Tag Archives: IBM

September 30, 2023 · 21:27

I tend to disagree

There are a few issues and they all relate to the CBC articles. I do not think that the CBC is doing anything wrong. They merely report on a point of view I disagree with and we all have that at times. It started earlier, but what set me off was the article (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/national-security-canada-military-defence-ward-elcock-1.6963391) where we see ‘Canada needs to ditch the complacency and get serious about national security, experts say’. My initial question is ‘Who are these so called experts?’ I know I am not one, but I think these claiming to be could be seen as Monday morning quarterbacks. We are then pushed onto “something unexpected happened last week when the Business Council of Canada issued an urgent call for the federal government to develop a national security strategy with economic security as one of its pillars”. So who exactly are the members of the Business Council of America? It gets worse from here. You see, when we go back several weeks we get (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/foreign-interference-china-russia-csis-business-council-canada-1.6958627) ‘Business council says CSIS should start warning private companies of foreign interference’. This sounds nice, but we have two issues at this point.

  1. The validity of Business Intelligence
  2. The issue of American linked businesses.

The CSIS (aka the Client Server Integrity Society). If the NSA is allowed its ‘different’ version (No Such Agency) then the CSIS is allowed the same thing. My larger issue is “One of the country’s leading business voices warned Thursday that Canada’s economic security faces external threats — and called on Ottawa to give its spies the power to share intelligence with private firms being targeted for foreign interference.” The direct linked question becomes “Who exactly is that leading business voice?” And which idiot yahoo decided to throw sharing intel with places that have leaks larger than any sif into the mix? You see, there is a larger station here. ‘Targeted for foreign interference’ is a large setting. We tend to think China and what the reality is, is that Wall Street is also a source of foreign interference. Those people do not play nice. In addition too many  Canadian businesses would have to up their cyber security by a lot. I merely showed one aspect earlier this week, one of close to half a dozen. Microsoft cannot stop emails leaking, what gives you the idea that Canada is any different? 

So when we get to “The group — which has a long, influential history of pushing for policies like free trade, fiscal responsibility and tax reform — said it believes Canada is deeply vulnerable in this era of renewed great power competition.” We get to the larger disagreement. Canada is not more vulnerable, it is less interesting to a lot of power players. It is roughly 10% of the US and merely 50% of the United Kingdom and is spread over a whole area. In all this the larger station is not merely foreign interference, it is the danger of American interference for its own need for greed and that takes a different approach and until the Business Council of Canada gets its members to up their Cyber Security by a lot, any action is a wasted one and the CSIS keeping its actions secret is the best course of action at present. This might not be the right view, but it is my view.

Then we get to the interesting quote “CSIS jealously guards its sources and methods of collecting information. In one espionage case, it even kept the RCMP in the dark about a former sailor who was stealing classified information for the Russians.” The CSIS is confronted with too may leaks. There is no factual evidence that it amounts to corruption, but that word was mentioned more than once in sources I looked at. The important question was whether that traitor was caught in time. How long was that person active and how was that person (in the end) caught? It was not jealousy, that is the word of a reporter out for flames. The larger station becomes that Canada has vulnerability issues and not all of them are from China or Russia. American businesses are ready to expand and get the Canadian corporations as well, some politicians seem to cater to that need and the CSIS for sure does not. As such whatever the CSIS is doing now, it is seemingly doing right. From here we get to the dangerous statement “Neiman said Canada’s allies have found ways to strike that balance between secrecy and disclosure.” I believe it to be dangerous, because  Canada’s allies are all catering to big business. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, IBM and Meta. You name it, it has a stakeholder trying to find a balance of intelligence at their exposure and risks they can mitigate and Intelligence at the expense to mitigate risk is not sharing Intel, it is giving nations options away to greed driven people and the CSIS, in particular that person with grey hairs (aka David Vigneault) needs to cater to the need of Canada and its citizens, not the needs of a Business Council and its friends.

That is how I see it and I might be wrong, but so far in history whenever a business person wanted intel to be shared, we were confronted by a leak the size of the Grand Canyon right behind it. So before we rinse, shave, grate and repeat Trevor Neiman and optionally these non mentioned friends of his, we should be told who they were EXACTLY. In that the CBC missed the plank by a fair bit.

Enjoy the weekend.

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September 13, 2023 · 12:57

Dreamcraft, the specifics

This morning I came up with an idea. I have had certain elements of this idea in my head for some time, but this morning the pieces of the puzzle started to connect. I am not putting it all out here. It is meant for some Canadian TV maker, not sure which, and with the Americans on strike it seems wrong to hand it over to them. The setting is set to a time traveller with a twist. The setting is set in Canada (the Canadian film maker angle) and is connected to MAGA, making a first setting with America as the evil player.

It starts with “Certain names have been changed to protect the seemingly self-proclaimed innocent players” which could be seen as a twist as well. The movie relies on one player being part of this (as small actor and consultant).

CSIS director Michel Coulombe as himself

A setting that hasn’t happened since former CIA director William Colby in the PC game Spycraft (1996). So there is a precedence for this and I am happy to be to the smallest degree a copycat. I have no idea who would play in this, but a case could be made to give the largest role to Paul Tiberius Shatner (aka Paul Wesley) and I feel that the idea could benefit by a seasoned actors like John Larroquette and/or Patrick Labyorteaux, but I have no clear reason why, merely a feeling. 

The setting is set about a in progress terrorist attack on Toronto and our time traveller starts with an incapacitation gone execution of a person exiting the subway early in the morning. That is where he gets the CSIS involved and after the first evidence is shown to be correct they understand the time pressures and from there we get into a setting of executions showing more and more evidence to become more and more evident that it is all real and that is where we get to the intelligence mulling and a slightly more academic set (the need for an intelligence consultant) and from there we are taken on a rollercoaster of intel and action, but this is not too action driven, we see flashbacks (for the twist part) and a reference to

“Time travel is as I know it was set to reality somewhere in 2060-2070. The math came from an actual AI that IBM developed and as I understand it I can never comprehend it, the math is a dozen blackboards of algorithms. It is safer to go back and this is my second trip. My last trip. The chances of paradoxes become too great after trip one. Also with travelling into the future paradoxes increase exponential with every second you travel into the future. Its a big no-no. See it as as throwing a rock into the river, the river adjusts around the rock, but into the future the rock becomes bigger by the power of its size with every second it travels into the future, the river overflows and the river stagnates, it becomes a mess really quickly.”

As the story unfolds we are also introduced to a female kick-ass gung-ho liaison officer (optionally Nina Dobrev), but the actress is not defined and no sex scenes. She needs to be hardcore gung-h carrying something like a Taurus Raging Hunter 357 Mag 7-Round Revolver (she is a crack shot and every shot is a kill). This is an intelligence suspense movie.

There is a larger twist at the end involving a ring and with the narration showing us the collapse of the Eiffel Tower the movie ends?

There is of course more, but that is for the TV executive, we can’t have the yanks copying everything. It dilutes the script too much. So that was my overly productive morning.

What did you get done this morning? Enjoy your day.

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September 6, 2023 · 11:28

When the competitor launches cloud 9

Yes, that is the setting and it does refer to the previous two articles as it involves Microsoft, but this is not about Microsoft. You see, Microsoft exposed its jugular and I am always looking for a new job (a new challenge is more like it) and as Microsoft screwed the pooch (the Chihuahua and their customers as well) I decided the take a look. 

Google
With Google (a preferred first) there is a initial first, a bungle of sorts. You see a small quirk. Google dropped the ball (not the first time) and it is shown in the image below.

So when I search ‘IBM Cloud’ and ‘EVROC cloud’ I get the option ‘news, in the case of Google, I do not, I actually have to enter ‘Google Cloud News’ to get the news option. So how is their (so called) AI? You do know (and I have been explicit about it) on the fact that AI does not (yet) exist. It is all machine learning and deeper machine learning and it is all awesome, but it is not AI. To be a little frank. I usually search for topics and seek out news and for some reason my Google search does not catch on, so how is that AI? It is all data based and as such it is flawed, the fact that I still have to enter the search more than once adding the word ‘news’ is indicative of that. 

Beyond that we get (when I got it) ‘Google Cloud spearheads a revolutionary shift in cloud tech with generative AI’ which we got on the Next’23 even where we are given “We are in an entirely new era of cloud, fuelled by generative AI. Our focus is on putting gen AI tools into the hands of everyone across the organisation—from IT to operations, to security, to the board room. As the industry’s most open cloud, our goal is to help companies use AI and other cloud technologies to streamline their operations, increase productivity, and create entirely new lines of business.” Yet from my point of view all this needs to be data driven, and as such (as Microsoft opened the rift) their data centres and especially their worst case scenario better be upgraded (daddy needs a new pair of shoes). And when you consider the blunder of a previous mentioned participant, that review better be done yesterday. 

EVROC
Now we get back to an article the BBC gave us 4 weeks ago (at https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66310714) where we learned ‘Why it matters where your data is stored’, and here we are given “Evroc has secured €15m in seed funding and plans to build eight data centres in Europe in the next five years. The first will be a large pilot data centre in Sweden next year.” And the ‘silent’ setting is that they want to secure a chunk of Amazon business and that is fine. Yet, I already highlighted that their option was the Middle East (Riyadh and Dubai), they have billions in vested interests and EVROC could make a nice coin on the side for these two places alone. I mentioned that, but that was before the the massive bungle that a certain company (with the same first letter that MacDonalds has) made, so now EVROC has additional options to clear business thresholds. That does not take Google and IBM out of the race, but it does open the doors of business opportunity for Evroc, as it does for Amazon, but that is for later.

Amazon
And later is now, you see ARN also gave us ‘AWS hints at partner program changes for AI and partner engagement’ and their selling point could include ‘We do not go down for over 24 hours’ but that too requires an overhaul and testing for its operational stations and even as winter is coming to Europe (no dragons in sight), the setting changes a little. You see one company exposed its jugular and three other players are now out for blood and they will secure some of it. Not all, but it will hurt the other bungler their business. I did not mention Apple and IBM, they have their own settings and they are solid in what they offer, but there too is the warning that their operational settings better be tested immediately. You see a night shift with 2 extra workers might cost a company up to $300,000 a year more but that is earned with adding less than 10 small customers. That was the bungle, and some customers are charged a lot more than these two employees cost and when you realise that part you see the massive bungle I described a mere 17 hours ago. That was visible on many fronts and now others get to step in to make the damage to that one player worse. 

All this is a setting that could have been avoided by the simple application of checks and balances. Now does the stupid response ‘We lacked staff’ make sense, or better does it make sense how stupid the response was? I never bothered reading the report, it is a document to appease customers and shareholders and I am neither. Common sense told me what I needed to know and now that I am adding these elements I hope I satisfied the over enthusiastic fan that responded with “What do you think you know?” You see, then sarcasm backfires it becomes irony, so I hope that todays article was loaded with the irony he (or she) needed. The cloud field will not change too much, but one player will likely lose a lot more than they are comfortable with, but that is my personal view on the matter and I might be wrong, but in a stage where nearly every customer wants to cut corners on cost and staff, it is a pretty safe bet that I will be correct. That is all apart from the fact that places like Amazon and Google (and now EVROC too) are always seeking more revenue.

Here endeth the lesson, enjoy the day. If it gets too sunny, know how (and be able) to restart the cooling fan.

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September 5, 2023 · 17:58

The yoke is on Microsoft

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

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

Enjoy the warm Tuesday coming to you.

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July 19, 2023 · 21:18

Basic counting

This is a simple setting, there is no ‘complication’. There is a certain need to be competent and this is seen and shown in all walks of life. So I had a few issues with the BBC article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-66229577) I am not saying the BBC did anything wrong. Consider what we are being told in the article. We are given “The event was supposed to be a massive boost for the regional cities hosting it, at a cost of A$2.6 billion (£1.4bn; $1.8bn). But the cost of staging the 12-day Games had ballooned to more than A$6bn, Mr Andrews said.” The very first question that came to mind was ‘How incompetent is Daniel Andrews?’ Don’t just take my word for it, consider the image below. Yes, it is quirky and funny, but not entirely untrue. 

You see I get that mistakes are made, we all make them. We get fuel prices wrong ($2.78 instead of $2.43), we get the price of an item can be handed wrongly, these things happen. But to make an error that amounts to 230% of the invoice requires a very special amount of stupid and I reckon that Daniel is every bit as guilty as whomever wielded the abacus that gave us such wrong numbers. 

And this is not the only case. We are given “Just one Games has been held outside the UK or Australia in the last 20 years – the 2010 outing in the Indian capital, Delhi. Originally expected to cost $270m, India ended up spending 16 times that – almost $4.1bn.” This now gives us three issues. The first is that the logistical side of the Commonwealth games will need an overhaul (if there is one left). The fact that they got the number wrong in 2010 by 1600% is clear evidence of that. 

The second part is that these numbers should have ben checked and as such subsequent games would have been ready. This seems not to be happening. The third part is a little harder. The fact that within 15 years the cost are driven up by almost 50% is one, the second is that India required $4.1 billion, so how did anyone find a way to get it done for an initial $1.8 billion? For half the price even as construction costs tend to be higher in Australia? Yes, we can fidget with currencies all we ant, but the numbers aren’t adding up and that is on Daniel Andrews, the buck literally stops there. 

It seems to me that there are too many fingers in this Commonwealth Games pie. Costs are getting out of hand and there might be valid reasons, but which paper did a thorough digging into that? I personally reckon no one is looking deeper into this as it also impacts advertisers. And the media loves its role as a courtesan.

Wo we will have to wait what will happen next, yet the larger setting is also interesting. Melbourne had the Commonwealth games in 2006, are you telling me that these venues no longer suffices? It might have been part of the scuttled calculations, but I see no mention of that. The BBC article makes no mention of the 2006 games whatsoever, which is a little weird too. So when the Commonwealth games are cancelled, I wonder if anyone will look deeper into this cesspool of incompetency. On the upside, I seem to have found another pool of revenue (or cost reduction) at present and it might apply to Amazon, Apple and Google. But I need to dig a little further before I make official mention here. It might equally impact IBM to some degree as well. 

Well, that was another fine mess I aided in creating, but that is how I roll.

Enjoy the middle of the week.

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July 18, 2023 · 22:44

In souls we trust

I believe that this is the setting we should be in. Make no mistake, there is every chance that I might be wrong and I understand that many will not agree with me. This all comes to blows as I saw an article whilst researching others. I initially was reading up on Andrew Tate, I saw that his house arrest had been prolonged for yet another month. I have had my issues with the arrest. In the first for MONTHS there was no formal case made and we heard all kinds of excuses and the media just accepted it, as it seemingly does whilst being a courtesan. I saw a few other issues and I still believe on a speculative foundation that this all is a play by Romanian organised crime and some business people to steal the business enterprise of the Tate’s away. It is worth hundreds of millions and a fraction of that tends to be enough to start something like that. The media (for the most) was zero help, they are all of the mind to stretch the digital dollar as far as they can and then I stumbled upon ‘“Britain will be fully Islamic soon” – Andrew Tate shocks fans by openly calling for the Islamisation of Britain’ by sportskeeda (at https://www.sportskeeda.com/mma/news-britain-will-fully-islamic-soon-andrew-tate-shocks-fans-openly-calling-islamisation-britain). You might think that this is preposterous, but to some extend this is a global wave that is starting to happen. This world has 8 billion people in it (aka 8,000,000,000) the larger stage is that at present a little over 2 billion (aka 2,000,000,000) is Muslim, it is over 25% at present. Even as 2.6 billion are christian and we see messages how much it is growing, for the most, the people have had enough of the christian church. The exploitation, the child sex abuse, the Vatican in denial and the support of corruption on a global scale is getting out of hand. The overly American Christian waves of BS we see on a daily basis is a first example. One source (unconfirmed) gives us “Since 1970, weekly church attendance among Catholics has dropped from 55% to 20%, the number of priests declined from 59,000 to 35,000 and the number of people who left Catholicism increased from under 2 million in 1975 to over 30 million today.” The flock is leaving the shepherd by the millions, but some remain in denial. I saw another wave evolve 2-3 years back and that led to the IP I had been trying to sell to Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom Holdings, Amazon and Tencent Technologies. You see, we are given in the article “This building is literally dead centre in the middle of London’s historic centre. Amazing news. The only alternative to Islam for the brits are pride flags as they no longer have any innate culture or patriotism. Allah is the best of planners and I look forward to seeing The Islamic republic of Great Britistan in her final form. Alhamdulillah Britain will be fully Islamic soon.” I personally did not see that part, but I saw enough from the other parts to see that changes are needed and governments were actively avoiding them, which gave me the idea of IP which would get well over 50 million subscribers from the early days and that wave would evolve over time. With the claims made by Andrew Tate, these changes would herald a massive wave (in my favour), but that is not what this is about. You see, if we trust in souls the Vatican and governments would clean up their acts, but they do not. If anything they are making it worse and soon the people are driven by choices they weren’t ready to make and might not be ready to make at that point, but it would optionally prove Andrew’s setting. The fun part I that Google numbered itself out of that equation, for whatever reason, they stand to lose a lot. Microsoft will wherever the revenue is, optionally making matters worse and the others, I honestly cannot tell. American firms will get a tap on the shoulder ‘to make a choice’, but like the Huawei case there is now almost enough for them to switch, or set a double stage to provide both.

This might have been a setting in 2019, but there was enough evidence for years to change an Apple keyboard where EVERY key is a display and it can show the alphabet the user requires. IBM engineers came up with the projection keyboard in 1992. So why was it held back? The setting resurfaced with the Apple iPad, but overall it never took off and I can see a case where Apple had the option to become the number one player in the Middle East, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan and a few other places. So what kept them? It cannot be revenue, they lack it and the technology has been out there for 30 years. So what is stopping them? I will let you figure that out.

Andrew further gives us “A secular UK as it is intended to be. All races and religions and cultures etc living in harmony. That seems like a better and more long term plan” I believe he is not wrong, but the media sucks up to the Vatican, the church of England, the Swedish church and a few other players and they are all in denial. So what comes next? It is anyones guess I reckon, but the growth of Islam is clear and has been clear for several years. It allowed me to create IP no one considered and there is more to come. When I unite the IP for 5G+ there will be a much larger stage and I saw that in Dubai it is already evolving. Arab News gave us 22 hours ago ‘Dubai’s real estate transactions increase 37% in Q2: report’ (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2339316/business-economy), this means that another IP piece I have will soon evolve, this is not wishful thinking, the quote “with the total value of properties sold touching 69.8 billion dirhams ($19 billion)” makes it so. I saw the real estate people doing the same thing over and over again. This needs a shakeup and that is where I saw the diverging of one IP into another. I didn’t initially see that in Dubai, I saw it evolve in Toronto and the step to Dubai is as I personally see it exceedingly simple. In souls we trust, all others rely on becoming a tool. It is not sweet, it is nasty, but this christian exploitative stage we are on now is running out of runway and I have no idea how it crashes next, but I reckon it will. If you doubt that, consider that I have put half a dozen IP pieces on the internet. Google and Amazon should have had it, but they did not. Why not? Are they blind, or are they hindered by blinders that are set to the coming and next quarter? And that is before you realise that I also came up with Augmented reality solutions long before Gucci was there, that is three times over. So what are they doing wrong? I will let you figure that our over a cup of coffee (which gives rest to the soul and activates the brain. I have lived on that stuff almost a lifetime. 

Enjoy the week.

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June 9, 2023 · 10:53

That same stuff

That was the first thing I considered when I was reading some story about recruiters. The same thing we have seen for decades. Interrogations, not an interview. Fake promises (experienced that myself) and forever the need to collect as many resumes as possible. It is the old way and covid changed ways, yet it seems that recruiters are in the dark on what they need to do. Like taximeters, trying to get to the next ‘cling’ on the timeline.

And then the largest failing of any recruiter. No communication at all. It is like sending a ship in a bottle into a bottomless pit, never to be heard from again. This is exactly why recruiters have lost well over 90% of credibility of whomever they had contact with. I have (to the best of my knowledge) never had any feedback from a recruiter and over a decade only one has ever arranged an interview. I didn’t get that job, but when I saw the scope of what they needed, they would take someone more experienced. So no hard feelings. One in 10 years. 

Recruiters need to alter their scope, their vision and their approach. Yet as far as I can tell there is no chance of that happening. To be honest, I saw one interesting approach last week. One recruiter (or firm) set the advertisement with the line ‘Would you like to be a millionaire in 2023?’ OK, this might be largely fake, but it would catch anyones eye. And an eye catcher is good, but the rest still matters. And in the past LinkedIn was the one place to go, but it seems that they are taking a page out of the approach that Seek had been making. Job notifications are merely advertisement space and that is how it feels. I might be wrong, but for that the job posters would have to communicate. In this the problem is that my setting is that I have had less than 2% response to my application with 60% of those being “We have received your application” the rest were right out rejections, but that is fair. At least you know where you are at that point. 

Still in Australia in a place where ageism is key, I would think that the people who have the decades of experience are learning. We see messages like “Australia’s skills shortage shows no signs of improving as the latest job reports point to gaps in industries” are abundant, and this was less than 3 months ago. Yet the cold shoulder approach that recruiters give are no sign that there is any work shortage and as stated the thousands of jobs that places like Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, and Google had shed are decent proof of that.  

As such, I am also looking international. Yet at my age that is a dubious approach to take. On the upside, if a firm is large enough and they require me to also man a desk in an international office, that might not be the worst idea to consider. I am still hoping that places like Google and Amazon pen their eyes to the fact that they left billions on the floor, but hey, we can all wish that someone opens their eyes, can’t we?

What is getting clear is that the 90’s approach to recruiting is no longer working and it hasn’t worked for some time. As I personally see it, recruiters are the Direct Marketers of a world that is guiding their postal box straight to the circular filing system. But that might just be me.

For me I am silently enjoying last night’s dream. I was in the Dubai Mall and a baby Cheetah (yes those fast cats) jumped on my lap as I was sitting on a bench, the little rascal curled up and fell asleep. I reckon the holy grail for any cat lover. I woke up with quite the smile on my face.

Enjoy today day, the next weekend is now within reach.

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May 21, 2023 · 23:53

The perception of others

This is a case, this is often a case and in this case. I am one of the others. You see the ‘news’ is no longer that, it is often filtered information. Information that is accepted by shareholders, stake holders and advertisers, as such the people are seen and treated more often than not as a distant fourth. This setting came to the forefront when I saw ‘G7 takes stand against China’s “economic coercion”’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-65662720) where we are given “And in not one but two statements, the leaders of the world’s richest democracies made clear to Beijing their stance on divisive issues such as the Indo-Pacific and Taiwan. But the most important part of their message centred on what they called “economic coercion””  Now here we need to pause. These people do not lie (at least I hope they do not), but lets take a look at the evidence. The first is the ‘world’s richest democracies’, these nations are

1. Canada, debt around $ 2,100,000,000,000
2. France, debt around € 3,000,000,000,000
3. Germany, debt around € 2,600,000,000,000
4. Italy, debt around $ 3,000,000,000,000
5. Japan, debt around $ 9,300,000,000,000
6. UK, debt around £ 2,500,000,000,000
7. USA, debt around $ 32,500,000,000,000

Yes, they are really rich (in debt). To give a little consideration “As of April 2023 it costs $460 billion to maintain the debt, which is 13% of the total federal spending” for the US, their interest is $460,000,000,000 to pay for the interest and 13% of the entire budget is to pay for the interest. So all this talk about debt ceilings is close to null and void. Not unlike a Ponzi scheme the US government is taking out new loans to pay for the INTEREST of old loans. When did that ever go good? But that is not what this is about. The next stage is about ‘economic coercion’ something America and others have done for decades. Economic coercion is a political tool that the US pushed all over the middle east, and now that Saudi Arabia and other are pulling their contract with the US and giving options to China it is coercion? I mentioned it a few days ago (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/05/19/the-stupidity-of-some/) in ‘The stupidity of some’, I made mention of some elements then and several other articles before that. One should not bite the hands that feeds you and I reckon that is why other players were invited to this party as well (no matter what they say). The US is broke and needs others to do some of the heavy lifting. This is OK, or at least that is why allies stick together, but the bulk is deeply in debt with Canada and Australia in a much better position. Germany had industrial revenues so it is not that bad off either. But this is not bout that, it becomes clear when we see “Now, they worry they are being held hostage. In recent years, Beijing has been unafraid to slap trade sanctions on countries that have displeased them. This includes South Korea, when Seoul installed a US missile defence system, and Australia during a recent period of chilly relations.” They worry? So are they being held hostage, or are they not. Lets be clear all these players have engaged with some form of economic coercion in the past, it is a valid political tool, but now that the shoe is on the other foot, the US is worried. It is losing its grip on the Middle East and as Saudi Arabia is uniting its nations and leagues with the added Syria, Egypt and now optionally Iran as well, the stage changes for the west in the Middle East. China has been invited there now and that worries all players of team G7. You see with them losing 5%-10% revenue to China due to all kinds of reasons they are now scared that someone (the big banks like the Rothschilds) will cancel THEIR credit card and that has them scared silly. I would be to, I really would. This is just a few reasons why I tried to sell my IP to Saudi Arabia and Kingdom Holdings (optionally the UAE too). Amazon and Google were asleep and not caring (perhaps they didn’t like my IP) and Microsoft is not invited to that party and optionally Tencent Technologies is.

You see, the stage, several stages are turning to China as an option. Does China have any less debt? I cannot tell, but they are drilling into new business like nothing we see and that has the G7 scared. 

So when we get to “They called for “de-risking”- a policy that Ms von der Leyen, who is attending the summit, has championed. This is a more moderate version of the US’ idea of “decoupling” from China, where they would talk tougher in diplomacy, diversify trade sources, and protect trade and technology.” We see the larger stage, the ‘west’ will diversify trade sources, so that new and emerging economies can only do business with them if they do not do business with China. Almost like Sony did with retailers in 1998/1999. Those who were showing the SEGA Dreamcast would not be getting the PS2. It scared a lot of retailers because PS2 was a winning system and it did. The same was done much earlier with VHS pushing out Betamax (which was superior). A tool used again and again. Yet the larger stage is not these emerging economies, they are a factor, it is what will Saudi Arabia and the UAE do, they are now aligning the next decade and they were the big spenders all over the place and that setting is now heading for China (not sure if it is a done deal) and in this Egypt is important. With them championing Huawei and their G5, Egypt aligns with Saudi Arabia and a lot of commerce and Egypt then becomes a 5G beachhead all over the mediterranean and Africa. This will benefit China a lot. And as we get to “The US is already doing this with its ban on exports of chips and chip technology to China, which Japan and the Netherlands have joined. The G7 is making clear such efforts would not only continue, but ramp up, despite Beijing’s protestations.” This is the stage that is evolving and it is a dangerous move to make. I get why it is done. In the first I am not stating that China is innocent, I am stating that they all used these tools and the debts are drowning their actions. The danger is that if there are any innovative people in China, they will come with an alternative. I have no idea what, but I recall a nice example. The US created a specific ballpoint pen that could be used in space, they spend millions on that solution somehow and Russia? They used a pencil. We saw the Huawei block by Google and now Huawei is rocking the Harmony OS which is available in 77 languages. It is different from both Google and Apple, so what happens when Harmony becomes the tool of choice in the Middle East? You can ban and block, but the danger is that someone finds another way just like Toshiba in Russia decades ago and there was no alternative, as such Toshiba grew and grew with an entire market where they had no competition. Will it happen again? I am certain of it, when one resource closes people look for another resource, it is a natural continuation. Only really stupid people think that no one can get around them and I wonder what will come next. As such I have issues and the BBC did nothing wrong here, they reported, they used quotes and they adhered to something (not sure what). I am showing you that what is said is not merely dangerous it is deceptive. It these are the richest democratic economies, why is there a 50 trillion dollar debt (actually it is decently higher at present). A debt of 50,000 billion and no one is asking questions. I get it (to some degree) Russia is now a problem, the Ukraine is dealing with it, but it can only do so much. It needs support and I agree they do need it and I believe they deserve all the help we can give them, yet across the waters there is no one dealing with the actual debt, they are merely prolonging a complete collapse that will have too many deep in debt for decades. Retirement plans will collapse, health care will collapse and we will all blame someone, but no one is looking at how we all let this happen and now those with the option will look towards the Middle East (including me), a lot are looking at China as an option and a global brain drain will be the consequence. All settings that the G7 will have to consider, because they all have a lot to lose.

Enjoy the start of Monday up to 12 hours (for some) from now. 

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May 19, 2023 · 10:42

The stupidity of some

Yes, we all see that and it has repercussions for these people. We might sit on the sidelines laughing, but it shows a dangerous premise, the stupidity of America, the stupidity of some Americans and how they scuttled their own ship called ‘Future of us’ and ‘us’ could also be seen as ‘US’. This is shown in two articles. The first one is from Yahoo Finance. There was a little better NY Times article, but that was behind a paywall, so you would not be able to read the whole text.

The article (at https://news.yahoo.com/disney-cancels-1-billion-florida-185105108.html) gives us ‘Disney Cancels $1 Billion Florida Expansion’. A setting that came because an idiot (aka Gov. Ron DeSantis) decided to start a war for a trivial reason. He wanted to ‘Douse the Mouse’ (sorry Brittlestar, this is too good a slogan to pass up). And now Disney has cancelled an expansion where we get “The 10-figure office complex near Walt Disney World would have brought more than 2,000 jobs to the region, according to an estimate from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity” So not only does this governor rub any fat cat the wrong way. He now has grievance with the Commercial houses of Florida, his Republican back, the Democrats of Florida and a few other people. Along with the 2000 people not getting a job, up to 8 people connected to anyone losing that job, as such he is 25,000-50,000 votes down and there is likely a larger loss for the Republican side. An ego centric stupid act on the premise of perception that should not have existed in the first place. It is stupid for a few reasons more. The American have alienated Saudi Arabia, optionally the UAE, Egypt and Lebanon as well. Billions in defence industry is now going to China, building contracts in Syria and Saudi Arabia are now going to China, as such the EU and USA are losing out on billions more. The idea that the EU will cater to another Disney-world giving the EU billions more is not out of the question, all money lost to the US, in a stage where they have over 31 trillion in debt. An act too stupid to contemplate and this could have been avoided. In the 70’s my elders taught me ‘Do not bite the hand that feeds you’ and in 1968 we have the premise ‘Money talks, bullshit walks’ and the US seemingly only has walking left. In this day and age I saw the option for millions more in revenue in IT and it will likely go to the UK, the EU (Germany most likely) and Australia (weirdly enough). I am not ruling out Canada, but I know too little about their abilities in that field. Millions more and the list goes on. America dropped well over $5 billion a year on my recent watch alone. And all this before you realise the blunders that signify the USS Zumwalt with its $4 billion expense and the massive drop in abilities. Just to be clear, I am no naval expert, but I dit get a degree in ships engineering and navigation in 1979, so I am not totally in the dark here. The USS Blue Ridge that launched in 1970 outperforms it by a lot and the cost of that rubber ducky is a mere 5% of the failure that the USS Zumwalt represents. I reckon the idea that a congress would not order the smart bullets that the Zumwalt needs (at $800,000 per bullet) might have been the wake up call some people needed. In that environment we get to the second linked article. 

The second article is from the Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/business/commentisfree/2023/may/18/us-debt-ceiling-crisis-republicans) and here there is another side. I do not agree. You see, we can listen to the emotional ‘The US debt ceiling crisis is more proof of Republicans’ cynicism and bad faith’. Here I am on the Republican side. There is a folly to let 31 trillion fester and fester to something more. This is a pox on both houses and it has been for well over 25 years when a tax overhaul was needed and we all hear the same BS. Too hard, too complex. Well, they are close to default on whatever they have left and as Disney goes towards the EU they will open more doors. IBM, Adobe, Amazon, Google and Microsoft are already diversifying leaving the US with nothing (well almost nothing). And as they alienated the few allies left they see an exodus to China, China of all places. 

This is the act of stupidity, stupidity on both houses that would not act when they could and now they are in patters of indecision and they are all trying to find fat jobs in global corporations before the house collapses and it is close to collapsing. This, (and a few related items) was why I tried to sell my IP to the Middle East. In the first you go where the money is. In the second you find a place where you can enjoy your golden years. Because as I see it the US will be a very dangerous place to stay soon enough. Over 200 million desperate people? Yes, that is not a place for me and when the energy shortages hit it will get a lot worse soon enough, they had options there too, but they squandered those options in the last 5 years. 

So whilst everyone is pointing at me stating that I am the stupid one (a fair thought to have) consider that my IP was right in at least two cases, optionally two more that are now evolving. Yet I have a few more and they are all destined to go towards places like Huawei and Tencent technologies. And in all honestly between nothing and  few crumbs, ill take the crumbs, especially if that results in a view like below. 

This is not my 39 coins of silver. It is merely a retirement dream that could optionally be true. And what would you do when you have the choice between what I choose and a retirement home without resources? Because that is what the US (EU and UK too) created with their ego driven decision tree.
Dousing the mouse? When was that ever a good idea, especially when it decides to cancel a billion dollar expansion? Will it go to Euro Disney? With the economic setting the French have, that might be a realistic option for the minions of Walt Disney, and the US? Well it made its own bed, to bad for them that as the others leave that sinking ship well over 275,000,000 Americans will be caught in the middle. They had their options and they voted, or they did not vote and lost their right to complain.

Have a great Friday.

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May 13, 2023 · 18:09

A weekend of revelations

Yup, this happens. However, before I go there, I need to take you on a little trip. It all started in January 2022. I set the design for a new Watchdogs game and I wrote about it in ‘Looky Looky’ which I published in February 2022 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/02/13/looky-looky/) it was the second time I made mention of it (I could not find the first one). Yet at times reality catches up with gaming. That much was clear when I saw ‘Google’s ‘translation glasses’ were actually at I/O 2023, and right in front of our eyes’ (at https://www.zdnet.com/article/googles-translation-glasses-were-actually-at-io-2023-and-right-in-front-of-our-eyes/), my gaming idea was ahead of reality by almost a year, which is not a bad marker to have. It also shows that I had a much better grasp of the IoT world than some proclaim I have (which is nice too). Here we are one step away from pictogram deciphering. So as we are given “unlike Google Glass, this new concept, which didn’t have a name at the time (and still doesn’t), demonstrated the practicality of digital overlays, promoting the idea of real-time language translation as you were conversing with another person.” The nice side effect is that my approach to Augmented Reality is now close to completion. Yes, Google might have the glasses, but I have at least three more options and they are all about to become Public Domain, which might not make me rich, but it shows I was right all along. In addition to this it will bump my other IP, as well as the 5G plus plans I had. Which is still wishful thinking, but with more and more of my early writings becoming reality, it shows I was on the right track all along.

The side effects are nothing to be sneered at. I get that, but a dozen greed driven fuckers poisoning the well aren’t nice either and I will turn all my IP public domain before I let some fat fuck come at me with the “let me help you matey”, that person has no idea what a ‘mate’ is, all greed driven, all bullet point driven and utterly clueless in nearly all IT manners.

So as we realise “Twelve months have passed and the popularity of AR has now been replaced by another acronym: AI, shifting most of Google and the tech industry’s focus more toward artificial intelligence and machine learning and further away from metaverses and, I guess, glasses that help you transcribe language in real time.” We see that at Google, there is an equal distorted sense. They might have mentioned AI 143 times as ZDNet counted, but AI is not real. AR on the other hand is here now and it could have much larger repercussions for retail and malls. I wrote about that a few times over and even as Gucci and partners are on track, a lot is not and that was the larger stage for Google. 144,000 malls with many well over 100 shops. And that was also the profit setting. Do once and distribute to well over 10,000 malls at a time. It does depend on the amount of malls a shop is in, but the message is clear. AR is the direct future and will have an evolution over a few other matters. 

The second revelation (for me) was given by something called the Verdict (at https://www.verdict.co.uk/sap-google-cloud-team-up/) there we see mention of SAP and Google teaming up. Unless you have larger BI involvement you might miss it. Yet the stage of these two working together is a much bigger hit then you think. With SAP Dashboard and Google statistics there is a new field growing and it is there for everyone, which is the start of decline for Microsoft. A company that is now the focal point of PHAAS, and as I saw today the howling laughter of people trying to install their Office365 only to learn that their subscription ended in 1968.

I initially thought it was a direct attack to a person I knew, but it is happening all over the place. Microsoft has serious issues and all whilst they are trying to acquire gaming firms for 68 billion more. Yes, that is the place to go! As such Google already had a clear advantage, but now with the SAP link all corporations that are above small businesses, Google will have something more to offer and SAP as well. A stage that was in the making and when Adobe joins that team the disaster moment for Microsoft is pretty much complete. I cannot tell how this unfolds, but the larger stage is Microsoft dropping the ball all over the place and now that we have Google and SAP picking it up, the losses for Microsoft will increase and within a year they will be massive and as such the small firms dumping Office365 and joining the Google family will pick up more and more. Now however it will not merely be Google, SAP solutions will be all over the place hindering IBM Watson growth as well. There was a large slice of the pie for whom IBM Watson was just too big, to cumbersome, but as I see it SAP has that under new management. And as IBM Watson goes, so do all the blue settings (Azure) that Microsoft was hoping for, it is almost pathetic how that translates into ‘wishful thinking of unrequited love’ (me howling with laughter now).

Yes this is quite the revelation weekend for me. I should consider another gaming IP for Amazon Luna and Sony. There is something rewarding to kicking a corporation when it is on its knees thinking it was too good for anyone else. The joy of being mean (not a synonym for average). 

Enjoy the weekend. I am, that much is a given today.

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