February 14, 2022 · 14:00

The IP I saw

This is not about my IP, but it seems to be a story that involves IP. Whether it is to be, a mere story for TV or whatever. It was odd. It started that I was part of the civil forces of the US Navy, I was setting up mobile systems. These systems were not what we see now. They are compact made Pelican boxes. The US Defence department had switched to a Scala modular concept (from the 70’s), so that a lot could be done in the field. The pelican box was slim and also a monitor stand, it was easily adapted, a ghost drive and a test station and a system could be set up in minutes. I saw my printable display in use, the display box was in the pelican box. The printer behind me was spewing out displays one per 4-5 minutes. Something was going on, some assigned sailors were more about pranking IT than doing any work. This was weird as I felt it was a wartime condition. My boss was a civil engineer called Jeremy. He stopped took me with him and we left.

The next moment I was in some cyberpunk environment. In a version of Chinatown with a large square that had all kinds of business around them. We went to the brothel there. It was high end, the people were given keys, keys with the images of toddlers on them, like a 50’s print. I saw man and couples disappear to a higher floor. We went down, into the basement. We made checks on systems. We checked the cyber defences. I signalled a girl, she came with a package, it was a birthday present. I paid the girl and looked, the were new B&O wearables, they were earrings with build in speakers. The sound was supposed to be very soft and would feel on the person like they were in a music hall. They were the latest. Jeremy suddenly moved to the side and pulled me back. It was a courier, the courier was never to be messed with, he walked over and gave Jeremy a liquid drive. Jeremy connected it and checked to content. He wrote a note to the courier and set some kind of 3d stamp on it. He courteously handed it to the courier who nodded, took the note and walked away. 

Then I was suddenly outside again, I tried to speak to an elderly couple. He noticed me and raised his collar, the collar was some form of Fennec ear system, With the collar raised he could hear whispers all over the square, I whispered “something is wrong with Jeremy”. I looked at him, he nodded made a gesture to his wife and they went inside. The last thing he did was nod at me and gave some kind of ‘vanish’ gesture, I did so. 

The scene changed again, I saw a courier arrive at a door, he handed his weapons over to the guard, a short machine gun and a pistol, the guard moved aside and let the guard in. I was suddenly whisked away to the birthday girl, she loved the earrings and was comparing them to the ones she had, she was really happy. I do not think she was my girlfriend, but she was not family either, I walked over to the food stand and bought some food, suddenly there was a fight between couriers, their guns were blazing and we all took cover, I saw the friend getting hit and she was dead before her head reached the ground, I was hiding in a corner and noticed that one courier was killing all the girls. I panicked and grabbed what seemed like a sword, when the courier was near I Plunged the sword in his side and when that happened, the sword split into 4 parts. And swerved in him like a helicopter. He was dead immediately. I saw the drives and a few other items, I took the opportunity and pushed his credit card in his hand and pushed the transfer button on top of my card. I also saw a few things I had never seen. The credit card action took 3 seconds, which was unnaturally long, but I thought nothing of it. It might have been the stress. The other courier stopped, nodded at me and walked off. 

I was suddenly the attention of several house ladies, one gestured me towards her and pointed to the ID tag of the dead man. She inspected the tag, he was from family Zhou, an important family in town. She looked at the stuff I had collected. She shoved several items and took two items “Too dangerous” she said and looked for something, she found a folder and gave me copies of 5 papers. “Manuals” she said I nodded and took the papers, I wanted to walk away. She said “you courier now”, she gave a super thin credit card, it looked like a business card, but it was more. She wrote on the back, it was an address “go there, they will teach you”, I considered that and nodded. She pointed at the other side of the square, eat soup there, say “我必须消失” show the card, do not give it to them, all will be fine. Thank you for protecting and avenging my girls. 

I walked off into a mist that woke me up. Was it about all the IP I saw? Was it about the story? I saw more but the view is fading, there was a cup of tea, in the tea were nano lenses, they improve vision, let you see more, but the change in vision was almost violent, as the nano enters the eye, the mind screams even if there was no real pain. Sub dermal plants that are ID tags for weapons, and the credit card I had suddenly stated 431,675,44. There are posts everywhere and you can check items, like credit cards. It shows a balance, or it can show the map of a place you seek they were called versa-posts. I know I saw more, but it is fading too much. So as I see it, this was merely a story, too many blanks.

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February 14, 2022 · 03:41

The arbitrary Echidna

Yes, we all have arbitrary moments, this is not mine. Yet something woke up in me when Reuters gave me ‘Google’s advertising tech targeted in European publishers’ complaint’ (at https://www.reuters.com/technology/googles-advertising-tech-targeted-european-publishers-complaint-2022-02-11/) and I took a look. So there were a few issues and the part of “alleging Google has an adtech stranglehold over press publishers” is merely window dressing. So as I went to a few of these sites, I saw German, Swedish and no English. Now, this is not a stranglehold for me, so I dug deeper. And I looked in a few publications, seeing that there advertisements were a mess, I could not even apply for advertisements in Die Welt, Das Bild and so on. I did not check them all, but the laughable setting is that they seemingly have no idea what they are doing. See the image below

I go to www.google.com and this is the first thing I get in the left lower corner. It was not rocket science, it was precise and clear. And the Advertising gives you:

Simple, precise and direct, NONE of the publications I saw offered anything like that. I got to a page on advertising with Das Bild (I needed Google search to find it), these players are hopelessly lost, they are conceited and running after the facts. Advertising should be a main option at the bottom of Das Bild and Die Welt and it is not there (or better stated, I never found it). The most basic of settings and two of Germans largest circulations are lost beyond hope. So as I personally see it, it is not ‘Google has an adtech stranglehold over press publishers’, as I personally see it, it has become ‘press publishers are hopelessly outdated in the digital environment’, the ‘information’ page I found had one mention of pricing and no relevant actual pricing information. How is that possible in this day and age? Google Ads gives you options, Price per click, price per impression, and many other options and you can select your preference and set how much you are willing to pay. And the Google system is unsurpassed. You might bid $20, yet in the end you ONLY pay one cent more than the previous bid winner. So if we see the following bids:

BidCharged
1$ 20$ 0.54
2$ 5$ 0.53
3$ 3$ 0.52
4$ 1$ 0.51
5$ 0.50$ 0.50

Before Google the advertiser was NEVER given this and it changed the game, the ‘exploiters’ suddenly lost all traffic, they lost their customers and they lost their revenue. This is not a stranglehold, this is giving the customer proper treatment, perhaps EPC Chairman Christian Van Thillo might take notice of that. If we publicly set the advertisement prices over the last six years from Axel Springer, News UK, Conde Nast, Bonnier News and Editorial Prensa Iberica, what will we see then? Even now I could not find precise advertising prices in Die Welt and Das Bild. I get a presentation who they work with, but a consumer wants to know what it will cost them. So when you all go cry at the desk of the European Commission consider that the consumer and the consumer advertiser is given a clear picture and a clear understanding and the stage of what comes next. In addition, when we take “When publishers choose to use our advertising services, they keep the majority of revenue and every year we pay out billions of dollars directly to the publishing partners in our ad network” and we set that against “Google has achieved end-to-end control of the ad tech value chain, boasting market shares as high as 90-100% in segments of the ad tech chain” it is because Google offered and showed value for money from the very beginning, something most advertising agencies have never done. In addition, Google Ads has driven technology that made the advertisers more clever in the way they advertised, something others have never done. 

And in all this, when we see the EPC make claims like: ‘Freedom to earn advertising revenue’ and ‘Freedom to innovate’ whilst two of the partner clearly are lost on innovation, they might embrace earn advertising revenue, but without innovation it becomes meaningless and in that, the advertisers that require visibility see that Google Ads delivers whilst keeping cost down, optionally setting a stage to a new path that is cheaper for the advertiser, so how did the EPC approach that? This is not stranglehold, this is as I see it the path of exploitation and many advertisers have had enough of that and they were willing to try Google Ads and those who did remained in Google Ads, clearly the EPC needs to look up the word innovation, let me help them out: “the introduction of something new”, so where is that innovation in Die Welt and Das Bild? 

Seems that it is another chihuahua crying that they no longer matter, a waste of my time as I see it, not the people that could ever qualify for my 5G solution, that is (as I personally see it) true advertising power, in the hands of the retailer. 

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February 13, 2022 · 19:21

How did the cow catch the hare?

Yes, that has been a question for the ages and that question popped to mind when I saw ‘How did Saudi Arabia make it to the Winter Olympics?’ (at https://www.dw.com/en/how-did-saudi-arabia-make-it-to-the-winter-olympics/a-60736077). Weirdly enough it is not the weirdest question and it had been asked before. There was the Jamaican bobsled team (1988), the event could also be seen in Cool Runnings. Then there was Michael David Edwards (also 1988), a British man doing Ski Jumping and coming from a place where the highest hill is a trashcan, seen in the Movie Eddie the Eagle with Hugh Jackman as the bad as coach. So there have been examples in the past. As such there is plenty of material and I do not know the man, but if Fayik Abdi comes from decently wealthy parents he could have spend his youth skiing the slopes of Canada, Switzerland, Austria or France to get his skills up. And for any man it would be an honour to represent his nation in any olympic event. I would be happy to be the Hockey Goalie for Australia. Oh shocks we do not have a Hockey team (not the real one on ice anyway). So another dream squashed. But for Fayik Abdi it was not a squashed dream, he gets to be there. It does not matter how good he is, how far he gets, he got there making him one in 34,810,000 Saudi’s. And the quote “The 24-year-old found his passion for skiing in Lebanon, where his mother taught him how to ski when he was 4. During his childhood, skiing was just a hobby. But when Abdi got older, he wanted to take the sport seriously. He started traveling to the Swiss Alps in search of slopes, as he didn’t have the access to the sport living in his country.”

Shows us the story that matters. OK, I never would have guessed Lebanon, but I got the second part right and after 20 years he is ready to represent his nation. Yet in all this, I believe that the quote “The Saudi’s first participation in the Winter Games brings back memories of the nation’s first Olympic appearance in Munich’s Summer Games in 1972. The purported vision of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is to explore new industries and encourage people in Saudi to be more active. He believes participation in Beijing will help achieve that goal” is equally important. Exploring new industries is always good, yet it does at times require nationalistic people with another brand of representation and there Olympians could set the larger stage. It does not matter if they do not get the first three position, participation is everything here and I believe that Fayik Abdi is doing more than representing his nation, he is cementing a different path that will bring honour to his family. As any person would be proud to do. If there is a side I have some issues with then it is “The Saudi Winter Sports Federation has had royal backing from the beginning. But it is still searching for business investors to build a planned indoor ski resort, which would help provide vital training access.” It is a natural setting against ‘indoor’ winter-sports, for the most the real feeling of that sport is the outdoors. It could be made for Curling, Bobsled, Figure skating and Hockey (the real one on ice). Curling and bobsled are out in the open, yet the other two would find all kinds of Islamic opposition in one case and with Hockey, there are two that might be surpassed over years, but that leaves Saudi Arabia 12th out of 12 and that is not a good place to be in, apart from the years of funds required. Making Curling with more nations and representation in men and women a much better option. Yes we see skiing, and that makes sense but how many people make that passion, that expensive passion a realistic option? Fayik Abdi should be seen as one in a million (35 million to be slightly more exact). And even if there is a larger need for its nation, it does not take away the achievement that Fayik Abdi reached, he became an Olympian. Just like Michael David Edwards and a few rare people who got into the stage against all odds. I remember how I could not make any Fencing team, no sponsor and no options, but that too is a sport Saudi Arabia could engage in, and they did. Lubna Al-Omair got into the 2016 Olympics, she might have lost, but she got saddled with Taís Rochel, a Brazilian who was number 80 on the world list, talk about bad luck. There are all kinds of sports and Saudi Arabia could be in many of them, yet my mind keeps on nagging towards the ‘planned indoor ski resort’, it does not sit well with me. You see, I have seen my share of snowboards on dunes and if Saudi Arabia has one thing more than oil, it would be dunes. So why not exploit that? Why not set up a station where snowboarders can board in near tropical heat? It will be a setting that requires a different bottom to keep the board intact, but that too is something that Saudi Arabia can ‘push’ for. And as we get a new stage of dune boards and  optional new kind of tracks, we will be introduced to (optional) indoor boarding. Anyway I digress, you see, the article touches on all subjects, but no one is taking that time to consider the achievement that Fayik Abdi got. He ended #51 in the first run, defeating 38 others which is a lot better than the (roughly) 38,433 people who did not get into the Olympics in the first place. Today is run 2, he might make it, he might not, yet at present he is on the short list of becoming one of the 50 best Olympians in the Giant Slalom and for a nation that never sees solid forms of water, that is quite the achievement. You see, Canada has plenty of snow (hills too) and only one made it to that list. So I think that we should make a little more noise on the achievement we see here. Because it is one I never saw coming. But then for me Jamaica was never a bobsled nation, so there is that.
Oh, and how the cow caught the hare? With a fishing rod (of course). 

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February 13, 2022 · 16:41

When the well dries

This is a setting many businesses know. They want to get back to work and they are unable to. The well has dried up, the people after sitting (forced) at home, being with family suddenly start remembering what is important. There is of course the other issue of issues like discrimination, ageism and a few more isms. Suddenly these places cannot find the people and they cannot approach the people they turned down 2-3 times. The well has a bottom and that bottom is in sight. For those seeking jobs the meadow clears up, the more stupid people with their anti vaccine issues, the more will be dead and that means jobs and cheaper houses. A blessing on all houses so to speak. In the UK yesterday 167 jobs opened up (speculation as I do not know the age groups) and in the US up to 873 jobs opened up, the meadow looks like a decent place in the sunshine. So between the UK with up to 159K lost workers and the US with up to 942K lost workers the pickings for some are rather slim. So when I initially saw ‘Raytheon says it is a ‘target’ of a DOJ probe into industry hiring practices’, I wondered what was up. Raytheon is no  WallMart so their sea of choices was never very big to begin with and the people have a much larger need to stay at home. It was “Raytheon had received a subpoena in late 2019 focused on alleged hiring restrictions between Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of Raytheon, and some of its suppliers of outsourced engineering services. It also included requests regarding Collins Aerospace”, as well as “A former Pratt & Whitney employee and some other employees of outsourced engineering suppliers were charged in December for restricting the hiring and recruiting of engineers and skilled labourers in a way that violated antitrust laws.” I get it, there are certain rules in place and they must be adhered to, yet this is almost ludicrous. You see Pratt & Whitney is a subsidiary of Raytheon. It seems out of focus and out of touch. We see more detente between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden in these heated times. It feel like (a personal speculation) that someone at Pratt & Whitney would like their sibling organisation to be valued a little longer. It feels highly political and that is a weird stage for Raytheon to be in. Now I get it, there are laws and I am a creature of laws, so there is a setting I can appreciate, especially when it is between two of the three (Google, Amazon, Apple), to see the DOJ go batty on Raytheon and its sibling seems counter productive on a few levels, and more in these hard to find people times. 

Oh, and due to shoddy programming on the side of Reuters, the link has not been added here today. The stage is not properly set (for both Raytheon and Reuters), I am not sure what to think, and wherever I look Raytheon comes out as the employer to be with in many places and many sources. So there is a real drive to get to Raytheon. The question becomes ‘How does Pratt & Whitney fare?’ Well checking that, it seems that these people are in a similar setting as Raytheon is. As a sibling of Raytheon it makes sense. So I go back to the DOJ need, why is this on their table in the first place and when setting the stage to ‘former Pratt & Whitney employee’, I wonder what his/her beef is, more important when the ratings are that good, why would anyone want to leave Pratt & Whitney? I am not making an accusation, I am asking and the fact that the Reuters article was lacking on several sides, optionally hoping that the name Raytheon would call the reader in (which in my case it did), there are all kinds of questions. Yet I hope that the DOJ realises that 942K people left to job pond (in a coffin), the need to look beyond the law seems essential in this case. And that is just the US, whatever they have in Australia will have its own numbers and consider that Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, and Thales are fishing in the same pond, the issue is a dangerous one and it merely helps their opponents. 

This can be seen in mere minutes, so the DOJ issue whilst based on a perfectly clear legal balance (one Reuters never presented), is still a dangerous place and when siblings push them into that limelight, I merely wonder what is going on. 

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February 13, 2022 · 01:21

Looky looky

It is always nice to go to bed, listen to music and dream away. That is until this flipping brain of mine gets a new idea. In this case it is not new IP, but a new setting for a group of people. You see, during lockdown I got hooked on walk video’s. It was a way to see places I had never visited before, it is one way to get around and weirdly enough, these walk videos are cool. You see more than you usually do (especially in London) most of them are actually quite good, a few need tinkering (like music not so loud) but for the most they are a decent experience. Then I thought what if GoPro makes a change, offering a new stage. That got me going, you see, most walks are on a stick, decent but intense for the filming party. So we can set the movie from a shoulder mount, a chest mount, or helmet mount. Yet what is filmed? So what happens if we have something like Google glasses and the left (or right) eye shows what we see in the film. We get all kind of degrees of filming. And if we want to ignore it, we merely close that eye for a moment. I am surprised that GoPro had not considered it, or perhaps they did. Consider that the filmer now has BOTH hands free and can hold something towards the camera, the filming agent can do more and move more freely. Consider that is works with a holder, but there is a need (in many cases) to have both hands available. And perhaps there is a need for both, the need to use one hand for precision and a gooseneck mount to keep both hands free. The interesting part is that there is no setting to get the image on something like Google Glasses and that is a shame, was I the first to think of it? It seems weird with all the city walks out there on YouTube, but there you have it and in that light, I was considering revisiting the IP I had for a next Watchdogs, one with a difference (every Ip creator will tell you that part), but I reckon that is a stage we will visit again soon enough, it involves Google Glasses and another setting that I will revisit. Just like the stage of combining deeper machine learning to a lens (or google glasses), a camera lens that offer direct translations, and the fun part is we can select if that is pushed through to film, or merely seen by us, now consider filming in Japan with machine learning and deeper machine learning auto translating ANY sign it sees. Languages that we do not know will no longer stop us, it will tell the filmmaker where they are and consider linking that to one lens in google glasses that overlays the map? It that out yet? I never saw it and there are all kinds of needs for that part. What you see is what you know, if you know the language. Just a thought at 01:17. I need a hobby, I really do!

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February 13, 2022 · 00:21

An acquired taste

Yes, there are all kinds of acquired tastes, but for many the one that comes from the intelligence dish is rounded a weird taste. Ask any tom, dick and harry and they all claim to be Sean who finds the taste disgusting. You see there is something afoot in the OK corral and it isn’t the lawmakers. The BBC gives us ‘Lawmakers allege ‘secret’ CIA spying on unwitting Americans’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60351768). And before we go into the article, there is a view you need to consider. Would you rather deal with the FBI or the CIA? Or Perhaps the CII (Central Intelligence Investigations), the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigations) and there are two more to consider. The point is that the stage (and pissing contest) of the CIA and FBI is out of whack. The larger problem is not that the CIA has to deal with terrorists, it has to deal with some of them IN THE USA. The problems isn’t the funders, it is that the funders are American, or foreigners based and housed in the US. This setting continues on several fronts and I get it, the CIA keeps a tight lid on its intelligence data (as does the FBI), but the two stages are folly, the transgressor sees no borders it sees opportunities and they do not rely on borders. There is a larger failing here, but I am not certain it is the failing of the CIA. 

The article gives us “The agency has “secretly” conducted warrantless surveillance through a newly disclosed programme, Senators Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich alleged”, as well as “A Washington Post analysis of the Snowden leak found some 90% of those being monitored were ordinary Americans “caught in a net the National Security Agency had cast for somebody else”.

Top officials had until then denied – and even lied under oath to Congress – that they were knowingly collecting such data. The programme, known as Prism, was later ruled unlawful by a US court”, the problem is that the terrorists know this feud is going on and they make sure it is brought to light so that they can continue unabated. The problem is not that Americans were caught in a net, the question becomes did the NSA get the end result right? So when we are given “declined to declassify the other, citing the need to protect “sensitive tradecraft methods and operational sources”” so is the story that the CIA is pushing away democracy, or is it that that Senators Wyden and Heinrich are endangering American lives? I leave it up to you to decide, and please do not become the one moron that relies on Benjamin Franklin’s “Those who give up liberty for security deserve neither.”, Franklin actually said “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Yet that stage was specific and it was on behalf of the Pennsylvania Assembly to the colonial governor. “The letter was a salvo in a power struggle between the governor and the assembly over funding for security on the frontier, one in which the assembly wished to tax the lands of the Penn family,” it was 1755. In a stage where the frontiers of war were 250 years apart and the stage was unaware of terrorists, it had its saboteurs but the stage was different. In today’s world the CIA and NSA have to deal with bitcoin transfers that tend to remain off books, stakeholders that claim to be on the American side but seem to drive Iranian needs for a price and there are chaotic people doping whatever they can to get a bitcoin or two and it is in a day and age that America can no longer trust the diplomatic words of MANY nations, each nation having its own legitimate national needs, but those needs do not adhere to American National security. I do not think THAT is the point, because EVERY nation has its valid needs, yet some pucker up to Iran at a moment notice (example: Turkey), so how many turks are there in America? The intelligence gathering field is a minefield to say the least. In that atmosphere the CIA and NSA need to fight off all enemies of America both foreign and domestic, they have to because the entanglement of foreign people in America has become too great a consideration and the FBI has nowhere near the resources to do all that. 

Yet the old setting of domestic (FBI) and foreign (NSA, CIA) is a much larger folly. That level of distinction implies that too many people get to play their game with American security at their own convenience and that does not sit well with the people in the American intelligence branch. Moreover as the American military (DIA, NIA et al) cannot really operate on American soil (outside of the military. And now two democrats are asking questions. They were valid in the 60’s and 70’s, but now, in a stage where the wrong chaos could topple the entire American finance sector, it has become too dangerous. Do not get me wrong, it will topple soon enough by its own accord, we do not need lone wolf actions and foreign based actions to help that process along. And that is merely the stage we can see. You see there are 18,925,137 bitcoins in existence, representing $806,210,836,200 dollars. Consider that 10,000 bitcoins could destroy US manufacturing needs on several levels, now consider that most bitcoins are out in the open and there are close to no way of tracking it all. Do you think that the people out to actually hurt the US will declare untraceable funds? You have got to be joking. And in all this the US is not alone, a similar danger is with the UK, France, Germany and a lot more industrial nations. I reckon that the FBI, CIA and NSA need a very different charter and consider that what I state here is known with people like Senators Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich. I get it, some politicians are real devoted democrats, but this reminds me of the person who was worried about a proper shave 2 hours before his head got cut off by the guillotine.
We understand that in the final hours when the last act is a proper one, the quality of that shave means a great deal, but is it that time yet? And can the US afford the setting it is now boasting about?

I let you consider that stage.

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February 12, 2022 · 09:49

1-800-LoadMyMissile

Yup, I had to go there. And when you see the headline ‘F-35 program seeks cyber reinforcements’ you might go there too. Now, you need to know that there is nothing wrong with the article that can be found (at https://fcw.com/defense/2022/02/f-35-program-office-seeks-cyber-reinforcements/361848/). Yet the quote given to us 2 days ago “To improve the joint strike fighters’ defences against cyber attacks, the program office responsible for it wants an open system design solution” implies there is close to nothing, all whilst this danger was out in the open for some time, so why react this late? And when we are given “the program office responsible for the aircraft is looking to create a multi-phased process that would enhance the security of F-35’s – and supporting ground systems – through newly developed or integrated technologies, such as real-time, automated in-flight detection, response and recovery” concerns should be raised. You see that dinky toy (the F-35) is not the cheapest of all Corgi toys, so something should have been in place already. The issue is not that simple, I get that. To take a more Cisco stage of expression. Every plane will need a router that has SecureX platform, Secure Firewall, Secure Endpoint and connects to the ground in a similar way and does it in real time, not the easiest of tasks and in this the real-time part will be the hardest to get working. A system that can interact with every system. 

As I personally see it (see image), it is a setting that has a number of points (like hardware points) for fire solutions, navigation, weapons systems and the security station. It cannot check all, but each system has its own header, and the headers check each other, so if one is hacked the others fix the one hacked and the system is back on tour, there is no guarantee that this will work, but hacking one system is one thing, hacking all 5 becomes virtually impossible. And there is another problem, such a system will need online load balancing. Not online like we know online, but a system that is always checking the load balance of every header station and as this is all done in real time will require an upgrade of hardware, because there is no way that the added electronics will not have an impact on current efficiency numbers and with the costs already way out of proportions, I have no idea how this gets passed the budget committee and even if they get some kind of new Cisco device (which is one of the leading cyber authorities) the hardware will not come cheap and it will require a new OS to make it work. I wonder if relaunching ADA would be a solution. It would be allowing one of ADA strengths to be deployed and if the NSA can boost the security and it is implemented with a newer version of Cisco Cyber Constructs, there is a decent chance it might work but all this requires specialists working together and in the IT field that is almost a challenge on its own (like making a submarine fly). So I have no idea where it all will end, but taking into consideration that the expected acquisition costs is set to $406.5 billion, with total lifetime cost (i.e., to 2070) to $1.5 trillion in then-year dollars, and the cyber equation will ramp up costs by another 10% (rough estimation) and my estimation is set to the fact that it is smooth sailing, but that has never been the case so there is every chance that the F-35 will break all records, including cost to produce.

That is my mere speculative thought in the equation that the FCW brought to light. 

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February 11, 2022 · 21:35

The headers of maximum data

Every now and then I keep my eyes on Zendesk. There is a reason for that, my origins are technical support and customer support. I am proud of my past, I went from nothing to a decent high ranking technical support person and I always fought for EVERY customer. I did not care whether they had one single license, or if it was an important customer who owned a site license (which drove sales insane). All were equal in my eyes and all deserved and received 100%. So when the article (at https://www.reuters.com/business/zendesk-rejects-16-bln-offer-private-equity-consortium-2022-02-10/) passed me by, I took notice. You see, the header is one ‘Zendesk rejects $16 bln offer from private equity consortium’, I remember that it started not too long ago (2007) and it grew fast. Well there is a reason for that. No matter whether you look at SCOPUS, SIEBEL or another CRM solution, they claim that they have a technical support part, it was meagre and all based on a sales foundation, which makes it (in my eyes) not a technical support solution. So beyond Zendesk there was nothing. It is a good place to be in, it allows for the growth they had. Yet the article sat with me and not entirely in a good way. The first one “facing calls from activist investors, including hedge fund Jana Partners LLC, to abandon its proposed acquisition of SurveyMonkey parent Momentive Global Inc , which it agreed in October”, is regarded (by me) as moronic, you are about to see why. The second one “Thoma Bravo had made a takeover approach to Zendesk” with the added “Thoma Bravo and Jana declined to comment.” As I personally see it, it is not about Zendesk, it is about the amount of data they wield via 17 offices in a lot more countries than 17. They are after the data. A Company with an operating income of $175,000,000 is not valued as a $16,000,000,000 on the value of its SAAS operations, that has to be about the data and that will be a scary thought. When my technical support skills, given to the customers will be used to bleed them dry of intelligence. It is a scary thought. Then there is the added. You see Marketwatch gives us “Jana Partners LLC, which is opposed to Zendesk’s deal to buy Momentive Global Inc., is planning a proxy fight, according to the WSJ report. Momentive shares were down 3%” me thinks that the acquisition implies that too many eyes will be on Zendesk for some time to come and that does not sit well with Barry Rosenstein. So for me the response becomes: “A reactive and impulsive decision? My ass!” I think that Rosenstein had similar plans as the other (unnamed) player and it seems that these management firms have data currency on the mind and Zendesk in its near unique position is one juicy steak (with sauce). So no matter how unique the placement is, as long as it has data these Investment management companies will see the long term gains and there is a larger stake (or is that steak) in play, it is not Schrems 2 (discusses yesterday), it is all those nations that lack that level of protection and it seems that these Investment management companies have an additional customer that needs no mention, no written agreement and that makes for a lot of coins and they will hand it over eagerly, especially in light of the escalation we globally see, in that setting data is everything. To add to that, I have to admit that there is another setting, which I still cannot see, it is because I know next to nothing on Orlando Bravo, the man behind Thoma Bravo. It might be that he is on the same track sharing the risk and revenue with Rosenstein, yet they are lonesome hunters (optionally predators), but because Orlando the software esquire also has Proofpoint, Sophos, Kofax, Motus and Aptus there is every consideration that Orlando Bravo has other considerations including solidifying fleet contracts to a larger and more complete approach and having a more substantial SAAS umbrella. So he is the larger unknown and there is a rather large expansion option for Zendesk, so I am not certain, but I feel certain that Orlando might have been better off without Barry, but that is just an initial vibe I am getting and that vibe is not evidence based.

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February 10, 2022 · 22:42

Schrem, son of Shrek

I recently (2-3 hours ago) woke up from being asleep at the wheel. Not a car, or a boat, or a plane (which tends to have an autopilot), no my mind overlooked a little thing. I initially saw the article ‘Meta threatens to pull Facebook and Instagram from Europe if it can’t share data with the US’, and I was in a state of ‘Yea, whatever!’ And it was only this afternoon when the cogs started to rumble to signal opportunity. You see, the setting of “The comments are in relation to the Schrems II decision, which is a key ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union which, in July 2020, declared the Privacy Shield, the EU/S personal data transfer mechanism was no longer lawful. The Privacy Shield is US law that provided US authorities with the right to collect personal data about EU data subjects without, the Court says, adequate safeguards. Further, the judgement states EU data subjects lacked effective means to seek redress against the US Government” It took a while for the brain to kick in (and kick me), yet it works for me. It implies that the value of my 5G IP goes through the roof (if Amazon buys it) and the second part of this (10% of IP and sales value) implies that I could optionally become a hell of a lot richer than ever thought before. 

So the car you see above would suddenly not be an illusion. Yet why?
You see, Neom (Saudi Arabia) set a change in motion, before 2030 marketing will take a massive turn to the left, as will retail power. As 5G will take its toll on cybercrime, I created a dampening effect, it will not stop everything, but it will stop a lot. 

Consider a pyramid The pyramid you see is the result. In the old setting the yellow part is red and all that is red is what hackers get access to, one way or another. I am taking a part away, the new solution will revoke hackers access to the yellow part and that is the gain. The gain might be bigger, but that is speculation (as is the current part), but this setting will save people (banks too) billions and Schrems II adds to this part in a few ways. You see, my system was retail based, now it becomes locally based (which I have been saying a few times in the past), but I had not considered Schrems 2, because it was not on my mind. I was all about the customer, I did not consider that the larger data stages would work in my favour (and optionally in this case Amazon too). 

The larger stage will still work and in this case it will be beneficial for whomever has it, but it is not. Stage that was build FOR Schrem 2, or CONSIDERING Schrem 2. It merely works in my favour and that is the difference between this transport and the one you saw earlier. 

And until the IP is sold, that is how I remain travelling (for now), in a car with chauffeur. But at times, life throws you a curveball that homes in on the bat and that is the benefit we all hope for and I am no different in that case. 

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February 10, 2022 · 11:15

Out with the old?

It is a saying and I have heard it many times. Out with the old, in with the new. Yet in the world of media as an aggregated whole, that saying does not make much sense. For a few reasons my attention came back to Infamous:Second son I gave it an 83% rating when it initially launched (and I stand by that). You see, the game has brilliant and spectacular moments. In all but one setting it is close to brilliant. The one setting is linearity and in a near open world it is worse than a death curse. Linearity makes everything too predicable and that was the short coming of that game. It starts brilliant, the brother setting, the awakening of being a conduit and the power of smoke. It was amazing and until the second power comes into play it is all great, after that the party sizzles and linearity sets in. But that first area in Seattle is just grand. Then I thought what to do and I do not need to do anything, but Sony might. Consider that the game has a good and a bad setting. What if Reggie didn’t had a brother, but twins Delsin Rowe and Darren Rowe. One goes good, the other bad and that becomes a much larger story, one for the TV or whatever streaming service Sony has. They already own the IP, so that would not stop them and the setting could be larger, not larger in the stage, but it could give Seattle more than Amazon and Frasier (to opt an idea). The setting in the game was great and the antagonist Augustine was better thought up than most other antagonists in TV world. They both get the stage to clean Seattle each in their own way and there we need to set the station where the good one wins the concrete powers (and cleans up the streets and heals the reservation victims), as well as open up a much larger conversation. Can we separate people who are different? You see, Augustine is seen as evil, but her motives were pretty pure (from her point of view) and even as the game never went into that, the TV series might just do that and to be honest, the powers we saw in that game were freakin awesome. 

I am a little surprised that no one had thought of that track with a game that was optionally much larger than we all thought it could be. Especially as studios are vying for streaming successes. Sony has a few IP’s in stock that they could alter in many ways and Infamous:Second Son is merely one of them.

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