February 4, 2024 · 11:23

The counting thought

Several hours ago I came up with yet another optional TV series. I am already working on ‘How to Assassinate a Politician’ (about the end of the politician Geert Wilders) for Al Saudiya and it has hit a few bricks. The first line setting is done, now the detail work and that meets with challenges, especially as Final Draft is new to me. Then there is ‘Residuam Vitam’ which plays mostly in New Orleans and I have for the most, worked it out in my mind and is supposed to be a mini-series. Then there is ‘Kenos Diastima’ which is mostly completed in my mind and is a series set to 3 seasons with an open ending. I did not want to dredge it on and I like the thoughts that Terry Gilliam had on 12 Monkeys and Brazil. The last setting is ‘Engonos’ which my mind is currently developing and I am somewhere in season 2. As such my plate is full and here you as readers are about to get some free IP, feel free to use it anyway you can.

The story has references. There was a TV series once (about 30-40 years ago) which centred about a special effects dude and he uses his skills to give certain targets the idea that there are aliens and exploits them to do the right thing. Then there is A Christmas Carol by the legendary Charles Dickens. This story is lovely and very vanilla, which considering it was published in December 1843 makes perfect sense. The world was very innocent those days (I miss those days) and a such my mind made an overhaul. The first target is that wench Candace Owens who called for an invasion of Australia with its Taliban government. She will do nicely. As a public person she has no expectations of privacy. As one calling for the invasion of Australia (my country) she can be made an example of. 

The stage
The stage is that the episodes start with a person who seemingly is in a nightmare, they (in this case she) are in hell. She faces her darkest nightmares according to Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and as we go through 2/3rd of the story, we see her struggling with the darkest fears. Then we see that she is set into a medical coma and she is influenced by the latest technologies in a truck, so that she and the setup remains mobile. We see her being bruised by people monitoring her and it reenforces her nightmares, she is naked so that the hot air touches her skin making her darkness deeper. Brambles cut and chaff her and she is wearing a helmet with a visor making the sounds and should she momentarily wake up slightly, the images continue. After 36 hours she is dumped somewhere in a simple Jute gown that is covered in blood and tar. The blood is human and is a mix of dozens of different blood types (to keep the police busy) and the tar is especially created using brimstone (sulphurise coals) with some additional elements in the mix to boggle the mind of scientists. Then we get into the final stretch and we see how actors who were part of the process are around her reenforcing her thoughts in subtle ways outside of the ‘experience’. 

The question we leave out in the open at that point is what would a despicable wench do when we expose her to her nightmares? Now this could be a mini series (3-4 episodes) or a series with multiple people (the real despicable ones). You see, I do not believe that there is a horror story out there that uses the latest technologies for some ‘subjective’ mind screwing. I think that idea has merit and that is as far as I got in 2-3 hours. 

So, if you can make this work, you are welcome to it. The smallest request (from me) is that you use Candace Owens for this example. There should be a consequence of being this stupid and calling for the invasion of Australia. We have our pride and you better not piss us off. The 6 deadliest animals on the planet live here as someone once said. 

Enjoy a more vanilla weekend than I am at present, preferable with a someone you desire more than anything else (real, valid or not).

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February 3, 2024 · 22:47

What are sports to you?

A question I have been pondering. It started a week or so as the Swift hatred entered my Twitter account. I have no idea why there was so much hatred. She is gorgeous, she is a singer and from one photo I saw she has the muscle tone of an olympic athlete. So, what is not to like or love about that youthful young sprout? But this is about sports and for this we need to go back to early 2003. I got my Xbox with a new mobile subscription. I wasn’t looking for it, I had my PS2 and I was happy. I had nothing against the Xbox, gaming is gaming. And on a nice summer 5 friends and me making a team of 6 decided to have a little American Football match. With the EA game that as possible, so on Saturday we started the elimination game each a 15 minute game (I believe) and I ended up 4th. I lost the last game against the Steelers and the steelers went to the podium to get 3rd. The final that was to be played Sunday (we were all tired) was set to noon (a Gary Cooper reason). And the final match a two times 30 minutes game was set between packers and raiders and the raiders won. It was perhaps one of the nicest weekends that year. There were snacks, there were suds, there was cake in-between and we were all having a great time. Even now 20 years later I still remember that weekend. Gaming and sports. I was playing the 49ers for the most nerdy, dorky reasons of all. I saw one of their cheerleader calendars that year and San Francisco seemed like a cool city. 

Does there need to be another reason? I like my hockey, my NHL games. So as the 49ers are due towards the Super Bowl these thoughts came flooding back to me. 

And as I was looking at the news I see how Taylor Swift could make the flight back from Japan with the words ‘You need to calm down: Taylor Swift can fly from Tokyo to Super Bowl in time, says Japan embassy’ (source: The Guardian) is the world mad? First if she can’t make it, she can watch it on TV. She has a jet with TV. She is a multi billion dollar business woman and she has her brand, just like Travis Kelce has his job and his job is on the line that day. He might not be the quarterback, but this is the game of a lifetime and he is just as important as the other players. This is one match when being a team matters. Prima Donna’s never make it to the finish line. They need their team and this is the grand slam of finals in sports. 

I doubt I’ll see it, I am not a football fan and I am not sure if it makes the Australian TV. I will keep an eye on the Google Scores. And it all matters, as I see “Big name advertisers from Netflix to Google paid as much as $7 million for a 30-second spot during the game, seeking to capture the attention of the roughly 100 million viewers who tune in each year.” Everyone wants to cash in, everyone wants to see part of that 100,000,000 audience. I get it, but it is about the sports (and perhaps the halftime show)

But what does it mean to you? You see EA has its franchise, but when did they go out to make it about a friends sphere? Not what THEY believe it to be, but what you believe it to be. You see, I never got to safe that game (and now It doesn’t matter as I do not have an Xbox), but the option to set that match in PDF, or perhaps the game created a social media page. When was that done? We underestimate the connection of sports and play and the franchise holders underestimate it even more. In a global view it matters to people in Pakistan and India to keep scores of their achievements in cricket and I reckon in other games too. 

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are not far behind them. These 4 make up for a 2 billion population, not all are into sports, but it ends up being a lot more than the population of America. These franchise holders have been catering to the wrong cluster as far as I can tell. Now that sports are going to be a much larger presentation all over the Middle East these people need to consider changing gears and they need to do this before their next games come out. Whomever does it will have options to really become a larger player in sports. But it all reflects back to ‘What do sports mean to you?’ It is not the easiest question. Even kids misalign their views because of what they feel of any sport. But ask any Pakistani Kid and for the most their will answer that Cricket is their life. And Cricket (on PS5) heard that call. Yet we also get The user score for NHL 24 on Metacritic has the game received as “generally unfavourable”. Not a good thing. And it gets worse for them. The Middle East has no representation as far as I can tell and in the upcoming years it will matter. It might not be NHL, the Emirates Ice Hockey League (EHL) is starting to get noticed and that implies fans and youthful players. I believe that gaming can head it off giving the young players something to care for. And in all this sport is caring and caring is sports. You might think I am wrong and that is fine, but consider the numbers. How many people play the Cricket game per nation? I never found these statistics and now they matter. You see there is a shift and it is turning towards the Middle East. Not for American Football and not for the Super Bowl, but this even shows how much sports have been in decline in the west. Soccer players will disagree and I hand that to them, it is all about Europe there. Yet there is a shift there too. We are catering to the wrong crowds and these franchises better wake up soon because that is how rifts start. That is optionally how new and better franchises are created. By the way, in 2003 I could set my entire game towards a SF49 interface. Later it was dropped. Why? Consider the thought behind that change and wonder how there is not a shift amongst gamers. The NHL games never gave me that option, other then my home stadium and a collection of players and outfits. But the interface was generic. Why not appeal to their fans? Why can’t actual scores not be added to the game tweaking statistics? All ideas that have been floating around for at least a decade, but we aren’t seeing any of it in the NFL, NHL or NBA games. Why is that? What are games to you and what are game to them? When you consider that these franchises are merely interested in money, where does that leave you? I let you ponder that and you all as you enter the last week before the Super Bowl. Sports are more than one game, but this is their moment, their aim for the throne of footballs. We can merely sit by and watch it on TV (or if you are rich and lucky) watch it in person. 

So have fun and watch out for that wicket this day.

 

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February 2, 2024 · 19:17

Evolutions towards the third cog

There was a side in one of my IP, the one that Google squandered and Amazon decided that they don’t need 50 million subscriptions, that one. There was a side that I never pondered on too deep. You see that part has more than one side. One side was the people and my IP is all about protecting them. Yet there is a global need for advertisement and I accept that, I merely don’t want that junk on my work desk. It needs to be available when the CONSUMER thinks they need it, not when the advertiser states that they know when a consumer needs it. 

These two fames of mind the (shortsighted) advertiser and the consumer need a buffer. There are a few other parts in this, but this is taking certain concepts and turn them into global options. As such my mind designed the system to be this strong willed, optionally that far ahead thinking. As such (my mind) who realises that AI does not yet exist did consider adding the deeper learning systems to be part of this, after all the consumer wins and 50,000,000 winners cannot be wrong. That being said, the sight of additional IP, parts I had designed in an isolated setting and if working, a mere increase of 1% amounts to 650,000,000 dirham. Take that concept global and it starts amounting to serious amounts. A setting that no one considered and for the life of me, I cannot see why. It was out in the open for the longest time. 

The mind started to consider additional sides. You see, social media where the consumer is the centre piece, brushing against commerce when it conveniences THEM has as far as I can tell never been explored to a serious degree and now the UAE (most likely first in line) get a serious addition to consider with a player like Tencent Technologies. That part was never contemplated by me as I was looking at different IP parts, but they could be connected. It only needs the mapping API and that is where Google comes back into the frame. You see “The Google Maps Platform is a set of APIs and SDKs that allows developers to embed Google Maps into mobile apps and web pages, or to retrieve data from Google Maps.” So until Amazon has its own Mapping part, or until Tencent releases their mapping part a new event rises to the occasion and there my mind started to mull things over. Three elements that can be connected and two of them globally. Facebook doesn’t have it and Google squandered part of it. They still have important parts, but overall they left it on the floor, all whilst they had an option to be the only contender in 2021. There is another case, but I know too little. You see last September we were given “the UAE’s efforts to embrace advanced technologies are set to drive the country’s economic growth and cement its position as a global leader in technology and innovation.” I never looked into that, because my IP wasn’t up to scrap then. There was also the small desire to sell it all to the Kingdom Holding Co. The little I knew of Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud gave me the idea that he would welcome turning a starting (a speculated: my starting) 30 million into his presumed 6,000,000,000 annually. There is now a lot more on the dinner table as this could explode into all directions leaving the owner with a lot more. How much more? I have no idea. My mind is still mulling over the third cog. You see, in the end the total revenue is unimportant to me. It is creating the new stage that big-tech ignored and optionally trivialised. And with the Kingdom Holdings having a stake in the Citigroup, their growth seems almost a certainty. But that is not on my plate. You see I need to remain focussed on serving the consumers. Only then will the IP be globally accepted and there is a lot to be had there. All the others claim to think of their consumers. So how many advertisements were added to your timeline, were shown whilst you were playing a game, were shown whilst you were browsing family news? Try counting these advertisements and see where you stand. 

The fun part?
Google had a massive advantage here, yet they decided to drop the Google Stadia making Amazon the only option (Microsoft is not considered a worthy contender). That was until Tencent Holdings came out with their solution and now the picture changes even further. Now that there is a premise to link certain IP there is a larger station to change the image of revenue. I believe that consumers do not care that YOU make a dollar or two, they just don’t want to be faced with that fallout and advertisement is pure fallout. That is one part they all agree on. Now consider that people can spend their money only once and that gives you a new train of thought. This isn’t some spiel on the margins this is a new definition on how the pie is cut up and the other players will have to do with a much smaller piece of their slice. Not at first mind you, but like all growth settings when margins grow the others lose their margins and that turns to a smaller piece of the pie.

Feel free to disbelieve this, but I have been writing about this since November 2022 (it might have been December 2021). The timeline shows me to be correct. 

So as I am about to face Saturday, Vancouver is only now starting Friday, and as such, only 16 minutes ago former PM Najib Razak got his sentence reduced (time joke).

Enjoy the day and the upcoming weekend.

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February 1, 2024 · 20:49

I noticed something weird

This happens, we see something and we think “that’s weird”, at which time we do something, or we do nothing. There is no blame either way, but I decided to take a look. So here I was watching a story on Twitter (still refusing to call it X). And GB News gave us:

I thought that was weird, lets just say that I haven’t seen any Crusaders in over 750 years, so that was weird to say the least. As such I decided to look into this person named Mike Freer. And yes there was some new a month ago with “Until the police catch the suspect, I won’t know if it was deliberate, but it’s one of many threats I’ve faced.” So, one of the many threats? Not to much in the police pages on that was it. Leave it to any politician to seek the limelight whenever possible. Here it is missing and I saw the start of red flags. Then we get to “Muslims Against Crusades”, aka a group shortened to MAC (I can’t make up this shit), with a setting stated as “Muslims Against Crusades (MAC) is a banned radical Islamist group in the United Kingdom. The group was founded in 2010 by Abu Assadullah.” Yet the weird part is that there is nothing in the news. People like this seek the limelight and claim whatever they can and here…..nothing. Another red flag. So who is this Mike Freer anyway? As I can see it, the little I see is MP for Finchley and Golders Green. A British Conservative Party politician and former banker serving as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Courts and Legal Services since September 2022. That is pretty much all there was out there, until the last 24 hours when all the media decided to give him the limelight treatment. A month ago the news was minimal and ‘suspected arson’ was pretty much it.

Could I be wrong?
Yes, absolutely. Yet too many things are off and they come up with red flags. So what is the REAL reason he is ‘retiring’? You see ‘many threats’ implies a much larger police visibility (in the news) optionally even those rascals from Scotland Yard (or alleged brigands from MI5) and I see neither. OK, MI5 are news shy and I get that, but still the painting is missing elements. Now consider William Holman Hunt, The Awakening Conscience (1853)

Without the mistress, it is a seemingly a man relaxing in front of his piano. The mistress makes him naughty, makes him relevant, only she achieves that. That mistress is missing with Mike Freer, making this a weird setting. Look at any UK politician, they’ll exploit any event for visibility. It seems to weird. Then we get the view of the Muslim Council (UK) giving us in the past “a tiny, and utterly deplorable, extremist group”. A group like that needs visibility and they wouldn’t seek Mike Freer, they would seek the Mayor of London, or a big wig visible UK minister. There is too much wrong with the image that I am seeing and as such I wonder how much foot work any journalist in the UK has done, because this took less than 15 minutes and with proper GCHQ access I might find a lot more within the hour. The fact that GB News uses it to forward their momentum I get that, not the most intelligent path, but OK. That happens too. Oh, that reminds me, if that Abu Assadullah was still around (not sure if he is, or isn’t) I reckon he (and they at MAC) would have gotten 600% more exposure if he ‘borrowed’ a real British device 

and took a shot at Nigel Farage. It wouldn’t matter whether it was a success or not. All the papers would be screaming that news out loud for days to come. So when you consider all the elements, there is too much wrong with the news we see here. The question becomes why is he really leaving politics? The most ‘traction’ I see was when he was an area performance manager at Barclays Bank plc. Not much is it? So what is the conservative drive here? A better tool in that area? A more willing bulldog, but they want to replace their troops without bloodshed? Your guess is as good as mine. I have no idea, but the entire Freer setting is off, I know it is a personal feeling. Yet what we see with politicians and the media willing to exploit everything for digital dollars too many tees aren’t crossed and the eyes are missing. And after the Daily Telegraph issue, it is a little too much weirdness. Think what you will, but you know I am right here.

Thursday is almost over for me but in Vancouver it is just beginning (and the bars are closing there now). Enjoy your day and have fun.

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January 31, 2024 · 21:45

On one side

That is the setting I was confronted with early this morning. I actually am not sure where I stand, this happens. It started with the Guardian article ‘Telegraph takeover: UK issues ‘stop meddling’ order to UAE-backed consortium’ (at https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/jan/30/telegraph-takeover-uk-issues-stop-meddling-order-to-uae-backed-consortium). As such there are issues. In the first we get “The UK government has issued a legal order stopping a UAE-backed consortium from meddling with the Telegraph, including making any changes to top management and editorial executives, until investigations into its proposed takeover are complete.” As such, this is the Telegraph, not some newspaper with credibility like the Times. The Telegraph has been throwing its credibility down the drain faster than a nymphomanic hooker on roofies (just saying). 

We are also given “Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, issued the pre-emptive action order after RedBird IMI’s last-minute move to create a new UK holding company to house the Telegraph and the Spectator if its complex deal with the Barclay family to take control goes through.” So it was pre-emptive? Fair enough but in that same light we got last November “Lucy Frazer said the Media Bill puts ‘protection of our free press’ at its core.” I don’t think she has a clue what freedom means until it serves HER purpose. In all this there is a side the Guardian and plenty of others ignore. It is seen with “house the Telegraph and the Spectator if its complex deal with the Barclay family to take control goes through.” As such who spoke to the Barclay family on this? I cannot find any article in that regard. This is just another Islamophobia setting and the media is key to reducing that tension, so I wonder what Frazer has on her order list. We can assume that “It is the latest skirmish in the battle for control of the Telegraph in a pivotal year for UK politics, with a general election due to be held in the autumn.” You see the Telegraph is conservatively tainted, as is Lucy Frazer. Is there a chance that they fear that reduced exposure could cost them the elections? It is highly speculative from me, but we cannot see ANY evidence that the acts by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan are evil, nothing more than a man being a shrewd business man and I think the UK needs more of those (but that too is my speculative view). Still there is an enormous amount of evidence missing. So what made this deal is such a “complex deal with the Barclay family”? It could be, but we aren’t given this part are we. Just a lot of emotions of some cultural sheila in the fear group (Australian expression). You see what everyone is forgetting is that the Barclay family is largely linked to the Telegraph Media Group. It represents (apparently) a value  in the region of £500m to £700m. Lets not forget how they were duped by Bjorn Lomborg’s climate propaganda, covid misinformation and that list goes on for some time, so how is not prosecuting those people, avoiding Leveson and some other small stuff serving the people and selling the paper to a UAE corporation is not? Lets not forget that the UK has 12 daily newspapers in circulation. As such I have questions and so should you. Perhaps there are valid reasons to fear PR settings, but that fear was taken away from that person in the Mummy 4 (Rupert Murdoch), so why are they still afraid? I think I know, but I will let you figure that part out for now. We are also given ‘Telegraph could become ‘PR arm’ of UAE after proposed takeover, MPs warned’ (source: Guardian) and  consider that the UK population is 68 million, the Daily Telegraph represents a circulation of around 318,000 a day, that represents a mere 0.4%, so where is the danger? I cannot see it, but perhaps someone will put out a much larger article (in an actual newspaper) to debunk my setting and give us the real deal. I could be wrong, I really could be and I am not certain where I stand, but at present it seems that this Frazer girls is responding to a different match ring and we aren’t told what exactly it is. 

The other part is that (no matter how complex), was the move legal. So now we are stopping legal moves whilst governments all over the world can’t be bothered to stop criminals? What kind of place are they running there? 

I will let you figure it out as you start the midweek and I await the arrival of Thursday.

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January 31, 2024 · 00:11

Forbes Foreboding Forecast

Yup, it happens. Sometimes the others are all on your train ride, but that does not make your prediction true. Yet to see this we need to take the whole image into consideration. For me I saw this come towards us like a freight train without any brakes when I wrote about it as early as September 2020. I wrote several times that these settings were a really bad setting and the outcome would not be a nice one. Then I warned that the US economy had nowhere to go, not when they insult and offend Saudi Arabia (and to some extent the UAE), as such China would gain billions in revenue. We saw last month (could have been 2 months ago), news that America was ‘worried’ about China making so much headway into the middle East. And now Forbes (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/01/29/the-us-dollar-is-finished-wall-street-legend-warns-trumps-and-bidens-china-nightmare-is-suddenly-coming-true/) gives us ‘The U.S. Dollar Is ‘Finished’—Wall Street Legend Warns Trump’s And Biden’s China Nightmare Is Suddenly Coming True’. Really? First off, this isn’t suddenly, I made mentions for almost 4 years that this stage was underway. The fact that the dollar is finished is not entirely wrong, but not to the degree we see predicted. Wall Street will take any stance to diminish that danger. People will end up with nothing, but the almighty dollar will sail on, even though the galleon it once had will be replaced by a simple sloop (as piracy goes). 

So whilst we get “The U.S. dollar is “finished as the world’s reserve currency,” analyst Richard X Bove told the New York Times just days after his retirement from a storied 54-year career as a Wall Street analyst.” I initially tend to agree. Yes the dollar as a reserve currency is pretty much a bye bye black sheep operation. It is the “Bove, who sees bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as winning in a post-dollar dominant world, predicted that China will overtake the U.S. economy” part I do not completely agree with. You see the Yuan is and will be an important part of the global economy, but China has its own skeletons to deal with. Evergrande is one and that $300,000,000,000 issue will hinder the Chinese economy to a massive degree. Not to mention the Chinese population that is hurt by that loss. I reckon that being related to Shawn Siu in China is a lot more dangerous than being a loudmouthed disrespectful American in that region, but that could merely be my take on that situation. You see, China needs both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to get the traction to push forward. Yes, they will push the dollar of its throne and Americans with their arrogance did this to themselves, but without the Middle East China has no real momentum. That was the larger station we needed to see. I tried to warn people, but to them I knew nothing. And true, I have no degrees in economy, but I have looked into numbers for decades and I have both a creative mind to see beyond the numbers and a critical mind to question any hypothesis I have. As such I saw what is now being published as ‘suddenly’. My timeline has three years of warnings of the dangers the US and its dollar were facing. I do not have the knowledge or insight to discuss or oppose the digital currency changes, but I can tell that the ego of ex-presidents with his opposition to the digital dollar will be the end of the American economy. The digital dollar would allow Wall Street to diminish the impact the slam the dollar is about to make. If that stops the damage will be enormous. I don’t think the US economy will have any cards to play. Especially now that the EU nations are vying for the same defence contracts that were once almost uniquely America alone. With France, the UK and Germany vying for whatever spending dollars they can, China might end up with a little less, but they still have a lot of billions coming their way, all billions lost to America now and the EU is trying to get a few as well, an indoor fight between the US and EU is not one they were ready for and overall the American evangelisers are now starting to be a lot more quiet. Money talks and the US has none left. Now that the Ukrainian Russian military debate is now three weeks away from two years. A short term prediction by the Kremlin is now a setting that they could actually lose. A stage not considered a year ago and that also brings a lot more problems to the EU nations as well as America. America that has been catering to Russian needs no less and that is important as the people are now a lot more eager to accept China as the new leader. This is not some Nixon fantasy, this is the case of Wall Street deciding on what is best for the world and that is not how it works. That only has any value in the delusional mind of some. So whilst we see what happens next, we see that the power players are vacating towards the UAE. Some will go to other destinations, but the mess that they are leaving behind (not all due to them) will leave the American population without anything left. So what do you think happens when the dollar collapses and 200,000,000 Americans see that their savings are gone. Do you really think they will will side with Trump and his multiple multi million lost lawsuits? Consider that no one has a clear view on how much he owns. Some state that he only has now less than 3 billion and he was dropped from the Forbes 400 list, he came up $300,000,000 short (a lot more with the lawsuits he lost). To give you some reference, Elon Musk is apparently 96 times wealthier. He has 9600% more wealth than Donald Trump and that is the person Americans pissed off, all whilst he has the foundations of a solution for the energy shortage they face. So how is ego holding up? When the UAE engages with that solution, America will come up short in funds and energy. So the ‘suddenly’ setting wasn’t there. This has been out in the open for up to 4 years. And that picture goes from bad to worse soon enough. 

Could I be wrong?
It is a fair question and I ask myself that question pretty much every day. It is not indecisiveness, it is not doubt. It is about verifying the numbers again and again from whatever reliable source I can find. Verification is everything. Richard X Bove and I got to the same conclusions via different ways and as such I wonder why others were never on that page. Why was the media not all over this? They were so ready to protect Elizabeth Holmes and Sam Bankman-Fried, but this they didn’t see? Ask yourself that question and wonder what else they got wrong and more importantly why did they get that wrong. You might come to some conclusions that will scare you. Mainly because you all worked towards your retirement, but how many funds saw the golden future that the dollar bonds brought? When that falls flat your retirement will be gone and there is no coming back from that. I think that a few banks in America, as well as Credit Suisse Group AG (now part of UBS), isn’t it interesting that none of them were properly investigated by the media? They all gave the same story, but no one looked into how many dollar bonds these banks had. It might be nothing, but I doubt it. You see, Credit Suisse was handed a $54 billion lifeline. The fact that ANY bank needed THAT MUCH money was never properly investigated and it wasn’t just them. We see all the claims, but to need a 54 billion lifeline implies that that piece of rope is made from weaved platinum threads with diamonds. When did you ever need a lifeline like that?

And these places all matters, because that is to some extent the impact that the dollar pushed for, at least that is how I personally see it. There will be plenty of people stating that I am wrong, but after 4 years I have been proven correct too many times. Let them come up with verifiable data and clear sources to prove me wrong. I dare them.

Enjoy the day, my Wednesday just started.

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January 30, 2024 · 00:57

The Apple conundrum

Yup, it is a mystery and honestly I do not get it. Now lets be clear they haven’t done anything wrong. But a few cogs started grinding after an article in the Guardian. The article (at https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/dec/11/apple-macbook-pro-m3-review-beloved-laptop-is-back-in-black-battery-screen) was placed last year, on December 11th. There we see the new MacBook Pro and it is a beauty, especially when you have been exposed to silver editions for about a decade, that jet black is a black diamond, nothing less. It isn’t cheap, but the Apple M3 Max chip with 16‑core CPU, 40‑core GPU and 16‑core Neural Engine can be upgraded to 128GB RAM (I would select the 64GB RAM for sentimental reasons) and can be upgraded with 8TB storage, a little much to my liking, so I would chose the 4TB edition. I wrote some time ago about an Apple/Adobe deal and Apple should consider it for the configuration I am ‘considering’. You see vloggers either go big or they can go home. The market is that way and too many are working below par. They either strap up or become irrelevant and the MacBook pro could allow for that. But that is not why this article is here. You see, Apple has another stallion in its stables

The old iMac’s were not my thing (I had the G4, G5), the old iMac didn’t do it for me, this one is a beauty and for vloggers the workstation to have, or is it? You see the iMac can only have 24GB of RAM, which is enough for the bulk of all vloggers, but the limit of 2TB is not. I have no idea why Apple didn’t allow for the upgrade to 4TB. Now, with the vlogging groups and medium format digital camera’s (at 100MP), having 4TB makes perfect sense. Why don’t the people at Apple see that? Doing the Microsoft path with extra external drives doesn’t hold the mustard. And this is not a time setting, the MacBook Pro is out for a while now, that means that in addition to that, Apple had 3-8 months to mull things over. So why wasn’t this done? The iMac is gorgeous, as such any vlogger would love many hours behind their workstation with that 24” screen making their videos look absolutely perfect. And yes, to get that level of result Adobe is pretty much a minimum requirement. Nothing against the GoPro and its software, which (as far as I have seen it) is pretty good, but today’s vlogger needs to edit and past basic options the only real player here (with no competition) is Adobe. 

All this is pretty much basic information out in the open, am I the only one seeing that? Consider that 2TB is a lot, but it already needed the operating software, other software (whatever you also need it for) and 100GB for the complete Adobe suite (as far as I can tell), now at this point you will see that 2TB is enough. However, 4K vloggers need 45GB per hour, as such you require the max of that iMac within a year and then you better clean up fast and much of it. This is why the 4TB is enough and gives you enough time. Consider one project, 2 hours, editing space that is quickly amounting to 200GB space, so 5 of these and the first TB is gone. Space gets lost pretty quick and those salespeople relying on you keeping your space clean have never considered the creative mind. This is why the 4TB matters and the MacBook Pro does that (even more then needed), so why wasn’t the iMac offered that option at present? I get that it might not have been an option when it released, but now? And consider that this requirement was clearly visible for almost a year. The lack of space doesn’t make sense to me. Should that person rely on medium format digital camera’s that space gets lost even faster. Consider that this could allow for PSD files up to 2GB (their Maximum), consider that a photoshoot could be anything between 50-300 images making this a 600GB nightmare and nightmare is the right word. You see any pro photographer has 1-2 photoshoots a day and managing system space is not their highest priority, making the Apple stance even less comprehensible (to me at least).

I see a lack of interactions, a lack of outreach to the photographer environment (a slight assumption) and in all this Apple is coming up short. What frightens me is that I expect these shortcomings from Microsoft, to see them from Apple is a little bewildering. But that could be me.

Enjoy your day.

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January 29, 2024 · 15:40

Pushing buttons

That is the name of the exercise and this time it is not just having a go at Microsoft, it is time to call Apple to attention as well. You see we have been pushing buttons on a keyboard for years, optionally for decades. Yet when did we see ACTUAL evolution in these contraptions? The most interesting evolutionary step was seen in CSI Miami in 2002 when an episode evolved around a laser keyboard display.

It didn’t go far enough, but it was a start, since then for 20 years. two hundred and forty months no less, both Apple and Microsoft have been spinning all kinds of innovation, but leaving a larger gap. You see, the world is globalising and both were part of that, but they never embraced the world, they merely pushed American values which are not the same.

Now consider this image below. The black keys are small LCD screens (or something similar). 

This is not a leap, this technology, all parts exist. On the iMac you can literally change the keyboard on your screen, a decent case can be made to make the iPad the Keyboard to ANY other Mac, but that is a different conversation. You see, the next part makes sen se if you know more than one language, this example shows us an Arabic version.

A setting that many have seen (millions actually). Japan, China, Korea, Arabic Nations, Pakistan, Ukraine and that list goes on for a while, even in Europe (France, UK) they have different setups. 

So here is the screen below

A simple example from Hiragana. With a home font (the white character) and Hiragana. This was not rocket science. The elements have been around for DECADES and Apple kept itself asleep at the wheel (no one cares about that snoring dumbo Microsoft). A setting that is strangling market research, Advertising and any corporations with foreign needs. I get it, such a keyboard (for now) isn’t cheap (expected $399), but over time as these edges of technology are explored more and more, the prices will go down and two multi trillion companies couldn’t figure this out? And Apple is even in more hot water. They could have set this up by having an iPad (which has 99% of these abilities) at the ready, to make that iPad a Bluetooth keyboard for any other Mac (MacBook or iMac) and they just didn’t look that far? Too many blinders mister Timmy the Cook? 

I wrote about these part (not to the complete degree now) a few years ago and none of these two entertainment jollies (clowns seem too harsh an expression) didn’t catch up? This is the issue with those proclaiming innovation and iterating themselves into the next decade year after year. Innovation comes from making the jump no one else considered and commerce is nice. You see when Apple comes with this idea at $399, someone will reengineer the idea into a $129 solution that works. It is iteration grown from innovation, but Apple made the innovative step, from there evolution comes. Was that hard? 

Are there issues?
Of course there are. Pricing might be a problem, but the keyboard has been neglected for decades, time to open that rusty door. In the end Apple can only start the setting, what comes next is up to the actual innovator. At the ready the iPad could become the start of new Bluetooth technology, which could lead to iPad based keyboards (more rectangle) and with a decently stronger screen. All options in front of the eyes of the Apple cook who seemingly overlooked it all and never looked beyond the blinders they all had. And as for the issues. Is it my job to fix all their shortcomings? Nope it is not, but with the IP at the ready and optionally a massive pay package, I can hand over some idea showing the others that I have a much stronger hand that is not out in the open (Amazon take notice please). You see Amazon could see this too, which means that multi character set design systems will take a much larger stage next, a stage that Azure/Oracle doesn’t actively has and that gives opportunity. You see the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is investing $200,000,000 in all kinds of IT solutions, the UAE has a $2,000,000,000 portfolio ready for startups. 2.2 billion and Amazon has options, so who else is asleep at the wheels (plural intended). Is it all to be had? Of course not, but gaining a slice of a 2.2 billion dollar cake is better then nothing and some people need to realise that the Middle East is here to stay and it is investing. So why not wake up, have a coffee and see where that could lead you? 

It is merely a thought, but who else gave you the option to consider a slice of a 2.2 billion yummy cake? And it all started with a keyboard, so where are these so called innovators now?

Enjoy Monday. 

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January 28, 2024 · 19:59

Uproarious Nonsensical players support terrorism.

This was a stage I saw last week, but I didn’t trust the source. Now that the BBC is joining that list, the game changes somewhat. The story (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68119268) gives us ‘UN agency condemns aid halt over alleged help for Hamas attacks’. Now, I haven’t had a great deal of trust in the UN and it melted down close to nothing when that UN essay writer Eggy Calamari launched her attack on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and in particular His royal highness Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud. I debunked her fiction (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/02/27/that-was-easy/) in ‘That was easy!’. Now, I am not saying he was innocent, because I CANNOT prove that. Yet a person is regarded innocent until proven guilty and that document shows massive gaps and no clear evidence of guilt. I will go even further that the UN took its time AVOIDING one piece of evidence and for the most no one has ever seen it. The document is added to that article, so feel free to read up on it. This matters as we saw similar acts on the UN avoiding the guilt of Houthis and the acts by Hamas. The United Nations (as that joke goes) is less useful than a crack dealer in a schoolyard. This all matters because now we see “The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has urged the countries that halted funding to reconsider their “shocking” decision.” My somewhat less than politically correct response is “Are you out of your flipping mind?” This is not some ‘misplaced’ act of doubt. This is a direct accusation that members of the UNRWA have actively been assisting Hamas with a terrorist attack. So the UN better wake the folly up and start properly investigating. The quote “The agency says it is investigating and has already sacked those employees” I understand and I accept that the UN needs to properly investigate things, but this comes from several sides and at present Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States have suspended funds to the UNRWA, so this is serious. These are nations with an effective intelligence network. As such the UN has its nightmare scenario running amok (no idea how one runs a muck), but this is not a setting lost in translation and this is an accusation, not some half baked allegation. I rely on evidence and I have not seen any, but these are organisations that have all kinds of connections, as such I tend to accept the allegation until proper presentation is made. The issue is that the allegations against Saudi Arabia by the UN and FTI Consulting (which the UN used)  had holes in them, several and both reports were used even though the people behind it should have known better and the fact that I showed holes in these reports in less than 24 hours implies that others would have done so quicker, but they remained silent. And now the UN has a problem. Through the UNRWA they stand to lose a lot of fundings and until they clean their houses (plural) the world has pretty much had enough of that UN gravy train. The fact that we are treated to “It would be immensely irresponsible to sanction an agency and an entire community it serves because of allegations of criminal acts against some individuals, especially at a time of war, displacement and political crises in the region.” You see, this is not some ‘criminal’ element. These are people ACTIVELY supporting terrorists and terrorist goals. One might state (might being the operative word) that the attacks of October 7th might not have been possible without direct support by UN staff members. I know it is a stretch, but it might not be far from the truth and the UNRWA conveniently sacked these people. So how will they be prosecuted? A missing question. 

Today we see the start of nations at large demanding accountability from the UN. They kept silent on Houthi attacks on Saudi civilians. The kept silent on terror attacks by Hamas and that is merely the tip of the iceberg. This all reminds me of an old saying and I used it against a few companies in the past. When you cater to everyone, you please no one. It does not seem fair, but that is the reality we face. We cannot please all and the lesson will be a hard one to learn by the United Nations and we will see that soon enough (I reckon before March 1st).

Enjoy your Sunday, mine is mostly gone by now.

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January 27, 2024 · 22:48

That one sided conversation

We all have them, we tend to have them with ourselves. We see things, at time we extrapolate and we come to singular conclusions. I did too. You see, ever since we have been treated to Pretty Woman (1990) we al wanted to see Rodeo drive, we wanted to see the shops and during the first covid we all took that option and had a look. However, most of us felt slightly betrayed. The view was not what we expected and today I looked at three other YouTube videos. The bulk is concentrated on the block surrounded the via Rodeo. The shops seem empty, some shops show nothing outside (or very little) and Rodeo drive is diminished to a crowd of tourists and vloggers with here and there a person quickly walking to or from their jobs. The other side is that Dubai has the mall of the emirates, the Nakheel mall that are on par with Rodeo drive and the Dubai Mall outshines Rodeo drive by a lot. And you might wonder why Dubai is such a sought after destination? The Americans let things slip all over the place and the turning point is just about here. I reckon it is already here for Las Vegas and as we see what tranquility, cleanliness and amazing views we get from these malls, as well as malls in Riyadh and you wonder why. London might have Harrods and it is amazing, but London is showing additional issues making Harrods and the streets surrounding it unsafe for tourists and shoppers. The downfall will be harsh and it is getting worse. The malls in the UAE and KSA have options towards driving engagement, making these places even more appealing. Places like Rodeo Drive and London have waited too long and there is a clear indication that their revenues cannot be maintained and the solution was online (my blog) well over two years ago. It was creating engagement. Engagement is only working if you have a population that you can serve and that is missing outside the middle east. Where was the Rodeo drive diner, preferably filled with people? Where were the real shoppers? They might show revenue for now, but when did we see a real stage of physical versus online revenue? In the Dubai mall I see shops and well over 75% show shopping and buying people during the YouTube pass. People eating, people drinking, people walking (not vlogging) dozens of eateries and many of them filled with people. The vlogging and posing women on via rodeo aren’t showing too much shopping, are they? Now, lets be clear. I could be wrong, but I feel certain I am not. I warned about creating engagement, they did nothing. I warned about creating awareness and too little was done. Now we see things changing. Even the Eaton Centre Mall in Toronto shows more live and living shoppers than Rodeo drive does, so how’s that for leaving it in the middle east? I get the distinct feeling that should Riyadh and Dubai embrace engagement, the impact on London, Paris, Amsterdam, New York and Los Angeles will be felt to a much larger degree. The equation was not a mystery, it was simple and it has been simple for over a decade. The customers expect more and too many places aren’t showing any. Engagement was key in this and it was ignored. The moment some of the jewellers in Dubai show the engagement solutions I had thought up the change will be close to immediate a race in time will happen. Oh, I almost forgot about Monaco. They are good for now, but they too need to embrace an engaging nature. They recorded 218,400 tourists and they are not doing bad, but the idea is to address this before it turns bad and so far they (seemingly) haven’t done enough. The dozen of hot women and fast cars videos seem nice, but one video tells it nearly all. Monaco has a lot more to offer and videos clearly show this, but when the  numbers dwindle the act of engagement is shoddy and optionally too late. These solutions tend to work when there is too much to see, too much to do and too many places left that alone for too long. Optionally they relied on the wrong numbers and the wrong stories, but this is pure speculation from my side.

Consider that the Dubai Mall has all the best brands of the world, all the sought after brands and articles for purchase and they are a zero tax nation. You still think that my feel is wrong? Some people travel to Dubai just to get the new iPhone at 0% taxation. If you are willing to do that, the rest seems easy to place and engaging your customers becomes a dream ride to keep revenues up. Oh, and here (unlike in London) you can buy a watch and walk safely home. So this might be one sided, but I am leaving you with enough pointers that you can verify for yourself.

In a one sided conversation, the best you can hope for is for someone else to listen (or read), I leave it up to you to decide.

75 minutes to Sunday for me. Have fun.

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