Me and My Family - Value System

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Me & My Family - Value System

My Value System

I have made a 4-S Value System when I was in +2 - Simple, Sincere, Straight and Strong. Now, I find that they are still valid and my values include one more S - Systematic.

Now, I am presenting to you all my Value System.

Strong: To become strong – Physically, Emotionally, Intellectually and Spiritually is my main desire or aim of life. This is the very purpose of my life. Therefore it forms the center core of the Value System

Sincere: Unless we are sincere enough to admit our mistakes and take advises from preceptors despite the fact that we do not buy them or agree with them and follow them sincerely is the way to become strong. Therefore I sincerely admit my mistakes, weakness and lacks. I also follow the advices given by my teachers; even though many of them are not in align with my ego or desires. Thus I demonstrate my sincerity to become strong by casting off the Ego for the purpose of becoming strong.

Straight: The approach should be straight and directed towards the utility. Unless we are straight enough to be focused on the “Utility” and “Being” aspect of life, we would not become strong. This is the aspect of being dotted on the exact issues at hand and resolve rather than beating around the bush. This is the efficiency and effectiveness factors regarding one’s action.

Simple: The real measurement of strength is in simplicity. Unless we are simple, keep things simple and live simply, we would complicate our lives and thus it would drain our energies and thus result in weakness. Hence to be strong, we have to follow the virtue of Simplicity.

Systematic: Unless we are systematic and maintain objectivity with integrity and independence, we would not be able to simplify our life and thus achieve the strength. I am finding that I am mad of making things with objectivity and precision. This can come only when I systematically convert all Subjective Knowledge into Objective Consciousness. Only when I am systematic, I can transfer my knowledge to others and get an extended arm or leave a legacy.

My Family Value System

Unless my family is complimenting my Value System, I can’t live it. I believe unless it is a mistake of mine or self made deviation, I am able to live my Value System. How was this possible when all my Family Members are having different aspirations and approaches?

I wondered and found that my Family’s Value System. The Component of our Family Value System are as follows.

Focus: The Core of our Family Value System is Focus. We focus on Our Relationship, Our Development – individually and collectively and Our Expressions. There is complete adherence to the Required Focus by each of our Family Members. We find that we are always fanatically focused on what we do and hence, each of the family member is able to add to the Family some Value.

Futuristic yet Traditional: The Members of our Family are completely futuristic and modern in our thoughts and approaches. However at the same time we maintain our Family Traditions. Tradition draw us together and binds us.

Friends and Family: We are all well focused on both friendship and family, thus we have balanced both the sort of relationship and as a result able to extent the family beyond immediate members and able to accept and accommodate any person who is willing to accept our Value System. This keeps our family to grow with apt focus on our Values.

Freedom yet Self Disciplined: We enjoy complete freedom. I can choose what I have to learn, the method I can earn and even the way I worship. Hence, we are completely free to do anything and every thing. The only constraint is we should not damage Family Reputation, thus the concern for it makes us to be Self Disciplined. Thus we are self regulated person. This aspect helps us to live our individual life and as well as together as a family.

Full Consideration: All of us are drawn to consider issues from all angles – from the angle of individual self, family, friends and general public. This makes us to be sincere, straight and simple. Thus this Value of Family Aspect make us unique and lovable and loving people despite our individual flaws. This makes us to feel completely satisfied with our Family despite our economic and other conditions.

Over All Approach:

Value System should be reflected in our activities. The activities follow a pattern of thought processes and hence I studied the Value Chain of our activities. I found that it has 5As. They are as below:

Attitude: We develop our attitude continuously. Strengthen it and guard it. This is demonstrated by our approach with a focused “charging” of our emotions.

Awareness: We try to become aware of our selves and that of the issues around us. We debate, shout, discuss and fight to get hold of the issues 100%.

Acceptance: We have the mind to accept what is not changeable. We approach any issues, opportunities or problems, only affect accepting things as they are

Adaptation: We have the ability to make things to adapt to our requirements and ourselves to adapt to the situation. We are evolving continuously. That’s why each of our Family Members are having growing wisdom.

Accountable: We have the responsibility to hold ourselves accountable for what we do. This makes us more reliable and also increases our wisdom as we suffer from our mistakes and learn from it.

Hope you all enjoyed reading about me and my family value system and value chain. I hope this inspires you to become more self aware and draw your own Core Values.

Yours

VN

Learning & Earning



Hi

I felt Exams are there to test our Knowledge and Skill Sets and at Industry we have to demonstrate our talents. However, when I attempted to do things as per this paradigm, I failed. Since, I was failing miserably, I did a detailed introspection and found that I am grossly erred in holding the above paradigm.

Exams:
Examiner is also a normal human being. He is doing the service of “Evaluating Paper” either out of passion for academics or because he has no other choice to earn money. Generally, the second class - I am there at teaching & correcting papers, only because it was my last way to earn money. Therefore, my customer - Examiner, is not wanting a Knowledge Driven Answers. What he wants is, “To make his job Simple”. That is the answer paper should be easier to correct and evaluate.

This requires us to be simple, to the point and make a precise presentation. If one looks at our answers, he should feel that we have understood the subject & has applied it well. This makes us to pass the exams with flying colours.

For this, we have to:

a) Understand and Appreciate the Course Objectives

b) Understand the Question in the context of Course Objectives

c) Plan the Presentation

d) Answer in the Simplest and Precise manner

To enable us to do the above; I have prepared a matrix based on our Understanding and Application Skills.

VN Matrix		Understanding of the Course Materials
		Low	High
Application Skills	Low	Present Facts	Interpret/ Eliminate
	High	Experiment	Express

1. When your understanding of the subject is perfect and so is your application skills, express yourself in the best manner. Take this lot first.

2. When your understanding of the subject is low and applications skills are also low, then you have to attempt the questions which tests your memory power in this area. You can present facts and get away with it. Therefore, you can save time and also may get some marks for the “steps”. Rest of the questions, you may leave instead of answering it erroneously. This part one would be very clear, hence, he can take it second.

3. When your understanding is high but application skills are low, this is a rare event, yet many times happens in Exam Hall, you can focus on interpretation of facts through your application or computational skills. That is you can answer by elimination rather than selection.

4. Lastly. we can attempt on questions which we do not know the concepts, but feel we can experiment and find an answer. This is the case when you forgot a formula or method, but by common sense and computational skills you can identify the right answer. Many times, by cool mind, we could resolve some problems even though we are not very clear with the underlying concept. We gain for the steps again...

If we answer this way, we would make the life of the examiner easy and get good customer ratings!

Employment:

At employment, it is more complex. We have many players with varied expectations and powers. We will not be able to really do a “Stake Holder Mapping” as many times we would not be aware of who can be the Stakeholder. For instance, some one from HQ at Abroad, to whom you may not have talked or discussed may appear and rise many questions or some Strong Official from Strong Customer/Supplier Location and can create tension for you suddenly. Therefore, the strategy at work place depends on two factors - our freedom and skill sets.

Unless you play with in your limits, even if you do good to the company, you can not be spared. Therefore be clear with your freedom, this is easier to know than about your Stake Holders. It is much more easier to know about your talent base.

VN Matrix		Our Freedom
		Low	High
Our Skills/Talents	Low	Accept	Evolve
	High	Adopt	Excel

1. If we have wonderful skills in certain area of work, then we have to see do we have freedom to be on our own.

a) You have complete freedom: Your focus can be getting excellence. You can excel in this area without much difficulty. This is where you can relish your work and realise your competencies.

b) You may not have much freedom: This is the area where you have to adopt to the environment and find a way to express your talents and excel. For this you have to be patient, observe the environment and act with caution. The most important rule is, you should never shine better than your immediate boss.

2. There are certain roles which you do not have any skills, then you may have two strategic positions,

a) Low Freedom with Low Skills: You have to accept the situation and stay as patiently as possible. Observe for better opportunity and seize it. This is like walking on razors edge. You are not able to prove yourself, you do not have much importance or power and you can be replaced or thrown out ... all risks and problems exists in this aspect. Therefore much of caution, patience and observation is needed at this area.

b) High Freedom with Low Skills: You have to evolve a way to improve yourself. Otherwise, your freedom would be taken out sooner or later.

Hope now the strategy for earning and learning are clear to you all.

Yours

VN

Operating System - The Parameters for Assessment

Hi

On the things I have to do before I complete 40 Years (2020) the Top 3 Lists are:

1. To write a commentary on Thirukural from Management Perspective
2. To write a commentary on Gita Venpa from Leadership Perspective
3. To create an OS named Bharatora Linux having 20 Value Parameters.

The First One seems to be a distant reality, I do not have a study partner and a friend to edit things for me. The second one is being attempted by way of Vainavathin Kural Magazine. The third one I am not clear how to start with. Conceptually, I want to make myself clear, on what parameters I would design the OS. I have created a Value Equation 8S+6C+6F = The Best OS - Bharatora Linux

The 8S Parameters:

The IT World has 5S System - Security, Stability, Simplicity, Speedy and Support. I adopted them as it is and added 3 More S - Sharable, Standardised and Stylish. Thus made the 8S Parameters. The brief explanation to them are as below:

1. Security:

I want my OS to have such a security feature that no one should be able to hack it. The levels of my security features are as below:

1. Boot: Boot Loader should be such that it is not accessed by any application or person. Therefore, it would be in tact and there would not be any problem

2. Root: The Root Folders and Files should not be accessed outside the OS with or without Root Rights. Only Root User of the OS can access the Root Folders and Files that too only within the OS.

3. Files: No unwanted files would be available inside the system. Thus all Viral Infection would be avoided.

4. Apps: The Applications which are compatible with the OS and Hardware alone should be capable of installing, thus non compatible and malwares would not be installed

2. Stability:

I want my OS to be stable and have a reasonable period of development cycle. I believe 18 Months to be an appropriate time for Kernel Improvements. Hence for 18 Months there would be only security or feature enhancement patches and no Kernel or Version Changes.

3. Speed:

I want my OS to boot in 15 Seconds and Shutdown in 5 Seconds. Any application should be opened and operated in 3 Seconds.

4. Simple:

Anyone should be capable of operating the OS intuitively without any Manual or Training.

5. Support:

There should be reasonable free support for matters concerning use or simple customisation through Forums, Emails and Manuals

6. Standard:

It should follow all the IT Standards and should become a Standard OS in due course of time.

7. Stylish:

The OS should have the required style to make the user feel good at having it. It should be trendy and attractive.

8. Sharable:

The OS should allow proper sharing of files. The OS itself can be shared with others. People should also be capable of sharing applications. All sorts of sharing should be promoted without compromise on Security and Stability.

The 6C Parameters:

This is my unique parameters. I conceived it after using 32 Operating Systems and many of its versions and editions. This is 100% VN. My 5Cs are - Complete, Concise, Convenient, Compatible, Customisable and Cloud. A brief explanations to the same are:

1. Complete:

The OS should be complete in all respects. Server, Desktop/Laptops and Hand-held Devices should be supported by it. It should have the applications such that it satisfies any normal Home and Business Users. That is it should be capable of catering to all the Home, Business and Networking Needs of the Users.

2. Concise:

The OS should not be heavy. It should be aptly sized. The compact file size should enable it to become a Concise OS. To say mathematically Precision & Compactness join together to form Concise.

3. Convenient:

The OS should be convenient to install and use. Simplicity talks on the ability of the OS to be used easily without formal training and documents. Convenient talks about the ease at which the same is being effected. In simple words it should be easier to install, use and customise.

4. Customisable:

The end users can customise at ease the OS to suit their peculiar requirements. GUI Level Customisation should be easily doable at end user level. However the customisation regarding cross platform, should be a paid service.

5. Compatible:

The OS should be compatible with all Hardwares. That is it should be installable on all PCs, Laptops, etc., and It should be compatible with all Printers, Phones and other Personal Area Network Devices.

6. Cloud:

There should be cloud facility for the users of Bharatora Linux. At least 5GB should be free and any thing above it should be economically priced. All web-based applications should be available on cloud.

The 6F Parameters:

This is a bit drawn from Fedora. However I have amended to make it VN. The 5F are Featured, Futuristic, Focused, Friendly, Free and Freedom. I had replaced First in Fedora by Futuristic and Friends by Friendly and introduced Focus..

Let's match our dictionaries, I meant by these words the following things

1. Featured:

This means having all features needed to become an OS.

Complete talks about the utility aspects.

Features talks about the outlook of those aspects.

Completeness is the product, Features are the packing in which it is served.

The way completeness is assured is Features.

2. Futuristic:

By this I mean being highly innovative.

3. Focused:

By this I mean the OS is not a bleeding edge one.

It is well matured and focused on selecting proper applications and features which are well experienced in giving superb end user experience. The end users and developers are equally focused by the OS. It caters to both needs in an apt manner.

4. Friendly:

Actually Simplicity and Convenient covers all the aspects of User Friendly Behaviour of OS.

This is just an reiteration.

Simplicity – easy to understand and use

Convenient – easy to use and handle the OS

Friendly – It is easy in all ways and means to install, use and customise

5. Free:

It should be completely free to use and share.

6. Freedom:

There is no restriction on end user for -

a) Using

b) Customising

c) Sharing

d) Developing or Modifying the OS itself and selling it for money

e) Even one can charge others reasonably for Media and Download & Copying Services.

Thus there is no restriction. The only restriction is however not to sell our product.

Now, how can we design an OS with these 20 Parameters and get at least 70% Rating in the first attempt. I believe Fedora has many of these, yet there are some difficulties in it. Hence if we remix fedora and create an OS customised to include the missing ones, then it would be the world class OS.

Throw some lights and take part in that journey, without you guys, I can't do this.

Thanks and Regards

Ever Yours
V. Narayanan

Project Management & Performance Appraisal - Internalizing the Learning

Project Management & Performance Appraisal - Internalizing the Learning

Concept

I have been loaded with Project Management Works in my Initial Years of Employment. I lack the ability to manage people, even today, it exists. I lead people and make them to give their best. However this can happen only when the person is willing and is interested in the process.

I wanted to know the concept of performance appraisal (PA) and project management (PM). The Link between PM and PA is PM is the concept and PA is its measure. That is to say, what we measure is the concepts laid by PM and how we measure depends on PA Techniques.

I have read some 10 Books on PM and none was really value adding. Even the CIMA Learning Materials and Suggested Books for Reading and Reference did not quenched my thirst and I was not able to learn the concept.

As I am a die hard person on the aspect of learning, I through my networks, found an excellent material on PM. The details of the Book is as below:

Title: Project Management for Business & Technology

Author: John M. Nicholas, Loyala University, Chicago

Publisher: Prentice Hall of India Private Limited

Edition: 2nd Edition

Year: 2002

Price: Rs.375/-

The US Edition was costing about Rs.3,663/-

However, this Book was out of stock and I could not find it any where. I gave a special order for the Book through Landmark, Nungabakkam, Chennai-34 along with a recommendation from a Professor of Loyalla College, Chennai. I got the book on August 1, 2009.

This book was the most practical and process focused than any other material on the subject. The author narrates and brings the “Systems & Processes” before our eye and makes us to understand the concept.

The entire book revolves around three aspects of PM – Time, Cost and Utility. Thus the concept of PM is that if a set of tasks have to strictly adhere to Time, Cost and Utility requirements, then the managerial techniques of PM has to be adopted to it.

Measurement

The Most important management techniques is controlling. As a Finance Professional, I have to measure and analyse the performance and give a report to the Management. Now how to measure in a better way?

I came with a solution, (It's already found by many scholars, yet, I reinvented it and was able to deliver the Old Wine in New Bottle) called 3-E Measure.

The 3-E is Economy. Efficiency and Effectiveness. Economy talks about Cost related performance, Efficiency talks about Time Related Performance and Effectiveness talks about Utility.

With the help of a White Paper on Bench-marking by CIMA, I was able to device a mechanism to measure and report the 3-E

Internalizing

The Concept and Practice of PM and PA are applicable to our daily life. We want to enjoy at apt times, we want to spend less and earn more and we all want happiness. The 3 parameters – Time, Cost and Utility are perfectly required for our daily life.

However the Bench-marking and 3-E measures would not be applicable for our daily life. It is to be modified as 4-E Measures. I derived this concept of measure because I changed 4 Companies in 6 Years and now continuously thinking whether I have done the right thing by coming into practice. Hence, to objectively satisfy my subjective mind, I created this concept of 4-E.

Entertainment, Education, Earning and Ego are the 4 Measures for a Human to get full from his life.

Entertainment:

This is the measure for how often we enjoy doing the work.

a) Are we getting burdened or a sense of challenge and play, if more work comes to us – If a work which uses my talent base comes I enjoy. But if a work which moves me away from my comfort zone or talent base, I struggle.

b) What is the play quotient at work – I try to work without tension and with humor (focus is not reduced) I break up, play and chat and then do. Except Bosch, I did not have any where the ability to play at work

c) Do we have right social aspects at Work – At Bosch, I felt like I am at college days because of demography of the team, At Freudenberg I felt lonely and with the other two companies I felt like being on war front for power politics. Therefore I enjoyed working in Bosch than any other company

Educating:

This measures how we feel inside the growth of wisdom and skills. When entertainment talks about how we work today, this is to predict how we would work in future.

a) Are we learning

b) Can we experiment and explore

c) Can we share the knowledge

d) Are we appreciated for what we express as our insights

e) How effective is Consultation inside the organisation

These are the aspects for ensuring educational aspects of work

Earning:

How much we earn and would earn is a very important measure

Ego:

Generally people thing Ego as a bad word. But I feel Ego is the very purpose of our existence. I define Ego as the sum total of thought patterns and consciousness which separates us from the rest of the world and make us to feel as a unique person.

Unless, I am respected as for my uniqueness and personality, I have no meaning in my life. Hence, the question am I retreated as a person – not just as a work machine is very vital. Am I respected and treated as a part of the company is much more vital question. If you are ignored and treated low because you are just one among 100 people working in that cader, then you change the company at the earliest possible opportunity.

If these 4-Es are given, then we can have a better work place and can deliver our best.

Hope you had enjoyed me.

Yours

VN

8 Rules for Nanovation

Innovate or Perish

Nanovation, a leaders “how to” on innovation and execution,
now available in bookstores.

1. Get Wired for Innovation!

Everyone has the potential to innovate. However, Nanovators are wired different. Who are they? How do they think? What makes them tick? What do they bring to the game that makes nanovation possible? The Freibergs will show you how to hire, inspire and equip people to think big, act bold, and Nanovate.

2. Question the unquestionable.

Question it! Step out of the prevailing paradigm. Think like an outsider. Challenge your taken-for-granted assumptions—about the way the world works, about your customer’s expectations, and what your employees are truly capable of doing.

3. Look for the intersection of trends to find opportunities.

You can’t win with yesterday’s ideas, so what are the big, converging trends that are headed your way? You’ll find white space where rising trends intersect. In that white space is a huge opportunity for innovation.

4. Jettison the incumbent mentality.

Incumbents are vulnerable to the often-fatal trap of thinking the future will be more of the same only better—more choices, better features, and better design—all incremental improvements on yesterday’s headline. Nanovators don’t think “best practice” they are think “next practice.” Nanovators see the future as a whole new game and leap-frog “best” with entirely new rules.

5. Look beyond customer imagination for next big thing.

Customers are smart and never to be underestimated. But customers don’t always know what they want and if they do know, they can’t always tell you. Nanovators start a lot of conversations with “What if?” and respond to a lot of push back with “Why not?” and “Why not now?”

6. Let limitations drive creativity vs. complacency.

Nanovators see limitations as invitations to innovation and opportunities to differentiate vs. constraints and excuses for why it can’t be done! Limited resources forced the design team to be extremely creative in every aspect of the Nano’s design.

7. Look for breakthroughs beyond your industry.

Some of the best ideas for game-changing innovation will come from outside your industry. The question is: Do you have the guts to look beyond what’s comfortable and familiar? Do you have the wisdom to avoid the “not invented here” syndrome?

8. Dare to Try! Risk more to gain more.

The fact is, you can’t innovate without experimenting and you can’t experiment without making some mistakes. Companies like Tata Motors and Southwest Airlines have created cultures where it is safe for people to try new things and test new ideas.

Article from a website

Dear Sir

It's true.

But unless we keep the spirit of discipline embedded imagination; there is no chance of innovation.

Sage Ashtavakra has remarked in his samhita that a rule shall have to be broken by superior rule.

This sort of breaking rule is creativity and it suffers no sin.

He cites as an example, law of ignition has to be used to break the rule of fire burns.

Sloka's Meaning:

"If we show our hands to fire it burns, but if we soak our hands in water and then show it to fire, it does not burn so fast.

As the law of fire is broken by the law of ignition, so every law has to be broken by a superior law.

Such breaking of law is not an offense, but is a display of creativity. Such application of mind destroys all Karma."

If we apply this rule along with this western concept of innovation, we are bound to get success.

Thanks and Regards
Ever Yours
V. Narayanan, 

ACA, ACS, ADMA-Lon, DISA, PGDFE
Mobile: 91-9444689595 & 9840571348

---

From: Venkataraman Sivakumar <vsivakumar988@gmail.com>
To: V NARAYANAN <nrd80v@yahoo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 15 August 2012 3:08 PM
Subject: Re: 8 Rules for Nanovation

Dear Mr. Narayanan,

Today is visible. Tomorrow will be visible when you see the light at
the end of the tunnel. Unless you come to the brink, you won't know
you are innovating something.

So, innovating is unscheduled, boundless and accidental and open ended
that is of either certainty or no certainty. Every figament of
imagination is not innovation. Innotation should be universal that is
acceptable to the universe.

Regards,
Sivakumar

Accounting Deskilled

I always face an unique query from CA Students and "Non CA Accountants" at Industry - What is Accounts and how can I learn it quickly.

I have to tell you the end result of accounting is just two Statement & Analysis.

Let's deal with the common sense aspects of the two.

1) Financial Statements

The financial statements are  Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss A/c, Cash Flow Statement and Funds Flow Statement. 

These follow a particular format. Follow the format; fillin the same with the data from the accounting system (or the question in the exam)

You would make wonderful Financial Statements

The artistic part is in understanding the disclosure requirements imposed by the IFRS or iGAAP.

It is up to the person's interest than regularity requirement to give the disclosures.

A well drafted Financial Statement (following the complete formats) would serve the purposes of the AS, IFRS or GAAP.

Hence, learning the disclosure norms is just a matter of personal interest.

2) Financial Statement Analysis

This is just a group of formulas. The computation is easy.

Based on the bench-mark of the Industry, which is generally given by the company management (The Text Books give the bench-marks adopted by Financial Institutions to evaluate a borrower), one can tell whether the company has performed well or bad.

In a simple manner, Accounting is a matter of filling the formats and calculating certain formulas based on the filled formats

Hence, more than any-thing; one needs to stick to the format and formulas and give the results in timely manner.

Thanks and Regards
Ever Yours
V. Narayanan, 

Scientific Linux Vs Fedora

Hi

I just evaluated Scientific Linux with Fedora

Fedora - Merits as compared with Scientific Linux

1) Installation is easier than CENT-OS and hence better than Scientific Linux

2) Easy to configure, customise and use. CENT-OS is totally unfriendly, you can't mount windows drives easily.

Scientific Linux claims that it can do so like Fedora - the feature still not proven to me

3) Future Focused and Fully Featured.

Actually Fedora 15, 16 & 17 are intended to create RHEL-7 in a better way

It is for time to come rather than based on RHEL 4 or 5 as CENT-OS is based.

Fedora - De-Merits as compared with Scientific Linux

1) Not stable and supported like Scientific Linux.

2) Applications like Revisor, Virtual Box - OSE and Virt-Manager does not work in Fedora after Kernel Upgradation.

Now what is the catch in Scientific Linux:

Scientific Linux - the catch is 7 years of support and have same installation & configuration features like Fedora

But it is based on RHEL 5 and hence is an outdated Linux compared with Fedora...

That's the reason, I did not migrated to Scientific Linux

However I am planning to use this along with Windows in my Toshibha C850

 

Thanks and Regards
Ever Yours
V. Narayanan, 

Scientific Linux

Scientific Linux - It blinded me with science!
The credits for the catchy title go to legendary Thomas Dolby, but the real thanks go to the team of scientists, engineers and geeks at CERN, who developed this distribution.  If you're into science, you will, sooner or later, run into Linux. Any serious mathematical, computational work is done on Linux. From amazing 3D movies to simulating the Big Bang over to crunching sparse matrices in a cloud and folding proteins at home, it all comes down to using Linux. As a single host, Linux is merely a machine, but it starts to shine in its hundreds and thousands. 

Scientific Linux is a distribution based on RedHat, designed to work out of the box and make the job of assistants and PhDs that much easier. As such, it comes with a few extras that you do not normally see in stock RedHat, without losing the heavy anchor of adamant stability that RedHat brings.

Get Scientific Linux
The distro comes in several flavors, much like the parent distribution. You can go for the full-fledged DVD or download live CDs, running either KDE or Gnome desktop. The website is SSL-secured and is uses a rather simple wiki-style design. But you'll manage all right. The current edition is at version 5.4, just like RHEL, named Boron.

Speaking of names ...

Considering the fact several previous versions were already knighted the same way, it's a bit of a disappointment. There are so many cool physical terms, using Boron twice is somewhat bleak. Then again, Scientific Linux only had four names over the lifetime of no less than 22 releases. Creativity, anyone?

Using Scientific Linux
The boot menu is spartan, old style, with a rather classic interpretation of an atom for the logo, most likely Boron. After you make the choice, a very standard RHEL boot splash follows, taking you into a very standard RHEL desktop.

Wireless & Bluetooth
Having tested the raw RedHat functionality in my CentOS 5.3 review, I did find some problems with Wireless connectivity. Not so in Scientific Linux. Either because of the changes in 5.4, custom additions in the distro - or both, Wireless worked perfectly out of the box. I selected one of my WPA2-encrypted routers and was on my way.

Look & feel
While the desktop feels slightly archaic, it's very easy to make it look great in just a few short minutes. You already have a very decent theme and great fonts, you only need a small change of wallpaper to get things right.

Personally, I found the classic atom impression rather boring. For one thing, the hottest physical thing in the world now is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), so why not make it the focus of the distro? Or you can use the default RHEL5 desktop, and none's the wiser:

Multimedia
I was not expecting anything, which made the full plethora of codecs a genuine, pleasant surprise. Flash, MP3 and DVD playback were all there, out of the box, smooth as silk. Great job...

Compiz
Believe it or not, geeks seem to like eye candy! Scientific Linux comes with the drivers built in, waiting for you to start playing. Even on T42, everything worked out of the box, no glitches or slowdowns. The basic subset of effects is rather small, but it's still good and impressive enough.

Samba sharing
No problems either. Worked as expected. What more, my external USB drivers, formatted both in FAT32 and NTFS connected without any problems. I did have some issues in CentOS, but not here.

Applications
I must say I was surprised not to find any one of the free numerical computation programs included, FreeMat, Octave or Scilab. Could be the licensing issues, the packaging or just ole plain support, but there are not available, even in the extra repos.

Not a big deal, when you really think about it, because most engineers use Matlab for their work, but if you're in a mood for some free dabbling in matrices and fancy graphs, you will have to grab the scientific programs yourself. Oh, in my Science sites articles I promised you we would talk about a science-oriented distro, so here we are.

Still, the existing bundle of programs is quite decent. The full DVD gives you more, but you can easily replenish missing bits using the package manager. The default set includes Firefox, Thunderbird and a few interesting nerdy tools like Emacs, nedit, GhostView, and others.

But you also have X-CD-Roast CD/DVD burning software, some OpenOffice programs, Totem, a range of network tools, and other useful applications.

Package management
Scientific Linux uses a remixed, upgraded version of the YUM package manager, paired with the Yum Extender GUI, which does a very decent job. There was an issue with the proxy, but more about that later.

You can add extra repositories very easy, just a click of the mouse.

And then look for the cool programs you need. The package manager is simple, clean and easy to use. For example, here's the list of programs available in the Engineering and Scientific category. Most people would not want or need them, but geeks doing their Masters might.

That said, I would appreciate more geek tools. For example, some sort of LaTeX frontend, like LyX, since writing theses in an office suite is an abomination. More math tools, more graphs and plotting apps. Eclipse is available, which is good.

Stability
Scientific Linux is rock solid. There were no crashes or any other bugs. Laptop modes worked great. Suspend worked even in the live session, taking mere seconds to sleep and resume. Very nice. Oh, you can install the system from the live CD, unlike stock RedHat, did I mention that?

Usability
As you've seen so far, Scientific Linux is a very friendly distro. It offers Wireless and Bluetooth out of the box, comes with multimedia codecs, Samba sharing works, Compiz works, it's really great. Where are the problems, then? Well, there were a few, rather minor ones, I would like to say.

Conclusion
I was tremendously pleased with Scientific Linux. First, it's a RedHat distro, which means you get the classic Linux usage model, excellent stability and many years of support. Second, it has everything you need - multimedia, desktop effects, Samba sharing, anything. A serious question I have is, who needs Fedora?

Fedora is the new, modern experimental testbed for the RedHat family, and it has the cool and exciting technologies you want. But so does Scientific Linux, minus the stability problems of the ever-beta Fedora.

Scientific Linux does itself a great injustice by using its name. It frightens away normal people, who think this is some geeky distro, when in fact, it's just a super-polished RedHat, with all the extras you may want.

If I had to think of a RedHat-based distro for home use, it would be the academic geek distro called Scientific Linux. It bridges between spartan RedHat and futuristic Fedora by taking the best of both worlds and dropping away the problems. Really neat.

If you like you distros to be super-stable, robust, fast and supported for a long time, derived from the leading giant of the Linux world, and equipped with the trove of great programs and utilities, Scientific Linux is the one you want.

Honestly, if you ever think of recommending Scientific Linux to anyone by pointing to this article, perhaps, make sure you direct them to the Conclusion first. Let them not think for a moment that this is a geek gadget. Scientific Linux is a perfect desktop distro. Drop the nerdy wallpaper and you have a cutting-edge home system with everything you could ask for. Well, I guess, that would be all.

Open Mamba

Hi

I was just surfing for the BSD Distribution which would be easy to download and install.

I accidentally came across a RPM Based non corporate edition called Open-Mamba.

This is designed by an Individual from scratch.

It is an RPM Linux without any Red-Hat or Novell influence.

I got surprised and tried to read more about it.

This is a KDE Based Release and is 681 MB in size

This has Libre-Office and some media apps installed by default.

Since it is just a CD, I downloaded it and tried to test through Virtual Box - Harish's concept.

The over-all system slowed a bit due to loading of this Linux into Virtual Box and hence I dropped it.

I feel it would be worth testing it,,,

I may share the iso physically to some of you whom I am meeting regularly.

You may visit:

http://www.openmamba.org/distribution/

and know more about it.

Thanks and Regards
Ever Yours
V. Narayanan

Installing & Removing Cinnamon Desktop Environment

Hi

Cinnamon Desktop Environment is created by Linux Mint Guys.

This is suppossed to be Graphically Superior to MATE & Gnome.

It is also based on Gnome, yet gives a KDE Look with respect to animations and graphics

It is also faster than KDE despite the animation capabilities

However, Cinnamon is not stable.

The extensions will at times not work.

You may try cinnamon by using two commands

1) Adding Repository

wget http://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/leigh123linux/cinnamon/fedora-cinnamon.repo -o /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-cinnamon.repo

The other command is

curl http://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/leigh123linux/cinnamon/fedora-cinnamon.repo -o /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-cinnamon.repo

2) Installing the DE

yum install cinnamon

For removing the matter is much simple...

yum remove cinnamon

 

Thanks and Regards
Ever Yours
V. Narayanan, 

Installing & Removing MATE Desktop in Fedora

Hi

Kindly note the commands for installing MATE.

1) Adding the Repository

yum install http://dl.dropbox.com/u/49862637/Mate-desktop/mate-desktop-fedora/releases/16/noarch/mate-desktop-release-16-5.fc16.noarch.rpm -y

2) Installing the Desktop

yum groupinstall MATE-Desktop -y

I am saying to suffic -y so that you need not say yes to every question the terminal ask you.

That's it, MATE is available on your PC

To remove it is much more simple, just one command

yum groupremove MATE-Desktop

Fedora cleans every bit of the MATE...

 

Thanks and Regards
Ever Yours
V. Narayanan, 

Fedora - Make it a Rolling Release

Hi

I found that one of the big disadvantages of Fedora is that it has the short life cycle and downloading and installing all applications from scratch every year is boring and irritating.

Some gives the advise, not to upgrade Fedora. 

However I do not want to have an "unsupported linux".

Now I feel with just 5 Terminal Commands, we can upgrade Fedora with no loss of the applications. I believe this could be repeated continuously unless and until an app-set designed exclusively for a version is installed or the Kernel loses upgradability. The Kernel would lose upgradability when a version begins with a lower kernel version as compared to the previous distribution level. For instance, Fedora 16 ended with Kernel 3.5.2 and Fedora 17 began with Kernel 3.3.2. Though there are commands to downgrade and then upgrade versions for such cases, generally it may pose a problem. Now let's go to the command list. All the below commands have to run as a super user - root.

Kindly find below the commands:
First we must upgrade the rpm package:
yum update rpm 
Then we install the latest updates:
yum update -y
Next we clean the yum cache:
yum clean all
If you notice that a new kernel got installed during the command "yum update -y", you should reboot the system now. The command to do it from terminal is 
Now we come to the upgrade process. 
yum install preupgrade
preupgrade








reboot 

After the reboot, log in as root again, either directly or with the help of su
We can do this with preupgrade.
"preupgrade" will also take care of your RPM-Fusion Packages.
To Install preupgrade...
You have run the upgrade
Thus the system is upgraded to the new version, just reboot and now you have the new distribution. Therefore, Fedora can be used as rolling release if you master these commands and update the system through terminal. It is safer to have back-ups made before you do all these aforesaid process.

Yours

VN

Role Model & Objective

On Mentor & Role Model:

I feel that we would have the needed mentor or role model, when we become earnest seeker and ready for the instructions.

For your information, I had a miserable childhood.

No one understood my quest for knowledge.

I was always ridiculed and my life went in sadness and aloofness for the period 1985 to 1995.

Then, I meditated on what I want to achieve and framed this Learning Model.

Objectives:

As I framed an objective for my learning life; I felt I am learning from all the people I am meeting & interacting. 

The interest, involvement and sincerity made me to frame a simple, clear, concise and straight objective in an independent, integral and objective manner. The objective I framed on August 1996 was as below

"I felt I need to have 4 Nodes.

These 4 Nodes would be interacting with each other continuously

They form my basic paradigm.

The Nodes I named as "Simplicity"; "Sincerity"; "Straight" and "Strength".

The connecting cords is the knowledge of Finance & Systems.

The platform on which these are operating is practice of CA"

With this dream I started walking in my academic and professional life.

Beyond Books

I always went beyond books.

I always asked myself why this subject is there in first place.

Then what is there in the books are sufficient and appropriate for the real application

I also investigated as to the missing links...

I always searched for the root and minded about small small aspects.

For instance I tried to learn "what is meaning of debit & credit" apart from the concepts and principles of accounting

This made me to learn more and set my own standards....

I can tell boldly I have no role model for I wanted to become an original role model with nobody's copy

This is not due to arrogance or extra ordinary talents ...

It is due to my earnest hunger for being original and building myself brick by brick

Thanks and Regards
Ever Yours
V. Narayanan