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Who are they kidding?

That was what I was thinking when I got the following news articles. First there was ‘Rubio says US and Europe ‘belong together’ despite tensions’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2lrdq47149o), which is astounding as Rubio’s administration wanted to court someones else’s partner, fuck that partner and take whatever they could get (which is my version of the state of affairs) and I am pretty certain all Danes see it in the same way. So when we get “The US secretary of state told the Munich Security Conference: “We do not seek to separate, but to revitalise an old friendship and renew the greatest civilisation in human history.”

He criticised European immigration, trade and climate policies, but the overall tenor of the closely-watched speech was markedly different to Vice-President JD Vance’s at the same event last year, during which he scolded continental leaders.” I personally see the setting of “the overall tenor of the closely-watched speech was markedly different to Vice-President JD Vance” is (as I personally see it) set in two ways. The first way is that America is now ‘scared’ that like Canada, the EU will tighten trade settings with China and that ends a few things right there and right quick. The second one is that they are also worried that cash will run out before this administration leaves the White House, something that is becoming a real fear for them. They make claims on the ‘massive’ wins their economy is making, but the American people aren’t seeing that. Moreover, big tech just shed 165,000 people and at least 127,000 were let go in 2025. All these people need jobs and these jobs aren’t coming (back) and that is before you take into account what damage the hospitality is showing. The larger settings here are numerous ways that certain people aren’t being made aware of. Al Jazeera gives us ‘The US economy seems strong after a year of Trump, but is it really?’ (at https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/1/19/the-us-economy-seems-strong-after-a-year-of-trump-but-is-it-really#) where we see “experts say, is that the stock market boom has helped to mask deeper underlying problems in the economy.” As well as “despite the impressive GDP numbers, that growth is not being accompanied by an increase in hiring. While hospitality and healthcare added workers last year, retail, manufacturing and construction – sectors that rely heavily on migrants – all shed jobs.” So basically these tech companies are doing decently well because they shed 127,000 jobs. Costs down, profits up. That is how I see it. And that is the preamble of a brain-drain, because the people need jobs and they will work for whomever pays them. And these so called ‘high potential workers’ will accept a job at ADNOC (or Aramco) to provide for their families, as such the brain-drain begins and they are nervous, because the Europeans are in pretty much the same setting and it is an employers market now. They will take the best for the jobs (as well as a few other reasons) and at that point the people will go where they are needed. And this is merely an example using two corporations. 

The second article was also from the BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjrq2r9y278o) where we see ‘‘Trump will be gone in three years’: Top Democrats try to reassure Europe’ and as I see it, it is too late for that. They elected a president that made a mess of things, he is accused of appeasing Russia and has tried to take their lands and threaten them. There is something seriously wrong in the areas of the Unites States of America. So whilst they hear ““If there’s nothing else I can communicate today,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said at a conference event on Friday, “Donald Trump is temporary. He’ll be gone in three years.”” 

And there is the realisation that in three years there might not be a United States of America left. The mess is too intense, the chaos is unabating and the American administration mess with their ICE and other settings like the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issues, the VISA integrity issues, the alleged data phishing settings and that is merely the first setting. It will take the best part of a decade to optionally win back Europe and the Commonwealth and they don’t have that kind of time. They too have their issues and together it might have worked out. With this administration the Commonwealth and the EU are seeing a non-option in play and that is the setting China has been waiting for. When China has the ear of the EU and the Commonwealth there is every chance that it will dump whatever bonds of the US treasury it has left and push the USA over the edge. That is an actual real fear that Wall Street has and the sugar coated messages does not alleviate that fear (like the Disney Credit Card). So these two settings are in the back of the minds of the shakers of the EU and the Commonwealth. So whilst we get ““The reason we’re here is to provide reassurance that we understand how important our European allies are,” Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire said.” Their nation has elected a president who does not feel that way and that is the reality for the EU and the Commonwealth for at least three more years. A setting that seems to be lost on these people, or they might not be able to fix that problem. So after the first failed attempt to impeach him, he was convicted of 34 felony counts, he was reelected and makes a bigger mess of things and there is nothing the other side can seemingly do. As such the EU and the Commonwealth have had enough of that and they are looking for other options and in the back there is China looking at what is in it for them. And as I personally see it, China is merely one slam-dunk away from total victory. If the setting of “The EU faces a significant trade deficit, which exceeded €300 billion in 2024, prompting calls for more balanced trade.” I reckon that if China finds a solution when that deficit is lessened by at least €250 billion, the EU will consider that move and it will not be too costly for China either. Because the open door will give rather large opportunities and should their solutions be brought to the Middle East and the EU, China will be getting the better part of the deal, whilst diminishing the current footprint the USA has on these two regions. A setting that most fear, or they are in dubio because of what the USA ‘spouts’ (as the term goes) but the larger setting is out in the open and the actions of this President aren’t helping anyone, least of all the people of the United States and as I see it, should PM Mark Carney take the lead and set the trades in a prosperous setting towards the EU (and Canada of course) The Republicans and the United Stated are truly done for. Consider this nightmare, Microsoft out, LibreOffice and Tencent technology in. That could be a 20-40 billion a year hit to Microsoft and connected services. Then we get American Tower Corporation out and Huawei in. That is not a given, but the likelihood of that happening becomes more and more realistic, the actions of this America Administration is making this so and the American Tower Corporation is set to 149,000 communications sites and nearly 107,000 properties internationally. Now this will not go in a day, or even a year, but when these two, merely these two corporations shed 10%-20% revenue. It is my believe that the US Debt will strangle America within 2-3 years. That is the one setting no one is looking at and now that China has a dialogue with PM Mark Carney and Ursula von der Leyen that setting becomes as real as it can be. The question is how ready is China to take that lead, or perhaps they want to wait a year for the setting of the USA to become almost desperate, because there is only so much the USA can hide in papers and they are running out of space. 

Am I a doom speaker? I am speculating to a larger extent, but who knew that these two companies could throttle the USA? Who saw the Microsoft v OpenAI break up coming? Just simple questions that should be on the forefront of many minds and the problem is that the media is no longer to be trusted, it goes against their need for the digital dollar. The clickbait hype that too many media are focussing on. So where is the real news? Who had heard of the American Tower Corporation? Simple questions really. 

So have a great day and consider that Coffee with cream and sugar is written as “加奶油和糖的咖啡” till next time.

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Repetition to be

This is what happens, I was rereading my last article (read: blog) and I noticed a few things. I stand by my word, but it could have been said more clearly and as I saw another piece of evidence, I thought it was important to add this to the ‘current’ (as in previous) article. I like clarity although plenty of people have an issue with the ways I write and it should be said that I don’t write for the masses. It just isn’t me and I am not here to win hearts, I leave that to the George Clooneys out there. 

There is still a abundance of speculation, although I have been in IT for over half a century, as such I can rely on presumption. And as the events are coming to pass, we are seeing elements. I personally think the Microsoft is not in a good place, although that part is speculative. You see no matter what OpenAI does, it will fail and it is running out of time. No, this setting comes before that. The EU is largely rejecting Microsoft and what they bring. In Germany at present 30,000 employees are switching from Microsoft to solutions like LibreOffice and Open Xchange. Denmark is switching more profound to similar solutions and France is shifting 500,000 workstations to open source software, equally schools and public sources are making equal changes. Then we get Italy who is switching 150,000 PC’s towards open-source platforms, Austria is already making the shift, at present if armed forces have shifted to open-source. The EU in general: Due to GDPR, European regulators have challenged the use of Microsoft cloud services over data transfers to the US. 

So as we see at present what some say will happen when President Trump switches the ‘internet’ to OFF and there is more happening and some presented stages are ahead by a decent amount. This implies that a large amount of up to 450,000,000 accounts are switching (I am assuming here the nearly all Europeans have some sort of Microsoft account). Just as they are deeper into the ‘fake’ AI setting and with the GDPR in place they cannot copy what is not in ‘their’ cloud. It is happening now, so don’t take notice of the doom speakers. 
Microsoft is seemingly doubling down on everything to make these copies happen before they are switched off. I don’t think they will make it, or at best a partial download and that will affect those 770 data centres that are being build (I cannot say how many of them are Microsoft), when the EU and its data falls away, I wonder how many of these centres will be canceled (for the weirdest reasons) and we will see a new complication. You see all these firms who ‘abandoned’ over 150,000 employees will suddenly see that this brain-drain will complicate life a lot more than they are happy with. 
So as Microsoft is now seeing this noose coming towards them (or they are walking towards their noose). What matters is that the timing was off and the bully tactics of President Trump will show them, that they came short of what they needed. If only they had 6 more months (or if the president would have behaved himself) they might have made it, but now as the world awakens that data is currency and they were about to be robbed of everything they had, the US will now need a different path, because when the data viability would be locked to the EU, and the US and most of the US corporations will be pushed in the open and lacking 450,000,000 data bringers a day, their setting for assumed revenue will go basically into the toilet.

Did you never wonder why the USA needed 770 data centres? And they are unlikely to be all Microsoft data centres, but there will be a fair amount. So what happened to that StarGate project? The information that I saw (source: CNBC) was that “10 data centers were being built in Abilene, Texas, with plans to expand to more states and countries, like the United Kingdom, Norway, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.” There is more to this and in light of these Data centers giving whatever they have to the United States, what are the plans now for the UK and Norway? And there are more questions for the UAE, how clear is it that they are handing over their data to the United States (OK, I apologise, they merely get insight into all data that is managed by an American firm, but does that not amount to the same thing) because Oracle, OpenAI and Microsoft are American firms. So I have no idea how Softbank fits into this as it is Japanese. As such, is Stargate LLC still happening? It is stated to be costing 500 billion? So what happened? All questions, but the doom speakers are out there. Even I am getting messages on LinkedIn on how the data goes dark if President Trump throws the switch. Why was I included? By a person I had never heard before. The US is now nervous because the EU will get others (read: Commonwealth nations) to do the same thing and as I see it, there is well over 80% chance that LibreOffice will be the most popular solution in 2026 and everyone is likely to switch. As such Microsoft just gained a lot of data space, but that might be merely my sense of humor. 

As for their “AI” settings, that system that would be doing a lot by “AI” and whilst we were told that “Microsoft is deeply integrating AI across its operations, with CEO Satya Nadella stating that 20%–30% of code in company repositories is generated by AI”, so whilst everyone is rejoicing, we should also consider that we still see (on a daily basis) that email delivery failures (blocked as spam by Outlook/Hotmail) or job application rejections (rejected by automated systems or after interviews) are still the setting of mainstream (not small exceptions) and that is the setting that comes with a dwindling consumer setting and Microsoft is spending a rather large chunk of the $700,000,000,000 that is due in 2026 (not all of it is Microsoft). So what happens when your customers reject you, but the bills are still due? Yup, that noose is coming towards Microsoft nicely. It is apparently a not so nice event, did anyone tell Satya Nadella this? I reckon we will see a much more serious Nadella now that he is going the way of the noose. 

And here the news separates a little as I was given a few hours ago (at https://www.cryptopolitan.com/qatar-taps-microsoft-to-build-ai-systems/) that ‘Qatar taps Microsoft to build AI systems to cater to government services’, as such dies Qatar knows what ‘befalls’ their data? The article gives us “The platform is also expected to help the ministry develop and deploy intelligent AI agents, an automated system capable of handling tasks ranging from processing applications to answering queries, without the lengthy development cycles traditionally associated with government IT projects. The factory will be built on Microsoft’s technology infrastructure and will be designed to integrate easily with existing government systems.” Yet as I see it, America has insight into all this because of the CLOUD Act (2018): 

So at what point is the setting “disclose data (emails, files, etc.)” even if there was a legal reason, the term ‘files’ is seemingly not limited, as such it could be anything and that is a hard pill to swallow. Before we know it it will contain any IP stored and I wrote about that risk (not connected to the cloud act) because of the debt the US had at that point (I think it was merely 25 trillion at that point), The danger that a desperate government will go looking through all that IP out there presented a little too much danger for my senses, so I made a lot of it public domain. I might not end up with anything, but no-one else will get those marbles for their own greedy needs. As I see it, the big-Tech doesn’t really like Public Domain, but that might be merely my gut feeling (which has no relation to any academic setting). Does Qatar know what it is in for? Perhaps they are, and a lot of it is wildly ‘rejected’ by influencers who are trying to ingratiate themselves to whomever (I mostly don’t care) 

The second bit of news which I saw just an hour ago and was published last year (at https://www.xda-developers.com/libreoffice-is-right-about-microsoft/) gives us ‘LibreOffice is right about Microsoft, and it matters more than you think’ here we see (written by Simon Batt)  “I reported on LibreOffice accusing Microsoft’s “artificially complex” Office XML format of being a “lock-in strategy.” The basis of LibreOffice’s argument was that Microsoft’s usage of the XML format deliberately locked people into using Office over open-source software. It also touches upon how Windows 10 is losing support soon, and how people are being corralled into Windows 11 whether they like it or not. However, LibreOffice touches upon an interesting point. While Microsoft is to blame for its practices, the fault also lies with us a little for going along with it. And you know what? They’re totally right.” It is a different setting and it sparked memories I had regarding the war Microsoft had with Netscape in the 90’s. 

Now that the world has LibreOffice it has choices, but because of the actions of the White House no one has a clue how the world will be hit and in what way. We can no longer trust someone telling us that it all will be fine, because that setting is as I see it near impossible. 

So, what will the rest of the world do? When they realise that the US has access to all data in data storage with American companies? I reckon it will upend the US economy to the largest degree and this is just the beginning. The red lights of rejection are glowing in more and more places and none of them are nice. President Trump made sure of that with his tariff threats and now that the settings are coming home to play, it is even more interesting. What will some do? What will the EU do and I reckon that the Middle East are looking for their own solutions, because they are clued in enough to see what is coming their way. It becomes a setting where no one trusts the United States and what they want requires trust, it is no longer there, so Microsoft is as I see it in a bind and it is largely their own fault. For me it is a little more complex, both Snowflake and Oracle are American companies. What happens there? If the US Administration wants to ‘hijack’ that data, the cloud act of 2018 allows them to do that. In how much danger are we really? I am willing to trust both Snowflake and Oracle. It is the US Administration I have little (read: no) faith in at present and that is not going away any day soon.

As such, I hope I am a little more clear now and I added a few more facts to this, so it is as I personally see it a win-win setting (for me at least). So, have a great day today and I will try to be a little more clear next time around.

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Sighting the noose

This is almost a real setting. There is still a abundance of speculation, although I have been in IT for over half a century, as such I can rely on presumption. And as the events are coming to pass, we are seeing elements. I personally think the Microsoft is not in a good place, although that part is speculative. You see no matter what OpenAI does, it will fail and it is running out of time. No, this setting comes before that. The EU is largely rejecting Microsoft and what they bring. In Germany at present 30,000 employees are switching from Microsoft to solutions like LibreOffice and Open Xchange. Denmark is switching more profound to similar solutions. France is shifting 500,000 workstations. To open source software, equally schools and public sources are making equal changes. Italy is switching 150,000 PC’s towards open-source platforms, Austria is already making the shift, at present if armed forces have shifted to open-source. EU (General): Due to GDPR, European regulators have challenged the use of Microsoft cloud services over data transfers to the US. We see at present what happens when President Trump switches the internet to OFF and there is more happening and some are ahead by a decent amount. This implies that the bulk of 450,000,000 accounts are switching. Just as they are deeper into the ‘fake’ AI setting and with the GDPR in place they cannot copy what is not in ‘their’ cloud. It is happening now, so don’t take notice of the doom speakers. Microsoft is doubling down in everything to make these copies happen before they are switched off. I don’t think they will make it, or at best a partial download and that will affect those 770 data centres that are being build, when the EU and its data falls away, I wonder how many of these centres will be canceled (for the weirdest reasons) and will see a new complication. You see all these firms who ‘abandoned’ over 150,000 employees will suddenly see that this braindyain will complicate life a lot more than they are happy with. So as Microsoft is now seeing this nose coming towards them (or they are walking towards their noose). What matters is that the timing was off and the bully tactics of President Trump will show them, that they came short of what they needed. If only they had 6 more months (or if the president would have behaved himself) they might have made it, but now as the world awakens that data is currency and they were about to be robbed of everything they had, the US will now need a different path, because when the data viability would be locked to the EU, and the US and most of the US corporations will be pushed in the open and lacking 450,000,000 data bringers a day, their setting for revenue will go basically into the toilet.

Did you never wonder why the USA needed 770 data centres? So what happened to that StarGate project? Is that still happening? It is stated to be costing 500 billion? So what happened? All questions, but the doom speakers are out there. Even I am getting messages on LinkedIn on how the data goes dark if President Trump throws the switch. Why was I included? By a person I had never heard before. The US is now nervous because the EU will get others (read: Commonwealth nations) to do the same thing and as I see it, there is well over 80% chance that LibreOffice will be the most popular solution in 2026 and everyone is likely to switch. As such Microsoft just gained a lot of data space, but that might be merely my sense of humor. 

As for their “AI” settings, that system that would be doing a lot by “AI” and whilst we were told that “Microsoft is deeply integrating AI across its operations, with CEO Satya Nadella stating that 20%–30% of code in company repositories is generated by AI”, so whilst everyone is rejoicing, we should also consider that we still see (on a daily basis) that email delivery failures (blocked as spam by Outlook/Hotmail) or job application rejections (rejected by automated systems or after interviews) are still the setting of mainstream (not small exceptions) and that is the setting that comes with a dwindling consumer setting and Microsoft is spending a rather large chink of the $700,000,000,000 that is due in 2026. So what happens when your customers reject you, but the bills are still due? Yup, that noose is coming towards Microsoft nicely. It is apparently a not so nice event, did anyone tell Satya Nadella this? I reckon we will see a much more serious Nadella now that he is going the way of the noose. 

But what will the rest of the world do? When they realise that the US has access to all data in data storage with American companies? I reckon it will upend the US economy to the largest degree and I reckon it is just the beginning. The red lights of rejection are glowing in more and more places and none of them are nice. President Trump made sure of that with his tariff threats and now that the settings are coming home to play, it is even more interesting. What will some do? What will the EU do and I reckon that the Middle East are looking for their own solutions, because they are clued in enough to see what is coming their way. It becomes a setting where no one trusts the United States and what they want requires trust, it is no longer there, so Microsoft is in a bind and it is largely their own fault.

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Contemplations

We all have them and in this day and age we kinda need them. The idea that you are weighing issues that might not be important at first. I got to this stage in a few ways and they all relate (in my mind). It started with Denmark and their ‘fight’ for digital independence. 

This got Libreoffice on my retina’s 

I currently do not need it as my Mac comes with Pages, Numbers and Keynote, but I am always looking for a next challenge and as Australia is drowning in Ageism (I am no longer a teenager) getting a larger field of interest is not a bad thing. The additional setting is that Microsoft keeps on pissing people off and that could result in drastic acts from all kinds of people. So when the Commonwealth throws out Microsoft, there will be plenty of people needing people who have knowledge of something beside Microsoft. The smaller setting is that Libreoffice comes with Draw and a Database and I have been away from databases too long. As I see it there will be a need for people with data cleaning skills. This is an undeniable fact and that means my skills might come needed in the near future. As such these settings all mean that I will have to set a larger stage and I reckon that starting with LibreOffice is a first stage. So when areas of Europe goes ‘non-Microsoft’ There will be an optional need for me. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? 

In other news I started shaping my second script Residuam Vitam now. It will be a jumpy ride as this is the first mini-series I create and I am still getting the hand of Final Draft, so it will be a sort of rollercoaster ride to say the least. The script is still forming and so far I seem to get things wring in casting the right ‘illumination’, some parts of the script seem to get the format wrong, so I am doing something not correctly and that is the short and sweet of it, so whilst I am ‘shipping’ the script from blog original to script original I seem to be making a few ‘errors’ (or so I think) and that is also the need for the LibreOffice text component. It might give me the visibility of the format codes before I copy it back into Fina Draft, or so at least I hope.

The Mini series should be set over 6-8 episodes all an hour long. But it is still shaping and as such I have no idea how this fares in the end, and it is spread over dozens of blog writings going back to August 2021 and ending in February 2024. I reckon that over those times there will be gaps and that will be done in this stage as well. There is always the chance that Baron Samedi (or Maman Brigitte) might take offense, but I hope they will not. In that setting there are a few other players like Lady Jiang and that gives me options, because script wise I am using the tales and ‘myths’ of people that tends to be missed by others and I combine them, something that has been done before, but never with these people and as such I might have a new original out here.

Still, the ‘offset’ of text formats is a little infuriating, especially as I am doing it all in Final Draft. It is infuriating as I am making mistakes, or at least that is what it seems to be. We have been brainwashed to the larger degree by Microsoft settings we adhered to using MS Office that we forget to keep and open mind in resolving issues. Perhaps LibreOffice will aid in this new mental ploy. It is the new age. Microsoft got us to think in certain ways for decades and now that we ‘see’ that it is bad to be depending on one solution, we see that we lost a little more than we bargained for. This is not on us or on Microsoft. They did develop ideas and drawing air from the solutions handed to us and now, after decades when we consider that there must be another way we see that we are pushed in a mindset that favored them (which is fine) but we lost something along the way. I thought I had resolved part of this when I stated using the Adobe way of things. But that way also has its mentality to resolve things the Adobe way. It is how we tend to be wired. 

So what to contemplate?
First is the way we think around programs, you might think it is simple, but it is not, we get trained in thinking a certain way and when we are comfortable with that way of thinking we forget other options. It is said that the dangers of too much comfort include stagnation, a lack of personal and professional growth, and missed opportunities, preventing you from reaching your full potential. I kinda agree with this, but it is not that clear cut at times. In addition staying comfortable also hinders the development of resilience by keeping you from facing adversity and can create a cycle of self-doubt that makes you less likely to pursue dreams. This is said, but in this I disagree. I do not think there is a lack of development of resilience, it is merely the thought of looking the other way, the road less travelled. I have done this plenty of time and the ‘connecting’ path to pursue dreams is as I see it massively American. 

You don’t need to pursue dreams, you merely have to recognise these ‘dreamy’ moments as milestone you might encounter. Or to be ‘fashionable’ with the influencers Sydney Sweeney wasn’t wearing American Eagle for me, she merely felt good wearing them and American Eagle paid her handsomely for posing in them. I was never a factor. Influencers use her to tell me that this is what I wanted all along and it is not. OK, she is pretty, the advertisement is nice and that is it. I am utterly convinced she has never heard of me. Influencers are making you doubt this small certainty and people fall for that setting of doubt. So resilience of self delusion is part of that larger stage that you face. To go your own way (sorry Fleetwood Mac) and drive yourself where you WANT to go, not where others expect you to go. 

As such I will beat Ageism, I will beat stupid people as I am now working realising the completion of my second Script. Just two more to go after that and whether or not they become real is not the issue. It was the creation my version of self required me to complete. That was all. Yes, it is ‘intoxicating’ that my dram state sees Matt Damon and Ridley Scott buying my creations, but it remains a dream. The reality is that I had to create them getting to howl laughter at my previous bosses who blindly follow Microsoft (or others) to get to the ‘success point’ they considered real. I might not fill that hole (I came up with a version of Facebook 5 years before Facebook and my boss said it had no future, he told me to focus on the mission statement). In the meantime I created more IP and created new lanes to solutions that made me feel good. And now I started my second Script. I am rolling in creativity and I reckon that is what I need to develop further as the world is rolling after AI and what it isn’t this world will soon come to a setting that the creative people are the actual gold any company has. And some might not work, but consider Nintendo, the failure that was WiiU caused the development of the Switch and Switch2. Since 2017 they sold 154 million consoles beating Microsoft and the Sony PS4 (117 million) and Sony had 5 more years to get the numbers. So creativity was as I see it the ruling factor and as I see it, certain bosses have little clue how to harvest creativity. I reckon that the setting for LibreOffice might get people thinking in different ways, optionally creating new technology. 

So whilst I see the soup vendors, I also see the myth of Lady Jiang and Meng Po Soup. I do advise you not to drink the soup, the old soup and certainly not the new soup. You’ll learn that lesson the hard way. Creativity is a bitch at times, but there you have it.

Creativity runs amok (I never knew that it could run a mock) and feel free to delusionally consider that a girl in good looking jeans is thinking of you (like some will suggest) but the critical mind knows better and you know it. We might all have creativity, but it requires a critical mindset to instill self doubt on what you design. I did it on at least 3 IP projects. The doubting mind searches deeper on itself. 

Have a great day. 

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A Shakespeare saying

That is on the table and it started 3 days when I wrote ‘The changing of games’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/06/13/the-changing-of-games/) Here I showed the setting that Microsoft opened itself to and Denmark is not the only one. There is a larger setting that America is no longer the go-to guy for European business. It is not a setting President Trump was looking for, but then he never anticipated that Microsoft would back a solution (builder.ai) with at the core a stated 700 engineers. Trust me, it matters (trusting me is always up in the air). You see, Europe and other places are now suddenly reminded how Microsoft got to the top and innovation is not the first ‘setting’ that comes to mind. Netscape and the Wordperfect corporation comes to mind in the first instance. You see, I never got to the top of anything. In part because I never heralded the limelight, in part because the people who got there feared me. I don’t back down (ever) from the setting of supporting solutions for good instead of what was politically convenient. And I am not alone., thousands of tech support and customer care people are n my side and they can now dish up the past and hit certain players where it hurts. 

So now we get to TechRadar and its slightly taste adjusted setting. The story (at https://www.techradar.com/pro/denmark-wants-to-replace-windows-and-office-with-linux-and-libreoffice-as-it-seeks-to-embrace-digital-sovereignty) gives us ‘Denmark wants to replace Windows and Office with Linux and LibreOffice as it seeks to embrace digital sovereignty’ a mere 18 hours ago. It has the byline “Denmark bets big on open source revolution and control”. You see, I don’t think it is a big bet. Since the end of the 90’s when times and budgets were good, the IT setting (not merely Microsoft) was to instigate an IT armistice race and those times are gone. So whist certain players went to the ‘safety’ on IT armistice, the governments merely accepted the setting that this is how it was supposed to be, never realising they had other chances. And as I personally see it Microsoft turned that tap off towards others and redirected it to themselves. This is basically how multi-trillion companies are made. Yet the underlying setting is that there was always a larger field and Microsoft was not it. Or better stated Microsoft was not alone here, they merely tempered the setting for themselves, as this setting was never anticipated. A President that shallowed expenses and a larger premise to self. So whilst Denmark was being treated that America wants Greenland as allegedly houses a wealth of minerals, Denmark decided to look what could be done and so they did and in the process woke up Dutch politicians as well. So here we are seeing “Denmark is embarking on an ambitious effort to reduce its reliance on proprietary software from foreign tech giants by transitioning its government systems away from Microsoft offerings Windows and Office 365. The Danish Ministry of Digitalization reportedly plans a phased migration to Linux operating systems and LibreOffice for office productivity.” And as I personally see it, TechRadar is adding the ‘ambitious part’ for non-sentimental reasons. This setting was thwarted by Microsoft in the late 90’s and now they are less likely to succeed as the political field has changed. As I remember open Office is still a direction that is open. As Microsoft closes sluices they couldn’t close them all and now these sluices are the key to lose dependency to Microsoft. And here we see “The core objective, according to Minister Caroline Stage, is strategic: to safeguard Denmark’s digital infrastructure from the uncertainties of geopolitical tensions and the risk of disrupted access to US-based services.” Which is massively bad news for Microsoft because this is the one instance where they never had to protect their home guard before and here those tech support and customer care people will side with Denmark. The people Microsoft cut loose and away as it they didn’t see eye to eye to the larger need of Microsoft, those people will laugh out loud to the lacking needs of Microsoft minded people. In retrospect I saw this coming, but not in this form and not to the degree it will be hitting US-shored businesses. As such we get a few more settings, they all sound bad for Microsoft and it will enhance the needs of IBM and Oracle as they seek European sides to their business. And as we read in, we see the third player to this event. It is shown with “Denmark’s initiative is not without precedent. More than a decade ago, Germany, most notably the city of Munich, attempted to replace Microsoft products with Linux and LibreOffice.” And in that same setting, I remember that a France location had a similar idea, which is likely to have connections to Monaco and Luxembourg. As such Europe goes from 1 to 5 players and the impact on America will not be without consequences. And where TechRadar gives us, without sources “The Danish government, however, appears to be proceeding with greater caution. The rollout will be gradual, and the ministry has stated that it will temporarily revert to Microsoft tools if serious disruptions arise.” This part actually reads like a ‘divert or lose’ situation and Microsoft needs to take heed as this comes with a larger setting. You see, there is an upside for the Netherlands and out reflects back to the Wordperfect Corporation. America made Wordperfect a solution from Utah and it reflected that it was to be put down, but the Dutch had reasons for this solution. It was the first serious solution that perfectly converted syntax’s into Dutch and they had reasons to be proud as the ‘older’ reason is set to the proverbial English setting of 40,000 words and 800 exceptions to the Dutch setting of 800 words and 40,000 exceptions. You see, that was the larger conundrum and that small company in Utah figured the solutions out and that is the larger setting. Getting from Dutch to German, French and English is a breeze (as the depression goes) and after all these years. Did Microsoft protect that IP by paying for these fees year after year? I doubt it, Microsoft is at best a greedy user and it had cut off these fees after at least a decade setting them short by a decade at the very least and that is where these techies come in. They still have the bad feelings of getting cut short with the little retirement fees they were handed and they will massively support any anti-Microsoft feelings they see. So, when your birds come home to roost, they really will have a party.

I feel that TechRadar was ‘spicing’ it up with “Compatibility with Microsoft Office documents and user adaptation to a new interface may pose significant challenges.” I doubt it will be very hard. Open Office had things brewing in 2012 when they were the number one challenge and these files have not been upgraded much. The larger setting is in newer files that has solutions in place that old ones didn’t, but as far as I can tell aside from Excel files, most files can be ‘altered’ to another solution. Consider that Google Docs, Apple Pages and a few others have little to no problems to read word files. Google Sheets and Apple Numbers can for the most read Excel files and I will give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt that Excel is way advanced to those two solutions, but with the gathered intel from them and OpenOffice there are little snags to be expected. When you see that and the joke that PowerPoint has basically become that most of this setting is close to academic. There is a chance that SAP will have to ‘shed’ its neutrality by claiming it is important for its SAP Dashboard to stay with Excel as it is ‘important’ (I merely think that XCelcius was the go to solution with Excel ad that is basically what SAP Dashboard is) and they will shed that when they see the damage they will do to themselves. As I personally see it Google Sheets could step in there. So as Microsoft will be losing 50% of their solutions, the larger demise will start. 

Whilst Wiki is not really a dependable source as it has no real academic value, it does serve its purpose and (at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPerfect) we get to see “In November 2004, Novell filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft for alleged anti-competitive behavior (such as tying Word to sales of Windows and withdrawal of support for APIs) that Novell claims led to loss of WordPerfect market share.That lawsuit, after several delays, was dismissed in July 2012. Novell filed an appeal from the judgment in November 2012, but the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed. Novell sought review in the US Supreme Court, but in 2014 that court declined to hear the case, ending the legal action almost a decade after it had begun.” It isn’t what it states, it shows that the Novell vs Microsoft antitrust lawsuit gives Denmark the blanket it needs. I remember the massive setting the WP6 for Windows had and Microsoft used that to push its own solution (Word) and when we see this, we see that Microsoft has a government wheelbarrow (if that expression is still used) and as such Denmark has another handle to shed Microsoft (as have the other four). As I see it, in a decade the laws were meant to protect America solutions, and now we get the Canadian setting of Alludo. A Canadian firm no less and as Wordperfect is still under in France, another side opens up. And it doesn’t look good for Microsoft as the niches they created unite as one bubble against Microsoft and America. There is every chance that we will get to see new innovation but no longer in the hands of Microsoft and whilst this happens Microsoft loses market share after market share.

And as Windows support ends, the people considering shift will merely increase. As such after this I wonder if there is any case left for Azure. It makes you feel blue (and not in a good way) leaving larger gaps for players like Oracle and AWS to step in. Yes they are American, but they at least have had the good of any corporation in view of the needs of their solutions and that is where Denmark might make choices as long as these two have European clouds in mind. As fast as as I see it, they do and as Europe shift, the Arabian peninsula does to.

As this happens in my lifetime gives me a tear of joy. They say pride cometh before the fall and as I see it Microsoft will have a long way to fall down (the boom of impact might be the first boom that is globally felt and heard) as such there is a lot to be seen and soon as Satya Nadella gives ‘us’ the need for ‘friendly cooperation’ will be the first setting that is laughed away by some, but when the company is seen as ‘in danger’ it will be the first massive hit to any American operation and that will set a larger scene (what that scene is, I have no idea. As I see it, this has never happened before) and as Microsoft goes, Apple will shortly follow. It quite literally will be left without option.

So have a great day and if you are in Abu Dhabi, enjoy the Chicken Shawarma as it is lunch time there now. Have a fun day

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