Category Archives: IT

November 13, 2022 · 01:47

Repetition or confirmation?

I was a little on the fence whether I should write this article. It felt a little repetitive and I hate repetition, hell is all about it. But it was the fortune article that made me go for it. There was a bonus involved. The article (at https://fortune.com/2022/11/04/cloud-video-games-future-stadia-xbox-microsoft-google-sony/) gives us ‘Cloud video games have a rocky history, but could have a bright future’, as such I agree. But apart from Google throwing in the towel (a mistake, but their choice). We get “In May, the company announced its Xbox Cloud Gaming program had attracted over 10 million players spread over 26 countries since opening its beta up a year prior. And the numbers are growing.” This and “You need to have a console solution and you need to have a cloud solution, because as gaming continues to expand, you’re going to need multiple options for each market” made me roar (with laughter). Not directed at the statements. I kinda agree with the second statement, although it is early days for that. It is the first that made me howl. Microsoft the company who ‘evangelised’ the fact that they had the most powerful console in the world was surpassed in lifetime sales by Nintendo within 2 years. Apple made a mess of the  Microsoft tablet, Amazon made a joke of Azure and now we see this, all whilst I am offering a solution to Amazon which could add 50 million subscriptions amounting to $6,000,000,000 a year.  So not only did Microsoft became largely irrelevant in Console gaming (all whilst spending $75,000,000,000 for Blizzard and Bethesda) Amazon does not have to go to anywhere near that that degree and will surpass Microsoft (if they buy the solution) by well over 40 million subscriptions. I reckon that if Amazon accepts the deal, the new years party at Microsoft will end up being more dreary than a funeral. Oh and that is before we consider the market share that Microsoft loses to Adobe. Cloud services, gaming, tablets and office losses. Life could not feel better for me at present and that is off course linked to Amazon (or another third party currently approached) buying my solution. It feels perfect slapping that smug company. I was clear 10 years ago that they were making too many BS mistakes, mistakes that gamers were not accepting (like always online). And Sony took them to the cleaners (OK, Sony had sheer gaming perfection in house, so that helped). 

Cloud gaming is the future that was never in doubt, yet it does rely on national deployed 5G networks. It can work on lesser, but congestion becomes a real issue at that point and there I have a few other ideas for Amazon (but these ideas are a little out in the open at present). 

And I believe it will go further, but that might be overly optimistic, and I hate being overly optimistic, but the numbers are seemingly in my favour at present, still I will hang onto ‘merely’ the 50,000,000 subscriptions.

It feels a little repetitive, but until today I did not have any numbers by Microsoft and they are only at 10 million over 26 countries. Not only can I do better, I would be able to hand the wooden spoon to Mr Spencer, that feeling is better than sex, I shit you not. In addition I would end my career on a massive high and that counts too, as such I do hope that Amazon reacts quickly. I have no problems with the third party, yet these two players are new to me and I am not sure how close they are to Microsoft and I do not want them part of this. Just mutually assured dislike. 

Sunday is turning out to have a nice start. Time to do some snoring (it is 01:44)

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Gaming, IT

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

November 12, 2022 · 17:56

The other foot

A thought occurred, it happened earlier today, but my mind was not with the program that runs within me. You see we have a foot we prefer, almost like left handed and right handed, but the foot is less obvious, it is merely in the back of our minds, perhaps it is linked to instinct, perhaps it is less than that, but the setting exists. Yet what happens after? You see we are so of the mind that we walk we do that, and sometimes we run. Then we meet with people who tells us not to run, but to walk. Some have an actual concern. It can be safety, or merely the chance of danger. The other group gives us that setting do that we can be caught up to, we do not run faster than they do, it worries them. 

Yet there is another place. Where we rely on asymmetric gait, it is skipping. The interesting part is that skipping, even for 1-2 minutes a day strengthens you and increases your accuracy. Yet be honest. When was the last time you did that exercise? When do you no longer need to rely on increased strength and accuracy? You thought of that as a child’s game, did you not? 

The other foot is there too. What happens when you start concentrating on moving the other foot first? It is a simple question, did you ask yourself that? What happens when people state that there is no need, you are good as you walk and for a while you suddenly get compliments. Did you consider that someone does NOT want you to increase your mobility? In the 90’s my bosses did something similar. Convince me to NOT learn Oracle. It did not sit well with their exploitation of me, yet I did not learn that lesson until much later, too late actually. Yet in my twilight I have merely a few goals. Sell my IP and get a really nice stake in my retirement. And in good faith those who wronged me will never be allowed near my IP (Microsoft is not invited either). 

Yet the stage is not my IP, this stage is about you. When were you given a real option in the last two years? You see bosses are now no longer in charge (sort of). It is an employee setting and for the most they cannot get a good employee at present. EVERYONE is short of staff. As such this is the time to slam your fist on the table and set precise goals that they have to adhere to, although if you do that, you better deliver on their needs too. 

The AFR (at https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/why-we-don-t-have-enough-workers-to-fill-jobs-in-4-graphs-20220621-p5avcc) gives us in a first graph that the shortage increased by 30% in the last 2 years alone and it is not merely the ageing group. Bosses have short sold their staff for over a decade and now the invoice is due. In the blue collar stage it fluctuates between 20% and a whopping 74%. As such businesses on a global scale have a problem. Fortunately for them they have some options in other fields. Instead of relying on ‘Fake it until you make it’ they need to rely on ‘learn it until you lead it’ and there could be options all over the Commonwealth, Europe and even the US. Places like Oracle can start hiring trainees and after their first courses are passed they can be placed at their customers. Rotating every 6 month until someone ‘Shanghai’ them to become permanent employees. And this is not merely Oracle. There is Oracle, IBM, Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services, end a few others.

The HR departments on a global scale need to alter their Modus Operandi it no longer works the way they think it does. The old days are over and you either adjust or you restrict your business. Of course players like Oracle need an alternative workforce, but there Universities and experienced oldies might be two streams of getting the workforce enabled. In addition they have the ability to enhance cyber knowledge all over the field making their people more enticing than the other ones. There the AFR had another view (at https://www.afr.com/technology/skills-shortage-a-handbrake-for-technology-companies-20220503-p5ai8r) and here we see ‘Skills shortage a ‘handbrake’ for technology companies’ which is merely the top-line. It is “The Australian Information Industry Association’s annual member survey found 75 per cent of technology companies are expecting their revenue to grow by at least 5 per cent this year but are concerned skills shortages will be a barrier to expanding their business.” And that is merely Australia. The commonwealth (especially UK and Canada) have growing issues and the US is in deep trouble and with their approach to everything it is now becoming the least interesting place to work. Plenty of California places (as well as the large players) have an option to syphon services via Canada, which is not a great solution, but better than nothing. In addition we see “AIIA chief executive Ron Gauci says his members are looking offshore to find specialist tech talent” and there we see the first problem, they rely on HR systems that did not evolve, that did not adjust and I see the same BS emails in my inbox to prove it, all half baked ‘invitations’ to come to Malta, they even pay the first month rent. Moving to a place where ‘others’ call the shots? You have got to be joking. When you are young and in the workplace we had 7 years ago, some people might give that a try. In todays setting it does not hold water and that is also a problem in Australia, the people who fell for that approach the last 6-10 years ago now have different stories and their friends are giving it a miss. But some places have options. They merely have to wake up and look at the equation from the other side to see that opportunities and options are there, merely for those willing to throw the gears in another speed setting and start with the other foot, it is seemingly that simple.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

November 10, 2022 · 22:40

The other white meat

Yes, you heard the phrase but do you know the origin? It comes from an advertising slogan developed by advertising agency Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt in 1987 for the National Pork Board. The campaign was paid for using a checkoff fee (tax) collected from the initial sale of all pigs and pork products, including imports. The slogan has stuck in a few ways, but the slogan was hammering me tonight and it took a while for me to figure out what the back of my head was mulling over. For this we need to take a sidestep. I have been considering the GoPro Hero 11 and as soon as the next pay-check comes in, I might get me one. The numbers that we are given are “The number of GoPro devices shipped worldwide has been decreasing since its peak of 6.58 million units in 2015, to around 3.15 million units in 2021”, some short sighted people will think that it is a declining population and you would be really wrong. You see at this point people are still using the GoPro Hero 4, they aren’t updating. It does everything they need it to do and these users are happy. But the short of it is that well over 10,000,000 filmers are making all kinds of movies, some action, some self centred and a lot of them are walk-around videos. There are thousands made and hundreds are addd on a daily basis. All uploaded to YouTube and TikTok. And there is the gem. Thousands of films filled with open source intelligence all out there and the one who can turn these films into facts is sitting on a treasure. You see we see how fictive people like Jason Bourne are avoiding CCTV and some people are actually doing this. But they cannot hide from the lonely walker with a camera, they often do not see this backpacker or tourist and there we end up with a load of information. Now 97% will be useless, but it is that 3% that gives value to the app that would be made. You might think that it is a waste of time, and for a lot of people it is. Yet the intelligence community see these solutions as diamonds in the rough. Both sides make a case and it is not about privacy, it is not about personal rights. It is about finding terrorists and it is already hard enough as it is, to leave a source unused is utter madness. Oh and do not think I have a great idea. I am 100% certain that others have had it to, it is merely the option for more people to create intelligence apps that is an essential need. It was the GoPro Hero 10 that inspired me to alter one of my IP to specifically help out real estate, yet for the most that is merely a hardware application. In the field Business Intelligence needs a boost and getting sliceable and dice-able data that they can work with will soon be the best next thing. Getting data from large cities is often hard enough and these films will not completely do it, but the idea that 12-30 movies in one week gives the data firm a top-line stage for a place like Manhattan or London is not out of the question. They are merely the most visible places but not the only ones and it is that drive that Business Intelligence needs. With too many fake accounts on social media, that source is becoming less and less stable, but a GoPro walk around video is a different matter. That is data that is easily verified as authentic and could give the researchers a top-line result that could be the starting point of a market research. 

So, I leave it to the programers to analyse a film and see what they can get from it. Good luck!

Leave a comment

Filed under IT, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

November 9, 2022 · 20:14

It started with a prank

This is the story of a story if you want. To get the fill idea I have to take you back to 1974. We got a visit from an airforce officer, he showed us quartz. Not a small piece either, we needed both hands to hold it, it was like a small pyramid almost 10 inches each side and it was raw, not shaped, not prepared, raw quartz. It was almost like magic. Now we go back to almost the present. The movie Cloverfield is out and it is quite the trip and whilst I was watching the DVD it suddenly hit me. What if I could send pats of the edited movie on an SD card and hand it to the officer with the message to get it to DARPA. Apart from the simple fact that there were no SD card in 1974, the idea that a 10 year old knew about DARPA would be remote and the contraption would be unknown to the officer who would be able to see that it was advanced tech. Once they figured out it was 128GB the panic starts, because in 1974 a 200MB Winchester drive would be the size of an office desk. Then they need to decode what was there and when they saw the MP4 files panic would truly start. Lady Liberty, the Brooklyn bridge and more. The panic would be near complete and the prank would be utterly complete. So this was when the daydream stopped and the mind started to wind the cogs. What if it was not a prank, what if it was not then but now. What if hackers, not some government create a different kind of file. A file that gives a stage that could create panic. Like the light bar in newscasts, what if at 02:30 the transmission was interrupted WITHOUT the studios noticing that a special newscast that the bitcoin collapsed it was at this point 700 points down and expected to drop another 800 points. Not one, but orchestrated over half a dozen stations setting the stage in 2 timezones (in the US, China, Japan, or perhaps gullible North Korea). The panic wave would create a dip, large enough to make a decent killing, especially if the buys were not in the country where it was hit, and 30 minutes later all traces were gone. The media would have a field day trying to find out who did it and how it was done, but the stage is now complete. You see, What if Solarwinds did not just update supermarkets, what if that was the start of a specific backdoor that could not be found as it was too small and it was inactive (like the Optus hack).
The idea that people will drop their bitcoins at $14000 ($6K down) implies that there would be a lot of money be made in 30 minutes. And after the hour the bitcoin is sold again and the scoundrels walked out with millions, paying off their ‘loan’ with a healthy profit. It would need massive orchestration. The stations, the internet, several other elements and those who think it is impossible better realise that Solarwinds, Optus and a few more hacks overlap in places and a small cohesive group could be waiting below the line merely waiting for the right time and with the average detection time is set to 200 days there is plenty of manoeuvring space. 

The setting for a Hollywood script in a few hours. I need a hobby!

Well that was my scoundrel side thinking new ideas to be made into a script. Have a fun time and please invite me to the red carpet if the scripts becomes reality.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, movies, Science, Stories

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

November 8, 2022 · 23:49

Doubts and considerations

Yes, I have doubts and I have hd them for some time. Yet there is a consideration to make. I offered the IP to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but they will not consider meting and they have hd 11 weeks to consider. So now what? Well, there is the United Arab Emirates and there is China. The two options in the US have had over 20 weeks, so I am now getting to a different bottom of a barrel. I will not consider Microsoft. I would hand it to China for free before I hand it to Microsoft. They have screwed up too much IP, a man needs to have his pride. And to be honest I have no idea why they would ignore $500,000,000 a month in revenue. I cannot see it. There are two options, one is the poison well approach, the other is that they do not believe me. It will be up to them, if these last two are deciding not to dip their toes in the water. I am considering placing the IP here as Public domain, at that point they cannot overrule the market, whomever brings the goods gets a turn and big-tech really hates catering to Public Domain, my only condolence price is that IP bundle three would go to the most needy and big-tech loses out two for two. Which will give my second bundle a decent chance but it is not the way I wanted to get there. And with a $6B annual solution the larger firms suddenly will go for the miscommunication excuse, but at that point I will be extremely selective who is allowed near my second IP bundle and Microsoft will not be a consideration. I wonder how the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will react to some people, but that is not my problem. They had the chance, they had the chance four times over and it seems bitter sweet if the UAE ends up with the IP, but that is the hand they dealt themselves and I feel no pity as I was left out of pocket to a much larger degree. To be honest I have no idea if the UAE has what it takes to turn it around, I am decently certain that Huawei or China has the abilities and I do not consider them one and the same. I will have to avoid Tencent as they have a partnership with Microsoft. And I am running out of time, on December 31st it will become public domain, I set the system up that way and I had a limited time to get it done. I did not anticipate that the Consulate of Saudi Arabia would block a meeting via third persons. Not with $500 million a month on the line, but that is my understanding of people, apparently not as good as I thought it would go. 

And at that point doubt set in, doubt on how I brought it and how I expected people to overcome ego (a speculation from my side), I honestly do not get it, but not to fret. I still have several paths to walk in the next 6 weeks. Time will tell how delusional I was and when I publish the first IP others can judge how delusional my ideas were, because in the end I will vet information, even my own. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

November 8, 2022 · 14:05

The anger within

We all have it, something sets us off. It is not always fair and just, but to some extent, the buttons pushed are getting to us all, and I am no different. It all started (again) this morning with 

Here we see a retweeted Tweet. We get to see dozens a day and we cannot verify the truth on most of them, people with hatred of Elon Musk whilst no one is asking that procrastinating wanker (Jack Dorsey) to properly explain himself. If Musk has a case to fire thousands, then the previous custodians fucked up, they screwed it all up royally and it is all about floating the value of the company, but the media (with less credibility than a crack pusher) refused to set the stage of asking serious questions and it is the bulk of all media, the little who asked seemingly critical questions asked too little of them and they never followed up on them or reported on the simple fact that Jack Dorsey did not elaborate. His feigned apology was all we got and the media helped him massively. We still have no clear stage of the bots, a clear stage of fake accounts and hen this comes to light it will be too late, Dorsey took the billions and ran, with massive help from the media. Media is now slapping Elon Musk every chance he gets and he is waiting time on answering whilst setting the stage for a trimmed and optionally more profitable Twitter. This sinking ship came with a $45,000,000,000 cost. Did you think that it was a hand off to get Dorsey to buy a more luxurious coffin for himself? 

Then we get the Financial Times with the claim that Twitter use went up. OK, fair and also a lot seemingly (what I saw) based on people spouting negativity regarding Elon Musk and no one asking clear questions on the changes that came AFTER Dorsey left. Some things do not add up. Several accounts losing hundreds and some claim to have lost thousands. Why would changing the guards have such a setting? Yes, a few hundred might have bailed to an alternative, but when the alternative does not deliver, they will come back. Their ego’s will make them come back and then we will see the excuses of ‘Lets give him a chance’ all whilst that should have been the starting position. I get that some might create a Mastodon (or was that a Megaladon, sorry Jason Statham) account. Makes perfect sense, especially if that person is an influencer, they will go where the masses are, but the right influencer would have a Mastodon already. The stage of one person having a dozen accounts to butter the conversation are in a stage that they do not know where their ‘powers’ are going. That makes sense too, but I would need clear data to identify that part. I do know someone who has that but he is too busy looking after other things. 

I do not get the stupidity of the attacks on Elon Musk, even the clearly presented lies and misrepresentation. It goes nowhere, in the end we merely cut ourselves. It is clear that Twitter needs time to get itself on  a new path and the media seems very driven to not let this happen. Especially when you consider how much leeway they gave Jack Dorsey, months of reporting constitutes that evidence. You merely need to Google search ‘Twitter’ and see how much critical questions were asked of Jack Dorsey and how much non-accusation based questions were asked of Elon Musk, the numbers should scare you and most people  with their attack on Elon Musk are part of that trend. I? Well I do not know what will happen, so I will await until the dust settles and see what happens next. I will fall several steps as I see no need to buy a blue checkmark and more important will be reduced in the seek algorithm. I will not care, I will see the people I follow and I should see their tweets. Only if that fails will I consider moving. We need to take care who we follow with their loud mouths and their needs for attention with failing evidence. Yes there are parody accounts, but we either follow them or we might not care. The anger within is fuelled by the loud making statements that evidence does not support and why is that? It is their ego, or their need for attention as they try to become influencers. There is of course the singular person seeking the limelight for self, but they are seemingly a huge minority. Happy to see them go into the dusk of yesterday. Oh and that statement of government making statements regarding Twitter. I think we should seek these people and their links to Jack Dorsey. Because the loudness of that equation does not make sense, it only makes sense when we consider who they cater to, especially in the beginning of a new equation, they never did that in the age of smoking or anything else, only two hours past the 11th hour did we see the government react to smoking dangers. They had filled their pockets s much as they could and that is a dangerous stage, I get that. But to filter Elon Musk in hour 1 seems adversarial actions that seemingly have no foundation, especially as they never bothered asking Jack Dorsey several serious questions, but that is merely my speculative view on the matter. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

November 6, 2022 · 13:33

MHW anyone?

Yes, it seems puzzling, but it is not. I have seen in the last 48 hours more than anyones share of hatred, the Musk Hatred Wave and I absolutely have had enough of this collaborated pile of bullshit. It is time to set the record straight. The first guilty party is the Media, these cocksucking stakeholder appeasing bunch of wannabe journo’s. Almost no one is asking serious questions towards Jack Dorsey and the hidden accounts of fake followers. Can someone please nail this joker to a bloody cross please? It is getting close to Christmas, so that solves one part. The Guardian goes on (t https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/05/twitter-elon-musk-jack-dorsey-apology) by catering to all this with “I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation – I grew the company too quickly” as I personally see it when Elon Musk is forced to deal with “apologise for the state of the site, which has laid off thousands of workers” when the new person has to lay off thousands of people, you weren’t growing the company to quickly, you were orchestrating a stage and still the media is not asking the questions they should have asked for months. So when we get to see “At least one class-action lawsuit has been filed against Twitter on behalf of former employees who say they were not given adequate notice of their termination.” I need to wonder if this is actually the case, Elon Musk stated on Titter that these people were given TWICE the redundancy that a person is eligible for. I cannot state if that was indeed true, but the media gives us “Elon Musk has a history of violating California’s labor law” loading the stage against Elon Musk yet again. And true, a little later we see “Musk has defended the layoffs, tweeting that fired employees are receiving three months of severance as the company reportedly loses over $4m a day.” Another clear stage that gives us that someone needs to ask Jack Dorsey serious questions, but he is off with billions, so he will not care about any of this. It merely shows how useless the media has become. 

Then we see more and more hatred on Twitter with quotes like Justice giving us that Free Speech should not cost $8 month. 

My answer would be:

“No Moron he is not charging $8 for free speech, he is planning to charge the blue checkmark. The sign that you are a real account. A sort of elite status that too many people enjoyed for the longest of times. The new owner states that this elite status comes at a price and most of them will do the math $96 a year or lose the mark. Plenty of those can hand that invoice as an expense to their TAX LAWYER.” 

Then we get loads of people stating they lost hundreds or thousands of followers. I am merely adding one example but there are legions out there. 

The question becomes were they really followers or are certain bots vacating the space in fear of exposure? In one week Musk cannot push for such larger changes to a working system with all these people losing their jobs. We could argue that some Twitter employees had scripts that fattened the accounts of their idols. I am not stating this happened, I am wondering if this could have been the case. And yes there are plenty of people whose hatred made them leave Twitter, that is their choice, but those followers stopped being followers too. There are many options, but we need data to prove or disprove some of these assumptions (read: presumptions).

The largest issue is the mass firing. The issues is not whether this is happening, but if proper procession is used. That is a case for California labour laws, I know too little about these, but considering the Jack Dorsey ‘apology’, I am willing to speculate that everything was done to give Elon Musk a stacked hand against him and with the media being as biased as it seems to be, when it comes to discrimination and a few other elements the media is every bit as guilty here. That is how I see it. When you get over the feigned anger, what are your thoughts? 

Leave a comment

Filed under IT, Law, Media, Politics

Tagged as , , , ,

November 5, 2022 · 07:36

The financial model

It is a model I always had great issues with, in part because I do not totally understand it. I do understand the basics, but not the intricacies. That is not a great loss for me as my work and other events never touched on those parts. Yesterday as I was watching ‘meta spaces’ I saw that there is an opportune moment. It is still too early, but my third IP bundle is now eager to get started. Unfortunate it seems that Amazon and Google remain silent regarding interest. Fortunate for me Alibaba is now entering this race and is moving to pole position. The IP is seemingly at best $5-$8 billion from my point of view and for the longest time Amazon had preference as it was able to go in two directions with this. The first IP bundle is now offered to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and I am pushing the old threat I had. I would sell it to Saudi Arabia for 35% of the value before I hand it to Microsoft for 165% of the value. Now I see a different setting for bundle three. I have no idea if Alibaba will answer that call and more importantly what they are willing to shell out, but that makes the loss for the American economy 2 out of 2, and personally I do not care. They made their own bed. The financial model is nice when all the players are nice to one another, but after 35 years I have seen how American companies are driven by greed and now two players get access to an area that they had little access too and America if it wants a slice of that will have to play nice now (with whomever buys my IP). There is still an inherent risk with bundle three and that is fine, well I think it is fine at least. The issue is not 2024 or even 2025. Whomever has this solution will laugh to the bank on a daily basis in 2030 and it is the long game that counts. I reckon that if one of these two hits pay-dirt, the others will be coveted by all who see it and for a lot of them it will be too late. The KSA (optionally Alibaba too) will have first choice when they buy one of my IP’s and I reckon that Microsoft will shout and scream foul play, but they did this to themselves. The other two would have placed them outside of he options through inactivity. 

Could I make more? Yes, but if these two buy my IP I will make enough and that is what matters to me, the greed model was never appealing to me and I am driven to make it work for the other two so that I can tell the non-options that they had years to listen, but they knew better. In a constricted economy letting $500 million a month and another totalling to $5 billion, how is leaving that on the floor a good idea? I can find nothing but the ego of some and their need to leave the impression that my ideas are foul. I wonder what the first victory will make some state after that. Well, it is time for me to try and decipher part of a financial model. It does not affect me, but overall, it influences the assigned value to me and that would be nice to know too. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT

Tagged as , , , , ,

November 4, 2022 · 00:16

Negative Similarity Authority

Yup, me trying to be clever and finding an alternative for ‘No Such Agency’ (NSA). I reckon that this is for them. I do not keep any IP for the hunting of terrorists and other people in similar lines of work. The idea hit me today, I cannot tell whether it was sparked by the Metadata directional assistant, something I wrote about a year ago. Or that is was a reference to a jump in time I made when I went back to the late 80’s and BASICODE. This last one needs an explanation. In the late 80’s someone came up with the concept of  basic that would work anywhere (I think it was a way to plug MSX systems) and radio programs would tell you to record what was coming and you hear a fax like sound, but then via radio the entire script was transmitted and these people could play the cassette on their computer and load the program. I was a geeky nerd, I had a disk drive, not a cassette. But for some reason the thought came to me. What if we add an inaudible sound to the conversation, not digital, but analogue. Something added to the conversation that cannot be edited out, not directly anyway. So kidnappers, terrorists, and all kinds of people would be transmitting part of their location in the message. The first mobile tower for example. It is not a complete solution, it might need tweaking, but that is why I leave this idea to the NSA (GCHQ can go nuts on this too). Consider that smartphones are getting smarter, the makers are making ‘privacy’ a noble goal (whilst assisting criminals in their work), so what if the noise is not the digital path, but an added analogue part, possibly in the ultra law side of the spectrum (the high part sets of dogs and those with sensitive hearing), so I reckon that ultra low is the way to go. It would be nice if the signal towers respond more like radar (so a direction could be added) but that might be too much of a catch. An alternative is three antenna’s in a place like London or New York and like Decca they give their signal and it gets incorporated in the signal. And as 5G towers need overhaul and there would be a priority approach, it might make issues easier for the suited players (FBI and aligned players). 

I wonder if this could work, suddenly we consider not what is digitally possible, but what analogue solutions could be added to the digital fold. 

Yes, it might be a crazy idea, like one of my previous bosses stated, but he threw away the idea I created and what would become reality in Facebook, so that told me years later what he knew (basically nothing) and as I am about to prove that three times over, my mind started to be creative all by itself and this was the result. No idea if these people can make it work, or if they see anything in this, but at least I added options without charging them. And now it is time to imitate a sawmill (snore like the devil until 05:30) 

Have a fun day.

Leave a comment

Filed under IT, Military, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

November 2, 2022 · 17:43

And you still want cake?

A few hours ago I was alerted to an article on the BBC site. The article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63260648) gives us ‘Cyber-attacks on small firms: The US economy’s ‘Achilles heel’?’ In itself no real surprise, but then I saw “It was a total head-in-the-sand situation. ‘It’s not going to happen to me. I’m too small.’ That was the overwhelming message that I was hearing five years ago,” says Ms Graham, co-founder of CYDEF, which is based in Canada. “But yes, it is happening.” There we see the first instance of utter stupidity, a setting where insurance companies go ‘well, I am sorry to report that it is on your dime that this is happening’ and that is not a speculation, this is about to happen. In addition to that the insurance against cyber attacks will skyrocket unless you have state of the art equipment (something small businesses cannot afford). A stage that is waiting exploitation. There are all kinds of speculations. One of them is “Cyber-crimes are expected to cost the world $10.5tn (£9.3tn) by 2025, according to cyber-security research firm Cyber Ventures”, I do not completely agree, for the most I do, but the big bucks are depending on national 5G, which is not happening in many nations before 2027. You see, one source gives us “For example, in November 2020, one cybersecurity company estimated that global cybercrime costs will grow by 15 percent per year over the next five years, reaching US$10.5t annually by 2025, up from US$3t in 2015 (Cision 2020)” they are seemingly ALL quoting the same source and that source is Cyber Ventures. That does not make it incorrect, yet I have reservations. That number is completely acceptable under 5G, under other conditions (when big tech do not screw up and hand over the keys to hackers) should not go that fast (yet), but when 5G, a national 5G stage is there this number will increase swimmingly all over the globe, which is why I shouted for law adjustments well over two years ago, but the law is seemingly sitting on their hands, all about ‘letting all parties’ swim in the large all whilst the swimming pool has close to zero protection, so this will get worse a lot faster and the EU will see plenty of drowners (aka floaters) soon enough. My speculative view is that the larger problems are a mere 6 months away. 

Then we are given “The pandemic created a whole new set of challenges and small businesses weren’t prepared,” says Mary Ellen Seale, chief executive of the National Cybersecurity Society, a non-profit that helps small businesses create cyber-security plans. In March 2020, at the cusp of the pandemic, a survey of small businesses by broadcaster CNBC found that only 20% planned to invest in cyber-protection.” This sounds nice, but I wonder what we will see in 2023. I expect that it is then that we will learn that less than 40% of these 20% will have actually done something and that is when a lot of people (insurance especially) realise that this is about to become a sinking ship. There was clear indication in 2010 that setting up cyber security was essential in players a little larger than SBE sized companies. They had issues too, but the revenue was too small. The problem is that clever hackers do not grab the whole enchilada. With “It typically takes 200 days from the moment of the hacking until discovery” we see the pattern. The clever ones will hit places for about 150 days then they go underground. That gives them enough to live like a king for a decade. They stay under the fold, they stay inconspicuous for as long as they can. They book a weekend in Vegas and then they launder what they had going home with $5-$15 million. The caper has worked and they are in the clear. Yet these same clever people can clear $50-$150 million when they get access to a fully deployed 5G network and the BS argument of “We will have a solution before that” does not fly, that excuse is a decade old and they have no adjusted laws, there is no adjusted technology and whatever the NSA has is not shared. So as you can see, the numbers are not entirely in the air (the Cyber Ventures one) but it will rely on a fully deployed 5G network which should be around 2027. 

It is time that ALL businesses take cyber security serious. The moment that there is no insurance for that these Achilles heel companies go under with no options for the owner, that person will have lost everything. So when Kirsten Dunst stated ‘Let them eat cake’ (Marie Antoinette) she stated a good case for Cyber criminals. They are having cake every day and those not using Common Cyber Sense will be paying for that meal day after day after month after month after year (you get the idea). It was essential to properly adjust laws for that. And when we look at the data from April we get “according to industry data only four to five percent of hackers are actually caught, but high-profile cases showcase how even the most skilled can make simple mistakes which lead to them being apprehended” so between one in twenty to one in twenty five gets caught. Do you really want to hope on that statistic? This is not a pun against law enforcement or the FBI, they are in a fight with both hands tied behind their backs. Not a good position to win a fight. And that is before we look at state funded hackers. Lets be clear both Russia and China have every benefit for American and European business to lose way too much, proving that part is close to impossible. These players are almost never caught. The arrest by the FSB of REvil was a rare instance, but not all was lost. At https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransom-cartel-linked-to-notorious-revil-ransomware-operation/ we learn “Researchers have linked the relatively new Ransom Cartel ransomware operation with the notorious REvil gang based on code similarities in both operations’ encryptors” and that was two weeks ago. At present with Russians not being able to wage war against an enemy that is at best 15% of their own army gives rise that the people behind REvil will be out and about soon enough (if they aren’t already). 

So those who want cake, better find a place to enjoy it before the hackers get it all and I will not care. I have been clearly evangelising the essential need for Common Cyber Sense for years now. And if Optus Australia is anything to go by there are plenty of big fish not too interested in that approach.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Law, Politics, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,