Category Archives: Finance

Eric Winter is a god

Yup, we are going there. It might not be correct, but that is where the evidence is leading us. You see I got hooked on the Rookie and watched seasons one through four in a week. Yet the name Eric Winter was bugging me and I did not know why. The reason was simple. He also starred in the PS4 game ‘Beyond two souls’ which I played in 2013. I liked that game and his name stuck somehow. Yet when I looked for his name I got

This got me curious, two of the movies I saw and Eric would have been too young to be in them and there is the evidence, presented by Google. Eric Winter born on July 17th 1976 played alongside Barbara Streisand 4 years before he was born, evidence of godhood. 

And when we look at the character list, there he is. 

Yet when we look at a real movie reference like IMDB.com we will get 

Yes, that is the real person who was in the movie. We can write this up as a simple error, but that is not the path we are trodding on. You see, people are all about AI and ChatGPT but the real part is that AI does not exist (not yet anyway). This is machine learning and deeper machine learning and this is prone to HUMAN error. If there is only 1% error and we are looking at about 500,000 movies made, that implies that the movie reference alone will contain 5,000 errors. Now consider this on data of al kinds and you might start to see the picture shape. When it comes to financial data and your advisor is not Sam Bankman-Fried, but Samual Brokeman-Fries (a fast-food employee), how secure are your funds then? To be honest, whenever I see some AI reference I got a little pissed off. AI does not exist and it was called into existence by salespeople too cheap and too lazy to do their job and explain Deeper Machine Learning to people (my view on the matter) and things do not end here. One source gives us “The primary problem is that while the answers that ChatGPT produces have a high rate of being incorrect, they typically look like they might be good and the answers are very easy to produce,” another source gives us issues with capacity, plagiarism and cheating, racism, sexism, and bias, as well as accuracy problems and the shady way it was trained. That is the kicker. An AI does not need to be trained and it would compare the actors date of birth with the release of the movie making The Changeling and What’s up Doc? falling into the net of inaccuracy. This is not happening and the people behind ChatGPT are happy to point at you for handing them inaccurate data, but that is the point of an AI and its shallow circuits to find the inaccuracies and determine the proper result (like a movie list without these two mentions). 

And now we get the source Digital Trends (at https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/the-6-biggest-problems-with-chatgpt-right-now/) who gave us “ChatGPT is based on a constantly learning algorithm that not only scrapes information from the internet but also gathers corrections based on user interaction. However, a Time investigative report uncovered that OpenAI utilised a team in Kenya in order to train the chatbot against disturbing content, including child sexual abuse, bestiality, murder, suicide, torture, self-harm, and incest. According to the report, OpenAI worked with the San Francisco firm, Sama, which outsourced the task to its four-person team in Kenya to label various content as offensive. For their efforts, the employees were paid $2 per hour.” I have done data cleaning for years and I can tell you that I cost a lot more then $2 per hour. Accuracy and cutting costs, give me one real stage where that actually worked? Now the error at Google was a funny one and you know in the stage of Melissa O’Neil a real Canadian telling Eric Winter that she had feelings for him (punking him in an awesome way). We can see that this is a simple error, but these are the errors that places like ChatGPT is facing too and as such the people employing systems like ChatGPT, which over time as Microsoft is staging this in Azure (it already seems to be), this stage will get you all in a massive amount of trouble. It might be speculative, but consider the evidence out there. Consider the errors that you face on a regular base and consider how high paid accountants mad marketeers lose their job for rounding errors. You really want to rely on a $2 per hour person to keep your data clean? For this merely look at the ABC article on June 9th 2023 where we were given ‘Lawyers in the United States blame ChatGPT for tricking them into citing fake court cases’. Accuracy anyone? Consider that against a court case that was fake, but in reality they were court cases that were actually invented by the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot. 

In the end I liked my version better, Eric Winter is a god. Equally not as accurate as reality, but more easily swallowed by all who read it, it was the funny event that gets you through the week. 

Have a fun day.

2 Comments

Filed under Finance, IT, Science

Small victory

This article is a little weird (little being the operative word). You see, I got here via several paths, all walked at nearly the same time. The first started with me going through Skyrim for the 4th time, now on PS5. I bought the anniversary expansion as it was on special and a game that pleased me for over 11 years deserves a small infusion of funds. I am still in the same setting and this time around I found all 7 black books. This is a first in the 4 play-throughs. I got them all on my own and the feeling of pleasure to see a new level was almost overwhelming (I did say almost). This got me to think of a few things running parts in my IP. You see the IP I was creating for non-Microsoft systems had a few issues, but the idea of having a long term game is enticing. As such I created a set of events that makes a replay more entertaining and more addictive for the RPG player. Yet that was as far as I got and my mind was replaying old issues in programming. Like the setting of [SET mission to Class=1 and Gender=2 or Evolution=4] this gives us that not all see a mission and the mission is limited to gender and class in the first or the evolution is set to 4 (it makes sense a lot later and not today). This gives us that some missions are optionally never played. These are side missions. So as we replay a game we see missions that we never saw in the first play-through. Why? Well we can give it all, or give the player a nice ride a few times over and I believe in long term gaming. I have no time for people who play games with the solution page to their left (or right for that matter). These are simple track gamers and there are enough games for these people. 

Sidestep
Now I make a sidestep. This is important for the whole story. This sidestep is what the Australian Financial Review gives subscribers on China. As such we will jump over it. Yet one quote there is “China’s hostility to the west has come at a very substantial economic price” this statement is flawed and faulty. It is the west with its slamming Huawei that is at the center of a lot. All the accusations and the US and EU have NEVER given clear evidence of their accusations. I get the UK stance that no infrastructure should be in foreign hands. That makes sense, but handing it over to the US is no different. We get more on the Russian setting towards Ukraine and I cannot completely disagree, Russia is a losing stage and that will have larger repercussions down the track. I reckon that BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) will exploit the setting as long as they can and then optionally dump Russia, they might not have a choice and with Saudi Arabia and the UAE bolstering their group the stage of ‘at a very substantial price’ is shown to be faulty. The collaboration at present between Saudi Arabia and China will bring oil and revenue to China. Saudi Arabia is in the process of ordering military hardware from China which will cost the West billions upon billions and it all goes to China. This is not new, this has been two years in the making and I gave warning of this as early as 2019 I believe. The article has a lot more claims, but they are empty. When I see “are privately more sympathetic to the US and its allies” reads like a joke and a bad one at that. The stage is that the population (read: consumers) is on the side of China via India. The wealth from the Middle East is pouring into China and is giving construction jobs to China for building all over Saudi Arabia with a several of them adding up to almost a trillion dollars. So where is the substantial economic price? At the next stage China has 5G Telecommunications via Huawei all over the Middle East and it is about to border Europe directly. Leaving the Mediterranean open to Saudi telecom hands soon enough. 

As such when I see “So far this year such investments in China are running a little more than $1 billion whereas two years ago it was nearly $50 billion” I tend to howl with laughter. You see, projects like The Line, Neom Bay, Oxagon, Trojena, and Sindalah represent well over $500 billion and China is about to get large chunks of that. Not sure how much, because I am not an insider, but I am certain that it will surpass $150 billion. Then there is the multi billion dollar military contracts and the refinery at the Chinese border, which is worth billions and more in infrastructure. So what economic loss? China is running on all engines and they are seemingly killing it. A world without the US and without the EU and these two players are making it happen. This is the price of arrogance and I have been clear over the last 5 years that this was about to happen, but the ego centrical politicians all stated that they knew better. We are about to learn the impact of stupidity on nearly every level.


As such I have a few issues with the AFR article. It is a good article, but a flawed one. One that boasts American supremacy, the little issue is that they no longer have the field. You see one source gives me “US National Debt Spiked by $851 billion in One Month, to $32.3 Trillion” now, I am not stating that this is true, but if this is true, then the US is already merely in a holding pattern until the next debt ceiling political setting and wth that BRICS (with Saudi Arabia and the UAE) will become a winner and the new global power. At that point China, India and Saudi Arabia will be better off shedding Russia. It has become too big a political and economical danger to them. And it is merely an egg timer away.

Back to the game
This is when my mind took me back to the game and a ‘new’ game. You see all these things were in my brain contemplating when I consider a different approach to the use of active and passive abilities in gaming. It played in my mind when I was remastering a Microprose game with similar settings, but now with a different approach. I call it Agent Gamer. This would be exclusive to Amazon Luna and whomever buys my IP. You see we have all seen passive powers in games like Mass Effect, Diablo 3 and more games. But they all have a similar approach to the use of passive powers. I am uprooting that and taking a different view. A game with active elements and passive elements. But you can spike these passive elements in different ways. In addition to adding several additions to the game, we can also rack certain abilities. It is like colour mingling. 

Consider the wheel. We have three basic colours (Blue, Yellow and Red). When we increase these skills we also influence the adjacent colours. Blue will influence Green and Purple, Yellow will influence Orange and Green and Red will influence Orange and Purple. It is simple setting where you make one 10% more effective (or easier), yet in the same setting increase the effectiveness of the other two by 5%. And this can be done in a multitude of ways, but the game is called ‘Agent Gamer’ and as such I will not reveal too much here. You see, to make Microsoft collapse by 2026 requires me to set the field to make the others more powerful (hence the Amazon Luna). Sony and Nintendo are on track to make their own wins (diminishing Microsoft in the process) Adobe and Apple are on other tracks and Google is no longer a contender in gaming (they have other fields). Overall the arrogance of Microsoft is about to bite them hard. Azure is doing not as good as some sources reveal. We see the Microsoft spin engines turning and we are given ‘We Think Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Can Manage Its Debt With Ease’ but I think they are in a bad state and it is getting worse. Still I have more than a year to watch them collapse, I merely want the timeline to be as correct as possible and as such if I can help their opposition being stronger and better I will do so. Gaming is only one side of it, but they interfered with my gaming pleasure and according to Zeus (Hades too), I can hold a grudge like nothing they have ever seen and I am happy to prove these two correct. In the end the largest stage could be coming from Saudi Arabia, especially as they are eager to feed their Esport settings and 50 million new members will go a long way towards that goal. Amazon had their chance and now it is up to the other eligible parties, which includes Tencent Technologies. 

Enjoy Monday and for those still overcoming Canada Day last weekend, have a second coffee before you start any work.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Gaming, Politics, Science

One plus one makes 256

I got struck by two things today. The first was given to me by the BBC. There (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66021325) we are given something that should not be allowed to happen. We are given ‘Shell still trading Russian gas despite pledge to stop’ this has one part that offends me. You see it is the Royal Dutch Shell. The Dutch Royal family has a majority stake in this and we all agree that we do not under any circumstance support the Russians in their endeavour. In addition, Royal Dutch Shell is not alone. Dozens of American firms are still making money from Russia and allowing them to continue their acts of terror against civilian targets. I am all royalist, yet when something wrong is done I speak out, the fact that the BBC is extremely willing to drop the ‘Royal Dutch’ part in this equation speaks out against the BBC and their setting of informing the public (yet again). In addition to this we are given. “Shell said the trades were the result of “long-term contractual commitments” and do not violate laws or sanctions.” And when was war a reason not to break a contract? How long have certain corporations been doing business with Idi Amin Dada Oumee in the timeframe of 1971-1979? Do they not learn? I think this is the first time I ever speak out against the Dutch Royal family, but this time I see no other option but to speak out. And when we get to “Oleg Ustenko, an adviser to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, accused Shell of accepting “blood money”” I personally would agree with Oleg Ustenko. And with “Last year Shell accounted for 12% of Russia’s seaborne LNG trade, Global Witness calculates, and was among the top five traders of Russian-originated LNG that year” we see just how deep Royal Dutch Shell is connected to all this. 

Yet what you just read is not correct, and I did that intentionally. You see we also have “In January 2022, the firm merged the A and B shares, moved its headquarters to London, and changed its legal name to Shell plc.” So what is the UK doing? You see, Shell is seen as the 15th largest company in the world. You do not give up that position lightly or cheap. So whatever happened in January 2022 has had a massive impact and for some reason no one really knows what was going on (I have no clue), but me separating with ownership of a firm that big is a ‘no no’, so something does not add up to me, would you just shed a company that makes $20 billion a year? I have issues with all this and yes the BBC did nothing wrong, but the fact that this was once the Royal Dutch Shell and there is no indication (does not mean it did not happen) that the Dutch Royal family might still have a large stake in all this is upsetting to me and it would be to anyone having Dutch links. 

So as we say goodbye to that part, we get to the interesting dream I had. I dozed off whilst watching the Rookie (season 4). My dream (or nightmare) took me to Los Angeles and an interesting Terrorist plot to create and unsurmountable amount of chaos to that city. You see, with all the connected and interacting systems someone created an interesting virus/worm/program (not sure which one). This work was pretty ingenious. You see, instead of debilitating IT systems, they did something different. They infected data parsers. In my dream I was hit as I wanted to find places that had in part the term “vectium” and suddenly it all stopped. Systems worked by they were no longer able to give the full details sudden intelligent settings in Google Search, Bing (yes that one too), and all other engines failed because certain subsystems were deactivated and for some reason some version of ChatGPT was merely making matters worse and spreading the problem across the US and hitting the other continents merely hours later. Because certain detection matters were limited to certain main parts and not subparts that damage continued. The weird part was that anyone with IT knowledge and the ability to give complete correct search terms could still work, but well over 200,000,000 people suddenly had mobiles and IT systems that would no longer connect or hand over correct information, like some kind of aphasia. The dream is now fading and I can no longer see the specifics, but at the beginning it had something to do with search terms ‘like’, which then infected more and more systems. After a short time terms like ‘containing’ would stop working and even as the complete old version SQL string would work, it was about the only thing that did and it crippled the metropolitan areas of the US (and Canada shortly thereafter). The more I think about it, the more interesting it would be to set an episode of the Rookie where infrastructures collapse. You see, people are nice when they have their coffee and their hamburger (or cheeseburger), when that stops the niceties do too.

Well that is it for me, for all you others, the end of the weekend is now no more than 19 hours away, make them count and have a lovely day.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Politics, Stories

Doubt accelerated presumption

This happens, it happens to us all and now it is happening to me. You see my second or third IP (now my first) got a boost yesterday. The ascension number which was 0.0144% is now to be regarded as overly conservative as such its 1/x will merely increase by a lot. My chance to reel in the cash are actually a lot higher (or at least decently higher), but so far the real western fishes are seemingly or not interested and I get that. But now the stage is coming to a setting where others are picking up on where those billions are and I am not having it. As such the entire night I was contemplating taking my chance on waiting whether my ship comes in, or if I will offer it openly to Tencent Technologies. On this side of the pond, it is clear I get nothing. The greed driven people all want a free ride and they are willing to let me cop it. Tencent is an unknown and I have no idea how Chinese markets will react. So it is getting nothing on one side, or getting maybe something on the other side. There is no in between and I will not allow Microsoft near this. So I am about to learn the outcome towards something I said some time ago. Accept 165% of IP value from Microsoft (which will never happen) or accept 35% of IP value from the Saudi government. The Saudi government is no longer involved, but the equation stands. So I am about to find out whether I can correctly say ‘请喝一大杯咖啡’ (One large coffee please), or whether I see it all melt away. There are additional considerations. You see this is the beginning of the fleet. If China treats me wrongly, this will come out. If they do treat me correctly most of the western brainpower will consider a new venue for whatever IP they have. It could set in motion the largest exodus of brainpower the west has ever experienced. They think that firing thousands of people was their option, but when the people with the actual ideas also walk out you get chaos. To that I have close to zero doubts. And it will unlikely affect military stations, but consider all those firms and all these defence contractors relying on SaaS solutions, on all these Platforms as a Solution (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Solution (IaaS) and Solution as a Service (SaaS) not to mention Gaming as a Service (GaaS). So what do you think will happen when the actual bright people will sell and cash in on THEIR solutions before the wannabe board members are forcing a solution that meets their eyes? That is now in play and even as India is still a contender in many fields, the larger station is that now there is a genuine concern that the West (US and EU) will fall short here and that has people worried. As such I feel that I have given Amazon and Google enough time, they weren’t interested and that is on them and it is their right, but now I have a duty to make sure that I am getting what I am entitled to and give Tencent Technologies a call. 

I had hoped that Amazon would have bought it (for a few reasons) but now I need to consider where to go next and the article that a respectable news agency gave me reason me to think I am running out of time and I do not like running out of time. This gets me to a quote Frank Herbert gave us in Dune (1965) ‘He who destroys a thing, controls a thing’ And I think it is time how I feel about destroying a thing, which in this case amounts to my future. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Science

Considering sources

We get it, newspapers have their opinion articles and sometimes they strike a nerve. I for one am not ever writing against the royal family, I am a royalist, like my grandfather before me. Yet when I read ‘£3m to fix the UK’s housing crisis? Ha ha ha ha ha, your royal highness’ (at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/27/prince-william-homewards-homelessness-3m) I had a few thoughts. First of all, I had no idea where ALL the quotes come from, whether they are pulled out of context and how accurate the quotes were. You see, consider the sentence “Pull the red wire” and it gets you killed, because the complete sentence was “Pull the red wire, after you isolate the yellow wire” meaning that the partial quote got someone killed. This is how I saw the article without the complete stage. Yet it still gave me thoughts. You see, to deal with “Prince William is going to solve homelessness with a new royal foundation, launching a project called Homewards that starts with £3m for six towns and cities across the UK. It’s such a short sentence to make so little sense” we need to realise that building 50 buildings 6 floors high, each floor containing a dozen one bedroom apartment will get us 3,600 apartments, solving less then 2% of the problem, now consider the price of merely one building and we see that three million is noway near enough to solve the problem, it might be enough to pay for a paper on the problem, but that is as far as it gets. And how to pay for the building? Well, the idea is that those given a place to live will sacrifice 50% of their ‘income’ which pays for the rent, heating and electricity. Their quality of life will improve immensely. Now this is merely what came from my mind top of mind and there are better ideas out there, but the real issue is that nothing is done, there are no advances into stopping homelessness. It is not cut and dry but the lack of activities whilst a player like Apple was reported ‘UK Apple stores paid less than £800,000 tax despite £971.5m of sales’ and this gives us that Apple paid 0.0000823% in taxation. You still think that overhauling tax laws (which I have advocated for over 25 years) is out of bounds? 

I personally believe that Prince William would have known all this, I personally think that this article was meant to ruffle feathers, I merely wonder what short sighted approach was taken here. You see the end quote is “It’s baffling, this commitment to a delusion, where nothing systemic has gone wrong, there is no crash round the corner, no spectre of homelessness stalking all the graphs. It’s such an intricate phantasm, collectively constructed, of an old world in which individuals can solve all their own problems, and if they can’t, Prince William can help. I almost admire it.” You see the larger failing is Zoe Williams (et al) where I a offering the next quote “It’s baffling where this media propagating delusional thoughts whilst not informing us on matters that are actually important. where the media systemically does whatever it needs to get ‘clicks’ a wrongful setting at the expense of the people, exploiting or presenting every crash round the corner, no spectre of induced fear mongering is a stage on every graphs. It’s such an intricate phantasm, collectively constructed, to prey on fears, to prey on missing settings where people are presented that they can do better whilst the presenters know that this is not possible. Lacing income by any means and if that does not work they are happy to reset the quote of any royal, because the people to care about they monarchy even if corporations will not, it impacts their bottom line.” I might be right, I might be wrong, but that is how I feel and for the most the media has already lost over 90% of the credibility they had a decade ago, so when you wonder how much credibility they have in 2026, consider how much they cater to corporations at the expense of you. 

Have a lovely day.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics

Greed driven goblins

It is nice to see that places like PwC are avoiding prison time whilst other people without an accountancy degree do not. This all started when I saw the article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66016270) called ‘PwC Australia sells division for 50p after tax leak scandal’ here we are told “The accounting giant has also announced the appointment of a new chief executive in the country. The move will allow the firm “to move forward with predictability and focus,” PwC Australia said in a statement.” Which reads like a little party line. We aren’t given the more realistic “In this day and age, we tried different approaches to cater to our overly rich clients and corporations to cater to their need for greed so that we can enjoy slices of Greed filled Lasagna as well. As we need our ground forces, we have decided on switching out our Chief Executive whose bonus will sustain him for the next decade.” So is my view flawed? Consider The Financial Times (at https://www.ft.com/content/97dcb050-49df-11e7-919a-1e14ce4af89b) alas behind a paywall, which gives us ‘PwC escapes censure over Tesco accounting scandal’, other sources gives us “Tesco has been found to have overstated it profits by £263m after revenue recognition irregularities were spotted in its half-year results, with regulators including the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) set to decide on a suitable punishment.” The reason for this is that the Tesco Scandal (the accounting one) was in 2014, in almost 10 years they (and the courts) never learned and never achieved (nearly) anything. That conclusion comes from the fact that you do not become Chief Executive overnight and Tesco was 8 years ago. This is not some case of being creative, this is bending black letter law to the maximum effect. It is about what a company can get away with and that is a failure on a few levels. 

So when we see “The ex-partner, who was advising the Australian government, had shared drafts of corporate tax avoidance laws with colleagues, who used it to pitch to potential clients. The leaks occurred between 2014 and 2017.” We will be given a new stage. You see, for three years PwC enjoyed a stage where they could go beyond simple advantage for THEIR customers all whilst courting the government for having a ground zero in corporation tax avoidance laws. This is not a small problem. With “Earlier this month, PwC Australia said it had identified 76 current and former partners linked to the scandal and handed their names to Australian lawmakers.” As I personally see it this is not small small group, it is a large cluster of people connected to the PwC and I am willing to bet the house that the size of this group allowed certain people to remain insulated from the fallout. I agree it is speculative, but in light of of the activities by PwC since 2008 I feel that I might be spot on. We see a whole barrage of articles by Accountancy firms making accusations, but we see an amazing lack of action. As such the ‘punishment’ of “sell its government business for A$1 (50p) after a scandal over the misuse of confidential government tax plans” reads like a bloody joke. It leaves the orchestrators free form prosecution, it leaves them with their income, their bonus and a rich life to come. It is perhaps the clearest piece of evidence that in this day and age Crime Pays, even more than an honest day work.

Enjoy paying most of your coin to afford a cup of coffee today.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Law

Is it the real issue?

As I was writing the previous story, the story (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65997926) arrived to my desk. As we see ‘Can we stop being tricked into subscriptions?’ My mind went back to a similar story I wrote in 2022, when someone accused Amazon of porn site approaches and we see here “‘I spent £6.99 for 18 months’ A huge range of firms now offer subscriptions ranging from food delivery to contact lenses and it is a growing market. Many offer a free trial, or discounts in exchange for people signing up. However, people the BBC has spoken to say they feel they have been locked in unintentionally because they have forgotten to cancel their subscription when their free trial period has ended.” Consider, when you forget a monthly responsibility, is that the service offerer or is it the schmuck who close that deal? And in this case Schmuck is the right word. When you have a deduction on your bank statements for 18 months, that person was not on the ball, missing the point. So when we are given “John, for example, told the BBC he had signed up to Amazon Prime video for a 30-day free period and forgot to cancel it when he had to start paying for it.” As such is that on Amazon, or on the dumbo forgetting he SIGNED for a responsibility? 

As such consider WHY are you taking a subscription? Was the reason valid, or was it a short term need? None of this is on Amazon, none of this is on the subscription offerer. That is the very first thing you need to realise. Just like those Gyms offering subscriptions by letting them be offered by ladies looking really good in D cups (or larger). It was the simple stage of sex sells, there was no sex involved, but the ego of the man never figured that out until he had been there for 2 plus years. 

Yet there is a side I cannot disagree with. It is given with “But Citizens Advice says it should go further, calling for auto-renewals to be banned altogether and making firms ask people to opt in, rather than opt out of subscriptions after a free trial.” It is not what these people want, but there is a clear stage that any offer should be by monthly, quarterly or annual opt in is fair on the consumer. As such some change is required. It is not on Amazon, but Amazon will be affected as well. As such, I can get behind ““The government has to acknowledge the pressure on consumers’ pockets. This has to be the start of reforms, not the end,” says Matthew Upton, executive director of policy and advocacy.” Matthew makes a decent case, even as people like that John might be too stupid to figure it out. There is indeed a need for reform. I cannot state that Amazon needs it, but plenty do. Netflix too has a decent cancellation option. Yet which do not? I cannot tell and as such I find the opt in continuation a decent solution. But the real issue is not the actual issue. It is a person like that John is so stupid that he paid 18 months because he forgot and the BBC picked it up as news. The headline should have stated ‘Should we adjust to the need of stupid people?’ That is merely my personal view on the matter.

Enjoy the day.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media

Path of a slippery slope

We all have that at times and this time it is me on that slippery slope. You see I made reference to the loss that Facebook would be facing, and yesterday I decided to dig deeper into that. You see, I have nothing against Facebook (or Meta), I am not after their channels. Yet my new design will give a larger stage and it will cost Facebook 10%-15% (a rough estimate), I doubt it will go beyond that, and if it does, it will not be for many years. Still according to the numbers I am finding (2022), that would mean a loss of $11-$17 billion to Facebook and there is no other side to that. It will not become my revenue (the revenue of my IP). It will trickle down to me to a small degree at some point and I was contemplating how I could enlarge that trickle effect. But I am deciding against it, because it will impact the bottom line which implies that the negative effect is a lot larger than the positive effect. And as I was looking deeper, I saw that the other branch has additional positive effects. Not more money (perhaps over time), but it sets the stage that the revenue of stage one will be met quicker, which is absolutely good. It is the third branch that has a few items, no negative sides, but I have been looking into getting a more positive impact, positive revenue stream sided. Still there is time for that and perhaps as the third branch is executed, more options become available. In the first I am looking into the option of the Tomes that are connected. There is a stream coming there and it is positive, but there are no numbers, no numbers from any reliable source that would give me this stage to be considered quicker. 

As such there are more sides to consider, especially as Facebook is coming with its own Twitter, there is nothing realistic yet, but I have been considering on how this could be accessed. As Twitter is playing games, I see no real benefit at present, but Facebook has other goals and there more options could evolve. 

Still I am on a slippery slope. I was feeling content and safe when it was all about the IP, as such I am not focussing on the revenue streams (other then a return on investment). You see, here we get Microsoft (who is not allowed near my IP). They are a 5 time loser. The first was their Tablet approach (that Surface thingamajig), which is nowhere near Apple, not even a dent in their revenue stream. This was their first loss. Then they lost their cloud solution to Amazon (that bookshop) which is loss number two, then they lost the console war to both Sony and Nintendo. This beckons the laughter that the strongest console in the world lost to the weakest of them all. That gives us loss number three. They are losing market share to both Apple and Adobe in their core office setting which is loss number four and the streaming war they will definitely lose it to whomever ends up with my IP. And in addition to that, they will lose to Amazon for sure and they will lose to whatever Tencent Technology will bring and they are likely to lose to Apple Arcade (I do not know enough of that solution) as well. This makes Microsoft a loser five times over and as such the implosion of Microsoft is still on for 2026. Which after all those billions invested in keeping Sony smaller is just hilarious on many sides. These elements matter because it places my IP in a premium spot. The idea that I have the ammunition that boots Microsoft in the ass makes me happy, no matter how little I get for it. Still, I need to focus. You see, getting overly happy on one side is not good. I require a critical mind to consider what could be done in three stages.

The first is what I must have (Unreal Engine 5)
The second is what I should have (a clear population with a mission statement)
The third is nice to have (A Foxtrot Uniform to Microsoft and optional additional revenue streams to moi)

These three streams are always considered in the short term, medium term and long term. Americans hate long term, the often lack focus and vision. Yet the long term is always important. It matters towards whatever mission statement you cloak yourself in and how you present the solution. It matters a great deal. Only spreadsheet users focus on the next quarter, but it is not about the next year, it is about the next three years (at least) and that is how I saw that Amazon and Google were leaving billions on the floor (Google more than Amazon). It is a realisation on where one could be heading where the real profit is, because the bulk of all revenue seekers are focussed on the next quarter (where their bonus is). And because of that they leave larger revenue options untouched. Feel free to oppose me on that, but when you do, look at your boss and their bosses on where they are focussed on. It is always a next quarter stage and you tend to lose a lot of revenue that way. Even now we see all the tech companies and places like LinkedIn shedding hundreds of jobs, all whilst a place like LinkedIn had options, they had in their niche options to diversify and keep to their niche. Others are in a similar stage, and when we realise that, other can have a go at finding their option. You see when you the delimitation of a corporation (that next quarter thing) your options open up, not merely mine. All those willing to dream and design past a next quarter will have options they never considered before and that is when you see the meadow with lost revenues. A meadow that Microsoft, Google, Amazon, LinkedIn, Meta, Salesforce, and several others. They are all shedding jobs and perhaps for them it is a valid setting, but that also means that they aren’t able to make critical adjustments when people are needed and that is where the visionary comes in. I was lucky that my IP started well before they shedded jobs. I was in a pristine place where no one was looking and I have that advantage now, an advantage that will not last. I get that. But for now they aren’t seeing what I am and with the tens of thousands of jobs gone, the manpower to seek around is also faltering for them (which is good for me). Still I know I am on a slippery slope. There are elements that I am most likely to overlook and I do not know which ones (because if I knew, I wouldn’t be overlooking them). 

Still it is a nice weekend for now, I will see what tomorrow brings. Time is not one element one tries to anticipate, it is too tiring an exercise and you tend to overlook more and more elements, they say a stitch in time saves nine, but for the most you tend to live on borrowed time instead of enjoying life and that is a big no no in my book.

1 Comment

Filed under Finance, Gaming, IT, Science

This news is not news

Yup that happens as well, sometimes the news agencies are right on top of something (in this case the Canadians) and we heard it before. That doesn’t make it not news in Canada, but when the same failings happen, it becomes a little less applauding. For this we need to take a look at the BBC (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65969970) where we are given ‘Facebook and Instagram to restrict news access in Canada’ a setting that happened in Australia in 2021, yet here too the setting is slightly irritating. You see, News agencies USE Meta to advocate their brand, They advertise. As such we might see (see images below) choices of what news they offer. For example the Daily Mail

We get a forced login at times with a paywall (like the New York Times)

This is called advertising. So not only are they advertising on Facebook (or Meta), they now demand fees for their own advertising? How lame is that? In the defence of Canada, none of the Canadian news outlets have done this Montreal Gazette, CBC to name but a few. BBC and the Guardian do not employ those tactics either. But there are too many who do and if one is set to scrutiny, it must be demanded that these news outlets either vacate Meta completely (and do so until an agreement is reached) or they offer that news freely, which is fine by me. Yet I think that they are not on board for option two. In case of the Daily Mail you get taken to a different screen with all the advertisement that they offer, which is fair enough, especially as they do not invoke a paywall that many do. In the age of digital awareness newspapers become more trivial and less of a credible news source, which adds to the equation as I personally see it. 

So when we see another imploding gas tank in a field with someone humming the music of Titanic (by James Horner) consider that this is soon to become the quality news we can expect from some sources. 

The article also gives us ““A legislative framework that compels us to pay for links or content that we do not post, and which are not the reason the vast majority of people use our platforms, is neither sustainable nor workable,” a Meta spokesperson told Reuters.” A stage which I have to agree with, it is not what some Canadian news outlets were hoping for, but that is what it is, and it bites in several cases, but the stage was never workable and that is the truth of the matter. We see journalists (and wannabe’s) being fired left right and center, yet the message is not that they did the wrong thing, their bosses leached on a digital platform they never properly understood and the money went nowhere and definitely not into their pockets. Some people will wonder what now. I think just like the Yellow pages lost their appeal plenty of others are on that same boat and evolution tends to do that (I am happy is solved it in other ways). 

Will certain things happen? They all will, it is a shifting timeline and it will come to everyones doorstep. As world powers collapse (which is inevitable) the media will suddenly be confronted with a new line of demarcation and there they have no say in the matter. This is starting right now and some will chose to diversify (preferably before they fire their journalists) and new grounds will open to those who can see the new fronts (and news fronts), but I give you one clear message. Those who have been screaming ‘Jamal Khashoggi’ on every turn they had are pretty much done for. A personal vision, but I feel that I am getting that one correctly.

The weekend is coming, be ready.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Law, Media

Questioning the virginity of a reporter

Yup, I just went there (not for real though). I saw the headline and my mind pulled that internal question mark and on the first page, there it was, the name of that tool and her anti Saudi mindset Stephanie Kirchgaessner. There we are given ‘US Senate asks governor of Saudi wealth fund to testify over LIV-PGA merger’, which could be fair. It is after all (for the most) an American thing. What I wonder is why the Senate wasn’t all over this before the merger. The question beckons “Why is this on the plate of the US Senate”? There might be a very valid reasoning, but I am not seeing it at present. I reckon that with all the Karen’s, the destruction of the Florida economy by its own governor the Senate has a few other things on their minds, but OK, as I said. It could be valid. So then we get the byline “Invitation raises possibility Yasir al-Rumayyan could be questioned under oath about execution of Jamal Khashoggi”. Why?

In the first, that columnist no one gives a hoot about, was he involved with golf or the PGA? Was Yasir al-Rumayyan in any way involved with that missing columnist? Let’s not forget a real issue. Jamal Khashoggi is at present missing, presumed dead. There was never any bod, there was never any evidence on the things the media gives us all and essay from that UN person Calamari was as shoddy as it gets, the paper shows if anything that we are dealing with a missing person.

Was Yasir al-Rumayyan ever involved with anything, was he at any time around October 2018 in Constantinople (now known as Istanbul)?

So then we get some relevant stuff. With ““Our goal is to uncover the facts about what went into the PGA Tour’s deal with the Saudi Public Investment Fund and what the Saudi takeover means for the future of this cherished American institution and our national interest,” Blumenthal said.” I cannot disagree, but at what time were the board members of the PGA in the US Senate explaining why they sold it in the first place? Of course, one look at News outlet Golf Australia gives us “PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, and LIV Golf CEO Norman have been asked to appear at a meeting on July 11 to examine the shock merger.” Kirchgaesner hid that part in the smallest mentions lasting two small lines with the mention ‘were also invited’, can’t she ever do a proper job? The entire article is about boasting “Americans deserve to know what the structure and governance of this new entity will be” which is a laughable setting as most American do not give one hoot about Golf. I think their interest faded when David Leadbetter fell out of sight. Then we are given “While the focus of the hearing will undoubtedly be centered on golf, Rumayyan could also face questions about his role at the PIF and his relationship with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who is the chairman of the PIF”, as such this seems like another witch-hunt and unless laws were broken there is absolutely no valid reason why a person like Yasir Al-Rumayyan should sacrifice any lunch or afternoon tea to cater to some stupid witch-hunt. If they want a real witch-hunt, go after Governor DeSantis who basically ruined the Florida economy and lost them billions in jobs and revenue to boot. 

And as we look at the proposed activity, which was co signed by Ron Johnson, will we get any chance to ask questions to Ron Johnson on five simple issues like carving out a $215 million tax loophole for just three of his billionaire backers who spent over $20 million to re-elect him; A corporate tax handout that he admitted he and his wealthy donors benefitted from; blocking an investigation into one of his Big Pharma donors, then voted against lowering prescription drug costs; using taxpayer money to fly to his beachfront mansion in Florida; and a simple matter on how his net wealth doubled during his time in the Senate, it apparently was not enough for him (according to sources). Yet as was stated, Americans do deserve to know. 

It is these double standards in America which is why they are losing ground more and more. And with the anti-Arabic penmanship by Stephanie Kirchgaessner my personal message to Yasir Al-Rumayyan would be not to go there. There is nothing to gain, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will intentionally be mocked by the US senate (and the politically coloured press), at best it will embarrass Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud and at worst Yasir Al-Rumayyan will be on the receiving end of political jabs that were never on his plate anyway. Personally I get that the other two would receive invitations to explain the merger, but that is as far as I am willing to go at present. The merger of two golf entities in a day and age where a Florida governor scuttles a billion a dollar investment in Florida should be on the front view of EVERY US senator currently elected. Dousing the mouse? Not on my watch.

Enjoy the day, a mere day away from that famous day we all yearn for (Friday).

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics, sport