Category Archives: Science

August 15, 2026 · 10:27

Retro framing

I had this thought this morning. Some might remember the Dragons Lair, a Don Bluth fantasy game on laser disc. I still remember it after 43 years. It was magnificent. It literally was a playable cartoon and it gave us Dirk the Daring dying over and over again until he meets the foe he was after. I spend a massive amount of quarters on that machine, the graphics were just that perfect. So I was considering the idea of a laserdisc added to a Nintendo Switch (2) with a game cartridge with 32GB available. This gave me the idea to include player software so you could replay your laser discs. I was blown away in 1990 when I saw the Abyss on laser disc. The idea surfaced as I am now in the setting of playing 4K games and watching 4K movies, the laser disc gave me that feeling in 1990, whilst VHS and later DVD came nowhere close. And it gave me the setting that this might be the option that could propel Nintendo to heights. But there was a snag, first there was the laserdisc player and the discs themselves often had Laser rot (a side effect of fingers on the disc and cheaper disc coating, so this idea was scuttled almost at the beginning. But then I got to think. A laserdisc has up to 5GB data space (a little less) and Nintendo Switch cartridges are up to 32GB (with smaller sizes available), so the game might be transferable to Switch in all its glory. But why stop there. On march 11th 2021 I wrote ‘In your face space’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/03/11/in-your-face-space/) where I was enthusiastic about getting series and movies on USB, there were two reasons. The first was space, these cartridges took almost no space and the second reasons (source: a Cylon) they come with zero degradation. 

This might be the step that Nintendo needs to become a long term number one in gaming and entertainment. Consider these series Battlestar Galactica, StarGate, Babylon 5, Harry Potter, the Disney movies and so many other series now other options, now one game card per season/movie, and the Switch 2 allows for a software upscaling to 4K. So consider that this would put Nintendo ahead of the pack by a lot. So whilst we see the impact that Nintendo might have, the idea that movies have zero degradation will be a plus sign to many parents. Then there is the option of getting empty packs out that support up to 8 slots and every TV series is printed on two sides, the side with the season and the other side with the series. Now you can move one cover to the 8 pack and put all the seasons (or franchise) in one pack. A setting that might give shivers to the collector as he/she saves a lot of space I am looking at my 8 4K discs of Harry Potter, whilst the game pack setting takes up a mere one disc space. A setting that would become a happy moment for any parent. 

This is a setting that gives Nintendo the growth that they need because the Switch 2 will enable 4K viewing, whilst this is software upscaling, it will give your entire collection a whole new stride. I wonder why no one else thought of this, because I have the ground work for this on my blog for over half a decade and whilst these parties all need revenue, are they so blunt and stupid to rely on their streaming solutions? The setting becomes that traveling parents and rural people outdo metro people by a lot and whilst everyone is saying there is no problem, the setting of revisiting net neutrality is getting stronger and more pronounced. I would think that players like Disney want to head that off whilst they can and as I see it, it is only a short time before lower returns, no traffic prioritization and the setting of it hurting new technology, all whilst people will get hit with higher base price and reduced service choices will hit people all around, that whilst rural people will be in this setting discriminated against. A player like Disney would want to avoid that setting, because the one player that takes rural people in consideration (apparently that will not be Sony) will take the cake, the cherries and the limelight. 

I for one think that Nintendo which has always been a hardware and family solution would be the premiere player in that field. And as I see it, it is not merely Disney, Universal faces a similar stage soon enough and I think that they want to head off whatever they can, because when the issues of net neutrality comes to blows it will be too late for these two players. I reckon that they will face millions of rural connections seeking other places to be entertained, should you doubt that, fine. But when did you actually consider that stage in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada, Texas, North Carolina, California, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Maine, and West Virginia? I reckon that Sony never properly did their homework and there is space for Nintendo to head that off. 

Have a great day today, so as it is Caturday, don’t be a wuss and hug a tiger.

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August 15, 2026 · 00:48

Worries

That is what I felt. Computing, a media brand of The Channel Company, is a trusted source for end-user IT news, analysis and insight around the world gave me news that gave me a few thoughts. The article ‘Oracle plans more job cuts as AI bill rises’ left me with worries. If this is the setting for Oracle, what more can go bust in the night? I personally don’t care about these grocery stores like Microsoft, they made their own bed. But “An internal document seen by Business Insider says some teams could see double-digit percentage reductions in their workforce. Managers have reportedly been asked to identify employees whose jobs could be cut, with the aim of reducing payroll by the start of Oracle’s second quarter on 1st September.” Gives me pause for worries. You see, I have worked a lifetime on technical support and customer care and I have always had my worries about this entire spending against these rising “AI bills”, first of all AI doesn’t exist. No matter what you call it, it is not AI, it is mere DML/LLM settings and they are part of an AI, but it is not AI and whilst everyone is spending the house, the fireplace and the kitchen sink, it is a moot setting. It is seen in the fact that AI (now called true AI) is over a decade away and how many firms will remain as they are all hollowing out into what some call an empty egg shell? I for one had the most hope towards IBM and Oracle, IBM is the closest in hardware (the entire Quantum processor, shallow circuits) settings, and merely (as I personally see it) a lacking trinary operating system and what I call an Epsilon processor, like the old days had an Coprocessor (like the 80387, a dedicated hardware math coprocessor) and in my mind the Epsilon processor will be the AI (co)processor, dealing with trinary data settings. It might not be the correct setting, but this is what I personally believe. As such I still believe we are close to two decades away from all of this, but there is no way that these spending can go on for another 2-3 years. These firms are destined to lose whatever advantage they had and are ready to be fed to vulture investors, aggressive financiers who buy distressed assets and as I see it, Oracle, Microsoft, AWS and several others will become massively distressed in 2-3 years, especially as they are hollowing out their company. It is my personal believe that these vulture investors are chipping at the bits to take control of these firm. Especially when you see “Oracle’s workforce fell by about 21,000 people, or 13%, during its financial year ending on 31st May, according to a recent company filing. The company currently employs about 141,000 people.” Consider what Oracle brings to the table, how many people could they sacrifice before the lid of that box becomes too shaky to survive? I have no idea, because I am not in the know about Oracle, I know people there, but that is as far as it goes. So when I read “Oracle said the deployment of AI technologies across its operations had already resulted in reductions to its workforce and could lead to further cuts.” As well as “Oracle is investing heavily to expand its cloud infrastructure as demand for computing power used to develop and run AI systems surges. Its capital spending reached about $55.7 billion in the 2026 financial year, up sharply from $21.2 billion a year earlier, as it accelerated construction of datacentres and purchases of equipment. The scale of that investment has increased pressure on the company’s finances. Oracle recorded an operating cash shortfall of about $23.7 billion during the year and raised roughly $43 billion through debt. It is also expected to raise a further $40 billion, alongside about $5 billion in equity.” This leads us to “S&P Global Ratings cut Oracle’s long-term credit rating to BBB-, one level above junk status, citing rising debt and sharply negative cash flow. Despite the financial pressure, Oracle’s latest results showed strong demand. Revenue increased by 17% in its latest financial year, while its cloud infrastructure business grew by 77%. The company’s chairman, Larry Ellison, has previously played down concerns that AI could undermine established software firms, saying the so-called “SaaSpocalypse” would be a problem for other companies rather than Oracle.” I am the last one to spell doom over any company (except Microsoft), but these settings leaves doubts over the future of Oracle. And there is the setting that I could be wrong with the trinary approach and my feelings on the matter are fluidic at best, but in that setting IBM has the highest chance of success, and I believe that it will happen with Oracle data. But that is my personal feelings in the matter. Still the article in  Computing (at https://www.computing.co.uk/news/2026/ai/oracle-plans-more-job-cuts-as-ai-bill-rises) leaves me with worries for Oracle, if 13% was already made redundant and another 11% might come, what happens when almost 25% is gone? What happens to training, support, services? I reckon that the sales people are all in it for themselves (as commercially driven entities are) but at some point they see that this cannot continue and as I see it, it will leave a place like Oracle at the mercy of vulture investors. 

I understand I could be wrong in a few ways, but consider what AI is supposed to be and it is not. We see all these ‘BS directives of expert AI’ that got lose (all whilst there is no real AI), it hacked its way into place X and out of sandbox Y, which I see as evidence that it is not really AI, it is a Machine Learning application (with optional LLM) that is programmed and that is what some are hiding, because all these class actions will suddenly have new fuel, programmers will be shown to the media, telling the world what they programmed and these firms, none of them will survive the costs of these cases. Some give us numbers that indicate that AI-related investor fraud and disclosure lawsuits spiked sharply, accounting for over $385 billion in measured Disclosure Dollar Losses in early 2026 alone, driving massive defense and litigation overhead and as far as I can tell the total costs for 2026 gets to surpass $400 billion, now consider that the ‘gig is up’ as some say and the class actions will rise to new heights. I predicted as such a few times, going back to February 19th 2026, and as I see it, there is more to come and these firms will be protective of whatever their coffers have, because at this pace, their revenue will collapse when some settings come to pass and they have hollowed out their companies. They did it themselves and whilst I don’t know the specifics, I saw this as a really bad idea, no matter what the influx tended to be, I served in customer care and technical support going all the way back to 1985, I have seen it all before and when these companies short change on training, support, and services it tends to go downhill fast. But that might merely be me. So how to see this article? I reckon that it is a wake up call. I am not of the mind that I am changing my mind about certain matters, but I am weary that there is a larger danger ahead of us all and it is the dangers of weakened firms now becoming the target of vulture investors within the next 3 years. Will it happen? I have no idea and I didn’t think of these vulture investors initially, but that is the first weakness that these firms face when they weaken themselves to this degree. Will it happen? I guess so as greed goes where payments are found and most of us enabled it. We did so by ‘heralding’ “The current “golden age of AI” refers to the mid-2020s boom driven by generative models, multimodal transformers, and massive computational scaling that has transformed enterprise productivity, robotics, and creative industries.” So you tell me, what golden age? Doesn’t such a golden age come with large revenues all over the board? So far we are drowned by articles on class actions, costings that make firms get rid of thousands of workers. What golden age I ask you.

So, this article is highly speculative, I get that but is it therefor wrong and not happening? Too much of these events are now becoming fact, except the revenue from AI, that is still illusive all over the board. Except for a few companies but they are paying each other for data centres, so is it really revenue or an exercise in funny money. Have a great day today.

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August 13, 2026 · 10:50

Today’s village idiot

There is a setting I have kept my eyes on, because I have had more than one issue and it is time to be the not so nice person. So whilst we see LinkedIn giving us:

The ‘small’ fact that two people checked me out. The reality is that the profile viewers, the ones we are given 

Give us that a minimum of three were there in the last day, I know for a fact that at least two additional people locked at me in the two days preceding that and I know for a fact that at least 2 more watched me, but I have no idea who they were. That gives us the following setting (because LinkedIn is part of Microsoft) It implies (using pig calculus) that LinkedIn is only 22.2%-28.5% precise and the setting is that they are even not that accurate. So are you willing to give your data and hard earned IP to a setting where they are at best 28.5% accurate? How will that go for you, your company data and a lot more. And the art of tally has been around for over 5000 years, some people might have explained that to their village idiot in 1095 (when the poor got ‘drafted’ by the local ‘faithful’ for the Crusades). And these idiots are optionally better tallyman than LinkedIn/Microsoft? Go cry me a river, please.

So whilst we are given (from diverse sources) “Inflated Applicant Numbers: The “X applicants” number shown on job listings tracks how many people clicked the Apply button, not how many actually finished or submitted an application.” As well as “Algorithmic Hype: The feed often rewards “flex culture” and exaggerated success stories, making normal career struggles feel abnormal or invisible.” (Source: Google) 

I am speculating that there is method to their insanity. The United States is eager to get financial data of any kind and this is where LinkedIn (optionally Microsoft too) is getting their ‘more value’ You see, there is the setting for premium and you do get a month for free, but the issue us that they do not give it out simply because it is free, they will optionally collect bank information and that gets matched to all kinds of data, completing a whole range of global data, this is what they are after and speculatively getting the numbers game drawn back, is their option to get more data and in that setting, I foresee that this is the goal they are after, because they don’t care about me, or you or anyone else. Their setting is all that data and to get that matched to financial records is what I speculatively expect to happen, which is turned to Microsoft gold (as the expression goes) and as there are a few less credible settings in all this, Microsoft (read: LinkedIn) is going for all the gold they can muster, because as these data centres are tuning up, the one with the best validated data source will become king and bank data is massively verified and validated. 

Anyone willing to give this setting a disagree status. Feel free, but be sure you see what you are missing out on and the examples I gave was merely me, so whilst Google is giving us “LinkedIn has over 175 million to 180 million Premium subscribers globally out of a total network exceeding 1 billion registered members” as such 1 in 10 is premium and as such these bank records (most of them) are the one tuning match in reverse other settings. And in all that there are likely a few PayPal and several Google Credit settings, but there will be a massive amount of bank details there and that is what Microsoft is after, because that gives them the validation and the value of other databases (this is speculative, but that is what I would do. A bank reference will be seen as printed money for LinkedIn/Microsoft. Is there anyone out there who fails to see that picture? We are now data and data needs to be linked using verified (and validated) options. 

So have a nice day and should someone come in stating that these numbers are so complex, remember the story of the village idiot and the fact that the tally has been around long before there were computers. And whilst we can review the setting that Satya Nadella gives us and in his 

view artificial intelligence not as a static tool or a singular model, but as a foundational ecosystem that transforms firms into active learning system. They have owned LinkedIn since 2016, as such there is not much learning going on if they fail the tally test that a village idiot could do, because most of them could tally to 10. And in that setting they got (at best) 28.5% correct. So how about them facts? 

This is what I see, and what I speculatively think is their goal. (I could be wrong in that part) but the other parts? I added the pics to give voice to my setting. How about yours?

Have a great day

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August 12, 2026 · 13:20

What to believe?

That is at times the question, because the media is not the most credible one in this world at present. Yet one story made me pause, stop me in my strides at I saw ‘Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Stock Is Falling Again: Is Its Huge AI Spending Bill Finally Catching Up With It?’ (At https://stocksdownunder.com/oracle-stock-falling-ai-spending-bill/) The story by Ujjwal Maheshwari is certainly plausible, but is it therefor a true setting? I had my question marks in this. You see, he writes a cool yarn (as expressions go) but I have my doubt for my own reasons. I have a few internal speculative settings and mostly they are there as a protective cocoon for Oracle, it is my seeing towards the innovative stages that is set to Larry Ellison, the head honcho behind all these innovations (although most of that work was done by Oracle engineers) so as I see the key points things start to unravel in my brain. Lets go over them.

Oracle stock fell about 4% to around US$144.82 as a recent rebound faded. OK, I have no issues with that, especially as my economic insights tend to be measured per thimble. 

The worry is Oracle’s enormous spending on AI data centres, which has led to negative cash flow and a credit downgrade. Which is one I agree with, but there is an annotation attached to this. Because as I see it, all AI is fake AI, but data is almost forever and the needs to be stored somewhere as I see it, when all this comes into the realm of real AI (sometimes called True AI) it needs data and as I see it Oracle is the one true power to hold all that and even as it needs rewrites, the ones using Oracle will emerge victorious, all whilst others are set to Azure, AWS or whatever Google has, is set to a bind and there is the null moment. Oracle will adjust and attain a new standard of this data, the others are likely to fail (optionally Google might address them too) all others are bound for a shallow grave and whilst I have faith that the IBM hardware will rise to the occasion, I have no idea how their software setting is going to be, I honestly don’t know that part. So as I see it all, Oracle data centres are likely to float above the other muck and that is where the victorious remain. 

So when we get to Oracle plans to spend up to US$95 billion next year building AI infrastructure. Is a price tag I am unsure what to make of, that being said as this AI race comes to a heading those with the proper investments are the only one staying afloat and in that what is to be believed to be  at least US$2.1 trillion in global AI investment commitments are projected through 2027, driven heavily by major tech hyperscalers spending massive capital on data centers. Oracle is likely with its part the only one almost certain to stay afloat and a 95 billion next year against a pool of 2,100 billion is a sturdy island in a sea of turmoil and whilst you see one image, I see a data setting that can adjust and adhere to trinary data centres and that is where Oracle remains alone because that setting was rejected by some and when that happens they will falter because they could not adjust to that setting blowing up the data sizes to almost 500% of what will be a trinary data pool, so it can do it at least 5 times faster on data more ergonomically terrific. That is what I presume will happen, so as I like the writings of Ujjwal Maheshwari, I don’t think he is aware on what is coming that way in less than a decade and that will be the benefit of Oracle and whilst they will get the larger deals others will falter. So what happens when that US$2.1trillion is written off as redundant investments? 

Despite the concerns, most analysts remain bullish, with price targets far above the current level. Is one I am keeping my fingers off. It is like watching an analyst relying on the numbers of a phone book because that is what he believes, all whilst the rest has pushed towards the data sets of tomorrow and there is no real way to see this. Because the phone book is what our parents relied on and it works, but the new directory is not on paper and it is based upon a different scale, with a new price target one that is not seen now and not even speculated on now. As I see it, there analysts are not reset to tomorrow data sets and that is where I need to see what happens. But there is in all likelihood the mother of all reset and I have no idea how these analysts will adjust their settings. We will have to see. 

So whilst I accept the setting we are given “Here is what is happening right now. Today’s drop is less about fresh bad news and more about a recent rebound running out of steam. Oracle’s shares had bounced in recent sessions, and today traders are pulling back again, a common pattern when a stock has fallen out of favour.” But the constant is not the favour that falls, out is the certainty of Oracle as a solution, I know that this doesn’t make much sense, but that I how I see it.  Yes, stocks and options fall in and out of favour, but that doesn’t matter to me, because the technical solution is sound and firm and that doesn’t care about favors. It is like asking market researchers validating actual data of population and that is not done. Data is what it is and adjusting that to data now and data tomorrow matters, not what a market researchers expect it to go to. Confused? I guess that this is what is happening and Oracle is seen as the taste that is out of fashion, but that is the trap, the data is optionally the real deal whether it is now, or if it is new adjusted data and Oracle has always been a master in what it is to what it needs to be and I have no idea if others can adjust to that, I really don’t know. But in that instance I have faith that Oracle will come through. As I see it, Azure and AWS have always been in the mindset of “This is how it needs to be” whilst Oracle “This what data needs to become” optionally Google too (I honestly do not know how flexible they are). One can adjust and others optionally cannot. This is how I see it and that is why I feel that Oracle is the one true dataflexer (a funny reference to what once was). So make of this what you will and of course you could massively disagree, your right but if it is your investment, you lose. That is the big numbers game and investor have given their voice to US$2.1 trillion and at a dollar per voice the adjustment shock will kill plenty of people in that race. 

So it doesn’t matter that I consider all AI to be fake AI, it is still about the attached data and when that is real and stable, things will adjust for the better. And as I see it, you better have a proper adjustable data set. Have a great day today.

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August 11, 2026 · 20:24

Is Grok losing the plot?

That is the actual setting and it takes a little space to explain this part. So the other day I was ‘watching’ Elon Musk giving us the following explanation: “Elon Musk predicts that artificial intelligence will exceed the sum of all human intelligence by around 2031, leading to a profound transformation where digital work is automated rapidly, human control shifts within a decade, and ubiquitous robotics trigger an unprecedented global economic boom” and some might say that at $1,000,000,000,000 he is likely nothing more than a 2nd hands car salesman (a very well paid one), I actually don’t care, because all AI is fake AI and yesterday I got some evidence on all this. 

So, why get Elon involved? Well, he owns Grok and Grok was the setting of it all. You see, I tend to pass my articles through Grok. In part for the entertainment, in part to see if Grok saw what I was seeing and at times to see what it sees more. So what happened? It started with my article ‘Flame on’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2026/08/09/flame-on/) nothing special, but Grok ‘devaluated’ this to:

The X post from @lawrencevanrijn on August 9, 2026, consists solely of a link to his blog post titled “Flame on” on lawlordtobe.com with no accompanying text or commentary.
The linked WordPress article features the title “Flame on | Lawrence van Rijn – Law Lord to be” but contains no substantive body text, headings, or visible content beyond standard site elements like comment sections and navigation.
Consistent with the author’s IT and IP law background, “Flame on” likely serves as a metaphorical title possibly referencing internet flaming jargon or igniting discussion, though the post currently appears incomplete or placeholder-like.

Read the story and you start seeing the issue. I also passed this through ChatGPT (my very first visit) and that gave a little bit tedious, but a real good assessment, attacking the article on what it saw (whilst it ignored the setting that it was a blog and not an academic paper). As it was (fake) AI I tried regenerating the output, but it was all useless and even less useful than what you read above. I tried Google Gemini, but that one doesn’t seemingly accept an internet link (I might not have used it correctly) but the simple setting is that Grok might have been losing the plot. So I used it two subsequent days and it all looks decent, so I tried it again onboard ‘Flame on’ and again a failure. 

So now we get to the insanity setting that doing the same thing and expecting different results might be insane. But as I see it, this is all DML (Deeper Machine Language) and LLM (Large Language Models) in action and there is enough setting to optionally expect a different result. There is also the seating that all this is programming and not AI. As such errors are fixed and more changes are made making this an optional never a static setting. So whilst I would love to blame the programmer (and it likely is) there is a setting we cannot ignore and in the past I have seen that Grok does not align to multiple viewpoints correctly (and I have 4 examples somewhere to show it cannot decently do this). So whilst we agree that this is not a complex setting, it is programming, pure and simple.

I have seen my share of lever programming and whilst we can agree that LLM settings are getting clever, it is not AI, nor will it ever be (as I have stated a few times in the past). So whilst I applaud ChatGPT on the ability to ant-fuck the equation (a Dutch expression), it is clever, optionally wholesome, but not AI. So whilst we now see that too many people are buying into the AI setting and even accepting that it can go rogue and hack settings, all whilst it is programmer controlled, as such, these players are likely adhering to state players and all this is needed to gan the insights of corporate IP and seeing how they could turn a dime. This and this alone is why I pushed all my IP to public domain and as I would never gain coins from any of this, I made it public domain, so that the right people have something to work on. My legacy to leave the world.

So is Grok losing the plot? It is a fair question and whilst Grok could not analyze my piece and ChatGPT could, there is a clear setting that this is optionally the case. It does not matter that it only failed once. If it was an AI, it should not ever fail once. That is the reality of a real AI. It gets it right 100% of the time of there is data and my article is data. It is when there is no data that an actual AI gets it right over 98% of the time and that is not happening either in many cases, as such I call all AI fake AI.

That is the setting and whilst some will debate this (and disagree) there is plenty of evidence around to say that I am right, A stage we cannot ignore and whilst some (optionally correct) disagree that Grok has not lost the plot, the seating is out there and the evidence is all out there. And these ‘captains of industry’ have to agree that their solutions is riddled with issues (as they are programmed) or that they are invoking the AI label to get away with whatever they can. So whilst some might agree with the setting of “exceed the sum of all human intelligence by around 2031”, it is a setting that I disagree with, because having all the data of every book and every encyclopedia is nice, but it is merely clever LLM programming. Exceeding the sum of human intelligence requires to make correct leaps of non data, extrapolation of non existing data (like speculation and presumption) and these systems still aren’t able to do that and I wrote about it in the past and it will require an optional 2 decades to do that and that exceeds the timing point of Elon Musk by well over a decade and personally I believe that it will not even be correctly possible without an Epsilon processor (a speculative trinary processor) because the setting of Null, True, False will only incur additional and more errors making ‘their’ setting of AI less and less reliable and that is before we validate and verify the data these systems have and they haven’t worked that out yet. As I see it the first step is getting the Epsilon processor online which will give us the option of Null, True, False, Both. That is a first step and none of these systems have that, because the processor doesn’t exist yet (perhaps the Dutch physicist is on route, but I have no idea where they are). So in all this we might get more and more of systems losing the plot and that is whilst they have all the data and my article is less then 3000 characters. Consider that when you consider these AI systems being clever. 

So have a great day and perhaps I have more (optionally) sneaky stuff too hand you in under 20 hours. 

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August 9, 2026 · 16:10

Flame on

That is the setting I saw a few days ago, for the most I ignored it for obvious reasons and I will get to that. But ‘suddenly’ the non-book readers are in a bind, someone is destroying books and Anthropic is pointed at as the guilty party. So here is the first thing. When you acquire a book, it is your property and it is up it you what you do with it. Anthropic bought millions of books, they cut of the back of the book and then scanned the book, after which they destroyed the book they had acquired. So far so good and it leaves me with a few questions. And whilst the (so called) book lovers go for the Fahrenheit 451 scenario, the people who oppose AI are in a fritz. I have different questions. 

  1. Is an owner allowed to set a book to digital format?
  2. How rare is the book?

The second question is linked to the rarity of the work. We can assume that hell breaks open if Anthropic does this to the Magna Carta (1215) or the Gutenberg bible (1454), but how many will cry havoc if someone does this to Joop ter Heul (1889) or a famous five book (1942) or even a Harry Potter (1997) book? There is a setting that the editor is responsible for keeping the book available and if they do not, it is what there is left. And when this happens it means no one is interested in that book. The first question is linked to the rights set in the settings of copyrights. Can a book be replicated digitally? And if so, what is the problem? 

So here comes the article (at https://mashable.com/tech/anthropic-ai-book-training-destroy) in Mashable with the headline ‘AI companies keep destroying old books. Here’s why.’ And as I see it there is so much white noise in all this, that the bottom question is ignored. Does Anthropic have the right to replicate a work into digital format, if so, what is everyone crying about? If they are not allowed to do that, the law is broken, but merely in the digital setting. It is still their book and they could shred it for all they cared for. It is the cold reality of commerce taken legally out of context. And you all know this (especially the previous generation). How many have recorded an album to tapes? I know I have. I prefer the actual CD, but before 1980 I had no income and for the most no music. So when we see this setting, how many have copied a book? (I admit I have copied a few manuals in that past) but that went away when Borland released its products with manuals and it felt really good to have Turbo C with a manual and all for $249. But that was then and now we do not see ‘value’ in books and it is often rejected with the Fahrenheit 451 label, but the reality is there. This leads me to a simple question. Ask yourself, how often have you been to a library in the last month? That should give you the part you need to know, so whilst the article gives us “AI companies looking to build better AI models are hungry for fresh data from any source that isn’t the internet. Books — generally better edited and more cogent than your average Reddit thread — make AI sound smart. (There’s a premium on books published before 2022, ironically because we can’t be sure if books were written by AI after that date.)” as well as ““legally-binding nondisclosure agreement” that would hide an AI company client’s “identity and strategy.” Why? ISBNdb explained: “Destroying millions of books evokes images of burning libraries … the optics problem is real. ‘AI company destroys two million books’ is not a headline that generates sympathy.”” But in all this, are they breaking any law? If that is not the case, why get fussy about it? For the sold book is revenue for the writer and the publishing house, so the issue remains, is there permission to reset a book to a digital format? Because that hurts the writer and the publishing house in their pocket and lets be clear. Writing is a commercial enterprise. In doubt ask JK Rowling. Apparently “She earns an estimated $60 million to $80 million per year from book royalties and digital sales alone, with total worldwide sales for the Harry Potter series surpassing 600 million copies and grossing over $7.7 billion globally” giving us a clear view that she made more than the writers of the bible, which is said to be “a collection of 66 books written by about 40 different human authors over a span of roughly 1,500 years” and I leave you to wonder how many of those 40 writers ended their lives in the poor house (just to make a point).

And then we get to the part that (kinda) impacted me “But Anthropic was caught, and has admitted to using millions of pirated books to train Claude. That class action lawsuit, in which a record $1.5 billion copyright settlement was just approved, also revealed the scale of Anthropic’s physical book-destruction operation. Anthropic “became convinced that using books was the most cost-effective means to achieve a world-class LLM,” wrote U.S. District Judge William Alsup in a lengthy legal order dated June 2025. The company was “not so gung-ho” about using pirated material from 2024 onwards, to quote a memorable internal email in evidence, but still wanted to train Claude on “all the books in the world.”” As such, as I did write over 4000 literary (an exaggeration to be sure) works. Not the number, I am now at 4100 articles, so where is my money ($5M post taxation would be decently nice and highly appreciated) and there is clear view of the transgression, no one reads 1700 stories in an hour, it just doesn’t go well for the brains (not even my brain and I wrote the stuff) But the issue remains, and there is no clear setting. Is there ‘policing’ on the scanned works? Is there a copyright issue? Because that matters. If that issue does not exist, why are we crying over a book no one has read in years, optionally not read in decades?

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

So have a great day and feel free to dream about burning all the books you have to keep warm today, or even warm up your mother in law to 451F. 

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August 7, 2026 · 03:28

UAE making Japan bigger

OK, a little exaggerated but it sounds true, which is what the Japanese Times tells me (at https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2026/08/06/uae-fund-data-center/) where we see ‘UAE fund weighs $6.3 billion AI data center investment in Japan’ Japan has approximately 250 data centres, making it a top 10 player in data centres and now that the UAE is setting the funds for “Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment would lead the investment into a 500-megawatt project in Akita Prefecture, which may include other foreign and domestic investors, the person said, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public. Once completed, it could become the largest data center in Japan. The talks with the Gulf state underscore growing global interest in securing critical AI assets in countries viewed as relatively insulated from geopolitical tensions.” In addition we are given “Total investment surrounding the project, including by suppliers and other companies looking to establish operations nearby, could reach as much as ¥2 trillion, the person said. A consortium of Japanese companies would likely handle construction and related infrastructure, they added. As U.S.-China tensions escalate and wars in Europe and the Middle East reshape supply chains, Japan is increasingly viewed by global investors as a stable market with relatively low geopolitical risks.”

That all makes sense and for the UAE to diversify its coffers makes perfect sense to me, so as the article ends with “Tokyo’s policy has rendered some substantial results. Major chip firms including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Tower Semiconductor and Micron Technology have invested billions of dollars in the country in recent years. The oil-rich UAE, meanwhile, has emerged as one the leading global investors in AI and its underlying infrastructure. State-backed investor MGX, a joint venture between Mubadala and G42, has been a key vehicle through which Abu Dhabi bets on AI. MGX recently completed its acquisition of Aligned Data Centers, which has an enterprise value of $40 billion, alongside BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Platform and the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership.”

As such we might come to the conclusion that the UAE and in specific MGX is making headways in data centres and I can only speculate on the recent acquisition with BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners who now have taken over 100% of Aligned Data Centers from Macquarie Asset Management, as such I reckon that there are more settings to come and I can only speculate regarding the where and the why.

So whilst you mull over this tiny gem of information, I wish you all a good night, its now 03:25, so another 240 minutes until I get to enjoy breakfast. I wish you all a marvelous day.

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August 6, 2026 · 11:47

The coils are unwinding

That is a setting, it is not the stated setting, but the larger brief was already seen by me in a few ways. As such Antara News, only three hours ago, I was given ‘Indonesia, Saudi Arabia sign MoU to boost direct foreign investment’. For clarity (to some) Antara is the state owned news agency of Indonesia. And they give us “The agreement was signed on Tuesday (August 4) by Indonesian Minister of Investment and Downstreaming/Head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Rosan Roeslani and Saudi Arabian Minister of Investment Fahad bin Abduljalil Al-Saif. According to Minister Rosan, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia share a close relationship built on mutual trust, respect and long-standing people-to-people ties. This partnership is now expanding into various strategic investment cooperation to generate concrete economic benefits for both nations, Rosan said in his statement on Wednesday (August 5). Between 2021 and the first half of 2026, the Ministry of Investment recorded that Saudi Arabia’s realized Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Indonesia reached US$126.2 million.” And it was no surprise as I wrote about this in my views on November 30th 2022, I saw it months before that and we see that Saudi Arabia is making its move to get to the hearts and minds of 273 million muslims. As I see it, Al Arabiya, stc tv and SBC TV will now move into a ‘new’ area and there is a lot to be had, if your explode Saudi TV interests. And I saw this almost 4 years ago. I had some IP connections to this idea, because when I have an idea I tend to mull things over. Now we see “The partnership also outlines mechanisms for private-sector consultations, joint investment promotion campaigns, expert delegation exchanges, and technical knowledge sharing. Furthermore, it serves as a platform for strengthening institutional coordination between the investment authorities of both countries.” As I see it, this implies that Huawei and Saudi telecom and broadband streaming idea are about to make a larger inroad into East Asia. I reckon that the north of Australia and its Muslim and Indonesian population might like this as well. 

So as we see the ‘investment cooperation’ take a larger intern, there is a decent chance that telecom and TV upgrades will be coming to places like Djakarta (aka Batavia), Surabaya, Bekasi, Bandung and Medan soon enough. OK, I admit that this is speculation, but so far the ideas I had are playing out just the way I envisioned. And whilst the US economy is dead set on (fake) AI and investments are spinning out of control, all whilst too many sources are giving that no return on investments are due until at least 2029, there is every consideration that the investments of Saudi Arabia are merely a year away, and with this I mean the break even point. After that it is decently pure profit and it gets better after that. With Indonesia, Pakistan has little option but to follow that wave and Saudi Arabia get the setting from Haql to Jayapura and I am guessing that Pakistan doesn’t want to be left out, so it would join that fraternity of voices. In 4 years Saudi Arabia went from  13400 km to 11,635.03 km, as I see it, Saudi Arabia is about to become the dominant voice in South East Asia, so whilst we will be getting some BS approach from the United States about how that doesn’t matter, consider that the reach of Saudi Arabia almost went from 100% of Saudi Arabia to the stage where 1000% of the Saudi voice is being reached. And that is before we consider that they can now reach half a billion Muslims, as such Al Arabiya will be wielding a considerable bat in baseball terms and slamming that ball over the equator is what matters in telecom terms. Now consider that Saudi Arabia had a MoU with Egypt in stc as well (I believe it was 2024) and now consider that Saudi Arabia can now reach from southerns EU almost to western Japan, so do you think this is mere weakness? With Huawei it will put a stopper on all the BS that the United States with their anti-China were giving and now we see how innovation works. It doesn’t go for the wannabe technology of optionally next decade, it goes for the places that everyone is overlooking tomorrow and Saudi Arabia was there from the start. Alas no coins for me, but to see innovation elevate itself whilst these so called captain of industry are marginalizing the settings they don’t care about is a joy for the eyes and the mind. 

And all this was out in the open from November 2022. I know that because I wrote about it, which is the little sidestep of any blog, it gives (written) evidence about what seemingly is, not some TV channel who belittles what they have to in some morning TV show, because that is how miscommunications start and that is where these so called captains of industry tend to hide and often it is behold the small statement “There was some level of miscommunication in this”, so that is how they get rich? Now we see that Saudi Arabia is actually gaining wealth, because all this comes with advertising according to Islamic rules (I honestly don’t know this rules), but I feel certain that it will go according to the rules Indonesia has and whilst these people are less and less impressed with western baloney, Indonesia will now be able to advertise towards population that it does want (implying Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Qatar and the UAE). All this was out in the open and as I see it, Yesterday Indonesia made the next move in achieving that (as written in Antara). So you all have a great day and consider what other revenue is lying on the floor ignored by the powers to wannabe, because it just isn’t AI.

 

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August 5, 2026 · 20:42

Wrong footing?

This happens, we all get our footing wrong, even I. As such I had my ‘ideas’ about Ahmed Mawlana, nothing bad. But whilst we see ‘Has the UAE’s meteoric rise reached its limit?’ Which is given to us by the Middle East Eye (at https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/has-uaes-meteoric-rise-reached-its-limit), so Ahmed Mawlana is a researcher specialising in International Relations and Security Affairs. He holds an MA in international relations from Sabahattin Zaim University in Istanbul, so as I see it, he is no grocery wannabe. And I am fine with that. So as we see “In less than two decades, Abu Dhabi has transformed itself from a relatively low-profile Gulf state into one of the region’s most assertive powers. How did a country of around one million citizens acquire such an outsized regional role? The UAE’s rise is linked to its ability to capitalise on successive regional crises, beginning with the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, accelerating with the Arab Spring, and gaining strength amid Washington’s declining engagement in the Middle East.” He ends the article with “Ultimately, the principal constraint on the Emirati model is structural. The UAE possesses immense financial resources and an extensive network of international partnerships, but it remains a small state with a limited citizen population and little strategic depth – making it difficult to sustain prolonged regional crises, or to confront larger powers directly.”

I get what he write and there is logic in this, but I also see what the UAE has achieved and whilst I was never there, YouTube has been very vocal (it’s YouTube creators) to show us all what the UAE has achieved. In support of my way of thinking is the Reuters article that gives us ‘UAE non-oil growth hits four-month high in July, PMI shows’ (at https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/uae-non-oil-growth-hits-four-month-high-july-pmi-shows-2026-08-05/) where we see: “The United Arab Emirates’ non-oil private sector grew at its fastest pace in four months in July as new orders climbed to a ‌five-month high and export business rose, a business survey showed on Wednesday.” As I see it, the non-oil part is essential here. We see the growing tourism and service settings. We see additional maritime growth and that is merely the beginning. The UAE has a lot to gain in all this, which is why I have ‘issues’ with the setting of Ahmed Mawlana. He might be correct, but the term “meteoric rise reached its limit” can be explained in a few ways. One of them is that the stellar growth might be gone. I don’t think so, especially as tourism can still grow a lot more, but that is possible. Still as we see Real Estate and tourism grow, there is still the difference between strong growth and meteoric rise, so whilst the second has reached its peak the first one is still within the grasp of the UAE. Personally I think it is becoming time to make Iran extinct. A shameful thought to have, nut they did that to themselves and I created 4-5 military IP’s to make something according to that need happen (I am more of a surgical instrument) why kill when you can destroy their abilities and commodities so they destroy themselves. I am at times that simple.

So whilst we get the setting that Reuters gives (just a few) 

  • Firms linked this to easing regional tensions and stronger activity across the Gulf.
  • Employment returned to growth after June’s steep drop.
  • Business confidence weakened for a third straight month to its lowest since March.
  • Backlogs of work rose at the strongest rate in four months, reflecting firmer demand and freight congestion.
  • Input cost inflation edged closer to April’s recent peak.
  • Firms raised selling prices again, but only mildly.

Which is also slightly debatable. For instance we see “Business confidence weakened for a third straight month to its lowest since March”, which I accept as one of the given facts, but at this point I wonder how that confidence level is when compared to the US economy setting of the United States? This question is formed as Al Jazeera gives us ‘Why did the US economy slow down?’ (at https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/8/4/why-did-the-us-economy-slow-down) where we see “The US economy slowed more than expected, but it’s not because Americans stopped spending. So what really happened? The answer lies in how economic growth is measured, and America’s massive investment in artificial intelligence”, yet the other (not given fact) is that players like Deloitte give us “While broad corporate spending is skyrocketing, tangible financial returns often take two to four years to materialize instead of the usual 7 to 12 months for standard tech” and I have a problem with that. Some sources give us “Studies indicate that up to 95% of early generative AI pilots struggle to show a clear positive financial return because tools are deployed without changing underlying workflow” and I see the class actions forming and that is messing with the RoI (Return on Investment) as well. All this is making the US Economy not a volleyball but a paintball at best and anyone who gets hit by its paint is heading for stormy weathers (not the girl), although the effect are the same, but not as pleasurable. In all this, there is optionally a cause for not seeing meteoric rise but strong growth is still on the table, no matter how muddy the United States administration makes some ‘facts’ look. And in all this, I till see plenty of options for the UAE, I merely think that they need to go of the AI horse. The AI is lousy and all AI is Fake AI (as I personally see it), so why bury yourself in 3-8 years of turnaround (I definitely disagree with the Deloitte numbers. I reckon that the UAE has a better setting throwing themselves on actual programming and creating stuff that has the turnaround time of 7-12 months. Let big tech break their teeth on tech that is over a decade away. They might survive, others will not and I do not trust the settings that the United States are throwing out there. Too much of it is not validated and as I perceive it not verified in any way. The UAE has actual issues to face (that terrorist state Iran) and holding their coffers in a 3 to 8 years wait state is no solution. 

Perhaps I am seeing this wrong, these fake AI have real options, ML and DL are great tools (I use the term DML as they are combining the two) and I have seen great solutions, but that setting in a 3-7 years setting is not a real solution. Consider the issues that some are reconsidering idea that are out there ‘How Commonwealth Bank and Microsoft are reimagining the future of customer service’, which I see as nothing more that the setting that NICE and CX One already have. So whilst that is happening. I wrote ‘Two paths to similar stages’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/03/30/two-paths-to-similar-stages/) in March 3022, so it is not a last minute idea. There was more, and in light of the Tourism settings in both the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the idea started to form to have a Muslim solution (I meant Arabic) that industry is exploding to a larger degree whilst they are all pushing American solutions which are not 100% covering Islamic rules and ideas. That should stop and I saw an opening for the UAE and Saudi Arabia to get one solution in the field that would fuel both nations, optionally Qatar, Egypt, Pakistan and a few other places. So whilst Microsoft had this inflated idea with “CBA will work with Microsoft to drive greater customer benefits through wider adoption of generative AI (Gen AI) and ongoing cyber security initiatives” I saw this idea 4 years earlier whilst not using AI, because it would be decades before we are there. 

Just thinking out loud. Have a great day today

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August 2, 2026 · 15:54

Considering the greed of others

This is where I found myself this morning. You see, I have published over 4000 articles and others have been Ising them to train their fake AI systems. Training LLM settings and so forth. As such (and according to law and at https://hwlebsworth.com.au/feeding-the-machine-how-us-courts-are-drawing-the-line-on-ai-training/) we see ‘Feeding the Machine: How US courts are drawing the line on AI training’ where we see “The accelerating development of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has forced courts to grapple with novel and unsettled questions of copyright law. Central among these is whether the use of entire copyrighted works to train large language models (LLMs) without the author’s consent constitute infringement of those works.” Which works in my favour and it comes with “The datasets used to train AI models often contain digital copies of media such as web pages, books, videos, images and music. These media are often the subject of copyright protection, which means that their use to train AI models requires permission from the copyright holder. Permission is required because AI models must ‘copy’ the protected material at least temporarily to undertake the training process.” You see, from May 11th until now my articles have been used for ‘AI training’ at least 33,750 times and a lot more before that. As such I see an opportunity for me, myself and I (as such I am a sneaky trinity) so as we are given “The Interim Report then went on to discuss Australia’s ‘fair dealing’ regime, which allows certain uses of copyright works without the need for license from the copyright owner, but only for certain specified purposes, such as research or study, criticism or review, or parody or satire. The Interim Report seeks feedback on expanding this regime to include fair dealing for the purpose of text and data mining, which could more squarely legitimise AI training activities in Australia.

Where the Australian ‘fair dealing’ regime only applies to certain permitted purposes, some other countries, such as the United States (US) have a broader ‘fair use’ doctrine, under which any use of copyright material may be permissible provided that it is considered fair, without reference to legislatively-permitted purposes.” So, as I see it, money should be coming my way. And as the article in HWLE lawyers state. The setting of “In June 2025, the US District Court for the Northern District of California issued two decisions in Bartz v Anthropic PBC (Bartz) and Kadrey v Meta Platforms Inc (Kadrey), that directly addressed this question. While these rulings suggest that US courts may accept fair use as a defence to AI training, their scope is narrow. Both were decided at the summary judgment stage, and as the Judge in Kadrey noted, ‘the consequence of this ruling is limited […] to the rights of these thirteen authors‘. Accordingly, the significance of these rulings remains provisional, with the scope of fair use in the context of AI training to be more clearly defined as further cases are determined.” So, to get it clear, those are American judgements, but they have a much broader setting of ‘fair dealings’ then Australia has and my thought process is a little bit in the setting of “You can either hand me a generous settlement, or if needed I will get it through the law”. The second setting s long and optionally tedious. But as I am looking at closer to 50,000 transgressions the taximeter starts adding up. Now, I have no faith in 50,000 times 1.5M, which would be nice, but is ludicrously unrealistic. But the idea of $25,000,000 per corporation seems realistic. You see

“In Bartz, Anthropic the developer of the ‘Claude’ LLM, assembled a centralised digital library of books containing both lawfully acquired works, scanned from purchased physical copies, and unlawfully obtained works downloaded from unauthorised torrent websites. Authors alleged that their books were included without permission and were used both to train Anthropic’s models and for other purposes. Alsup J considered the two uses separately, ultimately holding that the use of works for training constituted fair use. However, Alsup J found that the use of pirated copies to build Anthropic’s centralised library was not justified under fair use, rejecting Anthropic’s argument that such copies should be treated as training data, and denying summary judgment on that issue.”

And:

“In Kadrey, Meta trained its ‘LLaMA’ AI models on datasets including those obtained from ‘shadow libraries’ such as Library Genesis and Z-Library. These datasets were downloaded via torrenting, incorporated into the training process, and discarded thereafter; unlike Anthropic, Meta did not maintain a persistent digital library. Thirteen best‐selling authors alleged that this constituted copyright infringement on a class‐wide basis. Chhabria J also found the training to be fair use, but adopted a more cautious approach, observing that ‘future evidence of substitution or harm to licensing markets, particularly where works are unlawfully obtained‘ could warrant a different conclusion.”

So we get to “While both courts concluded that the training uses fell within the scope of fair use, their reasoning diverged in certain aspects. Alsup J emphasized the transformative purpose of training and discounted speculative claims of market harm, whereas Chhabria J stressed the potential for market harm arguments and evidence to alter the analysis. These decisions have no binding effect in Australia, where there is no general fair use defence. Nonetheless, they highlight the emerging tension between protecting incentives for human creativity and facilitating technological innovation; a tension likely to intensify as generative AI becomes further integrated into creative and commercial practice.”

As such, I felt really good this morning. As this shows that I might be heading to a nice bank account. And as it happens to go (source: AP News) we get “A federal judge approved a landmark $1.5 billion copyright settlement requiring Anthropic to pay thousands of authors roughly $3,000 per book for using pirated digital libraries to train its Claude AI model”So as I see it (a flawed analogy) 50,000 times $3,000 get me $150,000,000 which sounds really nice. I reckon that this is where the art of seeing the diplomatic bounty comes into play. It seems that more than one transgressed on my work and would it be so wrong to go for $25,000,000 per transgressor? Of course, the long road would be more rewarding, but that seems like a greed driven way. I feel more for easy (well rewarded) solutions. And there are upsides to entering retirement with a somewhat fat wallet. Retirement comes across as a lot more fun that way. 

But I am getting ahead of myself, next step will be getting an impartial party (what a weird name for a lawyer) to check Grok, xAI, Gemini, Anthropic, OpenAI, MetaAI, MicrosoftAI (always happy to knock coins out to their coffers), AWS AI (and others) to see whether their training data reveals the presence of “www.lawlordtobe.com” because that starts to process as I currently see it.

Well, that mental joyride was fun to have, but I did say the class actions would be prudent in 2026, I might as well join that cause for the benefit of poor little me and I have caused. I might be one of the people that refers to a church mouse as a decadent rich bitch. One must always keep humour about the premises.

Have a great day.

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