Category Archives: Finance

September 2, 2025 · 20:43

Act of despair

That happens at times and I reckon that at some point I will have to give in to that setting as well. It started this morning when I was advised that I might have cancer, it might be benign, the biopsy will be done over the next week, then they know what they have. I was unusually cool about it all. As such as a friend of mine was ‘culled’ by the big C (a curry billboard shattered his skull), I can confirm that my weird sense of humor has not been devastatingly impacted at present.

So I have two ideas on my mind. The first one is that Peter Jackson (director Lord of the Rings) still owes me $17.50 He owes me that amount from 1992. But the other one is the one that matters to me. For that we need a small sidestep towards the article that Fortune gave us (at https://fortune.com/2025/08/18/mit-report-95-percent-generative-ai-pilots-at-companies-failing-cfo/) where we see ‘MIT report: 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are failing’, it is here where we see “Despite the rush to integrate powerful new models, about 5% of AI pilot programs achieve rapid revenue acceleration; the vast majority stall, delivering little to no measurable impact on P&L. The research—based on 150 interviews with leaders, a survey of 350 employees, and an analysis of 300 public AI deployments—paints a clear divide between success stories and stalled projects.” The report is two weeks old, but today I had a reason to tag it, it affects my future and as I see it, it impacts it in a positive way. As such the second quote doesn’t quite get us there, but there is an offset. It is seen in “for 95% of companies in the dataset, generative AI implementation is falling short. “The 95% failure rate for enterprise AI solutions represents the clearest manifestation of the GenAI Divide,” the report states. The core issue? Not the quality of the AI models, but the “learning gap” for both tools and organizations. While executives often blame regulation or model performance, MIT’s research points to flawed enterprise integration. Generic tools like ChatGPT excel for individuals because of their flexibility, but they stall in enterprise use since they don’t learn from or adapt to workflows, Challapally explained.” The part missing is data and verification. WE can look for other articles where we see the failures of AI. But the largest setting is never discussed. What we call AI isn’t it, they mess around with “GenAI”, they package it like it is a new version of “generative AI” but in the end it is merely DML with optional LLM in place. It is as I call it “Near Intelligent Parsing” parsing because it is existing data, it cannot leap on non existing data and the setting we see are basically a little more than predictive analytics. It is a next step.

So why is this important?
Well, for me there is a side that has worked in Technical support and customer care for nearly two decades. And as I see it, the quality people who need to act will see it. As such I think that Lawrence Ellison (Oracle) can see the light he is currently coping with. Large customers will need their technical support, their customer care and here I am ‘sneakily’ asking him for 10 million (post taxation) out of his two hundred fifty thousand million (aka $250 Billion) stockpile. Seems like the smallest of amounts. Oh, and I pride myself on being a return on investment I have proclaimed for the length of my working career going all the way back to 1982. That is 43 years of experience (twenty in technical support) and I have none in Oracle. But I know that support settings that any companies have. And Oracle will need these people soon enough. Wherever he wants to send me, it is almost fine by me. As I see it no one wants to work in Russia and America is a big no no (its a Trump card). But the UAE (ADNOC) and Saudi Arabia (ARAMCO) do make the list. And Oracle needs these large companies and especially support staff in these locations. Personally the UAE wins, but it is what Oracle needs and I am willing to move to Canberra at the earliest settings. We seen to be at an influx where the governments and large corporations need manpower. Microsoft and Amazon need to learn this and whilst they falter, Microsoft is shedding 9000 people and investing in AI, but when you consider that 95% falters, you can imagine when these systems fall short, all whilst at that same time, Windows seemingly lost 400 million users in the past three years. Do you think this is coincidence? Yes they can clean some up with NIP, but they will fill larger holes in that meantime and losing people in the process. Google and Amazon are on that same setting. But Oracle is too complex. As I see it, it needs staff in the near future and I am betting that they cannot afford to lose the manpower and I am willing to bet that as they take over clients from AWS and Azure (the latter especially) they will need more people and that’s where I come in. Not merely tech support staff, but as a trainer having made my brand of training people, I am willing to bet that Oracle might have a place for me (even a flake like me).

I have always stood my setting in this and after a long time I am proven correctly and the next generation is largely unable to deal with the support pressures and that works for me in places like ADNOC. So I believe that Oracle might be my solution towards a few settings that never worked for me. And there is something less like-able about forced to hand my IP to Microsoft whilst receiving a mere 0.001 on the dollar. I might given it away in other ways (to others) if Oracle shows to be my ‘knight on a white horse’ and there is something satisfying on that setting. I get to see Microsoft lose thrice over. 

As such those with an affinity with technical support to consider the places they can flock to. I gave some of my IP to Elon Musk (Musk already owed the ideas anyway), and I keep on fueling gaming IP to other channels too (non Microsoft systems) and there the Amazon Luna has options too. Still the news from this morning (even as it doesn’t hit me hard) it made me see that I have to put my affairs in order and one of them is to deny Microsoft my IP.

And there is a second setting, as Google and Microsoft are shedding people, the larger companies need to scoop them up quickly, because internationally these people will be wanted rather quickly. For Americans there is Canada as a first, but do you think they will spread their wings to other nations? Time will tell, but as I see it 2025/2026 will be the year where we all consider the stage of the brain drain. And take that with faltering AI projects, the turn of of places suddenly being short on tech support will falter massively and as we know: “no support, no sales” a nice catch phrase, but their AI will tell them at some point (one might hope).

So have a great day and I will ponder what will become of me when the biopsy doesn’t show a benign setting. 

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September 1, 2025 · 17:07

The enemy of my enemy is my ally

That is the setting America is coming to know as the great downfall. The BBC gives us (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mlen3grx7o) ‘Reeling from Trump’s tariffs, India and China seek a business reboot’ We can say it is a storm in a cup of water or take this seriously. I made mention of it yesterday, but I gave it a mere passover. It is not the most exciting of settings, that is if you merely adjust it for triviality. This namely has two settings, the first (the one America hungers for) is “The US was India’s top export destination in 2024, with shipments worth $87.3bn.” The other was gives us that India exported (until near future) “India Exports to United States was US$79.44 Billion during 2024, according to the United Nations” As such China now sits in the seat where China could replace America for up to $60B (they won’t get 100% in the first three years) and China gets access to up to $50B on route from India to China. There is a lot to be made and that will give Walmart pause to consider where to get the cheap stuff they love to flog to their customers, and as I see it Walmart has no real replacements there, when China starts to throttle the revenue of Walmart, America can kiss goodbye to 90% of their employment population, merely 90% of 2.1 million employees. A setting on top of the defense losses, tourism losses and the other losses that America now faces. A rare event of handing a larger win to China. And that opens other doors too. Huawei will be given access to Indias markets and as Indias data centers will adjust to Huawei, America markets will have dried up to close to 15% of the global population and there the other losses come to bear. 

So as we are given “Experts say the levies threaten to leave lasting bruises on India’s vibrant export sector, and its ambitious growth targets. China’s President Xi Jinping, too, is trying to revive a sluggish economy at a time when sky-high US tariffs threaten to derail his plans. Against this backdrop, the leaders of the world’s two most populous countries may both be looking for a reset in their relationship, which has previously been marked by mistrust, in large part due to border disputes.” Even as India has ‘mistrusts’ as the BBC phrases it, The setting is a much larger stage than anyone realizes it, so you better believe that the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) will be playing exceedingly nice. Not just because of what they will gain, but because of what America will lose in addition to this. As I see it, the Indian intelligence settings will get an immediate infusion of Chinese hardware, as such the CIA will be close to blind in the next month or so, they are kept in place whilst they will scramble for additional resources and people to thwart what India and China are starting. Their (CIA) blame game will come to new operations and we get to watch from the safety of distance as America is shooting arrow after arrow, optionally missing whatever target they are aiming for.

So whilst we were given “India was never going to be the bulwark against China that the West (and the United States in particular) thought it was… Modi’s China visit marks a potential turning point.” They are forgetting two elements in that setting. It was never a bulwark, it is a population of revenue, options for the Chinese markets to enhance and the import of Indian goods will also bless the Chinese population. On the other hand, Chinese hardware will grace the Data Centers they now have and will get over the next two years, that is a significant drain to American revenue. In addition to this, India will get to consider Chinese defense contracts and that will bolster their revenue too. In addition there is a larger setting now for Saudi Arabia to get into the field with the Defense hardware they can sell and that is another blow for America. 

And as The CIA gets replaced by the Ministry of State Security, they will get a much larger stage and when the Chinese counterparts shows that there is a lot more information they can get access to, the CIA options will dwindle down to next to nothing. As such this game was misplayed by America to a larger extent. You might think I am holding on to a 7-2 hand and I grant you it is the worst hand to have, but when the game comes to Canasta, it is out in the open what a bad hand is, because if I get either a 7 or a 2 and the pile graces one of the other cards, I could get a massive influx and China can sweeten the pot there. It is all just a video game (a reference to yesterday) and it only required people to think what was going on in a dome setting, because the other two domes could have represented the EU and the Commonwealth. Now India as a Commonwealth partner could get a more impressive seat and that was the ballgame. The Commonwealth needed an alternative as President Trump was no alternative at all, not with its 51st state bickering. Now America is dealing with additional fears, because Canada with its 8,891 km wall bordering America, oh wait, it isn’t there yet, it is on the other side and now with the dangers of a Chinese base just north of it, the Trump Administration will be playing duck and cover (ask Bethesda). And that is after they learned a hard lesson with Cuba, they get to swirl and pay for the protection they need, oh wait, they have no money left. Sucks to be America at this point. 

So whilst America is figuring out what dreadful hand they gave themselves. The larger setting is that with China the Commonwealth now has options, it is not nearly as dark as the America play presented it to be. I merely need to go back to the Huawei setting. We (most of us) thought they were the bad guys, we need to realise that the ones giving us the data was America and the greed driven population who were depending on American hardware nodded yes. Still I have never seen publicly voiced evidence of what Huawei was guilty of. Mere ‘could become’ and ‘we think’ not evidence of a credible nature and now China will get a first setting of handing America its walking papers to the larger stage that we are privy to.

Have a great day.

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August 31, 2025 · 20:43

The wave of brains

This is a setting that might be, in gaming. You see I promised you something new and I found it. A game unlike any game we have seen and in part one we get to see life on mars, life as Elon Musk envisions it. The story starts (with a wink towards Bethesda) with you as an astronaut, you are in a prison, or a detainment centre to be more precise. You found your way here and it is the start of another RPG. Yes, but one with a difference (that’s what we all say). In this setting we have a completely self reliant system and that is what saved you. You don’t know to much about this as you have a serious blunt on your head, as such you remember nothing. The systems are self reliant, the systems provide nourishment, oxygen and water. But nothing more. So the first thing you need to do is to get out of here. As you become more reliant on the systems you see where things go and how they work. As such the first two hours you are learning the systems and looking more and more apt in getting things to work. Then you get to the first setting, the droid reactivating system. That gives you a few options and one works the janitor droids and one maintenance droid (a wink to the game Paradroid). As this continues you will see that one path needs to be cleared of junk (the janitor droids). As they progress you can review other systems and get them to up and running. But you will learn that there isn’t enough power to do this. And as the monitor systems has thousands of records, you get to see the settings when things were working. And as you get around, you find bodies with identity tags and as you have a universal tag, you get to become all of these people. This will give you access to their mail and conferences. As you become more agile you get to access other places and when the maintenance droid gets to the first tower, we get power to this dome and as it gets power, oxygen, sustenance and water becomes available. As well as a much larger place to explore. Now that we have access to the first dome we get to explore and we see the first settings of the damage caused. The place is deserted, thousands of corpses and no explanation. Then we get to a security station and we see the larger setting. A space ship crashed into one of the domes, that made the air escape and cause the brownout of the fusion reactor. As such we need to create a larger energy dump and the solar panels will take its time to do so. 

As we create the energy to do so, we need to inspect the oxygen and water supply points. As such we get a larger setting, because there is a few days of water left, this also hinders the sustenance creation. But it we get the water back online, it will all be ok. It is an idea that I am having and this will relate to the larger setting of the space ship, which apparently came from earth. As such there is more to this story and for now it is about creating the challenge of getting this into the Science part of sci-fi (we tend to forget about that) and as this is set it becomes about the sanity of 3 domes supporting up to 10,000 people. As I was shown the first dome, we need to set the next stage and in this where did I get to?

Anyway this game goes into a larger setting when the spaceship (which comes from earth) has a much larger issue and that is the lore that needs to be created. A setting that comes with bad news (isn’t there always) but this will be about after the bad news and that is part of the storyline. The ship is an ark of sorts (they are all dead) and that becomes the next stage if this all and what happens when the droids are the hazard? So security and battle droids are next but that is on the next installment. Anyway so for my mind created three domes with a optional population of 5,000. And the requires a little more consideration. We might be in the detainment centre, but that is linked to the retail and civilian dome. As such we have a start. I reckon that I can build from that. It is much more entertaining whilst America is losing India as an ally and trade partner. I reckon that President Modi has had enough of their 50% tariff. So when Wall mart loses all these Chinese and Indian articles that they can flog of cheap they are bound to American articles that no one can afford and China? They gain over a billion customers to Chinese goods. Yes, this was a good idea, wasn’t it? So whilst we fight over who is whose customer China gains a billion of them and now (as I see it) America need Bangladesh to avoid Walmart with its 2.1 million employees from going flat (that will one hell of a unemployment bash coming) So whilst the US government will rely on the Microsoft cloud accounts to spike up their IP engines. The larger issue will be the it will also end Microsoft and their 280,000 employees soon enough. Thank god I kept my cloud setting encrypted and out of the hands of Microsoft. So whilst America will be facing more and more hardship, we will see the larger setting that America sunk their own fleet (which makes for an awesome video game). And that was before BRICS became a world power. Now we get a new stage, as I personally see it America is beyond broke. And I know that a nation cannot be broke, but what do you call it when a nation cannot fulfill its debts? And the interest on $37.31 trillion is nothing to be sneered at, that implies that America will need to hand over 1.67 trillion in interest every year. I warned for that years ago, this was going to happen and now that the moment is there. Others go “It is more complex than that” Really? Interest is due, so where will you get the money from? Why do you think that some funds are setting their momentum now in Bitcoin? They know this is about to happen. As such we see President Trump making complements that Canada would be great as a 51st state. All he wants are the resources and Prime Minister Carney sees through him in an instant. And that is keeping Canada safe for now. Who when we look at this in a gaming setting, we see that earth is heading for a massive war between America and the nation who are not broke. As such there will be a fight over Canada and Greenland. But America misjudged their opponents and Canada has the Commonwealth and Greenland has the EU (as Denmark is in the EU). So this will be far from over and whilst people might be looking at the trivial news. I see this as good a place as any to inform the people, through a video game. 10,000 corpses holding onto information that is todays news. And as we adjust the focal point to what the news is telling the people we get a new iteration of what is real and what is lullaby news. 

I actually never considered this before but gaming could inform millions of people on what actually is. Did anyone else figure this out?

Have a great day. For me the next step is catering the news and setting it up as a lore creator. Whilst everyone is focusing on AI (which does not exist) I use the NIP (near Intelligent Parsing) systems to flake over the news, the public available news (no one wants the news according to Rupert Murdoch). And that is the second tier in this story. All brought to you by that old geezer no one cares about (mainly me). 

Have a great day.

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August 30, 2025 · 04:36

Vindication of a sort

Yup that is the setting we face today. I feel a little vindicated. You see, when we look on the American Tourism seeing, we see the ‘fact’ that the damage would amount to 29 billion. It is a setting we faced for some time now. But I wrote on August 11th 2025 ‘The setting stage’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/08/11/the-setting-stage/) where I wrote “that the expected damage to American Tourism would be a lot worse than $29 billion. I speculatively expect it to be at least 80 billion” that was over two weeks ago. Now MSN gives us ‘Study Warns Trump Tariffs Could Deliver $64 Billion Hit to U.S. Tourism Businesses’, I reckon that when they start considering the bankruptcies in Florida and California are added, they will get a lot closer to my 80 billion, they might even surpass my predictions as I used simple arithmetic to this equation. As such I feel a little vindicated. And there is something else, we are given ““When there’s trouble in the economy, the first thing people cut is their travel budget,” Jonathan de Araujo, owner of Florida’s Disney-focused travel agency Vacationeer, told the Washington Post — noting he fears more of that reaction if consumers see the wider negative effects of tariffs materialize. “They wait until it’s time to pay in full, and they say, ‘Actually I can’t afford this.’ That’s what I’m worried about.”” The one element they ‘overlooked’ is that Yas Island in Abu Dhabi (UAE) is almost ready to replace Florida as a destination. Next year Harry Porter will be introduced and two years after that Disney comes calling and with that, a full blown alternative for Florida comes into play. So, yes my numbers were ‘conservative’ in nature, I merely learned of Disney coming to the UAE after my calculations, so there.

So whilst we bicker about what hardship America faces, we need to consider that Florida will be feeling the pinch in several ways. They just invested over 7 billion dollars into the EPIC universe park and the cost to be there is up to $139 per adult. As such the UAE has better prices, several alternatives and several pleasure packets that end up being up to 60% cheaper. So yes, with a family of 4 (mum, dad and two brats) the cost savings start to add up, add to that the VISA costs of America and the savings are clearly made. Now add the fact that the UAE is a zero tax nation, as such there are a few apples that come to mind. Yes, Florida and California now have a problem and I reckon that a bandaid  of 80 billion dollars doesn’t cover the losses they face. And yes I did take the hardships of New York, Chicago and a few other places into account.

As a bonus to me, I just saw the predictions that Saudi Arabia has upcoming gaming (projected to be over $1.5 billion) and I predicted to Kingdom holdings a setting that will grant them an additional 6 billion annually. So I am feeling a little great, well I will be if I my IP is bought.

Oh, and the blasting of the UAE goes on, we now get a Florida publication giving us (at https://www.cubaenmiami.com/en/turistas-estadounidenses-deben-estar-atentos-los-emiratos-arabes-unidos-permiten-solo-90-dias-de-estancia-en-180-dias-de-viaje/) ‘US tourists should beware: The UAE allows only 90 days of stay in 180 days of travel.’ Which a little silly. You see, the UAE visa “60-day visa costs AED 300 plus VAT” (which is like $84). And since when have you ever had a vacation for more than 60 days? A 30 day VISA is even cheaper than that (like 30%). So why on earth does this article serve any purpose? If you can afford a 90 day vacation, you can apply for a decent residency. But that is merely my thought on this. I would love a permanent residency there, but it requires the Kingdom Holding to acquire my IP (that would make me happy too). So as such anything more than a 3 week vacation is not in my budget of expectations (at present). And if my IP is acquired I will seek permanent residency anyway. 5 theme parks and a giant mall? Yup, that is the life for me.

As I see it, America felt the ‘need’ to blast the UAE as their tourism hardships are getting out of proportions. They need every American to spend money in America. That is the only way they avoid total collapse of their tourist industry. As I see it, for every tourist visiting the UAE in the next three years, they will convince at least 2 tourists to go there too, as such all these people will not visit America any day soon. With the immense amount of tourist opportunities, They will capture the imagination of global tourists. Formula one, beaches, a waterpark, the Harry Potter fans and the Disney lovers. All over them will set their sights on Yas island and Abu Dhabi and that is before you consider the other attractions and museums Abu Dhabi has to offer, as well as zero tax shopping. Florida and California just got outclassed by a lot and it is all in one city, that being said it is a 30 minute train ride from Dubai and the biggest mall on the planet. I think enough has beed said. Still we should mention desert here are the prices on Yas Island. It comes down to under $5. 

So how much do you pay in Florida or California? The calculations are easy and the added benefit is that the UAE is almost come free, women comment that they have been able to walk in the UAE free of fear. That in itself is worth the ticket. So whilst the die is cast, I feel kinda great today. I have bee right all along on a few items and if that second item can get me my income I might be able to retire on Yas Island as well. What a luxury thought to have on this Saturday at 04:45 almost a whole day of feeling bliss this Saturday. Have a great day today. I know I will.

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August 28, 2025 · 15:27

The real deal

So this happened yesterday. I was at first a little out of sort. I was surprised by a head line in the Australian giving me ‘capitalizing on a $266m IT fiasco that fueled Birmingham’s bankruptcy’ this is a setting that happens to be a weird fiasco. You see the words uniting fiasco and Oracle is nothing short of a miracle. Oracle does not usually make these kind of mistakes EVER. And this sounds like an Australian kind of advisement towards their paid wall of settings. As I am not some Australian weirdo approach to their paid wall, I had to take another look and soon enough some f the words got me to the real deal and theft that it was merely one article gave me the setting that this wasn’t real. 

The article that gave me the ‘real’ deal was found at (at https://www.cio.com/article/3830277/how-birminghams-48m-oracle-erp-project-turned-into-an-epic-failure.html) here we get the deal. It was set by ‘How Birmingham’s $48M Oracle ERP project turned into an epic failure’ which was given on February 25th 2025. Still, to see Oracle combined with ‘epic failure’ was news, so I needed to know more. And the story start ‘strong’ with “A Grant Thornton audit reveals systemic governance, expertise, and vendor management failures led to catastrophic ERP rollout.” Shows us the little setting that this tends to go the road of Birmingham and not Oracle. With the hindsight “Birmingham City Council’s (BCC) troubled enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, built on Oracle software, has become a case study of how large-scale IT projects can go awry. The system, intended to streamline payments and HR processes, is now “unlikely” to function correctly before 2026 — four years after its 2022 launch. The project involved replacing the city council’s long-standing SAP system with Oracle Cloud.” So as we see it, the setting is now set towards another setting. That setting is “The catastrophic failure of the project, which has ballooned from an initial $48 million (£38 million) investment to an estimated $114 million (£90 million) after including re-implementation costs, stands as a stark reminder of how large-scale enterprise software projects can spiral out of control.” As I see it, it is another setting. We have saw something like this in 2016 min ‘The excuse from a failed politician’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2016/03/27/the-excuse-from-a-failed-politician/) where the Labor government pretty much wasted £11 BILLION on a non-working NHS system, as such this is not new in political povernment (funny typo), so we have seen this before. I see this as someone in government sees this as the ‘golden’ opportunity to make his (or her) grind in the way of things and let this grow this out of hand into the behemoth the eats them alive.

So while CIO gives the right question, but they might go ‘lightly’ over the failure of the setting. And they give us “The audit revealed that the project’s budget ballooned from an initial £19 million to over £90 million, with delays pushing the system’s full functionality to 2026—four years beyond the planned 2022 launch.” As I see it, I have seen this kinda before decades ago where we get two elements together a sales person who wants to make an entry and someone in government wants to appeal to ‘their’ friends by giving the entire collective a setting that is not entirely manageable. The salesperson wants this deal as it makes his collective revenue shine and the other side as they have no clue what they are doing, but they have ‘friends’ who wants a player like Oracle to strike out. So the sales person contact everyone in support until they find that person who signs off on it (I didn’t) and they go from person to person until they get the ‘willing’ support person who gives them the heads up. I opposed as it would never work, but the sales person found the one support person who signed off on it and he avoided my assessment. You see, when the deal comes through he merely needs to keep me away from it (didn’t work) because after the quarter was finished he pays the person back but his commission is no longer touchable. And that is not how I believe things should work. The second setting is the ‘friend’ tactic. As such someone feeling ‘blue’ (subtle hint) gets to say make sure it includes A, B and C (they know it all never work) and as such Oracle goes down and they become the winner as they ‘suddenly’ have an option. This is how the players in the wrong setting are thrust upon the daily lives of government. 

Did that happen here?

Can’t tell, but the more you read here, the more you see that It was NOT the flaw that Oracle introduce, it was another flaw and you might see this when you see ““Integration with Oracle’s systems proved more complex than expected, leading to prolonged testing and spiraling costs,” the report stated. Payroll integration issues, combined with the volume and quality of data migration, required extensive retesting, further inflating costs. BCC’s heavy reliance on Oracle and external consultants became a double-edged sword. While third-party expertise was essential, it also weakened internal control over the project’s financial and operational outcomes.”

So we get there with the next part. 

CIO media gives us “The governance-expertise gap

The investigation uncovered a governance structure plagued by fundamental weaknesses.  At the heart of Birmingham’s ERP crisis lies what we might term the “governance-expertise gap” – a critical disconnect between oversight responsibilities and technical understanding. The absence of Oracle expertise within the council’s digital department created a dangerous scenario where those responsible for governance lacked the technical foundation to evaluate and challenge their implementation partners effectively.” As I see it, the initial Australian setting was wrong in the very least and I recon (especially as the headline changed) that the Australian headline (which was thrust upon me on LinkedIn) as 

I added the image on how I was ‘misinformed’ and perhaps Oracle wants to have a go at these people too. 

So as CIO is giving it a realistic brush (by painting IT environment of Birmingham stupid) we see the second setting and as we approach that ‘critically’ we might see an Oracle failure or two, They did not make the actual flaw. It is seen in 

“Moreover, the lack of technical oversight led to the acceptance of extensive customizations that violated their own “adopt not adapt” principle, accepting extensive customizations to align with existing business processes based on their legacy SAP system. Change requests affecting critical aspects of the solution were accepted late in the implementation cycle, creating unnecessary complexity and risk.” Where we see the adherence to a legacy system and for a council their data is their strength and “The council’s approach to governance showed a startling lack of independent oversight. Despite the program’s complexity and critical nature, no review was undertaken by Internal Audit until just before go-live.” Which is an actual failure, but not by Oracle, it is the Birmingham government that should have acted when possible, I reckon that the people involved saw the golden rainbow markers as their golden opportunity. If there is an Oracle failure it is at this point where the Oracle head honcho should have applied all breaks and talk to the Lord Mayor of Birmingham bringing his attention to the initial $48 million (£38 million) investment to an estimated $114 million (£90 million) after including re-implementation costs. I reckon that when the £60 million tag was reached someone should have drawn attention to this (perhaps they did)

It is when CIO brings attention to ‘Culture of silence and suppression’ that I wonder who was at fault, nothing here shows the flaw of Oracle, As I personally see it, the blundering setting of a seemingly absent Omnibus, a written account of what or who did what and how it was received in that office setting might be at risk of showing the real audit failure and I am willing to bet that Oracle has nothing to do with it. 

A mere collective feeling, but I have seen Oracle set the trends and projects for decades and this does not feel like an Oracle flaw, It might be as simple as Australian fear mongering advertisement settings, but there you have it. With little effort we see that the ‘Oracle Blunder’ was omitted by simple tracking and perhaps I am tracking the ‘wrong’ setting but there you have it, Australian is now getting into hot water by paid wall settings and fear mongering. So be it.

Have a great day today. It is time for some snoring if possible. Feeling a little tired today.

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August 26, 2025 · 16:59

When the masses start slipping

That is at times the boulder we are waiting to see and today Reuters is giving us just that (at https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/us-consumers-with-prime-credit-are-starting-slip-payments-2025-08-25/) with ‘US consumers with prime credit are starting to slip on payments’ was given to us a mere 10 hours ago. And for the non-alert this implies “Borrowers with prime credit scores tend to pose relatively little risk to lenders and creditors. With a prime credit score, you may qualify for more favorable loan or credit card terms, interest rates and reward programs” and when this group starts slipping, the financial world will be a matter of upheaval and that will drown the people of mortgages and other settings. This was a mere matter of time. I saw this danger about a year ago and when tourism fell down I alerted you all that the bed and breakfast people will be up soon. Now consider that California and Florida have at least 200,000 of such arrangements and 10% is now slipping. This implies that over the next year we can see this group grow to about 20%-40%, it all depends on who faithfully set the charters to repay as much as possible. Those who set a second setting towards more beds or a larger stage are truly screwed. Now consider that 20,000 up to 70,000 of these mortgages are now in disarray and likely collapsing on itself. The story gives me the benefit of the doubt. With “Late repayments over 90 days were up 109% year-over-year in the VantageScore superprime segment, while the prime segment posted a 47% increase year-over-year.” Sets the larger stage, where places are dwindling down on tourism, we see the setting change speculatively towards “Late repayments over 90 days were up 183% year-over-year in the VantageScore superprime segment” that point is what I see the point of no return. At that point bank and financial institutions are getting hammered as is the American economy. I reckon that this point will be reached by spring 2026. And with the quote “Even though in absolute terms the increase is modest, it shows that even consumers considered the most credit-healthy are also beginning to see some stress with regard to repayments.” The issue here is that these settings are on a 90% filled charter, as these regions are facing a lapse of over 10%, their food bills are up in the air. As I see it, you cannot gain momentum on an engine running on 100% all the time. This who had their repayments as high as possible and considered the chance of ‘bad weather’ are most likely to sit it out and that is the group that is way to small at present.

As such the expectations I had for America is starting to add up in the real world. As I see it Florida and California are up first, Las Vegas has had a tendency to make due with what they have, but the cracks are showing there too. California was until now one of the most economic viable situations in America, that is now ending and I reckon that after the fires and other altercations Los Angeles will not be a great place to live, crime will overtake the police there in mere months. But that last part is a speculation on my side.

Have a great day, Vancouver is just now coming into Tuesday (as is Los Angeles).

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August 25, 2025 · 17:14

Bewildered and confused

That was my setting at the moment. I am not in a rage, there is optional speaking nothing wrong done. But the list has a setting that makes me unease. I al referring to the BBC list of safe places given to me (at https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20250822-five-of-the-worlds-safest-countries-for-2025) In this list Lindsey Galloway gives us 10 players running for the safest place in the world. The ten contenders are:

1. Iceland
2. Ireland
3. New Zealand 
4. Austria
5. Switzerland
6. Singapore
7. Portugal
8. Denmark
9. Slovenia
10. Finland

I don’t disagree, I don’t agree. It could be a valid list. In first Place there is Iceland. Very likely true and that list has three places I have seen and I felt perfectly safe in all of them, so I do not disagree with the list. My bewilderment is that the United Arab Nations are not there, both Dubai and Abu Dhabi are seen by a lot of people the safest places on earth. As such I personally see this list as a way to deter people to go to the UAE in 2025 and 2026. There is a personal setting that the top 25 should have been shown to give a more direct setting, but to give a top 10 and mention merely 5 of them is a way to play this game. And as I see it the BBC is playing a game. They are doing this in September? The year is pretty much over, that is when you consider to be UAE and Saudi Arabia out of bounds, as I see it we can haggle about how save Saudi Arabia is (I actually do not know this) but both these places have an absolute divine climate between October and April. As such I wonder why this list was produced. And with Singapore giving us 

“While Singapore’s conservative stance on LGBT+ protections limits some freedoms, with same-sex marriage still prohibited, social progress is visible through events like the growing Pink Dot pride festival. Many reported feeling safer at the rally this year than in past decades as younger Singaporeans push for more widespread acceptance.” I merely wonder why the UAE didn’t make the list. I am not saying this list is wrong, I merely wonder why this list is given and why it is given in this way?

If we have to be neutral in this setting then the other story linked in this list is:

Top 10 most liveable cities for 2025:

1. Copenhagen, Denmark
2. Vienna, Austria (tie)
2. Zurich, Switzerland (tie)
4. Melbourne, Australia
5. Geneva, Switzerland
6. Sydney, Australia
7. Osaka, Japan (tie)
7. Auckland, New Zealand (tie)
9. Adelaide, Australia
10. Vancouver, Canada

This list has a few debatable sides. The fact that Sydney scores better than Auckland, Adelaide or Vancouver is a rather large setting. Housing in Sydney is off the charts, whilst Vancouver and Auckland can give a much better setting, but that is me and I wonder here too why Abu Dhabi didn’t make the list. If affordability is depending on the price if housing (as it needs to be) Zurich could not be in a tied second place either. So why are these lists created and who is wondering what the BBC is up to. Is it catering to political powers and as such to the people who have money to make out of these publications?

It might sound like trivial small ‘bickering’ but in light of the massive opportunity that the UAE hands us all in tourism, this list does not make much sense. Don’t get me wrong. I do not oppose the list as it is made, I oppose the thoughts behind the lists (as I speculatively see it). If the list was a top 25 and merely a top 5 is discussed, I get that, but at present I wonder why this list was even created now (at the end of summer) and personally I have a hard time believing Slovenia made that top 10. Not when the UAE didn’t make that top 10, but that is a personal feeling. I have never been to Slovenia and as such I am not judging, merely wondering out loud.

Have a great day and a safe day.

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August 24, 2025 · 10:28

In other bad news

That is how it reads, is this the reality of things? That remains to be seen, but as I see it, there is a rolling effect. A news source gave me this morning that IndiGo is starting two new routes. One between Abu Dhabi and Visakhapatnam, the other one is between Abu Dhabi and Bhubaneswar. They represent populations up to 3.2 million people, and that is the direct surroundings of these places. It is important to see that, as that implies that the setting that I predicted that America will lose more and more tourists is starting in this kind of situation. You might give credence to the ‘mumblings’ that this will soon pass over, and perhaps it will. But the direct setting is that those that rely on their one vacation a year, they are choosing Abu Dhabi (and Dubai) over American destinations. So when you decide to trust ‘The US tourism slump that never happened’ (source: Financial Times), or perhaps ‘Desperate U.S. Hotels And Tourism Operators Continue ‘Come Back’ Deals For Canadians’ (source: The travel) you are looking in the wrong direction. Yes, in a few years travel to the USA will bounce back, it is the next three years that matter and in the meantime the UAE is gaining traction in many ways. And over the next three years it will develop into a main destination for the better part of the globe. In the meantime America will be bleeding losses on all sides. And when the bounce back ‘fails’ or more precisely is delayed. The losses for America will merely add up to a lot more. 

That is beside the larger setting. You see, Visakhapatnam was in 2020 a finalist in the Living and Inclusion category of the World Smart City Awards. As such travel is interesting both ways, it also has its own share of beaches and it is the 5th busiest port in India, as such commerce is likely to blossom between the two nations. As for Bhubaneswar, is a hub of sports and IT in the country. As such there is a larger interaction possible between the two places. All options that are now a moot setting for the EU and America. And the fact that IndiGo is a low cost airline, the tourists cluster that will have the UAE on their international dreamless will increase rather sharply. We might look at all the ‘wealth’ that travels. But for every wealthy traveller the UAE sees, there will be 50 non-wealthy tourists and this amounts to a lot of visitors. I reckon that IndiGo is merely the first to see that influx of tickets sold. I reckon that by late November everything Indian who dreamt of seeing a Formula 1 race with his or her own eyes will flock to the UAE and that is just for starters. As I see it tickets for Yas Island will be the hottest ticket of the year. With all the extras you get to enjoy, the need for hotels and especially low cost hotels will explode in no time flat. 

Just two settings that America is currently missing out on and for the next three years. Have you considered the impact that VISA’s and ‘integrity fee’ options that America thought to help to guide them through. And more bad news in this category (as stated by some for 2026) are discouraging more and more tourists to America and now they have a stellar place to go from March 2024 onwards. And now the setting becomes that more and more are discouraged to visit America as it is seen. The larger setting becomes that Saudi Arabia will from 2027 onwards the next competitors for all these tourists who need a place to go. I reckon that some will chose China as a destination, but the numbers on that remain speculative and is not supported by factual data at present.

Have a great holiday to come in 2025

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August 23, 2025 · 11:28

Monster of creativity wakes up

Yup, that ghastly monster called creativity is rearing its ugly head again and it is merely 10:20 in the morning. On a Saturday no less. So I already have the drop on DARPA in at least three military inventions and one of them is a stealth system. But after I had a novel idea on taking Russian airfields, I now have another thought. What if we change the collective to another field? What if we push the Russian forces to deploy differently? Consider that Russia has around 61 airfields and we push them to ‘overpopulate’ 61 of them. They would require to seed around 31000 soldiers who are set to try to keep them safe. And it is safe to say that they will fail. That will jump the stress levels in the Kremlin by a lot. So as I thought this through I have to say that I am pretty proud of myself. As I see it I was leading DARPA 6-0 in this endeavor and now I am adding at least three field goals to this setting. I would need to confer with the Ukrainian consul general on this setting. And make it known that the Commonwealthian people support them. I might be too old to go into the field, but my brain works quite well. And I tend to like to show some people that they missed the target on me by a lot. And in the setting that I could optionally show these Russian courtesans that there are people who use their thinking caps to support the Ukrainian people (and I have a really good friend who will appreciate that too).

So off I am, trying to make Russian lives a little harder as President Trump is doing little to nothing in that field. Oh, he might act in 10 days (which is a deadline he gave three times over) so as such I am leading there too. So with the naval stealth system and now with ‘optional’ drone collaboration, we have a new premise. The Russian army will have to support the hind sites by a lot more than they have space for, isn’t that the nexus of non-violence? A teaching moment on how you can promote nonviolence by blowing up violent machines. It’s a brand new day. Anyway. I came to it via another IP and that is a lovely setting. The pass through method in creating abilities. 

In other news, I also gained the insight that might help dwindling down the number of Helicopters they have. According to news sources, they only downed 340 of these suckers. So I came up with a few methods to add to that dastardly low number. Same invention with a slightly different approach to doing the deed. 

Well that is my support to the next setting and I reckon it is time to give gaming a new vibe as I was continue to play Hogwarts Legacy to get 1 of them (in this case a Slytherin) person to 100% on everything I had a few thoughts that could be used in the sequel to this game. So in stead of having one battle achievement, have at least two. One stealth option one general option. I like to sneak up to my adversary and blow him away (or petrify the opponent) and in that case my last battle outfit becomes available. There were a few other things that bugged me, but as it is not a bug or a glitch, it is a little in the open. What does matter is that  the game should be 100% perfect. Now this is a large call and I am not faulting the makers of Hogwarts Legacy of anything, as far as I see it this program is near perfect and I have been playing it off and on since its release in 2023, so I have had two full years of joy. As I see it Avalanche Software should be proud of its achievement. Whilst I truly believe this, I also think that games can always be better, but this is often found whilst playing the game. And that is where people like me come in. The developer tends to be too close to the source and it requires a little distance to upgrade something good. I already mentioned 4-6 upgrades to this game making it a next game issue. And I have more to offer at present. I added jobs to the setting, careers that differ per house and after that I considered and planned the upgrade of any location to a new living space and you cannot convert them all, but you can create a living space for any character you create and a setting for any house to have a Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin theme. And they all have settings. And as you optionally create 4 houses in the total of regions that you open up where each location has a Clevian portal to access the houses. Like the mirror in Hogwarts Legacy. A mirror space that creates a space to the other house. In that instance you have a setting to leap into other places. But this doesn’t happen automatic, the ancient magic required is massive (like three bars per creation) it stops doing that from level 1 and it allows the game to evolve the player as needed. Then there is the idea that some of the achievements done in the first game (like stargazing) now open up secondary missions. As such you need to interact with the NPC’s in more ways then one. As such there are more influences coming. What was done in HL1 was great, but now it is time to hand the game more leniency in distinguishing. As such the dark spells could also be a hindrance to gain access to alternative settings (unless other professions are chosen). It makes the game a lot more of a moral compass and it sets the wannabe wizards apart from the real ones ;-P

This makes me think of another setting. I met a man in the Epic Universe, some dodgy dude names ‘Jackal’ and he looked nothing like a jackal. He called himself E. Redmayne esq. He was wearing the most amazing cosplay lookalike of the man, the legend, Newt Scamander. You might think this is a ruse, but it is not, it is a hint, The same could be said for some youthful young sprout named Meg March. So take this setting and set it across the nightmares these Hogwarts candidates face when going into the thoughts of some creatures they face. As any Wizard (Witches too) have dark sides, we get a new setting. One that could optionally give us mini games. I am hesitant to set that setting, because not all mini games are good, but it is an option to consider. In that same setting I created a ‘magical’ version of Ice Hockey and that too had a few sidelines to consider (I wrote about it earlier). Now consider that we have another option beside quidditch as a sport to consider. Taking all this to the stage does not mean I created a better Hogwarts Legacy, it is just a few ideas for these developers to use and there is no charge, whatever I wrote to the game is now owned by Avalanche software and JK Rowling. I just did away with the hassle of greed that some see when they face these thoughts. I just handed it over to the makers of the connected IP. Im the kind of guy. I have enough IP to cross over a dozen times. 

So monster of creativity, get back to bed and consider using this to emphasize gaming IP, or IT IP, not merely weapons based IP. It gives me the creepy crawlers.

Have a great Saturday.

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August 23, 2025 · 04:57

Lies of the present

That is what I saw hours ago, lies of the present. We all know that tourism in America is down. The strongest influencer in this is Canada and the impact is larger. There is Flight center with the $100M income wallet bash. But no, here is the Financial Times giving us this ‘presented truth’ 

So, when we see another source give us “The tourism industry in the United States is witnessing a notable downturn, with a 17% reduction in European visitors in March 2025 compared to the previous year. This decline is alarming, given the tourism sector’s contribution of approximately 2.5% to the U.S. GDP. The decrease isn’t limited to European visitors; the overall number of foreign tourists fell by 12%, marking a significant drop since the post-pandemic recovery period of 2021.” As such, we only see the little text the FT gives us with the headline ‘The US tourism slump that never happened’ and that is it. I didn’t read the article because I never paid and this is how the FT leaves us hanging. And in light of this ‘debatable’ presentation towards income, the Financial Times can be accused of nearly anything. The downside of throwing teasers to the public to gain fees. With the text “Leading travel industry players are expressing concern over declining interest in U.S. destinations among European travelers. Accor, a French hotel group with a significant presence in the United States, reported a 25% decrease in summer bookings from Europe. Similarly, Voyageurs du Monde noted a 20% drop in bookings since the onset of the current U.S. administration, reflecting a growing disinterest among European tourists.” As such, what slump never happened? So whilst we read “this shift signifies a broader sentiment of dissatisfaction with U.S. policies and highlights the need for a reassessment of strategies to attract European tourists. Industry leaders emphasize the importance of addressing international perceptions to rebuild confidence in the U.S. as a welcoming and diverse destination”, whilst other places (like Abu Dhabi) is showing themselves like a more willing host to tourists all over the world. What possessed the FT to give us this (unread by me) article? As I see it, you cannot play ‘upside’ boy using presented advertising without getting hurt. The Financial Times Is according to some “a renowned British daily newspaper and digital publication that provides in-depth coverage of business, economic, and financial news on a global scale” So what does that bring us “Despite fears of a sharp downturn amid foreign visitor boycotts, the sector has had a decent summer”? In a setting where we see places like NPR gives us ‘Far fewer Canadians are visiting the U.S. this year, new numbers show’ with the added text ““It’s tough, because we’ve developed this relationship with the cross-border economy,” Dame said. “And now here we are, the rug getting pulled out from underneath us.” New data confirms that far fewer Canadians are making trips south. Canadian residents made just 1.7 million return trips by motor vehicle back into their country from the U.S. in July, a nearly 37% drop from the same month in 2024, according to a report published this month by Statistics Canada.” So how exactly is this ‘the slump that never happened’? Then when we see ““It’s a decline that’s not stopping things from happening, but it is affecting the revenue that people are collecting,” she said. The U.S. saw 20.4 million visits from Canadians last year, making Canada the top source of international tourists to the United States, the U.S. Travel Association reported. The group said in February that those visits generated $20.5 billion in spending and supported 140,000 U.S. jobs.” I see that as a slump and it is happening all over the place (Florida is a ‘great’ example), my issue is that America can be delusional all it wants to be, but when the media is catering to certain aspects like catering to big corporations and big tech, they are hindering the truth from reaching us. A nice example is the Chinese mega corporation Evergrande, who crossed all three red lines, resulting in a liquidity crisis and its later insolvency. In summer of 2021, payments due on its debt, estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars, resulted in the Evergrande liquidity crisis. So how many people were hit by that setting? How many people are investing now on bed and breakfast investments in America will be seeking a Chapter 11? (Apparently only the first 10 chapters are worth reading) We the people are depending on correct news and when we are given dubious articles by the people who used to inform us, what hopes do we have to evade any financial fallback? 

It is about the accountability of the media, ‘filtering’ information to give us the information that makes us jump as to what the ‘big dogs’ wants us to do. On June 19th 2012, I wrote ‘The accountability act – 2015’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2012/06/). It never came, and now 10 years later we need to start asking questions, where is the responsibility of the press? Where is the accountability of the media? And this is not just the Financial Times, it is the bulk of the media that is the question. Can we allow the media to play courtesan to big tech and big corporations for the need of digital dollars? Have we become that dim?

Questions that are not answered by anyone as the political players hide behind the ‘game that is played, as business as usual’ whilst they are all arranging the chessboard like a game of blindman chess, with only big business getting to see both chessboards and depriving us of the real deal. So how is that valid? Because when the setting is that we need to pay to see it all, and they deprive us of a fair view, is that not some form of discrimination? What happens when an audience of billions see that big corporations made themselves the royalty they were never supposed to be, that they replaced real royalty in places they could and as they lived through the settings of ‘live like presented’ and than change the presentation so that only ‘they’ could remain is not a way to live, not for the others. And this has been going on for decades, all presenting ‘partners’ having each others back. Often hiding behind ‘the people have a right to know’ but in the underline it is given in the way of ‘the people have a right to know what we want them to know’ and as such the filtering goes on and now that the economies of this world are in turmoil, the cracks start showing. You see World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers represented over 18,000 publications in 2011, and Wikipedia notes that in 2005 there were approximately 6,580 daily newspaper titles globally, with 1,450 in the U.S. alone. There is no real up to date number. But consider that there are 340 million people in America, there are 1450 newspapers, which means that there are 234.5K readers per newspaper (through pig latin analyses) but that is never true, as such they ALL want to get their advertisement money, that is the rule of newspapers, not the news, the advertisements. And as the media exploded in size, it stood to reason (their reason) that this income increased, it did not. So as more and more were deciding that chasing the digital dollar was the way to go, the intent and the credibility of the media decreased. As advertisement evolved and digital advertising was the next new thing, the media exploded into the field of exploiting digital advertising. And here the setting changed. As the media is now ‘depending’ on that setting, the news takes a turn for the bad of the land and can now be influenced by big business and as such we get the setting we see now all over the place. People like Murdoch live of this venture and it is their right, but the larger media, the media that is ‘depending’ on credibility, what about them? I am not saying that all media need to adhere to ‘old’ standards, but we now have an issue. When we are given ‘the slump that never happened’ all whilst we see others give us ‘US Tourism in Peril as Decline in Foreign Visitors, Soaring Visa Fees, and Stricter Travel Policies Drive Away International Travelers’, so did the slump never happen?

I’ll let you decide. Have a great day.

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