Monday, December 12, 2011

WebOS is alive and well

WebOS is alive and well
I have good newsa to break.
Ditching of its Tochpad in August by HP sent shivers down the spine of webOS user sincluding those who bought the HP TouchPad for $99/= and the question what will happen to WebOs  was hanging in the air until December 9,2011
It seems to have weathere the storm for the time being.
It was was good and smart move by present CEO.
In the hands of a new owner it would have died a natural death.
Good luck for WebOS and its developers.
Give it a second and a prolong life.
We need alternative Androids in the market.

It is soothing to hear that WebOS will continue to be available as Open Source.

With the support of wordpress which ports it in its "applications store", I am sure webOs will go through a golden patch in 2012.

history of WebOS from WikiPedia.
WebOS was introduced by Palm in January 2009 as the successor to Palm OS. 
The first WebOS device was the original Palm Pre, released on Sprint in June 2009. 
The Palm Pixi followed. 
Upgraded Plus versions of both Pre and Pixi were released on Verizon.

In April 2010, HP acquired Palm.
WebOS was described as a key asset and motivation for the purchase. 
The $1.2 billion acquisition finalized in June. 
HP indicated its intention to develop the WebOS platform for use in multiple new products, including smartphones, tablet computers and printers.

On February 9, 2011, HP announced that it would be making WebOS the universal platform for all of its devices.

In March 2011, HP announced plans for a version of WebOS by the end of 2011 to run within the Microsoft Windows operating system, and to be installed on all HP desktop and notebook computers in 2012.

On August 18, 2011, less than 7 weeks after the TouchPad was launched in the United States, Hewlett-Packard announced that it would discontinue all current hardware devices running webOS. 
Remaining TouchPad stock received substantial price reductions, and quickly sold out.

On December 9, 2011, HP announced that WebOS would be available as an open-source project, but that it would continue to develop and produce hardware.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Asus Transformer PRIME and Android (Google's) Ice Cream Sandwich

Asus Transformer PRIME and Android (Google's) Ice Cream Sandwich
Everybody is talking about Kindle Fire but what will take off with cool guys?

It would be ASUS Transformer PRIME.
I have no no doubt about it.
Kindle Fire is the beginning and ASUS Transformer is the FUTURE.
Kindle is for education and GLOBAL CLASSROOM.
With its price tag it will become a GLOBAL DEVICE.
On the other hand cool guys and people like me who talk about software freedom will like to have hackable TABLETS.
Either DUAL booting with Kindle or Barnes Noble or run on its own with developers adding new features (that is what is happening in the Linux Community).
Already guy name STEVEN has hacked the Kindle bypassing the root-kit with Ice Cream Sandwich 4.
That is very good news!
I think Amazon should work with this guy and produce a Kindle (I want to name it as Kindle MORE) with MORE Hardware and SOFTWARE features which can happily dual boot without a root-kit.
Guys and Girls watch for year 2012 with innovations and C.E.Os who would embrace the hacking features and work with COOL guys/girls will win the trade WAR on TABLETS.

Don't be like HP. I here they are going to decide on the WebOS.
I hope it is made available OPEN SOURCE.
For a starter one should leave Kindle Fire to establish first in the CLASSROOM.
Who knows even kids will learn how to hack it to COOL, COOL effects.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Ultimate Edition (Ubuntu) 3.0 / Tango Studio-Christmas Update

Ultimate Edition (Ubuntu) 3.0 / Tango Studio-Christmas Edition Update

Ubuntu derivative Ultimate Linux 3.0 has done a quiet JOB for Linux Lovers by producing a wonderfully GOOD all purpose DVD (both torrent and point to point available).
If you don't like and find difficult to use Debian 6.0.3 update (I suggest you have both editions with you).
If you do not won't to change this Christmas and do not want to try Unity or Gnome 3.0 these two will do all the honours for years to come.
Ultimate Edition 2.9 has both 32 bits and 64 bits versions and this one is only one DVD.
This has  limited number of games.
Only missing thing is cloud utility of Ubuntu One (Dropbox is there).
Please do not confuse with Ultimate Game Edition, which is different but very good too.
If you are Video Audio Artist, there is another Ubuntu derivative which is pretty good and have new features (without office packages).
That is Tango Studio with 32 bit and 64 bit versions.
Please do not confuse with Ubuntu Studio.
Thanks guys and girls for keeping Ubuntu roots alive and well.

I have one warning though.
Linux mint 12 i386 32 bit ( 1 GIB) image does not boot.
I downloaded it from Linuxtracker Torrents (twice)

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Elephant Bath


Elephant Bath
Elephant bath, it was where everybody who visits Kandy go to see elephant when it is not the Pereharas season. Botanical garden and Elephant bath were two landmarks of visit to the city.
Now no more thanks to development projects like Polgolla dam to divert water to the dry zone.
I must address an issue that this dam caused after its opening I must retell this story for the present engineers to understand the need to release water downstream regularly to avoid similar episodes.
The downstream water spilled over the dam was not enough to cover the river bed. Soon water pools begin to form and the mosquitoes started breading in them. For the first time we started detecting Malaria in Kandy. Any place under 45oo feet Malaria mosquito can breed.
Then water samples collected with mosquito larvae confirmed that Malaria mosquito was breeding in Kandy for the first time.
Now the remedy was to spray DDT on the river bed.
This was actually the consolidation phase of Malaria campaign and we prematurely relaxed spraying with the recommendation of the WHO.
Story circulating at that time was that the resident Malaria Campaign Officer who was  a foreigner, fearing his job would be axed if we successfully completed the campaign gave wrong signal to withdraw spraying prematurely.
In any case by the time of the opening of the Polgolla Dam in 1976, the malaria had spread all over and Kandy was relatively immune.
Now spraying the river bed was no feasible with people using it for bathing.
Our public officers gave the Mahaweli an order to intermittently release the water giving them correct instruction considering the life cycle of the Malaria larvae, so that the larvae get destroyed before they become mature mosquitoes.
This was a simple remedy but was very effective to arrest malaria spread in Kandy.
I do not think they still practice this simple remedy. One visit to Earl's Reagent Hotel is enough to witness whether they are practicing common sense.
Now it was only yesterday I went to Kandy to buy something double sided sticker to stick the Telephone box to the wall. I was going from from one conner of the city to the other corner  find the same without any success.
At one point the cross road and the main were blocked and people were getting ready (some Bank organizing the thing) a procession.
Very young elephant with soaring sun beating down was covered with a decorated overcoat and was kept waiting till the men and the retinue got ready.
This poor animal while baking himself in the sun was trying to lift foot/feet in rotation, giving some respite to the burning feet (it was like the restless feet of old people who suffer from a similar burning but less distressful to the owner).
It was a pathetic sight to watch and mahout was nonetheless not bothered about the young animals welfare.
They are only exhibits without real life away from the jungle habitat.
Mind you, I am one is totally against domesticating these majestic creatures.
Ill treatment is totally unacceptable.
Not only they have lost a place for bathing they have lost all sense of wellbeing under human care in this Buddhist country.
These majestic animals love water and water is a sport for them and that is how they keep them cool under a thick skin.
With global warming and even in Kandy temperature going above 95 degrees Fahrenheit, they have no comfort zone.
It is criminal. Not only humans even animals need water for survival and that water has to be good for drinking.
Which is not true today.

Some things that will happen when Sethusundarum is busy with OIL/GAS exploration.


Some things that will happen when Sethusundarum is busy with OIL/GAS exploration.
Little Unknown Facts about Petroleum.

1. I am bit proactive and when the next budget of ours comes boomeranging to us there is nothing exciting to declare but I am sure they will say they hit the biggest ( but how big they won't say) deposit of GAS/OIL to divert the attention of the voter.
2. Extract and refining takes a big toll on water.
That is what I am focusing below.
It will be in little doses since I have 12 months to explore.
Fossil-fuel extraction and processing can lead to contamination of sources of drinking water with a wide variety of contaminants that threaten human health. When drinking water is contaminated, communities have three basic choices:
(1) find an alternative source of water,
(2) treat water before drinking it, or
(3) drink contaminated water and risk adverse health outcomes.
Often, alternative water sources can be much more expensive; for example, in the United States bottled water can be thousands of times more expensive than tap water or may require traveling long distances at a high energy cost (Gleick and Cooley 2009).
In addition to being costly, using bottled water also requires being able to lift and transport the bottles, resulting in disproportionate hardship for the elderly, disabled, and poor.
The major human community impacts associated with fossil-fuel refining, processing, and use are related to air quality.
However, all of these processes can also contaminate drinking water sources with a variety of toxins.
In the state of São Paulo, Brazil, for example, improper disposal of toxics at a petrochemical facility caused contamination of nearby drinking water wells (Harden et al. 2002). In the U.S., one estimate puts releases of petroleum by-products by oil refineries at 50,000 barrels per day; about a quarter of total petroleum refining toxic releases in the U.S. are to water systems (O’Rourke and Connolly 2003).
A growing concern is the link between hydraulic fracturing, a process that injects water mixed with a complex and often proprietary blend of chemicals to enhance methane recovery, and contamination of drinking water supplies with benzene, methane, radiation, and other chemicals. Although practitioners claim there is no conclusive evidence to link fracking to contamination of surface-water and groundwater supplies, critics claim that more than 1,000 cases of such contamination can be traced to fracking, as well as to incidental surface spills and leaks of fracking chemicals (Lustgarten 2008, Urbina 2011).
Fracking also can create links between natural gas itself and groundwater, in some instances increasing methane concentrations in drinking water to such an extent that tap water can be ignited. From the limited information on chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing that is available, either through voluntary disclosure or in states that require disclosure, we know that chemicals that can potentially cause respiratory problems or harm to the nervous and reproductive systems are used (Berkowitz 2009).
Recent U.S. Geological Survey research has found evidence for a link between Balkan Endemic Neuropathy (BEN) and coal mining. BEN is a degenerative kidney disease that occurs in clusters in rural villages in the Balkan Peninsula and eventually leads to complete kidney failure. An estimated 25,000 people currently suffer from this disease, which was first described medically in 1956 (USGS 2001). However, the cause of the disease is still not known for certain. Patients with BEN also have a high occurrence of normally rare upper urinary tract cancers.
Acid precipitation causes a host of ecological impacts, especially to aquatic resources.
Acid precipitation—primarily generated by coal combustion—can increase the mobility of aluminum and other metals in aquatic systems, leading to mortality of fish and Coal mining has been linked to severe drinking water contamination in many coal mining regions. For example, in the state of Orissa, India, communities’ drinking water was contaminated as a result of coal mining and processing activities. Women are particularly at risk for adverse health effects resulting from exposure to this contaminated water, as they are responsible for many household activities that involve contact with water, such as collecting the water, washing clothes and utensils, and bathing children(Murthy and Patra 2006). Some villages were even forced to relocate after groundwater was contaminated due to coal mining activities (Murthy and Patra 2006).
In the U.S.,coal mining in the Appalachian region has led to contamination of groundwater drinking supplies.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Dream 15 and its interpretation


Dream 15 and its interpretation

It is long time since I had a dream to  post to Maha Brahma and true to my nature when I am on holiday mood but not going for any holiday due to cash trapped or cash-strapped eventuality, I dream a lot.
I have already spend my November salary and I did not go out on Saturday even to the bookshops due to the same reason;
I finished all my house chores which included feeding the fish and attending to  water plants and the Internet browsing and went to sleep like a log.
I cannot remember what time but I could not see any (did not bother seeing them anyway) digital editions of any Sunday papers.
Linux downloads were painfully slow.
It got to be before midnight.

I could remember having a big tea and loads of cookies, bananas and chocolates, since my intention was to, not to get up with shivering (winter colds is hitting us now) in early morning with hunger pains.

Long nap was in shape and nothing interesting to do on Sunday except sleeping to my heart content.
I did not expect to dream, though.
But there was lot of it.
Dreams and dreams.

I was invited to a Water Summit.
It was not a Earth Summit and even in my dreams they do not invite me for Earth / or Environment Summit.
They are scared that I come out with bare facts of mother nature not some bizarre figures.
Everybody who was somebody was greeting me and to my surprise even Environment Lady Helen Clark was there to greet me.

She greeted me and that was the first time I met her face to face and before I could even start a conversation with her, I was ushered to a big platform which looked like Antarctica to me an I was elected as the earth representative with a big applause.
I had a strange feeling as if I was in heaven.
Everybody who was somebody was known to me and there were no enemies at all.
Only missing person which I dearly expected was my dog and he was not there.
There was nobody from home and in my dream and I new instantaneously it was a dream for sure and I have to please Maha when I wake up and I went into real dream's dream mode, so to speak, if I may.
So I was taken into water polo event and then another event and another event and it was never ending high fun.
No distractions at all.
Finally they let me rest in a far corner of this dream land where there were no mosquitoes.
I remember telling one person who looked like a real angle, I like tea but hate mosquitoes.
I remember them asking me  "tea or coffee" not with the British or American Air Hostess Accent but very very sweet pronunciation with an appropriate pause in between, indeed or with sugar and / or milk.
I had a very invigorating cuppa and without batting an eyelid I was in "Metta Meditation Mode, the 3 M Mode of my contemplations, without mosquitoes.
I must tell you that I cannot practice even in my dream practice Metta Meditation if there were mosquitoes around which are plenty now in this blessed land affected by global warming.
It was simply due to my medical training where we were (like in dogs) train to tune into subtlest of or a faintest of murmur and the mosquito beatings (somewhat similar to our Suntush's Music) are like bomb blasts to me.
I was in a prolonged Metta Mode and nobody disturbed me.
Then I woke to the tune of my dog who was greeting the visitors.
I looked at the clock.
Past 1 P.M.
It was 14 hour long sleep and 14 our long nice healthy dream.

I washed my face and joined the lunch few minutes late without a cup of tea.
It was very strange and usually my dreams are bizarre to say the least and nothing futuristic in content.
Immediately posted an email and in return of post I get a Maha's Voiced Mail (M.V.M).
He was in a jolly good mood but I wasn't.
I told him this one was a dull dream and it was like my childhood days and now with lot of previous experiences, nobody would elect me as a earth representative (they won't select me to represent even hell, though - they are sacred I do a good job there with my supercomputer program) and I new in my heart it was dream.
Then he told me, I was checking your heart beat and it was so slow and there were no heart sounds audible and your brain waves were very smooth and there was a nice aura around your vertex, I thought you were attaining Nibbana in your dream and I did not won't disturb you.
What nonsense I told him.
One of your angle guys told me that there were no mosquitoes and I did not believe him and I, as a precaution went into energy saving metabolic mode (E.S.M.M.) that is why I did not exhale CO2 (to prevent global warming) and the heart was slow.
You thought I was dead.
Wasn't you?
He was bit embarrassed with my last tone of voice.
I nearly did but the aura around your vertex was visible and it was very pleasing.
You do not know anything about M.M.M. mode.
Isn't it?
One get this Aura when in Metta meditation I told him.
Or, I see.

Yes, we do not have anybody to feel jealous or angry in heaven and Metta Meditation has no value in heaven.
My gosh?
You mean to say one has to have enemies to make the effort of Metta Meditation.
Don't con Sir.
We in this blessed land practice Hate Philosophy and it is the only valid currency.
No Metta for even Generals who were veterans of Hate Philosophy if one is not of the same colour or race or creed.
I cannot believe it.
Calm down Son.
You practiced Metta Meditation even without having major enemies (except of course mosquitoes) and it is a good practice.
I saw you were levitating and not touching on the bed below at one point.
Don't con Sir.
It is true and it is better to go into Metta meditation in your dream.
But there is one problem Sir, I did not dream anything in that long period and there was a long inner silence, Sir.
No dreams?
Yes Sir.
He was taken aback.
Dream or no dreams can you teach me M.M.M.
No problem Sir.
Just recite Karaneeya Metta Sutta (KMS) and you get the feel of it Sir.
What is this Vissudhi Magga?
It is what is recommended, isn't it?
Don't worry about it Sir.
That is only recommended for earthlings who spread Hate Philosophy and love dead bodies around them or see the enemies undergo untold suffering in prison and not for nice godly people like you.
Is there a second part to my dream?
Yes, YES.
Why didn't you interrupt the dream?
There was no necessity and you were not at all in danger except your slow breathing and the slow heartbeat but your brain was in full swing.
I see.
What was the second part?
Well, well it was not good at all.
Do you want to hear it.
Yes.
What I am going to tell is not good news but here it goes like this.
1. They had excavated Sethsundaram and got only a very little gas and petroleum but the money spent was not enough to pay for the debts and income was meager.
2. There was a long period of drought.
3. They continue to use coal as energy source.
4. Global warming peaked and Alps were barren land no snow for skiing.
5. Nasty earth quake shook the Indian plate.
6. The crack went though the belly of India dividing it to two North and South.
7. Another deep crack went through Sethusundarum and Sri-Lanka was pushed towards Australia and to the south.
8. There was a strong tsunami and that took all the Maldives for good.
9. Within months of this catastrophe what looked like a black hole exploded and the effect was to have great amount of radiation and heat enough to increase the earth atmosphere by 10 C.
10. Two thirds of the Lanka was down and under water what looked like the port was near Gampaha and the rest is history.
What happened to the parliament?
Nothing.
Don't con?
11. I must tell you one important thing and you must not tell present politicians.
Will you?
No, I promised.

Long time before the episode I mentioned here happened, Sri-Lankan voters had created a Digital Monster (DM-not DiyaWadana Nilame) and every time a politician lies his tongue get blown away and the second time they lie the heads get blown away and there was long period of good governance.
They had a budget speech one day and everybody was having the after budget cocktail and what was called the Third Force / Third Revolution digitally coined blasted the entire parliament.
What happened was a mistake.
They had programmed the server to detect even the tiniest of lies of digital content and the programmer forgot to include the proviso, one can have a little lie as a yarn to say how old politicians perennially lied and as a joke in the tea party time.
He, the MP did not say it was a joke and before the crowd could laugh the computer thought he was lying and automated activity instantaneously to blast the entire parliament.
This MP was the youngest in that crowd and he actually took oath on the same day and he was not told the parliamentary etiquette before the tea party.
Then there was a long period without party politics and that was the best period in Sri-lankan living history till the above natural catastrophe took a turn.
You mean to say there were only two recipes for the civil society.
Yes.
1. Do not lie.
2. Do not have party politics.
You mean to say if we keep one precept of the five precepts there will be wonders in this land.
Yes, but it has to be digitally controlled with population expansion.
But we are digitally backward and only 132 with 29 computers use Linux in this land.
Only Linux and not Microsoft can achieve that target of developing a Lie Free Server (LFS) in this country.
That will take eons in the present rate?
Don't you realize?
You got a big responsibility to promote Linux before you kick the bucket and not Microsoft.
You have to persevere and promote Linux with same enthusiasm with cloud computing to help you.
Will you do that?
Yes SIR.

Making a good cuppa TEA

Making a good cuppa TEA

Making a good cup of tea has become a big problem.
1. All good tea is exported.

2. What is given to the local market is the left over dust which was used as subsidiary manure in good old days.

3. Retailers take 50% of the profit.

4. There are so many brands but no brand can boast  that they give us the best tea (knowing very well they dispense the unworthy to the locals who have lost the idea of how well to protest as a customer /right now).

5. Milk has gone up in price and the quality of the milk is poor. 
Cannot compare with the milk what I had daily in Manchester, UK.

6. Deficiency of quality of tea cannot be made good with good dose of milk or sugar.

7. I decided to experiment with TEA BAGS not leaves.
A.Tried Green Tea - no susses
B.Tried English Breakfast Tea - no luck.
C.Tried Earl's Grey Tea - not as good as tea leaves.

8. What next
Try A with B and B with C and well over 9 combinations.

Still not happy.

9. Decided not to have any tea on Sunday.

10. Situation was worse I drop to sleep even standing (not reading any Sunday paper now) even though I got up well past midday.

11. Heavy meal with visitors (very rare nowadays) and a good desert to accompany.

Still not happy.
Tried Earl Grey first, till I squeezed out almost 80% of the flavour but the colour was light.
Touch of English Breakfast Tea.
Plenty of sugar.
That did the trick.

Mind you my cup is not a cup and it is almost equivalent to a Beer MUG.

So if you follow my method and recipe take care that you make appropriate adjustment to the proportions. 

One of my tea mugs equals to 3 of your cups (1 to 3 ratio)  and that is what my daughter says.

I need not declare I am a tea addict.
Tea and chocolates are good for your heart.

The the soft tea drink "Heladive" is pretty good specially the Peach flavoured one and it has hit the market again after a pretty lull period.
Some of the other flavours are not as good.
Not as good as ginger/lemon tea my wife and daughter make at home.

They should specialize either on peach or strawberry flavour and drop the other flavours by default.
Mind you a small lemon is Rs.15 to 25/=.

Treasury secretary, I am told do not use lemon treatment after a booze  and I am told by the third parties that he hasn't got a house to go and put Gudgejay at his bosses' residence free of charge.

PS.
The price of tea pot for two was Rs.175/= when we had the war at its peak.
Recently I had tea with a director of a government institution.
Without the tip the cost was Rs.500/=.
I told him not to go and tel his wife who is a teacher.
He did and the poor lady almost had a heart attack.
The lesson to learn is that you must never tell what you do with your old friends especially if you had a drink.
What one should do is start telling everything bad about him (even though he was your best buddy) to your wife.
With one proviso, that you must tell your strategy  to your buddy  that is the best way to avoid not telling the drink episode to your wife   by destroying what is left of your friend's image as a poor pensioner.
He should also follow the same recipe for his defense vice versa.

Coming to my cuppa, the cost with electricity and my time wasting experimenting with poor quality tea is Rs.50/-- and above.

Whether you have tea at home or restaurant, the result is the same when we start sacrificing quality to cater for the mediocre who vote blindly with only emotion but without brains.
We have to be stupid with bloated image to enjoy anything in this blessed land.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

My Justification for not buying a tablet this Christmas.

My Justification for not buying a tablet this Christmas.

My justification for not immediately going for a tablet is holding true to its tenet.
They were mainly personal reasons.

1. I do not like any proprietary software installed.

2. I do not like proprietary operating system too.

3. Even if the above two conditions cannot be avoided I need my own or selected operation system run independently of the above two.

4. Eve android is not my kind of game.

5. I prefer sourceforge EyeOS instead of Android or vagaries of Android even though I supported the move by Google from the very beginning its embrace of Linux (they did it for different reason now I understand).

6. I don't like even Kindlefire in spite of very vocal support for its success above all the other E-readers.

7. Apart from the above facts, it cannot or does not let you boot from a smartcard like in Barnes Noble tablet. In that scenario I prefer Banes Noble in spite of the higher price.

8. Not having the USB boot function was my major attribute that is missing in Kindlefire. But I do not make qualm at this stage before it get established in the classroom. I want it to be successful in an educational environment and if one has camera and lot of other utilities it divert the attention of the students and teachers will have a hectic time preventing little guys hacking into the system without the teacher's knowledge. It is natural for kids to do that kind of things. If they want to do that their mums and dads have to buy a separate tablet.

9. I need a dock for a proper keyboard at my age. I am not going to fiddle with my fingers and touch screen.

10. Now comes the crunch point.  
Carrier-IQ's attempt to spy on YOU is OUTRAGEOUS. 
What ever their industrial justification the METHOD is worse than a dictator/king attempt to say that he/she is not nude in front of his her subjects while parading stark naked.
It is naked attempt to hoodwink the not so sophisticated ordinary guy/girl.
I thought only Microsoft applied that principle and now that they are rich they seem not to repeat their old mistakes.
It is the new companies want to get rich quickly coming from Asian subcontinent who would apply those tactics. 
Already their is hush every China built chip has associated spyware (it may be a ploy of IBM and the chip manufacturer to undermine China. But their is no reason such a rich and powerful company with lot at stake will go down that pathway unless they know something is brewing in China. I tend to believe them knowing what China is.
Chinese and Indian guys did dirty things in this country prior to and during elections.

I retire into Christmas holidays not sporting a tablet or Kindle and my reasons are vindicated by and large.

It is prudent practice to wait and see policy and to see which direction the wind blows.
In this digital age one has to be not paranoid to believe anything they offer with with market hypes and strategies.

Training my Virtual Medical Assistant (V.M.A)- Secretaries

Training my Virtual Medical  Assistant (V.M.A) Secretaries
I love the idea of using a Virtual Medical Assistant (V.M.A for short.).
Thank god I am in my twilight years and listening to birds singing is one of my natural pastimes and trying to figure out which bird is calling and which bird is answering is not an easy task.
But the idea of voice activated cellphone is a welcome addition to an armory of medically offensive gadgets that are springing by numbers.
Dictaphone was in my armory when working abroad. I could do a very good dictation without punctuation marks and my secretaries never bothered to phone back and ask me for any clarifications. That was a very positive effort on my part and my superiors very much like my approach except a few, since I did not try to show off any accent but pure and simple Queen's English, I dictated.
Mind you I was taking to a voice machine and not a person.
The idiot, the Dictaphone does not have any emotions and only records my voice.
I tell them that putting fullstops, commas, semicolons and apostrophes are her job and not mine.
When things were difficult unlike S.M.S. I wrote down the specific stuff clearly to save their time.
I hope and pray that smart-phone becoming intelligent and telling me back you are creepy and some sort of a sob.
Advantages.
1. After some time smart-phone will instantly know what you are trying to do.
2. Unlike human secretaries who make the same mistakes over over again smart-phone would never repeat mistakes.
3. One can take home the Virtual Secretary unlike the human with bizarre consequence at home boundary.
4. One can switch off the VMA with just a push of a button unlike a jabbering soul with money / home problems.
5. At worse I can thrash it on the floor.
I have to think of the 6 to 10 as and when my lateral thinking make me to do so.
For me it is a smart innervation.
6. If I see a guy/girl I hate (on my war-path) to meet or talk or exchange any greetings I can pretend I am very busy talking to it (of cause switched off and with so many adversaries including politicians I do not want to run dry the battery life) and escape harmlessly. I see this happening every day of my life since i do not still carry a smartphone.

Footnote 1
It is now known that disappearance of bees and their migration pattern is affected by cellphones and microwave activity. 
Like the climate-gate scientists are still hiding behind huge amount of distorted facts by agents and their companies.

Footnote 2
We have a few answers. Last May, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, a branch of the World Health Organization), in Lyon, France, issued a statement that the electromagnetic frequencies from cell phones would henceforth be classified as "possibly carcinogenic to humans." The determination was based in part on data from a 13-country study, called Interphone, which reported in 2008 that after a decade of cell phone use, the risk of getting a brain tumor -- specifically on the side of the head where the phone is placed -- goes up as much as 40 percent for adults. Israeli researchers, using study methods similar to the Interphone investigation, have found that heavy cell phone users were more likely to suffer malignant tumors of the salivary gland in the cheek, while an independent study by scientists in Sweden concluded that people who started using a cell phone before the age of 20 were five times as likely to develop a brain tumor. According to a study published in the International Journal of Cancer Prevention, people living for more than a decade within 350 meters of a cell phone tower experience a four-fold increase in cancer rates.

C-IQ Application is Spying on YOU and is DANGEROUS!

 I have said earlier, the moment One opens an EMAIL address, one loses one's privacy for life.
I have to amend that and the moment you buy and owns a Cell-Phone or may even be a tablet which include Kindle, you are tagged and the device you own and paid for is spying for the Carrier or may be the CIA or KGB.

I have to add another one for why I do not use a Cell-Phone (not that I have anything to hide but I love my privacy in my retirement and I am not going to contest for any political chair) and this one is the most dangerous.

NO encryption and password can be stolen.
No opt out once one is IN.
American Politicians this is more dangerous for you when you are campaigning for HIGH CHAIR!
Why don't you do something about it instead of destroying ones HARD DRIVES.

Digital World is Digital and they keep a tag and record of what you do for even a fraction of a second.
It is worse than the end of the world in 2012.
So, there's a root-kit hidden in millions of cellphones and spying on you.
VIP-C-IQ Application is Spying on YOU and is DANGEROUS!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Vector Linux 7.0, comes of age

Speed, performance, stability;
these are attributes that set apart in the crowded field of VectorLinuxLinux distributions.The creators of had a single credo: keep it simple, keep it small and let the end user decide what their operating system is going to be. What has evolved from this concept is perhaps the best little VectorLinuxLinux operating system available anywhere. For the casual computer user you have a lightning fast desktop with graphical programs to handle your daily activities from web surfing, sending and receiving email, chatting on ICQ or IRC to running an ftp server. 
The above is what is posted at its home site.
I won't try to dispute any of the visions that come from Slackware but I had enormous problem with Slackware and Gentoo because of their rigid adherence to a protocol sometime too rigid itself and loses grand image of Linux.
It has overcome many of difficulties and seems to be coming of age.
I had been trying it from 2009 and could never get it to work for me favorably and never installed it any of my assortment of computers.
One of them is I need a good working Live CD to test it first.
Now it has produced one an it is taking almost two days to download from point to point downloading attempt.
Its torrent file at linuxtracker had sufficient seeders but nowhere compared to Ubuntu, Fedora and Mint.
I hope they post one image at Linux tracker.
I will be soon with you with an update when download is finished.
After several days of trying I managed to download the Live CD (point to point) and now I can report to you it is pretty good and fast booting.
It lacks Cloud Utility, ORCAs and it could not say in which drive (I have CD and DVD drives) Cd was booted.
Docky is good and it booted even in my old IBM.
Mind you I have 1 GiB RAM.
That is the minimum I recommend for Live CD/DVDs.
As I said it has come of age.
Try and enjoy Linux FREEDOM.

Tsunami or no tsunami


We tend to forget the victims be that it may be the tsunami or generals that are victims of political tsunami and get on with our life selfishly.

Tsunami or no tsunami

The gentle breeze
That blows across
The paddy fields
Pooled with water
Ready for planting
The young roots
Makes fine rhythmic waves


An illusion so fine
Make one believes
That it is the water that moves
But not the thin volatile air


The same illusion
But bigger in dimension
Makes giant waves
Of the mighty ocean
Though,
The waves seem to come ashore
But in reality
The water is pulled
By the powerful gravity
To the ocean deep


Bigger illusion
Is the constant movement
Of the seemingly stationary earth crust
Over the molten lava
Pushing the Himalayan mountain
Up from beneath
With the thrust
Of the tectonic plates


Nobody knows for certain
When the next tsunami
Hits the ocean floor
Making us to believe in reality
How unstable the state of the matter is?


Illusion or no illusion
One would like to perceive
That the state of the motion
Be that it may
Wind, water or the ocean floor
Remain calm and long enough
For us to move in erratic fashion


Letting the volatile mind
Run riot in pursuit of all
The sensual desires
Full filled or not full filled
And trying to achieve
The unachievable
Is the biggest illusion of all

3rd December, 2006

Waterholes and Bird Watching

Waterholes and Bird Watching
This is a reproduction and with climate change taking considerable impact within  five (5) years it is worth reproducing, lest I miss the connections. 
The waterhole is no more filled up with soil by developers of new kind and a vehicle that parked on the filled up earth got stuck this Saturday and they could not move it out.
I did come home by stroke of luck bit earlier (it was getting dark anyway) and with the help of two three wheeler drivers and more importantly a crowbar we manged to pull it up.
The vehicle was a brand new automatic (not a 4 wheeler by the way, and driver was a granddad who did not any idea what he was doing).

Yes, I sometimes become a good Samaritan.
The granddad was asking me to push which I did not till I got the problem pictured out and with a likely solution to go with it.
My wife who tried to help ended up with a mild asthmatic attack.
The lesson to learn is "do not help a guy/girl" who in the first instance made a wrong judgment in parking on a private piece of land without asking permission from the owner.


Waterholes and bird watching do not go hand in hand. I believe people frequent waterholes when they are fed with watching birds. But, the connection I have made with waterholes and bird watching is of a different kind.
There was unduly high activity of birds and bees (really there were no bees) in the neighbourhood, for me to venture into investigating this simple phenomenon was spontaneous. The reason of this high activity was the perennial (but infrequent) rain we experienced over the past year or so. There was no scarcity of water except at times when the Water Board decides to divert our water to Kandy Municipality and forgets to turn our pipeline on (to cater to the commercial needs disregarding our needs who live outside the municipality).
The birds that visited our neighbourhood included were Greater Coucal, Common Coucal (Crow Pheasant) and the Red-vented Bul Bul and the increase in number of crows (from two to four to be precise in two seasons).
The reason and the only reason the abundance of rain and water. The birds want survive without the unusually high insect activity and snail population (especially the Common Coucal) which was well supported by the rain. The butterflies and their numbers increased proportionately in the dry periods in between the rainy spells.
Why is this unusual congregation of wild life in our neighbourhood?
To my mind there are two reasons.
We happen to live on their migratory pathway is one reason.
The other was the little waterhole and the water purification unit that stand in front of our house. Birds frequent this place because of the abundance of water certainly, not for food.  I of course do not believe in feeding them because the constant threat for birds from domestic cats. It was on the other night we managed to rescue a King Fisher from a domestic cat. He had one piercing wound on the head and another through the wings and there was bleeding. I did not know how to manage an injured bird. Got my daughter to read something on first aid and advise me until I attended to TLC (tender loving care). Luckily we had a visitor who was a bird watcher and we decided to keep him till morning expecting its demise. Come morning he was still living and quickly handed over the bird to the Veterinary Hospital for necessary care. Quickly had a chat with the Professor (who unlike medical doctors visit the hospital even on Sundays and Poya days) and she assured me that the bird would be released in a few days.
An unusual happening on Saturday was worth a little film (discovery). I was amazed to see a crow chasing an eagle three times as big as itself. The cunning eagle was using the air current to float and the crow behind vigorously chasing behind the eagle was a fascinating site worth a documentary. The eagle floated himself above the clouds and the crow gave up probably with exhaustion and lack of oxygen in the higher stratum.
In a minute about six to ten crows gathered around the sky and signaled the impending danger to the mother bird and the event ended up peacefully.
The young Coucal
Perhaps he may have to wait for the next season for a mate. Crow population has not matured enough to support two young ones.
25th of July 2006