Category Archives: IT

A snag in the process

That is how I see it, Ubisoft is in trouble and even after I basically handed them a key worth billions and they merely had to adjust what they already had in a new product, but here (at https://www.gamerbraves.com/ubisoft-and-the-fall-from-grace-how-one-of-gamings-biggest-names-lost-its-way/) we see ‘Ubisoft and the Fall From Grace: How One of Gaming’s Biggest Names Lost Its Way’ and I believe that the fall started when someone at Ubisoft gave us “an Assassin’s Creed every year”, which refers to Ubisoft’s famous and polarizing “annualized” release strategy. For nearly a decade, the franchise pumped out a massive new mainline title almost every single calendar year, and it might sound nice, but the bugs were not so nice and the stage was seen from AC Unity onwards and the bugs were the worst and a lot of them were not fixed as such the consumers did not trust the AC brand any longer. Unity (2014) started it all and it did not get better. I personally believe that AC Origin has one flaw (not a bug) but the game was really good, the setting was near perfect and it was a decent stealth game, they then copied it in AC Odysee and they made a good game a lot worse. After that the bugs in Valhalla were one would say hilarious, others would dump the game. But the biggest mistake was to ignore the one rule I live by “When you try to appease everyone, you merely please no one” and we got to see this again and again. Then we get to the weird setting, as I see it AC Shadows is magnificent, the Japanese style is great and there is a rather large setting, the one flaw is the boss games, still veering away from the AC setting and we are given “Market analysis firms estimate the base game generated upwards of $180 million to $200 million in gross revenue, with up to 4 million copies reportedly sold across the PS5, Xbox, and Steam.” All whilst some sources give us that up to 38 million copies were made from AC Origins from 2017 onwards. I believe that AC Shadows got a raw deal, but it is not up to us. It was up to Ubisoft to create a safe atmosphere for gamers and that was not done, as such the Ubisoft empire was dropped like a bad habit and by trying to “appease everyone, you merely please no one” and that is seen again and again. Even now the world is holding its breath for AC Hexe, there is no clear release date (as far as I know), but the larger audience is waiting for the release and the review before they will bite. And leaks (through reddit) with lines like “Assassin’s Creed Hexe got leaked and it’s fu**** incredible” people have bumped their nose into bad materials a little too often. So when we see “To understand how far Ubisoft has fallen, you first have to appreciate how high it once stood. At its peak, the scale was staggering. Assassin’s Creed alone has sold over 230 million units across the franchise and accumulated 155 million unique players. Far Cry has sold over 60 million copies, while Just Dance has moved over 80 million units and attracted over 120 million players. Rainbow Six Siege, launched in 2015 as a tactical shooter that many initially wrote off, quietly became one of the most played games in the world, with over 85 million registered users at its peak.” Then we get the ‘numbers’ giving us “Ubisoft just recently published its full financial results for fiscal year 2026, covering the 12 months ending March 31, 2026, and the numbers are stark. Revenue came in at €1.4 billion, down 21.8% compared to the previous year. Net bookings fell 17.4% year-over-year to €1.5 billion. Digital net bookings dropped 16% to €1.33 billion. The final quarter of the fiscal year, covering January to March 2026, was the worst of it: revenue collapsed 47.3% in those three months alone, while net bookings fell 54% to €415 million. Operating losses widened from €196.5 million the prior year to €1.3 billion, a figure that reflects the full cost of the company’s restructuring, including write-downs tied to seven cancelled projects and six delayed games.” We then get “Star Wars Outlaws was supposed to be a statement. Released in August 2024 with a massive development budget and a lengthy, widespread marketing campaign behind it, the open-world Star Wars adventure was exactly the kind of high-profile, licensed blockbuster Ubisoft needed to deliver. Instead, it seriously struggled for sales. Players pointed to uninspired gameplay and technical problems at launch, and the reviews reflected that disappointment. Following its release, Ubisoft’s revenue in the first half of fiscal year 2025 fell nearly 20% compared to the same period the year before.” So why these reminders? I believe that Ubisoft spread itself too much, too many projects, too many people and we see seven cancelations? That is the other side of appeasement, it comes through a lack of focus and as we saw going forward from AC Unity, there was plenty of focus lost. Then we get the delays, six of them? What were those costs? As I see it, Ubisoft spread itself too thin (or perhaps better stated over too many projects) and there is a cost for that, take that towards appeasing too many people and the losses start making sense. And I am not stepping on the legal problems they had, perhaps that is the price of not educating your staff, I have no idea, but we then see “One of the more painful stories to come out of this period involves Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. The game received positive reviews from critics but failed to meet the sales expectations of Ubisoft, leading to the development team being disbanded and a planned sequel being scrapped.” It is the second stage of a problem. You see, who were those critics? And how were these sales expectations set? I am a simple man a game is either good or it is not. And there is then the setting if it is a game I like playing or not. I was never a GTA5 fan, I see its excellence, but it is not for me and that is not on the maker, it is merely on me. The simple setting that most forget is that a game is made for a type of player. So whilst we see “Ubisoft reported a €159 million loss for fiscal year 2024-2025, with a 20.5% drop in net bookings. Poor performances from other titles offset the strong sales from Assassin’s Creed Shadows.” I personally see that Ubisoft spread itself too thin, but I could be wrong, I merely see this and saw a few more articles and that is the conclusion I am making. Perhaps the inner circle of Ubisoft needs a reset, an overhaul. The gaming audience changed and the true gamers do not care too much for system oriented influencers, no matter how good they are. If I like a game there is every chance I will replay it, I played AC Origin twice completely and I loved every moment of it. I might not be a standard gamer, but I replay what I really like. The games of Bethesda for example and some go the Ubisoft games. But I am not one of those ‘quick play for the achievements and then sell the game for another game’ Perhaps there is a misalignment between Ubisoft and me and what we think gamers are. But still I believe that one rule “When you try to appease everyone, you merely please no one” and there is the setting that I am a fan of “Those who use a formula to get a decent game, will never produce a great game” I believe this to be true and that clashes directly with the stage of creating a franchise game every year. I might be wrong, but it is what I believe and the results of Ubisoft are proving my version to be likely right. But then the article gives us a gem “Forgetting What Players Actually Want” and that is the larger setting I have been pouring over. And with “Its market capitalization has fallen by approximately 85% since January 2021. Dozens of studios have been closed or downsized, hundreds of developers have lost their jobs, and several long-awaited projects have been quietly killed off.” as I see it, both rules I live by seems to have been lost on Ubisoft and as I see it, it costed them 85% of their business. This is not a small thing, this means that management requires a massive overhaul, because 85% loss means that it is a lot more then the employees, management failed to a large degree. Is there an easy option? I think that Ubisoft needs to reinvent themselves and try to safe their products one at a time. How? I have no idea, I am a designer of IP and a re-engineer. I am not management, we are different life forms.

Have a great day, my weekend almost started and my Saturday is a mere 148 minutes away.

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According to the BBC

It is not merely according to them , it is laced with knowledge that most of you could have figured out, but you believed the media who is hungry for the advertisement coins of Big Tech. As such you are losing the faith in media and I always saw this coming. As such the BBC gives us (at https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260519-google-tackles-attempts-to-hack-its-ai-results) saying ‘Google’s AI is being manipulated. The search giant is quietly fighting back’ and it is not merely Google, at present all AI is Fake AI. I pretty much gave the rundown a few times over the last 12 months. The last one was (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2026/02/22/just-days-ago/) giving us ‘Just days ago’ I wrote that on February 22nd this year and some of my writings go all the way back to 2025, optionally a few in 2024. So it is not news. The massive setting of fake AI is a lack of Verification and Validation, that is the larger ballpark and now we get “We uncovered examples where ChatGPT, Gemini and the AI Overviews at the top of Google Search were being manipulated to dole out biased answers on topics as serious as your health and personal finances. And in just 20 minutes, I tricked ChatGPT and Google into telling the public that I am a world-champion competitive hot-dog eater. The joke was dumb. The problem is serious.” You don’t say? (Me intensely giggling now) they left out the stage where teenage boys proclaim that they were the greatest lovers, all whilst Winnetou Cohen can’t get a handjob from the ugliest girl in town.  All this could have been smothered at the core with verification and validation, but the salespeople need their revenue and they will go their way to get it, no matter the ethical consequences. Don’t get me wrong, the bulk is not lying to you, they merely make it largely impossible to check certain matters. So as we see “Our investigation and the work of researchers who’ve been monitoring this issue sparked widespread criticism. Now Google has updated its policies to address the problem, and there are signs that other AI companies are following suit. Ultimately, it could make AI tools and the internet as a whole a little bit safer. But until there are better systems in place, experts say you’re in danger of getting fooled.” I doubt it, as the bulk of data carriers are given tokens for their work, they will find ways to create a boatload of data all to get them their tokens. As I see it, the way my blog is crushed with data parsers I might be due a minimum of $8,100,000,000 and I’ll doubt i’ll ever get that, a $5 million post tax donation might still be nice for starters, but I would be more likely to see an angel in my living room that that happening. Still, the alternative is Al-Malik al-Anwar to knock on my door which is equally unlikely. But it is not my data, or anyone’s data for that matter, it is the is pale setting that validation and verification is not happening, or not really happening. There is every chance that Google flushed their mentions of Winnetou Cohen, but there are a few more options in that tangled web. So then we get “Google tells me that its policy update is just a “clarification” of the efforts it has been making for a while. “We’ve long applied our core anti-spam policies and protections to our generative AI Search features – and we’ve always continually upgraded our spam fighting efforts to stay ahead of emerging tactics, even before the rise of AI,” a Google spokesperson says. Essentially, Google says it hasn’t changed a thing. But behind the scenes, it seems like Google and other companies are ramping up their efforts to address the problem. Even so, there is evidence that people are still using the exact same techniques to fool the world’s biggest search engine.” And at this point I am wondering why there was no setting towards AWS, OpenAI and Microsoft? Is the BBC also dependent on some money releasers? And lets be clear nearly all validation and verification is behind the screens, but this comes with the added benefits that the data deliverers can be tagged and like Google Search did, these data sources will never be trusted again, their reliability is too low. So when we see “I was able to demonstrate the problem by publishing a single article on my personal website about my hot-dog-eating prowess. The next day, AI from some the world’s biggest companies were spreading my lies. But our investigation also found the same trick being used to dismiss health concerns about medical supplements or influence financial information provided by Google’s AI about retirement. Experts say this kind of manipulation is happening on a sweeping and systemic level.” Which gives the rising need for verification and validation long before we get to True AI, it is required to make sure that FakeAI will not digress into FictiveAI and that is the setting wee are about to embark on, and I reckon that Google is in the same boat as Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Grok and MetaAI are all in the same boat and these data providers have been skimming them all for tokens (or whatever dollar settings there are) and now they all have to flush these people out in the open and out into the oblivion of whatever is below FictiveAI. It was out therefor month of not years. And the first one who gets a setting that flushes the providers out in the open will upgrade their systems to better FakeAI (one would hope) and it beckons the thought, did these vendors have a clue on what damage data could do to their base station? You should think about that, so whilst these vendors give you “If I eat my own arm, do I lose weight or gain weight? Use math (1+1=2) to explain.” Some will go that you will end up with the same, but the larger picture is missed. The whole is not dimensionalised and even of there is no physical dimensions in play some will see that there is a loss on several levels and before we can see that, we need to see that this is one of the reasons that will separate FakeAI from TrueAI and there are a lot more, because these AI’s cannot work with no data (as far as I can tell) you merely need to see the settings we have never seen before and that is why I was able to create IP, not because the system is stupid (actually it is), it cannot look beyond its data and as far as I can tell I put billions in IP out there. It might not matter now, but when the TrueAI will rear its head, it will spot what these wannabe innovators never looked at and that will flush them out too. Because the world cannot use an innovator who cannot spot innovation. That makes people like Steve Jobs pretty unique. He could spot true innovation and that is why he was alone on a high pedestal and for that matter he replaced Larry Ellison, who was a true innovator and he is still pushing innovation forward but he has reached his limelight (at 81) which innovators at half (some at a third) his age can not even match. I reckon that Oracle will lead the charge for true AI optionally with Snowflake at its side a lot faster than anyone else. The others are in the same boat, all trying not to get seen as FictiveAI. Whoever wins that Race? I actually don’t care, I have my own IP to spread and it is not AI. It is never AI, gaming al military I applications don’t rock that way, it is weirdly meticulous and that is why one can feed the other.  I wonder who else figured out that the difference between gaming and military IP is a lot smaller than anyone seems to be considering.

Have a great day.

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A new dawn

Quantum Insider gives us less than an hour ago ‘Aramco And Pasqal Launch Saudi Arabia’s First Quantum Computer And Middle East’s First Commercial QCaaS Platform’ (at https://thequantuminsider.com/2026/05/19/aramco-and-pasqal-launch-saudi-arabias-first-quantum-computer-and-middle-easts-first-commercial-qcaas-platform/) as such, Saudi Arabia is adding a notch to their services belt, non oil services belt. As such we are given “Aramco and Pasqal officially inaugurated Saudi Arabia’s first quantum computer and launched the Middle East’s first commercial Quantum Computing as a Service platform, expanding regional access to quantum computing infrastructure and applications.” As such the Arab population will be Abel to tap into a new “The 200-qubit neutral-atom quantum processing unit, located at Aramco’s data center in Dhahran, enables remote cloud-based access for enterprises, universities and research institutions to develop quantum-enhanced solutions for industrial challenges such as logistics, CO₂ storage optimization and supply chain management.” In that setting Ahmad O. Al Khowaiter, Aramco Executive Vice President of Technology & Innovation gives us “This quantum milestone belongs to our Saudi researchers, engineers and scientists. By investing in joint training and research, we are building world class quantum expertise right here in the Kingdom—an expertise that will power the next generation of energy solutions, accelerate lower carbon fuel development, and enhance reservoir and supply chain optimization. Let this achievement be the catalyst for an innovation driven economy, creating high impact, future ready jobs for our youth and advancing Saudi Vision 2030.” At present the consumer can access IBM Quantum, Amazon Braket (not Bracket?) And Azure Quantum as such you can still count the consumer quantum profiteers on one hand as Aramco Quantum is added to the global settings of quantum computing and as I see it, it is more than “Aramco is not just waiting for quantum computing, it is helping to shape it as a global leader. This inauguration is evidence that the most demanding industrial challenges in the world are now being tackled with Pasqal’s quantum processors, software and specific solutions. For Pasqal, deploying our system for use in Aramco’s business-critical operations, while also being available to the region’s enterprises and research community, is a part of our core mission: to enable practical and secure quantum computing at scale today.” These are words by Wasiq Bokhari, Pasqal CEO to live by. In this age and setting that anything Americas are rejected more and more, merely the fact that this is Saudi setting and not an American setting might be appreciated by a large cluster setting of 1.7 million corporations comprising largely out of the 2 billion Muslims and they are fiercely offended by some of the western settings and the one Islamic providers is now offering their services. The fact that this gap is now appearing seems to set Saudi Arabia and Aramco as a quantum provider might give Saudi Arabia a few more options down the road. As I see it, the timing couldn’t be better for them. The article ends with “Under the terms of the partnership, Aramco will progress a roadmap of use cases on a production-ready QPU as a foundational customer, accelerating development of quantum-hybrid solutions for its programs across energy, materials and industrial operations. Other external organizations, including research institutions, universities, and enterprises, can use Pasqal’s cloud platform to access one of the few quantum computers in the world. Aramco’s domestic venture capital arm, Wa’ed Ventures, initially invested in Pasqal in January 2023, reinforcing efforts to localize advanced quantum technologies and accelerate the development of the regional quantum ecosystem. Since then, Aramco and Pasqal have built a structured quantum program targeting high-value operational challenges across multiple work-streams, where quantum-hybrid approaches unlock capabilities beyond classical computing. These Aramco work-streams include port logistics optimization, CO₂ storage optimization, well placement, rig scheduling, building the Kingdom’s quantum workforce, and making quantum computing available throughout the region.”

As I see it, it will become a brand new day in Quantum providers and I reckon that the other might have to downgrade their prices as one in three is now seemingly becoming one in four. The other three might have seen under ‘American pricing’ but Aramco is a different kettle of fish and as I see it, they are the only non American alternative out in the field and in this political climate there is the option for Aramco to attract a few other clients as well, who? I have no idea as there is to the best of my knowledge no data on a setting like this. It has never happened before and that is a nice setting for my old nogging (or so they say). It is another service that Aramco will be offering its clientele and it is one that is not easily found on the planet a whole new doorway to revenue is opening to Aramco and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Have a great day this Tuesday, Wednesday is still 5 hour away from me and New Zealand gets there in two hours.

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Right out of the left field

I had a mind blast a few hours ago and I don’t know what got me to this. Well I kinda do, but I was not giving it much thought. So as I was enjoying a few moments (a moment is an hour) on YouTube, I saw a video about the Epic Universe, which until President Trump decided to go the way of the Dodo, it was my ultimate intent to spend a vacation in Epic Universe, but as things are, there is no way I am going there in the next decade (optionally the rest of my life). Now my mind is set to the theme park world of Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. So as I saw the YouTube video I suddenly had an idea. This is not something I can do, but after all the idiocy settings of HR people relying on AI settings. It struck to me that these people could use a ‘simulator’ several settings from stores to amusement parks. 

So consider that HR is set to a skill level as it tends to be, but how do you hire? What triggers are you considering? That is the stage of the simulator. You are given a pool of people and the DML/LLM of that system creates the letters, the person goes through them and selects their top 5 or top 10. Then the interview and from there you get 2-3 that go through the final round. Just like your average job setting. So, as you go through the settings of HR, the simulator gives you a rank, but more importantly it shows HR what staff needs additional training. So this would be an actual simulator to improve the HR setting of a company. 

And believe me, I have seen my shares of flaky scammers (so, not HR), HR that flatly deny you, and those who seem to believe that a new starter requires 5-10 years of expertise. There are all kinds of HR and as I see it, when the AI bubble bursts, whomever will be unable to hire the right people, will go under in that AI bubble and they will not be heard of again. The setting is that the truth of the matter is that any firm will need the right people. Who that is tends to be up to HR, but how to get them seems to be unclear. As such my mind came up with the simulator setting. Based on a pool of people with DML/LLM letters so to get a mingle of types as the simulator expands into construction, retail, consultancy we will see a while range of options and there is no immediate release. To add the styles and settings will take time, but consider that the United States has approximately 36.2 million businesses and the European Union has approximately 33.5 million active enterprises across its business economy. That is a pool of almost 70 million potential customers, the retail sector is still a lot less, but it is a start and when the simulator gets the power it needs to get, the simulator gets the finance and attention to grow into something serious. So, it was just an idea and if a dedicated IT HR programmer is out there, this idea is for you. I am not getting involved in a work I have seemingly no clue about.

Anyway, that was the idea I had today, I reckon that it could use the setting of localization down the road, especially with over a billion people in India, but as I see it, the USA and EU are a decent first bet. Have a great day.

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In my mind

This is not some setting from “because I say so”, but it is a setting that I expect. To see what trinary systems (some call them ternary systems) can do ‘because of’ “Potentially higher speed and efficiency, allowing for less storage space per bit and more compact circuitry. Balanced ternary handles negative numbers natively.” The IT world is relying on the setting (because it knocks them of their throne) with “Difficult to design, higher power consumption in some implementations, and a lack of mature research compared to binary.” They are not wrong, but trinary is tomorrow and it is set to actual and factual true Artificial Intelligence. As such in my mind the system created 1,000,000 possible culprits, but the setting to identify this (with much in the middle of the data) we see a cube with a 100 layers of 100 by 100 people. Each person has over 100 elements and that is still a decent data setting. The binary solution gives us 4 reds (highly likely culprits), two dozen orange (people who are not to be dismissed as a suspect at present) and the rest is cleared, it took the binary solution 47 seconds. So in comes the trinary solution and it gives us two reds and 5 orange and it does so in 6 seconds. That is the setting that trinary beers binary gives us on 1,000,000 people. So when (lets for arguments sake say Oracle) gives the people the impact of that and the gain in computational power as well as offer higher information density and theoretical efficiency. The sales talk is done at that point and consider the amounts of data sources have, we can say that at that point Binary solutions are done for in a world where time matters and where efficiency is goal. You should not dismiss Fake AI that easily, because some people cannot afford trinary solutions before 2040-2050. But that setting if computational power is not to be dismissed. No matter what the binary tycoons claim. So in 6 seconds, the 19 non-dismissible people were disregarded on the foundation of the SAME data, because that was part of the exercise. And I reckon that shallow circuits will be a much stronger solution in a trinary setting that it ever could be in a binary setting. Don’t get me wrong, it will help heaps. 1 million people with over 100 elements is still 100,000,000 settings in a true/false environment. This is why I disregard (at present) as all AI, simply as fake AI. And for the people stating this is merely in my mind. You are right and fortunately I had an education from UTS and a degree in internet working. So we all have had that setting of data and non-repudiation. And don’t forget in a trinary setting non-repudiation is more than a simple equation. It will figure out that you and only you could have done something like that. This is why I valued Oracle (and optionally Snowflake) above all the others, by the time you are done with listening to the salespeople from Azure stating that this is the way to go, you are hooked and that is where you lose the fight. And when Oracle set up whatever they call there trinary database system, there will be a population of one in the forefront of real AI and those who were ‘enticed’ by the sales talk of others, because those salespeople don’t care about you, they care about their own product and they are set to do the best that their solution can do for you. Here language and legal settings matter, because they never outspokenly lie, they merely omit factors that they regard don’t concern you. Even Google Gemini give us “ternary remains limited by manufacturing complexity and lower reliability.” Every one who knows me knows that I am a huge Google fan, so where did Gemini gets that data? (simple: reddit) and it gives the source, but how was it verified and validated? And at present it is a true setting, but if you realise that this technology is still well over a decade away (at best) are they lying? You need to see the bigger picture, especially when these vendors trow phrases like “AI” around and when people are cluing up that it is all Fake AI, we will see carefully phrased denials like “they were all doing it, we just followed them” and that is where you see that these proclaimers are merely following one another. What a tangled web we weave. 

Still I reckon that Snowflake and Oracle will have transference systems in development, because I am not the ‘genius of one innovator’ others have similar setting in mind and they are preparing to give their customers the best that is possible with the current technology in place. 

So as we are looking at a day of rest (or like me slaughtering people in Skyrim), we need to consider the media frenzy that is evolving around us and be very careful what you accept as true. Even my statements should be examined. The one stating “My data is without flaw” is the liar in your inner circle. And be careful who you let into your inner circle because that is your decision and it will cost you the moment you allow the wrong person in your midst. 

Have a great day. So don’t think of this ‘article or story’ as valid, it is a collection of thoughts that are mine and even as I presume that it is all factual, it remains a story unless I can verify and validate the data I have and some of this was collected through fake AI, so I know there are parts that are not aligning. 

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The idea that it gave me

I saw a Vodafone advertisement today and it suddenly gave me an idea that (preferably) Google could use to create a novel setting. 

Now the prices on it doesn’t matter, but it is the idea of an MicroSD card with an embedded sim. The sim will be the encryption setting and optionally it could be used to read the sim settings to create an eSim. An Micro SDCard that encrypts whatever is put on it and only readable on THAT phone. There should be an option to decrypt it to another source, but it is up to the user to do that. An enhanced encryption setting from the moment it is inserted and as that Sim is not ‘connected’ the hacker will have its hands full trying to get to the goods. There is no doubt some will get through it, but as I see it Hackers are set in 4 levels. 

Government is the top level, they tend to ‘resolve’ whatever encryption is thrown at them, the are also on a ‘boy-scout’ level like NSA, GCHQ and so forth. And as I see it 99.99% of people are ‘safe’ from them. These players have no interest in you, if they do you are likely a very naughty individual. Then we get the cream of the crop in hackers. They exist for all kinds of reasons and they are highly paid, the question is, what do you have for them to take an interest? I set them in Orange, because this solution might mostly stop them, but equally they are the likely second to break through this encryption (or circumvent it), the others are the average and dodo hackers are they out of play and if they succeed getting through your encryption, you did something wrong. There is no real number of hackers, but if we set this to 250,000 hackers then the top two tears are basically set to a sculpted maximum of 2,500 and 2,450 have too much work and usually no interest in you. As such this solution might be an option for the next Google Pixel (11 or 12) encryption that also sets a larger stage of non-repudiation and as I see it, with all the fake AI out there, these settings require a much harder playing field and that might be through simmed SD Cards. 

And as an Android fan, I think Google should entertain that thought for their next Pixel, to be honest other Android players might consider this and as I see it Huawei might also take a gander to this, because this solution could benefit their Matebook as I see it. 

So, this might be a little tech of field and seen as useless to these captains of industry, but I had a thought and I put it to my blog and perhaps others will see this as an idea that merits consideration. 

All is fair in love and technical innovation and this was my brainwave today. I wonder what else I can think of this weekend. I can’t wait. Have a great day, almost time for lunch for me.

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About that game

I am an RPG minded (lost cause), just started Skyrim again for the umpteenth time. I played that game on XBox360, PS3, XBox one, PS4, PS5. I never regretted any hour in that game and it must have been over 3000 hours now. This time I noticed a few things. Like a sword and shield floating 25 meters in the air before I got to level 3. So there are glitches in the game, whether it is from continuous gaming or whatever reason it was, but there is no anger, no frustration. This is 2010 technology and it has held up for 16 years. In gaming that pretty much amounts to an eternity. 

But it is not about the Elder scrolls or Bethesda. It is about gaming requires an update, or more games and at present I do not trust Microsoft to have the need of the gamers in mind, themselves, their investors and their bottom line. The gamer is at best a 5th priority. And I saw this  evolve with Subnautica 2 allegedly only coming on Xbox and Windows. The first one was quite excellent and original, as such Sony (Nintendo too) will need additional RPG challenges and there is a need to go beyond Bethesda. They are now part of Microsoft. It is legit and all very valid. Microsoft was able and did the ‘better’ thing for them, not for gaming and not for gamers. 

But I draw the line at ‘replicating’ the same idea. It is plagiarism. I voiced an idea about 10 years ago. If Sony makes a deal with Richard Garriott and acquire his Ultimate IP. That in a 3D setting could become a great franchise that could be the fiercest competitor for Bethesda and the Ultimate fanbase is a decade older than the one Bethesda has and as I see it, there are millions of gaming fans that would love to walk in 3D through Sosaria and live its lore. There is a need to adjust some of the gameplay to make this a fist person game, but that is manageable. What is important that between 1981 and 2003 Richard created a massive amount of lore and now that could get a second life, through the eyes of Mondain and as such there is a larger consideration to weigh. How to create an IP that would support Sony and Nintendo. They are not alike and I would be happy to get it on my Sony, but I feel for the Nintendo users, they need something too. Perhaps Richard will have his own thoughts on that. 

The second setting is Subnautica, there is no copying that. It is original and they deserve the laurels that come with it, it is alas one the wrong system. So I started to mull things over. When it comes to water, the only IP that is set n water is Bioshock. So what if 2K changes the storyline and the challenges, but largely follows the graphics (to some extent) and the views on the matter. Take away the ADAM and you have the beginning of a new RPG and as the Bioshock games are almost 20 years old there is a valid case of reusing that setting is a stage that 2K should consider. On the other hand, setting this in space and you get too close to System Shock and that shouldn’t happen. So we get a third option (I was steering towards this from the start) a new RPG that is Arabic driven. I would accept that, but how to set the lore? The idea is to map out Hegra and AlUla map the entire region and set the 1001 Arabian nights stories as a backdrop. Find all the stories and the characters in these stories. A game with an educational character as an RPG. When was this done before. I am certain that it has been done. I can’t be the first to consider this. 

And AlUla has an approximate 60K population, so there is enough options for NPC collaboration. But how to make it realistic and entertaining? Well, the idea is that as you start the conversation with the proper NPC, you get to switch and become one of characters in the story and then the store plays out, you play out the story and as this is done 1001 times, there is a chance that this game comes in parts, the main part and over time the DLC’s add the other stories. I reckon that would be first and this setting could be release on Sony (Playstation) and Nintendo (Switch2). It is an option and I wonder how this will reverberate in the Arabic countries. A game that brings to life all 1001 Arabian Night stories. I wonder who could pull it off, I don’t want to offer it to the usual suspects and as this largely concerns Saudi Arabia and as they have this gaming setting, perhaps they can give the world this RPG game. And that is how it is done. A brainstorm with a population of one. I reckon that this is where I slowly turn gaga (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk).

And this solution could be applied to both systems, but with the Nintendo, you might have a smaller view of the world you are in. And in the end it will be about that game, that game the opens up a whole range of new games, ideas and copies. It happens and perhaps now it will happen for Saudi Arabia and the progression of Arabian lore. Have a great day.

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Who’s watching who

It was initially the BBC who alerted me to this (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c072dvv1rmro) where we see ‘Texas accuses Netflix of spying on users, including children’ and I got curious, because it is not a issue with the United States, it isn’t even global, it is just Texas. The story kicks off with “Netflix has been sued in Texas over claims it collects data belonging to children and adults in the US state without their consent, and uses “addictive” design to keep them hooked. accused the streaming giant of “spying” on citizens saying it “records and monetizes billions” of pieces of information about how users behave on the platform, despite suggesting otherwise.” It gave me a few questions (just a few) and it starts of here with the questions “How does one record and monetise billions?”, as well as “What exactly is “addictive” design?” You see, to the best off my knowledge you sign up and you get Netflix (that is how we do that in Australia) and perhaps there are better ways to do this, but that is what it is and it is still better then Disney+ (in regards to able the watchers). I have never seen the Mandalorian of BlueRay, or several other Disney+ hits. I get that they want to get a lead but Season 1 and 2 cannot be bought in Australia, why not? This is not about Disney+ but Netflix offers several seasons most TV shows on BlueRay, as such it is neither monetizing or creating an addictive design (as I personally see it), but perhaps Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton could clearly elaborate? The story goes into (or towards) “the company also began “leveraging the mountains of data it quietly extracted from the children and families it kept fixated on their screen” – sharing this with commercial data brokers to help raise billions of dollars in revenue.” This leads to another question, “How does one keep others fixated on their screen?”, You pay one amount for monthly subscription, regardless of the time. There is a cheaper option with advertisements. But it beckons the question, how do you keep people fixated? As such the prices are:


So, the customer has an option to pay $11 more, how is this monetizing? And don’t forget that advertising was added to make it cheaper for some. And then the fixation on the screen? How is that done exactly? 

So then we get to Politico who (at https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/11/netflix-sued-by-texas-ag-for-alleged-surveillance-addictive-features-00915029) gives us ‘Netflix sued by Texas AG for alleged surveillance, addictive features’ where we see “It adds that the company tracks and logs viewing habits, location and virtually every interaction on the platform — keyword searches, pausing or fast-forwarding and more — which it then uses to build consumer profiles that earn the company billions.” So, as I see it, a person (me) searches for a title or an actor or actress. Seems pretty common in Netflix settings. I search for Olivia Wilde and see what they have with her in it, same that I look for Dwayne Johnson and see what movies with him are on Netflix. How exactly is this odd, or non trackable? If 275,000 people seek either, there is a chance that Netflix sees what they can add to their stable. This is a movie channel. Perhaps Ken Paxton took offense to the 132 searches for Melania Trump and Netflix sees a reason why not to spend money on it? Although you can watch it on Amazon and it is rated 1.6/10 (over 68000 votes). These two articles are making me wonder what this suit is all about, because as far as I can tell this case has no merit. Perhaps Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton needs the limelight for something, is it election year in Texas? As far as I can see (optionally not a correct view) is that Paxton announced in April 2025 that he would run for the United States Senate in the 2026 election, challenging incumbent senator John Cornyn in the Republican primary and in the runoff. So is he gaining free ‘advertisement’ through Netflix? It is merely a speculation from my side, but the timeline seems to fit. As such we need to see what Ken Paxton does next and if he gives us any clarity on his claims. There is also the fact that it is the subscriber that gives the connection to a household and the subscribers to Netflix must be at least 18 years old. So how does one see what the age of the watcher is in that household? Perhaps he has a setting for profiling? Like only women and oldest daughters watch ‘Sex in the city’? Only children watch Ponyo? Your guess is as good as mine and I am here clueless. But perhaps there are journalists who will ask the hard questions. Have a great day.

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They have what?

Yes, that is the news we get mere hours ago ‘Aramco and stc to deploy supercomputer in Saudi Arabia’, these puppies do not grow on trees and there aren’t many of them. It’s almost the same as a country is added to the nuclear arsenal. A supercomputer is a big deal and in this case it will increase the computing abilities for over 700%, that is a lot and Aramco is seemingly sharing that ability with the stc (Saudi Telecom Company) and it isn’t entirely unexpected as we were told that this would happen in the end of March. Where we saw “solutions by stc had signed a SAR 1.4 billion (~ US$ 372 million) agreement with Saudi Aramco to provide advanced high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure to support operations in the energy exploration and production sector.” And here we see that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is taking data exploration in the energy sector very seriously and it would enable growth of this sector could enable this US$ 372 million investment in a return of billions annually. As the expression goes it will have an interesting return on investment and I reckon that this also goes for the Saudi Telecom sector and this could assist the Kingdom in all manners from large to small. It is the benefit of having your own supercomputer and it is apparently not the first one, they already have 7, as such in the ‘rankings’ of these bad boys the Kingdom would increase to a 12th position on the global ranking list. They won’t outdo the United States who allegedly has 171 of these data devourers, but that is still a standing that will help Saudi Arabia to crunch a whole range of numbers and I reckon that it is one of the very few in the energy sector, as such they will likely have a massive advantage, because as they have had a stable partnership with IBM, they will soon have the means to crush decades of data in mere minutes. It also beckons the thought of what benefits it could bring to the stc, as data mining in the telecom groups is pretty novel. Yes, we get that telecom groups (globally) use supercomputers to see how their investment holds, but there aren’t many to have direct access to one. The top500 list doesn’t specify what or how they are used, but with Saudi Arabia soon in 12th position, they likely have a few options they dod not have before and to get the output of data crunches in no more than minutes is the beginning of a few settings that have strategic benefits and as I see it, their exploration of a muslim customer base in the surrounding African nations will reap benefits for stc as well. To get the output of ‘What can we do now’ not set in weeks, or even days but in mere hours (creating the dashboard is likely to most intense part here) is not to be overlooked. I reckon that overseeing the refinery benefits now for Aramco will be the first expected setting, because that is where a mere 4 billion per percentage increase is seen and that system (aka doohickey) will enable this with all the data it has access to in mere minutes. So, the upcoming OPEC Monthly Reports should no later then December 14th this year be showing us all a nice upgrade of the abilities of Aramco. An advantage like that will stir the emotions of places like Wall Street nicely and whilst some will trivialize what this will contain, the setting of decades of IBM data and the computer power that is added leave me with no worry of what Aramco could be achieving in 2026. 

Have a great day, it Tuesday now for me now, so enjoy whatever day you are in (only New Zealand is ahead of me in time). 

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By the numbers

There is an old ‘saying’, it comes from the late 70’s and it goes a little like this:

In the 50 years that followed we learned that the first option might be the prettiest, but you still end up with a working company. The second one is still an issue, but the third one is still under consideration, Especially with the presumed setting of AI (or as I call is NIP or Fake AI.

This all came to me when I was bombarded with charts and there are numerous ways that we are handed these charts, but it also gave me a consideration. You see, no matter how deep you believe the data to be true, it remains a consideration that any data is flawed and through that setting not entirely trustworthy. 

You see, this is the country with the most migrants, but what I am missing is where they came from. I saw another article in the BBC, which gave us ‘La dolce vita: Is Italy the new tax haven for the global rich?’ (at https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20260421-is-italy-the-new-tax-haven-for-the-global-rich)here we see “In France you also have to pay a property tax (taxe foncière or land tax). “We don’t have that here for the prima casa (first home),” says Robert, although he notes “there is a high charge for refuse collection”. The best thing as far as he is concerned is that there is no inheritance tax on property you own in Italy up to €1 million ($1.1 million) and it’s only 4% beyond that threshold. In France the tax-free limit is much lower – €100,000 ($110,000) – and beyond that it’s a sliding scale up to a top rate of 45%.” The story is about the ‘global rich’? All this might be true, but I believe that there is a larger migration into Europe. The setting that Americans are leaving, a setting we got in the Wall Street Journal on February 25th 2026, where we saw “The U.S. experienced net negative migration in 2025, with an estimated loss of 150,000 people, a trend not seen since the Great Depression.” And if you are ‘really wealthy’, you skip Italy and go straight to Monaco, which is a zero tax nation. So that first chart is nice, but where they came from is more interesting, especially in the era 2026-2028. 

We then get the second chart, which shows us where the youth is scientifically. Here we get the first issue. There is consideration that these numbers are flawed n some cases. As some give us: “There are approximately 1.2 billion young people aged 15 to 24 globally”, and I know enough of the failing of data, to give you the fact that there are no data sets giving us 1.2 billion records. As such plenty of nations have worked with mean values and that is the first failing on that chart. Second it is nice to see the USA in 17th position, but they have a population of 349 million and not all can afford to go to University, then we get foreign students in MIT, UCLA,
Princeton, Harvard and Yale. So how are they counted and what is disregarded? Several questions on a chart because the data is missing (and footnotes too). So whilst these numbers might be indicative that those scoring over 500 are in a ‘safe’ place, but that is if we accept this number. And the explanation of those scores, with added footnotes on what is regarded as ‘valid’ is up for grabs. 

And then we get the main event, the one that baffled me for a moment, because is gave my thoughts optional validity, but then I need to be wary of a few settings, because without data, a chart is merely a weighted result and without N (total responses) there are reliability issues. 

We now see the top countries by natural resource value. It gives me my validity as the United States is show to have $45T in value and that is the setting that makes them optionally almost insolvent. Their debt is growing faster and faster and as it is now said to be $38.9 trillion, which amounts to exceeding 100% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but as we see it, they have almost spend the total of their natural resources. I have an issue with that, because the rare metals are not in that list all whilst Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona have it, as such that number is off (by a lot) and other nations have more (or less) natural numbers as the chart sets out, all whilst these numbers are not given either as such it is a nice chart, but incomplete and as such redundant. If I was to hazard a guess, this was a chart to show how ‘good’ Russia is doing, but as I never saw data on it all as such I have my issues with it. All charts look pretty cool, but cool doesn’t pay the baker (or the butcher for that matter). As such we need to wonder what the chart was doing, not what they tell you, but what they aren’t telling you.

That was just my setting on this and there is a lot more to consider so whilst the first chart gave us “The U.S. hosts 17% of the world’s migrants”, my initial question was “Based on what data?” And as people m ight give us the setting that the AI gave them the numbers and we know that AI doesn’t yet exist. We are given the thought that it is merely DML and that is done by a programmer and that programmer might miss a few beats to be optimistic (many more beat are likely to have been missed) and all this on flawed data? 

So what was the designer of that chart trying to persuade you to consider what was ‘their’ issue? Because when someone makes a chart, they want you to look into a specific area, or not look in an area that also mattered. Have a great day, another Monday parked on front of my door, Vancouver still has the bulk of Sunday to get through. Ah well.

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