September 5, 2023 · 17:58

The yoke is on Microsoft

Yup, this is a ‘create howls of deriving laughter’ on Microsoft, but not in the way you would expect it. So, this all started a few hours ago when I saw an unknown party called ARN  give us ‘Microsoft blames Aussie data centre outage on staff strength, failed automation’ (at https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/708608/microsoft-blames-aussie-data-centre-outage-staff-strength-failed-automation/) where we see “Microsoft has blamed staff strength and failed automation for a data centre outage in Australia that took place on August 30, disabling users from accessing Azure, Microsoft 365, and Power Platform services for over 24 hours.” And my (first) thought was ‘Is Microsoft really THAT stupid?’ You see, to see that thought you need to be aware of a few small issues. The first is “Microsoft confirmed Monday that it’s eliminating additional jobs, a week after the start of its 2024 fiscal year. The cuts are in addition to the downsizing announced in January that resulted in 10,000 layoffs. The software maker also disclosed a small number of cuts this time last year.” With the additional “US tech giant Microsoft has axed more Australian jobs after the company made major staffing cuts across the globe earlier in the year. About 50 Australian employees are believed to have lost their jobs this month, Nine newspaper the Australian Financial Review reports.” Now, job losses happen everywhere at this time and we get it. There are all kinds of issues and Microsoft is one of many shedding jobs. But to see ‘Microsoft has blamed staff strength’ after they shed 10,000 plus jobs is just the joke of the century. I get it, one job is not another job, but when you have shortages in a place that is riddled with ageism and wannabe hires (dynamic young people) whilst your operational settings are below par just doesn’t work for me. I see the same fake jobs from providers like Hays and they will not respond and often ignore you. That is the party to be for players like Microsoft and they now claim that there is no coverage does not hold any water with me.  So when ARN gives us ““Due to the size of the data centre campus, the staffing of the team at night was insufficient to restart the chillers in a timely manner. We have temporarily increased the team size from three to seven, until the underlying issues are better understood and appropriate mitigations can be put in place,” Microsoft wrote as part of the report.” I wonder if their cost cutting stages are merely a joke and what company would have trust in such a system when “Azure, Microsoft 365, and Power Platform services” were down or unreachable for over 24 hours. That point is clear, is it not?

Consider the simple math. How much traffic and how many companies rely on that data centre? How come that there are only 3 people at night? So consider “Microsoft said that the cooling units could have been restarted manually, which was not possible due to the unavailability of enough personnel at the data centre” with the added “the staffing of the team at night was insufficient to restart the chillers in a timely manner” so do you think they royally screwed that part up? And in that setting how many data centres (all over the world) are understaffed? When the coolers cannot be manually started in these places, how much revenue will Microsoft miss out on, because these affected firms might optionally have a case to sue Microsoft for damages. No matter how that report phrases it, the lack of data centre labour (especially after they sacked well over 10,000 people) will not be met with a friendly judge and for Microsoft there is an additional danger. When third parties like Evroc start getting business from companies that once held Microsoft high in its banner, the walk-out might become a lot more severe and that could spell more bad news for Azure (something Amazon AWS will love) and there is a decent chance that some will optionally switch to Google or IBM. All losses for Microsoft who thought that keeping 3 people at night in a data centre was enough, all whilst THEY THEMSELVES give us “the cooling units could have been restarted manually, which was not possible due to the unavailability of enough personnel at the data centre” and that is the stage all those using a Microsoft data centre face? It is my personal opinion that someone bungled the minimum staff at a data centre during the night and even as winter is now coming to the northern hemisphere. The southern hemisphere is going into summer. So what about the Data centres in Riyadh and the UAE? In Riyadh it is around 45 degrees Celsius and in Dubai it is only 3 degrees cooler. So what happens when they need a manual restart of the cooling units? All simple questions and we could say that Microsoft has that covered, but it seems that according to ARN they do not. A simple operational question: ‘What is the minimum required staff coverage at night in a worst case scenario?’ As far as I can tell (trusting the ARN article) they were not ready and the fact that they upped it by over 100% shows that Microsoft was simply clueless on this issue. Feel free to disagree and I expect you want to talk to the corporations that lot Office and Azure for over 24 hours, but I reckon that we will not get access to those names, and that is fair enough. But do the companies who had to go through this feel the same way? I doubt it.

Enjoy the warm Tuesday coming to you.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Science

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

September 4, 2023 · 19:37

It’s a game Jim.

Yup, I just went there and as it is about starfield I feel correct in going there. You see, I might have given correct (or incorrect) voice to a foundational issue, or issues. Yet I am not playing that game. So I cannot say one way or the other and here IGN comes in. You see they have been a clear voice for a long time. 

Not everyone likes IGN, but together with Eurogamer they are a clear voice and there are a few thing you need to know, things given to us (at https://www.ign.com/articles/starfield-review) aptly named ‘Starfield Review’. This does not give us that the other voices of review are suddenly wrong, but this is new IP. Things will go bump in the night. One thing that stood out was “Even after about 70 hours there are major quest-lines I haven’t even touched, and others I barely began. I’m eager to go back and finish a lot of those up now that I’ve completed the main story.” Did you make that small jump? ‘Even after 70 hours’? This makes Starfield surpass Skyrim by a fair amount. There are matters of concern when you see “In typical Bethesda fashion, that main quest isn’t terribly flexible in how you resolve the situations it thrusts you into. Your options here are, for the most part, about picking whether you want to be a boy scout for whom a good deed is its own reward, a wise-cracking mercenary who asks to be rewarded after doing a good deed, or an all-business mercenary who demands to be paid up front to do the good deed.” This doesn’t make the game, bad, lousy or lacking. It is merely an approach to RPG, one that Bethesda had done for the longest of times and they have done it well. This is not an apology, but I do believe in fair play and I do not hate Bethesda, I merely hate stupid acts and Starfield is not necessarily a act of stupidity, so adjustments are required and I am making them. There are still too many technical issues reported by all manners of media and that is just a big no-no in beta stage or later, but that is a cross Bethesda and Microsoft will have to carry for some time. Such is life. 

Still, the quote “There’s a storyline that felt very Boys from Brazil-inspired, as well as numerous related quests about hunting down war criminals and banned technology that pose ethical quandaries to reconcile. You can join up with the Crimson Fleet pirates and dive into a life of smuggling and general space crime, or take up the mantle of a legendary pirate hunter” is showing us the foundation of a space RPG that most are looking for and that matters, because it is about the game and the gamers, not about Bethesda perse. None of this shows the meltdown vlogger to be wrong or incorrect. I am merely looking at other parts to the degree a non Starfield gamers can. Just as I did not play Redfall. We give ourselves limits (some on principle), but we all have limits, even I have them and that combines with the need to remain fair gave me the push to write this part. So if you are an Xbox thingamajig you need to make up your mind and as such you should read the IGN review. They have always been fair on games and that counts, for me it does. IGN also had some negatives to report, but to see that you will have to red the article, you see, it might not matter to you. Some people love walking the streets of a place, just like they set the town of Chorrel to mind and we get that, any RPG fan would. So are some parts actually negatives, or merely the hassle of a gamer? Your guess is as good as mine. Even Microsoft’s own Windows Central slapped Starfield, who knew. But there will always be haters and non-accepting gamers of the RPG field and it gets weirder, for some reason any Elder Scrolls lover will often never love Fallout and now Starfield. This happens. They are not haters, but there is one universe, their RPG universe and I reckon that Fallout and Starfield will have their own love connection to THEIR game. This too is the world of RPG and we need to recognise it if we want to get along with these people. No matter how we slice it, thanks to IGN we see that there is a lot more to Starfield than the mere complaints I have seen in over a dozen sources. I believe it is only fair I show that part to you too. It is a fair play approach to often non aligned views.

Enjoy the new week. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, Media

Tagged as , , , , , ,

September 4, 2023 · 01:40

Ding, ding, ding, meltdown.

Normally I let things slide. There are a whole range of reasons why I would stop to proceed. Yet Starfield is a two edged sword. It is the larger setting for Microsoft and it is a new IP for Bethesda. Now on the surface it might seem nothing new, but the meltdown I just witnessed on Twitter (I refuse to call it X) is another matter. Gamers are dodgy to say the least. They love innovation and new RPG, but certain settings need to be open, but a choice for the gamer. So here it comes.

The view by Dan Vasc (at https://t.co/b1m0tt4ib2) is something to behold. And all this is just in week 1, before the official release of the game. And now the media has a go. There are low performance issues, there are apparently audio issues and a few other issues. Now, I get that there are issues, this is new IP. But what I am reading is that these issues should have ben captured by Alpha test teams, they should not exist in Beta editions, let alone early access, yet this is MY personal view. You see Freeze issues are not something you leave to the New Game + solution, this should not exist at this stage. And the list goes on and as the official launch starts, there will be even more issues. Another source is talking about Major Accessibility Problems all whilst yet another mentions that the inventory screens need a massive overhaul. All issues that should have been brought to the front of any limited Alpha test release. But I see again and again a mention like “least buggy Bethesda release” almost like it was spoon fed to the reviewer, but that could be merely me seeing things that are optionally not there, almost like I froze for a moment because my visual scanner was glitchy, but I do not have a New Game +, when I die that is it. There is no new life and no rinse and repeat. That is why PROPER testing is massively important. The stage given to us by Dan Vasc might be merely him, but that might not be the case. RPG gamers are a strange bunch and when Guerrilla Software release Horizon Forbidden West they saw how loyal and how strange some RPG gamers can be, yet the bulk loved and embraced HFW. After the colossal blunder that Redfall showed itself to be, Microsoft (Bethesda too) had the duty to take extra care for Starfield (and maybe they did), but the voice of Dan Vasc tells a different story. You see emersion is nice, but the people need to accept that emersion and making his claims to emersion an option in the game might have been the best choice. I cannot tell, I am not touching Starfield (its an Xbox only product). But his loud voice is making me wonder how much trouble Bethesda is in now, because no matter what Microsoft will claim out in the open, if this game does not bring home the bacon, Microsoft will prune the Bethesda tree to the largest extent and that gives me the idea that developers might want to get on the RPG train now. If a place like Bethesda is rejected there will be no one to champion the torch of RPG, for that new IP is needed and my articles over the last 2 years will give a new developer (for Amazon and Tencent technologies only) a brisk handle of raking in the profit, because gamers need a place to be and it is way to soon to tell where they go, but if Dan Vasc is to be believed RPG gamers will need a new destination and the 60,000,000 copies that Skyrim sold, implies that there are a few million out there panicking and seeking a new refuge. Plenty will be happy in the Sony camp with its offerings, but not all are Sony minded, that is fine, there will be options for Amazon Luna and Tencent Technologies if makers of games wake up, because the wake up call I just witnessed was a loud one. Was it loud enough? I reckon that by the arrival of next weekend that will be a lot more clear for all to see.

It turned Monday 96 minutes ago here. How is your Sunday going?

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, IT, Media

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

September 3, 2023 · 20:09

The Shallow sea, an idea?

It came to me yesterday, but I was uncertain what I was looking at. It was not a game, it was at best a stage, but the idea is set in the environment (sort of). We (most of us) are all about extremes when we game and I wonder why that is. As such I got the idea of ‘The Shallow sea’ the stage is set on a train depot, the water has risen and the trains are under water. A mere 3 meters under water, so when you stand on a cargo cars you are up to your shoulders in water. You would be dry on double stacked containers and there are some, but not all. So here we are in a place called the Santa Fe Freight Depot (the place I initially chose) you see, this stage could be a mere stage, but it would be a game in itself. If not for looting, then it would be to find stuff to keep your community afloat so to say. You see, these stages are nice, they are big and they have a whole range of options. But that is the nice part of Streaming games, you can make them a lot bigger than any PC or console game. This setting was done to emerge ourselves into the water life around there and as the trailers would have been there for years, finding goods is a bit of a challenge. Small sharks, barracuda’s, turtles, plant life. A place that evolves over time that you play this level (or game). You see, I was a little irritated with Far Cry 4. Far Cry 3 was awesome and they tried to replicate this. The scene is beautiful, yet well over a dozen times and hour to hear ‘eagle, eagle’ and to get that irritating budgie take another health slot and the irritating ‘heal on my screen’ ALL THE TIME was getting to me. That fictive place Kyrat has more eagles than the nation of Tibet has people. Add to that all the other ‘predators’ and you see why that game has no real setting for a long life. These parts matter, because in a place like I just described, a small shark might appear, but it is really rare. A stage where we can admire the sea life and have a story as well. And the larger setting is not whether this is a game, but what game could achieve the close to impossible when this is merely a level and that is what we forget. Gaming and RPG is not about milking and farming. It is about enjoying the sights. Bethesda and Ubisoft took that away from us and it is time to create games where the people can enjoy the sights again. Yes there should be a conflict and ‘challenge’ side to this, but it should not take away from the joy of gaming. The joy of lore and the joy of going somewhere. I believe we lost parts of that and the streamers could give that back to us. Consider The Horizon games (Zero Dawn and Forbidden west), would they not be even more fun if you can walk through these worlds (after you finish) the games? A stage where the machines are diminished by 90% after the game is completed so you can enjoy the art, the looks and the amazing graphics that the game brought? Restoration might no longer become a Elder Scrolls game, but the sentiment and the setting could be a nextgen. Whilst people game more of the same with Hammerfell/High Rock another developer could bring out a while new kind of RPG gaming and there is space for more, there really is. The new Horizons is likely to come in 2025, A new Elder scrolls with a speculated date of 2028 and that is pretty much it. There is a lot of space here and the Streamers (Amazon and Tencent Technologies) could create amazing new IP by early 2025, with Horizon 3 being to only opposition for years. That is what I tried to tell developers. And if they aren’t getting that, they will be complaining on the side roads. A few more ideas came to mind, but that is for another day. You see, the population of gamers (those who aren’t focussed on some Call of Duty clone) will change and with the tablets forcing advertisements down their throats, it is likely to change a lot and that is where the streamers came in. All paths Microsoft ignored and now there are other options and Microsoft will not be invited (the joker isn’t allowed in bridge). You think I am joking, but I am not. You see gaming for the joy of the game is a forgotten art and those shouting ‘their fragrance’ are about to learn that not listening to gamers comes at a cost and they will go where the joy is, that was why my IP had the appeal (a speculated shine). And that was why I was trying to sell it to Kingdom Holdings. A business man like Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud would know what the power of 50 million subscriptions brought. There is every indications that Amazon and Google overlooked that part and Microsoft was not invited to that party. So there we are in the shallow sea. ?The water up to our shoulders and the question becomes. Would you nag, or would you see what beauty below the surface of the Santa Fe Freight Depot could be brought to life? I leave it up to you. 

Enjoy Sunday. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, IT

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

September 2, 2023 · 22:10

A casually added cog

This is a stage that has taken time. I wrote about parts of these settings as early as 2021, the last part was I believe in February 2022 (see image below). 

I never stopped thinking about it, but it is all related to the design I made for Elder Scrolls VII (it was 6) called Restoration. Of course as they are now part of Microsoft helping them is a big no-no. Yet the setting could be used for Amazon Luna and Tencent console developers. And lets be clear. Chinese developers are hungry for profit, the question is can they responsibly develop the next generation RPG games. Not, some copy of Bethesda, but a new unique IP? I have too little experience there, so I cannot say. But when you consider the overhauls I designed for RPG, including parts Bethesda never touched. A new NPC combat system making the next generation an entirely new challenge. Yet in all this, my mind was set on looting. I needed to make it new and optionally unseen before. You see most RPG makers took the lazy way, most copied ideas from Bethesda and the early developers. As such I had an advantage. No one had taken this road before, all because I believe in checks and balances. And as such the cogs helped me and at that point I added a cog (optionally two) and that stage could end up having more options. A setting where we see the stores in places like Chorrel, Bruma, Riverwood and no one saw the missing element. As such there are a few options to develop making the stage larger and there might now be an optional requirement to make the map larger still. You see, developers have good ideas and they have bad (or non-workable) ideas. I get that. But how many got irritated in Far Cry 4 when you heard another eagle warning? That game has more eagles than Tibet has people. It just doesn’t work. The idea was great, but it should have been limited to a handful of encounters, not a dozen eagles each hour. It was at that point that my mind wandered into the loot system and adjusting and redesigning it. That also led me to additional shops. Some might be in general stores, but the larger cities could have these two stores, offering more options to make cash. This led to a new artisan that could adjust your gear and items. 

And the funny part is that Bethesda should have been ahead of me, they were not and now others get to benefit from this. I still hope to sell my other IP to Amazon or Tencent Technologies and if they want the other parts added, I might not complain. The reason for me writing this here is that players like Bethesda might shout that they had the idea too, but I wrote about it now, so where were they? Launching Starfield? Yes, I have seen some video’s and I wonder what will happen. I am not commenting on them as I cannot verify the validity. There are plenty of haters around and I am not one of them, I will not feed their hate hunger. And that gets me to the hunger stage, another setting that has been explored in a few ways and plenty of them in good ways, but one side they all neglected. I wonder if someone catches on or if that idea will be added to the pile for Amazon and/or Tencent?

What is clear is that if I am correct the future holds the greatest RPG year we have yet to explore and that will be on the developer waking up. 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, IT, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

September 1, 2023 · 23:39

Are they really?

I have had my issues with Microsoft for the longest of times and for the most I never cared, that was until they decided to mess with the serenity of gamers. At that point I became livid and I made mention of this as late as yesterday (read: previous article). Then I saw a piece by the Verge and I had to let that sink in. The article (at https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/30/23851902/microsoft-bing-popups-windows-11-malware) comes from writer (Tom Warren). He is a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012. He still looks like a teenager in the photo, so he might want to update that one. Even as the article starts with “I thought I had malware on my main Windows 11 machine this weekend. There I was minding my own business in Chrome before tabbing back to a game and wham a pop-up appeared asking me to switch my default search engine to Microsoft Bing in Chrome. Stunningly, Microsoft now thinks it’s ok to shove a pop-up in my face above my apps and games just because I dare to use Chrome instead of Microsoft Edge.” I reckon that Microsoft has been desperate for a while and I had my issues with sicofans pushing edge in my Google search issues, but now we get that Microsoft is on that same page. So when we get to “We are aware of these reports and have paused this notification while we investigate and take appropriate action to address this unintended behaviour,” says Caitlin Roulston, director of communications, in a statement to The Verge.” As such it is the same BS spin we have seen too often before. As I personally see it, a pop-up is not unintended behaviour. It is the mark of intent, as such how does ‘investigate’ fit? Is it their way of trying to ascertain how far they can go with these actions? Well, when you lose a match 5 times over (see previous article) that sense of desperation seems on point, not correct, but on point. You see, I wrote this before and I do not mind repeating this. I foresee Microsoft collapsing in 2026. It is still a fair bit away, but when the 5 lost battles also gets a new player on the field (Tencent Technologies) and that combination invokes close to 15% of the global population going somewhere else. How much damage will Microsoft endure? How much more damage will Microsoft spin until the banks start to catch on and even as we see reports that they only have a debt of $60,000,000,000 (which is not much compared to their revenue). The setting of losses across several industries imply that Microsoft will have to prune their corporate tree no later then next year, not doing so implies (implies is not a given) that 221,000 employees will have an impact on the total revenue and that is about to become a shifty one. 

You see if that was not on the premise of shifty, Microsoft would not resort to pop-ups telling people what to do (they will call it politely giving consideration to change). It took me some time to undo the unrequested changes that Microsoft minded people did to my laptop, as such I reckon that these pop-ups have larger impacts all over the field. How far it goes is unknown, because the media is too unwilling to look into matters. Microsoft is too large an advertisement account to unsettle (a personal issue I faced in 2012 with Sony), but it applies to all advertisers and now we see how filtered information works. When I seek (in Google) “Microsoft pop-up news” I get three hits, the Verge is one of them. None of the news media picked it up for any reason. Weird that.

The Verge also gives us “This isn’t Microsoft’s first rodeo, either. I’m growing increasingly frustrated by the company’s methods of getting people to switch from Google and Chrome to Bing and Edge. Microsoft has been using a variety of prompts for years now, with pop-ups appearing inside Chrome, on the Windows taskbar, and elsewhere. Microsoft has even forced people into Edge after a Windows Update, and regularly presents a full-screen message to switch to Bing and Edge after updates.” And this is before they hit the upcoming hard times. So when you consider that Microsoft has become the bully of IT, how much longer before you consider switching away from Windows? To Linux of Mac? 

And after all this, you should wonder how come the media is avoiding this issue. Why the media is just ignoring the bullied plight of millions, because that is what this amounts to and this is far from over. So when we consider that Edge’s is 8.1% on desktop and just 0.1% on mobile (another lost battle) and with Bing having a marketshare of 3.02%, which implies yet another battle lost. How many losses will Microsoft endure before considering to refocus on strengths. You see they are slowly losing the office market share too. So you still think that my predicted downfall of Microsoft around 2026 was a jest? How many times does any army need to lose before it is regarded as a has-been and now seen as a joke?

I let you figure that one out, but consider that their only asset is the ability to spin, how far will that get them? 

Enjoy the weekend.

1 Comment

Filed under IT, Media

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

August 31, 2023 · 23:59

Sentimental journey

We all have these. It usually is about something personal, something we are passionate about and mine for the longest time has been gaming. I took a sentimental journey by replaying Far Cry 3. It still had all the flaws (replaying on the PS5). One was a design flaw, one that massively annoyed me, one was a ‘weakness’ and one was open to debate. I replayed the game 4 times and in order were the PS3, Xbox360, PS4 and now PS5 and this time I stuck around to get the platinum achievement. Three I never had, one was due to me not looking at the issue, one was because I never found it (that Hollywood star with his head above the sand). The toxo thingy (because I never realised that you could do those with explosive arrows and the gamble bully as I never cared for poker. This time around there was just the poker part missing as such I ended doing a side quest I merely shrugged at and now I have it. OK, I looked up that Hollywood person. I initially thought it was one in my party to save. So when I found the solution I had to giggle. This is one of those moments I applaud the makers for such a sneaky achievement. 

This also stirred a few other things. You see, there is a game I want remade, but remade different and now it might not come to consoles because this is a streaming option. I also have been rethinking a few settings in the original games and how it might be done differently and that got me to a new approach to ‘family’ trees. Whilst everyone is rethinking ChatGPT and taking swings at their version of ‘AI’, I have been considering another use. A use in gaming not used before, not to ‘extent’ the gamer, but to extent a system that allows for ‘shoddy data’ and is set to parameters where we decide what to include and what to filter out. I considered it for a while and I suddenly that in some trees pruning is not the reward, but correctly pruning leads to a bigger reward and that is merely one stage to enhance an old game 30 years later and create a very new game. As such I now have 2 out of 4 stages of that game thought through, the third one is also there, but I believe that we need to tune that a little more. So whilst Microsoft is spending billions and billions to acquire IP, I merely thought it through and have a setting of close to half a dozen games ready to add to the Amazon Luna and Tencent handheld stables. I just can’t stop giggling at that premise. They (Microsoft) is trying to spend $69,000,000,000 to buy Blizzard and an idea that could be seen as outdated, I am about to hand Amazon and Tencent Technologies IP at less than 0.1% of that and they end up with half a dozen games that Microsoft does not have and will not have. In the meantime thanks to a brisk idea Vint Cerf had when he was an old-boy at DARPA led to an idea to a new approach to NPC enemy intelligence. Yup, Microsoft really played that part in a boneheaded way. And now (after they spend $7.5 billion for Bethesda) all eyes are on Starfield. I am not focussed on it, because I refuse to get the new Xbox and should that title fail, the goose of Microsoft will be sorely done. I honestly hope it will go well, because hoping for someone’s game to fail is just a dick move. I will merely never play it (unless it comes to PS5, which is a not going to happen). So I am not a starfield hater, but Microsoft placed a bar too high for normal games and now all eyes are on Starfield. I however decided to be more creative and designed several games exclusively for Amazon and Tencent, several of them I placed in the Public Domain for exclusive free development for these two systems. Yes, I know that this was a stretch, but the more I design and the more Microsoft fails, the bigger the loser they are showing themselves to be. It is a stage of lose some and lose some more. And now that my first IP is close to completely redrawn, Tencent Technologies stands to make a fortune on the space that Google Stadia once had and that spells out more bad news for Microsoft. 

Still the sentimental journey played its part. I have been driven (over time) towards games like System Shock and stealth games. Now I see that these stages are also drivers for new IP, not a copy of an old idea, but completely new IP, and as I personally see it Microsoft has nothing to counter it. Yes, Starfield will be new IP, but that is one IP on one system and they are still feeding the Game pass. I have several pieces of NEW IP, new that is never used and to a degree never seen on consoles. As such not only does Microsoft have contenders, but with their Call of duty fetish, trying to counter Epic and its software, they left too much lying on the floor and Tencent Technologies is starting to catch on where Amazon, Google and Microsoft decided not to look and now they are about to become the competitor Microsoft never banked on and as such they have more contenders to fields they never completely understood. First there was Apple with their iPad and the Windows Surface giggle never got close, then there was Amazon with AWS in the first (eat your heart out Azure) then with the Luna and there is Microsoft losing the streaming console war all whilst Netflix is a new contender costing Microsoft even more. Then there was Sony beating the Xbox version X (or was that the Nth degree). And now Tencent Technologies is about to enter the field giving more and more competition to Microsoft in streaming solutions. Making Microsoft the loser 5 times over. So Bethesda has an abnormal amount of pressure on it to make Starfield a lot better then good and after the epic failure that Redfall has become with additional promises not met 3 months later, all eyes are on Bethesda and I do not believe that is fair on Bethesda, but the premise was pushed by Microsoft and they will need a scapegoat should things go south, no idea how they will do that, but there you have it and I am handing over IP for free to anyone that is not Microsoft. You see, to avoid fish getting caught, you can either take the fish away, or make the pond a lot larger. I opted for a combination of both and when my initial premise of 50 million gamers is met, Microsoft will have to hand over the field yet again. Because it is not merely that I gain these gamers, Microsoft will lose those people in a few ways and that was the initial stage. It might be delusional, but I believe that giving gamers pure gaming pleasure is one way of gaining their trust. Not the trust of some analyst and some bing stage, but a stage where gaming for the sake of fun will endure long after Bing went the way of the dodo. I had hoped it would be an Amazon/Google win, but there is every chance that it will now be an optional Amazon/Tencent win and that will lead to a lot more damage to Microsoft over time. 

So whilst some will throw all this to my delusional side, I decided to blog the ideas so that they became open and Public Domain and I there is no regret here, I just came up with another part to an idea that could please a whole cluster of gamers, how large the cluster is is unknown. I understand that this is not some Call of Duty clone and as such plenty will not care for that game, but I believe millions will and that opens other doors and close the doors of Microsoft all at the same time. Why use energy twice, right?

I just have another idea. I think I wrote about it before. I should give it to Netflix as soon as possible just to piss Microsoft off and the more streaming gamers out there, the less is left for Microsoft and lets face it they have 238 million subscribers, so giving them IP merely slows the Microsoft cattle and diverts some of them to other places, a stage Microsoft cannot control and they lack ability to coach. Yup, now just to hand it over to Netflix and another loss for Microsoft is coming their way.

What a lovely way to start Friday (in 9 minutes).

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, IT, Science

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

August 30, 2023 · 23:53

A king sued tomorrow for issues today

Yup this happens, Kings, Emperors and admirals, they all get sued. In this case it is King Burger, or as you would know this force of nature namely Burger King. The story (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66654440) gives us ‘Burger King faces legal claim over size of Whopper’ a story a mere 9 hours old and that matters in this case. You see, in September 2015 (yes, almost eight years ago). I wrote ‘Ronald McDonald died!’, the story (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2015/09/05/ronald-mcdonald-died/) gives a similar setting.

I even added graphics with my finger as a reference. So this stuff is not new. To be honest, I never had size issues with Burger King, I did have one with the McDonald clan of fast foods. With added references on profit margins for an extra slice of bacon which is set well over 400%. Here in today’s story we get “The lawsuit accuses the fast food giant of misleading customers by showing the burger with a meatier patty and ingredients that “overflow over the bun”. “The plaintiffs’ claims are false,” Burger King told the BBC.” A setting for the courts to decide, yet when was the McDonalds case? And when we consider that this has been going on for almost 8 years, at what point did certain parties consider taking a long hard look at the fast food industry? Because I give you now that this is not merely a ‘Burger King’ setting. As such the supporting line “Rivals McDonald’s and Wendy’s are facing a similar lawsuit in the US” comes a bit late, well over half a decade late. We are also given “The class action lawsuit against Burger King alleged that the Whopper was made to look 35% larger, with more than double the amount of meat compared to what was actually served to customers.” To this I am not saying that this is not the case, I am wondering how many graphics they have to support this. I am asking because one image does not give you the sunshine of summer, so this case has all kinds of issues and this is not pro-BK (even though I love their stuff), and they are not alone as my 2015 story shows, but the larger setting is that the stage of ‘deceptive conduct’ has been out in the open for a long time, so how many cases made it to any court (in any nation) and how many cases were settled? All what I consider to be good questions. Yet in all this one setting is “US District Judge Roy Altman said it should be left to jurors to “tell us what reasonable people think”. However, he dismissed claims that Burger King misled customers with its television and online advertisements.” To be honest, I am not certain where I stand there. You see, there is a side we aren’t looking at. How EXACTLY are the advertisements made? How insulated is that marketing team? What is the foundation that drives the claim of ‘deceptive conduct’? These are elements that are connected and not just to Burger King. McDonalds is in a similar boat. I go for similar, because if the stage gets differences in adjustments, they could not be in the same boat. Other cogs are connected to the stage we see here. They are optionally all ‘deceptive conduct’ but if different approaches were made, different claims are open to interpretation and that is a much harder stage to settle. So are all advertisements done by the American HQ of BK? How would that impact Canada, Australia and Europe? If BK paid each continent to do their advertisements, the stage alters. We can accept the defence of “Burger King had earlier argued that it was not required to deliver burgers that look “exactly like the picture”” and we accept that, but the fast food industry is based on machines for replication, as such my question becomes ‘Why not?’ And that question applies to both BK and the big M in the same way. There are more questions and I am a little surprised that the BBC did not cover them, but they have no fault. Reporting on a case tends to have its own limitations and I get that. What does surprise me that it took so long to see a setting after I reported it in 2015, and it is surprising because I do not go to these places that often. In addition there is no way that I am the only one who had this issue, so have we numbed from certain exposure? 

I will let you consider that part. Enjoy the day, we are almost past the 50% point of the week, so make today count as it is the final uphill battle for the next weekend.

Ciao!

Leave a comment

Filed under Law, Media

Tagged as , , ,

August 30, 2023 · 07:35

A simpleminded A, B, C

It started yesterday when I saw a message pass by on LinkedIn. (See below). 

The honest first thing I thought was ‘Are you effing kidding me?’ It was like an episode of comedy capers. I thought that this level of shortsightedness was a thing of the past, but it seems to me that people will get themselves into heaps of troubles for the longest of times. And what was that term “endless digital potential?” A call to arms for the stupid people? 

So here I am educating the wannabes and the short of cash people, because it is essential. An API is an Application Programming Interface. It is a set of definitions and protocols for integrating application software, or to ‘simplify’ this “a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other.” It is a way for others to talk to your software or data. It allows access. To give another reference. You are about to connect an anchor to your boat. But there are Danforth anchors, plow anchors, fluke anchors and several others. It depends on the size of the boat and WHERE you tend to park that dinghy, that largely decides what kind of anchor you need, not what is the prettiest anchor, that tends to be a factor in losing your boat. 

To put it in a better way “digital potential” will be seen when you connect YOUR data to anyone else’s data. Did you consider that? You see this blinders approach to information is nice and those with dollar shaped pupils take notice and want to race to that digital potential, yet the reality is something less nice. It is the chapter of risk.

RISK
Risk is the number one consideration, there is no other. Is it worth doing ‘approach A’ to get to the finish of revenue? 

Bad coding
This is perhaps the largest foe. Right off the bat, if you start off with the premise of bad coding, you are exposing yourself to serious API security risks and that is an issue. But fear not this person thought of that. We are given “That’s why we designed IBSuite as API First!” Yes, really? Security risks are still a massive danger. Unrestricted access to sensitive business flows is the stuff nightmares are made of and a security risk will bring that to your front door. 

Inadequate validation
A security researcher discovered an API payload that would send invalid data to their own user process, which would repeatedly fail to be handled correctly. This error handling loop prevented further access to their user account. This is perhaps the smallest issue, the problem is that failure to handle something correctly implies that something goes somewhere else. Do you know where that somewhere else is? Consider that your former colleagues spend decades optimising the data you have now, would you like others to enjoy that hard work, or keep that in house? 

Hesitating over API utilisation
Some state that in big companies, sometimes management can neglect to track APIs and their utilisation numbers. From this point, you can incur many charges and leave yourself open to security risks due to exposed APIs. So not only are you in danger to hand over your data, you can get charged for it too. Utilisation of data and greed in one nice compact solution, who would have thought it possible? 

Accountability
This does sound like the odd duck out, but in reality it often connects to data loss, Since API’s connect external users and applications with a firm’s internal applications, they are potential paths to a firm’s data. If access to these paths is not controlled, data can reach the wrong hands – and can be stolen, modified, or even irretrievably deleted. So data could get copied and then deleted, to make sure it does not hinder YOUR storage. I wonder if they will charge you to hand the data back? Just a thought.

Risks of XML
I admit, this is the hardest one for me. It is not always easy to put your finger on XML, its usage is too widespread, in the 90’s it was never an issue, more of a fab for some. Yet, 3rd party APIs could be compromised and leveraged to attack other API services. Attacks such as SQL injection, XML External Entity injection, and more, should be considered when handling data from other APIs. This part tends to be tedious but essential. It is time consuming ground work, but it must be done. 

APl incompetence
This is harder for me, I have a massive lack of knowledge here, it is specific niche knowledge that the experts have, yet it amounts to the ability to have a fault-tolerant system. Consider that in the 90’s there was accounting software. If I used a specific expression, the program would crash. No biggie you would think, but at that point I ended being in THAT system, now completely open with supervisor privileges. I had access to the entire mainframe with access to everything. This was a specific setting that was solved 3 weeks later. But what happened when it was not found? Consider that your system is open to anyone that employs such a solution and they get access to everything including the porn pics of your wife and your data. I am willing to bet that option one was a lot more upsetting to you, weird that.

Lack of security
You would think that this is covered, but it is not. Akamai (a US cybersecurity firm) reported “Of note, fewer than 50% of respondents have API security testing tools in place. Even fewer have deployed API discovery tools. Although the survey results suggest enterprises recognise the security risks of widespread API usage, there is no clear consensus on where to prioritise investments”, this matters. Security should be everything when it is about your house and your data. 

This is all mere top-line header consideration. So consider the intro I reacted to and the lack of risks that it shows. So how much risk are you willing to take with your house and your data? If I was inclined to be that short sighted in promoting ‘digital potential’ I would have gone with “APIs are not required, but if you consider and adhere to the risks in a proper way, they are the safest way to connect and explore digital potential. Any eco-system has risks, which is why we designed IBSuite to be a safety first option in exploring the digital oceans for revenue you cannot see now, but to get there in a digitally safe way, one that keeps your data YOURS.” Is it as good? Perhaps not, but it instills value that you as a customer and the data YOU have is used for safe navigation and that matters.

This was a functional boat once, they chose the wrong anchor and in the wrong place that cost them their livelihood. What will you do? Look deeper, look better, look elsewhere? All good questions and it all started by understanding the risks of an API because everything has a risk, not looking at it implies you are taking too many risks with something you can only lose once. 

1 Comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Science

Tagged as , , , , , ,

August 29, 2023 · 11:08

Scripting a new reality

It is an idea that had been floating in my mind for some time. Yet the BBC article brought it to to front line of my (slightly despicable) brain. The article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-65377361) shows us what is wrong with this world and I decided to play on that. There was the added Sun article (at https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/23668092/just-stop-oil-recruit-kids-as-young-11/) throwing oil to the fire (pardon the pun). As such I came up with the idea of ‘Vigilante’ partially in light of the old classic The Exterminator (with Robert Ginty). This doesn’t have a script yet (standing firm with actors here), the idea is simple. We see a man clearly with support, but alone standing about 120 metres from a 5G mast. Soon thereafter a ute arrives with 5 people, 2 women, three men. They are unloading all kinds of stuff, clearly wanting to harm the 5G tower. The man takes aim and kills all 5 and walks away, the police will clean up the next day. We see 2 more events, all taking aim at tech terrorists. The second event is a just stop gravity event (pun intended). The man had prepared for over a week, and in the last day when he figured out the where part. In the night he installs the speakers within speakers. And he attaches the vaporisers to the corners of the pillars so that they will be out of sight. The day starts and the people from ‘Just stop Gravity’ sit for a nice meal. As they start to eat they are so content and the man, whilst walking away presses the button. The speakers second set start screaming an inaudible sound damaging their hearing. They never wanted to listen then, they never need to listen again and the vaporisers release skunk scent all over the room, they all reek and as they run outside to hide from the stench, they find out that their hearing is now impaired. 

This gets us the first flashback, a man is crying, his wife (implied) is on the stretcher, critically  injured. There is little hope for her, but they hope that they can get to the hospital in time to save their yet unborn baby. The just stop gravity march stops that and the ambulance is not in time to save the baby. The man screams and his reality shatters. 

We now get back to the current stage and we see that this vigilante has help, people who lost businesses to these protesters and they are helping him. They will never act and they will never be placed in the front lines. He made that promise as he lost everything he cared for, they never need to face that reality. We get one more event with fatalities and now we get the phrase ‘Our lives matter too’ then the next event the police captures him and the court setting is set upon us. The man keeps his word and never reveals his sources. He merely stares at these so called ‘victims’ as they are all about ‘their’ rights and the lawyers are all set to avoid the rights of the vigilante and his lost family. We see the evidence and we are presented ‘the side of the tech terrorists’ and as the case goes on we see that the crucial piece of evidence. One vaporiser with his fingerprint on the inside. Then on day 3 of the court case, the prosecution cannot show the evidence with the fingerprint and the court adjourns for 24 hours as we see the sides all mingled in their private hell. The next day the court resumes and the evidence is not found, as it as the critical part in the case the case is dismissed and as the vigilante is kept in a holding cell in the court (reason not set at the moment, but I am going for an emotional outburst from the vigilante) he is placed in a holding cell for the court case (from day 2 onwards), and after the dismissal he is packing his stuff in the holding cell, the judge approaches him. “You kept your word, my brother lost his son to these terrorists. Our lives matter too” he nods and walks away. End of movie.

All this done in under 4 hours. I am clearly not the worst in this, so feel free to use the idea for whatever studio you work for. Have a nice day.

Leave a comment

Filed under movies, Stories

Tagged as , , , , ,