Bugger the Bankers

 Bugger the Bankers

Lyrics of Bugger the Bankers

When I was a lass I was proud of me class

Like my father and mother before me

They taught me to fight for my civil rights

But it’s always the same old story.

The rich reign supreme while the poor only dream

And they don’t give a damn, Tory, Liberal or Labour.

Chorus

Bugger the bankers and politicians

Bugger the bureaucrats too

Bugger the buggers who make up the rules

And if you’re one of them – bugger you!

The system is bad and the money’s all spent

We’re buggered from every direction

The workers are taxed, the wealthy relax

With nary a moment for reflection

Chorus

Now all you good people with passion to vent

Don’t give up your struggle for justice

I’ve done my time in the protesters’ line

And these days I show my dissent

By loitering within my tent, my tent.

Chips, Semiconductors and IC Industry

 Chips, Semiconductors and IC Industry

FAB stands for Fabrication of computer circuits.

The semiconductor Industry is battling for lower costs by reducing the thickness of Integrated Circuit from 250 nanometers in 1960s to 9 nanometers.

There are only four companies pushing the boundaries forward.

They are;

1. Global Foundries

2. Samsung

3. TSMC

4. Intel

By the way, it looks like Intel is backing away from this responsibility probably due to high costs.

Donald Trump's America First may have some implications.

Most of these companies are outsourced to Taiwan and China's domination over Taiwan is a major concern.

America agreed to integrate Taiwan to China many moons ago and America is currently dragging it's feet on this issue.

I for one do not like or agree with China's silk road initiative and global domination.

Actually, the Coronavirus pandemic did slow down this ambitions project.

We do not know how many died in China and WHO is lying and they do not have access to the mainland China.

This industry does not follow the Moore's Law.

Innovations are not incremental but exponential.

That is gradual shortening of life cycle of  technological innovations.

 

It looks like China and Taiwan have a giant leap.

America falling behind is trying to locate fabrication and manufacturing to American Industry with lot of start ups.

America invested lot on military Research and Development but not on consumer electronics.

Texas Instruments and Radio Shack have gone bust.

I hope Donald Trump winning may change the course and STOP Wars (Ukraine and Middle East) and think of citizens and consumers of America in their First Push.

 

Mind you first Integrated Circuits were used on ballistic missiles and military air crafts.

 

American military philosophy one who dominates the sky dominates the entire world.

The above philosophy has fallen into pieces in Ukraine and in the Middle East. 

Israel now paying the biggest price as a proxy of US and UK Combo.

Russia with its overhead satellites determines where the hit with above and below the RADAR surveillance.

I believe they have portable RADAR Stations in the battle field which cannot be detected.

America took Russia as a joke and i thinks President Putin must be having a private laugh after the BRICS Summit.

 

Europe is far behind and UK is falling behind with ARM, the costliest chips in this world.

Me leaving UK (West) and looking at East was a blessing.

 

Having said that Ceylon is on the bottom of the Chip Industry and we only supply our golden sand (Thmbapanni) to India and China.

 

I do not think that the amateurish parliamentarians of all sides can understand the gravity of world politics.

 

At least we must invest our money on small missiles directed towards our competitors nearby who are near, not far way in ballistic distances.

 

Deterrence is better than defense.

GOLE2PRO Mini PC with a Camera on Top

 GOLE2PRO Mini PC with a Camera on Top

Camera on top of a mini PC.

Minsforum Atoman X7 is a better choice but expensive.

It is box shaped and has a touch screen and the camera.

Who thought about this idea?

I do not like the BOX shape of NUC.

I would prefer a RECTANGULAR shape, simply because it fit in with the cellphone architecture.

Besides, RAM and Graphic Card (architecture) could be added on a horizontal alignment to the box architecture and finalize the design for future makes..

There are three key components.

1. Design

2. Fabrication of the components

3. Assembly

This is a great idea and it is very cheap.

RAM is fixed to the mother board and is not up-gradable but 16GB is ample for me. 

I think graphic card is also integrated to the mother board.

The beauty is it has a touch screen on top.

 

It is in fact (camera), a cellphone NOT of the size of a tablet.

What else one need?

Then again I did a search and found another Mini PC with angled top on which one can keep a tablet on top for convenience. 

I believe (probably due to two operating systems competing with each other is incompatible) that the tablet cannot be used as a separate item.

Both are Linux compatible and tinkering is endless.

Beauty is Apple Mac cannot come anywhere near its open ended architecture.

My current NUC is connected to a big monitor and it has no audio utilities.

But I stick a USB sound utility and a speaker, if I want to watch  a film.

 

I miss few points.

One need not use mouse or keyboard for it's functionality.

However wireless keyboard and mouse are compatible.

HDMI port can be connected to a big monitor.

There are enough USB ports to connect other devices one may have.

 

Portability and Flexibility are the key features.

TV to CPU to GPU to NPU to Video Games

TV to CPU to GPU to Video Games

Within 3 hours I covered all these on YouTube. 

All due to boredom created by our political commentators.

Everybody is trying to be good Samaritan including Naganada Kodituwakku.

I have moved from Radio Shack to Texas Instrument to Atari to Sinclair to  Commodore to even to Apple Globe.

 

I must say I was a Tech Guy all my life. 

Only restriction was things were not a available in Ceylon.

I went to England when explosive innovations were (Amstrad, Sinclair in UK and Texas Instruments, RadioShack, Atari and Commodore in USA) made and DOS based Video Games were popular.

Intel Pentium was not in existence.

RadiShack went into bankruptcy in 2017.

It's Tandy computer was one of my interests.  

After long lapse of interest due to my professional commitment come late nineteen's enter Intel Pentium and my first PC. 

Of course now, Good Bye to proprietary stuff including Microsoft to fully functional Linux Operating system without bonds to big companies.

I used to walk down the Tottenham Court Road in London from one end to the other end  for geeky gadgets. 

Other obsession was Medical Books. 

Foyles Bookshop was the tallest book shop. I bought even few books on DOS Operating System.

Let me dispensed with the TV. 

I did not have a TV in UK except Hospital TV. They very expensive. I bought t a second hand shop soiled Sony TV for a huge sum. Cannot remember how much I paid. 

There were no TVs in Ceylon, then.

Fast forward, apart from Cathode Ray Tubes (3 of which caught fire due to poor voltage in Ceylon)  to digital TVs to a cheap Chinese portable TVs, how these TVs work is of simple logic.

It is input and output scenario.

I was a user never bothered to see how they work mathematically. 

 

Assembling my first PC to NUC was easy progress.

Mother Board

CPU

Graphic Card

SRAM

DRAM 3 to DDR 4.

I won't go for DDR 5. It is waste of money for a new gadget.

Never bothered to work out how a CPUs and Graphic Cardd  work except, I knew CPU can work on binary (machine language) arithmetic (in future quantum logic) and simple program logic in combination with the RAM to booster it performamce. 

Ultimately all RAM or Random Access memory.

ROM is Read Only Memory from Floppy Disks, CDs, HDD and SATA.

CPU generates heat and thermal paste and heat sink are mandatory.

GPU was an enigma.

Guys who presented YouTube presentation, on CPU and GPU are not good teachers.

They could not simply explain either in binary logic or simple mathematics.

GPU works on computational magic and that is why ordinary Video Game cannot be like a Live TV Signal. 

Representing pixels in 3 dimensions is never accurate. 

To this one has to add movement and rendering.

What happens is there are large number of computations from GPU causing lot of heat in the system, environmentally not a healthy at all.

 

The information flow from GPU, to CPU to RAM has to be either parallel or serial and above all, synchronized to nano seconds.

If not a catastrophe.

Murphy's Law

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong when on this rapid advancement of technology after Coronavirus Pandemic recovery period.

There was shortage during the pandemic and glut after recovery.

The manufacturing guys had a dual problem of making good the loses and adjusting to the new market needs.

Moore's Law

There is rapid increase of new technology every two years but this law seems to have slowed down still more.

I did the right change for NUC discarding the old PC before the Coronavirus and bought bare bone NUC to which I could stuck old SATA disc. 

I had three of them.

Now new Mini PCs are coming with NVMe and .nvme and the lot which are expensive.

I am not a gamer and adding GPUs especially external NVidia has become a bottle neck and proprietary flame wars with Intel and AMD.

Not worth the expense.

DO NOT throw away your old computer.

DO NOT get involved with Graphic Card War.

Having said that there is a Mini PC with Camera on top which a classic innovation.

I have a separate piece here on that.

I see guys adding various old an new components and making a hash of it.

Fortunately voltages are very low and not electrocution of guys trying them. 

Then there is what is called static electrical that builds when assembling them.

I do not think there are books on how to assemble things.

NPU

NPU is a buss word.

It has no value on a PC.

The Chips are getting smaller and smaller especially in mobile or cellphone units. 

Their RAM is limited any cellphone less than 8GB RAM is not AI compatible. 

The graph cards are integrated and their load balance is limited.

In comes the NPU, where mathematical calculation in voltages are transferred to a separate portion to speed up activity and minimize the excess heating CPU and GPU. 

Thermal throttling come into play when video games are played whete every component of the mother board become active. It seems even the RAM chips need thermal protection. 

In the early days fans were enough to cool the GPU.

More power more heat is a simple physics principle.

Additionally battery capacity is the limiting factor unlike in a PC working on the wall current.

Bottom line is smaller the unit more NPU necessary to load balance.

The concept is borrowed from how neuron networks work in our brain.

Unlike a cellphone our brain has lot of redundant newworks and they work even when one is asleep.

Our brain does not work on batteries but on sugars and ATP.

Biological energy is very efficient and we cannot duplicate them let alone neuronal activity with an advanced computer.

It is far better to play a game in the open with some friends.

At least one can make friends but Video Games make unknown enemies in the Web.

Just like our YouTube guys fighting and presenting inaccurate political stuff to lite gullible audience.

I am bored and I want the election to be over with so that I can get on with my normal life.

I am currently working on three books.

Election is a huge distraction.

Now to facts. We are three dimensional beings with limited visual capacity. 

We can never see everything in the energy spectrum and nothing beyond limits of light travel. 

Infinity is not within our grasp.

We can use certain energy frequencies in the spectrum to even develop an atomic bomb.

But we do not know how to control our mind.

We are unable to harness dark energy and dark matter.

We can never visualize what in in the fourth or fifth dimensions.

What I am saying is, we have limited capacity and the moment we go beyond that capacity we destroy ourselves.

That is why I am against Artificial Intelligence.

Wars can destroy the entire planet in matter of 3 hours of insanity and it's living system which evolved over billions of years .

We are in that Insanity Zone.

 

That is why I am against video games.

Guys brought up on video games can push the button of a nuclear bomb in a frenzy or panic mode.

Thank YOU Microsoft

Even though, I do not use Window at all, the catalyst for my migration to Linux was none other than Microsoft Monopoly.

1. I was new to Linux.

2. I made a leaflet for presentation for university non academic staff.

3. I found a bright guy who was in the minor staff.

4. I trained him for hardware stuff. 

 

The guy who occupied the official technical slot was an idiot.

5. Numbers allowed for my presentation was deliberately limited.

6. A formal certificate was awarded.

7. This was long time ago.

8. One of the non technical (clerical and she was assigned to me) girl was allowed to attend on the request made by the chief technician. I could not refuse.

9. She went to Canada within a month. 

She did not tell me that she was leaving. 

My grouse was she took the place which somebody else deserved.

She only typed a single letter (by this time I was doing my stuff myself, including my Thesis) for me in nearly five months.

10. I called her and said, she cannot put me as a referee for her work in Canada. 

I would give bad reference, in fact the real reference. 

 

After this incident nobody asked any reference from me.

 

Outside the University, I identified three and guided them in Linux.

Two (asked them not to come back) went abroad on their own accord and the third guy Indika, now holds an executive post in MobiTel.

That is a long preamble.

Coming to Microsoft, at about the same time, I met a young (tiny) guy in Kandy who was running a computer outlet in his home coveted to sales outlet. 

He used to go to Singapore and bring stuff which I used to buy at exorbitant price. 

None of them (Window based) are in working order now. 

I vandalized them for hardware parts.

1. He organized an exhibition in Kandy for schools so that he can dish out all shoddy Microsoft stuff.

2. He gave me an invitation.

3. He did not know, I was an Amateur Linux Guy. 

I asked him to reserve a stall for me with 3 computers. 

He said OK.

4. I went there on the opening day with a friend of mine. 

Invited a few others none came. 

There not coming save me huge embarrassment. 

We could not get in until all the students were allowed. 

Thinking that I have stall inside, I did not bother.

5. We went in and there was no stall for me and the guy was hiding, unable face me.

6. This was hosted in Queen's Hotel ballroom. 

This is were we had the last Medical Dance.

So I went with my friend for a beer (I never take the stuff in the morning only after working hours well past 4.30PM).

7. Then we saw a few, may be six, school children ordering beer. 

We chased them away. 

They were bribed by this guy. 

We got to know Rs.500,000/= was dished out by Microsoft to hold the exhibition.

8. Immediately, I posted a Web  Piece exposing this sordid affair.

9. I became a full time Linux Guy on that day.

10. The booklet revised became my first book on Linux on Amazon Books. 

It is available for purchase but there are more than five more books on Linux by me, there.

My next book "Linux Essentials" is ready for publication.

This piece is a pre-publication advertisement. 

 

I think I would insinuate this piece in that book.

 

My First Computer to Intel's NUC

My basic  NUC with WiFi and Bluetooth is cute.

My first computer was huge, heavy and was beast (a behemoth).

I cannot lift it BUT it's RAM is only 4MB.

 

It boots up with only a Floppy Drive and I cannot believe all my research work was done on it.

This may be the first research work done on a computer (earlier it was done on paper and a typewriter) in my Faculty in the University did not have a computer.

I did the some pioneering work on the network of computers  (only 5 computers) having RAM of 16MB, computers discarded from America).

By the way network does not need lot of memory and the server did provide the workload. 

For my research work I used Windows 95 and Office.

 

The office with bad macros could not get my paper output for publication of the research thesis and the full print out (I bought a dot mat printer and later Cannon Large printer and still later a digital scanner from my pocket saving from UK). University had none.

They all are in working order except the dot max printer (which I threw, to the junk yard) and filling my bedroom. 

This piece is about my entry into Linux distributions. 

Since my paper out put was bad I used Sun Solaris OpenOffice 1 for my research work. It removed all the Microsoft Macros and I got the paper layout of my research thesis in A4 papers amounting to about 180 pages.

Then I did some research and found Debian, Suse, Mandriva, XandrOS and Redhat Boot CDs and booted them on a 10 GB hard disk.

 

That is my Linux beginning without a GURU but with lot of books. 

I still have those Boot CDS but the computer is dead.

 

Multiple distributions in one PC with only 4MB Video RAM and 128RAM.

I never looked back on Microsoft  again after my research work was accepted by the University.

Original hard disk was only 2GB.

I revived the computer and stuck a 80 GB hard disk and would try to install Debian on it today (only one CD) and others need at least 3 CDs for installation.

Windows had about 40 odd floppies.

 

Migration from HDD (Parallel) to  serial SATA was a long journey and I love the NUC with 8GB RAM and 320 SATA inside and another 320GB on an external case.

In my NUC, I have Mint (Ubuntu replacement), Debian, Emmabantus and Ubuntu installed and they are running smoothly on 18 Watts out put and without noise.

Currently it has 4 instances of Debian ONLY. 

Endless OS is on my OLD ACER Laptop.

What a turn around in my life with Linux.

 

Beauty of Linux is Linux run on any old hardware and new hardware, too.

I tend to do this just before Christmas BUT I did it by 3rd of October, 2023.

 

I have three month holiday from Linux.

Violence and War

Violence and War
It appears to me none of the religions except Buddhism abhor the violence that include self inflicted violence. 

What I mean is the suicide bombing in the name of religion or terrorist cause. Destruction of life whether it is self or otherwise and all beings is alien to Buddhism.
 

This is where Buddhism stand alone in high ground.
 

This is where we have to define the role of a suicide bomber in the modern society. There is no justification for the existence of similar entity and for that matter intolerance or discrimination of any human being for his or her origin, class, creed, religion, race, sex and whether rich or poor.
 

We are at a cross roads.
 

There is alarming trend of religious fanaticism and atheistic views raising their heads.
This is where the Buddhist Moral Principles should stand erect and relevant. 

They are strikingly different from all modes of other religions where it is espoused that killing oneself for the sake of a religion or sect (there was a similar sect-Ishihara- in Japan) is as the supreme sacrifice and results in being born in heaven.
This is a myth we must dispel with utmost vigour.
This is happening in Ceylon too but for a different reason and goal. Labile children with childhood trauma are selected and indoctrinated to take life for a course which they themselves cannot enjoy in return. The fallacy of this inhuman misdemeanour has to be born clear of all religions. The religious leaders and dignitaries have failed in their duty and the present political systems, whether authoritarian, capitalistic, communist, religious or liberal systems have failed to deliver any form of organisation except further division. 

 

Devoid of human values (we may call it moral principles) the perceived Global Village is collapsing.

Divine Abode

The four sublime states of mind described in Buddhist psychology the loving kindness (Metta), compassion (Karuna), altruistic joy (Mudita) and equanimity (Upekka) are the very essence of humanity that is lacking in the modern world.
Why these Pali words do not have a place in Oxford or Webster's dictionaries is an indication how the world politics are shaped up in the current century.
There is no English synonym for Avihimsa (world sans violence) and that is how the Western Democracy has evolved. From Romans to modern day Mandela the way of dealing with crisis was absolute violence without recuperation. Only now there is some form of dialogue emerging but with Western Bias. Instead, hate, vengeance and violence are the operating themes of the world be that it may be terrorism or state sponsored violence sanctioned by the UNO.

The Suttas description of development of these supreme states is as follows.
"There, O monks, with mind full of loving kindness (compassion, altruistic joy or equanimity) pervading in one direction, then a second direction, then a third one, then the fourth one, just so above, below and all around and everywhere identifying himself with all, he is pervading the whole world with mind full of loving-kindness with mind wide, developed, unbounded, free from hate and ill-will."
Thereafter he follows the same theme with compassion, altruistic joy and equanimity.
It is said that in this country there were hospitals caring for animals. The decadence that has set in our society and world at large has to be reversed. We must not let the politics, economics and business mechanisms to decide our future however powerful they are.
They are not the only stakeholders.
Silent masses without a voice is quite evident after the tsunami episode. We must be self critical of our failures. We must be mindful and expose the changes that is currently taking place globally due to unsustainable scientific and economic exploitation of the third world.

Do Not Use Ubuntu 24.10

Do Not Use Ubuntu 24.10 it is Useless

I just updated my old Laptop and downloaded BSD 13.4 and on second thought decided to download Ubuntu from its dedicated site.

BSD is for my old laptop. It has Endless OS which is Debian Gnome.

If Endless OS misfires (very unlikely) I am going to Install BSD in my Old ACER Laptop.

It is 5.7GB and cannot fire up Firefox. 

It is not due to RAM. I have upgraded to 8GB RAM but I was using 4GB at home without a problem.

Gnome boots up fast and I cannot wait for KDE Plasma to boot. 

That is why I do not use KDE.

Gnome gives a running commentary (it is pretty fast to read the commentary) while booting and that is why I love it.

If three a problem, I know it first hand.

It is usually hard disk filling up with junk.

I usually have a method to clean it up.

On a live mode on a USB, it did configure WiFI but it could not connect to the Internet.

Gparted did not mount.

Foirefox did not fire.

It had 32 odd applications and it could not go to the second page of items.

Ubuntu has gone commercial and that is its death knell.

It boasts itself as 20 years in service (Linux is 34 years old but if it cannot fire Firefox who would use it.

I have given up even testing Ubuntu for the last 9 months.

Orchids and My Friend

I hope I will keep my interest on Orchids to old age.

One of my young (he was older) friends who could not go above grade 10 in Education could keep an orchid my father gave him for over 60 years.

My father taught him how to care for it.

It is called the Wesak Orchid.

He is almost blind and when I visited him with a little gift, I collected few of the saplings (is it the correct word) or buds for our rooftop garden.

They are growing nicely.

My friend was an expert on making kites.

I leaned how to make a kite and balance it (it is a science) aerodynamically.

He did not understand the physics (which I could) of it and I graduated to become a scientific thinker (prefer to become a scientific philosopher) but he remained a faithful environmentalist.

I think we need lot of his kind of dedication  and less of my kind probing.

Brain Train and NOT Trained Brain

Brain Train and NOT Trained Brain

There are only Ten (10) Steps, when a Human enters the Heaven as a Heavenly Being.

1. Bowel Wash

First the attendant Gods  clean the bowel with a bowel wash.

2. Hand Wash and Body Wash

        A through hand wash and body wash as one enters the Surgical Theater.

3. Bowel Content Incineration

All Food items left in the bowel are washed out during this stage are incinerated.

4. Head Wash

Most of these items are done by the funeral directors, aren't they?

Yes the Gods, still prefer a follow up clean.

5. Brain Wash

This stage is washing the brain of rubbish that are put on you by the psychologists.

Under hypnosis a psychologist on earth will tell you that one swallows 3 to 10 spiders a night on an average. 

This type of false propaganda has to be washed out completely.

6. Brain Drain

this is the technique to get all redundant information like

Positive thinking

Creative Brain

Logical Brain

Lateral Brain

One uses only 10% of the Brain and the lot.

Then Gods drain all the psychological theories put on our brains by management trainers on earth.       They are all rubbish and has no validity on heaven.   

This is the most difficult part of the clean up process.

Then I told attendant God that we spend enormous amount of money for these training programs.

That is not my problem.

But if you can avoid these American Programs,  it is so much the better, if you consider entering heaven.

You mean to say lot of Americans will never sight the heaven.

TRUE my dear.

What about their MBAs and Emotional Intelligent Training, they teach in Harvard.

They are useless in heaven.

7. Brain Train

Then the Gods train us to think.

After the above seven, first step in Moment Meditation is administered by default.

I was very good at present moment meditation training and since I was very short of memory, especially of the past. But I am very bad at Metta Meditation since, I do not have any enemies in heaven. 

I need at least noisy mosquitoes.

In my past lives, I have had only a few friends and that was a long time ago.

That is why I am very bad at Metta Meditation.

That is why I asked you to tell me how to practice Metta to enemies.

8. Moment Meditation

I do it myself.

9. Metta Meditation

I (means the attend an God) actually delegate this part to earthlings who come here. But when I saw the nice aura around your vertex, I was naturally inquisitive.

10. Brain Train Control Room

This is only for earthly beings.

Then when we get those Trained Brained Guys (T.B.G) from earth come here and  asked me for a big favors in heaven, I put them in a Train and put one of the earthly guys to the control room and I take a break.

These clever guys on earth must get to very good places in heaven, won't they?

NO.

What?

They drive themselves to HELL.

HELL!

Yes.

Don't you realize that one needs very little brain to enter heaven.

You only need a big brain to hoodwink another big brain.

That is necessary only on earth.

Not in heaven.

Don't be too brainy when you enter heaven and he disappeared.

Diffrence Between Dream and a PLOT

Ignore the Typos, this piece is in evolution and not fully edited.

 

I am running short of ideas and also dreams.

I am writing a book on "Dreams and Biorhythms".

I myself is the subject for some episodes.

This is the reason for, not having good dream plots to write.

 

I will relate a recent one, along the line that dreams do not have any significance and therefore Maha Brahma with his own wisdom should be the one to judge the merits of the dreams. 

 

The assumption is Gods never have dreams and they live in reality.

 

When I pose the dream to Maha Brahma for interpretation, he gets supper charged.

 

I wanted to Title of this piece as Donald and Robert Williams, since I believe my friend and the classmate is alive and well. 

I decided against it. 

 

To get to the PLOT (not yet finished) Part of the piece one has to read to the end. 

 

It might take a little time because it is fictional but not realistic.

 

I want to get out of the political obsession of late due to Elections in Ceylon. 

It is becoming boring already.

If my friend Donald, if you read this make a comment (Pseudo Donalds are not entertained, in the comment section) below  either from Australia of from USA.

 

 A decade ago, I went in search of YOU, randomly and failed.

The Dream

Strange!

This dream was related to only my Christian friends.

 

The location is not properly determined but I assume it is Ceylon.

 

1. It is a related to Sweets and Robert the elder brother of my friend was the chief character.

He was casually seated on a bench in front of a sweet house.

 

2. The second character was one of my  junior colleagues in the University. 

He likes to avoid me soon after, he was awarded the post of professor, in his field of expertise.

Simply, because I come out with crack from nowhere, basically satire related to Ceylonese politics. 

He is smart and not timid but has a sense of shyness that probably comes from his childhood upbringing (I may be wrong and I do not make snap opinions on any living character).

 

This guy was also going towards for his daily evening bread.

 

3. From nowhere, I come to the seen.

I have already bought something of insignificance and the Sweet vendor has given me a Big Cake as a compliment and I had handed it over to  Robert for safe keeping.

 

Having seen my University friend, I went into Free Mode (with my friends brother, I was cordial and with lot of reservation, since he was about 6 years older) or the Machan Mode.

 

Once he purchased his needs, I thought of buying something for his daughter whom I have never seen.

 

We went to the portion where sweets were dished out.

 

I bought large amount of sweets and realized that I did not have enough cash in my front pocket and in my purse had lot of cards but no money.

 

The embarrassing scene, for me to borrow money has arisen.

 

As a habit I never borrow money (not being able to pay back in my retirement was evident).

 

I woke up immediately.

Interpretation by Maha Brahma

 

Of course through, email exchange.

Maha was very happy.

For nearly two years in Australia, I haven't had a good dream to report to him.

 

He said, it is good and bad.

1. Your friend's brother has passed away.

Sorry.

 

How old was he?

80 plus.

 

That is not right he could have gone to 90.

That is how it goes and I have no control.

 

What is that big cake?

You have attended his Dhana Ceremony.

It is the Big Priest who got the Big Cake and not Robert. 

 

There was no alcohol?

No problem Church has ample supply.

 

How?

They have stockpiled alcohol, knowing very well NPP is coming to power.

 

I did not stockpiled alcohol in advance. 

I have given up drinks for good.

I know.

 

What about the  sweets I could not enjoy with my University friend.

No problem, YOU will get enough of them in Australia.

But, on my behalf, ask your friend to come to Australia. The food prices including sweets will sky rocket by April.

OK.

 

By he way, look after your blood sugar .

I will.

 

I have a one last question?

What happened to my friend Donald?

I won't tell you. 

You have to find him yourself, if YOU a true friend of him.

 

He is a Jaffna Guy and he is not in Ceylon.

I know. 

He is alive and it your job to find him before YOU kick the bucket.

He disappeared in a flash.. 

 

Lesson here is, see your friends in person.

Emails have become redundant.

 

Plot in Evolution

One has to wait for its evolution.

 

 

 

King Cobra-Naja Naja

 

King Cobra-Naja Naja

Posted on April 30, 2011 | Comments Off on King Cobra-Naja Naja

This is not something to alarm you but to point out how man has neglected the use of cobra venom for therapeutic use.

In addition there is a paucity of knowledge how venom evolved in animals and how some animals are resistant the smaller doses of venom.
I teach that it is the venom that is produced in our body after the bite that kills us not the cobra venom (to illustrate the fact that cytotoxins have multitude of actions).
For example bradykinin that causes pain is the product of our own tissues.

Snake venom is a modified saliva and we really do not know whether these are produced in evolution for digestion of the prey or to immobilize or anesthetize (humane to the dying prey). None of the points I have raised have been addressed conclusively and potential for the use of the modified venom molecule for treatment of leukaemia or cancer cells or as antithrombotic activity have not been discussed in scientific journal adequately..
Why?
The answer is simple.
Once they discovered that antivenom as a cure, everybody forgot about the biological role and what system they act and why, when where and how they modify the homoeostatic mechanisms.
Moment the commercial activity of preparation of antivenom starts the scientific investigation of biological nature takes a back stage.
That is very unfortunate.
There lot we can learn from these cytotoxins.

Coming back to cobra (baby cobra-are as poisonous as the adult), I killed a young cobra with a ruler when I was as young as the tiny cobra who was under my bed.

When that little fellow made his hood and kissed the death I fell heroic and also very sad.
Then in another incident when I jumped over huge cobra in a big compound and looked around to see he was as frighted as I was and showed his hood with a warning and quietly slipped away to his safety, I wondered why fear an animal who is on his routine search of his food or prey.

I still say the jumped I made that day worth an Olympic record if somebody made an accurate measure on that day. Unfortunately I missed an Olympic record since officials were not there to record it. That would have changed my life completely but the day that completely changed my mind was another ordinary day.
I was walking along a stream with the intention of catching guppies and I had a stone in my hand (we used to play marbles those days unlike today’s kids) and I saw a water snake (harmless creature) quickly swimming across in fear.

I took an aim in a moment of irresponsible stroke of mind of ill will and thought, threw the stone at the poor creature and it landed right on his neck.

It was like a bulls eye shot but the agony of the creature who succumbed in a long drawn out 5 minutes of death dance made an impact in my mind never to hurt (reflecting my killing in fear of the young cobra) an animal in either fear or sport.

Then on one night (2 am in the morning) in darkness a Ceylon krait landed on my right shoulder and I brushed it with my left hand gently and put the light in a flash to see creature landing on cement flow with a thud and my dog charging at it, I was man thinking of three lives my dog, myself and the poor creature who ventured at night.
Mind you Ceylon krait is the deadliest of Sri-Lankan venomous snakes.

I watched the creature and it quickly disappeared into crevice wide open due to rotten timber of the bathroom door.

I did not have any cement to seal and went to the kitchen an took some American flour (who says American flour has no place in this country) and sealed the hole with the dough hastily made since the price of flour was very cheap (cheaper than the cement) then.

Suffice is to say I flushed the hole with water before I did that and slept on the settee fearing few more in my bedroom.

After three days it emerged (none elsewhere) from the kitchen floor cracked and we caught it and released it to safety.

Of course I had to cement both holes in the bathroom end and the kitchen end.

The key point here is that animals fear us more than we fear them in this modern world where are we are encroaching on their habitat with blatant disregard to biodiversity.

Brain Myths, the Malady of Democracy

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Brain Myths, the Malady of Democracy

 

There are a lot of myths spread by Psychologists.

This is an attempt to bring some sense and reality into day to day life.

I may dispute many a myths but my attempts are also not infallible in each and every situation, one may encounter.

Making right or correct decision at a given moment is a knack which many of us lack.

If we delay acting on a given (it may be right or it may be wrong) problem even for a fraction of a second, the most destructive procrastination sets in.

Then any given solution is the base for next round of further procrastination.

But if we keep an open mind and believe in what we intend to do, given a difficult problem or a preposition, solution for the problem may come naturally.

This is not easy, though.

Lot of training actually hinder this ability.

That is what we call common sense.

Lot of experience also may be a hindrance.

Basically we have several approaches to a given problem.

Just think of a Game (Video Game)

One’s approach may be (not comprehensive here)

1. Offensive

2. Defensive

3. Neutral

4. Random or Calculated Response 

5. Cool (not procrastination)

The best approach is the last which has all the above components assessed in a fraction of a second. 

Only a few has that cool talent.

They are ones who become successful.

The COOL people are actually very observant.

But many of us use the useless procrastination approach (usual approach of the politician).

What it does is to kill the attempt at solving a given problem from the very beginning.

Unfortunately many of us use this method since we do not believe that some problems can be addressed, if we care to divert from the common approach.

This is what Professor De Bono calls Lateral Thinking.

It is not vertical or analytical or direct thinking.

Side track a bit,

Focus on the problem,

Leave behind the past experiences for a moment,

Give attention to the present moment of time

Then in a FLASH,

A new found solution springs up.

Then if we have few others with equal interest and talent get involved in the same problem, we get endless stream of solutions which we have never thought of because of the redundant past experiences.

We call it brain storming and it really works.

If one does not use common sense what I say here is superfluous.

We use our past experience to solve a given problem.

Sometime past experience is useful.

Sometimes past experience is a hindrance.

Past experience sometimes is the most destructive hindrance to creative and pragmatic solutions.

Good example can be taken from politicians.

When somebody is opposition for a long period of time and then come to power, he / she makes many mistakes due to past misfortunes.

They have lost the ability for creative thinking.

Unfortunately this happens when one is power too, and they do not realize what a wonderful thing to be in opposition.

The people in the opposition see the problem realistically but they do not have the muscle to power the solution through.

It is the malady of the democracy.

Did you ever thought of, who would come to your funeral (Party)?

 Posted on November 14, 2011

Did you ever thought of ,who would come to your funeral (Party)?

I have never given thought to this question but a reason observation have made me to sharpen my observation.

I will come to that later.

But rest assured all the following will be there at your funeral.

1. Almost all your enemies without any exception since they are happy to see you are out of sight. 

They of course like to see your loved one in distress.

This is similar to the God Father Story and one of its funerals and how the rivalry is taken up by the next of kins.

2. All your creditors (you have not settled your debts) will be there to see who are the next of kins to get back the money.

In this context your banker including the Central Bank representative will be there for sure.

3.  A monk, a priest, a rabbi, mullah even if you a  robber baron.

This is the only sure thing in this world.

4. All your neighbors come even though you have been there in the locality only during the last few months of your worldly stay. 

This is to make sure that any one of their kith and kin bid farewell at least the quorum (in numbers) is satisfied in the next funeral.

5. Your local politician will come but because now there are no local representation the number has diminished.

In any case, you are dead now there is no more of your vote left.

Why the hell one should attend?

The 6 and 10 of the list are your supposed to be friends (but many of them will find an excuse not to come).

Real Story

Now to the story which I should bare free now that the 3 months Dhana Ceremony was over.

This was the funeral of a don who had passed away.

He was one of my teachers.

I had close association with him when alive.

There was no official representative from the university, even though like a fool he left his village and come to live near the academic environment.
This was a pity.

What was shocking was none of his children came who were supposed to be professional.

It is no point having  doctorate or PhD, if simple ethics are forgotten for good.

The bottom line is if there are many in one’s funeral most of them are one’s worthwhile enemies and please don’t look down from heaven and count the numbers.

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

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Sunday, February 20, 2011

 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 when 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 the computer 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 displayed 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. The system never ran more than few seconds after this power outage, not even for me to read the boot menu. 

Only, after three days, 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 that Linux is a work horse it looks after minor injuries to the 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 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 any job blindly, it assesses the processes and resources even to mini 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 multi-user 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. It is always runs on root and never lets one to use a user account.

I do not use Ubuntu at all except testing its new versions. 

 

I won't waste my time testing its 12.10 version.12.10 in fact is hopeless.

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.

One has to allocate a SWAP partition when installing. I have at least two.

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 a 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. 

I used PCLinux in my early days including Big Daddy.

I currently use Transmission of (Gnome) Debian.

If you want a work horse to do your jobs. 

It is always Linux.