Category Archives: Finance

July 18, 2026 · 20:14

The unanswered question

That is what I see. I saw all the Microsoft articles pop by and it made me wonder. It is not that they are so great, not in the slightest. So, what brought this about?

First there was ‘Bethesda on Elder Scrolls VI, Fallout 5 Xbox exclusivity: ‘It’s too early to comment’’ (Source: TweakTown) which gives us “Todd Howard says it’s too early to comment on whether The Elder Scrolls VI or Fallout 5 will be Xbox exclusives. Bethesda announced four new Fallout projects, and Microsoft plans yearly exclusives (2026: Gears of War E-Day; 2027: Clockwork Revolution). Skyrim has sold over 65 million copies; Fallout 4 over 35 million.” We then get ‘Xbox Promised to Focus on Fallout and Elder Scrolls. Then It Fired the Teams Making Them.’ (source: Tech Times) This gives us pretty much the same info, but there is one difference “Former Bethesda project lead and Something Wicked Games CEO Jeff Gardiner confirmed 35 U.S.-based Bethesda Game Studios workers were cut on July 6. The OneBGS union, which represents Bethesda workers under the Communications Workers of America banner, reported at least 12 additional cuts at Bethesda’s Montreal location. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act filings, public records pulled from state workforce agencies by Game Developer, confirmed 22 departures from Bethesda’s Austin office.” And with “The first 1,600 departures were painful. The announcement that another 1,600 more will follow by the end of fiscal year 2027 transformed pain into dread. People who kept their jobs are not experiencing relief. They are waiting.” This is setting the stage for another setting, but about that later. So then we get to ‘Elder Scrolls 6 gets first update in months from Bethesda’ (source: Gaming Bible) where we see “To say that The Elder Scrolls VI has been a long time coming is an understatement. Bethesda announced the highly anticipated fantasy RPG first during E3 2018, a time so long ago that the gaming convention no longer exists. Since that time, we have had small updates here and there, but we’re yet to learn of its release date, let alone seeing a gameplay trailer. All we’ve seen so far is the cinematic flyover trailer from the aforementioned E3 eight years ago.” And as we are given at present is that “Bethesda Softworks’s estimated annual revenue is currently $382.9M per year” and as Bethesda was part of a $7.5 billion buy, we have to ask the first question, if it takes 19 years to break even (and I am not adding the interest percentage for the loan. And if this includes millions of copies for Sony Consoles (PS3,PS4,PS5), I do not get the comment from Tod Howard “it’s too early to comment on whether The Elder Scrolls VI or Fallout 5 will be Xbox exclusives” with the Xbox at a mere 35 million Xbox-X consoles, the entire endeavor becomes nearly unplayable and as I see it, the value of Bethesda goes straight into the toilet. I saw a few other numbers, but I do not trust them as they seem massively pro Sony, I would like to see the real numbers. So with the staff of Bethesda in a caving morale setting, but the one question not asked is that Activision/Bethesda costs almost $84,000,000,000 and there is no way that this is making the money to validate such a purchase. I think I know why they did this. The previous boss wanted everyone to run to Xbox, a nice slideshow, but not a reality. Sony had too much appeal with the titles they have and I opposed the setting. Don’t get me wrong, Microsoft did nothing illegal, merely wrong and as they are figuring out just how wrong. I wonder if they are doing the same thing a Dutch bank did a decade ago. But it all that bad debt in some bank and let that go under, with all the debts attached (a wildly speculative idea from me). So as we are given half truths incomplete pictures, So as Gaming Bible gives us ‘Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas remasters confirmed by Bethesda in huge studio update’ we can see why they are doing it, Oblivion 3 was a huge success (as I see it) they need the other two greats to be successes too. Optionally they might set this to the Switch 2 as well. An acceptable thought. But as I gave the world gaming IP to counter (hopefully equal) Fallout and Oblivion there would be a setting with the same population and more options. This is what innovative thinking brings and I created new ideas, new settings and of course on a non Microsoft system. It was the only way the other makers got the IP for free. I tend to ave a mean streak at times. Microsoft messed with the tranquility of gamers and I handed all others new IP (for free). As such there is a new setting. So, don’t think it was against Bethesda and all gamers will love these remade games (especially on PlayStation 5) and I am happy for Bethesda. But as I see it, Microsoft is done for. They wanted Gaming to adhere to their settings of Business Intelligence and their marketing machine and they anded up with a 84 billion dollar anchor around their necks. 

So as we are now seeing unions and others having a go at Microsoft, it is merely losing its OpenAI Microsoft’s revenue-share demands, though Microsoft remains a major shareholder and primary cloud partner and as the class actions add up, that 84 billion dollar anchor might strangle their board of directors (one could only hope) and as more and more people start seeing that all AI is fake AI, the doors of opportunity will close and the savvy BI people will start to realise that they are not gamers and that branch of Microsoft will close on them.

So, am I crazy? Am I seeing what some cannot, or am I merely delusional? I cannot rule that out, because only a crazy person will consider themselves to be completely right all the time and I could be wrong, but the signals are there and the media is no longer the investigative party they once were, they merely claim it now, but it is laced through a path of digital dollars and that is not an investigative setting.

So, as we are given ‘Xbox Promised to Focus on Fallout and Elder Scrolls’ and then they did away with 3,200 positions were eliminated across Microsoft Gaming (not merely Bethesda) and as we see ‘Unions File Unfair Labor Complaints Against Microsoft Over Decision To ‘Unlawfully’ Fire Xbox Workers’ we see that the hardship for Microsoft is nowhere near over. And I reckon that 3200 positions will affect a few more development houses. So are these projects made redundant? In addition we see ‘Cracks are starting to show in Xbox Game Pass after Microsoft removed a previously promised first‑party game it literally owns’ (source: windows central) as such I reckon that more class cases towards Microsoft will come and if I have my feelers out correctly, they will start this year and likely more than one class case, so if you are Satya Nadella, how does that $84 billion anchor feel now?

Have a great day and remember, if you are an Xbox Gamer, the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2 and the Sony PlayStation 5 are perfectly valid options and there are 312 million gamers on these three systems and when you think of this that small cluster of Xbox Gamers does’t seem that big after all and that was clear long before Phil Spencer left. 

So have a great day and consider whatever console you select, enjoy the games you play, because joy is a first setting of a gamer and you need to protect your ability for joy.

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July 17, 2026 · 12:50

The actual tools

We tend to get smitten by bubbles and other kind of negativity. You all know (if you read my work) that I am not a fan of the misuse of the word AI, I consider all AI to be fake AI, but the real deal is that DML (Deeper Machine Language) optionally with LLM (Large Language Model) acted is a tool. A very powerful tool. As such I saw two parts of media which threw me. You see in 2027/2028 people will do (optionally) some real thinking and they will consider that tools like Salesforce will have the upper hand. I have been a Technical Support person for the longest time and I see the benefit in DML/LLM. So up to 2027 we sill see a shifting. Fake salespeople who thought they could sell some AI idea will find out the negativity they have a part of and at that point players like Salesforce will clean house. Some guy names Sherlock Holmes said that IBM Watson will be the remaining winner, but I think he is biased there. But in all honesty both are strong competitors. So where am I coming from? Both solutions are the peak of Business Intelligence. They all have their niche side and as such they will get their own following.

So in Market Research (going back to the 90s) they had a simple way of getting results, they merely did:

CROSSTABS 
/TABLES=all BY all BY all
/CELLS=COUNT ROW COLUMN TOTAL
/STATISTICS=all.

And the results came in hundreds of pages of results (destroying a tree a day for paper). But here and now we have another solution. You see, DML could sift through the garbage in mere seconds and sift out the meaningful results. As such both Salesforce and Watson could see the light and a shallow stack of results could be the setting. And to be honest there is no win in seeing the table of length by shoe size, even if you ask for the kappa statistics. This is where we separate the bitches (read: fake salespeople) from the actual sales titans. It will soon enough no longer be about the pipeline, but a setting of handholding the corporations that were drawn in by a sales loser with a pretty presentation and all over their presentation mention off AI in their presentations. 

These people will require proper handholding and optional free education in way of product driven education and showing them what matters. 

So why all this? 
Well two articles passed me by, the first was from Kavout stating ‘Has Salesforce (CRM) Stock Bottomed Out After Its Recent Sell-Off’ (at https://www.kavout.com/market-lens/has-salesforce-crm-stock-bottomed-out-after-its-recent-sell-off). The article was three months old, but the setting was already a setting for consideration almost 6 months ago. I merely saw it last night. We see here “Salesforce (CRM) shares have certainly been on a rollercoaster ride, experiencing a notable 25% decline since the start of 2026, even as the broader software application sector saw a 15% dip. This downturn comes despite the company reporting a strong fourth quarter for fiscal year 2026, beating both revenue and earnings per share (EPS) estimates. The market’s reaction highlights a deeper anxiety, primarily centered around the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications for established enterprise software giants like Salesforce.” And I object, they might get swept in the AI frenzy, but Deeper Machine Learning is a powerful tool and it could make short work of Business Intelligence settings. So even as I am not too much pro AI, there is nothing against BI and DML (optionally with LLM).

So then we are given “Salesforce’s recent announcement of a massive $50 billion share repurchase program, with half of it, $25 billion, to be funded by new debt, has certainly raised eyebrows across Wall Street. This aggressive move, which represents nearly 14% of the company’s current $183.07 billion market capitalization, is a clear signal from management that they believe the stock is significantly undervalued following its recent sell-off. CEO Marc Benioff explicitly stated, “We are so confident in the future of Salesforce,” justifying the decision to “aggressively repurchasing shares.” The strategy is not without its critics. Taking on $25 billion in senior notes to finance buybacks is a “material shift in financial policy,” according to Moody’s Ratings, which consequently downgraded Salesforce by one level to A2. S&P Global Ratings also shifted its outlook to “negative” from “stable,” citing concerns about increased leverage. While management, including CFO Robin Washington, views the company as “underleveraged,” the increased debt burden means future borrowing will likely come at a higher cost, and the company’s leverage could potentially double within the next two years.”

This makes perfect sense to me. You see we see shareholders (who are jittery like anything you have ever seen) and taking the wind out of those sails will benefit Salesforce. Consider that they have $41.52 billion, so if they buy back the $25 billion shares. They will still cop that cost, but now it optionally be $57 billion to the Board of Directors and 250 share holders instead of the Board of Directors and 4500 share holders. As such they will reclaim a whole lot of revenue. As such it makes sense (my view on the amount of shareholders is purely speculative) but that move makes sense to me. What drove me was the second article. As such Business dot com gave us (at https://www.business.com/reviews/salesforce-email-marketing/) you see, salesforce still gets a 9 out of 10, but the cons are out there.

  • Pricing can add up quickly as you add messaging credits, AI capabilities and other Salesforce marketing products.
  • The platform takes time to implement and is better suited to organizations with the resources to manage a sophisticated marketing ecosystem.
  • Many advanced marketing capabilities require separate products or add-ons, making it difficult to estimate your total investment upfront.

And here I have a few questions. The first point is merely a point when it is used buy some sales user not knowing what he/she is doing, optionally the larger stage is whatever firm it is using. If they have a firm grip on what is required and now some loser attitude to whatever more they can get and they ask the system, all whilst it is dependent on the data they already have, they are lost in the shrubberies, all whilst a statistician and a one seat of IBM Statistics could optionally hand them that setting (me being hopeful they were that clever). The entire ‘platform takes time to implement’ is a bust. They either had their ducks in a row or they did not. And last their setting of ‘marketing capabilities require separate products or add-ons, making it difficult to estimate your total investment’ is a bust because it implies that their marketing setting are as useless as their sales division and their own board of directors might be clueless to begin with. Knowing where yup are, where your data is at and is heading to is staff setting, not software setting. The software merely makes it more complete and easier to manage. It seems like some people forgot that. They  merely hired some sales dodo who never read the RTFM clause in software (aka Read The Freaking Manual). As such I see there is a lasting setting that a firm hire the proper knowledge, not have some job agency scan the over a 100 ChatGPT generated resume’s and hire the best knowledge presented. Not the actual person and as that goes wrong several times that firm is out of options and they are now seeking the software solution that hands them options and that comes at a price.

As such I reckon that Salesforce (IBM Watson too) will make a killing starting in 2027 (optionally from November 2026) because I reckon that at that point the AI class action cases will hit nearly all media and the AI wannabe will be seeking hiding places (or claim ignorance) 

That is my optionally wrong view, but that is how I see it. I reckon that IBM having Miner and Statistics in their arsenal have more to be proud of, but Salesforce established themself early enough and they have a decent following, so I see both as optional winners. 

Just my $0.0324 (2 cents corrected for devaluation). You all have a great day now. 

 

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July 16, 2026 · 17:37

Casual connection

In the last 24 hours I saw two articles, they might have some casual connection and I leave that up to you to decide. First up we get an article with the staged setting of ‘Why Muslims Will Suffer Most When The AI Bubble Bursts’ (at https://www.islamicfinanceguru.com/articles/ai-bubble-muslim-investors) the first thing going through my mind is that you need to get out before disaster strikes. Get out when the going remains optional, and I would personally phrase this setting that those ‘money diggers’ make claim that you are not a pussy, make sure that he is not tying his benefit to your welfare. Because those who need your money have their own agenda. So as I read “In the late 90s, everyone was piling into internet companies. The stock market was booming, and it felt like free money. Then in 2000, it imploded. Companies worth billions became worthless almost overnight, and an estimated 100 million everyday investors lost a combined $5 trillion. Now people are worried AI could be the next bubble. And if they’re right, Muslim investors could be hit the hardest, even though most of us don’t realize it yet. Here’s why, and what every Muslim investor should be doing right now to prepare.” With additional “Over the past few years, the stock market has been on an absolute tear, and almost all of it has been driven by a handful of companies: the Magnificent Seven, Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, and Tesla. All making big bets on AI. Share prices going up isn’t itself a problem. What makes people nervous is the valuation. Take Nvidia. It’s now one of the largest companies in the world, and investors are giving it a price-to-earnings ratio of around 50. That means at current earnings, it would take 50 years of profits to earn back what you paid for the stock today. That’s an enormous amount of faith in future growth. That faith might well be justified. These companies are genuinely transforming industries. But history tells us that when the story gets ahead of the fundamentals, eventually something snaps. We’re not saying it will, but it’s worth asking: what’s the most fragile part of this whole thing? What’s the single point of failure? Because there is one.” And there is one that beckons reading (the link is at the beginning) and I agree with him. But the one thing that I take from the rest of that story is ‘acknowledge the concentration risk’ there is a downside of that, when it goes, it goes almost spectacularly (the investors don’t think out is spectacular) but I have other things against this AI setting, because from my point of view all AI is Fake AI. (Read my other works for elaboration, merely go see Google and ask: 

Lawlordtobe + “AI” + “AI bubble”

You should get over a dozen articles bringing this out and it merely my personal setting, but I believe that is an almost pertaining truth in all this that no one wants to acknowledge. When you come to the end of that rainbow, which did not start at a pot of gold and does not end with a pot either, you see why I believe that this is coming to an end (and right quick). Don’t get me wrong, I believe in DML (Deeper Machine Learning) and LLM (Large Language Models) these are strong tools and a lot more will be coming from this. But it al all down to the knowledge of the programmer and it just isn’t AI, not even close. So I did not give the Muslim investor much rope. I am not Muslim and I have never been an investor. Not even close, I am not even an early adopter. So whilst we now see Sam Altman in quotes all over the internet from ‘Sam Altman: ‘It also takes a lot of energy to train a human’ — a staunch defense of the cost of AI training’, so if this was real (read: true) AI, what did he have to defend? Then there is ‘“Thought It Was Satire”: Sam Altman Takes Dig At Anthropic’s New Ad Amid Online Backlash’ where we are told that:

“Anthropic’s latest advertising campaign, “There’s Hope in Hard Questions”, was designed to show that the AI company is willing to confront difficult questions about artificial intelligence and its potential risks. Instead, the ad has sparked widespread criticism online, with many viewers describing its tone as unsettling, creepy and overly bleak.” 

As I see it, some people are starting to crying about the still missing ROI and that is not even getting close to the fold whilst some give us 

“AI Return on Investment (ROI) is highly debated and highly variable. While many companies report time savings and efficiency gains, a large percentage of executives struggle to see direct, bottom-line financial returns due to high infrastructure costs and a lack of proper workflow integration.” 

All whilst the ‘highly variable’ is driven towards a timeline which is (by some) decades away. As such some need to worry when they are given the image of a Cadillac, whilst they are buying an Edsel. This might not be completely accurate, but it is what I see. When the court cases are driven towards that the setting that “DMLA Submission to the US Copyright Office argues against rash “data mining laws.” They state that because a robust licensing market already exists, creators should not be forced to subsidize AI technology by allowing free text-and-data-mining (TDM) exemptions” and when you are at this point, you are likely to lose a massive bundle ofd your investment. All whilst the Tech Policy Press gives us that:

“A dedicated legal database known as the AI on Trial dataset has tracked at least 500 cases globally across 39 countries, encompassing intellectual property, privacy, discrimination, and platform regulation”

Sounds like a good place to keep your investment, because when these cases settle (I’m hopefully hoping for some coins from that equation) you are done with whatever you thought you had. But (there is always a but) there is an optional outcome and it was given to me at (https://maritime-executive.com/article/uae-plans-to-build-a-new-jebel-ali-to-bypass-strait-of-hormuz) by the maritime executive. With the headline ‘UAE Plans to Build a New Jebel Ali to Bypass Strait of Hormuz’ with the setting that UAE had left OPEC, they might be sitting pretty on some coins and that place might need investment. As oil is a commodity that the planet needs, there is every chance that your optional investment goes back from 50 years to up to 5 years with a decent spillage of coins coming your way. So when we read “The Financial Times has added to a number of reports that the UAE is planning to expand its port and freight-handling capacity on its East Coast, accessing the Gulf of Oman and bypassing the Strait of Hormuz. The Financial Times says that DP World is planning not only to build an entirely new port on the Fujairah coast, but also to expand capacity at the existing Fujairah container terminal. It is not clear what coordination arrangements DP World has made with the existing Fujairah terminal, which is operated by the AD Ports Group under the brand name Fujairah Terminals, following the signing of a 35-year concession agreement in 2017 with Fujairah Ports, which in turn is controlled by the Fujairah Al Sharqi Royal Family.” It is my firm believe that these players would accept Muslim investment and that means the setting that you might come out as a winner, because this place outside of the Strait of Hormuz would give the UAE (read: ADNOC) give a larger setting of up to 5,000,000 barrels of oil per day with the small grocery customers like India, Australia, Indonesia, Japan and China. It feel (read: me is not being an investor) like an almost sure thing and that tends to breed opportunity. And whilst we are given “Plans are already afoot to speed the completion of a second crude pipeline to parallel the Habshan–Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline (ADCOP), doubling capacity from 1.5 to 3 million barrels per day. Fujairah Ports also operates a bulk products terminal at Dibba, on the border with Oman’s Musandam Peninsula, and Dibba has also been slated for development and upgrade.” It might allow the UAE to double that doubled setting, which is personally vision, not fact based analyses. But in this, Muslims investors are likely to see another opportunity, they might move out of that Fake AI setting whilst the leaving is good. But don’t take my word for that, it is a mere view coming from academic and personal vision on IT and a personal view on where I see the world going and I have more than 500 reasons for my views and those 500 reasons are the most likely dampers on your return on investment. #JustSaying

So, have a great day today and I am on route to kill a few Metroids, because those critters are getting out of hand on my Nintendo Switch.

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July 15, 2026 · 21:01

Where’s the blame?

That is at times the question, is it Elon Musk, its version of Twitter, the ABC News, or the hacker? Personally I do not think that ABC is to blame, but they are connected to it all (they are the unwilling participant). So how did this get started? I got last night a tweet, it wasn’t the groundbreaking news I was looking for, but I needed a new idea (and I got one as you are reading) so I decided to click on it. (See image below)

So here we see a few ‘facts’ or basically news given that makes the mind curious about what is involved. I saw the ‘tweet’ with a reference to Amazon (it merely mentions that) and I do not show the on the list, so accept that. In the background was the Australian Parliament House, as such I got interested. And I got this image several times in the previous few hours (I only saw them later) but they were allegedly tweeted by @Amenenyo1, @greciaibarra528, @DriftyGar, @Lundstromm04, @MarcelWagenveld and @ezcxs I am not connected to any of them, as such they might be trolls, or spam/scam facilitators. 

Anyway it reflects towards this article from ABC news:

The article is speculatively used because it is a long article. I reckon that the scammers need time to get information from this who push the “A few minutes after yesterday’s release” article. The link goes to TR.EE, which is an Estonian address, but the article seems to reflect an address ‘ferrariracinglegends dot com’ (I used the letter to replace the character, so that you will not fall into that same setting) all this makes me think that ABS is the unwilling participant in all this. And the larger question becomes. Who is to blame? I might have fallen for that trap last week as well and I got a call from an internet phone with an IPv6 address (which I did not answer) and after that my phone gave no evidence it was called, there was no blocked call, there was no rejected call. No evidence that I was called at all. As such I am making a few assumptions and they are mine to make. But it is clear that whomever is getting into this is using more powerful tools and more agility in the internet workings all over the field. 

  1. What is Elon Musk (his Tweety setting) amounting to?
  2. Is social media to blame?
  3. Is the advertisement department to blame?
  4. How is this managed in X (formerly known as Twitter)?
  5. How is advertisement in X managed, controlled and monitored?

5 questions that are important. Because this is inhibiting what reliability X has left, when X becomes a plaything of scammers and phishers X is pretty much done for. 

So can we blame social media? It relies of propagation and influencers, and as such scammers are top tier influencers, you are basically the tool they will use to propagate their need for cash. This sound ominous, but that is what it amounts to.

So how are advertisements managed in X? That is the first real culprit, the fact that I had that advertisement any least 6 times in an hour, with 6 different addresses makes me thing that something is very wrong in this setting, especially as I am not connected to any of them. Yes I know that this could be replicated, but that evidence (which I do not have) makes the blame squarely on the advertisement department of X (as I personally see it). And as I see it, whomever manages the advertisement setting of X has some explaining to do (optionally to Elon Musk, who might be seeing a massive drop in credibility, at the max of $44,000,000,000 and he might not like what this is amounting to. Then we get to the control and monitoring of advertisements. Because this setting has references to Amazon and ABC News who are seemingly not part of this and they might be seeking legal council in all of this. 

So as you see, I have questions. I reckon I have answers too, but without clear evidence there is no way I can comment, but the questions remain and until they are resolved anyone clicking on an advertisement is setting himself up for a long fall. That is merely how I see it and I thought it ws important to spread this news as far as I could.

Have a great day you all.

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July 15, 2026 · 01:31

What a surprise

So, before I get you to the article, I want to reiterate my position. I did this a few times and here it matters. You see, on May 31st 2025 I wrote ‘All Dressed Up’ where I gave you ““The United States could experience a loss of $21 billion in tourism-related revenue this year if current trends continue, according to estimates by the U.S. Travel Association. According to the trade group, every 1% reduction in international tourist spending represents an annual loss of $1.8 billion for the U.S. economy. Furthermore, experts indicated that a strong U.S. dollar could be driving away international visitors.” Even though only Canada is ‘sifted’ out” I had some issues, because the numbers were seemingly giving added ‘benefits’ to the economic settings of this administration. And now we see CBC giving us (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cross-border-travel-down-dramatically-research-9.7198652) ‘Travel to the U.S. is down even more dramatically than we thought, data shows’ where we are seeing “While official Statistics Canada figures show a roughly 25 per cent decline in Canadian residents returning from the U.S. last year, cellphone data compiled by researchers at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities found that the year-over-year drop in cross-border trips was closer to 42 per cent.” Which is a nice sidestep and the University of Toronto has proven themselves more than once, so I am excepting this setting. This means that the numbers were off by over 15%, which gives my settings (and decently speculative) a new wave of reliability. So whilst we ‘accept’ the numbers we are also given “They found the decline was even more dramatic in some warm weather locales that have historically been hot spots for Canadians fleeing winter weather. In Myrtle Beach, S.C., the number of trips by Canadians was down 65 per cent year-over-year, according to the cellphone data, giving it the dubious title of the metro area with the steepest drop. In the Florida cities of Panama City, Orlando, Cape Coral, Miami and Naples, the number of Canadian visitors fell by 50 per cent or more. But cratering demand wasn’t recorded only in those sunny destinations. Trips to San Francisco, New York, Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids, Mich., Boston and other business centres have also fallen by more than half, according to the data. In fact, of the 267 U.S. metro areas analyzed by researchers, only three — Cleveland, Portland, Ore., and Gainesville, Fla. — showed an increase in visits by Canadians last year.” What a lovely way to powder a message. Canadians kept up their promise that they were sick and tired of the 51st state setting of the United States by showing a massive decline to well over 250 U.S. metro areas? That should suck to the economy of the United States and I reckon that some people in this administration long before the Tuesday, November 3 moment has come to the calendars of all American voters and as ‘they’ say, every citizen is a voter at that point. So as the USA Today gave us yesterday (at https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2026/07/13/trump-federal-control-midterm-elections/90840111007/) ‘Trump moves to tighten federal control of elections ahead of midterms’ there is a setting that the drop in tourism will have every citizen of the United States livid. So whilst we are given “The president says he’s trying to prevent cheating, but Democrats argue he’s actually putting his thumb on the scale for the GOP by trying to block Democrats from voting.” Which is likely to be a repeat from 2016 when ‘O’Reilly’s Proof That Voter Fraud Exists Was Debunked On His Own Show Four Years Ago’, it is all kids of mean that I figure on using the words of a dedicated Republican to whistle back the BS from a republican administration. And we were given “Fox News host Bill O’Reilly argued that Mitt Romney’s failure to receive any votes in the 2012 presidential election in 59 divisions in Philadelphia was evidence that widespread voter fraud exists presidential elections. This claim was investigated and proved false on O’Reilly’s show one week after the 2012 election. O’Reilly invited lawyers Kimberly Guilfoyle and Stacy Schneider to discuss the prevalence of voter fraud in presidential elections. While both Guilfoyle and Schneider agreed that voter fraud is extremely rare, O’Reilly pointed to “reports in Philadelphia that nobody voted for Romney” as proof that voter fraud exists and asked if these reports have been investigated. From the August 16 edition of The O’Reilly Factor: O’Reilly himself investigated and debunked these allegations in 2012. Following the election, O’Reilly hosted Fox’s Megyn Kelly to investigate the “shenanigans” and why Romney got zero votes in a number of Philadelphia divisions. Kelly explained that “the same thing happened to John McCain” in 2008 because “the divisions with the unanimous Obama votes have large black, inner-city populations.”” 

So will this be a repeat of what we saw in 2016, and with the population of 250 U.S. metro areas extremely likely to be livid, what chance does this administration have? So whilst we return to the story and visit “In an interview with CBC News, Karen Chapple, the lead researcher and director of the School of Cities, said the drop in tourism to popular destinations like Orlando, as well as border communities like Buffalo, N.Y., has been well-documented. What her cellphone data makes clear is that the Canadian boycott is affecting cities both big and small across the States — and it’s not just leisure travel that has dried up. The self-imposed travel ban has extended to high-tech, financial and industrial centres, signaling that cross-border business and trade patterns have fundamentally shifted over the last year. “I have been using the word ‘sea change,'” Chapple said of the data she and her team uncovered. “And the places most impacted by the tariffs are also the ones most affected by the loss of travel,” she said, pointing to some Michigan cities like Flint that have trade ties to Ontario’s auto sector. “These declines are really tied to the composition of the local economies.”” A setting which my (decently speculative numbers also looked at) you see, there is a lot more to the spending of an international traveling person. They often fro not know certain things, or they might see it as impolite to use certain settings and this would have impacted local businesses a lot more. Like the local B&B places (to name merely one) and none of those earlier numbers would have seen that and now we see that there is a 15% gap between what was and seemingly what is. 

It is at this point where the CBC setting matters. As we are given “The U.S. Travel Association last year said a 10 per cent drop in Canadian tourism would cost the American economy about $2.1 billion US. If Chapple’s data is an accurate reflection of what’s going on, that means Canadians holding back on U.S. travel may have cost the economy about $8.4 billion US and counting. Speaking at a progressive political conference last weekend, Prime Minister Mark Carney applauded Canadians’ efforts to stand up to the Americans as the trade dispute with Trump drags on.” And now I get to gloat (just a little) and my story given on August 30th 2025 called ‘Vindication of a sort’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/08/30/vindication-of-a-sort/) where I stated 

“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”

So my speculation was hitting reality on nearly all thrusters and whilst bankruptcies are on a high in Florida (44,496), which dwarves the previous year (which had 32,933) and these numbers are set to May 26th 2026, as such these numbers are most likely to rise and taken that the CBC gives us alternative numbers, that jump might be a lot and I speculated it over a year ago, that is before we look at California where we see ‘California personal bankruptcies up 15% in a year’ (source: East Bay Times). The story they have comes with graphics, which are (especially for Canadians, fun to behold at https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2026/06/02/california-personal-bankruptcies-up-15-in-a-year/) It gives me that Texas with its 20% is still a states to consider and considering all these families renting out part of their house on a B&B setting are likely to be all personal bankruptcies. When you add all this up, you might start seeing the settings I say in 2025 because this all was set to Canadian impact, whilst I was looking at the larger international community that had enough of Trumpisms and I also considered that the Commonwealth nations might stand with Canada and select Canada as the destination for the next few years. That speculation is seemingly holding water as well, as such the United States has a real problem until deep into 2029 and with the Middle East exploring their tourism settings (especially the UAE) that hardship is nowhere near done. 

So some might see this as ego boasting, but there is no ego in place. I merely saw the numbers behind the numbers and I saw a trend evolving and I have been doing this since 1992, so I have a few markers that have been seeing the test of time. My ego does giggle at the simple fact that I was more on the nose with these numbers than all the fake AI in the land. So that part is gloating boasting and all kinds of nearly negative settings. I don’t have to give space to fake AI, it is that kind of a day today (at it is Wednesday 01:10 here), it sometimes suck to be a Fake AI, doesn’t it?

The article has one source “Barbara Barrett, executive director of the Frontier Duty Free Association, a trade group representing the mostly family-owned stores that dot the Canadian side of the border, said the steeper drop-off figures are more believable than the StatsCan data, based on how badly sales have plummeted at some of her members’ outlets.” Yes, I never considered that, but Canadians tend to buy the Canadian articles they know, as such that group is also facing dwindling numbers. For them I do feel sorry, but it is part of the whole.

So as I go to bed with a gloat, I wish you all a great day, my Wednesday ‘officially’ starts in less than 300 minutes.

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July 13, 2026 · 10:15

Using the media in war

That has always ben the case, as early as the 1620s as Corantos. A first-hand battlefield datelines and updates on the war. It is a little bit disappointing as they were a stronger setting of what was to be than what the media gives us now in 2026 in the Iran settings. Headlines like ‘Iran bets Trump will blink first’ and ‘‘We’re beating them up’, Trump on fresh Iran strikes’ and lets not forget ‘U.S. insists Strait of Hormuz remains open despite Iran declaring it closed, as strikes escalate’ all less then three hours ago. So, what is the measure of a war? But I am sitting in a setting with a headline 6 hours ago. We were given ‘The Guardian view on Trump and Tehran: everyone loses when the US and Iran overplay their hands’ and I say firmly ‘No!’

You see, the media is part of this mess. When they decided to reject the evidence from Brigadier General Turki al-Maliki on the drones from the Houthi terrorists (supplied by Iran), which clearly showed that Iran was behind this all. As you ignored evidence of an attack on Aramco, whilst blatantly ignoring that Houthi forces did not have the ability to expertly drive drones 10 times into Aramco targets, simply ignoring that this required high knowledge of drone aviation, only found in a state operator like the IRGC. You pretty much tailored your own demise from September 14th, 2019 onwards showing others that you were so dependent on the digital dollar, that you catered to its infliction of whatever drove clicks best. 

This is a stage the media catered to and whilst we see other things evolve, they cater to what drives clicks. The media has lost its footing, its credibility and now they are catering to the populist voices. And in all this I might be wrong (my nautical knowledge is almost half a century old) we see “Under international law, Iran does not have the legal right to completely close or block the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping, although it has used military force to heavily restrict and control traffic. The strait is governed by the regime of “transit passage” under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which guarantees that all civilian ships have the right of uninterrupted navigation” (source: Opinio Juris) but the larger setting is that any water has optionally two parties. 

The Straight of Hormuz borders Oman as well, as such there is a stretch that is Omanian territory, so in my naive setting I would say that the ships go via the Omanian part of the strait. I might be oversimplifying this, because Iran would have to attack Omanian waters and in that setting all parties including the GCC could attack Iran for violating their rights. I know I am missing a few settings, but this is what seems to be possible and if the media did their work, even if it is debunking my idea it might have been fine. But they did not did they?

So whilst the media seems to have dug its own Grave by adhering to proxy wars and for the benefit of access they might have silenced a few items (allegedly), we see an incomplete picture and we are thrusted towards headlines based on the old premise she said vs she said and as far as I can see this, this is all that is left to read. 

So what is the real deal? That is the question and in the meantime Iran does what it deserves best, wield the stick of terror over all the lands and I see that these warring parties are ignoring what gives Iran power to act, as such the destruction of their harbours their railroads and their refineries could have been a solution when I gave it 4 months ago. It almost seems like the United States doesn’t want to win, merely drag this setting along. Why?

Well that is all I have at the moment, as such you all have a great day today.

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July 12, 2026 · 13:43

From a deceptive mind

Yup, that’s me. I saw an article and the sneaky mind went to work. All because some words gave me ample reasons to do so. But lets start at the beginning. It all started with a story in the Microsoft Source Australia (at https://news.microsoft.com/source/asia/features/how-commonwealth-bank-and-microsoft-are-reimagining-the-future-of-customer-service/) where we see ‘How Commonwealth Bank and Microsoft are reimagining the future of customer service’ really? Reimagining? I get that Microsoft sees a blanket of opportunity, because as I see it, on a near global scale Technical Support and Customer Care will take dives and the need of clear quality is to be found nearly everywhere. But here is the kink in this cable. There already is a supplier. It is called NICE, an Israeli cloud supplier. I saw several options for Saudi Arabia and the UAE. I wrote about it in the story ‘Dominoes’ on December 4th 2023 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/12/04/dominoes/). I didn’t give the entire setting, but they were here first as such the solution ‘reimagined’ is not seen by me here.

So when I saw “Martin Lindsay had a bold vision to reimagine the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s contact center architecture using an approach that did not yet exist. As Executive General Manager of Customer Service Direct at the banking group, Lindsay set out to bring together multiple legacy systems supporting voice, messaging and digital interactions into a single, AI-powered omni-channel platform. The goal was to create a more intuitive, conversational experience for customers, while supporting frontline teams with better tools to serve them.” I had to giggle, because that is basically what the NICE CX One platform does and in several other ways. As such is this an attempt to plagiarise an already excellent idea, or are these people making sure that the “The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) serves approximately 17 million retail, business, and institutional customers across the country, representing nearly two-thirds of the Australian population. Of this total, the bank has over 1 million business customers and 8.3 million digitally active users.” (Source: Oogly Googly Google) fall straight via Microsoft into the Cloud Act capturing settings of the United States of America? Yes, people seem to forget is trivialize that cloud act and someone needs to take a longer look at this. For example an optional pretentious Martin Lindsay who had his ideas close to 5 years after NICE did. Nice started in 1986 as Neptune Intelligence Computer Engineering and that’s evolved into the setting we see now. As such what is the setting of imagination at Microsoft? (optionally at the CBA too). And as I see it, it is an Israeli company, but NiCE is an American technology company specializing in customer relations management software (NiCE CXone), artificial intelligence, and digital and workforce engagement management. OK, as I see it the cloud act is not avoided, but the fact that some (read: Microsoft Source Australia) might want to peer their sugar coated story. So when we get to “The catalyst came in early 2024, when Lindsay partnered with leaders from Microsoft to co‑engineer the solution. The timing was driven by a rapid shift in customer expectations for instant, always-on support, while the bank’s existing virtual chatbot was being wound down.” One might have a Conspiracy Theorist mind (that would be me) seeing that I saw this a year before him, that he had an idea to take the idea from NiCE and give it a swirl and optionally he saw Microsoft as a partner in alleged crime. Alleged, because I have no idea how this went, but as we look at Nice (at www.nice.com) you can see how evolved that idea already is and as such why reinvent the wheel? I have my doubts on this idea. Especially as we can see a massively evolved system, it seems to go even further than when I saw it in 2023 (which makes sense). So as I see that setting I also see “We wanted to work with Microsoft to shape their products and deliver a platform aligned to our future strategy. We knew that meant working with Microsoft as a co-creator in our vision from day one.” But I read it as “We needed a Microsoft tainted solution where I get the credit, the commission and I call Microsoft a ‘co-creator’ so that I can get my coins”, so am I pushing the conspiracy theory setting? I might be, but this is how business is done in this modern age. Because if NiCe was rejected, the story would be “We saw a solution that didn’t match with our vision, so we talked to Microsoft and see if they would help us out” and at this point you see the consultancy solution that NiCE could offer and was rejected for a much bigger bill.

Apart from that there is nothing. As I see it, the world will have a massive Technical support and Customer Care issue from 2027 onwards. As people are fired all over the place they can hire people with a telephone voice and a good setting towards data entry, both are essential in these fields. But what do I know, I have merely be set into the Technical Support world and Customer Care world since 1992. So I know a few things, which is also why I saw the essential needed setting of NiCE. 

The rest of the story was too self adoring for me to adhere to, as people see that Customer Care has a low tolerance for failure, It is essentially humorous to see that Microsoft is clearly not using their own solution. Why? Perhaps Clippy objected? That Is a mere speculation on the matter and even in this case speculations tend to matter, because the idea is seemingly nice and merely seemingly because someone else saw that sight first and as I see it, the CBA never seemingly saw it as they went shopping at Microsoft. But what do I know? 

Have a great day you all, time for some coffee.

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July 10, 2026 · 22:16

Is it the water level?

Yup, we are all in that setting, but are we merely waving to the music of Debbie Harry or are we watching the waves from the shorelines. That is merely two options, but when some say that the tide is high, they might be referring to bubbles, the AI bubble to be more precise. I am not some economist saying that bubbles are blasphemy and I am no economist, but I have looked at numbers for decades and the numbers we are given do not add up, and when I was watching Inside Job something hit me, there was a familiar pattern evolving, not evolving, repeating is a better word and I have been saying this for some time. Yet today, a mere 10 minutes ago I see ‘UK Places Microsoft, Google, Amazon And Oracle Under Financial Oversight’ (at https://www.businesstoday.com.my/2026/07/10/uk-places-microsoft-google-amazon-and-oracle-under-financial-oversight/) where we see “The UK has placed Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Oracle under direct regulatory oversight after designating the cloud service providers as critical third parties to the country’s financial system. Reuters reported that effective July 13, the designation covers Microsoft Ireland Operations Ltd, Google Cloud EMEA Ltd, Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL and Oracle Corporation UK Ltd, reflecting the financial sector’s growing dependence on cloud infrastructure”, so whilst the story ends with “The designation will bring the four technology firms under direct regulatory oversight as part of efforts to safeguard the stability and continuity of the UK’s financial sector.” And it comes after we were given (at https://m.au.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/oracle-stock-shrugs-off-sp-downgrade-to-bbb-but-120b-debt-shadow-looms-4526441) where we see ‘Oracle stock shrugs off S&P downgrade to ’BBB-’, but $160B debt shadow looms’ where we see “Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL) shares managed to gain 2.7% on Thursday, defying a credit rating downgrade from S&P Global Ratings. While shares edged slightly lower from their midday highs, the tech giant still traded firmly in positive territory. Investors chose to focus on Oracle’s staggering $638 billion backlog of cloud contracts rather than the immediately apparent threat to its balance sheet: S&P downgraded Oracle’s long-term issuer credit rating to ’BBB-’ from ’BBB’, retaining a stable outlook.”

Now, I am not having anything against Oracle. They have always been on the foreground of technology and innovation in its field and it is unlikely to ever change. But there is a larger setting, the entire AI bubble as I see it, it will hit them too. They all over invested in that setting and they are likely the biggest catchers of the implosion of that event. But I am still in arms over ““The official position of the Secretary and the U.S. Treasury is that Artificial intelligence will be a key driver of America’s new Golden Age,” the spokesperson said. “AI has the potential to deliver unprecedented productivity gains, expand economic opportunity, and empower American workers and businesses.”” You see, there is no golden age, there is no AI, not yet at least. There is DML and LLM and they are great, they can hand innovation and prosperity in several ways. It merely isn’ AI and that needs to be said, because soon the class actions will go for the “It’s AI and we cannot really predict what AI does” but it isn’t, it is DML and that requires a programmer, it requires data and these two hinder stones are the backdrop for prosecution. Only last week we were given ‘Anthropic Faces a New $75 Million Lawsuit for Pirating Books to Train Claude AI’ and less than 24 hours ago Harvard Business Review ‘You Outsourced the AI—but you still own the risk’ where we see “As enterprises increasingly embed third-party systems into their workflows, technological risk has led to new legal and operational responsibilities. Leaders may have little visibility into how a model was trained or how it changes, yet when it discriminates, mishandles data, or harms a customer, regulators and plaintiffs often look first to the company that deployed it. Peloton learned how that exposure can arise. Visitors to its website see a familiar invitation to “chat,” powered by a third-party vendor. According to a class-action complaint, the vendor recorded and stored conversations and used the data to improve its machine-learning models. Peloton neither built nor trained the system. Even so, a California federal judge allowed a claim against the company to proceed. The parties later jointly dismissed the case, without publicly disclosing the terms.”

Now consider the amalgamation of these factors (apart from some saying there is no bubble) there is (allegedly) “Worldwide spending on AI is forecast to reach $2.5 trillion. Venture capital and private corporate investments in AI firms sit near $258.7 billion globally, with over $750 billion in dedicated infrastructure and data center capital expenditure from major tech hyperscalers” we then see that the big players (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Oracle) are basically overextended, facing class actions and all of them are looking at all sorts of financial hardship, because at some stage all these players will be made to rephrase the simple truth that AI is not DML/LLM, it requires more and when the programming is put under a loop that setting comes crashing down. I saw it two years ago that this is the only outcome in some sales people overselling what they had and the simplest setting is not a mere Quantum computer. It requires shallow circuits and what I tend to call The Epsilon processor. True AI cannot exist in a binary setting. The last one is my interpretation of it all and some might disagree. But the Epsilon processor allows for Null, False, True, Both and it is the Both part that makes true AI possible and of course a matching operating systems will be required as well a data carrier and in that case Oracle and Snowflake have the grounds for success. As I see it, all others will fall behind these two. 

And last month we were given that “400 newspapers sued OpenAI and Microsoft for scraping their content without permission or compensation to train artificial intelligence programs” even my data has been scraped. So how many will be successful? How many will fail? I have no idea, but the odds are decently stacked against these salespeople. And as the courts rule against these Fake AI bringers (as I see it) there will be a rush of people making a case, all who were sold AI (without clear DML/LLM settings in their contracts) are seeing their pupils transform into dollar signs and they will try to clean house. So when all these settings happen, is the stage for a bubble that far fetched? 

I am watching and watching and noting what is due. I reckon that at some point I get the one piece of evidence that will allow me to do just that, 2700 (out of nearly 4000) article scraped seemingly give me an optional case for some dollars (five million plus would be great). And I am not the greediest player in town. So at what point will the investors of $2.5 trillion ring the bell wanting to see payment for their investments? Goldman Sachs gave us last month ‘The AI Investment Boom: When Will It Pay Off?’ With “The economics of artificial intelligence are more questionable today than two years ago, says Goldman Sachs Research’s Jim Covello, as enterprise buyers, model companies, and hyperscalers have yet to show returns on their spend. In a conversation with Alison Nathan and George Lee on Goldman Sachs Exchanges, Covello discusses where we’ve seen economic value accrue to date and why semiconductor companies can’t continue to be the sole beneficiaries of the AI buildout.” As such we see people with serious economic skills worrying and wondering what comes next and I was there at least a year ago. So when will others see the doubt that I am seeing? The money people call the bubble a blasphemy, but they have vested interests. I do not. I merely see the flaws on technology that is at least 15-20 years away, data that is largely unvalidated and unverified and at this juncture people are investing trillions? Makes me all tingly that too many people are greed driven and too much vested to be part of a boom that does not exist, just like the settings of 2008, Inside Job showed that clearly and it seems that we have a similar setting evolve at least two times the previous caper. So if you consider that with all the reserves that hit took the economy 2 decades to fix and at present the reserves are gone, so what will happen now? Why aren’t others taking the stand the UK is making? Because others are in the believe that “America’s new Golden Age” is here? When you realize that it will take close to two decades to arrive, how long until too many investors pull the plug and go somewhere else? What will happen then? That is what I see coming, because at some point more and more people wake up, this is bound to happen, it always does.

So is the water high enough? Have a great day.

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July 8, 2026 · 02:09

Worlds in motion

That is what happened 13 hours ago. We are given a story by Ben Graham, which carries the title ‘‘Catastrophe’: Gaming world in utter chaos as Microsoft’s axes 4800 jobs, Sony makes huge call’ (source: news.com.au), I had given my view on the erroneous Sony call, but I didn’t give the setting of Microsoft too much time. Microsoft is really big (over 170,000 people) and there are more stages than Gaming, so as we are given “The cuts at Microsoft include the deepest overhaul in Xbox’s history, with approximately 3200 gaming jobs to be shed over the coming fiscal year, including positions at four studios that are being spun off or sold. It is understood the cuts will affect staff in Australia where 3,000 employees work across six offices.” As I see it, the stage that the UAE gives with its gaming setting of 2033 (see previous story) I am happy that I gave my gaming IP to the UAE. It sounds that the UAE is coming in just in time and whilst I see that Sony has a good grasp on things, the entire setting of no-disc will likely be dropped in 2027, as they see what chaos they would unleash on their brand. I never objected to a no-disc setting, it would not be my choice, but that is beside the setting that Rural gamers all over Europe (likely the America’s too). It is a stage of the Have versus Have not and I don’t like that setting. It is a class war that is brooding and it makes me sick. These wars always come with a larger victim count and a massive amount of resentment. As such I oppose it. So, I am kinda happy that the UAE is going into gaming. As such they are likely to capture the Microsoft gaming population first and depending on what hardware options they select they could get up to 6 billion dollar in stage one, a lot more in stage two. The question becomes what direction they will take gaming in. You see gaming can be several directions and I am against taking something in all directions. It is often better to capture niche by niche and grow from there. The benefit is that as you expend on niches, you can make these niches available to all niche gamers. So they expand to a much larger setting.

As such people can select the paths open to them and as such you gain traction on all fronts you enable. And it is important to vacate the American 80% setting. Each niche needs to be 95% cleared and the 5% should be set to minor stuff. It is a slower route but the results are more clear and almost a guarantee. In this I state almost, because there are many factors. But the only thought towards to worst case scenario is that you gain 50% more when you go for the 95% over the 80% setting and 50% is a big gain. The good thing is that there is motion on several levels and as such the stage of gaming for gamers is decently secure through Nintendo and Sony, but 2 options doesn’t make a population. So in come China and the UAE. China with its Tencent device (no clue how real it is) and I don’t give credence to the populistic YouTube approach. But the idea of Tencent and the UAE has merit on a few levels. There was another side that I was considering, because I have options in IP besides gaming, even if gaming was merely one side to this. There were two other sides and that is how traction is made. 

So whilst some are considering “On the commercial side, she said the cuts would build on Microsoft’s $2.5 billion push, announced last week, to embed 6000 engineers with major clients to accelerate AI adoption.” As I see it, it is a load of nonsense. When these ‘clients’ start to figure out that there is no real AI, that until some issues are resolved it is merely Fake AI, the class actions start to come. I wonder if anyone had looked deep into these AI contracts?  $2.5B divided by 6000 is $417K, the numbers do not make sense. And considering the purchase of Blizzard for $68.7 billion, Bethesda for $7.5 billion and Mojang for $2.5 billion. The question becomes, how much did they make from these three? Ask I see it, they are bleeding all over the gaming field. As I see it, if they even break even, it is because of the PlayStation titles, not the Xbox side of things. I admit it is speculation but consider Bethesda for $7.5B, that requires over 750,000,000 games sold. There are at most 45 million Microsoft consoles sold which means that each Xbox requires 18 Bethesda titles. As I see it, they have less than 9, as such the equation doesn’t work and I won’t even take this to Blizzard with its $68B price tag. The numbers do not add up and before you consider the setting of IP value, it requires someone to actively work on that and as we see from Starfield, that setting is more than debatable. 

But this is not about Microsoft (who I don’t care about), but it is about gaming and that setting need to be protected, so that my friends, me, others, their children and their children children get to play. Microsoft made it some business venture, to make it some form of exploitation (at least that is how I saw it). And keeping gamers safe is a noble goal (still my personal view on the matter). I have no idea what the UAE had decided to in that event, but at present they have a lot more credibility that these American firms ever have had.  Aren’t we lucky that Nintendo and Sony are both Japanese?

So whilst we are given “There has been widespread criticism of Microsoft overnight, with many gamers claiming the company is losing money because it is producing “woke” games that nobody wants to play. “The easiest solution is just look for the pink-haired devs that are destroying your IP (intellectual property) and send them on their merry way,” one gamer wrote on X. “People want good games, but the shoved ideologies into what could be good stories shows why your revenue is down.” “This is good,” another said of the call overnight. “But for it to work, you must also change your company policies to stop driving away your core audiences, and you must do so visibly and clearly.” Criticism also came from the left side of politics, with independent US senator Bernie Sanders blasting the job cuts.”

As I see it, it is one explanation. The second one is rather nasty, these games lately have been really bad. One voice gives us “Starfield starts off slow, taking over a dozen hours of playtime for its mechanics and story to truly click. It is an immense, content-heavy experience that will appeal deeply to fans of Bethesda’s traditional RPG style, but the lack of meaningful, seamless space exploration may disappoint those seeking an organic sci-fi adventure.” I have no real opinion, I saw the intro YouTube and it had something the graphics were good, the interaction are seemingly god, but that is what you get for a 2.5 years old game on the PS5. And now gamers are being told “Starfield fans fear for the game’s future after insider reports on Bethesda’s priorities – it will focus on Fallout, Quake, TES, and other franchises” (source: IXBT) that is what happens when the dollar becomes the bottom line of any game. And that is why Microsoft is seemingly pulling out and putting their money where the hypes are (not that this will do them any good). I see it like a corporation that has taken the stage of a mostly empty shell, so as the pressures mount, there is no substance to give counter pressure and the shell breaks. Someone will always tell me that I am wrong and (often in addition) that I am crazy too. But that is what I see and whilst protecting gamers everywhere is a noble consideration, it might not be enough and as such I see that others have seen that this comes with a decent paycheck or fortune. I saw billions and I reckon the UAE sees a similar pattern. This is where it all is and now as we see some companies (not naming them) are digging (see: prospecting) in the wrong area. As such I have two settings. The one setting is that gaming is essential and it should fuel itself, the realist sees that gaming alone does not make for a decent payment. As such combining the ideas are good for billions, keeping them separated merely allows for millions. It is only one letter but the power is a thousand fold. I see that and I accept that, and as long as gaming is uninhibited, it is fine by me. You can buy a DVD player just for the documentaries, or you can use it to play CD’s as well. The machine is bought, so you might as well use is as versatile as needed and that is where I saw gaming going. The console (or streamer) to also allow for series, movies, music, and optionally other means. This is where the world was going to and I accept that. It was always bound to happen. So whilst some merely focussed on one setting doesn’t mean the other settings aren’t there. And that is what Microsoft missed for the longest time (Sony too).

So, as I saw the UAE taking a bigger stake towards the gaming worlds, I saw a new option for gamers all over the world and it made me happy. So you all have a great day. It’s Wednesday here now.

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July 7, 2026 · 07:12

I made a call

That being said, I only in partiality acted by phone. I used my phone to give a message to his royal highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum that he has access to all my gaming IP. Basically I gave all my gaming IP away to the Dubai Media Council. It was a weird call to make from a person that does not have a pot to piss in, but I considered in mere seconds that it was better to see the United Stated (in particular Microsoft) muddle on destroying the settings of gaming. Better give others a fresh start. You see, Sony has its clear priorities (as does Nintendo) and overall Sony is better served by having a clear competitor that is chasing Sony at the heels. Microsoft is done in all this. As I personally see it, they do not deserve to oink at the gaming truffles, that piggy is done. So whilst I was considering what to do, I saw a message come across LinkedIn by his royal highness and a idea came to mind. I am unlikely to ever make money of all the gaming IP I have, as such it was better to hand it all over to the UAE. Better someone (optionally with an innovative mind) make some good of it.

And at present I am at 3983 stories going all the way back to 2014, wouldn’t it be great that story 4000 shows that my consideration as a gamer would be kicking of its fruits? Over the years I have written lore (for a new kind of RPG) I had ideas on streaming gaming and several ideas of all kinds. Now they might not all be useful, but they all contribute and if it hurts Microsoft, so much the better. Microsoft did this to themselves by harming the tranquility that gaming offers and so far they merely boasted and delivered close to nothing, whatever innovation they claim them had, they merely bought and marketed, the most famous innovation was Mojang’s Minecraft. As far as I can see they have one clear win. The FlightSimulator 2020. No matter how you see Microsoft, that is one hell of a flight simulator. I reckon every flightsim gamer agrees with me and when I bought the ‘original’ in 1985 for the CBM64, I saw something new. It costed me a pretty penny too (NLG 299). It was a magical week for me. Over the years games got graphically better but the innovative step that Microsoft showed with only 64Kb should not ever be forgotten. Beyond that as I see it, there needs to be a new player in that field. And the Gulf News gives us ‘Sheikh Hamdan meets global gaming leaders to shape Dubai’s next growth phase’ (at https://gulfnews.com/uae/sheikh-hamdan-meets-global-gaming-leaders-to-shape-dubais-next-growth-phase-1.500598313) where we see “Crown Prince backs Dubai Program for Gaming 2033 as pillar of digital economy” although it is a statement of currency, the real gamers are bound to make it a seeing of strength (one can only hope) and with “Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence and Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai, attended the Dubai Gaming Retreat, where he met representatives from 80 of the world’s leading local and international gaming companies as the emirate steps up efforts to become a global hub for the industry.” And not to stereotype gaming, but for some reason I see the stage of Magic Carpet in my mind. What an amazing game that was, now consider that a system which only had 2 MB RAM and  1 MB Video RAM, driven by a R3000 32-bit RISC microprocessor @33.87 MHz was able to give us, so consider now what is possible with a 16 GB GDDR6 SDRAM and 512 MB DDR4 RAM driven by an AMD 8-core Zen 2? It is worlds apart. The first Magic Carpet was pure delight now consider that with the UAE as a backdrop (at the year 800) with the seven locations firmly set there will be happy gleams all over the world whilst gamers can rejoice. 

And I added several other ideas (all unique and original) even the start of a new RPG whilst adding a whole range of improvements to what I saw as optionally weaknesses in Bethesda’s Oblivion. I even reset an idea by Vint Cerf into a gaming setting (one can only design using the greats, even I know that). I don’t think he ever considered that, but I saw options. So when we get to “In a post on X, Sheikh Hamdan said the event is part of Dubai’s commitment to becoming “the world’s new hub for the gaming industry” and a destination for the world’s leading talent, companies and investments in the fast-growing sector.” I decided to react to that and add my own $0.02 by handing all my gaming IP to the UAE. Perhaps it will spark innovation, perhaps it will spark ideas. As a whole the gaming community wins and prospers, as I see it. It would be a decent legacy to hand over to others. 

Currently I am still mulling a few things over and I will write about them soon, that being said, I already gave my gaming IP to the UAE, as such they will gain that too. There is no use in doing things half baked. I just roll that way.

So have a great day, its almost time for coffee, better get dressed for that.

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