March 20, 2023 · 00:23

Two sides to anything

Yes, there are two sides to anything, there is their side and there is your side, then some say the third side is the truth, but that tends to boil over to both other sides. What matters is what we need to believe and in this day and age this is getting harder and harder.

The issue is the CBC article ‘U.S. ran secret probe into China’s operations in Canada, new book alleges’ (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-dragon-lord-probe-book-1.6783063) here we get to two issues. The first is not if it is true, we can merely assume that this is the case. The issue is that this is an event that started 30 years ago. So was there no aftermath, was there an investigation, and were protocols upgraded? We are given “The book says the project, code-named Operation Dragon Lord, led to an unnerving takeaway: that Beijing’s activities in Canada represented a security threat to the United States”, now we do get that Americans are good at tall tales and not just when phishing, it happens with a rod and with other equipment too, but if there was a real threat this threat wasn’t just for the USA, it would have impacted the Commonwealth via Canada and Canada as well, so where is the follow up? But then we get the most damning of all quotes. With “Canada was aware of these threats for 25 years and has allowed them to manifest” we see Scott McGregor, a former RCMP intelligence official give out the lash in no insignificant way. There is the thought that politicians are merely late to the party, but that would be wrong. Something set this off and there are a few scenarios that come to mind. If someone told me that MY country was being used to spy on the US and my name was David Vigneault, the first question in my mind is not what are they spying on, but ‘What are they spying on here?’ And that is the larger stage, from that statement we get to the implied thought that Canada has been overrun by sleeper agents and deep cover installations that have been creating a cover for decades. So how many Chinese people came to Canada since then? I do not know the answer and out of 100 perhaps 1 is the fishy one, but these people have been able to apply a cover for decades, good luck finding them now.

Then we get “The five-page memo says the American probe examined this alleged alliance of convenience between Beijing and criminal groups” merely 5 pages? The fact that there was a memo is not the setting, the mention that it was 5 pages is a concern, 5 pages over 6 agencies implies (not proves) a minor work that is little more than a homework exercise. I cannot tell how much of a danger China is, and with the wok seemingly done on it, neither can you.

The BS document by the UN on Khashoggi was at least 106 pages, as such they hid their BS in ink, China wasn’t given that courtesy with the 5 pages the semi-interested parties took. Weird eh?

Lets be clear, we spy on them, they spy on us. That has been a given fact for a very long time, as such I am not overly bothered, but the idea that a local intelligence agency is dragging its feet for decades is concerning, not merely because of China spying, but who else has been spying on us and we merely shrugged? Now we see more and more Russian actions all over the place and we see very little action against these people and now we do have a problem and that problem is likely to be seen all over the Commonwealth. I have no delusions that they are alone in this, they are likely the first one to be found dragging their feet which is not good. So what happens next? I reckon that is known when the CSIS reports to parliament this Monday, and that is the earliest when we learn what will be next.

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March 19, 2023 · 01:32

The quick fortune

Yes, that is how it starts, and there is one little snag. There is no such thing as a quick fortune, not for anyone. On the other hand, it gave me the idea for a new movie called ‘The cure is so much worse’ a nightmare of the most horrific kind, but more about that later. 

The BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64939146) gives us ‘Thousands may have lost out to crypto trading app’, and I wonder just how stupid people are. You see, when I am given “Trading in cryptocurrencies has become popular, with people often promised large rewards over short periods” I see a red flag, a really big ref flag. If I have something that makes me so called rich overnight. I do not share it, well perhaps I share it with the two best friends I have and only after I have gotten a nice payout, so that I know that I am not setting them up. It is that simple. Its like these house scammers In Sydney almost a decade ago. Housing was so short that people started advertising apartments for sake via Facebook and a few other sources. If I know of an apartment for sale, I send a quick message to my dearest friends and no one else. Because an opportunity like this, I either use myself, or hand it to a best friend who will owe me a solid. With digital currency it is different, I trust none of them and even if The Saudi government or a place like Kingdom Holdings pays me an initial ₿2000 (for my IP) the first thing I do is to go to a bank and transfer it to a dollar number in my bank account. Bitcoin might have some reputation, but I do not trust it, I trust no form of digital currency. Then we are given “She says she lost hundreds of euros when she invested in iEarn Bot. She asked not to have her identity revealed as she fears her professional reputation might be damaged. Customers buying the bots – like Roxana – were told their investment would be handled by the company’s artificial intelligence programme, guaranteeing high returns”, so we aren’t even buying an app, we are buying a bot, more red flags, the there is the AI reference, an issue that does not exist and that list goes on. Then we are given “In Romania, dozens of high-profile figures, including government officials and academics, were persuaded to invest via the app because it was sponsored by Gabriel Garais, a leading IT expert in the country.” This person Gabriel Garais was apparently duped as well, some IT person. 

And then the curtain falls with “iEarn Bot presents itself as a US-based company with excellent credentials, but when the BBC fact-checked some information on its website, it raised some red flags. The man whom the site names as the company’s founder told us he had never heard of them. He said he has made a complaint to the police. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, alongside companies such as Huawei and Qualcomm, are all named as “strategic partners” of iEarn Bot, but they too said they have no knowledge of the company and they are not working with it.” This also holds the third red flag. You see iEarn implies an Apple product, so why was Apple not all over this from days one? There might be a solid reason, but this gets me back to Gabriel Garais, as an IT person he should have known. 

This reeks like a Ponzi scheme menu and the setting and the spread implies organised crime of a new kind. Whether it is Russian, Korean, Chinese, or even American does not matter. When you can spread to this degree things get noticed and when people are getting scammed the lights go on nearly everywhere, as such the mention of 800,000 people in Indonesia and no one raises a brow? It does not add up. But the BBC went further. This is seen when we see “On the website, the company does not provide any contact information. When the BBC checked the history of its Facebook page, we learned that until the end of 2021, the account was advertising weight-loss products. It is managed from Vietnam and Cambodia”, OK, that might be true, but these pages can change hands like a snap from a finger and no contact information is the largest red flag. 

I get it, there are vulnerable people and they are seeing that pensions are coming up short, they see the promise of quick cash and I get it, some are falling for the trap, but the stage of Common Cyber Sense should have been on the forefront of their minds. And finally we get to “With the help of an analyst, the BBC managed to identify one main crypto wallet that received payments from about 13,000 potential victims, for a profit of almost $1.3m (£1m) in less than one year”, so 13,000 people gave someone over a million dollars in one year. When we consider what Indonesia is setup for, this seems like a low estimate and the news goes from bad to worse. You see this is now, when the national 5G networks go live, this amount gos up buy a lot and it will be achieved in under a week. I said in 2020 that the law was not ready and it is still not ready, moreover national police forces do not have the resources or the manpower to stop this and this is what organised crime is waiting for, it would help if the law was ready, but it is not and this is going to get worse. 

Getting back to the idea, it is still evolving, I need. Prologue to make the start, but the setting is nearly done, and to get this in the open I would need an actor, nothing like Ryan Reynolds (or Hugh Jackman). This is deep dark, people will step into a dark room to see a light (compared to my setting) as such I need a proper dark actor. Perhaps even a woman like Eihi Shiina. She scared the hell out of me in Audition (1999), I was even surprised myself that I could have such dark thoughts. A movie that literally scares members of organised crime into their own basements and commit suicide? Yup, that might be a new Netflix (or Apple) hit.

Have fun and please do not fall for these kinds of scams.

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March 18, 2023 · 02:23

Retro engineering

This is a bit of a weird subject. It is not really that weird, retro parts are on top of our minds, well at least most of us anyway. And for the most it is in areas we normally have not that much of an outspoken voice to say the least. I started this thought as I woke up from a disturbing nightmare. I know it was disturbing in the way I woke up, as well as the fact that the dream is gone from my mind, it was gone the moment I woke up. This implies that it was unsetting in many ways. 

So the mind pushed me into different directions and that is where the retro mind pushed me. In computers the mind pushed me towards the MegaST. I always loved that one, I merely had the 1024STF (or something like that) and now we do not need the CRT monitor, but consider that this is the foundation of enough power for most of our daily needs and it still is. A 1991 released computer and it can do whatever we need and still could 32 years later. We all (including me) gave in to the BS of Microsoft and others. Then there was the old dream (definitely not a nightmare), you see if there is truth to that and Microsoft becomes obsolete in 2026, we will need alternatives and in that case an upgraded LINUX version for the 68000 makes perfect sense. We do not have to give in to the E-armistice race others are trying to push onto us. And lets be clear the 68000 was one hell of a graphic chip. Now this would give the field to Apple in a massive way, but for the most that does not scare me (at least if there is some truth to their streaming aspirations) and they will need an alternative path too, if thee is any hope of crushing Microsoft they will need a way to content with an additional 2 billion customers/households.You really think that the MegaST4 is such a bad run? Consider EVERYTHING you do now on it and consider whether it is possible on a 68000 (or 68020) now, for the most it is all possible and when streaming takes off, and it will, the push to buy a new and upgraded PC every other year will mostly be done for. I reckon the only really complaining part with be the bitcoin mining one and I reckon that group can be ignored for the most. And there will be competition, I don’t thing that this ill not be the case for one moment. At that point Sony will consider making anew PS5, sleeker and more refined to the needs of the household, not merely the gamer and it already has the power to do just that, it merely needs the interface to make that work and I reckon that it is not too far away as well. 

Then we get to cars, a subject I know next to nothing about. Yet here too Tesla has options. 

I personally always loved the Citroen DS90 (I know I’m dorky), but someone will figure out that the setting of these automated designs are over the top and someone will consider that the chassis of some retro cars are perfectly well, most of these retro cars cannot come back because the engine is not up to it, but with an electric car this goes out the window and the aging population can reconsider their first car yet again. And the DS90 has plenty of high points, the one thing it did not have is a lasting engine but the Tesla battery will come in handy at that point. Now that a car has a massively shifted interest. That car can now be safer, it can be more entertaining inclusive and it could be more desired. Lets face it, how many people go “I just love my Suzuki Swift?” They don’t, the group was specific, most were on a budget and most needed small space, plenty of them the second one more than the first and that remains an issue for a while. But consider where you are now, consider what is real and consider what makes you happy. Banks are bailing each other out with billions and at some point they will get tax benefits as well, billions they do not have to pay FOR you and they are happy, it is time to get some happiness back. Retro is one of those paths, we do retro things because they leave us with a feeling we missed. In clothing, in games, in stuff (like vinyls). It is time to consider the two elements that could add to this equation. Gaming and household items are one and we do not need to give in to the next Microsoft failure, no matter what spin they give it, cars is another. And these two have a following of billions. Don’t take my word for it, look around and see for yourself. When you overlook the dreams that we all have (me too), as the Bugatti Chiron is something I will never be able (or willing to afford), as I personally believe that a car at a million plus is folly on any given day with all the Karen’s and road rage moment out there, we get the sobering thoughts of what we always loved when we were young and a few models come out (in my case the Citroen DS90). And for these carmakers to return their golden choices as electric cars is the creation of another branch of what people actually want, no branding required and when some of them get back, they will introduce their first (or early) love to ALL their friends. A market that almost grows itself, like the almost forgotten MegaST, which could now easily become a MegaST128 (or 256 for that matter) and still be cheaper than that Surface joke at $2599. A market waiting for the right person to be captured, although the MegaST will need a massive OS overhaul, as well as an upgraded versions of Calamus/Pagestream, but here there is an upside, Adobe has parts of these for the 68000 as it is the old Mac version. Consider the Adobe suite which has nearly all we need, we merely need some kind of Lotus 123 version on there and our Homeoffice suite is ready. It takes that little and we add a few nails to the coffin holding the cadaver of Microsoft. Isn’t life lovely sometimes?

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March 17, 2023 · 05:23

Confirmation and standards

That is what I was confronted with over the last 5 hours. I got a message a little before that and we will talk about it. I mentioned it in my previous article. It connects to more, but that is not important right now. What set me off was the article (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2268696/saudi-arabia) where we are given ‘Saudi energy minister: Kingdom will not sell oil to any country that imposes a price cap’. In this I agree, even if it hurts me badly. You see the US has been crying on expensive oil, but the price is set as well by Brent oil, an American firm. One that has the BIGGEST production of oil on the planet.

So when we are given “Spare capacity and global emergency stocks are the ultimate safety net for the oil market in face of potential shocks. I have repeatedly warned that global demand growth will outpace current global spare capacity, while emergency reserves are at a historic low.” I have no other thought but to agree. This has been going on for the better part of 2 decades. No one was complaining when oil was $40, but the setting differs. The US will not buy from Russia (which makes sense) and neither is Venezuela an option. The Arab nations are united in getting the best deal FOR THEM, which is done on a global scale in many commodities, but oil is not the US point of trade, it is THEIR anchor, yet no one looks at Brent oil and what it does, weird, isn’t it? We have seen the massive need to drop dependency on oil and in 2 decades nothing was done. The blame is all on governments for not acting, then 5 years ago an optional sidestep could be made, but the US government pissed of Elon Musk, whilst giving a free ride to that previous Twitter owner, that Dorsey thingamajig. But the Media on a global level REFUSED to ask him the hard questions. And now that it is too late, now that we see that a battery change was required 3-4 years ago, the Governments (especially America) start crying like little bitches. 

When a well can pump 10 cups of water an hour, and there are at any given moment 25 people needing water, some will go thirsty and that setting has been clearly there for over 2 decades. Why was nothing done? So when I see “NOPEC refers to a No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels bill, proposed US legislation that could leave members of OPEC+ open to prosecution under American antitrust laws. The bill, which has been periodically proposed for several years, was revived this month by a bipartisan group of senators in Washington amid ongoing concern about high energy prices.” And here the thought “Are you insane?” pops up. In the first why is Brent Oil not mentioned? And it is so easily fixed. Saudi Arabia (Aramco) could deliver 20% less oil to the US and Europe and sell that to China, everyone happy, or not? It is not a concern for high energy prices, it is the bloody mess of inaction which can be clearly shown for well over a decade and when there was a solution, you pissed off the industrial that could have aided you. So how is that for stupidity?

The second reel
The second reel is different, it is not connected to oil, but optionally to stupidity (as I personally see it). I have seen now confirmation on two of the branches that this will work and due to a few changes, there would be a growing need for the third branch as well. For me it could be good, and could is the operative word as Google was asleep at the wheel and let it pass and Amazon doesn’t seen to be waking up to the billions they can get in this. At present my hope lies with Kingdom Holdings and one other party. That one might not give me the full price, but it is better than nothing, in addition, keeping Microsoft away from there is prime concern, they can only screw up the IP, blame others, point fingers and then refer to miscommunications. I can do without that. There is a small option that Apple might pick it up, but it is not really their turf, so I feel uncertain about that thought. So it is in some regard inverted from oil. Oil everyone wants, and seemingly my IP no one wants. I reckon that the first one that buys it and see what they stand to gain, at that point everyone will come calling, like a Credit Suisse banker with an empty wallet, but that is my weird sense of humour.

The idea that I am right is nice, but I have seen enough confirmations in several directions to know I am right, but that is just me. I still check all forms of verifications, not merely to proof that I am right, but to confirm I was never wrong. That too matters, because I am where banks and oil consumers needed to be, in a place of checks and balances, something both parties require very very fast.

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March 16, 2023 · 18:07

Oh boy, there was more

It all started 4 days ago when I wrote ‘I honestly don’t get it’. I comprehended the stage just fine, it is the lack of comprehension of greed, what people will do to fill their own pockets at the expense of everything and everyone. You see Basel III was published in 2010 after the first meltdown, it was extended to 2015 with extensions going as far as January 2023. So 13 years and the whining bitches (aka banks) still will not learn. SVB is merely one example and the actions by congress made perfect sense. Now we have Credit Suisse and the setting changes.

It now needs (and apparently just received) 45 billion to be ‘secured’. This is a little more than the national budget of Qatar which is 53rd on a list of national budgets with 228 nations with on last place Wallis and Futuna. To give you a better picture, it is twice the amount Oman has for its citizens, they are in 68th position. They need THAT MUCH money. The issue is that big and do not talk to me about journalists or those clowns at the ICIJ. They are all about their Pandora papers and what a joke they are. 

You see, I stated in the first article the Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) and now we see the BBC give us (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64964881) giving us “After Credit Suisse shares plunged on Wednesday, a major investor – the Saudi National Bank – said it would not inject further funds into the Swiss lender”, it matters and I will get back to this. In the mean time The Guardian gives us “The bank had been forced to delay the publication of its annual report last week after a last-minute call from the US Securities and Exchange Commission relating to what Credit Suisse described as the “technical assessment” of revisions to cashflow statements going back to 2019. The bank said those discussions had now been concluded” I believe it is more, I personally believe that was why Yellen got involved in day one. I think the SVB and others have too many bonds and they are not ready to mature yet and with interest up these things are making banks bleed money and they are bleeding a lot. You see, there is an estimated total of TWENTY THREE THOUSAND BILLION DOLLARS in US government bonds floating around and I reckon the SVB and Credit Suisse are now in levels of pain, they had too many of those. As such the outstanding part, not merely these two represent $23,000,000,000,000 and no one can cover it they are all stretched beyond thin. This is what I expect is happening and I warned for this as early as 2016, there is a point of no return and the banks are way past that. Putting your IP in the USA is about to become one of the most expensive jokes tech firms have faced in well over half a century.

Could I be wrong?
Yes, that is the case, but that can be tested quite easily. You see, if you make a tally of where all these US government bonds were and you set that tally in a mineable solution especially with pre 2016 and past 2016 when Dodd-Frank got cancelled you will learn a few things and this is what I saw on day one, but weirdly enough the media is not going there (neither is the ICIJ), so you get to wonder why.

Oil in the family
now we get back to the Saudi National Bank. In this I agree with Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman. Oil is a commodity, there is no cap, if you need oil more and more, you are working from the wrong business plan and if that relies on exceeding your budget by over 30 trillion dollars you get what’s coming to you. In addition I would add the Republican Party making small talk stating that they need to pull away from Ukraine, I lose the little sympathy I had left for them. The US has slammed Saudi Arabia again and again, in some cases with the assistance of a United Nations essay writer. There is only so much people will take. They had the option to help Saudi Arabia create a nations defence strategy, they bailed out and now China is there. They made fake promises and most were not kept and now we see banks asking Saudi Arabia (in Oliver Twist style) can we have some more please? 

As such we see event after event and now that things are on the rails, the train has speed and they just ran out of rails. This is early and before I expected it, but I never considered the impact of Russia being stupid and attacking the Ukraine, it merely escalated things. 

America has two options, does it become part of China or part of Russia. It seems that the Republicans want to be part of Russia, the rest I do not know, but we are now in the process of the final financial act. And my evidence? Investigate the CET1 setting of EVERY bank (especially the two in trouble) and then look at where the bonds are and how many of these bonds are/were with the SVB and Credit Suisse. I have no doubt they both have too many. Then consider Basel III and see how many banks hold up at that point. They were warned for 13 years, so let them rot, let them collapse and let the investors and share holders take the fall and live life in minimum wage. 

And in all this, too many of the media are all about flaming and not doing too much about it, merely pushing towards bailouts. That time has gone as I personally see it. 

All whilst the Australian Financial Review gives us a mere 45 minutes ago “The failure of Silicon Valley Bank has exposed fresh divisions on Capitol Hill over banking reform, as US lawmakers from both parties trade blame for the lenders’ collapse and squabble over future legislation to shore up the financial system” squabble on something that was shown 13 years ago. Still think I am wrong? 

Enjoy the money you have, there might be a lot less soon enough.

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March 15, 2023 · 22:13

Remembering things

This started when LinkedIn was the source of a question. I suddenly remembered another setting, I wrote about it (when is not important), it was around a year ago, but the part that matters is that this was something Adobe could have used in a number of ways (especially when it decreases the impact of Microsoft). The idea was… let’s start at the beginning.

Above you see the question that shook my mind.

Now take a look below.

Now we see a simple setting towards a project. There is some version control and perhaps Adobe upgraded that part, but too often we see people howl with despair when their version control gives out. USB and Laptop issues are the most common issues, but they are not alone and some go with cloud solutions, yet there are times when connections are lousy, there are cloud security issues, thee have always been cloud security issues and some have more than others, the latter side is that some people tend to rely on local versions, that is fine. Now consider the addition of blockchain to a project file. A file that keeps track of all versions and optionally with Adobe we see actions as well in each version. So now the initial question becomes a mere exercise. A project that gathers the versions and optionally puts them in one place. In this I still like the old DEC (Digital Engineering Corporation) who had VAX/VMS, in the late 80’s they already had version control. At the end of EVERY file there was “;xx” the x’s were a number, as such we could have 99 files called image.jpg. It would take decades for other systems to catch up, DEC was ahead of its time. Now this solution will no longer do and we need to seek alternatives, so how about an alternative use of Blockchain? OR a Blockchain like solution? In a previous article I took that to a whole new level, but that was then and this is now. It was a question that got pushed back to the front of my mind. 

I wonder if anyone else is on that bus ride. Have a great day and please stop crashing drones, they might only be $700K, but it is a waste of good material.

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March 15, 2023 · 01:23

An actual surprise

That happens to us all and to me about an hour ago when I was about to go imitate a sawmill when a tweet reached me. The Tweet came from Democratic Jeff Jackson, United States Representative since 2023 for North Carolina. And the tweet was worth it, I would call it the best political video I saw in years. 

It gives a clear concise and brief overlook of the Silicon Valley Bank situation and the actions that are in play. Now, I do have questions but not on the video, everyone should see that one. The video can also be seen on YouTube (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFo-AQ5aQm0), so watch this. 

This was about soothing and assuring people and that is a good thing. It was a one of the best surprises I have seen in years. Then we get to the Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/14/first-thing-global-markets-gripped-silicon-valley-bank-collapse) there we see
“The bank’s parent company, SVB Financial Group, and two top executives have been sued by shareholders over the collapse of SVB. The bank’s shareholders accuse the group chief executive, Greg Becker, and the chief financial officer, Daniel Beck, of concealing how rising interest rates would leave its SVB unit “particularly susceptible” to a bank run”, for this we have a few items and it is not the Simpson illustration even as that was a hilarious one (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovfap2VtpHM) and even to some degree on point even as Bart Simpson never went to the Silicon Valley Bank, the run shows that something set it off, in the case as I saw it, the bank trying to raise 2 billion dollars. Yet I still have questions. You see, I comprehend what happened, I merely do not understand it. I never understood greed (as I personally saw it). I raised the issue (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/03/12/i-honestly-dont-get-it/) with ‘I honestly don’t get it’, there I made mention of the European phrase CET1 (Common Equity Test), it was an essential step into Basel III. When the US (under non-leadership of the town clown Donald Trump) lifted the Dodd-Frank act which stopped banks take unnecessary risks, without that act these dangers are back and now it comes to the question as I also gave you in the previous article “mainly US government bonds” that is the setting of the question which is:

How many US government bonds did EVERY US bank buy since the Dodd-Frank act was lifted and I reckon that the SVB bought too many, but they are nowhere near the only ones and as such the US needs to look at these stages and what is required to set a decent level of footholds in place so that the US banks can pass some level of Common Equity Test. Now, there is every chance that this list of banks are limited and that is OK, but remember that a run on two banks nearly started a new financial crises, which would close to immediately sink their economy. And make no mistake, I was a Republican once and I cannot stand this level of stupidity, so the Republicans get to wear that cloak of shame, all thanks to the Trump disaster creation team. He took such great pride of dwindling down Dodd-Frank, now let him face the fallout too.

The action was great, the question remains, but that is for another day, for now this administration needs to avert a new financial crises, and they seem to be doing just this. The end will not be known until early next week I reckon, but that is a pure speculative timeline.

Have a great day!

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March 14, 2023 · 19:40

The weird class

Yup, although I wanted to write about something different, this stuck with me. It was a nightmare of sorts and Google was in the middle of it (of sorts). There were 2-3 settings. 

Astronomy
In the first setting I was in some kind of school, a high-school I reckon. It was an open assignment given on the spot in Astronomy, We were to ascertain where we were. We were given facts, just outside of a large city, there was Mars who was in ascendance and a second planet that was in ascendance. The question was ‘Where were we?’ I saw all the other students go into calculus mode, creating tables and so forth. I merely asked Google (Google was not of any assistance). I entered the coordinates as they were given to me, but the answer did not come back. From what I  gathered the answer was in Turkey, no idea where more important, the dream kept on telling me that it was a very specific tree, and the teacher had some hidden reason for the question, but I could not figure it out.

Then I sort of woke up, or better stated, I was pushed into a new situation.

Photo mode
I got a ‘notification’ that my picture was old, really old (I don’t like to take pictures of me) and I was invited to some Google treasure hunt. The treasure hunt had Mario features and looked like a top bottom view. I was running (just like in any other game) and at some point I made a turn and a hidden path opened up as one piece of wall vanished for a mere second. I was suddenly in a dimmer corridor that opened up in a hall and there were the diamonds and in no time I had a completely filled bag with diamonds. I got out of the hall and the game ended and I looked up. I was in some kind of common room. I started to talk to a young man and started to explain why I did not like to ‘upgrade’ my image. The background setting was too unrealistic, it was too flat ad it made me look unnaturally 2D. He talked to a woman for a moment and she tapped on her tablet the interface looked like nothing I ever saw and the interface had the google colours. In that it was a different kind of Gmail. She asked if someone could push a single user copy to my account for 2 months (it did show my account) of something called ‘SEST’ or ‘SEEST’ so that I could experiment with it. She told me that this might give me much better results and she ended the conversation.

This was the moment I woke up and wondered what on earth was going on. That was a little over 30 minutes ago. I have no idea what it was all about, but my head kept saying that it has relevance in some way. Is it something new, is it merely the idea and parts of something I have been working on? I cannot tell, but that is as flaky as my head works today. It cannot have been the food, I merely had a salad for lunch. 

It was the astronomy that weirded me out the most. I never took Astronomy and even as I understood what was being said (the limited mathematician in me) I had no idea what I was doing, the tables looked surreal to me, so I turned to my trusty android and Google, but neither was any help. Now that I am awake, I took another look and found ‘AstroCartoGraphy – Mars Ascendant Line Stories’, that wasn’t exactly what my mind was seeking, but there were things that seemed connected. I think I was looking for a Google map that could be overlaid with two line settings (like the one I had) and when we add a date (which we knew from the assignment) two sets of lines appeared on the map and when we take the specifics of the lines a location comes on the map. That is what I think it was (I am NOT an astronomer). But why I had the thoughts and why the dream is telling me it is about a specific dream beats me, but perhaps I get some clarity in a few days, I merely typed it now before the brain forgets I had the dream, it will, this always happens over 2-3 days. The more disturbing the dream, the quicker it fades from my mind.

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March 13, 2023 · 22:05

The first letter

Yes, sometimes the connection between articles is merely the first letter, it is what connects Aramco and Amazon. I had several articles to look at but they both started with the first letter. The first article is about Aramco. 

Aramco
The article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64931074) gives us ‘Aramco: Saudi state-owned oil giant sees record profit of $161bn’ in this, I can tell you right upfront that there are days that I have nowhere near that amount in my wallet (weird eh?) Even as we are given “Aramco rode the wave of high energy prices in 2022,” said Robert Mogielnicki of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. “It would have been difficult for Aramco not to perform strongly in 2022.” We might think all kinds of things, but the one that matters is missing. You see, the world removed Russia as a delivery agent of Oil and after that the choices were rather slim and Saudi Arabia was a natural first choice. But then we get a small stab. It is seen with “Aramco – the world’s second-most valuable company only behind America’s Apple – is a major emitter of greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change”, which might be correct, but was it not America and England begging like little chihuahua’s to deliver more oil cheaper? Would that not be a contributing factor to the emissions? So when I see “Responding to Aramco’s announcement, Amnesty International’s secretary general Agnès Callamard said: “It is shocking for a company to make a profit of more than $161bn in a single year through the sale of fossil fuel – the single largest driver of the climate crisis.”” Another partisan response from everyones United Nations joke Eggy Calamari. The individual who seems to be a Saudi hater right of the bat, like her best friend who is a Guardian ‘investigative’ journalist named Stephanie Kirchgaessner. I have written several pieces in this in the past. You see, Eggy can yap like the chihuahua she is all she likes, but lets see what happens when Aramco lowers output by 20%-30%, what BS ballad will she utter then? And towards the Guardian, like the BS articles on private jet owners. The Environmental report a little over 1 year back, when we were given that 50% of all damage came from 147 facilities in Europe, who of them spend any time looking into that? 147 facilities creating 50% of the damage, now that does not put Aramco in the clear, but they are not alone in creating climate issues, but leave it to these two individuals to spin BS. In the meantime lets see what happens when the Saudi government decides to shut the valves if that Calamari individual does not clean her act. Just a thought. Then we get “Saudi Arabia is the largest producer in the oil cartel Opec (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries).” Now this is true, yet the larger truth is that Saudi Arabia is not the greatest producer in the world, that is the USA by a fair amount. As such the Calamari shit becomes a debatable issue on a few sides. As such we need to consider what the Saudi government does when it had enough, when they close the taps by as little as 5%, there will be widespread economic issues for both the US and EU, as such we need to start looking at the actual image, not the image from some hating dodo in the UN building. 

As such in the first yes, Saudi profits are up and the war has something to do with that, but mainly because people stopped buying Russian oil, so how much more oil did Aramco sell because of that? Oh and tanks are expensive they need 3 gallons per mile, how far does one tank go? Now consider that Ukraine has over 400 tanks. That implies 1200 gallons per mile and the war has been going on for over a year. They are not guilty, neither is Aramco. Russia started that event and they are still playing that game. So when we take a look at the bigger picture, Aramco has a commodity that everyone needs, everyone wants and most of them desire. Prices go up especially when Aramco has 100,000 barrels per hour (simple speculation) and each hour people are trying to buy 125,000 barrels. It is a simple economy and it as in place for several decades. So stop whining like chihuahuas and either come with an alternative, buy less oil or shut up. That is my simplistic view on the matter.

Amazon
The second article touches Amazon. I saw it (at https://www.thegamer.com/nobody-wins-if-amazon-luna-succeeds/) it was a debatable article from beginning to end. I have personal connections here, as such, I am a little biased. The title ‘Nobody Wins If Amazon Luna Succeeds’ was like a red flag to a bull. It is wrong on many levels. You see we all win when Luna succeeds. Luna is the beginning of a new stage in gaming. Streaming gaming can up the ante for gaming in many ways, I have written about it several times. It allows for much larger games, it allows for more versatile games and for an evolving game line. Now this is all possible on a PS5 (a console I love), but only in limited way at present. Nintendo cannot go near this because it is limiting in other ways. Still the Nintendo Switch is a system I love and now that Metroid Prime remastered is released I play it a lot more than anything else. That too is gaming. After 21 years Metroid Prime is just as addictive and beautiful as it ever was and I still claim that no FPS can get near this game, this game is a reason to buy a Switch, even as aSony fat with my PS4 and PS5 I make that claim. Gaming is seen in many stages and many ways and the Luna is merely the next wave towards gaming. The next issue is “Amazon Luna and Google Stadia have the same problem – there simply aren’t enough games to guarantee success” that is a mistake that both Amazon and Google had, I set the premise to almost guarantee 50 million subscriptions (one essential rule comes into play) and they had the option to win this, but Google dropped the cloth and evicted the stage, now Amazon has the option to rule it all alone with plenty of games too, so whomever is making that claim (a Tessa Kaur), she is not looking at the field, there is a lot more and some makers had a starting advantage, but apparently they squandered the advantage and now indie developers could end up with the larger stage. So as we get to “It’s the same with game hardware – they’ll discontinue the PlayStation 4 one day, I won’t be able to repair it when it gasps its last gasp. That will be that, all my games will be unplayable.” We get the first element. The article mentions NOTHING about Microsoft, why is that? Yes, they will discontinue the PS4 at some point, yet at present I will have had a PS4 for well over 11 years and several of these games can be played on the PS5, so I could have that one game for another decade, that part is missing too. The element also missing is that any streaming system will need a proper 5G connection, in many cases there are issues with 4G and 5G is still in a deployment stage in some countries a hell of a lot more then in others. The other element missing is that streaming gaming sucks in rural areas which amount to well over 35% of Europe. We do not see that either. I believe that the Luna is the next generation and with a fully deployed 5G it becomes a hell of a lot better and when developers start thinking of streaming as the ultimate goal, not some game that ALSO plays on the Luna, the game changes a lot more in favour of the Amazon Luna. Streaming is the future and we are only seeing the start of it at present. Microsoft is making their Xbox cloud gaming claims and they are hopelessly lost. Even as they are betraying their population, even as their consoles are not getting it done, they stand to lose a lot against Sony (console) and Amazon (cloud) and that is their real fear. Google might have bailed, but that doesn’t mean that Amazon will too, they actually have a few additional options that they might not have considered yet (speculation on my side). And that is where Apple comes in. If Apple (in their own way) starts in this field, Amazon will have a tough opponent. Microsoft is hopelessly lost and when Apple comes into play they will be doomed. But that is for 2024 I reckon. So far I have faith that Amazon will deliver in the end and create forward momentum in cloud gaming. They need not spin anything, they merely have to create the titles and the population, a setting they have a better hand on then Microsoft ever did. But that is merely my view on the matter.

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March 12, 2023 · 22:23

I honestly don’t get it

It started early this morning when I saw ‘Silicon Valley Bank: Regulators take over as failure raises fears’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64915616), now I have never denied my lack of economic knowledge and these Simple Voluptuous Bobo’s should know a hell of a lot more than I do. So when I read “a key tech lender, was scrambling to raise money to plug a loss from the sale of assets affected by higher interest rates. Its troubles prompted a rush of customer withdrawals and sparked fears about the state of the banking sector. Officials said they acted to “protect insured depositors”.” You see, this left me with questions. Bankers should know this stuff, they should know about margins and leave room to spare to take a breather when things tenses up. So when I read “The collapse came after SVB said it was trying to raise $2.25bn (£1.9bn) to plug a loss caused by the sale of assets, mainly US government bonds, which had been affected by higher interest rates.” When one bank needs to cover losses to the effect of more than 2 billion dollars things go south fast, yet it was that one part “mainly US government bonds” that send my non-knowledge off flying. You see the US has a debt of well over $30,000,000,000,000. Is this the first signal that the US debt is buckling banks? I honestly do not know that, I am asking. You see, the fact that I see “Concerns that other banks could face similar problems led to widespread selling of bank shares globally on Thursday and early Friday” supports this. That does not make me right, I simply do not understand this setting and the setting that it merely happening to one bank. Then we get “US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she was monitoring “recent developments” at Silicon Valley Bank and others “very carefully”.” One bank goes the way of the Dodo and she wakes up? This does not make sense to me. Especially when other banking Bobo’s (read: fat cats) are not responding to this. Then we get “The firm, which started as a California bank in 1983, expanded rapidly over the last decade. It now employs more than 8,500 people globally, though most of its operations are in the US.” Now this makes it not the smallest bank, but we also see that HSBC shares fell 4.8% and Barclays dropped 3.8% that ain’t hay. This implies that either the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) is a lot larger, or the bonds are taking a massive dive and I wonder is this the beginning of the end for the USA? 

I am not telling it is, I am asking if it could be. We see the sleep sussing by people like Alexander Yokum and we get that, but consider that this hits one bank that needs to secure over 2 billion. Did they buy up way too much bonds and how many banks have bonds and how much bonds do they have? So when I see “Silicon Valley Bank would not have lost money if they hadn’t run out of cash to give back to their customers” did we not see a similar setting in 2016 in the wake of the LIBOR scandal? Perhaps they are two different things, but I remember something on Basel III, it was about stress testing and liquidity requirements. It was something with CET1 (Common Equity Test). I only know about it because it was a big thing in a program called Clementine, people were all over this and a program called Clementine was bought by SPSS and it became SPSS Modeler (later bought by IBM). So I saw the emails pass by, but it was not on my plate and this was a decade ago. So in a decade someone ignored the Common Equity Test? That is what it looks like to me and I will admit that the article has limited information and this is not the case, but this landed on the desk of US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen? One bank? She wouldn’t even read my love letters (her glasses are too thick), so this one bank has her attention? Things do not add up, but that is my take and there is every chance I am wrong. Yet I saw a few articles and no one seems to be asking questions and that seems weird to me. 

Still my brain is asking, is this merely the first sign that banks are anchored to the titanic as American bonds are dragging these banks down. And the SVB is merely the first one as it had too many of them. I am ready to be called wrong, but the media isn’t looking very active. I do not care, I have been in a haze of achievement with my 8 IP’s and the fact that both Gucci and Tiffany are driving in my IP minefield 9 months after I published my stories on Augmented reality. I was in a daze of happy feelings and a bank that is not on my continent did not worry me, but HSBC is, so the puzzlement came back and the surprising nature was that one bank should not see the reactions of Janet Yellen, she is too big for one bank, as such my worry started. Was this the beginning of a lot more?

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