Category Archives: IT

Rings

We see them, we are confronted with them, we embrace them and we reject them. Yet weirdly enough, for the most we never ignore them. You see the circle is its beginning and end anywhere on the circle. We have accepted this long before we started to set our faith to wedding rings. Yet in the last few days I have been thinking through the ring process. It matter not why it was done, yet that it was done is still important to some degree. As I was considering the stages of pipelines (sales tracks), life cycles (marketing tracks) and circular service level agreements, I suddenly realised (to coin a phrase)  that games and gaming is not set to such a track. It makes sense, and at the same time it does not. A game is like a painting there are no cycles, there is no repetition and weirdly enough I suddenly found a painting that represents my thoughts. The image below is a ring, a cycle. (Unfortunately, I have no idea who made the painting)

But we see a third dimension and optionally a fourth dimension as well. That dimension cannot be seen, but we feel it is there. I reckon that Hogwarts Legacy unleashed a little more than I bargained for. I think it started when I saw the movie Arrival (2016) with Jeremy Renner and Amy Adams. The language shown in the movie started something in me. Not about aliens, that was clear for decades. Do you think that people really look like Dennis Rodman, for real? (LOL). No It is not about the people, it was about the language we were shown. So when you get that we take a sidestep. You might have heard of chainmail, but do you know how the rings are made? 

So as we see the rings, we take another gander towards that alien language, but now we take a sidestep, consider that every sentiment is in a ring, but more than merely sentiment and language, it become aa stage of digital markers as well, like a polyphonic approach to language and sentiment, vocal intonation. You see, we think of games, we think of NPC characters, but the need for NPC characters to become less singular dimensional becomes increasingly important and there lies the rub, you see we think of today’s emotion whilst relying on recording and programming stages that are decades old and something will have to give. 

And even as it (for now) seems impossible and largely overplayed, do you really think that this is far fetched when the PS6 comes and whatever Microsoft (if they still exist) has? We need to be thinking not merely of the games that come out in 2022, we need to think about the games that need to be made with a release date of 2030. And should we come close to the station of some kind of true AI, what we now have does not even come close to what is required and using yesterdays solutions will not cut the butter. As such my mind went wondering on the sound of the voice. If we cannot tell what is truth now, what do you think will happen next year? The only way to beat this is to look at new and innovative ways to find a way to store and retrieve them. The blue painting help me realise that and even if that solution is for now out of reach, the idea that we limit ourselves today on what CAN be done will result in a tomorrow that never comes, but Microsoft will soon learn that lesson the hard way, 50% of that happening is merely 1-2 steps away at present. And suddenly some other parts come to mind, but that is for another day, but I can tell you that it involves a stick (for now).

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Skill to kill

Yes, very bright, is it not? But in the last few days I have been mulling over the RPG game I out here on my blog over the last few months and whilst playing Horizon: Forbidden West something stuck in my mind. 

You see something got stuck there and the skill tree is fine for THAT game, but for me, for the player it had drawbacks. It is not the game, it is within the game, and that is fine, but consider that  you play in such an open world. In that open world you tend to go in one direction. I tend to go the way of the sneaky archer. And that game limits what you as a sneak can do. This is not a weakness, it is not a flaw and they did NOTHING wrong. But the thought was in my head and stayed there.

So then we saw the smallest piece of Hogwarts Legacy and they gave us another path. In that path we are given:

Now, that is also a path we see, but my mind started blending the two elements. You see we get the stage of limitations, we get the stage of directions, but we often miss the blending of choices and there we ultimately see the stage where some are given the tendency to unlock EVERY skill. But that is not realistic, it is also counterproductive. So what if a game gets another edge. Consider that CCG games in the past had a limited version and a generic version. The limited version was black or silver, the factory set was gold (a factory set is a complete set of all cards bought at beginning). Now consider that we connect skills to a trait like the CCG game Illuminati did.

In that game we saw the head you ‘ruled’ in this example ‘Shangri La’ (see below), it can connect to any card, in this example we use a card named ‘Big Media’

As you can see it connects from a higher card on one side and connect to THREE sides to smaller skills. Now some have 0 connectors, some have one and a few will have two, but YOU decide the application of that skill. Now consider we go back to the first card, it is in the game not called ‘Shangri-La’, but ‘Covert’ and we have 2 of those cards in the beginning of the game ‘Covert’ and ‘Overt’, now we have archery which is (comparing to Big Media) not 4/4, but 2/3 It can connect to 2 stacks and enforce three connecting skills. In addition any card can be upgraded. The Big Media resistance will be its own power. So over time that number goes up (as you become a more skill-full archer), now consider that we end up with 4/5 stacks Covert, Overt, Social, Commerce, Faith and Govern. Six elements and you have either 4 or 5 stacks so something has to give and in the beginning you only have two stacks, so it will be about choices. How will you decide? 

And there is no better choice here, it will be about YOUR choice as you play the game. Now consider that as you get awarded cards through levelling or quests, you get new options and alternative options. For example the covert archer will level up having a larger chance of getting the scout card, the scout card can evolve into a mapping card, the edge and back of the card now represents a map, yes, we all forgot about the back of the card, but in a game, in a digital environment that side has options. And as the mapping option becomes available to select you see that mapping has benefits in the commerce side, especially if you gain art cards. There is still place for improvement (there always is) but when did you see a game that gave you CHOICES to evolve skills and adapt them in any way YOU could? I have been busting my mind and I saw no such options, not in ANY game and that is the power of versatility. It now becomes a side we never saw coming, but there is more.

What if I set that option aside like I did when I designed the Amazon Luna achievement keys? What if playing a game of chess allows you to gain the strategist card to apply to this game? It is just a thought but in that setting we get a stage that skill in one side enhances another? I do not think it is a great idea, but it could apply to cosmetic sides of the game. We could add a whole range of options. As we go forth we can also add cards, or evolve abilities with a black border (Covert only), white border (overt only) or gold border (commerce only), so kill shot would be covert only and if we evolve this over time the border becomes green, or brown and it an be applied to both covert or overt. And when we see this we can concentrate on higher end card, as they bolden all cards connected to them. In this there is one more stack, the homestead stack. As I state before we can influence to some degree, but if we add the homestead stack and we allow for levelling points to this stack the overall setting improves in town and that setting opens up a whole new range of options (and limitations). 

It is just one side of a game that is not ready yet, but consider who else has this and more important, which RPG allows for this? 

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Chaos on the brain

Yup that was me alright this morning. It started actually pretty good, I was enjoying some tea (yes I drink that every now and then), I was enjoying being in my bonnet and behold, a thought passed me by. It was a mix of Queen, a thought of Ted (the teddy) and things started to click. You see, when I grew up (a really long time ago) I got my hands on some Flash Gordon comics and the mix started to rattle. 

I loved it, it was just different. So I was a fan before Queen, Sam J. Jones and Melody Anderson decided to have a go at Max von Sydow. I loved the music, the movie all because the comic woke something up. Even nowadays, I miss the comics, I can still enjoy the Queen album (they truly outdid themselves) and the movie was for a 1980 movie quite enjoyable. But something was missing. You see, now we have the streamers and they could transform the original comics into something dark, gritty and closer resembling the comics. Who? I have no idea, but Amazon, Hulu and Netflix should seriously consider it. No matter who wins, if they can make it truly dark and more resembling the comics, they could have a large win on their hands, merely my point of view. Nothing more. So whilst that process started chaos came knocking on my display. It was Hogwarts Legacy (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AZmuZNu5LA) and it blew me away. Not by a little either. Even now as I am still enjoying Horizon: Forbidden West, I cannot stop thinking of what Avalanche Software has set in motion. What I saw was unique and flawless.  I plays a century before the Hogwarts we know and it works out that way. Yes, we recognise parts, we see things and creatures from all kind of places, but there is so much new to be seen, so much art in nearly every screen that I believe that on view alone, it will drive millions of Harry Potter fans insane with the need to get this game. Yes, I heard about the critique, I cannot say how I feel as I avoided (intentionally or not) most of the information as it was too far from release date. So whatever goblin issue there was the clip I pasted was my first introduction to the game and it looks utterly stunning. So even as some will say, I saw that. I avoided the 2018 leaks, I see no need to get hung up on something 4 years before release, and I still believe that. I saw some teasers that were released, and now some real stuff and this game could optionally set a new bar for many game developers. First Guerrilla, now Avalanche and Ubisoft cannot release anything to that level of gaming as I personally see it. Can you not see that Ubisoft is about to become a ‘has been’, like Microsoft (just a thought). So why the link?

I believe that any new IP, could be linked. Could transgress from comic to both games and series and here the path for Amazon becomes a lot more clear, but there is nothing stopping Netflix to seek an alliance with a real hungry and futuristic software house to unite and create both using one design and art team. There really is no need to reinvent the wheel and nowadays these wheels are a lot closer alike and a lot closer together than was the case in the past. 

In this fantasy and science fiction seem to be more easily adapted to both stages than others, but that is merely a personal view. And in this, what happens when you consider what games like Horizons: Forbidden West and optionally Hogwarts Legacy allows for. So what happens when the world of Flash Gordon become a much larger RPG styled game than ever before? It goes further than this. Consider Hansel and Gretel. Not the fairy tale, but the movie that gave us a bad ass Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton. Now consider the environment. Take Southern Germany, a map that maps Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria in the 11th century. And the Black Forest is only a small part of Baden-Württemberg. Now consider what you need to do to become a famous witch hunter. And optionally the golden Emma Watson statue if you kill more witches than anyone else (no need to avoid humour, is there?) And consider the era, the first Crusades are in full swing, so there is an abundance of criminals and charlatans, there are corrupt officials and in that stage you will need to put your stamp. And it does not come easy. In the movie they had the weapons, but in this game you will not get far without the help and alliance of a really nice blacksmith and they only work for coins. We are so gung-ho about the kill-shot that we forgot that before we get to do that kill-shot a lot more needs to happen. Would it work? I honestly do not know, but in this day and age, the larger entertainer and the larger holder of a unique piece of IP has a much better chance than all others. Guerrilla showed that and believe it or not, I believe (from what I saw) that Hogwarts Legacy is on that same track. Avalanche did something really good and I cannot wait to find out. And if I had to choose? I honestly do not know. I would look forward to all three games and it has been a while since more than one game was on my list. At present HFW is just so fulfilling, it is almost scary. 

But that too is part of gaming, the anticipation and finding out that it was well warranted, Ubisoft used to be like that, but now it seems the new software makers are on that path whilst the old makers are exiting the stage on the left side.

Chaos is on my brain, but it comes from a weird mix of the old, the new and what might be, and in the stage of a place that now has more than 20,000 castles? I reckon that any witch would want one, so there is a reason to play this in southern Germany and there is no reason to think that the map is limited to merely there. In 5 years, no telling what systems are capable of in 2027/2028.

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Work to live, live to enjoy

It is the proper setting, work to live is now no longer added by live to work but live to enjoy and it is setting a different coil in the US. With 28,000 jobs gone, the Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/mar/24/us-unemployment-lowest-level-since-1969) reports ‘US jobless claims fall to lowest level since 1969 as states float rebate checks’, it is a good step for the us, you see as jobless claims fall to such low levels, there is an option to actually reduce debt, one millimetre at a time and there are yards to go, so it will take some time. If only the tax laws were overhauled it might become centimetres at a time, but all administrations had found excuse after excuse why not to do that and it will take decades to get a chunk out of the $30,000,000,000,000 debt. You still think that overhauling US tax laws is not essential? 

But that is the bad news, for now this administration can report that “Jobless claims fell by 28,000 to 187,000 for the week ending 19 March, the lowest since September of 1969,” and with all the bad news, that is one piece of good news that they can really use. On the other hand, as the IT structures change it might be a short lived gain. I am not stating that this good news will follow bad news, but as I see it over the next 18 months Microsoft will be in serious problems on three areas, it will force to lay off staff, on the other hand these people will be able to get a job almost immediately with IBM, Google, and Amazon. And with the laster changing station it will push revenues to new heights in several places (except Microsoft that is). And with the news ‘Amazon to create over 1,000 jobs with first logistics hub in Turkey’ Amazon sets another foundation, the first of three new cluster allowing them to gain even more revenue in 2023/2024. It will also work towards those 50,000,000 additional consoles and that is merely the start for Amazon and the beginning of much larger losses for Microsoft. Too bad they already handed over the $87,000,000,000 they could have used it to invest in innovative products, oh wait. That was what they wanted to do, what a shame they walked into the wrong direction and when you see that and realise the news (three days ago) gives us ‘Amazon further accelerates investment in Egypt, creates 2,000 new jobs’ the second of three clusters is set and the last two (the fourth is optional but decently essential) Amazon has taken steps to push Microsoft out of the gaming world (well, the most powerful console in the world becomes obsolete before it could shine), but the Nintendo Switch shines a little brighter than Microsoft, the least powerful nextgen console in the world defeated the most powerful one and soon a bookstore (read: Amazon) will add to the defeat of Microsoft and push it to fourth position after that the sliding scale will go a lot faster. The only crunch is that I would prefer that Amazon buys my IP before they can work out what was missing. (I am not greedy, merely hungry for a nice retirement) So soon we will see all the steps Microsoft missed and whilst they could have been going back to the n top position, their delusional side would not allow for it, their Azure and lack on several fronts got them here and should Adobe get involved. The fourth loss for Microsoft would be close to disastrous, but I already wrote about that and even as we see all the news, we also see that Amazon is getting ready to push back and they will push harder and more successful and too many will see Microsoft bleeding, after that the game of spin is on and spin only works if the people are willing to believe you and that group is shrinking rapidly. Yet it also reflects back on the 187,000 unemployed. For now there is no issue. As the Microsoft employees see the hard setting they face, they will all move to the other three, optionally places like Oracle and a few other places that will need people and the rush will start. In the end I do not know where the numbers end, but at present there is no negativity to be expected (if you aren’t Microsoft), and that starts a whole new stage. Even if we are alerted to the fact that unemployment is the lowest since 1969, the US will soon face a new challenge, a workers shortage and that is the larger station that follows, it will drive incomes up by a lot and even as the hungry sharks will focus on the Microsoft cadaver, it will not be enough and commerce needs the influx. Where it will come from? Your guess is as good as mine and beyond all this there is still China to consider. It too needs tech people, where they will come from? I honestly do not know, but there is every chance that some will come from the US. So whilst some will Ive to enjoy some will see an option to fill there pockets so that they can retire a few years earlier and enjoy more and longer. Which will drive up worker shortage even more and push the limits further, so when you see another ‘positive Microsoft story’ wonder where it comes from and what else is out there. At present Amazon is in place to push Microsoft down the hill straight into the basement only one tier remains missing (for now) and that will set the larger gains for Amazon. 

Amazon apparently is ready works to live and lives to become a ruler on more than one hill.

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First the weird

Yes, it was something that happened on Wednesday night. It was (apparently) important and it involved Batman. It was a dream, mot likely about IP, but I cannot state whether it is based on the comic books, I do not think it was the Arkham games series. I also do not think it was the movies, but beyond that it is blank, I just cannot remember it and if I do not write it down quickly, it becomes lost. So now I have to wait for the REM stage to kick in again. Beyond all that, there is new IP. A new setting, a digital setting that comes to mind on some of the MB games, in the first it is Hotel and now we have a new stage, Yes, we can ‘just’ copy the board game, but that is such a waste of time, unless it is a mode you can unlock. A board that becomes bigger as more players come to it. The nearly same setting, but now we add a library of hotels. So the original game had the Boomerang, Fujiyama, Royal, Le Grand, Safari, Taj Mahal, Waikiki, and the President. But the fun part is that digitally we can add, we can replace keeping the game new and fresh. So we can get hotels based on famous hotels in Dubai, Las Vegas, New York, Los Angeles, London and so many other places. As we add multiplayer options where the player can select from a pool of online players, friends and game fans, this game could get a lot more attention, and history has shown that there was an interest in this game. I still haven’t given up on the notion of collectible keys (used on the Amazon Luna) to unlock elements in games that other games provide for. And Hotel could be no different. Other games unlock additional hotels and this game could unlock other elements in other games. A stage that pushes novelty and pushes the desire to play, to find and to embrace any game that streaming offers. 

I mentioned the keys before and it could be one of several enhancements that could push the Amazon Luna (beside the 50M extra consoles option). You see, the need for gaming is different on streamers, yes there is a like minded setting with other consoles, but the plus value is not merely some subscription, it is the part where the subscription leads to additional sides, it keeps the gamer invigorated. And in sandbox games there is plenty to see, but in other games after you played it once or twice you think you have seen it all, unless you add to the game, unless the game keeps on developing. There is only so many times the bulk will play Monopoly. Yet if we can localise Monopoly and unlock local editions the interest in such a game evolves from medium term to long term enjoyment. And there several MB games could find themselves in a larger stage. In earlier writings I evolved the game Stratego to a much larger online stage. Yet what happens when we do this to the game Tank Battle? What happens when we evolve the game Clue to a version based on the CCG the X files? All games with multiple options, all games with an evolved nature that offers long term appeal. And as stated on multiple times, some of the original CBM-64 games could get a whole new era of gaming enthusiasts if they put their mind to it. 

All settings that some ignored, some were forgotten and many were overlooked, or perhaps the game designers never considered the early years of gaming. Just like some of us seemingly forgot  about some of the TV shows from the 60’s and 70’s, several of them bubbling with new life if the right director comes along. The acquired IP from the old days could be the cheapest and that offers a whole new stage. Some of the makers are all about looking at the new, but to find. Truly new series with no connections to the past is so utterly rare that it is almost folly to join those crusaders, all chasing windmills. Which is still weird because the fields are covered with fix them uppers and some of them have solid housing frames. 

The fact that some are racing to remaster decent PS4 games for PS5, and they are merely looking behind them, in the rear distance there are true gems waiting to be rediscovered and I hope Amazon does so, Google too, but then they decided not to develop games, so they need to rely on the indie developers and some will be looking towards the CBM-64, Atari ST and Amiga games. As I see some development notes pass by, I can see that they are and they will have decent chances to pick up an interesting amount of coins. 

 

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5 houses in London

Yes, it is a setting we have all wanted in Monopoly, to own the rich side of the game, to feel a winner. I remember in my youthful young driven rat-race age. Running to that side of the game as fast as possible and buy all the real estate in sight. This view altered over time like we all alter the view on how we play the game. Oh, and on the bright side, I just came up with a new game for the Google Stadia, how screwed up is this?  But this is not about a game, this is about reality. Consider the game, consider the locations and consider the impact we face on a daily basis.

In that stage, how about the BBC article ‘Grenfell tragedy: Government is failing to act on inquiry report, says London mayor’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60816108) where we are told “The mayor of London says the government has “failed to complete” any of the 12 recommendations directed at them during phase 1 of the Grenfell Tower inquiry.” So here is the question. How much power do the Real estate tycoons have over the British government? 

You think I am kidding, consider monopoly, how much actions would be enabled if the 72 cadavers were on green side of the board and not the brown side of the board? Have you considered that? So when we see “The LFB was criticised in the report for its failure to revoke the “stay put” advice – in which residents were told to remain in their individual homes as the fire raged through the 24-storey tower block.” Is that really true? Consider the movie we saw (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM4RJE81fh4) how would a revoke ‘stay put’ would have been any solution? And in that movie, do not just watch, listen to the response of ACTUAL fireman. The sequential movie (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSYUp8j8P1Q) from the FIRST FIRE-CAR on the spot. When you see the two movies my feelings become clear. How screwed up was this investigation? The issue of “The LFB was criticised” becomes a joke. How is it possible that THIS government has not acted on at least the first 15 points making them MANDATORY. Do the real estate tycoons have THAT much power in London? We see the media jump on the ‘stay put’ order whilst the big deal is that the ENTIRE building was on fire, these fireman hd never seen anything like that and in my initial article (23rd June 2017) called ‘Under cover questions’ where I show the PDF’s on the goods where we see that the solution was good for cladding up to 30ft. So what gives and when I add “The external cladding material on this building did not prevent the spread of the fire as required by the Building Code of Australia,” said MFB chief officer Peter Rau“ an issue that was shown 3 years prior to Grenfell, how much of a chihuahua is the British government to the London real estate tycoons? We can argue whether the ‘stay put’ order was the right one to use in high rises, but the news is all about how wrong it was instead of how wrong it was to install cladding like the one in Grenfell, but we do not really get to see that, do we? 

So when we see “I am extremely concerned the government has failed to complete a single recommendation from the first phase of the inquiry”, yes for some the 72 cadavers are a mere balancing act, is it not? And in this the statement “the government is failing the Grenfell community” is wrong. The government has already failed them by not implementing any of the recommendations. We see criticism on the LFB, all whilst they were given a stacked deck, stacked towards the tycoons bleeding London dry. When you see and hear London fire people state ‘I have never seen anything like that’ you know things are out of control and the response from people on the first car arriving gives additional fuel to the matter and we get it things can be weird, things can be scary. Yet what do we do when the setting becomes weird and scary for the firefighters? The BBC article should unleash a wave of anger towards an inactive flaccid government, it should unleash a wave of anger towards these tycoons and it would be nice to see a list of these people in EVERY newspaper. The article raises a lot of questions and before the critical people have a go at the firemen, have a go at what I found and what questions I had in 2017, I found plenty on a laptop, so why did this investigations not find any and why were no recommendations acted on?

I leave it to you and if you live in London you might want to hurry before you become on of the cadavers the real estate tycoons do not care about.

 

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A social direction

This happens, in all the stupidity, the harshness and the fatalities of war, we look in other directions, we look for the good in places, in people, in foods and in entertainment. Our bodies and our souls can only take so much negativity until we start seeking out positivity in any way we can. This is pretty much on all of us. The problem for some is that they CANNOT avoid the negativity. Through war, through social issues, through personal issues. It is a clambake of barriers that we set up and that keep us in place. We all have these moments and these time stages. We can try to avoid them, but the negativity draws in, just like positivity when it happens. So there I was sitting on the couch watching Blindspot season 4 on dvd when I saw ‘Saudi Arabia ranks 25th in UN World Happiness Report’ (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2045881/saudi-arabia). Of all the things I expected to see, that was not one of them. To be honest  I have no idea where they were, but they moved up one step from 26 in a year. The full report (at https://happiness-report.s3.amazonaws.com/2021/WHR+22.pdf) gives us more. You see the numbers show that they are one place behind the UAE and both are really close to the scores of France, Belgium, UK and US. Yet there is also the setting that Arab News gives us “The report has been based on two key ideas: That happiness or life evaluation can be measured through opinion surveys, and that we can identify key determinants of well-being and thereby explain the patterns of life evaluation across countries,” That is a little more than I bargained for. I am not disputing the approach but how many people? The PDF does give us that. 156 countries and 1853 observations (per nation I guess). Yet if that is the case and we know Saudi Arabia has 35 million people, we might see that stage. Yet Belgium has 12 million people and the US has 330 million people, so how is there a stage of equality? How can 1853 people be a genuine stage for happiness in the US? How is the stage of opinions towards regression become a scale of happiness? How were these numbers created? Technical box 2 gives us more (page 20), but there is a larger issue. We see 2017 World Development Indicators (WDI) that came BEFORE covid. They use GDP time series from the OECD economic outlook no. 110 (edition December 2021) with the added ‘or if missing’ and there the problem lies. Statistical result connected to other statistical results. I once learned (1992) that this is a really wrong setting to work from. Apart from the stage that it could be based on very different people, there were different economic boundaries and other issues in play. But overall it took me three minutes to combine data into questions and reservations on this report. It is nice to see all these happy people pictures, but it is window dressing, and it makes me more apprehensive of the report then less. There is a feeling of orchestration. The image of a man wearing an ‘offline hustler’ t-shirt with the small caption of ‘every move won’t be posted’, it merely brings out the negativity in me. And it is ‘consistency of emotion changes across countries in the 5 weeks after the outbreak’, you see what date was used for the 5 week stage? December in China? When? It matters because covid hit us at different times, there seems to be no real explanation there. So how was Twitter used for these 1853 people? Is twitter separate, how many twitter observations per nation? The list goes on and grows. Still, it is an impressive piece of work, if there was a way to get better and more complete explanations it could work. But I hesitate when page 144 gives me “we approached the analyses by 2 interlinked hypotheses. (1) balance/harmony matter to all people; and (2) balance/harmony are dynamics at the heart of well-being. As we have seen, both hypotheses were corroborated to some extent” Really? 1853 observations out of 330 million Americans? How does that show any level of corroboration? 

The more of the report I saw, the more questions I ended up with. I wonder who else have a serious set of questions and I wonder when the media will ask Gallup more questions, Personally I doubt they will ever bother.

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Coin number two

Yes, after the first coin (previous article) the second coin becomes a reality. Yet this coin is a lot more speculative, there is a side we do not know, we cannot know because we are not in the know. Anyone not part of their operations, is not privy to a lot of it and those who are not and make claims are lying to you. That is a simple truth. I am not in the know, I do not know and I speculate, or I make educated guesses, and I tell you that I do, but the truth of the matter is that I am NOT CIA, so I cannot tell what they are doing. 

Yet here we hit a snag. You see the BBC gave us yesterday ‘Ukraine: How crowdsourcing is rescuing people from the war zone’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60785339), so there we see that civilians are more successful and more clued in than the CIA is? How screwed up is that? So in the article we get “They, in turn, send information in real-time about safe roads to drivers who can rescue busloads of people”, as well as “they are crowdsourcing safe passage out of a war zone.” And this differs from CIA extractions… how exactly?

A stage that could have been set up from the very beginning and the US did not do this. A stage that would have been on the forefront of GCHQ and MI6 from the beginning. But there is a seemingly large lack in activities by a few intelligence operators aren’t there? Is this evidence that there is a lack of funds, an indication that there is a larger lack of resources? Or is it mere speculation from my side and are they operating through crowdfunded operations? It is all speculations and it is less about the speculations and less about who is right and who is wrong. It is about what can be done and what should be done for the Ukraine. I get that, I am not singular or selfishly driven. But some out there are and their game is costing lives. I understand that governments for the most cannot get directly involved. But between full in and not in at all there is a difference and I am starting to rack up the questions on how governments did not act in Syria, how they knowingly and intentionally delayed nearly all actions in Yemen, now we see too many players dragging their heels in Ukraine. The jet setting between Poland and Ukraine and the connected US and Poland actions should have raised a lot more questions then were actually asked. The stage is larger, I get that. Yet the connected inactions should raise questions. Reuter gave us three days ago ‘UK says there is “very very strong evidence” Russia’s Putin behind war crimes in Ukraine’. Really? Very strong evidence? How is that for flaccid? And the UN, on March 2nd they gave us that Russia committed war crimes, yet how many actions were taken by governments? When we rack those tallies and we see inactions we can (speculatively) conclude that governments are either too poor, or too poorly stacked for any actions. And we wonder why China does not act and why Russia does not care?

Questions are coming and no answers are coming forward, not even by the media on either side of that equation. That’s just a thought for Sunday. 

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Don’t we have enough problems?

This started this morning. It started when three messages passed by my Chromebook. The first was (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/16/un-aid-drive-to-avert-yemen-catastrophe-falls-far-short) called ‘UN aid drive to avert Yemen catastrophe falls far short’, so in short, the UN cannot get it done, big surprise here (not really). The second one was from a different corner. The second one was Arab News (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2044566/saudi-arabia) which gives us ‘Saudi Arabia pumps $19bn into Yemeni aid program: KS relief chief’, so if I see this correctly, the UN was unable to get it done raising only $1.3bn at Wednesday’s conference in Geneva, a little short of the $4.24bn they had hoped to get, a mere 30%, so we see the failure of one, all whilst the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is pumping $19,000,000,000 into that place. And of course it comes with “He added that Saudi Arabia would continue to support Yemen through relief and humanitarian programs in coordination with international and local partners.” Yet the other side, the UN did not really give any notice of the efforts of Saudi Arabia does it, even as Arab News gives us “The event was also attended by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, President of the Swiss Confederation Ignazio Cassis, Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Anne Lindy, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths, and Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Wasel”, I saw no mention in the end in western papers. I did however find something else. 

The Sydney Morning Herald gives us (at https://www.smh.com.au/culture/celebrity/ex-bachelorette-georgia-love-slammed-for-instagram-posts-promoting-saudi-arabia-20220317-p5a5lf.html) the stage of ‘Ex-Bachelorette Georgia Love slammed for Instagram posts promoting Saudi Arabia’ and there we see “Georgia Love and Lee Elliott, who found romance in 2016 on the second season of Network 10’s The Bachelorette, have sparked controversy after the pair posted Instagram photos of themselves promoting tourism in Saudi Arabia.” The article by Robert Moran calls for more, hiding behind commenters whilst the SMH has not informed us on more than one occasion that Houthi terrorists were attacking civilian targets. The SMH also did not inform the people on the $19,000,000,000 event from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia all whilst the UN could not get 25% done, they raised less than 10% of what Saudi Arabia contributed. If we are all bout fair and balanced, we need to start being fair and balanced. Iran executed 280 people in 2021, so where is THAT Sydney Morning Herald article? 

Is Saudi Arabia a perfect nation, no it is not. Neither is Australia, a nation who refuses to do anything about ageism. Two people promoted tourism in a nation we are not at war with, two people are doing something to open doors that others cannot be bothered knocking on. 

I think that the SMH dropped a few too many issues to be knocking on some door regarding promoting a nation. Oh, and before I forget it should I get that notion in similar ways, I would offer the 5G IP I have to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia long before I would EVER offer it to Australia! Although, I would try to sell them some other IP first, including a story on how to assassinate a politician.

See how long it takes people to consider that Telstra is an increasing problem, not some solution. We see mere greed driven responses, instead of catering to the larger setting of the people. The AFR (Australian Financial review) gave us two weeks ago “A major upgrade of NBN services in country Australia will be part of a multibillion-dollar regional infrastructure package to be included in Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s pre-election budget.” And you think this is god for the people. No, it was because ‘Major NBN upgrade planned to fight off Musk’s Starlink’, so why is Elon Musk with his Starlink a negative thing? Is it because it is bad, or because it is bad for players like Telstra and their ‘friends’? If I look at all the issues we face, I think we have more than enough problems. And the anti-Saudi rhetoric whilst WE never did anything in that region when it mattered is just insane, but we are their for Ukraine, it is politically convenient. I reckon the Syrians and the Yemeni’s will have to live with that decision. 

So whilst news dot com dot au “Georgia Love and partner Lee Elliot have deleted their Instagram posts promoting Saudi Arabia but they can’t hide from those tagging them”, it is just another another set of bullies who do not know what they are talking about, because certain media prefers not to inform them. And in the end, do I care? Nope, I never seen of followed Georgia Love. I personally think that the Bachelorette and like minded programs are a waste of my time. But I do care about bullies and that should be on the front of the line. So how much reporting did Robert Moran do on Iranian culture? Their humanitarian efforts? You see it is more likely not his cup of soup and the fact that a person like Georgia Love made the papers (or internet) means that he had nowhere else to look regarding culture. So whilst ABC gave us ‘Women are isolated in sports media, we need more allies for real and lasting change’ three hours ago, the Sydney Morning Herald was all about bully tactics, that is how I personally see it and it is sad that some resort to that, but on the plus side, I can at least make the claim that I tried to better the world by melting down an Iranian nuclear reactor, how is that for cancel culture? In all the issues we face Georgia Love should have been a blip on the radar at present, I personally reckon certain people got upset with the effort and the SMH obliged. That is my take on the matter, but then I could be wrong. You make up your own mind on where I stood, right or wrong?

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The clay presentation

I have been mulling things over. Presentation software is largely the same, it is set to the foundations of yesterday. There was nothing wrong with yesterday, but today in the age if digital transformations, the dawn of 5G and the clusterings towards 6G we see an empty space. We see the failure of some (aka Microsoft) and it is time to wake up Adobe to ‘show’ them that they could be leading the wave, especially with the masteries they have. There was one optional contender. It was Prezi and they did rock foundations, but their gain is too slow and I need Microsoft to fall down faster (and more clearly). There is nothing wrong with speculating on their fall and then making it happen, is it? 

And presentations are on the edge of what Adobe is doing already, so they might as well start there. All presentations are set to a workplace, it is a white rectangle. It is the same for Microsoft, Google and Apple. But why? In this world, in this age we are so driven to the rectangle that we merely set the presentation of squares. What is the presentation place is whatever YOU want it to be? Rectangle, square, circle, hexagon, any form? We set the stage to what WE want the other one to see. That workspace has form, the creator adds substance and stories. In any way HE (or SHE) wants to. We can go on by adding the camera view that aligns it all and that lens could be rectangle, circle, dodecahedron or whatever they want it to be. And it is not the weirdest stage, Adobe has a lot of it at their disposal already. It would be another nail in a coffin names Microsoft. With that move 25% of their showcase titan is now a crumbling setting and when Adobe adds dashboarding and databases the finality becomes clear. Microsoft has believed in their marketing hypes that they will not see this coming, and when it does, they will trivialise it. But if you look around, as far as I can tell SAP is the only player with a decent dashboarding solution (they bought XCelcius), but a dashboarding stage is more and ore about presentations, about TELLING some story and when it comes to stories Adobe has much better solutions, they merely need to add the Business intelligence part and there are plenty of solutions there. We have so focussed on Powerpoint that we forget that a presentation needs moulding, it needs shaping and there Powerpoint falls short again and again and for close to a decade people heard. That it was being considered, that it is on the list of improvements, but if you look back on the list of what YOU really wanted, what was added? Search your mind and you find failure after failure. Adobe has the goods, it has the knowhow and it has the drive to push Microsoft harder and harder. And when that is done we will see a whole range of solutions wondering what they could do to serve YOU.

The world is changing, the needs of customers are changing and the consumers want a better stage, so why not give them that? When Microsoft realises what they wasted, what their futile little minds decided on what the people needed, you will see clearly that they made you fight with one hand on your back. And it only served Microsoft and their partners. So now I have decided to crash that wall and see what we can really get for ourselves. 

What can we get when we put these party lines in the limelight? What if we keep tabs on all these party lines? I personally believe that Microsoft will come up short several times and that is the ball game, that is the moment people can look towards Adobe and see what they can muster. I believe Adobe is ready for the presentation stage and when stage two is ready Microsoft will get the smallest inkling of the disaster they headed themselves to. 

Of course I might be wrong, but what true innovation has Powerpoint offered since Office 95? That is well over 25 years ago and whilst Microsoft will ‘accidentally’ release some list. I wonder if you can see what was mere iteration and what was true innovation? That list will shrink to a degree you wonder why you remained happy for 25 years with an eggshell. I believe the move is now with a player like Adobe to show you all what true innovation could be. But that might merely be me.

Enjoy Friday.

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