Yes, for me that was the setting. In the previous articles (several) I set the boundaries for a new RPG game, freeware for all Amazon Luna and Sony developers (just to piss off Microsoft). And if we are going to take a chunk of the marketshare of Bethesda, we need to offer more and we need to offer different. In this I set the player as merely one of many people. Making sure that the world does not revolve around him (or her). So the towns need an economy, It needs a stage to grow and it needs to be in a trend that causes the need for replayability. I always believed in replayability. It is lovely that we all have a house in EVERY town, but reality is not like that. So even if we are going into that stage, I needed to set a larger premise towards WHAT the stage was. The tavern sets productivity in villages and towns. So does the Blacksmith and so does the general store, bookshop, butcher and grocer. Yet in this we see internal economy, the parts that feed the town (Butcher, baker, grocer, tavern) there are the shops that feed an external economy (Blacksmith) and there are the shops that feed both (herbalist, general store) and there is the luxury shop (bookshop). So as these shops are doing better, they could upgrade, they could grow the town. The external shops call in adventurers and more money into a town. And if a town grows to lets state 3 stars, the infrastructure upgrades (lights, guards) This cannot be merely tables that ‘satisfy’ the needs of the game. Each town gets his stage of cogs, one gear feeding another and that need is there. You cannot get a dynamic town in place merely letting the adventurer set the speed of growth. There also needs a risk setting. For example if you fed the tavern too much, and it gets to 5 stars, whilst the town is a 3 star place, the tavern gets sold, and you get to start anew there. Luxury shops (bookshop, tailor) are there when the town reaches its 4th star. This upgrade the overall look of the town, wealthier people come into town and that calls more adventurers and more charlatan’s. To set this all in cogs is nearly impossible, but such an attempt is required to create a dynamic playing world. Consider Bethesda’s Oblivion (2006), we see Chorrel, Cheydenhal, Bravil and Skingrad. They all stay the same, but what happens when you set the game where we see Chorrel doing better and Cheydenhal recedes towards another Bravil? To set such a gaming stage was not possible in 2006, but now with streaming servers and the PS5, that setting becomes achievable. And when you return to a town after weeks, it might look very different. And that is what we are trying to aim for, because the $200,000,000,000 gaming revenue (expected 2023 numbers) does not go to those doing the same again and again. It goes to the people who offers what others do not, or cannot. I do hope that Horizons: Forbidden West showed you that much (as did Elden ring). To give the world a new a really new creation will be rewarding beyond expectations. So here you go and you are welcome. Oh and none of this links to my optional additional stage of selling 50,000,000 Amazon Luna consoles, so there is that too (it sucks to be Microsoft in 2022).
Category Archives: IT
Ko Inky Dink?
Before I begin, there is something you need to know. I understand and agree that we ALL need anti viral protection. In the old days there was Norton (not that great) and McAfee. There was also Virex (an unknown for Mac’s), over time the setting evolved and in the last 20-30 years it was about the 4 big players Norton, McAfee, Sophos and Kasparsky. I stuck to McAfee and later on Norton. Norton had improved its system and it was basically a turn of a friendly card when I went onto the Norton highway. So for the most I remained in the dark. I hd a program, it seemingly works (you don’t know until things go wrong) and so far no issues (touch wood). It was about 4 weeks ago when I saw something pass by. It was (at https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/kaspersky-discovers-about-100000-new-banking-trojans-and-warns-about-increasing-mobile-malware-sophistication/) with the serious ‘Kaspersky Discovers About 100,000 New Banking Trojans and Warns About Increasing Mobile Malware Sophistication’, for me it was not interesting. I do not trust banking apps, not one of them, the more they offer, the more dangerous they are and as such I do not touch them. I know from the past the X-25 issues that were there and I will not bank online, I will not bank mobile. Some things are better the old way, at least they are somewhat more secure and I have set up triggers to alert me if anyone wants to activate my online banking and mobile banking. So as the article gives us “Kaspersky’s Mobile Threats in 2021 report noted that the number of mobile trojans detected almost doubled in 2021, while the total number of mobile attacks declined during the same period. Sadly, the increased sophistication of the attacks, malware functionality, and attack vectors, coupled with the emergence of new players in the market, compensated for the reduction in the number of attacks.” I saw this coming (to some extent) a mile away, that is why I created a 5G solution that reduces the risk. It does not nullify it, but the transgressions are limited to the high tier hackers, I speculate that I can stop a third of the danger, which is not bad. At that point I did wonder why it was Kaspersky alone that reported it, nothing from the other three, but I left that in the air. So today (late last night) I got alerted to ‘Remove and replace Kaspersky AV, says German cyber intelligence’ (at https://www.itnews.com.au/news/remove-and-replace-kaspersky-av-says-german-cyber-intelligence-577390), which is odd. The timing is definitely off. I am not judging, I cannot tell whether it is true or not, the article does give us “In 2017, the United States banned government agencies from using Kaspersky products, with the European Union following suit the year after.”, as well as “BSI has now extended the advisory to all Kaspersky customers, telling them to swap out the Russian antivirus with an alternative security product.” So what evidence was there. Why was this not in places like The Verge?
And when we get ““A Russian IT manufacturer can conduct offensive operations itself, be forced to attack target systems against its own will, or be spied on without its knowledge as a victim of a cyber operation, or be used as a tool for attacks against its own customers,” the BSI wrote.” OK, I get it, there is OPTIONALLY a risk and people need to be aware, but if this risk was known in 2017, why was it only now and not two weeks ago that we were informed. Moreover, why is this merely the German intelligence, why does Reuters not have an American point of view with all the ins and outs? There is also “Kaspersky had moved its data infrastructure to Switzerland to counter hacking and spying allegations by Western nations”, which I get. In the end I have questions, is Germany merely an American tool spouting McCarthyism to a larger degree? I wonder why the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) did not counter or support the Switzerland element in that equation. If Russia has tools and support in a place like Switzerland, I reckon that the Swiss would want to know.
So personally the issue with a coincidence factor is just too weird here. I am not stating the BSI is wrong or misinforming us, but personally I feel that the articles in Reuters and ITNews would require adjustments. The search (Google) gives nothing on Kaspersky and the LA Times, New York Times and Washington Post. Why not? The articles are 18 hours old, one of these three should have picked them up at least 8 hours ago, as such I have questions. Don’t you?
Yes! I get to have fun
This happened this morning and it was based on an article that was published yesterday (at https://www.phonearena.com/news/galaxy-s22-plus-s22-ultra-only-if-google-pixel-6-pro-did-not-exist_id138958). The article titled ‘Galaxy S22, S22+, S22 Ultra: Only if Google Pixel 6 Pro didn’t exist…’ in the article I get to have a go at my long time enemy Samsung. You see, I hated them forever (around 1990), so a little over 30 years, but then I mastered holding a grudge like forever, so there is a setting of happy glee feelings here. The reason does not matter (a water under the bridge issue). What does matter is that the Google Pixel 6 Pro overall beats the Galaxy S22, the S22+ and S22 Ultra all by itself. The article gives you a really nice rundown. The rundown gives us a nice setting, the S22 has a better price, but only by $100, it loses pretty much on all other fronts here. The others are more expensive and cannot deliver the 512 ppi that Google has and it does not end there. Only the S22 Ultra has 108MP, the Pixel has 50MP, but wins on all other fronts in all resolutions on all other stage against the three phones. It has a more powerful battery but takes a little longer to charge. I see only benefits for the Google Pixel 6 pro and even as we see pricing it also beats the new Huawei phones. As far as I can tell, from my point of view it makes Google the new king of the mobile mountain. And as I personally see it, Apple with its $2000+ phone can go jump in the lake, especially when Google offers a phone $500 cheaper with twice the memory. But it is not about Apple, it is about Samsung and the one proud brand is no longer king of the mountain (for me it never was). Google has surpassed it and in the upcoming stages Google might find that it can offer a much larger venue on a mobile phone and that should make them happy. How happy? Well, I reckon we will be able to see when they get to the Google Pixel 7 series. No idea when it is coming but as my phone is getting closer and closer to replacement, I need to remain alert and see whether I am forced to upgrade sooner instead of later (I prefer later).
And let’s not forget a brand rises and falls with the next model, in this Google Pixel is a rising star, but the next model? We just have to wait and see. In the meantime read the Phonearena article Martin Filipov (@martintweets) did a really nice job here and it is worth your time, especially if you were planning to get a Samsung S22 model (any model), I leave that up to you.
How many nails to a coffin?
It is a decently serious question, because I do not know. You see, I have given you the lowdown on Microsoft in a few ways a few days ago in ‘Microsoft, for cold laundry’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/03/09/microsoft-for-cold-laundry/), as well as ‘What we hope for’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/03/07/what-we-hope-for/) two days before that. I gave the lines, I gave the settings and now we see ‘Xbox Series X Is the Most Complained-About Gaming Console in the World’ (at https://www.cbr.com/xbox-series-x-worlds-most-complained-console/).
Now I do have some questions here. You see, I do believe in evidence and the setting of ‘Most Complained-About Gaming Console’ requires evidence and Microsoft does not hand out evidence, they hide everything, even sales figures to show just how bad they are doing. We are given “The top three slots went to Xbox Series X (12.5%), Xbox One (12.1%), and Xbox Series S (9.8%). PlayStation 4 came in last, with only 0.5% of tweets about the system expressing any dissatisfaction.” Do not get me wrong, as a Sony fan I love this, but in fairness evidence is essential and numbers unsupported by hard evidence are not the reliable numbers we would want. And I am proven right with “Electronic Hub theorises that much of the ire directed at the Series X”. It was the word ‘theorises’. You see hard evidence allows for the circumvention of ‘theorises’ and it would give us a line like “Well over 70% of the complaints have a link to Controllers and headsets.” Yet we were not given that. We were given what you see in the link and even as it is a nice read, I remain partial to actual evidence which the article does not really give us. The second bit of information is that percentages are nice, but based on what ’N’? How many responses were given, how many were tallied and perhaps the region might be nice too.
Then we start seeing more tweets like “I feel scammed having no games to play”, well that is not entirely true. The Xbox has released games, but they might not be games that this gamer likes and that gamer is now optionally envious of all the Switch and PS5 games. True, this COULD be the case but there is a hidden snag in all this. Microsoft is letting things get out of hand on several levels and that is in gaming alone. The complaints is their service division, the games is development and there are a few more areas where Microsoft is dropping the ball. Do you think I was kidding that I never want my IP in the hands of Microsoft? Google took another direction, so I am hoping that Amazon picks up the setting. Well, that is if they want to sell well over 50,000,000 additional consoles in 3-4 areas. I have had my concerns with Microsoft and IP, and I am not their to solve their shortcomings for them. Anyway, the bill fits Amazon a lot better with all the connected options anyway.
But this is not about me, it is about Microsoft. And they are not doing good. If this view, this evidence lacking view is added to my views and educated guesses, it seems that ‘the most powerful console in the world’ (their words, not mine) will be gracing the number 4 spot soon enough, and a hell of a lot sooner if I have anything to do with it. If Amazon makes a deal with Google, Microsoft would end up dead last and my small dream of handing Microsoft their wooden spoon would become a reality. Yet this is also a rather large warning. You see, Sony was better when it was being chased by Microsoft and that now falls away. I am not saying that it is the end, but I fear that the PS6 might not be as great a leap as the PS5 was over the PS4. And I like high end gaming, so I am happy on one side and a little grumpy on the other side. No matter how good Nintendo and Amazon become, they are not the parties to actually chase Sony and push it to new heights. On the other hand, to see my views become nearing 90% correct is good for the ego, it really is.
Quick money?
Yup that is how it started. I was watching a ski movie that someone made with the GoPro, and the two I saw were actually really nice. It showed the action from the point of view of the skier (so it felt real), it was a really nice view of a downhill act from Blackcomb mountain (Canada) so you get to see what that is about, and it was an impressive ride. It was at this point that I thought a few things through. You see, at the end of every run you see the man fumble about to switch it off in the last second and that is fine. But then I thought, there is an app that connects it to the phone. So why not expand that by also connecting it to a smartwatch with the option to see settings and to stop recording (and start recording).
Which would be a nice thing to have. So I did my homework and low and behold there are several models and the prices ranges from $90-$300, so what stops a clever programmer (who already has a GoPro) to make and app that does the same and offer it on the App Store (Android and iOS) for $10-$20? Now I get that plenty of people will not buy a remote for $300, but an app for $10? Makes you think does it not?
It is not the only thing and there are plenty of options out there, yet it seems that people overlook the obvious (as people tend to do). I am no better. I have overlooked the obvious plenty of times. But I did check the store and I found two of them, but with ratings of 2.8 and 2.5 I would state that there should be more out there, and there is no indication that these apps would work on wearables. And in a case where seemingly 50% gives it a one star rating I would like to know why it was only one star. I did not test the app as I have no GoPro, but the foundation is there. Why is there (at present) no wearable app for GoPro. In this day and age where that thing is used on all kinds of sport events, a wearable app makes sense. It makes less sense when it is a person walking around with a gimbal, but on bikes, skies, snowboards, and several other settings it makes sense that you can apply a remote (which GoPro has), and plenty of people will more likely than not prefer a wearable solution.
So is this quick money? For some it might be and there is a clear market. From 2015 onwards there seem to be 20-25 million people using a GoPro, so there is enough traction to warrant the investment of time. Now, not all will need some remote, but the amount of action camera uses implies that thousands might be game for such a solution. And so far no one has pushed that market, so why not? You see, I am not a programmer, I have no GoPro and I do not do these sports (at present), so three reasons to give it a miss (and my 5G keeps me busy). There are more settings that my mind sees now, but that is up to the makers and DJI might have an advantage here. And there is a second set of thoughts here. The interaction of devices are becoming more profound, there is every indication that those with cross device programming skills might have a much sweeter deal coming their way in the near future, so spending time on this endeavour should pay off and if you have the two elements you need to start programming! When the next set of needs come calling, you will be able to show that you have experience.
It’s just a thought, make of it what you will.
Foreplay or forplay?
Yup, we all go there at some point. My ex once wanted me to watch a movie on foreplay so that she could get a better night of sex and I did not mind. To be honest, once I skipped the boring bits at the start the movie they gave me a few excellent ideas as well. In gaming this situation exists as well. But in gaming what is foreplay? Some state that it is the intro of the game. That tends to differ per game. In Horizon Zero Dawn it could be the part where Eloy is a little girl (when she finds the focus) in TombRaider it was the mansion level, in Oblivion it is the escape from prison and many games have their own way of staging the introduction. And now the joke I started with starts making sense. Weirdly enough it was not a direct stage that assaulted my senses. I had been contemplating and considering additional parts to my 5G devices when it hit me. I was so ‘obsessed’ to hand more functionality to the customers that it hit me. There needs to be a larger stage of introducing more to the customer, educating them as it were. Just like the video, we need more extensive foreplay. You see the age of dumping a device in the lap of customers, whether they are consumers or retailers. That stage is gone and too many rely on word of mouth, the internet and other means for people to figure it out. Consider the TV below.
It drains your account by $11,500 dollars and I had to use this example as I am a huge Sony fan. But consider the fact that the startup guide is two pages and the reference guide is 8 pages, which also gives us “For more information on troubleshooting, refer to the Help Guide”, which is a button on the remote. Now there is nothing really wrong with that, but if someone courts me for that amount, it better comes with breakfast and a final blowjob after a night of super great sex.
Devices have been pushed as almost literally a push and seek on the internet stage. Now for a $49 Google ChromeCast that makes sense. But for a $499 Bose bluetooth speaker? Not even a manual that explains what one port on the speaker does? That is a failure and gaming tends to go in that direction as well. A stage where too much is auto assumed. To be honest, Ubisoft and Bethesda actually has a decent grasp on that especially in their latest games. There are more than a few games out there that fails its consumers. There are quotes like ‘The internet is full of help’, or the demeaning “Your friends do not seem to have that same problem” And when Meta is fully deployed especially when hybrid comes to life there will be all kinds of hiatus. Now there is nothing wrong with setting up the internet to help out, but ask yourself “How many supplier set up a decent amount of white papers to help you out?” The answer will scare you. They all skipped the boring bits of the foreplay video and went straight for ‘orgasmic revenue’. And here is the stage where I found the interesting part of forplay (not a typo) “Foreplay is the fun, flirty, arousing goings on right before actually having sex. It’s an act that sexually excites a person. In forplay some people use icing, chocolate sauce, whatever..” And this applies here too. In hardware the ‘chocolate sauce’ are the accessories you can buy, or DLC’s in gaming (a ‘for play’ joke). The extra yummy parts are not in the real game, they come later (that has been Ubisoft as well). It worries me because it implies that the consumer is not the person who buys the game, but the person who buys the game and all the other bits and that is disappointing. It is disappointing in gaming, it is disappointing in hardware, software and concepts. It is like companies are too much abut the sales pipeline in some fire and forget setting, and no one (or too few) people care what happens to their customers afterwards and it offends me. I was in Customer service since 1992 and it was for a long time a great stage yet in too many places it became about cost reduction and cutting corners whilst the consumers where not properly taken care off too often and for too long. There are exceptions the most striking one is either Norton or Adobe customer service versus Microsoft customer service, or try dialling your internet provider. Try setting a care line there (a line that show they actually care for you), the results might scare you and that is where I found myself. Educating the customer on the boring bits of 5G, as well the boring bits of added 5G because that field is MASSIVE and I am hopefully a player in that stage in the not so far distant future, so it matters to me to get that part right too. And for the size of what I am talking about, see below
It’s not the car
Yes, the car is not in play, well not directly anyway. It all started with yesterday’s article. After I wrote ‘Opensource GEOINT’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/03/08/opensource-geoint/) I started to brood on a few items. And as I brooded on a few more connections I realised that my 5G IP will double in value before 2025, that is a lot! It is a lot in any setting, no matter the innovation you bring, there is a certain value, a certain base that sets the value and beyond the base it can grow, no one denies it, but these are not the 90’s. To get into a NEW field is pretty unheard of, but to connect to it not that much, so the doubling worried me a little. You see, when any person sees a doubling of value (upping by 100%) that person tends to be delusional, anyone will agree to that, so I started to dig around and I was contemplating issues for a lot of today (whilst watching Christian Bale as the Batman) then something came to me. You see I suddenly realised that this is not about Covid, wars or anything else. When the rest of the world wakes up (at some point they will) their Business Intelligence side will want to connect, want to set markers. In the first it is too ‘correlate’ the old marketing to the new setting. It will not work, yet they will try anyway. It is then that some of the hardware people will consider Hybrid technology, first 1.0, but it is Hybrid 2.0 and Hybrid 3.0 that matters. You see, the people, businesses and wannabe entrepreneurs want the connection between Hybrid and real life on one system and there is where we will see the interactions and the exploding Hybrid technologies in play. For me that will work great. My IP was never designed for that, but can evolve to this in simple ways. Hence the doubling and when you sell something that can occupy BOTH spaces the hardware will sell itself a lot easier. Even now I am seeing the evolution go further, go beyond what I initially imagined and now it becomes more than I envisioned. When sold I leave a historic legacy for whomever comes next, for whomever is willing to dream the next stage of innovation, a place business minded iterator can no longer go. I reckon that by 2026 others will want to get into that field but for now I have a 4 year advantage. I reckon that is symmetry. You see in a previous working life. I gave my bosses the idea to set up a a system where people will get free websites, and marketing will be at the axial informing them all. You will state that this is Facebook, but I gave the idea to them in 1997, 4 years BEFORE Facebook. Now I get to do it again in a different way and those bosses will never be trusted again. They can read up on THEIR mission statement, I actually feel vindicated now, never imagined that this would happen and when the IP is sold (hopefully to Google or Amazon) I can relax and enjoy my early retirement in a comfortable place.
In the mean time I will consider what else I can do to add to the IP I have now and contemplate what the Hybrid could bring me, where people (at present) are not looking yet. It is the simple difference between a business intelligence person limited to an Excel view of life and the dreamer who sees the paintings and wonders how the colours were applied and then realises that another brush could do the trick, a small wink at ‘After a fact to begin a fact’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/12/16/after-a-fact-to-begin-a-fact/) where I came up with a new paint spray solution (OK, to be honest it was for military reasons) and I am not a painter. How many paint sprays could be sold in that manner? How many painters does the world have, how many could use a new brush to improve or even alter their styles? The excel person will state that the group is not big enough. I merely state it was a beginning. When Meta takes off it will grab billions and my IP will merely grow internationally and I get my royalties (hopefully) when things work out, but twice in a row I got there 4 years early, not the worst headline to live with. And still, it is not about the car, I never really needed one.
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 