Catastrophy, is it manmade?

Time has come to.say good bye to.this blog site.
It has nothing to do with Google's and Gmail's strategic diversions.

It was coming for other good reasons.
Number of visitors and Coronavirus made me to revise my decision.

I will end with my analysis of recent misadventures in the sea.

The same logic applies to air travel now beginning to come to life again.
With expansion of Internet human.travel is redundant except a break for holidays, barring Coronavirus spread that seems not to nose dive but skyrocket upwards.
That was my prediction anyway and human behaviour is the main culprit and reason.

Catastrophy or Misadventure occurs in Medical Field, too.

1. Number one in my list is fatigue.
Man or woman is designed to work  under 10 hours or even less.
8 hours seems reasonable.
8 to 9 hour mandatory and not necessarily in one go. One short snooze has many advantages.
Any excess of coffee or tea does not change this physiological protocol.

2. Number two is underlying sickness.

3. Number three is alcoholism.

4. Number four is sea sickness not the sea sickness of first seafaring but the psychological factors that affects concentration, attention and focus to minor details.

5. All these can be lumped together as negligence of the supervision protocol of the industry concerned.

6. Failure of maintenance of the ship and every piece of navigation equipments and protocols.

7. Number seven is premeditated sabotage that seems like natural catastrophe to an observer BUT to claim insurance compensation.

This is a strategy Ceylonese are good at.

There was a guy who faked an accident and placed a cadaver to claim insurance.

Other standard method is to fake political victimisation.
A guy came to for full body X-rays claiming he had an accident on the way to Ratnapura.
I worked there for one year and travelled  every two weeks home by bus and I knew every nasty comer of possible accident and he could not tell the exact place of accident.

I refused and later found out he went to Australia and I never saw him again.

In the scenario of the ship that is sinking anybody conspired to the last item I mentioned above they should be brought to justice.
International organizations should hold their independent investigation and keep it without public disclosure until our report comes out first.
Then we can judge who are the culprits and who is going to cover up the misadventure at collosal environmental costs and impossible clean up provedure.

Walk Down The Memory Lane

Coronavirus, Walk Down The Memory Lane

 

This piece is very long as long as 6 Kilometers I walked today.

Original plan was to walk 5 Kilometers but I extended it by one more, since walking was unhindered by vehicles except for an occasional push bike or a motor bike.

Mind you there were many three wheelers breaking the travel ban.

I had no fear of 6 Kilometers, since I tested my 70th birthday to Dunhjnda Ella running with younger guys and girls.

Walk was similar to the days of curfews and fear of bomb blasts with soldiers manning every junction or turning point but without any fear but few standalone prowlers (in fact, one I managed to avoid having noticed him.from a safe distance before he noticing me) that I hate.

I must make a note of this guy.
His instinct in survival mode is exemplary.
If he entered the University  (my goodness not here, they destroy all potentials and hopes  in one solid year) in a foreign land he would have ended up as a professor of economy.

I think he has more money in the bank than me.

He is a cash dealer for the desperate.

In fact, he was dealing with a transaction with a guy, so that he failed to notice me.

His modes operandum is to pose as a vagrant anywhere in this Island from Colombo to Peradeniya.

He begs as a living and has built up a composition  to go with his trade.
I believe he had vouched not to follow his father but build up his economy.
He puts the money in banks with high interest rate.

The interest he pawns outside the bank.

So he gets double interest in the same piece of Ceylon notes.

Incredible!

If he is not paid back he comes out with raw filth in public.

Without knowing I assumed that he is a vagrant and used to give him money starting with dirty 10 Rupee note but gradually it went up to 100.

Now I give him money through third party and Coronavirus was my reasoning and I told him one day, that I will give a nasty blow to his head if he interrupted me in my routines.

He never begs in the Kandy city and in the city I never dish out money to beggars and tell the police to take them away.

The Kandy Police does a good job of it.

By the way, he  may have tried Kandy but would have been evicted by the Some of Kandy guys in the prison.

Somme was a guy who killed a guy in front of Bandaranayake Shopping Complex, Kandy and went to Bogambara Prison before it was shifted.

He never stayed in prison but his nominee would be in prison but he was out and running his underground  business.

I once so him as a kid but I have no memory of his appearance, nothing of outstanding note but an ordinary guy who has done the homework of survival in the Kandy prison.

The boss of the prison and had prison guards running behind his tail.

Any murderer builds up his reputation.

Coming back to the economy professor down under, I think he has had a bad deal as a kid, simply because his father went to prison and his father's right  hand chopped above elbow.

That stigma followed him.

His younger brother who was a good metal worker.

One day, I saw him wrestling with his own brother.

I intervened and stopped it since I knew the economy guy but not his brother.

Now the son of this not well known guy was an ace thief (a family trait, I believe) and he was in prison by the age of 15.

I have not seen him after he went to prison and his father who tried to make a responsible living probably was heart broken and died prematurely when I was in New Zealand.

First of all let me say every dog should have  a home and stray dogs at Galaha Junction were left without food.

I did not have any to feed them with all the  pastry shops closed.

My favourite dominating bitch and her clan were not visible at Panideniya.

My guess is that with all the food stalls closed and all the private buses not plying they would have enticed a few in the neighbourhood to their living quarters.

Dogs are very intelligent and their perception of our current human predicament is better than PhD psychologists.

The second mention should be the cleaners and they were working non stop, including the workers loading back the mettle loads left by the builders in a main junction and the builder carefully watching every piece of mettle being loaded.

The third goes to the British Architects who designed and executed the University and the Botanical Garden where I enjoyed a long stroll in my young days as an undergraduate and a graduate.

I wish they stayed little longer till 1960s like in Singapore but our STUPID Bandaranayake clan and his party RUINED all prospects due to his/their POWER greediness.

I guessed he read Bertrand Russel's book on POWER while in England and craftily used segregation tactics and politics and we are still entangled with the rigmarole (or is it the tight GRIP) of the SLPP.

Now the British Design in Peradeniya is better than both Oxford and Cambridge which I visited as a foreign traveler but never wanted to be a resident in both which an average Indian "prize" so heavily.

Peradeniya was to me the real home with ample room for a healthy stroll.

The city has gone into hibernation and only one place, I admired was a little children garden built on the refuse dump of yesteryear and a little water garden in front with ONLY red blooming lilie.

I would have never allowed my children to play on a rubbish dump where tetanus and nasty anaerobic bacteria thrive even with and attractive grass top.

Anyway, that is how we progress in this country.

Children parks should be purpose built like Disney films.

In a country where Legos are not sold in shops how can we expect grand children parks?

They are made to cram for scholarship examination from the age of two or three years, grand children's park is only a wishful thinking.

Coming back to original track, I have a specimen of that the lilly which bloom everyday in the morning and fades away by 2 P.M.

Little more about other lilies later.

I think this was (children park and the pond) designed by a Lady and not a man.

Now coming to Rubbish in Kandy and KMC (Kandy Municipal Council) had a very practical way to dispose rubbish before plastics came into existence.

In public health (thanks to Professor Malcolm Fernando) appointment we were taken to these dumps in Nittawela (going by its name a rich paddy field filled up to accommodate a rugger ground, later), Guhagoda (dumping ground  of raw faeces of bucket latrines, where Infectious hospital was located during British times) and Peradeniya (never Panideniya where Kithul trees were plenty during British time) and what a colossal contributions humans make daily and it is increasing and a waiting catastrophe with population expansion.

Regarding paddy cultivation, the British probably hated rice and dumped garbage on paddy fields.
The stretch of roadway and railway was built on the Nuwara Wela and Bogambara Prison was where part of the original lake was located.

If you read Professor Anuradha Seneviratna's book, you get a better picture of Kandyan aristocracy.

Now in the Bogambara prison there was a deep well and the Nilames and Dingiri Manikes dumped their gold and silver before their subjugation.

The prisoners also dump their illegal telephones and pistols to the same pit.

There was a ha hoo that the prison was shifted and one can view it free.

I went there for a early entry and we were prevented.

I saw three helicopters airlifting the loot or the content of the well.

We heard nothing after like what happened to gold airlifted after the end of the war.

All those helicopter guys were missing or sacrificed after the loot was completed and same logic stands for Bogambara looting.

There are guys in this country who loots prisoner's possession before their term ends or their demise under mysterious circumstances.

The TRUTH is hurried and hearsay stays with some exaggeration.

It is hazardous to become a helicopter pilot both physically and politically.

The economic cost withstanding!

Now coming to Nittawala grounds before it was abandoned, players use to get nasty illnesses.

Probably the Late Dr. Karunatatne has a role in.decommissioning this disease prone ground built on rubbish.

The preamble is over and I tell you NOW, all the nasty things I noticed even during a total Blockdown, in my sphere of activities.

Mind you, I do not go in the opposite direction  to Gelioya or Kurunduwatta where a nasty guy from SLPP has made the life of an average person a misery.

Only twice I went in opposite direction to the nearest Branch of Bank of Ceylon, when the road from  Peradeniya to Kandy was closed due to unruly action of JVP inspired strikes in the Campus which I boycotted in theory and practice.

Today, I had only Rs.100/= in my purse and I had to walk to the Bank with rain impending and forecast pending by Google (not BBC).

A.cloudy day without much humidity an ideal day for walking.

I was stopped by my wife yesterday and all the gear was ready except the bills to be paid.

I was up by 5.30 A.M and there was no rush to find the unpaid bills.

Had only a tea and two pieces of cake (the current bread is awful without butter and jam) and with only an umbrella in my hand and the empty purse with only two bank cards.

The debit card I dispensed with, a few years ago to avoid heavy interest rate.

I have stopped the land phone calls totally having told my intention twice or thrice in advance to my friends to stop paying unnecessary TAXES to this failing military government.

They failed us with COVID and I have recorded those events in correct scientific perspective, in this blog space (in Retrospect  and PostScript).

Today is about my stroll not politics.

1. From our home to Panideniya shops is  "Maranthika Tract" on a busy day with traffic.

Two have succumbed in this stretch in one morning and sadly one was a Muslim guy who saved my life many a time jumping to moving vehicles on my right side, in my rush to the  morning lecture (to catch the bus).

The bus from Panideniya take half an hour for a five minutes trip by my car and there was no parking lot, then (which we developed about 10 years later).

That part is renamed by me for the rest of my life as "The Maranthika (deadly) Tract" and will never walk on when opened to public and private traffic.

2. The next stop is Penideniya, which I called "The Appiriya Town I".

There used to be only one "Appiriya Eating Shop" and now the whole place has become an Apaya (hell) Tradition.

There is a big puddle of water in the middle of the road in addition.

No buses today blocking my view.

All shops closed.

There is 90 degree angle at this junction and there used to be a mirror to help road users but no more.

3. Third stop is the Peradeniya Township, which I am at a loss to rename it but slightly better than Panideniya.

Will call it "Appiriya Township II".

I think I am going to have a break for a bit of Coriander Drink (my standalone recipe for COVID not time tested yet).

Now these are few things I remember out of the many forgotten observations.

One day delay in recording helps my memory clean up unlike a cellphone or computer.

Loss of bad memories is a blessing at all times.

1. The approach road relatively clean due to heavy rain washing the RUBBISH to a stream that joins Mahaweli River.

But where buses were parked crushed up foreign illegal cigarette packets were in plenty.

The police say they have stopped this menace but Panideniya is the standard route for smuggling drugs,too to university undergraduates.

I won't go into details how Mahaveli Ganga is used for transportation where only the road is checked by police.
 

I believe police do not want their boots to.be wet.

2. The rock behind the petroleum station fully exposed is covered by a large polythene sheet.

Handy engineering feat.

3. The Bridge is littered with rotting rice packets.
I believe left for dogs and even.dogs repel the smell of them and do not partake.
Mind you, rice rots in a few minutes unless you put the left over immediately into the fridge.

The British outstanding construction stands tall and only Lankan addition is ugly cement payment blocks, to the approach of the bridge.

There are many cracks and gaps between the blocks.

4. Beyond, the bridge was a big iron frame hosting Buddhist Anniversary of 2600.

It is ugly and why it was not removed after the celebrations, I do not know.

5. The Galaha Junction was peaceful only one post left with, all the rhetoric in words washed and blurred.
To see this place without banners and posts was a long term dream of mine.

Why police has left one piece?

6. There were three dogs and only two on my return. 

They are at a loss but guard the place two years after closure of the campus.
I wish all graduates if not undergraduates should salute Ivor Jennings and only dogs seem to have taken that into heart.

7.The Peradeniya Botanical Garden closed.
Right in front is the ugly entrance to the Children Hospital blocked by large number of three wheeler drivers.
Ugly sight and site.

I vehemently opposed the idea but politicians prevailed.
But the political name stands.

However, with the pandemic that is the only final resting place for some unfortunate kids.

8. The Rest House is no more but sold to a privateer.

9. At the Bank of Ceylon only three using the till.
The Mount to upload my cellphones ZIM was out of order.
Apart from.withdrawing cash uploading data was my intention.
I have to come here again.
Two trips for two jobs.

10. The veterinary hospital was open and they were busy. 

That was good and that is the reason I did not see many stray dogs.

11. I did not bother to go up and see the hospital I worked for nearly 16 years.
Yes, I came out never to return even for a guest lecture.

The newly built research laboratory closed.
By the way, it never opened after colossal amount of money spent.

12. Finished my job, I got a bright idea to extend my walk  to Royal Mall but after a long walk I found it closed.

13. The Cargills near the 3 way junction was closed.

14. But crossing the railway track was easy without railways running.
Bit about railway tracks later.

15. The laundry my regular visiting place was closed.
I have only a pair of cloths to collect.

16. All the "plants shops" closed.
Anyway, I have stopped buying exotic plants for two years.
It is too much caring for them but I collect seeds.
My paddy seeds are sprouting and replanted plants are doing well.
I will report on paddy experiment when I get the first batch of seeds.

On my return I saw one shop opened and selling seed paddy.

17. The return trip was not eventful except avoiding  bumping into that shoddy guy.

18. Coming home empty hand was not my intention.
All the fruit stalls were closed.
There was one lorry selling vegetables.
No fruits.

19. On my way up even the two Ram Banda shops were closed.

20. My strategy to stall was noted by a guy who  ran the smaller Ran Banda shop to open it's door.

Before me a young guy rushed there and bought 3 bananas.
Mind you Rs.40/= a piece.
Obviously hungry with all the food stalls closed.

He offered me the rest of the bunch and I said I want a big bunch since it was Ambum my favourite.

Rs. 600/= down but added two medium sized paw paw each for 150/=  to balance the weights in my hands.

My maximum carry weight of mine is  5 Kilos now.

21. Long walk home and I decided to walk on the railway track which is straight unlike the  windy road with ups and downs.

I could rest on a bench at the railway station, if I start panting or the rain intervenes.

22. I forgot that the ground to platform was four or more feet high to prevent by passers using that route.

I could not make with my legs.

Transferred  the load to one hand and gripped the iron railing firmly and with a mighty intention got one foot up and the other came up naturally without dropping the ripe bananas, with a sigh of relief.

Physical coordination counts at old age and do not try the impossible.

If I plan a long walk, I make sure there is company (not a dog by the way) but Coronavirus has made that luxury unavailable.

I surveyed the ground plan of the tracks which is concentrated in one point with criss crossings, which my physics brain could not figure out.

23. The reason for taking this route is to see the little pond there with lilly flowers.
Unlike the one previously mentioned had several varieties.
The little carp fish I used to feed is Hugh Now with its mouth and nostrils or gills at surface level unable to go down when a stranger comes near.

Obesity is a problem even for a fish, especially gold fish.

Do not over feed them.

24. I raised up the hill and my first intention was to down two bananas and that was the total calorie cost of my walk.

Do not eat them like a kid at half way stop what was meant for family consumption (never mind even if nobody eats).

25. The final bath becomes much pleasing with sweat all over me.
But do not rush to the bathroom until the body cools down.
It is really not physiological and the body cannot handle it which I have learnt without a sports master, in my days.

26. Mind you I paid the water bill and Telecom bills on my return.

They checked my temperature and it recorded 35 and I could not believe (which I expected to be around 37.8 at least).

I think Chinese have dumped all the cheap digital thermometers in Ceylon and please do not believe in them for use in Medical Practice unless you have  a mercury thermometer to verify.

That may be the reason the Coronavirus is rampaging now in Ceylon.

27. I had a peep at Galaha Junction for my fruit vendor's stall  but closed. 

He generally has good collection of bananas.
Mind you I hate Seeni Kehel and renamed  them Rubber Kehel.

28. The two schizophrenics who have the typical fixed routines were at Peradeniya looking for food and shelter from rain.
I avoided any mode of communication fearing any fixation on me.

29. The fearsome old women or Archchi was seated in front of her boutique without any sail items.
She terrifies anybody who tries to overrule her dictatorship.
I think she would have done a better Woman President role than our current incumbent.
She is down to earth in her management of the few stalls she dominate and she has seen their natural development and changing hands over the years.
She probably in her nineties and I have never seen her full standing stature and all the instructions are relayed to the back of the stall verbally and a acted upon.

I used to go in and buy the pots sold there especially during new year.

I do not think she recognized me with my grey hair and half grown facial hair.
Mind you I used to wear immaculately, those days, perhaps even with a tie.

30. I do not know how these three survived to old age where now I find even climbing high steps daunting.

Probably they are fixated to the place they love and do not want to depart to new lives or a new round of births.

Attachment is the substance of Rebirth, according to Buddha.

Standard SD cards and MicroSD cards can be painful to erase and partition

I tried to erase all data from my MicroSD cards not in my cellphones.

The idea was to copy some films from my PC and watch them by smart TV.

It was painful to erase them.

May be because I am using only Linux.

With Windows it may be a different story, I believe.

They can.handle only FAT partitions.

With 32 and 64 GB carfd,  Linux prefer them to be partitioned them with gpt but they won't Boot or Mount afterwards.

No problem with nonproprietary MicroSD cards.

Baba Tree Frog and Mama Tree Frog

The Coronavirus Pandemic Psychosis and declining mass scale human activity have  given lease of life and respite to the animal kingdom, especially to birds.

But an important reminder first, when Chinese come here in numbers, the frogs, toads, crickets, cockroaches, wiggly worms,snakes, snails,  bats, birds, squirrels, rats, fish, crabs and lizards will disappear in.a season.or two.

No need for chemical pesticides.

They are in fact, global pests already,

Now welcome guest today was a tiny Leech.

If given an.opportunity I breed them in millions as.a business adventure and gift them to China who is.leeching us unhindered having tendered longterm term loan.

I have good reason leeches produce something similar to heparin and they can harvest this chemical as a treatment for vascular thrombosis in vaccinated patients with a higj.price tag to.cover their esoteric laboratory investigations.

Little twitter and the honey bird have lost their fear and come very close to human (our) contact at all.

In fact, I noticed a little nest on the tallest Bavaria Nuga tree made from a single leaf twisted round and padded with wool like stuff (probably from dogs hair).

The brood has gone away and I remember one mummy bird was keeping watch but did bother to investigate.

The twitter is very secretive and avoid contact at all costs.

It took a long time for to identify the bird making the typical.twitter sound.

The paddy birds are long gone and all the available  paddy land is filled up by the developers.

In this scenario, the common frog has lost its habitat.

But once a year a tree frog comes to lay eggs.

This time round I believe two of them have come.

I missed the first one but baby tree frog was in my toilet to notify that event.

How it reached the toilet was only a guess work probably from the high window.

I caught it after trapping it for a little while and put it into the outdoor fish tank.

Then today big mama tree frog was considering entering my bed room and I accidentally touched her while going down the steps holding onto the railing.

Mind you I miss my steps, if I do not hold onto the railing.

I pass it down to low blood sugar (continuing on one square meal and a little snack when hungry) but in reality the old age is catching up with me.

It took few minutes to figure it out how to catch it with one leap of more than 4 feet long and I cannot simply match it in.old age.

Mind you, I was very good catching grogs for dissections, A Level days but after the last catch I decided I would  never catch and put any under gas (forget the chemical starting with S).

I finally trapped it against the wall with a little basin but there was nothing to cover the top.

Finally I slid the rubbish tray underneath.

This in the dead of the night and without a torch I could not go out to land her on the fish tank.

This is of course not a guy/girl to land on the ground or water but in the darkness leapt into a tree branch and I lost sight of her.
Mind you she is a regular visitor probably bit lazy and wanted my help to catch up with the last 10 steps (easily 3 jumps in her capacity).

With belly full of eggs, she was tired and was asking for some human help.

The lesson is not to.help these guys of nature.

They remember at least the last encounter with you.

Fortunately I never see lot of tiny frogs.

I do not know why but there is a predator.

Most likely common Katusss or lizard  and not the skunk  or chameleon.

They have come and gone already.

Linux Distributions and Their Compatibilty

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

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

Having said that AbiWord is missing in all.

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

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

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

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

No Internet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

SSD boots only one distribution.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3. Mageia has problem with GRUB.

4. Ubuntu I have already commented.

5. MXLinux I did not try.

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

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

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

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

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

11. PinGuy has gone into latency.

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

13. ARCH is too difficult to handle.

14. Absolute Linux takes over the hard disk.

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

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

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

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

Linux MultiSystem DVD.

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

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

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

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

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

It makes sfs file to boot.

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

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

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

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

Biggest Downturn of Coronavirus is PC Sales

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New batteries have overcome fire hazard when.charging.

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

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

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

What a turnaround?

Aliens and Microtechnology

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

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

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

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

How they bypass the Van Allen Belt is a mystery.

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

Having known our aggressive intents they have kept  abey.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One fact in this list is true.

Aliens had been.visiting us for eons.

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

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

Buddha never wanted massive structures built in his name.

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

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

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

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

Comparison of Linux Operating System to Microsoft Windows

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

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

There is no comparison.

They are poles apart.

Windows are inherently vulnerable.

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

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

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

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

I was in UK in 1980s.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I knew she was secretly learning Word Processing.

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

I bought a small format floppy driver,too.

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

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

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

I also bought Atari to play DOS games.

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

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

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

He took up car sales. 

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

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

I did not try Windows 3.1.

Fed up I booted Linux live CDs and Knoppix.

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

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

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

I gave up Redhat after Fedora.

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

Live booting Linux was my ultimate goal.

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

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

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

This company bought all the discarded computers from America.

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

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

PCLinux was my workhorse.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I really loved the workplaces which Windows have no substitute.

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

I started using OpenOffice from Solaris which became LibreOffice.

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

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

I even used XandrOS which supported Windows for a  while.

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

Ubuntu is Debian based.

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

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

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

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

You see how much I hate Microsoft.

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

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

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

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

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

Booting BSD from a USB

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

What I did was to Install it on the USB.

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

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

BSD does not dual boot with Linux.

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

I love quiet booting from a USB.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It should have been with Britain and France.

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

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

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

Spoken language skill is daunting in French.

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

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

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

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

Python, USB Pendrives and Portability

 Python, USB Pendrives and Portability

To me small.is beautiful.

Physical not Virtual portability is innovative and a blessings.

Python is long and is longer than an anaconda.

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

That is the virtue of Python unlike other programming languages.

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

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

Instead of trying Linux on a gaming environment.

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

It was a difficult preposition.

The Pendrive Linux site changed my outlook.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So beware and be careful with Python.

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

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

In my case books written by me for publication.

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

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

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

I used AbiWord for my thesis,too.

All self learning which I have perfected from childhood.

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

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

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

Linux is always a text file easy to handle.

Mind you I could not format one MicroSD locally purchased.

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

Why one should have more than one cellphone?

This may sound strange.

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

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

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

I won't repeat them.

I have more than 20 reasons.

Biggest one is money.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is no stop gap in communication with your carriers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

They.are a mouthful when you are typing fast.

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

9. It saves me time and sometimes boredom.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Digital Competency and Linux

I have some good things to say about Microsoft.
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coming to digital competency Linux is way ahead.

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

Knoppix is my favourite.

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

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

That is what call real digitalization.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks to Microsoft Donations.

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

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

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

Debian on an External SATA Disk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hope it will work that way.

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

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

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

Running Short of Ideas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One hour for I GB.

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

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

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

I prefer SSDD but they are costly.

Debian is on again in my Laptop

I inadvertantly erased my Debian.

I had problem installing it without Internet connection.

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

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

The records in the UEFI haunted me.

Thanks to BSD but specifically TRUE OS.

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

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

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

Here is how to do it.

Boot TrueOS and install it.

Boot Gpart and delete the tank root partition.

Leave the ESP made by TrueOS untouched.

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

Install Debian in the free space by deleting tank partition.

Again do not touch ESP made by TrueOS.

Install Debian and let it do its partitioning.

It takes the remaining space for a huge home partition.

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

BIOS partition does not function in this scenario.

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

I select all except web server.

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

But remain nearby.

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

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

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

It installs and eject the DVD.

Thanks again to TRUE OS developers.

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

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

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

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

Coronavirus, Me and My Miniaturization

The Coroavirus was a blessing in disguise for me.

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

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

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

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

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

I hated children card games.

They were two simple for my physics and mathematic brain.

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

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

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

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

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

The first computer of my son.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Too, expensive to burn them.

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

DO NOT buy cheap Chinese stuff.

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

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

SCAN disks 32 GB SD Card has Peppermint  Linux.

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

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

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

Who says Coronavirus was not profitable for me intellectually.

By the way, one terrabyte SATA has Endless OS.

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

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

Bye, Bye!

China's Cyber-Spy Network is Deadly and Exposed

China's Cyber Spy Network is dangerous.

It is extensive and has tentacles spread globally.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Russia has ambitions but not so deadly.

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

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

Facebook is doing that for American secret service gracefully.

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

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

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

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

They will win football in.Olympics.

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

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

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

She should retire along.with Anthony Fauci with Faucism.

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

Very Basic of any Operating System

There are five basic of any Operating System.

First is the Booting Environment.

Second Is the Fire Wall Protection

The Third is Service or Software Environment.

Fourth is the Tasks Environment.

Fifth s the User Environment.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This was not a problem with original BIOS.

Called sensible Basic Input Output System.

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

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

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

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

Coming to the desktop needs are very simple.

Browser.

Email facility for communication.

Legible Language to communicate.

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

Visual or Virtual Desktop.

Mouse and the keyboard for inputs.

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

The cellphone is a minicomputer.

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

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

It already is with iPhones and Google Pixel.

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

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

Is it worth the sum total?

Or ones individual sanctity?

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

TRUE OS has done the Job

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

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

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

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

Only 23 of large tank files.

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

Mind you True OS is BSD derivative.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do not be paranoid to have a boot password.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I gave up cadetting after one visit there.

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

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

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

It is called  "In a nutshell".

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

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

Debian on an Android Phone

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

Kali
Alpine
Arch
Debian and
Ubuntu are supported.

Knoppix the Ultimate Game Changer in Linux

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. GNOME gpart for partitioning

2. File Manager for File Transfer en mass.

3. Play Pingus and Solitarre.

4. Use LibreOffice for PDF files.

5. Play VML with media and audio.

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

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

Do not use Cheap Chinese stuff.

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

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

10. Tor private browsing utility.

11.  Many browser utilities.

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