December 2, 2022 · 19:04

Would you like some sugar with that?

I got a message yesterday which I initially ignored. Nothing wrong with the message, but I can only go to so many places in an hour and this message stretched me too thin, as such I let it be. Yet this morning I had a few moments so I checked out the message from Defense One. It gave me ‘US Trying to Persuade More Allies to Send NASAMS Missiles to Ukraine, Raytheon CEO Says’ (at https://www.defenseone.com/business/2022/12/exclusive-us-trying-persuade-more-allies-send-nasams-missiles-ukraine-raytheon-ceo-says/380382/) the thing triggered something, but I did not exactly know what was triggered. I thought I knew, but it was too far into the past for that to make sense. Yet the article set me straight. Initially we might see “U.S. officials are working to broker a deal with NATO and Middle Eastern nations to send some of their NASAMS interceptors to Ukraine, Raytheon Technologies CEO Greg Hayes said Thursday”, it did not help me much and “the Pentagon awarded Raytheon a contract for the first two NASAMS batteries. The company delivered the interceptors within six weeks, Hayes said, because it had many parts on hand and because Doug Bush, the Army’s top weapons buyer, helped speed things along.” So I had to seek out more information and there the other cog fell to the floor. NASAMS or Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System is the child of the Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA) and there the cog felt. It is a system from 1980. Kongsberg is led by Eirik Lie (weird name for an honest person). And there my defence knowledge partially kicked in. I knew of it, but that is about all I had. The Norwegians had designed the system to replace two Nike Hercules facilities in defending Norway’s southern air bases, where it would act in conjunction with F-16s in providing a layered defence, and that it did very well. I reckon that the engineers are proud as peacocks that this system can go to town on Russian missile systems 42 years later, there is no replacement for true innovation. I always said it and here you see it. OK, it was upgraded to a third version in 2019, but still it was tailored to a good design. And now we see Raytheon seeking assistance (of a sort). Here is also the problem I see. If manufacturing is a hard part, there are two sides to helping out now. What if this was Russias plan all along? What happens when Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, Oman, and Chile ship what they can ‘spare’ and a week later Spain and the Netherlands feel the brunt of running low on stock? I am not saying that this will happen, but the steps of Russia have to a larger extent not made sense and the pro-Russian coalition of the Dutch FvD will use that setting to every extent and that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. 

An alternative could be to assist Saudi Arabia with their 2030 goals and create a NASAM production facility there. If distributed manufacturing is a solution, creating an additional pool of manufacturers would become essential. In addition, the US and EU need every positive vibe they can muster as such the option has two benefits. Adding these solutions to Germany, Sweden, Denmark and France make perfect sense as well. When that happens we see five additional manufacturers, but that is not a short term solution, Ukraine needs missiles now and 2 years is too long. Yet with 5 additions, 2 years would be shrunk to 13-15 months, already a large saving. Now sending part of the needed missiles makes sense as there would be 5 additional creators. I see the simple setting that resources are required, then we see the manufacturing and after that shipping. The last part has plenty of options, the first two less so, although we can see that manufacturing is the bottleneck, Russia will soon see that if these 5 nations unite, Russia will end up having less and less options. And that is before we consider alternatives, You see Iceland has only 4% unemployment, but it might be reason to create another plant on the US base there (or next to it) which could create up to 2500 jobs. As such we see six options, is it a solution? I honestly do not know, but when the waiting list is two years something needs to give and it would be nice to see this before Russia gets to be creative with their missiles, ask Poland how that worked for them. The EU (US too) needs to act now, but merely getting others to send what they have might not be the safest path, not with current timelines. That is how I see it and if someone says I am wrong, I will not deny that my idea was completely ‘ad hoc’ and it would require scrutiny, but what would you do when you get told that anti-missile solutions are two years away? Especially when you consider what Russia is doing to the civilian population of Ukraine?

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December 1, 2022 · 22:10

The games we desire

We desire games, we all do. In Star Trek we were once told “the more complex the mind, the more essential the need to play” (Star Trek, season 1, episode 15). I always embraced that. Gaming was my large escape and I have enjoyed it for decades. Yet the foundation of gaming changed after the Playstation 2 came (and all other systems). Gaming became big business, people with business degrees got involved and soon it went from art to business needs. Gaming suffered and it has suffered for quite some years now. Micro transactions is merely part of it. The larger stage was that art was taken out of the equation. This is why games like Elden Ring, God of War, Horizon Forbidden West are such successes. They embraced art and artsy sides to a much larger degree. This is the reason why places like Ubisoft went from great to below mediocre. There are the games that will always have appeal because of secondary reasons. Sport games being a clear first example.

When we look back to the days of Bullfrog, there was almost no game we did not desire, art was the driving force and it drove our needs deliciously and amazingly. Consider Populous, Flood, Populous 2, Magic Carpet (1 + 2), Dungeon Keeper and some (including me) still worship those times, those games. EA went and created some exploitation version of Dungeon Keeper. Yet they could repair the damage, and they are running out of time. They will need those who played the original to give rise to the next generation. They now require credibility. And it is not the weirdest idea. Six games that represents millions in revenue. Some can be re engineered, yet the larger setting will come from re engineering driving evolution of the game. This reminds me of another good Ubisoft game (they had a few). It was Conquest: Frontier Wars, the review gave it (for the most) 78%-88%. I would set it to around 85%, a game that makes the gamer want more. And there was another side, you could set up a battle game with two other Computer players and you had some options. What was important, you could spend hours in a new galaxy again and again, with two other races, each with intelligence settings. Now what if that concept is remade and also remade in games like a remastered Magic Carpet, Dungeon Keeper and Populous. Three games that were initially less than 1MB and could optionally keep gamers busy for years. That could spark a new wave of gamers and that is what the streaming services need, fresh blood and returning blood. And the need to play will draw them in. You still need decent games, and I just handed them 6 of them. Well, handing is a stretch, EA has the rights as far as I can tell, but consider that Yesterday I handed the option for 50 million gamers and consider that many games never get anything near that amount. I reckon that my solution with the additional games is a step into the direction of the number I predicted. That solution still needs the first phase, but without the second and third phase it will never grow to the degree required or is that desired? And there we have it, a stage we grow and a stage we create by looking backwards. The six games I mention are most likely IP protected, yet The Commodore Amiga had 2198 games, The Atari ST had a little over 1000 games, close to 10,000 games, If we rate from the highest and look at 10% we get to 219+100+1000 we end with 1319 games and that is if we merely look at the highest 10%. Now some will have protection, but not all will and there is the solution for streaming systems. Upgrade what was and get more people feeling the joy of gaming, not the challenge of some flawed Assassin’s Creed Valhalla game. Even now we get ‘The final Assassin’s Creed Valhalla update has launched a week early’, the fact that it is for some systems 13GB does not lead to questions, the fact that the game was released on November 10th 2020 is a much larger issue. It is over 2 years old and still requiring patches. It is one of the reasons that streaming systems will win over time. But a system that has good games will endure a lot longer and the games from the old systems remain superior to many of the games released today, not all, but a lot of them. It sets the need for more play, and Streaming systems will deliver there. 

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November 30, 2022 · 23:07

Girdle your loins

Yes, it is time to commit to a promise, yet to do this you need to understand a few things. This all started two years ago when I had an idea, we all have ideas. Yet in my case, the idea was nice, but not ready to be acted on. The basic stage was to lower islamophobia and I believe that educating people does that. In this case it was staged as a game. The idea was sound, but I am not a programmer and places like Google and Amazon tend to be away from their desk when the return on investment is not clear. 

In the mean time the idea grew and grew. In march of this year a few demo’s were released containing the Unreal engine 5 and that was a game changer, the aspect and the population for my solution changed, moreover the application evolved massively.

Datapoints

Data is important and at that point the equation changed and I had to elaborate on data. As the application of a solution changed, so does the data requested for the new approach. 

As such I had the following data points

Turkey 84 million
Egypt 102 million
Pakistan 220 million
Bangla Dash 64 million
Indonesia 273 million
Iraq 40 million
Saudi Arabia 35

Which represent 914 million of the 1.9 billion Muslims. The Muslim population represents between 20 and 25 percent of the global population. In addition Islamophobia is more outspoken now than it was during the Crusades and at that point we were trying to kill each other. 

It was becoming clear that Muslims need a safe space and both Google and Amazon were seemingly not interested. Even the Kingdom Holding Company was not responding to the offer. The offer was a solution that will get 50,000,000 subscriptions, which is actually the easy part. But I will get to that soon. You see close to 50% of these Muslims will never go on the Hajj or a pilgrimage, most cannot afford it, some will never get the lottery. That is not anyones fault, the numbers of Muslims living outside of Saudi Arabia are just too big. So they will never see the splendour of the Grand Mosque in Riyadh, they will never see the Mosque in Medina where the Prophet himself taught. And this is where the Unreal engine version 5 becomes a game changer. 

Part one

Part one is the Islamic part. The two mosques in detail via the Unreal engine 5. You see, this becomes now no longer some video game, but a setting where you walk through a video of these places, true to perfection and when the times are there, you can hear the sermons. These sermons are already digital, they merely require plugging in. Now well over a billion will be able to see the majestic and greatness of these places and over time more Mosques could be added. The people who could never visit these places will be able to see them in more detail than ever before. Yes, you can see them on Youtube, but they are video’s of a person seeing what that person wanted to see. This is a place equally true to life, but now at any given moment you can look around 360 degrees, see the ceilings and see the place you could not visit, optionally not ever. 

Part two

Part two is the gaming side. People love games, all people do. And now a site would exist where Muslims could play, optionally play together and not be harassed all the time. The games are actually the easy part. Everyone is looking forward and create something they hope everyone will like. But when you look behind you, you will see hundreds of games created between 1985 and 1998 on Atari 800, Commodore 64, Atari ST and Commodore Amiga. Hundreds of games, many without any IP protection and yes, the graphics need upgrading, but in case of many games that is as much as is required, the rest tends to be simple as these games worked on 64Kb (512KB in the latter two cases). And that is before you start looking at adding Chess and Checkers games, board games and a whole lot more. It should be relatively easy to create 12-24 games a year. One alteration is an old game called Defender of the crown. In those days it was huge and awesome, but if you make it defender of the faith where the setting is not England, but Jerusalem, where the attacks are not a simple mouse click, but close to specific attack machines like they had in those days. Let the gamers see how hard it was in those days (see the movie Kingdom of Heaven for details). There are a few more of these alterations and you get a whole trove of games that will entice gamers from 12 to 81. And it might be possible to get twice as many games a year if you create 2-3 software houses. So many games forgotten could receive a second lease on life. After these exercises these software houses will be ready to create new and specific games for a Muslim population. 

Part three

Part three is the social media side. Not based on Facebook, but based on Google Plus or Cocoon. A closed system and it makes sense. Muslims have family, they have friends, friends from the mosque and they are not connected, some of these will be in all three. By setting these groups apart and taking out marketing we return to true social media and here others cannot harass you, if so those people get removed as this service comes at a price. There will be an option for Marketing, but. It can only offer it in certain places. It cannot splash everyones profile like Facebook does, it is the price of a free system. 

Part four

The last part is pricing. I envisioned a stage of $10 a month and $99 a year (two months free). That stage can easily get the controllers of this system 50 million subscriptions, I believe that 400 million subscriptions is possible, but initially not much higher and it would take two years to get there. I also believe that when the system has over 100 million people the price could be lowered from $10 a month to $7.50 a month or $75 a year. 

So that is why I was laughing out loud when we saw in ‘Repetition or Confirmation’ on November 13th 2022 “its Xbox Cloud Gaming program had attracted over 10 million players spread over 26 countries since opening its beta up a year prior.” My plan get me 50 million over 6 countries. My laughing out loud now makes sense, does it not? 

The plan takes on new life as a player like the Kingdom Holding Company could buy the Google Stadia from Google as they are dropping it, as long as it supports Unreal Engine 5. What starts at a nominal 5-6 billion could grow into a $40 billion system. Muslims are fed up with the harassment and American big-tech is not doing anything successful. As such I created a path towards safety. I offered it to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but they were not interested. So you tell me, am I delusional or did I see what no one else is seeing? 

And there is more, Amazon has distribution centres in three of these clusters, so adding a server park there would be relatively easy and with the 5G systems faltering having satellite locations is important, it sets the bottleneck to the local cluster. All simple constructions that Google and Amazon should have been ready for and they are not. 

As such I am making this now Public Domain and you can see how the big boys (Amazon and Google) were blind for the longest time, they are all contracting their workforce and when someone laces this system the others will ALL lose market share and this player will grow into a power player. So there!

What am I losing? Well, I was hoping for a Canadian Passport, a loaded debit card (or an envelope with cash for initial expenses) and $50 million post taxation in a Canadian bank and I would be able to retire. I had hoped for a second pay cycle of 5% of the revenue for 15 years, but that is no longer realistic. And I feel happier making it public domain than giving it to an idiot like Microsoft.

Good luck and good hunting!

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November 30, 2022 · 11:06

The Kay Pea equation

There is a setting I have skated on a few times. This is not the first time I raise it, but I feel strongly about certain options. A first was a puzzle I enjoyed. It came with a book. The story was a murder mystery, but there was no solution in the book. The added part was a jigsaw, the image would reveal the actual culprit. I had 6-8 of them and they were fun. But it was something someone (I do not remember who) made on the Commodore 64. They were Kinetic Puzzles. To explain that is simple. A jigsaw is the puzzle made from an image or photograph, I still enjoy jigsaws with some regularity. A Kinetic puzzle is not based on an image, but on a film clip, hence every puzzle piece is always showing you part of the clip and it makes for a somewhat ore challenging puzzle. The weird part is that this should have been on the eyelids of Netflix from the start. Movies are their bread and butter, what better that a puzzle that represents a clip from an upcoming movie? The solution tends to be the same, edges first, then you work your way in and when the image on EVERY piece is in motion, the challenge is soon felt and endured. Marketing through a game, it would be the cornerstone of Netflix and even as the puzzle part is not the hardest part, putting this all in a puzzle is still a challenge. But they did it on a Commodore 64 with a mere 38Kb of RAM. As such evolving towards 4K puzzles is not a leap of technology. And this came to my mind again as I was crossing the ‘i’ and dotting the ’t’ in the equation that is coming. Inversion is in part the name of any game and it helps when you are your own devils advocate. So when they consider this and add the simple Jigsaw part, Netflix will have a whole score of puzzles and the fans of movies will enjoy a game that reflects their passions. Streamers had this option from day one and some did not go in this direction for all kinds of reasons, but were some of the valid? They might think so and I am not debating that part, but what about the audience you are addressing? Did you think of them? Are they not your consumer core? 

Did you think that a Netflix customer might not like a puzzle regarding the Batman (who looks a lot like some famous Hufflepuff student), or any league of other heroes or villains? I wonder what these bosses were thinking when they pushed people out stating they needed super cool games, was a better question not ‘A game that could appeal to our core clients’ The KP or Jigsaw will not do it alone, but people will always return to something they enjoy, especially when they are fighting the hours, at that point they will revert so something simple like Chess, Checkers or Puzzles. And with an additional mode that is not seen anywhere, this might be an Initial solution all might fancy. Perhaps the idea of adding books to the jigsaw equation should have been on Amazon’s mind. There is not a soul who does not know what a Jigsaw is (aka puzzle) and they go back to 1760, a very long time before the house of Pong made its entry. Did anyone even consider to cater to puzzles to create awareness? Netflix has been in a prime position for the longest time and they never acted on it. They have the largest arsenal and they left it untouched, weird, is it not?

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November 29, 2022 · 15:04

You are not Tom Cruise

I was confronted with an article on ABC (at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-28/daniel-duggan-held-under-restrictive-conditions-in-prison/101705510) We see the emotions, we see the indications. But there is a side that ABC is avoiding. The former Marine pilot Daniel Edmund Duggan has a problem, I cannot say if it is due to himself or not. Yet an explanation is required, the ABC was not giving it to you. You see we might all dream of becoming another Tom Cruise, being a fighter pilot and roaming the skies. The smallest of all groups get there, it might be a slightly larger group than those dreaming of becoming an astronaut, but not by much. We want to fly the beast machines, be the beast with Jennifer Connolly (Paul Bettany got that winning ticket) and be a scoundrel of the skies. We all (including me) have had that dream. But there is another side. When you become that one person you also are given unrestricted access to the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor and its $26.2 billion in Intellectual property and the US need to keep it under wraps as much as possible. I do not think that they will allow for a person like Daniel Edmund Duggan or any other person for that matter to hand over IP and IP related knowledge that is owned by the United States Defence department. That side the ABC left untouched. Now, in court that will require evidence and the chance of $26,200,000,000 getting handed over to China is not what the US (or its allies) will react kindly to. Now, there is no evidence that $26 billion will be handed over, but in the same setting if a pilot like Daniel Edmund Duggan hands over knowledge to an ally, the US will grudgingly stand still, when it goes to a US appointed adversarial like Russia or China, the US will NOT stand by. I get it, what I do not get is that the ABC left you in the dark and merely focusses on “Mr Miralis said it was unprecedented to have an Australian citizen with no criminal history placed on inmate restrictions akin to people who had been convicted of terrorist offences and multiple homicides” Well, we accept that and the Lawyer needs to give a best defence, but the stage is that China is recruiting and it is recruiting people like Duggan and there are billions at stake. It is not handing over the specs, it is handing over the weaknesses of any US aircraft he has ever flown, all the knowledge, via brother pilots he got access to. There is a definite risk for the US, I get that and as it was American IP, Duggan definitely has a problem. If he was in the US it might not have gone that far initially, but he became Australian, as such there is an issue and ABC should have told you that. The fact that he worked in China does not help any. It does not matter if what he did was completely unrelated or harmless. He had access to top secret information on US airplanes and ABC did not inform you, there is something called balanced and we get it, there are moments where we are less than balanced, but to leave such a large setting out of the equation is rather dumb, but that might be my take on the setting.

I have no idea how this works out, but people better figure out that there is a new storm brewing and when it hits it will hit to a much larger degree. The US is pretty much bankrupt, it has no exit strategy to get rid of 30,000 billion (30 trillion) in debt and things are getting worse. Soon the US treasury will depend on whatever IP they have and reduction of values of such nature will not go over well and these people signed papers, not unlike the official secrets act. I did not, so I can inform you on the simple fact that Director Richard Moore of MI-6 is now 59 years old and 347 days younger than me, so there! 

Alas, Daniel Edmund Duggan had to sign such a piece of paper when he became a US Marine Pilot. That is what is getting him into the proverbial hot waters.

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November 28, 2022 · 16:42

When anger rises

That was the setting I faced today. Now, we all get angry at times. It isn’t always a set stage where we can see what comes, but I felt definite anger when I was confronted with ‘US soccer federation removes Islamic emblem from Iran flag to support women’s rights movement’. 

The article was given to us by SBS (at https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/us-soccer-federation-removes-islamic-emblem-from-iran-flag-to-support-womens-rights-movement/qn9s1hy3s). Now lets be clear, I tend to be anti-Iranian most of the time, in any disagreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, I personally tend to side with Saudi Arabia. I have shown that here on this blog a few times. So what the fuck does the US soccer federation think it is doing by mutilating a national flag? I am no friend of Iran, but their flag is their flag. So, how are Iranian Muslim women supported by removing the Islamic symbol of Allah? Can someone explain to me why a yank, any yank becomes that bloody stupid?

The article further gives us “the move supports protesters in Iran ahead of the two nations’ World Cup match. Iran’s state-affiliated Tasnim News Agency said the Iranian Football Federation will file a complaint against US Soccer to the FIFA Ethics Committee for “disrespecting the national flag” of the Islamic Republic. “In an unprofessional act, the Instagram page of the US football federation removed the Allah symbol from the Iranian flag,” said Iran state news agency IRNA. “The Iran Football Federation sent an email to Fifa [football’s world governing body] to demand it issue a serious warning to the US federation.”” So when we get “The intent of the posts was to show “support for the women in Iran fighting for basic human rights”, US Soccer media officer Michael Kammarman told a news conference on Sunday. Players were not consulted on the decision to alter the flag.” It comes across as stupid and shortsighted, especially as the US decided to cull woman’s rights to choose which was scrapped by the supreme court in Roe v Wade. So how about we delete the American eagle and replace if for some bloody pigeon? Sounds about right, does it not? So, when I see a collection of people all about women’s rights whilst they ignore it on home ground it comes across as massively insincere. I wonder how many Iranian women would have supported the removal of the Allah symbol from the Iranian flag. I believe not that many, if any at all. On a side note, that change also implied that Iran is now part of  North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany, which is has a green white and red flag (no symbol). So which idiot thought they were thinking things through? I believe none of them, it sounds more like islamophobic acts against Iran preceding the soccer match, which will come with a few more problems for the US as I will show later this week. 

America should be ashamed of itself after this stupid stunt and this time around I will stand on the side of Iran in this matter (which is rare to say the least). 

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November 27, 2022 · 19:09

It starts with options

Come to me in the vacation. I will explain what happened. I will take these of your hands for now. With that Olivander vanished and left Dan and the professor to go to Hogwarts.

It was snowy, it was dark, it was windy and it was wonderful. Dan always enjoyed the Christmas time. He quickly send an owl to his parents that he would be delayed by at least a day as he was expected at Olivanders. And as he entered the shop Olivander looked up with a big smile and quickly changed the sign at the door to ‘closed’, he then beckoned Dan to come to the back of the shop. There were two goblets with warm wine. Dan looked puzzled at Olivander. Your mother told me, I went to see them and told them I would be seeing you.

So lets start at the beginning. You are as far as we can tell a Wand finder. People with that gift are rare, very rare. Some become wand makers, some become wand merchants. All wand makers are wand merchants, not all wand merchants are wand makers. Some fix wands but that is part of the training you will face as my apprentice. We need to see how far your skills go. It is not an easy path, but there is always need for a Wand maker, there aren’t too many of us left and my apprentice went to the north. He was good, but nowhere near me, too hasty. You could surpass me, as I am not a wand finder. 

A wand finder connects to wands, or better stated the wands connect to you. They only do this when their masters are gone or no longer sensed. Dan looked at Olivanders in some puzzlement. The wand choses the wizard, this has been a truth for the longest time. But the wand finder has the ability to see the best wood, the best ingredients and in some cases, they can retrieve much better quality goods. How far your skills go is not known and we might not know that for some time. But first things first. There were the 23 wands from the match, and there were 47 wands from the train. We found the owners of 15 of the wands. And only 12 of the other lot, but that seek is going on, which makes for a total of 52 galleons for you for the wands that were reunited with their owners, and also, he went behind the counter. A small silver goblet. It is quite exquisite. It has properties. If a poisonous drink is poured in this goblet, it lights up green, if the drink is not poisonous, but is harmful, the goblet will get a yellow shine. Dan looked at the goblet with some amazement. He had heard of protective cups, but this was the first time he saw one. Olivander continued. The man was happy to leave this to you as he was getting old and he has no family left, getting his wand back meant everything to him. Dan stared at the goblet, it was small, it fit easily in his hand and when he stared the cup seem to have a glow of sorts, there was almost invisible etchings on the inside of the cup, like elemental symbols, but not symbols he was familiar with. He nodded at Olivander and placed it in his messenger bag. Olivanders gave him the 8 wands from the match. These two are now dead, as such the wands are now attached to you until you get some skills. We will focus on those in the near future. The other 6 I was unable to find yet, 4 of them have the traits of a Bulgarian Wand maker, I did send him an owl, but the man might not give response soon, so we place them separately. The 35 remaining from the train are a bit of a problem. I am not getting response from these people. Most were first year Hogwarts students. The wand was not clearly defined and more importantly most of them got a second wand that year. So we need to wait a little longer. They might not care to get them back as they got connected to their new wands. 

Dan nodded.

Olivander looked at him. I want you to attend classes here in the new year during vacations. I am lucky, Flitwick is quite the charms expert. He will train you in splicing Yew wands, the easiest want to splice. He handed Dan a handful. These 20 wands are empty, be careful with them, because they still take time to make. You will do this in Hogwarts to see how you fare without your skills. Flitwick will teach you splice and unite spells and see how you handle this. Some of the wands will not survive, but that is how you learn, try to damage as few as possible please. 

Dan nodded, put the wands away and responded “Thank you master Olivander”, Olivander looked up with a big smile. I have not been called master Olivander for such a long time, it feels good to hear it again. What will you do now? Dan looked at the treasure he had. Gringot is my next destination, then home.

A Goblin by any other name

Dan walked into Gringots, and walked to the end. The Goblin looked up to Dan. Alone today? Yes sir, I would like to open a deposit box for personal storage. The goblin looked at him. It is one galleon per year, but you have a large family vault? Dan looked at the Goblin “I am now the apprentice of Olivander” I will need access to my own space for now. The Goblin nodded. Fee is one galleon per year, that is the fee all large vault holders pay. Dan placed a galleon on the desk. The Goblin took the coin and handed it to a clerk. He will show you the goblin who will take care of your box. Dan nodded and followed the clerk to the side. A goblin in a pristine suit looked at him. He listened to the clerk and took the coin. He stated that he could not access his box until the arrear was settled, Dan nodded. Can I pay ahead if I so desire? The Goblin nodded. Yes, that is possible, you have a year to pay the next year. A moment later a box roughly 60 by 30 by 10 was delivered. “Wand please” the Goblin asked. The wand was examined and placed on the box for a few seconds. Then the wand was handed back to him. Now perform any spell on the box and Dan whispered “Avis aspectu” and the box lighted up for a second than faded again. He opened the box and took his coin purse. He took a few coins out and placed the bulk in the box and closed it. The goblin looked and asked him to try the spell again “Avis aspectu” and the box lit up again. He could open the box and he saw the purse, he closed the box again. He saw the clerk moving towards the box with a cart. Dan picked up the box and placed it on the cart. He then looked at the Goblin. All done now, the Goblin responded. It normally takes a few minutes to get your box. Dan nodded, he nodded at the Goblin and clerk and left the bank. 

He walked through Diagon Alley. He had never done this with 4 galleons that were all his. He went into the bookshop and got another potions book he would need coming year. He had seen a small golden cauldron, but it was 45 galleons, he could afford it, but he had no real need at present. He was not that good a potion maker and even as Snape was approving of his potions, he could see the frown on more than one occasion. He would wait with that a little longer, but he did like making his potions and they almost always worked. He walked on and moved towards the exit he usually used to walk into London. It was there that he waved his wand to fly back home and the conversation he would need to have with his parents.  

And that is how my part of the story ends. It is not my IP, as such I have no intention to continue, but the dream i had was vivd as such I felt the need to write it down, perhaps it serves someone, perhaps not. It was fun to write.

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November 26, 2022 · 22:31

The choice that was pushed

It was a late afternoon Dan Weigh was walking down a meadow, he was on route to a quidditch match. He did not attend many of these matches, but this was a world cup and he was able to get a ticket, well his father was. It would be Bulgaria versus Ireland. He had no real side in mind, merely that he was attending a match, and a match of this level he had never watched before. He checked his ticket. It was close to the end of one field, the side Ireland was on. He watched in some amusement how the people were green and white, or red and black. There was shouting all over the field and everyone was having a good time. He saw a stand where they were pouring drinks. It was hot wine with nuts. He loved that, he got the knack for it in Stockholm in winter, so he went over and asked for a large goblet. It was two extra sickles, but he got to keep the cup. He reminded himself to get two cups more so that he could give his parents one as well. He was sipping the drink which warmed him up. He was also tasting a distinct flavour of pumpkins, it made it even better. There was a barrel on the side an he sat on it sipping his goblet. He remained watching the people and recognised a few people. Some from Hufflepuff, 2 Slytherins, yet he did not recognise any one from Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. There was a decent chance that they wee painted in the colours of ‘their’ team, so recognition was not going to be easy. He got another goblet and placed the empty one in the messenger bag. The lady serving him assured him that they would be there at least a day after the match. So he got his goblet and walked to the game area. He saw the sigs and walked to the area where he would be. As he walked he saw another person, well two at least. They were the Malfoys, Slytherins. He ignored them, he never liked the kid and his father was important in the ministry, he did not need that kind of attention. He followed a few dozen people all going his direction, all Irish fans. A couple looked at him and smiled, he smiled back. They walked on and he followed for a while until he noticed a sign and turned right. /He saw his seat and sat down. There was still at least half a cup and he quietly drank it. Then the match began.

The match was amazing, these people had broom skills that were very next level. He had never seen that level of skill at Hogwarts. He was a decent flyer, but nothing like that Gryffindor seeker Potter. That guy was already a legendary broom flyer in his third year. There was more, but he shook it off. He got his spyglass out, it had a few basic functions, it could freeze frame and rewind 10 seconds. It had belonged to his grandfather and he loved his spyglass. He also knew that there were more advanced options nowadays, but for one match it was not worth the investment. He wasn’t a miser, he merely needed to see return on investment, or at least the promise of one. Until the end of the match he was hooked, Bulgaria got the snitch, but Ireland still won by 10 points. It was an amazing match and like others he walked to the exit. He was back on the field and he walked straight to the drinks vendor and got his third goblet. He went back to the barrel and sat on it, slowly sipping his drink. He sat on the barrel, enjoying the warm drink, it wasn’t cold, but it was a little more nippy than earlier that day, the darkness was about to set in when he heard shouts, he heard chaos. Then he saw the men at the far end. He had seen these outfits before and it filled him with dread. They were death eaters. He took the last gulp from the goblet and put the goblet away. He grabbed his wand. He knew a conceal charm and performed it. He vanished from the eyes of others and looked around. He now had two problems. The first was to remain unseen. The second one was that as he was concealed, he was not seen and others could run into him knocking him over. He moved between the back of tents. Less likely to run into people. He saw the explosions, the wand waving and chaos. He then noticed a small child. He ran over grabbed the child who was in shock and moved back to the back of the tents. He performed the concealment charm on the child as well. The child now saw him. He pushed his finger to his mouth and the child understood him. “Where are your parents?” The child shrugged, he made the pouring gesture. So his parents had a drink stand somewhere. There were dozens, so that did not make it easier. The explosions became louder. Tents were on fire and he moved to the far end of the tents. The death eaters were not here. He might be a final year student, he could hold his own in a class fight, but a death eater? He shuddered to think what his chances were. At least he was able to keep one child safe. Then he saw the sky, the death eater mark. He knew this was not merely some display of chaos, this was a lot more. The area was now mostly quiet. He picked up the child and walked into the area where several drink stands were. He pointed at the stands. “Are your mommy and daddy here?” The child shook his head and pointed to the far north. He walked in that area. It was a little later when he saw some people distraught and confused. He walked on, he had to get this child to safety first. He then saw a rather large drink stand and the child pointed at the stand. Dan looked around, there were bodies everywhere, but they seem like sport fan, not staff. He then saw a woman hiding in a tent, clearly out of her mind with fear. “Mommy” the child cried and the woman looked up, but saw nothing. Dan ended the concealment spell and handed the child to the mother. She looked grateful. “Come, we need to get going. Not a good idea to hang around here” the woman nodded and held tightly on to the child. “The father?” Dan asked. “He is in our tavern” she replied. He waved his wand and now all three were concealed. The walked towards the end of the area and n that walk something odd happened. He started to notice wands on the ground like they were covered in an aura of light. He picked them up and placed them in his bag, the walk gave a total tally of 23 wands. They got to the end and he ended the spell. He wished the two well and she gave him a card. “Please drop by, so my husband and I can properly appreciate you” He took the card nodded and changed directions. He was out of the area, so now he could travel more precisely and unhindered. He went to Diagon alley. He booked a room in the leaky cauldron and contacted his parents. They had heard of what was going on and wondered why he had not come home. I will explain tomorrow, need to see someone here in the morning first. He had a decent meal, but it was clear that all over Diagon alley and the Leaky Cauldron there was merely one topic of conversation. The death eaters were back.

It was late morning when he woke up, he had a good sleep and went down for breakfast. He turned in the key and entered the alley. He walked down to Olivanders and entered. Good morning Mr Weigh. Good morning master Olivander. Could you please assist me? Olivander looked at me, wondering what was needed. I was at the match last night and I found these. He dropped the 23 wands on the counter. You once told me you remembered every wand you sold, as such can you assist getting these back to the people they belong to? Olivander nodded and looked at them. Yes, I can do that. I recognise a few and I will get them to the owners. I might not have sold all, so there will be some issues there, but I will do what I can. Dan nodded to Olivander and waved. He walked of to go home and tell them what happened and he was weirdly happy that he still had the goblets. 

Chook, Chook

It was two days later when he was at nine and three quarters. He boarded the train and got himself a seat in the coach that tended to be all Ravenclaw. He noticed several class mates and nodded to them. The nodded back. He was never much of a social person and others respected his space, just like he respected the space they had. The train ride was smooth and when they got to the station in the late afternoon, he noticed that his bag was heavier. He opened it only to be taken by surprise. Wands, dozens of them and he had no idea how he got them. He closed the bag and got off. He signalled one of the students. “Get Professor Flitwick here. I’ll wait at the station. This is important!” He was adamant and his fellow student understood that. He ran off towards Hogwarts. It was about 20 minutes later when Professor Flitwick arrived. Hello Mr Weigh. You have never summoned me before, well students do not summon professors. Dan looked at the professor and opened his bag. “I honestly do not know how I got these” Flitwick looked at Dan. “Well, well” this is the second time I ever see this. Wait here, you did the right thing. He made a gesture and suddenly Olivanders was here. Olivanders looked at the two in puzzlement. Flitwick then opened the bag. Dan seems to be a wand finder. Olivander livened up. Yes, he brought me 23 two days ago, It is good that you are at Hogwarts. Your powers will not work there, at least not as far as I understand. Come to me in the vacation. I will explain what happened. I will take these of your hands for now. With that Olivander vanished and left Dan and the professor to go to Hogwarts.

So this story appeared in my mind last night. This is not the beginning of more, but there is a chance that a second part will come and I will end the story there. I have a few more things to do and part one of the PD challenge is almost done. It is not due for another week (a nice way to start December), but in the meantime this occupied my mind. Perhaps because I was rewatching the 8 HP movies. This all got to me in a dream and about 30 minutes of typing. This is a weird Saturday to say the least.

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November 26, 2022 · 01:54

What is real?

Some things we know are real, some are part real and some are neither. But for the most I have relied and believed, in a few instances I learned much later that I was deceived. The Catholic Church influenced my education giving me false information. Later that same church did everything to ‘protect’ their paedophilic priests. Now the BBC gives us (at https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63636641) where we see ‘Gold coin proves ‘fake’ Roman emperor was real’ there we learn “The final blow came in 1863 when Henry Cohen, the leading coin expert of the time at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, considered the problem for his great catalogue of Roman coins. He said that they were not only ‘modern’ fakes, but poorly made and “ridiculously imagined”. Other specialists agreed and to this day Sponsian has been dismissed in scholarly catalogues.” As such the ‘experts’ dismissed Sponsian who ruled in a time line where 11 others ruled, so there are issues. But in all this we wonder what is real. We get it, there were issues with the ‘evidence’ there were rejections, but the coins could not have been the only evidence. More evidence was destroyed or suppressed and we do not know when that happened.  There is every chance that some evidence was mislabelled, as such are all the facts of these 11 other rulers correct? Perhaps it is, but forensic research on 1600 years old data and collections is not easily verified of checked. It will take new technology to do this, adjusted technology. 

The first thing we see is the Tibetan library, there we see that only 5% has been translated. Players like Google can make a huge difference. It will not answer the Italian issue, but as our libraries become more and more complete, we can identify a lot more. We have been lucky to some extent, but that luck is running out. If we are to make any kind of lasting impression, it will be the need to get as much information ready for long term storage and long term recollection. But this is overly simplified. We would rely on experts, but these experts trivialised Sponsian and experts tend to be more stubborn than politicians believing in Jedi’s. And there are political issues in play as well, and that setting transfers to Tibet (China being an issue), and a few more. The issue becomes interesting, it is more than a data puzzle, it is a puzzle of verification which is not the same. Yet, I am intrigued with the speculative process of reverifying 1800 years of data, we might merely have lost a step, but there is every indication that dozens of steps were wrongly assigned and there the stage that these steps require verification as well. More importantly, were some of them every assigned correctly? A puzzle that is enticing, very very enticing.

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November 25, 2022 · 12:48

The stage of two parties

That is the setting today. It started yesterday, but I have a few other concerns. The article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63731751) gives us ‘Meta claims US military link to online propaganda campaign’, in the first I would state ‘So what?’ You might think that this is the wrong detail, yet the Russians are doing it, China is doing it, several nations are engaging in this way and that is all before we consider the trolls with dubious third party needs. So when I see “The campaign was the first major covert pro-US propaganda operation taken down by a big-tech company, independent researchers said in August.” I see the implications that big-tech companies are presently not acting on Russian and Chinese activities. But that is merely my point of view. So when we are given “On Facebook, 39 accounts, 16 pages, and two groups were removed, as well as 26 accounts on Instagram, for violating the platforms’ policy against “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”.” I wonder how many actions were taken against stake holders with anti-Saudi sentiments. The fact that places like Twitter have given ‘refuge’ to thousands of trolls acting under the nose of Jack Dorsey all whilst the media ignored that part is still a debate for another day. One might not be another but Meta and Tweets have at times some levels of connectivity, the problem is to identify these hybrid accounts and I get it, it is not easy, not easy at all.

And to look at the math, when we see “39 accounts, 16 pages, and two groups were removed”, Which is interesting as one source gives us “We see it in the thousands of fake profiles of celebrities on Facebook and Twitter, with some successfully misleading others into thinking they’re genuine profiles. Nevertheless, identity theft can turn into a serious offence depending on what is done with the fake profile.” And how many of these fake accounts have been removed? In all this those 39 accounts come across as a bit of a joke. I get it, they are all about the essential true form, but the victims of several other stuff aren’t found. That is not entirely the fault of Meta, but there is a question on where their priorities lie. When we see (last September) ‘Troll farms reached 140 million Americans a month on Facebook before 2020 election, internal report shows’, as such the 39 accounts become a bit of a joke. Don’t you agree?

Anyway, the second part is all about me. I struck out three times, so to test the water within a month (as a personal Christmas cheer), I will put the entire idea for six billion in revenue out here as public domain and I will let you decide how delusional I am. On the plus side, when I publish and it becomes PD, the stage will change by a lot. In the first on how Amazon and Google let 6 billion fade onto public domain and if they try to mine it, a lot of questions will enter the open spaces. How one man, one ignored man saw what no one else saw and I have the additional home run with Kingdom Holding who had 0.6 billion in revenue let 6 billion annual slip (and that was merely the first phase). I reckon that a person like Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal will have some questions.

But that I my sense of humour, if I can’t have my retirement, I will make sure that all other will look increasingly stupid. It is my right to do so.

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