This all started some time ago. It was September 7th 2021 when I wrote ‘As banks cut corners’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/09/07/as-banks-cut-corners/) In that article I wrote “They merely needed some time, a $2500 computer and a decent internet connection, the pay off would be a 7 figure number and with the speed they are tracked they would be living large in another country with nothing attached to them. That is the current reality and the level of checks and balances that are missing is just too unbelievable for words. Enjoy your bank account (for as long as you still have it)” and what do you know, ABC gives us less than 20 hours ago (at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-19/adelaide-man-prepares-legal-action-after-being-scammed/101452218) ‘Adelaide man enlists help from former South Australian senator Nick Xenophon after losing $36,000 to scammers’ there we see “Mr Xenophon, now working as a lawyer, is representing Adelaide car salesman Michael Edwards, who lost $36,000 to a sophisticated phone scam earlier this month.” It is one way of looking at it. I personally wonder when the stage of ‘a sophisticated phone scam’ is not met and it is simply the absence of proper checks and balances. The party line of “NAB says recovering money from scammers is often difficult” is a joke. And the setting of “after the call ended, he was still suspicious, and then spent hours on the phone waiting to talk to a real NAB fraud investigator.” Is largely a joke. It is not the man who needs to worry, it is the bank. In a full 5G network the damage will become twentyfold, and the banks need to set larger checks and balances, the fact that we see “I’m working for the NAB, I’ll send you something now on your mobile phone saying he was Mark Jacobs from the fraud department, NAB case number and all the rest of it” implies that the system, the bank system has failed. My first (and optionally incorrect) idea was that any bank has a Java-bean system that sets the stage that the person calling asks the person to start a bank application and goes towards the verification stage. Then the person can give three numbers that are encrypted and only the bank can see these three numbers and they can tell the person what these three numbers are, as such there is verification. Not the scammer gets the upper hand, but the person they try to scam and when that person does not CLEARLY state the three numbers, the person hangs up and presses the alert button. OK, this is old stuff but the stage of verification is underestimated and done away with by banks because of the customer unfriendly factor. So how friendly is losing $36,000 dollars? Things need to change and they need to change fast. When we see ““We’ve seen a significant increase in scams in recent years and its upsetting to see the devastating effects these can have on the impacted victims,” Chris Sheehan from NAB’s Investigations and Fraud group said in a statement” we see a clear setting that changes were essential years ago and soon the banks will not pay for that loss, as such they either improve the setting of security or they pay all losses, but that is merely my view on the matter and the fact that I saw this coming a year ago gives a much larger stage of reckless endangerment of bank accounts by banks. So as people like former South Australian senator Nick Xenophon know the banks have been dropping the ball, the problem is a lot larger. We the people need to realise that ‘simplicity’ of options have a risk. There is a reason why I do not allow for online banking. I have seen this flaw for close to a decade and now we see a case and it is not the first case as plenty of evidence shows. But now it will cost us money and as such the people need to change their habits and change their insufferably need for simplicity and easy access, criminals enjoy your easy access too and one person found that out by donating $36,000 to a scammer. He is not alone and a lot of criminals take a different road, they feel safer getting 50,000 pay outs of $10-$45 then one payout of $36,000. Where the banks stand? You ask them, I doubt you get a clear answer and this issue is playing all over the Commonwealth and the US. Australians lost over $2,000,000,000 last year alone. I have no clear image on how it hits the other nations but these scams are not just bank scams, so the picture is not completely clear, but something needs to be done and some message that 80 people are getting hired is not enough. But that might merely be me yammering on fictive issues. What do you think?
Category Archives: IT
The new code 20
It seems like quite the conundrum, but in Caesarian code it stands for ’T’ or tea if you prefer. You see, we are all becoming less and less personal in our gifts. It is a card with a gift card and at times the birthday card is overlooked and it is basically a gift card. It has lost the personal touch and that is a shame. And that was my mindset as I passed a T2 site. There was no real reason to be there. I was merely looking at some stuff and then it hit me, what if you could buy an envelope with a congratulation card, a tag and choices and the recipient gets
With an optional tea choice. Is that not more personal? Now, I accept that the recipient needs to like tea. But the larger stage is that the people need to personalise whatever they give and this is an option. It might be 6 months of Netflix, Disney plus, another item. It is not new, inter flora started that concept decades ago and in the electronic age it got lost and that is such a shame. Why did we lose the personal touch? So in the T2 setting, the people fill in the card and it goes to the respective shop, they finish the order and the order is ready and personalised. OK, this does require the recipient to be nearby a T2 store and they have plenty of stores and it makes for a great international gift, especially when you consider the way some couriers treat packages (see YouTube). In this I used T2 because it is a clear obvious one, but the same could be said for Nespresso and plenty of other store chains (yes, Victoria Secrets is an option too).
But tell me honestly, would you prefer a nice tea set (like above, if you like tea), or some empty handed gift card? Yes, some will prefer the gift card (EB Games) games are massively hard to plan for, the same could be said for Sony Store Credit (and some Microsoft alternative), but there is a larger stage of solutions and we drove away from that. Why? I prefer to do the legwork to get something for a friend, it makes it more personal and therefor likely more appreciated. In this I might be a minority and it is not the stage others look for. But should the choice not be there? Yes, I admit that there are issues and there are small pitfalls, but consider the gift for your favourite grannie, a piece of plastic, or a nice piece of china with an optional personal choice of tea? I know what I would choose, but at present there is no alternative to do so and that seems like such a shame, but that could merely be my view of the matter.
Aggregating in perpetuity
The mind at times makes a halt. I alerts its owner and gives him hell. This actually happened to me in the last two hours. You might have seen me going on on how some players were not paying attention. Over the last 24 hours I have ben watching this venue again, and my brain stopped me and went “Are you perfectly lame, dopey!” OK, I admit he used moron and a few other names (dopey is me going soft on me).
You see, there is no chance in hell that this is the only thing they are missing. As such it was not merely me, they aren’t seeing a lot more, but what are they not seeing? We could consider where Google is looking at (nest solutions), we could watch where Amazon is focussing (Amazon shops) and we could offer that Apple is the new player, it is not. It merely looks where Apple is going, which makes sense to some degree. As such these players (as well as Facebook, Microsoft, SAP and a few other players) they are in some weird setting of returning to pre covid settings and as far as I can tell, they are missing a lot left, right and centre.
So my mind gave a holler and went on a ‘Watch This!’ tour. That is where I have been the last to hours and suddenly the Middle East links make sense. Governments like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and a few others are now optionally in the market to extent where THEY can be, that was what my mind worked out in these news clippings in the last 24 hours. It also looked at the UAE and the interests of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Now, be aware this is not a player to be taken lightly. He and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud are no light players and they do not suffer fools, neither do the people in their inner circle. Yet if you make a good case, if you can support YOUR case with data and with facts, you could make a killing. These two players will pay for good ideas, so you are unlikely to get movement with the idea for a new potato peeler, but a setting to enhanced 5G applications and technology solutions that players like Google and Amazon might want, could find equal if not more eager potential in players like these two. Google and Amazon have gotten so used to people coming their way, the fact that these ideas go somewhere else could pay off, in my line it could mean a direct increase of $3,750,000 right off the bat, that more EACH MONTH by selecting another player that can afford your idea. I would like to add a word of caution. With these people you get one shot, thats it. Fumble then and you end with zilch, just a warning and it is up to you to adhere (or not) to those words of warning. I made my first move towards the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the UAE is in Melbourne, not in Sydney. So that idea is out, but where you are, the setting might be slightly different. And face it, there is no statistical chance in hell that the players we used to rely on ONLY missed where I was and what I found. So what else are they not seeing? That is your optional ticket to a new (less burdened) life. If it works you are welcome and you can buy me a cold beer if you ever get the chance. Up to you, the information is given freely. And they are not the only ones. There is a top ten of Middle Eastern people who are multi billionaires and they are ALWAYS looking for the next pay off, so you might be barking up the wrong tree, you merely need to show and present a larger case and I gave you a few names yesterday. So go and see what you can make of tomorrow. My solution has three arms and an optional stage that goes beyond 50 million subscriptions. Can you equal it? I am not challenging you, I am asking you. You see there is Software as a service (SaaS), gaming as a service (GaaS), cybersecurity as a service (CSaaS), there is FinTech and a few other means and far as I can tell, players like Amazon, Apple, Dell, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, SAP, and several other players are staring in the wide space and missing more and more niches and even more opportunities. A stage that is profitable for you. OK, I will admit that Facebook has an optional excuse, but when does company go soft on itself when $500,000,000 a month passes them by? You tell me, I have actually no idea. So what else are they not noticing and that might be the spark YOU need to make YOUR case and I am welcoming you to make these large blind players suffer a little more. And this is all before you realise that a few more players could be found in Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, China, India and France. All players that would like a larger slice of whatever the tech players have and that was before the united onesies like Elon Musk come calling. It seems that there are a few more options for all of us, we used to rely on big-tech, but it seems to me that big-tech is broken. In named 8 players and you tell me who would openly ignore $500 million a month. We are looking in the wrong direction for our salvation and it is time we adjusted our views. I personally believe that Microsoft is lost, but the other 7 are in some unintended waiting area, now we can wait until they wake up, or we can offer it to other players and watch the panic when these 8 players suddenly realise that there are players NOW right behind them. I reckon that we can get a really good deal. Consider Netflix and see what happens when a player like CarryMinati extends its YouTube connection by adding whatever you have and adding 10-20 million connections. Google (YouTube) panicked too late when. TikTok came and now there I a contended first player. So what happens when half a dozen players suddenly become contenders in a field they were merely a top tier player? And they all have billionaires behind them hoping and seeking for more and we forgot about that part, at least I did, did you? So when my brain mentally bashed me and called me all things I prefer not to repeat here. My brain opened a door to other players. I was partially on board, but that was due to more factors, but now the playing field is wide open and players like Amazon and Google are now in the lower 5 choices. There are more than 5 more hungry for profit and there is the added profit, they are willing to concede to more whilst they grow their empire and you get a little larger slice, in my case that could amount to $45 million a year more, I’d buy that for a dollar (sorry, Robocop). So how much more could you make? And more important when the US sees that brain drain how large are the waves of panic that come then?
I will let you work that out for your solution. For me? I am just fine at present, I merely need to wait (something I was never very good at).
Have a great Thursday!
Oh my…. What on earth?
It was my usual moment of scanning the news and suddenly within a minute three articles from very different areas came up, one in Arab News that gave the impression that my IP is more than on time, more than in the moment. Three acts give rise to a much larger setting that timing was a much larger setting than anything I could have planned for. Now the question becomes was the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Sydney aware? Do they even know? Lets be clear here, not everything is about me, not everything is about my IP, but the circumstances are weird, even by my standards. I just hope that I get my moment to speak quite soon, as it seems that the interactions by the media regulator of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which they call Mawthooq is now a larger play and here I am with a solution that addresses the approach to 50 million people in all kinds of ways, a lot more if I am right. So was it merely timing, or am I merely a pawn in the middle of a lot of events? I have no idea, but to see this evolve 10 days AFTER I visited the Saudi Consulate in Sydney is strangely unsettling to say the least.
I hope to report a lot more soon enough (regarding my IP I mean).
The weird dream
We all have them, the seem to make sense at the time, but then we wake up and the dream has absolutely stopped making sense at that point. I had one last night. In the dream I was somewhere in the Ukraine. The commander was upset because he had three Howitzers. Their undercarriage was damaged, so they could not be transported and they were too heavy to carry and the Russians were coming, a group of 9 tanks, they were less than an hour away. One of the men had an idea, he told the commander. The commander thought for a moment and they started to move the Howitzers to the other side of the field. And they were placed in a ditch so that the barrel was parallel with the ground, about a meter above the ground. Seven men moved to the other side of the field, about 150 meters down the road and the remaining man worked on camouflaging the artillery. One man went towards a tower, but not a church, carrying an SVD Dragunov. As the tanks were approaching everyone hunkered down, then as the first three tanks came into the firing line of the Howitzers a few things happened at the same time. First the sniper shot what I presumed was a tank commander peering through binoculars in the head and at that very same time three Howitzers were fired, it did more than damage the tanks, the under carriage and tracks were ripped from the tank, a 155 mm shell hitting that close to the mark, at less then 50 meters is a sight to behold, and at that same moment, the men wielding Dragon anti tank systems were slamming the tanks from the last tank onward. Panic was complete! The tanks in the middle could not move either way and they had no commander to shout them where to go. In less than a minute the Russians lost three tank platoons and given that these are $500K, that is a tidy sum that will not make it back to Russia ay day soon. To be honest, I have no idea what brought the dream to me. I have little to no interest in tanks and I have no idea where this played, so I have no idea what brought the dream towards me. Yet there was link to IBM that I could not see, not comprehend, and that is why I brought the ‘this page intentionally left blank’, I cannot tell you why these pages were there, or why the MSDOS manual had so many of them. Even in 1986 it never made sense and I never comprehended the wisdom of that move. Because they through of everything? Because they thought that there was something they did not count on? Or something that they could not see? Your guess is as good as mine. So why do we now see ‘IBM targets energy-saving mainframes at Linux users’? They could have done that 20 years ago, so why now? Hoping to get the ‘energy aware tag’ from people that have no clue or merely market environmental awareness? Like the Guardian reporter that writes about jet-setters and their planes, whilst the 147 facilities that cause 50% of all the pollution damage (as given by an EEA report) are left in the dark, even the report is ignored by a lot of environmental reporters. So why was that?
I will leave you to consider that, but I gave it to the readers and I even included the report itself, something the Guardian seemingly never did. Why was that? Who do these Environmentalists serve and who is IBM serving now? How many Linux mainframes does IBM have out there, and how many other servers are out there? No matter how weird the dream was, reality can be a lot stranger.
The perilous seesaw
Yes, the seesaw, a Childs toy, but as a balancing methods it is dangerous. You see, the one we judge tends to stand on the axial and that person lets the balance fall where that person likes it to be. In this case it is me. There is a chance that I am striking out a third time, but I cannot give up. There is a chance where I get a payday that is a slice from $500 million and a second pay day that is 3% of the income for 20 years. Only 3%, as such the numbers are appealing and when did you see anyone walk away from $500 million a month? As such am I delusional? The seesaw becomes a tool, on one side we see delusional (holding idiosyncratic beliefs or impressions that are contradicted by reality or rational argument, having faulty judgment) the other side is visionary (planning the future with imagination or wisdom, a person with original ideas about what the future will or could be like), and of course I lean towards the visionary side. Now this is not the first time. In 1997 I came up with the idea to hand out a free internet account that gave the people the option to talk to each other with marketing in the centre setting the stage for all to see. The so called managers at the time stated that this had no business sense, it was not the mission statement. And 4 years later we got Facebook. Now, my version was nowhere near Facebook and as such I would be surpassed, but those 4 years it would be my centre of a universe. So I know I am a visionary one. These managers now proclaim that they saw it all coming. They were bloody clueless. So this time around I will find a way and even as Google, Amazon and a third party are optionally blind, and I will not allow Microsoft near it (the merely screw up IP for the need of Azure). I will find a way, but I am tempered by the setting of self measurement. There is always doubt in me, I know that but the payday of a slice of $500,000,000 is too appealing. I merely need to find the right party. Yet I also need to be careful, If I give away too much they make it their and leave me with nothing. Americans tend to be that way, as such I have a decent challenge. Where to find that party, where to find the ones willing to pay and optionally those who do not care about ‘losing’ $50 million (post taxation) and a few other items. The payday for them os well over 5,000% of investment. An optional good deal. So how to make sure that I get the right players? I could turn to China, I could find the billionaire who is willing to take a gamble (Elon Musk) and there are a few others. There is optionally Tim Cook, he has a value of $1,800,000,000 and might not even miss the $50 million, and with the solemn swear of $500,000,000 a month adding to his fortune might be the juice he would be willing to take a chance on and after that payday when it comes to fruition he would not hesitate to hand over the additional 3%, not whilst he gets to make the 97%. Like any seesaw, these equations need a balancing act, especially as 50 million is not nothing, even for a billionaire it is still money. As such people like Elon Musk and Tim Cook have alternatives, there is Jeff Bezos (but Amazon is seemingly a failure), Larry Ellison remains an option and Michael Dell (Dell computers). There are a few others, but when they are too old, they might not like the challenge of something new that has not been done before. The Googlers also seemingly failed to act, so I need to find other venues. There is a chance that people like Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani might want to enter the tech sector. The same could be said for Crown Prince Shaikh Mishaal Ahmad Jaber Al-Sabah, Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Salman who is worth over 2 trillion, which is why a first part was offered to the Consulate general of Saudi Arabia to Sydney. I have to make moves that are not predictable and retirement is looming (with empty coffers) and personally I do not care who grows the solution, as long as it grows, I am a person like anyone else and as such hindered by ego (to the smallest degree). And the idea to enter retirement smiling looking at a new pair of ski’s whilst some wannabe’s out of my past are sitting in a chair holding a drink wondering what they missed, is appealing, very appealing.
But I realise that I am standing on the axial, pointing the seesaw towards visionary, I get that and I wonder “Could I be wrong?” The numbers, the solutions they all show me I am right, so why didn’t Google or Amazon see that and doubt sets in, but I believe in myself. I know that I have the winning hand and I have to see it through, because that 3% adds up $15 million a month, making it $180 million a year for 20 years and that is one hell of a payday. So I stand strong believing in myself, but doubt is just around the corner and I have done the equations again and again, starting on a new piece of paper every time and the predictions come up the same and I held onto the most conservative version, not the most optimal version, because that is the step that leads to the delusional path, if that goes good, if that goes right. It is the wrong way to make a case and I heeded for that mistake, as such it is the path where almost everything goes wrong and I still end up with the payday I never had before. Time will tell the truth, but when? I wonder.
Timing is key
That is the truth of the matter, and in my case it is not precisely timing, even as timing cmes up. In my case it is pure luck. So as we see (at https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3862066/saudi-arabia-unveils-10-initiatives-develop-online-stores) ‘Saudi Arabia Unveils 10 Initiatives to Develop Online Stores’ I set my plan in motion as well, actually, I set my plan in motion three days earlier. At some point in the past I stated “I would rather hand my IP to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for 35% of its value, then let Microsoft have it at 165% of its value” and I made other claims (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/09/01/resetting-contemplated-options/) just over a week ago in ‘Resetting contemplated options’. There I wrote “You see, for me it cares as part of the deal is that I get 10% of the IP and sales value (plus a starting fee). 10% of 50,000,000 subscriptions could be anything from $25M to $50M and when this takes off, I have no idea where it will end, but even at a mere 1-2 years I could end with $25M to $50M a month in the second year if its running” and I put my actions where my mouth was and as such the first part was handed to the Consulate of Saudi Arabia in Sydney. A stage where Amazon or Google could have made a killing three times over, it is not in hands of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with that a stage where they could make well over $500 million a month. Amazon and Google were seemingly not interested, or perhaps they hoped to get it all for free. Now it becomes a much larger stage with a few nice additions and it could make Saudi Arabia a new player in the IT field, optionally a power player, but that would take a few years. One could say that it as all about the timing, but in my case pure dumb luck might have played its cards too. I have hd my fill with wannabe managers stating to me “We’ll do right by you”, now they end up with nothing and when (not if) my IP works out, they will come with all the excuses they can grab for, but in the end as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia surpasses them, they will have no excuses. It will show them that they were never good enough and that is possibly the best reward of all for me. Moreover, when the stage picks up, they will surpass the total sales of the Xbox One, so it is perfect on several levels. Even as that was not the intent (it was not part of the equation) in the first two years my solution will surpass Microsoft and their boast of the most powerful console in the world. I cannot tell how high it will go, but the 50 million subscriptions is the minimum I had foreseen and when these projects come to fruition I will tell you exactly what I had done and how Microsoft, Google and Amazon failed to see what was in front of their eyes all along. I feel weirdly giggle and happy. Those who claimed that I would not make it will now see that I will end up ahead of the game, ahead of the rest. But I need to be cautious here, as Saudi Arabia has not stated that they are ready for a fight like this, so I need to be patient (something I was never good at). And in all this, I am ready for what comes next, because I have now completed phases two, three and four of that solution, it was always going to happen, but the speed at what is now at play is a new consideration. It is a new consideration as I have to cross my t’s and dot my i’s. So as the KSA is staging to “develop the sector of electronic stores, based on the results of a survey that measured consumer satisfaction with the performance of e-commerce in the Kingdom” I added a much larger stage that will open digital sales and digital awareness to a much larger group than the Saudi Ministry of Commerce had envisioned, as such it will not happen immediately, but over the next 2 years that stage will explode international needs for the KSA and that is also an interesting side. I had never played for that stage, but it merely cropped up and now that it is here, I will need to reset views and test the stage towards what the Saudi Ministry of Commerce has in mind. And all this was not timing (perhaps for the KSA it was) in my case it was as stated pure luck and that counts too. For me it counts as it ups the value of my IP by a lot, or at least decently more than I had envisioned and that is under the condition of 50 million subscriptions, if that goes up by too much more this early, I have no idea where my IP ends or more precisely at what value. I do believe that timing is at times important, I merely never thought I was going to get this lucky, not after the five years I had. For now it does not suck to be me. Oh joy!
Weasels in the limelight
Yes, this is about some weasels, others call them members of media. As such, I am only handing you the Arab News link, the western media DOES NOT DESERVE any consideration at present. The article (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2158496/media) giving us ‘Disney found ‘substantial portion’ of Twitter users fake in 2016: former CEO’ is the larger setting. So as I have given you all my point of view in several articles in the past months, even accusing the media to be nothing more than creators of click bitches. We now get the fact that the evidence that Elon Musk was right all along in this article (and several in Western Media). They are now at the end of what they can exploit, so NOW we get the real deal? The fact that the Disney setting was that a situation existed since 2016 gives us the true setting of western media. For a large extent they have less credibility than a crack whore high on cocaine. Filtered information that meets with the approval of their stakeholders. That is what we have been exposed to. So now as we get to see “Iger did not specify what he meant by “substantial.” Twitter has consistently reported that fewer than 5 percent of its “monetizable” daily users are bot or spam accounts. Iger’s comments come amid a legal battle between billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and Twitter over Musk’s deal to buy the social media company for $44 billion. Musk, who is trying to walk away from the deal, has claimed that Twitter has misrepresented the prevalence of spam or bot accounts on the platform.” And the media was aware since 2016 and now when we look back to the articles in western media, we see no mention of the Disney deal whatsoever, the media is THAT corrupt towards digital dollars and stakeholders. And you wonder why I do not trust the media? Well, this is about to get a lot more interesting over the next few weeks when I give notice of a much larger setting. The stage we see now is one where the media is sucking up to whomever they can to not be disregarded as obsolete. They did this to themselves and I have no pity or mercy for them.
And now as we see “In his memoir, “The Ride of a Lifetime,” Iger wrote that he had second thoughts about a deal with Twitter because of the “nastiness” of the discourse on Twitter that he feared would become a distraction.” So the media (and their book sections) and many other parts have had the information for years and we got to see nothing of it, now it does not matter. I had my evidence, Trollrensics had evidence and Elon Musk had evidence. The media is now obsolete, a voice for stakeholders. They no longer deserve their 0% tax group as they are mere digital dollar marketeers. But the politicians are unwilling to hold the media to any level of accountability.
As I see it, I hope that Elon Musk gets whatever he wants and should he be forced to buy Twitter, it should be no more than a maximum of 6 cents to the dollar. As such Jack Dorsey ends up with a 2.7 billion dollar payday and that is overvaluing Twitter by a lot. And after that, when the media is thrown OFF Twitter, I wonder how long they can hold on. It would irritate me that Elon Musk might lose 2.7 billion, but I reckon he could afford that and more important, when Twitter goes the way of the Dodo (just like the media) I get to introduce a new part of social media to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, just like the initial part I offered to the Consulate General of Saudi Arabia in Sydney this week. If that goes right a new market will open and now the media will have no say over the matter, they are as obsolete as possible and not welcome at what comes next. They clearly cannot police themselves, that much is shown all over the field. Even if I only get 3%, that over $17,000,000,000 is a lot more than I ever made before. The game is set, the orchestra engaged and now we see if the media (as well as their political and stakeholder friends) can dance. Out there in the limelight. Like weasels trying to hide away from the light beams, not realising that the grass is flat, the lights are high and every bit of grass is exposed. We all get to see the weasels jump and run in every direction hoping to find shade to vanish in, but not this time. This time they really went to far (as I personally see it).
Just to be clear
Yes, that is essential. I am about to throw caution to the wind and do something (optionally extremely stupid) that has never been done before. Yet that is for tomorrow (or the day after). For now we focus on Microsoft. I did not plan this, yet with the article (at https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/uk-watchdog-further-probe-microsofts-687-billion-activision-deal-2022-09-01/) we get ‘Microsoft’s $69 bln Activision deal could harm competition, UK says’ I keep my voice in the middle in this. You see I always applauded exclusives, in any system. It made Nintendo the behemoth it is today and Sony has had its successes as well, as did Microsoft with its Master sergeant in Halo. All systems had this and even as I hated Microsoft buying Bethesda, it was a brilliant tactical ploy. I did counter it by giving away RPG IP to all Amazon Luna and Sony Playstation developers, but it is a valid ploy. Yet Microsoft keeps on buying companies. It is their funeral. Yet the UK only reacts to Activision? So when I see “Microsoft Corp’s $69 billion acquisition of “Call of Duty” maker Activision Blizzard could harm competition in gaming consoles, subscription services and cloud gaming, and it needs to be investigated in depth” this might be fair enough, but it seems that there is a larger issue here and it is not with Microsoft, I have more questions regarding certain ‘investigators’. Now, as stated before, I am no Microsoft fan for a few reasons and those who have read my articles know what I am about. But here is something more and I was happy that some people had (again) not done their homework. This is seen with ““We want people to have more access to games, not less,” Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith said. “Sony, as the industry leader, says it is worried about ‘Call of Duty’, but we’ve said we are committed to making the same game available on the same day on both Xbox and PlayStation,” he said.” I am hereby calling Brad Smith a LIAR! You see with the purchase of Bethesda they have clearly stated that the new Elder Scrolls is now an Xbox exclusive. As such we see Brad Smith as the liar and Sony gamers as the victim. But there is another side. Microsoft has been pushing its cloud gaming, and that is the path they will take, to host Microsoft cloud games on other systems, so that they can honestly claim that they service all systems, as long as it goes via their cloud capturing data (a speculation, I admit).
And the cloud solution is seen with “the deal would not be anti-competitive if competitors were given access to Microsoft games, as Microsoft has pledged” It is the ‘access to Microsoft games’ part that is the stage and interestingly enough there is no ‘release on other systems’ part. It is a larger capture and I get it, it is decently brilliant. As such I gave the others a new RPG game, parts of the stage, parts of the story (to get them started) and within a week another nice surprise that will cost Microsoft dearly (if all goes well) and on September 30th several parts become public domain, and only the clever sleuths will be able to find it. A new way to push the industry in a new direction. It is a crazy step and it took me months of pondering, but as I was given the afternoon off, I went to a local internet cafe and activated the timer. It is the start of one hell of a ride that might not go anywhere, but it will make the headlines and show the shortcomings of a few tech players (including Microsoft), yet the article bothers me. You see I believe in exclusivity, as such the quote “Microsoft needs to give a greater deal on assurances and put down in writing certain specifics around exclusivity” bothers me. What specifics? An exclusive game is an exclusive game. That is the case for Nintendo, Sony and as such also Microsoft. They are allowed exclusive games and if they buy Activision for 69 billion, they got the company and the exclusives are theirs. I might not like it, but that is the game, I countered by handing a totally new and unique RPG game to Amazon Luna and Sony Playstation free of charge. That was my choice, and over time I do believe the stupidity of Microsoft will be the death of them (I will be happy to help out though).
And over time we will see shifts, the streamers will make sure of that, but that is the day after tomorrow. For now we focus on today and tomorrow. And here the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) might be an optional enemy. You see, Mario has been a Nintendo exclusive for a long time, for decades but the CMA did nothing there. So what gives now? They did not act on the buy of Bethesda, so what gives now? They are all focussing on “Call of Duty”, there is no mention of Diablo, a franchise no less important. And I get it, they have a case. Microsoft got greedy and now there is an issue. Yet I still feel bothered, because this stage opens the end of exclusives and that is a problem. It is a problem because the games will end up being as good as the weakest system and that is not acceptable. Am I overreacting? Perhaps a little, but there will always be differences in games. And these differences will make a game better on either system A or B, and that is fine. But when a system MUST be there for both one system will lose out more and they will have a game that is less than optimal and that is a larger problem. Gaming must always be at the edge of technology and that makes gaming great. As such not all games will work on all systems. Some games will be better in one location, some will be better in the other place. Exclusives are more than a game on one system. They are the games that uses that system to the maximum of what is possible. It is one reason why we love our exclusives. So I cannot tell if the CMA has a point but from a pure gaming point of view they are on a slippery slope as I personally see it.
Famous last words
The title is not a conundrum. I am listening to all the albums of Supertramp, Famous last words is one of their albums. I cannot say if the album pushed for the events coming, or the events that I am planning to take gave me the idea to listen to all the Supertramp albums. You tell me. But over the next month I will do something I never expected to do and as such I will not tell you this now. It would be like the butterfingered man telling the crowd ‘Watch this’ and there he drops the mine that he was going to use to give a presentation. The results were ugly to begin with and the man did not survive it. I have nothing this weird planned, but it could lead to social suicide. You see the actor John Barrowman (most likely) and his lack of understanding nuance (as well as basic knowledge of Game of Thrones) gave me the idea, or at least the insight that at times being intelligent will not matter, people will think what they think no matter hoe the clear facts are pressed into their faces. We can argue that Jack Dorsey and his Twitter are the second part in this act. But about that more later (decently later).
It all came to blows (within my mind) when I was contemplating ‘famous last words’, the album, not the act. One of their songs is C’est Le Bon, a song I loved for the longest times. In the song you get:
I’m watching the movie go down
Around, about me
I’m watching the merry-go-round
Go down about me.
You see, when is enough enough? This is a question with a larger stage attached to it. This thought came to me as I was considering the sense of a GoPro Hero 11. Yes it will have some additions, new modes and new resolutions, but it is so stepwise. It matters even more as the GoPro Hero 10 is as close as perfect as anything any competitor could hope to offer. A merry-go-round of products to appease a consumer that does not know what it wants. To appease a consumer that uses 10% of what this product offers (at best) and whilst they all want to make the video’s like GoPro releases with themselves in the starring role. The truth of the matter is that these films are made and enhanced by people with close to a decade of film school experience. It feels like it is it own version of ‘Watch this’ without any dread, a presentation hammered and perfected over 4-7 years with all the previous models in the mind-cast of the consumers. Now, let be clear GoPro did nothing wrong, they are not deceiving you and they are not making you shell out your money, you are doing that yourself. Why go for the new model when the current one is so close to perfect? Why get another version of more modes and more resolutions? The current model gives you 5.3K at 60fps and 4K up to 120fps for slow-motion. A rumoured ‘improvement’ is 480fps 1080p slo-mo capture. And that is also the problem, we still see all these rumours of a camera that is released this month, it would be shipping at present, so the rumours are optionally correct, but why is the whole range of new stuff not out in the open at present? The edge of seat marketing is over, or so I believe it is and this implies that the Hero 11 has little new to offer, and that is OK. The Hero 10 is as close to perfect as a camera this size could ever hope to be. So, why not release the Hero 11 in 2023? It is a fair enough question. Only the Hero fetish people want something like this now. I would support it to some degree if the additions were released by GoPro ahead of schedule, is it?
The consumer merry-go-round is a dangerous toy to rely on, consumers are fickle and the stronger anti Hero YouTubers could hammer down sales quickly enough and they reach hundreds of thousands close to free of charge. As such the ‘Watch this’ marketing approach should be dead, but it is not, and it is not for all the wrong reasons.
As I personally see it there are two waves. The “Watch This” marketing and its anti group doing the opposite and the second team has a field day when the first team does not have enough innovations to show and at present GoPro has close to none. I do not mean this negatively, over the last few years GoPro showed so much more and such a large bundle of innovative action filming that it boggles the mind, it really does. And now? Now we see all these elements melt together and in the end the consumer loses, or it merely loses its mind. I am not sure which of the two is worse.
So whilst GoPro is about to release a new flavour of the same, I am about to launch a stage that has never been done before, a stage that hopefully changes everything, but to be honest I have no idea how it plays out, but I do know that plenty of wannabe’s and power-players will not like what I am about to do. But it has become essential to change the game-play so that some are flushed into the limelight. It to some degree reflects Know who you are another song from that very same album. There we hear:
Know who you are…
There’s a world deep inside you,
Trust if you can…
There’s a friend the to guide you.
I reckon I will learn who my friends are soon enough, I know the two I have, I have known that for decades, it is the wannabe’s who will make an interesting jump, they are about to put into the limelight and they will not be able to answer any critical questions. What a lovely day that day will be.
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 