Category Archives: Media

September 15, 2023 · 06:58

Lining

That is the setting. You see, you might not be aware. You might merely see one negative article and dismiss it. That is fair enough, for the most I would have dismissed it too. Yet when you start using Google Search on topics like (for example) “Neom” the negativity list starts adding up and they all have something negative to say. 

A long time ago
So lets take a small sidestep towards the young days of your grandfather. It’s 1886 and plans are made for the world fair 1889. An architect named Gustave Eiffel ends up constructing the Eiffel Tower. It was met with ridicule, criticism and a fair amount of hatred. It is now the most recognised building in the world drawing almost 6 million visitors last year, and they all have to pay. The prices vary, but it amounts to about $75 per person. Do that 6 million times over. I reckon that that so called ugly building has earned its investment back a few dozen times over. 

So back to today and this time I am not using the media. This time I am relying on Popular Mechanics (at https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a44966174/saudi-arabia-line-city/) where we are given ‘Saudi Arabia Is Building an Entire City in a Straight Line. It Makes Zero Sense.’ I wonder why it makes zero sense. You see the start gives us “mathematicians broke down the numbers and calculated what the typical commutes in such a city would look like, discovering that it’d be better the built the city in a circle rather than a straight line” and there I am wonder for whom it would make sense to have a circle?

For the inhabitants of the Apple frisbee? For the Pentagon? Consider the life of most of us. We start at home (point A) and we go to work (point B) we travel from A to B to A and in between on that route we get our shopping done. A straight line makes perfect sense to some, not to all, but to some and the most important part in all of this. This has never been done before, just like the Eiffel Tower. I reckon that by 2050 any web satellite camera will have zoomed in on the line a thousand times a day, because as webcams and YouTube satisfies our needs now, a camera version of Starlink will most likely satisfy the curiosity of our grandchildren. 

The question
What I do not get is the massive amount of negativity around this. Neom and the line are two places that have never been done before and has never been contemplated in history. Neom might become the first megacity that writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra erected in the comic book Dredd in 1977. A city 22 times the size of New York and Saudi Arabia (not America) is making it a reality. And they are doing it all whilst they have the fastest and most complete 5G network on the planet. As such I am giving them the benefit of the doubt. I have to because in my young days I studied ships engineering, not civil engineering (long before my IT and law degrees). In California a circle makes sense, a circle surrounding a park, but Saudi Arabia has a very different eco system and it is a fir bit longer too. 

Then we are given “The city—stretching from the Red City to the city of Tabuk 110 miles away—along with its estimated 9 million inhabitants would be entirely car-less, and instead be tied together by a high-speed rail system that could travel from one end of The Line to the other in just 20 minutes.” Another thing pops up. America and Europe have entire micro economies based on cars and transportation, they would not exist in the Line. Then the train system. A 20 minute ride from end to end. Consider that this line is 170Km long. In the Netherlands that covers Groningen to Utrecht and it takes that train 2 hours to get there. 600% longer and OK, they stop a few times, and it isn’t high speed, but that is what there is and you cannot make high speed trains work there under those conditions. 

The one part we are missing is that the line is 500 metres high. As such the building is significantly higher than Central Park Tower (longer and wider too). It raises even more questions, questions I can merely grasp at, but the others are merely coming with negativity. I wonder why. What I like about it is that no one has ever done this before and here Saudi Arabia is leading the way. If they pull this off (and I hope they do), the west needs to take a long hard look at itself. We might see all the experts talking the BS they do, but when this is done we get to see the excuses, the blame game, the lack of insight and the media would be regarded as culprit number one. 

Popular mechanics also had a few good idea’s as they tend to do. They give us “Although the paper mostly focuses on the mathematical shortcomings of The Line’s design, it also brings up some good practical problems. If the city’s main train line malfunctions for any reason, for example, it could effectively cut off residents from millions of people—an idea that’s unthinkable in today’s modern metropolises.” And that matters how? I have two best friends. I haven’t seen them in decades as they live on another continent. I have video chat, phone and email to keep in touch. Beyond that my connections over the last two decades have been work and social events around me. I never had the need to meet up with millions and the train is a realistic idea, but things break and things get fixed. Perhaps the train line will have a spare line? Just a thought. In todays world people have become self isolating, it is a result of all kinds of reasons, perhaps the line will offer an alternative?

If there is my need for realism, it becomes the setting of the 500 metres height. There might be all kinds of reasons why it is that high, but on what levels will people be? And then the idea that this one line will house 9,000,000 people. The largest three cities are Tokyo, Delhi an Shanghai, still a fair bit larger than this line, but what area do they cover, what pollution do they create and how much of the ecological side are getting destroyed in the process? This is the consequence of old day thinking. As such the line is starting to make more sense, but it is also a place with more questions. I reckon time will take care of most of them, just like in the days of Gustave Eiffel. Evolution will take care of itself and when one is done the next will come and then one more and for now Neom, the line and Mukaab (which will be 400 by 400 by 400 metres). All in Saudi Arabia and all dwarfing most other architectural achievements. Three places clearly visible from space. So why the negativity? Perhaps the EU and US are realising that they are done for, but who instigated that part? Was it their lack of evidence (small 5G reference), their inability to create because they are now too broke to get anything done? You tell me, I am not sure of any of it. But no matter how these three are completed, it seems to me that Saudi Arabia has its focal point towards the future, all whilst America in true Excel style merely looks at the next quarter, a time frame that does not allow for projects that we are currently seeing in Saudi Arabia. 

There was one final thought that hit me at the end of all this. The article gives us “If its 9 million inhabitants are homogeneously distributed in the city, each kilometre will have roughly 53,000 people” from that point of view it is denser than Manilla, the most dense city in the world with 43,064 people per kilometre. You see, it isn’t the fact that Manilla isn’t the densest city, it is that these metrics would no longer matter because based on the EIU’s Global Liveability Index for 2023, Manila placed 136th among 173 cities. Then we get that the current metro area population of Delhi in 2023 is 32,941,000 almost 400% higher than the Line. Certain metrics would become obsolete and I reckon that there is every chance that a place like the Line would grace the top 10 of the EIU’s Global Liveability Index from the very start. Did anyone consider those metrics?

Enjoy the upcoming last workday of the week.

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September 13, 2023 · 01:19

The rivers Wept, Wimper and Whine

So this is a story with an edge and with a side that I am ill suited to respond to. Yet, when I saw the Guardian with ‘Megacities in the desert: the human cost of Egypt and Saudi Arabia’s bold new projects’ (at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/11/egypt-saudi-arabia-megacity-human-cost) I just had to respond. You see, we might give weight to “In their rush to claim the future and concrete over the past, these vast rebrands are demolishing people’s homes and their heritage” but did anyone remember the people and the heritage demolished around London, around Paris, Im most of the United States, parts of Canada, massive parts of Australia and we could go on for a long time to come. How much consideration were they given? So now as Saudi Arabia is pushing borders in unimaginable directions, now we complain? Go whine me a river (pretty please).

And when we consider the amount of people who ‘lose’ a part in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which I am happy to consider is true. Let’s put them against lists of people in the UK, France and the United States, who had to give it up for progress. There is also a chance that Japan unsettled scores of people building through their industrial age, so that list might dwarf the events in Egypt and Saudi Arabia to almost nothing, almost I said. When you consider that NEOM and the Line are projects never undertaken ever before. When you consider that NEOM will be 22 times the size of New York, making it the biggest city on the planet. We need to consider that this has never been done before and it dwarves the achievements of the USA, Russia and china to several degrees. Yet, the Guardian gives us “Hussein Omar’s mother, as well as some eight generations of his family, are buried there, and he hoped one day to lie next to them. He tells me that for years his family has been in deadlock with the state over what rights they have to visit, but that has now escalated, as the graves themselves have come under threat of removal” As such one source gave me the 10 Cemeteries that were relocated to make way for human progress. So how much thought did the Guardian give for these events? How many in the UK, how many in France. You get the idea. And the fact that Saudi Arabia has 36 million souls (living), the UK has 68 million souls (sort of living) and in this case Saudi Arabia is (roughly) 782% larger. As such, how many people are really being ‘dislocated’ and how many were dislocated when the UK decided to put in the train tracks, the subways and we can go on a little while longer. The same could be said for France and a lot can be said against the US who made a whole lot of native Americans extinct in the name of progress. 

Progress has been the handle to use by many, as such it will be handled by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well. But who is giving us a clear top-line of numbers and areas as each nation is affected, yet we do not get that will we? It pushes the story of Hussein Omar and its writer Nesrine Malik in a different category. I am not stating that the story is wrong, or should not be given, but should we not get the real picture? Should we not get the real impact and optionally the amount of jobs created, the amount of economy served to better the setting for that nation? Just a question, feel free to give it a swing to your own liking. I am merely trying to keep it real, did I succeed?

Have a great day.

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September 12, 2023 · 03:00

The future is today

That is a small reference to Beaker, the assistant of Muppets lab where the future is being made today. The thought came to me after seeing an article which took me back to one of my articles. The article in question is ‘On the way to……’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/07/28/on-the-way-to/). In that article I give the readers “Yet the larger part is how the prices (allegedly) dip a little in early 2024, as I see it as these settings continue, the world (EU and USA) will face oil prices of $90+ from December 2023 onwards. I have no idea how high they will get, but the larger setting no matter how managed it is, the shortage will continue and press pressures up to weird levels all over Europe.” So that was my prediction at the end of July, two months ago. I was called all kinds of things, including Arab buddy and wog friend (whatever that is). So now we get ‘Oil prices ease after Saudi, Russian output cuts but hold above $90’ (at https://ara.tv/24w46), so basically we are already at the $90+ point and it was (as I personally see it) clearly visible. And when we add “The supply cuts overshadowed continuing concern over Chinese economic activity last week, but investors looked to be focusing on demand drivers on Monday, with the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) due to release monthly reports this week.” It is more than the simple demand drivers. Yes, these drivers are a first, but the environment, the effects are now becoming a second. The larger setting is that the hot summers are likely going to be the fuel for a drastic and much colder winter. If that is true (and it is pure speculation) the west and especially the northern hemisphere could require a lot more oil for heating and that will drive up the oil price ever further. I have no idea how high it will get but it is already above $90, as such $100 per barrel is not out of the question, but this is not my ballgame. I saw the increase, but how high is less my issue, or my interest as I do not own any oil wells. 

So what will happen next? Well, there is some confusion on that. The EU and US have alienated Saudi Arabia as well as some of the other OPEC nations and with Russia in the state it is in a lot of oil is no longer available to the EU, yet the US is the largest producer at present and where it all goes is up to all of you, but it comes at a price. What that price will be is anyones guess but the demand of oil keeps on pressing and the needs during coming winter could reach new heights. But that is pure speculation from my side. I have no information that could be ruled as acceptable evidence. What does matter is that whilst I saw this moment two months ago, too many were in doubt or flat out denying this and we are now entering a stage where denial is the start of disastrous folly. For me the fun part was that I was right all along (yet again) and I am perhaps Beakers twin or assistant and I predicted the present two months ago. OK, I expected this to happen in a few months, but we are already there, all whilst others were playing possum with the reality of events.

Enjoy the day.

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September 9, 2023 · 22:01

America is for criminals

That was the realisation that I got today. The reason that I had that thought was a BBC article. The article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66747694) gives us ‘Another FTX executive Ryan Salame pleads guilty’. It is there that we find “He agreed to surrender more than $1.5bn (£1.2bn) to authorities. The pleading comes ahead of the October trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.” I had issues from the very beginning, the total lack of checks and balances were the first hurdle I saw avoided by too many. The fact that someone can just push over a billion dollars out of the way is what I personally regard a first piece of evidence. That in itself does not warrant my thought that America is for criminals. That is seen with “authorities said they would accept $6m, two properties in Massachusetts and a 2021 Porsche as part of the plea deal, according to Reuters.” That is the deal for criminals. Fail your criminal empire, you get millions, two houses and a Porsche, that is nice too, not? Has anyone gone insane? That I the way you hand over the keys to criminal empire makers and no matter how you think it goes. The station of crime pays in America. My question becomes what did after former Alameda chief executive officer Caroline Ellison, former FTX technology chief Gary Wang and former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh get? The setting of such a deal that they all get some plea deal with houses and millions is just too sickening to my stomach. In the end we have one month to go until we find out what happens to Mr Bankman-Fried (or Mr Bonky-Fired as I call him). I wonder what plea deal awaits him. What option do they offer him as he was too confused for matters. Perhaps it is the the crypto currency what drove him insane, it gave too much imbalance to whatever medication he was on. prosecutor Damian Williams, US attorney for the southern district of New York gave us “Ryan Salame agreed to advance the interests of FTX, Alameda Research, and his co-conspirators through an unlawful political influence campaign and through an unlicensed money transmitting business, which helped FTX grow faster and larger by operating outside of the law,” Yet I wonder not what was said there, I wonder what was possible to set the station to advance criminal intent within the law, that is the stage that is connected and it is the parts that is not drilled on. Yet, that is pure speculation from me. 

The fact that billions went awry is still matter for the court, because that is the stage that is perhaps largely ignored. I personally see it as an absence of checks and balances. And yes, I could be wrong here. But when you consider the way that billions were moved from left to right, from the US to untouchable to the US is still matters to consider and with proper checks and balances this should not have been possible. So in the end, is America merely a place for criminals and greed driven people now? I will let you ponder that, but remember that the plea deal here included millions, a luxury car and two houses. That person will be allowed to live in a style that well over 98% of Americans will never know. Consider that part of the equation too.

Enjoy you weekend without millions, a Porsche and two places to live.

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September 8, 2023 · 23:07

Ludum Scriptor

There was a moment, a mere hour ago that I saw where streaming could get interesting and that is why I am offering it here to Amazon (Luna) and Tencent technologies (handheld). You see, as a blogger, I know that fields evolve and there is a place where the people never were offered to be, but in all this streaming is opening a new door. 

To give this a swing another thing happened. I rewatched a mini series. I loved it since the first time I saw it decades ago and about 15 years ago I got the DVD and today (after at least 5 years) I watched it again. Now consider that mini series Jack the Ripper the one with Michael Caine and Lewis Collins. The first setting is Whitechapel (and the suburbs surrounding it) the stage is as authentic as possible and the Unreal Engine 5 allows for that. To recreate London around 1888 gives the people a sight towards life there, towards how the dark is a lot less appealing that we know it to be. This is not about Jack the Ripper himself, but it will be about the scenery and about a new option. So every person there will be able to create a blog, a story of a person and as you create a person (a he or a she) and you can set the face around your own image. The person you create (tradesman, uniform or other people) will give you an address in London. So now you have a person. You can now create your blog, and it will be held as stories to that individual. You cannot interact with THAT person, but you can interact as your double. Your character will be around where you are located, it will allow others to interact with your person and learn your blogs. You (your avatar) can seek out others and learn their stories. It is a new way to interact, a new way to spread your stories and as this takes off, we could have Mumbai in Victorian times.  San Francisco (around 1907), New York (around 1927) and that list could grow. It has a two sided story, in the first the people get to see and walk around these places in those times. The second is that this would be a new place to propel your stories, your blog, optionally your vlog and it will be a new medium that could grow. They are all trying to hog off new games, but they need underlying knowledge and these places could grow that knowledge and give the people something to do. Pleasing well over 50 million people is not easy and before they all run around like rats in a wheel. You could consider offering a much larger stage, one that keeps them appeased and allows them to appease others. We see all the small options that were, but now with streaming it is an option to think up an entirely new stage and create even more stages. For a small fee these people could copy what they did in their first location (for example $0.50 a month) they get an additional person in a new city (and that same fee for every other location) that could amount to up to $25 million a month for every additional character. And as the quality of the locations improve, the need to watch these places with their own eyes also increase. A new medium that might (or not) be successful. So how many other ideas have you seen floating around? I got to this in under an hour and there are more locations where people might want to go. Paris 1891 (2 years after the Eiffel tower was build), then there is Tokyo, Los Angeles and a whole range of places where we always wanted to be. And as the places evolve the developer can include their own people (celebrities, historical people) and offer even more stories. Will the market be large enough? I honestly do not know but there are 600 million bloggers and there are plenty who want to stand out, so why are we not doing that? I will let it up to you to decide. I wonder what else I can come up with this weekend.

Enjoy the weekend.

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September 8, 2023 · 09:28

Has the world gone mad?

Yup, this was my very first thought, it was not a nice thought (I’ll admit to that) and it was given to me by Al Jazeera (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/6/us-eu-uk-officials-visit-uae-to-discuss-russia-sanctions-cnn-report) where we are given ‘Western officials visit UAE in efforts to halt exports to Russia: Report’ the byline of “The Wall Street Journal initially reported plans to jointly press the UAE to halt shipments of goods to Russia” does not help much. In all honesty, who the fuck do they think they are? You see, we were only given a week ago ‘Beer giant Heineken sells its business in Russia for one euro’ (at https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/beer-giant-heineken-sells-its-business-in-russia-for-one-euro/news-story/1f6e65254890bfbd6d1757d70deb351c). In part I think that it is nice that it happens after well over a year when things should have stopped, but let things flow (especially beer). You see, the largest problem is that places like Align Technology (USA), Cloudflare (USA), BT Technologies (UK), Fenzi group (Italy) and a whole range more are according to sources still operating in Russia. Yale is giving us a list (at https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-1000-companies-have-curtailed-operations-russia-some-remain) where we find ‘Over 1,000 Companies Have Curtailed Operations in Russia—But Some Remain’ after 560 days of war. I admit that the list is from 2022, yet there Heineken wasn’t even on the list. So I would kindly like to request that the representatives from the United States, British and European Union who are visiting the United Arab Emirates amid concerns regarding shipments of goods, including computer chips, to Russia that could help Moscow in its war on Ukraine would kindly ‘Shut the fuck up’ and clean their houses first. This group of snivelling little clowns do not get to tell anyone anything until their citizens and corporations seized all operations. I think that same message could be given to anyone visiting any Middle Eastern nation with a similar request. I do not disagree with the sentiment, but to do that whilst your places are still operating in Russia is just too hypocritical for any consideration. And even after that, there is still China to consider, they will never consider that request beyond certain levels and as such, why is this request coming to the UAE? Are the American parties making money of puppets in the UAE to keep their hands clean? I cannot say that this is happening, but there are plenty of ways for zero tax nations to make a bundle being the front person of a large deliverer. Oh, and by the way in 2021 on September 20th, Jesse Benton and Doug Wead pleaded not guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to charges of making a straw donation to the Trump campaign in 2016 on behalf of a Russian national. So is that case going? I am just asking, because On February 17, 2023, Jesse Benton was sentenced to 18 months in prison, the other one died in time to avoid conviction. With the US in shambles and the US setting up all kinds of foundations of avoidance by US Republicans into stopping assistance to the Ukraine, I think that envoy should take a breather and stop being silly. Some of that ‘anti-assistance is less than a month old’, as such I wonder who on earth would be this stupid. So when we are given “The senior Western officials arrived in the Gulf nation this week to discuss sanctions on Russia, as concerns mounted that Moscow was bypassing them through various means, a US embassy spokesperson told CNN on Wednesday.” All whilst the US, UK and EU are still very much invested in Russia is just too crazy for words. 

I am not stating that you should believe me, I added the sources that were available to me and that list, I made mention of it earlier this year (might have been in 2022), so when I saw this article in Al Jazeera I wondered why the other media are shunning investigating businesses with vested interests in Russia, there are apparently well over 1000. So why is the UAE such an issue? I honestly do not know, but the idea that there are western politicians with a ‘look there’ all whilst they are filling their pockets (the Trump Case) is just too silly for words and these representatives should take a hard look at what they are not doing at home. Just a thought to entertain.

Enjoy the upcoming weekend that is for most a mere day away.

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September 4, 2023 · 19:37

It’s a game Jim.

Yup, I just went there and as it is about starfield I feel correct in going there. You see, I might have given correct (or incorrect) voice to a foundational issue, or issues. Yet I am not playing that game. So I cannot say one way or the other and here IGN comes in. You see they have been a clear voice for a long time. 

Not everyone likes IGN, but together with Eurogamer they are a clear voice and there are a few thing you need to know, things given to us (at https://www.ign.com/articles/starfield-review) aptly named ‘Starfield Review’. This does not give us that the other voices of review are suddenly wrong, but this is new IP. Things will go bump in the night. One thing that stood out was “Even after about 70 hours there are major quest-lines I haven’t even touched, and others I barely began. I’m eager to go back and finish a lot of those up now that I’ve completed the main story.” Did you make that small jump? ‘Even after 70 hours’? This makes Starfield surpass Skyrim by a fair amount. There are matters of concern when you see “In typical Bethesda fashion, that main quest isn’t terribly flexible in how you resolve the situations it thrusts you into. Your options here are, for the most part, about picking whether you want to be a boy scout for whom a good deed is its own reward, a wise-cracking mercenary who asks to be rewarded after doing a good deed, or an all-business mercenary who demands to be paid up front to do the good deed.” This doesn’t make the game, bad, lousy or lacking. It is merely an approach to RPG, one that Bethesda had done for the longest of times and they have done it well. This is not an apology, but I do believe in fair play and I do not hate Bethesda, I merely hate stupid acts and Starfield is not necessarily a act of stupidity, so adjustments are required and I am making them. There are still too many technical issues reported by all manners of media and that is just a big no-no in beta stage or later, but that is a cross Bethesda and Microsoft will have to carry for some time. Such is life. 

Still, the quote “There’s a storyline that felt very Boys from Brazil-inspired, as well as numerous related quests about hunting down war criminals and banned technology that pose ethical quandaries to reconcile. You can join up with the Crimson Fleet pirates and dive into a life of smuggling and general space crime, or take up the mantle of a legendary pirate hunter” is showing us the foundation of a space RPG that most are looking for and that matters, because it is about the game and the gamers, not about Bethesda perse. None of this shows the meltdown vlogger to be wrong or incorrect. I am merely looking at other parts to the degree a non Starfield gamers can. Just as I did not play Redfall. We give ourselves limits (some on principle), but we all have limits, even I have them and that combines with the need to remain fair gave me the push to write this part. So if you are an Xbox thingamajig you need to make up your mind and as such you should read the IGN review. They have always been fair on games and that counts, for me it does. IGN also had some negatives to report, but to see that you will have to red the article, you see, it might not matter to you. Some people love walking the streets of a place, just like they set the town of Chorrel to mind and we get that, any RPG fan would. So are some parts actually negatives, or merely the hassle of a gamer? Your guess is as good as mine. Even Microsoft’s own Windows Central slapped Starfield, who knew. But there will always be haters and non-accepting gamers of the RPG field and it gets weirder, for some reason any Elder Scrolls lover will often never love Fallout and now Starfield. This happens. They are not haters, but there is one universe, their RPG universe and I reckon that Fallout and Starfield will have their own love connection to THEIR game. This too is the world of RPG and we need to recognise it if we want to get along with these people. No matter how we slice it, thanks to IGN we see that there is a lot more to Starfield than the mere complaints I have seen in over a dozen sources. I believe it is only fair I show that part to you too. It is a fair play approach to often non aligned views.

Enjoy the new week. 

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September 4, 2023 · 01:40

Ding, ding, ding, meltdown.

Normally I let things slide. There are a whole range of reasons why I would stop to proceed. Yet Starfield is a two edged sword. It is the larger setting for Microsoft and it is a new IP for Bethesda. Now on the surface it might seem nothing new, but the meltdown I just witnessed on Twitter (I refuse to call it X) is another matter. Gamers are dodgy to say the least. They love innovation and new RPG, but certain settings need to be open, but a choice for the gamer. So here it comes.

The view by Dan Vasc (at https://t.co/b1m0tt4ib2) is something to behold. And all this is just in week 1, before the official release of the game. And now the media has a go. There are low performance issues, there are apparently audio issues and a few other issues. Now, I get that there are issues, this is new IP. But what I am reading is that these issues should have ben captured by Alpha test teams, they should not exist in Beta editions, let alone early access, yet this is MY personal view. You see Freeze issues are not something you leave to the New Game + solution, this should not exist at this stage. And the list goes on and as the official launch starts, there will be even more issues. Another source is talking about Major Accessibility Problems all whilst yet another mentions that the inventory screens need a massive overhaul. All issues that should have been brought to the front of any limited Alpha test release. But I see again and again a mention like “least buggy Bethesda release” almost like it was spoon fed to the reviewer, but that could be merely me seeing things that are optionally not there, almost like I froze for a moment because my visual scanner was glitchy, but I do not have a New Game +, when I die that is it. There is no new life and no rinse and repeat. That is why PROPER testing is massively important. The stage given to us by Dan Vasc might be merely him, but that might not be the case. RPG gamers are a strange bunch and when Guerrilla Software release Horizon Forbidden West they saw how loyal and how strange some RPG gamers can be, yet the bulk loved and embraced HFW. After the colossal blunder that Redfall showed itself to be, Microsoft (Bethesda too) had the duty to take extra care for Starfield (and maybe they did), but the voice of Dan Vasc tells a different story. You see emersion is nice, but the people need to accept that emersion and making his claims to emersion an option in the game might have been the best choice. I cannot tell, I am not touching Starfield (its an Xbox only product). But his loud voice is making me wonder how much trouble Bethesda is in now, because no matter what Microsoft will claim out in the open, if this game does not bring home the bacon, Microsoft will prune the Bethesda tree to the largest extent and that gives me the idea that developers might want to get on the RPG train now. If a place like Bethesda is rejected there will be no one to champion the torch of RPG, for that new IP is needed and my articles over the last 2 years will give a new developer (for Amazon and Tencent technologies only) a brisk handle of raking in the profit, because gamers need a place to be and it is way to soon to tell where they go, but if Dan Vasc is to be believed RPG gamers will need a new destination and the 60,000,000 copies that Skyrim sold, implies that there are a few million out there panicking and seeking a new refuge. Plenty will be happy in the Sony camp with its offerings, but not all are Sony minded, that is fine, there will be options for Amazon Luna and Tencent Technologies if makers of games wake up, because the wake up call I just witnessed was a loud one. Was it loud enough? I reckon that by the arrival of next weekend that will be a lot more clear for all to see.

It turned Monday 96 minutes ago here. How is your Sunday going?

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September 1, 2023 · 23:39

Are they really?

I have had my issues with Microsoft for the longest of times and for the most I never cared, that was until they decided to mess with the serenity of gamers. At that point I became livid and I made mention of this as late as yesterday (read: previous article). Then I saw a piece by the Verge and I had to let that sink in. The article (at https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/30/23851902/microsoft-bing-popups-windows-11-malware) comes from writer (Tom Warren). He is a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012. He still looks like a teenager in the photo, so he might want to update that one. Even as the article starts with “I thought I had malware on my main Windows 11 machine this weekend. There I was minding my own business in Chrome before tabbing back to a game and wham a pop-up appeared asking me to switch my default search engine to Microsoft Bing in Chrome. Stunningly, Microsoft now thinks it’s ok to shove a pop-up in my face above my apps and games just because I dare to use Chrome instead of Microsoft Edge.” I reckon that Microsoft has been desperate for a while and I had my issues with sicofans pushing edge in my Google search issues, but now we get that Microsoft is on that same page. So when we get to “We are aware of these reports and have paused this notification while we investigate and take appropriate action to address this unintended behaviour,” says Caitlin Roulston, director of communications, in a statement to The Verge.” As such it is the same BS spin we have seen too often before. As I personally see it, a pop-up is not unintended behaviour. It is the mark of intent, as such how does ‘investigate’ fit? Is it their way of trying to ascertain how far they can go with these actions? Well, when you lose a match 5 times over (see previous article) that sense of desperation seems on point, not correct, but on point. You see, I wrote this before and I do not mind repeating this. I foresee Microsoft collapsing in 2026. It is still a fair bit away, but when the 5 lost battles also gets a new player on the field (Tencent Technologies) and that combination invokes close to 15% of the global population going somewhere else. How much damage will Microsoft endure? How much more damage will Microsoft spin until the banks start to catch on and even as we see reports that they only have a debt of $60,000,000,000 (which is not much compared to their revenue). The setting of losses across several industries imply that Microsoft will have to prune their corporate tree no later then next year, not doing so implies (implies is not a given) that 221,000 employees will have an impact on the total revenue and that is about to become a shifty one. 

You see if that was not on the premise of shifty, Microsoft would not resort to pop-ups telling people what to do (they will call it politely giving consideration to change). It took me some time to undo the unrequested changes that Microsoft minded people did to my laptop, as such I reckon that these pop-ups have larger impacts all over the field. How far it goes is unknown, because the media is too unwilling to look into matters. Microsoft is too large an advertisement account to unsettle (a personal issue I faced in 2012 with Sony), but it applies to all advertisers and now we see how filtered information works. When I seek (in Google) “Microsoft pop-up news” I get three hits, the Verge is one of them. None of the news media picked it up for any reason. Weird that.

The Verge also gives us “This isn’t Microsoft’s first rodeo, either. I’m growing increasingly frustrated by the company’s methods of getting people to switch from Google and Chrome to Bing and Edge. Microsoft has been using a variety of prompts for years now, with pop-ups appearing inside Chrome, on the Windows taskbar, and elsewhere. Microsoft has even forced people into Edge after a Windows Update, and regularly presents a full-screen message to switch to Bing and Edge after updates.” And this is before they hit the upcoming hard times. So when you consider that Microsoft has become the bully of IT, how much longer before you consider switching away from Windows? To Linux of Mac? 

And after all this, you should wonder how come the media is avoiding this issue. Why the media is just ignoring the bullied plight of millions, because that is what this amounts to and this is far from over. So when we consider that Edge’s is 8.1% on desktop and just 0.1% on mobile (another lost battle) and with Bing having a marketshare of 3.02%, which implies yet another battle lost. How many losses will Microsoft endure before considering to refocus on strengths. You see they are slowly losing the office market share too. So you still think that my predicted downfall of Microsoft around 2026 was a jest? How many times does any army need to lose before it is regarded as a has-been and now seen as a joke?

I let you figure that one out, but consider that their only asset is the ability to spin, how far will that get them? 

Enjoy the weekend.

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August 30, 2023 · 23:53

A king sued tomorrow for issues today

Yup this happens, Kings, Emperors and admirals, they all get sued. In this case it is King Burger, or as you would know this force of nature namely Burger King. The story (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66654440) gives us ‘Burger King faces legal claim over size of Whopper’ a story a mere 9 hours old and that matters in this case. You see, in September 2015 (yes, almost eight years ago). I wrote ‘Ronald McDonald died!’, the story (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2015/09/05/ronald-mcdonald-died/) gives a similar setting.

I even added graphics with my finger as a reference. So this stuff is not new. To be honest, I never had size issues with Burger King, I did have one with the McDonald clan of fast foods. With added references on profit margins for an extra slice of bacon which is set well over 400%. Here in today’s story we get “The lawsuit accuses the fast food giant of misleading customers by showing the burger with a meatier patty and ingredients that “overflow over the bun”. “The plaintiffs’ claims are false,” Burger King told the BBC.” A setting for the courts to decide, yet when was the McDonalds case? And when we consider that this has been going on for almost 8 years, at what point did certain parties consider taking a long hard look at the fast food industry? Because I give you now that this is not merely a ‘Burger King’ setting. As such the supporting line “Rivals McDonald’s and Wendy’s are facing a similar lawsuit in the US” comes a bit late, well over half a decade late. We are also given “The class action lawsuit against Burger King alleged that the Whopper was made to look 35% larger, with more than double the amount of meat compared to what was actually served to customers.” To this I am not saying that this is not the case, I am wondering how many graphics they have to support this. I am asking because one image does not give you the sunshine of summer, so this case has all kinds of issues and this is not pro-BK (even though I love their stuff), and they are not alone as my 2015 story shows, but the larger setting is that the stage of ‘deceptive conduct’ has been out in the open for a long time, so how many cases made it to any court (in any nation) and how many cases were settled? All what I consider to be good questions. Yet in all this one setting is “US District Judge Roy Altman said it should be left to jurors to “tell us what reasonable people think”. However, he dismissed claims that Burger King misled customers with its television and online advertisements.” To be honest, I am not certain where I stand there. You see, there is a side we aren’t looking at. How EXACTLY are the advertisements made? How insulated is that marketing team? What is the foundation that drives the claim of ‘deceptive conduct’? These are elements that are connected and not just to Burger King. McDonalds is in a similar boat. I go for similar, because if the stage gets differences in adjustments, they could not be in the same boat. Other cogs are connected to the stage we see here. They are optionally all ‘deceptive conduct’ but if different approaches were made, different claims are open to interpretation and that is a much harder stage to settle. So are all advertisements done by the American HQ of BK? How would that impact Canada, Australia and Europe? If BK paid each continent to do their advertisements, the stage alters. We can accept the defence of “Burger King had earlier argued that it was not required to deliver burgers that look “exactly like the picture”” and we accept that, but the fast food industry is based on machines for replication, as such my question becomes ‘Why not?’ And that question applies to both BK and the big M in the same way. There are more questions and I am a little surprised that the BBC did not cover them, but they have no fault. Reporting on a case tends to have its own limitations and I get that. What does surprise me that it took so long to see a setting after I reported it in 2015, and it is surprising because I do not go to these places that often. In addition there is no way that I am the only one who had this issue, so have we numbed from certain exposure? 

I will let you consider that part. Enjoy the day, we are almost past the 50% point of the week, so make today count as it is the final uphill battle for the next weekend.

Ciao!

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