Tag Archives: Meta

March 29, 2026 · 05:44

The Bull what?

I was confronted with an Oracle article this morning, it came with the complements of the Insider Monkey (at https://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/oracles-orcl-backlog-drives-its-bull-thesis-according-to-analysts-1726682/). The article ‘Oracle’s (ORCL) Backlog Drives Its Bull Thesis According To Analysts’ which might be a conundrum, so lets take a look. We are given “The major factors in the firm’s bullish thesis on ORCL are its massive backlog and its ability to cater to increasing AI investments in the US. Oracle has a remaining performance obligation (RPO) of $553 billion, which offers good visibility into the company’s future earnings.” I would go with that a backlog gives stock and future of a company value, but that might be an oversimplification. And $553,000,000,000 is nothing to sneer at. It is seemingly more than the overall business that several nations have and in this case it is more then Norway gets on an annual level. So I would go with that, but what is a bullish thesis? 

Well, in short “A bull thesis is a structured argument supporting the belief that a specific stock, sector, or the overall market will rise in value, driven by positive catalysts like strong earnings, innovation, or economic expansion. It focuses on growth potential, such as AI-driven productivity, high revenue backlogs, or increased market share.” (Source: Simply Wall Street).

So I had it correct the first time over (a few days ago). There was nothing new under the hot sun, but the next bit ‘surprised’ me a bit. It was “The analyst also pointed out that a major risk in the bull thesis is the customer concentration. A large part of this backlog comes from OpenAI. OpenAI intends to invest a total of $600 billion in computing power by 2030. Previously, in October, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company could spend up to $1.4 trillion on infrastructure by 2033. One month ago, BNP Paribas analyst Stefan Slowinski commented on how this particular risk is now reducing for Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL):” So in short, most of the backlog comes from OpenAI, if OpenAI fails (not a weird thought) Oracle stumbles as would be the case, so the backlog is due to mostly one customer and that is a rusk. How big a risk remains to be seen. The people wanting OpenAI to succeed are numerous and ‘THEY’ would be reducing the risk like the metal dealer reducing the risk of riveting and downplaying potential dangers. This went well before the Titanic saw the shores of the ocean (bottom of the sea), but what happens afterwards? Now, riveting is largely supported, there are whole fleets still out there based on riveting. But what happens when the next big thing comes (like welding), so that is where we are right now. But on the horizon we see Google DeepMind, Anthropic, Meta, DeepSeek and something called Cohere. I believe Oracle is in a good space as whatever comes next will require a system that deal with data and I believe that the only competitor here is Snowflake. As such yes, there is a risk to (what some call) the Bull thesis, but the risk is seemingly small as nothing can match Oracle and Snowflake can only partially cover Oracle (as I see it) and I have some reservations on BNP Paribas analyst Stefan Slowinski as BNP Paribas and OpenAI have a multifaceted relationship involving financial analysis, infrastructure, and competition within the AI landscape and this article dos not bare this out. But in that setting we also fail to see the setting that ‘SoftBank Secures $40 Billion Loan to Fund $30 Billion OpenAI Investment’ (source: TradingView) this matters as there is a backlog and they still need loans/investment funds? And the second setting is given to us (at https://www.nssmag.com/en/lifestyle/44761/sora-openai-shutdown) where we see ‘Understanding OpenAI’s U-turn on Sora’ where we see “The development team of Sora, the artificial intelligence software by OpenAI that allowed users to generate realistic videos from a simple prompt, recently announced the shutdown of the app. It is a sudden and highly significant change, one that is expected to produce notable effects in the technology and entertainment sectors, with repercussions that could extend well beyond the U.S. market. The shutdown of Sora is not relevant only for the company led by Sam Altman, but also for other players active in the field of generative AI applied to video production. Google, for instance, now finds itself in an advantageous position in this area, with the concrete possibility of consolidating its leadership in the generation of realistic AI-based videos – thanks to its tool Veo.” So some will see this as a boost to Google (DeepMind) but this happens before these tracks became financially viable (read: paying off) and these elements will create some sort of minor shockwave. The problem is that 3-4 shockwaves can create a massive customer turnover (like towards a competitor) and even if it doesn’t ‘damage’ Oracle, it might hurt prospects in that near future. Consider that this backlog of $553 billion reduces it to a mere $125,000,000,000 Still a large number, but that is when it starts raining men on Wall Street (aka: watch out below).  All elements overlooked in Insider Monkey and the non-Chinese media is not too bitty in the DeepSeek settings. So we are mostly unaware how their next version of its engine is. All elements that will influence the view on Oracle. I still have faith that Oracle will pull through successfully, but these pesky investors are at present more jittery than a room full of roaches as you turn on the lights. It might not be the best setting for a long term ‘understanding’ and that is something Oracle has to deal with. 

Have a great day, I am now 120 minutes from breakfast, although if I was in Vancouver I could enjoy another lunch in the Nightingale like a Cache Creek Beef Tartare, yummy.

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March 22, 2026 · 23:29

Are we really that dim?

I saw an article that the BBC put out last week. I must have missed it, because I tend to look at BBC news each day. So the article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqj9kgxqjwjo) is giving us ‘Meta and TikTok let harmful content rise after evidence outrage drove engagement, say whistleblowers’ and here I am not really that clear why needed whistleblowers. The media has been doing this for the better part of a decade. These morning shows (what they call entertainment) are driven to push the boundaries of engagement. A carefully placed half witted word is all it takes to drive up engagement. And driven to all this is the digital dollar, because these pages also drive advertisement money for all concerned. As such it is to be expected that Meta and others (in this case TikTok) would be on that same horse. So whilst we are given “Social media giants made decisions which allowed more harmful content on people’s feeds, after internal research into their algorithms showed how outrage fuelled engagement, whistleblowers told the BBC. More than a dozen whistleblowers and insiders have laid bare how the companies took risks with safety on issues including violence, sexual blackmail and terrorism as they battled for users’ attention.” And this comes with the added “The whistleblowers who spoke to the BBC documentary, Inside the Rage Machine, offer a close-up view of how the industry responded following the explosive growth of TikTok, whose highly engaging algorithm for recommending short videos upended social media, leaving rivals scrambling to catch up. A senior Meta researcher, Matt Motyl, said the company’s competitor to TikTok, Instagram Reels, was launched in 2020 without sufficient safeguards. Internal research shared with the BBC showed comments on Reels had significantly higher prevalence of bullying and harassment, hate speech, and violence or incitement than elsewhere on Instagram.” I am not surprised and it comes with the added concerns that we aren’t being given here. You see, the word “Advertisement” isn’t given once in this article. And advertisement is driving this. Simply because advertisement is money, it is printed money that can be handed over anywhere and the second stage that the advertisement lobby is now quietly becoming a lot bigger than the NRA or the National Association of Realtors (NAR), which spent approximately $63.5 million in the USA, followed closely by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at over $53 million. The advertisement lobby knows that they need to stand in the shadows (for now), so whilst we might think that the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), which  represents over 1,000 companies and 15,000 brands, focusing on marketing strategies and lobbying against restrictions on advertising, or the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), they represent advertising agencies, focusing on industry standards and advocacy. And there are a few more. None of them is making any sounds to the setting of these settings, because their pennies are depending on all this and these pennies when multiplied by a few billion become a serious amount of money and that money is coming in every day through engagement and flames. So at what point will we see the deeper story behind all of this?

Because at some point this lobby becomes too large to be unseated and whilst the NRA is in the United States, the advertisement lobby is working on a global setting and no-one is taking that serious. So, whilst some agencies (locally) are vetting for legality, decency, and truthfulness. The moment it crosses borders they become pretty silent.

In this I wonder when the BBC takes up that baton and takes a much harder look at what they are leaving in the dirt. What parts of all this is not being picked up by anyone? 

These are simple question, but the answers might show that there is more to all this and that is seemingly not seen.

Have a great day. 

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February 28, 2026 · 08:03

The junkie says What?

Yesterday I was woken up by an incredible story we see got to see on BBC. The world has gone to hell and people died because their only response was that they had bo fibre, no sense of self and an insatiable need for external confirmation. That is how I see it. The article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c89kdpjn7eqo) gives us ‘‘I was on Instagram all day’ – woman tells landmark trial’ where we see the start giving us “A young woman, who is suing Meta and Google over what she claims is the addictive nature of social media, has told a jury her childhood years were taken over by her use of Instagram and Youtube.” It is actually hard to keep focussed keeping a serious nature here. The idea that she has the gall to claim “what she claims is the addictive nature of social media”, it is almost like the girl who claims that she didn’t know that the penis inserted inserted in the vagina could lead to pregnancy, because it felt so good. It might not be the complete truth (in many ways) but there is something like discipline of the soul. Which is continued by ““I stopped engaging with family because I was spending all my time on social media,” said the woman, who is known as KGM or Kaley, to protect her privacy.

She told the court in Los Angeles that she began using YouTube at the age of 6 and Instagram aged 9 and encountered no barriers to prevent her using them despite her young age.” So at that point? Or at which point are the parents claiming some responsibility in all go this? So when we get “While much of the court proceedings so far have focused on Instagram and Meta, Google’s YouTube is also a defendant in the lawsuit. TikTok and Snapchat were initially sued as well, but the companies settled shortly before the trial was scheduled to begin. The terms of those settlements were not disclosed.” I honestly do not see (I kinda do) why TikTok and Snapchat settled this. The entire manifest of entitlements here are (as I personally see it) completely out of whack. 

So when we get to “Now 20 years old, Kaley told the court that looking at Instagram was “the first thing” she did when she woke up each day and that she continued “all day” until she went to sleep at night, leading to difficulties at school, at home and with her mental health. She also watched YouTube videos for hours on end, noting that the platform’s “autoplay” feature, where a new video starts automatically after the previous one has ended, kept her on it. Failing to get enough “likes” on her social media posts left her feeling “insecure” or “ugly” she said.” So, at what time will the court ask questions of the parents? The word ‘parent’ is not mentioned even once, which with a starting age of 6 (and 9) is a pretty basic setting in any dealing with the optional setting of Doli Incapax, a legal common law principle presuming children aged 10 to under 14 years lack the capacity to be criminally responsible because they cannot distinguish right from wrong. And in that setting the parents are called in to answer a few questions. That is what I would do and the setting that I would press for, and beyond the setting of all of this and YouTube is in the benches for I know what reason, because YouTube has an ‘off’ switch, I press it all the time. I am (at times) a few hours on YouTube, it is how I get information as the News is no longer presented on TV, they call it entertainment and whilst I don’t have the luxury of seeking out all the TV channels at time, they all present their data on YouTube (as well as a few other channels). In all this it is up to me to decide when I need to get food, shop for items and even get to people. And as I am no billionaire (not even a millionaire) I have plenty of reasons to feel insecure, but my mother and father always taught me to “try again at the difficult task until you succeed”, my father was an alcoholic bully, but he did imbue me with a workaholic nature, it is the one part he gave me and that is the part I always saw as good. All other good things came from my mother, except smoking, she was a chain smoker I never took to that stuff. And I turned out pretty decent (or so I believe) at least I got the ball and fumbled it away from DARPA over half a dozen times, I created over half a dozen games (on paper), I wrote several scripts and that was just for starters. I also has tech support person, trainer and consultant for over two decades. As such I started work before that insecure little girl was born. But did I complain? I even released several pieces of what could be known as Apple IP to the public domain. Do I cry? Nope, I am merely putting a footprint on this world and there is a fair chance that over 99.999% of the human population has never heard of me. I personally believe that I matter (unless I move at the speed of light, then I am energy), the question is ‘Do I matter to others?’ I don’t care. I am who I am and I am solid in my convictions, they might be wrong or right. They are mine. So where does this leave you? Do I care? No, not really. Do you care? If yes, you should read something else. Still the BBC gives us “By age 10, she was engaging in self-harm, cutting herself, Kaley said. She has seen a therapist since she was 13. Kaley’s testimony comes a week after she attended court to sit directly across from Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s co-founder and chief executive, as he spent around seven hours being questioned by lawyers, the first time the billionaire had ever appeared before a jury.

Meta’s lawyers have broadly argued that Kaley’s struggles with her mental health stemmed from problems with her family life, not her use of Instagram.” So at this point I ask again, where are the parents? If she was seeing a therapist since 10 they should be in the picture and they are not. Why not? So when we get to “Paul Schmidt, a lead lawyer for Meta, pointed during the first day of the trial to statements Kaley had made prior to filing her lawsuit about her home life, including a difficult relationship with her mother that had led to thoughts of self-harm.” We again see the need for the parents to be included in all off this and where was the father? All this leads to a view of a setting where (as I see it) Mark ‘Facebook’ Zuckerberg has no part in all of this, or at least a lot less then the BBC would like him to be. The only thing I see coming from all this is some loser who is blaming the world for her own undoing. It might seem harsh, but that is the setting I see. I don’t blame others for my lack of a Ferrari (not my favourite car anyway) ad there is so much more I could have achieved, but I believe that is because others never looked in my direction. It was not their job to look in my direction. It was my job to get noticed and putting a few DARPA solutions online is the way to go I say. Also putting the Apple IP ideas online might get me noticed by Timmy the Cook (a culinary expert at that Granny Smith corporation) we work with the tools we have and that is as much as I can do. I don’t cry, I don’t sulk, I merely pick up the next challenge and I solve it or a toss it aside. It is called strength of character, I don’t seek out the ‘approval of the masses’ it has no real function, other then it might get a few ‘likes’ and they don’t translate into real solutions. 

So have a good day and as I am about to enjoy a Saturday breakfast I tell you that I will be OK (Coffee usually gives that warm feeling that I need) is it additive? Yes, I guess so, but I only have one coffee in the morning, that is the consequence of a budget. We all have them and there is no Willy mindset involved (to explain that, it was a character in Popeye) who revered the expression “I’ll gladly pay you tomorrow for a hamburger today”, which is how the United States government does its business and it has done so over 38 trillion times. So, you see how it ends and no President without an exit strategy in that matter will give you any solace here. 

Have a good one

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February 26, 2026 · 14:54

Just for the fun though

There is a new player in town and they are ‘ALL’ banking on the success of it. I remain skeptical because I gave the setting of its success over three years ago (in this blog no less), which would also have given an upgrade to malls and several other places. All due to a set of glasses. Now as I see the ‘pushed’ importance by wannabe influencers who are all on their ‘critique’ setting, I have to warn Apple, lead by Timmy the Cook in my usual way by gifting him with a gaming idea. One I thought of on the spot. And it comes with a setting that might work (still doubting that). You see the setting of Pokemon go where you frantically move your mobile phone in every direction to capture them all. The setting might be ‘transferred’ to the glasses where the image is shown on the glasses where you focus on the creature and you simple whisper ‘capture’ and the creature is transferred to your mobile where the capture event starts. And the fun part this setting could be used to capture Fantastic beasts (Harry Potter) and a whole range of other targets, like Droids for a futuristic setting and so on. So that engine could be fueling close to half a dozen games. 

There would be a setting where it might be possible to include an app on the Apple Watch to give signal when you are close to a capture target to optionally become a radar if it is possible to set the Apple Watch to a radar alerter (if that is possible) but as the Apple Glasses are supposed to get to the audience in 2027 it is important to get started NOW. Just for reference I believe that the absence of entertainment apps might be a larger reason why Apple Vision failed. And you might have your own reasons for not doing something but two billion gamers cannot be wrong. And as the Pokemon Go is owned by Niantic, Inc. Apple should talk to them now, not when it is too late and Niantic might come up with an upgraded setting to include Pokemon, Harry Potter/Fantastic beasts, even options lie Star Trek or Star Wars where you are a temporal agent trying to capture convicts. The idea tends to be the same but it is set in ‘that’ atmosphere.

And in this same I used the village of Sydney (no idea why) and I placed two worlds there the alphabet gives one and the numbers give the other and it is all managed by one setting. I reckon that Apple now gets the idea on what they need to do and they might think that it is not serious enough, but Niantic has used the idea as Pokémon GO has generated over $8 billion in lifetime revenue since its 2016 launch, consistently earning around $1 billion annually. So when was the last time any company walked away from a billion dollar plus? And that was merely Pokemon’s, now add the other worlds and perhaps create a few more and what is possible then?

Just an idea, I leave it to Timmy the Cook to wake up and watch the others capture the idea because pole is not alone in this field and Niantic could set this to an Android/Google setting and a iOS/Apple setting, they can capture both worlds, so where does that leave Meta? Not sure and I actually don’t care. I gave this wake up call to Timmy the Cook.

So you all have a great day and those game designers who want to ‘capture’ their game to the glasses, good luck. There is nothing more magical then trodding in new waters. And if your game can live there, it is all up to you.

Time for the munchies now, I’m hungry.

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January 25, 2026 · 14:37

A sense of self

That is at times the setting and we accept that, but have we ever truly set that in gaming? There are examples. There is The Talisman by Peter Straub (Stephen King too), there are numerous other examples and I even wrote that setting in a previous blog, a basic setting that is. So consider an altered example. The image below

Shows 13 areas, the middle gives us the start. Now consider the setting that the start region is WatchDogs 3 Legion, it gives access to 4 other regions, they are in the background. Now one of these regions is AC 2 (AC Brotherhood) and that gives access to Areas 1,2,4 or 2,3,6 or 4,7,8 or 6,8,9 and so on. The object is to create a giant puzzle and the setting is to give each regions it own set of rules. So whilst I am looking at the series Caprica, we can see how the alternate reality gives a more docile or less docile setting whilst ‘throwing’ concepts like gravity, time, behaviour and classifications of people and of positions are thrown into the mix to be altered in each region. As I see it, the goal is to set a more distorted sense of self. That is the one side that gaming never explored. But the stage where we all throw it into the wind remains seemingly untouched, all whilst devices like the Meta Quest 3 could open that up to a much larger extent. We tend to reflect on what WE are, but not on how we manipulate ourselves. We play RPG, Minecraft all whilst Ernest Cline in Ready Player One opened a larger stage as early as 2011, now that we have much better technology, no one seems to be heading that way. It is not about the VR setting, it is how we see ourselves that is not addressed in gaming to any real setting. (OK, the real is debatable). And that setting is overlooked time after time again and as I see it, there has been 15 years of technology and no one thought of that approach to give the gamer the ride of their lives? When we consider a cross mix of technologies, the setting to hand the setting over a larger place is also overlooked. You see with the Meta Quest 3 there is the setting of streaming consoles and an ability to set both gaming realities in some kind of overlap would help. I reckon that the last time that this was done to ‘some’ extend was the game System Shock, but actually to set these linked technologies to real technological puzzles is missing. That same setting is partially seen in a game named Portal (Rob Swigart, 1986) and it seems that no one ever. Considered the next step in what makers like that would have seen impossible in their time, but now this option is ready to be explored. I actually placed a story here somewhere where I addressed that setting (too tired to find it now as it is 100F at the moment) So whilst we all go for the ‘cosmetic’ in today’s gaming, the larger setting is to take a leap and make some changes actual and yes there is a drawback to program to the Meta Quest 3, but I already handed several setting where the device would be an actual asset and it sets the setting to much more intensity when we alter that perception, and I for one think that the visor with a streaming solution like Amazon Luna or the TGP (Tencent Gaming Platform) Box. I reckon whomever get in first will get the larger following and I recon that It also pays (for me at least) to let this evolve with the console setting I saw over the last three years. I reckon that there are 50 million consumers just for starters who will embrace this and that would be merely phase one. In the later phase I have no idea where it will end but 100-150 million consoles in not out of the realm of possibilities and after that I get hesitant. I would love to be the one guy who get this to 200 million plus, but I am hesitant to get overly ‘confident’ I am certain it will work, but to see the one solution that Google and Amazon can’t see makes my confidence shaky to say the least. At least I got to imagine another Gaming IP even if it is based on other settings, but that is merely cosmetic in some form. Whoever designs the new IP will have a strong sense of achievement and here I reckon that Ubisoft has the inner track and after they just sacked dozens of people all over the world, they might be thinking on what to do next. Well, they need to not look further at present.

So have a great day and as I am melting like the wicked with of the witch of the west in this heat, I will take the slow lazy setting to avoid heat getting to me.

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January 2, 2026 · 19:38

Cracking on the down

That is at times the setting, but it is not always clear. As I personally see it, it has nearly always been clear as glass, but the ‘powered that could be’ doesn’t want to hand over any of the greed it can get, and as a result people get scammed. So I have a few issues with the Reuters article (at https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-created-playbook-fend-off-pressure-crack-down-scammers-documents-show-2025-12-31/) and as we read its headline ‘Meta created ‘playbook’ to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers, documents show’ we might think that this giant (aka Meta) is the cause of it all, but that isn’t exactly true. To see this we need to look back the last half century, slightly before Meta (then known as Facebook) was born. So as we are given “As regulators press Meta to crack down on rogue advertisers on Facebook and Instagram, the social media giant has drafted a “playbook” to stall them. Internal documents seen by Reuters reveal its tactics, including efforts to make scam ads “not findable” when authorities search for them.” We are shown a half truth that I see as a near blatant lie. You see, in 1961 a man named Luther Simjian came up with the father and mother of the ATM. An experimental Bankograph (as they named it then) was installed in New York City in 1961 by the City Bank of New York, but removed after six months due to the lack of customer acceptance. But on 27 June 1967 it was reintroduced by the actor Reg Varney as a push to control people pressure at Barclay in London. Think of this as the starting point. As security was upgraded, most security was still set to older concepts, they were not bad, but it all comes from this point. And as the law was set to this setting, it fell behind fast. As such things like Two-Factor Authentication are still concepts to be implemented in banking and auto banking and beyond. So as Meta and others are trying to make the sale of advertising ‘easier’ scammers are really happy to bank in on such opportunity. 

Consider three points, the advertiser, its payment and its location are three separate issues, whilst the initial setting is almost never confirmed as these players are set to ease of business and commerce instead of security of business and commerce.

And we see this in the article as “Meta, owner of the two social media platforms, feared Japan would soon force it to verify the identity of all its advertisers, internal documents reviewed by Reuters show. The step would likely reduce fraud but also cost the company revenue.” This is true, but the setting goes far beyond Meta and that is as far as I can tell not set either. So as Reuters gives us “Meta launched an enforcement blitz to reduce the volume of offending ads. But it also sought to make problematic ads less “discoverable” for Japanese regulators, the documents show.” Which bus likely true, but it is a larger field. If the EU, the Commonwealth and America keep shoulder to shoulder to “verify the identity of all its advertisers” we could actually get somewhere, but then the conversation goes into the direction of complication and such, the greed driven are ready to hand victory to the scammers. And as we are given “The documents are part of an internal cache of materials from the past four years in which Meta employees assessed the fast-growing level of fraudulent advertising across its platforms worldwide. Drawn from multiple sources and authored by employees in departments including finance, legal, public policy and safety, the documents also reveal ways that Meta, to protect billions of dollars in ad revenue, has resisted efforts by governments to crack down.” The setting that Japan is trying to overcome, the establishment of identity of advertisers become frightfully clear. And that costs Meta revenue, but it goes far beyond Meta, Amazon is likely to have similar settings and they accept that as the cost of doing business, but the people caught in-between are  settled with the bill of BigTech doing business. So as Sandeep Abraham, a former fraud investigator at Meta gives us “Instead of telling me an accurate story about ads on Meta’s platforms, it now just tells me a story about Meta trying to give itself a good grade for regulators.” We are being told the picture that regulators are part of the problem. In stead of the cold hard question “How is the identity of the advertiser established” the people are told a different picture. It would be regarded as Artsy, but not the truth. So whilst the world is ready to accept “The tactic successfully removed some fraudulent advertising of the sort that regulators would want to weed out. But it also served to make the search results that Meta believed regulators were viewing appear cleaner than they otherwise would have. The scrubbing, Meta teams explained in documents regarding their efforts to reduce scam discoverability, sought to make problematic content “not findable” for “regulators, investigators and journalists.”” The larger question on what happens when these fraudulent go getters get access to more finely trained DML/LLM solutions, to capture the wallets of millions more? That question remains in the background and soon it will be too late, because soon places like America will try nearly anything to keep their shareholders happy and that comes with additional cost of doing business. And that setting is given with “The playbook, as it’s referred to in some of the documents, lays out Meta’s strategy to stall regulators and put off advertiser verification unless new laws leave them no choice.” And again, the lawmakers are shunning their duty, not merely in America, but in Europe and partially the Commonwealth as well. And that is, as I see it, the gist of the setting and whilst we might want to blame Meta, the direct setting is that places like Apple, Google, Microsoft are at least equally guilty. So, as I see it, Microsoft could have done something years ago, but they were chasing Google, instead of becoming real innovators. They might have trailed, but at this point they could have taken a lead and as I see it, they did not.

So as we see Meta, no one is asking where Amazon and Apple were at that time. So how many scammy advertisements did they make way for? I don’t know the number and it will be less than Meta, but is it small enough? I fear not (a speculation on my side).

Oh, and before you think this was all new stuff, consider that I raised this issue in ‘Enabling Crime’ and article I wrote in 2017 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2017/12/02/enabling-crime/) so this has been over 8 years in rotation, 8 years that BigTech and lawmakers did close to nothing and I was taught an issue like “Two-Factor Authentication” in University (aka UTS) in 2012. So it is over a decade where legal Impotency is shown. It was in the trend of non-repudiation where you and you alone could have set this in motion. The law seems uneasier to bind itself and tech doesn’t want to be bound by this. So as I showed close to 13 years of inability to do something about that setting we are given a slightly different setting, not an incorrect one, but one that is slightly larger than anticipated. 

So I wish you all a good day and a lovely time enjoying coffee (I just had mine). Those lazy bastards in Vancouver are likely snoring the night away, it’s half past midnight this morning there.

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January 1, 2026 · 23:15

I’m the Taxman

Today I got some news from initially the San Francisco Chronicle but I couldn’t get to that because of a paywall. So I found news (at https://abc7news.com/post/ca-billionaire-tax-proposal-peter-thiel-gavin-newsom-silicon-valley/18335032/) Where ABC 7 News gives us ‘Tech moguls threaten to leave CA as billionaire tax proposal gains support among unions’ and I agree as I have warned the people about this. This is not something new, it has been going on for well over a decade. I gave the setting in 2013 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2013/02/06/it-hurts-every-time-but-we-love-it/) where I wrote ‘It hurts every time, but we love it’ then again in 2020 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2020/05/06/new-world-order/) when I wrote ‘New World Order’ and last in 2021 when I wrote ‘Utter insanity’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/10/04/utter-insanity/) there is something wrong with political America. For over 25 years the tax laws needed to be overhauled, but they are unwilling to do that, so now they grasp at the bank settings of billionaires. Taxation is about justly taxing everyone and I agree, the Billionaires have been given a nice little ride, but overhaul of the Tax-laws is the only way it will ever work. Perhaps leaving the Apple tax rebates of the shelf. They don’t need 535 retail stores, especially when you go into a store and you have to specify on a website how you want that configuration. It gets made and after 2-3 weeks you get your new Laptop, Ive been through that setting twice in the last decade and I think that it is vulgar that they get all the tax rebates and also make it 100% tax deductible. Why does a presentation room get that (535 times). I get that it is smart, but should that be rewarded? Perhaps 50% of these stores could be made redundant, or perhaps better fully taxed. And that is merely one of dozens of cases where the American tax laws (European too) fall into a adjusted setting of ‘who cares’. So as we now see ABC 7 News, we are given “A proposal to tax billionaires in California could raise up to $100 billion to close the gap on federal health care cuts. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders is now backing the campaign. Meanwhile, some big-name billionaires have reportedly threatened to leave the state.” And so they should. Perhaps there is something for them in Texas of Florida? And consider that these billionaires also take the bigger part of revenue out of California. So how long until that state is drying up? So whilst we get San Francisco State University Labor professor John Logan state “Most tech billionaires — who could easily afford to pay this 5-percent one-off tax– are not going to upend their lives, move to Austin, Texas, move to Florida, move to other parts of the country, given all the advantages they enjoy” is he certain that he wants to take that gamble? Texas and Florida are banking on that and when these people leave there will be a larger setting of a collapsing Californian economy. And for that mater, he might be setting the term of a ‘5-percent one-off tax’, but knowing America it is never a one off and when these people set sail to a ZERO TAX nation, the stage of fear will truly ignite, all whilst both Democrats and Republicans couldn’t be bothered with the tax overhaul, which would apply to ALL Americans. Personally I think that only former President Clinton gets a pass on this guilt trip, his books were in the green when he left. And as I see it, the ones that follow have had their hand in the debt we see now. More so as these administrations avoided dealing with a levy on roughly 9 trillion dollars (Apple, Meta, Google, Amazon, Netflix) and a few more players. All because the administrations were unable to overhaul the tax system. So there!

And better believe that I have data even preceding 2013, but that was before my blog, so that doesn’t really count, but it sets the station of avoidance to roughly a quarter of a century and that is out in the open. I don’t care what excuse they give, but at present America is broke and deliberately taxing billionaires is not the way to go. Proper taxation is and no one seems interested in doing that.

Have a great day. And enjoy the first day of the year as much as you can (nearly all timezones are on January first now). 

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December 17, 2025 · 21:24

The neighbors have coffee

That is the setting, but that is not what this is about. We are given a setting (at https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/trump-has-ordered-naval-blockade-of-sanctioned-oil-tankers-in-venezuela-he-says/gcrwrmllu) where we see ‘‘Act of war’: Trump orders blockade of ‘sanctioned’ Venezuela oil tankers’ and we see “But Trump on Tuesday pointed to another goal — regaining US access to Venezuelan oil production. The US armada “will only get bigger,” Trump said, until Venezuela returns “to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”” But is that true? At what point did Venezuela steal oil from America? Why assets did they steal? What land was stolen? Can we get a clear explanation of that? And if comes with two other settings. The US is pulling out all its troops out of Europe. And in the second setting we see today that one of the most successful American businesses is filing for Bankruptcy. Del Monte originated from California canners in the late 1800s, becoming a household name through the California Packing Corporation (Calpak). It has filed for bankruptcy due to the tariffs on fruits and aluminum. It drove them under in 6 months. And as I see it, a speculated setting is that President Trump will need to sue the BBC, because America is about to lose everything and not one intelligent being will do business with him beginning in 2026. 

As I said so before, America is done for and the longer everything is suspended in ‘investigations’ the longer it takes for the America people to see what hardship they are due for, not for a week or a month, but for several years and that is if someone takes over the helm of the good ship America and takes it in a 180 degree different course, there is no other way and even then it will take half a decade to clear the tourism setting that it now has and rebuild trust (which will speculatively take 3-5 years). 

So as we were given “But Trump on Tuesday pointed to another goal — regaining US access to Venezuelan oil production.” as well as “Caracas blasted Trump’s announcement on Tuesday, saying he aimed at “stealing the riches that belong to our homeland.” Venezuela has been sidestepping US oil sanctions for years, selling crude at a discounted price on the black market, mainly to China. Venezuela is estimated to have oil reserves of some 303 billion barrels, according to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) — more than any other nation. “If there are no oil exports, it will affect the foreign exchange market, the country’s imports … There could be an economic crisis,” Elias Ferrer of Orinoco Research, a Venezuelan advisory firm, told AFP recently.” As I personally see it (and I might be wrong) America is broke and it is about to lose whatever it has to pay for the interest on the loans they have. The Administration had a setting they tried and it backfired. Greenland isn’t giving up its land, Canada is turning down America and worse still, Canada is now making headway in impressive economic strides for Canada which is also hurting America. As I see it, the stage that was left was to ‘annex’ the Venezuelan oil fields. This is likely to fail, but more disastrous nearly all lands will gain mistrust of the American way which is now showing to be selfish at the expense of all others. That is as I see it the Legacy that President Trump is leaving behind and the sooner others see it the way (several already do) the more America sees the hurt it imposed on itself. 

And when places like Del Monte is filing for bankruptcy, it will not be alone ad the more these places are hidden due to ‘National Security’ or whatever reason is given and others are seemingly ready to follow. There is American Unagi, American Signature, parent company of furnishings retailers American Signature Furniture and Value City and more are on the list of those reading Chapter 11 of the book of economic hardship. All these facts are settings that give America a stage of disaster and the American administration remains in denial. 

Even if America succeeds with Venezuela, America is done for. No-one will trust America for decades. Not the EU, not the Commonwealth and parts of Asia will also shun America. And for a lot Canada is the more trustworthy option, so Canada will de decently well and as we recently saw Lockheed Martin is getting replaced by Saab AB and that is merely the tip of the iceberg. So whilst America withdraws the troops from Europe, Europe has one card left to play. It can throw America out of NATO and that has massive repercussions. You see America has 70,000 troops in Europe, those who are send back will likely lose their jobs, then they get a massive downturn in their defense industry. Which will upset Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. All that has a massive economic footprint. When the Europeans turn away from American hardware, America’s economy takes a swift dive into an abyss where it cannot afford the gravy trains it supported and that has other impacts as well. I reckon that the media is next, as American media gets shunned in Europe and the Commonwealth their incomes and more important their influence will wane into near nothingness. 

So am I correct?

I honestly don’t know, but that is what I see, the markers are undeniable and they tend to cross nations, they cross interests and they cross political allies. As I see it, America might in the end have one ally left, Russia. So how does that sit with the anti-communist setting of the Republican Party? And next on that list id the waning of the CIA, you see as the Commonwealth stops trusting America, the CIA us also shunned from the meetings it needs to have and as such it is about to require a lot more money to stay afloat and that is the one thing America no longer has (at least until they get the Venezuelan oil) settings upon settings that sets the game that will be played and America is largely out of moves. They are about to falter in intelligence, they are faltering in business, the will soon falter in media and as I see it, the steps the American administration made towards Hollywood is strengthening Canadian, Australian and British film industries and those settings are getting larger and worse for America. So feel free to disagree and that is fine, but I reckon you need to investigate on yourself and see what the media is hiding from a lot of people. And as I see it, America is about to falter and leave the people in America without anything. Because the AI scare fare is about to cost American wealth trillions of dollars (according to some a number between nine and fifteen) who who gets to pay for all that? Microsoft? OpenAI? I reckon that it will come out of retirement funds and if I am wrong, I am wrong. But do come with actual numbers. We can see “US retirement funds are extensively invested in artificial intelligence (AI), primarily through large index funds, mutual funds, and ETFs that hold significant stakes in major tech companies leading the AI revolution, such as Nvidia, Microsoft, and Alphabet.” As well as “Indirect Investment via Large Cap Tech Holdings: Many common retirement savings options, like S&P 500 index funds or target-date funds, have a large, concentrated exposure to the “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks (Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, etc.) that are heavily driving AI innovation. Nvidia’s significant market value, for example, means it has a large weighting in many diversified portfolios, creating inherent AI exposure.” That is the bubble fear you should have and when America stops, you better have a sock with reserve funds, because that is all you can live on when it collapses.

Have a great day.

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December 2, 2025 · 18:09

Aftermath

That is a setting I never really contemplated, but the Guardian did and they did a terrific job, they even had a reference to the 49’ers, which will make Jeremy Renner happy. The article ‘The question isn’t whether the AI bubble will burst – but what the fallout will be’ by Eduardo Porter (at https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/01/ai-bubble-us-economy) hands us a few sides, a few I never considered as I was looking at the techno stuff, but here we see: “300,000 people flocked there from 1848 to 1855, from as far away as the Ottoman Empire. Prospectors massacred Indigenous people to take the gold from their lands in the Sierra Nevada mountains. And they boosted the economies of nearby states and faraway countries from whence they bought their supplies.” 

Which gives root to the expression 49’er and it continues giving us “Gold provided the motivation for California – a former Mexican territory then controlled by the US military – to become a state with laws of its own. And yet, few “49ers” as prospectors were known, struck it rich. It was the merchants selling prospectors food and shovels who made the money. One, a Bavarian immigrant named Levi Strauss who sold denim overalls to the gold bugs passing through San Francisco, may be the most remembered figure of his day.” 

And then we get the first sliver “How else to explain Nvidia’s stock price, which more than doubled from April to November, based entirely on the expectation, nay hope, that AI will produce a super-intelligence that can do everything humans do but better. Nvidia – like Levi Strauss back in the day – is at least selling something: computer chips. The valuations of many of the other AI plays – like Open AI or Anthropic – are based largely on the dream.” 

But there is a missing cog, this technology needs dat storage and that is where I saw the failing of others and the failings of those overlooking data technologies. Oracle is intrinsically connected to that, Azure needs it, Snowflake prefers it and pretty much every data vendor is connecting to Oracle to get it all done in the background, and that is the sliver. Oracle is intrinsically connected to it all and it is the tamer of the data beast or better stated the data demon. As Oracle brings out tools and optionally data settings within their AI storage settings to handle validation and verification, all others will need to adhere better and deeper to the Oracle foundation to even survive. Pretty much all the sources that see the dangers of what some call AI and is clearly nothing better than a DML/LLM engine will see that these two elements are essential to get the LLM engine to do anything that matters and that is where the bonus of Oracle currently resides (as I presumptuously see it) To show this, I will take you back to 1984

User comments

See here, this is what chess computer’s looked like. You press the chess piece you want to move and you push the square where it lands. That is the foundation of the chess computer. In the ‘underground’ of that chessboard are (figuratively speaking) two chips. One had the knowledge of chess, the second chip (mainly memory) has every chess match known to mankind (basically all games all grandmasters have ever played), the program sees what moves are made and that setting is translated to a ‘position base’ and it will look at all the matches who it can foresee what moves are coming. This is great for the player, as it now needs to make an illogical move to throw over the thinking of the computer and make it their bitch. This was pretty much the fist stage of Machine Learning and as todays computers are more clever, there resolution is no way better, It can only set foundation of what it learned, that is the simplicity of knowing that AI doesn’t yet exist.

So back to the story “As I pointed out in my last column about AI, Gita Gopinath, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, calculated that a stock market crash equivalent to that which ended the dot-com boom would erase some $20tn in American household wealth and another $15tn abroad, enough to strangle consumer spending and induce a recession.” And I have no way of knowing that setting, but as I see it, like Levi Strauss and the makers of bubbles (like in image one) someone has to supply the soap water and more important the jeans to not put once ass out to frolic and in that second setting Oracle comes in and even as I see the ‘panic drivers, saying that Oracle is dangerous’, there is another setting. Whatever comes out of this, whatever survives, most only survives on Oracle solutions. And that is what is left unspoken. Should Oracle add the Validation and Verification tables, they will be the only one raking in the gold when True AI comes, because it is not merely the missing part I discussed earlier, someone needs to set the record straight on what is optionally to be trusted and that is where Oracle sets the mark.

Which leads to “AI could produce a similar landscape. A critical determinant is how much debt is at stake. It wouldn’t be such a problem if the bubble were financed largely from the cash pile of Alphabet and Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook. They might lose their shirt, but who cares. The worrying bit is that it seems they are increasingly relying on borrowing, which means the prospect of a bursting bubble would again put the financial system at risk.” These systems are using the data as currency, as I see it, Oracle is putting its technology up for usage and that is a pretty safe way to do this. This is whyI have faith in Oracle, that is why I see Oracle as the one surviving the goldfish like a champion, because they are doing what Levi Strauss did. These data vendors are relying on data to clothe them, but if that data is not properly managed, they end up having nothing. Yes, Microsoft will survive, but at a level that is likely 2 trillion lower than it is now. And that is mainly because it wanted to be on top of things and they got (I think it was) 24% of OpenAI, but as that bursts, Sam Altman will have even less than I have now (and I am ridiculously poor) and that cargo train of debt will hit Microsoft square in the face, Oracle will get some damage, but not nearly as much and the world will need their data solutions. Why do you think everyone wants to connect to Oracle? It is the Rolls Royce of data collecting and data storage. And that is perhaps the only issue with that article, there is zero mention of Oracle.

So as we get “Big Tech has raised nearly $250bn in debt so far this year, according to Bloomberg, a record. Analysts at Morgan Stanley suggest that debt will be needed to fill a $1.5tn funding gap to ramp up spending on data centers and hardware. Problematically, it is getting hard to follow the money, as Nvidia, Open AI and others in the ecosystem buy into each other, clouding who, in the end, will be left holding the bag.” And there is one think wrong with this. Stargate is said to be $500bn, so there is a gap in all this and I reckon that the damage will be significantly worse, that is beside the small non mentioned fact that America at present has 5,427 data centers, how many of them and to what degree are they all set to ‘their version of AI’? So what is set in what some call Blue Owl solutions (like Meta) and what happens when those solutions ‘bubble out’ (collapse might be a better phrase) so when that happens, how much damage will that bring, because as I see it (not wearing glasses) the $1.5tn funding gap won’t even be close what is required. But that is just me speculating, so feel free to (I insist) that you get your own verifiable numbers. I reckon that between now and 2029 the return of a backlogged $4 trillion return on investment is required. So taking “a banks perspective”, an inaccurately amount of $292,500,000,000 in revenue needs to be shown for that bubble not to come and that is out of the question, but the setting that Eduardo Porter gives us, is what comes next and he gives it to us as “the Superhuman – can only come about by dropping LLMs – which are essentially massive correlation engines – and switching to something else called a world model architecture, where machines develop a “mental” model of the outside world.” It is a nice sentiment, but I do not completely agree with that. Correlation engines have their use and there is use in a DML/LLM setting, but identify it as such, not claim ‘AI does it’. Because it won’t and it can’t, but there are options in Oracle to upgrade the data you have and that is instrumental in surviving this bubble burst. And I have seen the folly in several places and that might set a better station down the road, because when true AI cones, it still needs data and if that data was managed, validated and verified in Oracle (preferably), half the war of that solution bringer is solved. 

So I need a different hobby, slapping Microsoft and AI evangelists is nice, almost a public service but I need a new idea for gaming IP, because that makes me happy and I like feeling happy. So whilst some think that “Nvidia, Open AI and others in the ecosystem buy into each other” is the hard core evil stuff (and it might be) there is a setting it reminds me of, it was in the 90’s and these ‘consultants’ were all into the need of funny money in the form of assignments, the issue was that when they had to show results they immediately took another job and took their ‘knowhow’ to greener shores and all the time this happened the shores were all becoming less and less green. This has the flair of that setting and to some degree the feel. 

I might be wrong on that last part, but that is what I feel on this, especially as the big players are buying into each others solution and handing each other pieces of paper that in the end has as much value as a roll off toilet paper.

It might not be eloquently phrased, but there is a time for that and this is not it, as speculated shit is about to hit the walls and if you are lucky it happens after Christmas (that is almost certain) but in the end, the invoice is due and that is where the CFO’s will show that as they embraced the Blue Owl solution, their company is saved. I would depend on and side with whatever Oracle has, it is not based on facts, it is a feeling and that feeling is strong at present. And in support I see (9 minutes ago) ‘Ooredoo Qatar announces strategic partnership with Oracle to deploy Oracle Alloy sovereign cloud and AI platform’, they didn’t go towards Microsoft, AWS of a few other settings, they trust Oracle and that is what plenty of others need to do.

Have a great day, I am now 8 hours from midweek, not a bad deal for me today and as the sun is shining brightly, I might hide in a winterly Hogsmeade whilst playing Hogwarts Legacy. Gaming is not a bad hobby to have in this case. Because the bubble is out of my control and I am happy to watch it all explode a day later (of whenever that is), most of the garnish news has been drowned out by real news at that point.

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December 1, 2025 · 22:32

It’s starting to happen.

This is a decently great day for me. The BBC, gave me ‘news’ that shows that I was right all along (one of many times), of course that is a debatable setting, but it comes with benefits for me. You see, on November 9th 2024 I wrote ‘The easy lesson’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/11/09/the-easy-lesson/) and some disagreed, some always do. But I saw the potential of that device and I wrote about it, I also gave the direct setting that Ubisoft could benefit greatly from this. Now the BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0mjvr33/experience-life-aboard-the-titanic-like-never-before) shows us all a different approach to that same solution. It allows the people to see life abroad the Titanic (that one that sank in 1912) and it looks nice and spiffy, I think it could be better, but this might have been a beta. I reckon that under Unreal Engine 5 it becomes truly magic, but that takes serious cash to develop and that might have been out of reach (for now), but the important part is that this is being implemented now. After Apple lost his marbles and thoughts for innovation, Meta with the Meta Quest 3 is all that remains and they have the setting to sweep the board. I reckon that they will optionally make a few side ventures or buy the Stadia, but then the entire solution will be under the hands of Meta (say: Facebook) a setting I saw a year ago and now as things are starting to move, those claiming to be innovators are left in the rubble of their own spin. As I see it, it is about to become a clear win for Meta and others could benefit too. 

They merely need to talk to Ubisoft and see what is possible, and that comes with a massive influx of revenue, so whilst all the winner (soon to be losers) are aiming for AI, other settings are developing and they are left in the field looking for their golf balls in the mud. So whilst others are trying to reinvent the wheel, there are a small numbers of people who are starting actual innovative waves.

People like Karl Blake-Garcia are setting new boundaries. Personally I never thought of the Titanic in that way and that makes it wondrous. Others are on the same shoes as I am, but see different applications and that is fantastic. In that meantime He saw the idea of a ship and he might have been influenced by James Cameron and that is OK. I saw the implementation of languages and the teaching vibes the world needs and that is OK too, I also saw an implementation (in the pre dump Apple Vision Pro days) where Apple had options and saw a game as well, but it seems that Meta has all the marbles in its corner now. I wonder if Ubisoft is making the jump from games to education, but that might be asking for too much, someone needs to talk to Yves Guillemot and Mark Zuckerberg is the most likely person he wants to talk to. 

The important part is that the world is looking into the AI corner (the one that doesn’t exist yet) and they are wondering when it is coming, all whist the realist are stating that there is no real revenue coming before 2028, which is nice but the interest on 4 trillion dollars will be due at some point before that. Still as we are shown “Over the next decade, Auto-ML will become even more user-friendly and accessible, allowing people to create high-performing AI models quickly without specialized expertise. Cloud-based AI services will also provide businesses with prebuilt AI models that can be customized, integrated and scaled as needed.” Over the next decade? That will bring it to 2035 and I’ll most likely be dead at that point. Thank the lord that people like Karl Blake-Garcia (and myself too) exist who are looking to alternative money makers, preferably venues not dependent on AI. Its too bad that Apple wasted all that time and effort without looking forward. But still Meta saw this venue and now while some wait for the Meta Quest 4, the previous generation is ready now and the systems are being adjusted to future that solution. To the best of my knowledge there are close to a billion people ready to globally start learning languages and that solution could soon be shown to classrooms and homeschoolers. Innovation is all in the mind and where it takes you. No AI was required. The real AI is between your own two ears, time to use it to show others what is possible.

So when others are seeing that there is a marker in Data validation and Data verification the BI industry might open up to a much larger field, we can only hope so because if I have to read another produced article on shipping where we see “standard deviation is a statistical measure of how spread out a set of data is from its mean (average)”, whilst the actual setting is “the difference between true North and magnetic North” I am gonna bloody lose it. And it could have been avoided if Data verification was actually working, but shipping is so out of touch with reality, isn’t it?

So whilst some might see this as a excellent setting to see what the Titanic actually looked like, there is a tidal wave of applications coming into that realm, I wonder who is seeing the options to innovate.

Have a great day, and as I see it, taking the plane (especially an airbus) might have its own lack of innovative applications according to some. So have a safe flight.

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