Nisadas

Knowledge is Power. A little knowledge is dangerous thing.

So it goes that people with a lot of knowledge on a subject are powerful, whereas those with a little knowledge on a subject are walking time bombs.

Guess which category I belong to?

I started off with computers at the British Council, playing around on a BBC Micro and playing Sherlock Holmes on what was an IBM PC.

I later would have my own BBC Micro, being totally awestruck at the incredible 32 Kilobytes of RAM and running at a staggering 2MHz.

The things it could do with those resources?
Elite. ’nuff said.

I’ve assembled most of the PCs that I’ve owned since then, been responsible for a lot crashes, but also a wealth of knowledge (or so I tell myself).

So surely my decision to move to a more Business-oriented education and career path couldn’t have diminished my geek-factor? I stay in touch with what’s going on – I read ZDNet.

Ah, I am mistaken.

Fiddling around with things, where possible taking them apart to see how they work, has been something ingrained into my very being. So when I install Ubuntu, have everything running smoothly, trust me to go dabble.

Dabble, I do. As a result, gnome-panel goes berserk and I’m now running a fresh install of Ubuntu. The people at #Ubuntu on freenode have also come across the problem, but I wasn’t able to glean enough to be able to fix things.

This has been a truly humbling experience. I shall now go off to sleep while Synaptic updates everything.

There is a book in my future. Very possibly it’s called “Linux for Dummies”.

CVO. Chief Virus Officer. That’s what my pals at Vesess call me. Hmph. I read so much about the havoc caused by viruses on Microsoft’s operating system that paranoia stalks me all the time. Especially when you consider the time it takes to reinstall the whole thing when something goes wrong. So, downloading virus updates on a religiously regular basis is something I do.

At home, I was running Vector Linux, which gave me a cute little application called KGet for downloads. Looking for a similar application led me to WackGet. I’d wax lyrical on this little package, but it seems that after two months of using it and deciding to do a little post on it, Lifehacker beat me to it. Read all about WackGet here.

So before Lifehacker beats me to it yet again, let me share another little jewel with you – www.TinyApps.org. This site has a list of various small, low-overhead software for well, various uses.

Whereas my experience with Linux is still in the fall-down-more-times-than-walk and really-smelly-diaper stage, I’m lovin’ it. Since moving to Ubuntu, I’ve been a big fan of the little software called Axel. It’s a fantastic downloader that I use quite often.

Of further interest to interested parties may be Steven Watsky’s Lagniappe! page. Of course, if you take the time to visit it, then you should also check out his homepage and blog. This guy is more or less responsible for BeatrIX, and subsequently my shift to a totally linux environment at home.

UPDATE (2008 Aug 10) It seems that the whole BeatrIX program was discontinued ages ago. I have since disabled the links to Watsky’s pages.

The internet is a great way for obscure information to come into the spotlight – like the musings of an eclectic guy in Sri Lanka, for example.

So it’s something of a minor triumph that I should turn up in a google search at all.

Anyone who’s been involved in the web design industry is already well aware of how important being in search engines has become. There’s a separate industry built around Search Engine Optimization (SEO), so much so that spammers have taken to creating bogus websites to lure unsuspecting surfers.

After all, being able to find out something in this vast sea of information is very important. So important that the term “google” has become an adjective a verb in everyday english today.

There was an interesting article on the power of Google recently at ZDNet.

So who do you think turns up first on a google search for “failure“?

It’s worth a look.

It means “Much in Little”. Effectively, that there is something great about being small.

Sometime back, Prabhath directed me towards an interesting and very thought provoking article – Small is the new big. An interesting read that makes very succinctly clear the advantages of being a small company.

Well, my association with the Vesess Web Design team has shown me the truth of this situation. Having a small, multi-skilled team works out in so many ways for the organization, as well as its clients.

Everyone has a clearly defined responsibility which they have to fulfil. But when it comes to skills, everyone develops a multitude of them. We all discuss what we’re doing – so we collectively learn from each other. In this way, while we individually specialize in our particular fields, we obtain a better understanding of how we can perform best as a team. The better we function as a team, the better our service.

Further, there’s the cost component – being small means lesser costs. Lesser costs for us means lesser costs for our clients.

Then there’s the advantage that comes from being a close-knit team. Bureaucracy doesn’t even come into the picture. Decisions can be made quickly and acted upon almost immediately.

So it’s really no great surprise that some of the best up-and-coming companies out there are built on the “small is big” idea. I like to think of it in terms of Velociraptors – small, agile (and vicious) dinosaurs who, by acting as a team turned out to be some of the most effective hunters of their time.

When I woke at around 2am to the noise of choppers overhead, I thought I was delirious. That particular noise had become something of a rarity since the the LTTE had called a “ceasefire” in 2002 and taken instead to offing their opponents in a less overt manner, taking full advantage of the restraint commanded by the Sri Lanka Armed forces.

Confident that I was delirious, I went back to sleep again, only to awake to the terrible news that the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Mr Lakshman Kadirgamar, had been assassinated.

Him being a gentleman of stature and principle, we have truly suffered a terrible loss as a nation. In the words of Kofi Annan:

“He[Kofi Annan] deplores in the strongest of terms this criminal and senseless act and hopes that the perpetrators will be found and brought to justice,”

“Sri Lanka has lost a deeply respected statesman dedicated to peace and national unity.”

Sadly, Mr Kadirgamar was only the second Sri Lankan ever to be honoured with the unveiling of his portrait as an Oxford Union President. The other before him, Mr S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, was also assassinated.

It is a sad time for the Sri Lankan nation…

Seeing as how the political situation in Sri Lanka is going, I just had to write something about it. But of course, I know so little and mostly hear about things so late that they’re old news by the time I find out.

In this context, I found the following quotes fascinating, especially since it seems that there is a career option that has maintained a sense of tradition.

• “I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.” Charles De Gaulle
• “Crime does not pay … as well as politics.” Alfred E. Newman
• “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.” Ernest Benn
• “Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it’s important.” Eugene McCarthy
• “Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.” John Kenneth Galbraith (emphasis added)
• “The word ‘politics’ is derived from the word ‘poly’, meaning ‘many’, and the word ‘ticks’, meaning ‘blood sucking parasites‘.” Larry Hardiman (emphasis added)
• “Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them. “ Paul Valery
• “I’ve seen many politicians paralyzed in the legs as myself, but I’ve seen more of them who were paralyzed in the head.” George Wallace
• “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” Winston Churchill
• “We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.” Aesop
• “Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.” Ronald Reagan

Interesting, isn’t it? You’ll find the entire list from which these were excerpted here.

It would seem that time does not take its toll on this ancient practice. Regardless of the boundaries of time and geographical location, people take up this profession, and so many fall prey to its charms.

Politics – a topic as old as civilisation.

After messing around with Dial-Up, paying the nice people at Linuxant for a modem driver that works with my Conexant Winmodem on that lovely version of Vector SOHO Linux , I’ve been given the good news.

The people at Sri Lanka Telecom have extended their service area for ADSL to my hometown.

So,
Step 01

1. I go to the local SLT Teleshop and asks for an ADSL application.
2. I fill in the application, stating no need for installation or equipment, because I’ve already bought a 4-port Edimax Router and splitter from the people at Eastlink.
3. Of course, I’ve got documents proving that I have the permission of the phone line owner to get ADSL.
4. I thank the nice people at the Teleshop and go home.

Step 02

1. The people at SLT call back a few days later and say that the ADSL connection has been made available
2. I attach the little wire that comes with the splitter to the little box that normally connects the modem/phone line, the other end being connected to the splitter.
3. The Ethernet cable that comes with the router is then connected to the Router and the LAN port on my PC. Of course, if there wasn’t an inbuilt Ethernet port, I would have to buy a separate Network card.
4. I start up the computer, and my router is immediately recognised by my operating system.
5. I follow the instructions for installation(included in the router package or available online)
6. I open my browser and go online.

Life is good.

PostScript: This is for all my pals who wanted to know about how I setup ADSL. Individual experience may vary. Drop me a mail.

PPS: In case there is more than phone in the home, there might be some wiring required. In that case, a good conversation with the SLT people should be of some help.