Category Archives: IT

March 21, 2022 · 23:20

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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March 20, 2022 · 21:55

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.

whr22-2Download

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March 20, 2022 · 13:33

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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March 18, 2022 · 21:22

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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March 18, 2022 · 13:14

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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March 17, 2022 · 19:59

Pushing cogs

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).

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March 16, 2022 · 20:42

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?

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March 13, 2022 · 16:12

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. 

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March 12, 2022 · 19:13

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. 

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March 12, 2022 · 04:46

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.

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