Category Archives: IT

December 4, 2023 · 23:05

Dominoes

That is the game, well it is not THAT game exactly, but the expression should be noted with you all. When things go wrong (and at times that will happen) the events fall like domino stones. One starts the next and so on.

It is here that I found myself after seeing ‘Saudi Arabia Pumps Another $100M Into Aviation As It Targets 250 Destinations By 2030’ (at https://simpleflying.com/saudi-arabia-aviation-investment-december-2023/). You see, this is all connected to a much bigger frame. Gaming, the Line, the Cube, the winter sports and so on. They have put up and they have put up the better part of well over a trillion. But the customer care person in me (did that for well over two decades) is looking beyond the frame.

If there is one software company well versed in support and customer care than it is NICE CX software solutions. It is the most complete solution I have EVER seen and there is one hitch. It is Israeli. Now, that doesn’t make it a deal breaker, but it might require Saudi Arabia to make adjustments (like with any other software solution). It needs to become Arabic (it might already be) and it needs to cover several areas and there is a bigger hitch. It needs to survive and offer multiple settings towards deployment and customer service. 

So why now?
The simple setting is that something that big will need time and testing. Adherence to a larger station a well as a larger setting in more fields. Hotels, locations, trade shows, events, airports and so on, that list will not stop for some time and setting this up will take well over a year. Beyond that the creation of a book of ceremonies to capture even more, include even more will have certain settings. Settings for telephone, fax (some still rely on that), internet, CAPI, CATI, form scanning and collecting and verifying data is a much larger issue than most realise and now it is in one hand, in one organisation. I reckon before we get to that setting places like Aramco and SAMI will see additional benefits as well. And if goes well, a lot of it will be complete by 2028, with 2 years of testing before the larger corporations like Saudi Airlines and hotels are connected to that solution. 

Time is an awesome partner when you have this. When this is started in 2029 it will be too late and Saudi Arabia will be cleaning house and answering complaints for well over a year AFTER the solutions are deployed and in that case I always go with, being early is essential, especially with customer care issues. You can only make a first impression once. The rest becomes repair and catering to a howling mess of complaints and that never has ever gone well.

I am curious what could be done and when we get to connect these systems and see how we can serve the customer consider that any international visitor to the The Mukaab, that person flew there, that person is in a hotel and that person could be visiting Trojena as well. Three options to possibly fix something, or to make the visit of that person even more amazing and now multiply that by 100,000,000,000 visitors. Also consider that Riyadh Expo 2030 will be then. When you consider all this, is there any doubt that such a system will be required to keep events in line? There is a second issue. I doubt if Saudi Arabia ever faced events to this amount and to that amount of visitors ever before, but that could merely be me.

Enjoy the day, for most it is about to become Monday, I have completed that day already.

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December 1, 2023 · 21:27

Who did you once trust?

That is on the edge of my mind when Reuters gives us (at https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-pushes-antitrust-action-against-microsoft-uk-cloud-market-2023-11-30/) ‘Google pushes for antitrust action against Microsoft in UK cloud market’. In the one hand, we get these kind of issues all the time, the big boys are fighting over terrain, nothing new here. But what does matter is ““With Microsoft’s licensing restrictions in particular, UK customers are left with no economically reasonable alternative but to use Azure as their cloud services provider, even if they prefer the prices, quality, security, innovations, and features of rivals,” Google said in its letter to the CMA.” As well as “Asked why Amazon, which boasts a larger share of the cloud market than Microsoft, did not pose a similarly anticompetitive risk, Zavery said AWS consumers were not facing the same restrictions.” And the operative word is ‘restrictions’, a setting once employed by IBM. It comes from the old expression “Go IBM or go home”, an expression I had not heard since 1991. A setting that gives further pause when we see “Google made six recommendations to the CMA, including forcing Microsoft to improve interoperability for customers using Azure and alongside other cloud services, and banning it from withholding security updates from those that switch.” A consideration that shows us yet again what a bad choice Microsoft has become. Another source gives us “The CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) launched an investigation into Britain’s cloud computing industry in October, following a referral from media regulator Ofcom which highlighted Amazon and Microsoft’s dominance of the market.” This can be seen in one view. The one part that we could consider is that one has a superior product and the other is a bully, Microsoft does not have the superior product. The marketshare settings are Amazon (33%), Azure (22%) and Google (11%), the rest (like Oracle and IBM) are a lot smaller. Now consider that one isn’t playing nice (read: playing the bully), what is the actual setting that should be? I reckon that Amazon would get a decently larger share, some will go to Google giving me pause to think that the Google/Adobe partnership becomes a lot more important and it decreases Microsoft yet again, all because they decided not to play nice, something they have done a few times over as I personally see it.

What is important is that I saw several sources, yet not one of them is a British newspaper, so when did the UK Media think that reporting on this is not in the interest of the British people? How deep are they in the pocket of Microsoft? Don’t take my work for it, seek it for yourself and see just how useless British media has become.

Enjoy the day, my weekend has started, you will be there soon too.

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November 30, 2023 · 23:47

Do two clouds make a weather system?

That is what I considered whilst contemplating a few things. It all started with the article (at https://www.consultancy-me.com/news/7298/new-google-cloud-region-in-ksa-could-add-109-billion-to-economy) where we see ‘New Google Cloud region in KSA could add $109 billion to economy’ there we are given “Google Cloud has announced the launch of a a new cloud region in Dammam, which could contribute around $109 billion to the country’s GDP by 2030. The expansion will extend Google Cloud’s high-performance, low-latency services to a wide range of customers in Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East”. As I personally see it, if they still had the Google Stadia (with a qualifying question) their revenue could have been almost 20% higher. It starts with around 5% in phase one with a growth to 20% in under two years. So when we are given “Another 36% of the expected activity will be in manufacturing and 3% in the public sector.” But I saw further then that. With Bangladesh and Indonesia in the setting of a much larger growth factor the oversetting of more revenue is not the first step, but it would also result in a new setting of advertising in new areas and new directions. All things they left on the floor for at least two years.

Yet this is not the larger setting, that is given to us with the second article. We see this (at https://aws.amazon.com/local/middle_east/) where we are given “We are excited to announce the new AWS Middle East (UAE) Region is now open! The AWS Middle East (UAE) Region consists of three Availability Zones and is our second region in the Middle East, joining the AWS Middle East (Bahrain) Region, giving customers more choice and flexibility to leverage advanced technologies from the world’s leading cloud provider.” The larger setting is the question if they are going for the same mineshaft, or are they working together? You see, Amazon still has the Luna and as such (still with the qualifying question) they do have the edge on 5 billion leading to 20-30 billion. I cannot be more precise because there are too many factors in play and there is a factor that players like Microsoft ignore and it has cost them massively. Amazon has the edge, but the part of customer acceptance is more difficult then some make it out. I tend to minimise that I pact or go for the smallest iteration and see how far I can take it and  grow from there, as such the 5 billion was stage one. It could be more, but I lack data for that presumption and I do not like to go on a speculative side in this. I feel certain my solution works and now we see with the KSA cloud that only one factor is missing and in all these settings Google and Amazon both missed these billions. Funny isn’t it?

But the two sides do give rise to a few connected things and as I saw my augmented reality implementations there could even be more revenue on the horizon. All sides missed by the two biggest tech companies on the planet and Microsoft was in the wind, they were clueless. You see now why I predicted their downfall? A company that big and they had no idea what they were missing, that is why I do not want them near my IP. I had hoped for the Kingdom Holdings to accept the offer, but they didn’t. The reason why is not important. Now the question becomes will Google adjust their decisions? Will Amazon consider they additional revenue? They are both mere steps away from completion (Google needs one more step). 

But that is merely my point of view. Enjoy the day.

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November 30, 2023 · 02:23

Memories

We all have them. And for a lot of us it goes back to almost simpler times and we miss them. As such I was hit by them when I got to the page (at https://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-xp-wallpaper-takes-spot-on-microsofts-new-ugly-sweater) with the appealing title ‘Microsoft’s 2023 ugly sweater lets you wear the famous Windows XP wallpaper’ I had to read it. You see, I was never aware that they had an ugly sweater and one could say that it is so ugly, it is actually cool again.

That is not me. You see, the Bliss image takes me back to 2004. Things were simpler then and to be honest, I have never known a negative day with my XP, not with Office, not with the Adobe suite. In those days things actually worked correctly. Yes, they screwed it up with Vista, but that is the nature of the beast. 

I was set in a stage of things working, Microsoft not being evil (or more accurately not being stupid). Bliss and XP took me back to the good times and that matters to a lot of people, we all revere the good times we had (or have). The really odd part is that for the bulk of all people, the good times is in the past, in some cases the distant past. 

As such, whomever brought life to this idea at Microsoft has earned a raise. To be honest I did not expect Microsoft to ever surprise me, but they did. And for all the good times reporting they are giving the world with expectations being surpassed. Lets not forget that they just spend well over $65,000,000,000 on a setting that has given them a few issues. One voice gives us “Bethesda tried to make a brand new game concept/idea using old ideas and an old game engine. It just didn’t work. Even modders will have a hard time because the game engine is one of the biggest problems and modders can only work within the limitations of the engine”, you think it is the big tamale, but it is not. You see, most people will overlook the fact that fixing the game is seemingly in the hand of modders. So, when did you rely on your price turkey being fixed by a third party? Add to that the redfall fiasco and you have the making of a problem and the beginning of what I would consider a fiasco. We see all kinds of news on exclusive games coming in 2024, but the larger setting is already that the games they have so far just aren’t adding up. You see I do not care about the Xbox, I dumped mine. What is important that Sony games were better because Microsoft was on their heels, now that the PlayStation has an overwhelming advantage, they might not go all out on the PS6 (whenever that one comes). Good gaming is where it is at and that is why I have been handing over gaming IP to the independent developers (as long as they were not releasing on Xbox). Simple, Microsoft bought it all, now they can prove they actually have it all and have good gaming solutions WITHOUT my IP, they paid enough for it, so now prove it.

In the end this started with the sweater, because that showed us our memories for better and simpler times. It matters to me because the Xbox360 was awesome. Now we see that the Xbox One and the two iterations after that, they are nowhere near what they had. They might claim they have the most powerful console in the world, but the Nintendo Switch being the weakest of them all had much better sales results. It is that bad for Microsoft. We see the mention that Azure is doing better, but what we aren’t told is the simple fact that Oracle saved their bacon. Bing currently has a market share of 3.02% or Microsoft has failed to pick up even 3% of market share in its 10 years of selling Surface PCs. A mere 11% against the 39% that Apple has with the iPad, a superior system. We can argue on how it will come (not ever likely), ore can see that consider that Microsoft is the De Ponzi solution to tech schemes (a I personally see it). Buying more and more and when it does collapse (still set for December 2026) this all falls away. I reckon that late 2025 people will start to realise how dangerous Microsoft has become and I reckon that a early indication will be that Azure users will move towards the AWS flock. It is a speculative view but I believe that I will be proven correct in a years time. The fact that Microsoft is either in denial or refuses to see this is up for debate. But the surprise was the ugly sweater, that win they deserved and according to some sources is almost sold out, so they have that going for them. So what revenue was theirs? And how much revenue are they not getting from their Surface Pro, their Xbox, their Bing and their Azure? That is merely four sides where they never got any decent traction. So what happens when a Google/Adobe partnership impedes on their Office and Office365 setting? How far from home will they be then? Their Office solution is keeping them afloat. For the most their Excel is doing all the heavy lifting. Their Outlook showed issues in the last 24 hours. So when others come calling with solutions that actually work Microsoft will have a a lot more problems and no sweater will save them then. 

Believe me, don’t believe me. It is up to you, but when you start looking at multiple reliable sources the puzzle becomes a reality and it is not a pretty picture, no bliss in sight.

Enjoy the day.

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November 26, 2023 · 20:43

Collapsed Intelligence Agency

Yup, this is about the CIA, unlike the No Such Agency, this one does exist. Now, I do not now, or never ever worked for them. As such I am not in the know. All those people claiming to be in the know from an anonymous source tend to be bullshitting you and I have no such intent. 

This all started when I got my fingers on this from an educational place called Imprimis (at https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/why-the-cia-no-longer-works-and-how-to-fix-it/) the article comes to us by way of Charles S. Faddis. 

It is an interesting read and it focusses on bureaucratisation and politicisation (zzzzzz’s fixed). The first part gives us “Now it is run by people who look for ops with no possible downside and, therefore, no particular upside either.” And the second part is “The CIA has proved unable to put a source inside a Chinese bio lab, within the leadership structure of the Taliban, or next to Vladimir Putin. Those kinds of operations require the willingness to take risks and the ability to manage those risks. We no longer have either”

I cannot disagree with this, but I feel it is too shallow. The first quote makes sense, but there is a larger station. The CIA needs a strong political branch and that one is missing. Most politicians are looking for their own gravy train, the CIA ain’t it. The second part requires resources and as China is closing the borders and Chinese Americans aren’t lining up for a tour that gets their Chinese family members pushed towards vacation park Qincheng, people aren’t willing to line up. Resources are close to all but gone. Now there is every chance that I am wrong, but I feel that I am hitting the nail close to the edge.

The second part gives us “No military relief force was sent by the Obama administration.” This sounds nice, but what is the logistic trail before the president orders actions? That part is not given to us. The 2016 movie ‘13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi’ gives us most clearly that from start to finish 13 hours passed. Some time before could have given these places that there was an issue, but was there enough operational time? It is perhaps the one part missing from the movie, but the movie wasn’t about that, so I get it. My version is seen with “The CIA had given them bad intelligence”, so was it a political player or an intelligence player who screwed things up? All speculations and no supportive data. 

After that the article is all about ‘solutions’ and for me it does not hold water. In the first the CIA needs clear budgets and a nation that is broke becomes a problem, the CIA becomes the anchor no political player wants. They will not say it out loud but their actions will cripple the CIA. There is some truth in education and training but that is for actual agents to report on. There is every chance that I do not know enough. What is clear that they cannot hide behind some fake AI solution, they need proper hardware and proper data solutions. Any political push for AI instigation will cripple the CIA even further. In the end these political players will say ‘sorry, this was apparently too complex for me’ and walk away with a fat check. As I see it, the CIA needs a new way to collect data, through news, through embassies, through consulates and it can no longer be some unique setting. The US State department needs to become the friend of the alphabet groups, not having some pissing content in whomever pond they are. The very first need is quality data that has been verified, the first stage of bad intelligence is missing the correct data.

When we look at the paper we can agree on some parts, but only if we walk with blinders. You see the quote “But the fact that it took us almost ten years after 9/11 to find and kill Bin Laden should give us pause.” What we aren’t given and what the movie ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ clearly gives us is that Bin Laden was in Pakistan, an ally no less and he was in Abbottabad, a mile from the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul and NO ONE in Pakistan saw this? When was the last time Al Qaeda was spotted in Annapolis (or walking around without a care in the world)? So how much resources did the CIA have in Pakistan? Why was an American ally unaware of all this? This was not on the CIA, one could argue that the US State department failed to a much larger degree, but the article does not bear this out (intentional typo).

Yes, the CIA has problems, but they aren’t all on them. Some are and this article does give us that, but the larger station is not on the CIA, as I personally see it, it is on Congress and it is on too many Alphabet units all doubling on things and data is a huge thing here, especially when three organisations (CIA, NSA and the US State department) need to start playing nice and create a much better data system. It is definitely one side that is draining all three.

But that is merely my views, but what do I know?

Enjoying Sunday, Monday starts in 200 minutes (for me at least).

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November 25, 2023 · 21:06

How I got there

That is at times the question, even to myself. You see, it all started with something resembling a nightmare. In my dream I was in some kind of mansion. The mansion seems not too original. It is like something from Stephen King, but it is not that source. The mansion was loaded with spirits and all kinds of supernatural things. It was placed by the original inhabitants of the mansion. I was merely trying to stay alive. I went from room to room trying to survive and phrases were caught in my brain. It was at that point that I saw part of the power of that place. I was drawn to the basement (never a good place to run to). There I saw some kind of mini-train, the train was really small, but built to support a complete person. I saw that the train was almost designed in two parts, the upper part and the lower part. The lower parts had gears that were running at full speed. They were driven by some kind of poltergeist. It was contained in some kind of glass/metal bottle, through it were wheel axes. The moment I sat on the train the upper side got pushed onto the lower part and the train started to move. The train was going in one direction, activating switches and ignoring others. It was the poltergeist that was in control and the passenger was along for the ride. After several minutes and after one long corridor I arrived in a room, some storage room but one with a difference. The glass roof gave me the clear indication that I was under a lake, there was a lake next to the mansion, but I never expected to be under it. There were more spirits there, almost like they escaped and in the middle was a dollhouse, much larger than normal and it looked like a replica of the mansion. The dollhouse seemed to be identical and then I noticed the small tags, all saying the same thing ‘In case of emergency’ The room had similar tags, but much larger and I saw a weird stick with a handle, almost like ancient sticks to activate gas lights. Then I saw the light receptacle on the wall, the stick would reach it, I raced to that place and pressed the stick. It was like some kind of press handle connected to some kind of dynamo. The sparks hit the receptacle and sparks flew. A second later all the lights went on, but a really bright white. Almost like there was magnesium in the mix. The spirits vanished immediately. I now had time to look at the dollhouse. I looked at the tags and saw where they were. I had seen the same connections in the mansion, but I never examined them. I saw the cords and I smelled one of them. They smelled a little oil like. I took a chance, grabbed my lighter and set one off. The impact was immense. Over seconds the lights in the dollhouse started to light up in some kind of green, what was equally astonishing was the fact that what happened there happened in the mansion as well. A voodoo dollhouse that is actually working. This was some next level issues in real life.

That was what I saw and it mattered that it gave me the inkling of what could transpire in season 2 of Engonos. I suddenly realised what would scare people to death. It isn’t death itself, it is a realisation and the dream got me there. It fits the stage as the main character is the son of Makaria, the step we get to in season 1 where he ends up in Tartarus could also unlock more. I had part of this in play, but not entirely and now the unlocking opens up a new edge to skate against. Skating against the edge is nothing new, but in this case I never contemplated several settings, mainly because they seem unnatural. It is almost like the adult industry relying on all girls having a case of Elektra complex, no Jennifer Garner required. The setting to use supernatural beings for other means is equally not entirely new, but to use them as some kind of army is not used that often and several sides were shown to me in this (sort of) nightmare. 

In other news, I just saw TechNote (by Homeland Security), the September 2012 version, a year after I created my solution, which has a side they do not seem to have. Now, I do not know all the inn’s and out’s and there is a chance that their 07ED-01-LASR is superior, but is seemingly missing a part. If that is true (currently untested and unverified) then the score is Yours Truly versus DARPA 4 – 0. Some people go through life being immensely happy merely one goal or two goals ahead. As such I feel happy I cleaned their clocks (we all have delusional sides). 

Not the worst case of Saturday in action. 

Enjoy your day.

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November 21, 2023 · 06:31

Presentations by media jokes

It happens at times. Whilst we think that corporations are playing us, we are all being played by the media. The media and corporations hand in hand deceiving us all for a simple percentage. That is the feeling I have had for plenty of times, but this one (my speculated view) is just too opportune to ignore. So lets show you what I have and you can decide for yourself.

Part one
The first part is the story we have seen over the last 2-3 days. This version (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2023/11/20/sam-altman-will-not-return-as-ceo-of-openai/) is used as the other version I wanted to use (AFR) is behind a paywall. We see here ‘Sam Altman Will Not Return As CEO Of OpenAI’ with the added text “Supporters of Altman led by Microsoft and including investors and key employees had pressured OpenAI’s board of directors to take back Altman, or face the widespread resignation of OpenAI’s researchers and withdrawal of Microsoft’s support”. At this point three questions come to mind but I will hold off until a little later, it makes things a lot more clear. As such we see one corporation ‘cleaning’ its management setting, but ponder on those settings a little longer

Part two
The second part came hours later, but now we have a very strong defining place with ‘Microsoft hires former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’ (at https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/20/sam-altman-openai-ceo-wont-return-chatgpt-talks-fail-emmett-shear-twitch) with the added “Microsoft has hired Sam Altman as head of a new advanced artificial intelligence team after attempts to reinstate him as chief executive of OpenAI failed.” At this point a few questions should emerge, but we are about to go into that part. 

Part three
This comes when we consider “At the end of a dramatic weekend of boardroom drama, the non-profit board of the San Francisco-based OpenAI has installed Emmett Shear, the co-founder of video streaming site Twitch, as the company’s third CEO in three days”

Part four
The questions that should come to mind are

  1. OpenAI is ruffle feathers when it is on a high in several directions?
  2. Sam Altman doesn’t have a non-compete clause?
  3. So, who is Emmett Shear, what is his expertise in presumed AI?

These three questions should have been on the mind of ALL media. OpenAI is on a high note on a hyped route towards whatever they present. But none of them did, I checked a dozen articles, they ALL overlooked issues here, so when does the media ‘overlook’ issues? We see all the emotional articles about staff resigning, about ‘demands’ in a stage where they (for now) have the upper hand. Oh and on a sideline, when you have such hyped IP, which corporation was the last place that had non-compete clauses in play, especially for players this size? 

That is beside the point on WHO became the replacement.

Part five
This is the kicker, this is the coup-de-grace of the entire equation. It is seen with Microsoft hiring Sam Altman. Microsoft now has a larger stake in a solution they wanted all along and through this media drama, they now get it a lot cheaper. So when would any player, in this case OpenAI shoot itself in the foot to this degree? We see now that ‘Weekend of OpenAI drama ends in a Microsoft coup’, ‘Microsoft Emerges as the Winner in OpenAI Chaos’ and ‘OpenAI’s leadership moves to Microsoft, propelling its stock up’, yes presentations by the media. The media used as the bitch of Microsoft and it is shown through questions that were clearly out in the open. Microsoft stock up and OpenAI becomes part of Microsoft for billions less. One could say (and I would not disagree) that this was a lovely play to reduce billions in tax payments and the media let it happen. All solutions that were clearly on the papers where ever you looked when you decided to seek for the right answers. As I personally see it, the media is simply the bitch of corporations and they all let it happen, all pushing the tax offices down the river in a canoe without a paddle. Well played Microsoft.

So consider what played over a weekend, consider what any corporation would do to protect its multi billion dollar value. I think that OpenAI was part of this stage from the very beginning, but that is my speculated view.

Enjoy your Monday, it’s Tuesday here.

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November 19, 2023 · 16:56

Right in front of you

We all have this at times and sometimes it doesn’t even apply to us. We sometimes see the setting and we see the elements, but it takes something more to connect the parts. It can be timing, it can be the past, it can be budgets, there are a whole range of settings and they could all optionally apply. 

As such I was looking at the MacBook Pro. Not for any massive applicable reason, I am quite happy with my own laptop edition (and I am roughly 99.9% missing for the $6,799.00 acquisition). And this was not about the money (the article that is). You see, we all have budget constraints and   choices to make, but at this point as Thanksgiving is merely days away and soon we get Saint Nicholas (Netherlands and Belgium) and Christmas an opportunity opens up for both Apple and Adobe.

You see, most of you might have seen the offer below 

Yet the setting is that plenty cannot apply for that offer (the are no longer, or never were students) and a larger stage comes into play. What if Apple makes a deal that whomever buys a MacBook Pro before the end of the January 2024 (Just to offer a timeline) get in addition a Creative Cloud subscription for 2 years. Time to get adjusted to what Adobe can do, people who want to improve their needs for vlogging and all kind of self presentation will have the best tool at their disposal. Suddenly the need and the contemplation of a MacBook Pro becomes a much larger need. When you can avoid up to $2,500 in Adobe fees, that MacBook Pro becomes a whole lot more appealing. In addition to that after two years people will start to see the benefit of what Adobe brings to the table. One year is not enough, two years could do the trick for both Apple and Adobe. Lets face it, they are well established, but in the holiday season that stage is under duress and to give any customer the best of both worlds tends to be the self fulfilling prophecy any day of the week.

So was this something that was right in front of anyone? The same could be said for the MacBook Pro and a GoPro, but many will have a decent, optionally overkill option in the camera on their mobile phones, as such the connection Apple and Adobe seems more apt for many people. I have been looking at the settings and I was a little surprised that these two had not made such arrangements weeks ago, in that way they optionally had thanksgiving as well in both Canada and  America. So, was that right in front of you? It might not have been and plenty of people aren’t contemplating the MacBook Pro at present, but with all the noise on becoming the next Google partner, or TikTok diva that sets a stage. There are at present 1.1 million TikTok creators and that group is growing rapidly, as such the new players will either go big or go home. I do not always agree with that greed driven term, but in this case you either offer a lot more or you get overlooked. The stage is Youtube is not completely the same. They have 60.2 million creators, there the stage is becoming more and more that either they upgrade or lose people. There are still a fair share of newbies in that regiment, but not as much or as loud as the TikTok community. 

All elements that that I personally believe Apple could and should have considered many weeks ago, but that could be me. 

I will let you sort it out and if you go this path, see what you need and make a proper budget of what YOU can afford. It is wrong to steer anyone into a path they CANNOT afford, my intent is making an optional solution more affordable and the link Apple-Adobe does that. To be honest, unless you have aspirations into Photoshop or Premiere Pro there might not be a reason to go the way of the MacBook Pro, I get that. Still this solution is taring me in the face and it could be for a lot of people a match made in heaven, but that could merely be my view on the matter.

As such Apple (and Adobe) time to wake up, my weekend is still 7.1 hours active and I seem to more awake than they are (optionally a delusional statement).

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November 16, 2023 · 20:24

Just a tally

Yes, we like our tallies, it gives us a feel of accomplishment even if what is behind that tally is beyond our control. I have tallied my way through life and even as some was directly applicable to me, some was not.

Yet there is a realisation and it sets off at the very beginning. The realisation of comparison. I might have a tally that includes 2 21 year old women, 1 22 year old and 4 23 year old, without comparison and meaning it is a little hollow. If it is your ‘black book’ some will applaud, when it is your achievements in a retail shop a lot less so, especially when it involved a mall.So one with out the other is meaningless and the other way around it tends to be pointless.

So here we are looking at

And we are given the numbers. But what does it mean? You see the Dutch Army had at the height of the cold war age 1000 tanks, at the moment according to some sources it merely has 18 tanks (no idea how correct that is). And as you see, the Russians have lost 5,362 tanks during its Ukrainian offensive. This becomes a whole different crumbled cookie when you consider that (according to one source) has 12,556 tanks. Now the tally becomes a much larger consideration. This implies that on what I consider to be a meaningless war, a war of terror they lost 42% of all tanks, as such the Russian armoured assault power has almost diminished by 50%, that ain’t nothing that is half the battle gone against an armed force that was considered 21st on the world ranking list. As such the tally continues and when you consider that they lost 22 warships, all whilst the UK has a total of 70 warships. This might not seem much against the 290 that Russia is supposed to have, but if the spread of that navy is anything to go by Russia is indeed in trouble on several fronts. Now we might giggle and expect scenes from the battleship Potemkin to become a reality. The supply and support issues we have seen in recent days might not make that setting too unrealistic. Now that Ukraine has access to more modern airplanes, the 322 they lost will up by a lot soon enough. Yet they were supposed to have 900 of these bad boys and well over q third is now gone and that was before the F16’s were roaring over Ukrainian sky. A meaning less war, based on lies and Russia seemingly have lost 50% of its tanks and 33% of its fighter jets and that is all before we see the losses of helicopters and 313,000 troops. On the other hand that means that over 250,000 Russian women are cold at night. Can we reintroduce the concept of prima nocta in St Petersburg? 

I might not be a monarch, but at times I am just like any other horny little teenager. Is it fair? Nope, but they weren’t fair on Ukraine either so something needs to give. In addition, this might be the first time in history that Russian gender imbalance was so outspoken, as such beyond the military parts, the Russian social parts will also see changes and impacts all over the field. In addition, as the gender curve changes, the jobs that have been overwhelmingly male will also change. It will not immediately meltdown the economic vibe in the larger cities, but there will be a larger impact. There is no upside for Russia, the dead do not contribute and it cost the Russian government nothing. Conscription is up and when over 17 you can now be drafted into the Russian army. On the other side we see “aims to increase spending by around 25% in 2024, with record amounts going on defense” yet that is also a loaded stage. You see tanks ned time to get assembled, planes need assembly and the labour force required is currently down by a lot. All that I saw coming close to a year ago. We are also given (source: ABC News) “Record low unemployment, higher wages and targeted social spending should help the Kremlin ride out the domestic impact of pivoting the economy to a war footing, but could pose a problem in the long term” and no one considered the impact of no tenants, the pricing bubble of apartments, especially in St Petersburg and Moscow and several other linked factors. All that was optionally visible with a mere tally. 

When you diminish 300K people it might not seem a lot on the scale of Moscow (12 million) or St. Petersburg (250K) but overall that impacts start counting in several ways and there is one little thing the Russians overlooked. The dead do not pay taxation, so how will that increased budget come to pass? Something will have to give way and that doesn’t spell well for the current population of Russia. Suddenly my reference towards prima nocta doesn’t sound too weird, does it? You see we overlook that in WW2, the Nazi’s relied on 34,000 women over 500 Nazi-run brothels across occupied Europe to keep their troops in check. So how long until Russia takes a page from that charter? 250,000 women all manless and all serving mother to be Russia. The tally does not make sense, but to some it starts adding up to a new setting and behind all that is Bratva, a group overlooked by too many and now that their bosses have lost their capital in the west and their homes all over the west they will start getting creative fast. When you see the tally and what it connects to you get new iterations of what could be, not what should be and the nice thing about a tally it is a one dimensional application of simple numbers. 

I get it, some will frown, some will say I am wrong, but they will all be worried. I took the simplest application of numbers and took a gander on where it COULD lead to. In my defense, the path of the greed driven tends to be highly predictable, but that is merely my view on the matter.

Enjoy the day.

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November 16, 2023 · 01:48

Time of the signs

This is the stage we at times face. It is not a sign of times. Time was not the operator here, the signs were and some remained in denial. One of the better game reviewers (Eurogamer) gave us ‘More people are playing Skyrim on Steam than Starfield’ today (at https://www.eurogamer.net/more-people-are-playing-skyrim-on-steam-than-starfield). There are a few issues, but that is not on Eurogamer. We get the setting that on Steam Skyrim versus Starfield ends up being 15,386 – 11,563, as such on steam a 12 year old program has more traction than Starfield. Skyrim is great, it still is. Skyrim was a 90%+ game and that matters, good games always do, all whilst Starfield is barely getting above 80%, in one case it is a mere 70%. That is the impact of mediocrity and Microsoft has spend billions on that. 

In contrast, Sony’s Spiderman 2 has sold over 5 million copies. Compare that to the Starfield list of what some say is “the game sees over 504074 daily players on average”, a mere 10%.

A game that is shooting itself in the foot by being merely on 2 systems. It was the right of Microsoft to bar it from Sony systems, they did spend all that money, but now the stage changes. New (and at times free IP) will be pushing in on that field and with the small announcement that “It’s fair to say, it will probably be a while before we hear anything more about how The Elder Scrolls 6 is progressing” the new players get almost free reign with creating RPG IP and that setting gets worse for Microsoft when the Tencent Technology handheld is released. 

So we see that modders are trying to improve the program, we see more and more that Starfield was not worth the hype, although with the lack of games that Microsoft has on its contraption, it might be the only thing on that system. In the meantime we see Sony pushing ahead and they did not have to spend a total of around $80,000,000,000 for Bethesda, Mojang and Blizzard their goose is properly cooked. We see all kind of half baked release signals by no one is setting the stage of what ACTUALLY will be released and when. In the meantime Microsoft will ned up with more and more competitors. And we get it Bethesda will not rush ahead and that is fine and perhaps they will create a new titan in RPG, they basically have done that 4 times already, but this time around 108,000,000 gamers are not connectable as Microsoft is making Bethesda games exclusive to their system and that includes the 40 million PS5 players. The not so nice part for Microsoft is that if there is even one successful new RPG IP, Microsoft will miss out on a lot more and after all that money they spend, what a shame. And with some stating on Redfall “Very mediocre game at launch. Combat feels sluggish and unpolished. Characters and dialogue are uninteresting” is merely one side, you see that proper game testing is essential and as I see it that baton was passed in both Redfall and Starfield. You see when we are given “Bethesda released another Starfield beta update, its second such patch in November” my mind wanders in another direction. You see the game was OFFICIALLY released on September 6th 2023, so why do we see ‘beta’ patches months later? And when you start looking, you will find a lot more. You see, none of that is fair on Bethesda, yet as they are now part of Microsoft, they will endure a lot more and the Arkane failure (Redfall) didn’t help much. Now their last straw will be a news Elder Scrolls and that is seemingly not out until 2025, as such several developers will have the field to create something that holds up to scrutiny and when they do the damage will be on Bethesda (and as such on Microsoft too). They already have felt damage from the Horizons games (both of them) and number three is coming. When is utterly unknown but if they get it out before the end of 2024 Microsoft will be handed another painful defeat and now it is AFTER they spend all those billions. The stage I tried to push for is coming to terms and should Tencent Technologies (or Amazon) take my share towards 50 million users, Microsoft will diminish. None of this is fair on Bethesda, but that is what they signed up for and the steam numbers show that they had glorious days, but a lack of gamers is about to undo whatever they created between 2005 and 2019. It saddens me because Bethesda had great gaming moments. Even now I am hoping that Oblivion and Fallout 3 will make it to PS5, these games were that good. But the Microsoft stage is different and leaves no place for Sony. The one fear I have is that they will create some kind of portal to capture user data of all Sony players. There is absolutely no evidence for that, but Microsoft needs data, it lacks data. Google has one side, Amazon has another side and Sony and Nintendo have the final side. A triangle of data and Microsoft is the piggy in the middle and that game is already frustrating with merely two players against the piggy, in this setting (as I personally see it) Microsoft is wearing itself out a lot more than Don Quixote rushing after windmills and in all that the profit they seek is no Dulcinea. 

It is at best the old hag from some old movie we all forgot about.

It is the time of the signs and one of those signs are the old days, the old days where developers saw that fun was a determining factor, something too many developers have forgotten about. I wonder how many other developers Microsoft will drag down before they realise that they are merely making it harder on themselves to hold onto anything at all. When it was merely one console it was fine, but now it is billions in several directions and the hardship is merely increasing from what already is and with 2 more players adding into that field the setting becomes unsustainable for Microsoft and as such for a player like Bethesda as well. Perhaps they will create the next Elder Scrolls to be a 95%+ game and I hope that they do, because it will up the level of games all over the field, at present it is not likely to increase gaming quality, sad. Really really sad.

The latter part of the week is now in play for me. I wonder what I will find in 16 hours.

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