Monthly Archives: August 2023

August 31, 2023 · 23:59

Sentimental journey

We all have these. It usually is about something personal, something we are passionate about and mine for the longest time has been gaming. I took a sentimental journey by replaying Far Cry 3. It still had all the flaws (replaying on the PS5). One was a design flaw, one that massively annoyed me, one was a ‘weakness’ and one was open to debate. I replayed the game 4 times and in order were the PS3, Xbox360, PS4 and now PS5 and this time I stuck around to get the platinum achievement. Three I never had, one was due to me not looking at the issue, one was because I never found it (that Hollywood star with his head above the sand). The toxo thingy (because I never realised that you could do those with explosive arrows and the gamble bully as I never cared for poker. This time around there was just the poker part missing as such I ended doing a side quest I merely shrugged at and now I have it. OK, I looked up that Hollywood person. I initially thought it was one in my party to save. So when I found the solution I had to giggle. This is one of those moments I applaud the makers for such a sneaky achievement. 

This also stirred a few other things. You see, there is a game I want remade, but remade different and now it might not come to consoles because this is a streaming option. I also have been rethinking a few settings in the original games and how it might be done differently and that got me to a new approach to ‘family’ trees. Whilst everyone is rethinking ChatGPT and taking swings at their version of ‘AI’, I have been considering another use. A use in gaming not used before, not to ‘extent’ the gamer, but to extent a system that allows for ‘shoddy data’ and is set to parameters where we decide what to include and what to filter out. I considered it for a while and I suddenly that in some trees pruning is not the reward, but correctly pruning leads to a bigger reward and that is merely one stage to enhance an old game 30 years later and create a very new game. As such I now have 2 out of 4 stages of that game thought through, the third one is also there, but I believe that we need to tune that a little more. So whilst Microsoft is spending billions and billions to acquire IP, I merely thought it through and have a setting of close to half a dozen games ready to add to the Amazon Luna and Tencent handheld stables. I just can’t stop giggling at that premise. They (Microsoft) is trying to spend $69,000,000,000 to buy Blizzard and an idea that could be seen as outdated, I am about to hand Amazon and Tencent Technologies IP at less than 0.1% of that and they end up with half a dozen games that Microsoft does not have and will not have. In the meantime thanks to a brisk idea Vint Cerf had when he was an old-boy at DARPA led to an idea to a new approach to NPC enemy intelligence. Yup, Microsoft really played that part in a boneheaded way. And now (after they spend $7.5 billion for Bethesda) all eyes are on Starfield. I am not focussed on it, because I refuse to get the new Xbox and should that title fail, the goose of Microsoft will be sorely done. I honestly hope it will go well, because hoping for someone’s game to fail is just a dick move. I will merely never play it (unless it comes to PS5, which is a not going to happen). So I am not a starfield hater, but Microsoft placed a bar too high for normal games and now all eyes are on Starfield. I however decided to be more creative and designed several games exclusively for Amazon and Tencent, several of them I placed in the Public Domain for exclusive free development for these two systems. Yes, I know that this was a stretch, but the more I design and the more Microsoft fails, the bigger the loser they are showing themselves to be. It is a stage of lose some and lose some more. And now that my first IP is close to completely redrawn, Tencent Technologies stands to make a fortune on the space that Google Stadia once had and that spells out more bad news for Microsoft. 

Still the sentimental journey played its part. I have been driven (over time) towards games like System Shock and stealth games. Now I see that these stages are also drivers for new IP, not a copy of an old idea, but completely new IP, and as I personally see it Microsoft has nothing to counter it. Yes, Starfield will be new IP, but that is one IP on one system and they are still feeding the Game pass. I have several pieces of NEW IP, new that is never used and to a degree never seen on consoles. As such not only does Microsoft have contenders, but with their Call of duty fetish, trying to counter Epic and its software, they left too much lying on the floor and Tencent Technologies is starting to catch on where Amazon, Google and Microsoft decided not to look and now they are about to become the competitor Microsoft never banked on and as such they have more contenders to fields they never completely understood. First there was Apple with their iPad and the Windows Surface giggle never got close, then there was Amazon with AWS in the first (eat your heart out Azure) then with the Luna and there is Microsoft losing the streaming console war all whilst Netflix is a new contender costing Microsoft even more. Then there was Sony beating the Xbox version X (or was that the Nth degree). And now Tencent Technologies is about to enter the field giving more and more competition to Microsoft in streaming solutions. Making Microsoft the loser 5 times over. So Bethesda has an abnormal amount of pressure on it to make Starfield a lot better then good and after the epic failure that Redfall has become with additional promises not met 3 months later, all eyes are on Bethesda and I do not believe that is fair on Bethesda, but the premise was pushed by Microsoft and they will need a scapegoat should things go south, no idea how they will do that, but there you have it and I am handing over IP for free to anyone that is not Microsoft. You see, to avoid fish getting caught, you can either take the fish away, or make the pond a lot larger. I opted for a combination of both and when my initial premise of 50 million gamers is met, Microsoft will have to hand over the field yet again. Because it is not merely that I gain these gamers, Microsoft will lose those people in a few ways and that was the initial stage. It might be delusional, but I believe that giving gamers pure gaming pleasure is one way of gaining their trust. Not the trust of some analyst and some bing stage, but a stage where gaming for the sake of fun will endure long after Bing went the way of the dodo. I had hoped it would be an Amazon/Google win, but there is every chance that it will now be an optional Amazon/Tencent win and that will lead to a lot more damage to Microsoft over time. 

So whilst some will throw all this to my delusional side, I decided to blog the ideas so that they became open and Public Domain and I there is no regret here, I just came up with another part to an idea that could please a whole cluster of gamers, how large the cluster is is unknown. I understand that this is not some Call of Duty clone and as such plenty will not care for that game, but I believe millions will and that opens other doors and close the doors of Microsoft all at the same time. Why use energy twice, right?

I just have another idea. I think I wrote about it before. I should give it to Netflix as soon as possible just to piss Microsoft off and the more streaming gamers out there, the less is left for Microsoft and lets face it they have 238 million subscribers, so giving them IP merely slows the Microsoft cattle and diverts some of them to other places, a stage Microsoft cannot control and they lack ability to coach. Yup, now just to hand it over to Netflix and another loss for Microsoft is coming their way.

What a lovely way to start Friday (in 9 minutes).

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August 30, 2023 · 23:53

A king sued tomorrow for issues today

Yup this happens, Kings, Emperors and admirals, they all get sued. In this case it is King Burger, or as you would know this force of nature namely Burger King. The story (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66654440) gives us ‘Burger King faces legal claim over size of Whopper’ a story a mere 9 hours old and that matters in this case. You see, in September 2015 (yes, almost eight years ago). I wrote ‘Ronald McDonald died!’, the story (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2015/09/05/ronald-mcdonald-died/) gives a similar setting.

I even added graphics with my finger as a reference. So this stuff is not new. To be honest, I never had size issues with Burger King, I did have one with the McDonald clan of fast foods. With added references on profit margins for an extra slice of bacon which is set well over 400%. Here in today’s story we get “The lawsuit accuses the fast food giant of misleading customers by showing the burger with a meatier patty and ingredients that “overflow over the bun”. “The plaintiffs’ claims are false,” Burger King told the BBC.” A setting for the courts to decide, yet when was the McDonalds case? And when we consider that this has been going on for almost 8 years, at what point did certain parties consider taking a long hard look at the fast food industry? Because I give you now that this is not merely a ‘Burger King’ setting. As such the supporting line “Rivals McDonald’s and Wendy’s are facing a similar lawsuit in the US” comes a bit late, well over half a decade late. We are also given “The class action lawsuit against Burger King alleged that the Whopper was made to look 35% larger, with more than double the amount of meat compared to what was actually served to customers.” To this I am not saying that this is not the case, I am wondering how many graphics they have to support this. I am asking because one image does not give you the sunshine of summer, so this case has all kinds of issues and this is not pro-BK (even though I love their stuff), and they are not alone as my 2015 story shows, but the larger setting is that the stage of ‘deceptive conduct’ has been out in the open for a long time, so how many cases made it to any court (in any nation) and how many cases were settled? All what I consider to be good questions. Yet in all this one setting is “US District Judge Roy Altman said it should be left to jurors to “tell us what reasonable people think”. However, he dismissed claims that Burger King misled customers with its television and online advertisements.” To be honest, I am not certain where I stand there. You see, there is a side we aren’t looking at. How EXACTLY are the advertisements made? How insulated is that marketing team? What is the foundation that drives the claim of ‘deceptive conduct’? These are elements that are connected and not just to Burger King. McDonalds is in a similar boat. I go for similar, because if the stage gets differences in adjustments, they could not be in the same boat. Other cogs are connected to the stage we see here. They are optionally all ‘deceptive conduct’ but if different approaches were made, different claims are open to interpretation and that is a much harder stage to settle. So are all advertisements done by the American HQ of BK? How would that impact Canada, Australia and Europe? If BK paid each continent to do their advertisements, the stage alters. We can accept the defence of “Burger King had earlier argued that it was not required to deliver burgers that look “exactly like the picture”” and we accept that, but the fast food industry is based on machines for replication, as such my question becomes ‘Why not?’ And that question applies to both BK and the big M in the same way. There are more questions and I am a little surprised that the BBC did not cover them, but they have no fault. Reporting on a case tends to have its own limitations and I get that. What does surprise me that it took so long to see a setting after I reported it in 2015, and it is surprising because I do not go to these places that often. In addition there is no way that I am the only one who had this issue, so have we numbed from certain exposure? 

I will let you consider that part. Enjoy the day, we are almost past the 50% point of the week, so make today count as it is the final uphill battle for the next weekend.

Ciao!

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August 30, 2023 · 07:35

A simpleminded A, B, C

It started yesterday when I saw a message pass by on LinkedIn. (See below). 

The honest first thing I thought was ‘Are you effing kidding me?’ It was like an episode of comedy capers. I thought that this level of shortsightedness was a thing of the past, but it seems to me that people will get themselves into heaps of troubles for the longest of times. And what was that term “endless digital potential?” A call to arms for the stupid people? 

So here I am educating the wannabes and the short of cash people, because it is essential. An API is an Application Programming Interface. It is a set of definitions and protocols for integrating application software, or to ‘simplify’ this “a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other.” It is a way for others to talk to your software or data. It allows access. To give another reference. You are about to connect an anchor to your boat. But there are Danforth anchors, plow anchors, fluke anchors and several others. It depends on the size of the boat and WHERE you tend to park that dinghy, that largely decides what kind of anchor you need, not what is the prettiest anchor, that tends to be a factor in losing your boat. 

To put it in a better way “digital potential” will be seen when you connect YOUR data to anyone else’s data. Did you consider that? You see this blinders approach to information is nice and those with dollar shaped pupils take notice and want to race to that digital potential, yet the reality is something less nice. It is the chapter of risk.

RISK
Risk is the number one consideration, there is no other. Is it worth doing ‘approach A’ to get to the finish of revenue? 

Bad coding
This is perhaps the largest foe. Right off the bat, if you start off with the premise of bad coding, you are exposing yourself to serious API security risks and that is an issue. But fear not this person thought of that. We are given “That’s why we designed IBSuite as API First!” Yes, really? Security risks are still a massive danger. Unrestricted access to sensitive business flows is the stuff nightmares are made of and a security risk will bring that to your front door. 

Inadequate validation
A security researcher discovered an API payload that would send invalid data to their own user process, which would repeatedly fail to be handled correctly. This error handling loop prevented further access to their user account. This is perhaps the smallest issue, the problem is that failure to handle something correctly implies that something goes somewhere else. Do you know where that somewhere else is? Consider that your former colleagues spend decades optimising the data you have now, would you like others to enjoy that hard work, or keep that in house? 

Hesitating over API utilisation
Some state that in big companies, sometimes management can neglect to track APIs and their utilisation numbers. From this point, you can incur many charges and leave yourself open to security risks due to exposed APIs. So not only are you in danger to hand over your data, you can get charged for it too. Utilisation of data and greed in one nice compact solution, who would have thought it possible? 

Accountability
This does sound like the odd duck out, but in reality it often connects to data loss, Since API’s connect external users and applications with a firm’s internal applications, they are potential paths to a firm’s data. If access to these paths is not controlled, data can reach the wrong hands – and can be stolen, modified, or even irretrievably deleted. So data could get copied and then deleted, to make sure it does not hinder YOUR storage. I wonder if they will charge you to hand the data back? Just a thought.

Risks of XML
I admit, this is the hardest one for me. It is not always easy to put your finger on XML, its usage is too widespread, in the 90’s it was never an issue, more of a fab for some. Yet, 3rd party APIs could be compromised and leveraged to attack other API services. Attacks such as SQL injection, XML External Entity injection, and more, should be considered when handling data from other APIs. This part tends to be tedious but essential. It is time consuming ground work, but it must be done. 

APl incompetence
This is harder for me, I have a massive lack of knowledge here, it is specific niche knowledge that the experts have, yet it amounts to the ability to have a fault-tolerant system. Consider that in the 90’s there was accounting software. If I used a specific expression, the program would crash. No biggie you would think, but at that point I ended being in THAT system, now completely open with supervisor privileges. I had access to the entire mainframe with access to everything. This was a specific setting that was solved 3 weeks later. But what happened when it was not found? Consider that your system is open to anyone that employs such a solution and they get access to everything including the porn pics of your wife and your data. I am willing to bet that option one was a lot more upsetting to you, weird that.

Lack of security
You would think that this is covered, but it is not. Akamai (a US cybersecurity firm) reported “Of note, fewer than 50% of respondents have API security testing tools in place. Even fewer have deployed API discovery tools. Although the survey results suggest enterprises recognise the security risks of widespread API usage, there is no clear consensus on where to prioritise investments”, this matters. Security should be everything when it is about your house and your data. 

This is all mere top-line header consideration. So consider the intro I reacted to and the lack of risks that it shows. So how much risk are you willing to take with your house and your data? If I was inclined to be that short sighted in promoting ‘digital potential’ I would have gone with “APIs are not required, but if you consider and adhere to the risks in a proper way, they are the safest way to connect and explore digital potential. Any eco-system has risks, which is why we designed IBSuite to be a safety first option in exploring the digital oceans for revenue you cannot see now, but to get there in a digitally safe way, one that keeps your data YOURS.” Is it as good? Perhaps not, but it instills value that you as a customer and the data YOU have is used for safe navigation and that matters.

This was a functional boat once, they chose the wrong anchor and in the wrong place that cost them their livelihood. What will you do? Look deeper, look better, look elsewhere? All good questions and it all started by understanding the risks of an API because everything has a risk, not looking at it implies you are taking too many risks with something you can only lose once. 

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August 29, 2023 · 11:08

Scripting a new reality

It is an idea that had been floating in my mind for some time. Yet the BBC article brought it to to front line of my (slightly despicable) brain. The article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-65377361) shows us what is wrong with this world and I decided to play on that. There was the added Sun article (at https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/23668092/just-stop-oil-recruit-kids-as-young-11/) throwing oil to the fire (pardon the pun). As such I came up with the idea of ‘Vigilante’ partially in light of the old classic The Exterminator (with Robert Ginty). This doesn’t have a script yet (standing firm with actors here), the idea is simple. We see a man clearly with support, but alone standing about 120 metres from a 5G mast. Soon thereafter a ute arrives with 5 people, 2 women, three men. They are unloading all kinds of stuff, clearly wanting to harm the 5G tower. The man takes aim and kills all 5 and walks away, the police will clean up the next day. We see 2 more events, all taking aim at tech terrorists. The second event is a just stop gravity event (pun intended). The man had prepared for over a week, and in the last day when he figured out the where part. In the night he installs the speakers within speakers. And he attaches the vaporisers to the corners of the pillars so that they will be out of sight. The day starts and the people from ‘Just stop Gravity’ sit for a nice meal. As they start to eat they are so content and the man, whilst walking away presses the button. The speakers second set start screaming an inaudible sound damaging their hearing. They never wanted to listen then, they never need to listen again and the vaporisers release skunk scent all over the room, they all reek and as they run outside to hide from the stench, they find out that their hearing is now impaired. 

This gets us the first flashback, a man is crying, his wife (implied) is on the stretcher, critically  injured. There is little hope for her, but they hope that they can get to the hospital in time to save their yet unborn baby. The just stop gravity march stops that and the ambulance is not in time to save the baby. The man screams and his reality shatters. 

We now get back to the current stage and we see that this vigilante has help, people who lost businesses to these protesters and they are helping him. They will never act and they will never be placed in the front lines. He made that promise as he lost everything he cared for, they never need to face that reality. We get one more event with fatalities and now we get the phrase ‘Our lives matter too’ then the next event the police captures him and the court setting is set upon us. The man keeps his word and never reveals his sources. He merely stares at these so called ‘victims’ as they are all about ‘their’ rights and the lawyers are all set to avoid the rights of the vigilante and his lost family. We see the evidence and we are presented ‘the side of the tech terrorists’ and as the case goes on we see that the crucial piece of evidence. One vaporiser with his fingerprint on the inside. Then on day 3 of the court case, the prosecution cannot show the evidence with the fingerprint and the court adjourns for 24 hours as we see the sides all mingled in their private hell. The next day the court resumes and the evidence is not found, as it as the critical part in the case the case is dismissed and as the vigilante is kept in a holding cell in the court (reason not set at the moment, but I am going for an emotional outburst from the vigilante) he is placed in a holding cell for the court case (from day 2 onwards), and after the dismissal he is packing his stuff in the holding cell, the judge approaches him. “You kept your word, my brother lost his son to these terrorists. Our lives matter too” he nods and walks away. End of movie.

All this done in under 4 hours. I am clearly not the worst in this, so feel free to use the idea for whatever studio you work for. Have a nice day.

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August 28, 2023 · 13:49

The speculated danger

Yes, that is where I am. Whatever I am about to give you, there is a decent amount of speculation involved, as such there is every chance that there are issues that aren’t covered and people with that kind of knowledge aren’t speaking out at present. Not to debunk my speculations and not to enforce it. I believe that the filtered media we are getting is now likely the more danger we face. This all started last night when I saw ‘UAE records hottest day of the year as temperature crosses 50 degree mark’ (at https://english.alarabiya.net/News/gulf/2023/08/27/Temperature-crosses-50-degree-mark-again-as-UAE-records-hottest-day-of-the-summer). Here we see “The rising heat in the UAE crossed the scorching 50 degrees Celsius threshold on Saturday, marking this summer’s highest temperature. According to the National Center of Meteorology (NCM), the mercury touched 50.8 degree Celsius in Abu Dhabi’s Owtaid in Al Dhafra region at 2:45 p.m.” We see all kinds of heat messages, but for a place like the United Arab Emirates to give that to the readers is a little new to me and that place is warm on any usual day. This started me to mull several things over and it also made me think back to the 60’s (when I was young and innocent. Yes, I was innocent once). That year is forever marked in my brain. Not because of the year as I am not certain what year it was. Yet I remember that it was -20 Celsius. The coldest I could ever remember. In addition to the ice flowers on my window, something I had never seen before there was something else. The streets were iced. Now we had ice in the winter, I grew up in a city named Rotterdam. But this was different, the streets were covered in ice. I could literally skate to school which had never happened before and I do not recall that it happened since. This is what I would call a temperature outlier. These things happen and there is nothing strange about it. Now consider this heat in the UAE. In addition consider (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/08/10/the-part-we-seem-to-forget/) the stage I reported in ‘The part we seem to forget’ where I quoted “Within the next two decades, temperatures are likely to rise by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, breaching the ambition of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, and bringing widespread devastation and extreme weather” (source: the Guardian) You can forget about the decennia part, I personally believe we are there now. To get that stage we need to add three elements. 

  1. “Researchers say deforestation has caused the Amazon to absorb less than half as much carbon dioxide as it did twenty years ago.” With the added “In the last fifty years, Brazil’s Amazon has lost about a fifth of its forest cover—almost 300,000 square miles. This includes at least 5,110 square miles lost in 2021”
  2. “From 2001 to 2022, Indonesia lost 29.4 Mha of tree cover, equivalent to a 18% decrease in tree cover since 2000, and 21.1 Gt of CO₂e emissions” which gives us Indonesia. 
  3. “Beginning in March 2023, and with increased intensity starting in June, Canada has been affected by an ongoing, record-setting series of wildfires. All 13 provinces and territories have been affected” with a total of 13,999,922 ha displacing well over 250,000 people. With Al Jazeera (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/23/mapping-the-scale-of-canadas-record-wildfires) giving us “Canada is battling more than 1,000 active fires, and nearly two-thirds of them are out of control”

This is where the speculation starts. We have decimated our forests and the ability to regain the oxygen. Now, this is not going anywhere soon, our atmosphere has a curtain of well over 5 miles of oxygen, so we aren’t running out. But we now have a markable point where we use more oxygen than nature can correct for. The three largest places with forests are down by too much and there are side effects. The smoke of the Canadian fires, that go all through to the US will have a secondary impact

People wear protective masks as the Roosevelt Island Tram crosses the East River while haze and smoke from the Canadian wildfires shroud the Manhattan skyline in the Queens Borough New York City, June 7, 2023. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

The sun will warm us less and you might think that is a good thing, but you would be wrong and that is why I made mention of the outlier in the 60’s. I personally believe that we are about to face the harshest winters ever and it will not be one year. This will start a trend that will be a 3-7 year stretch, not all at once, but we will face at least 2 harsh winters over the next 5 years with a few more after that. Even if the forests in Canada are replanted using Team Trees with Mark Rober, it will take close to a decade to see that impact and the forest fires will return next year too. Less likely to the same scale, but forest fires are a normal setting in Canada, the three elements combined is different and new.

Some will have seen the Netflix movie How it Ends and we aren’t facing that, but the nuclear winter that follows such fires are not entirely impossible, I would go on stating that they are becoming more and more likely. The media will trivialise this and state that I am a doom sayer, yet they have never given us the real deal in this and they are unlikely to do so now. I am not saying this will happen, but I feel certain that we are heading to really harsh winters and the first one will hit us before January 2025 which is expected to cripple the UK and Europe to a larger degree. Canada and the nordic nations will not be crippled to such a degree, but they too will feel the bite of the winter that comes. In the meantime with the winter hitting us and the heat being a larger problem extreme weather is coming our way and it is coming now, not in a decade. 

So consider what I told you, fell free to check the numbers you can and be certain that you take note of the trivialisation you see in the media and take note of the media that trivialised it. They are no longer to be trusted ever. They are filtering the information to keep you asleep, especially in a time when you should have been awake a lot more. It is not the one thing, there is no one thing, it is the combination of a whole range of issues and it is not the private jet setting, that is utter bullshit. What they are all happy to ‘ignore’ or forget is what I mentioned in ‘A COP26 truth’ a setting we see (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/11/13/a-cop26-truth/) two elements stand out. “over the last 15 years 15,000,000 additional flights were added. That amounts to 41,000 flights a day, every single day. So how much CO2 do these flights create?” The Guardian was all about private jets and made no mention of this element. Do you really think that these flights were essential? Then there was “We are that close to suffocating. On the other side, we have seen clear reports that 50% of the damage comes from 147 plants, the media ignored it, I wrote about it and placed the documents of UNEP and the EEA for you to read, they had graphics too.” How interesting was it that the Guardian and its environmental pages did not mention that report. Two elements and you were kept in the dark and now these elements start to form a biased opinion (from me) but feel free to come up with better settings and this has been going on since 2021. So with all the space they had they ignored the European Environmental Agency? 

It is my personal speculated believe that these elements are part of a greater impact and the Canadian fires with the deforestation elements are adding up to a new picture. I might be so brazen to suggest that the 8 billion people this year onwards (for some time) will be using more oxygen than the planet can renew, this has a larger impact now, the winters and summers will both be harsh, more harsh then anyone can remember. I would leave it to the media, but I don’t thin they can be trusted any longer. In fact there are trust issues on all sides and so there should be, but those who give us the news aren’t (it is now filtered information). Am I right? Am I wrong?

I honestly do not know, but this is my speculated opinion. I might be going from numbers, but it remains speculation. 

So breath and get through the day, the weekend is behind you the next one might be coming in 5 days. Enjoy.

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August 27, 2023 · 14:56

The Funny Money Paradox

I have been dreading this. For the most I do not care. But there is one upside. The media have ignored this too and by the end of the story, you will wonder why the media ignored it. They are all uppety uppety for the most silly reasons and they will not care, not until it hurts their digital dollar bottom line. So here goes. In the first Funny Money is a slang term referring to Counterfeit money. Money obtained in a devious or sneaky manner. And that kinda connects to us. It is also a paradox as it is a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true. So that is how I got to the Funny Money Paradox. You see the two largest contributors to this act are Google and Apple, yet they aren’t doing anything illegal. There are merely using all of you to create a new stream income and the stream of income is you. So how is this happening?

You download a game from Google Play (or Apple Store) and you play it. Within the first two minutes you will have seen at least one add, more often 2-3. Now you start playing and the adds keep on flashing by (or is that buy). The game is seemingly simple and it is taunting you that you are to stupid to play it, or that only 1% can play to some distant level (fifteen) and you go for the bait. You are not stupid and you are more intelligent than what they claim and that is how they win. By the first 5 minutes you are likely to have watched 4 advertisements and that is the goal. You see 4 times $0.05 does not amount to much and you might not care, but consider that 250,000 have gone before you. It now starts adding up to serious cash. The game makers gets now $50,000 it starts adding up to serious cash soon enough. Now consider that some games are downloaded over a million times. See how this adds up? And the simple tool (I mean you) keeps on playing and funding the game maker because he has turned GaaS (Gaming as a Service) into a decent stream of income. And it is getting worse. In the last few months I have seen perhaps half a dozen at most that are decently decent games. Yet they have the same setting, but from day one they offer you to avoid ALL advertisements for a small fee (from $4.99 to $14.99) and that avoided watch-time is translated to immediate bonus to you. That is fair, a game costs money and the makers gives you the option. The problem is that most games are so set on cashing in, that they are using more and more simple graphics to cash in as quick as possible and often making more than one version of the same game whilst employing slightly altered graphics to get to the revenue. And it is all happening on the watch of Apple and Google. Now, lets be clear. Neither are doing anything illegal and they can continue as they would like and for me that is good news. My IP will shoot up when people have had enough by being the game makers piggy bank and these makers will not be allowed on the new system. So why am I on this horse? Well, in the first it demeans the status gamer. A gamer is more than an advertisement hub. In the second gaming is a wave of pleasure, not a wave of income. The gamer could be an income and I am fine with that, but these makers are ‘playing it safe’ and exploiting gamers to their own needs first and in the second giving them gaming joy. That is the largest issue I have, the media is second but it is important to see that. They are all uppety uppety on loot boxes and holding the gamer no accountable to any of it and this they avoid? Is this making sense to you?

In the end it will work out better for me, but I then hold myself up to higher values. To exploit this setting just to fair way better is not my cup of tangerine juice either. (I have something with tangerines lately) and I wanted to make sure that I was out on this and you get the chance to seek out the media to see who else reported on this and you will see that many avoided this. So whilst you see another ad on how their game is exactly like they say it is (whilst doing exactly the opposite), whilst you wonder how simple it is that 1% cannot do this, all whilst you know that they can or that gamers are too stupid to get there, whilst you know a five year old can do this, consider that gamers of any age can be made to watch advertisements. So how many advertisements did you see, how many did your children watch and why isn’t anyone waking up to this level of exploitation? Now consider the harsh reality. One source gives us “The global revenue in the ‘Games’ segment of the media market was forecast to continuously increase between 2023 and 2027 by in total 136.8 billion U.S. dollars (+34.53 percent). After the tenth consecutive increasing year, the indicator is estimated to reach 533 billion U.S. dollars and therefore a new peak in 2027.” So how much of that is watching advertisements? How many advertisements are you in for and why are Google and Apple feeding that horse? Consider the answers and consider that even as this isn’t illegal. How do you consider exploitation? 

Consider the points, consider the elements and consider what sources aren’t informing you at present.

Enjoy this Sunday, Monday is a mere evening away.

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August 26, 2023 · 16:11

You were saying?

After yesterday I had all these ‘complaints’ and how wrong I was, that this would never happen and I rejoiced, because the evidence was already there. I was actually dreading todays article (which will now happen tomorrow) and puts Apple and Google in a setting of funny money. But first this part. So, people were sure I was wrong? So let’s take a look at Al Jazeera (at https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/8/25/saudi-arabia-considering-chinese-bid-to-build-nuclear-plant-report-says) gives us ‘Saudi Arabia considering Chinese bid to build nuclear plant, report says’ where we are given “Saudi Arabia is considering a Chinese bid to build a nuclear power plant in the kingdom amid frustration over the United States’ stipulations for supporting Riyadh’s quest for nuclear power, the Wall Street Journal has reported” which with the added “In 2019, a senior Chinese official said Beijing could build as many as 30 overseas nuclear reactors through its “Belt and Road” infrastructure drive over the following decade”. So to give you the bland numbers, a nuclear reactor will cost between 6 and 8 billion. So 30 of them amount to around $200,000,000,000 that is revenue the US is now losing directly, one deal cost that much. I have no doubt that China will get a mere 1-3 reactors to start with, yet this amounts to well over $20,000,000,000 from the start. Revenue the US (optionally partially EU too) will lose. One deal sets that strain on the US revenue needs and partially European too. Now we also get (from an unknown source at http://www.ecns.cn/m/news/culture/2023-08-25/detail-ihcskrzm0994854.shtml) there we are given ‘Saudi Arabia to teach two Chinese classes weekly in secondary schools’, if this is true then the KSA are tightening bonds with China and that spells a bad year for America. I might have foreseen a lot of this, but to see operational steps being done implies that the USA is done in the Middle East. In addition to this I wonder how far the steps are at present with the UAE. You see they are both joining BRICS, as such they both stand to gain by these steps at present. Even as the UAE might not be seeking nuclear power, they (especially Dubai) stands to gain a lot by having at least one. So whatever is under options with Saudi Arabia, I reckon that the UAE is not far behind on this. In a day we see the stage where the US, due to its own stupid actions is about to lose out on well over 200 billion, and it is seemingly all going towards China. So you were saying? And how much more losses will America cop before it starts to realise that the folly approach from 2019 onwards was stupid on a premium level? 

And this is merely the beginning. As NEOM grows, so will the opportunities that China will get, America, the UK and EU pretty much priced themselves out of those markets. And the news goes from bad to worse. None at the moment, but in Q4 2023 there will be a lot more news clippings on options that are now no longer going to the American Coffers, that part is pretty clear at this point. So I was right all along. It doesn’t make me happy or joyous, yet for the Americans who realise that they are out they might want to have a heart to heart with the politicians and analysts who should have seen this long before I did and if they did, why was nothing done?

Enjoy the weekend.

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August 25, 2023 · 19:06

And then there were 6 more

I have been expecting this, I have been awaiting it. OK, I have a few different reasons, but the added BRICS members (from January 1st 2024) are Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. I don’t think that the people get how much of a issues this is going to be. BRICS members, just like any other membership (like EU, NATO) will give preference to its own members first. On ‘the seventh guest’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2019/06/21/the-seventh-guest/) I wrote “I am certain that Russia and China will use this opportunity that opened up, I just do not know how at present.” That was June 2019. There was no war looming in the Ukraine (and BRICS was not on anyones radar). This setting would be coming naturally from China and now we are about to see that play. Now consider that Saudi Arabia imports from United States was a simple US$16.22 Billion during 2021, now also consider that U.S. Exports to Saudi Arabia constitute 14.2% of total U.S. exports of those commodities worldwide. Now consider that these two numbers will diminish by at least 50% and those trades all go to China (optionally Russia too). I reckon that January 2024 will be the start where the debt levels the US currently has can no longer be allowed. Doing so will end its existence sooner and sooner. Should the US default, they will drag the EU and Japan down with them. A sentiment that China will not shed a tear about. Egypt is interesting as it propels the Saudi plans for their global G5 plans a lot further and a lot faster and it puts the EU and US out of the game pretty much overnight. As such there are signs that the latter two are racing to get agreements in play now. Something Saudi STC and Chinese Huawei are eager to block. Now consider a second part. The quoted setting was “the relationship is that the United States of America (USA) provides military protection of the Kingdom in exchange for a reliable oil supply from the Saudis, pricing of oil in USA dollars, and Saudi support for American foreign policy operations across the world” under those steps China is the most likely party to enlarge their options and they stand to get a lot more oil, oil that is likely not to go to the US and EU from January 1st 2024 (or at least a decent part of it). The latter one is a speculation, but it fits the long term play China is employing and in this I could be wrong. The KSA has long term agreements with the USA. The larger concern isn’t merely the KSA. In this new agreement Iran and the UAE join and now there is a new balancing point in the Middle East and the Emirates are part of that. So how much import does the UAE get from the USA and EU? So when they too go from “United Arab Emirates Imports from United States was US$16.88 Billion during 2021”as well as “European Union Exports to United Arab Emirates was US$37.38 Billion during 2022” and now consider that these two will go down by at least 50%, if not a whole lot more. That gives us $99,000,000,000 in lost commerce from these two places alone and that is merely the start. So how will their government credit cards go when they do not have these revenue streams continue? After that consider the damage that lost revenue from Egypt could get up to as well as increased revenue to China and this is not new, that danger existed from 2019, but certain American politicians were to ego driven and now it all comes to a speculated halt in 16 weeks. For China it will turn out to be a very merry Christmas this year. For the EU and USA a lot less so. But they were warned (not by me), these so called wannabe’s making the calls had more than information I had and they played the ostrich game. So how is that playing out for them? If you were hoping for some miracle cure from me you would be wrong. As I see it, it is too late for that. The US and UK should have adjusted their courses at least 3 years ago (7 would have been better). In the end for several players their upcoming BRICS membership is merely  business decision and that is what China and India are hoping for, because it opens their options by a fair bit starting in 2024. 

As I personally see it, the endgame will play itself, I see no moves left for the Commonwealth, the EU or the USA. Setting that should and could have been avoided for close to 5 years were never done and now with an enlarged new player on the global stage we can watch and see Wall Street implode on itself. To see the desperate go nuts on greed missed all because of some ego driven politicians will be stellar on a few levels. You see a secular population is a weird thing, the moment things go really south, they will rely on the faith of others to let them continue. Does that make the profoundly lost sentiment a drive of sarcasm or a natural wave of irony? I am not sure what applies more but as an antithesis they might be feeding each other for some time to come (especially when the media wants to get as much digital dollars as it can). 

I honestly wonder which systems will still be in play by April 1st 2024, what a joke that will be. Enjoy the weekend.

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August 24, 2023 · 19:41

The brotherhood of NASA

OK, I took notice of news today. I only took notice today as it either escaped my attention, or the western coverage has been dismal. But the BBC (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-66590446) gives notice that India is now the 4th nation to land on the moon. Preceded by USA, Russia and China it nows becomes a member of a very exclusive club. Not the UK, not France and not Germany. None of them made membership to the American Express Stellar Black Card (an extremely exclusive version of the AMEX card), it was India who did. And I am happy for India. A nation most nations and its citizens look down on, sneer at and make fun of. That nation is now a lunar nation.

The interesting part is that no one is ‘cashing’ in on that, on the pride. So above is an image, part of an image of a board game I remember playing in the 70’s. It was all about NASA then. I was watching in amazement to the TV when someone left a footprint on the moon (no negativity implied). The board game fuelled our excitement. This is a different board game, but that is the part I remember. Now consider that same game on Facebook, on your mobile. To play with friends and others. 

All now watching the ISRO logo on their board. On trains, in the office (during coffee breaks) and the ISRO has earned it, they are 4th in a game that most would say that India is a horse no show. And India got there ahead of many others, even many G20 nations. They have earned their laurels. 

And for comedy, in light of the accusations that a NAFO fella kicked the Russian moon lander out of orbit I would like to offer the idea of a NAFO block card. If you have it, you can play it whilst the lander is orbiting the moon BEFORE it lands. Then you roll the dice again. With 1-5 the opponent is halted for one move, if you get a 6, the lander is destroyed and that player has to start again at the liftoff point. I saw the NAFO fella ‘documentary’ on Twitter, so it must be real.

But that last part is merely a funny moment for me to add an element. What matters is that there have been moon games going back to the 70’s, perhaps even before that and India can now use that to spread the fame of the ISRO, they have earned it. We can be all kinds of jealous, yet in the end they got to the moon. They might be 4th, but there is no way to tell what else they will achieve and we need to be reminded that greatness comes on all shapes and sizes and from almost every direction. The ISRO showed us this with the Chandrayaan-3. A moonlander who completed its landing on August 23rd 2023 and we should remember this. India has every right to be proud of this moment and so they should be.

Enjoy today and feel free to dream of whatever you want. 

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August 23, 2023 · 20:55

A very different oak

OK, to be honest, this dream hit me some time ago. I had it, but I have no idea why I had the dream and I might never figure it out. The event was at Golden Oak Orlando. I was visiting someone and when we got to his abode (a mansion by any other name) we were overwhelmed. I reckon that this is the feeling that all those who ever visited someone’s place in Golden Oak leaves them. It is a little overwhelming. So we got to his place, we were shown the lower part of the house with an inner courtyard. There was a pool, a jacuzzi and a few other amenities making sure that we all felt a little out of our comfort zone. We went to the corner in the inner courtyard and we had something to drink. There were two pitchers of iced fruit-juice and it was wonderful. I went for the slightly more orange one. It was a mix of peached and tangerines loaded with what seemingly a shrapnel of ice parts. It was icy cold and refreshing. My kind of refreshing. The others were talking and I was listening and looking at the details of the courtyard and the kitchen room through the glass. The stove looked old-fashioned but seemingly bursting with high tech elements. A stove anyone would dream of having in their home. After the drink the second part started. We saw the living room, the kitchen we walked through and we saw a large pantry. The living-room was a little spartan but stylish. We all walked up the stairs and we saw the master bedroom. Not sure what the style was, but it looked neat. The walking bathroom was to die for and had everything on a space that is pretty much my living room. There were the two guest rooms and they both had their own style, nice but very different. And I saw the door, the door that would change it all. The door was out of place. It looked a lot heavier and darker, like dark oak heavy. From a distance it stood out, even as the door was deeper into the wall than any other door in the house. It stood out like a bank vault door would stand out in any apartment, it looked that heavy. The door was dark oak as said, but it was engraved unlike anything I had ever seen. The owner then moved a panel in the door and a small opening revealed itself. 

The opening had a key, a very old fashioned one and if I had to make a guess it was a 17th century key, but it looked off somehow. The panels showed us characters from Peter Pan and Mr. Smee (the first mate from Peter Pan) was the center piece of the door. The door opened smoothly but seemingly heavy and the door didn’t open at the end, the door opened with the axial at one third of the door and the door was a lit thicker than a door should be. What I saw then blew me away. The room was almost entirely made from wood, hardwood floors, and I saw to the right what could have been the navigator desk from a galleon. To the left was an admiral’s table with swanky seat. The navigator had its own swanky seat, both a chesterfield design, both chairs build for comfort and I walked in. I saw the small door to the end and I walked towards it, it opened up to a small balcony with seats. The wooden balcony seemed to have been part of a slightly enlarged balcony like the admirals room on a galleon with a small table and chairs. 

I looked around and I was slapped across the face a second time. The walls I can in from were the  rear of a galleon, complete with stained glass and a view of the ocean. The wall that connects to the house was an ocean and the smell of salt water was invading my nostrils. A freakin ocean? I slowly walked towards the end of the ship realising that it was smoke and mirrors (of sorts) the windows were real enough, the sound of a seagull was there, but as I stared closely I noticed the fine lines. The view on the ocean were TV screens 4 meters wide in total, about a meter high. 4 of them. There was a hidden vapour in there feeding us seawater. The sound came from the screen. It was the sound of the ocean with a bird every no and then and the screens were merely showing us the water waves, almost like it would have been were we on a galleon. The walls had pictures. One in heavy sterling with the image of Bill Thompson (the name was engraved in the centre of the bottom side of the frame. I knew the name as I grew up with Disney movies. He was the voice of Mr. Smee in the Disney version of it. There was an image an autographed one of Bob Hoskins, the man who played Smee in Hook and there were more Smee memorabilia all over the room. The navigator desk was a desk, it was fully functioning with a large map of Never-never land. The map rolled up and stayed rolled up. Beneath it was a screen a 32” touch display that showed the Mac screen and applications. There were all the Adobe ones, all the Apple ones and several I had never seen before. I noticed that below it were extensions that came out, for both the keyboard and to the right of that an A4 digital writing pad. The system was super-fast, faster than the average G5 and it looked super intuitive. I looked around to the admiral’s desk which as a large and very nice desk with all kinds of amenities. The top of the desk was wood and I think a strip of leather, for writing on I reckon. The drawers were all engraved and to the right of the desk was a panel like it was some kind of food elevator. The panel was opened and two plates with canapé’s came out. They were delicious. The door I came in through was no longer visible, well not until you go looking for it. I saw the lines of where the door was and it was almost invisible to the naked eye. 

The chair was bordeaux red, it looked extremely comfy. We ate the food and we all were mesmerised on the room. I was not the only one blown away. This was his office space and it was one hell of an office space. It was a few minutes later when we left the room and as the door opened the screens shut down, the sounds faded and to room lights all dimmed but did not turn off. As I left the room I heard the room lock and I heard more clicks, almost like a set of alarms were set to sharp. We went down again and in the kitchen I now noticed the same panel we hd upstairs. A food elevator and a chef was there with plates of food that staff were bringing around. There was a Japanese plate with marinated eel. Plates with what seemed to be wraps with chicken and I had another fruit juice. I took the yellow now, which was I reckoned pineapple with Limes and I guess pear. It was slightly sweeter, I preferred the orange one. Which was my third drink. We sat down in the living room and I was listening. I also figured out I was the plus one of one of the ladies there. She was way out of my league, so no idea who she was and why she was with me and as I was sipping my fruit juice I faded away and woke up in my own bed. 

The dream stuck with me and at first I thought it was the setting for some kind of game, but there was no relation to any game I thought up. Then it could be for TV or movie, but the office space was too distinct. I would have loved to have a house and with such an office, but too much was not my initial desire in office choice, even as the computer clearly was. Sometimes the brain takes you on a meaningless quest, so I might never know why, but that feeling of looking around and watching the ocean still haunts me and I have no idea why.

Enjoy the day, we are now past the 50% point towards the weekend.

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