January 10, 2022 · 00:40

Early Christmas for China

Yes, it is not the headline you wanted to see, but there is a not unrealistic chance that Christmas for China is coming 10 months early. It is seen in the first in ‘Saudi Arabia may run out of interceptor missiles in ‘months’’ (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/9/saudi-arabia-may-run-out-of-interceptor-missiles-in-months-ft). Al Jazeera tells us here “As Houthi rebel attacks escalate, Riyadh has ‘an urgent situation’ as it runs out of missiles for its air-defence system, Financial Times newspaper reports” this is the wake up call. It is “There is an interceptor shortage. Saudi Arabia has asked its friends for loans, but there are not many to be had,” one of the people told the publication” that takes the cake. Terrorists are firing missiles (with Iranian support) on Saudi Arabia and civilian targets and we have to be serious on “there are not many to be had”?  Are you freaking kidding me? Well, there is an alternative, a Chinese alternative and when someone states that the interceptor is better, I cannot really counter that with other than “You have no stock, so what do you care?” A stage where the Americans decided to upheave their arms sales, first planes, then Navy and now Interceptor missiles. Well, the Chinese have the HQ-9, or Sea Red Banner-9 missile. There are a few alternatives so the Chinese will have a few versions for Saudi Arabia. So when we see “In February last year, Biden said he would end US support for Saudi Arabia’s “offensive operations” in Yemen, including “relevant arms sales”” we can all nod or realise that the interceptor has a defensive nature. But that might be me. In all fairness, my goal is still to get the 3.75% commission, and on sales that now could extend well beyond the $300,000,000,000 ends up being a really nice sum of money and as I see it, America does not need that revenue, they can go bankrupt with or without it. And there is the other side that Saudi Arabia would enable a much larger set of infrastructures to go via China, the EU seemingly not needing international revenue to go their way either.

When will people realise that it is too late for some high moral point of view? It is nice if you have the coffers to feed nations, but the US and the EU nations gave that away to banks and meaningless spending, as such they have to chose whether it is a population going hungry. It is just like these politicians having a go at Google and Amazon, all whilst Microsoft is overlooked as they install bloatware after bloatware interaction reducing the options and rights of billions. So when will these people take the proper scope in sight? For me there is a selfish reason. I am not Saudi, but I am massively anti-stupid and anti-enabling. So when the media gives us “in light of the October 2018 murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi operatives in Istanbul” all whilst no clear evidence has ever been reported or presented is just too stupid for words. So if I can get a few crumbs of billions by high lighting that, why would I not do that?

And in the second setting. The fact that Houthi forces have anything left to fire on Saudi Arabia and no one has stock to replenish, what does that tell you? When will these idiots act against Iran? Whilst we are treated two hours ago to ‘Iran denies interim nuclear deal reached – report’ (source: Jerusalem Post), so why are we getting denials, deferences and deflection in a stage where one player is becoming more and more dangerous. There is now an actual stage where at least one nation is willing to go to war. I tried to avoid that by making an idea to melt down the Iranian reactors without the need for bombs, so I did my bit and it is growing ever more likely that China will do their bit to, so where does all the inactions leave President Biden with the USA and his administration when inaction is all that they can offer? It is the worst political stage of enabling a competitive nation (China) I have ever seen and the EU is in a stage not much better at present. 

So where do they go when they have nothing left? I reckon it will be the path of the Chihuahua, but that might just be me.

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January 8, 2022 · 21:25

A next step

Have always heralded and championed the need for innovation, it is harder but ultimately more rewarding than iteration. I am not against iteration, it has its place and it has its benefit. It was that setting that I entertained this evening when I watched Remains of the Day again. I had the DVD for the longest time, but I had not watched it for well over a decade. And as I was watching an idea came over me and it was specific to this situation. You see, the movie is based on the classic masterpiece by Kazuo Ishiguro. This matters because some film fanatics, some film lovers want more than a DVD, Blu-Ray, or 4K movie. It is of course nice to get a higher resolution, but it is limiting. Why is there not an option to link with it the second screen, or a screen within a screen that allows us to see the script and/or the book that this movie is based on. It is of course not applicable to every movie, and there are stages where people merely want the script, but both have equal desire with their fans. Whether it be the Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins), Twilight (Stephenie Meyer), and so on. The list is almost without end. Yet there are movies like for example Remains of the Day where both the book and the script would be desired to be seen side by side, and now that screens tend to be over 50”, there is enough space to keep on on the side of the movie. I doubt that this will not happen quickly and it will be overnight, but as the movies go beyond 4K, the storage will increase and someone will ask why there isn’t more about the movie on the disc. It is a fair question and it remains to be seen if it is the stage we will turn to. Perhaps the movie will keep track with the script on a Kindle, or similar device. It is an iterative step, but I reckon it will be an almost unavoidable one. As movies attract fans to the cinema, the makers will see the need to add more to the media disc, to give the people a larger desire to satisfy questions, to satisfy curiosities and not to forget to increase the desire for the media article. 

If you want numbers, statistics and data proving this, I will not be able to satisfy that request. Yet as a movie lover I have a fine (and large) collection of movies and I see that there is a growing need. You see as the movie is shown with a script it will remind people that there is a book (at times). The Twilight and Hunger Games fans do not need reminding, but how many have seen the book Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs? This is not an accusation, I got the book after I saw the film, I never heard of Ransom Riggs and the books he wrote. The entire matter comes at a stage where the people need more than the 134 minutes that the movie offers and plenty of movies add making off, specials, bloopers (always fun), ad several other attachments. Yet it is rare that a script is added, it has been done, but merely as an extra, not a an added layer to the movie. Yet perhaps some will push for this and we will see this in a new version or new release of the movie.

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January 8, 2022 · 03:28

When the plot thickens

This happens, it happens all the time. We notice it in movies and books, we sometimes face it in real life. There are moments when the plot thickens, but it tends not to happen in games and in RPG games fit rarely happens. There the NPC threat in singular directional, it always awaits your command, your action and your dialogue. So why is that?

It cannot be the technology, the technology was on par 1-2 generations ago. Is it gaming technology versus scripting? It could be, I am not the best source of information on this. 

We tend to see the Louis 14 approach in gaming, the world revolves around the gamer, it is like the missions. As the missions are lacking time needs, as the missions can be completed at YOUR convenience, we get to do it all. I think it is wrong and I think we need to alter our perceptions here. We cannot do everything, we can not please everyone and we cannot be everywhere. Just like good RPG games need an economy, it needs a transitional stage, it also needs  servicing stage. Mercenaries and guards that do take charge. Games like Shadow of Mordor invented and realised a nemesis system, I reckon that was a real step forward in gaming. So why did we not adjust RPG gaming to be more challenging? Was it that much of a leap? 

There is nothing like a stage that has no opposition, it becomes docile, it becomes a stage of non-stress. So what happens when you are there but so is the stage of mercenaries that can finish your jobs, making you lose fame and more important making you lose credibility. A stage we have never faced before. There is always the more seasoned adventurer, this happens. Yet in gaming we do not see that part. We are denied the challenge. Why is that?

When you create a career and you grind the same levels, we think we are being clever. Yet what happens when you lose out to a lot more? What happens when another adventurer becomes the famous one? Not in a multi player environment, but a single player environment that has its own nemesis system, not merely opposition, but a setting of peers and antagonists that become more that a mere hassle. It sets your career mode in a mode of bland anticipation. A station where you are not the best thing since sliced bread, you are merely the last resort and starting the game out like that is not the worst idea either. It shows the player that they need to be on their A-game all the time. And so far the RPG games have not been facilitating in that degree. Why is that?

It cannot be that I am the only one thinking in this direction, it cannot be that technology stayed behind. I believe that Bethesda pushed RPG into mainstream gaming and left a few things out. It is not their fault because their Elder Scrolls and Fallout series are pretty amazing. Yet by pushing that into mainstream they left something out and we all lost a little, it is a shame and at present there is no one replacing or contesting them. I pushed a few ideas to the surface in earlier articles, yet I also overlooked that part in RPG games. I apologise and I am trying to alter what I have at present to add that setting to future games, or at least inspire others to reconsider what they have and there is a lot that could be done. Will it? I hope so, but at present there is no way to tell, so we will have to see who picks this gaming direction up first.

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January 7, 2022 · 00:39

Intentional Procrastination

All whilst my back is killing me, I decided to write a little more (sleep is going bye bye). You see, there was an article plaguing my mind on TV’s that would enable taste by licking the display. I honestly cannot tell if that is wishful thinking, an April fools joke or real. If it is real, I wonder how long it will take for the adult entertainment industry to catch on and we see advertisements like ‘Does He/She really taste like Chicken? Find out!’ So how long until 1,546,768,114 teenagers of both genders will have a few of those movies hiding with some of their other ‘treasured’ possessions?

It then dawned on me that there is a side setting that I had forgotten initially about. Perhaps you have too. When I was young I was in the Netherlands and they had something called ‘snoep papier’ (candy paper), it was paper and you could actually eat this paper. So why not add something like an inkjet paper, but instead of colours, it will print tastes. Cherrie, Chocolate, Banana, Orange and so on. But not a normal inkjet, but one of those older plot printers, with up to 16 tastes. You can print a message that can be devoured, you can print advertisements and the people will get a taste of what you have. I am a little surprised that I have never seen something like that. Did I miss it? 

Now we seem to hold on to the pastry tastes as they tend to be the most outspoken tastes, but there is nothing stopping a player like Coca Cola to push forward their needs. Would there be a market? I reckon there is and with covid lingering on for another year at least, marketing departments will have to make do with what they can and novelty does tend to bring in the bacon.  Yet that could be merely my shortsighted view on the matter. And even as we take notice of 3D food printers, there is a larger need to print something that can be laced in an envelope, as well as the small fact that it might be (for now) a whole lot cheaper than 3D food printing. 

So whilst we take notice of any idea, we tend to tinker with these ideas to see if it fits the need WE have and that is fine. But so far I see people trying the newest ideas and they are forgetting to look behind them, that is where I found all kinds of ideas that did not fit then, but now those ideas that were rejected could actually bring about a new era. It is how I got the idea of printable displays (no joke). If is founded on an idea from around 1988 and people forgot to look there because there was new technology. Yet the old ideas can be rewrapped in all kind of ways, in some cases even in new innovative idea’s. So is it intentional procrastination, or is it the foundation of new and innovative intellectual property? I will let you decide, and consider looking behind you, there is all all kinds of stuff there that the wielders call junk because it is 15-30 years old, but it could be a lot more, reinventing the wheel is nice, yet reengineering a wheel tends to be more productive, more feasible and more profitable.

Have fun!

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January 6, 2022 · 17:48

The Community Nexus

This is not the first time I get here, but it is not a repetition either. Some things struck me and I reckon it is time for Sony, Google (Stadia) and Amazon (Luna) to wake up. To be honest, when I saw the earliest presentations by Sony I reckoned that they would be the first to take social networking to a new level, but no. I do not know whether they wanted Facebook to chip in, but after all the settings we saw pass by our screens, the setting is changing that either they start thinking things through, or they will be surpassed by others and it will cost them. Not unlike the Cocoon Network, it needs to have limitations, it needs to be advertisement free and it needs to service the gamers. Anything different might be seen as treason by these gamers and that would be disastrous. In this the idea that mimics Google Plus the most is the most appealing, yet it is not set in stone.

They need to consider a few things. Copy/Paste should be disabled, so that something stated on that cluster stays on that cluster (there will always be workarounds), but that is not the goal. You see the A-social network (Facebook) is full of flamers, trolls and shit stirrers and these networks can do without those. It needs to be clusters where gamers INVITE other gamers, and until the invitation is accepted no one has access. A person can only see other conversations in that cluster, they can copy what THEY added to other clusters, but it is cluster based. Then there are ‘commercial’ clusters. People who keep track of the game-makers like Microsoft, Ubisoft (if it still exists by them), Bethesda and so on. People want to keep track of their favourite games and game makers. People can add achievements and so on, but there needs to be a filter where we only see the achievements by a person that we also have. There should be more, but it needs to be a push station, if we include other means of social networking. It is the one flaw that is still not dealt with and no one has decent option. I reckon that Amazon has the greatest need, so that they can grow faster, but Google should not be sitting on their hands, not on this one. The visibility and growth of a console is versatility and Google dropped the ball twice already. In the first they decided not to produce games, it is not a real failing, but it is a weakness and therefor a threat. Then they let Amazon get close, in a field where they should have had a superior setting they ended up merely on par with Amazon, it still strikes me as odd. And in all this I do not care what Microsoft does, I simply do not trust them. 

And when we think about it, a console with community clusters leading to a nexus or a collection of nexuses was simply the next step and when Facebook screwed themselves over with Cambridge Analytica the others should have made a larger effort, as such Sony dropped the ball with the PS4Pro and the others are till not there, they need to because then Facebook launches Meta all over the place it will be too late for the other players to start and sitting on ones hands in a $200,000,000,000 market is folly even in the most conservative setting. In this Amazon clearly has advantages, but we should not rule out Sony. They need to do something and so far there is no indication that they are getting ready, making their advantage shrink, not by too much, yet any lagging lead is a win for the number 2 through number 5 consoles. That has always been the case and now will be no different.

That station is on the roll, and I reckon that the lack of that choice will hurt the players not ready in 2024. And when we see the carefully phrased denials, as well as the cautiously stated ‘We are working on it’ will be seen by gamers as a negative side in all this, do not take my word, merely watch how the gamers will ask in flammable ways why they were ignored (yet again). I cannot stress this enough. It is time for the consoles and streaming systems to consider what gamers need and where gamers would like to be. In this Twitter and Facebook might be nice, but the people are more and more weary of both of them and that is not a good place to set your console.

We all want to talk about our games and our achievements, but so far the people trying to flame what we do is running into the thousands, and that is causing a larger stage of doubt with gamers. Giving them a safe space is becoming increasingly essential. I see all over Facebook pages where a 17 year old proudly brags what he got done in FIFA and I see dozen hammer that person seconds later. Wouldn’t it be great if that person had a cluster with school and gaming friends and that person could share it just to them? That is the station for an invitation clusters only, and that need is fast and vastly growing, so why Sony never picked up that ball is a little beyond me. The streamers will not have that luxury, that much is clear to me.

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January 5, 2022 · 22:00

When war is the perfect outcome

Yes, it happens. It happens when some consultancy firm sets out the spreadsheet, they crunch the numbers and in all this it would be the perfect solution if war is the outcome. Of course that outcome must not be own its own plate, so these ego trippers need a stage where two others take the short sighted blame for the hindrance and certain people thought it was the best of all outcomes. War comes but it will be on the plates of the State of Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It was for them too good to be true. 

So that is the stage when it illuminates completely, but how did it get started? That is where the Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/03/talks-with-iran-on-restoring-2015-nuclear-deal-suspended) comes in. ‘Talks with Iran on restoring 2015 nuclear deal suspended’ a month ago now sounds a lot less nice does it? So from here we go to yesterday where Politico gives us “Diplomats from the U.K., France and Germany noted last week that while they didn’t want to set “an artificial deadline for talks,” there remained “weeks, not months” to restore the accord. A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said Iran needed to “add real urgency in Vienna.”” A small setting where the ego driven are looking at a stage where they can no longer win, so they cautiously set the stage where they can walk off stating it was all the fault of Iran. Then we get the Times of Israel giving us a mere 11 hours ago (at https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-intel-chief-reportedly-says-restored-iran-nuke-deal-better-than-talks-failing/) “Citing two unnamed ministers who took part in the meeting this week, the Walla news site reported Tuesday that Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva said restoring the 2015 nuclear agreement would provide greater certainty about the limitations on Iran’s atomic activities than if talks between Iran and world powers fall apart.

He also reportedly said a revival of the accord would give Israel more time to prepare for various scenarios of escalating tensions with Iran, and that the Jewish state would be in a better position to gear up for such possibilities.” A mere setting where a General has a delusional state where some level of agreement with Iran is possible. 

So as you wonder where this is going, let me add my own quotes from ‘Iranium, the product’ from November 2020, where I stated “a peaceful solution? They have enough nuclear material to fuel EVERY NUCLEAR REACTOR on the planet. They have one and they are building two, so how peaceful are their intentions? Anyway, I will set the correct stage of my snow globe idea to the internet if they make the wrong move, and they will make the wrong move. And in all this, the larger stage is still ignored, so whilst we are lulled to sleep by people like Rafael Grossi, who are “determined to continue working with the international community to preserve the JCPoA”, all whilst the 1200% of materials held by Iran is not dealt with. All this in a stage where Iran is merely playing for time, and let’s be clear, when Iran ‘accidentally’ misplaces a dirty bomb and it goes off in Tell Aviv, or Riyadh. It will be my option to say Oops, when Evia Miden is shown to have an application that no one considered, it will be my time to say ‘Oops!’, Yet at that point the politicians will make certain that they are absolved from accountability, all whilst they are setting the stage of ‘But Iran is now committed!’, a stage that needs to fall on deaf ears.” So when it is time to look at certain irresponsible and (to what I personally believe to be) incompetent reasonings from Elana DeLozier and Rafael Grossi, all whilst people gave credibility to the statement by Hassan Rouhani, on Al Jazeera 22-Jan-2020 who gave us “I’m telling European countries: we are in the JCPOA. We haven’t withdrawn from the JCPOA. We don’t want to destroy the JCPOA. We are committed to the JCPOA. The reduction in our commitments is according to the JCPOA. If you violate, if you renege on an agreement, you are responsible for all consequences. We are not responsible for the consequences” we now see the clown he is, dragging us through delay after delay. Walking back on agreements and increasing efforts to get as much materials as needed. Well, as I personally see it. I was not willing to wait any longer. Iran is too dangerous, so on December 14th 2021 I gave you all ‘Keeping my promise, part 1’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/12/14/keeping-my-promise-part-1/) where I gave the world the larger stage of how to meltdown an Iranian nuclear reactor, no bombs required. Something needed to be done whilst ego-trippers remained in denial, so that the world would know that someone had enough and when that was loud enough out in the open, both the State of Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would know that they were not alone, others stood with them even as the media would silence as much as possible. 

So whilst the media is all about trivialising things on orders of stakeholders, thee is an increasing amount of people who will no longer accept that. So whilst I understand the need for Mossad’s chief David Barnea to give us “It’s not lost and it’s worth investing time and effort in a dialogue with the Americans about the contents of the agreement,” I personally belief that it is way to late for this and I think that David Barnea understands this. Yet I personally belief that relying on a bankrupt nation (USA) to get anything done was folly from the start, but that might be just me. Iran needed to be stopped, so I made the idea of melting down their reactors public domain. There will always be an overzealous person there trying it out, and it gives state actors a nice excuse. 

When will people learn that Iran will never ever play nice? The fact that I saw this coming a mile away in November 2020, 13 months ago should be an indication that these so called clever people were playing a folly game and everyone was handing the Jack of Spades to the player not in the room whilst all where looking at the ceiling claiming ‘This is not on me’, but we all should know better, it was on them and at som point these names will be prominently staged in an American article asking why they could not succeed, and the deeper the issue now goes the larger that danger for them starts. It now becomes a game of carefully phrased denials, all pointing towards Hassan Rouhani, whilst they already know they are equally guilty, they enabled this situation and they all know it.

So now we await for some think-tank giving the world that war was the only perfect outcome, as long as the poor poor Americans are not part of this, they want to be the diplomats steering in the aftermath towards a solution, a solution they helped bring about. If you doubt that, consider what I could have known 13 months ago, things the media steered clear from for the longest of times. They are happy to use flames on all kinds of manners, but not this one, someone told them and told too many members of the media. It will be fair to doubt my words, but consider that I gave you all the down-low on goods that were in the media for close to 2 years, but no one saw this coming? How come?

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January 5, 2022 · 00:21

Cyber Security Impressions

Here I am, a little after 23:00. I am in a decent level of agony as I hurt my back and the painkillers do not work, at least it is having no effect. In this I also have been forgoing sleep since Saturday (pain levels tend to do just that). Yet I just had an idea. I just figured out another usage for my 5G devices. A setting to limit and downsize credit card fraud and identity theft. I saw some of the damage a few days ago and it kept it in the back of my head. 

Now, let’s take a little detour to anti viral solutions about two decades ago. In those days one solution was to create thumbprints of every file, the checkmarks would give an indication that a file was optionally infected. 

Now let’s take a step to tomorrow. Most people are wage slaves. Often working from 8am to 8pm, and their routine changes to the smallest degree. Now consider that you could create a thumbprint of your day, not in detail but to some degree. Now consider that the credit card thief would try to make a purchase somewhere in town, but the thumbprint of you will not match up. More important when you set up your daily station and upload that (encrypted) to your bank server your bank can check whether you were anywhere near the purchase. Consider that credit card fraud surpassed $24,000,000,000 in 2018 and it is only getting worse. Yes, you can wait for the bank to return your cash or you can be proactive and that is the station where the daily file is encrypted and it does not have specifics, merely connect points, yet those points will not fit the credit card thief and that is where we can stop him proactively. More important, it could also give banks clues on HOW and more important WHERE the credit card theft was done. Why did no one think of this earlier? Perhaps before 5G the system would be overly taxed. I do not know, I am merely  trying to see if this could be the optional solution and my hardware is already on station to make a mark, yet I am not the only one. Mobile phones could easily have a similar function, so there are alternatives and that is good. This is an issue we should all try to solve, not to simply see if it is a moneymaker. On the other hand preventing loss is also a moneymaking solution, it makes money for banks and it stops YOU from losing money you might optionally not get back, or get back after a long delay. And as this solution gets better it would be near direct resolutions making the thief the loser as we all want it to be.

Now at first it will not be the perfect solution, yet as the people submit more and more thumbprints, deeper learning systems will be able to tell more rapidly and more quickly if the purchase was for real and done by the actual purchase. It could even set the stage where kids cannot go on a spending spree with mommy’s or daddy’s credit card. So far I can only see upsides and that is always nice. I am still trying to see if there are downsides, and perhaps I will find 1-2, but at present there are seemingly none. 

A simple (and painful) day and I found another way to stop credit card theft, what a lovely way to start Wednesday, which started 18 minutes ago.

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January 4, 2022 · 03:28

When it rains it pours

It is a weird expression. You see I grew up in the Netherlands, there we have over 50 words for rain, there are all kinds of rain, so when it rains it doesn’t always pour. But I understand the expression and that is the stage that Ubisoft is in at this point. The amount of negative video’s on YouTube is staggering. I watched one but ignored the rest. The one I watched had a few good points. Nothing I hadn’t mentioned before, yet the larger stage is not merely the mediocre games and the below mediocre approach to fixing stuff. It is the cold hard fact that the last two good games (for me) were AC Origins and Watchdogs Legion. I am not a Rainbow six fan, I (for the most) am not into multiplayer games and there are a few more that do not tickle me, so these games have never been part of any assessment. Yet the bugs in Far Cry 6, Breakpoint, Valhalla and the Division are just too pathetic for words. And that is not the end of it, several sources report on the great exodus. People leaving Ubisoft in droves. A few sources tell us that 5 out of the top 25 from the Far Cry franchise have left, 12 out of the top 50 from the AC Valhalla franchise are gone. In the Ubisoft Toronto and Montreal offices (according to LinkedIn) are now 60 people lighter. So it is not merely the setting at Ubisoft, it is also the larger stage of creativity has left. And recruiters are plucking Ubisoft as an easy target. This is what I call the final nails in a coffin that was once a software great. And I created the concept of new versions of some of the games in a day, and the current franchises are bleeding them dry. Yet I warned of this danger 3 years ago. A year before Valhalla launched, I saw this coming a mile away. OK, the large exodus was a little unseen, but the recruiters picking them clean fits the process, the gaming industry are all vying for a slice of the $200,000,000,000 revenue pile and the best programmers will empower software houses to get a larger share. And all the game makers are greedy, in this Ubisoft fumbled the ball thrice over. With mediocre games, with a toxic work environment and the lack of support and overworking staff. There is no doubt that the end of Ubisoft is coming and when it does Google (relying solely on Ubisoft titles) will be in the wrong place, so There is a larger stage where Amazon will take the race to the checkered flag. 

And all this is before someone realises that I still have a setting where Amazon could sell 50,000,000 Luna’s. Ubisoft was not needed to get that done, so the pile of revenue might actually increase a little more than I expected, but it is speculative, so let’s not blow my own trumpet. This is about Ubisoft. And when you search “Ubisoft + bugs” you get a list that goes on and on, when you filter to only in the last month we still end up with a list that is way to large, especially for a game that has been out for well over a year, those are the nails that seal the coffin of Ubisoft. A stage that was once grande, millions went nuts over AC2 and devoted following was created, but the bugs from AC3 onwards took a little away with every game and a lot with AC Unity. They regained a little trust with AC Origins but wasted that away with AC Odyssey. So even as we now see stories about the next AC not being out until 2023, we need to consider that it is already too late for that. You see people will look at the financials, the stock but that is only the smallest part of the story. The value of Ubisoft is creativity and a boatload of that walked out. Some even mentioned the low pay, so when was that ever a good idea? In one quote we see the mention that Ubisoft has hired 2600 employees since April. That sounds nice in theory, but you need unity (like the title they bungled), that means that each franchise needs its supportive and inspiring heads and 17 out of the 75 top of two franchise walked out, there is every chance that they will also entice the quality programers to follow them, at which point they have two close to empty franchises. So how will they fix that? They can’t, they will be in denial, they will oppose any negativity but this cannot get the marketing spin and in a stage with that much people walking out the slices that would have sealed their share of $200,000,000,000 this year alone will fall away for too large an amount, that implies that Ubisoft stock will take massive hits this year. And when that happens the larger stage becomes a small platform and Ubisoft will need to secure what it can, but in a firm with 18045 employees (2020) will take a few hard hits and with the cream of the crop leaving the larger stage of people, or good people vanishing will go faster and faster. As such Ubisoft has massive problems. Unrelated we see covid, something no one could see coming and even as some thrived under these conditions, it seems that Ubisoft is not doing that well. If it did the exodus would not be there. 

And as I see it Ubisoft does not get to blame covid for these hardships. There was a larger failing visible from AC3 onwards and Far Cry had a few issues from version 4 onwards, with too many in the latest version. Too many issues in only two of the franchises and too little was done. In all this Ubisoft kept on buying software houses and people and left that structure like an empty egg shell and now the softest taps is collapsing that once great software house. And all that is before you add to the hardship with Breakpoint released in July 2019 and still getting massive updates to deal with bugs were announced less than 3 months ago and there are still issues. A repetitive cycle in a stage of games that no one is willing to pay to play. And when the hilarious bugs are seen in AC Valhalla, we see a larger stage of failure. So how will Ubisoft deal with it? Most no longer care and neither do I, Ubisoft was great once, but the errors, the bad judgement and the failures makes me happy that there are good software houses that deliver real treasures. Sony being one, then there is Insomniac Games, we have Guerrilla games and a few more. So why mention these three? These three wanted to be as good as Ubisoft, now or better stated from 2019 onwards these three all surpassed Ubisoft in quality gaming and quality games. The stage at Ubisoft is that bad at present. 

It merely makes me think of that old movie (1969) ‘They shoot horses don’t they?’, I wonder why? (LOL)

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January 3, 2022 · 19:51

The virtual quarterback

We can consider me being the Monday morning quarterback, it would be fair to call me this. I have been for the longest time a champion of science, I believe that not unlike evidence in law, science is the cornerstone of all daily life decisions. So I tend to take sides with science for nearly all cases. Yet today, in opposition of a piece in the Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/02/britain-got-it-wrong-on-covid-long-lockdown-did-more-harm-than-good-says-scientist) I take another side, the non-scientist setting. I oppose the views of Professor Mark Woolhouse. So feel free to oppose my views, which would be fair enough. But in all matters take a long hard look at some of the things we are handed here today. I believe that not unlike some wannabe journalists who wanted to cash in on Jamal Khashoggi with their fiction view of ‘Blood and Oil’ this professor might be trying to find the same rabbit in a different hat with ‘The Year the World Went Mad: A Scientific Memoir’.

So where do I oppose?
It starts with “I am afraid Gove’s statement was simply not true,” he says. “In fact, this is a very discriminatory virus. Some people are much more at risk from it than others. People over 75 are an astonishing 10,000 times more at risk than those who are under 15.” In March 2020 there was a lot we never knew. Do not forget that the disease was out for only 2-3 months, and it had not spread to the degree it has now. China had no answers, and the people who were responsible for calling this a pandemic did not do so. In addition, the media gave us “This might become a pandemic” all whilst the points of calling it a pandemic had already passed. I wrote about it on February 3rd 2020 in ‘Corona?  I Never touch the stuff!’ (At https://lawlordtobe.com/2020/02/03/corona-i-never-touch-the-stuff/), a month before we see given here. I already saw the pandemic threshold passed, yet most media were in denial with “This might become a pandemic” as such, it seems to me that Professor Mark Woolhouse will have to explain a few things. Then we get to “We did serious harm to our children and young adults who were robbed of their education, jobs and normal existence, as well as suffering damage to their future prospects, while they were left to inherit a record-breaking mountain of public debt” in this is resort to the blunt ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ In the first there was a lot we did not know, and for the longest time there are still questions, so the response I see with “We did serious harm to our children and young adults who were robbed of their education, jobs and normal existence” is something I would like to refer to as bullshit marketing. You see the first peak of daily deaths did not start until April 13th 2020, with 6916 dead people (aka the non-living). 

I found a table from April 2020 from New York. In this table we see 6839 died, but the interesting part is that 5151 cases had an underlying condition and in that case the older you get the higher the chance of an underlying condition, and in that up to 44 years old 312 died. Most with an underlying condition, but there was a lot not known in that setting. More important, there was no vaccine, there was no protection. The Pfizer solution was still in clinical trials in November 2020. And when you start looking at the facts as they were known, I believe that Mark Woolhouse is trimming his own trumpet for the sake of book-sales (a speculative view, but it is my view). 

Were mistakes made?
Yes, of course mistakes were made, they were made all over the world and with the US having an idiot as president in those days did not help much. There was a large void of knowledge and there was a large void of experience, so looking at the facts after the fact does not help much (apparently it might help a certain professor with a book to sell). And in all this the professor does not take into account the anti-lockdown idiots spreading the disease, the ignorant anti-vaxxers adding fuel to the fire and then the people who were ignorant of the way the disease spread going to relative, friends and so forth needing their social moment. 

And in London that is a large powder-keg waiting to explode and now that it is doing just that we see the blame game in effect. So consider the anti-lockdown protest, it only 10 people had it at that point, at least 1000 could have it 3 days later. And everyone remains in denial, oh boo hoo hoo!

So when we get to “the country should have put far more effort into protecting the vulnerable. Well over 30,000 people died of Covid-19 in Britain’s care homes. On average, each home got an extra £250,000 from the government to protect against the virus, he calculates. “Much more should have been spent on providing protection for care homes,” says Woolhouse, who also castigates the government for offering nothing more than a letter telling those shielding elderly parents and other vulnerable individuals in their own homes to take precautions.” Where is the time line? When did we know what we know now and that is before we add the complications of Alpha, Delta and Omicron. And with the last quote “By contrast, we spent almost nothing on protecting the vulnerable in the community. We should and could have invested in both suppression and protection. We effectively chose just one.”

In the first, the government could not afford both paths (slight speculation), there were too many unknown factors and with Omicron raging now, anti-vaxxer idiots and anti-lockdown dumbo’s, how can you protect a community? You can claim you can but stupid people will do whatever they feel like, the vulnerable be damned. That is how people tend to be. 

So this is my view on the matter and it is a rare event when I oppose a scientist, especially a professor, but here I feel it was needed. And I had a few more views concerning covid over that year and last year too. I kept it low, because I am not a medici (ha ha ha), yet the larger stage is also ignored in the story. The media was fear mongering all over the place and that too resulted in negative actions. There were several factors and I believe that too many factors were unknown, or untested for the longest of times. 

So, if you decide I am the Monday morning quarterback it is fine, I gave my reasoning and my views that go back to February 2020 when it was in the earliest stage. So I am not exactly the Monday morning quarterback, but I am definitely a virtual one. Consider the facts and consider the blah blah from Professor Mark Woolhouse and draw your own conclusions.

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January 3, 2022 · 02:45

Can I have some more harshness?

It is 02:00 and I find myself at odds with a CBC article. Now, let’s be clear and upfront. CBC did nothing wrong, this is all me. The article ‘Canada’s English dictionary hasn’t been updated in almost 2 decades. What does that say about us?’  (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/canadian-english-dictionary-two-decades-1.6291089) set something off in me. In  world where for the most people cannot tell you clearly what is going on, the media is in a stage of deniability by using ‘could’ and ‘might’ and we see politicians spinning 7 colours from Sunday and all these elements had nothing to do with a dictionary. Even a dictionary from 1855 might have been a better setting than the one we face nowadays. So I was feeling oddly agitated by the headline. So when the article gives us “Hailed as the “maven of Canadian English” by the Washington Post and known widely as Canada’s “word lady,” Katherine Barber was renowned for researching and documenting how language works in this country. In 1991, she became the founding editor of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary — the country’s first authoritative and comprehensive reference work for Canadian English — with the first edition publishing in 1998.” I had to take a step back. As a residing non-Canadian (I reside in Australia) I get the need for identity, I get the need for what can be seen in Canada as a personalised dictionary for all Canadians. Yet why am I so agitated? A Canadian dictionary does not affect me, so why does it bother me? It was then that the words “hasn’t been updated in almost 2 decades” seem to sound like the drumming distance of change. You see, there was a work that did sound like the stuff of nightmares. It is called ‘the use of euphemisms in mass-media discourse’ and there is the rub, the last two decades has been more and more about political correctness, now I am not against political correctness, the problem is that for the most we end up saying forms of insincerities and only in part saying what is the matter. Euphemisms are to some degree part of the problem. When we look at that meaning we get “a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.” There are two issues here, the first is the mild substitution, the second part is the event of ‘too harsh or too blunt’, we end up saying something that is seemingly a form of dancing around the subject. And this has become worse and worse over the last two decades. Which is where I have a problem with the event, not with the sentiment of the article or some idea of it. The problem as I see it is that too often euphemisms are used to downplay events and that tends to have other reasons none of them about being politically correct, or less harsh. Merely more facilitating for the people telling the story and that inaccuracy is a much larger danger. I tend to grasp back at the most ridiculous of phrases “I lost my Husband”, I wonder if she checked the second drawer of her desk. Nope! He was not lost, he merely drove his car into another, the man is dead! There is no non-blunt way to say dead, we can go by non-living as: at present 5,458,856 people have joined the non-living via means of Covid. 

OK, that was not too subtle but at times that is the only way to get things across. The problem is that the act of downplaying is massive in social media, as such the mis use of euphemisms are abundant and they are continuing to muddy the waters of clarity. As I personally see it, there is no need to update the dictionary over two decades, there is however a much larger need to properly use the dictionary that we do have and that is not happening either, the new words will nit change that, we need to be clear, we need to be precise and at times that is blunt and it is not extremely PC. Sometimes the truth and the precise truth is not nice and it is harsh, it happens. Downplaying events and hiding behind euphemisms helps no one, that much has been crystal clear for many years. Yet this is merely my view, you have every right to oppose my view. 

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