Category Archives: IT

December 24, 2023 · 17:47

Through views reenforced

That is the setting and before we go into the news that the CBC is giving us, we need to take a look at a few past settings. I mentioned it going back to way before June 25th 2021 when I wrote ‘Non Comprehension’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/06/25/non-comprehension/) then there was ‘Inspiration and realisation’ on August 7th 2022 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/08/07/inspiration-and-realisation/) and several more mentions. I even made mention that the UK firms who got the portfolio for Neom city were making mistakes. You see, social media is a bottomless hole, it is like shouting against a wall that is white wondering why the wall doesn’t answer whether it is a vestal virgin, or merely a decently clean wall. It is as I personally see it a decently meaningless metric. Marketing firms like OmniChannel and TRO had figured out years ago that the true metric was engagement. Engagement is pretty much everything. You can rely on the millions of messages you send out through social media, but does it help? Does it basically do anything more than gobble up your budget? Those 2 million placements are close to useless. It is the 5,000 – 25,000 – 125,000 engaging responses that really matters. It mattered to them to respond and it is not “there are 10 non responses to every response”, that too is too hollow for consideration. It is the responses towards engagements that matter, it is the bread and butter of any influencer. 

So now we see (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/malls-death-experiences-luxury-retail-1.7065690) ‘Some Toronto malls are booming, but not necessarily because of the shopping’, as such we see that the CBC (and the mall) are figuring out why their malls are now busty with ‘life’ with the added “Instagram-worthy experiences and unexpected places are part of malls’ future success, experts say”. So who are these experts? I have been making clear statements for well over two years. Where were they then? I even created IP to nudge engagement forward, where were they? So when we are given ““In the mall business, you always have to be fresh. You always have to think about what your customers are after and remain relevant for the customer,” said Robert Horst, vice-president of retail at Oxford Properties, which operates Yorkdale.” Where was Robert Horst when I stated this well over two yeas ago? Did he adjust to augmented reality? No, he did not. In the meantime Amazon could come in and make a killing. Consider that America has 116,000 malls, Canada has allegedly 2818 malls, where is their adjustment towards engagement? Oh and that is before you consider that the EU, UAE, Asia adds a lot more to the total number of malls. So where is the nudge towards engagement there? Google and Amazon had 3-5 years to wake up with new technologies at their fingertips. They did nothing and the malls did nothing either. So when we are given “Malls such as Yorkdale and The Well, which recently opened in downtown Toronto, are offering fresh takes on retail and expanding the mall experience beyond simply shopping. Yorkdale estimates it has 18 million visitors a year” did anyone consider just how much they are missing? 

Inspectors General from the 1st Theater Sustainment Command-Operational Command Post inspect a fuel “bladder” at a fuel farm in central Iraq, recently. U.S. Army Central uses forward logistical elements to maintain fuel farms under contract with U.S. Army logistical specialists called contract representatives to ensure the operation is being conducted to the Army standard. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Brandon Hubbard, USARCENT Public Affairs)

It is like pushing an Army fuel bag up a hill, you know it goes nowhere without serious added manpower, and now consider what is required to get new tech and the new IP to get adjusted to a totally new kind of audience. This requires a new kind of nudging. And it is important to use the word nudge and not push. Engagement is not achieved by ‘Do this’, but by ‘Did you try or consider this?’ That is how new waves of engagements are created. I had a similar setting of creating more and more awareness for Neom city (as well as the Line and Mukaab) it is achieved through engagement. As such I wonder who else is asleep at the wheel. 

So it is nice that we see the CBC article and I have nothing against the article, but as my blog shows I was ahead of these people by years and my blogs point that out. Not merely my blog, players like TRO Marketing services and Omnichannel marketing were ahead by close to a decade, but the other voices. Feel free to listen to them whilst they shout at walls. The response is negligible and that is what needs to be seen. We can believe that malls are dying, or we can set a new stage where their lease on life is renewed. It might not help getting an immediate influx on revenue, but these influencers will start something that gives a new second tier revenue and that matters, because in a stage where economies are dwindling, the second tier is all you need to survive a little longer. Will it save every mall? Nope, it will not, but it will save the early adopters and those willing to invest and that is also the path that Amazon (and optionally Google too) needed to realise. Who many companies are in more then 20 malls? We see Zara, Sephora, Gap, Apple and several others (OK, Victoria Secrets too) in these places. So what did their ‘marketing representatives’ do to boost their visibility and boost engagement? I am willing to hazard a guess that it is very little and I left enough clues lying around for well over 2 years that it needed to be done. There is only one Harrods, there is only one Dubai Mall. The rest? They better work harder to carry the favour of engagement. It was the only way and now we see that I am proven correct yet again.  What a lovely way to get to the end of the year.

So enjoy your day before Christmas and enjoy the last week of this year.

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December 23, 2023 · 21:39

Currencies

This is not about money, well not in a real sense. I saw an image and suddenly an old idea came to mind and whilst I am watching everyones favourite Christmas movie (Die Hard), another thought came to mind. A friend just gave me the best Christmas present in a very long time. It is time to return the favour (sort of). As such I have something that is a freebee for any Tencent technology and Amazon Luna indie developers. A word of warning, this is not for everyone. This is not some a game for every player. Some will not like it, just like ‘Welcome to the rapture’ and it matters, because it not drenched in blood or actions. This is a different kind of game. This all started with watching the old Thunderbird movies and seeing Babylon 5. A thought got to me, what if we make it more ‘real’ when I had the thought the PS4 was new and it had nowhere near the powers it needed to be. So in this game we ‘work’ for a living, as such it is not a game for managers (internal lol accepted). So the setting was that we start being an intern on a space station (like the European space station) or Thunderbird 5. We are orbiting this planet and we have to use equipment to complete missions of all kinds. That results in credits and optional super credits, which gets us the funds we need for the second part of the game. These funds will enable us to do space walks and now the second part of the game kicks in. Space walks come with a camera and now we get the option to photograph earth, the space station and other things. The idea is to give the player a sort of photo mode in 4K with the option to save the photos and send them to our USB. Now consider that we have a 4K setting of the earth, a rotating earth and with the camera we can get a decent clear image of the country where we live. We can see the moon in much clearer view and so on. But this is not enough. I saw the setting that if we get all three done above a certain level, we get a promotion. From there we go to the moon. Consider moon base Alpha (or the moon base from 2001, which also gives us the next space station first as well). We learn more equipment, actual equipment and we get to do more and earn more, especially earn more credits and walk on the moon. Now you might think that this is boring and for those addicted to Fortnite, it might be, but there are more gamers, millions more and they just loved walking around the fallout ruins, or walk in Cyrodiil and this game is for them. See it as the part Starfield could not deliver on. A track of achievements that are done with the camera. I also want to set a larger field where we get choices and the choices made c lose certain doors, but open up different doors. For example, the camera allows for espionage missions, but it could close the door on one station and open the door on another one. Just a thought. 

From there we go to a deep space station, like the Coriolis space station (Elite Dangerous), or a station alike Babylon 5 (or the Inner space space station). This now becomes a much larger challenge, not only is it more challenging in missions, but there are more photo missions to complete. In this completing them yields large rewards, but not all missions are easy to get, or to get to. 

Now these two elements are not enough, but you can’t expect me to do everything for you, can you. You see, the entire photo mode part is undersold too often and it can be taken to another level. Yes, in 4K we can make the most amazing images but no one seems to take advantage of that, as such I thought it was a nice idea to use it and what looks better in 4K then space objects? The idea is also that as you unlock the next level, all previous levels remain available. Your clones are send ahead, you are not. As such soon you get to push more and more credits but there is a limit, only 50% gets send to a previous station and 25% to two stations back, so half, or half or half and so on. It stops those doing the minimal and getting ahead that way. Also in the setting of a B5 station, you also need to upgrade your quarters, so that you get access to more of the station and better space walks. 

This was the idea as I had it, but the 4K photo mode was too new when the thought came to me. Also there are a few more sides to all this, but that is for another day. Now consider that parents of RPG games get one side, but the idea of a non violent game with educational sides will have great appeal and in a streaming solution this game will appeal, not to all but to well enough. And it took me less than two days to come up with it (I spend nearly a day mulling this over in 2014), as such consider all the things Microsoft isn’t coming up with and they just spend $100B, now consider we get messages like “Expect new updates “roughly every six weeks” in early 2024” regarding Starfield, a game released on September 6th 2023. So, not only was the game incomplete. Even months later there is now some indication that gamers had merely a beta to play with. When you consider all the parts not there and consider what I basically designed in 2014, how asleep are these people? 

In the meantime there are all kinds of issues (some regrettably) that a game like Starfield has and has been showing for some time. This game was in development for 5 years. Now my part would not have been easy, but they didn’t rock it, so now it is a freebee for indie developers. And when they put out a superior game on those two systems another nail in the coffin of Microsoft appears. So how does it feel for them to mess with our safe space?

No idea how they feel and I do not care. I am off learning a little more and setting the stages for Final Draft 12 today and tomorrow. Have a lovely day, the 24th is now merely a few hours away for me.

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December 21, 2023 · 04:01

In development

For me over the last 20 hours, 2 issues were on the rise (like bread getting ready) in my brain. The first involves Final Draft and that setting will come to a new stage in about a week. From there I have two options, one solves it immediately, the other is a pondering stage. But about that more later. The second one was the arcane in a new RPG. You see, the one (for now) powerhouse is Bethesda and they created true greatness. Only an idiot will deny this. They took one of the most obscure gaming styles in gaming history and made it gaming mainstream. This in itself is an achievement that should never ever be forgotten and it took 4 titles. Oblivion, Skyrim and Fallout three and four. These four changed the face of RPG gaming. Now that they are part of Microsoft the issues will come and will settle all over their faces. Now, we do not know what will come next but the next Elder Scrolls is Xbox and PC only and 2026 at the earliest. As such a gap comes into play and the innovative designer can now get slices of a gaming market that will need innovation. It is why I placed so many ideas online, to entice makers to push RPG to Amazon Luna and Tencent Handheld. You see, whatever they miss and it might be enough and from there they will lose more and more marketshare. In addition it could get to PS5 (or PS6), but the larger station is that Sony has a platform, has exclusive titles and now 2 other platforms could become contenders too. They might not be a threat to Sony, it is not required. Enough innovation and they will nibble at the Microsoft population. All due to a war they never understood and a fight they weren’t ready for. 

As such I was considering the Arcane part in RPG. I made a few inroads in previous articles. Yet I started to wonder about the foundation of the arcane and then I remembered the foundation of one game you needed to find Sulphuric Ash and Spider silk (if you know, you know). It made me reconsider a few sides. What if the arcane needed more then a mana bar? What if the foundation of that power was a talisman and its catalyst? More in line of ‘the old days’, but now we get more. We need to get stuff, magic doesn’t come from nothing (when in doubt ask that insufferable Harry Potter) LOL.

So we get a new and novel use of jewellery. I had one element in my hand when I came up with TES7:Restoration over 2 years ago, but I merely saw that as the foundation of the introduction and part of the story. Now it escalates in a new arcane setting.

So the training goes one side. The talisman (necklace, ring or staff) the other direction, lets call it focal point and the catalyst (reagent, leaves, resource) is the power behind it. Now the arcane becomes an entirely new challenge. And this is not some and and and for power. The and and or in that equation gives the stage plus sides and negativity like we might face in real life. Consider a bicycle, we can adjust all elements for speed, but there we lose acceleration. We can have the tyres to get more grip, but with rain that grip goes away. It becomes a new stage, a place where it is about balance. And as the player has its own sides, that player needs to focus on options to chose from. In the beginning more power is everything, but over time you will see that arcane traction makes you more versatile and that is a side Bethesda NEVER used. They saw what was best and they were right, but other parts were missed and overlooked and now that the systems are much more powerful we see more in a game, as such we need to create a different playing field. For those who remember Oblivion, there was the Rockmilk cave a good grinding spot. It also made me create improvements (see previous articles). What now matters is that we had two factions in one place who were fighting each other. In that setting you need a different arcane play. It also gave me the idea to adjust arcane fighting and with the different storylines that is not an issue. What matters to me was the fact that the arcane we did have was a little too rigid. It made me think in this direction. 

So as we have an arcane fighter we need to enhance gameplay by giving the player a new way to prepare, like a ready equipment setting. 

Example:
Pendent one and ingredient five
Necklace One, Ring three and ingredient 12

This reads weird, I know, but the setting is that you will find and upgrade certain jewellery and you keep them, there is not merely a stronger one (well there is), they reflect on catalysts differently as such you need a new way to be able to get through a place that has two different parties, like a cave with brigands and spiders. YOU must be prepared for both and that takes a different way of thinking and you need to adjust your equipment accordingly. As such you might have a ring and a pendent, but they are both for different enemies and in this you might not have your staff, but you have in one hand leaves for one and in the other hand ingredients for the other and when you combine these abilities you get either different results or you make yourself really visible to one or the other fiend (never a good thing). It is a new way to play the arcane and of course that usage will develop your player in new ways, which pushes replayability forward. A side I worship in RPG gaming. So whilst (according to some) Bethesda is remastering Fallout 3 rumoured on PC and Xbox only, others can look at a totally new way to play an RPG, some will love it, some will not, but both groups will be introduced to more and more innovation in gaming and that is ALWAYS a good thing.

As I see it almost a dozen new innovation that no RPG game has ever handed you before. Now to be honest, before the PS4 there was no power to do so, yet these innovation are now in part to the public domain, giving two new systems innovative play, all whilst (according to rumour) the more powerful console in the world will be playing a new iteration of a 15 year old game. Perhaps it will have new sides, it is apparently not coming to Sony, so I do not care. What I do care about is pushing gaming forward and that is what my writing does, opening the eyes of indie developers to offer something others did not and I feel that I am succeeding.

Now it is time to brood more on Final Draft and see what I could deliver to the MBC group or Al Saudiya (or both) and have a little more fun there too. It is time to put the final part on How to assassinate a politician and see what I can make of it. And never forget (I don’t) that it could all be a great flop. There is no shame in that. Nintendo got there with the WiiU and surpassed their fortunes five times over with the Switch. One led to the other and we all face these moments and some state (and I do not disagree) that sometimes you learn more from failures than from previous successes. 

The Switch is now around 132.46 million sold units. It is now their second best console in history and surpasses the PS5 with 50 million and the Xbox Series X and Series S with a lot less than Sony has (no precise numbers available). So consider that Nintendo outsold Microsoft by well over 300%, so where is that most powerful console in the world now? Where is Microsoft now with their $100,000,000,000 investment? They might claim that good times are coming, but I am not seeing them. Yes a remaster is nice, but gamers want innovation, not iteration and remasters. The remasters are nice to feel good about the past and we need that at times NEXT to new good gaming. As such I was right all along and now the new indie developers have well over 15 months to capture an audience that is looking for the new and the exiting. As I see it a 75% game called Starfield isn’t getting it done (presumption, as I never played it), but consider that a game so overhyped and so rumoured about only gets a 75%, how sad is that?

Innovation is where it is at and Sony was correct all along. Time for streamers to tech Microsoft that lesson too and when more than three parties shows them how wrong they were from the start. Will they catch on? I created more innovative public domain IP one year  for non-Microsoft players than Microsoft achieved with spin and presentations in 10 years. So they can take that to their overstretched banks too.

Enjoy the day.

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December 18, 2023 · 10:22

Commonwealth Internet Intelligence

This is the call, it is a simple one. In this I believe it should have started well over a year ago, but that is just me. Perhaps it has already started, but I wouldn’t know that. The setting started with an image

There was also a text. The text was that a Russian Troll was able to shutdown an Ukrainian information channel on YouTube. Interesting how Google wasn’t able to disseminate information. Yet this opened up a new need. 

The Commonwealth needs to set a rather large collection system. It needs to collect all relevant data from all relevant social media sources on who is spreading what. And there is no freedom of speech, when you tally towards terrorist organisations you become the problem. Another source (Newsweek) gives us ‘Russia Loses 37 Artillery Systems, 1,250 Troops and 19 Tanks in a Day: Kyiv’ (at https://www.newsweek.com/russia-artillery-systems-casualty-count-tanks-avdiivka-ukraine-1853110) that news is less than 12 hours old. The losses in Russia are adding up to something surpassing the total of losses from WW2 (German and allied) and the losses in tanks surpass the total tank stock of several NATO nations. Russia is about to get desperate and internet lies are cheap. As such the Commonwealth (Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and United Kingdom) will need to keep tabs on what is being spread. When you consider the abilities of a software solution like Trollrensics and the modelling setting of Palantir you should be able to get a lot more aggregated intelligence. Those who cannot afford Palantir could look at IBM modeller. A setting that has now become essential. You see, from disinformation comes the setting of lone wolves and that is the next step that Russia will rely on and that chaos will hamper any nation, as such there needs to be a clear data collection  and the laws need to be equally adjusted, so that some 17 year old idiot cannot hide behind “I wanted to look cool”. Siding with terrorism needs to come at a price and as we want to reduce their rights (I believe it to be a valid option) we need to collect that data to make sense of it all. It remains a tall order in light of troll farms and identity theft, but a longer term data collection setting should allow us to see the true data and make sense of it all. You see, we get that some people accidentally or not get one message wrong, but to get a whole range wrong is a much larger problem and I reckon that Russia could be relying on lone wolves from mid 2024 onwards. They are already (according to some sources) pushing expats and now that their losses include the purchase of 346,000 body bags (from start until now) that setting becomes even more an issue. The 135,000 new conscriptions doesn’t even come close to what they need, especially as their deployment and resources are dwindling down to alarming rates as well. You can see this in whatever way you want, yet the setting is that the 20th largest army brought the second largest army to their knees and even if tougher times are ahead. Even when US support falls on its knees, the setting does become that Russia will need to rely on lone wolves and misinformation making the needs for a CII essential. I reckon that a player like GCHQ will hoist the banners on how it should be run, but the other nations need to get on board fast. The US is not much of an ally in all this and the Commonwealth better get ready when the others are all about the talk and not much about actions. The fact that YouTube (read: Google) was unable to see the truth behind Russian trolls is further evidence still in the need for additional social media data collection. 

Think of this what you will, but in your heart I believe you know that I am right, or at least not entirely incorrect. I see that there is a chasm between the two, any critical thinker would see that.

Enjoy the start of a new week.

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December 17, 2023 · 15:40

Christmas comes early

This came to me in a dream. It seems a nice setup for a story, but I am already dealing with 4. How to assassinate a politician is about 90% complete in my mind. Then Kenos Diastima a series in three seasons which is at 40%, Residuam Vitam the mini series is at 30% and Engonos is I have no idea, but it is still ongoing, season one is about 75%, the rest is less clear. What I got now did not fit anywhere and I do not want to start something else at present, so I am making it public domain. Perhaps it will be useful to someone else at present.

The story is in the first person (it is easier for me that way).

And so it begins
It is a late afternoon, I am working in a data centre owned by Heineken. I am not sue what I am, but I am doing my job. Something about cleaning data. We are suddenly attacked and Heineken is subject to ransomware.

3 hours earlier
In the WebCentre of Heineken people are doing their work, they are editing, they are checking and they are aligning on a global scale. One person is doing something else. He is embedding a small code tabulator, alternate 0255, tabulator, alternate 0255, tabulator. A simple code a mere 5 bytes, but that was all that was needed and it was embedded in several places. Someone higher up would clean the data and that was the purpose. 

You see, the hackers were smart but not the brightest. They had a database, but one that mattered. They had a database with disgruntled employees and several worked at Heineken. This was the setting, the honey was a payday of 50 Bitcoin cents. And two applied for that, the hackers knew that the invasion would get them 150 bitcoins in a week, spending one coin was a wise investment setting. 

So here we are, I am at my desk and I see the Ransomware invade, system after system becomes useless. That was what was intended. As the employees with much higher security settings cleaned out the 5 bits, the system saw that as a call to include a small script, a mere 73 bits and it was included in several places and as these systems started to buckle, people with higher security clearance took up the hammer and they infected even more systems. The operation took less than 25 minutes and in that time everything was smitten with Ransomware. All systems and the log files were getting encryption. All these systems and more were now Ransomed and they had no clue who was behind it. 

Now you want to see some clever way out of this, but there is none. As systems buckle governments are forced to put in place draconian laws whilst cleaning what they can and it is with that stupidity the hackers are subject to prisons and executions and as the dust settles, the hackers go deep underground. They are now regarded a global enemy. In the days when there was surplus people never cared, now as governments will buckle they are ready to hold these people (including children too smart for their own good) to account and it was not going to be a nice stage. Just like these ‘Just Stop Oil’ idiots. 6 months was merely the beginning. When the oil starts being reduced even more, the people will start their vigilante justice, as well the IT people against hackers and their supporters. A cleansing unlike any we have ever seen, the agents of chaos will hurt and suffer for a long time to come. A setting no one wanted, a setting we all denied, but we all saw that there was no other direction and that was when we realised that at times we cannot be nice to the monsters, we have no other choice but to put them out of their misery.

A sad day on this day so close to Christmas.

Enjoy today, have a muffin.

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December 14, 2023 · 23:50

Cleansing the pallet

We all have to do this, I am no different. We can look at all the negativity of the world, but it makes us gloomy. As such I was browsing YouTube as I do and stumbled upon a drive through of Mississauga. I got curious. I never saw that place. The only thing I know that place from is as the location of Oracle, that’s it. So the drive through was a nice change of speed. The first thing I noticed was that at least 5 high rise residency buildings were awesome. They likely have more, but 5 stood out. From there I took a look at the square one mall. That was less relaxation. I am still looking at malls to see how my IP would hold up (the one on augmented reality) and it does, the spaciousness of Square Mall, apparently the biggest mall in Ontario could benefit from the AR IP. From there I started to think things over. You see, the video is only 4 months old, but that mall seems really devoid of people. They could be an optional early place to get the people back into the malls. I feel strongly about this setting. You see, when too many people shy away from malls, the malls go broke. Some places have no real issues, but when the population decreases by well over 30%, the shops will not be able to foot that bill and malls tend to be expensive. As such setting the stage of adding technology to ensure interaction with the people will make it more appealing to be there. It is a simple equation and it tends to hold up. I believe that technology is a first to make it work. So many are on their mobiles, even in a mall, that this, seemingly, is a first. Not the only option, but a first. 

So whilst I was cleaning the pallet by seeing new places, my mind raced in a different direction (it tends to do that). The mind wants to see bang for the buck, as such it looks at ‘What else is here’ and that was when the views from Dubai malls (that mall as well as other ones) seeing the essential setting of a kids zone in Square one. The walkthrough didn’t reveal one. There is more, the need to see a Canadian spark there. My initial issues with malls (on a global scale) is that many of them have a gimmick, but not a real local one. The Dubai Mall has The Souk, the Mall of the Emirates has ski slopes but several others didn’t have anything springing out to me. Not in Europe, not in America and not in Canada. Malls can no longer be a vague imitation of each other. They need a defining side. The Dubai Mall figured that out, Harrods figured it out, so why not the other places? The AR addition is merely one step in promoting interaction, but I reckon more is needed in several places. You see the AR addition will work for a year and after a year these places are losing interest. I believe that adding a localised spark will add more to it all. One mall in Canada figured it out by adding some hobby remote car club. Brilliant! I wrote about it in the past. So what else can be added? I reckon that for Square One, it is up to the people in Mississauga. Localised knowledge is required and I am not from that place. The information gives me that art would be a good addition and perhaps that place has it, which led me to another side of what a mall could do. You see, we all have to go to another place for municipality issues, for drivers licenses and so many other places. What would happen if any mall had a municipality office there. Where people ALSO can get groceries, their simple needs (coffee and cake) as well as numerous other things. It also lessens carbon footprint when you do not have to drive to 5 places. I am not stating that the other places need to be removed, especially when not everyone lives close to a mall, or has need for a mall. But we need to change the way we approach things that much is clear and even as I do not fully agree with COP28, I do believe that changes are essential. Not merely for us, but for malls, for retail and for the people. Change becomes more and more essential and this is merely one step in that direction. Consider that in 2017, there were approximately 116,000 shopping malls spread across the United States. That is America only. The most malls are held by the Simon Property Group, Inc. Worldwide, it owns interests in 232 properties as of 2021. Now consider that this one player can reinforce its malls getting back to pre covid numbers. In addition it could set a larger population by finding ways to reduce the carbon footprint in its places. How much would be gained? A lot of this will not apply to Harrods, or the Dubai Mall, giving us well over 250,000 malls all over the world that could see a larger impact. A given? No! An option. Yet, tell me, when was the last time any business owner passed up on options to reenforce their businesses? 

I will leave you to ponder that. My Friday is a mere 720 seconds away. Enjoy yours (when you get there).

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December 13, 2023 · 21:29

Slapped by surprise

This happens to us all and it happened to me today. I was pretty much minding my own business when something on LinkedIn hit me, it hit me square in the jaw. It was the application in another direction, but I contemplated it to apply to gaming in a similar way. You see, this is not an easy story and a lot of you might not get it, that is fine. It is the evolution from RPG to CtLFG. Role Playing games evolving in Close to Life Fantasy Gaming. Confused? That is fine. To get this I need to give you some examples. You are sneaking in a cave and slaughtering all you can and at times you hear “It must be my imagination”, it was one of several things that bothered me. Now this is not on any player and not on Bethesda. They created greatness with Skyrim. It survived three generations (PS3, PS4 and PS5) and has been around since November 11th 2011. More then 12 years. To have one game do this, especially an RPG is nothing less than astounding. As such with that in mind I initially created TES7: Restoration (the initial design was from 2015). 

In this the foundation was set with Cyrodiil (Oblivion), to make it work that map would need to be 3 times larger on the X and Y axis, making the map 900% of the previous one. The imperial city would be similar that much bigger, cities would be somewhat bigger, more people and in the end we would connect Skyrim to this and optionally whatever TES6 would be, but that would be options. Restoration required both Valenwood and Elsweyr to be added as that would be the setting for the story and main quest. Yet the setting would be larger than just these two parts, missions that cover all the areas. A lot more side missions and even side quest lines. Now we get to the evolution part. To avoid grinding I used IP originally by Vint Cerf, but now applied to gaming would make it an innovation patent and now we are off to the races. Yet something happened./ Microsoft bought Bethesda and I will not help losers, so I made parts of all this Public domain with the setting that this was to be exclusive Amazon Luna/Tencent Handheld. I wanted these two to have an edge over Microsoft/Bethesda. That was the first setting. 

Now the slap
As such today I got slapped by surprise by someone named Willem Koenders gave LinkedIn a new setting to BI in data. It has an offensive side and a defensive side. 

It is brilliant. I can see the stage of several issues becoming a thing of the past. Rollback issues, especially in data with second and third tier connections would have been a nightmare, especially to rebuild some of these connections. As I see it, that is a thing of the past with this, rollback becomes repair with a second datafile upload. And in the short time I looked at it, there would be additional benefits. Now apply this to new and advanced RPG gaming (CtLFG). You see, the old ways will not work on larger RPG games, it would require cloud gaming and that is where the new strains become the power of GaaS (Gaming as a Service). You see, evolved gaming (RPG) no longer has trigger points perse, but a combination of a narrative point, a location point as well as a quest trigger. It becomes too complex for the PS5, but not for cloud gaming. That is where the game takes of in new directions and new dimensions. 

As such my mind went into overdrive. You see, I had focussed on the stories and the interactions, but I had not considered the data side of this all. The image by Willem Koenders gave me that setting and it could be a much larger setting in cloud gaming too. Yes, it is always about the larger part, but consider that we always must look forward. We cannot play Skyrim forever. Now consider (Skyrim)4 and see where that gets you. In addition, as it is cloud gaming new quests could be added over time as well. A nightmare option in any console. With cloud gaming it is done before you know it and available just as fast. And the setting in a new game would be tremendous. You see grinding ends, it becomes a challenge every time around and that setting reflects in a multiple of ways. With the new data setting you could get thousands, if not hundred of thousands of conversations. Consider a city not with a few dozen NPC characters, but with 1,000 NPC characters. It allows for a lot more options. In addition to that, the setting of friend and foe changes. You now end up with friends, unsubstantiated gossip, boasts, lies, and foes. A new setting in adventure gaming. Suddenly a personality with charisma becomes a lot more important, in addition to this so is the setting towards corrupt guards, people luring you towards traps and walking blindly into them is never a good idea. 

An evolved setting towards gaming and I reckon that this is merely the start. Any indie developer with a clear head and clear direction can grow and take serious market share away from Bethesda (and of course Microsoft). 

Now consider the image again. Consider on the offensive side Customer insight (NPC character) linked to analytics which becomes available choices (lore, conversations and actions), on the defensive side we also add NPC character, but now connected to city laws (compliance) and actions based on YOUR activities (stealing, walking, sneaking, killing) as such sneaking through any place now has impact on that population. In addition it is ‘short-term’ impact, yet when you do that again you get recognised quicker. And from there we now get narratives (storylines and conversations) as well as locations (shop owner, home owner). There is a longer impact to actions.  And leaving the house is no longer a ‘reset’ to activities. I set this to a much larger effect in out of town locations (what some call caves, mines and so forth). As I see it, Vint Cerf had no idea what his IP could do in that setting, but that is the way the cookie crumbles at times.

In this my brain is still reeling with all the thoughts it is creating (even now), but it is time to snore like a sawmill and greet Thursday, which is less then 3 hours away at present. It is still 25 degrees, I am melting. Time to snore.

Enjoy your day.

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December 12, 2023 · 10:22

Making a case

This is something different. I have been accused plenty of times. Hatred of one, disgust of another and so on. So in light of that, lets give you a setting where I show you what Ubisoft could have done (could still do actually). I was making a somewhat delusional setting of me attending the University of Toronto getting a Master of Arts in Greek and Latin. It would be my fourth degree. I currently hold three degrees, making me a dirty old man. As such, a fourth degree feels essential. I have two graduate degrees and a Master (Intellectual property). So I was contemplating a few things and the idea connected to Ubisoft making a newer version of Playstation Home (not limited to Sony consoles) and a few things started to connect. Did you know that France currently has 500K students in Latin? I did not know that. Now consider that we use games in VR mode for language training. There is Greek (Athens), Latin/Italian (Florence, Monteriggioni, Venice, Rome), French (Paris) and so on. 

For the most Ubisoft has the graphics. Now we need to add a few limitations (no climbing or killing) and ion VR we listen to actual conversations in the designed language. Students will be learning languages in front of their console. Consider that (according to some) we see these numbers annually French: 120 million, Italian: 2 million and I have no clear numbers for the other two. 

Yet, as the library increases, the impact and interest in these language studies also increases.   So students get a real grasp of languages in specified languages. Now consider the one number I left behind. 

AC Syndicate London could cater to two billion (yes, 2,000,000,000) students of the English language. Listening to actual conversations, learning the language and more importantly learning some historical culture. Now, the language models need massive upgrades, they need to add 100,000 conversations and I reckon that when Universities sign up, they too will (hopefully) add a part to all this. 

A simple setting (except for the VR part) that was already designed. Now take away the climbing and killing and it becomes an educational tool, all whilst ‘their’ version of Playstation Home could still come. So what happens when Arabic (AC Mirage) is added as well? All settings that Ubisoft could have considered and implemented, growing their gaming population into an educational population as well. I reckon that a slice of 2 billion English students could be encouragement enough. 

All settings that not only push Ubisoft forward. It also grows the streaming population on a global scale. Consider that China has 400,000,000 English students. Now consider these people contemplating a Tencent Technology handheld to aid them in English studies. It would make that console the biggest console in history almost overnight (in less then two years is more credible). All revenues that Ubisoft overlooked. The consequence of staring with blinkers. What is in the corner of your eyes, tends to pass you by unnoticed. 

Just a thought for the day, enjoy yours.

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December 10, 2023 · 18:47

It’s not about the salad

Yup, we think salad but it is not. You see, I gave you yesterday the inkling on what would be coming and today the events seemingly have gone away, but the link lies in the story ‘Lap Time’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2019/06/27/lap-time/) a story I wrote in June 2019. The issue given was “giving us levels of unparalleled congestion soon enough after that”, as well as “The moment that ANY vendor needs to acknowledge 5G and congestion in the first year will be the point that turns the customer base into a churn tidal wave and that will happen if the infrastructure is not in place” and guess what. I just have faced over two days of congestion. The interesting part is that the media is seemingly silent on this. Optus already has issues in different areas and now I face additional congestion. Lets be clear, there is at any time a change for congestion. When it is a few minutes at some point, it should be seen as a simple glitch. When it is well over a day it becomes a systemic problem. In my setting it took over 10 minutes to do a simple Google Search. Apps would not update and apply changes, the issue was seen on laptop, tablet and mobile. This is a larger problem and it applied to DIFFERENT connections. Youtube kept freezing, LinkedIn would not update and the list continues. This is the start of congestion and no matter what ‘excuse’ the telecom company gives us, this setting was always going to happen. As such I wonder what comes next. Of course we will see denials, we will see debunking and we will see a whole range of issues. 

Really?
So, could it just be me? Yup, that is an option, but to get it on several devices, each with their own connections becomes an issue. It could be one tower, all options, but it was days, not merely a few hours and congestion is a killer for any telecom company. I could rely on other sources, but the press has lost most of its credibility, so they are not much use and telecom companies would deny it is happening, and refer to some ‘glitch’ trying to trivialise the issue. I see it differently, when sources lose cohesive credibility there is no real reporting and the people who should be are too afraid for their bonus setting. This is now becoming a problem.

Could I be wrong?
That is a fair question and that could be the case, but after 2+ days of this, I do not believe I am. The fact that a simple Google question took minutes is also reenforcing my speculation. There is an issue and we are at the start of it. As the issue dwindled away, we think it is over, but peak issues (Christmas and New Years eve) will show wether I am wrong, or more correct than ever. I a happy to be wrong, but congestion is a problem because when this becomes systemic someone will attack net neutrality and that implies that we need to be aware of our service level agreements. So, who kept their mobile contract? I should have it somewhere, but not sure where. Others would have dumped their papers and now their service level agreement is whatever the telecom company tells us it is. That is a fine way to go through December, is it not?

The additional station isn’t merely our phones and mobiles. It becomes whatever else are we dependent on. And when your Zoom or whatever other solution you use quits on you, you will see the impact of being on the lower scale of the cluster that a telecom company immediately cares about.

I get it, it is a slippery slope. What does matter is that I now faced the first instance of congestion 3.5 years after I predicted this. And this happens before this network is fully 5G implemented. As such I believe the impact will be wider, but that is pure speculation from my side. 

Enjoy the day, my Saturday is mostly over now.

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December 7, 2023 · 22:15

DM for losers

It all started with an image on LinkedIn this morning. We see here (see photo below) that Google has instigated a 5000 email limit per day and that three ‘objected’. 

There is no fighting another day. When you need to send over 5000 emails a day, you are a loser. You are what the 90’s regards the worst case of sales. Direct Marketing for losers. There is no setting of email more, get more revenue. If you cannot set that stage at 250 mails per day, you will not know your customers, you are nothing more then a Cialis pusher (as some say). Real sales is knowing your customers and you have ascertained that YOU have something they need. Proper customer care requires you to know your customer, have a system in place to service your customers. If you are a small business 250 customers a day is even  stretch, but OK, I could go along with that. You are not Nike, SAS, Adidas, Gucci, Volkswagen or Volvo. These have systems and people in place to service that much customers and that limit will not affect professional corporations. 

If you want to be a loser, that is on you, but as more and more people block your personal domain for email harassment, the string will go quickly. One, Two, Four, Eight then people will alert friends and after that it goes 32, 128, 512, 2048. In a week 50% of your daily target is gone and soon the algorithm takes over and less people will get your message, your options decreases even more. Making you start your setup from zero, all lost because you took the path of a loser.

In this world you (as a small business) could address at best 250 people a day. If you have the system to register it all, and you read it all you can retain at best 250 deals a day. Yes it is a speculative number, but the larger setting is not merely selling, it is also the need of manufacturing (if applies),stock, sales service, it is a track and one person cannot properly deal with more than 250 people. Considering 10 hours a day, you have 25 seconds per customer. You can listen to all the BS given to you as they want to sell their system to you, but consider, can you serve your customer completely in 25 seconds? No you can’t, no one can, not even McDonalds who needs 120 seconds. Direct Marketing for losers is not a solution, it is a delusion with no destination. It reminds me of a joke I told someone with a subway map on his T-shirt. “The pink line is the woke subway, it goes everywhere and gets you nowhere ever, no destination will ever be reached” perhaps not entirely accurate, but that is how I feel. 

The largest of all jokes is the one telling you can do it all, it makes you believe that you are stronger then Popeye, faster than roadrunner and wealthier than Scrooge McDuck. None of them real, none of them have any basis of reality. A setting you walked into driven by greed. Like a civil servant with dollar shaped pupils all he does is chase revenue which he hands over to his government leaving him with $882 per week (at best), optionally working yourself to death. As I stated, Direct Marketing for losers has no solution, it never ever will be a solution to anyone but the people selling you that system, serving their income. So how will you get reliable data on 5000 emails a day? Who else has it? Can you see the vicious self defeating circle you are in there? 

Google is right and it is time you figure it out too.

Enjoy your day, Friday is now 2 hours away for me. 

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