Category Archives: IT

January 8, 2026 · 20:37

Our lull moments

That happens, we all crave it, the option of bliss, inactivity, moments of calmness and we find it in different ways. I for one have this with a video game. Not some edge of seat Epic setting, but the Horizon setting, Skyrim, Oblivion, fall out, the list goes on. And yesterday I saw a list of two dozen games coming to the PS5 and some woke me up. There was off course Wolverine by Insomniac. I will be waiting for that one, but at that point one game turned up that I never expected The game STYX has as far as I know been a Xbox game and it is a excellent game, Stealth of the better variety. And you better rely on stealth as you are a 4’ goblin with his trusty knife. What drove me to this game that any level had several solution to solving it and you got points for completing other ways. It was a lovely time. Now its coming to Sony Playstation and we can rejoice. More important there are a few other settings we could consider. One of them is RYSE, son of Rome. The good parts is that the graphics were really good and the storyline was amazing. The two downsides were in the first was that all combat is massively repetitive. And the second one was that you had too defeat several bosses twice, after the first time he completely reset his health bar. I don’t like this, but that might just be me. So as I see it, when you redo the battle setting of Marius Titus you might have an amazing Playstation winner. So when we consider the funny part, who thought that Frankfurt had more to offer than Frankfurters? Crytek GmbH might be the next great thing coming from Germany, go that is an exaggeration, but the truth is that RYSE might have dies too soon and too small a death, so whilst some might object as it was released 12 years ago, I say ‘be still’ good games overcome systems and generations (example Mass Effect and Oblivion) and those are merely two who made the system generation jump. I think that Ryse could do the same (if the two weaknesses are dealt with) As far as I see it, everyone is looking at what might be (I do that too at times) but at times I look behind me what we left and there is plenty to be had in that direction too. I gave some of this ‘life’ in an IP solution I offered to Saudi Arabia and I still believe it can work, not merely for the games, but for the two sides of that equation that could propels Saudi Arabia’s gaming and other settings a lot further. Don’t be miffed Amazon got the same option, but they decided to ignore this whilst they are banking on AI (good luck with that).

So whilst we were given ‘Amazon Pulls AI-Powered Fallout Recap After Getting Key Story Details Wrong’ which comes with “According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Amazon is betting AI can identify key plot points for a series to be synchronized with a voiceover narration and dialogue snippets.”” Apart from the settings that are incorrect and incomplete. Amazon needs to realise that this is all programmed and the programmer might not see what needs validating and verification. They might not know, but the fans will pick up on this instantly. And Engadget gives us ‘Amazon’s AI-generated recap tool didn’t watch Fallout very closely’ this relates to games, because when these people get the AI part ‘working’ they will go over games in that same way and that is where the blunders start adding up to the folly of people who blindly believe in AI. Because I mentioned once that 2026 will be the setting of AI court cases and I was proven (yet) again correct as we are given ‘CanLII and Caseway AI reportedly moving towards settlement in copyright dispute’ as well as TechCrunch given us 8 hours ago ‘Google and Character.AI negotiate first major settlements in teen chatbot death cases’ merely two cases in the second week on January. So, how many more will follow? Only seven hours ago we were given ‘Musk lawsuit over OpenAI for-profit conversion can head to trial, US judge says’ and all this relates to games, because last November we were given ‘Ubisoft Reveals Teammates – An AI Experiment to Change the Game’ and I reckon it will merely take one slip up to thwart the statistics of a player and he will be crying in the lap of some ambulance chaser. A setting I saw coming a mile away which a few people have experienced if they are stealth players. 

As such my lull moment gets blown away with some AI character, team mate or not. But that might merely be me, but what Ido remember was call on this setting months ago and now we see two being settled, whilst OpenAI is now entering the dock for what might cost them a pretty penny. Did those shareholders consider that this might become the destination of their investment?

Have a great day.

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January 7, 2026 · 22:58

The accused speaks

Well, I have had an interesting day (so far), I have been accused of being anti-American and a whole range of other things (some of it on lacking evidence), so here goes.

First of all, I am not anti-American, I am heavily pro-Canadian, so there. Then there is the ‘alarmist’ accusation. That is fair, but it comes with certain evidence. In the first I gave you the source the Texas Standard where Matt Smith, lead energy analyst at Kpler gives us “So if we just consider U.S. production and Latin American production in Venezuela specifically, U.S. shale is light sweet crude. It is very high quality. Venezuelan crude is low quality, heavy sour crude. And U.S. gulf coast refineries have been geared towards running this Venezuelan heavy sour crude, Mexican heavy sour crude as well.” As such the few who can process this crude is Chevron for one (they were originally in Venezuela) and then we get Fortune telling us ‘President Trump stands ready to send U.S. Big Oil into Venezuela en masse, but the messy reality of rebuilding a ruined industry takes many years’ with the added “President Donald Trump says American Big Oil “want to go in so badly” into Venezuela and spend billions of dollars, but the reality is U.S. oil producers are hesitant, and it will take many years and many tens of billions of dollars to rebuild Venezuela’s decimated oil sector after the U.S forcibly removed and arrested leader Nicolás Maduro during a string of attacks on Jan. 3.” But as I see it, President Trump only has 1108 days left, so there will not be enough time, apart from Chevron optionally making a massive windfall (they were there first and they would know how to process the crude oil Venezuela has), so how is this an American setting? Because President Trump told us so. 

Then we get about America being broke. There is way too much evidence all around us. The issue is that you have to connect the dots yourself because the media does nothing that hurts their golden eggs. Now some claim I am making the wrong assumptions. That is fair, because I too can fail. And if you are relying on your whatever AI you use, you will fail, because I tend to work in multidimensional viewpoints and there is (as far as I know no AI that can do that), the programmer didn’t program it and as such it fails. One person even accused me of being a “a passionate, alarmist synthesis of 2026 events. It resonates in fringe discussions but lacks rigorous sourcing or nuance.” Really? That might be the case, but the media is actually no help at all and the setting of debt is clearly shown in numerous sources and so is the $1.2 trillion dollar interest bill. So what happens when 24% of the annual budget is taken all whilst America was unable to keep a budget for over 10 years? And now you have two make due with 24% less? That was before President Trump made trade-wars with Canada (aka Tariffs) and the rest of the world. As such Tourism was highly impacted and we are not getting the real numbers, especially when we see the claims of up around $6-$12 billion, all whilst some give us estimates of the total potential shortfall as high as $29 billion. And that was before some other elements are considered I came to up to $80 billion in the widest setting (like air B&B, temporary jobs for students and several other factors) where I saw as California and Florida being the hardest hit and in addition the Canadian winter geese who are at present shunning Florida. All elements that will be added burdens to the lack of revenue for America. And with these facts I came to the speculative conclusion that the Democrats are in on this. Because as I see it, the political field is all about blaming the other side, but now, the democrats remain silent, especially where Greenland is concerned. Why is that?

As it stands Marjorie Taylor Green has been more outspoken against President Trump than Hakeem Jeffries has been, How does that make sense? And I am willing to put that not on them but on the media and what they are not telling us. So what else is going on? Oh yes, I was ‘accused’ to “openness to partnering with China against U.S. “greed,” framing it as a “warlike Commonwealth” response.” What I actually said was “America needs to learn what a warlike Commonwealth can bring to the table. I still think that a partnership with China is preferred, but I get that this is politically a hammer to heavy to wield.” I countered the language of a bully with the response to a bully. Something that an AI is unlikely to decipher. And as Canada is optionally attacked as the 51st State, I find it acceptable to color the Commonwealth in an aggressive response. As I see it, the last time Australians were blood red eyed aggressive was in Gallipoli in 1915, so we (Australians) are due for another exercise, and an exercise to protect Canada is definitely a worthy one. 

So it is fair to see me emotional, but the emotions that president Trump gave is all are massively aggravating. So I feel justified in my emotions. 

So in other news there are the Horizon games (yes I am changing subject). The third Horizon game is seemingly planned for 2027-2028. And might be a launch title for the PS6. Which is claimed, I have no idea when that thing comes to market. But I was thinking as it would be fair to see the PS6 with a 4KHD drive, there might be a case to launch the game with all three games upgraded for PS6. Disc one would be Zero Dawn/Frozen Wilds  and Forbidden West/Burning Shores and disc 2 would hold the third game. As Zero Dawn was released in 2017 it would be a 10th anniversary release. A game that almost every Sony gamer would want and to play them all (likely after the third game) would be one hell of a journey. I reckon that many non Sony gamers will buy the PS6 merely for that option. Just an idea I was having. I am currently replaying Forbidden West and I am still in awe of the entire journey this game offers. As I see it, it might be the best game in the history of gaming and that is saying something. 

And come to think of it, the world of Zero Dawn and Forbidden West might be preferable to the one we face her at present. Just some food for thought.

Have a great day everyone.

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January 5, 2026 · 16:25

The setting we hope for

That is a given, we all hope that certain settings come to play and I am no different. Part of it is banked on settings that are realistic and then there are those that are not that realistic. Before I start with this, one little update. I made mention of a new movie that would scare the nasty cloth out of the NSA (GCHQ too) and I just gotten the first few scenes out of the way. It makes me happy, but now I realise that it is not going to be a two hour event. At present I’m sitting on the first part, but the continuing story will not be a lot more than a short film some define this as under 40 minutes (including credits), That is what I am looking at. Perhaps a TV film? It wouldn’t be much longer and lets be clear. If you need two hours to scare the pants out of the NSA, your not doing a particular good job, but I might be wrong. So the script will be ready a lot sooner than I bargained for. 

So back to the matter at hand. Realistically the employment game is definitely changing because (at https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/23/oracles_new_aienhanced_support_portal/) we get told that ‘Oracle’s new AI-enhanced support portal leaves users fuming’ which was released just before Christmas, so I missed out on this initially, but we are given “Oracle’s new AI-powered support portal is frustrating customers and support engineers who are struggling to find the basics, such as old tickets, links to database patch programs and release schedules for current databases.” It works for me as I have worked my whole life in customer service and technical support. As such it seems my streak of bad luck is ending and when a company like Oracle gets it wrong, there is not much hope that the others are fairing better, which would work out well for me.

I miss customer service and I remember when I was ‘made redundant’ all whilst others were saying that the new technologies were making my job obsolete. And I have reason to smile. When I am shown “Greg Parikh, Oracle veep for information development and operations, said in a blog post that the MOS portal offers new features, including AI-powered interactions, streamlined navigation, improved search capabilities, and enhanced knowledge access.” And as I see it, those who live according to the sweet spot of cheap revenue now see that others aren’t having much luck either and they need to consider their sales track and how they can salvage what can be salvaged and now it turns out that they will need manpower as the most defining resource and that is good news for me. And as I see it (in case of Oracle) that looking at “Users pointed out IDs had completely changed, such that searching for 888.1 — the Primary Note for Database Proactive Patch Program — or 555.1 — database 19c Recommended One-off patches returns error message KA912 as the top result. “Links to other documents, which still reference the old IDs, are currently failing for me,” one user said.” Gives the indication that their knowledge base isn’t doing any better and if the programmers cannot make it work, their manpower setting will drastically change and this is just Oracle. As I see it, there are hundreds more firms who have that very same escalating problem, as such I expect that places like ADNOC (Abu Dhabi) might soon require their own corporate service division and their own technical support making short work of the available resources. I reckon that this works out nicely for me. 

So we have the realistic settings, and the dreamy station of a new movie, or at least whilst I am still applying for jobs, it will have to do and it keeps my but this creativity high, an undervalued ability in customer service. But this is merely one setting. Is it that bad? Well you judge, but a little over a year ago we were given ‘16 technical support tools to look out for in 2025’ (source:outsource accelerator) and some do work, but if didn’t grab the right one, the setting is a precautious one. Do you switch and take that chance or reinvest in your own knowledge base and that setting is dangerous, because you could lose a lot more than you bargained for. So whilst some went into combinations of SaaS, Paas or IaaS, your customers are in a tight setting where they demand service or they walk. Larger firms have even a more robust setting and in this age of fake AI, revenue lost is a large setting of shareholders giving up on you. That is the upside for me and as I see it, my time is not worth its weight in gold. 

So whilst we are given ‘IBM Is Laying Off Thousands of Employees as Its AI Business Surges’ they are also cutting a single digit percentage which in case of their 270,000-person global workforce which implies that up to 25,000 people are being laid off. Now consider where they are and that is not a given, but technical support requires certain people to stay in place and when that is messed with nearly anything can go wrong. Now IBM and Oracle are two of the big boys and they wold have their ships in place. And in that setting we see the Register giving us the setting above. 

So, who else and how much is being slid down the pipeline because some people think of their trolley and forget that other trolleys require assistance. It is in that setting that I think that the larger players need to hold one and rehire their old staff a lot faster before that knowledge goes somewhere else and in both these settings I get to win a better place in the work atmosphere.

Am I right? Am I wrong?

That is usually the question, but I personally believe that I am right because I never expected a player like Oracle getting that part wrong, as such things are looking up to the people who worked their lifetime in Technical Support and Customer Care. Even if it goes more towards a player like Zendesk. The knowledge that they have requires expansion because that knowledge is about to go the way of the Dodo. In other views, they are not the only one and the one who has the most diverse software takes over the others who are lacking. And as I see it, these systems are not enabling systems. They take it all and that is fine, but when we see the kind of failures that Oracle is showing the world, we see a growing set of barriers that could (merely a could here) define the needs for the next decade because all these cost crunchers require AI (which does not yet exist) and now that they are getting nervous, they need to concentrate on what works and what is merely bling for show. As such I feel vindicated is probably the best word. My knowledge is about to get a value upgrade, so I start 2026 feeling rather happy. And of course I could be wrong and I need to consider other venues. Time will tell.

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January 3, 2026 · 11:42

The wannabe influencer?

That is my question at present. In comes a person with the ludicrous title of “Al & loT Expert”. You see, what makes it hilarious was the post I saw ‘fly’ by. He starts off with “OpenAl’s first hardware is… a pen?? (If they don’t call it O-Pen Al they have officially lost the Al race).” So that is what makes him an expert? I am no expert on any of that but I am highly knowledgable on matters including IoT. In some cases and in some places I am known as a guru. I have my niche settings. But what gets to me is that (although I am no OpenAI fan) OpenAI has ‘Yes’ lost the current battle against Google and its Gemini 3, which the media kept from you for weeks. Although I personally never used it, but people who did and are ‘regarded’ as captains of industry think so. So, as I see it, OpenAI lost a battle, but that doesn’t mean the war is over. You see, the war on AI (when it finally comes here) is in no means settled at present. And those who understand that battle know this and mostly unmentioned is the play that is left with IBM because they currently have the inside track, not Oracle, not Snowflake and definitely not Google, Microsoft or Amazon. You see, AI is more then what is out there today. It will rely on larger technological settings. They all have quantum systems, but who is the most advanced in Shallow Circuits? IBM was setting that stage in advanced settings in 2017 all whilst OpenAI hardly barely at that point. IBM was on the ball and the actual winner of what now is referred to as True AI, which is ACTUAL AI will need two additional settings the first is Shallow Circuits, a setting where only IBM is a straight forward contender. With that I say I have no idea where Google stands. And in that the next thing is that a trinary operating system will be required and as far as I know there is no current winner at present. I reckon that both Google and IBM have dabbled in this, but I do not know where they stand and when this comes to pass the winner will work with Oracle to make the connections in a much needed combined effort, because they all agree that Oracle is the one player that can make it work. Snowflake as well, but I have no idea where they stand in all this. What we currently have are DML/LLM solutions that are at times clever and functioning, but in too limited a setting. I call this Near Intelligent Parsing (or NIP), but it is not AI, even thought they all have the marketing calling it so. 

What we have now is a mere shadow of what Alan Turing envisioned half a century ago and leave it to sales teams to wriggle the straw until it bleed revenue, but as the class cases will explode in this year, they are left to ‘apologetically assume the position of miscommunication’, at least that is how I see it. So was this person a wannabe influencer and taking the LinkedIn cloud by humor? 

So this might optionally have been the pen that OpenAI is flaunting, but as I see it, this is their step into audio, which they advertised and having a pen recorder is a pretty contraption (aka gizmo, doohickey, or thingamajig) that propels the setting of OpenAI forward. And I reckon that within a month all wannabe AI experts want one. Audio is the next stage that require harnessing, so OpenAI is not out of the race, they merely got bruised in a race where they had the upper hand for three years. 

Perhaps they get the upper hand in other direction making them overall winner, but that is a mere consideration of option, especially when we realise the inside track that IBM has and where is that in his assessment? So I am not proclaiming the identity of that person, it lacks class and makes him a target. He made himself a target and I do not need to add to his current confusion. 

What is a stage is that there is a chance that OpenAI is moving to capture the stage of Audio enhanced NIP (Near Intelligent Parsing) making them first again and Google will need to play catchup, optionally Oracle (Snowflake too) will now have to adjust their tracks to get audio embedded in their database settings and whilst we do not know where IBM goes, we do know they have the inside track, they might rely on Oracle/Snowflake solving that problem for them and as I am a Snowflake person, I still believe that Oracle is likely to win this war for the mere knowledge that they have been on these tracks long before Snowflake got involved, so they have years and traction in their stride. This is not a certainty, but a presumed advantage. 

That is as good as I can give it to you and I have written other stories on the need for a Trinary operating system. I last did that in ‘Is it a public service’ which I wrote last November (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/11/16/is-it-a-public-service/) so this isn’t coming out of the left field, it was there for almost two months. Oh and to be certain that you do not mistake me for that wannabe influencer. I am in no way an ‘expert’ on AI, I merely have been dabbling in IT and data since 1981. So I have the mileage here, have a great day today.

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January 2, 2026 · 19:38

Cracking on the down

That is at times the setting, but it is not always clear. As I personally see it, it has nearly always been clear as glass, but the ‘powered that could be’ doesn’t want to hand over any of the greed it can get, and as a result people get scammed. So I have a few issues with the Reuters article (at https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-created-playbook-fend-off-pressure-crack-down-scammers-documents-show-2025-12-31/) and as we read its headline ‘Meta created ‘playbook’ to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers, documents show’ we might think that this giant (aka Meta) is the cause of it all, but that isn’t exactly true. To see this we need to look back the last half century, slightly before Meta (then known as Facebook) was born. So as we are given “As regulators press Meta to crack down on rogue advertisers on Facebook and Instagram, the social media giant has drafted a “playbook” to stall them. Internal documents seen by Reuters reveal its tactics, including efforts to make scam ads “not findable” when authorities search for them.” We are shown a half truth that I see as a near blatant lie. You see, in 1961 a man named Luther Simjian came up with the father and mother of the ATM. An experimental Bankograph (as they named it then) was installed in New York City in 1961 by the City Bank of New York, but removed after six months due to the lack of customer acceptance. But on 27 June 1967 it was reintroduced by the actor Reg Varney as a push to control people pressure at Barclay in London. Think of this as the starting point. As security was upgraded, most security was still set to older concepts, they were not bad, but it all comes from this point. And as the law was set to this setting, it fell behind fast. As such things like Two-Factor Authentication are still concepts to be implemented in banking and auto banking and beyond. So as Meta and others are trying to make the sale of advertising ‘easier’ scammers are really happy to bank in on such opportunity. 

Consider three points, the advertiser, its payment and its location are three separate issues, whilst the initial setting is almost never confirmed as these players are set to ease of business and commerce instead of security of business and commerce.

And we see this in the article as “Meta, owner of the two social media platforms, feared Japan would soon force it to verify the identity of all its advertisers, internal documents reviewed by Reuters show. The step would likely reduce fraud but also cost the company revenue.” This is true, but the setting goes far beyond Meta and that is as far as I can tell not set either. So as Reuters gives us “Meta launched an enforcement blitz to reduce the volume of offending ads. But it also sought to make problematic ads less “discoverable” for Japanese regulators, the documents show.” Which bus likely true, but it is a larger field. If the EU, the Commonwealth and America keep shoulder to shoulder to “verify the identity of all its advertisers” we could actually get somewhere, but then the conversation goes into the direction of complication and such, the greed driven are ready to hand victory to the scammers. And as we are given “The documents are part of an internal cache of materials from the past four years in which Meta employees assessed the fast-growing level of fraudulent advertising across its platforms worldwide. Drawn from multiple sources and authored by employees in departments including finance, legal, public policy and safety, the documents also reveal ways that Meta, to protect billions of dollars in ad revenue, has resisted efforts by governments to crack down.” The setting that Japan is trying to overcome, the establishment of identity of advertisers become frightfully clear. And that costs Meta revenue, but it goes far beyond Meta, Amazon is likely to have similar settings and they accept that as the cost of doing business, but the people caught in-between are  settled with the bill of BigTech doing business. So as Sandeep Abraham, a former fraud investigator at Meta gives us “Instead of telling me an accurate story about ads on Meta’s platforms, it now just tells me a story about Meta trying to give itself a good grade for regulators.” We are being told the picture that regulators are part of the problem. In stead of the cold hard question “How is the identity of the advertiser established” the people are told a different picture. It would be regarded as Artsy, but not the truth. So whilst the world is ready to accept “The tactic successfully removed some fraudulent advertising of the sort that regulators would want to weed out. But it also served to make the search results that Meta believed regulators were viewing appear cleaner than they otherwise would have. The scrubbing, Meta teams explained in documents regarding their efforts to reduce scam discoverability, sought to make problematic content “not findable” for “regulators, investigators and journalists.”” The larger question on what happens when these fraudulent go getters get access to more finely trained DML/LLM solutions, to capture the wallets of millions more? That question remains in the background and soon it will be too late, because soon places like America will try nearly anything to keep their shareholders happy and that comes with additional cost of doing business. And that setting is given with “The playbook, as it’s referred to in some of the documents, lays out Meta’s strategy to stall regulators and put off advertiser verification unless new laws leave them no choice.” And again, the lawmakers are shunning their duty, not merely in America, but in Europe and partially the Commonwealth as well. And that is, as I see it, the gist of the setting and whilst we might want to blame Meta, the direct setting is that places like Apple, Google, Microsoft are at least equally guilty. So, as I see it, Microsoft could have done something years ago, but they were chasing Google, instead of becoming real innovators. They might have trailed, but at this point they could have taken a lead and as I see it, they did not.

So as we see Meta, no one is asking where Amazon and Apple were at that time. So how many scammy advertisements did they make way for? I don’t know the number and it will be less than Meta, but is it small enough? I fear not (a speculation on my side).

Oh, and before you think this was all new stuff, consider that I raised this issue in ‘Enabling Crime’ and article I wrote in 2017 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2017/12/02/enabling-crime/) so this has been over 8 years in rotation, 8 years that BigTech and lawmakers did close to nothing and I was taught an issue like “Two-Factor Authentication” in University (aka UTS) in 2012. So it is over a decade where legal Impotency is shown. It was in the trend of non-repudiation where you and you alone could have set this in motion. The law seems uneasier to bind itself and tech doesn’t want to be bound by this. So as I showed close to 13 years of inability to do something about that setting we are given a slightly different setting, not an incorrect one, but one that is slightly larger than anticipated. 

So I wish you all a good day and a lovely time enjoying coffee (I just had mine). Those lazy bastards in Vancouver are likely snoring the night away, it’s half past midnight this morning there.

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January 1, 2026 · 04:49

The games we cherish

We (namely gamers) have a weird knack. When we go ‘gaga’ for a game we cannot help but try to improve upon it in our minds, optionally create new IP based on that game. In 2012 I created Elder Scrolls VI (now basically VII) and after Bethesda was bought by Microsoft, I thought it might be better to put parts of this on my blog, but now ‘altered’ to fit new IP and I basically handed it to anyone making games for non Microsoft systems. I thought it was a good idea to create new IP to cater to the new game designers. I also came up with a new idea of setting a larger combat setting, so that we would not fall for the usual culprits (by stepping out of that combat area, a new way to increase the deadliness of the NPC and I used an idea that Vint Cerf created and gave it new life, but now in gaming. I reckon that this was never done before, so there was a nice niche for that designer. This background was slightly needed as I created an idea for the upcoming (somewhere in the future) of Hogwarts Legacy 2, there is no real timeline, but several sources tell bye that Avalanche Software is on the ball. That didn’t stop me from slapping my mind about for some quick fixes and I wrote about this in the past in two blogs I gave Avalanche Software the ideas, free of charge. I did put one small barricade in place, because as I see it, Hogwarts is the IP of JK Rowling and I have no idea how this is set in the corridors of Avalanche Software, as such the small barricade was that they get it (still free of charge) only with the approval of JK Rowling. 

It seems flimsy, but I believe that IP is holy, messing with it is not my forte. As such I keep some ideas and they go straight to JK Rowling, because she owns that IP. As such I cover myself in some protection and no-one can come and go with the setting “But he gave this to us”. To prevent that, all Hogwarts related idea become property of JK and if she doesn’t approve no harm was done. 

Anyway, I was thinking or speculating on what HL2 would be like, and that is a waste of my time, so I thought that it might be an idea to set a threshold in place. As such we get a condition if you transfer you HL character. And if done splendidly, you get to do that 4 times. And that was how I came up with the setting of a part (could be a DLC) where your Hufflepuff character could become a junior wand-maker (at Olivanders) the small scene at Azkaban gave the idea that people from Ravenclaw could get one of three jobs at Azkaban, Slytherin gets to be a ministry of Magic employee and Gryffindorians become Aurors, it came with a few ideas. First it shouldn’t impact the game, so it might be either DLC, or unrelated at the end of the game where you could get into that phase after you do the main story (or graduate from Hogwarts) in any way, it shouldn’t interfere with the main game (because that would be a pig move) the added benefit is that you get a lot more if you have to replay HL to get into the other houses, but I reckon that most Harry Potter Fans have played it for every house already, so that makes the threshold rather slim. 

There was some idea where there were more jobs, and the idea was that one is perfect for the house you were in, but there would be the setting where Hufflepuff students could get a smaller function in Azkaban (the Ravenclaw choice) as would the Gryffindor student, on the other side we have Slytherin they are fit for the ministry, but there Gryffindor and Hufflepuff could get a smaller job. And so on, as such you get to play 3 jobs (not at the same time). It was merely a thought and it would enable larger lore to be created and given a larger setting towards the magical world. I took this idea and put it here for Avalanche Software to capture the idea and make it their own (if JK Rowling approves). I am adamant about the latter part of this as I consider JK Rowling to be the owner of the original IP, then as I got into this stage of Harry Potter there were more sides that I was thinking of, but in this case I will refrain from (for now) as I have no idea what Avalanche is doing. And I have no intent on getting into their fairway. 

In that same setting I had (before Microsoft bought it) an idea for Fallout 5, not the story, but a wrinkle to connect your Fallout Shelter profile to fallout 5 and it would transfer up to a shelter (your active shelter) to create that shelter in Fallout 5 as a standalone mission, and the programming needs to transfer that shelter into a 3D image and as it is a 2D presentation, there needs to be a setting where the corridors are automatically created, I had some ideas on that too and when you get that, you can have your own shelter in Fallout 5, with some additional safety (security) settings and a few security gimmicks. All part of the idea and that is merely what my mind was up to and there is a lot more, but I wanted to start the new year thinking of games, not on the political disasters playing now. This is not the day to make that happen, but gaming can be done any day of the week, including day 1 of 2026.

So have a great day and enjoy yourself either already in the new year of following us when you get there. Enjoy the festivities today.

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December 30, 2025 · 14:16

The age of uncertainty 

I thought that times were changing, see I invoked some were invoked on me, or something of that nature. Two days ago I started a new script, I call it “Just A Game” which gives me the letters J.A.G. (no relation) but the setting was created to scare the jibbers out of the NSA, GCHQ and related organisations. Set to that I created a few kinks to get the setting of drama going and it is a film script, not some autography to scare three to four people. They get enough real scares for that, as such I wouldn’t be able to hold a candle to the real nightmares.

Then I got introduced to (what I am fathoming to be grifters in media) as I got exposed to ‘Oracle stock slips after insider sale filing as openai-linked spending stays in focus’ where we see “Oracle shares fell 0.4% to $197.27 in early trading on Monday after a company officer disclosed a planned share sale, with investors still wary about the cost of the software maker’s push to expand AI-related cloud capacity.” It is important to say that no lies were told, but as I see it, when we see “That scrutiny has been sharpest around Oracle’s ties to privately held OpenAI, where investors lack the same visibility into funding and cash burn that they get with public companies, analysts and traders said. (Source: Benzinga) A Form 144 filing accepted on Monday morning showed Oracle officer Mark Hura proposed selling up to 15,000 shares, with an aggregate market value of about $2.95 million, through Fidelity Brokerage Services. Form 144 is the SEC notice used when company “affiliates” — insiders and certain large holders — plan to sell shares under Rule 144, which sets conditions for selling restricted or control stock into the public market.” It feels like someone is trying to undermine the power of Oracle. Then we get ‘Oracle Shares Plunge Amid Mounting Concerns Over AI Strategy’ (source: Ad Hoc News, Germany) where we are given “Oracle Corporation is facing one of its most severe market downturns in decades. Since reaching a peak in September, the technology giant’s stock has plummeted by more than 40%, putting it on track for its worst quarterly performance since 2001. This dramatic sell-off is fueled by investor apprehension over soaring capital expenditures and a wave of insider selling, raising fundamental questions about the sustainability of management’s aggressive artificial intelligence investment plan. A primary catalyst behind the market’s negative reaction is the explosive growth in Oracle’s capital investments. The company’s capital expenditures tripled year-over-year in its second fiscal quarter, reaching $12 billion. In response to this surge, management significantly raised its annual forecast for such spending to a staggering $50 billion.” There is no lie, but in September, stock was $328 and it is lower now, but that is the setting of a market in motion, over the last day it was switching between $194 and $195, as such there is no real dip in intent, and the $328 was true, but the day before it was $241, but the article doesn’t spell that out, does it? And two days after the spike it had ‘dwindled’ to $292, and after the quarter that followed the stock would reset itself to $198, as such it seems like ‘doom speak’ and I have a problem with that, Oracle has proven itself time and time again and when true (say: real) AI arrives, it will only function under the data armour that Oracle provides, most others are wannabe’s trying to do what Oracle and Snowflake successfully do. As such we are in a stage of uncertainty, the media is used to fuel digital dollars, fueling influencers and wannabe prophets of doom times. Even as I recognise them, they gave me an idea of an old setting. You see we have been through this before in the age of the bards. They gave us the doom speak, the white knight and the victory, but that setting is now applied to economic fortune telling, so the more things change, the more they stay the same.

And in all that ruckus, I am trying to keep my brain afloat (on ice water) and unburdened by noise of economic influencers. I try to avoid most economic news, but when the attack on Oracle started, I just had to step in. There were more articles, but these two set the marker quite nicely. And it is important, because the media no longer does what it was designed to do, it now prevents itself from drowning whilst chasing digital dollars. Lets hope that the age of uncertainty fades quickly, America has its own set of losers trying to bank in on that and with a non-functioning media, we need all the help we can get. Have a great day today.

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December 28, 2025 · 14:13

Are doornails really dead?

I got a nice surprise today. I got a story (at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/2025-was-the-year-xbox-died-130000467.html), the only inaccuracy I think is that the contraption was dead already, for about 2 years. So I got to wonder. What happened to:

Mojang studios (Mincecraft) $ 2.5 billion
ZeniMax Media, Bethesda $ 7.5 billion
Activision/Blizzard $68.7 billion

Which gives us $78.7 Billion and it shouldn’t be allowed to go into a bad bank, that interest is still due. The last purchase was only completed in October 2023. So what happens, sell it to Saudi Arabia? The interest (said to be around 5%) implies that Microsoft is still meant to pay $3.935 billion interest on an annual basis and there is no way it gets to be reflected away, although I might advise Saudi Arabia in particularly Minister Majid bin Abdullah Al Qasabi that he should not offer a Halala over $50 billion for the entire package. I don’t think Microsoft is allowed any leeway for their intentional stupidity. That being said, they bought Mojang studios in 2014 and they did mighty fine work on their Minecraft product, including the PS5 (which still needs the PS4 disc), but that is small fry. The result is truly amazing and the fact that it is still one of the most popular games on any console is due to the Microsoft teams and credit where credit is due I say. Still, as the optional spokesperson for Saudi Commerce, I think it is essential that the Saudi Fleet of airplanes need to be give to all its Microsoft 2024 Flight Simulator players free of charge the fleet of planes that are part of the Saudia airlines, which consists of Airbus A320-200, Airbus A330-300, Boeing 777-300ER, Boeing 787-9 and Boeing 787-10, as well as include the King Abdulaziz International Airport (Jeddah) and the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh in the base setting of the Flight Simulator 2024. I think that Saudi Arabia is due some VIP treatment if Microsoft wants to flog away their failures. I think that Saudi Arabia is due that privilege. 

I think if you want the grease the wheels of commerce, you better take out your best effort, but that is merely me speaking. This all started in 2013 when they upset the gaming industry, by thinking they could strong-arm gamers towards the Xbox, whilst they never actually understood gamers (I point to the Don Mattrick, the former president of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business, widely remembered for controversial stupid statement of “Fortunately we have a product for people who aren’t able to get some form of connectivity, it’s called Xbox 360”) my response was ‘Fuck you Mattrick” and I placed a handful of gaming IP on my blogs for anyone not Microsoft. That’s how I react and these people are still welcome too all that, especially as the Xbox is now dead on arrival, a proper vivisectioned console at your local morgue. So whilst the article gives you “Xbox didn’t enter 2025 in a great state, and it’s leaving the year grasping for help, like an Arc Raider player desperate for a revival after being knocked out. Microsoft cancelled the Perfect Dark reboot and Everwild, two of the most interesting games in its weak upcoming slate. The company brought titles like Forza Horizon 5 over to the PlayStation 5, which prompted Engadget Deputy Editor Nathan Ingraham to declare he no longer needed an Xbox.” He never needed one and I did mine away years ago, it was just a dust collection setting and I merely held on to it because of Elite Dangerous and Subnautica, when they became available on PS4/PS5, the fate of my coaster to be (Xbox One) was set. Some regrets, but the Xbox360 was awesome, so not that much and it was my first setting for Oblivion and Skyrim, which I also have on Sony. We were also given “There was a chance for Microsoft to reinvigorate the Xbox brand with the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X gaming handhelds, but the $600 and $1,000 launch prices placed them out of reach for most gamers. It also doesn’t help that Windows still isn’t well-optimized for portable devices with touchscreens, and those systems also aren’t compatible with older Xbox titles like the consoles. At the very least, Microsoft now has a handheld foothold. But a future portable Xbox console would need to be significantly cheaper to compete with the likes of the Steam Deck, which starts at $549 (following the discontinuation of the $400 LCD model).” But as I personally see it, Microsoft tends to lose interests in solutions that dos not make them shine and the Xbox had nearly rusted through as I personally see it, but there was the news which was available for about three days now and I had other matters on my mind, so it was a nice setting today, I was proved correct all along and as Saudi Arabia is vying to be a digital powerhouse, the setting if upgraded to a better shine, what was left of Microsoft games, might get a decent second life, but the additions to the Microsoft Flight-simulator 2024 will be required, although they might include it as a package deal for the nice price of $50 billion, not a penny more, including the Flight Simulator 2024 might make it worth the time of Minister Majid bin Abdullah Al Qasabi, but that is merely my view on the matter. And there is the setting we need to consider, the Xbox came to life (with massive help of Dwayne Johnson) and grew to new heights in 2005, it actually became a competitor to Sony and made Sony release the PS4 and PS5 with the immense upgrades. Gamers rejoiced and then in 12 years (due to Don Mattrick as I personally see it) it went from hightop to basement level bargain value. Still, I am not happy. Sony was better with Microsoft chasing its tail and that needs to be said and the results as we still see every day its awesome and as I see it, Todd Howard now needs to say the words “Elder Scrolls 6 is coming to Playstation” the Sony and the gaming world needs to hear those words. The Microsoft blame game of ‘perhaps’ and ‘we will service all gamers’ is disingenuous at best and not appreciated. 

So whilst we are given “Its partnership with AMD could easily lead to new handhelds, and it also gives Microsoft a leg up in producing a compact and powerful Xbox PC. After all, why should the company keep trying to go toe-to-toe with Sony’s closed PlayStation platform? Why shouldn’t Microsoft embrace its PC roots to give us a gaming desktop under our TVs? The company has already committed to bringing new Xbox games to PCs immediately, so the line between the two is already blurring. It may be a risk, but evolving into a PC proves there’s still life in the Xbox brand. And crucially, it’s also something Sony can’t easily replicate.” You see, the gamers feel betrayed by Microsoft, even those having an Xbox, they aren’t (don’t say ever in this case) going to trust Microsoft, they tried to play gamers and these players don’t like to be played, they take this personally and that is what Microsoft did in a few ways as I personally see it.

So you all have a good day and those owning a Playstation have pleasant dreams, because Microsoft just bought the bucket from Davey Jones locker. I reckon that this setting is hardest on Phil Spencer, who tried to do everything to make Microsoft gaming work. I think he did a fine job, but Microsoft overhead was ruled (as I see it) by Excel users and that goes against the grain of gamers. Have a great day today, my time for a late lunch now.

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December 25, 2025 · 21:44

The boat has left

That is a weird setting, but that might be the case for a lot of people. It is the Financial Express who gives us (at https://www.financialexpress.com/life/technology-ibm-to-skill-5-million-indian-youth-in-ai-cybersecurity-and-quantum-computing-by-2030-details-inside-4082018/) the headline ‘IBM to skill 5 million Indian youth in AI, cybersecurity and quantum computing by 2030’ you might think it is nothing to get hung over about, but you would be wrong. Even as some ‘claim’ to give good courses (some actually do), it is IBM who has had that inside track in several ways. As such (or perhaps to consider as I see it), the labour market will be drowning in Indian entrepreneurs by 2032 (and a whole before that). I reckon that these people will bolster the Indian go getter market and they will branch out to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and a few other places. As such if you think the US labour market is merely cooling, think again. These people will be highly wanted in India, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, UK, Australia, Canada and the EU long before we get to 2030. There will be an Indian wave of go getters all over the world and the places that needed to get active weren’t for much too long. So as we see “India possesses the talent and ambition to lead the world in AI & Quantum. Fluency in frontier technologies will define economic competitiveness, scientific progress and societal transformation,” said Arvind Krishna, IBM Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our commitment to skill five million people is an investment in that future. By democratizing access to advanced skills, we are enabling the youth and students to build, innovate and accelerate India’s growth.”” And these people will be highly skilled in all things IBM (perhaps not in IBM Statistics or IBM Miner) but that is little cause for alarm. These people will also bring forth IBM skills and products, so this setting takes care of two pipelines, skills and products. And all that time AWS was hounding the AI field. It is nice, but as these people are highly skilled in whatever IBM holds, there is a mismatch on what is required. OK, that last part is speculative, but that is what I would do.

I reckon that Microsoft and OpenAI also might have a problem here. You see we also get “IBM also continues to strengthen school-level readiness by co-developing the AI curriculum for senior secondary students, along with teaching resources including the AI Project Cookbook, Teacher Handbook and explainer modules. These programs are designed to embed computational thinking and responsible AI principles early, while enabling teachers to deliver AI education confidently and at scale.” As such these people get a schooling in evolved from famous systems like Deep Blue and Watson and as such IBM provides a flexible ecosystem allowing choice from various foundation models (like Granite, Llama, Mistral). Whatever they partnered with doesn’t matter. This is the IBM show, partners take a second stage chair. And as I see it, IBM did something nicely spectacular because they get a choir of 5 million evangelizing Watsoners all over the world and in that instance Watson grows from niche to mainstream and that will feel good for all the shareholders who kept their trust in Arvind Krishna (I will give a nice ‘Well done sir’) in this instance. Because it is starting to look like the old premise ‘When two dogs fight over a bone, the third one takes it gone’ So in the fight we saw with OpenAI and Google, we now see that the future is banked on by IBM. This doesn’t make the others useless in any way, but IBM set the future towards Watson in a rather nice way and that has to count for something.

What a nice end of year this will be this year. Because at the drop of a hat, it wasn’t merely Google or OpenAI, as I see it now IBM because the third major player in this duet and as I see innovation, this is how innovative strides are made, by having to refocus your tasks, that is the real innovation maker in this world. 

A lovely ending to Christmas Day. Have a great upcoming boxing day you all.

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December 25, 2025 · 01:07

They had twins

Yup, it happens. At times we have kids, progeny so to speak and some get two for a simple roll in the hay. Yet this isn’t about kids. It is about Gemini 3, Googles seemingly finest product. It is so great that Microsoft barred Google Chrome from installing and they blamed it on some weird parenting setting. And then the media lacked looking at it, probably some revenue driven courtesan issue. All speculation, but I would prefer to set this to presumption, still I have no evidence. So it is all allegedly, but the settings on Gemini are clear. I read it myself (so it must be true). I will start with FXLeaders who (at https://www.fxleaders.com/news/2025/12/23/google-stock-heads-to-record-highs-as-gemini-3-outperforms-chatgpt/) gives us ‘Google Stock Heads to Record Highs as Gemini 3 Outperforms ChatGPT’, as such it is now the fifth time Microsoft loses. There was Sony, There was AWS, There was Google and now there is Google again. It sucks to be Microsoft. And the howling continues. 

So FXLeaders gives us two bullets that matters.

  • The launch of Gemini 3 has intensified competitive pressures in the AI sector, while regulatory concerns add complexity to the investment landscape.
  • Insider selling and a cautious market sentiment suggest that near-term upside may be limited, but long-term support from institutional investors remains strong.

So as we are given “Alphabet emerged as one of the standout megacap performers in November, delivering a decisive breakout that carried shares through the $300 mark and to a fresh all-time high near $329. The move completed a strong rebound from a late-September pullback and reinforced confidence in the company’s long-term growth trajectory. The rally was fueled by sustained institutional demand and growing optimism around Google’s artificial intelligence roadmap. For much of October and November, Alphabet benefited from its unique position at the intersection of digital advertising dominance and AI platform leadership.”

As well as “The rollout of Gemini 3—trained primarily on Google’s in-house chips rather than external hardware—has sparked renewed debate around vertical integration in artificial intelligence. Supporters view this as a long-term strategic advantage, potentially lowering costs and reducing reliance on third-party suppliers while optimizing performance. Recent benchmark results, where Gemini 3 reportedly outperformed ChatGPT in several categories, have added to that narrative and intensified competitive pressure across the sector.” So wonder about how the media could not get you this two weeks ago and wonder now why I refer to the media (the larger part) as the Courtesans of the digital dollar. This should have been know and tested for by several parties directly, and I don’t care who won, we were not informed. As I see it, Microsoft has too powerful a hold on the media and the media who shunned their jobs need to be named and shamed. Sound simple, doesn’t it? As such I also present a second source, so there is a little more data drivenness to the fold. It is a story (at https://www.startuphub.ai/ai-news/ai-research/2025/google-gemini-3-redefines-ai-reasoning-and-efficiency/) where StartupHub.AI gives us “The core of Gemini 3’s impact lies in its unprecedented reasoning and multimodal understanding. According to the announcement, Gemini 3 Pro, Google’s most powerful model to date, not only topped the LMArena Leaderboard but also achieved breakthrough scores on challenging benchmarks like Humanity’s Last Exam and GPQA Diamond. These tests are designed to assess an AI’s ability to truly think and reason like humans, indicating a sophisticated capacity to process and synthesize information across various modalities, moving closer to genuine comprehension. Furthermore, its gold-medal standard performance in international mathematics and coding contests, powered by its Deep Think capabilities, signals a new era for AI in complex problem-solving, pushing the boundaries of what automated systems can achieve in abstract domains.” So as we wonder what some of them mean, the benchmarks were available to pretty much all the media, so what prevented them to report on it? Simple question, isn’t it?

And you might wonder why I care, or why I believe these sources. There is a setting that sets up a lot of consideration and that is right, but the media isn’t informing us and they aren’t making any tests, even though I gave one test to the world (not necessarily a good one) but the media did NOTHING. They allegedly value the digital dollars too much and they rely on players like the Microsoft stakeholders to fund their gravy train (as I personally see it) So am I right, am I wrong? I would love to be wrong, but I have seen this before (more than once). But as I see these results there is a larger play in motion. Is Google actually that good? I am not debating it, I am asking and it comes with an answer. It is either Yes, No, or it is under advisement. The first two are simple and it can begotten by showing the evidence, but the Media did nothing of the sort, perhaps some did, but the larger groups are abstaining from involvement (it sounds better then ‘They cower the results if involved’ because that makes them sound like actual pussies. So why am I so angry about this? It is a result we were entitled to and it requires OpenAI to divulge its heading and not cater to asking for more value when there is none to be had (at present). And as such investors are duped into not receiving the evidence they need to make financial decisions. But perhaps I am over simplifying the problem here.

Whatever you consider and whatever you decide is yours to do and you are entitled to the best information to make these decisions and the media is no longer able to do that. I don’t care if you embrace ChatGPT and OpenAI. That’s fine, I am not choosing favorites, I actually don’t care, but I do care about lacking media, lacking results and hiding behind some stakeholder whilst the people have a right to know. They use that as their battle drum, so they can be held to that as well. It is a simple setting as I see it.

Have a great Christmas Day, 23 hours until boxing day for me.

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