Category Archives: IT

Don’t take my word

That is serious, especially in this case. My inner paranoia hit overdrive at the sight of an image. They have been pasting sales pitches all over LinkedIn and they are clever about it. Yet, I believe they left a dangerous premise on the floor and that was where I came up and basically said ‘Are you serious?’

The image below started all this.

The added text 

Drove my paranoia into overdrive. Why you ask? Well simple. 2023 had (according to some sources) a mentioned total of 2,814 breaches. This converts towards 8,214,886,660 breached records. There is no clear OS or system and it is nowhere near the total. The amount of people deciding not to report this because of no coverage is apparently astounding. Now consider the image above and now a hacker doesn’t just get access to one stream. That hacker suddenly gets access to ALL streams. This is a hackers wet dream in development.

The issue that I state that you cannot take my word is that I am unaware just how good (or how bad) their cyber security is. They are so driven to create awareness that they seemingly forgot to hand cyber awareness the limelight it deserves. Microsoft has been the target of hackers for a long time and this is NOT in Microsoft. This is a whole range of issues (some Microsoft) and that is the problem. Now we see a solution that links all these social media connectors? I shover at the thought.

Now what I would have done is to create 2-3 white papers on how secure that solution is. How (to some degree) the protection plays. I get that we do not need to feed hackers, but I missed a large setting of marketing effort to keep IT people at rest on this solution. For example, the Optus breach of 2022 was set in three stages. One was a public-facing API. Two, the open API facilitated access to very sensitive customer data and three was the use of incrementing customer identifiers. Three settings that have hackers a way to 2.1 million of its customers and their identity documents. Now consider that you have a funnel API linking ALL your social media data. Can you even comprehend the possible damage that this ‘luxury’ brings? Now, perhaps the security of Funnel is top-notch. Yet in this, I would have started with this, especially as hackers got access to almost 3,000 systems comprising over 8 billion breached records. It isn’t merely that I would have done it differently. It is essential for everyone to become cyber savvy and no capturing emails. Send this out to whomever wants to read it. So don’t take my word for this, check the data, check the company and check their claims. Security is important. Marketing gets paid to do their job and making things easy for them is optionally making things easy for hackers.

You really don’t want to do that. You see hackers created a total income for themselves of $20,000,000,000 in 2021, which is 5700% more than in 2015. You see why hackers do what they do? You really want to make it ‘easier’? Now if Funnel does have top notch security (and I hope they do), lets hope they wisen up and make sure everyone sees that too because their solution does look appealing, but until I am certain, anyone installing that solution on my corporate server gets to be hung until death from the chandelier in the board of directors meeting room. Safety and security, there is no substitute.

Enjoy your weekend.

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Evolutions towards the third cog

There was a side in one of my IP, the one that Google squandered and Amazon decided that they don’t need 50 million subscriptions, that one. There was a side that I never pondered on too deep. You see that part has more than one side. One side was the people and my IP is all about protecting them. Yet there is a global need for advertisement and I accept that, I merely don’t want that junk on my work desk. It needs to be available when the CONSUMER thinks they need it, not when the advertiser states that they know when a consumer needs it. 

These two fames of mind the (shortsighted) advertiser and the consumer need a buffer. There are a few other parts in this, but this is taking certain concepts and turn them into global options. As such my mind designed the system to be this strong willed, optionally that far ahead thinking. As such (my mind) who realises that AI does not yet exist did consider adding the deeper learning systems to be part of this, after all the consumer wins and 50,000,000 winners cannot be wrong. That being said, the sight of additional IP, parts I had designed in an isolated setting and if working, a mere increase of 1% amounts to 650,000,000 dirham. Take that concept global and it starts amounting to serious amounts. A setting that no one considered and for the life of me, I cannot see why. It was out in the open for the longest time. 

The mind started to consider additional sides. You see, social media where the consumer is the centre piece, brushing against commerce when it conveniences THEM has as far as I can tell never been explored to a serious degree and now the UAE (most likely first in line) get a serious addition to consider with a player like Tencent Technologies. That part was never contemplated by me as I was looking at different IP parts, but they could be connected. It only needs the mapping API and that is where Google comes back into the frame. You see “The Google Maps Platform is a set of APIs and SDKs that allows developers to embed Google Maps into mobile apps and web pages, or to retrieve data from Google Maps.” So until Amazon has its own Mapping part, or until Tencent releases their mapping part a new event rises to the occasion and there my mind started to mull things over. Three elements that can be connected and two of them globally. Facebook doesn’t have it and Google squandered part of it. They still have important parts, but overall they left it on the floor, all whilst they had an option to be the only contender in 2021. There is another case, but I know too little. You see last September we were given “the UAE’s efforts to embrace advanced technologies are set to drive the country’s economic growth and cement its position as a global leader in technology and innovation.” I never looked into that, because my IP wasn’t up to scrap then. There was also the small desire to sell it all to the Kingdom Holding Co. The little I knew of Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud gave me the idea that he would welcome turning a starting (a speculated: my starting) 30 million into his presumed 6,000,000,000 annually. There is now a lot more on the dinner table as this could explode into all directions leaving the owner with a lot more. How much more? I have no idea. My mind is still mulling over the third cog. You see, in the end the total revenue is unimportant to me. It is creating the new stage that big-tech ignored and optionally trivialised. And with the Kingdom Holdings having a stake in the Citigroup, their growth seems almost a certainty. But that is not on my plate. You see I need to remain focussed on serving the consumers. Only then will the IP be globally accepted and there is a lot to be had there. All the others claim to think of their consumers. So how many advertisements were added to your timeline, were shown whilst you were playing a game, were shown whilst you were browsing family news? Try counting these advertisements and see where you stand. 

The fun part?
Google had a massive advantage here, yet they decided to drop the Google Stadia making Amazon the only option (Microsoft is not considered a worthy contender). That was until Tencent Holdings came out with their solution and now the picture changes even further. Now that there is a premise to link certain IP there is a larger station to change the image of revenue. I believe that consumers do not care that YOU make a dollar or two, they just don’t want to be faced with that fallout and advertisement is pure fallout. That is one part they all agree on. Now consider that people can spend their money only once and that gives you a new train of thought. This isn’t some spiel on the margins this is a new definition on how the pie is cut up and the other players will have to do with a much smaller piece of their slice. Not at first mind you, but like all growth settings when margins grow the others lose their margins and that turns to a smaller piece of the pie.

Feel free to disbelieve this, but I have been writing about this since November 2022 (it might have been December 2021). The timeline shows me to be correct. 

So as I am about to face Saturday, Vancouver is only now starting Friday, and as such, only 16 minutes ago former PM Najib Razak got his sentence reduced (time joke).

Enjoy the day and the upcoming weekend.

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The Apple conundrum

Yup, it is a mystery and honestly I do not get it. Now lets be clear they haven’t done anything wrong. But a few cogs started grinding after an article in the Guardian. The article (at https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/dec/11/apple-macbook-pro-m3-review-beloved-laptop-is-back-in-black-battery-screen) was placed last year, on December 11th. There we see the new MacBook Pro and it is a beauty, especially when you have been exposed to silver editions for about a decade, that jet black is a black diamond, nothing less. It isn’t cheap, but the Apple M3 Max chip with 16‑core CPU, 40‑core GPU and 16‑core Neural Engine can be upgraded to 128GB RAM (I would select the 64GB RAM for sentimental reasons) and can be upgraded with 8TB storage, a little much to my liking, so I would chose the 4TB edition. I wrote some time ago about an Apple/Adobe deal and Apple should consider it for the configuration I am ‘considering’. You see vloggers either go big or they can go home. The market is that way and too many are working below par. They either strap up or become irrelevant and the MacBook pro could allow for that. But that is not why this article is here. You see, Apple has another stallion in its stables

The old iMac’s were not my thing (I had the G4, G5), the old iMac didn’t do it for me, this one is a beauty and for vloggers the workstation to have, or is it? You see the iMac can only have 24GB of RAM, which is enough for the bulk of all vloggers, but the limit of 2TB is not. I have no idea why Apple didn’t allow for the upgrade to 4TB. Now, with the vlogging groups and medium format digital camera’s (at 100MP), having 4TB makes perfect sense. Why don’t the people at Apple see that? Doing the Microsoft path with extra external drives doesn’t hold the mustard. And this is not a time setting, the MacBook Pro is out for a while now, that means that in addition to that, Apple had 3-8 months to mull things over. So why wasn’t this done? The iMac is gorgeous, as such any vlogger would love many hours behind their workstation with that 24” screen making their videos look absolutely perfect. And yes, to get that level of result Adobe is pretty much a minimum requirement. Nothing against the GoPro and its software, which (as far as I have seen it) is pretty good, but today’s vlogger needs to edit and past basic options the only real player here (with no competition) is Adobe. 

All this is pretty much basic information out in the open, am I the only one seeing that? Consider that 2TB is a lot, but it already needed the operating software, other software (whatever you also need it for) and 100GB for the complete Adobe suite (as far as I can tell), now at this point you will see that 2TB is enough. However, 4K vloggers need 45GB per hour, as such you require the max of that iMac within a year and then you better clean up fast and much of it. This is why the 4TB is enough and gives you enough time. Consider one project, 2 hours, editing space that is quickly amounting to 200GB space, so 5 of these and the first TB is gone. Space gets lost pretty quick and those salespeople relying on you keeping your space clean have never considered the creative mind. This is why the 4TB matters and the MacBook Pro does that (even more then needed), so why wasn’t the iMac offered that option at present? I get that it might not have been an option when it released, but now? And consider that this requirement was clearly visible for almost a year. The lack of space doesn’t make sense to me. Should that person rely on medium format digital camera’s that space gets lost even faster. Consider that this could allow for PSD files up to 2GB (their Maximum), consider that a photoshoot could be anything between 50-300 images making this a 600GB nightmare and nightmare is the right word. You see any pro photographer has 1-2 photoshoots a day and managing system space is not their highest priority, making the Apple stance even less comprehensible (to me at least).

I see a lack of interactions, a lack of outreach to the photographer environment (a slight assumption) and in all this Apple is coming up short. What frightens me is that I expect these shortcomings from Microsoft, to see them from Apple is a little bewildering. But that could be me.

Enjoy your day.

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Pushing buttons

That is the name of the exercise and this time it is not just having a go at Microsoft, it is time to call Apple to attention as well. You see we have been pushing buttons on a keyboard for years, optionally for decades. Yet when did we see ACTUAL evolution in these contraptions? The most interesting evolutionary step was seen in CSI Miami in 2002 when an episode evolved around a laser keyboard display.

It didn’t go far enough, but it was a start, since then for 20 years. two hundred and forty months no less, both Apple and Microsoft have been spinning all kinds of innovation, but leaving a larger gap. You see, the world is globalising and both were part of that, but they never embraced the world, they merely pushed American values which are not the same.

Now consider this image below. The black keys are small LCD screens (or something similar). 

This is not a leap, this technology, all parts exist. On the iMac you can literally change the keyboard on your screen, a decent case can be made to make the iPad the Keyboard to ANY other Mac, but that is a different conversation. You see, the next part makes sen se if you know more than one language, this example shows us an Arabic version.

A setting that many have seen (millions actually). Japan, China, Korea, Arabic Nations, Pakistan, Ukraine and that list goes on for a while, even in Europe (France, UK) they have different setups. 

So here is the screen below

A simple example from Hiragana. With a home font (the white character) and Hiragana. This was not rocket science. The elements have been around for DECADES and Apple kept itself asleep at the wheel (no one cares about that snoring dumbo Microsoft). A setting that is strangling market research, Advertising and any corporations with foreign needs. I get it, such a keyboard (for now) isn’t cheap (expected $399), but over time as these edges of technology are explored more and more, the prices will go down and two multi trillion companies couldn’t figure this out? And Apple is even in more hot water. They could have set this up by having an iPad (which has 99% of these abilities) at the ready, to make that iPad a Bluetooth keyboard for any other Mac (MacBook or iMac) and they just didn’t look that far? Too many blinders mister Timmy the Cook? 

I wrote about these part (not to the complete degree now) a few years ago and none of these two entertainment jollies (clowns seem too harsh an expression) didn’t catch up? This is the issue with those proclaiming innovation and iterating themselves into the next decade year after year. Innovation comes from making the jump no one else considered and commerce is nice. You see when Apple comes with this idea at $399, someone will reengineer the idea into a $129 solution that works. It is iteration grown from innovation, but Apple made the innovative step, from there evolution comes. Was that hard? 

Are there issues?
Of course there are. Pricing might be a problem, but the keyboard has been neglected for decades, time to open that rusty door. In the end Apple can only start the setting, what comes next is up to the actual innovator. At the ready the iPad could become the start of new Bluetooth technology, which could lead to iPad based keyboards (more rectangle) and with a decently stronger screen. All options in front of the eyes of the Apple cook who seemingly overlooked it all and never looked beyond the blinders they all had. And as for the issues. Is it my job to fix all their shortcomings? Nope it is not, but with the IP at the ready and optionally a massive pay package, I can hand over some idea showing the others that I have a much stronger hand that is not out in the open (Amazon take notice please). You see Amazon could see this too, which means that multi character set design systems will take a much larger stage next, a stage that Azure/Oracle doesn’t actively has and that gives opportunity. You see the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is investing $200,000,000 in all kinds of IT solutions, the UAE has a $2,000,000,000 portfolio ready for startups. 2.2 billion and Amazon has options, so who else is asleep at the wheels (plural intended). Is it all to be had? Of course not, but gaining a slice of a 2.2 billion dollar cake is better then nothing and some people need to realise that the Middle East is here to stay and it is investing. So why not wake up, have a coffee and see where that could lead you? 

It is merely a thought, but who else gave you the option to consider a slice of a 2.2 billion yummy cake? And it all started with a keyboard, so where are these so called innovators now?

Enjoy Monday. 

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That one sided conversation

We all have them, we tend to have them with ourselves. We see things, at time we extrapolate and we come to singular conclusions. I did too. You see, ever since we have been treated to Pretty Woman (1990) we al wanted to see Rodeo drive, we wanted to see the shops and during the first covid we all took that option and had a look. However, most of us felt slightly betrayed. The view was not what we expected and today I looked at three other YouTube videos. The bulk is concentrated on the block surrounded the via Rodeo. The shops seem empty, some shops show nothing outside (or very little) and Rodeo drive is diminished to a crowd of tourists and vloggers with here and there a person quickly walking to or from their jobs. The other side is that Dubai has the mall of the emirates, the Nakheel mall that are on par with Rodeo drive and the Dubai Mall outshines Rodeo drive by a lot. And you might wonder why Dubai is such a sought after destination? The Americans let things slip all over the place and the turning point is just about here. I reckon it is already here for Las Vegas and as we see what tranquility, cleanliness and amazing views we get from these malls, as well as malls in Riyadh and you wonder why. London might have Harrods and it is amazing, but London is showing additional issues making Harrods and the streets surrounding it unsafe for tourists and shoppers. The downfall will be harsh and it is getting worse. The malls in the UAE and KSA have options towards driving engagement, making these places even more appealing. Places like Rodeo Drive and London have waited too long and there is a clear indication that their revenues cannot be maintained and the solution was online (my blog) well over two years ago. It was creating engagement. Engagement is only working if you have a population that you can serve and that is missing outside the middle east. Where was the Rodeo drive diner, preferably filled with people? Where were the real shoppers? They might show revenue for now, but when did we see a real stage of physical versus online revenue? In the Dubai mall I see shops and well over 75% show shopping and buying people during the YouTube pass. People eating, people drinking, people walking (not vlogging) dozens of eateries and many of them filled with people. The vlogging and posing women on via rodeo aren’t showing too much shopping, are they? Now, lets be clear. I could be wrong, but I feel certain I am not. I warned about creating engagement, they did nothing. I warned about creating awareness and too little was done. Now we see things changing. Even the Eaton Centre Mall in Toronto shows more live and living shoppers than Rodeo drive does, so how’s that for leaving it in the middle east? I get the distinct feeling that should Riyadh and Dubai embrace engagement, the impact on London, Paris, Amsterdam, New York and Los Angeles will be felt to a much larger degree. The equation was not a mystery, it was simple and it has been simple for over a decade. The customers expect more and too many places aren’t showing any. Engagement was key in this and it was ignored. The moment some of the jewellers in Dubai show the engagement solutions I had thought up the change will be close to immediate a race in time will happen. Oh, I almost forgot about Monaco. They are good for now, but they too need to embrace an engaging nature. They recorded 218,400 tourists and they are not doing bad, but the idea is to address this before it turns bad and so far they (seemingly) haven’t done enough. The dozen of hot women and fast cars videos seem nice, but one video tells it nearly all. Monaco has a lot more to offer and videos clearly show this, but when the  numbers dwindle the act of engagement is shoddy and optionally too late. These solutions tend to work when there is too much to see, too much to do and too many places left that alone for too long. Optionally they relied on the wrong numbers and the wrong stories, but this is pure speculation from my side.

Consider that the Dubai Mall has all the best brands of the world, all the sought after brands and articles for purchase and they are a zero tax nation. You still think that my feel is wrong? Some people travel to Dubai just to get the new iPhone at 0% taxation. If you are willing to do that, the rest seems easy to place and engaging your customers becomes a dream ride to keep revenues up. Oh, and here (unlike in London) you can buy a watch and walk safely home. So this might be one sided, but I am leaving you with enough pointers that you can verify for yourself.

In a one sided conversation, the best you can hope for is for someone else to listen (or read), I leave it up to you to decide.

75 minutes to Sunday for me. Have fun.

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The spindle web

That is a setting I pushed myself into. You see, as I was revamping the issues of RPG, I found another way to use the IP of Vint Cerf in a way no one considered before. I came up with this as early as June 10th 2023 in ‘How to ping a delusional mind’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/06/10/how-to-ping-a-delusional-mind/)

This game me a jolt to say the least, but the issue of grinding kept on banging in my mind. There is an upside and a downside. The upside is that grinding can get you some yummy equipment early in the game which gives you an edge, the downside is that too much of any game becomes an exercise and will no longer be an experience. That downside is actually a lot less fun, more detrimental to fun then anyone is willing to admit to. So The option is to have a different kind of seeding. It should prevent grinding (to some degree) and grinding will stop to some degree. 

The idea is that any party evolves, the evolution happens over a period of 3-5 days, but I will come to that later. The hoodlums could be brigands or any kind of foe. In the first stage they reappear in a place you have already visited. In stage two there will be an entourage as well as a ‘leader’ and he (or she) will be stronger, that leader will have an entourage so if the first stage is 5-7 people, they will add anything between 3-8 additional troops. Now a few days later we get to stage three. A boss is added (as well as a boss chest) and now we see a difference, all the previous people will gain strength and abilities, or skills. Now we have ourselves a clambake and an actual challenge. Over time (depending on how often you hit that place, the skills of these foes increase, the larger extent is that with the revamped IP of Vint Cerf this now becomes more than a simple exercise and over time these elements makes this game a challenge at every turn. Now the ‘respawn time’ is (as I see it) 3-5 days per level and that time depends on how close it is to a town and to a decent road. The closer to both the quicker the respawn time and when you hit that place again no matter how evolved the foes were, the counter goes back to zero. This implies that hitting places at stage one soon becomes a waste of time, chests are only respawned from stage 2 and a boss chest in stage 3. Even as some elements respawn with some level of randomness, skills and attributes are increased by 1 for every attempt. As such every foe gets one extra point in one element and skill after every attempt. It stops grinding. Consider that every time you try a place, the opposition, every member is either stronger, more stamina, more stealth or whatever they gained with every visit. Soon you are up against the deadliest of people, not a good choice to make. This setting requires that there are enough places to loot (beyond the story places). 

So we have an increasingly clever pool of opponents, we have revamped how they fight and where they fight and now I have found an option against grinding. Now I need to consider another option to loot and we are off to the races (I had one and wrote about it, but I am not completely convinced it was the best path to take). 

In all this there is a spindle web to consider. You see a story in any RPG is not enough, you need yarn to spin the story, and there is the irritating voices that Bethesda gave us. I am NOT having a go at them. In 2011 it was what it was, but now we can do more. You need a pool of gossip, gossip that might be true, it might not, it might even be a trap. No matter how we see it a different, a more 2025 approach is needed and I am still working on it. There are two parts, the first is what you hear, the second is that you don’t hear the same thing all the time and more important that it changes per game you play. As such you might hear much different things your neighbour hears. There I need to make sure that the idea cannot be replicated (so what your neighbour hears will not work for you). Gossip is a real conundrum, but could leave you with a clue or an advantage. You see Richard Garriott had a great idea in Ultima 3 (1985), the tip gets you a tip. So what happens when you tip the local innkeeper? The cleaning lady? So you need a system that can create 1000 gossip clues and they are linked to a location. Wherever the gossiper lives, or close to where that inn or gin-joint is. I believe that pre-seeding is the best way to go, with a flag to activate the story. It is another way to start side quests but it should not take centre seat, it needs to be some side option at best. In that setting the traps are also an idea to get people to a place where a much stronger force tends to be (happy birthday to you, silly death comes to you). Making the trap a real challenge to say the least. 

Still got work to do on all this, but I have made a decent inroad in gaming that others have never addd to their system. So yay me and it is time to enjoy Saturday, except in Vancouver where it is only Friday early evening. Enjoy the day wherever you are.

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What is the real fear?

That was the first thought that hit me when I saw several articles like the one (at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/25/emirates-backed-stake-vodafone-security-risk-uae-uk-government) where we are given ‘UK says Emirates-backed stake in Vodafone poses national security risk’ and my first thought was ‘What?’ Now, lets be clear, I have no idea how true the statement is, for the longest time I saw Vodafail as a joke (I was a victim of their not so nice side a decade ago). Vodafone is almost everywhere (EU, UK, Australia) so why is the UK the only one crying foul? 

The article gives us “The Cabinet Office issued a notice late on Wednesday warning that the 14.6% stake held in Vodafone by Emirates Telecoms, amounted to a security concern given Vodafone’s strategic role in the UK’s telecommunications services.” Now, I don’t see the danger, but that might clearly be me. This is not my cup of tea. But all these companies whoring for dollars and investors have been playing on every field and now it is an issue? How about the board of Vodafone not whoring for investors? And why is the less than 15% a security risk? Then we are given “That move triggered the government to look into the deal under the National Security and Investment Act 2021, owing to Vodafone’s importance as strategic supplier of the UK government and being involved in the country’s cybersecurity infrastructure. However, the government had not previously made any public announcements saying it was looking into the partnership.” Now, as I personally see it, that act is 3 years old. At the moment of creation, why was there not a clear message that anyone involved in investing in infrastructure is prohibited in ‘courting’ investors? There is a clear case that if this is indeed stamped a security risk, there is a chance that the UAE can reclaim investment plus 50% damage bonus and Vodafail better cough up that dough (obviously they will charge the UK government for that).  

My question becomes ‘What is the real fear?

In sight of “Under the terms of the strategic partnership, Emirates Telecom can increase its stake to just under 25%, while also having the opportunity to add another executive to the board if its ownership tops 20%.” I merely wonder what the danger (if any) there is. I honestly don’t know. You see Vodafone is in 16 countries and is stated to have over 160 million customers. If I had the money I might consider that and there has been several messages over the last 2 years that Vodafone cleaned up their act and services. There are several deals, mergers and investigations in place that give rise to the simple fact that certain people are placing their chess pieces (corporations) and they are (my speculation) in a stage that they do not want the UAE to be part of any of this. There is of course another option for the UAE. They could start to collect other telecom corporations and chisel the Vodafone slice down to a manageable size. I personally would start by grabbing places that give access to Germany and France, Vodafone has too much power there (and in some places too shoddy reception) and form there grow the market. France and Germany when properly grown would give access to Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria. From there Germany allows growth towards Poland and Czech Republic. It is a much slower path, but I reckon that these loud mouthed politicians will run for cover when Vodafone suddenly is worth 25%-35% less. Let’s be clear, I have no idea how there is a security risk ad we aren’t given that in any clear way, but as I personally see it “a security concern given Vodafone’s strategic role in the UK’s telecommunications services” if that was really true, why was Vodafone allowed to start partnerships? Is it to attract American dollars alone? I have no idea but the UAE and the KSA are the only ones with a credit card that is not maxed out at present. 

I am not telling you this is wrong, I cannot tell. I am asking what is the real fear? Because that is the larger issue in this instance. Just my €0.02 on the matter.

Enjoy Friday that is about to start for most of you and it is gone for 71% for me at the moment, but Saturday is just behind it.

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Those happy dreams

We all have them and I just had mine (not the one with Laura Vandervoort). The dream started with me attending some gameshow with Amazon bigwigs. I personally handed Phil Spencer a gold inlaid wooden spoon with the message that I try to keep my word. That morning Amazon with the Luna surpassed 75 million consoles (plus subscriptions) sold, Microsoft is now deal last in the gaming industry (nice achievement for the strongest console in the world), apparently big hardware isn’t everything. But the dream moved on, I was talking to His Excellency Ahmed Al-Khateeb, Minister of tourism for Saudi Arabia. 

I was explaining to him (and to myself) a new approach to customer service solutions and I called it the Complete Customer Service Solution System (C2S3 for short). The image is more for myself so I can recall it later. A complete system based on foundations of Nice CX One but with a massive difference, the organisations were no longer central here, they are still the centre or axial in it all, but the central setting becomes the tourist. A system no one ever considered (or off hand rejected), but in 2025-2030 the tourist, the customer needs to be the central hub in everything. Places like Saudi Arabia and the UAE need an evolved customer solution system because that is how they remain top player. The larger players (like Hilton and Marriott) will get on board fast, because they will see the benefit there, then the them parks and soon thereafter they all want to join such a system and in the cloud you can find a person fast. You see, the biggest drain on any vacation is time loss, people take it for granted, but what happens when one or two players throw that overboard and redo the whole thing? What happens when the total vacation has 0.1% logistics at best? You go through the mill in the Airport, at the hotel, at attractions, at resorts. So what if the airport is the start, but it is replicated to other places as soon as you go through gate one? What happens when you are in a new place and you do not get lost, because the tag you have tells you where you are and where you are supposed to go? Now consider that around the world, it is estimated that over one million young people are reported missing every year. Don’t be afraid, will over 95% is found within a day. Now consider this new system where a child is found within the hour, optionally quicker. The loss of stress in almost unimaginable. And it is not merely loss that is removed. It is that places will hand out badges with RFID, the RFID records your achievements and records what you have done, so the tourist will have a record on him that he can look at. 2 days of skiing, 12 slopes, they keep a progression record and a record of places. In Japan they have a booklet where you can stamp where you have been and every place has its own stamp. Now consider that digital record, connect that to a digital library and the tourist can make a small photo album with their own images and insert their digital records of places they have visited. They can make it anywhere in the world and it can remain private. A system where the foundation is Arrival and Departure, it does not matter where you go from there. You could visit as a family the Almasaa Cafe in Riyadh, wouldn’t it be nice to insert a digital sticker in your album when you were there with personal pictures? The list goes on and a system like that isn’t build overnight, but it has the merit that for once the tourist is the centrepiece of it all (some claim that, but it is their sales system). A setting where the customer solution is build and designed around the customer. In 43 years I have never seen such a system, have you? 

Now that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are about to be the pole position players in tourism, such a system would solve several items. They would also imply that they are about to stay at the top position until others catch on, and after the SEC blunder I saw yesterday some players will be behind these two players for years to come. 

Just a thought, enjoy Friday in 24 hours.

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The Gump setting

You remember that famous character? Forest Gump with his ‘stupid is as stupid does’. This is the setting that I saw happening when the BBC (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-68025683) alerted us to ‘US regulator admits cyber-security lapse before rogue Bitcoin post’, this is not a lapse, this is a screwup of the umpteenth order. They give us “The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) did not have multi-factor authentication (MFA) in place when hackers gained access to the account.” To give a clear view, to give you proportions. MFA was a discussed issue in University when I was at UTS 10 years ago. It was invented in 1996, well over a quarter century ago, although it was called two factor authentication. It is my speculation but I think that they left it aside until the call was needed and that call was clearly needed a decade ago. As such heads at the SEC need to roll (a queen of hearts idea). As such the quote “cyber-security experts say it should be a wake-up call for other agencies” is equally a joke. Those who aren’t ready need to be sanitised on several levels. There is no boo or bah about it. The fact that it took hackers this long to catch on is perhaps a small blessing in disguise. And the quote ““While MFA had previously been enabled on the @SECGov X account, it was disabled by X Support, at the staff’s request, in July 2023 due to issues accessing the account,” the SEC said in a statement.” The setting here is the question whether this was an SEC staff request or an X staff request (it could be read either way), but to remove security for access reasons implies stupidity of an unacceptable level. It means that systems were not ready, protocols were not ready and systems were deployed and configured in unacceptable ways. Then we get “The SEC has confirmed the account was compromised by a fraudster convincing a mobile operator to transfer an SEC employee’s phone number to a new Sim.” As such is it purely the fraudster, or is the mobile operator equally guilty? I honestly cannot tell on these facts, but multiple systems were unable to perform because the human element was not correctly set in stone. At present (based on SLA, or Service Level Agreements) there is a case that the mobile operator did not have the proper hat on because certain facts might not have been known to the mobile operator. The fact that an SEC phone number got swapped leaves the guilty party in the middle, but in this I admit that it is based on missing information. That missing information might show who went wrong (SEC or Mobile operator). And above all a properly placed MFA is intended to protect against this kind of hack (and several others). And lets be clear, this was not a grocery store, this was the SEC that got compromised in this way. 

As such stupid is indeed as stupid does and I reckon the head honchos in charge there will be upturning every process, protocol and service level agreement in place just to keep their jobs somewhat secured. That might be merely my speculative view, but I personally believe that to be the only step left for those yahoo’s.

Enjoy the middle of the week.

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First the giggles, then the howls

Yup, it all started late last night when I was alerted to an article (at https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2024/01/how-china-winning-middle-east/393483/) where we see ‘How China is winning the Middle East’. It is here that we are given “China is working to present itself as a responsible alternative to the U.S. in the Middle East, just as many are questioning Washington’s long-term commitment to the region”, the article was originally from January 19th 2024. Now consider that on September 9th 2021 I wrote ‘Lemon of the Century’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/09/09/lemon-of-the-century/), so I mentioned that danger over 2 years ago and it started happening a year later (alas, not my involvement) I initially wrote “I made a case to sell (as a corporate individual) to sell the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia either the British BAE Typhoon, or the somewhat better match the Chinese Chengdu J-20. Now, this is not on principles, but the US making Saudi embargo after embargo, all whilst it is mere puppet play and there was no direct need to stop the sales, especially as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was under direct attack by Houthi forces directly sponsored from Iran and the people were eager to ignore that fact. So there I was taking a stab at a 3.75% sales commission, and in light of a $11,000,000,000 sales ticket could bank me $412,500,000 over a few years. Now, I know, am I greed driven? Nope! But I am not walking away from such a massive mealticket!” As such it took defense one well over two years to see the dangers I saw clearly coming then. How laughable is that? What are these American three letter organisations doing? This wasn’t a surprise, this was clearly in view. 

So now we see “China’s narrative in this effort is one of not just opportunity for Middle Eastern states, but constant subtle or overt comparison between U.S. and Chinese goals in the region.” Say what? This was in clear view and I made several mentions in the last two years alone. So whilst you giggle on that consider that I am now calling the match Me (myself and I) versus DARPA a win with the final score being 6-0. I just realised that around three years ago I designed a stealth solution to sink the Iranian fleet (cost around $750K per vessel) yet I suddenly remembered that solution (I keep on designing other stuff) and the principles of Archimedes apply globally, as such they should have no problem with Russian vessels either. Not bad for a person that some see as a loser (well they do), but in the end it is creativity that wins innovation, it wins IP on a much larger scale and in support of that it could win a war too. If you doubt that, consider that “the basic idea of radar had its origins in the classical experiments on electromagnetic radiation conducted by German physicist Heinrich Hertz during the late 1880s.” So the Germans did not see the applications and they could have had an entire war advantage half a century long. In the end it was Watson Watt, Wilkins, and Bowen that turned it into something functional and that gave them the edge somewhere between 1930 and 1940. The application of my solutions are reimagined solutions of something that was out in the field. OK, my idea to melt down nuclear reactors came from a snow globe, so that is one that is all mine. 

When you consider that and the fact that I am calling a 6 point sore on DARPA you might howl with laughter and that is fine. But consider that I kept a lot on my blog. There is a timeline and DARPA has nothing to put against that and now we see that Defense One makes mention of a ‘danger’ all whilst I made clear mention of that well over two years ago. That is what it means to be asleep at the wheel. And I am not innocent of that either. You see I made mention of an idea some time ago and I just realised that it could be applied to the series Engonos (season 2 or 3) but I forgot about the idea (another reason to keep a blog). Now as it resurfaced in my mind I also realise that as I am concentrating on another script (How to assassinate a politician for Al Saudiya) that I am new to that. As such all writers (not just me) seem to think in active terms. There are four parts in any script (no technical reference), they are active, reactive and both can be endotherm or exotherm. Implying that from within or from outside sources. That was the part that as a storywriter you take notice on, but in writing a script that setting goes different. As such I suddenly remembered Ate, daughter of Eris and suddenly other ideas come flowing in, OK, some based on ideas my mind had created, but I never considered it as the entire setting of Engonos was not on my mind. That came well over a year later. 

You might wonder what one has to do with the other. Well, creativity goes in several directions and it was creativity in data that gave me the view of China becoming a much larger provider of Middle Eastern defence structures. It seems that Defense One only caught on a week ago. Now, that doesn’t make me ‘more’ correct, but when you see the settings how it was THEN, most people with BI insights would get similar conclusions. I did my ships engineering in the 70’s. Those principles gave me the idea for the stealth solution I designed decades later. Education matters, it might not matter now, but it allows the creative mind to see additional solutions, solutions that do not even exist when the thoughts were created. That is true innovation and that leads to larger advantages in any field. That is what some fat cats forgot about and as the stations are brought to bear they will all cry that it was unfair, but the reality was that they slept on. Only 20 hours ago the Business Standard treated us to ‘The online ad cookie is crumbling as Google Chrome secures privacy’ whilst another source gives us “Advertisers aren’t willing to pay as much for random internet users, so every time the page loads for a cookie-less Chrome user, it’s bringing in less money than it might have before.” The problem with these trains of thoughts was that I saw the announcement AT Google well before the first Covid shutdown, so it has been a while, so these people never prepared. How silly is that? Howlingly laughing silly. And that is where we see the stage. We giggle on some news, we howl at news and clams and we lose our shit laughing when we see that the non prepared mind should have known better and they all connect. Because change forces us to become creative, in two cases that wasn’t done. So whilst some may sneer and laugh at my claims, I put my claims out in the open on a blog and I did it 2 years earlier. The snow globe solution is there too, not sure how much I put online on the stealth vessel sinking solution (oh, SVSS sounds cool) but there you have it, we cannot anticipate everything. But I do like the idea that my idea could be applied to Russian vessels as well, as such, DARPA eat your heart out.

Have a lovely Monday. Tuesday started just now here.

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