Tag Archives: Asus

July 25, 2026 · 00:42

Optional name calling

That is what has been going through my head, you see, as the BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgj61j6l08o) gives us ‘US hits dozens of countries with new wave of tariffs’ where we as nations are starting to call names, and in that setting of name calling, we get a new stage. America has lost whatever allies he thought he might still have. Now, as I see it, America stands alone for the foreseeable future. So as we are given “The US has imposed new tariffs on 60 trading partners in the latest escalation in the trade war reignited by US President Donald Trump when he returned to office last year. Those targeted, including the UK, China and the European Union, will face a tariff of 10% to 12.5% on all goods, accounting for almost all American imports.” As such the kid in me (the one calling other names) wants to find a solution for this and leaving the United States out of this seems prudent. Can we sell to other commonwealth nations? So can we give the United States a bonus tariff twice as much? So any product coming into our nation will get 30% tariff, and we given other nations exporting to us 0% tariff (if applicable) in that same trend places like Canada and the EU importing Australian goods get 0% tariff, same for their stuff getting here. I reckon that America will fave a implosion of non-commerce soon enough. There is nothing wrong with the idea of suspending all goods from Kraft and preferring Italian goods over Kraft. Same for Heinz and whatever else comes from the United States. I bet that there are leagues of Canadian and EU goods that could replace other goods that are (for now) coming from America. I reckon that it merely takes 90-120 days for the United States to ring every alarm bell they can find, because this will also implode Wall Street, when brands like Cisco Systems Inc finds themself part of the tariff settings and when its EU competitor gets the bulk of the jobs that were for Cisco, what do you think will happen when ASUS gets these jobs? Because that is a larger playing field. When goods from the United States are rejected, the goal will be to push long term brands out and when they go anything could happen. Will it be easy? Nope, but could it be done? That is the setting that the American Administration is seemingly overlooking. And not going into a ‘lets talk about this’, but a direct rejection of these options. In the same trend that several European nations are now rejecting Microsoft, what happens when that rejection becomes global? Other brands could now see the rejection lights come into view for themselves, because there is every chance that places in the EU and the Commonwealth see opportunity rise, because they were held back by the competitiveness from the United States, when that falls away nearly anything becomes possible. I reckon that Dell will love that idea (and Ireland just as much so).

So whilst we are given ““Today’s action will begin to correct what is both a human rights abuse and distortive trade practice to improve the welfare of workers everywhere,” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said. The new duties apply to the top 60 US trade partners covering 99.4% of US imports, the Office of the US Trade Representative said.” So whilst that amounts to 99.4% of the US imports, how much of the US Export is set towards these same 60 nations? So whilst we see ‘validation’ through “Asked about the forced labour justification, she said: “I think they were looking for a legal reason to put the tariffs in and that they can maintain them because their goals and Greer has been very clear about this, as has Trump, is about the trade deficit and it is about US manufacturing, it is not about forced labour.”” You see, we are also given “Australia’s total annual imports from the US reach approximately US$60.9 billion” so how much of that could be gotten from the other Commonwealth nations, the EU and China? And set up a system where these 60 nations are given those same settings. As such as these nations could instead of exporting to the United States export the same materials to other nations when they reject all the US exports to their nations. I am not saying it is simple, or even feasible, but the United States exported a record $3.43 trillion worth of total goods and services in 2025. So when we dampen that by at least 50%, I reckon that the old days with people jumping to their death on Wall Street might return. And after that, the United States gets to see what that also brings, because when $1-$2 trillion dollars is likely to keep many people in the United States employed, when that falls away they have another nightmare scenario to content with and they already have a few of these running all over the lawns in Washington DC and optional at Wall Street too.

As I see it, we need to become a lot more proactive in stopping that insane asylum called White House. And as I saw a term called “Pimp of the United States”, I wonder who they meant, because I merely saw the term, not sure where it was coming from. But in this light it might get another settings too.

So whilst we are reshuffling trade agreements, I reckon that China will see opportunity to hand the United States much less good news, optionally the EU nations and the Commonwealth nations too. So consider this simple setting, Pakistan exports a wide range of goods totaling over $36 billion annually, led heavily by textiles, house linens, and rice. Major buyers include the United States, China, Germany, and the United Kingdom. So what happens when the United States is removed and they get Canada and Australia and a few EU nations to replace the United States? Pakistan is hit with 10% tariff, what happens when they can replace United States with these alternative destinations? How many will need to consider this to see what happens to the United States when places like Walmart end up having empty shelves? Just saying, that game can be played by more countries and what happens when Saudi Arabia and the UAE (both 12.5 percent nations) get the same options? How many more nations need to consider this before Jamieson Greer as the Trade representative can inform President Trump that he has a new nightmare coming his way? And I reckon that these 60 nations will add some numbers, I looked at three nations and I got $36B + $26B + $31B giving us $93B. I reckon that we cannot get 100%, but even if we get a mere 70%, it will add to the incoming nightmare into Washington DC pretty quick and it is the setting we cannot see, because if the Commonwealth, EU and China can create a setting to get our needs met, there is a larger setting that the United States will end up getting isolated in the process and that is a bad place to be, especially with their negative settings in their economy at present.

I reckon that doing this is a lot more productive than some people resorting to name calling, but that is merely my point of view. Oh, and what happens when people are introduced to Canadian, EU and UAE/KSA movies and TV series? Did anyone see the premise of that, because I have been irritated to no end of American streamers denying other parts of the world these series, because there is a benefit of withholding these series. So whilst Disney is hedging on the setting that these people will resort to Disney plus. But what happens when the opposite is achieved? What cost will they face then? I get that streamers want an advantage and they should use that, like perhaps a year, but what happens when people have had enough? If I feel this now, I am 100% certain that at least 2-3 dozen people feel that same way. And It should not be a forced buy from Amazon either. It feels like a repetition of movies in the 90’s. I am not sure it is a valid comparison, but that is what it feels to me and as I see it, there is plenty to consider from outside of Hollywood. But are these makers considered? Just writing my thoughts out loud (without resorting to capitals), so you all have a great day and consider what I wrote here, I reckon that several of them might see the light and as my mother was originally born in Argentina and lived in Uruguay (Montevideo), there might be some cultural needs too. I wonder who else has a connection to some of these 60 nations. Because culture is a strong handle to have in all of this. Which makes me wonder, when was the last time I had Dulce de Membrillo? Together with a lovely Dutch Cheese (Edam) is quite the treat and I haven’t had that in decades, perhaps even half a century. So what else can we get in the near future in a supermarket near us?

Write to you all later.

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Tagged as Argentina, Asus, BBC, Canada, China, Cisco, Commonwealth, Dell, Disney plus, Dulce de Membrillo, economy, Edam, Eu, Germany, hollywood, Ireland, Jamieson Greer, Kraft, KSA, Montevideo, Netherlands, Pakistan, politics, Saudi Arabia, tariff, tariffs, Trump, UAE, United States, Uruguay, Wall Street, Washington DC

June 5, 2025 · 17:07

The snag we don’t see

That happens, we don’t always see the settings that open up to us. It is one of the stages of what some call the ‘Aha!’ erlebnis. It is actual intelligence and that is why artificial intelligence will fall short for a long time. Yesterday I had some time to relax and I used it to watch the final two episodes of the October Faction (Netflix). Apart from being totally awesome, I also found the dastardly news that it is a one season only setting. Too bad as it was really awesome. Yet, I digress. During one of these episodes I suddenly had a little brain strain and a few things came into full view. It brought me back to a story I wrote (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/01/15/it-was-this-simple/) called ‘It was this simple’ where I had the idea for a new game that was also (in part) educational. Yet last night I had an idea that I was going about it the wrong way. You see, the start isn’t one of the three gods (Hades, Poseidon or Zeus), it is a destination. The idea is to invert that stage and start with pone of the ‘smaller’ gods like Hecate. You see, as I see it Hecate gets its setting from the mortals and animals. So do the other ‘smaller’ gods. As do Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Hestia, Dionysus. And as we unlock their abilities, we will then get access to one of the three. Or I might am considering that Zeus is only unlocked when all others are unlocked.

As I see it some gods connect to merely one of the three, some to two gods and some to all three. As I see it this game would need to be replayed three times to unlock it all, but in this game the second game already gives you the areas you unlocked in the first game and the second is not the same, merely a continuation of the first (makes for a challenging lore). And beyond that as I see it, the game will incorporate several gaming styles giving you a larger game and a more fulfilling gaming time. But I wanted more than a hack, slash and pretty picture.

You see, it is merely a setting to a game, but there we also see that we unlock educational parts. What is more enticing than gaining knowledge of classical works whilst gaming? Not the ‘essence’ of a classical work but the full text of people like Hesiod, Homer, Sappho, Alcaeus, Pindar and many many more. I still think that the Amazon Luna, with a link to the Kindle, or even now the Tencent console with a link to the the MatePad Pro or MatePad Air might be an alternative. A setting to see a more inclusive form of gaming and as such un-enabling those with the ‘turbo’ style of gaming trying to getting people in line to more advertising. Short term enabling and set gaming back on the track of a more enabling setting of gaming like Bethesda enabled for almost 2 decades.

We are all do taken back by the turbo setting of games (especially the young) whilst the more complete setting of gaming is largely ignored and as I see it, there is more to gaming. You see we cannot (in good mind) waste the entire day gaming. I get that, but we can rotate that interest to give people a larger backstory. You see, according to classicist William Hansen: “the Greeks and Romans had all the genres of oral narrative known to us, even ghost stories and urban legends, but they also told all kinds that in most of the Western world no longer circulate orally, such as myths and fairytales.” I want to resettle that lost art. Some gamers have tried to do so in the lore they give us, but they fell short as they didn’t consider the larger stage. It was not their fault, until recently and the promise of the IoT (Internet of things) and the larger stage of Bluetooth we never considered where we could go and that is merely another setting the Microsoft failed to see (they are racking up a setting of missed opportunity) and Google cannot be given this failure as they basically dropped the Google Stadia, which was their right to do so and as I see it, Amazon and Tencent now have a larger stage to become the new heralded kings in gaming. It is not a smooth or even an easy ride, but as I see it they both missed out on gaining at least 50 million gamers.

So could I be wrong?
Yes, of course that is possible, but what the ‘advertisement’ courtesans fail to see is that the people have had enough of advertisements and that is something they are in denial of as the money is too good. But as I see it, the one who does see it will get a larger setting of gaining the field advantage to this and that is basically Nintendo and Sony. It is the third place that becomes interesting when we see in January ‘Microsoft’s AI revenues up 175%, while Xbox’s results remain disappointing’ (before the builder.ai exposure) and ‘Microsoft’s Xbox Handheld Plans Reportedly Shelved; Company to Optimise Windows 11 Gaming Performance’ (last week) and I reckon that the spin will continue as Microsoft is scrambling to bury bad news as Nintendo is making larger strides into gaming. As such there is space for either Amazon or Tencent to gain the number three spot. This is not a given but massively likely, especially as other news sees my other solution grace the limelight in sight of some Hajj numbers I see roll be and an optional solution that roughly 900,000,000 million users are up for grabs (yet another space Microsoft missed). So as some will see “Asus’ Xbox branded handheld, codenamed Project Kennan, is reportedly on track to launch later this year”, I merely wonder when that changes from later this year to next year and after that it being silently cancelled (my personal speculation). You see Asus also sees the market and the knee-jerk actions from an tariff driven administration won’t last long, especially when Huawei is showing its MateBook Fold and that is making the filtered news. I personally don’t know how good it is, but the larger setting is that the world is watching and now that it is less than 1.2Kg and uses Harmony OS. The first and it is a banger. So when that system as well as Tencent takes the world by storm (which it is very likely to do) we see yet another loss for Microsoft and not merely that, Apple, Sony, Google, Samsung and even Nintendo will see its impact (Sony and Nintendo less so). This was the setting I expected to come about 6 years ago and it is here a little faster then expected.

This is all important because the advertisers will start losing out and that will stop gamers in their track as their games are less fulfilling. You see ad break gaming is nice in a turbo setting, but when the gamer considers where they ended up being they will want (read: demand) a more compelling form of gaming. This is good for people like Bethesda, Ubisoft, Guerrilla Games (and several others), but (for example in the UK) the 1,801 independent and publisher-owned studios. These studios employ around 75,000 people. The number of studios has grown significantly, with 251 new studios founded between December 2021 and April 2023 it is not good news, because what we don’t see is that these developers are relying on advertisement to make some of their money and when that falls away, these developers will fish behind the net of revenue.

And as I see it, Ubisoft has options in these glasses devices and they could also launch on Sony and Nintendo, but others will have to streamline whatever they thought was an option and others will merely collapse. As I see it, we haven’t see the power of Harmony OS yet but it will come and as America shuns away from that (for the most obvious stupid reasons) Europe and others are very willing to give their economy a boost from what HarmonyOS brings and now that the hardware is out some people will finally get the thought “How can this benefit us?” And that will be the start of a lot more and as I see it, Amazon has the inside track to grow more business (outside of the US) and there lies the setting for them. As some might ‘speculate’ that Amazon would not be profitable without its cloud business. We also see that the shape of the cloud is about to change and that is where the larger money is, because cloud gaming is only gaming in name. It can be a lot more and as I see it, the solutions I gave will become massively and not merely this game (I put it online for a reason) it could start a much larger wave and that is where I see my surf time (perhaps literally so). I reckon that the ‘older’ quote “HarmonyOS, Huawei’s operating system, is designed to work with a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, and PCs. While it’s not directly tied to Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the same way as Android or iOS, you can still use it to access AWS services and resources.” I reckon that Amazon sees that this lack is about to end, because they have a clear goal to increase their visibility and whilst others are taken back, Amazon is seemingly embracing the options it opens up to. As I see it, people will prefer that setting then feeling blue (read: Azure). Yet another field where Microsoft is falling short of soon enough. Their failures do seemingly seem to stack up, don’t they?

We can see the snags we think we fail to see, we can ignore them or we can find away to make it work for us. So have a great day and consider where you could be in 2026 or 2027, because thinking you get there in 2025 is nice, but largely set to economic turmoils of the days we expect them to be according to some media. Consider where some people will END the stage of their products and see where HarmonyOS is merely beginning at present. It makes for an interesting read. Consider that WPS Office (by Kingsoft) its here for HarmonyOS and also on Amazon Fire tablets. Merely two places and as I see it, as this is free software there is a larger stage where Microsoft will end up surrendering market share. So as I said, have a great day.

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Tagged as Amazon, Amazon Luna, Amazon Web Services, America, Android, Apple, Artemis, Asus, AWS, Bethesda, Games, gaming, google, Google Stadia, Greek gods, Guerrilla games, Hades, HarmonyOS, Hecate, Huawei, IOS, Kennan, Kindle, Microsoft, Netflix, Nintendo, Nintendo Switch, october-faction, Poseidon, Samsung, Sony, Ubisoft, USA, Video games, Xbox, Zeus

April 25, 2025 · 17:25

Changing the reason

That is the setting and it is not a bad setting. The reporter, the spokespeople, no one broke any laws and no one created harm in the process. The latter reason is merely my reason, but with the tariff setting it matters. I am talking about the article in tech radar (at https://www.techradar.com/pro/pc-makers-are-planning-plants-in-saudi-arabia-to-try-and-avoid-us-tariffs) where we are given in the headline ‘PC makers are planning plants in Saudi Arabia to try and avoid US tariffs’, you see, it is not about tariffs at this time (perhaps partially).

You see, the article gives us “Major PC makers like Lenovo, HP and Dell are reportedly exploring building new manufacturing plants in Saudi Arabia in order to avoid high US tariffs on Chinese-made goods.” I reckon that ASUS is doing the same thing. There is a larger prospect. Consider NEOM Sindalah, NEOM Oxagon, NEOM Trojan, NEOM the Line, NEOM Magna and all its 12 subdivisions then we get the Mukaab project in Riyadh. These settings represent thousands of computers and most of them laptops and netbooks. A setting I predicted in January 2024 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/01/25/those-happy-dreams/) on the 25th of January 2024 I implied the need for Saudi Arabia (and the UAE) to change the way customer service was done in these places. With NICE as an example, Saudi Arabia could create a Muslim solution for this and considering the growth of travelers which is supposed to surpass 100,000,000, at present (last year) was over 800,000 people and NICE has that covered, but as it is an Israeli solution, it might not fly in Saudi Arabia or the UAE and as such the premise needed to be changed and in that article I set the premise out a little better (I had retyping my own words).

As such with these thousands of systems required, it makes perfect sense for Lenovo to get into the game on a local setting, I might not be a huge fan of the Lenovo, but plenty of people love them and as such I see tremendous strides forward for Lenovo, my personal vote goes to ASUS, but that does not make Lenovo a bad choice, it is merely not my cup of tea.

As such when we see “DigiTimes says HP and Dell have also sent teams to Saudi Arabia to scout out potential factory sites following local government invitations. The biggest attraction for manufacturers to relocate to Saudi Arabia are the 10% reciprocal tariffs, compared with 245% for China.” As I personally see it, it needs close tracks to each of these centers, likely it needs to favor Oxagon and Riyadh, but that is merely my point of view. Likely there will be service centers in each of the 4 locations, and relying on how Magna plays out, a larger setting is required there, but other with more geolocating intelligence is required.

As Lenovo goes there and as the others (DELL, HP) come too, the setting for Saudi Arabia increases, there is at the near coming time a setting where these brands could service clients in Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria as well. It could explode service and sales settings a lot more for these regions than the EU and USA can. So when I see the quote “However, the PC market’s immediate future remains uncertain. “In addition to the direct impact of tariffs, the stop-start nature of announcements and delays have cast uncertainty around pricing for consumer electronics this year,” Canalys Analyst Greg Davis explained.” I merely mention “Go pull the other foot”, you see the tariffs are merely an excuse and an optionally bump in revenue for these companies. I reckon that these reasons Trump (oops typo) the tariff reason at present and as Saudi Arabia makes strides to completing these settings the need for systems increase a lot and the need for servers in these locations would explode the need for CISCO equipment as well.

This is a larger setting in the need for these companies to get ready as they might require localization and as I see it, the one who is there will get a larger options and a larger slice of the revenue stream. But that could merely be me.

Have a great day and enjoy the weekend. I have to kill hundreds of people in a place called Cyrodil this weekend and I am buying a nice house in Skingrad, but they tell me that I have weird priorities.

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Tagged as Art, Asus, Canalys, Cisco, Dell, Egypt, Eu, Greg Davis, HP, Lenovo, Magna, Mukaab, NEOM, Nice, Oxagon, Saudi Arabia, Sindalah, TechRadar, the Line, Trojan, UAE, USA

July 29, 2024 · 11:44

A granny named Smith

Yup, it is time to bitch about Apple products. This should be future Apple products. You see for some time I have seen that Apple has been in a wrong course. Lets not talk about to MacBook Pro. That thing actually looks phenomenal, every bit is seemingly impressive. And even though I cannot afford it (at present) the idea of a 96GB RAM with 8TB storage is overwhelming, it is a bit much (not my needs). Yet storage is what every one needs and I would be content with 4TB (and 64GB RAM). That being said, the iMac doesn’t even come close to it.

So as I saw Matt Talks Tech today, I saw the ‘announcement’ of what is to be (in about 16 weeks) and it is not good. As we see Apple doesn’t seem to learn at all. They give the ‘new users’ up to 24GB RAM, which is in many cases enough. It is the storage, still a mere 2TB. For many it would be enough. Yet the settings of 100MP camera’s is setting a new premise. Medium format in the digital field is calling new professionals and then there are the YouTubers and TikTokkers. They will all need Adobe solutions. And the full Adobe users with other software will soon find out that their 2TB hole is filled with the frustration of multiple connections. That is not why I would buy a desktop. They are throwing their market to PC (and Microsoft) troubles. What is up? Apple becomes a sour apple, a Granny Smith. Sour and meant for senile fossils, the newly adapted age of digital influencers is seemingly totally ignored.

The fact that there is no option for 4TB. We know that not everyone needs it, but any Digital streamer or medium format photographer has only the MacBook Pro. They need to be able to set to a desktop screen working in comfort, and the iMac no longer provides. They should have provided for that last year. There is some consideration that this could have come later, but the M4 news shows that the iMac just isn’t up to it (speculation by me). What are they doing? Leaving it all to Dell and HP?

As somewhat dubiously stated by me, 96GB is a lot, even in digital edition. I would consider 32GB, even that cannot be provided for as the media tells us. More important there is no mention of set aside upgrades by Apple (32GB RAM, 4TB storage), as such whatever they gained in niche markets they are throwing away to the niche graphic designers. These people only have the MacBook Pro to look forward to. This is great, but when you are working at home, it just doesn’t cook the goose. And the setting that it is due in 16 weeks and for another year people have no real option is disturbing, because this implies that the iMac is pretty much done for. No mention of an iMac Pro either. Apple needs to revisit their presentations and what they have coming and they need to do it really fast.
They are opening the market (that they catered to for the longest time) to Asus, HP and Dell.

So am I right? The idea that Apple is now becoming the sour Apple no one really wants is a bad move to be considering. I stated this before (last year). There are roughly “64 million YouTube creators” at present. Now they don’t all need high end solution, but most of them want something more comfortable than a laptop screen. Even is only 1% needs high end equipment, that still amounts to 640,000 users. I didn’t ever consider the 1,300,000 TikTok creators, many of them are also on YouTube. Oh and when you consider 1% is too low, the losses to Apple get to be worse. I am pretty sure that Asus likes this setting, but when we see that Apple is lowering their expectations, can we be sure this is valid? The second side to this is that the iMac cannot meet these needs, does that mean that the Tim Cook presentations of ‘innovations’ are still valid?

So this seems like a bitch moment (by me) but consider the needs of the many (well over 640K of them). Are they getting deserted by Apple? Oh and the larger Data miners, who all need storage space, how are they served? It seems to me that Apple has been dropping the ball yet again. Perhaps they should adapt the Microsoft logo? (Me rolling on the floor laughing)

Enjoy Monday, apart from the people living in Nova Scotia and eastern from there. They are still on Sunday.

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Tagged as Apple, Asus, Dell, HP, iMac, MacBook Pro, TikTok, Tim Cook, Youtube

January 24, 2023 · 21:09

As I aid timing

There is a stage that is coming. I have stated it before and I am stating it again. I believe that the end of Microsoft is near. I myself am banking on 2026. They did this to themselves, it is all on them. They pushed for borders they had no business being on and they got beat three times over. Yes, I saw the news, they are buying more (in this case ChatGPT) and they will pay billions over a several years, but that is not what is killing them (it is not aiding them). The stupid people (aka their board of directors) don’t seem to learn and it is about to end the existence of Microsoft and my personal vies is ‘And so it should!’ You see, I have seen this before. A place called Infotheek in the 90’s, growth through acquisition. It did not end well for those wannabe’s. And that was in the 90’s when there was no real competition. It was the start of Asus, it was the start of a lot of things. China was nowhere near it was not in IT, now it is a powerhouse. There are a few powerhouses and a lot of them are not American. So as Microsoft spends a billion here and there it is now starting to end up being real money. They are in the process of firing 10,000 people, so there will be a brain drain and player like Tencent are waiting for that to happen. And the added parts are merely clogging all and bringing instability. Before the end of the year We get a speech on how ChatGPT will be everywhere and the massive bugs and holes in security will merely double or more. So after they got slapped in the Tablet market with their Surface joke (by Apple with the iPad), after they got slapped in the data market with their Azure (by Amazon with their AWS) and after they got slapped in the console market with their Xbox System X (by Sony with their PS5) they are about to get beat with over 20% of their cornerstone market as Adobe gets to move in soon and show Microsoft and their PowerPoint how inferior they have become (which I presume will happen after Meta launches their new Meta) Microsoft will have been beaten four times over and I am now trying to find a way to get another idea to the Amazon Luna people.

This all started today as I remembered something I told a blogger and that turned into an idea and here I am committing this to a setting that is for the eyes of Amazon Luna only. No prying Microsoft eyes. I have been searching mind and systems and I cannot find anywhere where this has been done before, a novel idea and in gaming these are rare, very rare. When adding the parts that I did write about before, I get a new stage, one that shows Microsoft the folly of buying billions of game designers and none of them have what I am about to hand Microsoft. If I have to aid a little hand to make 2026 the year of doom for Microsoft, I will. I am simply that kind of a guy. They did this all to themselves. I was a simple guy, merely awaiting the next game, the next dose of fun and Microsoft decided to buy Bethesda, which was their right. So there I was designing and thinking through new ways to bring them down and that was before I found the 50 million new accounts for the Amazon Luna (with the reservation that they can run Unreal Engine 5) and that idea grew a hell of a lot more. All stations that Microsoft could never buy, they needed committed people, committed people who can dream new solutions, not the ideas that get purchased. You see, I am certain that the existence of ChatGPT relied on a few people who are no longer there. That is no ones fault, these thing happen everywhere. Yet, when you decide to push it into existing software and existing cloud solutions, the shortcomings will start showing ever so slowly. A little here and a little there and they will overcome these issues, they really will, but they will leave a little hole in place and that is where others will find a way to have some fun. I expect that the issue with Solarwinds started in similar ways. In that instance hackers targeted SolarWinds by deploying malicious code into its Orion IT monitoring and management software. What are the chances that the Orion IT monitoring part had a similar issue? It is highly speculative, I will say that upfront, but am I right? Could I be right?

That is the question and Microsoft has made a gamble and invested more and more billions in other solutions whilst they are firing 10,000 employees. At some point these issues start working in unison making life especially hard for a lot of remaining employees at Microsoft, time will tell. I have time, do they?

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Tagged as Adobe, Amazon, Amazon Luna, Apple, Asus, AWS, Azure, Bethesda, ChatGPT, China, Infotheek, iPad, Korea, Luna, Microsoft, PowerPoint, SolarWinds, Sony, Surface, Tencent, Unreal Engine 5

February 25, 2022 · 07:35

The hardware perimeter

It started yesterday, I wrote about it in the article ‘Pristine and weird’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/02/24/pristine-and-weird/). My mind started to pound on that again today, but this time it wasn’t a dream. I was pondering a few hardware sides. You see, the software thoughts (now filed away for Adobe eyes only) are one thing and I am not going on about it, just to avoid giving Microsoft good ideas, they can pay for those (and through the nose). It is the hardware. The display a Sony display (could be something else). The PC on the stand is something I found hours later. It was a lot like the OptiPlex 3090 Ultra Desktop. But there was more to it. It connected directly to the telephone and internet. More importantly there seemed to be a smooth interaction of both, phone calls could be registered and more important could be created as a new blockchain or added to a blockchain. Like the PC was registered with Processor to a blockchain, as was the location of the PC. The PC has 256GB DDR5 RAM, had a 2TB SSD and was running something I had not seen before. It was not Windows or MAC. A setting where we see PC’s having forensically secure connections. And these systems went to the cloud as well kept a connection to the local server. Blockchains kept a track of all that needed to be kept. Who created the document, who called who and so on, kept in files and logs. I reckon that will be the future of office requirements, but not a normal office. High end offices like law firms and accountants would use these cloud driven systems so that they could show what was done, when it was done and where it was done. The last part is one most tend to forget, but anyone who served in technical support on a larger scale can tell you that WHERE information comes from is rather important, more important than most realise, as such blockchains can be useful in many ways. Even now some are in denial, but 5G will force the need of a larger comprehension of the Byzantine fault to the front of many international players and the need for forensic records will then be pushed to the front. To get such a system there will be many contenders and those who can link together will become the system of choice, the old 90’s setting with DELL, ASUS and IBM is over, if they cannot work together they will end up being cast out. As such Dell and ASUS will have an edge, but IBM has plenty to offer too, especially with the cloud they have. This field will be rich of options soon enough, it will drive companies into larger fields and larger updates, yet the stage is not completely shaped and as nations become completely 5G, that need grows more and more. The stage of PwC with its Tesco failings are over. There will be a setting and those who cannot produce these blockchain references will end up becoming redundant. I do not believe it will be soon, but we will see such setting rise more and more from 2024 onwards. The hardware perimeter will shift and it will shift not fast, but it will shift more drastic than ever before. And governments will push for it, their budgets have become that volatile. We have seen all kinds of optional evidence in the last three months alone and it will only get worse, so the drastic shift seems clear, but that is based on views and there is a stage of presumption there. We can enforce the educated guess, we can deny it or we can prepare for it. Whatever you do, when it does come, there will not be some 3-5 year option, it will hit, it will hit hard and it will hit everywhere. That is what I speculate and it is speculation.

But see the news today and the shifts we see are all staging change, change in every direction everywhere and the cry for larger blockchain implementations will start sooner, just how soon remains the question.

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Tagged as Adobe, Asus, Blokchain, Dell, IBM, Optiplex

September 2, 2019 · 11:23

Funny Money, Amusing Thickheads

There are two issues and they do not link, but they are supportive of one another. I made notice of this situation 5 months ago in my article (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2019/04/27/then-the-hard/) called ‘Then the hard‘, in the article I give “Now we get to the part where the €2.5 trillion mark matters, as the ECB is trying to find new ways to convince others that the continued provision of stimulus to the economy matters“, as I see it the stimulus protects banks, makes them more powerful, it allows for political stupidity, yet the economy has not been saved (not in the two attempts), it has not been jump started, and it has not been a positive impact for its citizens, merely the industrial executives and the rich CEO’s (OK, that was a more biased view from yours truly, the writer).

As Bloomberg gave us on Saturday (at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-31/more-ecb-officials-pile-into-stimulus-debate-as-economy-wilts) ‘More ECB Officials Pile Into Stimulus Debate as Economy Wilts‘, and when we see: “the ECB should keep all options on the table to reinvigorate inflation and growth, including a relaunch of quantitative easing“, it is at that point that the EU citizens are getting screwed (again), more debt (again) and no resolution because the ECB is about the gravy train and not about resolutions. Yes that same article gives opposing voices, yet I would not be surprised that (by a narrow margin) the stimulus people win. This is why Brexit was so important!

In the end the retirees get hammered for those debts, the ECB officials have too fat wallets to care. At this point the debts have surpassed €3,000,000,000,000 and it seems that the end is nowhere near, yet the stage of bankruptcy is there. Even at 0.1% (no debt interest is ever that low) implies that the interest is €3 billion a year. A payment that is way beyond the budgets of any of the EU nations, payment due every year whilst the bulk of them have overextended themselves with budgets that should have been shrunk by well over 5%, so pretty much all the EU nations are running an economic deficit whilst the Mario Draghi Posse is handing out more money, printed money, for a lack of a better term funny money.

What the ECB is not telling anyone that most stimulus options fall flat when the UK officially leaves the EU that is the despair there. Their options melt away when the UK is out and that is why everyone is suddenly in a panic, that is why we get these moronic acts and even UK Labour is all about remain now. And with that part we move to the second part of this.

Now we get to the Chief of Grief, the Duke of Fluke, the one and only real loser in history (as I personally see it) Jeremy Corbyn. When we see headlines like ‘No-deal Brexit: Jeremy Corbyn vows to ‘pull Britain back from the brink’‘, or ‘Final sovereignty on Brexit must rest with the people‘ we see the idiot he is. There was a referendum, there was a voice and Brexit won, the issues with the ECB shows us that we are a lot better outside then inside that mess. There is no brink of Brexit, there is an economic mess and we will enter a stage of recession, anyone telling you that it can be presented is lying to you, or they are wielding massive amounts of money, amounts that no one has. This has been shown by people more intelligent than me and by people with actual economic degrees; they all are on the ‘remain’ fence, merely because it butters their bread. It gets worse when we see that the Hysterical Remain groups that have become violent, abusive and out of control, more important, to a larger degree the media isn’t even covering it. How is that for balanced information?

I have heard one or two actual ‘remainers’ who made a really good case, yet in the end, they have no control over the ECB and the ECB is in Europe at present the great evil. What they claim is good for Europe is to a much larger extent merely good for big business. When we look at those companies leaving the UK, these are all companies hiding behind taxation options, or facilitating to really large players and to some degree that is fine, but the ECB forgot that the well over 150 million small business owners see nothing of any of that and more important, they will see the impact of the 3 trillion euro of debt that the ECB created, things are that much out of whack and I do not get why people accept the presented BS that people like Jeremy Corbyn have been presenting to the masses. I am aware and I also believe that Brexit had its own waves of BS presenters. I made up my own mind and for the most I was leaning towards Remain, Mark Carney (the Marky Mark of the British bank) and especially his speech to the House of Lords was the setting of that stage. Yet he too had one flaw (if you want to call it that), there was no controlling the ECB and they are out again making some lame excuse on the essential economic need for more stimulus, whilst we already know now that it will not save the economy and they are willing to wager another trillion euro and spend it up front.

These people are not held accountable in any way and I say: ‘Enough is enough!‘ The UK is better off by itself steering the economic waters as it had done for centuries. Oh, I almost forgot the second part on sovereignty, sovereignty does not rest with the people, it rests in Buckingham Palace with HRH Queen Elisabeth II. There was a referendum and the Brexit group with a little over 51% won. And to those people still in doubt, you only have yourself to blame with the mess you are creating. There were 46 million votes, representing a 72% group, so 28% did not even bother to vote! Those 13 million votes were invalid straight of the bat, with only 25,000 invalid or blank votes we see no real impact, it they were all remain voted it would not have mattered. When you consider all this and you see the hooligan masses being remain people, we see two parts, the first is that they are moronic (worthy of UK Labour), yet the larger issue is that a lot are in anger because they are not getting properly informed. Stories like: ‘UK government officials told the food industry that supplies of liquid egg could run out in a no-deal Brexit‘, yet the operative word is ‘could‘ we just do not know, and not knowing is adamant in a lot of this, yet the people have faced two years of fear mongering, all large consortiums that see a danger to their margins, not the margins of the shop, the margins to executives and their bonuses, and the people are eating the fear hook, line and sinker. There will be actual issues, but the foundation of all this is that this has never happened before and the EU and the ECB did this to themselves. We all forget how this started, this all started when Greece in 2009 had misrepresented itself and we saw issue after issue, debt after debt and the politicians that caused it merely walked away. Then we were told stories on how Greece might be evicted from the EU, the news was all over that yet the truth was that we were misled (or is that made Miss Led?) The Guardian (in 2015) gave us: “As Athens will be unable to satisfy its financial obligations after a default, many hardliners expect Greece to leave the Eurozone, and printing as much neo-drachma as necessary. Some see this as the only solution to the Greek crisis: it would allow Greece to devalue its new currency, supposedly making the country competitive and resulting in economic growth and the ability to repay its debt“, in addition we get: “while only article 50 of the EU treaty regulates how a state can leave the union. And a mechanism for leaving only the Eurozone or for expulsion even has not been provided for at all“, basically the stupidity of the EU was that they stated that every member will always be up front and do what must be done, which was deceptive in its own rights. So a group that is merely inclusive and under stringent rules can they leave, yet in addition other sources gave us that NO MEMBER can be expelled. This is called a Corporatocracy, not a democracy. Corporations decide on what happens and that is what we basically see at present. The problem here is that any Corporatocracy will limit its actions towards enablers and consumers; the rest is pretty much screwed. In a monarchy all citizens matter and the people do not seem to be able to grasp that, the UK (and the Netherlands, as well as Sweden, Belgium and so on are monarchies within a Corporatocracy and that is a very different setting, that stage can only be made profitable where debts are soaring and the banks not the government decide where you can be at, a situation we see all over Europe. this is not new, I did not invent it, other voices going back to 2014 say pretty much the same thing, I merely have a lot more data available at present. The media relies on advertisement money from any Corporatocracy, so you cannot expect them to actually inform you, it is a double edged blade and both sides are pointed at YOUR guts, it is that detrimental a situation.

So as Greece made a few issues clear in the wrong way, people like Nigel Farage went with the notion of ‘Better Out than in‘, I agree with him, yet I remained on the fence for the longest of times. It was the second ECB stimulus who would put us so much deeper in debt that got me across. The first stimulus was fine, it was an option and even as it did not work out, it gave Europe time, yet the second one the best we could hope for was time and that is where the problem started and now as stimulus 3 is on the table the setting is too unacceptable, the UK needs to get out and fast, deal or not.

Let’s not make a fairy tale, this will not be a nice time and things will get worse for a little while, anyone telling you different is lying to you. The issue is that with the ropes cut the EU cannot force debts on the UK to the degree it is doing now, more important the UK gets to make a few other choices and it will down the road (3-4 years) turn the economy in something stronger. It will result in an actual better quality of life over time, but it will not be immediate. This is why the ties and economic options with players like Huawei (5G), nations like Saudi Arabia (all kinds of goods) and a few other players become important (optionally India with generic medication). Anyone with the misguided notion that Human Rights are the optimal route better stay at home. If Human Rights were an actual power there would be no age discrimination, there would be actual better (and more) housing and there would be a better social security. All missing and mostly because in a Corporatocracy, corporations are largely tax exempt, exactly what we see today. In that stage we now see the rumblings, even as players like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and others are all making noises on leaving, they do so at the risk of losing 69 million consumers. Facebook is truly global, so is Google to the largest extent, yet for Apple we get Huawei, ASUS and HP, Amazon leaving would give the people a slimmer HMV and optionally small businesses come back (my preferred solution), and even as corporations are shouting, screaming, streaming and threatening, they all realise that you cannot walk away from 69 million consumers. Not when they need to share the smaller EU pool with 3-4 competitors at every corner. That is the part we all forgot, consumer power is actually power and we listened to the likes of Jeremy Corbyn for far too long. To be honest, I never thought that it would be possible to be more dim than Nick Clegg (LIBDEMS), yet I was wrong, Jeremy Corbyn pulled it off nicely. I am not stating that Boris Johnson is without flaws (his barber being the obvious one). I am stating that the UK has been in a dangerous position for far too long and as long as the ECB does the way it does it, the danger stays, getting away from that danger is an immediate need at present.

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Tagged as Amazon, Apple, Asus, Belgium, bloomberg, Boris Johnson, Brexit, Corporatocracy, democracy, ECB, Eu, Facebook, google, Greece, HMV, House of lords, HP, Huawei, Human rights, Jeremy Corbyn, LibDems, Mario Draghi, Mark Carney, Monarchy, Netherlands, Nick Clegg, Nigel Farage, Remain, Saudi Arabia, stimulus, Sweden, the Guardian, UK, UK Labour

May 6, 2019 · 12:30

When it is with us

Larry Elliott raises an interesting question regarding Huawei, it is an issue I raised a few times over the last months, even last year. I made a reference going back to December 2018 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2018/12/06/tic-toc-ruination/) where in ‘Tic Toc Ruination‘ I said had “In a statement, the UK telecoms group has confirmed it is in the process of removing Huawei equipment from the key parts of its 3G and 4G networks to meet an existing internal policy not to have the Chinese firm at the centre of its infrastructure“, all at the behest of spymaster incredibili Alex Younger. Yet actual evidence of Chinese activities was never given in evidence. Alex does something else and in retrospect to his French, American and Canadian peers something that is actually intelligent. He gives us: “the UK needed to decide if it was “comfortable” with Chinese ownership of the technology being used.”” This is at the foundation of “We can agree with Alex Younger that any nation needs to negate technological risk, we could consider that he seemingly had the only valid opposition against Huawei, as it was not directed at Huawei, but at the fact that the tech is not British, the others did not work that path, and as we see that technology is cornered by the big 7, those in the White House with an absent person from both Apple and Huawei. We have accepted the changed stage of technology and that might not have been a good thing (especially in light of all the cyber-crimes out there), also a larger diverse supplier group might have addressed other weak spot via their own internal policies, another path optionally not averted.” The issue is that ‘the tech is not British‘, so finding a temporary solution for British technology to catch up is an essential move. Whilst Larry gives us: “why a country that emerged from the second world war with a technological edge in computers and electronics should require the assistance of what is still classified as an emerging economy to construct a crucial piece of national infrastructure” is a very correct stance. The issue is that some got lazy and others got managed by excel users, getting it somewhere else is just cheaper. The combination has now created a technology gap that spans part of 4G and pretty much the entire 5G stage, that is before my IP comes into play, I found the niche that others forgot, in commerce and cyber security, as the gap is about to increase and for me the limitation is that only Huawei and Google have the optional stage where the problem can be solved (read: properly addressed). I am certain that there is more, I have not gone deep enough with what I found, implying that my window of opportunity is not that big. Larry Elliott goes on in his article taking to bat a few issues from 1967 onwards that gives rise to the UK loss, you should read it as it is a really good article (at https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/may/05/the-huawei-incident-points-to-a-deeper-lesson-for-great-britain). There is one element that was missing, it was the stage of the 90’s where the computer market moved from innovative to iterative, it is perhaps the larger (read: largest) failure. The advantage that places like IBM had were equaled within 3 years by makers like ASUS, A market of Printed Circuit Boards moved from US/UK held companies went to places like ASUS pretty much overnight, the people jumped to the competitive player that produced high end main boards. A company that started in 1989 owned the gamers and PC builders within 10 years at that point ASUS was the number one choice. It was not merely the high quality, the fact that architectures that were set in motion in one year were offered in upgraded form within a year. It is seen in “Intel itself had a problem with its own 486 motherboard. Asus solved Intel’s problem and it turned out that Asus’ own motherboard worked correctly without the need for further modification. Since then, Asus was receiving Intel engineering samples ahead of its competitors” (David Llewelyn, ‘Invisible Gold in Asia: Creating Wealth Through Intellectual Property‘, p143.), by the time the people were ready Asus had its Pentium II boards with one interesting nuance, unlike IBM, the board supported more processors, so the P2-350 also supported the P2-450, by spending an additional $35 on a better board, you could start with the P2-350 and upgrade to the P2-450 a year later, a person would save $525 and extend the life of their PC by 2 years.

It was an innovation that saved the people money, an issue that IBM never cared for. The iterative market got overwhelmed by Taiwan titan ASUS and the market in the UK and US started to slide. As I personally see it, the market was handed to executives measured by revenue and they were unwilling to take the big fight and decided to settle for $100K less income and zero risk and after 2-3 years they would move on degrading the market as a whole; that is how I see it. Now that the newest market requires actual knowledge and know how, we see a lack of non-Asian players. Yet Larry focusses on the part that matters most for the UK, there is no manufacturing vision (read: a lack of vision), a vision that would be essential for 5G, it is the one exponential growing market for the next decade and as such not having a game to play will make you miss out on it all. So there are two options, one forfeit the game or find a partner to build that market with, in that we see the Huawei would be the best fit, they are the most advanced. The alternative is finding an Ericsson or Nokia alternative, they are both chasing Huawei, so finding a solution with Huawei implies that Huawei creates another competitor for Ericsson and Nokia, which would suit them best, at that point the UK solution will be fighting over the same pie as Sweden and Finland are. Sybase did that trick with the MS SQL server and it did them a lot of good (for a while), the biggest part is that the UK needs to take a long term strategic stand on manufacturing and that is where the floor tends to fall from under your feet. The UK has shown to lack that vision for too often and now it will come at a much greater cost.

In the end the problem is not merely catching up with Huawei, it will be about remaining innovative with the products, optionally surpassing them. That has been a problem for almost 20 years and fending off bad habits is a time consuming, as well as an energy consuming effort. For most the problem is not merely remaining innovative, it is identifying it when it is offered and there we see that the UK has had its own moments of Titanic proportions when it came to missing out. If we look into history, we see that British innovation was an annual event at the very least; this has been diminished to thrice a decade at present. With 5G in coming, the idea of having enthusiasts with a Raspberry Pi and adding a 5G kit would be stellar, consider 19 million enthusiasts and if only 0.1% has an innovative idea, that still adds up to 19,000 with the chance of 190 patents. That is a multi-billion market right there, and it is not a man-made world either, you merely need to look at how JK Rowling and Joy Mangano got their boots on the floor to realise that this is a stage that is up for everyone to rule. Our problem is that every money maker seems to rely on 100% success at minimum (read: zero) investment, it might seem good business, but that is exactly how we lost the markets to indie developers in Asia and India.

In the end the tools we create is what enables a person to advocate and test: ‘What if I did it this way?‘ that is the one that makes for the innovation worth an easy 7 figure number and in that field no dream is too wild, because the need of people not realising that it made their lives easier is not that hard, you only need to see that they lacked merely one element, or another part to make it a better solution. That alone is worth a bundle and that is where the UK and several nations lost out, we forgot that this element requires creative thinking and actual creativity, as the schools cut those classes in favour of science and business, that is when we saw the change of leaders into sheep, following the work of others so that perhaps we might get a new idea does not work, not without a clear link to creativity and art. We lost 50% of the equation and started to think that this part would fill itself in (automatically) is where we lost, the solution was with us, and we forgot about the us part.

In that light I always remember Jeff Minter, some laugh and make a reference to the mutant camels, but the truth is that he was all about creativity and the list of his achievements is long, very very long. He has been around from the earliest Sinclair ZX to the PS4, if some Britons have one percent of his creativity the UK economic hardship would be over, it is that simple and even as we focus on the 5G needs and how the UK needs its own 5G solution (which is true), the UK can only do that by focusing on harnessing creativity that will lead to optional solutions, whilst that part remains missing the UK can merely hope to replicate what exists, not create what others forgot, seeing that is an essential first for those trying to sell you the story of a new technology.

And there is a second part, it is not what does it innovate, it is the second part: ‘What else could it be used for?‘ that is the larger part in all this. I always go back to the example from 1991, there was a company called WordPerfect and it had an excellent word processor. There was a secretary who found herself in a place where the budgets were not there, so they were confined to cheaper non-postscript laser printers (an issue in those days) as the postscript version was often thousands more expensive. So she did what no one had considered, she used the WP Equation editor to type the company name and a few other things, and added them in the letter, now (because of WP innovation) the letters suddenly looked like they came from high end expensive laser printers. Her work looked 200% better than anyone else in the company. The mere application of ‘What else could it be used for?‘, that is exactly the stage that some walked when they forgot what 5G also enables and more important, what it will allow for and there is the innovation worth billions, that is where creativity gets us, the lack of it leaves us with too little, or with gained advantage by pure chance. The chances lost were with us, or basically with the decision makers who did not comprehend the impact and cut it too far from education, and whoever followed in their footsteps are now required to clean up that mess.

Good luck with the attempt!

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Tagged as 4G, 5G, Alex Younger, Asus, David Llewelyn, equation editor, Huawei, IBM, Jeff Minter, JK Rowling, Joy Mangano, Larry Elliott, MI6, MS SQL Server, Mutant Camels, Raspberry Pi, Sybase, the Guardian, UK, Wordperfect

December 11, 2018 · 12:50

The assumption of right

This happens, it happens almost every day and we all (including me) see that happen. My view was that oil prices would go up. It is a logic set to demand and supply, a basic principle. As OPEC cut production by 1.2 million barrels a day, we would have expected a rise, maybe not directly, but overall when you get less of a product, the prices rise. It is the basic foundation of commerce; shortage tends to drive prices up. Yet a Forbes article proves me wrong (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/gauravsharma/2018/12/10/opecs-output-cut-not-enough-to-provide-short-term-70-oil-price-floor/#668312a8d58d).

This is fine, I never proclaimed to have all the answers, yet it does seem odd that less oil still drops the price from $80 to $51 in one month, and the logic is gone at my end of the table, yet I also know that oil prices are a little more complex, so I took this moment to learn a little. Gaurav Sharma gives us: “oil price is not just a story of supply; it is also a story of demand“. That part makes sense, yet this part only gives rise to changes if demand dampens and dampens by a whole lot. We see that with: “It cannot be ignored that Eurozone growth continues to disappoint, global trade is decelerating and China’s slowdown is a visible fact, and not just a forecast. We haven’t even mentioned the words “trade wars” and a prospect of further U.S. interest rate hikes“. Yes, so far I am on board, yet does that dampen the need for oil to THAT degree? This is precisely the setting when we consider: “If anything OPEC’s move provides U.S. drillers with a further incentive to pump more, and they already are, having made America the world’s largest producer of crude oil.” This implies that the need is changing; America needs less as they become self-reliant more. This explains the setting in the short term, yet it also gives rise to other dilemmas. As the US is using its own stock to keep cheap oil, we also see the change in the dynamics. Less money in the treasury through cheap oil, more costs (and optionally more jobs mind you), yet the budget and shortages of America (like $21 trillion debt) now has another not so nice tail. The interest on 21 trillion can no longer be fuelled with fuel. With a downwards economy, the debt will rise a little faster and there will not be anything left for infrastructure. Now, in this case none of this is the fault of the US Administration, or the current administration to be a little more precise. There is a lot wrong as the Clinton administration left the nation with surplus. I am not ignoring that 9/11 changed the game, yet the Obama administration had a clear directive to do something and that was not done. We can argue whether they had the options or not, we know that the war on terror has had a long-lasting impact. And the downward fuel price does not help. Yet cheap fuel is good for all the non-petrochemical industries and the people requiring cheap oil for heating.

The writer also gives us: “As things stand, a sustainable $70 oil price doesn’t look certain at all for 2019“. OK, I can only support that for as long as the US can keep up with the reductions that OPEC and Russia implement, when that stops working prices will go up, just how fast is unknown. It depends on the current storage and demand and I am not certain that this will not bite in 2019. I cannot academically argue with Gaurav Sharma and his 20 years of experience. His point might be valid, yet the Economic Times gives us: “WTI is forming Doji candlestick pattern and also near its long term Fibonacci retracement. Both are positive signs for crude oil prices“, If this happens within the next two weeks, my predicted increase of 15% comes true. Yet how is that chance? Focussing on merely my point of view tends to be delusional, which is why I liked the view by Gaurav Sharma. He gave me something to think about. It is Mike Terwilliger, portfolio manager, at Resource Liquid Alternatives, in New York who gave us (last week): “It’s a stunning market backdrop where everything from the adjectives used by the Fed chairman to whom is appointed head of trade negotiations can roil the markets. While the macro backdrop remains firm, with strong earnings and historically low unemployment, sentiment is unquestionably vulnerable. That would, in my view, fit the definition of an opportunity – a disconnect between the underlying and perception.” (at https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/us-wall-st-tumbles-growth-trade-unnerve-investors/articleshow/66946928.cms)

I have always considered and known about ‘the underlying‘ and or versus ‘perception‘, no mystery there, yet are there factors we see to forget about? Part we get from the Guardian (May 2018) when we were given: “Demand is expected to average 99.2mb/d this year.” I am adding the part where that demand is not going to diminish over at least part of 2019. Even as we see more and more drive towards sustainable energy, most players are still all about presenting and not completely in the realm of achieving, hence oil demand remains stable (as far as stable tends to be), in addition we need to look at the oil futures. S&P global (at https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/121018-crude-oil-futures-stable-to-higher-on-opec-production-cuts) gives us: “risk sentiment remained heightened after US Trade Representative Robert Lighthize Sunday said that he considers March 1 to be a hard deadline for a trade deal to be reached with China and that tariffs will be imposed otherwise“. So basically the futures are rolling towards the up side making me correct, yet as long as the US can keep up with demand and as long as we see this continue, oil will remain stable and not push beyond $60 per barrel in the short term. MatketWatch is actually more optimistic towards the consumers of fuel. With: “Oil futures fell Monday to settle at their lowest in about a week on growing concerns surrounding a slowdown in energy demand“.

Why do we care?

We care because the drop in demand as projected and given by several sources is also the economic indicator that not all is well. This is seen in several sources. Goldman Sachs, via CNBC gives us: “We expect the U.S. to slow down to less than 2 percent by the end of next year and as a result of that you could see the market getting quite scared“, yet would be an overly optimistic view. We saw last week that the US Economy gained 43,000 jobs less than last year giving us a much less optimistic view on that part of the equation. Apple is falling down, tension on the Economy (specifically the US economy) is on the rise, some might say sharply on the rise. In addition, the Financial Post gives us: “Wall Street ignored trouble signs for months. Now it sees risks everywhere Markets face stomach-churning swings as economic uncertainty grows“. Even when we stick to the headlines, it was nothing really breathtaking. The US trade deal with China, the growth fears in the EU, they all link into a negative setting of the economy. Not recession, yet a negative impact due to no growth (too little growth is more accurate) and the events in France do not help either. In addition, there is now a realistic chance that Italy is entering recession territory. Even as it is possible to avert it, it will means that the Italian economy will end at a standstill (which is not a recession), yet in all this, with the Two large EU economies at 0 (France and Italy), it falls to Germany to bring home the bacon and sausages, implying that they are all eager and desperate to sink any notion of Brexit as soon as possible. As we see the jesters giving us that the UK can exit Brexit, that whilst they are seemingly unable to get a handle on the ECB and their everlasting lack of transparency, so whilst we see (at https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/ecb-chief-rejects-chance-to-adopt-eus-transparency-register/) the unsettling part “The European Central Bank’s President Mario Draghi has rejected calls from European lawmakers to have financiers who give advice and feedback to the ECB register as lobbyists, saying they merely provide “information”.” I merely see an extended reason to pursue Brexit stronger. I actually am in a state of mind to demand the right for targeted killing these so called ‘informers’, which is a massive overreaction, yet the need to get these information givers listed next to the lobbyists is becoming more and more essential. If any nepotism, or if any under the table deal is found within the EU, their exposure is essential. I believe that this will flush greed out into the open rather fast, but then I am merely one voice in all this.

It connects

You see, the QE is supposed to come to an end this Thursday, or at least the formal announcement to end it at the end of this month. However, when we consider Reuters: “the economy weakening, trade tensions darkening the outlook and headwinds still on the horizon in the shape of Italy and Brexit, financial markets are looking ahead to next year and just how the ECB will protect the bloc from a severe downturn“, not only does the rejection to officially end QE have an impact, it also means that suddenly demand for things like oil will suddenly spike, that means that reserves go down, oil prices go up and there the cost of living will impact harshly on Europe in winter and as such on American soil the need for a price hike will not really be one that people will cherish, and when we add to that the part that Germany also has a depressed economy to look forward to, we see the three great economic players all in a diminished form, implying that the economy will tank on the low side not merely in this year, it will have a depressed form of growth in 2019 as well. There will be all kinds of lessened good news, whilst the good news is not that great to begin with. It gives rise to the point that I might be wrong on the oil price as I expected it to grow by 15%, it might still go up yet not that much and it will come at a really high cost this time around.

Right or Wrong?

It does not matter in this case; the issues seen are openly visible and heralded throughout the net, magazines and newspapers. The issue of ‘the underlying‘ and or versus ‘perception‘ is at the heart of the matter. Even as energy and oil prices show certain paths in all of this, it does not make it a correct view (which is neither right not wrong), what we perceive in opposition to the underlying elements connected, that is the bigger picture of impact. It is also a new stage. As the politicians are fighting over the carcasses of opportunity and bonus structures, we see that Germany has a few other elements in play. It is not merely the manufacturing part of it all, it is infrastructure as well and that is where we get my earlier statement, a statement I gave 3 days ago in ‘Behind the facade‘ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2018/12/08/behind-the-facade/), if Huawei (minus one arrested exec) shows their value in Germany with the given quote, which came well over a day after my article (at https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/09/germany-is-soft-on-chinese-spying/), where we see: “In the terms of reference published last week by the German Federal Network Agency for its 5G auction, security was not even included in the conditions for awarding the contract. In October, the government announced: “A concrete legal basis for the complete or partial exclusion of particular suppliers of 5G infrastructure in Germany does not exist and is not planned.”“, as well as “For Deutsche Telekom and other network operators, the situation is clear: Huawei offers innovative and reliable products at highly competitive prices. Legally, Deutsche Telekom does not bear any liability for the security risks associated with Huawei technology. And the company does not care about the fact that Huawei’s price advantage is the result of a highly skewed playing field in China. In the world’s largest market, domestic providers control 75 percent of the market, giving them unbeatable economies of scale“, we see the hidden trap that some people related to Mr S. Tupid are now in hot waters (optionally with the exception of Alex Younger). Not only have they not given any evidence regarding the security risk that Huawei is supposed to be. Foreign Policy also gives us: “Given the massive cybersecurity and national security risks, the only responsible decision is for Berlin to follow the Australian, New Zealand, and U.S. lead and ban Chinese providers from the German 5G network“, yet there is no evidence, that was always the problem and so far there is more and more indicators (especially in Australia) that the claim “In none of these three countries will domestic suppliers be the primary beneficiaries“, which I regard to be false, on paper it does not impact ‘primary beneficiaries’, but it does harshly (in Australia at least) negatively impacts the competitors of Telstra, which amounts to the same thing (TPG, Vodafone, Vodafail et al). And when we go back to my writing in ‘Behind the facade‘, where I give the reader: “You see, Huawei can afford to wait to some degree, as we see the perpetuated non truths of devices being pushed forward, the replacements better do a whole lot better and they are unlikely to do so. When we see another failure in 5G start and we see transgressions and those screaming that ‘Huawei’ was a danger, the moment they cannot prove it and their ‘friends’ give us a device that is malicious, the blowback will be enormous. There is already cause for concern if we go by CNBC. They give us a few points that show the additional fear that America has on Huawei“, when the intrusions are not proven and Huawei shows to be a strength for consumers and businesses, heads will roll, there will be a demand for blood by the people, which means that politicians will suddenly hide and become ‘on the principle of the matter‘ and transform their perspectives into in all kinds of lethargic versions of denial.

That too is impacting the economy, because those on track to start pushing out new innovations on 5G will have a clear advantage over the other players and that pushes for success even more, will it come to pass? I cannot tell as there are too many elements in motion and the policies now in place are off course under optional revised in the future as Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer will replace Angela Merkel if her party is re-elected as the biggest one.

We are seeing a few versions in the assumption of right, and we need to realise that the assumption of right and speculative version of what will happen overlaps one another, but they are not the same thing. States of delusion tends to be an impacting factor. Am I delusional to think that big business gives away greed? Am I delusional to consider that Huawei is not a danger? If we go by ‘the underlying‘ and or versus ‘perception‘ I am correct. You see, would China endanger the true power of economy where Huawei would become the biggest brand on internet and 5G requirement, using it for espionage when there are dozens of other methods to get that data (including Facebook policies implemented by Mr S. Tupid and Mrs M. Oronic). As this sifting of data exists on many levels in several ways, not in the least that the overly abundance of TCP/IP layer 8 transgressions happening on a daily basis and at least twice on Sunday), when we realise that, why would any Chinese governmental (namely Chen Wenqing) endanger a Chinese technological powerhouse? The logic is absent in all this. This gives us the light of Alex Younger opposing the others. He gave a policy setting of national need, whilst the others merely voiced all this ‘national security‘ banter on risks that do not even exist yet. Especially when we saw the Australian version of: ”5G will carry communications we “rely on every day, from our health systems … to self-driving cars and through to the operation of our power and water supply.”” Perhaps anyone can tell me how many self-driving cars there are at present or within the next 10 years?

And none of these клоуны (or is that Sarmenti scurrae) considered the step to start with Huawei 5G and replace them at the earliest convenience whilst you work out the bugs of your currently incomplete 5G solutions, the few that are out there for now, a simple business decision that is at the heart of any daily event, including military ones. A nice example there is the ugliest dinghy in US history (aka the Zumwalt class) where we see: “Zumwalt-class destroyers are armed with 80 missiles in vertical-launch tubes and two 155-caliber long-range guns“, which is an awesome replacement from the previous version that was regarded as a Ammo less Gun edition, in the face of continuing budget shortfalls, personnel problems and of course the fact that the previous edition was $1 million per shell, for its smart (GPS) capability. The mere elements that some sources gave out that shooting straight was an ability it naturally acquired as well as the fact that a $440 million ship was not given the budget to get its unique, 155-millimeter-diameter cannon that can shoot GPS-guided shells as far as 60 miles the 600 rounds of ammo at a total cost of $600,000,000. And that is apart from the $10 billion the Navy spent on research and development for the class. So perhaps people still have questions why I considered this monstrosity to be regarded as a ‘sink on the spot‘ project. The fact that The Drive gave us a year ago: “the Navy has steadily hacked away at various requirements, stripping planned systems from the design, in no small part to try and control any further cost overruns and delays. Close-in protection, ballistic and air defense capabilities, and various other associated systems are no longer part of the base design, something The War Zone’s own Tyler Rogoway explained in detail in a past feature, leaving it with limited utility despite its size and cost” (and apart from some minor issue regarding stability and stealthablity which we shall ignore for now) in that light the entire 5G redeployment after the fact and the ability are acquired, tested and evaluated, at that point re-engineering away the advantage that Huawei had built, did that not make sense within 10 seconds?

It is common business practice in IT, and has been for over 2 decades, that is why ASUS and not IBM rules the lay of the desktop land nowadays. so getting even would not have been the dumbest idea either, but no, we see all kinds of unfounded accusations and that is where those people are most likely to lose and out in the sunlight, when they cannot prove that claim, that is when we see on how some elements will soon be disregarded. In this Huawei has a nice advantage in Germany and Saudi Arabia. When they prove the elements there, we will see a large driven technology shift and those making the claims at recent days better have their stories straight.

Yet again, I might be wrong, my assumption of right might get sunk on false premise and nepotism, I do recognise that this has happened before and will happen again.

The assumption of right is at times hindered on delusional thoughts, as well as the need that the other players are straight shooter, and that definitely applies to all politicians, does it not?

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Tagged as 5G UK, Alex Younger, Angela Merkel, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Asus, Australia, Australian, Brexit, Chen Wenqing, China, CNBC, Deutsche Telekom, Eu, European Central Bank, Eurozone, Forbes, France, Gaurav Sharma, German Federal Network Agency, Goldman Sachs, Huawei, IBM, Italy, Mario Draghi, Mike Terwilliger, New Zealand, Oil, oil price, OPEC, Resource Liquid Alternatives, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Telstra, The Drive, the Guardian, TPG, Tyler Rogoway, US, US Defense, US navy, Vodafone, WTI

December 16, 2017 · 12:55

Overpricing or Segregation?

What is enough in a PC? That is the question many have asked in the past. Some state that for gaming you need the max hardware possible; for those using a word processor, a spreadsheet, email and browse the internet, the minimum often suffices.

I have been in the middle of that equation for a long time; I was for well over a decade in the high end of it, as gaming was my life. Yet, the realisation became more and more that high end gaming is a game for those with high paying jobs was a reality we all had to face. Now we see the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan Xp 12GB GDDR5X Video Card at $1950, whilst we can do 4K gaming and that one card is a 4K 65″ TV with either the Xbox X or the PS4 pro. Now consider that this is merely the graphics card and that the high end PC requires an additional $2K that is where the PC with 4K gaming requires 4 thousand dollars. It is a little stretch, because you can get there with a little less, but then also the less requires the hardware to be replaced quicker. So I moved to console gaming and I never regretted it. We all agree that I have lost out, but I can live with that. I can truly enjoy gaming without the price. So in this situation, can someone explain to me how the new iMac Pro will cost you in its maximum setting $20,743? Is there any justification to need such an overpowered device? I reckon that those into professional video editing might need it, but when we consider those 43 people in Australia (on that high level) who else does it benefit?

In comparison, a maximised Mac Pro costs you $11,617, so it is almost 50% cheaper. Now the comparison is not fair because the iMac Pro has an optional 4TB SSD drive, and that is not a cheap item, but the issue is that the overpowering of hardware might seem cool and nice, but let’s be fair, when we compare this through MS Word, we see the issue. The bulk of all people will never use more than 20% of that text editor, which is a reality we face yet at $200 we do not care, take the price a hundred fold, with $20,000 in the balance it adds up and even as MS Word has one version the computers do have options, and a lesser option is available, in this, that new iMac Pro is in minimum configuration $7K and at twice the price of a 4K gaming machine, with no real option for gaming, is that not a system that is over the top?

Now, some might think it is, some will state it is not and it is really in the eyes of the beholder. Yet in this day and age, when we have been thrusted into a stage where mobiles and most computer environments are set to a 2-4 year stage at best, how should we see the iMac pro? In addition, where the base model of the pro is 100% more expensive than the upgraded iMac 27″, is there a level of disjointed presentation?

Well, some do not think in that way and they are right to see it as such. One source (ZDNet) gives us: “The iMac Pro is aimed at professionals working with video (a lot of video), those into VR, 3D modeling, simulations, animation, audio engineers and such“, a view I wholeheartedly agree with, yet that view and that image has not been given when we see the marketing, the Apple site and even the apple stores. Now, first off, the apple stores have not been misleading, most have kept to some strict version of ‘party line’ and that is not a wrong stance. Also the view that ZDNet gives us at the end is spot on. With “It’s Mac for the 1 percent of Mac users, not the 99 percent. For the 99 percent, yes, the iMac Pro is overpriced and just throwing away money, but for the 1 percent who need the sort of power that a system like that can generate, it’s very reasonably priced” and that is where we see the issue, Mac is now segregating the markets trying to get the elite back into the Mac fold. Their timing is impeccable. Microsoft made a mess of things and with the gaming industry in the chaotic view of hardware the PC industry has become a mess. It moved towards the gamers who now represent $100 billion plus already we see that others went on the games routine whilst to some extent ignoring the high end graphical industry. It is something that I have heard a few times and to be honest, I ignored it. I grew there whilst being completely aware of all the hardware, which was 15-25 years ago. The graphical hardware market grew close to 1000%, so when I needed to dig into the PC hardware for another reason, I was amazed just how much there was and how affordable some stuff was, but in the highest gaming tier, the one tier where the gamer and high end video editing need overlaps, we see a lag, because selling to 99 gamers and one video editor means that most will not give a toss about the one video editor. Most will know what they need, but that market is not well managed. Issues like video drivers and Photoshop CC 2017 against Windows 10 are just a few of the dozens upon dozens of issues that seems to plague these users. Important is that this is not just some Adobe issue; it seems that the issues are still in a stage of flux. With “Microsoft warned that the April 2017 security update package has a known issue that could affect users’ computers and which the company is seeking to fix” a few months ago, we are starting to see more and more that Windows forgot that its core was not merely the gamer, it was an elite user group that it had slowly snagged away from Apple and now Apple is striking back in the best way possible, by giving them that niche again, by pushing these people with money away, they might soon see that the cutting edge Azure targets for high end graphic applications become a pool of enjoyment for the core Microsoft Office users. A market that they are targeting just as Apple gets its ducks in a row and snatches that population away from them.

That is indeed a clever move, because that was the market that made Apple great in the first place. So as we read on how Azure is aiming for the ArcGIS Pro population, we see that Apple has them outgunned and outclassed and not by a small amount either. Here the iMac Pro could be the difference between real time prototyping and anticipated results awaiting aggregation. That would instantly make the difference between a shoddy $5K-$8K gaming system used for data and the iMac Pro at $20K that can crunch data like a famished piranha, you can wait and watch those results become reality before you finish your first coffee.

In addition, as soon as Apple makes the second step we will see them getting a decent chunk out of the Business Intelligence, forecasting and even the Enterprise sized dash boarding market, because with 18 cores, you can do it all at the same time. This is not the first, not the second and not even the third case where Microsoft dropped the ball. They went wide, and forgot about the core business needs (or so you would think). Yet, the question remains how many can or are willing to pay the $20K question, even as we know that there are options in the $8K and $13K setting in that same device, because there is room for change between 8 and 18 cores. It seems that for a lot the system is overpriced, we can all agree on that, but for those who are in the segregated markets, it is not about a new player, it is more that the windows driven PC market, they just lost a massively sized niche, it is the price we pay for catering to the largest denominator, the question then becomes: ‘Can Microsoft and will it hit back?‘

Time will tell, what is the case is that the waiting is over and 2018 could potentially see a massive shift of high end users towards Apple, a change we have not seen for the longest of times, I wish them well, because in the end many average users will benefit from such a shift as well, because in confusion there is profit and Microsoft is optionally becoming one of the larger confused places in 2018.

So why should I care?

Apple started something that will soon be copied by A-brands like ASUS. It will remain a PC, but they now see that the high end users they do have, they want to keep it. This makes it almost exactly 20 years after I learned this lesson the hard way. There was a Dutch sales shop who had a special deal, the deal was the Apple Performa, maxed (as far as that was possible) for almost $2750, I was happy as hell. My apple (My first 100% owned by my own self) and I had a great time. I never regretted buying it, but there was a snatch, 3 months later that same shop had the Power-Mac on special, the difference was well over 300%, the difference $1000 (a lot in those days), but still 300% more power and new software that would no longer support the Performa system and older models, a system outdated before the warranty ran out. We are about to see a similar shift. We know multi-core systems, they have been around for a while, yet the shift is larger, so as we see new technologies, new solutions pushed on us whilst the actual current solutions as still broken to some extent, we will be pushed into a choice, will we follow the core or fall behind? Even as we see the marketing babble now on how it is upper tier, merely for the 1% and we feel to be in agreement (for now) we see a first wave of segregation. As the followers will emphasise on the high end computers, we will see a new wave of segregation.

And? So what? I do not want to pay too much!

This is the valid response for many players, for many users, they do not have the needs IT people have, many merely see the need they have now and that is not wrong, not in this life as the economy is not coming back the way it needs to be. Yet two elements are taking over, the first is Microsoft, we can’t get around them for the most and as e-commerce and corporate industry is moving, shows to be both their option and their flaw. As we see more push where 90% of the Fortune 500 is now stated to be on the Microsoft cloud, we see the need for multi-core systems more and more. Even as some might remember the quote form early 2017 “Find out why it’s the most complete #cloud solution“, the rest is only now catching on that the Azure cloud is dangerous in several ways. Chip Childers, the fearless leader of the Cloud Foundry Foundation gives us “We are shifting to a “cloud-first” world more and more. Even with private data centres, the use of cloud technologies is changing how we think about infrastructure, application platforms and software development“, yet the danger is also there yet not mentioned. This danger is slowly pushed onto us through the change that the US gave yesterday. As Net Neutrality is being abolished, there is a real danger that certain blocks could grow on a global scale. So as we see trillions in market value shift, how long until other players will set up barriers and set minimum business needs and cater to them above all others?

Core Cloud Solutions become a danger, because it forces the contemplation that it is no longer about bandwidth and strength of your internet connection, the high end of business is moving back to the Mainframe standards that existed strongly before the 90’s started. It will be about CPU Time Used. So at that point it is not about the amount of data, but the reception of CPU channels, as such the user with a multi core system will have a massive advantage, and the rest is segregated back towards second level, decreased options. It does not change consumer use of places like Netflix, but when you require the power of your value to be in Azure, the multicore systems are the key to enable you and disable connection huggers and non-revenue connected users, consumers at a price for limited access.

This is the future we push for; it is not created by or instigated by Apple. It merely sees what will be needed in 4 years when 5G is the foundation of our lives. I saw part of this as I designed part of a solution that will solve the NHS issues in the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany, but I was slow to see that the lesson I was handed the hard way in 1997 is also around the corner. As Netflix and others (Google in part) is regressing towards the mean in some of their services and options that they will offer the global audience at large. The outliers (Google, Amazon, IBM, Microsoft and SAP) will soon be facilitators to the Expression Dataset of the next model of usage that comes. There will be a shift and it will go on until 2022, as 5G will enable some players like NTT Data and Tata Communications to get an elevated seat, perhaps even a seat at that very table.

They will decide over the coming years that there is a shift and as people decide the level of access that they are getting they will soon learn that they are not merely deciding for themselves, because the earlier their children get full access, the more options they will get beyond their tertiary education. Soon we will learn that access is almost everything, but we will not learn that lesson the way we thought we would. Even I have no idea how this will play out, but such a shift beyond the iteration IT world we see now is exciting beyond belief. I hope I will end up being part of that world, I have been part of the IT/BI Industry since 1980 and I am about to see a new universe of skills unfold before my very eyes. I wonder how far I am able to get into that part, because these players will all need facilitation of services and most of them have been commission driven for too long, meaning that they are already falling behind.

What a world we are about to need to live in!

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