July 6, 2024 · 00:00

The name of the game

Last night I had an idea (I’ve had many). The inspiration was a game called Midwinter. It was designed by Mike Singleton and released in 1989. He was the first to revolutionise gaming, tactical gaming. When games (for the most) all focussed on one part, he made it an open challenge and it played on the Commodore Amiga. You could do almost anything, walk to a place, drive a truck to a base, swim to a base. You name it, you could do it. We stepped a little away from that. There is a foundation to do it, but not open enough. I thought of throwing fuel on the fire and make it more challenging. To do this I turned to the war on Arrakis. It is (for the most part) really open. Consider where you and your skills decide on the abilities your troops and the enemy troops have. In the first part of the game you are an Harkonen officer. A starter, a milk mouth. You start as a soldier and you are part of the managing forces from Harkonen. So you start as a land trooper. Consider the last two Dune movies (which should be part of the design). You attack and subdue Fremen. You oversee the miners, you fight the fremen, you fly the ornithopters and you get to do this over and over again. The game is set up in time slices. As you do better and better the dials of the Harkonen are set higher and higher. When all the slices are done, when all the tasks are done, the Harkonen are set. If you score well enough you get medals awarded to you by an officer or even the Baron. The challenge is to defeat your own achievements. 

Screenshot

And the setting is that as a Caladeen (the home world of Paul Atreides) you will have to do really good to defeat the forces you enabled. The second scenario is two fold, you have to create an alliance with the Fremen (or you cannot get to stage three). You get small stages in the beginning then larger stages and the challenge is to beat yourself. The system is set by what you achieve. In stage two the Harkonen might be seen as NPC’s. Their powers are set to values you achieved in stage one. In stage three you reset YOUR values, but they are supported by the Caladeen and their presence becomes available by what you achieved in stage two. 

This is all I have for now, but the idea is that this has not been done before. Also the setting is supposed to be smooth. You can walk in the imperial palace (stage 2) and then walk up to an ornithopter and fly off, but you get to deal with Harkonen troops and Harkonen saboteurs and depending on how well you did, they become more than a nuisance. Unlike Dune: Awakening it is 

not multiplayer, that is an important difference. Here you create the levels of your opponent. 

The setting does not need to styled by Dune. But that was the setting I had. You could do this as a re-write of the game Knights of the sky where you get to start in the German airforce and after that can choose French or British airforces. Knights of the sky was not high defined graphics. But now you can to this in Unreal Engine 5 on a PS5 and get the whole battlefield on your computer. The setting of gaming like this is almost the same. You get to set the power of the opposing forces (NPC’s) with THEIR quirkiness but with the fighting powers of you. Go look at the history of gaming. It has not been done before. Old games setting the taste of the new game. But with a larger defining edge. As I see it, it will give a larger timeline because as you get into Stage three of the first game, you might want to redo stage one and make the game harder to beat. A game that you can replay over and over again, because as you upgrade the scores of one opponent, your challenge will be greater. How are those spice truffles?

Perhaps over time I will write more, consider that you have to train a mentat (Piter de Vries/Thufir Hawat), a troop trainer (Glossu Rabban/Gurney Halleck) and so on. There is more thinking to do, because the need for training Piter de Vries or Thufir Hawat sets a taste to the game, but we do not see them in the movies to that degree. So how to go about it? It could be that the palace has a strategic room and as you do troop management, it sets the properties on how you are directed playing the game, so as these two are added later in the game, the troops will be according to what you decided on in the strategic room. I do not have all the answers yet, but as you can see, so far the gaming industry has done nothing of a kind and they had decades to get their ideas straight. 

Well that is enough for today, Saturday starts in 4 minutes.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

July 4, 2024 · 20:03

In the beginning

Two issues came to light, the first one is about an American cop. The BBC gives us (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c72ver6172do) where we see ‘A Bugatti car, a first lady and the fake stories aimed at Americans’. We are given “A network of Russia-based websites masquerading as local American newspapers is pumping out fake stories as part of an AI-powered operation that is increasingly targeting the US election, a BBC investigation can reveal.

A former Florida police officer who relocated to Moscow is one of the key figures behind it.” We knew this, it is nothing new. The Dutch company Trollrensics is actively hunting down trolls and illustrating all the fake news we see (well most of it anyways). This article brought a small art to light that requires actions by both Amazon, Google and Microsoft. You see the BBC gives us “But before the truth could even get its shoes on, the lie had gone viral. Influencers had already picked up the false story and spread it widely”. This is a dangerous setting. Influencers are all about the traffic, they mostly lack integrity and have no clue on the desire to gain followers and their desire to get their golden YouTube sign. 

It is time that the United States and the European Union start to pressure these tech firms to chastise these influencers. If they cannot give ample validation of how they got the evidence how they verified the authenticity they get the full brunt of the consequences. If they are found spreading fake news, their Google rating is diminished, their video’s are all downgraded. And their video’s are skipped in searches unless a person asks for this (former) influencer by name (at which point several people can find the seekers). It is a little crude but the Russians are becoming too much of a nuisance. Oh, and by the way if they follow through on the threat to bomb the Netherlands, I will put my nuclear deterrent (a solution to make a nuclear reactor meltdown) on every BBS in Chechnya. See how they like that condition. Russia made enough enemies, if they have to protect every nuclear reactor in Russia they will lose 15% of their deployable troops protecting buildings they never had to before. Actions are needed and no one is doing them, they are all concerned with the bottom line. You see spreading fake news and false information is not a freedom. In this day and age it is a duty of everyone to not spread fake news and misinformation. Now I understand that not everyone is able to distinguish fake news from real news. I usually seek two official sources (the Guardian, BBC, Al Jazeera, Arab News, Washington Post, Boston Globe, LA Times) there are more but you get the gist. The complication is John Mark Dougan, an American ex-cop. Just questioning. Why would anyone in Florida relocate to Moscow? No matter how valid his reason is. As we are given “an AI-powered operation that is increasingly targeting the US election” we are given the notion that this is all about Trump (my speculation) and it goes from bad to worse. As such I need to do something. I am not a man of action (when you pass the 60 mark that happens) but I have a decent imagination to look outside of the box. Russia has 38 active nuclear reactors. They collectively have 200,000 people working there. Consider that the Russians would need to check them all, secure them all. That implies thousands of troops. Then they need to inspect all new arrivals. It will be a nightmare I reckon. In the mean time they face Chechnya and Pro Ukrainian Russian troops. Plenty to worry about and with the solution out in the open, the Russians get a new danger and optionally their other enemies come out of the woodwork. 

But that is another matter. For now we need to take care of the influencers. They are the first hurdle to stop traction of fake news. In this Amazon, Google and Microsoft could change the rating of anyone spreading fake news, Google especially. Put their ratings to minus 150 and the influencers seize to be a relenting problem. Remove these accounts and their flocks disperse. Now I am not sure if Google can do that. You know that any account holder of a Google/Youtube account has rights. Just changing this on the fly does not go over well. But Google can stop the fake news from spreading, they can also look at the followers of that influencer. But I get ahead of the issues. Something needs to be done and not enough (as far as I can tell) is being done. 

Enjoy the day.

Leave a comment

Filed under IT, Media, Military, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

July 3, 2024 · 06:08

Setting the greater stage

An interesting article passed me by last night. It was Arab News (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2541361) giving us ‘Arabic Language Month in India organized by Saudi Arabia’. We are given “The King Salman Global Academy for Arabic Language has launched Arabic Language Month in India, reported Saudi Press Agency. The program will run in New Delhi and Kerala until July 26”. It is a clever setting and it is a new take and a larger take on increasing the stage they face. Saudi Arabia needs workers and it needs to increase their cultural footprint. This is an interesting way to do this. The language stage allows for Saudi Arabia to show what they have to offer whilst at the same time increasing knowledge of the Arabic language. In those places they could also start filtering if a person would suit living and working in Saudi Arabia. It comes with the added setting of “Additionally, it will highlight Saudi Arabia’s efforts in this field in line with the objectives of the Human Capability Development Program, one of the Saudi Vision 2030 realization programs”. Even if you do not agree, this is a Saudi initiative “the directives of Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, the Saudi minister of culture, to further the Arabic language locally and globally” the additional part comes that Saudi Arabia has thousands of jobs in 10 sectors. With that and the stage where Saudi Arabia is one of the highest paying employers in the region, we see an option for hundreds of Indians. Should this work out the way I think it could work out (for Saudi Arabia that is), places like Aramco and several places in hospitality and Tourism would enjoy an increasing workforce for some time to come. For the students there is the option to gain linguistic skills so that they start their new position with increased levels of knowledge. All plus sides. There is also the upsides for teachers towards globalisation. 

Wednesday is upon me (06:00), so I am about to enjoy the day with a helping of breakfast. Enjoy yours.

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, Tourism

Tagged as , , , ,

July 2, 2024 · 03:20

What makes a role model

I was relaxing a few hours ago when two tweets crossed my screen. They both are about Taylor Swift. The first one

states “Young girls do not need to aspire to marriage and children. I personally have no interest in Taylor Swift but there are worse role models than someone who evidently works hard and is financially independent and also made huge donations towards food banks.” The second Tweet 

Gives us the part of the bad role model and that she was 34 and unmarried. The Newsweek opinion piece which is titled ‘Taylor Swift Is Not a Good Role Model’ (at https://www.newsweek.com/taylor-swift-not-good-role-model-opinion-1916799) gives us a few parts. “At 34, Swift remains unmarried and childless, a fact that some might argue is irrelevant to her status as a role model. But, I suggest, it’s crucial to consider what kind of example this sets for young girls.” Is nice and it comes after on how she is a powerhouse for commerce and merchandising. But what is forgotten? You see Taylor started as a musician, she composed her work, she set the tones, the tunes and it held a chord in the hearts of her fans. It does not depend what gender they are. We see events that are overwhelmingly female in attendance and that is fine. She is a powerhouse of music and it is attracting a large female audience. I think that she is a good role model. The larger issue is that this is an opinion piece, not an actual article. I do wonder why Newsweek did not add an actual Newsweek writer to add at the end. 

In this my background is that I like the numbers I heard. I have one album (1989 TS) when it originally was released. I saw one evening the clip of Blank Space and it made me interested in her. I also saw the song Shake it of was included on that album, so I got it. It is the only album I have, but it is a good album. When you consider that she was the orchestrator of nearly all parts of it (I do not know how deep she was involved in the clip) makes her a good role model. She is bringing an unique style of music, an alternative sound that appeals to millions of people. That alone makes her a role model. Then there are the 11 studio albums, 4 re-recorded albums and 7 EP’s and 4 live albums. Her albums tallied millions of CD’s in sales. This alone makes her a good role model. By the way how many male role models over 34 are unmarried? The more I read up on her, the more awesome she is shown to be. 

I agree with the opinion with the Tweeter that Newsweek needs to be ashamed of themselves. I agree with the Tweeter. It needs to be said that it is an opinions piece. And I get the gist that Newsweek published this piece as it attracts views. The question is whether Newsweek has become so desperate for views? Was there nothing else they could publish as an opinion piece? Just a thought.

Have a great day everyone.

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Media

Tagged as , , , ,

July 1, 2024 · 10:51

The changes to a Digital Currency

I was alerted to a story on https://www.cointribune.com/en/saudi-arabia-joins-the-wrong-blockchain/ stating ‘Saudi Arabia joins the wrong Blockchain…’, well that is merely a matter of opinion. You see the CBDC (aka mBridge) is a digital currency that is controlled by banks. It is under control by China (read Tencent) and is a system that runs next to swift. It could rival it over the next few years and moreover could overtake swift too (speculative view by the writer, aka me). The involvement of Saudi Arabia implies “The kingdom’s integration into the BRICS club is far from trivial. Member countries are clearly expressing their intention to purge the dollar from their exchanges. The arrival of the Saudis could mean that Saudi oil exports to China could one day be conducted via the mBridge blockchain, in yuan”, implies is as I word it, but the implications as quoted is the first major dent into the ‘settings’ that could take a lot of Wall Street out of the frame, again this is purely speculative. Another source, Forbes gives us (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2023/08/24/bitcoin-vs-cbdcs-analyzing-universal-access-in-digital-currency/) ‘Bitcoin Vs. CBDCs: Analyzing Universal Access In Digital Currency’, which they gave us last August. They also give us “The digital cash revolution was spearheaded first by bitcoin and then by other cryptocurrencies, which has led to the birth of Central Bank Digital Currencies.” This is followed up by “it’s the rise of CBDCs and cryptocurrencies that may represent the most transformative phase in this evolution.” I think that is the larger issue. I don’t trust Bitcoin, not because of the digital setting, but the picture that it is not supported by any coins, or gold make it a virtual currency. ‘Everyone’ is on board for what they think it will bring. But the larger picture becomes that a virtual setting could from today ($62,730.9037) and when it goes to $50,184.7258 tomorrow (worst case scenario) there is nothing stopping it, moreover I reckon that all these pensioners hoping to get rich of this, this downfall will result in lots of pensioners ending with nothing. That was the fear I alway had. This is why I do not trust it. The CBDC (mBridge) is as said cemented in “the country’s central bank.” Forbes also gives us on the of the 23rd of June (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/06/23/cross-border-cbdc-focused-project-mbridge-moves-forward/) “For more than three years, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) and the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been working on a cross-border central bank digital currency (CBDC) project known as mBridge. In a nutshell, the project aims to improve efficiency, speed and transparency in cross-border payments.” It is the transparency that matters and the fact that it is under control of a nations central bank. This implies that banks are ultimately responsible for issues, with Bitcoin this is anyones guess. The text “MBridge recently took an important step forward with the completion of its minimal viable product (MVP) stage and the decision by Saudi Arabia to join the project.” You see this means that mBridge would be getting support from places like Aramco and China with their Yuan. This puts the USA on a slippery slope (commercial wise) if the oil dollar pushed to nowhere, the Yuan will gain strides of upgrades. Additional we get “According to China’s Digital Currency Research Institute (DCRI), mBridge transactions take seven seconds and cut cross-border payment costs by 50%.” I believe that the 7 second delay is only applicable to cross border issues and I do believe that this is a temporary delay (before the first upgrade a time upgrade), the reducing of cost by 50% would be cheered by all sides of the equation (probable with the exception of Wall Street). The article ends with “but risks to the initiative will rise sharply if it becomes seen as part of broader U.S.-China competition” a political setting, but as that rises the USA (and optionally the EU) will lose a lot more. For the most the people are fed up with the American bully tactics. It is hurting their pocket. Consider that a decade ago where everyone copied the narrative “Washington officials began warning of Huawei’s ability to embed spying capabilities in its gear” but never was any EVIDENCE presented by anyone. We get setting like ‘could’ and ‘the possibility arises’’. The former director of German intelligence stated to Deutsche Welle that they didn’t understand that technology. So where is the evidence? America presented a case that was settled a decade earlier. China has issues with the US and EU. This is their shot across the bough. And it is one that matters. With billions in revenue gained, with the BRICS setting and with a setting that could replace the oil dollar with the Yuan, Wall Street would lose a lot. So whilst the American administration begs for cheaper oil, all whilst they pretty much shot themselves in the foot. 2025 and 2026 might prove disastrous for both the US and EU. The EU will accept the mBridge solution a lot earlier than the US would and when the Bitcoin loses 20% or more in value. Many pensions will be reduced to zero. It was the risk of a decentralised system with no foundation in any bank or in a commodity like gold, but that is merely my point of view.

Enjoy today, it is still yesterday in Vancouver and Toronto. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

June 29, 2024 · 12:00

As limits are reached

The Khaleej Times give us (at https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/uae-summer-switch-off-non-essential-appliances-for-one-hour-every-day-urges-sharjah-authority) ‘UAE summer: Switch off non-essential appliances during peak hour daily, urges Sharjah authority’ where it starts with “Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority said the Conservation Hour or Peak Hour initiative will start in July and last until September” with the additional “Along that line, the authority has called on those living in Sharjah to participate in an initiative called Conservation Hour or Peak Hour from July to September”, for those unaware Sharjah is directly North of Dubai. The addition given is “The initiative will require residents to switch off non-essential electrical appliances during peak hours, which is from 2:30pm to 3:30pm, every day”, this situation was going to happen and it will be a global problem. I raised the issue in January 2023. The first part was in ‘Inactivity by the overpaid‘(at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/01/13/inactivity-by-the-overpaid/). There I raised “There will be a power shortage by 2030. Personally I think that he is overly optimistic. I would reckon that clear shortages will be visible no later than 2027 in the Netherlands” In this Article I raised the issue that I made in May 2022 and again in June 2022. There I looked at solutions. There were a few sides and Dubai would benefit from that solution. Part of that solution was given in ‘Will you feel frisky?’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/06/28/will-you-feel-frisky/). There you see that the concrete that sets the floors/ceilings have space in every building to leave a mica underground, with on top of that solar panels. Now ads I see it Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah all have hundreds of buildings that benefit from these panels (the sunny side of the building) In my case I illuminated London as well as Austin Texas the day before. However this is now a race. There is a limit on solar panels. First one in, the less limitations that place has. As we now see, Sharjah is at present the first to step on the breaks. 6 years before the NOS (Dutch news media), as such I believe that the limitations will be seen all over Europe in the next two years, depending on the summers. London, Paris, Orleans, Cannes, Nice, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, and several other places. In my view I see the following solution:

The mat with the solar panel. That panel is set to be connectable to other mats, I envision a sort of Scalextric (that old racing game) connection on one side the can be connected to a wire, that connect the panels on the separate levels to a battery on top of the building. I just used the Tesla solution, but other solutions could be used. Depending on the size of the building it would be an expected 2 x 2 or 4 x 2. So that one side can be fully charged and the other set of batteries is used to fuel the net. 

Now this solution does not fully solve it (initially), but it will reduce the stress on the electricity net. As more buildings are fitted out with this solution, more stress on the electricity net is reduced. I reckon that two dozen buildings all over Sharjah might reduce the pressure enough for the peak pressure to go away. And it will push a zero carbon setting too. 

All this is not a given, but I reckon that Chinese developers will see this as a way to come in as this path could see billion in revenue. Tesla has the battery advantage, I have no idea what China has in this area. You know what is the most striking one? I had in part the solution here in this blog two years before the rest had admitted that there is a power problem coming our way. The issue becomes that as time passes, not enough time will remain to implement the solution as well as the given that too many places at the point need this solution all at the same time and no one will be able to deliver this solution. To give a rough estimate Manhattan, Texas and Los Angeles will need a rough 12000 batteries. London is another 3500 batteries and I have no idea what the EU will need. Consider that one source gave the 2030 option, it would imply that at least 20,000-35,000 batteries are needed. I am certain that these numbers are hard to reach. So that leaves the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Australia and several other countries. Soon enough it will become a rat-race for the components. 

Enjoy Saturday, preferably with all appliances still getting power.

1 Comment

Filed under IT, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

June 27, 2024 · 01:17

The side not illuminated

The BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5111qxl2nro) is giving us ‘Apple in breach of law on App Store, says EU’ We get a few sides, but one side is not given to us. We are given “European Union regulators have accused Apple of being in breach of new laws designed to rein in big tech companies” It sounds nice, but at present the station “rein in big tech companies” is at least sanctimonious. We are also given “The firm charges developers an average of 30% commission on its App Store” and the penalty is given as we are given “The firm faces a potential fine of up to 10% of its global revenue if it fails to comply with the rules”. You see the one part we are NOT given is that all these developers get a channel to publish their work. The get their million by harassing people with advertising. These developers have no interest in giving gamers a real gaming satisfaction (some, but massively too little). So the EU should consider the fallout. You see Apple and Google could do two things. Pull all the games with an advertising channel, stating that this is not permitted. The second part is that they can start charging for the service. The bulk of these gaming ‘companies’ will soon thereafter collapse. You see when all these companies get CHARGED for spreading these games and cyber security. The net thing we see is that these companies will go somewhere else and the dangers of servicing hackers becomes rather large. 

The next part is that this becomes a new setting where the UAE and Saudi Arabia will get the option to offer the same thing Apple and Google did, but charging a mere 5% to 10%, the rest will probably going to China, making the EU and US lose even more revenue. 

All this because the shareholders of Epic Games wanted more revenue and they got this by throwing a tantrum like a child so that they get charged less for services. And lets be clear, they were eager to accept the deal when they were small, now that they are big they can afford to pay for the services. But that is not the only part. Epic Games wanted another path and when even one of these 3rd parties get to be hacked and the players get the damage, Epic Games will face the largest class action lawsuit in history. At that point I wonder how the shareholders will reflect on a pay cycle that will cost them billions. They had a safe environment with Apple and Google, but when that falls away these two will help to give the victims all the numbers and all the support they need to clean out the vaults of all the game developers who took the greedy way out. In addition the EU will get a new problem. As game makers fall flat and optionally move to China or the Middle East the EU will lose revenue. In the last 8 years 10 games made $13,000,000,000. So what will the EU do when that goes to China (or the Middle East)? There are over 200 companies, 105 made over $500,000,000. This was a bad call. These politicians have a socialistic mindset, Take from the rich, but they forget that these rich companies set the foundation of growth. Sergey Brin, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos were real innovators. The mediocrity of Microsoft is pushing them back more and more. And whilst they might be shown as the richest, they are losing more and more ground. Now with the EU, more and more business will move to better (read: non-European and American) shores. 

And the EU did this to themselves. Consider the DMA:

  • Business users who depend on gatekeepers to offer their services in the single market will have a Fairer business environment (But these services come at a cost, no more Freebees)
  • allow third parties to inter-operate with the gatekeeper’s own services in certain specific situations. (If hacked those services become nullified)

Just to part, the first will nullify these innovators, they cannot afford these services and they will go to a cheap solution making them a target for hackers. The second part will end some games, gamers have no patience and no humour. So when their game stops they will all cry like little children, their toy was taken away and when a hacker does get to upper hand, the class actions will come calling for all these companies. It is a war that the EU cannot win and the larger companies will become empty shells (my prediction). 

Until this first case was decided there was merely a threat of things, now it is coming to pass. 

I wonder what happens to the ‘fake’ economy in Europe when this starts. When advertising through gaming stops. What will the damage be? Amazon, Apple and Google have other means for getting advertising revenue. The others? Anyones guess, but there is a chance that a few hundred companies are sweating because no revenue meant no cost and that could stop now. So they need to find bankers. And what will those bankers demand? All issues that the DMA (Digital Markets Act) did not consider. I believe that this Apple case is opening a can of worms  no one is ready for and the implications are long term.

And now it is Thursday, Enjoy this day when you get to this point.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Gaming, IT, Law, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

June 25, 2024 · 16:01

As we revisit the issue

Before I get into this, lets revisit a number. In the previous story involving the Hajj, the number of casualties was less than 700, now it is exceeding 1300. We see all kinds of blame towards Saudi Arabia but there is another side to all this and nothing is the blame of Saudi Arabia. The article ‘US couple ‘walked for hours’ before dying in Hajj heat’ gives us another side, the failing of the media. In this case it falls on Caitriona Perry, Ana Faguy & Bernd Debusmann Jr, and their editor. 

You see when we see “A US couple who died during the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia were walking for over two hours in scorching temperatures before they succumbed to heat stroke, their daughter has told the BBC” we are not seeing the whole picture. You see arrangements were made for all REGISTERED PILGRIMS. There were air conditioned tents, medical attention, water and all kinds provisions. So this involves a non-registered pilgrim. Something that was clear within the first minute. So why didn’t the BBC catch up? We are given “her parents’ tour group had failed to provide many of the items it promised, including food and adequate water” as well as “They went a few days having to find food for themselves, even though the package was supposed to come with meals every day.” The issue is that we are also given “through an American touring company operating out of Maryland” so at this point we should be aware that Sadi Arabia has been investigating the issues involving unregistered pilgrims. So I am thinking that this requires attention of DA Erek L. Barron (the district attorney of Maryland) but the BBC makes no effort on this. We can set the premise that this tour operator is guilty of manslaughter in the very least, possibly even murder (my personal view). But the BBC never looked at this as far as I can tell. Just another article that makes Saudi Arabia look bad. 

We are given a simple “The BBC has contacted the company for comment”, nothing more, not even the name of the company. So with “She also told the BBC that the tour company had said it would provide the proper visas and registration for the trip, but failed to do so” we get the jump from manslaughter to murder. Can the tour operator show and prove that they had taken proper steps? There is a clear message that Saudi Arabia stops unregistered pilgrims. All this I knew in a minute after reading the article by the BBC, so the editor should have known this as well. Where was the editor in all this? The BBC did give us “According to the official Saudi news agency SPA, most of the Mecca pilgrims did not have official permits”, so is that ‘most of passed away  pilgrims’ or should that have been ‘most of the unregistered passed away pilgrims’? The distinction is important here. There were 1,800,000 registered pilgrims, the 1,300 represent a mere 0.07% of all pilgrims. Now consider that most deceased were unregistered. I have no insight of percentages that these 1,300 are separated in unregistered versus registered. So if it is 50/50 (which I very much doubt) it shows the number of casualties is at best 0.035% casualties in a pool of one point eight million pilgrims in the 50 degree Celsius heat. An amazing feat, but we aren’t given that either. So the Media (the US one) is all about pounding Mr Trump on hush money towards a hooker, but here they lack insight? Anyone else find this strange?

So whilst the BBC is eager to add “Saudi Arabia has recently come under criticism for not making the Hajj safer, particularly for unregistered pilgrims” well, it is simple the Hajj is only available to registered pilgrims. The Hajj needs to be done at least once by a muslim if he (or she) is able to afford it. At least that is what I remember. There are 1,900,000,000 Muslims, so it is pretty much impossible to give access to all Muslims. And this year 1,800,000 were given access. So these unregistered pilgrims broke the law. The BBC does not carry that message. So what is this piece? A complaint from the daughter of an American pilgrim? If so why wasn’t DA Erek L. Barron involved in this? Especially as Saudi Arabia have been trying to stop these unregistered pilgrims? Why didn’t the BBC take a few more minutes to dig into it all? Because a negative nonsensical article on Saudi Arabia is preferred over properly reporting the news? 

I am asking, because what was once a great news agency is now regarded to be as a populist gossip spreader (at best). And this change was achieved in the last 5 years. 

It will take a few months until the dust settles and we get updated reports. I just wonder what the west will do, will they cooperate with Saudi Arabia on these unregistered pilgrims? Will these tour operators, who sold tickets whilst no permits came through be questioned? I am willing to accept that many pilgrims pushed for the trips, but the tour operator will need to show evidence. Evidence needs to come forth. In this case the accusation of “a lot of the things promised to them weren’t provided” might be correct, but it also depends on evidence. As such the BBC wrote correctly “According to Ms Wurie” but there was no response and this article is lower than half baked, it lacks important evidence. This is not always on the reporting media. But in this case by not adding clear parts is on the BBC and especially the editor who let this pass.

Well, this is me moving slowly towards the midweek (Almost there, a mere eight hours to go).

Enjoy your day, it is still Monday in Vancouver and California.

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, Politics, Religion

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

June 24, 2024 · 03:13

Reengineering an old solution

I was bending my mind over backwards to stay creative. And as I was mulling over something I read a year ago, my mind started to race towards an optional solution. You see, the idea is not novel but it has been forgotten. So if Tandon never renewed their patent, you get the exclusive option to rule there. If they have, you could file for an innovative patent, giving you still a decent payment for your trouble. 

Going back 34 years
Yes, it was the height of the IT innovative time and this age had plenty of failures, but it also had decent blockbusters and whilst they all wanted to rule the world, they clamped down on their IP innovations. Tandon was one of those.

As you can see in this image the drives (both of them) look like space hoarders, it was the age of Seagate with their 20MB or 30MB drives. The nice part was that these drives could be ejected. It was a novel idea where the CFO could put its drive with the books in the vault.  

Why is this an issue?
Well, last year I saw an article that well over 70% of all cloud accounts were invaded on. To see this we need to look (at https://www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/cloud-intrusions-spike-crowdstrike/708315/) where we see ‘Cloud intrusions spiked 75% in 2023, CrowdStrike says’ it comes with the text “Organisations with weak cloud security controls and gaps in cross-domain visibility are getting outmanoeuvred by threat actors and struck by intrusions” And this is not all. Captains of industry lacking IT knowledge will happily accept that free 1TB USB drive at a trade show, not realising that it also creates a backdoor on their servers. They shouldn’t be too upset, it happened to a few people at the Pentagon as well (as they are supposed to know what they are doing). So the cloud is a failing setting of security. So consider that, as well as Samsung putting their stuff online because they didn’t realise how to operate OpenAI. Just a few examples. So what is to stop their research or revenue results to be placed on a drive like the pre-cloud days?

You think I would put my IP in the cloud? Actually I did, but I have a rather nasty defence system that is a repeated action I learned in 1988 and no one has a clue where to look (and I never put it with the usual suspects), but this is me and I will not give you that trick because all kinds of people read my blog. 

So back to Tandon. In stead of this big drive, consider a normal drive space and in stead of that big box. Consider a tray with enough space to fit an SDD with the connector inside the tray, going to a plug on the outside of the tray. With a simple kit that can be purchased if more than one drive is used. Now see the Tandon solution as it could be. An ejectable drive solution for many. Yes you can connect just a wire and use an external SSD, but it becomes messy and these wires can also malfunction. There is even the option of adding AES256 that could be added in the drive on one side, so even if they steal the drive (optionally with computer) the thieves lose out as a dongle could be required. It merely depends on how secure you want the data to be. A CFO might rely on his safe for the books. An IP research post might need more security. So consider if you want to be the optional victim staged in the 75%, or do you need your data to be secure. 

So whomever take the idea and reengineer it (with optional extras), you are welcome and have a nice day. I just completed 12.5% of Monday, time to snore like a lumberjack.

Leave a comment

Filed under IT, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

June 22, 2024 · 23:25

In the heat of the night (and day)

I got news yesterday, I had to mull things over as this is not something I have know how on. The article was from the BBC and as they lost a lot of credibility, I had to investigate a few things.

The article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cxrrzp479r4o) gives us ‘Egyptian pilgrims ‘totally abandoned’ in Hajj heat’, I found it to be a blatant inaccuracy given (to say the least). But let me give you the information that matters.

The article gives us “Effendiya, a widow, went to Mecca on a tourist visa, not on an official Hajj visa. She was among hundreds of thousands of unregistered pilgrims who hoped to fulfil their religious obligation this year without obtaining special Hajj permits”, as well as “Pilgrims usually stay in air-conditioned tents, have buses to drive them between holy sites and are provided with medical care. Sayyed says Effendiya and other unregistered pilgrims “had none of these facilities, they were totally abandoned”. He adds that they tried to protect themselves from the searing heat by using bedsheets to make a tent.” All this comes across as true, I cannot fault that. Where the BBC (and others) fall short is the fact that Saudi Arabia has rules. Mecca has a little over 2 million people. During the Hajj the population there is doubled. This year it had 1.8 million pilgrims. So those are the official numbers. Unregistered pilgrims are not part of this, as such they do not get any of the facilities. I certain path to death, especially as this year the Hajj was done under a searing sun pumping up the temperature to 51.8 degrees (Celsius). So these unregistered pilgrims are not given air-conditioned tents, bus rides or medical care. 

The Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/19/hajj-heat-deaths-missing-pilgrims-search-saudi-arabia) gives us with ‘Search for missing pilgrims continues after hajj heat deaths’ an additional “Arab diplomats on Tuesday told Agence France-Presse at least 550 pilgrims had died this year, the majority due to heat-related illnesses after temperatures reached 51.8C (125F) in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.” I believe that the BBC fell short of exposing of creating a clear message that there is a risk by going to Mecca on a tourist visa during the Hajj. The guardian gives us “Each year, tens of thousands of pilgrims attempt to perform the hajj through irregular channels as they cannot afford the often costly official permits. This had become easier since 2019 when Saudi Arabia introduced a general tourism visa, said Umer Karim, an expert on Saudi politics at the University of Birmingham.” You see there is a reason that the official permit comes at a price. The air-conditioned tents and busses as well as medical posts cost a fair bit and when you have to deal with 1.8 million pilgrims that cost will increase. Consider Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. The cost of a stadium with 96,000 people. The cost of that and multiply it by 20, that is the reality. Compare that to the Super-bowl 2024 where only 61,629 attended. The Hajj attracts the biggest audience in the world and this year is was unduly hot. They might not have known this before they attended but that is a large slice of the issue and the BBC did not clearly identify it. They stated this, but not the indirect issues that are in play. I wonder if the 550 pilgrims mentioned are merely the registered ones. Those who had access to air-conditioning, water, busses and medical options. I reckon that there are more elements in play. They might not have directly mattered, but indirectly they could have set an influence. None of that is seen in the articles. 

In other light, the New Arab gives us “According to multiple testimonies, the deaths were caused not only by heat but by poor management of the disaster by Saudi authorities.” The question that comes to mind is due to unregistered or registered pilgrims? It matters as there are lager issues in place. As it happens we might not be able to tell who was registered or not but the unregistered pilgrims are the weight that changes whether a boat floats or sinks. In addition, 51.8 degrees is largely unheard of, even if you are in an air-conditioned tent with a fair supply of water. In addition we see “Saudi authorities have struggled to crack down against the practice, particularly this year when over two million pilgrims were expected, although they reportedly turned back over 250,000 unregistered pilgrims”, in this setting I wonder what investigation the BBC (and the Guardian) did to investigate the Egyptian travel agent that did this, because it is always about the money, which indicates a paper trail. These people had arranged flights, that means a passport. That part took less then 5 minutes for me to figure out. So when we see “Hesham’s wife, walked tens of kilometres under the scorching sun from one holy site to the next, unable to board the official Hajj buses made available to pilgrims” it is the grim reality doing that under the condition of 51.8 degrees Celsius. I doubt I would last half that distance, a 70 year old person won’t last even that long. Were mistakes made? I reckon there were, little to no doubt about that. But in regards to the unregistered pilgrims I do believe that the Saudi Arabian government and Tawfig Al-Rabiah, Minister of Hajj and Umrah are as I see it not to blame. I might alter that point of view when Saudi Arabia has conducted its own investigation, yet I also believe that these travel agents need to be hunted down and prosecuted. In addition their businesses are to be taken away from them and they shouldn’t ever be allowed to be allowed in a tourism position. They pretty much send these people to their deaths. And these people know that they are in trouble, as the BBC reports “Her family say they have been unable to contact the broker who organised her trip”, an unreachable travel broker? He probable fears the consequences (a speculation by me at present).

Enjoy this Saturday, mine is almost over.

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, Religion, Tourism

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,