Why I use Abiword / LibreOfice for basic work?

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Why I use Abiword / LibreOfice for basic work?

There are many reasons.

I will list only a few.

1. Simplicity.

2. Ability to remove all formats

3. Ability to remove annoying Macros (this is on reason I started using OpenOffice when word processing was dominated by Microsoft word-97-when one starts opening a document, one was allowed this option).

4. Its page format is solid if one knows how to use them effectively.

5. It is print ready

6. Let one uses the page view and print view before finalizing a document.

7. It has its own document format not recognized by any other word processor big or small and let them go into panic mode.

This I use as a security option and save option as well as to tease other word processors.

8. It is light weight when uploading a document.

9. It can be converted to any other word document format effortless and seamlessly except perhaps Latex.

10. It has PDF facility.

11. it does not have facility for index but makes good a good table of contents

12. I do not use images and photos at this stage of the document to simplify my work.

When and Why I use LibreOffice?

Having finished the basic document in Abiword and when I want to add few cutting edge formatting, I upload the Abiword file and do the final touch up in LibreOffice without infringing copyrighted material.

I add images and photos shed of the unnecessary load of the image format ( for example added in by gimp

If I am not happy with the touch up, I upload it back again to Abiword and remove the touch up and work upwards to my satisfaction.

Lot of people try to do everything on the first go and on the first file, that is why reworking is hazardous and time consuming on the original file and it has to be proofread before publishing.

Update on installation of Multiple Linux Distributions on Single or Multiple Hard Disks

 29-07-2013

Update on installation of Multiple Linux Distributions on Single or Multiple Hard Disks

I have completed three cycles of Installations and it is time for me to report.
One of the reason for updating one of my spare / old computers, was to get LibreOffice 4.0 into one of the distribution.
After a week of testing to my amazement I have to report that Peppermint and Lubuntu are good enough distributions to have in your system or on one’s USB stick (in addition to one’s choice of major distribution).

 
At a time when there is a rapid change in hardware and software and tablets are taking over PCs and Cloud is supplying the utilities, the change in one’s mindset to accommodate the challenge is mandatory for survival in the IT world.

1. Peppermint 4
Peppermint is trying to sit on the middle ground.
It is cloud ready with its window’s desktop taking a light weight window manager for fast booting.
It takes Google seriously and uses it chrome browser efficiently.
It has no utilities to boast on especially office packages but uses Ubuntu repository for retrieving any of the latest packages amounting to over 33,000.
I downloaded Abiword which is an excellent word processor and writing this report in Abiword.
It is three in one.
It is light weight .
It is Google enhanced.
It s Ubuntu ready (repository).
It is not a proper Linux image and cannot be booted on a USB stick using UnetBootIn, unlike Joli OS.

2. Joli OS 1.2
It is a cloud distribution with many cloud utilities.
It can be installed and can be carried on a USB stick.
However one is hooked to the OS provider unlike Peppermint and one has to be signed up with an email address.

3. Lubuntu 13-04
It is Ubuntu based without Unity desktop.
Instead it uses one of the best light weight desktop which is LXDE.
It can be carried in a USB Stick and the whole distribution fits in a CD.
It as Abiword which is very handy.

4. Knoppix 7.0
In my assessment it tops the list.
It is breezy.
It is LXDE.
It has many utilities including Gparted.
It can now be installed on the hard disk.
It needs a swap partition and reserFS file system.
Its grub is no the best though still probably uses Grub not Grub 2.

 5. AntiX-Debian Based
This is one of the best for old computers.
It is light weight and one can chose either Debian Wheezy (stable) or testing repository for packages.

Its Grub is one of the best.

6. Ubuntu 13.04
Now then where does Ubuntu Unity fits in.
Surprisingly it fits in on both side of the divide.
It is small and can be fitted to a mobile phone (given time like Android), tablet and the PC.
It is cloud ready with Ubuntu One and Music store.
It is a clear winner.
It still has rough edges with the Plymouth and the Unity desktop but it has taken the lead and adapting fast to the IT jungle with the survival of the fittest mentality.
Its repository is full with Debian based trusted and tested packages.
It might even beat and give a run for the money as far as Debian concerned given the rapid changes in the horizon.

What will happen to KDE?
Only a few will survive.
In that context SuSe is in the forefront.

7.SuSe 12.3
Latest version is pretty good
It has in addition LXDE in its DVD.
It has the best partition tool.
Best Grub-2
It has the best configuration tool (YAST).
It lets the user knows what is happening (minor details are omitted) in every stage and one can fall back.
it has a pleasing desktop.
It has shed its weight and still supports old hardware.
It has a good community.
It is a versatile desktop but yet to be cloud ready (because of its desktop weight) as like the light weight champions mentioned above.

8. Current (not old versions) version of PCLinux
It has the worst partition manager and the grub file.
It dose not recognize other Linux distributions except Knoppix, which is very strange.
It configuration is pretty standard but not while installing.
It hangs up and freezes in the middle of the installation.
It is very slow in installation.
For the fist time in my experience it burned my Graphic Card (128 VGA) and I had to fall back to 64 bit Card to restore my old computer.
It tried to install plasma on a 128 card after installation without me prompting which resulted in the accident.
If it burns a Redon graphic card of a user he may even throw a fit.

 
I must tell you I have burned few RAM cards before I started using at least 1 GB but never a graphic card.
 

I buy old computers mainly for testing and upgrade them to my liking with RAM and graphic cards and I have an array of old graphic cards removed.
 

One cannot buy them now and they are hard to find.
 

I had to fall back to 64 GB graphic card which is retrogression in technology but still the computer does do the basic function including cloud computing.
This why I say never buy an old laptop and very soon I may have to say do not refurbish old PCs since tablets are on the market.

I may retire with a tablet or an ebook reader with Chinese taking over tablet market one can buy five (5) for the price of one iPad.
That is a real progress in the third world.
One has to be stupid or fabulously rich to buy an iPad.
This is what I recommend to my students (medical and dental) who will soon become professionals in their own field and be using tablet (palm computer of the yesteryear) for referring medical texts and pictures for their postgraduate training.

PCLinux is trying to do to many things at the same time after Textstar retired.
I am going to give it up sooner or later.

Reading and Revisiting Old Books for Pleasure

Reading and Revisiting Old Books for Pleasure

From the very outset I must say, I am not a guy who would read a fiction book from cover to cover.

It is almost an anathema to me.

I read the back cover first and then see whether the story has been made into a film and go and see the film instead. That was good old days when we got down all the good English films including box office ones.

Last film I saw was Karma. I went to see that film expecting to get some inspiration for finalizing my book on “Rebirth Revisited” but on the same day I wrote a stinking blog piece to say it was my bad Karma, for me to see it from beginning to end. Outright distortion on medical facts and no understanding on what is envisaged in the concept of Kamma as is said to be stated in Dhamma.

This is my entry point to state categorically that reading a good old book is an inspiration, to say the least. I could not find a single recent book incorporating evolving medical facts about the concept of Kamma but I dug into my old books and found a good book written by Francis Story. Unfortunately this gentleman died of an incurable cancer and could not finish his task but Rev. Bhikku Bodhi had compiled a book having collected his old writings.

It is not a masterpiece but it is the best book available for one to read.

If one s inquisitive, that book has enough material to dig in deeper and discover facts from fiction.

My attempt was not to recompile but to revisit the same theme with little bit of scientific thought process activated by default. So having had few old books in my collection was a big boost. Revisiting Rebirth was almost spontaneous reaction having read those old books.

With lot of human right talks on the horizon, I wanted to dig into the history of the white man in the last 500 years with special reference to South Africa. I could not find a single book in all the bookshops in Kandy city.

I did not try the University library knowing very well that would be futile.

I did not give up finding a book and for my luck there is a bookshop in Kandy, 145, D.S. Senanayake Vidiya, called “Tel” with a remarkable collection of old books.

I hit a gem pit of old English books.

I have a penchant for old books and they are enough to keep me fully occupied for the rest of the year.

I think it is worthwhile to revisit why Sri-Lankans have lost the habit of reading, especially English books. The biggest reason is that the books are written in fairly advanced English and reading and comprehension of them are not within there capability of the average young reader.

They second reason is we do not have good English teachers now and most of them have retired or gone abroad for teaching. The current English teaching in schools is very poor.

I must state that I sat the O Level examination to see it for myself 12 years ago, I got a distinction and my office boy's son also got a distinction. I am sure the examiners who corrected my paper did not understand my English and gave me a distinction by default.

The examination did not have a way to distinguish me from the teenager whose English was not at its prime.

There was a fault in the examination.

I am an examiner myself and I set a question to distinguish the mediocre from the brightest.

I call it the distinction question.

Suffice is to say we had five first classes this time and old of them got an A grade in the subject I teach passionately.

There is also a dangerous habit of trying to translate them with no attempt at improving the standard of English. I think it is far better to have a lighter and easy version in English than to translate them.

One can never get the same feeling the author had when he/she incubated the wonderful idea for the book. I tell young ones please do not read the translation but read the original.

If one cannot have the new book, go for a secondhand book.

That is not a crime.

Out of the many other reasons what stands out most is that the children are examination oriented from their tender age and not learning oriented. I hate the year five examination and I am one who is vociferous that this examination should be scrapped.

I have stated it before and many a times.

The government giving free books often not edited for 30 years or more is another factor to contend with.

It is an antithesis to me in the modern age and IT world.

We have not produced outstanding educators simply because of this reason and it is a hindrance to freelance writers of educational books.

Until we produce enough educators and good authors only thing one can do is to read old books. If you have old books please make sure they are recirculated.

The “Tel” bookshop would be an outlet for them in Kandy.

What if one wants to try Linux?

 25-07-2013

 

What if one wants to try Linux?

 

This is a short recipe but the steps are far too many.

1. Decide what one needs

List the utilities one needs

Web browsing using only a cloud utility

Anonymous web browsing

Needs a word processor free of copyright, for example LibreOffice

Needs a photo editor

Video/Audio player +++++

2. Decide on the CD/DVD image (DVD is preferable) of the distribution

3. Download preferably a torrent file which checks the file integrity and checksum

4. Decide on the hardware Laptop (never use a secondhand laptop) PC or self assembled PC.

Old secondhand PC computers with updated RAM (minimum of 1 GIB is my recommendation) with a graphic card of 256 to 512 MB is a good choice especially if it is the spare computer one is going to use it as.

On board Ethernet card is mandatory.

If there is no spare computer to download or the download speed is slow like in the developing world one has few options.

I do not download or test distributions now to save my electricity bill.

If I can save one month's of electricity bill I can buy the Linux magazine for a whole year.

That is what I do now.

One can visit and browse the Linux Magazine site and buy old copies of the magazine with Linux DVDs in them.

If you do so and buy a magazine copy, go for the copy with Knoppix DVD (as an extra copy) and a another copy of your desired distribution.

My approach.

One has to decide on either 32 bits or 64 bits (can have more RAM) version.

I will have five to six distributions in one box, few for my use and others for testing.

1. Knoppix CD (not DVD)

2. Gparted CD.

3. Linux Mint KDE (15)

4. Peppermint 4

4. Kiwi Linux

6. SuSe Linux KDE

7. PCLinux LXDE

8. Tails

9. Kali Linx

10. Debian 7.0
11. Pinguy Linux and many more

STEP 1

I boot up the Knoppix 7.0 CD.

This is to check my hardware.

This is the best Live CD to check on my hardware and it never fails.

If you buy the Linux magazine one is able to read the articles (questions and answers mostly) written by Knoppix himself.

I use this CD to partition my hard disk using Gparted.

It needs a rerserFS partition and a swap partition (onw has to use sufficient capacity for the DVD).

Then I install Knoppix CD version on the hard disk (follow the instruction while installing).

STEP 2

Then I boot Gparted Linux CD (Gnome Linux) and verify what was done and format all the partitions, (except where Knoppix is installed) for my need (read my articles on partitioning).

STEP 3

Then I install one by one all the distributions and see which one has the best GRUB utility.

Suse has the best configuration, partitioning and Grub file.

Peppermint comes close second but has very few utilities (cloud friendly Google based).

No word processors, torrent or disk burners.

Kiwi is pretty good alternative to Ubuntu

STEP 4

Redo the Step (three) 3 so that I get the best start up grub file that boots all the distributions.

I do this once a year and I have finished that cycle a few hours ago and I installed (downloaded) all the missing files of Peppermint except one that creates (it is not available in graphic form) an iso image of my final upgraded distribution.

Few comments worth mentioning.

 

1. use a router and not a telephone hookup.

2. Do not listen to guys/girls who test them on virtual machines.

There is a big difference in performance in actual hardware than in a virtual machine.

3. Do not install while connected to the Internet, it takes hell of a long time.

It is a waste of time.

4. Use SATA with at least 150 GB not IDE of 80GIB.

5. Do not use more than 15 partitions (SuSe cannot detect more than that).

6. Have three partitions for your most used Linux distribution.

/root., /home and /var and the rest of the distributions can be installed in one or two partitions.

5. Have two users always, one for root or administrator and one for regular user with good passwords.

 

All my users name come from the primate family from chimp to bonobo to gorilla.

Ubuntu forums tells me that their password file is compromised and that means my account too.
So strong password is mandatory now with lot of hackers out there.

Once one is familiar with a distribution try to stick with it without upgrading if the system is running well.

6. Do the preparation in mid July and not in December when everybody is on leave.

We were on a long industrial action in 2012 and I had nothing to do except fiddling with Linux and that was a discovery I made quite fortuitously.

Before that I did it on December and found that I had to re-install some f them in April or May.

Linux distributions tend to mature by mid year, strangely enough!

Linux Update -SuSe Linux and PCLinux

Linux Update -SuSe Linux and PCLinux

I wanted to update my PCLinux KDE, simply because I wanted LibreOffice 4.0 for daily use.

It ended up in disaster.

I will write very detailed account later but suffice is to say I erased the entire hard disk since, PCLinux GRUB is disaster prone by default and recognizes only probably Microsoft (Even though, my NTFS partition does not have any Microsoft installed, I use that to store Linux images not mounted but as an archive) and its own set of distributions.

Firefox was paranoid and partition utility is mediocre and would not let one choose the partition type.

It froze for no reason and even upsetting my CMOS and not booting.

I went into panic mode not kernel panic.

Finally I booted up Knoppix 7.0 CD and it reported nothing wrong and in 10 minutes installed it on my hard disk.

Then I searched for SuSe 12.3 KDE and booted live and found my computer hardware fully fledged for any distro except PCLinux.

I have written a brief account of SuSe recently (detailed account will follow soon) with all my admiration.
Only glitch I had was that could not use my own partition for installing.
After some brief investigation in expert mode by right clicking I found the desired menu.

I am back again with my old flame SuSe and LibreOffice my love fully functional even at midnight.

If you have an old computer and have PCLinux please do not upgrade.

I am telling you this with one week of disaster.

I was on a short holiday with my students done well except a handful, so thankfully I did not have a Heart Attack.

This is why I am hesitant to talk about Linux to newbies, the virtues or lack of them in some of the updated of Linux distributions.
Beware and be warned. 
If the system works for you do not update for some frills and fringes.

Vanilla-the Orchid, I struggled to make some saplings

Vanilla-the Orchid, I struggled to make some saplings

It took almost six months for me to understand this wonderful plant.

It has a beautiful flower but it is famous for its smell of its pod.

If one keeps a pod inside your tea, it gives a wonderful flavour and aroma.

Vanillin is a simple phenolic compound and artificial flavour is nowhere near its natural compound.

It reminds me of the organic chemistry practicals as a school kid when we could smell and identify various compounds which I have forgotten now.

Last November, I accidentally found a few branches of Vanilla and and I thought it was piece of cake to get a few saplings from the branches I selected in a heap of branches.

I can pick a branch that would be young enough to plant I never thought, I had to wait nearly four months to see any sign of success.

First time, I cut the branches to various sizes to see from which node the young shoot will sprout.

Second time, I bought few more branches and the results were equally bad.

Then I went to the web and did a search and found unless one has young leaves at the end they won’t grow.

All the shoots I had were, without the young leaves.

I knew I was taken fora  sucker by the vendors in the city.

I demanded, I need few shoots with the top leaves remaining but not chopped off.

For my luck I met the old gentleman who comes to the city with Vanilla pods and sell them seated on the pavement.

I told him my plight, sure enough the next load of cutting he sent me two with leaves on the the top.

To my surprise when I came home to plant them, I noticed two of my original shoots showing signs of young buds.

1. If one wants to succeed one needs at least one foot long branch with young leaves on top.

2. One must not chop the top off like when one plants shoots as vegetative growths.

3. They should be grown in shade with lot of humidity.

4. They should be planted with other plants which need lot of water and and transpirate water around them giving lot of humidity.

In my case tomato plants and a particular water plant (name I do not know) did give the company for the young shoots. 
I have found even the amazon plant is a good company by accident.

5. No need for rooting chemical.

6. One need lot of patience.

The fourth batch of shoots even with top chopped off I managed to get saplings.

The secret is that the bottom part of the shoot have to be (at least one foot) flat on the ground covered with little soil. 

The top part has to be anchored erect on a pole or stick and that curvature gives the signal for shooting.
That is my observation.
 

The hormones are produced somewhere round the bend in the inter-node stem.

That is my observation and all my fourth round shoots are now showing (after about six weeks delay) signs of budding shoots, HAVING APPLIED THE SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATION ABOVE.
.

7. when the shoots come out it needs a stick to anchor.

8. It is better to grow the anchor plant in anticipation of the young shoot. It is vital for its needs. 
The anchoring roots get hod of the closet anchor.

This orchid is a plant in between orchid and a runner.

It has a 90 degree orientation.

The flat portion is like any other vegetative plant.

The erect portion is the true orchid.

It is really a hybrid plant A cross between a runner and an orchid.

It needs lot of water and humidity when young.

I will report to you when it starts flowering probably in another six months.

I have changed to orchids since the Kandy weather is now  coundusive for them and its climate has drastically changed in the last five years.

OpenSuse-12.3

OpenSuse-12.3
I received a copy 64 bit OpenSuse-12.3 today from Linux Magazine.
The copy of 12.3, I downloaded by torrent was faulty to begin with.
I did not investigate t or report it to SuSe.
To my surprise the copy I received with the Linux Magazine was also faulty (64 bit version).
To their (Linux Magazine) credit they checked the DVD and send me another copy with the another copy of the magazine.
Linux Magazine is dedicated to the customers.
Big Thank YOU.
After many milestone checkups the SuSe community got it wrong.
I have stop complaining to them for the last 3 years, anyway.

As for the Suse 12.3 is concerned it is pretty good.
I installed LXDE to save resources and it is sleek.
It has Gnome and KDE which is a plus point.
I believe they have shed lot of unnecessary stuff.
Its YAST (one of the best) is also pretty good.

However, it did not configure my network automatically and I am writing this report with Ubuntu based Regal Titanic on board.
I did not bother to configure network manually.
Suse was a very good distribution but it has lost part of its "crunch".
Overall it is much better than 12.1.

Ubuntu-13.04-Gnome Remix

Ubuntu-13.04-Gnome Remix
If you are a Linux user with old habits, you are not at all, at a loss with Ubuntu.
There is Gnome version for you to download at Ubuntu site.
Version 13.04 is available for download both for 32 and 64 bit computers.
It has both Gnome 3 and Classic version.
Go download and enjoy the Linux Freedom.
Of course there is no KDE version.
I must tell you I used the Ubuntu Gnome Remix for installation.
It has both classic and new gnome 3.
However the copy I downloaded had Gnome 3 only.
I hope the developers (First Release of Ubuntu Gnome remix is 12.04) will facilitate the use of Classic version in the 13.04 version, just like Mint Linux does.
Linux Mint came into prominence, since it took the right step of giving all the options for the use.
Even Debian has a Mint edition.
If you are not satisfied with Ubuntu Gnome, please use the Linux Mint.
Even though, I do not use (Mint) it regularly (just a habit), it is a very orthodox and user friendly distribution.
It is now on the top of the list of downloads and Ubuntu is in number 3.
Mageia, the resurrected Mandriva is number two but it still has some rough edges (having used Mandriva, I was a regular user) for a newbie.
Suse has drop out of my radar but the latest version and the latest Suse Studio have done remarkable update.
Only down side is, it uses lot of resources.
I regularly use PCLinux (FullMonty) mainly because it has a nicely organized desktop.
It is also resource hungry, just being KDE is always, consumes lot of bit and bytes.
It has now 64 bit versions, too.
Because of my user bias I do not write on it virtues.
If you do not like gnome, try the KDE.
Pretty Good.

Linux Code of Conduct and its strength-Gparted included

Linux Code of Conduct and its strength-Gparted included

Linux has a strict code of conduct.

Sometimes it may be its weakness too.

I was down with flu and could n’t do anything constructively for a few days and decided to invest my time on a spare computer on which I had forgotten the password for the root or the administration work.

On does not have to use root unless there is a major mishap and that was the reason for forgetting it.

Linux does check its partitions on mount and start up and this computer also had some problem with a partition installed with a different operating system.

In other words the second IDE hard disk had faulty segment.

So I decided to erase everything and start afresh.

In this situation best utility is Gparted, a Debian based live distribution which is known for its breezy partitioning and formatting.

So I partitioned the normal disk which was piece of cake.

But when I tried to partition the IDE disk there was some problem.

I could not format, probably the segment which was defective was hindering the progress and was left with a situation where I did not have a partition table to mount any distribution.

It got stuck at fstab.

Unable to mount the defective disk I could not even install on the normal sata disk.

I went back to partedmagic and tried to rectify.

It did the partitioning on the first go but did not detect the sector which was defective.

Then I mounted Gparted and tried to reformat the possible defective segment and it got stuck.

The ReisereFS partition type is probably highly journalized it detected the faulty segment/sector.

I could not format and left without a partition table.

Back to square One.

After one night toiling and I gave up, with the flu making me irritable, after mounting Gparted several times.

In this situation I always press Ctrl + Alt+F1 to see what was wrong.

Only one sector was defective.

I never realized Gparted and ReiserFS were that finicky about partitioning and formatting.

In this situation what I do is to format with less restrictive swap partition and leave that portion virtually not utilized.

Other option is to keep that portion not allocated which not a good option.

Finding one sector out of sea of little segments was a difficult preposition anyway.
The third option was for me to physically remove the hard disk.
This has not happened after I started using Linux, for over a decade. 

I had to resort to windows less finicky partitioning which include ntfs.

I keep a windows 7 starter DVD without registering with the windows (then one cannot reuse it ) and installed it in my computer but it detected all the partition as normal and healthy.

Fortunately it did not detect the faulty sector. I was in business again.

Windows cannot read the partition details written in Linux.

That is another reason for me  not using Windows.

I deleted the most likely partition and installed the Windows 7.

Otherwise (if I do not install windows) I will not have a partition table.

Then I booted up Gparted and located the segment to about 6 GiB of the 80 GB IDE disk.

Tthen I installed Ubuntu 13-04 on the normal disk.

I won’t install any on the IDE disk but keep it as a place to store old files.

Lesson here is one does not have to discard a disk with few isolated (this was second hand disk I bought with an old IBM computer) segments gone defective.
If you are not storing any critical data on this disk, it is not a big deal.

That is the advantage of Linux.

It detects even the tiniest of defects when formatting and discard them outright.

Windows formatting cannot approach anywhere near that precision.

One should never install an operating system on a bad disk.

My Sata disk was almost new.

One can use the small SSD disk for operating system only and use other/ old disks can be used for data storage.

That is the current recommendation anyway till price of SSD comes down drastically.

I am not going to throw away a disk with only one sector defective.

Mind you, I mounted a external USB hard disk and  recovered all the critical or useful data from the defective partition before going through with partitioning with Gparted.
This is the first time I had a problem where I had to tease my brain to get an old IDE working for me.
While I am typing this I am installing at least three(3) operating systems in one disk.
If one system goes down I use the other system to recover my files.
This is something windows cannot boast.
I am also immune to copying an image of my system (probably useful for servers but not for my desktops).
Once the system is old it is far better to reinstall since the old system will slow down with junk history to rewrite every time it boots up.
I do that every year or at worst, 18 months the most.
My installation has finished on the other computer, so let me stop here.

Ubuntu 13.04-An Update

Ubuntu 13.04-An Update

If I do not write few lines on Ubuntu 13.04, it is very unfair specially the bad publicity it got due to Unity Desktop.

Yes. I was very critical of the lack of work-spaces and the clutter and the size of window frames, it came out with Unity.

It was big mess for a guy who uses FullMonty’s nice Desktop arrangement, very well organized but consume lot of resources.

In summary,

1.       Unity has got its window frame problem sorted out. 
There is seamless number of windows which contract as the number increases which was a good ploy. 
I now have no problem with it.

2.       Finding a program by click of the mouse is not possible but fiddling with few icons one can get to what one needs.
It has a docky below which helps a bit with some icons but not comprehensive, enough.  

3.       The best part is, it is not loaded with unnecessary utilities. 
What is installed and not installed is shown.

4.       Its software center and update is good and breezy.

5.       I found difficult to find the add new user utility.

6.       It has high security passwords which is a very strong point. Unfortunately it goes into server mode when more than two users  are added and shutting down is difficult. 
But it is a minor problem, one logs out all the users and just press the computer's on/off button.

7.       It has LibreOffice 4.0, the latest.

8.       The best point about it is,it can be used by visually handicapped person easily. 
Its screen reader is pretty awesome and has done a major update. 
Well Done.

9.       Now, I usually recommend not to be connected to the internet when installing since it takes ages to finish. 
Not anymore. 
It takes only a little added time and in that process removes all the unnecessary language packages of LibreOffice.

10.   All in all it was a good experience, I decided to use it on a regular basis in my spare computer and report any major disadvantages to canonical as a user and a unity convert.

11.   Its Ubuntu One and Ubuntu Music arwe good for even an old guy like me. 
There is no obvious interference from Amazon too.

12. It has Sinhala capability but I have not tested it on installation.
I have installed it with Sinhala (LKlug-Unicode is installed) and it is working.
I believe one has to install Sinhala font to get full advantage.
I do not have Sinhala font to test it.
I will try Google Sinhala font and report it when I have time.
It takes little longer to install when one uses the Sinhala installation.
It is available on current Linux Magazine on both 32 and 64 bit versions.
If you are lazy to download, go and buy the magazine and help all the Linux writers too.
By the way downloading with torrent is breezy.

You must realize I was never been a fan of Ubuntu and all the reservations I have had are disappearing fast, and many questions I have raised against it is becoming less and less (has been taken into account by the developers) and I thank them profusely for their hard work.

In TQM, the customer is the best judge and quality comes at that level first.

I am going to be a quality check customer from now onward.

Forgotten Tribes

Forgotten Tribes

I was running short of ides to write then hit upon a gold mine.

Shall I say it is the Pandora’s Box.

It was all indirect.

I was flabbergasted by how the white man of the West and America, now prompting Human Rights as its agenda, while all the time destroying all the history belonging to the tribes that befell (they have decimated in 500 years) in their hands.

No western nation is free of abuses.

European Union so powerful in their proclamation of human rights but won’t have any description of the tribal history in their modern libraries (history books) how and why there is no mention about Aborigines (who were wiped out from Tasmania).

There is a lot conspiring by historians and also people who are editing modern encyclopedias.

There is paucity of information of Arawak’s of Caribbean and the rest of the tribal exterminations.

There is paucity of information of slave trading.

Why,  children of 21st century are not told about these excesses and atrocities.

Can we wipe out the history of almost 50 to 100 million who were wiped out, by western colonizers?

Unfortunately, Christian Church is also culpable of propagating and spreading agenda of false information.

Past is forgotten for convenience.

The tribal nations Including Indian Tamils who were brought in here needs to know who brought them here as slaves for pittance.

History is history, there cannot be duplicity.

This applies to present Sri-Lankan administrators too.

History cannot be forgotten and statistics cannot be doctored.

There are dark ages in every history but falsifying it is not correct.

There is no consolation for the survivors even if the figures are right.

At least there is no genocide in this respect as it is claimed by the western erudite who know little in their history including Canada.

There is a fabric of untruth, they are weaving to distort the history of current events as well as past events of five centuries.

That cannot be called diplomacy, even though diplomats are habitually trained to lie but not get caught off guard, in the process of lying.

Buddhism in Africa, Why no penetration?

Buddhism in Africa,  Why no penetration?

I am intrigued by the lack of penetration of Buddhism in the South African continent.

It is not that difficult to comprehend.

If one looks to India to the East, China has resisted it for centuries.

India is no exception.

China of course  evicted  DalaiLama and killed millions in the name of Communism.

India for it to keep its class and caste prejudices wanted it out sooner than late.

In the North where Buddhism had penetrated to Persia which is currently Iran.

Muslim expansion in North Africa effectively blocked its  penetration. 

What about the West Africa?

Germans have effectively, the missionaries had no place for for indigenous people.

Another religion which preached peace had no valid currency.

What about the South Africa?

It is again colonization and sometimes extermination of tribes could not tolerate, a peaceful religion.

East, again from Sudan to Somalia tribal and religious animosities still simmering, Buddhism is an antithesis.

What about Sri-Lanka’s contribution?

Surprisingly nil, since it practices a modern method of discrimination using religion as a scapegoat.

Above question made me to read a little bit of the history of mankind of the past five centuries.

No religion can cover the atrocities of war of the white man in full gear.

Religion was only a decoy or a cover up of expansion and extermination.

Summary of it goes like this.

1. South America Total annihilation by Spanish and isolation to small pockets.

2. North America Even worse and no Apache was the goal.

3. Africa From Belgium(Central) to West to South Africa it was combined effort of the from French, German, to English.

How come when a peaceful  religion and its present  advocates, preaches war in the name of religion now as a method of logic and  suppression of reason can penetrate Africa when it cannot penetrate its own brethren?

It is the sad truth of 21st century  history and politics.

Dreams (37), Marriage and Orgasms

This is  the last chapter in my next  book , Myth, Mirage and Marriages, The 3Ms

Dreams, Marriage and Orgasms

Artificial Intelligence

This part of the writing is unintended and god’s send blessing.

It is futuristic.

I never thought I will have dream like this

My unintended dream and Maha Brahma’s involvement is a grand finale to this book (on Myths, Mysteries and Miracles about marriage).

It made the finalizing of this book an easy task.

It is actually a dream come true.

I figured out what should be in the final chapters and the tool kit to be included in the 21st chapter and went to sleep.

I woke up with a dream.

The figure 21 was chosen since most of our adult males in this country get married (legally at 18 years) at about the same age.

They are out of free school education at about the same time.

Most of them do not have a stable employment or training for such an employment in spite of long duration spent in the  school system.

They jump straight from the free education system (which lacks basic sex education, home science and ability to self employment) to the marriage institution, established under a legal framework.

Bit later than in American children but all the same in the same boat, ill prepared for a long term relationship.

Major Dream

Artificial Brain

In my dream there was an academic consideration ( ? by me or ? by god) of the need for an artificial intelligence mechanism, in anticipation of solving all the problems envisaged in marriage and a full-proof method in sorting them out one by one, amicably without a third party involvement.

It was actually supercomputer coded in Linux that was going to the job for me. It was not serial computing but it had to be a parallel computing system,  considering especially the parallel nature of a marriage relationship when it is about to breaks up or when it is in patch up mode.

The pathways never cross or meet each other, when in dispute.
It is a boom for the legal industry.

They are never at crossroads but they run parallel to each other, usually in opposite directions,  quite to the benefit of  the divorce lawyers and their fraternity.

Third party involvement including counselors were considered imprudent, in the first place in my dream.

Artificial Memory in this computer should be huge taking into consideration the world population.

Solid State Hard Disk (SSHD) was the need of the day.

L shaped battery (L for learning) with two compartments was necessary for each of the computers, in the computer farm.

One for recharging and the other for direct use (current) in an emergency use mode (if for some reason the main electricity fails) that lasts at least six hours.
The six hours is the minimum time for a proper assessment and settlement of a dispute, not the inordinate delay seen our courts of justice.

It is a huge boom for the computer industry.

Lot of USB slots.

Lot of buttons to press and for data entry.

Lot of buttons for simple Yes or No, I do not know, responses and for Solution Seeking (SS for Short).

Then I was looking for the Linux guys to man the farm and to my surprise I could not find any and I was woken up desperately unhappy, since I was not going to be one of them running it full time.

I was only the visionary.

I was not my mission anyway.

My only mission was how to get  out of the system, that I am already in

Minor Dream

Motor Bike Episode

Rooting and penetration testing.

This was a very brief dream of a few seconds or minutes the most at high speed (the motor bike was on full throttle) and nothing substantial to send to Maha and ask for his interpretation.

Nevertheless, since sex was not discussed in this bookdetail, I thought it is appropriate to include it here with Maha’s kind interpretation.

His interpretation was the biggest surprise of all.

We were on extended new year holidays and decided to go to Colombo for a change and visit to Majestic City was on the card for a  3D Version Waltz Disney film.

We went there by a van.

The driver was good but the van was pretty bad.

The first and second gears were (probably the third too) bad and it was a bumpy ride with lot of traffic on the  road. 
I feared that it was ideal van for a bump-crash onto a rear or front of a vehicle that would apply breaks suddenly without any warning,

In actually fact, we had several near misses.

I keep a watch from rear seat and decided to glance at a Linux book on penetration testing.

The book was badly written and I could stop wandering on the vehicles in front, especially the motor bikes overtaking us, rashly on both sides of our vehicle.

So, I was watching at the traffic more than the book.

It struck me there were lot of pillion riders and most of them were women.

We had a quick meal and watched the film and without much a do decided to return to Kandy (went to Galle Face on our way for a little sea breeze and the cost was Rs.100/= for 15 minutes) quickly to avoid the impending rain.

With a relatively heavy meal (no tea or coffee to go with) I was dosing off briefly and was waking up ever so often, due to the bumpy ride.

I was briefly dreaming of penetration testing and rooting and then suddenly I was dreaming that the woman should be in front and the man should be behind, in a mounting posture (episode of some sort).

Man finding, it difficult to penetrate or find direction due to the bumpy ride.

Suddenly, rooting and penetration was coming in glimpses not in Linux but in real life.

I was ashamed of myself and woke up and did not sleep till we reached Kandy.

Vitally, I missed the orgasm in the dream state which was something natural in many dream episodes of the young couples.

I took the courage to put this episode to Maha anyway but only after my Mega Dream of artificial intelligence.

Interpretation

Mega Dream

How to fund your program,  was  the first question Maha asked me in return.

Simple to charge, a fee at registration.

What sort of data and questions are put to the supercomputer was his next question.

1. Your wife is snoring in her sleep

 Answer;
Why not try some ear plugs?

2. You get high after a party at office.

Why not take the dog out for a walk?

3. Your wife’s cooking is bit out of sort.

Why not go for some take aways, or Pizza?

4. You come late after work.

Say, that he had to trap some lions who escaped from the zoo.

Compute will dispense and dish out some  photos with Lions as the proof.

5. Forget to bring some bread home.

Gave the bread to  the children who came from some godforsaken third world country.

Compute will dispense and dish out some photos of these children as proof.

What about  a big issue like separation or going for legal advice.

Then there are three options with proper warning;
1. The computer does not take any responsibility for his or her own action.

2. Then it says humans can make only one mistake at a time but computers can make 1000 of mistakes in one second.

Just like mobile banking of Sri-Lanka.

Send money to the wrong account!

3. Discretion is yours.

Could a third party search result for a particular partner, counselor or a lawyer?

No.

How come?

There is a password and retina check.

What is retina check?

One checks the the retinal blood vessel pattern for security reason.

Or I see.

Why?

There are lot of computer forgery and password cracking utilities.

What happens when the party is dead and gone?

The password is jumbled and records are passed to another super computer for reference purposes.

You got some beautiful ideas in your dream mode, Know?

Does your brain work like that when you are awake?

NO, Sir.

Why?

I do not know, Sir.

Was there a second part to the dream?

No.

Why did you interrupt my dream then?

I was worried you get  a heart attack.

How come?

Well in spite of your bizarre ambition to train undergraduates in Linux nobody applied for work.

Your face looked horrible and worried and if you have a heart attack and I will miss the dreams.

Especially the futuristic ones.

What is the  interpretation?

It is like this, in a land  of nowhere in this world one of the president’s kids had a problem with his wife.

He was suppose to have had extramarital affairs.

That is no a problem, Know?

No but his  wife went to a counselor and he advised that  paternity test should be asked  for.

Then the guy’s father had taken the counselor for treason and was charged.

Then all the counselors formed a consortium and decided to put their data in a supercomputer.

This was taken as a way forward  and was developed into super system.

Minor Dream

What is rooting?

It is the Linux system for full permission of the distribution system and its use.

What is penetration?

It is illegal entry into a computer system to do harm and illegally obtain security data.

What is this orgasm?

I was taken  aback by that question.

You do not know?

What?

Yes, this is the first time, I have heard it in heaven.

Do not con?

Why Con you?

Nothing to gain. Know?

Do you want me to elaborate.

Yes.

There is something called sex in this world.

It is common to all living things including plants.

In animals there is an urge for sex and this urge is basically determined by the need to secure  an orgasm.

It  is  a  biological  need to preserve genes in lineage.

It is vital for the progression to the next generation so that the continuity and linage is maintained.

But there is a little complication in humans.

What?

Men get one orgasm at a time.

Women get multiples of it.

What is the problem?

There is big problem?

We have an  institution  called marriage.

One woman can have orgasm/s from one man only if she is married.

So the woman is kept in desperation till the man is ready for another penetration with a solid organ.

What is this solid organ?

That is all what men have to show the women their sexual prowess.

So, so men too can have multiple orgasm, know?

No it is not that simple.

After an orgasm the solid organ become placid and flaccid and fatigued.

There is a long delay till one gets an erection again.

My goodness.

Thank god!

We do not have such a problem call erection and orgasm in heaven.

Then why do some humans want to come to heaven?

I do not know.

Ask them not me.

Is this problem seen only in humans.

No Sir.
It is universal and franchise of  others  too. 

Even animals have this problem.
How do they solve the problem?
By simple means. 

But they have a simple way of dealing with this problem.

Once one male animal gets an orgasm, it leaves the next potent male to take over and the female get more males than in human world.

By this method all the genes are passed down to the next generation.

That is the way of the evolution works.

Then what is called a marriage institution is an evolutionary disaster.

YES, Sir.

That is why I am writing this book so that the future geneticist will discover that there was very clever doctor who exposed this problem to the Maha Brahma  for his perusal.

Why did you interrupt my dream?
It was not me on the back or on the pillion?

No not YOU but I had to.

Actually it was not you.

The guy who was trying penetration did succeed but soon after that the motor bike crashed and both of them died on the spot.

I was puzzled why that happened?

I did not know that when woman get an orgasm they lose normal senses goes into fits of fantasy!

That she forgets that was riding a bike with a man on top.

She was in a state of FIT, you know?

That is what is called an Orgasm, Sir.

What a nasty evolutionary act, Know.

It is not sir.

If the one woman dies the next woman can have an orgasm. know.

Then the men in this world will be very happy that they have the variety, you know.

You have a very bizarre way of thinking.
That is our freedom (Not me, Sir).

That is how the normal American men think, Sir.

Is that so.

YES.

Is there any interpretation of this dream.

I do not have slightest of clue.

Either you are mad or all men are mad.

I had to agree with him on that point.

Why men marry?

If they cannot have multiple orgasm in one go.

I think Maha Brahma has to think of the strategy when the next round evolution takes place.

Now that he knows the human orgasm, he jolly well has to make a better solution if not in 100 years at least in a million years time.

He should not rush to things since he has long years to live unlike humans.