Monthly Archives: August 2023

August 5, 2023 · 06:49

When is a ball not dropped?

That was the first question that came to mind, the answer is simple ‘when it is not a ball’. This might confuse you, but read me out. It will make sense soon enough. I took notice of the next episode of the Tate event (at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66405285), you see in the story with the headline ‘Andrew Tate’s Romania house arrest lifted’ one thing stood out, it was “The indictment says they and two female Romanian associates formed an organised criminal group in 2021 to commit human trafficking in Romania, but also in other countries including the US and the UK.” Can you see what stands out? It is “including the US and the UK”, so in over 6 months, the BBC gives us nothing on the UK side? Even if it is a ‘no comment’ setting, the BBC kept us all in the dark, all whilst accusing the Tate’s between the lines. So where are these American accusations, where are the lines of the FBI giving us ‘no comment’? This all does not add up and gives me more in regards to the speculation I had in an earlier article speculating that this was a move by organised crime and certain so called captains of industry to take away the business that the Tate’s have and claim it for their own. It must bite these wannabe’s for a kickboxer to add up to hundreds of millions, all whilst these wannabe’s are worth severely less than 1% of what the Tate’s achieved. And the media is largely helping these wannabe’s out. Feel free to disagree, yet consider that on January 10th 2023 in ‘Andrew Tate, the man, the exploited’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/01/10/andrew-tate-the-man-the-exploited/) I wrote “In this day and age when we can see cyber transgressions in every direction. Does it make sense for someone like Andrew Tate to go ‘after’ the daughter of some mogul? And this is not America, this is Romania, as such a man like that has all kinds of connections. The math just does not work out. Any loser or non-wealthy might make a move like that. It does not make the Tate’s guilty, not innocent either. EVIDENCE is required and I have so far seen close to ZERO evidence on anything that could prosecute Andrew Tate.” With the additional “The media exploiting whatever they can to get the digital dollars. And Andrew Tate makes a fine target for the media. For 2 weeks the media did not dig into the accusation, merely focussing on misogeny.” Then we get to this story, we get “Andrew and his brother Tristan were arrested in March and charged in June. They deny the charges.” No, this is not true. They were placed under house arrest on December 29th 2022, so why is the BBC suddenly so inaccurate? Then we get to the US and UK side of things. Were are the arrest and extradition requests? So where was the US in all this and why is the journalistic investigated more leaky than a sif? I cannot tell whether the Tate’s are guilty or innocent, I do not have access to any evidence, yet the bad reporting and the balls dropped on nearly every side of the equation makes me wonder if the Tate’s were ever guilty and when they are acquitted, or the trial finds them not guilty, how much trouble is the media in? Because they never had that much credibility to begin with and with the additional sides not properly investigated, the Tate’s have a case to show that the media is no longer to be trusted, and what happens when these 6 million fans tell people not to buy certain papers in the UK because of fake press credibility? I wonder which paper is left standing at that point. You can turn any man into a boogeyman, but when you get that wrong there is no going back and certain media could be getting the short end of that equation soon enough, but with the fumbled settings in the UK and US they might already be realising that.

And feel free to read up on this, but I had my doubts on this going back to January 2023, and it was the piss poor quality of the press that got me there. 

Enjoy the weekend.

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August 4, 2023 · 08:56

Three voices

I have ‘complained’ about the media before and this time I come with an example. Weirdly enough none of them are doing anything wrong, but when you see the example you might wonder what the fuzz is about. As I see it is more than merely one stating the bottle is half full and the other stating the bottle is half empty. But I will let you decide. I got there because I am investigating a setting that is approaching maturity and I want my share. Google walked way from well over 5 billion a year and Amazon is leaving it on the floor. Both are entitled to do so, yet now Tencent Technologies is coming and there is every chance that they will not pay me a dime. I am not willing to hand it to Amazon with Andy Jassy stating ‘Thank You’ and pocketing all that revenue for himself. I am not THAT nice. As such I am in a state of worry and the battle arena seems to be Dubai. Amazon has options if it is forced to break up. I think its setting will be stronger if a layer like the Kingdom Holding Company would champion the stage, especially with someone like Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud overlooking the stage. A setting that brings benefits but might not be essential. I do believe that a strong setting could be presented from Dubai, it is a personal feeling. So at times I look at the UAE and that is where the three voices got hold of me. So lets begin.

Voice One: Arab News
Here we see (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2348896/business-economy) ‘UAE’s non-oil economy remains strong in July as PMI stands at 56’ this is good, someway. I like to think that it will be better soon enough, but the Arab News gives us “According to the seasonally adjusted S&P Global UAE Purchasing Managers’ Index, the country’s PMI stood at 56 in July compared to 56.9 in June. This still indicates a positive trend as any readings above 50 are considered a growth in economic activities, while figures below 50 show contraction.” Overall a strong message, there is a little fallback, but the story gives us that is still in the growth margin. The message has the added “Higher business activities were driven by an upturn in new orders, which continued to be boosted by strong customer demand and improving market conditions, the report stated, citing survey panelists. However, it noted that growth eased since June as several firms faced greater competition which dampened sales in the process.” OK, greater competition is a little vague, but that is fine a positive approach to a story.

Voice Two: Khaleej Times
Then we get the article (at https://www.khaleejtimes.com/business/uae-non-oil-sector-continues-to-grow-at-a-strong-pace-creating-more-jobs-in-july) here we are given ‘UAE non-oil sector continues to grow at a strong pace, creating more jobs in July’, which makes sense as it is a UAE newspaper. Here we get “The S&P Global UAE Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) – an indicator designed to give an overview of operating conditions in the non-oil private sector economy – dropped from 56.9 in June to 56.0 in July but remained well above the 50.0 no-change mark and the series long-run average. The reading indicated a sharp improvement in the health of the sector, supported by a marked expansion in output.” It basically gives us the same we saw in the Arab News with the added “S&P said driving activity higher was an upturn in new orders, which continued to be boosted by strong customer demand and improving market conditions, according to survey panellists.” I personally would have a few question marks, but in the end it is how the painting is made. I would state that this critic is looking at the painting, giving the summary and looking at the use of blue paint in the process. This happens, we all have our ways of looking at a painting and it is probably the best way to describe it. 

Voice Three: Reuters
It was the first article I saw (at https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/lower-sales-weigh-uae-non-oil-business-activity-july-pmi-2023-08-03/) making me look at the setting a little deeper. The start ‘Lower sales weigh on UAE non-oil business activity in July’ with the added “The slowdown was attributed in part to an easing of growth in new orders, although demand remained strong, with the sub-index falling to 57.4 in July from 61.0 the previous month, which was the fastest rate of expansion since June 2019.” Now we get an interesting sight, this article is cautiously pessimistic (headline) but the overall message is still positive. Yet the numbers are not matching. It might not be wrong as they use ‘sub-index’, but which one? Then we get the added “Owen added that the “the easing of sales growth was substantial and, if accelerated in future months, suggests that the demand boom could have reached its peak.”” The reference is to David Owen, senior economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence. Yet the station is how does ‘substantial’ apply? Is this fear-mongering for investors, is it biased negativity towards the Middle East? You tell me, I have no clue. But the fact that we have these three voices is important because it shows us that there is a media flaw. Now, there are all kinds of flaws and flaws due to arbitrary interpretation is nothing new and optionally not a flaw but the stage is there and now we have ourselves a ballgame. So which one is true? They might all be true but the anarchy in the three voices tend to impact us all. My gut tells me to go with the Arab News, but that is instinct and not a given view of evidence. I will let you decide which one is more apt.

Enjoy the day, Friday is about to start in Vancouver, the rest of us are already there. 

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August 3, 2023 · 13:43

Envoy of Coca Cola

This all started with a weird dream. In the dream I was meeting up with a marketing friend in Sweden who had become the new Marketing director of Coca Cola. He was bringing me gifts. There was a box with 12 bottle of cola (4 classic, 4 cherry and 4 vanilla cola). There was a second box with all kinds of swag, embroided polo shirts, T-Shirts, and the piece the resistance a metal model of the original cola delivery truck from 1927. We were talking in a seating corner in what I think was supposed to be his office. We were going over some details and then I woke up. I might have woken up, but the elements were already in my brain and I went to work.

The Envoy system
You see social media has become unreliable, even unpredictable at times. As such I came up with the envoy system. To see the larger frame, lets take a look at its Twitter profile. 

As you can see 3.3 million people follow Coca Cola, not bad. But the untamed fields are there and the larger corporations are the first who can wield in the results. To see this lets take a look at the envoy system. There is the company and their server(s), the envoy and the instance. Every cycle the envoy needs to make sure that their instance is up to date. Their instance is a personalised setting for every social media setting. As such the instance will cover Facebook, Threads, Twitter, Instagram and whatever else is out there. As such one person can have well over 4 connections and in that one instance all five are reached and inform so that all their friends get the message. This is not direct marketing or mass marketing. This is personal marketing and it is set in a new light. This is not some blanket setting, this is one department optimising the message, their mission statement and the envoys are the way to get there. 

So as I see it, the the aware person sets the instance (the unaware person), both message the server (a verification of A and B) and from there the message starts and now those people lets say 100K envoys will give message to 1-50 million people, none of them following Coca Cola, but they are still getting the message. No advertisement money used and it will have larger impact. Would you believe a company stating that they are good, of a friend or influencer stating that this company is good? This is not an easy track or the small or the faint of heart, but I reckon it could send a much larger message than we currently see and I reckon that at some point all the larger players will some kind of system like this.

Well that is another nice day, all ready to go towards an evening of gaming and perhaps a movie, enjoy yours and remember, tomorrow is Friday. 

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August 2, 2023 · 19:41

My presumption is real

This article goes over several parts, parts you might agree with and parts you will not agree with. That is fair! You see several parts are set to presumption, which is still better than speculation. The difference is seen in the meaning. Presumption is an idea that is taken to be true on the basis of probability. There is more than probability in my case. I have worked in IT since 1983, as such I have been around (at least twice). Speculation is the forming of a theory or conjecture without firm evidence. And both are important because I am talking from the past, which is not always seen or accepted as evidence. This is fair, and this is why people might disagree and I get it, never take anything for granted, not Ven when I say it. I love the expression from NCIS in this case ‘Trust but verify’ Gibbs was right, always verify what you learn. It is the only real way to move forward.

So this all started yesterday with an article. The article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66118831) gives us ‘Gallium and germanium: What China’s new move in microchip war means for world’, they say it is 8 hours old, but I saw the article a little over 25 hours ago, so not sure what changed. The setting is “Under the new controls, special licences are needed to export gallium and germanium from the world’s second largest economy. The materials are used to produce chips and have military applications. The curbs come after Washington made efforts to limit Beijing’s access to advanced microprocessor technology.” You can turn and twist this to your heart content, but the setting is inaccurate and largely incorrect. Not what you read, that is fine. But there is a whole mess that precedes this and to see this we need to go back to the 90’s. You see, the IT world saw hoe the arms race was going and how military contractors were filling their pockets and the IT world took a page from that stage and started its IT Armistice race. I was caught up in it as well. A 386, a 486, a 486DX2, the Pentium, the Pentium 2, the Pentium-450, the Pentium2, as such between 1993 and 2002 I had wasted thousands on 7 systems, 7 systems in 10 years and I had enough. You see for the most the Pentium2 was enough to do 90% of everything I did, except gaming. Then I switched to consoles and saved myself thousands more. As such I avoided to the largest extend the graphic card war which might seem small but high end gaming needs a $1200 card, my PS5 was less then a thousand dollars on day one. In this Microsoft also pushed the borders, making us upgrade again and again. Oh, they played their cards cautiously and they played it well. Yet consider “Vista alone had 50 million lines of code, 10 million lines more than its successor, Windows 7. Because of the excessive amount of bloat and code, it was very slow on devices at the time, even on the latest and greatest hardware of 2007. This meant that it was more expensive to buy a machine that ran Vista properly.” Between Windows XP and Windows 7 we had the Vista nightmare and it cost too many too much. Yet weirdly enough with a little effort (Suse Linux at $99) you had an equal if not much better option, it would work on most Pentium2 systems like lightning. You could download it for free but for that money you got the discs and a DVD, the DVD had all the discs which included Linux and a truckload of programs, even open office I believe. If not it was easily downloaded. A linux lookalike version of Microsoft office that was free. It had an SQL database and so much more, even a nice collection of games, but they were not high resolution games. Fo that you needed a console and you saved thousands. It is this armistice race. We went though thousands of processors and that is what counts, because that drained the Gallium and Germanium we had and now China is one of the few that has it now. You see, we might act against China, but Gallium is found in Japan, South Korea, and Russia as well. China has however 90% at present. That does not mean there isn’t more, but finding it is not easy. Germanium is also found in Canada, Finland, Russia and the United States. China has about 60% and that is where we see the odd duck out (on your left). And is it not interesting that the second material is not mentioned that it is also found in Canada and the US? In this greed was again a much larger stage to this. The IT Armistice race dwindled whatever the west had and now China and Russia seem to have the upper hand. Still the larger stage is not merely who has it, but it becomes who can find it better, because that is where this is heading. I get it, we all need the latest PC (or MAC) but ask yourself, what allows you to do what you need to do? That is the question that IT providers like Dell and HP were eager to avoid at all cost as it impacted their bottom dollar. They will make the ‘party line’ To enjoy the best of Windows (whatever version) you are best off having a (the latest chip). That is what caused a large part of the drain and I was every bit as guilty. By the time I figured out what was going on I my bank account had about $22,000 less (11 systems with 2 still in use). You can scream whatever you want on how I could ‘save’ some dollars, but the truth is that we all enjoyed that feeling of the latest system, but it came at a price. So when we now see “a Pentagon spokesperson said the US had reserves of germanium but no stockpile of gallium” and why is that? It it is such a crucial element, why is there no stockpile? That is an easy answer, but no answer will be forthcoming. A race for supremacy, all whilst at least two racers are no longer able to keep up and that race is about to turn nasty for at least one of them. The Commonwealth might rely on Australia, but until the deposits are found the UK is in a tight spot. As I personally see it we might have to take a step back and see how else we can get the job done. As such I am phrasing an extremely speculative question. French chemist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran found in 1875 the substance we now know to be gallium, it is in group 13 of the periodic table and is similar to the other metals of the group (aluminium, indium, and thallium. My question becomes Is there another solution that employs indium or thallium? I honestly have no idea, I do not even know where these two are found and whether they can do what Gallium does. Also there is Rhodium, can it (or a combination) get the job done? I have no idea, but it seems to me that the head-banging against a wall we raised ourselves is massively stupid to say the least and there is every chance that there is a chemist and an electronic engineer who will laugh at my suggestion, which is fair enough. To see this we need to look at 1965 when Friedrich Schächter created a ballpoint that works in space as it is a pressurised ink solution. In in 1967 it was reported that NASA purchased approximately 400 pens for $2.95 a piece, all whilst Bic pens were $0.29 in those days. Russia decided to solve it by using a pencil, which costed $0.39 at the time. So we can caress our ego’s or find another solution.  And this is merely one of many issues. So will you embrace someone who adds 10 million lines of code, or seek whatever else is out there? I get it, the other solution will not work for everyone, but over 2 billion people use a PC out there. I am willing to bet the bank that at least 25% could do with a cheaper solution. There are (according to some) an estimated 300 million computers in production annually. I feel certain that at least a third doesn’t need to be bought and if Microsoft woke up and recreated Windows XP for households and adds a decent office version to it several other gallium issues could suddenly be less stringent. In 2018 970 units of Gallium were used. In 2022 it was almost 3500 units (the chart did not clearly give me what the units were). Why is that? I know that PC output is not over 300% in 2022. There might be other uses as well, but I would not know that, but the more I see the more questions I end up with and the BBC (or its article) isn’t giving me the goods. There was no mention of Canada or the US in it, was there?

It is time for plenty of people to wake up, I for one would send a wake up call (plus coffee) to Dr. Stefanie Tompkins of DARPA, perhaps they can find alternative options for these two metals? Not the weirdest idea and as the Pentagon needs these materials it seems to me that between lunch and diner DARPA might find an answer, these boffins are kinda clever so it is one way to go. What do you think?

Enjoy the middle of the week, its all uphill in anticipation to the weekend until Friday. 

 

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August 1, 2023 · 21:50

Switch the setting

I decided to switch the setting, there is no real reason other than to reflect on some of these TV series that suddenly get another lease of character. The interview episode in the Rookie, the COPS episode in the X-Files and so on. Most TV series have gone through it and now so am I. In this I am reflecting on the script I to some degree (up to season 2) here called engonos. As such I have decided to have a little fun here, I hope you like it. Enjoy

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It was a decent day, as winter is settling n the southern hemisphere, the weather in Dubai was a temperate 36 degrees Celsius. I was looking at the marine, the people and watch people stroll in a relaxed fashion as I was enjoying a cup of coffee. 

There was a scent in the air, it was a little off but it was distinct. Brimstone and sandalwood, there was only one person (if you can call him one) that would leave that scent. It was Al-Malik-Al-Aswad. It had been a little over 900 years, but it was the one scent that stays with you. He was not normal, no person had that level of power and he was here in Dubai. I preferred not to meet with him, for some reason he is always one card short of a full meltdown. He had seen it all as well and he was al old as any Olympian around. But there is something to be said for territory and for the most I have always respected his. Yet I was here out of necessity. I was not taking over his territory, I was more set to making sure that the next phase would include the Middle East and Asia. Europe was done. It was too corrupt and it needed to end and certain family members had been adamant about it. It wasn’t until recently that I started to see patterns, patterns that were as old as the hills. Lord Hades of Tartarus (the man I call grandfather) had found a new ploy to an old curse that he unleashed on a man named Sisyphus. The story was that Sisyphus first captured Thanatos, then he convinced my grandfather to return to make sure that pops would receive the proper offerings. The first I got, the second one I did not, it was almost too ego-centrical. As such the second was shame on him and that went not well in Tartarus, he was flaming fuming for decades. Still he used the ploy on Sisyphus to roll a boulder up a hill which slid back down when it was near the top and as fun would have it, Sisyphus was still at it after all these millennia. He had now a new goal and the setting was transformed. The Americans were all Sisyphus, the boulder was their own administration and the people were hopeless and pointless going from line to line trying to get the forms and as they were near completion the process, the forms would be adjusted and it started all over again. They would compete one line and get one form done and after that within a month they would be at it again. It was relentless and no one was seeing beyond the forms, beyond the lines and it had been going on for decades. All whilst their treasuries were having less and less to distribute. It was a failing of absolute certainty. Political wannabe leaders spending more and more on legal fees, less and less was about substance and it would continue as it was. A stage that had no solution for anyone and all the political wannabe’s were shouting things like ‘It is so complex now’ but that was for tomorrow. And now they were trying to cut up Amazon, the second bastion. First Google now Amazon. And the coffers would be depleted further as Amazon could movie its operations to Dubai for all Middle East operations and as they did that they could regain some of the Asian market. Xinhua Bookstore ruled in China, but with Dubai and Hyderabad India Amazon could regain some of that lost marketshare and as they grew in Europe the American shops would shutdown and the gap that remained could not be reset by anyone making the Americans dumber in the process. As such the Sisyphus routines were working and it was working on several levels. 

But it wasn’t about that, it was not about what my grandfather was doing. It was about how it was being done. I have no idea what my other grandfather was doing. You see Zeus (no other grandfather) had lost a lot of his powers, as did my great-uncle Poseidon. They lost it to air pollution and water pollution. Lord Hades was however all powerful, he had more strength then the two others combined. A millennia of growth and death made that so. In the first century there were about 150,000,000 people, by 1500 it was 500 million and now we are at eight billion and a chunk of that ends up nowhere, as such they end up at the edges of Tartarus and a lot of them end in Tartarus making Lord Hades stronger and stronger. But today was about a new border, a new stage. Yet for that I needed the Djinn, not one, but several and the stage was not to undermine my grandfather, but to ensure the decent people had a way out. China was a separate issue and it was already on route, but the Middle East was more direct and there the one person I had not seen in 900 years comes in. He knows where one of the Zabaniyah resides. I had no clue what its name was or where it was, but that was the problem. Knowing the name of a Zabaniyah gives you power over it and they are not in the market of relinquishing power. But that was the game and that was where Al-Malik-Al-Aswad came in. Convincing him that I was on the level was a whole new problem and I had an idea, but it was a dangerous one, especially if he didn’t believe me. I took another sip of coffee and looked over the marina. There was that smell again and I looked around. Then I saw the man, an elderly man. He was standing there yet no one seem to take notice of him. Strong beard. I was certain that all; the garden gnomes in Dubai were jealous of his beard and there was a strange orange aura around him. I stood up and walked towards him. 

He looked at me, I think he was sizing me up. As I got within 3 meters I stopped and suddenly noticed that no one was noticing me either. It was an interesting skill. 

He held up my ring, it was on the left index finger and he took notice of the symbol on it. I spoke to him ‘I am Lavrenti of the house of Hades of Tartarus’ I seek an audience with you as things are about to happen that could impact your region and I want to make sure that the Middle East is  protected. Not merely for me, but for all the good people in the world. He looked at me and pondered my words. ‘So what do you need?’ I looked at me and I responded. I have an idea to push the west into a lot of escalations, but to do that I need access to a Zabaniyah and you might know one. It is my only option at present. 

He looked at me and pondered the question. “In the way you approached me, I can help. He is in Egypt, he resides in one of the pyramids. If you can see you can directly spot which one. His name is Sentatayil. This is all you need. I will expect repayment for the courtesy I just showed you and he was gone. I was standing in the street alone and suddenly some people noticed me, yet they shook it off like it was a weird trickle. I walked away, it was time to see the pyramids. I had not seen them in person for over 2100 years. When I visited them, pretending to be a greek writer visiting the court of Ptolemy IX Soter, as such the place might have evolved a bit, time would tell. As such I was on route to Dubai international airport, places to go, people to address. 

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Yes this was a story and this was all my imagination, but I was kind enough to lace it with reality. You need to wonder about a few things and I reckon that every story needs a bit of spice, if only to confuse the avid reader on where reality stops. We all have an evil demon on our shoulders and mine resides on my right shoulder, the one on the left shoulder is an angelic pussy.

Have a lovely day, more reality tomorrow.

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