source

10. I can now sleep without any worry

11. One can see from where they come and where they go but never hold it still to capture a moment in freeze state

Linux Lovers In Sinhala

I have now with me all the Debian (386) Live and Installable CDs / DVDs for spreading the message of Linux in Sinhala. It can be installed in Tamil Telangu and English too for Linux Lovers in the Indian Subcontinent.

Currently downloading 64 bit versions.

I would initiate a mechanism to make it available initially in Kandy and the University where I work does not permit me to access public directly.

Please log at this particular writing (two more above) and make comments below.

There is another alternative to Drop it at Droppbox but that will be lot of work for me.

A paper advertisement in another alternative.

Please do not contact me (no emails accepted) other than this portal.

I am happy to report that Debian 6 is available with Sinhala Graphical Installer.

10 (Ten) things a Linux Guy / Girl could do

10 (Ten) things a Linux Guy or Girl should do to become a geek and show off he is becoming a new groovy (I have coined this in the same tone as savvy).

1. Linux Guy (means both s / he) should be able boot at any moment day or night. Should be able to boot out or weed out Linux of Microsoft as soon as possible (any dual facility of booting is taken as sign of weakness or of a transvestism).

2. Should be able to root at any moment especially at night to look at the nocturnal misbehaviour of a server platform or your computer.

3. Should be able to flame a war with any vendor who is dishing out and venturing into virtues of New Windows 7 (which is 4 years old now anyway).

4. Should be able to flame a war with any neighbour who is using any windows without a screen cover. All windows should have curtain cover so that you should not be seeing what your neighbour's daughter is doing or up to.

5. Should carry a mini (business type) card or a Pendrive with at least Puppy Linux or Knoppix installed (this is a new addition to becoming a savvy-carry minimum of luggage in person).

6. Should have a old computer resurrected from an attic and used as a mail server educating newbies and flaming them with fire if they cannot boot or root instantaneously or as a dedicated seeding plot (seed potato type to germinate at any given time and not as a Microsoft couch potato type) with at least 20 to 30 hacked (means used many times) distributions for dissemination by K-torrent running 24 / 7 schedule.

7. Advocates running the computer 24 hours a day non stop (for seeding distributions to natives hitherto unknown with pidgin languages) for doing Cron jobs and midnight commander. If you tell this to a Microsoft Gut / Girl s/he will get a heart attack or they will be doing virus checking every half an hour.

8. Should be able to do short cuts with any combination of all 12 x F (function ) keys, Tab, Alt, Ctr. Shift (should never use the window key even with a sterile screen on top of it-why the hell it is there I still do not know in the key board) and any other alphanumeric key to do a simple jobs not understood by a kid or newbie. When you do that with the last touch of the key on F-12, a word presto should pop out for a second and a pause and then ask what next please (really you should write a mini shell script for above and assign it to the 12^th Function Key nobody seems to be using it nowadays. Linux never extended it beyond 8 in my time. Or else you must design a few Cron jobs yourself and assign them to F9 to F12

If nobody is impressed at least your girl friend or boy friend will be impressed by this activity.

9. Should be able to work with virtual keyboard even when the normal keyboard has coffee or tea spilled all over it by a kid while watching your antics.

10. This is a new one again since Microsfties think that Linux guy cannot play games. You must use the guitaristX (new distribution in Linux) key to play a game or two while stringing some music with John Lenon or Paul McCartneyin in the background.

11. This is an extra for a Sri-Lankan guy to show off that you can do Linux now in Sinhala and that is you say "you are an eternal Distressed-Distro-Hopper". You like plain hoppers, egg hoppers, Linux hoppers, jaggery hoppers or hoppers from heaven (in any case it looks like food is coming down from heaven when one look at the prices).

Important

I have now with me all the Debian (386) Live and Installable CDs /DVDs for spreading the message of Linux in Sinhala. It can be installed in Tamil Telangu and English too for Linux Lovers in the Indian Subcontinent.

Currently downloading 64 bit versions.

I would initiate a mechanism to make it available initially in Kandy and the University where I work does not permit me to access public directly.

Please log at this particular writing (two more above) and make comments.

There is another alternative to Drop it at Droppbox but that will be lot of work for me. A paper advertisement in another alternative.

Please do not contact me (no emails accepted) other than this portal

I am happy to report that Debian 6 is available with Sinhala graphical installer.

Freedom, Friendship and Sinhala Capability

Important

I have now with me all the Debian (386) Live and Installable CDs / DVDs for spreading the message of Linux in Sinhala.

It can be installed in Tamil Telangu and English too for Linux Lovers in the Indian Subcontinent.

Currently downloading 64 bit versions.

I would initiate a mechanism to make it available initially in Kandy and the University where I work does not permit me to have direct access to public.

Please log at this particular writing (two more above) and make comments.

There is another alternative to Drop it at Droppbox but that will be lot of work for me.

A paper advertisement in another alternative.

Please do not contact me (no emails accepted) other than this portal of inquiry.

I am happy to report that Debian 6 is available with Sinhala Graphical Installer.

Well. well I am happy to tell you that I downloaded KDE version (currently downloading Gnome version) of Debian 6 and it can be installed in Sinhala but I prefer installing it in English and then using Sinhala capability by changing the language after installation.


I am going to make it available locally in Kandy and you are free to copy it, (no selling except the price for CD and copying) install it and send me a comment below if there are any difficulties in using it.

The Sinhala terminology in there was like Greek to me but when I have the free time I will install it in one of my spare computers in my office and see its virtues.

In the mean time, I get a few of my university students who are versed in Linux to try it and give me a feedback.

It is advised that one downloads it as K-Torrent and not as normal web browser download.

Thanks you Guys and Girls at Debian for doing the honours for Sinhala Language.

I have to thank Anuradha (who comes from Kandy) profusely for his initiation.

Please do not worry him he is a busy person and doing some other important work. It is time for you to make local Linux Groups and spread the message of wisdom in Sinhala.

It was long time waiting for me but I am now at a different level and carry Linux in a Pendrive and enjoying it as pastime. and promoting Live CDs.


Visit my blog at www.wordpress.org (Linux for Computing and updates at asokaplus).

There over 200 hundred versions but many of them are not in Sinhala and many do not have multilanguage capability.

I am now more interested promoting it globally and activating K-torrent Groups who are posting and seeding Linux distributions globally for every nation on this planet to use without copyright laws.



For me this as an achievement of a few dedicated Sinhala (not the race but the Language) loving IT Guys and Girls who had devoted their free time to make Sinhala available in Linux.

It was our own Anuradha who tried to Make Sinhala Linux.

Unfortunately he was drawn into Presidential Forces after tsunami and he could not persevere with this project due to his workload and lack of support of dedicated Linux Guys.

Our own Rev. Mettavihari (foreign) of course added Pali and Sinhala font and its unicode version of Sinhala some years ago but nobody took active interest in prompting Sinhala Linux.

Please note www.worpress.org has Sinhala capability and it is open source and I have seen a few using it in Sinhala.

One reason (now there are many) I felt out Microsoft is when it introduced XP there was No Sinhala in its 40 odd languages.


Please note the note below.
Due to the lack of translation updates two languages were dropped in this release: Wolof and Welsh.

If we do not persevere it will be dropped from Linux like Welsh.

Asturian, Estonian, Icelandic, Kazakh and Persian have been added to the graphical and text-based installer.

Kannada, Lao, Sinhala and Telugu have been added to the graphical installer.

Linux-100-Extras-PCLinuxfullMonty-03

PCLinuxfullMonty has everything you want and it has I believe 64 bit capability too.
Go for it when the going is good.
4 GiB of it and it is a very affable Gorilla.

Linux-100-Extras-Fedora-14-04

Another new version (14 a brand new conceptually) has come out after I felt out of with Fedora 3 (Redhat 8 and 9 were my favorites) and I have been looking at it from version 9 (also because of ADIOS which got stuck at Fedora 8).
It has shed some of its old routine stuff but has failed catch the trends in other emerging Linux distribution.
I have installed Fusion which has Dropbox and it has all the virtues of Fusion

It is under 700 MiB and fits into 4 different (Live and installable) Standard CD.

It is pleasing and packed with minimum of utilities.

Have taken the trouble to release 32 bits, 64 KDE and Gnome in 4 CDs.

KDE has K-Office and Gnome has none.

Very soon Gnome has to embrace LibreOffice of document foundation which is doing a good hob.

I wish success with this new version even though I hesitate to introduce it to a newbie.

A savvy could pick and choose its packages from the repository but I have not visited it myself.

If you had been a Redhat fan (like me in the past) go for it.

I won't leave PCLinux (it is my Gold Standard) now that the PCLinuxfullMonty is out (Gorilla version) which has everything (cater for 64 bits too) I need and more packages to learn.

Who goes first?-Key Point-02

Have you ever thought of the identity crisis the key would have of its own if s/he has a brain?

Who am I the duplicate or the triplicate or the original?

Who goes first, me the original, you the duplicate or you the romeo?

Who will have the break me, you or the other?

Have you ever thought of what will happen if 100 replicas are produced from a single stem cell and the names of the beings such produced are given?

Stem Cell-01 being, 02 being to 100 being.

What will happen if they decide to come to a supermarket for shopping with only one credit card given to the original stem cell?

What will happen if they come for a super bowl?

It is mind boggling isn't it?

Thank god the key does not have a brain of its own!

Key Point!

What is the best place to hide a key?
I say in the key hole!
Then who is going look after it?
I haven't got a clue!


What is the best place to keep a car key?
It should be inside the car and locked!
Then who will drive the car?
I guess car key should!


I wonder, if the world is without keys and locks?
Then evolution and innovation of man would stop at that point of time!

Linux Tracker and Linux Tracking

It is very unfortunate that because of pirating of proprietary software, songs and films many organizations blacklist torrent downloads.

But it (torrent with many clients) does a yeoman service to the Linux Community.

What I say below is for K-torrent as a client and I have stopped using Microsoft for the last three years and soon would be changing to LibreOffice by dropping Open Office due to Oracle's underhand dealing with Sun Java Suite that they have purchased.

Big monopolies that come from America take every opportunity to retard the progress of the Open Source Movement but it bounces back with vigor and vitalizing its base, come what it may.

My “hats off” for the Guys / Girls doing service to the community.

I am against the practice of pirating (it is stealing) in the third world countries especially from India and then the Controlling authorities turning a blind eye and allowing the pirating as a normal practice and this retard the growth of Linux in the Asian countries including Sri-Lanka.

What is appalling is even in Universities this practice is rampant.

Universities should take the leadership in preventing pirating and they are the ones who would benefit in the long run since their proprietary rights that come as scholarly work is protected from infringement.

The initiation to protect the copyright and prevent illegal reproductions should be their onus in conjunction with controlling authorities.

But this never happens.

Writing this is for some other purpose.

We need to protect productions that come out of community collaborations, especially in Linux. Even these are getting hijacked by the big companies buying the well establish Commercial Linux products and endeavors like Suse and insinuating few proprietary slip ins in between the Open Source Products where their purity is tarnished in a legal manner.

Law is an Ass and it stands true when these manipulations are freely allowed by the law of the land.

Engineering splits in the Mandriva Linux are also in their sinister plans.

Point 1-No donations

With all these problems Linuxtracker Organization is doing what it can do to keep the community intact and developments tracked and updated regularly.

It only requests only $300 per month (that is a 10 dollar a day).

But people are stingy to donate even that which I find how selfish we are when it comes to be a consumer and a customer.
We must donate even as little as possible to keep these volunteers working for Linux.

Point 2-Slow Speed of Downloads

In the third world 90% of the people have no access to internet at home.
The 10% who have access, the download speed is very slow.
They can never think of downloading a DVD.
For example it took nearly 9 days, 4 days and 2 and half days to download 3 DVDs (Kororaa, 1.5 GiB Knoppix 3.4 GiB and PClinuxMonty 4 GiB-the fastest).

ArchBang 536 MiB took over 10 hours.

That is also my K-torrent running almost 24 hours..

I share these images with my friends and students.
In addition I leave a few images in my Dropbox for my friends here and abroad to share.

Point 3-How can we help the community?

One way is to donate few dollars.
The other way is to keep the images in the folder without removing them and let the computer idle or do some other download so that your computer work as a seeder for uploading.

This will enormously improve your download speed, too.

The rule is give as much as you take!

I am happy to say at times there is more uploads from my computer than downloads.

It is seeding well.

I have decided to dedicate my computer to torrent images (when I got my regular office work is organized in another computer) in the coming year once I have downloaded the most urgently needed updates and few games DVDs to add some spice into my plate.

The least that one can do is to leave the computer door open (Linux knows how to choose the port) for others to upload for a few hours a day.

In return your download speed will also improve.

That is the way torrent works.

It is also a community that is alive and active.

Be an active member of K-torrents.