Ubuntu 21-04 has got All Wrong

As anticipated Ubuntu destroyed my GRUB boot menu, even though it was installed in a USB stick.

Luckily I did not try it on the Hard Disk.

Had I done that I have to redo all installation afresh.

I made an ESP partition but it did not mount.

In good old days if you boot a Live Linux Distribution, one can make a bootable USB.
I tried start up USB and it failed to recognized the formatted USB.

Ubuntu let you make a startup disk but that utility does not work..

My guy feeling was it will not boot with the UEFI interference?

With the introduction of UEFI by coercion of Microsoft the BIOS magic was lost.

I have found a way to bypass this ploy.

I make bootable  ESP partition.

I have never made a ESP on a 16 GB USB.

Let us see how it works.

It is not my nature to write about Ubuntu.

I use Debian as my workhorse.

Ubuntu is actually Debian based.

For fun I try Puppy Linux.

For critical testing I use Knoppix.

I just installed Knoppix on a USB stick using MultiSystem.

Knoppix also can do it on it's own but MultiSystem let you have several distribution in one USB stick.

I have collected large number of USB sticks and over the past two decades and they still work after erasing  data.

With 64 bits in vogue keeping them idling is not my intention.

Nothing else to do I just booted Ununtu 21-04 to install it but last half an hour it is trying to figure out what is in my Laptop and failed.

I tried live booting and that also failed.

To save my data I disconnect my Internet while installing.

I think and believe Ubuntu cannot mount a live session without Internet.

How can one see what is in it?

How can one we enjoy a live session?

This is why I recommend Emmabantus Debian 4.

It is actually Debian 11 derivative and has enormous amount of applications.

I will stop Ubuntu and install Emmabantus on my spare USB.

Well after nearly 45 minutes it booted live.

I will try to install it on a USB.

This time I will make a bootable ESP partition.

My PC on WiFi Mode

I had some problem connecting my PC to Internet once I pulled out the Ethernet Wire.

It is a Linux box and NO Windows.

I was running Debian 9 for the last 4 years and I did not want to lose my data by installing Debian 10.

However, I decided to install Debian 10.10 without touching my home partition.

It's primary partition is 125 SSD and 100 reserved for the operating system.

I do not use it daily but run the Laptop for my heavy work.

Today I stuck the Dongle and Debian 10.10 detected it effortlessly.

I have depleted Data by downloading Linux images through the WiFi Broadband and I think when I upload some data and I stick the Ethernet wire, it probably will connect to the Internet.

I am.getting stingy on Data.

Routers and WiFi Connections

Now my first warning.

There is WiFi Mesh in the market.

Do not fall prey and you need minimum two or more gadgets which will not work in a hill country like ours.

Do not believe any Service.Provider in Ceylon.

They are all Suckers.

If you have a Ethernet Connection keep it as your sovereign belt of gold.

They (Ethernet) are the fastest and the most reliable.

Do not be deceived into subscribing to FiberOptics.

The Service Providers neither do have the technology not kits not trained personal.

They are paying their staff by skyrocketing your bills.

If the Service Provider does not have service capability or credibility in Budulla or NuweraEliya, if you have FiberOptics inside your house or restaurant there is no meaning of this wire.

I have learned my lesson by pulling of the Ethernet Wire.

I am paying (1000s) thousands in a few hours to download a Linux image for fun testing.

That is buy using WiFi broadband from Dialog (details in another blog piece).

But if you Google, there are plethora of new WiFi gadgets every company  is selling and competing with opposing companies.

None of them is cheap and will never be available in Ceylon for a foreseeable future with a Debt Trap.

With new gadgets coming to the market and surplus in the market abroad, old Cheap Chinese stuff not selling those countries will flood our market

This is so with Conservatives in UK and BT putting a lot of their cash (before the pandemic) in a very competitive market.

Do not buy BT stuff discarded in UK and they won't work anyway in Ceylon.

With Dollar going up even cellphones will go up in price.

Buying a Laptop now or Chromebook is a big liability.

There is surplus in the market and the Coranavirus loss of revenue is added to your bill invariably.

No country has found a solution and each country is trying it's own gimmick to fool the masses addicted by Video Conferencing.

Now is not the time or bargaining time.

My belief is that it will take minimum of 5 years for recovery in Ceylon, well past the next election.

Do not think of contesting the next local or general election.

Even if you win you won't be able to recover your money spent in campaigning.

If you lose swallow a bitter pill or think of taking some local poison.

MaKfee guy's suicide in prison is a case in point.

He made millions with able connivance with Microsoft and none of that would help him in prison with litigations pending.

Lot of people will try this method in Ceylon but unlike the rich in other countries DO NOT dump the hard saved money on Telecoms or failing ventures.

LibreOffice has Come of Age

LibreOffice has come of Age.

Mind you I have not used an office package for two solid years and had been addicted to Android cellphones typefaces and typically Grammerly.

I had been detecting for Linux distributions that supports AbiWord for simplicity and found Emmabuntus and Ubuntu 20.10 accommodate AbiWord and Debian does not.
Even Knoppix bit shy of Abi Word because of popularity of LibreOffice.

It is in version 7 and has remarkable good character.

I work with AbiWord and finer tuning is done in LibreOffice before publishing.

It is a viable for Window based operating system in addition to Linux.

It has chapter promotion or demotion and layout up and down schemes.

For Android users there is also WPS Office and Polaris Office equally good but they are falling behind due to rapid onward match of LibreOffice.

There is LibreOffice reader for Android cellphones.

Who needs Microsoft Office suite?

And why pay?

Is it due to glamour or stupidity?

Emmabantus Debian 4 Edition

I am currently installing Emmanantus Debian 11(named Deb4 due to Emma edition 4) kernel in a single partition in my Laptop.

It had shed bit of its Ubuntu installation pathway but installation Is smooth.

It is 64 bit version and detected the ESP partition automatically.

I have downloaded Knoppix 9.1 and it is in an external SSD.

But Ubuntu 21.4 was very painful in writing to a DVD and writing and reading it in live mode was very rough and noisy.

It is probably loaded with eye catching graphic but did not have 5% of the software Emmabantus has.

It is nothing but simple Gnome desktop.

Emmanuntus has 1GB of extra software compared to Ubuntu.

It is time we migrate from Ubuntu to Emma for productive work.

Emma has in addition Gcompris for Children and a school version of LibreOffice 7 which is very attractive.

Ubuntu has not come out of it's mystic ways.

After all it came from Africa for African children but Emma is serving the African continent which Ubuntu currently had abrogated.

Sorry for saying that but I have Ubuntu 20.10 in my Laptop with AbiWotd.

Emma has MultiSystem and AbiWord, two of my favourites.

I hope with 22 version Ubuntu will match up with Emmabuntus and remove it's bulky graphic intensive glare and gloat and bring out more productive suite.

I have never used Ubuntu and my using it's 20.10 is mainly  due to AbiWord.

I used all my tactics to.get AbiWord to Debian 10 BUT miserably failed.

LXDE, KDE and Plasma do not support AniWord.

Incidentally, LibreOffice can read AbiWord and in future it should convert it's word file to AniWord and pdf for quick transfer through the Internet.

If for some reason an amazingly new Linux Distribution come into vogue I do not have any space in my Laptop.

But I am happy a version of Debian 11 is already there.

I was looking for Debian 11 but could not find a torrent file.

Linus Torvalds would not release it to the torrent base unless he is 100% satisfied.

He is a master of Japanese 5S technology.

This is about Sri-Lanka Telecom, My Data and Knoppix 9.1

I pulled out the Ethernet (faulty by the way) wire and I was without fast Internet for three months.

Sri-Lankan Telecom is hopeless, to say the least, it disconnected my Knoppix download without informing me by Telephone twice at 3 GB point twice (direct).

I lost 6GB of paid data.

This is not Netflix or Porn data but solid Linux program data.

I lost all my data except data in one of my cellphones which had two small iso images of Puppy Linux which I cannot transfer to the Linux PC.

After the Coronavirus I decided not to go out for three months (not the 3 weeks of Government's arbitrary lock or block down).

Rather it was total shut down of my PC and Laptop (I only had one BSD CD which needed Internet connection for erasing Windows Hegemony).

Ultimately I found a TrueOS DVD I downloaded in 2018 and got the Laptop running Debian 10.

One I downloaded in March we'll before Coronavirus restrictions needed Internet connection.

I was fed up and one day I walked two Kilometers to the Bank where there is an Internet Till, but to my bad luck the server was not booted on that day.

Yesterday I went to Dialog and upgraded all my cards including the Dialog Broadband WiFi.

Today I downloaded Knoppox 9.1, Ubuntu 21.10 and currently Downloading Debian Emmabantus 4.

I have configured an external SSD disk  with three running Knoppix versions (with fabulous collection of utilities which even Debian cannot boast in one DVD).

And SSD is mobile or portable.

Windows will never be able to beat Knoppox for another century and I will be long gone by then.

Good Bye Windows and Good Morning to Knoppox and his team of developers in Germany.

Make sure you use torrent for download and click English version if you are not German

Now MultiSysyem DVD comes from France by pressing F2 you can get to English.

I use both English and French MultiSystem as a way of refreshing my poor French competence.

Linux is always multi language capable.

I think torrent download is finishing without Telecoms.

Thank YOU Dialog.

By the way I have given only two calls by the wired connection for the last 7 weeks.

That is a record and I do not pay TAXES by default.

10 GB (3 distributions) in 3 hours and I have never had such a throughput in all my life.

All of them are in a USB in about half an hour and who says Linux is not efficient in an external USB Disk.

Getting AbiWord to Work for Me, Using Ubuntu

 I was without Internet for 3 months and could not use Abiword with Debian Plasma.

Ultimately I managed to download AbiWord for Ubuntu 20.10, after a lot of trouble.

The Dialog WiFi broadband  won't let me sign up with broadband WiFi.

I got Debian Plasma to configure it automatically but with Ubuntu it won't sign.

I think Dialog broadband let you sign up only  once with KDE Plasma but won't configure with Ubuntu, in the same Laptop.

It won't sign up, in spite of typing the correct password.

Luckily I used my spare Dialog Dongle to sign up with Ubuntu and downloaded AbiWord.

It is only 1.6 MB package.and what a hastle,

What trouble to get a package I used for many years.

Thank Ubuntu for not removint it from the repository.

Even FATPup does not support AbiWord and it supports only LibreOffice.

I am currently downloading WPS suite for use in my Laptop.

Rough Sketch to Evolution

 Rough Sketch to Evolution

Thankfully I never had a good teacher all my life.

If not for the British Council Library I would have concentrated on Physics and Mathematics.

For some unknown reason biology aroused my curiosity.

I collected large number of books on this topic, thanks again to withdrawal sale every year when new batch of books arrived from UK.

This Library is no more thanks to wrong policies of SLFP. (basically Anti-British for no valid reason).

I tried to become a member of the Kandy Municipal Council Library and they even did not give me an application form stating that I am not a municipal tax payer.

I became a tax payer later and filed a case against the municipality and won it.

As a token of their defeat they reduced my tax by one (1) rupee.

I left the municipality limits for good and there is no good library except in the University, a British contribution of colossal scale.

All the books I have starts with a big massive all encompassing concept but without any valid proof.

So I gave up reading but did not lose track of my inquiry.

1. The transfer from abiotic to biotic was not dramatic but a series of small steps.

2. Symbiosis was a fact of biotic life.

3. Parasitism was a very late development.

4. Sexual development was an accident in nature.

5. Plant life was the beginning.

6. Animal life or actively moving life was much later development.

7. Virus contribution except for human devastation is an aberration!

Now I start at a point of Oxygen Generation.

Chlorophyll was the beginning.

It's derivative the haemoglobin was the engine for animal life.

Cytochrome system and  transfer of electrons in a series of steps was a miracle.

Their assembly into mitochondria was a significant step.

Mitochondria are probably prokaryotes who became symbiotic (that was my own theory collaborated by Marie Maguire).

How cell membrane formed is a mystery.

Formation of various sugars and sugar cell wall formation predated cell membrane formation.

Formation of fatty acids with even number chain is a significant step.

Universal Citric Acid Cycle is a mystery.

Ribosome formation was a very late development leave alone protein synthesis.

RNA to DNA was much contested arena.

Viruses are very late bystander vestiges but important in the current context of laboratory made biological.weapons.

Putting all these into a coherent system is extremely difficult.

I leave it at that point.

Glucose

Phosphorylation

Glucose-6-phosphate

Isomerization

Fructose-6-phosphate

Byhodphorylation

Fructose-1-6-phodphaye

Cleavage by Aldolas

DHAP 

Dihydroacetone phosphate

Isomerization to GAP

Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate

Two molecules of 3 carbon molecules from 6 carbon glucose 

Glyceraldyde-3-phosphate to

1-3-biphosphoglcerate to

3-phosphoglcerate

Isomerization of 3PGA to 2PGA

Dehydration to 

Phospho Enole Pyruvate-PEP

PEP

Pyruvate 

ACA

Acetyl Coenzyme A

2 Pyruvate molecules 

Dehydrogenase to  two carbon atom molecules bound to coenzyme ACA

2 CO2 exhaled.

I think out of 6 carbon glucose two CO2 molecules are exhaled.

In reality ACA enters the Citric Cycle and 2x2 cycle all 4CO2 are metabolized or exhaled.

This is why I say sugar is essential for living. But ordinary sucrose is two molecules of glucose and fructose bound together and one need sucrase to break it down in the gut.

Glucose is used as energy or stored as glycogen.

Fructose is used as energy and converted to fat in the liver.

If one uses only glucose only one does not become fat but glucose is not as tasty as ordinary sugar.

I do not add sugar for my tea and tea is my driving force not sugar.

It is better to eat fruits with lot of fructose if one is diabetic but one has to put up with weight gain.

Oxygen is not used in this process and is called anaerobic and provided energy for basic metabolism. 

 

Only two carbon atoms can be metabolized.

Cictric Acid Cycle 

1. Citric Acid 

Acetyl COA enters the cycle at this stage.

2. Ketoglutarate 

3. Salicyl COA

4. Salicylic Acid 

5. Fumerate

6. Malic Acid 

7. Oxeloacetic Acid 

Ascorbic Acid or Vitamin C is not part of the this cycle but is a very important antioxidant that prevent cell injury due to oxidation.

Any errors are all mine.

Since I am gradually entering dementia stage just memorized the lot through, AI help to revitalize my old memory.

Who says AI is bad for cognition?

All these transformations are done by enzymes and many metallic and non metallic cofactors.

Reason to illustrate the fact that alcohol inhibits some of the enzymes in the metabolic pathway in the liver causing build up of toxic acetone. Lung has to be involved in excreting the excess, so the acetone smell in breath breath of an alcoholic. 

Companies which makes wines mitigate this unpleasant problem of smell by introducing sweet smelling organic alcohols.

A clever strategy of French to douse workers after lunch with wines. 

Lunch is prolonged and workers do not rise up against the company they are working for.

I am not sure whether Karl Marx talked about alcohol.

Bottom line, Alcohol is the most powerful agent causing dementia and it inhibits Acetyl COA and causes metabolic damage in the liver.

Best antidote to dementia is Coconut Oil which can be used as a metabolite in the brain without the help of liver enzymes.

Failure of Android Ecosystem

I was a late follower of Android from Kit Kat 4.2.

It was not a happy start using a Chinese made tablet with low RAM.

Then I skipped 5 and entered 6 with a GreenTel cellphone which I used only on travel abroad and my adaptation of the Singaporean Sekin was a total disaster.

Next version of GreenTel I gave free to a guy who had never used a touch phone.

GreenTel tablet I sold at 20% to another guy who was using an arcane Java phone.

I wanted to give it free but he declined and I said 20% and he agreed.

He could not use it even a day a nephew of him grabbed it and made it dysfunctional.

I had few Java and gave them to domestic aids free.

So you could see how dissatisfied I was.

Coming from Linux background I needed and expected a solid operating system that runs 5 years uninterrupted.

None of it.

Then I knew the dollar will go up 2 years in advance and bought 3 Nokia phones at cut rate price before the next shipment was due.

All for testing and it's smallest one I added 200 applications and tested each one of those applications and I only love the Pencil Sketch.

I needed a Writer Application and none I tested did what I wanted it to do.

Blogger piece which I am blogging here is the only one I use regularly except opening the few emails I have.

Why I say Android is total failure is applied to the last three and that are in current use.

Even the Android with basic application is very slow to boot.

If you add a few more it becomes painfully slow.

All the applications consume lot of battery leave alone camera application and images.

It is all due to it's poor resource management.

1. It is not a fully fledged operating system.

2. It is rather a service system which sits on top of the service providers SIM and sucks pennies every second.

3. System calls are not organized or prioritized and like Windows boots up everything at boot time.
That is why it is slow.

4. It has no virus protection or malware protection protocol.

5. It has no hash or junk file deletion technique.
It keeps on piling up junk.

6. It cannot transfer a file from it to my Linux computer.
I do not have any Windows to test anyway.

7. All in all in three months it is chocker blocked.

8. It cannot retain a password file in the background while you enter it on the authorization page.
I have to use the other cellphone to memorize the 8 character password.

I have lived with all this and I am getting fed up.

9. Added to that battery has to be charged daily.

10. It cannot be shared and the moment you do that it starts carrying the Coronavirus free of charge.

It carries other nasty bugs, too.

I have a theory that if 67% of the population stop using cellphones the reduction of Coronavirus virus spread will be more than the effect of all the detergents used in the world.

All cellphones should be banned in hospitals not necessarily due to interference with electronic equipment but due to fast spread of all types of infections.

Only way to disinfect a cellphone is to put it in a incinerator.

The list can go on.

It is time to say good bye to all cellphones and tablets.

Toilet paper one can flush it or burn but cellphone becomes an extended interfering appendage.

BEWARE!

Final Verdict, Cellphone is the biggest hindrance to Creativity

Except for ordering a Pizza and having a Calendar and an appointment list upfront (or daily routine), the cellphone is a big hindrance to creativity.

I wanted to have an year break from productive work and Coronavirus extended it to two years thankfully.

All what I did was using the cellphone to read the emails and looking at whatever the news that the cellphone, rather Google is dishing out and highlighting.

I consider using the PC to read an email as a collosal waste of electricity.

Mind you, I did some work, too.

Organized the rooftop garden and thrown away 70% of the unattractive plants and selected few a beautiful lilies.

Organized my PC, Laptop and all the external hard disks and USB as a preparation for destroying all the unnecessary CDs and DVDs.

Mastered BSD for destroying any trace of Windows Operating System.

All these are my normal routines and natural things but nothing touching the creative side of the brain.

I looked for a suitable writing application for Android and found nothing that is not asking for a subscription or not interfering with my thought processes.

So I am dishing out all the cellphones (in any case I have no data) and going back to the keyboard and start a book on Puppy Linux.

I won't dish out the creative secrets of Puppy Linux but one has to read my book that will be available on digital form soon.

To highlight the thinking behind BSD or TrueOS instead of Puppy philosophy;

There are only a very few things that one needs in a computer or cellphone.

Number one is 1.Connectivity.

Number 2. A Simple Browser.

Number 3. An Email (people rarely use this simple utility except forewarding)

Number 4. Productivity Suite, really means a Word Processor and an Accounting Package.

Number 5 is Firewall for protection against cyber attacks.

Number 6 is dedicated Individual User Space (input out and put devices).

Number 7 is the Ability to modify the above utilities according to one's need in the Free Software tradition and remove Bloat Ware one never uses.

I say Puppy has all that and a few more additional utilities.

It is STUPID to waste a lot of money on proprietary stuff while we are recovering from the effects of the pandemic.

Every penny saved should go to the kitty.

I forgot say, I used the cellphone as a "Play Console".

I think many use it to finger fiddle or "Angili Gahanava Annunge Vadeta".

The cellphones make you to become one finger editors.

Then one becomes a one sided brain individual like a British Conservative.

The creative brain is on the opposite side and one becomes one sided FIXED Brexiter.

No other creative plans enter the mind and like a dog the party followers wag their tails.

Now coming to Puppy Linux, all puppy derivatives should encourage the use of standard keyboard to type using both hands at the same time.

One gradually trains the mind to be creative again without any effort.

The keyboard should be modified to become the brain or the motherboard.

Its sides should be broadened to stretch the top of the table and free movement of both hands.

It's center should hold the console or the graphic monitor to see what is been typed instead of printing a copy for perusal.

Alternatively, the broader tablet or slate should sit on the centre, connected by WiFi, (instead a tiny one finger model of cheap Chinese cellphone).

With this ploy, the creativity improves by leaps and bounds, since the brain is now not dictated by the cellphone.

Additionally Keyboard should have lots of ports of type 3 to 4 to 5 US's connecting various devices with inputs when fatigue or thought blocks intervene.

Already a computer motherboard, designed in the framework of the keyboard is available and more creative designs to this model should be applied by Puppy Linux enthusiasts.

If I was young I would have done all that but that is my creative brain working for others to tap onto.

I am currently using the Laptop with cramped keyboard and track pad I never use.

The track pad should accommodate the graphic area instead and let the mouse do the talking.

The folder or the flap with monitor or graphic area of the Laptop should be scraped (that saves money) and one clean flat keyboard with a wider graphic front in the middle should be created instead.

In other words use the mouse in one's hand instead of one finger mode of cellphone.

If you are angry or bored you can squeeze the mouse to your heart content.

One can only wriggle or point the finger or poke into the nose.

Jump

Only 4 feet at a time.
Ready.

Froggy Sketch

I am photogenic not a sketch!

Friendly Visitor

I think when massive roads are built there should be corridors built under them for these and other creatures to move freely.

The road is the most devastating creature of man.

He is supposed to walk erect but not to race on the earth surface.

Road racing is a madness created for his ego and nothing but.

He could never match an elegance of a cheetahs.

This Tree Frog is an annual visitor.

It is the best indicator of quality of water.

It's eggs cannot survive a few hours of water contaminated by man.

The decline of it's variety and population is directly related to water pollution.

These are simple facts of nature.

Chinese eating them add to their decline and the world pollution is directly related to Chinese population expansion.

So the Coronavirus has come as an answer and who knows China created this menace to curtail it's population without political communist rhetoric.

They are well known for single child per family and infanticide in the past.

He/she is lazy to cover the last 10 feet to my fish tank at the top most level.

Generally a late night visitor but block or lockdown with Coronavirus and no vehicles on thee road it is bold enough of to come out in day time.

This one recognises me and won't move an inch until it is ceremoniously taken to it's final destination.

It has come a long way and probably is dead tired.

Millions of them die crossing the road every day.

Our most ancient relative is threatened by the Chinese guys who eat them as a delicacy.

Please boycott Chines restaurants as a default strategy.

Ubuntu as a Last Resort, Did not Work

I have never used Ubuntu as a distribution and used occasionally as a demonstration but my love was Mandriva, SuSe and Debian.

I could not install both Peppermint 10 and PCLinux side by side with Debian and finally decided to install Ubuntu 20.10 and as a preparation installed it on my PC on the second drive to boot from the second drive leaving my workhorse Debian in the SSD.

SSD does not have a MBR or master boot record.

I could have written the GRUB to boot from a USB with so many USB around I would forget.

Installation went all right it picked up all the distribution already installer including PinGuy.

I am pretty sure it will not pick the ESP boot partition.

As anticipated it crash landed and could not figure out the ESP boot partition.

I booted FATPup installed in the Laptop  and found a home partition in my name in one of the partitioned used and over 5GB written in the other, assuming it's Ubuntu distribution files.

What I am now going to do is to reinstall the second Debian installation having prepared space by deleting few partitions not used

I know Debian will figure out if Ubuntu could be written to the GRUB file.

I have gone through this routines 1000 times and while it is being booted I will sip a cup of tea.

In good old days in BIOS fstab boot record I would write the booting sequence and mount the partition in question.

I have forgotten those details and ESP partition can possibly be edited likewise.

But I let Debian automation to do the job.

Yes Debian did the job and Ubuntu was booted from ESP partition.

Now I can display Ubuntu to a guy new to Linux who has no knowledge of Debian.

I think going after various new distributions is a waste of time and Debian 11 is already out for one to try.

I am dry of Data and Internet access currently.

I will try it when the lockdown is eased.

Universal Drink Alcohol or Water?

This is a very easy question to answer.

It is certainly not water.

It is definitely alcohol.

I could not find an accurate figure for requirement of water for a day for an adult.

Nobody except some guys who are told by folklore that one should drink certain number of glasses of water, no adult has a clue or taught correct physiology in their Huentire life of intake of the water requirement.

We drink a substitute instead, tea or coffee or a beverage that has caffeine in it for central nervous system stimulation by habit.

Not for water requirement at all.

The water is the basis of cellular life.

Fortunately all food we eat has some water and their combustion produce water of metabolism and our kidney has the capacity to conserve when we are not drinking and when we sleep.

But I find man always (this applies to a certain percentage of women) have few liters of alcohol down diluted with some water.

What I find interesting is the minimum even in Bangladesh (country with lowest intake) is one liter of pure alcohol per person.

Which is a colossal.amount when multiplied by the total population.

I find it interesting Iranians drink as much as Russians.

It is said Belarusians drink the most but their officials figures are scaled down.

Maldiwians drink more simply due to lack of water supply.

Come to Ceylonese they drink about 15 times as Bangladeshis and only about 5 times less than Russians.

I expected the Africans to drink more but it is true of only a few countries  like Zambia, Nigeria and South Africa.

Myanmar tops India and Indians drink (unlike in Tamilnadu films)  far less amount than Ceylonese.

My gut feeling was that rich and relatively happy countries consume more but they are less than Muslim countries put together and Malaysia is an exception.

I guessed Singaporean drinks more but I was wrong.

They have no time to drink.

Except New Zealand most of the Western counties drink an average more than Asians.

The Australians are heavy drinkers but it is coming down unlike in UK and USA.

My analysis is where there are dictators running the countries affairs, the alcohol consumption is high.

Myanmar is a classic example and some Latin American countries with dictators running the affairs are close allies of alcohol.

A point what our Buddhist monks have failed to grasp is when there is a dictator running, the alcohol consumption goes up significantly and rapidly.

So if we want to drop alcohol consumption democracy should go hand in hand not other way round.

If our alcohol consumption goes up by the next election do not blame the drinker but the ruler or rulers.

The corollary is for a dictator to succeed the country should streamline and jack up alcohol production at an affordable price, the variety does not matter but the production rate.

I gather Americans are drinking more after the election since the enthusiasm and the steam have run down and furloughing is through.

President Biden has to make sure alcohol production goes unhampered during his term office and he will be remembered for life if he cuts down taxes on alcohol in spite of medical advice and fail to keep 90% of the promises.

That also make Republicans to drink more and lose track of elections and for his successor to have a smooth riding.

If he follows doctors advice on alcohol and the numerous medical legislatures brought in front of him for approval, he is bound fail.

Just pretend you are absorbing them in good spirit.

See what happened to Donald Trump, mainly due to Anthony Fauci's insinuations.

Writing Space

This is to highlight the features of Writing Space Writer.

Since I see nobody helping AbiWotd to come out of the woods with a new life or rebirth, I was looking for a Writer package and I found a match.

I am busy finishing the first 10 chapters on Puppy Linux but I should write a piece here to give the credits to where it belongs.

Long time ago a writer developed a Writer Linux Live CD and I still have a copy of it's 32 bit version.

It worked only a Live Session and could not save a copy of the document one was working with.

In any case it went defunct and this is long before I started  writing as a habit.

Nevertheless, I was put off.

I downloaded several writer applications and before I could finish a page the guys asking me for hefty subscription.

I am a writer who works on a low budget both in time and money.

I am on a long holiday extended by Coronavirus incarceration.

I am not new to writing and I have already found a good ally by the way of Grammerly typeface.

Finding a Writer application not intrusive was illusive, till I found Writing Space.

1. It gives you a neat clean and open slate to thumb down.

In my case Index Down.

2. It is not intrusive.

3. It gives you 10 or more chapters to work with.

4. It has an Android Application front.

5. It let's you share.

6. It let's you publish immediately.

7. Editing the typos can be done at any time.

8. Remove or up or down the chapters as you wish.

What else a writer needs.

I think I will come out of slumber and finish my Puppy Linux (before I get on with the jobs being outstanding and halted by my self intentions).

I have used another writer and I have to use another application to read a list of Puppy derivatives, I made.

Then I got a guy from ClickUp application sending me daily emails reminding me of a job I never started, which I delete without reading.

Mind you, I start the day with Spark which does a good house cleaning job upfront.

Then Spike which integrate my emails and send junk to thrash without archiving.

I have looked at my emails and found my first attempt to hold a Linux Forum or gathering in Kandy which became a mighty flop due to interference by Guys paid by Microsoft.

If not for that sloppy job by Microsoft, I would NOT have taken Linux to heart and would have been VERY happy with Puppy Linux alone.

Always remember business can backfire on it's own.

Example is Windows.

Why Linux Distributions fear each other?

Brand new Debian 11 is out.
Unfortunately I do not have the Data nor the Ethernet wire (dismantled) to download it and test it.

By the way, my Debian 10 is running smoothly why bother.

Traditionally I download and test Debian and it will.be soon when the lockdown is eased.

I have got my Laptop and PC ready for its testing.

It is strange that Linux distributions while cohabiting peacefully with Windows, fear alternative Linux distributions.

I tried Peppermint and Pinguy Linux to sandwiched between two Debian distributions in my Laptop devoid of Windows and both failed even before starting.

I think they look for Windows to be already installed and not seeing any sign of Windows give up.

This is after preparing the Partition Table with Gpt, perfectly synchronised.

This is the ploy UEFI has craftily employed to scuttle pairing of Linux booting in a PC or Laptop prepared with a ESP boot partition (using BSD of course).

I noticed this and used a FAT partition of  255 MB (with nothing in it) in the front of the  USB stick and then booting the Linux distribution of my choice, in the partition left in the USB stick.

All 32 bit Puppy Linux distributions need this leeway but FATPup does not care.

So I have FATPup installed in a tiny partition of the Laptop and then install the second Debian installation to gather all installed distributions in the Laptop in the grand GRUB boot loader.

Only Debian has the temerity to bypass UEFI having erased Windows using BSD.

In fact, I used TrueOS DVD I downloaded in 2018.

I think Linux Torvalds should look into this spy ploy and reserve a tiny 1 MB FAT (is void and cannot be used by Windows to eavesdrop) reservation and scuttle the desired objective of Microsoft.

New Windows struggling to give birth may have subtle insinuations but DO NOT fear it is going to fail like 10 within six months.

I would not have had time or the inclination to go into these subtle annoyances, if not for the Coronavirus incarceration.

I thank the pandemic for my divergence.

Usually once I get my PC or Laptop in running order by December, I have a long holiday in January and empty the wines.

I have given up wines to preserve my memory and sanctity, if Puppy Linux (dog is also gone) is not there I would have gone bonkers.

I am aware that a lot of guys including politicians have gone bonkers during the pandemic and Ceylon is a good example.

It is not due to the virus but due to the boredom brought on by lockdown.

An unhappy lockdown.

Lilly Flower

Natural colour is much warmer.

Pencil Sketch of a Lillie Flower

Twitter Nest

The beauty of a sketch.

England, the Labour Stalwarts and the Decline of Principles

England, the Labour Stalwarts and the Decline of Principles

Before I forget I have to not down three names.

Not in order of preference or priorities.

Mind you I was a Labour sympathizer, then.

Not any longer.
No politics of conviction.
No religious affiliation not even academic conviction having not-registered as a practitioner in Ceylon over 20 years.

1. Arthur Scargill was a coal miner who became the Labour Union Leader.

He was personally persecuted by Mrs.Thather whom I disliked very much.

He disappeared from the scene with the money and came back to fight legal battles both within and outside the Labour Party.

He lives in recluse now rarely appearing in public.

He is in his eighties.

2. Ken Livingstone was a labour union leader who became the Mayor of London.

He started as a Council Member of Greater London and became the Mayor of London when that institution was formed.

3. Tony Benn was a labour activist and an excellent orator who imparted some religious favour to his convictions.

4. In this category Neil Kinnock was almost a total failure and lost 4 times to conservatives and remained as an amiable opposition leader to the liking of the conservatives.

5. Tony Blair who remained as a PM for 10 years tried to modernize the party and his "look like conservative party" has ruined it to the core.

6. Jerome Corbyn who inherited this legacy could not reform it to the current needs of the middle class and shifted towards the left and immigrants instead of the British Base.
Less I talk about current Mayor of London Khan is better for British Labour enthusiasts. He is hanging on doing nothing of substance but he be ousted by a real Labour guy (like what Ken Livingstone did decades ago).

7. Keir Starmer is the ideal choice for the labour party to come out of the wood and lead a possible victory within a short time. 

I have to revise my opinion below and he is a War Monger (ageist Labour Policies) and supporting War in Ukraine.

He is smart.
He is intelligent.
He is eloquent (unlike the oratory of the past without tangible actions).

He has the first hand experience in prosecution and should expose (no need to prosecute and an average intelligent British citizen would do that for him when the time is right)  the current wheeler dealer goons around the Conservative Party.

In fact, Conservative party members are already doing that for him.

Why waste energy but activate the young grass root level enthusiasts.

He has to extract the intent, purpose and  how the corruption insinuate even at health institutions dealing with Coronavirus.

Be patient but onslaught should be targeted and the conservative are corrupt to the core by nature unlike real labour activists.

I do not like the word socialists.

People are not equal but different at all levels but bringing them together with a common bond (every life young or old deserves dignity) is what an astute politician should do.

He should shun the paedophiliacs and sexually disoriented guys hiding behind the political garbs.

One caveat here in this country people appoint the most corrupt to the highest office and the parliament and they scratch their backs within 24 of declaration of the poll.

There are lot of Asians including Ceylonese who have come to UK with their trade marks of "absolute corruption is the only way forward".

That will be the path (absolute corruption) for UK if Conservatives remain any longer.

Do not take this as a wishful political thinking but a common sense approach to any human endeavour including mitigating the pandemic and it's effect on an average guy.

They have no money in their hands and living on "hand to mouth existence'.

I saw this in 1970s in Ceylon and history repeats itself with only a little difference, democracy is shutdown totally and a dictatorship has come to stay with the blessing of corrupt Sangha, for 5 years at least.

He is not answerable even to Almighty.

People are STUPID after all, all the time!

FATPup 64 bit Version

FATPup is an outstanding piece of Puppy work.
It has done another first for me.

After I erased Windows I could not use the SD Card slot to mount a bootable Linux distribution.

I just mounted FATPup on a SD card.

The two USB slots are now available for file transfer, mainly photos.

I do not have to stick a bootable USB.

But puppy is shy to install on a partition, I especially made for it.

Does not matter one does not have to use a terabyte of a hard disk for Puppy Linux.

I am installing another copy of Debian 10.9.0.

I found something interesting, afterward.

I made a special partition in the hard disk for Puppy and installed it but it did not boot from it on it's own.

Then I installed it on SD card and from it FATPup booted.

Well and good.

Then after I installed the second copy of Debian it recognized the Hard Disk installed Puppy and installed it on the ESP partition made using BSD.

Now I can boot Puppy without the SD card mounted.

The Xenialpup (Ubuntu based 64 bit) that is installed in a USB also can be booted from the same Menu.

Everything in one place but after several rounds of trying.

You may ask why two copies of Debian?

Debian has several Desktops and I try all with a different user.

The user name is either a dog or a monkey.

Yes, I am monkeying with you.

I would not have done any of these fancy stuff, if not for the Coronavirus, lockdown.

I am informed Debian 11 is on it's way.

That distribution is for gadgets that come after Coronavirus recovery.

I have over 100 Puppy CDs most of them under 200 MB mini CDs and Never on a single DVD (booting Puppy Linux).

FATDad trophy should go to Windows.

None of Windows could be booted with 100 MB.

They are all bloat ware.

FATPup started with 325 and went up by another 100 or about to 450MB.

I am talking about less than 500MB and getting my work done.

FATPup has LibreOffice and I want AbiWord as my roll master.

Having said that I could have downloaded AbiWord and remastered my FATPup but I have no DATA and I cannot go out or if I go out I want get a reload.

They are all closed due to total Lockdown, except for food stalls.

The plus point of FATPup are many.

1. One can make a boot USB under 4GB.

2. Once installed in a USB one can boot either in BIOS or UEFI.

I have one USB made for my BIOS PC.

The other USB is in UEFI.

I had been struggling to erase the Windows boot Menu in my Laptop and used TrueOS to do that with lot of preemptive precautions and steps.

None of that with Fat Puppy.

Download Fat Puppy.
Write a bootable CD.
Then boot the CD.

Make a UEFI USB and go to hell with Windows boot Menu.

Alternatively if you in old BIOS make a BIOS USB.

Now it seems ridiculously to boot the Laptop having a terabyte SATA Disk with only Puppy Linux.

I have already installed two copies of Debian, (I deleted one of them to install FATPup internally) in my Laptop, so I need not try FATPup any way.

I have four other Puppy derivatives that can be booted from the Laptop/PC but it took lot of thinking and reserving a 255 MB for a non existing Microsoft Windows in my Laptop.

FATPup did not care it prepared a UEFI bootable USB.

I think all Linux Distributions including Debian fear Microsoft.

It was BSD that erased the UEFI with its ESP partition which Debian used subsequently to prepare the boot Menu.

I thank Coronavirus if not for the forced incarceration I would have been doing something else.

Any way Puppy Linux came to rescue  and it is not a pure Linux Clone but an entirely different booting and operating system.

It came from Australia.

Barry Kauler is the first developer and he is retired but others have moved Puppy Linux forward.

Puppy Quirky 64 bit 7.2 Series

This is just to day I found another 64 bit Puppy derivative.
It did not have Gparted but let me use fdisk to partition a Micro SD card which I could not do with Gparted.

DD to delete
O to open a partition table and
N for a new partition
1 for number of partitions.
That it.
4 letters and one numerical character my the Micro SD back to life.
I am using it to instal Multiple Linux distributions including Knoppix 8.2 with a persistent volume and MultiSystem and Gparted included.
Debian does not let you Install in a USB or SD card (simply its volume is overwhelming) but get the files in and with a Debian DVD-1 in hand for reference one can install it using the USB.

Thanks Quirky but you were considerate not to erase my 16GB saying it only readable but not writable (overwrite).

This is also all time fame one can save to RW DVD.
I did not have a writable CD to test it.
I tried to ease the RW DVDs with 1999 cricket.
I could not.
I have made them once writable permanent copies.
Without Windows (off for 5 years) I cannot watch them.
Nothing to lose and save time to do something valuable.
I do not watch Ceylon or Indian Cricket at all.
The Coronavirus is the end for IPL.
In a way it is good for cricket in general.

Why I say we can run our affairs without Parliament and its Impotent Members

The Coranavirus has exposed the fallacy that we need a parliament to run our affairs.

In fact, current president has muted the parliament for his ad hoc method of governance.

I will go bit further, that we do not even need, a president with pompous.

This has been shown over and over in World history. All have failed if not first in the second round and they were ousted and went into exile or oblivion.

At the moment the country is run by intelligent and smart citizens doing their part without any supervision.

There is no MaC Mafia or Pathale or underground network operating now.

There are no third party dealers.

Ordinary vendor is coming out with his goods and bring them to the doorstep and no added charges asked.

What a turnaround?

The third party dealers are the ones that hoards good when prices are low and dish out the last season rice when price is artificially jacked up.

This mode of operation is supposed to be run by government goons and politicians with power.

This same ploy is applied to the vegetables, fish and any other perishable item.

Now producers have taken an initiative to deliver the good to the doorstep.

Marvellous idea at a critical time.

No need to go to the nearest city or township except liquor.

I think the liquor may have come down in price with dealers marginalized.

The price may be cheaper, even lower than the production cost.

We do not need government servants supervising these activities.

What we need is the Village Headman or the Grama Sevaka only to certify the guy we ho is doing business is local.

We do not need police investigating irregularities in transport except checking the driving and vehicle licences.

Things have simplified for better and the cost has come down.

We do not need Vasudeava to use P letter words and drive the people engine.

Without them people can run affairs efficiently.
It is said in business less control the better the outcome.

More control more problems.

In fact, Tamils in the North managed their affairs both during and after the War with minimum of Government.

I is happening in the South by default thanks to Coronavirus.

It is sugar, flour and Parippu or dhal the government need to worry and import, if they have money in the Central Bank.

It is empty by the way.

They have spent money on useless projects.

The road development that had been dragging for years in out neighbourhood is completed with less supervision by the government.

That is something outstanding.

It is the local astute business men who can do the needful, having removed the goons of government in power (it does not matter who is in power).

ClickUp Entanglement

I got this ClickUp utility through Google.

Not that I wanted even to Test with payment basis.

It  was an enterprise based software and tries to be comprehensive from the outset.

In my analysis it was a complete entanglement without escape route.

Within a few minutes I was overwhelmed and I gave up.

I have done work in large scale management in private sector and developed my own simplicity solution without getting bogged down.

It is called delegating responsibility and my job was to concentrate on bottlenecks throttling the output.

In a workplace there is flow of work and not every where is chocker blocked with activity by design.

This program assume that scenario and network is always live even with no activity in some areas.

Workplace is not set of desks, decks and boxes and this programme unfortunately had boxed them all tight.

I lost interest and the application is sitting in my Android to be deleted as and when necessary.

I am not a busy man but I do not want to be boxed in like the cat in and cat out dilemma.

I decided to be the cat out not in.

.

Word Processing, why they have become bulky?

Computers work on input and output basis.

If you put garbage in garbage comes out.

This principle applies to word processing, in general.

I downloaded a simple word processor to test in Android.

It did type all right, I could not transfer the three lines to my email to be sent to my blog site.

This is the third time I have come across this problem.

Sending to an email is like sending to the printer.

The document that sits in your Android, computer or an old typewriter is a useless as a leaf drop (it is called apoptosis).

I do not want the three word lines to sit in my Android or become apoptotic.

Those three word processes I deleted or uninstalled immediately.

No surprise.

Except AbiWord I have not found a single LIGHT WEIGHT word processor that does super efficient word processing and page formatting.

NONE.

They have Macros sitting in them and try to accomplish multiple instructions in One Go.

That is why one has to redo the document even after checking the draft print.

Every paper typed or printed does create to trees being felled and in that sense digital typing should be precise and each instruction should be precise, so that the output is going to be crisp.

If you take LibreOffice, it has to cater for a large number of languages and put all that languages, in the initial installation of the Linux distribution and then delete unnecessary ones at the end of the installation.

A waste of time.

The right way about should be to give the light weight basic construction code to the particular country using the particular language and the country then  develop the big final structure with their team.

With Coronavirus hampering large international gatherings, in one place, a smaller team in individual the country can do the bulk of the work.

Scaling is necessary and mandatory.

The One for All is a Failure.

Google doing transliteration even though practical  is not the way about addressing this universal problem.

I do not like patch work but that is what is happening.

For my part I stick to AbiWord for my work.

If I do some typing in French for instance. I will take back that document to AbiWord in early stage and reduce it's bulk and send it by email, if I wish.

Browsers and Privacy

There are plenty of browsers out there.
I use Dicky Duck which is coming from Linux base.
I was addicted to FireFox browser for my computer and never used Chrome.
But having used Firefix mini for a while, I went back to Ducky Duck which is fast and not at all intrusive in behaviour.

If you are paranoid one can use Incognito Browser or Brave.
I have all these in my Android but even Ducky Duck I only use as a single user every time.
Just using my common sense.

There is no browser history to begin with.
It is smooth and fast.

I do many things at once.

I do not one one interesting with other or simply snoozing.
This is why had written a very bad comment on Application Manager III which was doing nothing but sticking in my phone.

After my comments and relating for the 4th time it did not haunt me, but let you know if it does.
I do not want browsers to haunt me but by default Google does it.
I hope in future it behaves better.

Plant can Sense

I am not talking about touch sensitive mimosa pudica but all the plants I care for.

They sense me on daily basis if not hourly.

The interruption by rain made me to be indoors and a welcome respite for me, without watering.

If I do not water they wither away in no time and removing the weeds is a must.

All these make me to touch them and I often remove the leaves wilting away to reduce unnecessary transpiration.

Well they have flowers to greet me and insects.

Only the Wesak Orchid refuses to bloom for nearly 30 years now.

I have added a few more orchids to entice.

Might work?

Never a bee seen nowadays.

They just know that I am around but cannot say it in words.

If I am not around for 10 days most of them in the rooftop garden wither away.

So it is similar to a dog left alone and not cared for.

Unlike wild plants the plant you cared from seed level totally depend on you.

So do not take gardening lightly.

Take it to your heart and it is good for your heart unlike the pet fish.

Regarding the guppy fish the magpie comes and gobble them in the morning.

I have no way to prevent this crafty bird doing it's bird round daily.

They are short of food, I guess.

But it's sweet music is to divert your attention and moment you are not around they gobble the guppies.

The guppies are in plenty they have enough leaf cover but the stupid ones come out of shading and are the targets of magpie.

The honey birds spent their hold day sucking honey but they are always hungry flying for feeding but some have learnt to rest on branches and feed.

This is when you are not watching them.

Otherwise they retreat but lately won't care when I am around BUT not gazing.

The daily wild crow is there whenever I feed the fish.

They are looking for bread crumbs.

There is always plenty left.

Majestic Touch

Even Booting Puppy Linux is Painful due to UEFI

Even booting Puppy Linux is painful under UEFI.
It was a very easy BIOS days.

I have over 100 Puppy Linux CDs I tested a decade ago.
They were loaded in cases with puppy photographs for easy identification.

Most of the 3 and 4 series cannot be booted in 64 bit computers.

I selected two of the 5 series to install in two spare USB one 4GB and other 8GB.

They both have AbiWord my favourite and many other utilities including Gparted.
Unlike present Gpart application it lets one select one drive instead of all.
Then easy to partition in a Flash.

I installed both in a usual universal installation setup.

Installation went right but it won't boot.

Then I tried the old Flash Boot method and it won't boot after installation.

Then I examined the USB to see 255 MB reserved part of the USB for windows boot up.

Not UEFI partition but a similar reservation.

UEFI was not in existence when these Puppy Linux derivatives were popular.

The UEFI strategy was to kill Linux installation at boot up time.

I am still not using UEFI but still using BIOS option but  have to give Microsoft Windows, "You Go First " type of a push up.

This is why I hate Windows.

I am not using Windows for about 10 years and the last in the Laptop which came up with Windows was erased using BSD, 5 years ago..

How to erase Windows for good is illustrated here in this blog space using TrueOS CD.

Usually one need to have an Internet connection.

I had to have two partitions even in the USB.

One doing nothing at all.

I tried even Ex-4 partitions and they cannot boot without first 255 MB reserved for Microsoft.

I do not know how France and EU deal with this direct interference.

I had to try for 7 days and I figured it out at the end but many cannot see this business ploy.