Category Archives: movies

Two sides of tinseltown

Tinseltown has many sides. Today and yesterday I was confronted with two of them. The first is the sad one. 

Yesterday the legendary Nichelle Nichols has left us at the age of 89. Legendary as Nyota Uhura in the original Star Trek series and 6 movies. Now, people leave us all the time. This stands out that no matter where I looked Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK, America, Australia, Canada, you name it they have it in the news, and no negativity anywhere. Twitter flowed over with messages of sorrow, love and in some cases heartbreak. Actors, producers, directors from all walks of life and cinema. It was overwhelming the impact she has had on people. She had it on me as well, but I always saw myself as a nerdy sci-fi outcast. She touched the hearts of millions and they are all speaking out words of hope, words of sorrow, words of love and words of admiration. To be honest, I have not seen such a positive wave ever before, that realisation gives us that even as she leaves us, she leaves us with a gift. We are all connected to one another through the actions of Nyota Uhura. That is not a bad legacy to have, not at all. We salute you Nichelle, and perhaps we will all say hello again on the other side when we get there. Until then be with the stars until we meet again. 

The other side
The other side is one that is another side of the media. The one I do not like that much, but in this case it is the Dutch NOS who (at https://nos.nl/l/2439005) claims that Taylor Swift is the biggest famous polluter. Is that so? Well it is according to a British Marketing firm. Can we have the name of those wankers please? You see, we might howl at some, but these wanking idiots (as I personally see them) are debatable in their view. “Between January and July, the singer’s plane took off 170 times, which amounts to 15.9 full days of flying. The emissions of the device thus amounted to about 8,000 tons of CO2, more than a thousand times the emissions of an average citizen per year.” So how exactly was that calculated? 

You see Dassault Aviation (the people behind the Falcon 7X) give us “Falcons have fuel consumption levels that are 30 to 50% lower than competing aircraft and the lowest CO2 emissions in the market.” Then we see the stage “Between January and July, the singer’s plane took off 170 times, which amounts to 15.9 full days of flying”, so can we see the list of these 170 times? Dates, hours flown you get it, the list will give us more and I believe that a marketing firm has certain needs, needs to hide other stuff, or illuminate other stuff and usually illumination comes with exaggerated inaccuracies. So were all the flights set to the planes actual numbers? And the idea that Floyd Mayweather and Jay-Z are the numbers two and three might be right, might not be. You see, we are given “According to them, Swift regularly lends the aircraft and is therefore not personally responsible for all 170 flight movements and the associated emissions.” This might be true, but that is not the case. These people are forced into different modes of transportation because the fucking media wont give them a break, harassing these people EVERY moment they can for the digital clicks (one of a few reasons). It angers me as we seem to hold places like Celebrity Jets like gospel all whilst the data is never clearly vetted and I get the impression that the news is even worse. So whilst Taylor Swift has one plane, Donald Trump has the Trump Force One which is a Boeing 757, and he never made the list? I reckon that the Boeing 757 gives off a lot more pollution than the Falcon 7x. And the quick reference towards the British department of Transport? Do they keep lists of all the planes? Is Trump Force One there too? All questions that come to mind and all questions that have impact. How do you hold Taylor Swift accountable whilst you do nothing on the harassing media 24:7. As I see it, she might not have a choice and whilst we are at it. When we consider Rolling Stone magazine, was that vetted? If so what dit Taylor Swift actually use? All questions no answered. It makes me wonder what that marketing whatever was doing? This was about something else. Just like Matt McGrath (BBC) and his plane issues, all whilst 50% of all pollution damage comes from 1% of the facilities. 147 in total and they still haven’t closely looked at that. They were very intent of ignoring that EEA report, why is that? So a little message for the media. Do your job properly or become an uber driver. 

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Where the colossus is no more

Part 4

He arrived a little past 20:30 at de Gaulle, he went straight to the counter to get a ticket to Rhodes. There was one in an hour, it was Italian airways via Milan, he took it and went pst boarding to the gate. It was all a repetition  of something he had done dozens of times. The airport was almost new, he had been in this airport once as he had to change flights, he never went through the departure lounge though. There was nothing significant here. And there was nothing really interesting at the gate. He got on board and sat down. His mind started to wander as they took off. 

The map showed Rhodes, but nothing stood out there. The documents and the drawings were different, the drawing was what seemed like an old oil lamp, the text was in French and referred to the sight of Helios. Yet how the lamp fitted into this was unknown to him. The writing gave that there was a shrine, a shrine to Helios. The lamp of illumination would shine on the places it reached and it could reach more if the items were united. That part did make even less sense to him. Jacques III Thuret came 2 millennia after ancient Greece and likely the same time when the shrine of Helios was lost to the world. There was a cult to Helios, but he knew nothing of it. As such he would be going in blind, but what was more important, someone knew a lot more and that was never a good thing. Even as he knew that his ancestors had created some items or relics, the ones that survived are a lot more powerful now, then they were in those days. As such when he arrived on Rhodes 6 hours later he would be considering his options. He took a taxi from the International airport to Rhodes and asked the driver to take him to the Rodos Park Suites hotel. He got there 15 minutes later, paid and tipped the taxi and booked a room. His credit card could take that hit because it did not look cheap. He got a nice suite a double room, it was not large but looked comfortable. The bed felt nice and the TV was clear. He switched the TV off and as he walked into Rhodes he looked his Olympian sight it was almost dark, almost, there was a small spot that was seemingly illuminated. He walked in that direction. It took almost half an hour to get there. He looked again, the place looked a lot more illuminated, when he switched back to his normal sight, he saw that no one would notice it, but that might not be for much longer.

There was something at play here. He looked around, he was at the Platia Rimini. The hotel mentioned this place, they called it the “Sound and Light Garden”, it was beautiful, nicely arranged and quite peaceful. But it made no sense, he was now close to the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, which was somewhere in the 7th century. He needed answers and none were coming forth. He walked into the garden and looked. The garden were alight in Olympic views and normally nicely lit in normal view. He tried to focus but the light was way too illuminating for that. So he sat down on the bench that stretched the sides of the path in the park and suddenly he saw it, it was as small as a flicker, but it was there. So he walked to the well in the middle, it was dry but there it was, a little out of the middle, the circle of discolouration. He looked around. Too many people here now. He looked deeper and closed his eyes as fast as he could. Whatever was there was bright, really really bright. He had closed his eyes. As fast as he could, but he was seeing blurbs of white all over and he saw them everywhere he looked. He closed his eyes for a minute whilst sitting on the bench again. Most had dissipated, but there was still a few spots, they would subside soon enough. He was thinking of the vault he had. So what happened if he created another portal? With a hole that led to the hole under the well? The problem was that he did not control it as well as he wanted to, so he might have to resort to brute strength. He hated that because he would leave a mark, but he saw no other way, he did not know where the others were and how soon they would be here. So he walked across the street to the Dromos Street Food where he had the Satay Chicken and nachos with Greek Salsa, both were really nice, and the coffee was good, nothing to write home about but still good. He sat at his table with his back to the wall and his view on the park entrance. He looked at the people, but the two in Paris were not showing up and the people seemed uninterested it specifics of the park. For a moment he thought there was a catch, but it seemed that the couple there were remembering the park and what they did there. They were still in love and softly speaking in each other ear on what they did there. He smiled, to be young and still this much in desire for one another, these two had no idea how lucky they were. It was almost dark when he finished the Papara Beef which made him more hungry. Odd, but that was the result of a really nice beef, better than anything he had had in London. He ordered another coffee and paid, he took the coffee with him as he scoped out the area. There were no people in the direct area. He got rid of the coffee and walked into the park again, but now keeping a close eye on the entrances and who was around, he stepped into the empty well and stood as far away from the lighted spot, there was no one so he summoned his bident and focussed he tabbed the well once and pushed hard, harder then anything he pushed before and slowly the ground and the well gave way. There was not much sound, but too much to his liking, the hole was large enough, he jumped in and ended in a well lit room. He quickly put some shades to protect his eyes, but it was not needed. This light was strong, almost a strong as a LED torch, but not too strong as long as he did not look into the flame. The oil lamp was on top of a golden hand, he got the lamp, blew out the flame and looked around, it was an empty room, there was a path going north and down, he saw that the corridor had collapsed a little further down. He got out of the well and he got away as fast as he could. At the wall of the park he summoned the vault and placed the lamp, closed the vault and walked off. He left the golden hand, it would add to the puzzle and it would leave him unexposed. He went back to the hotel, enjoyed a nice hot shower and he went to sleep. The next morning he had his breakfast and he bought some clothes and a nice duffel-bag. He made a point of of buying postcards and posted them with names he remembered from London. He kept them around for most of the day as he walked the streets of Rhodes, it was late in the afternoon when he noticed the orthodox priest, he asked for the postbox, the priest pointed down the road and he went there to mail the cards. He returned to the Dromos Street Food, he had another Papara Beef with a coffee and smiled at the woman who helped him the day before. He was happy that he got the pink shades, it did put the woman on the wrong food, alas, the waiter liked them a whole lot better. He asked if I asked pink and my solemn response was “υπήρχε μόνο αυτό”, he sighed and walked away, something she really liked. She started the conversation “Have you heard?” I shook my head, “heard what?” The well in the park collapsed there was a golden hand under the well. I tried to look shocked “Really?” Yes she responded, the hand was large it took several man to get it out, the police have closed the police have closed the Sound and Light Garden for now. There were reporters, so he backed off, he did not want to give the wrong people a shine on him. He looked at the commotion, and noticed that all the camera’s were pointing at the park. He nodded to the woman and paid for the coffee and sandwich. He was about to walk off when she handed him another coffee in a takeaway cup with the smiling “for the walk”, he nodded and smiled. He gave here the customary ‘Antio’ and walked away from the scene in the general direction of the hotel, walking and shopping most of the day. When he got back he made a point of keeping eye on the people going in and out of the hotel for at least 10 minutes. His Olympian sight saw that there was nothing watching the place or him, yet he had the feeling that someone was staring at him, he had that feeling in Paris but not as strong. He saw nothing, so he went to his room and packed the bag, he signed out and knowing that he could get the 22:45 from Rhodes to Gatwick with Easy-jet was his sign to leave Rhodes and the parts they were looking for were not on him, more important, they were in a place where no one could ever find them, so the relics were safe, but he was really curious on what was going on. 

End of episode. 

This was part two and the parts over the last day would be the two parts of a three parter. The third will not be tomorrow, because I have a few more parts to figure out, but consider I had all this in under an hour, what more could I get done? I reckon that I might be one of the never published 30,000 wannabe’s in Hollywood, but it is not about selling this, it is about the story and you will get more soon enough. 

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The other side we do not look at

My introduction to Jack the Ripper started as far as I remember in 1979, I was 17 and a few months at the most. It was the movie Murder by Decree with Christopher Plummer and James Mason. I thought it was good fun and I enjoyed the movie. The second introduction (as far as I remember) was Jack the Ripper, the mini series with Michael Caine as Abberline. His sidekick Lewis Collins (Bodie, the professionals) was his sidekick and the heartthrob Jane Seymour was there as well. This was the first introduction to the serial killer in a more serious way. And I took notice. I personally did not like From Hell, but it still matters. You see with all the less favourable stuff on TV, there is a side people forget. Michael Caine might have given it a spin, but the life of Frederick Abberline should have been made into a (mini) series long ago. 

His life has all the stuff a decent series needs and Abberline was nothing short of a police titan. We might overlook the last line as “Chief Inspector Abberline retired from the police on 8 February 1892, having received 84 commendations and awards.” Yet in today’s world people see a policeman as special when he gets a mere 10% of that (not dissing the police here). And the setting to make the series revolve not around chapters but awards and commendations has never been done before. The setting (still unverified) where we are given “was hired by the Pinkerton Detective Agency in 1904. Initially, he worked in casinos in Monte Carlo to find customers who were cheating. He then returned to England and continued working for the agency, until another retirement in 1904. He then bought a home, “Estcourt”, 195 Holdenhurst Road, Springbourne, Bournemouth.“ Should not be overlooked. It gives the series a final episode and a larger international interest. 

And in all these years Hulu, Netflix, and Apple+ never saw this staring in their faces? How come? 

A sideline not to be avoided could be that Abberline’s sidekick George Godley had his own successes over time. Two interesting characters of the London Metropolitan police and the only thing people look at was a mass murderer. But I give you this, find me any policeman who got 84 commendations and awards and you might just have a sequel in play.

When we see the series and the less interesting sides of Hulu, Netflix, Apple+ and every other stream provider none of them gave it a seemingly serious thought to look at London and its metropolitan police force in one of the most stirring time settings that London had in the 19th century. And in years of 35000 script submissions no one seemingly had the idea to look at the other side of the Atlantic river (at least that is what I think they didn’t do).

So what is/was stopping them?

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Realisation

This happens, at times we realise something AFTER the fact and for some reason not before. The BBC gives us (at https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62158936) ‘Netflix and Microsoft team up for cheaper plan with adverts’, apart from the setting that they decided to trust Microsoft on this, the setting of movies or TV series with advertisements is called TV, The Dutch have channels one, two and three. The Brits have the same but they call it BBC One, Two and oh, four is ITV. And so every nation has its own version of TV, so why would we want Netflix when we can get the others for free? It comes with “It lost 200,000 subscribers between January and March, compared to the 2.5 million analysts had been expecting the firm to add in the period. Netflix also now expects to lose a further two million subscribers between April and June.” And this is a surprise? How? The covid era ended, people are expected to be back in the offices and do actual work. And those who decided to quit their jobs to be at home for whatever reason will soon be in a space where they CANNOT afford Netflix. Instead of offering an 8 hour segment (when they aren’t working) for less, and as such create 3-6 timezones to capture the bandwidth pressures, they decided to compete with local TV stations at a price, whilst local TV is free. I reckon (and that I merely my view) that the people will stop subscription TV, especially as some favourite series are spread over several providers. And these people will return to Channel 7, Channel 9, ITV, RTL+, Sjuan, TMC, TFX and the list goes on for a while. I reckon that they will not be too happy with Netflix and they will demand local based sanctions against Netflix. In addition, some will demand that the bandwidth usage of Netflix users will be capped or even surcharged to avoid congestion on several levels. It is not whether it happens, it will soon be on WHEN it happens. Especially when the Amazon and Google group could stick it to Microsoft, they will be enthusiastically motivated to do just that. 

Do I care?
Not really, I sometimes get a month subscription to load up on missed things and I have to as we all have budgets. I reckon that the UK is facing a much harder time. When they get to decide on two of the items (Food, Rent and heating) Netflix will be the first to go, and after that cheaper internet deals. The cost of living bites everywhere and Netflix should have seen this coming. I think they did not, because in all my dealings with Americans, they always avoided any discussion on market saturation, it was always the fault of the bad salesperson. This time around there is no escaping it, and I saw this setting in 2020 when I was clear about saturation, and they were all in the stage of ‘We never heard that’ but the stage was clear and Covid ended as such the good times were gone and now Netflix with their desperate act decided to rely on Microsoft. Whether these two are in bed because of the Netflix game streaming is unknown to me, but it would not surprise me. And that too will backfire on them when Tencent comes out to play. Tencent could muscle in on both Amazon Luna and Google Stadia as well if these two did not adjust their way of thinking. 

These players are all realising that there is one population and they can no longer afford EVERYTHING. These people have to make choices, some of them hard and depending on what TV brings instead of Netflix comes with $10 a month savings, for a lot of people it will be a simple choice. It is this realisation that governs the global population. If EU inflation is up by 8.6% (last month), how long until people have to select what food they can afford? This is not out of consideration at present, the UK seems to be going back to the daily fish and chips. In the Netherlands some vegetables went up between 29% and 34%, that is HUGE! It is in this setting that Netflix makes a move the way they did and at some point people will realise that they get the same by watching TV, which does not cost them $10 a month, and that was the only reason keeping them on Netflix. Realisation is a dangerous and ugly thing. Yes, we can continue to watch Netflix, but how long until those prices go up? Which will drive a lot of people towards their normal local TV stations again, some already did. 

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The blind seeker

This is not a riddle, it is simple. I cannot tell what the rules are for getting a script. I created three of them and I get it, it needs to be a certain format, it needs appeal, but as a storyteller, I do not care, and that is not some short sighted look. Around 35000 stories are submitted and only 350 get made. I am not some person seeking wealth (well I am, but not in stories), and as I have stated in the past. I lived the FX slogan, ‘The Story is everything’, it has been true for the longest of time and it ill remain true decades from now. So as I recall an article I wrote in ‘The stage of a game’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2020/09/24/the-stage-of-a-game/) almost 2 years ago, someone in Hollywood or Netflix should have woken up.

The fact that a comic (1965-1982) with artists like Don Lawrence; Oliver Frey; Gerry Wood; Philip Corke; Ramon Sola; Ron Embleton; Miguel Quesada can still tempt the mind of the reader a generation later should have alerted them to the setting that they have a winner here. In the age when special effects and CGI are so close to the real thing that we can no longer tell the difference whether something is real or CGI should have triggered the idea that the Trigan Empire could be big bucks. The fact that this remains a hidden treasure is delighting in so many ways. The series I started to follow at the age of 5 (2 years after it was released) and still has this appeal on me and on thousands who were around when they first appeared is a wonderful feeling. It gives rise to the appeal that Flash Gordon had in the 50’s to the previous generation and this generation who is a lot on the Hogwarts stage. Every generation has its special stories and to consider that the next generation could enjoy on the screen what the previous generation loved in equal measure in comic books, is overwhelming. I wonder if it ever becomes real. Well, Valerian became a reality in 2017, 50 years after the comic book launched. Even as the movie flopped (according to the numbers), I was happy to see it and as part 2 is now ready to be filmed and a part three is on route to become a reality too, I merely hope that I live long enough to see all three parts. But the small voice in me silently hopes that the Trigan Empire will become a reality too. And there is a lot more in the comic books that never graced the American shelves. Don Lawrence gave us Storm, the Spanish artist Vicente Segrelles gave the world a comic named ‘the Mercenary’ in an age of knights, magic and dragons. 

So many awesome stories that one wonders how blind are these Hollywood seekers, these diggers for Netflix, Hulu and Apple+? A stage that is merely waiting to be found by a limelight, any limelight. Dozens, if not hundreds of comic books, all undiscovered as they never graced the American comic book shelves (a speculation of mine). Yet in the stage of what we see now and what we hear now, so many series flop. I honestly do not know why, some I have never seen, some I saw and it was not my favourite, yet it was not bad. The reason of what we see and what some things are rated as follows definitions that some might think ludicrous and mostly because we do not understand what drives the ratings. So under those rules will series like the Trigan Empire and the Mercenary make it? I cannot tell, but I hope they do, to see my childhood hero (Valerian) make it to the big screen was mesmerising, I hope to see the other two there as well.

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The responsive thinker

I got called out again. It happened during the day and there was a little too much profanity in the words, as such I assume it was an American. It was in regards to an article I wrote in April called ‘Creating magic’. The article (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/04/07/creating-magic/) is about the ‘magical drink’ called Giggle-water that mades its first appearance in Fantastic beasts and where to find them (2016). At some point (after the third movie) it dawned on me that this drink might not be wholly imaginary. You see, in the past Nitrous Oxide (laughing gas) was used by dentists. Now we have fruit-sugar (or fructose) with the formula C6H12O6. Now if we can connect a nitrogen to one of the oxygen parts we are in the clear. But it will not be that simple. 

I reckon that we need something like a strawberry of raspberry vinegar to get traction and that is me assuming a whole lot. I haven’t looked at chemistry since 1987, so its been a while. But if we can get that link working than this would be the added element to an alcoholic drink and we have the making of Giggle-water and with the hundred of millions of Rowling fans out there, there is a definite market for this drink. A drink that hundred of millions will try just for the hell of feeling less muggle? Oh you won’t need an egg timer to watch that line form. It is a little fun, because it was the Butter-beer bar in New York that gave me the idea of a printable display, so it is only fair I do something for that audience. 

As such the created idea for Giggle water. And it is only that, an idea. You see I was a decent chemist when I was young, but I saw the appeal of explosives a lot more than I saw the interest in Esther (a COOC joke), any chemist will get that one. So the idea of giggle water seems sound, but in the end only a real exploratory chemist will know (the offensive writer was no chemist, that is a certainty). As such I felt that a response was essential.

I never claimed it would work, if so, I would sell the idea to a player like Coca-Cola or Heineken. And I never did that, but perhaps someone over there in their free time can make the idea work. As such if one of these two players comes up with a workable solution, will their stock double or triple overnight? I honestly do not know, but then I did not care in the first place. I am still busy considering a new data format, a new database structure (an open one) specific for Augmented reality registration and searches. You see, when this market comes to a race, someone would want all that data protected, not everyone mind you, but corporate players would want that and that requires a new data format. I reckon it would be a combined matching system of MySQL with a Btree+ thumbprint, optionally with a linked blockchain element. As the number of AR elements increases the Btree+ element will become more and more important. Consider the benefits of the Btree setting and it foundation (it has downsides too), but an iterative search that illiminates 50% with every step. In year one this does not make sense, but by year three you are looking at a database with millions of AR elements. So consider 1,000,000 – 500,000 – 250,000 – 125,000 – 62,500. In 4 steps (less than 0.03 seconds) the database would have reduced the search by 99.93%, as such 0.07% remains to be searched. I think that is worth spending a little time on, don’t you think so?

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Cerebral Property

My mind shifted towards the Augmented Reality earlier again. My mind had been testing a few ideas and then matching them against the malls I have visited in my life. These malls are in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Stockholm, London, New York, Chicago, Washington, Sydney, Singapore, Munich, and so on. I have been matching what my mind created for Eaton Mall (Toronto), a place I actually have never visited. The YouTube channels showed me the space there and my mind did the rest. So today my mind went to the setting of QRcodes for AR. I considered the floor plans of Eaton Mall (I never seen them), none of the videos stopped to look at a map or floor plan. Funny, is it not? And my mind considered the approach of AR on a floor plan. I then considered the approach of static and dynamic codes. Consider any floor plan (I have seen them all over the world), now look at them with smart glasses. A floor plan, could but wouldn’t need to be static. As you dial the map and scroll, the codes would alter. The selected map (floor) would be dynamic, with the floor below matted and the one below that ghosted. As you move up or down, the 3d map alters its perception somewhat. It would pretend to be hologram, but it is not. Merely the same floors, with a clear, a matted or ghosted version, as such three versions for every floor and the floor we look at will alter the other floors too. A simple approach with a lot more behind this. As my mind conceived that use, and with the idea’s I had for Victoria Secrets, the mind decided to alter an option for jewellery shops as well. Glass plates that had a QR code within and as you place your hand under (or behind) the glass. The piece of jewellery would appear like on your wrist or finger and the nice part is that this could happen if the shop was closed or not. The shop (if open) would still serve you as needed, but as a guy, be honest. Who would not like to his own wrist with a Breitling, or a Rolex on it? And the ladies, their imagination of jewellery is without limit. It gave the idea that a jeweller could have a card, with a code. A code that could alter monthly, or whenever to be shown with glasses that could hold a code that revealed a bracelet or ring under any glass, something to keep with you. A whole market was opening before my eyes. Bookshops that could show 2 pages of a new book, that people could actually read. Food places with a signature dish, the AR field was opening a lot wider and it was my mind that was filling in the blanks, blanks that are currently in abundance as no one is making these jumps and as the world has 116,000 malls, how many businesses are Amazon and Google overlooking? Google is a lot more to blame than Amazon is but you get the idea. My mind is filling up to a multi billion dollar industry, because malls will have to take some steps sooner rather than later. In any place where the workforce is under pressure, you need to find other ways to promote yourself and leaflets are a thing of the past. 

01:15 and my mind is still adjusting to other kind of shops and how they can appeal to an AR developing population. As I watched another YouTube of Eaton Centre Mall, the mind saw so many open spaces and optional spaces to use, because I reckon that a mall can be more than shops and foodcourts. Some malls have cinema’s and what is more alluring than a 5 by 2.5 meter presentation of an epic movie poster you can watch there? The Batman scene as seen below WAS in the Eaton Mall, but that display cannot be everywhere, yet the AR version could be in every mall that has a cinema and not that gimmick, now that picture of affordability changes a lot for so many movies. 

And the mind moves on the new shores, to new places where (seemingly) a place like Google is unable to go (for now). And it is not even 01:30 yet. So lets see what else I can come up with before breakfast. Smell ya later folks!

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Holes in the equation

That is what I have been confronted with. Looking or trying to see a solution, an IP, yet in the end I am merely looking towards a partial equation and I am trying to look towards the equation and the holes around it by covering it by part of another equation. So as I was looking at yesterday, at the setting of the SD cards (like the one below)

I was wondering how this could be utilised. Then my mind considered the GoogleChrome 2, but that is Google stuff. I was wondering if the ‘cast-bubble’ could support an SD card. Then my mind went on a sidetrack. You see, the makers of computers are less and less about optical drives. That gave me the idea, what if the Google Chrome 2 could be a transmitter connected to your 4K (or Bluray) player? What if that device could hand the images to the laptops in the house and considering I saw (a little while ago) a naked lady do Yoga in 4K (she looked really good doing that) I now know that a Mac laptop is able to show a lot more than an image of a Pokemon. But the setting holds, if the player (connected to a TV) can show the other devices too, the family will get a much larger audience from the one player in the house. We can watch the movie on our laptop, our console connected TV, our additional systems. As far as I can tell, the current Chrome-cast does not allow for that. So this setting is a freebee for Google, on the other hand if Amazon sees this and creates its own innovative patent, well that is up to the person who gets there the quickest. 

So as I went back to the beginning of what happened, the setting of M.A.A.S. Movie As A Service, a station that was once Netflix, the old Netflix and with the lines becoming ever more blurry. The idea that Marvel moves come with a voucher that allows you to see Disney+ for a few days could set the trend in other ways for Netflix, Paramount, Sony, Apple and Hulu too. I was so focussed on the application of SD/CF Cards in movies that I forgot that there are other applications too, not necessarily directly linked to these memory cards. You see, no matter how we are presented the stages, congestion is coming our way, those with a lot of money can avoid it, the rest need to find another way and that is where innovation comes in. How? Your guess is as good as mine at this time, but the larger setting is to surpass the points of congestion, so how to get around that? Gamers are (for now) too small a group. The movie, YouTube and TikTok group is the larger (if not largest) group. So if we can get them in other ways we could optionally delay or to a larger degree diminish the congestion that comes. And this is not a local problem, this is about to become a GLOBAL issue. And for now, I am in the dark on how this can be circumvented. Yet how to go about it? I learned at an early age that you start with the edges and as such set the dimensionality of the Jigsaw. From there you continue. Yet what if the Jigsaw is a kinetic one? A kinetic puzzle is a puzzle that does not show an mage, but a movie reel. When that is known the dimensions are still the first, but after that, how do you continue? That is the puzzle I am confronted with. We aren’t looking at a static event, but a dynamic one and there the brain (the useless one I have) shuts down for now.

I see part of the equation, but I see the holes too, so as I try to surround the holes I also learn that it is not the solution, because the holes are in motion. That is where I end, holes in the equation, yet the stage is one that I need to master, it will be a nice addition to the three IP bundles I have and at some stage either Amazon or Google will take a bite, because both want the billions and Microsoft is not invited. And as I consider the third player, I will set more time apart to take a look at him in my next article.

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In continuation

You thought the previous article was the end of it? Nope, it was merely the beginning. You see, we see the iterations of DVD, BluRay, 4K and we do not stand still on the larger issue. The idea of a disc is nice, it is accepted and it continues. Yet the larger station is that a DVD is a mere 5GB, a BlueRay is 50GB (double sided) and a 4K is 66GB in dual layer and 100GB on triple layer. 

The Player is in every case about the size of a CD player. A SD card is about $35 (128GB) and the CF version is (alas) a lot more expensive. Yet the setting of the SD card is still shrinking in price and the price of the MicroSD is about the same. So consider the idea that you can have the entire Marvel collection in a holder the size of a pocketbook and that need is growing. People who want to watch a movie on route, people who want the kids to watch a movie in the back, people who are left with less and less space, you can look in every direction and the need for discs is falling away, CD’s are already falling away. How long until DVD’s are a think of the past? And even now we see the stage that one (micro) SD card (or CF Card) can hold an entire season of episodes. 

Here Sony is in part to blame. I remember the issue of all region DVD’s, but Sony would not hear of it. And that was a discussion I was part of 6 months BEFORE the PlayStation 2 was released in March 2000. Over that time others also has issues, but I still see it as fear, they had their little island and it had to remain safe even though the issues of safety were blown away in 1992 and was never restored, there was a feigned time of safety with the BluRay and now with the 4K, people will find a way. There is no stopping them and as the law is merely running after the events and not solving anything, stopping evolution tends to detrimental to ones sanity (health too).

So whilst we ignore what COULD be out there and what MIGHT be possible, we merely are part of some insanity roundabout and it goes nowhere. And interestingly enough, the streamers are making this evolution clear and more profound. So whilst you ponder the latest movies on SD or CF card, consider what you have and what you might lose. Especially in light that the quality of DVD’s has faltered in the last 5 years. It might be that the players are less reliable, but they still need discs and over the last 5 years I have seen more movie discs fail than in the 20 yeas before that. Something is failing the people, failing the systems and devices and it is time we ask the questions that matter, because only in the coming year is the price of an SD card a valid excuse, but when we see that this is already no longer the case with Bluray and DVD, consider what the larger station is to stop evolution. I gave the setting for players to allow other formats to play close to half a decade ago, we merely see discs continue. Why? When was the last time you tried to get a CD of a band you liked? I honestly never saw that coming. My introduction to CD’s was somewhere in 1977, 45 years ago. I thought they were forever, but that was of course delusional. Now consider that one SD Card can hold the entire collection of David Bowie or the Beatles. At what point will we concede that technology surpassed our labels of music and soon movies too? And it is not even close to the end. New technologies will come, they will revolt and we will contemplate how to react to it. I am not telling you how to react, how ever you will react it will be highly personal. I myself still enjoy looking at the covers of an album, that will never stop, but to hold a box with an entire season of Xfile episodes, or one SD card that holds EXACTLY the same is another matter. It will open new doors, new venues and new opportunities. And there is a hidden benefit. You see the next few years will be about congestion of the network. So will you be waiting for Disney to download part of the episode so that you can watch, or will you insert an SD card and just watch, without congestion, without delay and without hassle? 

And those who claim that there is no congestion? Well Computer weekly gave us last October “Enea claims first 4G, 5G user-based congestion management solution. Telecoms software provider launches solution based on proprietary algorithms to take pre-emptive action to boost QoE for individual sessions before subscribers experience congestion” Really? If there is no congestion, this solution seems like the most useless solution in existence. The truth is not that simple. The next 5-7 years will be about managing expectations, Service Level Agreements. And these will all have the small print regarding congestion. When we realise that, why do we see elements stopping the evolution of disc entertainment? I believe that this evolution will be a lot more essential in the next 2 years than anyone realises. And that is before you realise that there are even more options available, but I will leave that to you to figure out.

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Is it IP? Is it not?

Introduction
This is a story in parts, so lets begin with the introduction. In the old days (90’s) a company named SPSS (now part of IBM) came with a product called Answertree. It set the premise that Direct Marketing companies could either mail more or mail more clever. Th program allowed for the second part. So normally to get 15% more, you would have to mail 25% more, yet what happens when you get that result mailing 10% less? The system allowed for looking at the population you had, the population that responded and the two allowed you to see a tree, a tree with branches and connections. Soon you would see where to prune the tree, the parts that were not worth the squeeze wee pruned away and as you continue to prune this tree, you got a decent set of elements that were profitable. You learned that some elements are essential and others were not, you had a set of parameters to work with and in the old days you had 3.2% response, you got a new set where you only set out a mailing that was 80% of the first size and now you had a 6.8% response, it as clever mailing.

This reflects on Netflix and their ‘Netflix To Spend $17B On Content In 2021’, so what will they do in 2022, in 2023? That is the setting and there we get a new stage. What can be reused and what needs a rewrite, two settings that are still a lot cheaper than creating from scratch.

Prologue
Today I was thinking of an old hero. A Dutch actor named Joop Doderer. Those from my generation and the previous generation will all know him if they spend months in the Netherlands between 1955 and 1975. Joop gave view to the vagrant ‘Swiebertje’ and in those years there was not a Dutch person who did not know that name, a branding that could now not be matched by the Game of Thrones. As such I kept eyes on his work and knowing he was in something always brought a smile to my face. That is until today when I learned that there was one movie I actually never saw. In it were also Derek Jacobi, John Gielgud, and Richard Attenborough so several reasons to know this movie, and I missed it. It was The Human Factor (1979), the story was by Graham Greene all good reasons, and that is one side.

The next part is the view on intelligence. You see in this day and age there is practically no difference between state players and corporate players. Do you think that a fictive player like Zoogle will rely on the FBI to keep their AI safe? 

Business Intelligence is no longer simple data analyses, it has not been that for years. Now we get 

1. planning, 
2. identifying decision makers’s intelligence needs, 
3. collecting and analysing information, 
4. disseminating intelligence products and services, 
5. evaluating intelligence activities, 
6. promoting intelligence services among a client base,
7. additional industry-specific issues. 

Competitive Intelligence Division members concentrate on developing their competitive intelligence skills to assist them in functioning more effectively as intelligence professionals within their respective organisations. Combine these two elements and you could have the making of one hell of a killer thriller. You see we know that places have traitors, and nationally seen it is to black and white. I know as an Australian I am still bound to an oath to the Dutch Royal family, this oath stays in place until the day I die. As such I have no issues (and never had any) regarding the execution of a traitor. And there is a part I left out, you see, the Traitor Manning did something far worse, I saw it and some others saw it, but the bulk missed it, and that is good, because it links to all this.

Yet in the corporate stage this is a lot more grey, there is no white which is merely less dark grey and black which is merely less light grey and at that point the story could go in all kinds of directions. The good part is that the foundation written by Graham Greene is top notch and that quality of material should not be left to waste. 

Part 2
This is not directly related. I was watching  remake of the Creedence Clearwater Revival hit ‘Have You Ever Seen the Rain’. In it I saw Jack Quaid (the dude from the Boys) and his love interest Erin Moriarty, so I looked up what I could in case the hit was connected to season 3 somehow (it is not). I also learned that his dad was the Astronaut wannabe Dennis Quaid from the movie InnerSpace. You know the movie where he tries to get to the girlfriend of Martin Short (Meg Ryan). OK, I took some creative liberties here, but lets be honest, Jack could have been the son from that pilot from Independence day named Randy Quaid. But he is not and these elements all play because I suddenly remembered another gem by daddy Quaid. It was D.O.A. I never saw the original so this was what I had and consider that story, same premise but the poisoning is clear and in the beginning, and Jack needs to find out who robbed the IP of a place like Zoogle before the toxins overwhelm him (they all think he did it). As such we see a steeple chase of events where we see more grades of grey and in the end as he dies, we see that it was his lady who switches the ring with a duplicate and walks off towards the competition. Under the ember was a reflective side making a minuscule chip invisible and the chip fits into a holder showing billions in IP, and the two movies are connected by a hand with one small element (like a pearl bracelet) which we do not see until the final moment in movie two. Two good movies that become great as each population will entice each other to see the other movie. So each movie is no longer seen a X and Y but as 2*(X+Y), a nice little bonus is it not?

And it seems like the players in stream land are not seeing that, they are not seeing the benefit of remaking a good movie (regardless of revenue) and remastering it to the setting we see today, the corporations are all in their own right governments and we all seem to dance around that. Oh and there is a reason for the prune story, but that is something you will have to work out, life is just not rewarding without a decent challenge.

It bears thinking, does it not?

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