Category Archives: IT

The color of grass

The CBC just alerted me to something that kind of slipped my mind. There is no reason why it didn’t was on my mind, mainly because I do not harvest for headhunters. But when I saw the story, I thought that it would make a lot of sense. The story (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/us-scientists-canada-1.7502527) gives us ‘Top American scientists just lost their jobs. Canada is rolling out the welcome mat’ the byline of this story is “Manitoba, B.C., Ontario looking to recruit top scientists from the U.S.” You see, as we read and know from the last few months “Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is aiming to cut 20,000 jobs at agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).” So here we have Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Germany seeking specialists of all kinds of people and as they were shown the exit by America, others will look happily to bolster their own sides with people that they couldn’t get before. As such Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be getting several Christmas hampers, optionally a dozen this year. Even if he is under orders, there is nothing like governmental gratitude from these nations. Of the sidelines. I can advise these governments that the Hampers at Fortnum and Mason (at https://www.fortnumandmason.com/international-delivery-category) are the best.

As such we see an inverted version of the grass is always greener on the other fellows grave. We now (mostly the Commonwealth nations) are the greener grass. So as we see “One example: Dr. Madhukar Pai, the director of the McGill global health programs, told CBC News he’s expecting a record number of applicants for a new tenure-track job in his department, opening in the coming weeks. It’s a field hit especially hard amid sweeping cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development that are slashing life-saving programs across the world tackling diseases like HIV and malaria.” As well as “Scientists overseeing cancer research, vaccine and drug approvals, public health and tobacco regulations are also among 10,000 already laid off. Public health experts say the mass firings could have catastrophic impacts for the U.S. and the world.” Here I say that it s more the US then the rest of the world. This is the first instance of an American brain drain. The second setting was the market crashing over the last two days, making these people accept other locations a little sooner than accepted. As we see that ‘Trump tariffs wipe $5 trillion off Wall Street’, we also need to realise that some of these people are hurt in their finances and they seek a way out of the uncertainty. So these people are roaring to be the first with a decent contract under their belt. So as we see “Kevin Griffis, a former CDC communications director, resigned in protest two weeks ago after three years at the agency. He said the mass firings were widely felt and could have unanticipated consequences. If the agency needed to hold a press conference today about a major public health threat, “there’s no one who even knows how to run the sound anymore. Because they fired the studio team,” he said.” That case alone will speed China to remove whatever options the other players have. With that setting consider Dr. Fauci joining a Swiss medical enterprise, and according to Kevin Griffis when Americans do not know what to do when a health crises arrives. So when the next ‘covid’ arrive, the people can rely on the treatments through President Trumps ‘advised’ Hydroxychloroquine, but when that fails? What then. Canada can get a setting to be the next best thing to the CDC, then there is the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), and they are a little tired of the American tariff game and could slap a nice 25% tariff on that. The settings for America go from grim to deep black soon enough. Even now we get headlines like ‘Elon Musk backs ‘free trade zone’ between US and Europe’ (source: Al Jazeera) and that is merely for openers.

So whilst the Commonwealth replenishes their shorts on medical experts, America need to wonder what else they could lose. I am still of the mind that America is near to implosion moment of their debts and shutdowns are likely to happen, when that does, these first ‘evaders’ are is a much better position than any other American, even now as the 5 trillion write off hits the entirety of the tech corporation, some will make it, some others will make massive losses taking their home selling efforts almost essential and the billionaires who relied on their Bitcoin, need to realise that this currency is still a few percentage points. So Sergei Brin (all-father of Google) had $142.2 billion, now at 7% less, he seemingly lost 9.95 billion, not that much overall, still more than the 5 billion annual I had reserved for his firm as additional revenue (he dumped the Google Stadia, so that was that) and as Jeff Bezos seemingly lost 13.51 billion, my IP could set him topside in around a speculative 2 years. It is all relative as I see it. Still, this is not about me. As America is losing the handles on the world thought essential services, others will step in to make a move for themself (and I am no different). You see, as the issues evolve, we see scientists that were in unshakable positions, were suddenly shown the door and now as we see “Canadian provinces are already trying to attract American health experts suddenly out of a job. Manitoba is “rolling out the welcome mat” for U.S. trained doctors, nurses and researchers affected by the cuts, said Minister of Health Uzoma Asagwara in a statement to CBC.” And this is only the beginning. As some other fields are shown the cutdowns, we see other ventures all over Europe and even in the Middle East, they are smiling and wringing their hands as fields of opportunity are given to them. The Hollywood fires gave rise to the Dubai Media Group now getting their hands on several lucrative projects. No this is in no way the fault of President Trump, but these small kicks can become a lot bigger. They are not related, but these separate items can become related. As health scientists have possible connections to pharmaceutical corporations, the impact to the larger stage will be visible in less than two years, so consider that in two years the revenue now (which is expected to be $605-$635 billion on medicine in 2025) gets down by 20% (speculative number) in 2027. So what happens when $121 billion goes to other places (like Europe)? So we have Defense (2022-2026) went to China and Europe (close to 90 billion)  now presumption on pharmaceuticals $121 billion less, and the Middle East are now aiming for $10 billion handing that to others and taking that out of America. So how many hits can the American economy endure the loss of of revenue in added fields of revenue again and again. At present (as I personally see it) America needs to pay interest on 36 trillions, which is a little over 2 trillion, all whilst the tax revenue is around $4.92 trillion (2024), so 50% is out on paying the interest of outstanding debts. Do you realise the issues America faces? And now Canada has a first jab at the fired experts in healthcare on several levels and in several disciplines. So how was the tariff game a bright idea? 

And as America loses more and more it is (as I personally see it) nicely on its way to become a third world country, the first in the western world. And I am not surprised as I predicted this as early as June 8th 2014 in the story called ’17 or 70 trillion?’ (At https://lawlordtobe.com/2014/06/08/17-or-70-trillion/) when I wrote “My issue is not just with the US debt levels, it is also about the ‘blasé’ approach economists are throwing at the people stating that things are not that bad and that it will all work out. That part is a figment of THEIR imagination, because for things to resolve, actions must be taken and none are getting taken at present (or in the near future for that matter). My biggest issue with the Article of Chad Stone is seen at the end. His quote “Lowering the debt ratio comes at a cost, not only risking the recovery if it’s done too fast but also in burdening businesses and households with larger spending cuts, higher taxes or both to stabilize the debt ratio“” I foresaw the dangers 11 years ago, not to this degree, but the setting was clear and as the people are now vacating the sinking ship, the seas become heavy for America and they basically almost capsized the boat themselves. A larger setting is connected and even if we are ‘in denial’ that there is a problem, the people are seemingly rising up all over the United States and Europe with their ‘Hands off’ calls. ABC Australia is giving us ‘Thousands protest against Trump and Musk in ‘Hands Off!’ rallies across US and Europe’ (at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-06/thousands-rally-trump-musk-hands-off-protests-across-us/105143038) the American setting has usually been ‘The best defense is a good offense’, I do not disagree, yet I am more on the stage of Julius Caesar (Italian army, 65 BC) he states “the first stage is to protect yourself from enemy retaliation” a better setting and as I see it America has left itself open like never seen before. The (slightly less rich) friends from the American administration are now seeking their own save spot, the enemies are enticing former American friends and I warned of that in the years before 2025. Now we see another nail cast into a coffin named ‘defaulted’ And this is not the end, there is every chance that the defense industry will see its own setting of people seeking early retirement and the market crashes will make them seek other shores, their money is in danger of losing the bulk of its value. Will the markets get back? I feel certain they will, but will they recover enough and soon enough? That becomes the question. To write off over 5 trillion is not easily fixed, that much is clear. The next setting are the tariffs, America needs to cancel them for Europe and the Commonwealth to say the least, that might stem the flow of brainpower, but that is a presumption by me. The opponents of America are battering America’s walls and they did mostly this to themself. 

As such I am on the side of Canada, our Commonwealth brother. And if Manitoba, B.C., and Ontario gets their hands on excellent health experts, then I say “Hurray for Canada” and I raise my cup of coffee to them (no beer in my fridge). 

So you all have a great day and if you are on the board of scientists at the CDC, consider the lakes, excellent trout and pike fishing. The air is clean and the people are mostly friendly (not too much to Maple Leaf friends), they revere the Winnipeg Jets. So that’s all for now and see you all on the flip side.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media, Politics, Science

N is for?

That is what I saw yesterday. Nintendo. I remember the Switch presentation and that was awesome and as I predicted, it overtook 3 yeas of Microsoft in a mere 14 months. At present they have sold over 150 million consoles, which is 500% of the Microsoft consoles sold, which also represents twice the amount of the Sony Playstation 5. That’s innovation at work, that is pure gamers joy. And now (say yesterday) they introduced the new console, the Switch 2 and it was pure joy to see buckets of innovation added to a great console. Its almost like watching the evolution of Playstation 1 to Playstation 2 all over again. I feel so giddy at present.

Let that not be the stopping power of wannabe reviewers with YouTube headlines like ‘Nintendo Switch 2 Is Disappointing’, ‘Nintendo Switch 2 Hands-on: An Exciting, Costly Sequel’ or ‘Nintendo Just Confused Everyone With The Switch 2’, these voices don’t matter. First off the presentation was clear. Three executives showed the Nintendo Switch 2 clearly and gave us buckets of innovation. First there is the chat button, where you can chat in the game with friends, or out of the game with friends. For parents there is a parental control for younger player, so they thought of almost everything. You can group chat in game (like Mario Kart World), every friend (up to 4) their own character and pose at times together for the in game picture. Then if you decide to include the camera (extra accessory) you can appear in the game at the bottom with audio, which has been given the option to reduce noise, so just the voice comes through. Clarity in its best form. As a Sony lover I am sad that they are overtaken by Nintendo and that trend will continue only with a much larger gap between Sony and Nintendo but that is the effect of true innovation and I am not sad for one second. I have my Switch 1 next to my PS5 and that is fine. 

So why is that good?
Because in 2002 Nintendo gave me Metroid Prime, an action adventure for the GameCube and now 23 years later that same game (remastered on Nintendo Switch) still gives me the buzz. It is gaming perfection and it still gives me chills to see these worlds, designed for a 40 MB memory system with a smaller drive system then either Sony or Microsoft had. It relied on on cards with a max of 32GB, which is still a lot more than a DVD. Now it gives us twice that on the game cards (up to 64GB) and the Switch 2 comes with 256GB of storage, a lot more than the predecessor. And that is before you consider the added settings of joy cons that can now be used as a mouse as well. The joy cons will now attach magnetically so there is no no sliding and the allows for in game changing as I see it. They also have a larger screen (7.9-in LCD screen, 1080p up to 120 Hz with HDR10 and VRR), but there is more. When you play it in the dock on the TV, 4K becomes possible (4K at 60 Hz via HDMI with HDR10 and VRR). All powerful innovations. And then Digital Foundry also gave me the setting “The Nintendo Switch 2 will apparently be able to handle Unreal Engine 5. Full article with Digital Foundry podcast with their source.” That means that my solution will now also with on Switch 2 giving them a handle on 50 million additional consoles, in a direction they never considered, sorry for the Amazon Luna, but first on in gets the jewelry. That is the power of innovation.

There is of course more, but I only have seen ‘clips’ for that and we get the setting that there is a lot more to have and Nintendo pulled it off, as I see it, Nintendo is about to become the king of gaming in several fields and Sony has its challenge ahead of them, because the Nintendo outsold the Playstation 2:1, so Playstation needs to look the other was (away from Microsoft) and focus on what Nintendo is bringing us in 8 weeks. I reckon that it will be possible for Nintendo to beat the first Switch and get up to 200 million consoles sold, which beats the Nintendo DS (154 million) and defeat all time rules PlayStation 2 with over 160 million sold, Nintendo Switch 2 is about to crunch records. I reckon that they will get there in under 2 years. Because that gives them Christmas 2025 and Christmas 2026 to beat these records and by what I saw in the presentation that will be very much possible. So, is there a downside? Yes, a minimal one. You see the Switch 2 requires the microSD Express card, the old one will not work. It is a minimal negative one especially as you consider all the extras you get right off the bat.

So I reckon that these bad boys will drop in price as well, because with 200 million more clients, prices drop fast. So whilst the world minus America gets to enjoy the Switch 2, America gets to grind their teeth, that is also the effect of tariffs, on the upside I just gave Nintendo the idea where they can get 50 million more systems sold. Oh and there is the one element I left out, the price. It is stated to be £395.99 (I used the UK price to not confuse the different dollar prices). That loser consoles (Microsoft) is still £479.99, the PS5 is £379.99 and the PS5pro is £699. So Nintendo did a great job giving us so much innovation at a competitive price. As a giggle I offer how Microsoft is setting the GamePass setting whilst most of the gamers in the world will go towards the Switch 2 pillar with their Nintendo eShop. 

So whilst America will go insanely jealous and negative on the Nintendo, they can blame the guy at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States for that setting. There is no reason why Nintendo needs to accept 10% tariff whilst the world is willing to accept the Nintendo right of the bat. That too is the game of gaming. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, IT

Software directions

That tends to be the norm, some software BI person looks at where the masses are and then shoots his net, so that he can catch the biggest population. And I (initially) tended to think the same way. We can call this the wrong way. 

So this started last night when Wired (at https://www.wired.com/story/can-gaming-save-the-apple-vision-pro/) gave me ‘Can Gaming Save the Apple Vision Pro?’, OK, I admit, the story was two weeks old, and none the less relevant to this conversation. Personally I didn’t know that the Vision Pro required saving, but that is my wimple setting. You see, new devices open up new frontiers and on November 9th 2024 I gave the world (apple too) ‘The Easy Lesson’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/11/09/the-easy-lesson/) and in under an hour I designed a near original game an adaptation from a world favorite game. Yes it took me less than an hour to think of a solution. 

Now there is another idea based on all time favorites and used in a very different different setting. You see, people look in the same direction over and over and hoping that something new hits them. I look in the opposite direction and that is why I have over half a dozen original IP settings and this one could bring Ubisoft the fortune it so immensely desired, the dream of growing to greatness. The funny part is that most of the work is done already. You see, schooling is required all over the world and the chances are that Ubisoft overlooked it. And apparently Timmy the Cook did too (said to be the CEO of Apple). 

The setting is larger to be considered as more and more need is out there for languages. OK, there are some hangups. But the larger setting becomes visible in mere minutes and 80% of the gamers have had that feeling, especially those who played any of the Assassins Creed games. You see, we all want to be that assassin, but the missed part is that they loved walking down the streets of Florence, Rome, The America’s, New York, Paris, London, Egypt, Greece, Iran and Japan. The one thing that Ubisoft excelled in were the graphics. When these games get upgraded to Unreal Engine 5 it becomes a very different game. Now on Apple Vision Pro (optionally MetaQuest as well) people can actually practice their language skills in a private setting and there are millions ready to get ready. Now there is no killing, there is no climbing all over the place. It becomes a walking setting, with optional reward settings and Ubisoft actually opened the door to this when they had the expansion The Discovery Tour added to the game AC Origin. It gave us a different setting to the game and also gave us just how deep they had taken the game. Now consider that we get access to languages English is gotten from AC Syndicate and Watchdogs Legion, and optionally AC3. French from AC Unity (when it is properly fixed), Arabic from Mirage, Italian and Latin from AC Brotherhood and optionally AC2, Greek and Egyptian from AC Origin, and most of the work is already done. Now there is one setting that takes precedence.

About a month ago I saw someone program a chatbot to take on scam centers. His view was that when they are held busy by chatbots, scammers cannot scam. But that impact is larger. People can now be set in chatbots engaging in the use of natural speech. As such there is a unification of skills and in that setting Ubisoft could offer a much larger population. According to ‘records’ in 2022, the United Kingdom had the most students learning English as a foreign language. There were approximately 262,400 students who were learning English as a second language that year, followed by Ireland with almost 116,000 foreign students. The third place ranking was completed by Canada, with around 105,000 students learning English as a foreign language. That implies a population of billions who want to learn English. When the modules are ready Ubisoft could cater to millions of people who want to learn any of these languages and with a subscription model they could cater to hundreds of thousands of them. To make it fun they could add the villa in Monteriggioni and as language assignments are completed they could get another painting added to the villa. There is also the notion that ‘midterms’ in several stages would upgrade Monteriggioni. You will not get a well and a few other things, but most other upgrades become possible. And as you engage with the people in Florence and Rome you could get lots of interactions. With Latin you get the added nun/priest outfits and get access to the old Vatican. Linguistic skills are valued globally and for those who want to learn Arabic there is the world of Mirage (just Bagdad) and there we will see what more there is to learn. Any language student gets assigned an address and as your skills progress you will get a ‘better’ address. All this was already possible and now it serves a much better purpose. There is classic English (AC Syndicate) and modern English (Watchdogs Legion) the setting already exist for the most. But the added setting of interactive chatbots will push the Ip to new heights and the graphic skills of Ubisoft have seldom been questioned (only in AC Unity). So this took a little more than an hour, but it was there for the longest of time. It just required Yves Guillemot to wake up to see what he had and now that this writing is out in the open, he could wake up and seek new frontiers. There is the thought that Unreal Engine might not be a solution everywhere, but it will give the most lifelike views on Vision Pro and MetaQuest. As such it just fits better. 

Software directions are out in the open. The trick is not to take the mundane direction that everyone seems to be taking. As such I offer this thought to the wannabe captains of industry.

Have a great day and think of what language you would like to learn, because that is a universal thought we all have. It might be that you want to learn the dead languages (Greek and Latin), you might want to broaden your horizon with English, French, Italian and Japanese and for those wishing to learn Spanish, a case can be made to include AC Black Flag. The rest? Well that gives a person a dozen languages to learn, but cases can be made for other languages as well. How that goes? It would be up to Ubisoft. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, IT, Media, Science, Tourism

The mostly ignored stage

This hit me yesterday in between all kind of other stuff I was brooding about. It was set off by thinking of something else. As I was replaying Hogwarts Legacy, was thinking about the collectors edition that was released on day one and at $599 that was not. Leap I was ready to make. That set another track n the rails. You see, most places are lacking Power-points and some have solutions for that, but the larger issue is ignored. You see when you put a few things together, you start wondering a few things. With night stand lamps, office lamps and all kind of lamps in every room, there is a clear setting to have these places ‘illuminated’ with USB-C ports, for all kind of reasons. Charging mobiles and other mobile devices. Collect gimmicks and as such the average gamer needs about 10 points of contact. The office person has their own need and a few more. But color me happy, the big boys (in this case IKEA) never seem to have acted on this. I saw one part on TEMU, so why is that largely overlooked?

Screenshot

Now, this TEMU contraption needs a power source and as it is a bluetooth speaker, an alarm clock, a nightstand, a charger for mobile, earbuds and watch this makes sense. But most people (like me) merely have a mobile and optionally a watch to charge. As such adding a USB-C to most lamps will solve the issue without people have to find connection points for charge ports. And as most will suffice with a 15 watt solution, most rooms will have the stage solved for iPad, Watch, Mobile, and optimally enough space for the a mobile wifi hotspot. And in an instance the required need for 5-8 charge points are reduced to a mere 1-2 spaces. Most solutions are done with in an instant when we add a USB-C port to most lamps. So why was this never done? Some will say it was the price. But if TEMU can offer a 5 charging station with bluetooth speakers and alarm clock for a mere $15, I reckon that the pricing isn’t it (or at least not anymore). 

Was it the required brainpower that was needed? Well it seems that these captain of industry (as they call themselves) are in dire need of an overhaul to say the least. 

So where did they leave their innovation? With their marketing department, whist the marketeers needed time to think over the term innovation. So far this decade I have only seen one innovative marketeer and that person is the Canadian Ryan Reynolds (probably he got assistance from that youthful young sprout Blake Lively in that regard), beyond that there was the Heineken marketing teams in the 80’s and 90’s. The rest are mostly iterative players on ideas already phrased in some ways. So where are the boffins? The fact that I have at least three goals over DARPA makes one think whether true innovation has left the field and its stadium of operation. And that was merely the upper soil tossed, there is a lot more under the rubble and where are those innovators? They seemingly left Apple almost a decade ago, Microsoft hasn’t given us innovation for decades and mostly that is regurgitated from ideas from way passed. We see that when we see Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 with the initial release date on November 19th 2024. There is no mention of the Flight Simulator 2020, which gives us “It is an entry in the Microsoft Flight Simulator series which began in 1982, and was preceded by Microsoft Flight Simulator X in 2006.” I remember that as I had the CBM64 edition (which set me back $299, and in 1985 that was serious cash), never regretted that move. It was the first time that I saw true innovation in the face of lacking resources and make no mistake, getting any flight simulator running on 64KB is an achievement. So when I saw the 2020 edition (I had the X version in 2010) blew me away, so seeing the 2024 version with an initial release data of that year kinda makes my blood boil (a little). To disregard innovators to that degree is not cool and it shows that big tech and their marketeers need to review what they think innovation is. 

And that takes me back to the present. As we see more and more items requiring a USB-C point, the idea of having this option inserted in laps (as such) gives us a much larger station for consideration. And the Collectors Edition is still desirable even after having played it several times over the last 25 months. So what will we do when another collectors edition requires a charge point and that is before we consider what other house smart ideas will grace our presence. Smart buttons, smart lights, smart speakers and all needing a USB-C point. So why didn’t IKEA (as merely one place) consider this option 1-2 years ago?That’s it for now, my Friday is almost gone, in Vancouver (the most eastern point of intelligence in the time line it starts in a little over an hour). Have a great day.

Leave a comment

Filed under IT, Media, Science

The old frame of thought

Today I had a small meeting (read: presentation to watch) and I got struck with an idea that would give that person 10,000 customers. She hadn’t thought of it, so now she has a new focus on clients. If she can solve one idea, she will have access to millions of users. That is all I have to say about that. You see this evening I was brooding (like I usually do) and I suddenly thought of an old idea. I haven’t seen anyone using this setting in today’s world and I had to giggle. You see, perhaps some have thought of the idea, but I had worked it out. And it is no longer a focus of mine. It is perhaps my weakness. I like to work out puzzles. When I have solved it the drive slows in me, it becomes a typing exercise and that is not what I am about.

The original idea (and it was programmed) in Clipper. A DBA’s faithful companion, the Nantucket Clipper compiler. And it was something I revered doing. So what was the puzzle. In the Netherlands, pub owners need to pay BTW (their version of VAT) over all the drinks they sell. A such I took a different path. You see, a bottle of booze is a known amount, each bottle represents X amount of drinks. And over the quarter they represent a set amount of VAT. As such I went with the setting of every bottle. Now to make the calculation, 17 drinks of spirits go out of a 750ML bottle. Now a bar gets their delivery of certain amount of booze. That ticket gets implemented in the system and you know what is due, now at the end of the quarter you do a stocktake and we get drinks minus stock equals VAT due. There was a second upside in this. As you get the list per brand, should the staff steal and ‘replace’ a few bottles. The equation sees that and you know you have a problem. 

So as the proprietor enters each receipt duly when it arrives, they would know ahead of time what is due and you won’t need an accountant to make the calculations, you merely hand over the printout and the setting is known. As such I made the program and that proprietor saved himself hundreds of dollars on accountant costs every quarter. In addition that you get a nice setting of revenue streams and you know where your settings are. So feel free to use this idea and get additional income streams. I did it decades ago and it is no longer interesting to me. I have other fries to fry. 

I just saw another puzzle, but as I am no longer a programmer, I might place it here is a few days (or I might hand it over to someone I like). Life is all about balancing points. So as I am listening to David Sylvian, I might brood a little more. Most likely on the setting I presented a few days ago (might have been a week) on the application of Eki stamps outside of Japan in all manners (I made a theme park mention) and I also made mention on another setting of Disney park and personal amateur video settings. For some reason my mind goes back to that, there seems to be more there. It seems that my mind is trying to alert me to unseen stuff. Not sure yet what to make of that, but I’ll work it out somehow. 

At present there is a gap from what I see and what I am missing, but there is enough time. At least I have given Amazon, Google and Microsoft a run for their money and they seem to come up short. Not really my problem, my mind keeps on creating, so off I go with a sample of snoring partially through the night. If I only could see what my mind is trying to tell me. Ah well. Such is life. So feel free to mould the idea I had decades ago into something you can sell. It is all yours.

Have a great day, i’ll be brooding a little while longer.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT

The tradeoff

That is at times the question and the BBC is introducing us to a hell of a tradeoff. The story (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0kglle0p3vo) is giving us ‘Meta considers charging for ad-free Facebook and Instagram in the UK’, the setting is not really a surprise. On April 10th 2018 we were clearly given “Senator, we run ads” and we all laughed. Congress is trying to be smart over and over again and Mark Zuckerberg was showing them the ropes. Every single time. There was little or no question on this on how they were making money. Yet now the game changes. You see, in the past Facebook (say META) was the captain of their data vessel. A system where they had the power and the collective security of our data in hands. There was no question on any setting and even I was in the assumption that they had firm hands on a data repository a lot larger than the vault if the Bank of England. That was until Cambridge Analytica and in March 2018 their business practices were shown the limelight and it also meant that Facebook no longer had control of their ship of data, which meant that their ‘treasure’ was fading. 

So now we get “Facebook and Instagram owner Meta is considering a paid subscription in the UK which would remove adverts from its platforms. Under the plans, people using the social media sites could be asked to pay for an ad-free experience if they do not want their data to be tracked.” It makes perfect sense that under the guise of no advertising, the mention of paid services make perfect sense. This is given to us via the setting of “It comes as the company agreed to stop targeting ads at a British woman last week following a protracted legal battle.” I don’t get it, the protracted legal battle seems odd as this was the tradeoff for a free service. Is this a woke thing? You get a free service and the advertising is the process for this. As such I do not get the issue of “Guidance issued by the regulator in January states that users must be presented with a genuine free choice.” This makes some kind of sense, so it is either pay for the service or suffer the consequences of advertising. And lets be clear the value of META relies on targeted advertising. What is the use of targeting everyone for a car ad when it includes the 26% of the people who do not have a drivers license. There is the addition that these people need to have an income of over $45,000 to afford the 2025 Lexus RX $90,350 which is about 30%. We can (presumptively) assume that this get us a population of about 20%-25%, so does it make any sense for Lexus to address the 100% whilst only one in four or one in five is optionally in the market? Makes no sense does it? As such META needs to rely on as much targeted advertising as it can. And as you can see, The advertising model, known as “consent or pay”, has become increasingly popular. And at some point they were giving the people “But it reduced its prices and said it would provide a way for users not willing to pay to opt to see adverts which are “less personalised”, in response to regulatory concerns.” That is partially acceptable, but I have a different issue. You see, I foresee issues with “less personalised”, apart from gambling sites, there is a larger concern that even as Facebook (or META) isn’t capturing some data. There is the larger fear that some will offer some services and now care about capturing collected data. For example sites outside the EU (or UK). Sites in China and Russia like their social sites that collect this data and optionally sell it to META. You see, there is as I currently see it no defense on this. Like in the 90’s when American providers made some agreement, but some of them did not qualify the stage of what happened to the data backups and those were not considered, when they were addressed it was years later and the data had left the barn (almost everywhere). 

There is a fear (a personal fear) that the so called captains of industry have not considered (I reckon intentionally) the need of replacing and protecting aggregated data and aggregated results. Which allows for a whole battery of additional statistics. Another personal fear is the approach to data and what they laughingly call AI. It is hard to set a stage, but I will try. 

To get this I will refer to a program called SPSS (now IBM Statistics) so called {In SPSS, cluster analysis groups similar data points into clusters, while discriminant analysis classifies data points into pre-defined groups based on predictor variables.}

So to get data points into a grouping like income to household types, this is a cluster analyses.

And to get household types onto data points like income to household types, is called a discriminant analyses. Now as I personally see it (I am definitely not a statistician) If one direction is determined, the other one should always fail. It is a one direction solution. So a cluster analyses is proven, a discriminant analyses to income ill always fail and vice versa. Now with NIP (Near Intelligent Parsing, which is what these AI firms do) They will try to set a stage to make this work. And that is how the wheels come of the wagon and we get a whole range of weird results. But now as people set the stage for contributing to third party parsing and resource aggregation, I feel that a dangerous setting could evolve and there is no defense against that. As I see it, the ‘data boys’ need to isolate the chance of us being aggregated through third parties and as I see it META needs to be isolated from that level of data ‘intrusion’. A dangerous level of data to say the least.

There is always a downside to a tradeoff and too many aren’t aware of the downside of that tradeoff. So have a great day and try to have a half cup of good coffee (data boys get that old premise)

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media, Science

In dubio

That is where I am at the moment, I am in a state of ‘when in doubt’. To give you the full picture I have to go back to (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/11/27/it-starts-with-options/) when on November 27th 2022 I wrote ‘It starts with options’ at that point I wrote in a single setting an addendum to the entire Harry Potter stage and I added the stage to add jobs to Hogwarts Legacy. In this case I created the wand-maker setting for the game, or better Hogwarts Legacy 2, to evolve the game you need to add specialization to the game and I added jobs. To add replay ability to a game I am in favor to set this to a wider session, as such I considered that a job is only available to three houses, and in one house it gives you a bonus throughout the game. You learn that lore in the first stage of the game, through books and notes I reckon. So that was the first setting I set out, yet today as I play the fourth time the game (last week) and I just watched (yet again) Harry Potter and the Half Blood prince. A thought occurred to me and I almost got to write is down.

So what’s keeping me?
Well, that is harder to explain. The initial writings was set to the game, there was no IP violation made and as I offered the text for free to Avalanche software (the people behind Hogwarts Legacy), I feel good about it. Add value to an IP I adore and handing it over to the makers seems like a good idea. Now it is different. I thought of an extension to either Hogwarts Legacy (as a DLC) or part of Hogwarts Legacy 2. This is still ok with me, however I might like it better if Avalanche Software would hand me (a copy) of the letter from JK Rowling of showing her blessing for the addition. I consider the wizarding world stuff the ownership of JK Rowling.

The addition I had in mind are the setting where the creation of creatures comes under fire. Side missions that teach you more about the creation of the Inferi (in this case) on who created it and how it is down. Then unravel the curse lessening the power of this and diminish the inferi in the game. There are two settings. One making the amount of inferi less, the second is making the level of inferi less and set the lower powered inferi to zero. I am not clear on how to proceed, then there are a few creatures that can have a similar setting, but I tend to be the believer in balancing a game, so as the inferi are lessened, another creature gets more powerful (or more of them). For example you reduce the inferi, the spiders can become more powerful. These are mere simple considerations I am making in the progress of creating lore for a game. 

And to that effect, also create a house setting. As I see it, that mission is different for a Slytherin as the game gives a dark wizard a more powerful option and if we consider the game. All houses can do it and I will remain possible, but the owner of dark spells get a more powerful outcome and members of the house of Slytherin gets a bonus option. It is still a simple thought which I haven’t ironed out yet in my brain, but that is the setting my brain is thinking off (at present).

Having house dependent side missions might be a good way to set the bar in the next game. Another setting is that this could be done in more ways. So let’s keep it to the Inferi mission. In that mission, you any house can get the mission if they clean out an inferi layer, but a book in house Slytherin gets them a prequel mission, that becomes a more powerful stage to resolve it and get a bonus to the inferi layer mission, which in this case I call the Finite Inferi achievement. 

I always loved replay ability for any RPG game, but as I saw in the Bethesda games, doing the same thing over and over again tends to become boring and for the most part Hogwarts Legacy is no different. But the first mission involving Jackdaw was a revelation, four different ways to get there, the rest remains the same, but as we create more settings, we can enjoy the same game in different ways for much longer than we ever considered and jobs was one way, the houses are another way to give more options to the joy of gaming and as we gain that setting we could also opt for your own place to live with the option to modify your house your way and the setting is that you can only own one house and every house student (or former house student) can only own one house, they can buy a different house later on (more expensive), but the old house will be lost to you. I also thought of the mission where you could restore and own the house of Professor Rackham, it is where the game begins. This gave me the idea to incorporate the Wizarding world currency and push the use of Knuts, Sickles and Galleons. Yet the galleons are the ‘big incomes’ and that is required to get enough to own the bigger houses and at some point when you have enough it will open up a special venture. These are mere thoughts, but it is a direction that Avalanche can go for. So now wonder what is keeping some big game makers to become innovative in their strides, but that might merely be me.

Have a great day, I am almost at the midweek. I got there 43 minutes ago. Vancouver has to wait (or work) for another 15 hours to get there too. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Gaming, IT

A simple question

I question arrived in my mind today. You see, The Times of Israel gave us roughly one day ago ‘Ballistic missile fired at Israel from Yemen lands in Saudi Arabia’. This setting is given to us by both the Times of Israel and All Israel News. Yet that setting is not given to us by the New Arab, Arab News, Al Jazeera or a few other news media. So, I need to wonder, is this news filtered, did it really happen, or is there another reason?

I reckon that if Saudi Arabia is hit, there is a larger need to take out these terrorists. But I merely see a one sided news and other (western News media) give us nothing. So I need to wonder, what is going on.

My main reason is that I no longer trust the media to give us the goods and the question becomes. Why aren’t we given the news, why are some people giving us optionally disinformation and why is this done? There is a reason for Saudi Arabia not giving ‘us’ the news if the missiles landed in that huge litter box called ‘the desert’ and they decided that it wasn’t worth mentioning this. Is the Israeli media trying to convince the local population that Saudi Arabia is under attack, but the Saudi’s are refusing to answer that call, as to leave the Israeli’s to believe that they are alone in this fight? All reasons, but which one is true? That is the question I come to as the media is regarded as less and less reliable.

So what is the news? This is important as Al Jazeera reported a little over 3 hours ago ‘US fires on Sanaa as campaign against Yemen’s Houthis continues’ as news goes ‘per minute’ the western media should have been on top of this, especially American media. From their side, AP News merely give us the news 47 minutes ago. As I personally see it, the fact that Al Jazeera is more on top of this then American sources gives us a debatable setting. What gives, and why does the (speculative) accessible news go through stake holders? There is a larger question on settings and I seemingly see it more and more people are (read: should be) left with questions. 

This is the simple question that I have. It is not my imagination, the media (at present) has less credibility than the average drug pusher and that is not a good thing. The problem here is verification of the news given to us. The Media (as I personally see it) seems to be in hands of stake holders who seem to filter what is ‘need to know’ to us and this has been going on for a few years and as such I look at more and more media sources. The media stakeholders all have their own ‘needs’ and filter as such. Feel free to doubt my written words (which is always a good idea), but when you consider what others decide to give us and what is filtered as ‘trivial’ becomes a new age stage. In an age where multicultural sides are conflicting with what is filtered, there is the larger question that is prepping my mind. You see, what news is filtered away from Muslims in the western world. What news is filtered away from Asian and Latin Americans in the western world. If only there were rainbow tables that do that. Because I personally suspect that people are filtering the results of what Google gives people set to localisations of the reader. It is hard to find evidence of that setting, but that is a personal consideration I am left with. There is also the chance that for example Arab News might not be searchable outside of the Arabian Peninsula, I get that, but whether that is the case is the question. 

It leaves me with the stage that there is a larger gap in the schooling of people. We all (me included) need to learn on where we can set the ability to have access to some news. And that is a side that is not on Google, it is on us and on the publisher, but there is a larger stage where publishers could limit the visibility their news to limit the bandwidth approach of their internet workings. There are several options. Yet as I see it. The fact that Al Jazeera had it for three hours and AP News for less than an hour remains a setting that I expected more than these two. Several newspapers should have had that news (for example: the Guardian, the Observer, the Times, LA Times, San Francisco Courier, Boston Globe) and several others, so why were they absent from the searches?

Do you not think that these papers should have given their local populations the goods as America attacks Houthi positions? Just a simple question really.

So, have a great day and if you are in Toronto, enjoy your early breakfast, I’ll have tomorrow’s breakfast in Sydney in 6 hours.

Leave a comment

Filed under IT, Media, Military, Politics

Recalling the idea

I was in a stage yesterday when I got a little too much ‘creativity’, as such two idea’s revisited me. The first was a good one, the use of AR (Augmented Reality) in malls. I wanted to add more functionality in the new IP and in part I succeeded. That idea was warped in a second setting that I also described in a previous article. The application towards real estate was achieved as I looked in the application towards Dubai, I realized that a quote in the Middle East Economy “Dubai’s residential sector saw 32 percent sales growth in 2024, reaching $99.9 billion, driven by investor interest” this implies that the 100% gives us 312 billion, now as I see it, the IP could bring at a mere 2% an added 6 billion. I use conservative numbers and this is merely Dubai. I believe that due to segmentation of the housing market the IP could be a lot more powerful. Taking in consideration places like New York, London, Stockholm, Paris, Riyadh and a few other places, the revenue becomes very interesting. This part I had figured out already. The setting had novel parts and as it could work in a 24:7 setting the larger stage is the missing of idle time and when people are drawn to a place or location. 

Screenshot

I was considering the addition. The setting of an information stand that is in ‘always on mode’ and when people can use the setting because of the setting of any particular mall, the provider merely needs to have a stall, or an arrangement, and the screen will promote in an interactive way the availability of property. And as the mobile app looks at where you are, this could work in any place. A stall is not a requirement, merely an available screen. A mere 2% represents billions in Dubai. Likely less in other places but it will still an impressive amount and in New York City recorded over $28 billion in investment sales in 2024, this implies an optional 560 million in revenue. So the setting is worth exploring. With two screens you can cover residential and business locations in several ways. Still, this is a mere application, I was looking for innovation in my application and we can add information, but that is as I see it mere iteration. The application off the Lightbox advertisement, which is merely a media box is a setting we can see in simple ways. The innovation could be seen by setting this ad in numerous ways of advertising, but that in itself is not innovative enough. Adding isn’t enough and there is a chance that it lessens the impact. So where is the innovation? As I see it, at present I got that IP nearly maximized, but I do think more can be done. In the other IP, the setting of smart ware, the IP has enough in Malls, but there is a setting to add smart collection to the app and if we can add locations (like different malls we visit) we get additional settings and that could add a new notches on the revenue streams. But that setting isn’t enough. 

As I saw one side, I also saw the side of a darker collection/distribution setting. One that does not get ‘governmental’ approval. But the mind does no distinguish that, the mind merely wants to expand the IP it created and expand on it. Perhaps it is not a good idea, perhaps it is. In a world where they are setting on greed and whilst these captains of industry all hide behind their AI and leave revenue on the ground, I found billions in revenue, but how to collect on this? The problem is that most Americans either steal or want all of the revenue. I do like to get a nice settlement fee. As such I have to hope for the eager person that collects on my ideas will leave me a nice sum. Half a dozen IP, I reckon one will leave me with a nice retirement sum and if that fails the showing of my IP in this blog will leave me with something.

Still that is a worry for later. For now I merely want to improve on what my mind did create. Two of the IP’s are as ready as they can be. I believe that the AR stage could some more improvement, but that also requires the AR servers to be deployed. I can only see the creation improve as it is set to some degree of deployment. The AR setting is clear, I wrote about it several times. But beyond that there is little I see, I saw the application for shops, the setting for Bookshops, jewelry and to some degree fashion and the application of branding. From there we can see the interaction with the Real Estate app (in the original setting) and the application of smartwear. With the AR servers, any shop that has multiple locations could directly be applied to all servers and optionally in several national settings. As such there are the a few more impediments and the stronger setting comes out over larger shops. After all the US has 113,000 malls. So when you add the EU and the Arabic nations, it becomes a nice revenue settings. That gave gave me the idea to set the Japanese idea of Eki Stamps. That idea could be set to a larger stage in a larger book with social media and online settings. So what happens when you have a book and every mall and theme park you enter will give you additional pages and whenever you are near of in a ride the stamp will get automatically added, so in the end you will get a more and more robust and impressive collection? That was the setting that was brooding in my mind when I looked at the setting of Ferrari world and WaterWorld (both in Abu Dhabi) and over time museums and other places will add to this improving the value and acceptance of the idea and that gives a rather nice setting. And when one theme park has it, the others will all follow that is the simplicity of the idea I had. So tell me now, how innovative have these so called captains of industry been?

A setting that adds an entire cog of technology and innovation all by itself (with a little cerebral assistance from yours truly). 

As such I am still looking to add to the IP my mind created and create new gaming IP. I feel fine. I was able to outdo Sergei Brin, Larry Page, Jeff Bezos, Satya Nadella, Andy Jassy and a few others. Too bad I am not that rich (adding the delusional ‘yet’ to this). 

But the journey of creating the IP was a great ride by itself. Oh, I just remember the stage I had created for Adobe. I should give that a few more thoughts. It started with a weird dream, but the dream is still accessible and it is high time that I make the Microsoft Wannabe’s squeal. Perhaps an idea for tomorrow.

Have a nice Sunday. Vancouver will follow us in 13 hours.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Science

Twinkletoes

Yup, this happens to us all. Even the non-dancers. Twinkletoes means “used to refer to someone who is a good dancer or who moves lightly on their feet”, I accept that, but as I personally see it, it Also stages the person who has the situation that the person “who is a thinker or who moves swiftly in their brain” the same situation applies. I have been iterating new IP through existing games for over two days now (and it is really exhausting). I have been making new iterations to my version of Elder Scrolls 6: Restoration, a new FarCry (based on the legendary FarCry 3), the new RPG I have set on paper here, new iterations of commerce (in the RPG’s) and added a setting to a new stealth RPG (not a new Assassins Creed) and a very new approach to Watchdogs 5: Observations (in its earliest infancy), I had already commenced Watchdogs 4 to paper (somewhere on this blog) and it plays in modern day Japan. I changed the setting to Sapporo, as this is relatively new in gaming and as such there is novelty in new locations and the story requires a harbor setting. And this has been merely the last two days, although the original setting were created up to 5 years ago, with the setting of Restoration (TES6) almost 10 years ago. So as I am driven to near exhaustion as my brain is in twinkletoe mode, I can assure you that it is merely my version of overly active brain syndrome (perhaps there is a medical term for it) and it is leaving me a little tired. As it the case, it did give me the setting of Watchdogs 5, the issue here that it is a networking setting as the game goes in pairs. 

It is also less action driven, but more activity driven, as such you can be the hacker or the Agent in this game, there is a larger setting that you as one or the other can give clues to a fellow on the other side of the isle and the goal is to create a more robust observation and detection system. The frail setting of certain systems allows for actions to be monitored on CCTV, the internet and personal observations. The thought came to me as I was remembering 1985 video game Hacker by Activision. It was designed by Steve Cartwright and he got it done on a system with a mere 64KB, too what happens when we throw some real power to it? What happens when we unite agents and hackers and run the system from both ends? Can this result in a much more robust system? What happened when the game adds zero day faults (Apple has a few, Microsoft has tons as I personally see it). So what happens when we set these stages in motion and it is not merely point and click, so why happens when a Palantir (Gotham) system is thrown into the mix? I am merely postulating now, the reasoning that games could also instruct or teach people on how vulnerable they are in real life. 

As we move from station to station, some might remember the game V (based on the 1983 TV series), you merely run to a point and activate that system to let the red fumes inhabit the space station (I think that was what I was supposed to do), but add a section based on Portal (by Rob Swigart, 1986) you can get a lot more. That is the setting that I see when we set a game like Hacker to a much larger stage and at that point it is new IP, not merely some variation of IP, but a much larger stage and totally new. A game that teaches, informs and trains the next stage. As we now see that programmers are programming bots to keep scammers uselessly busy, we can grow more mundane and more intense in almost any direction. And it is a new endeavor, not some wannabe drip drip copy, but something totally new. Just like the makers of Chipwits (by Epyx, 1984) made a new version a larger and more enticing version on these newer systems, we can grow many games in new jackets and larger premises to new heights. And these systems have the computation powers to net the stage much larger. We can use the setting of the Balance of Power and add a few cogs to make it a much larger machine. And as Chipwits has a new version 42 years later in a much larger setting, we can do this in many ways and I wrote about them around 4 years ago. The new IP set on original ideas and stupidly discarded by this who thought the new horizons require better games, all whilst these games are the timeless golden oldies. We saw and forgot what Millennium 2.2 brought on the Commodore Amiga with 1024 KB on 150ns. Now we have systems (and mobiles) with 32000 times more memory and more than 15000 times more storage whilst the processors are over 250,000 times faster. You can really go to town on those merits and create the larger setting on several stages. I said that this was part of the 50 million Amazon Luna sales that I foresaw and some are in such stages now, but as I saw it Amazon stayed asleep and like Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin (1864) they went with that setting in the trend of “There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them” and the left billion on the floor all relying on the AI hype. I was thinking on that last week, there is no AI and I see it as NIP, Near Intelligent Parsing (making it NIP avoiding the confusion with IP). A setting that is overlooked, because as there is no AI, they all shout, so what is it then? Well, it is near intelligent, there is no real intelligence at present and it is set to the programmers who are parsing data and ideas into new (flawed) data. You see, a lot of this is intelligence and it almost get you there, but not entirely, the training models are set to more and more likely outcomes but there are percentages that are off and that is where the shoe becomes the wrong fit and I reckon that when these errors hit ADNOC and ARAMCO both will want some legal satisfaction and it might be a few years away, but it will happen, because the distance between real AI and NIP will be the size of the Grand Canyon (which these AI proclaimers will deny) and as they throw more complex legal documents at the customers they will get out to ‘their’ field retired and non-accountable to any legal discourse. It is almost like bad mortgages sold (or swapped) to new owners and they get out. Yet this field is the new wild west and I refuse to become part of it. And what happens, I saw the new stages of income based on old software. The Atari 600/800, Atari ST, CBM64 and CBM Amiga gave us over 10,000 games between 1983 and 1999. So if we only take the highest scoring 10% we get 1000 games. Now 30%-50% have IP protection, but I saw the override in new IP in a few ways and these are valid options as I see it and that implies that that ‘great’ (not really) game brand Microsoft, left thousands of options on the floor whilst they went to spend billions on something that I not panning out. You see, where it all becomes a new kind of hustle, all whilst for over two years I have written on other means to get revenue? And I am not done yet, because as I see it, the more I write here, the more revenue I show and the more IP I give here, the weaker the bog tech firms show themselves to be. A simple setting with simple outcomes and the best gig becomes that should someone copy the IP I set here, the bigger the losers biotech becomes. A simple equation to the question what makes for a good game?

That leaves me with the question, is there a mental setting to Twinkletoes? It is merely a mental thing in me, the question I cannot answer has a larger appeal than most other things in life. Have a great day and if you wonder what bag I left here? I do some things with intent, you can’t give away the game and here is the setting. In November 2018 I wrote ‘It’s about time, slappers only’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2018/11/29/its-about-time-slappers-only/) the premise to Watchdogs 4, and the larger player would be the one with Meta Glasses, before Meta even had glasses, I call them Google Glasses. As such I was ahead from META by years. And as I see it, I have done so a few times with games and when we see Software companies make ‘innovative’ claims (hardware suppliers too) I get to be front and central in their claims showing them what I had created years ago. I reckon that I am mere steps to show what I had months if not years from what Bernard Arnault apparently had created whilst I had the setup in my bog (and more) close to a year before they made their AR (Augmented Reality) claims through LVMH. I was a few steps ahead of them and I made it common goods in my blog before March 21st 2023 in ‘The unplanned story’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/03/21/the-unplanned-story/) and all the wannabe innovators (no referral to Bernard Arnault) can go suck an egg. As I said, have a great day with an optional game or two, because gaming makes the brain go in innovative mode.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Gaming, IT, Science