Tag Archives: Meta

One bowl of speculation please

Yup, we all do it, we all like to taste from the bowl of speculation. I am no different, in my case that bowl can be as yummy as a leek potato soup, on other days it is like a thick soup of peas, potato with beef sausages. It tends to depend on the side of the speculation (science, engineering or Business Intelligence) today is Business Intelligence, which tends to be a deep tomato soup with croutons, almost like a thick minestra pomodore. I saw two articles today. The first one is seen (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-64917397) and comes from the BBC giving us ‘Meta exploring plans for Twitter rival’, no matter that we are given “It could rival both Twitter and its decentralised competitor, Mastodon. A spokesperson told the BBC: “We’re exploring a standalone decentralised social network for sharing text updates. “We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.”” Whatever they are spinning here, make no mistake. This is about DATA, this is about AGGREGATION and about linking people, links that too often Twitter has and LinkedIn and Facebook does not. A stage where the people needs clustering to see how to profiles can be linked with minimum connectivity. It is what SPSS used to call PLANCARDS (conjoint module). In this by keeping the links as simple as possible, their deeper machine learning will learn new stage of connectivity. That is my speculated view. You see this is the age where those without exceptional deeper machine learning, new models need to be designed to catch up with players like Google and Amazon, so the larger speculation is that somehow Microsoft is involved, but I tell you now that this speculation is based on very thin and very slippery ice, it merely makes sense that these to will find some kind of partnership. The speculation is not based on pure logic, if that were true Microsoft would not be a factor at all.

But the second article (from a less reliable source is giving us (at https://newsroomodisha.com/meta-to-begin-laying-off-another-11k-employees-in-multiple-waves-next-week/) so they are investigating a new technology all whilst shedding 11% of their workforce. A workforce that is already strained to say the least and this new project will not rely on a dozen people, that project will involve a lot more people, especially if my PLANCARDS speculation is correct. That being said, if Microsoft is indeed a factor, the double stump might make more sense, hence the larger speculative side. Even as the second source gives us ““We’re continuing to look across the company, across both Family of Apps and Reality Labs, and really evaluate whether we are deploying our resources toward the highest leverage opportunities,” Meta Chief Financial Officer Susan Li said at an Morgan Stanley conference on Thursday. “This is going to result in us making some tough decisions to wind down projects in some places, to shift resources away from some teams,” Li added.” Now when we consider the words of Susan Li, the combination does not make too much sense. The chance of shedding the wrong people would give the game away, yes Twitter is in a bind, but it will add full steam in this case and they will find their own solutions (not sure where they will look), a stage that is coming and the two messages make very little sense. Another side might be pushing it if Meta is shedding jobs to desperately reduce cost, which is possible. I cannot tell at present, their CFO is not handing me their books for some weird reason.

Still, the speculation is real as the setting seems unnatural, but in IT that is nothing new, we have seen enough examples of that. So, enjoy your Saturday and feel free to speculate yourself, we all need that at times to TLC our own ego’s.

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The murky river

The mind can get murky and this case it is me. I do not believe it is the case, but I must be willing to consider that THIS time around, I could be wrong. It all started when CNBC (at https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/19/meta-could-face-11point8-billion-fine-as-eu-charges-it-with-antitrust-breach.html) gave me ‘Meta could face $11.8 billion fine as EU charges tech giant with breaching antitrust rules’, now to be clear, even for the legally trained mind (mine) anti-trust cases are a nightmare from start to finish. So here goes! 

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said that it found Meta breached EU antitrust rules by distorting competition in the markets for online classified ads. The Commission took issue with Meta’s pairing of the Facebook Marketplace service, which lets users list items for sale, with its personal social network, Facebook.” My issues is ‘Are you f’ing nuts?’ Facebook is a free service, it makes income by selling ads, what is wrong with that? With the added “Furthermore, we are concerned that Meta imposed unfair trading conditions, allowing it to use of data on competing online classified ad services”, now lets be clear, I do not have the highest regard for Danes to begin with, but two things will happen if this fine becomes a reality. In the first I will demand that Coca Cola will it its premises be forced to sell Pepsi Cola on that same term, Pepsi Cola will have to sell Coca Cola on their turf, as such Coca Cola might win, but this is about the form. In the second she would need to get her chest into gear and make sure that EVERY Danish supermarket has Danish AND Swedish mineral water. The EU would not act when Microsoft destroyed Netscape, now that it has no place to go, it starts to cry to the EU, but this is not merely Microsoft. This is the EU trying to find ways to spice their pockets. I will make it my mission in life to evangelise the need to anti trust cases all over Denmark and the EU. All with a slightly personal nature. 

It might not have acted in the case of Google and Meta, but that leaves them with an additional avenue which knocks on the door of Amazon (yet again). Anti-trust is a complex setting, it is also a setting that is based on stages that are decades old. So when we consider “EU Antitrust policy is developed from Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Article 101 prohibits anti-competitive agreements between two or more independent market operators.” And I wonder how far this goes. Yet it was Yahoo! Finance that gave me a handle. It is “Our preliminary concern is that Meta ties its dominant social network Facebook to its online classified ad services called Facebook Marketplace. This means that users of Facebook automatically have access to Facebook Marketplace, whether they want it or not.

In the first, Facebook gives a free service because they sell advertisement, that is still a factor. The second part is that if you seek Google, you can find several other advertisers. Yes they have a disadvantage because THEY HAVE NO CASH and Meta has billions. Still there are issues, but the largest one is that I want to see who gave the complaint. It is time to see what kind of wanker the EU works for. Facebook (now Meta) created a system, they offer it for free as they sell ads, this was in play for over a decade. In the same thing that Google Ads was the place for those who wanted to specify where they were. They were the visionaries, the leeching rest (like Microsoft and their Bing) missed the train because they thought they were clever. They were not. Now, I am not the greatest ally of Facebook, but fair is fair, they brought a system no one saw coming. And now they are screaming ‘foul play’ because the viagra managers forgot that whilst they were having their fun, others create new borders (like TikTok), or as a comedian would say ‘Content Homo Erectus got eaten before injecting its DNA’, for me it is a split case. This system is open to interpretation, it is open to outdated laws and inadequate CEO’s, COO’s and more of that trash. My Evidence? I placed in Public Domain IP worth over 20 billion a year. And when my first 5G device is released (encrypted) on 4chan the game changes even more.

It shows the wannabe’s how far they were off target, and my happy moment? Google and Amazon were both in the dark for part one, how much more they are missing? I have no idea and I do not care, at the end of my life I will end with the last laugh, because they cannot overcome public domain. 

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The other white paper

Yes, there are always white papers, but which one is true? You see, they are all true, they are all a point of view. Yet the truth from a point of view is relative, that has always been the case. This is why we have peer criticism for academic papers. Yet that is not the case for the media, they are all fighting to remain around with some feigned form of value. This has been the case for over a decade and now the BBC gives us (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63869013) ‘Meta threatens to remove US news content if new law passes’, you see the truth of the matter is that the people no longer need the news, the news is no longer if value. It started when the media starting soliciting (aka whoring) for digital dollars. Flamed bring revenue, actual news not so much. The events surrounding Elon Musk, the abstinence around Jack Dorsey and a dozen other cases made it so. The newspapers are irrelevant and they know it, so in a last gesture to remain not completely irrelevant they rely on laws to force funds from social media. Even as the shared instances from places like the Australian link to paywalls, they are all about ‘lost revenue’ And the Australian is not alone, loads of American newspapers and media (like Forbes) do EXACTLY the same thing. They will tell you the scoop AFTER you pay, so how is that lost revenue? Not all papers are like that, but many are and now we get “It would give publishers and broadcasters greater powers to collectively bargain with social media companies for a larger share of ad revenue”, I believe this is to be a false setting and Meta gives it to you in the form of “Meta claims their platform, in fact, provides increased traffic to struggling news outlets.” They are correct. Consider the truth, it I simple, how many times did you go to the news site? How many times was this because THEY shared news on social media? This has been the case for a decade and now that Meta is taking off the gloves, we see how irrelevant the media has become. In the last year alone I highlighted close to a dozen cases of incompetency and a lack of information vetting by the media, so why should they get paid for shortcomings? It is almost like the decapitated chicken.  It’s running around, but it is already dead, the rest of its body did not figure it out yet. Is it fair? Does it matter? No, the media had the option to evolve, it merely decided that is was cheaper and more profitable to hang onto someone else’s coattails. It did not work out well for them and now they cry foul, almost like the yellow pages. Their era died and they just never adjusted in time and I am adding to the pain as my 5G seemingly goes to China. Setting a new stage in several ways and taking advertisement power away from all and leave it where it should have been all along, with the advertising people. With the locations of advertising and that is the lesson that they never picked up on, and it is not their fault. A place like Google missed it too and I mentioned it at least twice this year. 

A stage that is moving away from them faster and faster and if Meta makes the move it is threatening to a lot of players in the media world will be done for. Such is life, Media Erectus is getting eaten before passing on its whinges. So do not focus on the whinge, consider the place technology had for almost 2 decades and see where the media is not, and they have not been where they needed to be for almost a decade and now that they are about to become irrelevant they cry laws. Bu the way these same people never championed law changes to the environment, law changes to taxation and they simply went for the emotional targets, it had more expected digital dollars, so where are these dollars now? 

And when we see “Media companies argue that Meta generates huge sums of money from news articles shared on the platform.” So where is THAT evidence? Meta generates advertisement towards people through free accounts, and this gets me to (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2H8wx1aBiQ) the congress statement April 2018 where the answer is ‘We run ads’ a setting that was in place for well over a decade. The news was never an element and as such the media better be quick with presenting ACTUAL evidence in that case.

When I see how irrelevant the media and Microsoft have become and I see them cry like little chihuahua’s all whilst they screw up options left right and centre, what the actual F*** (censored word) the world around them is doing protecting something this irrelevant is beyond me, it actually is.

We can debate things but look at the numbers. the Paris based World Association of Newspapers, which represents 18,000 newspapers gives us that there are a lot more. The world has 8,000,000,000 people, which implies that there is an average of 445,000 people per newspaper. When you start doing the math, you will see that the numbers o not add up. The newspapers that are still relevant are so as they have well over 2 million subscriptions. The Washington Post has 3 million, and The Wall Street Journal 2.4 million subscriptions. The Dutch Telegraaf had in 2001 807,000 subscriptions, in 2017 it was only 393,000. The larger national newspapers are losing ground and now we see the larger play. There are 195 countries in the world. So why are there 18,000 newspapers? They nearly all rely on Reuters, making at least 17,000 irrelevant already. But these are the numbers no one looks at, and they are all vying for advertisements. Look at ANY newspaper and look how many advertisements they have and how much they charge and you will see their actual loss. They are no longer a relevant advertisement group, digital media replaced them, they lost relevancy by allowing to become a family of 18,000 brothers and sisters and that is before you see the rest of the media relying on advertisement sales to qualify their existence. But no one looks at that side are they?

The other white paper that no one gets to see is the one no one in media wants to look at, it merely shows how irrelevant they have become.  

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The stage of two parties

That is the setting today. It started yesterday, but I have a few other concerns. The article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63731751) gives us ‘Meta claims US military link to online propaganda campaign’, in the first I would state ‘So what?’ You might think that this is the wrong detail, yet the Russians are doing it, China is doing it, several nations are engaging in this way and that is all before we consider the trolls with dubious third party needs. So when I see “The campaign was the first major covert pro-US propaganda operation taken down by a big-tech company, independent researchers said in August.” I see the implications that big-tech companies are presently not acting on Russian and Chinese activities. But that is merely my point of view. So when we are given “On Facebook, 39 accounts, 16 pages, and two groups were removed, as well as 26 accounts on Instagram, for violating the platforms’ policy against “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”.” I wonder how many actions were taken against stake holders with anti-Saudi sentiments. The fact that places like Twitter have given ‘refuge’ to thousands of trolls acting under the nose of Jack Dorsey all whilst the media ignored that part is still a debate for another day. One might not be another but Meta and Tweets have at times some levels of connectivity, the problem is to identify these hybrid accounts and I get it, it is not easy, not easy at all.

And to look at the math, when we see “39 accounts, 16 pages, and two groups were removed”, Which is interesting as one source gives us “We see it in the thousands of fake profiles of celebrities on Facebook and Twitter, with some successfully misleading others into thinking they’re genuine profiles. Nevertheless, identity theft can turn into a serious offence depending on what is done with the fake profile.” And how many of these fake accounts have been removed? In all this those 39 accounts come across as a bit of a joke. I get it, they are all about the essential true form, but the victims of several other stuff aren’t found. That is not entirely the fault of Meta, but there is a question on where their priorities lie. When we see (last September) ‘Troll farms reached 140 million Americans a month on Facebook before 2020 election, internal report shows’, as such the 39 accounts become a bit of a joke. Don’t you agree?

Anyway, the second part is all about me. I struck out three times, so to test the water within a month (as a personal Christmas cheer), I will put the entire idea for six billion in revenue out here as public domain and I will let you decide how delusional I am. On the plus side, when I publish and it becomes PD, the stage will change by a lot. In the first on how Amazon and Google let 6 billion fade onto public domain and if they try to mine it, a lot of questions will enter the open spaces. How one man, one ignored man saw what no one else saw and I have the additional home run with Kingdom Holding who had 0.6 billion in revenue let 6 billion annual slip (and that was merely the first phase). I reckon that a person like Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal will have some questions.

But that I my sense of humour, if I can’t have my retirement, I will make sure that all other will look increasingly stupid. It is my right to do so.

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Start with the blabla

Yes, that is what it seems like. It feels like merely yesterday that we had COP26 and a young lady calling it a ‘bla bla’ moment. And with the actions of the exiting Brazilian president we might hope that the dangers to the Amazon are over, but I am not convinced. They were given until 2030 to fill there pockets and there is every chance that all but the final 1/3rd of the Amazon will be gone by November 2029. There is also other news COP27 will be held in Sharm-el-Sheikh. It is nice when these things are held in a place I know to some degree. I was there in 1982, there will be a lot of changes, but for some reason it clicks a lot more. The BBC gives us (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63517078) ‘COP27: ‘Climate chaos’ warning as UN summit begins’ where we are told:

At last year’s summit in Glasgow a number of pledges were agreed:

  • to “phase down” the use of coal – one of the most polluting fossil fuels
  • to stop deforestation by 2030
  • to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030
  • to submit new climate action plans to the UN

Developing nations – which are at the forefront of climate change – are demanding that previous commitments to finance are upheld.

It is nice to stop deforestation, but Brazil saw that as a moment to increase deforestation by well over 20% at present, so we have that to deal with. In other news the Guardian gave us a list on November 2nd. This list (at https://green-alliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Global-methane-pledge.pdf) offers “a series of low-cost measures, which it says could reduce methane emissions from their 2020 levels by 43%.” I would state that we do not give livestock Mexican food, but the document is a lot more serious and they give us “The feed additive Bovaer/3-NOP, manufactured by DSM, could cut methane emissions from dairy cows by at least 40 per cent, if it was approved by the Food Standards Agency. It must be fed to cows regularly, making it immediately suitable for dairy cows but less so for outdoor reared beef cattle and sheep.” The two issues I currently have with it is the question whether ‘Bovaer/3-NOP’ has been properly tested for long term issues in beef and milk. We made similar mistakes before, lets not do that again. On the other hand it seems that the stock of DSM will go the roof if this happens. To be honest, with all the issues at hand, I cannot say how useful this meeting will be. Call me a pessimist, but the events following COP26 in Brazil made me weary of progress here and lets be clear Brazil will be the first screaming for money, yet where exactly are these deforestation profits going? 

In other news

I woke up from a weird dream this morning. I was in some kind of marketing trailer. They were running a large screen (85”) and the image war sublime, it allowed for 4K where on the image of a salesperson, and whilst we walked and moved in the trailer the image was captured and placed on the TV, we were midgets walking all over the person on the screen and it was uncanny. The feet the stance were all instantly adjusted to the new stage based on the images captured in the trailer. The angle of the feet, the angle of us as we ascended or declined the salesperson laying on a couch. They called it Oracle Eloquent, and it gets weirder. I looked it up a minute ago and it exists. Or at least Oracle Eloquent exists. I was unaware, I have not talked about Oracle for at least a decade. I learned two things in the dream. Oracle Eloquent was free with the video equipment, it was (I think) a stage of new marketing and direct editing to make video and events in Meta, in addition to this a person had a work login, a deployment login and a third login (not sure what it was). It allowed for some kind of AI based deployment (read: deeper machine learning), it seems that some players are ready for the big players in Meta, what I saw was overwhelming and I think that something like this will appeal for the entire top tier of the Fortune 500. I partially recall seeing some Apple advert and it was amazing, but even now the dream is falling into the realm of shades and beyond my grasp. The trailer was set up for a team of 6, they would be Abel to interact and combine options to create new miracles in a setting that is mobile. As such the trailer could be moved to different Coca Cola locations. But that trailer could be placed in a specific place, linked to power and AC units. A locked setting to get the next Meta trend event to take place. It was all I saw but the thing that threw me the most was “Oracle Eloquent Model. Updating Blob directly using OracleEloquent.” I found it half an hour after the dream, so I am in the dark. I searched my history but for the last two years I have not looked at anything Oracle related. I might have seen something in a place like Verge, but I am unaware of it. The brain makes the weirdest jumps at times. As such I am willing to accept that I could see the name subconsciously, but the rest, I am drawing a blank.

So, that is enough bla bla from me for at least 10 hours.

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No one wonders?

It all starts with a BBC article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63207771) where we are given ‘Chinese technology poses major risk – GCHQ Chief’, there are two settings here. The first one was the BS approach by the Yanks (that place between the Pacific and the Atlantic river, South of Canada) and the UK issues. The Americans basically called Huawei (China) evil and refused to hand over any evidence. The UK stated that no foreign nation should be in charge to a major infrastructure. The UK is setting the centre stage to policy and that is fair and decent. In the Netherlands that same policy was used by founders Rob Romein and Franz Hetzenauer to create Tulip computers and they got rich real quick. You say Potato, I say Tomato. But policy is a real issue and that is fair in any government. So today I get to see “China has deliberately and patiently set out to gain “strategic advantage by shaping the world’s technology ecosystem”, the head of the intelligence agency told an audience at the Royal United Service Institute for its annual security lecture. Sir Jeremy argued the Chinese Communist Party was aiming to manipulate the technology that underpins people’s lives to embed its influence at home and abroad and provide opportunities for surveillance”, OK that is a decent accusation and it will not be easy to prove that, or basically it will be a stretch to prove it. We then get “China’s development of the BeiDou satellite system – a rival to the established GPS network which he said had been built into exports to more than 120 countries. He claimed it could be used to track individuals or combined with plans to knock out other countries’ satellites in the event of a conflict”, which is one approach, but could the Chinese government not claim that GPS could do exactly the same thing? In addition we get “the intelligence chief said he would not stop children using TikTok – which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance – although he said young people should be more aware of their personal data and how it could be shared”, OK fair point and awareness of personal data is a good thing, but doesn’t Facebook (and Meta) do he same things? I have seen advertisements on Facebook that should never have appeared, as such too many players are doing exactly the same thing, but for us China is red and evil, would they not claim the same thing regarding Facebook and YouTube? We are then given “He said the UK should continue to welcome students from China but “be really clear on the areas of technology where we will require additional safeguards”. Areas like artificial intelligence and quantum computing were particularly important, he told the audience”, which is a fair point. Although it is not out of the question that this should be a marker between commonwealth countries and any other country. In that regard places like Canada, Australia and New Zealand have to agree on similar settings. In this Sir Jeremy Fleming (a more dashing lookalike of Michael Andrew Gove) has a few issues on the table that make sense and although we wonder why the Americans are so easily accepted, they issues all make sense. It reflected for me how I am happy that I offered my IP to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and not to China, although the new partnership between China (Tencent Technologies) and Microsoft is not making any waves at all, funny ain’t it? I wonder if we are hitting a critical point of nationalism at this point, and where should the inventors sit? The fact that Google and Amazon are decently clueless on where I found the grounds of 50 million subscriptions will also hit Facebook at some point and I accidentally stumbled on this, the invention had a different foundation and direction, but as I aw where it could take me, I left it to these two titans to slug it out and Google dropping the Google Stadia implies that they are losing more than they reckoned on and that leaves Amazon (who is seemingly still in the dark), so now my hopes are that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia accepts my offer. But the underlying stage also exists. I still have my 5G hardware, a stage I saw two years ago and no one else is seeing this, they are all hoping that Facebook makes good on their Meta and they are all in some wait state that it comes for them, I designed my hardware with the view on Neom, as well as the changing stage of marketing, a stage that ill be very different from 2024 onwards (OK, it might be 2025). But those in a “wait-state” will lose out if they cannot adjust their course and I will (extremely hopefully) retire with a nicely filled bank account to sing out my retirement with good food and seeing nice places, I worked 40 years, so I feel entitled to my decently whistling wish. Yet between the lines there are battlefronts. The issue for the Commonwealth to find the right allies, to align with the proper parties and be decently neutral against the others. Yes, we all oppose Russia in the Ukraine stage and that is fine, but do not for one second believe that America is our ally, our friend. Their friendship changes election after election and in the end they are merely their own ally, so when America implodes, and it will, we should be aware and we should be willing to continue with true allies, one that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia could be, if we could for one minute stop listening to stakeholders, whose alliance is their wallets and their wallets alone. I tried to warn people for 3-5 years that stakeholders are corporate tools that releases the media as their goals see fit, I showed years of data in that direction and soon there will be no choice, if they get their wish, they fill their wallets, they say ‘Oops!’ And they walk away, and where we will we all be at that point? The larger issue is not why we were unaware, but where the media was when the elements were in view. The missing Iran reports regarding Yemen, the list of Pi Phone articles that are only now showing up, the serious questions that the media should have lobbed at Jack Dorsey and Twitter over the last few months and the list goes on, filtered information is not news, it is news founded on discrimination and that is the stage we face, but what else are we not given? Who knew on the partnerships between Chinese Tencent and Microsoft? Who asked the serious questions? I will let you seek and search that part yourself. 

So many question and no one wonders how a simple guy like me has the inside track on 50 million optional customers, you think Google would have dropped their Stadia if they could gain 50,000,000 optional customers? Figure it out and yes, some will consider the main point that I might be spreading that stuff that grows the grass in Texas, but I asked myself questions and also doubted myself. Stakeholders will not do that, they will merely proclaim that the other side does not exist (or is irrelevant). 

It is time for you to wonder what else they are missing and that is aimed at my 5G IP. A side of 5G none of them have. 

Enjoy the day, you should, preferably before the Russian decide to make all the Ukrainians glow in the dark.

 

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Unification

It is a simple term, a simpler act, but when is it a good one? That is the question. We had the ghetto blasters that had cassettes, CD and radio and for a longer time it made sense, combined sound solution brought Lord Sugar the wealth and position he has now, yet it is not the only field where this is possible. I pleaded with Sony in the late 90’s to let go of this regional shit and create the console that played all region DVD’s. Sony Music would not hear of it and I believe they lost in the process by winning the argument, but that is not a given (I need numbers to prove that). Now we see more settings and stations of unification, but not all is a given solution. I believe that both Amazon and Google would win by setting a proper station with proper social networking. Social networking where the user is in charge, not the advertiser. It will be the new wave. Google and Amazon have the advantage, but it is not a setting where they are auto assumed to win. You see, Sony dropped the real social networking with the PS4 (not the pro) and as such they lost the field a little. But in streaming it becomes a larger stage and now we have a new contender, not Tencent, but Netflix. Their gaming is not going the direction it needs to, yet if they had proper social networking it could change the course of their future. In my blogs on augmented reality I clearly stated that the news wave of people is the one where we properly engage with the people, not assumed topics in Twitter, not the advertisement and flaming in Facebook, because that is growing thin on the people. You do remember that element, don’t you? People are the heart of social media and too many are forgetting that. trolls, politicians and anyone with a beef of a lost cause, all sending mails towards as many as possible, to grow a wave for them, but I see more and more that the people are sick and tired of becoming part of someone’s wave. The time is growing where proper social media makes a difference and as Twitter is losing that field, as Facebook is losing more and more (until Meta) we see the larger field become the one where the people decide what they are part of, they are part of self, they are part of their family. Facebook and Twitter seem to have forgotten that part, but there is a new station, the streaming consoles (consoles too), and those adhering to the people (not to self, or marketed budgets) they could stand to gain the larger field in this and with optional streaming wins as well. You see gaming markets is not what Ubisoft, Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony says they are, it is what the people decide on where they want to be, not by drowning them in suggested topics (Twitter please pay attention here), it is the ability for people to figure out where they are and leaving them in that setting, one of the few settings they are entitled to. 

And those with peace of mind, in their little bubble will reach out and see what else there is, not having them pushed into a vat of bubbles like a vat of grapes. The people are seemingly sick of all the social BS that is thrust upon them and that is where the larger gains can be made, not by the “and that too” state of useless mind that boards of directors seem to have, but to leave the people in a state where they can decide what they are ready for, because a social network is depending on the people in it, not on the connections that players like Facebook states they are depending on. This stage is now more front and center than ever before and the streamers have another option they never considered, not for a long time and if they let the people, their users decide they could win a lot more than they think they do.

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The edge of what could be

I thought about this and it intersects with stories over the last week. You see there is a change coming, but one that is openly ignored by some people. Not by the normal people. They ignore it all and so they should. But some want their life to continue as it is, to hang on to easy revenues a little longer at the expense of everything else. There is no real good here. The mistake was made by Sony in 2011 and again when the PS4pro came and now with the PS5 they still make the same mistake. I am uncertain whether Sony can (at present) correct for that mistake. They had the option to gain a huge advantage in 2012, but they decided to play the appeasement game with Facebook, now the game changes. Nintendo was not up to speed for a few understandable reasons and Microsoft only cares for self at the expense of others, so they would never go there. Now in the new setting the streamers are about to get to the same setting. I designed a few parts of it, I set the stage in my first IP bundle and it could apply to Amazon and Google in near equal matters. But that is one setting, the stage could now benefit Netflix in more than one way. Yet who does it fit better? I cannot say, yes a few items fit Amazon better and the idea of the Luna charging ahead sounds good, but the Google Stadia could face the same benefits and none of these parts are part of the additional 50 million consoles. There is the other shoe. I cannot tell how fair it would fit Netflix, but under similar settings all three could compete for that. But it is not about that part. It is about the other parts. 

You see as the game of gaming changes, the makers could adhere to the system, or they can adhere to the gamers and users. It is the second side that will push them forward. The system is clinging to the group of an ageing population, but when that falls away the game itself will be pushed into a new realm. Those not ready will fall behind really fast. In that new stage we have Amazon, Google, Netflix, Sony, Nintendo and Tencent. Yes, we see the claims that Tencent is not coming along, but a stage where hundreds of billions is part of the game and that is not including gambling is not a stage anyone ignores, no matter what they say. Whether it is merely Tencent, or a union with Huawei will be sought is not something I am aware off. But there is no way that Tencent will not be part of this. The part I cannot tell is how far along they will go. Will they be a console, a streamer, or a hybrid facilitating both? You see, I do not know any industrial willing to let go of a slice of $275,000,000,000. As such Tencent is a player, I feel certain of that. 

So where will it all go? There are several indictors that marketing and granularity will change. Meta is one factor, 5G is the other factor and it will all come to blows as Neom is completed. Neom will be the first step to clearly show the changes to marketing, advertisements and a few other matters. I saw this coming and as such I created the 5G IP I have. When the other parts are completed the companies that are still clearly in the dark will wake up and a rush will come. All racing for the same destination and not all will make it and now there are two sides that come to blow. Three if you reconsider the stage. In the first stage there is Meta, meta will be ready and adhering to whatever stage is played, it will be that flexible and I am not certain how or where it will go. Only the inner insiders of Meta know this. The second stage is seen by gamers and more importantly the streamers. The streamers are important fr a few reasons. They can become new clusters. Clusters where gamers and users are in charge, they will decide what they are exposed to and even as some will try to dissuade the consoles and streamers. The one successfully resisting will win that race. You see, the people have had enough and corporations are so used to the bully push that they will continue. Just to get their hands ‘in the game’ but that move will push them out of the game, there is no other solution for them and by the time they learn that lesson the hard way. The users and gamers will have had enough. They will of course cry like Chihuahua’s, making all kind of claims but at the end of the aged population they will be denied access, the people will have had enough. And on the third side is the explosion of marketing and advertising. Neom city might show the way, but they are not alone and that signal will show that there is a larger change coming it will evolve nearly everywhere, but mostly in metropolitan areas. And until recently I never considered that my IP would cover two of the three sides of that evolution. Which is also a larger weird part. Where will Amazon go, where will Google go and how far will Netflix get with their game streaming. All sides that give rise to questions, ones that I cannot answer yet, but I feel it is a temporary setting for me and after that I will consider whether I make it new IP, or make it public domain. In one part I like the public domain side, I have enough IP to last me a lifetime, some of the IP become public domain on June 30th if I do not reset the clock and I will watch from a distance how stupid industrials make claims and demand a seat on some negotiating table they have no business being at. They squandered it in greed and in the belief of their own ego, as such they should be allowed to die (go bankrupt) for that shortsightedness. A stage that has some repetition and a stage that is coming for a few too many of them, especially when they are no longer of what comes next. Yet it also is cause for worry. When these people are denied ‘their’ seat near edge of what could be they tend to become bullish, childish and they will resort to be the selfish people they always were, just a little bit more out in the open now, and still those around them will not act. This is why I like my public domain routine. It leaves the IP FOR EVERYONE and they can do nothing, well almost nothing. The only strength on my side is that I have is the willingness to lose it all, to make it public. 

It is the only thing I can do to protect the realm of gaming, when a company cannot own it, the larger base of players win, that has always been the case. The problem is that not everyone can see that. I do not blame them, I for one did not see it for a long time. I was never one for ‘free games’ and it all should be free or hacked. I believe that game makers are entitled their revenue and their profit. I never opposed that, but in the 80’s and 90’s games were more than entertainment it was a stage where the gamer was enabled. I feel that around 2005-2010 the gamer became a point of exploitation for the system and any digital revenue. I opposed that, there is no clear guilty party. Ubisoft might have some sides, but their need was revenue. I do not consider them guilty. Sony and Nintendo to some degree too. They are all guilty of adhering to a changing stage, but that does not make them guilty. There was a second layer, or at least it was my believe that the second layer was some mash of elements that pushed for a larger layer of exploitation. This continued until now, yet there is a new horizon, the streamers and there they have less power and when the power is pushed onto the gamers and users their options vanish,  that is my belief. There is a lot more and streamers can bring it to the front, the consoles had that option but they decided not to do that, for whatever reason they did not do this.

And now the edge of what could be changes, it alters in a way I cannot tell at present. Yet I still believe that the streamers will be at the core of gaming in the future. I will still play on a playstation as well at whatever number they are when that happens. Yet when I see what could be there is no chance that there will not be a streaming system next to it, as is most likely the Nintendo. Where gaming goes I cannot tell beyond a certain point. That is how things tend to be. I  reckon that it started when I created the foundation of what could have been The Elder Scrolls: Restoration in 2013. Over the years I upped the stage and set it to a much larger foundation. Then it fell away as Microsoft bought the place. So these ideas are now getting incorporated in another game, because the ideas were sound, they were merely precise. As a storyteller I can reshape them to fit another game with reasonable ease. Will these stories be part of the next edge of gaming? Perhaps yes, perhaps no. At times I wonder if pushing the edge of gaming is a good idea. But the edge of gaming was pushed by the CBM 64 (Loderunner), Atari ST (Dungeon Master), CBM Amiga (Dune 2), N64 (Goldeneye), PS1 (TombRaider), PS2 (Kingdom Hearts), Xbox360 (Mass Effect), PS3 (The last of Us), PS4 (God of War) and PS5 (TBA), now it is time for the streamers to do more than be the next copy of a game we see everywhere, now they can shape the edge of gaming that is not here yet. Only under these circumstances will gaming continue, evolve and inspire. Consider the old games and see where the new systems could take us. That is where we will be able to see the edge of what might be.

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The dangers of appeasing

We all know it, we still do it, although most people tend to be cautious of the setting where and who they appease, but it still happens and for the most there is no impact. For the mot there are no consequences. Yet in some cases there are, yet are we aware? Are the appeased parties aware? Because that side still matters, the appeaser and appeased are often, nearly always going from a place of innocence, or at least not knowing what will happen. 

And today the BBC gives us one side. The article ‘Clearview AI fined in UK for illegally storing facial images’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-61550776) has a side to it, one that most are eagerly or unknowingly ignoring. 

We see “Clearview AI takes publicly posted pictures from Facebook, Instagram and other sources, usually without the knowledge of the platform or any permission. John Edwards, UK Information Commissioner, said: “The company not only enables identification of those people, but effectively monitors their behaviour and offers it as a commercial service. That is unacceptable.”” My initial answer is ‘And?’ This is a foundation of Facebook, it is granular data analyses and lets face it, the images were given to the internet and “but effectively monitors their behaviour” is merely the next step. You see, there is a side that we want to ignore. There is the setting of ‘publicly posted pictures’, it therefor becomes PUBLIC DOMAIN (in some cases), granted, not in all cases and there we need to ask Meta whether THEIR rules were broken. And then we get the whopper “People expect that their personal information will be respected, regardless of where in the world their data is being used.” Where is that set in stone? I mean, really. Where is the law that states that this has to happen? And then we get the part that matters “When Italy fined the firm €20m (£16.9m) earlier this year, Clearview hit back, saying it did not operate in any way that laid it under the jurisdiction of the EU privacy law the GDPR. Could it argue the same in the UK, where it also has no operations, customers or headquarters?” And now we see the setting “it did not operate in any way that laid it under the jurisdiction of the EU privacy law the GDPR” I am not debating or opposing, I am asking. Because if that is the case, if that is true, then the actions against Clearview are close to pointless and lets be clear Russia and China might be doing EXACTLY the same thing. It was on the internet and this is not new. To see that, we need to go back to September 7th 2021 when I wrote ‘As banks cut corners’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/09/07/as-banks-cut-corners/) there it was banks versus organised crime and the image (see below) remains the same, but now it is set in a commercial stage with connected images to boot.

The BBC article is less than an hour old. I wrote about similar settings out in the open 8 months ago. So when we get John Edwards, UK Information Commissioner stating “The company not only enables identification of those people, but effectively monitors their behaviour and offers it as a commercial service. That is unacceptable.” Consider the word “unacceptable”, he does not state that it is illegal, interesting is it not? So exactly what are these fines? On what legal transgression are they based? 

We see the data protection act parts when we are given:

use the information of people in the UK in a way that is fair and transparent
have a lawful reason for collecting people’s information
have a process in place to stop the data being retained indefinitely
meet the higher data protection standards required for biometric data

So what defines ‘fair and transparent’? I know what the words mean, but what do they mean here? Have a lawful reason? It is public domain, a collector has a perfectly valid reason, does he/she not? And when we get to the word indefinitely, we can set a stage of 100 years, because that is not indefinite, so where is the definition of indefinite given? As for biometric data, we accept that “physical characteristics — that can be used to identify individuals” there is however one side that is less clear. It is “used to identify individuals” what if the photo is not the identifying part, but the data is? I am merely stating a fact, most photo’s are not the greatest source of identification, for example (see below) how tall is Peter Dinklage? This photo will not give that away, will it? 

And this data protection act only works for the UK, if the British people were photographed outside of the UK, the photo is out of consideration, is it not? Consider ‘people in the UK’, what if they were in Rome, Amsterdam or Brazil. How would that rule apply? All questions that come up and there might be for a lot of them rules that stop certain part, but not all parts and Clearview has 20,000,000,000 images. We would need to check them all and that will take a group of 20,000 people months, if not a whole year. So who pays for that part? All whilst there are parts that rely on Public Domain. It is a dangerous setting. I get it, it is dangerous and my part of the banks, merely makes things worse, makes the dat more complete and that is not merely banks. Consider the data Dunnhumby has, the data collectors, the panel creators. Dozens of data agencies and consider that several are outside the UK and EU, what happens when that data is combined? This mess is a whole lot worse than anyone considers and it was not due to big tech, it was due to greed driven people seeking new currencies and people are currency. I am not stating that Clearview is innocent, but they got here because the laws were lacking for decades. Now that the data sources are there, it is already too late. Whatever music John Edwards, UK Information Commissioner is playing, it suits his ego and the ego of his friends. For the people it is largely too late and it has been for a while, a setting I saw a long time ago and I illustrated it last September. I knew this because I used to do this and I was good, very good at doing this. So I leave you to wonder just how protected you are, because you are not, but you will learn that soon enough.

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Slippery slope

There are feelings of satisfaction to be heard, and you can hear them everywhere. The setting that ‘UK government sets out plans to rein in Big Tech’ but they are loud noises, having only negative impacts. The BBC reports (at https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-61342576) “The new Digital Markets Unit (DMU) will be given powers to clamp down on “predatory practices” of some firms. The regulator will also have the power to fine companies up to 10% of their global turnover if they fail to comply.” My problem is not the merely the statement, it is the clear definition of what constitutes ‘predatory practices’, you see it is nice to see “Google and Facebook”, but where is Microsoft in all this? Then we get the debatable setting of “Digital minister Chris Philp said the government wanted to “level the playing field” in the technology industry, in which a few American companies have been accused of abusing their market dominance.” I wonder how delusional Chris Philp really is. Levelling the playing field? How about the others learn a trade? How about the magpies of the tech industry grow a pair and actually set innovation in motion? Is that too much to ask for? And this short sightedness will cost the EU and the UK a lot more than they figure on. Whilst we see failure after failure by Microsoft. You remember them? The people who pushed Netscape out of business, where was the level playing field then? And in all this the setting of predatory practices is not explained, it is a mere emotional stage setting. I now have over half a dozen tech IP, you think I will share that with Microsoft morons? Do you think I will set it in the UK? Then we get “It added it wants news publishers to be paid fairly for their content – and will give the regulator power to resolve conflicts.” Did anyone consider that news agencies do not have to put their materials on Facebook? I have received all kinds of links. The Dutch Telegraaf, the Australian Courier Mail and when ever I open these messages that I never asked for I get (see image below). And they are not the only one. It is the news publishers way to advertise and who pays for that advertisement? 

It seems that we see a one sided story without too much investigations and explanations, so are we surprised that Apple, Google and Meta are not responding? 

Then we get the danger setting, we are given “It will also make it easier for people to switch between phone operating systems such as Apple iOS or Android and social media accounts, without losing data and messages.” Did anyone consider that it will be playing in the hands of organised crime? Did anyone investigate the claims of these so called critics? With complete disclosure of their identities and their educational skills? So when we are given “The UK government said its new rules could increase the “bargaining power” of national and regional newspapers.” I believe that these players are realising that they are no longer relevant and that some will vanish when Meta becomes a reality. And in that stage Chris Philp is reduced to a simple tool, a tool of the greedy who suddenly realise that before they get to the end of their lives, the well dried up. No one is setting the stage that Google Ads is the most fair and the most engaging form of advertising, it offered the advertiser value and choice, something they never had in the past. And Microsoft was nowhere to be seem and when they did come their product was just too mediocre. 

But that is not the big issue, the big issue is that it opens the stage for Chinese solutions that are nowhere in the UK and where the UK has no say over it and that stage is forgotten until it is too late. The internet is global and how long until the people go to a .cn location for their social interactions, their news and their ‘solutions’? How long until these same tech bitches start crying that the bulk of revenue is now going to China? The UK is embarking on one of the most slippery slopes and the news outlets no longer have credibility (with the exception of the Times and the Guardian), so how long until the people are smitten with Chinese glamour magazines? With Chinese news and with Chinese solutions? You think it is never going to happen? Think again, Tik Tok is a Chinese innovation, and they have a pipeline of innovations ready to deploy. So whilst the DMU and debatable ‘critics’ attack the practices of Google, Meta and Apple. Make sure you see the whole field. We do not want to switch between iOS and Android. I am an Android user and that is where I stay. I have nothing against Apple, I have their iPad Air and I am happy with it, after the 1st generation iPad this was a step up and I love it. But I have no intention to get the iPhone and I am not alone, just as there are iPhone users who have zero intentions to switch to Android, as such I see “It will also make it easier for people to switch between phone operating systems such as Apple iOS or Android” as a facilitation towards others, not users, as such the issues with this article stacks up and before I forget it, I can export my phone data to all kinds of solutions and Apple has the same, so who is Chris Philp catering to? In that stage I have a few additional questions for the writer James Clayton. We see a limited view on a stage that is kept partly in the dark, why is that? 

I will let you ponder that part of the equation.

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