My Selection of Linux utilities that Should make a Standard Distribution-K-Torrents-01

My Selection of Linux utilities

The list can be an endless stream of creative packages that makes Linux as versatile as it is today. There are over 33,000 of them in one repository constantly updated and maintained at cutting edge mentality but my selection is based on their utility value rather than face lift value that Microsoft always add to its Office Package and other ubiquitous utilities (which can be found in any Linux repository free) . 

I believe this can be easily accomplished with a paint brush but not with any worthwhile code. Any face lift that does not add to the functionality or productivity is a waste of computer resources only fools will try to keep in their armory of battle fatigued foot soldiers.

The are not commandos with swift command line direct action but fringe dresses to cover the ugly functionality.

So let me introduce the first of many such Linux Utilities.
K-Torrent comes to my mind for its versatile and nanosecond functionality.
This is something one should have in the third world (but would be a workhorse in the developed world) since our Telecoms are one of the worst (other two are water and electricity) Service Sectors for which we pay through the nose and get 10% of what they have promised. Right now I am paying for 56 bits for second and i get only 5.7 throughput. There are no regulatory bodies monitoring this or provide remedy for the users.
If I make a complaint, the context become even worse and there is vilification and victimization.
This is true for election malpractices too, if one reports an abuse of power or subdue of power of authority, there is no mechanism to address or redress. that is wished for.
There a re no good Umpires or Television reviews even though we a cricket frantic nation.

With that type of service available for one to download an unbroken data image and check integrity as it is downloaded and after the completion of the download we need a utility which react to sudden breakdown which include electricity supply.
We are heading for the Month of April which is the month of thunder and downpour and lot of computers burn down including processors and lot of little breakdowns in between and if we do not have UPS to support, I would have lost all my computers,
Even the laptop I provide power through another battery (UPS) and the standalone battery won't last its lifetime if that protection is not taken. Power surges and voltage drops are universal and no instrument is safe.
Worse scenario is that I have to get up and switch on and switch off the systems in the thick of my sleep when alarm bells go up.

With point to point download every time it breaks down I have to start again.
I was trying to download Taylor Swift which is a Mepis derivative for the last 3 months (unfortunately no Torrents) and it had broken down almost 40 times, sometime in the last few megabytes. I am trying it now to see how long it will last to report you like the ball by ball cricket commentary.

All these hassles are not there if one uses K-Torrents and that s why I use it.
If I list the its virtues for quick look at for a busy body, it goes like this.

1. It monitors the speed to nanoseconds.
2. Graphic face lets you instantly detect when it is broken down.
3. Integrate with the download folders instantly.
4. There is no repetition and once downloaded one cannot download it again.
5. It goes to check mode to see whether the existing image is not broken and report to you in graphic mode.
6. In the last few seconds of a download it had some problem and I ignored it's report (Image size was OK) and burned an image and it did not boot properly. I wonted to restart a fresh download and within seconds it cheeked everything and downloaded the tiny fragment missing and when I burned the image again everything was in working order.
7. If a file is moved it lets you reconfigure with the torrent so that seed activity is kept alive.

True to its form and as a literal illustration of the points raised, suddenly without thunder electricity supply was disconnected (I will write what i did during that period late at night with clouds covering the moon at leisure) and it came after an hour or so (guess work) and quite fortuitously , when it came sever providing connection to the wider world (Internet) was not switched on till late this morning.

In this country we pay a salary for those doing night work for sleeping and there is no supervision at night what they really do including some doctors too.

So my train of thoughts were rudely interrupted to add the last 3 points regarding K-Torrents which I have to do sometimes later, once my anger dissipates.

Mind you I was up till 4 am tidying up some (recovering some photos) computer configurations of my laptop including deleting Sinhala Linux etc.

As I expected Taylor Swift and MacPup were rudely disconnected without completing the downloads (point to point) and I did not have any K-Torrent downloads too.

Edited
Now I must add the missing points.

8. K-Torrent lets you control the download and upload speed and if like in house other members are using the same network it reserves bandwidth for other members. This is really handy in a community network, say in a school. I use this when I download point to point download through Firefox of small files or browsing the web and email.
9. It estimates and time the download and you know depending on the seeders (country and from where) how long it takes.
10. It lets you download several files at the same time and adjust according to the speeds of others. When some seeders become inactive it go for the active seeders of the other files. It is better to download at least two files and the best throughput is achieved but I generally use three.

You may wonder why I used K-torrent as the number one. Worldwide it is the most used utility apart from Flash and it is generally used for downloading films and TV programs, sometimes violating the copyright law. I have never downloaded a song or a film since I do not like to steal and not because I fully endorse the copyright law.

Sorry for the broken file and every minor irritation I take as a challenge and try to overcome my frustrations.
Next one would be on gParted.

What to Look for in a Standard Linux Distribution

I have talked about practically all the possible combinations of Live and Standard Linux it is time for me to wind up with a guide for selection of a distribution without giving a particular distribution.

I will not go into hardware compatibility even though it is a major issue since what innovation are round the corner is difficult to predict after this ipod and mobile utility craze is over and done with it.

But before that I must tell you my favorites without any order of merits.

I go for several light weight distributions and for one Gorilla Edition.

The Gorilla Edition is PCLinuxFullMonty which is almost comprehensive and lacks only XBMC but that also can be downloaded.

For Sinhala Linux Lovers (SLL) it is Debian 6.0.0

They are as follows

1. Puppy Linux and its various editions. you can simply carry in your front pocket (carry when I go abroad-an use it as an Acid Test of the computer, laptop or netbook I may buy-not that I want any more with all the assortments i have at home an office.

If I cannot boot it it with Puppy, I won't consider buying the stuff, whatever the vendors gimmick may be.

2. Knoppix the 10th anniversary edition to show off its graphic capabilities including compiz and cheese the web camera. Now it has found a permanent place in my computers in spite of its finicky requirements for hardware configuration.

3. Gparted (Debian's), the best companion to partition my computers when I reformat. Mind you it is light weight and does not say no to any complicated partition composition within the framework of the standard laid down principles.

4. KDE base nothing to choose between Mepis and PCLinux but I prefer PCLinux since I got a good hang of its versatile performance which SuSe lacks.

5. SuSe for my long association with it after Fedora in spite of craving for RAM (the new with Venation blind appearance but in vertical orientation of strips)I. It has the the best configuration utility called YAST (I call it Yet Another System configuration and teaching Tool) but the partitioning is limited to 15 which is a handicap when I want several distributions installed in the same computer.

6. Debian for its versatility and the ability to recognize all the hard disks of various make (SATA, SCSI, IDE) and the ability to write the partition table without getting confused when a fellow like me install assortment of operating systems in my own finicky ways.

It has taken a special place now with Sinhala capability of its installation.

7. Fedora for its ability to take on board changes which commercial operating systems resit and for my yesteryear long association with it and the Hanthana Sinhala Linux which is a derivative of it.

It was the first Linux distribution that I have used which could accommodate Sinhala fonts way back when other Linux distributions were learning the tricks of the trade.

8. GoBO Linux for its innovative approach but no new version for a long time.

9. YOPER for trimming, shedding dropping extra fringes to get it running fast but it has a big problem with its GRUB file.

10. Pure KDE without a brand name since it is the one made Linux desktop eye candy and a market force of its own and still introducing new innovation but one need at least 1 GiB of RAM and still more RAM for it's better performance.

11. LXDE is my favorite even though I am hooked to KDE and its plane and bird like logo.

12. Cloud Linux

13. MeeGo

14. Pendrive Linux

15. PureOS, Saline OS, Peppermint, LinuxMint, Console Linux, Morphix, MYAH, ADIOS and the lot I forgot because of my bad memory.

16. Scientific Linux of course is my ultimate goal and that is where I belong to as a professional and where my personal biases are rooted, which I am trying to wean off and become an ordinary man again with taste and flair.

If I have left any other distribution, it is all because of my finicky behaviour and lack of space.

It is a fact that any one of them do the day to day work for me.

Please excuse for my bias since I am an ordinary human being with lot of personal deficiencies and lapses in my memory with geriatric age approaching fast.

Young ones are the live blood of Linux, you need to keep on innovating and also have a pause and listen to ordinary uses too.

Next few editions will be based on the packages one should have in a distribution that may vary from person to person.

I will start with K-Torrent and gParted.

I am afraid I may have to group them since there are over 60,000 of them, if one takes Debian as a base.
With that exercise I may finish my engagement with the wider world and go back to my normal life of gardening, fish keeping and looking after my dog.

MeeGo-Linux On the Go-Linux Extras-12

Sinhala Linux has made me to format my Laptop and try other distributions including Sabayon, Ubuntu's XMBC (Deabian) and today after the cricket match MeeGo which is for a notebook and can be installed from a Pendrive.
 

I tried to install install XMBC on PCLinux and for 560 odd files on point to point installation was nearly 20 hours and gave up to install MeeGo.

I used the DVD image live and installed it on my laptop and it is cute and pretty good.
I really like the web cam and its effects.

The whole arrangement is with the young at heart and it took some time to get round it.
At the end of the day I feel young at heart if not physically.
I again has to ask why one has to pay enormous amount of money to get these from Microsoft guys. Makes me to run to the jungle (bush) with a solar panel on my head and a battery on my shoulder.

Installing Linux in Sinhala-Debian-6.0.0-Update

I am glad to report to the wider world that I have tested Debian 6.0.0-32 bit and 64 bit versions on my desktops and the laptop and they are running amazingly well.

Now I am getting a hang of Sinhala terminology, installing went on while watching the cricket match and without making any mistakes but "alpili" and "papili" are still in awkward places but can read them without a problem.

They are not of print quality.

Bit better than the Sinhala fonts of the government web site.
So with a sigh of relief I go to bed with our boys getting a good win at cricket,too.

Thanks to guys and girls at Debian for doing a wonderful job.

Thanks to our cricketers for a creditable win.

Make sure you download CD/DVD from LinuTracker and they are also doing a wonderful job.

Both DVD and CD (2 CDs at Linuxtracker) are Sinhala installation capable, now.
Make sure you use K3B and not Nero for image burning.

Pay Money and go through the Extra Mile or Pain in the Neck

There is so much hype about Windows 7 and on my daughter's request I went and bought a Windows 7 Starter Pack but kept on delaying opening the pack to install it since the netbook I bought her already had Windows XP.

She has a working knowledge of Linux with the desktop she had and I bought the netbook stating that if it started giving problems she has to go back to Linux for her work.

Then I wanted to repartition (re-size) the hard disk but the XP installed did not allow me to repartition unless I delete the operating system with it.

Since I have paid for the operating system, I realize it is not a wise thing to do since if she wants there are enough computers at home to try Linux including her desktop.

Then everything went into cold storage and she was down with some illness and Windows 7 was completely forgotten.

Today as part of my full reformatting exercise, I deleted all my partition and booted this Windows 7 Starter Pack to see what it has.

It immediately recognized the 20 GiB ntfs partition, the hard disk had and started giving me instruction that it can be installed in one computer only and the blah blah.

It pulled out the internet wire fearing it is going to note my laptop machine number and the details and it's identity and then allowed it to install.

Mind you this was the computer I bought in Singapore after big fight with the vendor stating that I did not want windows installed in it and I only want the machine and I know what to do with it.
Then I booted Linux while waiting in lounge of the Changi Airport with Linux DVD I downloaded in Singapore (one of my relatives residence in Singapore).

After installing it goes up several times rebooting and this is the time it gives all your details to the Microsoft head quarters to subsequently send warning after warnings to lure you to buy all the extra utilities.

Finally it booted up and this one lets you have a password facility and the system has nothing at all to work with.

I told my daughter how stupid was to buy it and booted up and showed her the latest 10th anniversary Knoppix 6.4 live with compiz and Pingus game in it and amazingly beautiful graphics.

It has enlightenment effects and LibreOffice and over 6000 t0 10,000 packages in it's DVD.

Who is stupid Microsoft or little Me I will let you decide it.

Mind you I installed Knoppix and Sabayon KDE while typing this bloggy blog and tested PCLinuxfullmonty has 64 bits capability also., in between watching the last stages of the Sri-Lanka New Zealand cricket match too.

I must tell you Win 7 took a long time to install and restarted several times.

Sabayon has a media center called XBMC and it is something windows users will never have the luxury of using.

PCLinuxfullmonty has blender and with these three distributions in my laptop I have amazing rich collection of graphic utilities.

I did not have to pay a red cent but had to spend some time downloading the 3 DVDs with K-Torrent.

Only limitation was slow download speed of Sri-Lankan Telecoms.

Good Bye to Microsoft.

The hassle Microsoft Guy / Girl has to go through when one gets a new Laptop / Desktop

The hassle one goes through when one buys a computer with Microsoft installed is something that I never wondered for the past 3 to 5 years or so.

It is mind boggling for a Linux guy.

Once a year I format the root partition and sometimes leaving behind the home partition for a while and install the Old / New version of the Linux distribution in that partition.

This time I had to delay it till March (including Mageia) since most of the distributions including Debian delivered or released the distribution (except PCLinux which was right on the button during December) in late February or March.

The slowest and the laziest was SuSe, though.

My work and cricket world cup were other distractions.

Mind you I install many distributions for various reasons and for testing and not because I lack anything on PCLinuxFullMonty.

Other reason is I need to fill the hard disk so that it is not left idling and rotten.

I will list the hassle a Microsoft guy has to go through.

1. S/He has to backup the data.

2. S/He has to remove the crap the OEM guy install

3. S/He has to download the free software

4.Then has to install the paid software

5. Then anti-virus software

6. Then he has to get Firefox, Opera or safari

Suffice is to say in this time I will install 15 (3x5) distributions in my main computer and two other spare ones I use for testing.

One of the major benefit of Linux is I save lot of time and do other interesting things like watching cricket or water the plants or feed the fish and testing distributions and this time additionally Sinhala Linux distributions.

This list is endless and I will stop at this point and give you a list Linux Free (point number 3 expanded) software that one get FREE

Please go to NiNite web site and get them free if you are a Microsoft user.

If you have chosen the right Linux distribution of your choice you will get all this and more in one go except perhaps Flash.

1. Web Browser Group- Firefox, Chrome, Safari or Opera

2. Messaging Group-Skype, Pidgin, Google Talk, Yahoo, Messenger, Thunderbird

3. Media group-iTunes, audacity, KMplayer, HULU, Songbird and many more

4. Runtimes - Flash, Java

5. Imaging Group- GIMP, Picasa, Inkscape

6. Office Group-LibreOffice, OpenOffice,Adobe PDF Reader, CutePDF, SumatraPDF, Foxit reader

7. File sharing-uTorrent, eMule

8. Security- What a medical problem for sick machine?

9. Cloud computing-Dropbox, Google earth

10. Image Burners-Nero

11.Compression- win 7, winzip

12. Utilities

13. Developer tools-Putty, Python, Filezilla

14. Others I may have missed

You do not have to do any of these if you select a Linux distribution and all are packed in one and installed in one go.

What a waste of time trying to run windows 7.

That is why Windows users do not have any creativity and continue to lack creativity at work place or on the go.

They are Potato (not hot potato) Guys bloated with Image of Crisis.

Well Done Strauss-You can change the Cricket Fortunes now

When I said star (Strauss) was born earlier, I really meant it.

You can become the star of wonder if you lift the World Cup too.

Go for it.
There is nothing to lose.

Now it is only two more games away to the final.

Have a good rest (without alcohol) for the tired legs and fully stretched out minds of the players.

The cliff-hanger games are the ones I love to watch (but not for one with weak hearts).

If you can take one game at a time and the final will come true to itself.
If you could bring ashes home and immediately follow with another Champion Cup it is good for the home of cricket.
This time every team has an equal chances of winning unlike previous games.
The team that does well in all three actions batting, balling and fielding will win the game.
Mind you West indies was not the best prepared team.
The winning should be attributed to their bad management on the day.
But by stroke of luck if they become your opponents in the final, as a true cricket lover I am going to favour the West Indies' win.
If the opponents are going to be Sri-Lanka, I am going to be neutral.
If opponents are Australians, I am going to favour England's win.
If opponents are South Africans, I am going to favour Smith's Team.
If the opponents are New Zealanders I am going to support New Zealand.

I am going to ignore India and Pakistan because they are playing on familiar home conditions (Indian subcontinent), home crowd support and corrupt officials, Sri-Lanka included.

It is going to be interesting contest and cricket will be the winner.

I hope now onwards all the players will lift the spirit of the game unlike Australians (and some captains) who use devious means to win.

Remember the ball under the glove (underarm) tactics against us last time round.

They want to win, it does not matter how (to them).

I hope England (not English and Australian umpires though) form now onwards, set the standards of the game in the field and outside the field.

However, Flower should know not to put tired legs on the filed in a crunch game and you have been playing too much cricket, already.

Rest without alcohol is the need of the day.

If you win bookmakers of the subcontinent and a few politicians have to perform hara-kiri and that is going to be very good for cricket!

On top of a Murunga Tree

I manage to find a two Murunga saplings and wanted to look after them till big enough and relocate them in a suitable place. I could not water them for three days and one wilted and whithered away. The other survived and started blooming prematurely. I resisted taking the flowers for a vegetable curry. I let them pollinate (which is rare with no bees around) and only one flower produced a pod.

Side by side there were two cocoa plants which germinated out of over 100 rotten seeds.
Similar fate descended one of them and I kept on watering it in spite of its stem looked like fire wood.
Murunga sapling disappeared but the stem which looked like tiny black wood after about 3 months started sprouting and few leaves appeared.
My gut feeling was correct. I thought this would happen because it is not a native plant but that comes from mid Africa.
African plants can stand adverse weather for long period of time.
Our slender plants cannot withstand adverse weather. Murunga was an example.

So my prediction is that we will lose lot of our biodiversity much more and faster than Africa loses.
Come coal power plant when operational that will aggravate the context much faster and swiftly.
I heard our energy minister thinking of a nuclear plant here.
I wish he looks at pictures of Hiroshima first and the current pictures coming from Japan.

Real reason for writing this is not for that reason.
I cannot go to sleep without a swipe at the local elections.
We have a saying in Sinhala put a man on a Murunga Branch (unfortunately not on the moon to bring rice some of them promised to bring) to mean let him eventually tumble down quickly.
I wish all the present candidates land on Murunga Branches.
Then we can see them falling off quickly with the cost of living going up by the minute.

Actually when we elect them that is what we want them to be (on a Murunga Branch) but they have devised and engineered some other methods to stay longer on the Murunga branch and unfortunately we cannot have the last laugh.

This one chance we have that we can give them a Murunga Treat and it will be a Maru or Mara (Devil) Treat.

Jurassic Park Trembling Tumbler and Politcal Tumble

In the midst of World Cup Cricket we have another match.
In this match the winners take it all and sometimes they take our freedom also away a week prior and week after the election day.
Everything come to a standstill and at least this time we can divert our attention and watch cricket.
The day of the election when these young proteges parade the streets, it reminds me of the tumbler trembling cinematic effect depicted in the film, Jurassic Park.
Some of them bring similar fear to adults leave alone children.
That is how elections are fought.
There are no umpires like in cricket.
The officers who should act as neutral umpires are no more.
They tremble more than the voter when these guys come in numbers.
Some of course stooge to the lowest level where they even share free alcohol.
The police who suppose to bring the law and order are outnumbered by drunken supporters.
Alcohol sale is prohibited but they stock alcohol before the ban of sale.

If we have free and fair election, in actual fact it is the candidate who should tremble.
For some bizarre reasons even before the final vote is cast winners are already known and I do not know what this exercise bring to the ordinary citizen, except Tumbler Trembling Fear of Jurassic Park nature.
They are real dinosaurs who drain all public money.

Installing Debian 6.0 In Sinhala-Sinhala Linux

 Debian 6.0 In Sinhala-Sinhala Linux

I can now report to you that Debian DVD 1 (one of many) has Sinhala capability and is available at LinuxTracker with many seeders and one can download it in less than 24 hours.

Please do not go for point to pint download or slt.net.

The good news is that I have now installed Debian in Sinhala with Sinhala drop down menu (mixture of Sinhala and English) and it is amazingly good.

It is Gnome but I will miss K3B but the Debian Sinhala is going to stay in my main computer from now onward and I will be reporting bugs if I detect any.

I hope, in its next edition, it drops Openoffice and go for LibreOffice.

In any case, it is going to improve my Sinhala leaps and bounds.

Thank you Debian and the Translator Team.

I have no hesitation in recommending it’s use but with one or two advice and some warning is in order.

Please get a proficient Linux guy / girl to install it and do not copy the DVD with Nero.

For best use one must have an internet connection when one installs it and Debian configures the card automatically (better have a router instead of telephone connection) in its initial install and please have patience, it takes a fairly long time to install (do it in the night when internet is not busy).

With those provisos HAPPY SINHALA LINUX for all.

Mind you this was edited with Sinhala Linux activated and Debian’s Iceweasel on the web track.

Old Note on the CD

Now I have tried installing Debian 6 in Sinhala, I can report back and say it can be done but prior understanding of Linux and how Debian does things is essential.

I also have to report that the 4 CD / DVD that I downloaded is not available in Linuxtracker due to unfortunate incidents there.

It is up and running but it will be sometime before all Debian CD/DVDs are restored for download.
Moment I have good news I will be posting it here and elsewhere.
I have to tell you that I had to format my hard disks and redo all the installations new.

It is all fun and game in Linux but took lot of my spare time and not having interesting cricket matches to watch was a bonus.

Everything went on smoothly and I was expecting to work in Sinhala after the installation but sadly it was not to be.

I could not select Sinhala at boot time and none of the Linux distributions let you do that currently and even though many of the Linux distributions have the multilingual capacity, Sinhala has not been promoted in the web world outside Sri-lanka.

I am afraid lot of translation work has to be done in legible and lexicographical world of Sinhala and enough Sinhala fonts have to be installed in the usr/src folders.

Coding for fonts and character map is now available but translation of computer terminology is extremely difficult and many thanks for the guys and girls for trying it.

I enjoyed installing it in Sinhala with my limited ability in Sinhala but lot of guess work, in doing so but having known Debian for a long time and had sweated a lot learning Linux, a little over decade ago, the guess work (Sinhala terms) did work.

This gives an opportunity to learn how Linux works especially Debian for one who has difficulty in English language.

But my advice for all is one should be proficient in both Sinhala and English to be a successful translator and Learning Linux in that process is an added bonus.

I am not at all good in Sinhala to be of any help to you but I am there to test the capability of Sinhala in Linux and report to the wider web.

Thanks again guys and girls for trying a very difficult task.

With good team work and perseverance it can be accomplished and good luck with your future efforts.

Debian is the best Linux distribution to learn nuts and bolts of Linux, even though it is bit difficult to master it and the learning curve is steep at the beginning but it invariably drops quickly after the first year of trying.

Do not give up your efforts of Learning Linux in Sinhala and English too.

LinuxExtras-FusionLinux and Fubuntu-11

New Linux distributions are coming out thick and fast and I am glad most of them keep at manageable level of under 2 GiB.
Not too small and not too fat and chubby.

Fusion Linux is a combination of Fedora and Ubuntu and unlike Fubuntu which keeps the Ubuntu look Fusion Linus while retaining Fedora look and KDE desktop has done better job than Fububtu.

I am fit biased here because I am a fan of KDE and especially K3B

It has no Skype but Blender and still has openoffice instead of libreoffice.

Basically one is Gnome based and other KDE based but a mixture of Fedora and Ubuntu.

LinuxExtras-Gentoo-11

Gentoo was my last conversion or convergence.

I had seen a Gentoo live CD (probably 2008) and KiWi Linux (I may be wrong here) which was probably a Gentoo Linux derivative but never caught my eye till I discovered XBMC in Sabayaon.

The latest edition which I downloaded yesterday is pretty impressive.

In 2.3 GiB it has everything a newbie needs and XBMC (Media Center).
It has both 32 bit and 64 bits editions.
It is good as gold for Linux Lovers.
In 10 years it has the stature and only Knoppix can boast and can rival.

If not for my search for Linux 100 and the discovery of Sabayon and XBMC I would not have been writing this piece.

Thanks a lot guys and girls.

Please excuse me for my ignorance and not including you in my Linux 100.

You are in the top 10 in my list and even though you are around 20 in the distrowatch (Sabayon is in the top 10) if you introduce few live CDs and LXDEs, you will be envy of the rest.

XBMC may be heavy to be put in a CD distribution but that as a separate edition in your repertoire (do not let it die a natural death of under usage) of live CDs will add spice to your distribution of high quality.

I would have preferred you put blender in the DVD in future version with XMBC and that will be the best multimedia and graphic Linux image for newbies and the savvy..

Final Count Down on Linux 100

I am almost completing 18 months come end of March of downloading and testing Linux Live CDs and lately few of the DVDs.

All good things have to come to an end and with Sinhala Linux coming to the scene without fanfare or funfair after a long delay, I will be concentrating on that instead of the Live CDs but with occasional reference to them (not full time as it used to be for nearly 18 months).
Real reason for this venture was the boring one year election campaign and as a diversion tactics of an intellectual nature.
The things I learned was enormous.
Sinhala Linux coming at the tail end was quite a surprise.
It looks as some of my critical comments are taken with serious attention and lot of my audience is not Sri-Lankans but Americans and far way web browsers.

I believe my comments were only academic and may be some times constructive but lot of things not intended by me has / have happened.
In the Grand Finale, I would like to list few.

1. Multilingual Distributions are coming from EU and South America which is pretty good.

2. French is also becoming a leading language of distributions.

3. Light weight and multiple editions are hitting the bench.,emulating PCLimux. Sabayon (Gentoo), Salix(Slackware), Aptosid (Debain), Fedora (Redhat) and Zenwalk are examples.

4. Some dormant like Korora coming out of the attic.

5. Distributions are looking at others to emulate or improve the Linux image.

6. Dominance of Ubuntu is diminishing and Ubuntu also looking for an image lift.

7. Redhat has come out of hibernation.

8. Debian is showing its prowess and slowly and rightly embracing the changes. Lot of live editions including Sinhala Linux edition.

9. Flame wars are becoming less intense but critical and constructive.

10. With all these I am becoming rejuvenated at my twilight years and old and young are coming together for a Grand Finale.

11. Puppy (front pocket) and Knoppix (piggyback) remain my favorites.

12. Pendrive Linux are ubiquitous.

Only criticism I have is the children programs (except gCompris and few others) and games have been neglected.
Morphix, Myah and Adios are slow to wake up from hibernation or slumber.
Young chaps take them out of the attic and put some the grandpa influence on the map and make some really grandiose games and creative activities (for children and grandpa like me) and reinvigorate the Linux spirit of the yesteryear.

Linux100-SuSe-Update-02

Suse after many months of deliberation and milestone editions has finally released the 11.4 which looks pretty good. Thanks to business like approach and releasing it on the date schedules but I have a feeling that it could have been released much earlier and the many milestones were not necessary for a distribution widely used unless of course like Redhat and Ubuntu were making radical changes. SuSe does not need any radical change. It's KDE stands out as a robust but RAM craving entity and very useful desktop which has hybrid of Apple and Microsoft feel.

Thanks goes to the KDE Team and it is one of the best.

My appeal always was for KDE and not Gnome even though I am not fanatical like Gnome and Debian guys.
I am a Debian fan too and for its effort on Sinhala Edition I have revived my allegiance to it. It has a special place in my cognition and the other rivaled that was Redhat which lost its charm after Fedora. Now even Fedora is trying to catch up with others.

SuSe does not have to do any catch up except to change it corporate image which it burrowed from Novel and had corrupting influence of Microsoft like CEOs.

If they drop those two elements and let the innovation to be its driving force it can reach the masses again.
It should follow the leading changes introduced by PCLinux with many light weight edition and a very nice and promising Gorilla Edition (fullmonty).

I have become a fan of Puppy (all editions), Knoppix and PCLinux and those were the top three installed in recently assembled IBM (second hand) computer with big SATA hard disk.
This is the first time I have had a hard disk above 80 GiB.

In any case I need a big hard disk for the images I download and test. All these time with a modest 80 GiB IDE hard disk I have accomplished downloading over 300 CDs and a very few DVDs.

My forth distribution is Mepis and it has not come up with a new edition for a long time.

Coming back to SuSe, even though the DVD came on the dead on time, the CDs were there in the Linuxtracker a few days earlier but because of the server breakdown there at Linuxtracker I could not download them. I was not keen anyway to download before the dead line today evening, being Friday I came early because of cricket matches (watch TV and to see England succumbing again) and downloaded both KDE and Gnome versions.

Both are pretty good.
I was happy that they dropped OpenOffice and Libreoffice is now the master of ceremony.

Branshee is taken over the media player. Apart from those changes the SuSe image was kept intact.

The Venetian blind like appearance (not vertical but horizontal) of the graphic is very pleasing. It has kept the green image which is very good and environmentally friendly guy like me who likes blue for personal image, having a touch of green like my ornamental plants gets full marks.
You get 10 out of 10 in spite of my criticism on corporate actions.
Thanks guys and girls at SuSe community.
It would have been better if this was released in December instead in March like PCLinux and many other distributions and you guys would have gone on a long holiday which you deserve.

I will download the DVD and install it my computer which as become redundant due to my upgrade. I will take another 24 hours (altogether 36 hours), that is how our Telecoms gives me the band width.
I strongly suggest that in your next release the CD version comes in December rather than March. This year because of the Cricket World Cup, I like many Sri-Lankan I have programmed enough time to coincide with cricket matches but not next year though.

How to be a SMART CREDIT CARD User?

It is very difficult to be a very SMART credit card user.

About 12 years ago when I returned from sojourn abroad and decided not to go back in spite of the many risks involved (including losing my life on public transport or in a public place like Central Bank of Ceylon-now it is no more public, it is almost private where few cronies make all the decisions, or while watching a cricket match) in Ceylon.

I had six credit cards and a small saving abroad.

Unfortunately those cards were international and one can use it in this country in spite of the war.

I was without a job and was not hunting for a job wanting to take a welcome respite since the sojourn abroad was lot of work covering for three local doctors who did not want to work where I worked but was a beautiful, place now almost wretched by the recent earth quake.

I was enjoying the welcome respite but I could not resit the indulgence with the credit cards.

One day when I looked at the credit balance abroad and the amount of money I owed and the interest accumulated, and it dawned on me I may not survive even a year.

That night I took all the cards and cut them in half and went to sleep.

I have made a few smart decisions in my life and very many structurally poor decisions (including returning to my mother Lanka and watching absolute corruption at all level including schools, health sector (both public and private) and electioneering.

But this was one of those SMART decisions.

I could foresee the credit market collapse (but not so soon though) even though I was not a financier.

The decision was to live within my means and not bloated like the mega politicians on credit loans from abroad.

I have some information for you how to FREEZE your Credit Card that you got the other day, thanks to the Lifehacker International for sharing their wealth of financial advice with me.

They are as follows

1. Take the card in your hand and oil it with some Sri-Lankan butter and wrap it with a tin foil. It may be useful to swipe a strong magnet over it to demagnetize the inner foil.

2. Buy 12 plastic containers that fit in inside the other and gradually become smaller that would have the capacity to hold a small piece of fish cake sold at Rs.100/= in a super market food stall-For example Majestic City.

3. Now put the credit card nicely foil covered in the inner most container and place other containers on top of it. By doing this you are going to save on the electricity, bill .
The innermost will have the coolest air trapped which cannot escape and the outermost will have the warmest air.

4. Now switch on the freezer and put the lowest cooling rate and place the credit card containing cartooned cartoon deep inside the freezer compartment and put all the reused or rotten food you eat on top with few onions and garlic to sanitize the rotten food.

5. Now you have to pay your electricity bill with cash and not by credit card.

This way you can Freeze your card till you become old enough to say good bye to this world.

Do not forget to put a note inside stating that "I do not owe the bank any money".

This will stay put and a STATUS SYMBOL for your name since you may the only one under the hot Sun in Sri-Lanka who does not owe anything when you died.

All the rest are pawned for another 60 to 100 years by our caretaker politicians.

LinuxExtras-JollyCloudOS-09

Cloud computing and Os had been one of my interests for some time.
To begin with I started with Dropbox which is a nice way to share ones data with friends especially those who are away and abroad.
I use it to deposit Linux images in the shared folder.
Similarly friends from abroad can have their folders shared with me.
Idea was to promote Linux.
But cloud computing is of a different order altogether.
When one is on travel and does not have a netbook or laptop (which is an added burden when on the move) Cloud Os come to your service.
One has to carry the OS in a CD or Pendrive (I have not tried this with a Pendrive yet).
The Cloud OS (Joli OS and Jolly Cloud are its other names) let you do this.

I downloaded version 1.0 and for one reason or the other I could not run it even though I registered with their web site.

Then I downloaded Joli Os version 1.1 (Live CD) and booted it up but I could not get the link with the Cloud Service, even though I tried to register with them.
Disappointed I gave up.
Today I downloaded version 1.2 from Linux tracker. It was a quick download with many seeders all over the world.
Booted it up and (I could not boot up with my previous email) I registered with another email address after some considerable delay I was up an running and was in link with world wide web.
There were lot of applications but I could not find the Dropbox.
So after some fiddling (It lets you add other cloud applications) I added dropbox and could sign up with Dropbox and open my folders.

These two applications One a Live OS on a CD, the other Dropbox registration make you travel light and even if you forget your laptop instantly get in touch with the outside world (with four current data in the cloud) if the friend you stay with let you boot your Joli OS 1.2.
Joli OS let you the guest booting by request of the users.
I have no hesitiation of using these two for my work and recommend anybody to try it.
The learning curve is the only limitation.

Cricket and the Change of Face

Cricket is getting a big face lift.
I do not agree with the behavior of some fans in the Asian subcontinent even the events of off the field actions are brushed off as minor incidents.

Severe deterrent actions are necessary on the filed and outside the field what ever the outcome of a match.

Host country need not have to win by hook or crook.

Let the players inspire and umpires in the middle take the center stage not arm chair pundits.

In our country in the past during elections violence is brushed off as minor incidents and it metamorphosed to ethnic violence and after the war ceased nobody except the parties and candidates are interested. Last election, like in the west 42% did not turn up and it will be 50% this time around by fixing the elections at a time of Cricket World Cup and coming new year festive season.

But we are sure with voter apathy malpractices will be rampant on the day of the actual voting with opposition disorganized as it is now.

In a democracy it is the opposition that matters.

Similarly what ever the fan's behaviour that is not acceptable in human interactions should be dealt with with severe punishment like not hosting an international events in that country for 10 years or so.

We lost Bob Woolmer last time.

There was antecedent Pakistani match fixing incidents.

And similar pressure can be brought when crunch games are played.

At least to save goodwill and ambassadorial work done by Imran Khan and his perseverance for neutral umpires, unlike other games, cricket has got a tremendous face lift.

It is true and I see even the not usually interested females are taking some interest in Sri-Lanka now.

If they are to come and watch games there should be absolutely no violence on or off the field.

We must maintain that.

In election violence also females take a step back and withdraw.

It is the host government's responsibility to take all deterrent actions.

In Sri-Lanka it is the ticket sale and there is a black market issue here.

It is the government's role to take action and minimize the inconvenience to the fans who actually do come to the ground and put their money in the coffers of the administration.

Otherwise blacklist and do not hold events in that country.

Sports should be taken out of politics and religious fanaticism, if we are to make them viable and active engagements both the actors and the spectators in film parlance.

We do not burn down film halls and that principle applies to cricket too and crowd control must be proactive and not after the event.

Most of the umpiring decisions and revisions are making an acceptable change to the game.

Umpires also given some credibility and it was at stake when reviews were not allowed.

It is the players who make the requests at critical junctures and reviews should be balanced and credible.

By doing that we make less importance to the daily papers who report them 24 hours late.

Television commentators are also adding some spice to the game and all these are good for the future of the game.

Now it is the time for the players to add some spice and the lift the game up.

Players should have the courage to walk out if they feel they genuinely had a touch or believe they grassed the ball instead of waiting for the reviewers to make the decision.
It will help the TV umpires and cut down the delay in making the decisions.

Coming back to actions in the field, the birthday boys heroics in New Zealand against Pakistan match make me to revise my decisions of not supporting a team.

After the earth quake damage to South Island and Christchurch, it was something for the New Zealanders to take note and smile.

It may be a little boost to ones who lost their loved ones and property and if they can take the Trophy home, now that they are on top of the table, it will really rejuvenate the rebuild efforts for those who lost almost everything.

With Daniel Vittory in the injury list it may be a treat and farewell for him with his retirement from one day cricket announced.

On the field they are the best guys and good luck with your game with Australia.
Weather did not allow an outcome at Premadasa and I hope you will end their victory streak, like what you generally do in rugger field.

Linux Extras-Debian-6.0-08

In between World Cup Cricket, my work and students examinations, I found time to install Debian 6.0 KDE CD version, in one of my old IBM computer with 512 RAM.
Unlike in the good old days new Linux distributions especially the KDE craves on RAM do not ever think of trying it less than 512 RAM and ideally 1 GiB is necessary now.
This computer I fiddled with it to add some muscle (but could not find a SCSI hard disk) and it did not boot up (20 GiB SCSI ans 20 IDE). I installed latest PCLinux KDE and it took ages to install.
This the one that gives me headache in hard disk detection. One distribution does not recognize the nomenclature (a becomes b and b becomes a scenario) of the other distribution and only Debian figure out the architecture and the type of disks.
Sure enough it did a good job of recognizing two other distributions and partition table was edited correctly since Debian was the one I used last.

In distrowatch forum there was so much animosity towards this distribution which follow Free Software principles and for that principle I call it the God Father of Linux (I did not get involved in the flame war).
I now have a special liking for it since for the first time a Sinhala Linux version has come in to being (it can be installed in Sinhala Graphic format) and that is Debian 6.

I went through Sinhala graphic installer and it selected Sri-Lanka as the location, correctly. I stopped at that point and installed it in English (My Sinhala computer vocabulary is next to nothing) and I could not Sri-Lanka as a location.
Now Sri-Lanka is reserved for Sinhala only.
This I found strange since we have Tamils and Muslims in this country and many of them do not work in Sinhala.
In defense of the Tamils Linux can be installed in Tamil but then they cannot select Sri-Lanka as a the location.
I decided to use Singapore as the location since Singapore uses English as their language operation.
I think Debian should allow Tamils and English installers the ability to select the location as Colombo.
This can be corrected after installation but this I found annoying to say the least.

It installs the basic (kernel) system and then let you select the installation type that include laptop and desktop.
Unlike PCLinux installation is fast and user and root passwords are selected in the first time round.

I can understand why many were against its installation mode.
It's partition tool is not in graphic mode and only in writing mode (old habits die hard).
The instructions are clearly written for any sane person to follow.
1.Create a partition.
2.Format a partition.
3. Mount a partition with or without boot flag and the job is done.
The procedure has to be repeated for root, home, var and user partition.
There is nothing more to it.
Another point of importance is that it always assume that you are connected to the internet.
Missing packges can be installed with apt get and there are over 60, 000 to select.
Mind you if you do not understand partitioning it does it automatically for you.
Why bother1

Its GRUB automatically select what is to boot and the boot splash is very simple and not graphic intensive.
Because it does things in an organized and simple manner once configured it boots and runs program fast unlike other KDE counterparts, say SuSe.

It has no K3B (one of my favorite CD/ DVD writing tool), or openoffice (mind you there is a limit to what can be put in a CD with 700 MiB).

All these are simple routines to me which I learned 12 years ago without any Guru but by trial and error.
If you want to learn nuts and bolts of Linux one has to use learn Debian and in its write mode.
Mind you best graphic partition tool is gParted and it is Debian and it is very reliable and even better than that of Knoppix or Puppy.
Whatever criticism Debian will outlast all its other distributions since its resource base is over 60,000 and may grow up to 100,000.
That is why it had 4o odd CDs and now 8 to 10 DVDs.
One DVD will do the work for you and they are available in 32 and 64 bits.
I am currently downloading the first DVD and it will take two sold Sri-Lankan days for it and I will be back with you soon.

Cricket taking Center Stage

In spite of bad weather and poorly prepared wickets, cricket is taking center stage over the weekend and last few days.
Ireland's win over England was best that could have happened to cricket.
If a tiny Island like Sri-Lanka can produce tiny but skillful players it was an irony that Ireland could not do that until now.
Now they have proved beyond doubt if it is taken to heart it also can produce players of high quality and big hitters at that.
Now England should lure them to play cricket and produce more players.
They do not have to go down to play test cricket in Australia.
Let New Zealand take the place of England and in any case they have healthy rivalry in cricket and rugger.
Now the time to build a healthy rivalry across the Irish sea and promote cricket there.
England loss was a big win for cricket since we cannot get French to play cricket for another century.
Then come the South Africa's loss to England. They were writing off England after loss to Ireland and had a vague feeling that with their experience in Australia, Strauss will pull a rabbit out the hat.
Sure they did that and they have five points and leading the table.
Now onwards they have to play cricket with ferocious intensity and it is good for cricket and the cricket fans.
With hind sight, I feel my decision not to be partisan and be neutral ( if at all it is possible) was a good decision and I can enjoy watching cricket which was fast getting commercialized and sadly politicized in this country.
Instead of players CEOs in UK and India are making major decisions spoiling it in the long run and it is time to revisit the future strategies.

SuSe-Community and Making an Image for the Archive

 SuSe-Community and Making an Image for the Archive

Edited on the 14th, March, 2011

I am not sure whether the comments I have made below is correct, since I have found the same problem with Debian 6. DVD. 

Unable to copy the DVD image. It is 4.3 GB (same size as SuSe) and Linux unable deal with a file size above 4 GB in one file and has to be broken into two which can be done only with torrent.

PCLinuxfullMonty has restricted itself to 4 GB and Gentoo with 4.4 GB has probably divided the file into two (32 bit and 64 bits ) and by doing that has accommodated above 4 GB.

I hope since the SuSe DVD has Gnome KDE, LXDE and Xfce by dropping one of the latter two SuSe should be able to reduce the DVD to 4GB in future so that image can be saved for posterity.

I hope somebody enlighten me on this issue.

SuSe community has the peculiar habit which they have acquired form Novel and Microsoft annoys me a lot, to say the least.
They let you download (which takes more than 36 hours or more from K-torrent in Sri-Lanka) a single copy of the image and and won't let you copy the image as an archive. In the final seconds of the copying it has a script to abort copying which only commercial companies can use as a ploy to protect the copyright (which I am in total support).
This is not a Linux Tradition even if they are commercially operational.
In fact violates the principles of FOSS and true spirit of open software and OS systems.
When it happened for first time I deleted the image and kept the DVD for installation. If I want I can copy the DVD but always have two copies one for use other one for safe keeping.
Mind you DVD cannot be kept indefinitely and if the image is copied to a external hard drive, a CD/DVD can be written if the DVD in use is damaged.
For example for an emergency but not for re-sale. I am not interested in copying and selling it to a third party.
My intentions are are academic and only for archival and retrieval purposes..

Unfortunately most of the old distributions are not in any archives or servers. The servers and linuxtracker included have the habit of deleting not used (frequently) distributions from the sever to accommodate space in the server for new distributions.

They write automatic script to do this house cleaning job without archiving them.

The point I am raising is relevant now. Currently LinuxTracker is down but gradually adding the images to it's servers and it cannot retrieve even the most recently used distributions quickly enough to get the system running in double quick time and it is a headache and lot of heart burns for many system administrators.

There should be a way of transferring the infrequently used into a system category away from the main stream and thereafter after a lapse of a period if still not used can be transferred to an archival medium. All these cost time and money.

I was once downloading BigDaddy (my favorite PCLinux's original successful version) from a server. If I remember right it was softpedia. Half way through my download (which takes ages from Sri-Lanka) it was no longer available and I was heart broken. I could not finish the downloading.

I made a humble request at PCLinux forum and one nice gentleman let me directed to a server and I quickly downloaded it for archiving. It is live and cannot be installed but I use it for demonstrating the humble beginning of very successful distribution.

Similar incident happened with Pendrive Linux. These was a defect (I got it downloaded from a Microsoft machine with Nero) in the image.

This was the first time I got a bootable Linux Image in a Pendrive. Now even Pendrive site does not have a copy of the Original Image and I cannot get it from distromania or from Linuxtracker.

It is like collecting old stamps and coins.

It has become a hobby and a pastime for me keeping the archives.

Coming from an academic (not commercial) background, simple thing like these matter a lot in the long run.

Commercial investors when they want to introduce a new system they begin by not supporting and then destroying the old system by default making the user vulnerable. Microsoft does this very well.

I cannot understand why Linux does this and good example is SuSe who has got under the fold of commercial CEOs.

Coming back to my story what I did was to make a copy of the image (this is something I used to do for old Distributions without an image but only a CD/ DVD for archiving) with K3B and saved it instead of deleting after the image is written to the CD/DVD.

When I tried and used the saved image for writing to a DVD it gives an annoying warning that the Image " file size is different from the declared volume".

Linux (K3B) checks the file size before writing and gives a warning before it writes to prevent one from copying a bad image and wasting a CD or DVD.

This warning or the deterrent cannot be true since the file image property goes as 4 GB.

These are some of the nuances of SuSe and Mandriva which are driving Linux fans or uses away from them. I cannot simply agree with this ploy and that is why I am moving away from Oracle, SuSe and Mandriva. A CEO with commercial interest makes these decisions and my concern is why can't they openly say DO NOT COPY but use these underhand methods.