Category Archives: IT

January 25, 2024 · 18:42

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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January 24, 2024 · 20:55

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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January 23, 2024 · 00:07

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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January 20, 2024 · 15:53

The tables are starting to turn

This is a setting I always saw coming.It wasn’t magic or predestination, it was simple presumption. Presumption is speculation based on evidence, on facts. The BBC puts out a near perfect article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-67986611) where we see ‘What happens when you think AI is lying about you?’ There are several brilliant sides to it, as such it is best to read it for yourself. But I will use a few parts of it because there is a larger playing field in consideration. The first to realise is that AI does not exist, not yet. 

As such when we see ““Illegal content… means that the content must amount to a criminal offence, so it doesn’t cover civil wrongs like defamation. A person would have to follow civil procedures to take action,” it said. Essentially, I would need a lawyer. There are a handful of ongoing legal cases round the world, but no precedent as yet.”

This is actually a much larger setting then people realise. You see “AI algorithms are only as objective as the data they are trained on, and if that data is biased or incomplete, the algorithm will reflect those biases” Yet the larger truth is that AI does not exist, it is Machine Learning or better, as such it took a programmer, a programmer implies corporate liability. That is what corporations fear, that is why everything is as muddled as possible. I reckon that Google, Microsoft and all others making AI claims are fearing. You see when you consider “The second told me I was in “unchartered territory” in England and Wales. She confirmed that what had happened to me could be considered defamation, because I was identifiable and the list had been published. But she also said the onus would be on me to prove the content was harmful. I’d have to demonstrate that being a journalist accused of spreading misinformation was bad news for me.” I believe it is a little less simple than that. You see algorithm implies programming, as such the victim has a right to demand the algorithm be put out in court for scrutiny. The lines that resulted in defamation should be open to scrutiny and that is what big-tech fears at present, because AI does not exist. It is all based on collected data and that data should be verified by the legal team of the victim and that stops everything for the revenue hungry corporations. 

In addition I would like to add an article, also by the BBC (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-68025677) called ‘DPD error caused chatbot to swear at customer’. It clearly implies that a programmer was involved. If language skills involve swearing, who put the swear words there? When did your youngest one start to swear? They all do at some point. So what triggered this? Now consider that machine learning requires data, so where is that swear data coming from? Who inclined or instituted that to be used? So when you see ““An error occurred after a system update yesterday. The AI element was immediately disabled and is currently being updated.” Before the change could be made, however, word of the mix-up spread across social media after being spotted by a customer. One particular post was viewed 800,000 times in 24 hours, as people gleefully shared the latest botched attempt by a company to incorporate AI into its business.” Consider that AI does not exist, consider that swear words are somehow part of that library, then consider that a programmer made a booboo (this is always allowed to happen) and they are ‘updating’ this. A system is being updated to use a word library. Now consider the two separate events as one and see how much danger the revenue hungry corporations have placed themselves in. When you go by ‘Trust but verify’ we can make all kinds of assumptions, but data is the centre of that core with two circles forming a Venn diagram. One circle is data, the other is programming. Now watch how big-tech is worried, because when this goes wrong, it goes wrong in a big way and they would be accountable for billions in pay outs. It will not be a small amount and it will be almost everywhere. The one case of a defamed journalist is one and in this day and age not the smallest setting. The second is that these systems will address customers. Some will take offence and some will take these companies to court. So how much funds did they think that they could safe with these systems? All to save on a dozen employees? A setting that will decide the fate of a lot of companies and that is what some fear. Until the media and several other dodo’s start realising that AI doesn’t yet exist. At that point the court cases will explode. It will be about a firm, their programmer and the wrong implementation of data. I reckon that within 2-3 years there will be an explosion of defamation cases all over the world. The places relying on Common Law will probably be getting more and sooner than Civil Law nations, but they will both face a harsh reality. It is all gravy whilst the revenue hungry sales people are involved. When the court cases come shining through those firms will have to face harsh internal actions. That is speculation on my side, but based on the data I see at present it seems like a clear case of  precise presumption which is what the BBC in part is showing us, no matter how courts aren’t ready. In torts there are cases and this is a setting staged on programmers and data, no mystery there and that could cost those hiding behind AI are facing. It is merely my point of view, but I feel that I am closer to the truth than many others evangelising whatever they call AI.

Enjoy the weekend.

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January 19, 2024 · 20:19

The other colour

That is what is ended up being. It started with the thoughts of ‘Pink is the colour of ignorance’, a story that might still make it, but I want to add more evidence. The Guardian had a good start, but it is more than that and I need to tag it. The other colour is green, the colour of dollars. Reuters give us some parts of it, but my mind is asking questions. Questions aren’t voiced by the media at present. As such we start with Reuters (at https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-invest-1-billion-uk-data-centre-2024-01-18/) where we are given ‘Google to invest $1 billion in UK data centre’ and this comes with the added text “It also comes weeks after Microsoft unveiled plans to pump 2.5 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) into Britain over three years, including in growing its data centre capacity, to underpin future AI services.” The math doesn’t work, especially now. You see UK pushed away from the EU and all this sets a weird station. I know that any data centre costs money and I have no idea how much. One argument is that a data center of the size that Facebook or Google might use would cost from $250 million to $500 million, so why is Google spending twice that and why is Microsoft spending 250% more than that? Now the twice I could get. Operational cost, rising energy costs and when you add that up you might get to 750 million and that is only 250 million away from the leap that Google is stating. 

Sp when you look at that setting we see two bulls fighting for the same population (Google and Microstupid) but the larger question becomes is why? Why spend that much to cater to 68 million people in the United Kingdom. It is not just services, it is data and data collection. To what degree is anyones guess, but wonder why Microsoft would spend $2,500,000,000 to service 68 million people. I am wondering who is buttering the sandwich of whom. I tend to distrust Microsoft, there have been too many issues and they have lost too many battles. Is this desperation? 

The open field
The questions in the open field is not the UK, you see if these two are there they are already growing in the Middle East or they are about to. You see, these investments make sense in the UAE with 9.5 million and Saudi Arabia with 36 million. Apart from their populations both these players will have exploding infrastructure needs (The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia more than the UAE), but the UAE is on a steep incline of services and services needs and I showed that in a few articles last week. The UK has none of that at present. More importantly the EU has also needs but not to these degrees and the UK facilities will have projected limitations as one might guess. So what gives? As for Future AI services. AI does not yet exist and the Machine Learning solutions are all massively dependent on data, something Microsoft is still short of. As I ponder more sides to this, I see more issues and also Huawei now has a data center in Abu Dhabi, giving them a much larger advantage in a place where cash is still king, or better stated cash has a more robust voice, more than the UK can muster at any given time before January 2026. 

As such there are issues and even as none of this is on Reuters (important to know), the setting is that the lack of visibility in several directions make me wonder where these two are going. No matter how good we think of Google (I still do) they both need data, Google to remain top dog and Microsoft to not be as irrelevant as they made themselves to be. 

Sides no one is looking at and I merely wonder why. Are they in a flim flam spin by Microsoft marketing? Do too many believe the shallowness of Microsoft presentations? Your guess is as good as mine, but when you start digging into actual sources that remain true non-biassed the math does not add up. At least for me it does not and I am not economist or econometrical engineer. Data is its own currency, the problem is that when it is the only currency remaining those who have it get access to everything, the rest do not.

Just a thought, enjoy your Friday.

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January 18, 2024 · 20:58

Here come the eardrums

Yup, it is about sound and for a second the BBC woke me up (they tend to do that). There we see (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-68004968) ‘Gamers at risk of irreversible hearing loss and tinnitus’. I never was in a position to play music too loud, or play games too loud. I at times had my earphones and the music was up by a little. But some devices (like my MD player) had the ability to limit earphone volume to protect my hearing. Huh, what? Yes, hearing. So to read this article where we are given “The new review suggests that gamers play for long periods of time with the volume turned up, beyond safe limits. It says this could contribute to irreversible hearing loss or tinnitus, a constant ringing in the ears.” We are also given that this test was done in over 14 studies which in total involved more than 50,000 people. Now I have an issue with this. It implies that these studies had no more than 5,000 people each. This is not enough, but should not be dismissed out of hand because of it. Then there was “Some of the studies they looked at went back to the 1990s, when the gaming world was very different to now.” So the ‘damage’ is larger. It is over a much longer time making me question if a real medical investigation was done. In the 90’s games weren’t taken seriously, hardware was to some degree a joke (compared to today). Sound started to come through with the Soundblaster in 1990. It became serious with the AWE32 in 1994. But the overall setting was still not the best environmental setting. The only game who took sound serious in gaming was 

There you could be ‘heard’ and you could hear opponents. It was the first attempt to more serious stealth and they did it pretty good. Now we have a new setting. The new consoles could take the entire setting to new heights, where stealth is about hearing and not being heard. Even the Horizons series aren’t on that page yet. It is all about not being seen. Still, there is no telling where they take it in Horizons 3, the PS5 is ready for this. There are some indications (from unverified sources) that Unreal 5.5 will be ready too (not sure how Unreal Engine 5 picks it up). Gamers are visual (for the most). So stealth gaming could make a big swing in the next 5 years. Those who screwed up their hearing can rely on the next Call of Duty and Fortnite3 (or 4). It will be all about the graphics and sounds will be not an issue, if it is you (the deaf person) will become the ultimate loser in that game. 

This sounds sad and it is. We have all that hardware and certain protection stages have been either ignored or could be circumvented.

My first question becomes ‘Could more be done?’ It is not clear, because the article alerts us and does not show where the borders are. It is easy to blame the parents and they were probably the one who got him the earphones in the first place. We have seen a whole range of optical improvements, starting with the Unreal Engine all the way back to 1998, I reckon that sound is soon the next wave of improvements. I reckon that this is also the moment that there will be a huge improvement in stealth games. 

Below was my achievement some time ago. I am pretty proud of it, but I do realise that these Russians never heard me, I wonder how well I ended up if that was the case. 

I do love my stealth games, and I hope to see a whole range of improvements over the time to come. In addition, consider what happens when sound becomes a real player in the next Assassins Creed games. You still think you can sneak into places Basim? Or do you need to upgrade your stealth first? A stage that is merely waiting to happen, if you could hear that it. As such finding new protection systems for the hearing of the gamers seem to have a bigger need at present.

Just a thought to consider whilst I approach Friday in 3.1 hours.

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January 17, 2024 · 21:58

Added views

I saw an article in the Khaleej Times and suddenly remembered a story I wrote on January 10th called ‘The other way contemplation’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/01/10/the-other-way-contemplation/) where I inferred that changes would be required. Now in the KT we see ‘Dubai: Emirates to hire 5,000 cabin crew; eligibility criteria revealed’ (at https://www.khaleejtimes.com/jobs/dubai-emirates-to-hire-5000-cabin-crew-eligibility-criteria-revealed) consider that they are hiring more staff than several airlines have as a total. We are also given “In 2023, Emirates hired a staggering 8,000 cabin crew and held recruitment events in 353 cities as the airline ramped up its services post the pandemic”, this isn’t like Emirates airlines is off to the races. This is more like a landslide victory and there are no competitors left. Now, I am happy for those people landing such a job (I am way too old) and that is fine. But me old noggin started to mull things over. You see to do this you need to have a very upgraded infrastructure. Staff care (customer care) resource deployment and so on. That list goes on for a little while and I am not implying that Emirates airlines isn’t ready for that. I am merely wondering that on a global scale Emirates airlines will have one hell of a cloud based system. It won’t work any other way. That gives me pause. You see several airports are massively under managed and decently outdated. And here we get places where Toronto Pearson International Airport is an obvious first mention. So how will Emirates airlines go about it? It could create new hubs on a global setting, but that too requires staff. IT and operational are the two obvious ones. I am not sure how Dubai manages their luggage, but that system in Toronto Pearson International Airport is nowhere near ready if last years stories are to be believed. You see, you can add 13,000 flight staff, but if the infrastructure fails the rest is pretty much a no go and no show. Now this is not on the Emirates airlines, but they will feel the impact of the short comings of others. So is that the golden opportunity for Emirates airlines? I don’t know. But in light of what I wrote then (January 10th) implies that such upgrades are required a lot sooner than I thought and it is required on a much larger scale than previously thought. So whilst we are given “The airline is looking for fresh graduates with internships or part-time jobs experience, those with a year or so of hospitality or customer service experience.” They might throw a few dozen university drives in the mix for IT and operational staff. Places like Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Technology Sydney and the Technical University Berlin to name but a few. If these numbers that the KT gives us are correct, they will soon need 500-1000 IT and operational staff as well and I have no idea if they can get them all from the UAE. That is long before we see the essential need to stress test servers, cloud solutions, operational equipment (CCTV, Radio, Comsat) and various other equipment. And this is not merely Dubai, wherever they have seatings (Dulles, JFK, Schiphol, Le Gaulle) they will need to stress test the systems they use. For example, Dutch airline KLM has 24,789 as cabin crew and BA has 15,000 cabin crew. Now add 20% global staff members for Emirates airlines alone and you start seeing a still image, not a pattern, but a snapshot of what is required. Now consider that the worst (Toronto Pearson International Airport) has no way to the added pressures and I am merely looking at luggage and they are not alone (merely according to some sources the worst) now we have ourselves a clambake. We have 50 additional guests, but still the one BBQ and one cook. The BBQ in this is the infrastructure. It will not be able to cope. This is not in the near future, it is now. Toronto is merely one example. Last year we saw ‘EasyJet, British Airways and Ryanair amidst airlines getting most luggage complaints’ and that was only Heathrow. That list is starting to grow and buckle. Now none of this is on Emirates airlines, but there is a chance that they could drive the beginning of a new global operational player with systems as well. Now this is not a given and most airlines (airports too) will get hindered by pride stating that they are working on it. But I wonder if Emirates airlines might get another option to a lot more non-oil revenue. It is only a thought, but if you see what is coming and 2024 will see another 1,000,000 additional flights, I mentioned it on November 13th 2021 in ‘A COP26 truth’ 

(at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/11/13/a-cop26-truth/) so tell me, does anyone know how many systems were upgraded in the last 2 years? Enough upgrades to deal with 25,000 additional staff (global) and 3,000,000 additional flights? When you start grinding the numbers I see speculative gaps (I need actual data to be less speculating) and they airports are sitting on them spouting party lines. If Toronto is anything to go by, the problem will get a lot worse and Emirates airlines is optionally ready in Dubai, but are the other airports? I somehow doubt it. And that might be the next lucrative solution for Emirates airlines on the next cycle of events. Them as well as the KSA have a new option, one that they might not have considered. A new system but edged on global deployment.

Just a thought, enjoy your day today.

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January 16, 2024 · 22:33

Early days

This happens and I know it has happened to me as well. I see a path, I see a direction, but I am seeing it too early. You see, as I am learning more and more about a programs called Final Draft I see more and more potential there. Their YouTube step makes perfect sense. 66,000,000 active YouTubers and all needing direction and organisation in narration makes perfect sense and the fact that Final Draft wants to get a piece of that pie is logic. Yet for some time I have seen that Final Draft is also starting to become important in writing the narration of games. RPG especially but it is not confined to RPG. As gaming franchises evolves that connection merely strengthens. There is one problem, the numbers don’t support that move yet. As such a player like Final Draft might back off, correctly seeing the fact that it is still too early. Yet the larger station isn’t merely that they are too early, the optional station is that they are the only one available and as such the game makers need to see that Final Draft might be the only real solution.

So what is missing?
That is harder to explain. You see it isn’t merely the narration, it is keeping track of ALL the interactions that Final Draft is currently missing that becomes the centre axial in narration software. You think it is easy, but it is not. A prime example is Horizon: Zero Dawn and Horizon: Forbidden West. Now they have a new problem, the passing of Lance Reddick last year is leaving them with a gap, one that will be monumentally hard to fill. In addition Lance is one important reason that made the game great. So now they are looking at what could come net and now a program that shows all the interactions becomes a lot more important. 

This is not for all games and not for all options, but it is a strategic part that is not available anywhere. Consider A game like Assassins Creed. 2 and Brotherhood are all about Ezio, but what happens when another renaissance times game needs to come? Having the interactions would become essential. We can rely on other sources and that makes sense for now. But as franchises grow, as games make it past game 2 having clear records of these interactions become important. I reckon that there is another part I saw (optionally) missing is also applicable to gaming (but way beyond that stage). We need to see where we go next and that also implies that developers of resource materials (like Final Draft) need to see and scan a much larger stage of deployment. Gaming makes sense on several fronts, but not initially and not if the numbers don’t support it. Consider one game Hogwarts Legacy. You might think ’So what?’ What is important is that this game sold over 22,000,000 copies. They can make a second game in a different time (and that makes sense), but having the interaction stage will opt these developers to use Final Draft to keep track of all interactions and seek what would be required down the track. Yes, we can scan, we can ‘remember’ but in the end having a record is the best and that is where Final Draft could also shine. The larger stage becomes that gaming and Hollywood are more and more intertwining and as such there is a natural path for a player like Final Draft as it holds 95% of all scripting solutions. Yet this number changes when we consider that gaming crosses borders like no other and now that the Middle East and China is coming to play n this field as well gives us the light that another source of development materials is required for gaming developers and as such Final Draft is pretty much the only serious resource that needs to grow beyond what it currently has. It is natural to think that it doesn’t have to and that is fine. 

There is also the basic and natural thought for Final Draft to think ‘Why should we have to?’ and I get that. Yet consider that Final Draft is also presumptively responsible for a series like The Big Bang theory (12 seasons) and so many others. Now seeing all interactions in some display starts making sense. I am not talking about the Character Navigator. I am talking about a graphical display on a character and all the characters they interact with, with the added stage of two characters and where they interact. For some characters in 12 seasons it becomes important to light that up, but in gaming it becomes important to the narration stage. What characters did Kratos (God of War) interact with over 5 games. For a lot it is limited to one game, but that is also often because there was nothing to keep proper track of things. I reckon that the future of MMO and other RPG games will see a massive shift in streaming games, it becomes important. As such it might be early in some cases, in other cases a player like Final Draft can remain the only player in town, or relinquish the field for another player to grow a market segment. Final Draft has nothing to fear from any contender for a decade to come, but what after that? Microsoft was in the same stage. One source gives us “Windows has dropped to a historic low of 57.37% market share in the U.S. desktop OS market, a far cry from its all-time high of 92.37% back in January 2009” this was march last year. In less then 15 years it lost a marketshare of 35%. Now the circumstances are very different. But what the setting is in 10-15 years is unknown to me and most others. So a developer can head of the danger, or take a chance. For Final Draft it is unknown. I am not playing some fear card. The simple truth is that for games the numbers aren’t there yet and I would agree with that. What no one knows (and what is being silenced) is that a new player like Tencent Handheld also needs to grow and it will find the tools for all the games they need. Narration is the next big thing in gaming. Look at all; the games you know and optionally love. They ALL have narration. So how many of those have become franchises? Now wonder how important narration and proper recording of narration becomes if there is a part three in the making (or more). The bigger the franchise, the more important the narration becomes, that is a simple truth and lets face it. We all want to be ready for when the game becomes a success. Hogwarts Legacy is an example. It was the first game and it sold 22,000,000 making it the most successful game of 2023. So a second game is a natural thought. Where it goes from there is up for speculation. What is important that there is a gap and Final Draft is the natural choice for anyone taking narration serious. The other part I saw missing was time lines (I will let you figure that part out yourself). I shouldn’t do it all, should I?

Enjoy your day, my midweek is about to start.

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January 12, 2024 · 11:41

Warning to Google

This must be done. I have spoken out to others and I love my Google, my pixel (etc, etc) and as such it is important to speak out to them as well when it is called for.

As such it starts with the latest update to Android, the Pixel now gives the weather on my screen, this is great. Then the problem started. I woke up with my mobile saying it was cloudy and sunny. As such I went out to infuse my blood with caffeine. A process most people go through, especially at 08:00. So I walk out and I am drenched to the bone in about 45 seconds. 

As such whilst sipping coffee I take another look at the weather part. It was set to Sydney. OK, my bad. So I look at the settings and I add Burwood to the equation. But here the issue starts.

Google wants my GPS to be active. There is no reason to keep track of what I am doing and in addition to that, GPS is an additional drain on the battery. A drain I can do without. It would have been so easy to save that setting in the app. Just save Burwood. I am there 97% of the time anyway. You see here is the warning to Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Sundar Pichai. The world needs one less Microsoft, not one more and that is where you are heading. Living of captured data. You got ahead by differentiating yourself from Microsoft, not to clone its business practices making Google the big bad to become.

And it took seconds to see that saving the weather setting was the easiest. Some might like to activate GPS, some need it but forgetting those who do not like it is bad policy. You see the current big bad (Microsoft) has additional issues and more re coming their way.

They bought another gaming franchise and paid close to $100,000,000,000 for it. So at 6% (rounded down) implies that they need to make well over $6,000,000,000 to merely pay the interest. Their gaming business is stated to be making $3.9B per quarter, giving us that 100% will go into paying of this load (principle and interest) and that will take a speculated 20 years to complete. This is now a setting where we see in what I presumptively call a Ponzi approach to their businesses. 100 years later and some still think it is OK to be this stupid. I saw this in the late 80’s with a Dutch firm called Infotheek. They bought everything around them and they went the wrong side of bad soon thereafter. This is in part why I predicted that Microsoft will enter collapse by December 2026. They lost their battles against Apple (tablets), against Amazon (AWS), Against Sony and Nintendo (consoles), ad now they are shedding marketshare in Office and streaming isn’t going their way either and that will go from bad to worse when the Tencent Handheld becomes a global brand. This is what is out there and Microsoft is losing more and more battles.

Google, I do not fault you for leaving billions on the floor. You did drop the Google Stadia after all. But when we also see (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-67937725) that the BBC reports that ‘Google’s billions make job cuts ‘needless’ – union’, we see a new pattern evolve. I am not judging on this move. There are always two sides and we see one side, but the image for Google is changing and that is not a good thing. They need to show themselves different. I for one (for more than one reason) are all in favour to change that workforce. Not to fire them but to give them a chance to pick up the billions Google left on the floor and there is more than one stage here, so there is a real option to pick up a lot of money globally and I recently gave the view on my blog. So I made it open to all (except Microsoft, they can sink to hell for all I care). 

So what gives? Why does a nobody (me) give a warning to Google? I reckon that is something you all need to look at as well. 

Enjoy the day, It is Friday here, in Vancouver not that much, they still have a bit to go.

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January 10, 2024 · 01:24

The other way contemplation

We do that sometimes. However, we do not do it enough and I am no exception. You see I have been looking into tourism and other hospitality data for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It pushed me to suddenly set the whole kit and caboodle in a topsy turvy setting. Not because I wanted to, but because it started to make sense that way. The more I saw internationally the more it made sense to turn it around.

In this there are a few players NICE was in pole position, but HAMAS pretty much made that a no-go. So that left the larger players like Alvaria and Avaya and none of them are ready and they need to get ready now.

Why now?
Dubai international airport will become the largest player on the planet this year. This means that to a larger degree hotels, convention centres and attractions also need to get ready. You only get one chance to make a first impression and so far these two players have done well. 

Yet I believe (unsupported by facts) that these two players took a page from American books and that makes them sales organisations. The changing setting over the next 10 years require them to be service minded and take a much larger page from the DISC system requiring a much higher page from the settings of integrity and stability. Support, contact centres and call centres depend on these two settings. I reckon that within 5 years too many American firms will have larger issues and staff issues is not the first on my mind. As such players like Alvaria and Avaya need to invest in setting their support systems in the UAE (Abu Dhabi makes the most sense when it comes to cost) but when it is working they will also need a station in Riyadh. 

Why?
We see the line, NEOM and Mukaab in Saudi Arabia. We see the growth of Dubai and both are about to boil over on tourists and that requires a massive call centre. Now, if it was merely one there wouldn’t be a big issue. Yet the station of all this is changing and I reckon that software development will change too. As such, how many native Arabic systems do you know? I reckon none, they would be niche and very rare. Yet the larger station for tourism becomes Egypt, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates and now that setting starts making sense. A Arabic first setting with English (and others like German, French and Italian) as a second language. That is not easily done and as such you need development in one of these places (starting in the UAE makes more sense). Beyond that it would still be some version of C with Java but set to Arabic settings. You will all cry foul and American developers will rely on BS shouts but the setting through BRICS in the middle east is changing and having a call centre in India will not cut it. Lets put it in another way. When you are risking millions (a lot of them) do you really want to rely on an Indian call centre with optional hardware and communication issues? 

There needs to be a presence there and so far none of them are catching on (I checked their career pages).  And when we get to 2027 and people are starting to figure out that more needed to be done there they are too late, the early work gets the business.

What’s in play?
The Line will host to 9,000,000 people (when it is complete), Sindalah is expected to have 2400 visitors a day by 2028 and Trojena for which $500,000,000,000 is reserved. That list of projects goes on for some time. Then there is the Mukaab that will house 7,000,000 people doubling the population of Riyadh. When you combine these there will be a massive shift towards service oriented solutions. And as far as I can tell at present only NICE was close to ready for that. That was before UAE with the largest airport on the planet came into play and their tourism is making strides requiring all kinds of service oriented solutions and they all better be talking to each other. When you consider all that a native Arabic solution starts making sense and even as EU and American players are in denial, their time is up and I reckon that the Chinese developers are already on that page (for other reasons) and it suddenly dawned on me that a native Arabic solution takes most of the hackers out of the equation. It might be C (or C#) and Java, but on an Arabic setting most of them won’t know what they are looking at and that is an additional security for the Arabic solution.

And when it is all added to a subtotal my view will start making sense. It is not out of the blue, I have been involved with customer care and customer support since 1988, I have seen so many systems and most of them were merely to serve sales and that time has gone. There is a reason it is called Software as a Service and not Software as a Sales-point. SaaS will be the future and predominantly as a cloud solution but there too we see differences and that is where the changes come systems will have to combine and transfer data as needed. So that a person from arriving airport to final destination home is never left out in the cold The more complete service solutions need to alter their behaviour. This goes beyond what we merely see now and KSA, UAE and Egypt would be first, but as this solution gets traction and speed the other players would want to get such a solution as well. The Marriott is merely a first stop. As the high end vacation goers will visit new places they will demand the service that the saw in the middle east and that is when the other systems collapse. They pushed these systems with additional servers additional seats but they forgot that these systems need interaction and their data settings were nowhere near ready for that. So you get people to do it (making AI claims) and watch it all come apart from almost the beginning. The Middle East is in a strong position to force creation of an Arabic solution and I reckon that there are enough millions connected to this to make the larger players jump. My vote would be for NICE, but HAMAS made that no longer an option. It is now up to the others to get ready or be passed by the player who did make that jump.

It is my view and feel free to disagree but the changes in tourism we already see happening are proving me right and when Mukaab and the Line are ready in 6-8 years they either have a solution that can take messages from 16 million people or watch the complaints section explode with messages on a near daily basis. 

Enjoy the day, it’s midweek here now.

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