Apple Mac, Yellow Dog, MakkOS (Fleas) and My Dog-The Connection and the Nation Building

Apple Mac, Yellow Dog, MakkOS (Fleas) and My Dog-The Connection and the Nation Building

All the above have literal and metaphorical connection.

The common denominator is thee size of one’s pocket.

All except Yellow Dog is going is going up and the trend is exponential with the announcement of our budget which is is economically strangling the nation with debit and credit crisis.

While the black money is going in percentage from 30% to 50% and we are debiting our money in the NBT (Nation Building TAX) and if one is having Rs.33,000/= turnover (above the SME-Small and Medium Enterprises) a day one is taxed for helping the economy in which the current government is unable to encompass and accomplish its energy with unnecessary extravaganza.

Yellow Dog is is open source distribution that can be installed in a Apple Computer.

I do not think any one of us in the university can afford to buy an Apple computer for productivity work.

Leave alone if one us including academics can afford an old netbook, it is a luxury.

Some years ago I figured out the cost of one Microsoft computer not pirated, I could have three computers, one at office, one at home  for me and one for my kids for playing games (basically DOS games that are / were very good but out of vogue now).

If I revise my old computations with Apple as an example today I can have almost 50 computers wirelessly connected in my SME business model using Linux as the Link Language.

The beauty is that the economics of the  NBT pundits cannot figure it out or understand the Linux OR its open philosophy and versatility.

They are engrossed with hedging deals instead of critical thinking.

What about MakkOS, the dog fleas which are plenty in this country like IRCs in Welikada with some political backing or the vote bank.

But the trouble is the treatment of dog fleas has gone up and I have to live with my dog and its fleas.

There is a saying in Sinhalese, that we say “if we sleep with a dog we wake up with dog fleas”.

That is of course if we are not interrupted by mosquito menace.

Fortunately we have a temporary respite with torrential rain and not full game o f cricket.

That is also a blessing since we can switch off the TV to save on electricity.

Fortunately, I do not watch SORROW-Lankan cricket but more interested in how the hedging deal was accomplished with ex-cricketers in the fray and running the SHOW.

I sometimes think if I hedged myself with an ex-cricketer instead going on an academic exercise called industrial action, I could have earned the entire emoluments in the university in one transaction.

That is only a wishful thinking.

Coming back to my dog which is having an expensive taste is refusing to eat the meager meal provided.

I did a survey and realized he wished that I should be back on with industrial action lest he missed all the fun we had during the prolonged strike.

Yes, we had dog food those days without our salary being paid but the dog food we shared had more meaning than all the 6% increase in educational funds we were asking for.

I am in full agreement with my dog who does not understand anything about Work or Free time (duly paid after three months) or Strike.

Yes the company we had eating dog food was worth in gold than the promises we were entertained by the economically Enlightened Economists.,

We are treated like Pol Buruwas by the elite.

Fortunately my dog who is eternally wagging his tail is a Pol Buruwaa but I am not.

Who else are the Pol Buruwas?

They are the poor voters

Linux Update on Apple Mac

Linux Update on Apple Mac
I have lot to report now.
Even though, Apple Mac on IBM hardware is based on Linux architecture boot parameters are different from Microsoft.
There is no BIOS but it has something called EFI where Apple Mac boot parameters are locked in and that little bit less than 1 MB [in fact few kilo bites] cannot be erased or formatted.
That little bit is essential for booting the computer and probably the firmware is written there and is permanently resident there.
I could not change it and after installing Ubuntu, I could not boot any other CD.
I searched the web and an Apple user who seemed to be having the mind of a HakingTosh PLAYER helped me.

One has to hold down the C for Command line and P and R for RAM to get the factory boot options AND THEN I could boot all the CDs I downloaded with Linux for Power Pack PCs.

 I managed to install Debian xfce.
The old Mac has very little RAM.
It took a very long time while connected to the internet for updating files.
Ubuntu and Xbuntu [I have now installed Xbuntu because my favorite word processor is AbiWord ] 6.0.6 version [ do not confuse with Debian 6.0.6]which is few years old and has no updates and installation was pretty breezy.

Debian is the latest 6.0.6 and has upto date facility.

I managed to install Yellow Dog 5.0.2 and had to terminate it due to not having the third CD downloaded.

It is like the old Redhat 8 with 6 CDs and it is pretty good.
I had to do lot of searching for the images. 

Its partition tool detects Apple firmware unlike gParted in Ubuntu and Xbuntu.

I could also use a home partition.
Yellow Dog based on Redhat has the best partition tool for Apple Mac hardware.

OK then, thanks to Debian, Yellow Dog and Ubuntu for your their excellent work on Apple hardware.
I won't test or write on Apple Mac for sometime, lest I will destroy the precious little RAM I have in my old Apple hardware.
i have done enough installing already.
I am currently downloading the 4th, 5th and 6th CDs of Yellow Dog.

If you have any additional information on Linux on Apple Mac please do not hesitate to make some comments below for other users Apple users to experiment with Linux.

Linux-Ubuntu on Apple Mac

Linux-Ubuntu on Apple Mac
You may be wondering why there was no addition to my blogpost.
I did not have access to internet for two solid weeks all due to thunder storms and the local telecom server unable to provide service.
I wanted to write about Linux on an Apple Mac and my first encounter with Apple Mac computer had to be delayed by about three weeks.

Three weeks ago, I was hunting for a RAM for IBM Server which I had misplaced after dismantling its components.
With the strike on, I did not want it (the server) to be obstructing my massive clean up efforts.
Before tidying up, I just wanted to see whether I could find few 266 DDR RAMs.

I was looking for them over the past 9 months.

It needed an EEC (Error corrected) dedicated RAM.
I walked into a computer shop and the guys knew me instantly and after a little search gave me a negative reply.

As I was walking out I saw an Apple Mac (Globe) with a beautiful monitor.
I asked, is it working and the guy said not Apple but Ubuntu.

That was a pleasant surprise and I got the young chap to run it and he even did not know how to open the CD tray.
I jacked in a USB Linux and it did not boot but after a long pause it booted up Xubuntu and it had Abiword, my favorite word processor.

I told him nobody except me would by it and nobody knows Linux in Kandy as much as I do and it is not Ubuntu but Xubuntu to be precise.

I checked the hard disk capacity which was 36 odd and the RAM was pretty low in today's standard and it was a good toy for me to play with Linux testing. 

I told him I will be back in two hours and if they quote a good price the deal was on.

I was collecting money for breast cancer project in those two hours.

Try all your tricks and tell me how it boots and BIOS etc were my instructions.
When I came back, they had given up on it and only the live CD was booting after a very long delay.

I managed to take the live CD out and could boot live only once at home and the thunder storms started and the install script did not work.
The same night the local server of the telecom was out and I could not have any access to download a Linux CD to install.

Ubuntu 5 and 9 power pack editions, I had were of no use and did not boot.
I downloaded Xubuntu 10 and it also did not boot.

All this was due to low RAM.

Toady morning I managed to download both Xubuntu and Ubuntu 6.0.6.1 and fortunately I managed to install Ubuntu on the first go.

Several goes with Xubuntu (to save the RAM) did not work with some file errors in the CD.
I could not find a Debian or any other less than 700 MiB (CD version) to instal on the old Apple Mac.

It is again Ubuntu to rescue.

What ever false propaganda people are spreading against Ubuntu, it was Ubuntu which had the nerve to spread its influence even on Apple hardware.
In less than 10 minutes it copied the files and in another 7 minutes it installed and configured the hardware in a Mac which had 80 odd RAM.

It is amazing what Linux can do even with low RAM.

It has open office 2 and firefox which was old but got me to my email and blogspot in an instant but without cookies.

I hate cookies which is pain in the neck and delay mounting files.

BIB THANK YOU to guys at Canonical and the guys who keep old repositories full of old Linux distributions.

If not for you lot of working hardware would be in the junkyard.

Now I can say I am an Apple hardware (if not software) convert.

What should I do with my email when I finally kick the bucket?

What should I do with my email when I finally kick the bucket?

I have enormous amount of web writing varying from Bullshit to Buddhism.

My Bullshit is visited by many including Americans.

It is currently at 70,000/= and I think 50,000 of it is my own visits (I have blocked my visits now).

I want it to pass 100,000 before I kick the bucket and you may help by visiting it.

The blogspot is called parafox at Google and mind you most of it is GOO like Guha Goda or Goo Goda in Kandy.

My erudite or better but Buddhist, philosophical and political one's are at Asokaplus at Wordpress.

Type Asokaplus and Buddhism and you get to those contents, hardly a few visit them (Not even me) by accident.

What it means is Web is mostly junk and do not sit in front of your computer like me for hours on end but go and visit your friends.

Till I get 100,000 visits I have decided not to socialize with anybody except myself.

You can get me out of this serious malady by visiting parafox at least once a day not in the morning but before going to bed.

That is the time I open my emails (many in fact) and post blogposts.

I have decided not to do that in the morning since our industrial action is suspended not over yet.

I will finish this bullshit by posing a question which you should help me to solve.

It is a radical and political problem.

What should I do with my email when I finally kick the bucket.

Your suggestions are put in my blogspot (parafox) not in any order of merits.

Ideally one should post a comment here instead of sending me an email.

Booting Netbook with a SD Card

Booting Netbook with a SD Card

I was lucky to find a Netbook with reasonable RAM with hard disk more than 100 GiB.

It also had SuSe enterprise edition to make a good buy in Sri-Lanka.

There was no buyer for it until I discovered it in a shop in Kandy.

Dealer was not a computer expert but a good salesman.

I could negotiate a good price having convinced him nobody will buy it (except perhaps me) with Linux as an operating system and if he has to install Microsoft there will be additional cost for him.

He won’t be able to boot it from a Flashdrive and he needs a USB DVD ROM to boot Microsoft.

That was some additional expense for the buyer.

Then I came home since I did not have spare cash (they stopped the salary for 3 months) because of the strike action.

Three months was a long time and I negotiated a loan from the bank and bought it, a week after initial negotiation.

Having bought tit I left it without using it since SuSe 10 was very old for me with OpenOffice instead of Libre Office.

In addition I could not get any additional software without registering with Novel (just like one register with Microsoft).

this was annoying for me to say the least.

I did not won’t a somewhat Virtual Guy taking control of my Linux Freedom.

Equally I did not want to lose warranty.

Then I realized only a few of the Linux distribution were compatible with Netbooks.

Finally I found Pinguy with all the software (11 series of Pinguy-Ubuntu derivative) including gParted and UnetBootIn and even Ubuntu One.

So one day I eased everything and booted and installed Pinguy.

I of course tried resizing the partition to get some space for Pinguy but it did not boot SuSe afterward..

In any case the partitioning done by the foreign vendor was horrible and did not have any understanding of Linux I believe.

That is the long story and the little story is how i booted it with a SDHC Memory Card.

Again I had to delay this due monetary reason.

Two days after we suspended the strike action I was in full swing and saw a 16 GiB SDHC Card and bought it using my credit card.

Methods and Materials.

1. Netbook

2. Linux image written on a DVD (Pinguy in this case).

3. Couple of Flashdrives.

4. USB Hard drive.

5. SD or SDHC

6. DVD RW Writer, optional.

7. Laptop for getting things ready with a DVD.

8. If not a Desktop. In my case the downloading was done with the desktop and all the Linux images were copied subsequently to the USB Hard disk.

STEPS.

1. Install Pinguy.

2. Using Pinguy prepare either USB Flash Drive (UnietBootIn) or USB hard drive as spare Live systems(Using Live DVD).

3. Boot Pinguy with SDHC card in slot.

4. Use gParted to partition SDHC Card.

5. First partition has to be FAT32 (in my case 4 GB FAT 32,  4 GiB NTFS and 8 GiB Ext4)

6. Run UnetBootIn and I gave the path to where my Linux Pinguy image was (in the USB Hard Disk). Be careful of the nomenclature of the disk names (HDD 1 Sda2, Sda 3 etc) and where it should be installed (in this case SDHC Card).

in about one has a bootable SD Card.

7. Boot it to see whether the installation is right.

8. Follow the same procedure for Flashdrives and test to see whether they work and remove them and place them in a safe place (Use them in case your original system breaks down. It rarely happens with Linux though and in my case never but when accidentally I format partitions with an operating system, I fall, back to the live CD/DVD.

Now it is Flashdrives and SD Cards both of which are environmentally sound as compared to CD/DVDs which are not.

Good luck if you are trying my experiments to get a hang of Linux.

NEMO! Who was he?

NEMO!

Who was he?

I only knew about the Waltz Disney character the Fish but never knew the name NEMO had a long history.

Below is a reproduction of Google’s contribution  to Winsor McCay on his 107 birth day anniversary.

Please Go and Visit Google and Doodle please.

Google Doodle Winsor McCay

The Google Doodle tribute to Winsor McCay

Google has celebrated the 107th anniversary of Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland with one of the search engine's most elaborate doodles ever.

The doodle recreates the adventures of the main fictional character from the illustrator's comic strips, which first appeared on 15 October 1905 in the New York Herald.

Widely regarded as one of the great figures in the comics form, McCay's bold and stylistic innovations in the early part of the 20th century redefined what the medium could do and set a standard followed by Walt Disney in decades that followed.

Born in Michigan in either 1869 or 1871 – the date is disputed – McCay received some basic art training while attending business school before going to work in the printing and engraving industry in Chicago. He later moved to Cincinnati, where his first major comic strip series was A Tale of the Jungle Imps by Felix Fiddle, which appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer over more than 40 instalments.

Little Nemo, based on the adventures of a boy of around six-years-old, ran in the New York Herald from 1905 to 1911. The strip, which ran only on Sundays, features Nemo's adventures as he tries to reach the Princess of Slumberland, daughter of King Morpheus, who desires Nemo for a playmate.

McCay was hired by William Randolph Hearst in 1911 and went to work on Hearst's New York American, a morning newspaper, as an editorial cartoonist. He also started to experiment with animated cartoons and creating the classic Gertie the Dinosaur as well as a short Little Nemo film.

McCay died on 26 July 1934 of a cerebral embolism.

USB Booting with Linux

USB Booting with Linux

This piece long overdue.

The real reason is our strike and I was doing three times the work I had not done at home and was organizing my living room and workshop.

These were done on a leisurely pace not in a rush as when I was working.

My dog took a lot of time of me which he really enjoyed and the little squirrel is a bundle of energy.

All the same I got all my computers USB bootable one by one.

I have used only two methods.

Method 1

I. UnetBootIn and get the stuff copied to a USB stick.

this has disadvantages.

UnetBootin takes over the flash drive entire and one cannot have storage space except of course home folder.

It uses only FAT partition

One cannot get the GRUB installed with your existing operating systems in the hard drive booted.

The real advantage is one can make any iso image bootable provided that one has enough space in the USB stick and your RAM is at least 1 GiB.

Anything less is not advisable.

Method 2

This is the method I prefer since in an emergency, the hard drive systems can be booted in a breeze or if they are not working one can boot up with the external hard disk and start doing repair work from there if the operating system used in the USB hard drive is packed with Rescue utilities .

One can use Rescatux.

But here I will take PCLInux as an example.

Its USB Creator is now solid and very good (latest download after Texstar took a back seat).

One has to use the PCLinux USB Creator

1. The advantage is it uses Linux Partitions.

2. It writes the GRUB already in the Master Boot record.

3. One has to do the installation once one has finished all the installation in the Internal Hard disk/s.

4. It has storage more space.

5. In my case my archived isos reside on the spare NTFS partitions

6. It is easy carry in your front shirt pocket and one cannot lose or misplace it like the Flash Drive.

7. Password protected and safe with your critical data 

I have not given the details since all that is there in this blog under different titles.

Other reason is to thank the PCLinux team for doing a good job without making a big ha ho.

Thank YOU PCLinux Guys and Girls.

Pooches, poo and "crottes de chien"

Dear Friends.

Since our strike is suspended and in suspensions (not underwear) for now, till the real budget comes in November, let us read some real news.

If we continued with the strike we would have had POOS up to our BRIM not dogs of course and I get the information, they we collecting by the buckets.

Years ago Kandy had Bucket latrines and thank god the Municipality discontinued this procedure.

We had to go to Guha Goda- (I think it was derived from Gu Goda which the British could not pronounce and went as Guhagoda) in our public health appointment and unfortunately when we reached there they were unloading the Municipality products.

That was the first and the last day I went there.

But it was a good opportunity for me to put some insight into practice later when I started as an intern.

At Ratnapura Hospital, The Children Diarrhoea Ward was no different from Gu Goda or Guha Goda.

I requested that it should be cleaned on several occasions but the staff took me as joke, it was never cleaned it continued to be Gu Goda.

I came home for weekend break and returned on Monday in probably five or six buses (all the bridges were blasted by the JVP from Kegalle to Darniegala to BulathKohupitiya).

I gave instruction for it to be cleaned when I return on Monday

I went straight to the  diarrhoea ward to see it was in the same mess as it was on Friday.

I talked to few of the mothers told the nurses to get me some KOSU (Mops were not known) and I myself changed to a short (not a trouser) and started cleaning it from one end to the other.

Then, the laboures came and chased them away saying I do not need them.

This was hot news that day and children were piling up in the main ward not seen by (the other guy who was from Colombo did not turn up on time and came only at 11 A.M.) a doctor.

I only saw the diarrhoea patients till the other guy came.

When I got the news that the other guy came. 

I went to my room had a bathe and a cup of tea.

I used to make my own cup of tea.

I had a brand new electric kettle (these were the time we did not have tooth paste) which my brother brought from UK.

Mind you all the doctors in the hospital had Infectious Hepatitis in that year. except me.

I believe I was the only one who practiced simple hygiene.

This was many moons ago and we would been in a mess, like Guha-Goda, if we continued on our action and could have got Infectious Hepatitis instead of a salary hike.

READ MORE,

Dogs and Digital Tombs

Dogs and Digital Tombs

This is the best feature article I read during Christmas,2011.

Unfortunately it is taken off the main page and I had to search for it today.

I have some extracts below for your perusal.

I have a suggestion for French and People in Paris.

Instead of stoned tombs in the cemetery, they should have a server with DIGITAL TOMB with all the photographs and videos of the dogs when they were alive and well for not so dog lovers or dog loving Sri-Lankan administrators to see.

For the poo ("crottes de chien"), I have suggestion, they must send them to Sri-Lanka as fertilizer for the Banana Plantation we are growing in the thick of virgin forest to feed American entrepreneurs.

We love anything including "poo", if it is foreign but make sure they are scented with French cosmetics for poos, please.

This is good for our City Planners in Kandy and Colombo where dogs are rounded up and slaughtered and some end in dinner plates as "chicken substitute".

It is no point saying all the beings be happy and content like a mantra.

Without them (dogs) we cannot protect our things from petty thieves.

Extracts

The pampered pooches of Paris

By Joanna Robertson Paris

Pet dogs in the French capital appear to enjoy the freedom of the city, accompanying their owners just about everywhere - and even have their own cemetery.

The pampered pooches of Paris

By Joanna Robertson Paris

Pet dogs in the French capital appear to enjoy the freedom of the city, accompanying their owners just about everywhere - and even have their own cemetery.

There are hundreds of thousands of dogs in Paris.

They can be chosen from puppy-shop windows or ordered from countryside breeders.

They are seen traveling about the city, nestled amongst the groceries in shopping trolleys or peering out of handbags.

Dogs perch on the running boards of mopeds - ears flying in the wind - or sit, swathed in blankets, in bicycle baskets.

They are petted on the bus, the tram and the metro and, for a flat-rate ticket costing 5.10 euros (£4.25), the smaller ones can escape the metropolis and take the train to anywhere in France.

Access all areas

When on all four paws, dogs in Paris can choose from 72 gardens to walk in - from formal palace grounds to tiny urban squares.

In between, they can mark lamp-posts, trees, ornamental masonry and the corners of Art Nouveau metro stations to their hearts' content.

Paris dogs snooze under cafe tables and sit politely in restaurants.

They are allowed into shops - even when officially not - and, from time to time, sneak into cinemas, usually for a matinée on a wet afternoon.

Each dog has its own preferred vet and there are hundreds to choose from.

Each vet has a preferred dog diet. Calves liver, braised. A little "blanc de poulet" (white chicken meat) or a slice of rare roast beef.

What goes in must come out, and Paris dogs apparently drop 20 tons (20,000 kg) of "crottes de chien" (dog poo) on the city's streets every day, although who exactly weighs it remains a question that even the Hotel de Ville (Town Hall) cannot answer.

From time to time, the city's more creative residents have used the crottes as pavement art, sticking them with coloured flags, photographing and painting them.

My Dear Friends
There is good news for you.
Read the article

Chocolate Consumption, Cognitive Function, and Nobel Laureates

If you eat  lot of chocolate (I am not sure dark / or milky) one day you will be a Nobel Laureate before you even become a professor.
It is a good idea to increase its consumption before the examination.
The secret of success is that you have to share half of the chocolates with me who has send this good news.
My dog will get the Nobel price for Wisdom for sharing chocolates with me daily before my name is proposed for similar purposes.

My daughter and my wife tell me he will get cataract before the nomination day.

But he gets dark chocolate too.

I think mango (Mango Friends) is the best (I think it has more flavonoids which I gave him today for test trial of cognitive functions after a dose of dark chocolates.

He actually talked today and said " ...... This part is withdrawn on the advice of my friends but it starts with M M but not 3 M of Minute Metta Meditation------but one can substitute one’s own original thesis in expectation of Nobel Nomiation (NN for SHORT).

Unfortunately I could not record it.
Keep this as a secret until he and me gets the Nobel Prize before the world ends this year in December 12-12-12.

Rebirth, Recycle, Reality and Politics in Cricket

Rebirth, Recycle, Reality and Politics in Cricket

It is rebirth and recycle of life the fundamentals of Dhamma.

It is fact not fiction in science.

It is fair play and prompt action but not protraction, convolutions and distortion in law.

It is procrastination and distortion and power not prudence and wisdom in politics.

It is money and corruption and not spirit of the game in cricket.

Booting Problems with Linux

Booting Problems with Linux

I have been formatting and updating my IDE and SATA IBM computers lately.

I have come across a booting problem with GRUB Script of Ubuntu and Knoppix.

My problem was not new.

This had been the  case for years and I have found a way out.

I will tell how to overcome this problem in a minute.

Only a few Linux distributions can detect automatically all the other Operating Systems.

Debian is the only distribution that has sorted this out at installation time.

Knoppix even though, Debian derivative thinks there is only Microsoft (Windows) there.

No other Linux distributions exist in this world for their liking or ignore others by defaulting.

It is true with Ubuntu and all the Ubuntu derivatives.

But Pinguy is the only Ubuntu derivative (version 10 and 11) which can easily detect all the operating systems in your computer.

PCLinux too ignores other Linux distributions and gives heavenly regard for Windows.

Then, if there is no windows in your system as in my case but have ntfs partition to store data like what Ihave, these distributions go into panic mode and only guess which is C or D partition in window’s terminology.

I must tell you why I use NTFS partition if I use only Linux.

That is a good question but I have my reasons.

Valid reasons.

Linus is very protective of its partitions and need root or su for access of these partions.

Only Knoppix and Puppy ignore this rule.

Linux boots these ntfs partitions as almost like junk partitions which one can fiddle around.

I store the images of all the distribution which are my favorites in NTFS partitions, which are not protected by Linux rules but easily accessible for writing to CD or DVD.

Other reason is when my home partition is chockablock I empty them to NTFS for safe keeping, (before formatting is due at the end of the year).

Coming back to booting problems, they can only GUESS ntfs' nomenclature, in spite of me making them sda1 and sda 2 when partitioning with another SMALL Debian Utility called Gparted.

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why not use a reasonable GRUB script?

My guess is that they ignore other Linux distributions just to promote only one type of Linux, that is only their distribution.

This is a bad PLOY and not in the true spirit of Linux comrade.

GRUB file is very important to be messed UP and it should not behave like Windows 8 UFI.

My solution is simple, if you have as many distribution as five to six as in my case.

Some for testing and some for looking for fancy utilities bundled with the distribution.

STEPS.

1. Install Windows if you want or Apple if you have lot of extra cash.

2. Then install Knoppix.

3. Then Install PCLinux.

4. Then last of all install Pinguy, my current favorite (apart from Puppy and Knoppix).

If you follow this method, you do not need to configure the GRUB file after installation, that can be something difficult and intimidating for a newbie.

Even though I mentioned Debian, my favorite last installation is AntiX or better still, Mepis (KDE with lot  of useful utilities) distribution.

AntiX is light weight Mepis.

So my recommendation for you if you get into trouble is to download Mepis and install it as the last distribution.

It needs two partitions one for root and one for home.

It is one of the distributions that installs very breezily.

That is the third reason for its use by me apart from its utilities which includes sweeper, a cleaning agent for junk files..

Family Crisis, TRINGO the Trigger Mechanism of the crisis

Family Crisis, TRIN-GO the Trigger Mechanism of the Crisis

Because of our industrial action, I have decided not to share publicly, except privately, any humor, anecdotes and many amusing stories that crop up when we do not CARE for WORK, like politicians, take a real vacation even though, it was premature by 6 months and enjoy the life as if there is only a few days to live in a year when the world is predicted to end from news from an Oracle.

But the focus was only on the STRIKE in spite of many obstacles and telling all my near and dear do not get depressed but try creativity which politicians lack and teach them a lesson, even it is not the time and the midterm of a aimless regime except glorifying and consolidation of the power base.

I was of the opinion that midterm was the best time to take industrial action since one can get a sleeping, lethargic and partisan administration to change its ways and be responsible and responsive.

There was no pressure for those in power politically in midterm and extract what ever it may be desirable.

Equally, one can test the mentality of those in power and their corrupt officials giving them wrong and ill-advices strategically.

I also warned them that it will take a political trend which I am technically or strategically against but not morally though, since there are many who will piggyback on US and take political mileage. 

In a democracy if we remain silent and passive partners, the the cradle of democracy will crumble.

It crumbled since Tamils were silent when atrocities were enacted on them from both sides of the divide..

It is going to crumble if Muslim and Sinhala communities remain passive participants.

Thank god Muslim community has realized it even very late.

They are been globally and systematically suppressed by American and British engineered propaganda which France is cohesively and covertly participating.

All due to OIL but nothing but OIL, the energy crisis looming.

I also told when politics not policies takes precedence, the final outcome is dicey and it will be a long drawn out and painful STRIKE for both sides and there is no win-win situation, the longer it gets into the deep end of the rotten and muddy pool of politics.

Slowly and surely the bureaucrats have muddied the pool.

All my predictions have come true except a viable solution.

This preamble is to explain the newly coined name of our newly adopted grandson who is a squirrel who even had not opened its eyes.

Again the full story will come after the strike is over and one has to wait.

We have kept a diary of him and that will come out when we are back at work, academically.

I need some diversions from the main stream to wear my creative HAT when in full gear.

After I have attended to the emergency need (half my wife and I was out in the town enjoying the new found FREEDOM), I let the tiny one relax and go to sleep since my wife had frightened it so much, only sedative I could assure was dark room conducive for sleeping.

I went to sleep myself and when I got up, the next thing was to name it.

GO was vital and I had decided that it had to GO when he is ready.

I won´t get attached to it.

TRI is that it had to survive the from CATS, and my DOG and Ants.

It also has stripes not three but many on its back.

I made a note on a little notebook for my daughter to attend and again went back to town to find a suitable PEN.

Quite by accident the name rings on me the way we handle RECONCILLATION.

We are like CATS, DOGS and SQUIRRELS,

They cannot live in one house or a PEN.

We are so deeply divided, this country will never prosper.

TRIN-GO reminds me, the election results of the TRINCO, too.

Without any amendments the new name was endorsed by the adopted family and the poor  squirrel family has to be satisfied one minus but soon the juvenile will be roaming on rooftops and trees.

The question is why cannot we enjoy our new found FREEDOM?

Why it is only for ONE Dominant Party?

Why there is no reconciliation but only power politics?

Political power when absolute takes away prudence and cohabitation.

We are worse than CATS, DOGS and SQIRRELS.

In spite of the oddity in nature they somehow survive near human habitation.

Only rarely one has to intervene, when one is young, blind or injured we have to help.

Soon he has to be released to the mother nature.

That was my resolve and no attachment.

One should not get attached to POWER too.

Even our Buddhist monks are deeply entrenched in this POWER game.

That is the sad part and we do not have philosophers to take their place.

Even the philosophy of live and let live is hijacked by the modern Buddhists. and their political leaders.

Why?

I do not know.

Knoppix 7.0.4-Update

Knoppix 7.0.4-Update

Knoppix 7.0.4 is the new kid in town for the new kid/s on skateboard/s.

Not for oldies like me.

If you want to try do not ask your friends.

First read the Linux magazine.

The first DVD that came out of  with the magazine had hardware faults (DVD writing) as well as glitches in the script for hardware installation.

Edition 7.0.3 also had similar installation problems.

Latest edition will have problem if you have an old hardware (DVD drive) or if you have a very new DVD drive with fast writing speeds.

Klaus himself (the creator of Knoppix himself) recommends writing on a slower speed as low as 4X.

It is a huge file compressed with Knoppix own technology and the decompression can be draggy and can give problems when installing.

That problem is not there with Live session.

You will encounter none of these problems with the CD if you have at least 1 GiB RAM.

To me the CD is all that is necessary.

I am even happy with 10th anniversary Edition 6.7.1 which is an old classic, now with 7 on skateboards will be forgotten by many.

The novelty of the current edition is it has 4 desktop types to boot  in one live session and it is the best product/development at a time when everybody is trying to develop a fancy desktop including Gnome 3.

It has LXDE which I love.

KDE.

Gnome and few more desktops even in the live CD.

I think it is the best Live  session experience where choice is also given to the user at a time when the controversy about which is the best desktop is ringing in one´s ears till one is almost stone deaf.

What matters is not the desktop but the utilities big and small wrapped in a nice gift wrap called a desktop.

I do not care which desktop they come with, as long as they do not tap heavily on the resources and a hindrance to productivity and functionality.

That is why I like the light desktops.

With this report Knoppix jumps up from 8th to 3rd place in my list.
Puppy is first.

Pinguy is second.

Why it is third is, it is for kids with new computers and not for my own old computers.

One must not forget one can use a computer for 10 years if not 20.

New Knoppix cannot be booted with my new but old model of netbook.

I hope the developers go back to the drawing board and develop a mini knoppix on a mini CD for the old netbooks that are in use.

Mind you Linux became famous with netbooks and Microsoft killed the bird in the NEST by dishing out outdated XP with OEMs.

They are trying the same ploy with Windows 8.
The so called UFI

My advice, if you are downloading a DVD are as follows.

1. Use  K3B of Linux and not NERO.

2. Use a good quality DVD medium.

3. Use slower writing speed to suit one´s own hardware.
Even one has new ones use a slower speed (that is Klaus recommendation). Reading speed depends on the RAM.

4. Have plenty of RAM,  if it is a laptop.
The minimum is 1 GiB.

5. Use torrent file and check the data integrity before (torrent lets you do that) and after writing, especially if you are installing it.

Above all one must patient like I have when I test a new CD/DVD.

I was very impatient few years ago and if something did not work I panic and jump to wrong conclusions but not any more.

Like the proverbial spider my intention is to climb the steep learning curve which is getting easier nowadays.

Not 10 years ago.

In my case I have to try two DVDs.

First one had a fault at  three fourth the way even though I used a high quality DVD, even for testing.
Second time round, I also checked the torrent file before writing.

None of these problems were there  with the CD.

My other recommendation is to go and buy a DVD from a reputed dealer. in the WEB.

Worst scenario one can return it and ask for a new one.

It got to be 7.0.4 and not 7.0.1 or 7.0.3.

Finally thanks a lot for the developer team for listening to the user feedback and improving Knoppix by leaps and bounds.
Overall KNOPPIX 7 is an excellent Live DVD that can be installed if one wishes.

But you cannot beat my love for dogs and Puppy is mu first CHOICE.

Dingo is my best friend in the live CD series and mind you Slacko has cloud capability too.

I forgot something and there were lot of mistakes in my writing.
SORRY.
I did it at 3 a.m, just before dropping to sleep.
If you are installing the steps are
1.Microsoft or any other proprietary Installation.
2. Knoppix Second.
3. Any other Linux distribution (Pinguy, PCLinux or Sabayon).
WHY?
Knoppix only detects Microsoft and its GRUB cannot detect other distributions,especially Ubuntu derivatives.
It gives you that option when installing and unless one is confident in configuring the BOOT LOADER please accept the default given by Knoppix.
Most of the well known distribution has a good GRUB utility and automatically detects Microsoft and Knoppix while you are sipping a cup of TEA or COFFEE.
I have about six (no Microsoft) in my laptop with 500 GiB hard disk and there is Puppy also in a tiny partition.
I am now even changing that.
I use UnetBootIn and make Live USBs to boot.
That is the fashion nowadays.
There is also Live USB creator which is much better as far as the security of your USBs are concerned and they use partitions other than FAT partition for installation.
I may write a brief, if I recover from my slumber and laziness due to prolong industrial action which is heading for the fourth month,
It is good for my soul and I am enjoying life, even though my purse is not bulky.
My dog loves my new found freedom and I hope this strike will drag on till next year (waiting for the WONDER Budget) and I have re-formatted all my computers and installed new versions except the computer I use for downloading.
I might STOP even downloading and format that computer too and have an extended vacation till Christmas and also without Linux and any updates.
However, I will carry a few USB Sticks around my neck for emergency help if somebody who has a computer with Microsoft which won´t boot up and is STUCK.
I will restore it with Linux and carry data round my neck.
I will charge for this service until the strike is over and after that all my services will be FREE.
After all we are fighting for FREE EDUCATION in the same spirit as FREE SOFTWARE.

Stupidity that goes with Windows and Proprietary Installations

Stupidity that goes with Windows and Proprietary Installations

I will be brief.

Whether it is Microsoft or Linux Proprietary Installation, one is handicapped from day one.

It was true with SuSe installed as OEM on a netbook.

I got rid of SuSe Enterprise with the first opportunity I had.
I had to find a good alternative from my archived distributions and unfortunately I found only a few.

There is no excuse for me with Windows 7 starter pack.

I bought a  Microsoft Starter pack for Rs10,000/= in case my daughter´s netbook packs up (this was a netbook with OEM XP introduced sometime ago to counteract Linux popularity) but I never used it for that purpose.

So I had it on my laptop which I rarely use except to demonstrate Linux on workshops or to my friends.

My workhorse is old IBM desktop with various Linux installed.

I wanted to upgrade my laptop with new stuff and I did all that last night including downloading the packages I wanted which were missing with the iso.

Today I was busy preparing USB boot up hard disk with UnetBootIn and the USB creator pack of PCLinux and accidentally formated the partition where windows was installed and another partition where Ubuntu/Super OS was installed.

This is something I do but never worry about it.

Since I can simply plug in a USB KEY with Live Linux or live CD to get the system running.

But, alas, not today.

I got my other Linux running and happily switched off the computer.

Since we are still on strike I attended to some gardening and came and switched on the computer.

It started up and got frozen  at the first page looking for Windows 7 and won´t  switch off the computer.

Won´t boot on with Live CD or the Live USB hard disk.

I was in a bit of a panic mode not knowing how to switch it off and thinking I have burned something by overcooking and overclocking the laptop.

Normally when I press hard on the on button for a few seconds it switches off but not today.

I removed all the USB sticks DVDs and waited for a while but it won´t switch off.

Well. I took the battery off as the last resort which was not a thing one should do in this type of situation.

Having  checked that nothing running, no kernel or init or hardware except the DVD ROM running, I did the unthinkable as the last rescue effort.

When I put the battery on, the above scenario repeated with no possibility of booting a Live Linux to repair the MBR I have willingly damaged.

I removed the battery again and had a complete survey of all the components and all of them were in good condition to my satisfaction and waited for one hour for the RAM to discharge and in the next time round put the windows DVD and switched on the computer on.
Presto!

It booted up and this is the trick Microsoft does to OEM if ever one boots a window´s starter.
This is the computer I bought while on a short holiday without an operating system and booted up while waiting in the airport lounge with Linux and used it till its battery went dead and I was coming home safely only a laptop as the hand luggage.
I tested it with a Puppy Linux pocket CD and a Live USB which I prepared while in transit, before buying it.

In my case I was prudent never to register with Microsoft, I could boot the DVD 100 times or more if there need be.

This is a dirty DOS Trick and with Windows 8 coming there will be much more dirty tricks up their sleeves and I won´t boot up Windows 8 even to have a  look.

OEM guys and girls BEWARE the DIRTY TRICKS! 
Well yesterday, I did installed my favorite but light weight Linux on a pocket and portable USB Hard Drive and copied the GRUB file to it and this will never happen again with Microsort for sure.
One has to have a laptop that boots up with a USB Key.
There is a problem with the USB key.
Anybody can destroy the data with a USB key, unless you lock your laptop with a chain.
That is why I prefer a full blown operating system with root and user password.
Never leave a laptop unattended specially when abroad and on holidays.
Skinheads are there for your Money, Laptop, Master Cards and the Cellphones ( four digit passwords for your cards can be easily cracked).
BEWARE.