Tag Archives: Microsoft

Falling Cards 

That is what happens when you piss of a gamer. And the setting that we see is given to us by the BBC. The story (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgepkwpkg4o) gives us ‘Xbox Game Pass price increase angers players’ where we see “The company announced that the most popular tier of its Netflix-style video games system – available to PC and Xbox players – would rise by more than 50% from £14.99 to £22.99 per month.” That implies that the Game Pass is setting a gamer back to £276 per year. An annual fee of £276? That’s A$565 that comes down to a PS5 console a year. So what is the issue of pricing ones self out of a market? The Xbox is well over A$700, but this is starting to look ridiculous. The setting of Game Pass was pretty brilliant, but as it is showing to be a new form of gaming suicide. We are given “Reacting on social media, loads of fans said they had cancelled their Game Pass subscriptions, with some reporting the service’s cancellation page had crashed due to demand. BBC Newsbeat has asked Microsoft if the outage was linked to a surge in visits.” And in other news we were given “Ultimate – the most expensive tier – allows players to access new games from Microsoft-owned studios on the day of their release. These titles, which include series like Call of Duty, can retail for about £70 if purchased individually. As part of the changes, blockbuster games including Hogwarts Legacy and various Assassin’s Creed entries have been added to the Game Pass library. Microsoft said the new system would “offer more flexibility, choice, and value to all players”. But not everyone sees it that way.” I reckon that pretty much no one would see it that way (except for Microsoft sycophants). Consider that most people buy 1-3 games (to own) for about £200, as such the £76 to play ‘all’ the games? With what is released on Microsoft systems? There is still some appeal if you have both the PC and the Xbox, but I partially fail to see that. 

And there is another setting. You see, Activision was bought for $100 billion. And a few others for a lot less, but the setting is that Microsoft needs to make at least $4 billion to just pay for the interest and that is no longer happening and it is a lot less likely with these changes. Microsoft will be bleeding money for decades because of this. And as some are dropping Microsoft (Denmark and Austria) there will be a much larger setting that Microsoft needs to move on. I never saw the particulars, but I saw this and I saw the implosion within Microsoft at the end of 2026 and that is seemingly happening at this very moment. The fact that “the service’s cancellation page had crashed due to demand” is setting the shift out of gaming for Microsoft, because if that system cannot meet demands, there is a chance that millions might be dropping that system, good news for Sone and Nintendo. Gamers need their space and these two remain. I had seen a new system with a starting set of 50 million subscribers and that is now looking very appealing to the new players Amazon and the Kingdom Holdings. I reckon that renewed contact might become essential. 

As I see it, Microsoft eyes on their ‘price’ became too big and now they end up with a nearly empty eggshell. 

So how much of this is set in stone? I reckon that the pressure of the borrowed $100 billion is driving the upper echelons of Microsoft nearly insane, they bought into this and now their bottom line is drained (as I see it) and that is perhaps the saddest thing of all. Their setting that Don Mattrick started in 2013 would be the undoing of Microsoft, after the run they had with the XBOX360, they threw it all away. more than that. Fable was really big and after Fable III, Fable 4 was announced, then delayed and delayed which is now set to 2026. Chances are that this too will be canceled. An Amazing setting that started in 2004 saw massive flocking by the RPG community, then Fable 2 and Fable 3 (2010) and the people were sold on the Fable story and it was quite a story, but some come in and likely state that it could be bigger, and bigger and now it is as I see it gone, because if the Xbox community vanishes, the need for that game vanishes. The PC world alone will not maintain it. So as I see it the cards for Microsoft are falling and not in a good place. This is exactly why I put some of my Gaming IP out there for non-Microsoft developers. As I saw it, they could grow and whilst I am not a programmer, I do see gaming as the power it is. It can invigorate people in many ways. And now as Microsoft is about to fail, if they took up the setting of the games I offered, they could set out their new terrain in gaming. There is still Bethesda, but as I see it, it is part of Microsoft and as such their games get delays too and the new players will get to carve their name in stone in the vacant places of that stone. 

So whilst we see “Microsoft Gaming revenue was $5.5 billion” And that is great, but the Nintendo revenue is set to be approximately $13.1 billion, as such Microsoft is a mere small fish in gaming, no matter how they slice it. And others are about to carve up a piece of Microsoft in the process. Because Microsoft still has to deal with the $100,000,000,000 invoice. So where will this money come from? And whilst their arsenal of gaming outlets is diminishing, the appeal for their products goes the same way. As such, we might seem to think it will be okay for Microsoft, what products did it actually release? And on what systems were the returns given for the Remaster of Oblivion? 

It might have taken some time, but after 10 years I get to laugh deriving howl of laughter. Microsoft took on too big a chunk of arrogance and they are not turning it into dollars, merely into delays and canceled games and canceled subscribers. All the way until Microsoft gaming is canceled. 

Have a great day and If you are on a PS5 have fun catching the ghost of Yokai and on the Nintendo feel free to Kart around the world. Those victories are the moments you will cherish as long as you live.

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The Delphi setting

That is always merely a breath away. At some point the decline of Oracle became a setting and the looting of the place by the Byzantine Constantine the Great contributed to the Demise of this place. But for the most part I have never heard that Oracle became a non issue. It always struck me weird that this never happened. Even today most of us call the givings of the gods ludicrous, or perhaps better as the Catholics might say sacrilege. Yet the power of the Oracle of Delphi has seemingly never waned to zero. 

This is the thought I had today as yesterday the news of Oracle was pushed to the core (mostly at Yahoo Finance) with all kinds of messages. We start with ‘Oracle (ORCL) Initiated at Sell by Rothschild Redburn, $175 Price Target Set’ and it is followed by “According to the firm, the market is materially overestimating the value of Oracle’s contracted cloud revenues. In big, single-tenant, large-scale deployments, the company acts more like a financier than a cloud provider, “with economics far removed from the model investors prize.”” As well as “Oracle’s five-year cloud revenue guidance is equal to $60B in value. This reflects that the market is already pricing in a “risky blue-sky scenario that is unlikely to materialize.”” My first issue is “Why?” You see, even as I do not trust (or believe) AI, its foundations is set on data as it always was set. Data is the holy grail of AI that much is certain and it will proceed to be for decades to come. So, who will you trust with your data? Microsoft with its Azure? As I see it Microsoft can’t see real innovation through the brushes of their own proclaimed innovation and as hackers proclaim that Israel is storing a particular form of its ‘defense’ data in Azure, there might be a security issue as well and that is a total blocker. There are good data solutions in Google, IBM and Amazon, but they all consider Oracle to be the Rolls Royce of data carriers. Then we get the next setting of ‘Nvidia And Oracle Headline 7 Promising Stocks With Mojo: Analysts’ and as they give us “What’s especially impressive is that these stocks are already up 30% or more this year. That blows away the 12.9% gain by the S&P 500 this year. So these are the big winners Wall Street still has high hopes for.” As such we see that in spite of all the stupidities the American political engine performs these two are kind of hot and it makes sense that they are, even if I have some reservations, there was never a doubt that Oracle could grow through it. Making the Statement from Rothschild debatable and me without economic degrees calling Rothschild on this is better then sex (even if Olivia Wilde would call on me in the next hour calling me a fucking tool, this is followed by a rather loud giggle by me). So when we get to ‘Why Oracle’s Cloud Computing Deals With Meta Platforms and OpenAI Make The “Ten Titans” Growth Stock a Top Buy Now’ A setting that the Motley Crew gives us (what do they know of IT?). We are given “the company announced plans to increase Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) revenue by more than 14-fold in five years. But that news proved to be just one splash amid a sea of waves. Reports indicate that Oracle and Meta Platforms are in talks on a $20 billion cloud computing deal. And Oracle and OpenAI are building on their $300 billion partnership with the rollout of five new data centers custom-built for artificial intelligence (AI).” No matter where they are, a setting of a 1400% revenue growth in 5 years is massive, unbelievable massive. Now, no matter how this turns, the one day lightbulb who believe in their AI settings will have to invest the money to make it work and that is the beginning of a setting where Oracle wins, no matter how that turns out. As such the AI wannabe’s are fueling the increase and funding the foundations of these data centers. And we are given “Google Cloud serve a variety of general compute customers. However, Oracle’s data centers are specifically designed for AI.

Oracle is a good example of why lacking a first-mover advantage isn’t a deal-breaker. Oracle’s data centers are newer and faster. And it’s bringing over 70 of them online in just a few years, which is why it expects OCI growth to reach an inflection point in fiscal 2027.” I reckon that it will serve several purposes, but it is more AI set than other centers. Although I have no real idea where Amazon and IBM stand. I reckon that Oracle could cater to the needs of Snowflake and allow its customers to grow their needs and it will do so a lot better than being a little IT guy Azure blue with questions. I saw the need for applications in the lost and found section that could grow adaptation by nearly all airports and when you are in, you are in. I reckon that Interworks should talk to adaptation Snowflake through Oracle, but that is just me.

Then we get an article that matters (at least it seems to). We are given ‘Analyst Says Oracle (ORCL) Deal With OpenAI is ‘Very Risky’ – ‘Not a Customer That Can Pay Their Obligations’’ and I see “One is if you go back to the transcripts from Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) for the last few quarters, you’ll see that it’s not just the last deal from OpenAI that increased their backlog. It’s actually been several quarters where it’s really OpenAI that’s been driving all of this. Having that is the only thing that’s added value to Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) is very risky. That’s not a customer that can pay all their obligations. They’re double, triple booking, maybe quadruple booking capacity. They will not be able to live to those obligations. So if you’re adding $400 billion of market cap to Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) based on that, I think we should revisit the math.” OK, I am in (not knowing the math he talks about), and we see “OpenAI is expected to burn about $115 billion over the next four years and is not projected to be profitable until 2030. Even after Nvidia’s latest $100 billion investment by Nvidia, OpenAI will likely need to raise over $200 billion in total funding to cover its commitments. Some analysts believe Oracle may need to borrow tens of billions to build enough data centers for the deal.” OK, that sounds fair, but some seem to forget that Larry Ellison is worth 344,000 million (sounds much better then 344 billion) as such he can get those numbers without any question. And if he is right he will triple his value overnight as these data centers come online. And that is when the article shoots itself in the foot. They do it by giving us “While we acknowledge the potential of ORCL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.” You see, no matter how great the idea is, it will still need data and Oracle is the best. They can side with fast talking sales people at Azure and see their projects fumble and watch delay after delay happen. As those promising returns fall to ash you can contemplate your choices. That being said, any AI idea is temporary at best, as such the investment in an Oracle engine seems a much better setting and these people have been in data for decades. As such I see the value and the foundation of Oracle, even if some do not or question the setting of Oracle. 

I wonder how Pythia sees my predictions and even as I am called ‘duly’ to serve Apollo (I serve Lord Hades in all things) the foundation of predictions is seemingly driven by personal insights and I have been at the foundations of data going back to 1982 so I do feel I am on the right track.

Have a great day and don’t forget to chew your laurel leaves, whether you are about to enjoy a coffee or not. Oh, get your coffee quick, the US government shuts down in 7.5 hours.

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Balance of the matter

That is the setting as I see it, the balance and in particularly the Sheets balance is under attack. As we saw in Social Media

We are given “With distressed exchanges, Wall Street has found a way to restructure balance sheets that avoids Chapter 11” does this mean that financial means are no longer to be trusted in America? We get that people want to avoid their business to be seen as bankrupt, but to rebalance their books and with the approval of Wall Street is taking it a little bit far. I am not completely surprised with this action as I have said on several occasions that America is bankrupt, but to see it in action, for financial institutions like Wall Street to sound the clarion call to make it so that they appear not to be in ‘distress’ is a first clear setting for other people to take their investments out of America as soon as possible. And I get it, it is merely my point of view. So, tell me how do you react to the setting that the Financial Times is giving you? I did not read the article as it is behind a paywall, but the gist of the story is clear. And it is not about the ‘subtle’ setting of tax avoidance versus tax evasion. It is about restructuring your balance sheet. Like the Dutch banks did in 2013, the SNS bank put all the buildings in their care under a ‘bad investment’ book and the Dutch bank SNS Reaal and its banking operations, which was nationalized by the Dutch government on February 1, 2013, to prevent its insolvency and support the financial sector. As it was said (from sources) This action led to shareholders and subordinated bondholders losing their entire investments, as the Dutch state stepped in to prevent a larger financial crisis. The bad investments, primarily in real estate, led to substantial write-downs and ultimately forced the government to intervene and restructure the company. That happened before and I never accepted that action, now we see this in America on a much larger scale and it would be my (non-expert advice) to get out of their as quick as your legs (and privet jets) can take you and invest it somewhere more worthy.

This now gets me to the second setting I saw in Social Media. As some might say, Microsoft is at it again.

With ‘Microsoft said to block IDF from cloud system over use in surveillance of Palestinians’ we are given that “unit 8200 ‘violated terms of service’ in storing of phone recordings; military officials say unit backed data up ahead of time, no info lost” it is a simple setting that the backups are set towards ‘other’ sources like MySQL (or something like that) and fir the record, what evidence is there? I am not saying it isn’t true, I am asking what evidence did Microsoft have? Were they looking into the accounts of their customers? I am asking because that would be the first reason that people would drive their business to Amazon/Google/IBM/Oracle/Snowflake at the first light of day. I personally think it is the Microsoft way to make political statements and as they can slap Israel around and looking good doing it, that is what they are likely to do. Not an innovative bone in that rotten carcass (at present). And the media display is on my side of the cookie. They give us “Microsoft recently terminated the Israeli military’s main signals intelligence unit’s access to some of its services, after it allegedly used the Azure cloud platform for expansive surveillance of Palestinians, according to a Thursday report. According to the UK’s The Guardian, Microsoft told Israeli officials last week that the IDF’s Unit 8200 had “violated the company’s terms of service by storing the vast trove of surveillance data” on Azure.” (Source: times of Israel) and how was this data ‘begotten’? I reckon that the IP engines are running 24:7 to get the next iteration that Microsoft doesn’t have (this is speculative). As such there is a massive run for all IP holding cloud users to run away from Microsoft and go somewhere else. I already listed the top 4 above (in alphabetical order) and that is before we consider MySQL and whatever else is in the field. I reckon that the IDF needs to reevaluate its connections to Microsoft. I remember the IDF to be massively aware of what its technical abilities were and to see “far-left activist outlet +972 Magazine said Microsoft’s Azure software was used by Unit 8200 to store countless recordings of mobile phone calls made by Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip” implies that either Microsoft has too many zero day issues or there is an informer in Microsoft. My personal view is that there is no Israeli stupid enough to give +972 Magazine a hand. So my view is a little biased, but the is where I am at this time. And that will impact America too. Perhaps Amy Hood and Satya Nadella need to have a meeting with Wall Street and the Financial Times to restructure their balance sheets too, as is, they might need that assistance before too long. 

And this is where the American economy is heading it seems. So whilst we are ‘given’ ‘US economy expanded at a surprising 3.8% pace in significant upgrade of second quarter growth’ I have to wonder, is that because of the new balance sheet settings?

And if you have not used the new balance sheet methodology, have a great weekend and enjoy your coffee, for the rest I say, are you sure you can afford the coffee today?

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The overlook factor

That is all on me. Or basically better stated, there were other factors in place. First there was the Amazon Luna, the setting was open to them, but like Google, Amazon left billions on the floor. So I moved on, hoping that Kingdom Holding would buy the Google Stadia to further their own capital and throughput to their community. But that didn’t happen either. To see this setting we need to take a step back and look why the Google Stadia ‘failed’. The published ‘works’ give us:

Google Stadia failed due to a combination of a flawed business model, insufficient exclusive games, and poor marketing. Gamers were hesitant to purchase games on a new platform with an uncertain future, especially when compared to established alternatives like Xbox Game Pass. The inconsistent technical performance and the closure of Google’s own game development studios further eroded user confidence, leading to the platform’s shutdown in January 2023. 

In addition we are given:

1. Business Model & Pricing:
Confusing Model: Stadia was both a subscription service and a game store, which confused potential users about what they were getting and how to pay. This could be easily fixed. In my ‘oversimplified model’ I set the idea to an annual setting of $90 dollars, or $9.99 a month, first two months free to counter the purchase of the Stadia. In this setting I am foreseeing an initial annual revenue of $2-$3 billion, after that (during phase 1) the revenue would top up to about $6 billion.
High Purchase Prices: Unlike competitors, Stadia required users to purchase games outright, which was a hard sell for a platform that didn’t have a console.  This item falls away at present.

2. Lack of Exclusive Content: 
Few “Killer” Games: Stadia failed to attract users with a strong lineup of exclusive, must-have games that would justify switching from competing platforms. The stadia will not be competing, it goes in another direction. It still have games, but is part of a tripod of services, as such it has another direction.

3. Marketing & User Adoption:
Poor Marketing: Many people, even within Google, were unaware of Stadia. The marketing efforts were misdirected and did not resonate with potential users. This is easily fixed, the setup allows for a population of 50,000,000 users and there is a business part that will show to be transparent.
Unclear Target Audience: The platform’s target audience was not well-defined, leading to confusion about its purpose and value proposition. I solved that from basically day one.

4. Technical Issues: 
Connection & Latency Problems: While cloud gaming is dependent on internet speeds, some users experienced technical issues, including frustrating delays and sudden crashes, even with good connections. This might be a problem, But if Amazon could fix it, so could Google, were the right settings set in motion? Also, the premise of the Stadia changes, as such some games will not have latencies, only games like Epic Games depend on this.

5. Google’s Priorities & Image:
Lack of Long-Term Commitment: Google’s history of abandoning projects further damaged trust in Stadia, especially after its closure was announced. Optionally no longer a problem.

Unrealistic Expectations: Google reportedly had very high expectations for Stadia from the outset, expecting a scale similar to the Play Store, which may have been unrealistic for the nascent cloud gaming market. This is on Google, the setting changes and as such so does the expectation of things. I expected up to $6,000,000,000 in annual revenue in phase one, after that it could go up to $15,000,000,000 annually, that is a lot better that Microsoft EVER achieved.

Some call me stupid, some call me a dreamer (I might be the latter) but as I see all the tech firms rely on their AI, all whilst Huawei is about to make a move with cheaper options. They are likely to get billions of consumers (1.4 billion in China alone) and as Huawei is pushing through several ides that make Apple and others nervous, they could end up with a massive chunk of it. In the meantime I looked elsewhere and I see the stadia hiding for its own population and there is a chance that China might become one of them, although partnership with Tencent is much more likely. And my idea opens up the Ubisoft schooling setting (I wrote about it a few times) on the stadia as well. 

A setting of $6,000,000,000 is there for Google to activate, they already have the hardware and one of the tripod elements in place. One required Unreal Engine 5 (I don’t know if the stadia can cater to that app need) but that is the setting several left on the floor (and I am not in favor of Microsoft picking up this idea).

So am I a dreamer or are the Tech giants running like Greyhounds after the AI bunny in a spinning retrace? I leave it up to you to decide. But as I see it Google overlooked a massive optional population and now as the game is about to change, Tencent might actually become the winner of that tally. Have a great day and enjoy the coffee this morning.

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Focal points required

That is the setting I am having in 1 o’clock in the morning. The news (and the internet) is currently overloading with Jimmy Kimmel stories as well as vindictive settings against Disney and I get it. When the media who is trumpeting free speech is becoming the bitch of President Trump, people will not take kindly to this. Apparently the subscription servers at Disney went down as it was overloaded with cancellations (according to some sources). So I had to look all over the place on the settings of finding something to write about and Tom’s Hardware was one source who supplied the goods. The story (at https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/microsoft-announces-worlds-most-powerful-ai-data-center-315-acre-site-to-house-hundreds-of-thousands-of-nvidia-gpus-and-enough-fiber-to-circle-the-earth-4-5-times) gives us ‘Microsoft announces ‘world’s most powerful’ AI data center — 315-acre site to house ‘hundreds of thousands’ of Nvidia GPUs and enough fiber to circle the Earth 4.5 times’ and even as I don’t care too much about what happens in Wisconsin (other than the need to protect cheeses, I really like cheese) is the fact that when I see an article with that much data, I start looking for missing data, I am wired that way and it is less than 4.5 times around the planet.

But we got something, the setting is given with “This is likely a comparison to xAI’s Colossus, which uses over 200,000 GPUs and 300 megawatts of power. Microsoft didn’t specify its exact number of GPUs nor the expected power consumption.” And that is the ball game. You see, the setting of 300MW is not just a lot, it is the entire ballgame. Now, there is evidently enough power in Wisconsin, but is it enough? Consider a simple PC. It has a 600W power supply. Now this is not the same, but I am getting to that. Take 200 PC’s, that makes it 120,000 Watts of energy. Now consider that hundreds of PC’s are needed to even partially validate the data coming into that place. You need data verification spots to do that. The larger setting could be done by data entry people, people who go over the received data and they need to work quick, almost uninterrupted. As such the quote “Microsoft didn’t specify its exact number of GPUs nor the expected power consumption” is as I personally see it, massively deceptive. Just like the stage of Builder.ai where Microsoft set it to over a billion dollars and in months that money was gone, they apparently spend it on under 200 programmers (test engineers) and that is merely the start of it. And when we talk about enough fibre to circumvent the planet 4.5 times you get 57,402 km of fibre won’t that take any energy? The numbers aren’t adding up and even as Wisconsin has energy, there is every likelihood that they ‘suddenly’ have a shortage of energy. Oh, what a damn shame and the setting of any data centre is that in case of a shortage of energy it all ends right quick, the moment the surplus hits zero, the issues start and they will immediately escalate. 

Further down that page we see the mention of Elon Musk: “Elon Musk confirms xAI is buying an overseas power plant and shipping the whole thing to the U.S. to power its new data center — 1 million AI GPUs and up to 2 Gigawatts of power under one roof, equivalent to powering 1.9 million homes”, well good luck with that idea. I am not saying it is impossible, but the setting of getting that all placed in a new location still requires a lot of concrete and not to mention the stage of the resources to get the plant going, so what is it? Gas, oil, coal, Uranium?

So what is fueling the Microsoft plant? And how much surplus energy will Wisconsin have left at that point? As I see it, there is a reason that Microsoft doesn’t give out the expected power consumption. And there are a few more items on that list, like validators (could be done remotely) so hundreds of people calling into that centre what drives the telecom settings? All issues that would have to be tackled on day one. 

As I see it, there is a lack of focal points, but as I see it, those who spin aren’t interested in that concept at all. Merely the floatation of the name in conjunction with “‘world’s most powerful’ AI data center”, didn’t Microsoft do this once before? Oh yes, the most powerful console in the world. How did that end with that Xbox series X? As far as I know it is trailing the weakest console (Nintendo Switch) by a lot and it is also trailing the PlayStation 5 a fair bit. So I am not keeping my hope up when Microsoft is juggling the setting “World’s most powerful…anything

But then I have seen them play these cards for almost 40 years. And they could have taken advice from IBM on certain matters, like “This page is intentionally kept blank

But that is just me.

The second setting is being pushed forward. I don’t want to write the wring thing and there are a few missing cogs in that story. Like the ‘new’ location on $4,300 billion retirement funds. And no one is talking so I have to dig.

Well, have a great day, time for Sunday to get a sun (in 4 hours) and consider looking around for freedom of speech, Disney seemingly can’t find it. 

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Cracks are showing

That is the setting of this day. In under 5 minutes three articles passed by my eyes and it is a clear sign that cracks are showing. I will give you an article first. The article (at https://www.cbr.com/xbox-game-pass-end-of-era/) gives us ‘It’s Officially the End of an Era for Xbox Game Pass’, I am in the meddle of that settings. I cannot disagree and I cannot completely agree. We are given “Game Pass might be a great deal for players, but unfortunately, it comes at the cost of devaluing developers and their work. If the system keeps running the way it does now, it’ll only get less sustainable over time, and if Game Pass crashes, a lot of people are going down with it.” Yes I agree with that statement, however “it comes at the cost of devaluing developers and their work” is a little validating what a fool hands for their games. Consider Hogwarts Legacy, the devoted Harry Potter fan goes ‘Take my money…now!’ whilst plenty of other gamers go ‘Not in 999,999 years, 11 months, 30 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes and 50 seconds’, as I see it ‘Not in a million years’ sounds so crass (big smiley). So the statement is out there and lets be clear Game Pass was a great idea. But it comes at a cost. You see, Microsoft needs the game pass to give validation of the Blizzard/Activision deal, together with Bethesda they spend a little over  $100,000,000,000 and as it stands and as I see it, to cross that deal they have to make over $6.5 billion dollars a year just to make the interest go away and last year it merely banked 5 billion an change. This is a loss of well over a billion a year just for the interest of this caper. I thought it was a bad deal the moment it was announced and I wrote about it in 2022/2023. So with the end of game pass this deal gets to be the sour apple that gives Microsoft indigestion. But like the infomercials say “There is more” and there is. 

You see we are also given ‘Microsoft Is Axing This Android App. You Have 3 Weeks to Find a Replacement’ (at https://au.pcmag.com/hosted-email-providers/113075/microsoft-is-axing-this-android-app-you-have-3-weeks-to-find-a-replacement) and you know, there is and there has always been a replacer ent from the day that thing was called into service. It is called GMAIL. It has always worked well and it is not riddled with hidden Microsoft snags. So whilst we are given “A year ago, Microsoft celebrated 10 million Outlook Lite downloads. Effective Oct. 6, however, Redmond says it’s being retired ‘so we can focus our investments’ on the main Outlook app.” I will counter that that this setting was in play since 1998, so the investments should be there and in order. But when you see “so we can focus our investments” and consider the previous article, we see the beginning of cracks in the armor of Microsoft. Cracks in its spin settings and telling the world how great it is doing as a 3.79 trillion company. You see, there is a lot more bad news ahead  for them and none of it is great. Yet that is beyond the third article and it comes with speculations.

You see, the third article is one I have issues with (I’m on the side of Microsoft here). The article (at https://www.gamesradar.com/games/the-elder-scrolls/after-4-months-oblivion-remastered-falls-to-mixed-reviews-on-steam-after-reports-of-poor-and-unstable-performance-on-pc-it-is-still-well-and-truly-a-bethesda-game/) gives us ‘After 4 months, Oblivion Remastered falls to “Mixed” reviews on Steam after reports of “poor and unstable” performance on PC: “It is still well and truly a Bethesda game”’ There are a few issues here. I played it on the PS5 (as one should) and I believe it was a truly great remaster. I found one glitch (optional a bug) and I got around this. Whilst we see that Cyrodil is massively shown in the greatness that it deserves and better than the Xbox360 edition, I got the same feeling of amazement here as I did in the original. And I have a few issues with the “poor and unstable” side of the matter. Yes a steam system and most PC’s do not allow for a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 (and neither does the wallet of these gamers), as such they are playing with the overclocking left, right and centre. And not every application allows for that and becomes ‘unstable’. But the term overclocking sells systems and as long as the warnings are there, they allow for it, but software tends to be tricky and I believe that this is shown here. I never did that and I found one glitch (optional bug) in my PS5 edition of Oblivion and I think that this is amazing quality. So there is a larger audience who will ‘convict’ Microsoft in falsehood. 

As I see it, these settings will optionally call for Google to bring back to life the Stadia and I have a setting that will nearly guarantee a starting setting of 6 billion a year and past that stage one an increase to $10-$15 billion annually. I merely don’t want Microsoft to get that part, they tinkered with the freedom of gamers, so they are out. Amazon had the inside track for over two year and they didn’t take me seriously (my speculation of them seeing my idea) and now as the Microsoft cracks are showing we see a larger workspace of gaining over 15 million gamers and a whole lot more in other places. That warrants a new look at the stadia. I thought it was a great idea for the Kingdom Holdings to gain the hand on the Stadia, but as I see it, they seemingly lacked vision there too. As such Google now has a new upper hand and as I accused them of leaving billions on the floor, it is their turn to pick this up, fair is fair.

So whilst the cracks are showing others can gain the leverage of Microsoft (and make it fall at least a third in total value and the would make buy words golden too (and I get to hand a wooden spoon with gold engravings to Phil Spencer) as such my ego is at present a little unbearable to me as well. 

A setting that was foreseen at least two years ago and now there is a new stage in that setting, or better stated a remastered setting of the same stage and that is a nice touch on silly old me.

So have a great Monday, which at present feels like a new Friday to me.

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As I was having coffee

I was having a coffee this morning, and as I was downing the hot brown liquid I watched two girls laughing and working a few tables onwards as they were laughing and showing their work to each other. The coffee place was empty, os it was an easy effort by them. I reckon that they were working on assignments together. But then it hit me. The ‘What If’ moment. As that went viral in my brain pretty much instantly.

So take the idea:

Here you see ‘Companion’ and it is a simple setting. You have two laptops (optionally with mobiles) and the app creates a shared workspace. A simple virtual workspace where you can share docs, sounds and whatever the laptops can provide. I know there is MS Teams, but the idea is to remove Microsoft from the equation (at any given moment), giving people what they might need (or not). A simple sharing setting when the coffeeshop is not as quiet as it might be, could be the classroom. A simple setting that gives the people a sharable workspace. As far as I know there is nothing out there at present without the ‘taint’ that Microsoft introduces. A simple setting that allows people to share their pages and keynote settings at the mere creation of the moment. Without pesky megabytes of data at the control of Microsoft.

Yup this was a simple as I got it made, In a mere second at the bequest of hot coffee (Cappuccino) in a moments’ notice. So my mind set the simple setting of laptop one (with mobile) and laptop two (also with mobile) and they create the workspace that is in both laptops and that is how you create a simple workspace at a moments notice.

Is it too much?
That is the simple setting that I see and perhaps there is something out there, but as far as I can tell Google doesn’t seemingly have it. As such I wrote it down so someone can tell Sergey Brin that there is an idea out there he might be able to use (I seem to have misplaced his mobile number) As such, this was my day and now it is time to slaughter the troops of Lord Nobunaga, I am going through the Castles of Japan like a hot knife through butter and I am laying waste of his Samurai ranks. Time to destroy whatever he has in Harima and decrease that Obunaga population to near zero. A man needs his hobby I say.

Have a great day and perhaps the coffee of tomorrow will bring another new idea.

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Setting to lull

That is not a setting I usually entertain, but the stage is now that I am. In the first the alcoholic across the hall decided to play his music 50 dB over the allowed limit and the land lord does nothing. He is the guy who casually mentioned that he went to school with the Beatle (he does not have a Liverpool accent) and he filmed President Putin topless on a horse. He is that kind of useless. 

In the meantime I could bash the idiots brain in, but then I go to prison and I am hoping that some of my irons will result in revenue making this place a massive part of me immediate past. So I need to suck it up, which in this setting of ageism is not easy. I am still working on two other scripts, but my lack of Final Draft exposure makes it a little hard. Redesigning blog articles into script parts is not a clear cut as it should be. I might redo part in pages and then import it into Final Draft, but that is for another day. As I was looking into these scripts (I have currently 4 scripts), one has been submitted to Channels in Saudi Arabia and the UAE as this script would appeal to an Islamic population. I might want to learn the setting of Indonesia, but I reckon that these two will also show my work to the audiences in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Egypt. That is the first. The second one is Vitam Exhauriens which played in part in New Orleans and in part all over the world. Then there is Keno Diastimas which is in an undisclosed location under water. And that has a few lovely twists. That one is an open-ended three seasons part with the open ending (I thought it was better that way and a wink in the direction of Terry Gilliam A director I have admired for a long time. The fourth one is the one that is ‘now’ in season three and is called Engonos. That one is in part in London, in part in Greece and in part in Turkey (so these parts need to be found in one locations), but that is not my problem, my ‘challenge’ is the story and these three are on my plate. I have progression in both Vitam Exhauriens and Keno Diastimas, but they have different ‘challenges’ the second one is pretty complete, but I am still uncertain about some of the elements, to make it fit better as a story and as a TV show, but that is my challenge.

The second setting is about making some issues work (not the scripts). As I see the world going to hell in a hand basket, I can merely look at what happens and see how it unfolds. There is nothing I can do about it. As Reuters is giving us ‘US unemployment rate near 4-year high as labor market hits stall speed’ as well as ‘Wall Street Week ahead inflation data looms for markets’ and that happens whilst we also get Goldman Sachs as Reuters gives us ‘Goldman takes $1 billion stake in T. Rowe to tap retirement money’ and there we get “Big financial firms such as Goldman, BlackRock and Morgan Stanley are making a big push into alternative assets, an area dominated by private equity firms, to capitalize on their growth potential and attract new clients.” And that has to go at the cost of retirement money? I am not an economist and I do not claim to be one, but there is something ‘shoddy’ (in my mind) that a bank would invest a billion dollars. It usually is to get more in return. So how does this help retirees? I made mention that the BIGFIN and government would shake the retirement tree at some point. Is this the beginning?

I do not know, but it makes me uneasy. You see, if this is happening in America now, then soon enough (I have no idea when) it will happen to the United Kingdom, Australia and Europe as well. When? That is anyones guess and I reckon that the American setting is dire enough to do this now, but it takes a lot more knowledge to confirm or scuttle the setting we see here. The Financial Times is hanging the question whether the America economy is already in recession and the should know, so it seems like the economists at large are playing musical chairs. All that whilst the Economist comes with ‘What if the AI Stockmarket blows up?’ With the byline that “We find that the potential cost has risen alarmingly high” I could have told them that over a year ago and the entire builder.ai with the setting of Microsoft pumping it up to a billion dollars wasn’t a nearly dead giveaway? 

It is now as we approach Q4 that the ‘high’ costs are ‘suddenly’ getting the forefront news. And this happens in a time when America is getting hit with negative news after negative news. I saw most parts of this coming, but now we seemingly get it all in one quarter and I reckon that is the moment the larger companies start shedding more and more jobs whilst hiding behind the nonexistent AI wall. Yup, that will give several people a bloody nose to begin with and when the media wakes up from all this screaming “What’s this, how could this happen?” You know you’ve been had because they (the media) merely care about their digital dollars. So whilst we get all this, The Financial Times also gives us ‘Peter Mandelson warns US and UK must unite to halt Chinese tech supremacy’, I could not read the article as I am not a member, but here is a thought. How about becoming an actual ‘innovative’ force. Not claiming that you are, but becoming one. I am hoping that Peter Mandelson refers to the British Ambassador to the United States. You see, China is at least a furlong ahead of the rest and when we see a race that is merely 5 furlongs you are already losing that race. If the race is 12 furlongs you are less likely to become winner, at best you can hope to come a contender and I have shown that Amazon and Google dropped the ball a few times leaving billions on the floor. Al claiming that they had the AI field in hand. But there is no AI field, not yet and that realisation gives the setting. I basically handed the open victory to Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud as well as Tencent. Whether they would grab that open ball for the win is anyone’s guess, but that is where we stand. So whilst we see all kinds of places shedding thousands of people, I cannot vouch for Google doing that. There is talks that thousands were shed, but it is specific (and I do not know all the details), so whilst we see that these people are shed, we see ‘their’ reasons for shedding sales people and being replaced by AI agents. That is out in the open. I am not judging as DML is a setting that can be applied to advertising. So how that goes will be in the corridors of awaiting judgment.

Still we see a massive change happening and I am (fiercely) hoping that people like Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud see the wisdom that I bring (it would make my retirement a decent certainty). But that too is out in the open. I do know that if my retirement depends on the American setting that I end up working until the day I die in hunger. Not a setting I relish mind you.

So I end up in a waiting pattern for now. Have a great day. My Monday is off to a rocky start.

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Act of despair

That happens at times and I reckon that at some point I will have to give in to that setting as well. It started this morning when I was advised that I might have cancer, it might be benign, the biopsy will be done over the next week, then they know what they have. I was unusually cool about it all. As such as a friend of mine was ‘culled’ by the big C (a curry billboard shattered his skull), I can confirm that my weird sense of humor has not been devastatingly impacted at present.

So I have two ideas on my mind. The first one is that Peter Jackson (director Lord of the Rings) still owes me $17.50 He owes me that amount from 1992. But the other one is the one that matters to me. For that we need a small sidestep towards the article that Fortune gave us (at https://fortune.com/2025/08/18/mit-report-95-percent-generative-ai-pilots-at-companies-failing-cfo/) where we see ‘MIT report: 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are failing’, it is here where we see “Despite the rush to integrate powerful new models, about 5% of AI pilot programs achieve rapid revenue acceleration; the vast majority stall, delivering little to no measurable impact on P&L. The research—based on 150 interviews with leaders, a survey of 350 employees, and an analysis of 300 public AI deployments—paints a clear divide between success stories and stalled projects.” The report is two weeks old, but today I had a reason to tag it, it affects my future and as I see it, it impacts it in a positive way. As such the second quote doesn’t quite get us there, but there is an offset. It is seen in “for 95% of companies in the dataset, generative AI implementation is falling short. “The 95% failure rate for enterprise AI solutions represents the clearest manifestation of the GenAI Divide,” the report states. The core issue? Not the quality of the AI models, but the “learning gap” for both tools and organizations. While executives often blame regulation or model performance, MIT’s research points to flawed enterprise integration. Generic tools like ChatGPT excel for individuals because of their flexibility, but they stall in enterprise use since they don’t learn from or adapt to workflows, Challapally explained.” The part missing is data and verification. WE can look for other articles where we see the failures of AI. But the largest setting is never discussed. What we call AI isn’t it, they mess around with “GenAI”, they package it like it is a new version of “generative AI” but in the end it is merely DML with optional LLM in place. It is as I call it “Near Intelligent Parsing” parsing because it is existing data, it cannot leap on non existing data and the setting we see are basically a little more than predictive analytics. It is a next step.

So why is this important?
Well, for me there is a side that has worked in Technical support and customer care for nearly two decades. And as I see it, the quality people who need to act will see it. As such I think that Lawrence Ellison (Oracle) can see the light he is currently coping with. Large customers will need their technical support, their customer care and here I am ‘sneakily’ asking him for 10 million (post taxation) out of his two hundred fifty thousand million (aka $250 Billion) stockpile. Seems like the smallest of amounts. Oh, and I pride myself on being a return on investment I have proclaimed for the length of my working career going all the way back to 1982. That is 43 years of experience (twenty in technical support) and I have none in Oracle. But I know that support settings that any companies have. And Oracle will need these people soon enough. Wherever he wants to send me, it is almost fine by me. As I see it no one wants to work in Russia and America is a big no no (its a Trump card). But the UAE (ADNOC) and Saudi Arabia (ARAMCO) do make the list. And Oracle needs these large companies and especially support staff in these locations. Personally the UAE wins, but it is what Oracle needs and I am willing to move to Canberra at the earliest settings. We seen to be at an influx where the governments and large corporations need manpower. Microsoft and Amazon need to learn this and whilst they falter, Microsoft is shedding 9000 people and investing in AI, but when you consider that 95% falters, you can imagine when these systems fall short, all whilst at that same time, Windows seemingly lost 400 million users in the past three years. Do you think this is coincidence? Yes they can clean some up with NIP, but they will fill larger holes in that meantime and losing people in the process. Google and Amazon are on that same setting. But Oracle is too complex. As I see it, it needs staff in the near future and I am betting that they cannot afford to lose the manpower and I am willing to bet that as they take over clients from AWS and Azure (the latter especially) they will need more people and that’s where I come in. Not merely tech support staff, but as a trainer having made my brand of training people, I am willing to bet that Oracle might have a place for me (even a flake like me).

I have always stood my setting in this and after a long time I am proven correctly and the next generation is largely unable to deal with the support pressures and that works for me in places like ADNOC. So I believe that Oracle might be my solution towards a few settings that never worked for me. And there is something less like-able about forced to hand my IP to Microsoft whilst receiving a mere 0.001 on the dollar. I might given it away in other ways (to others) if Oracle shows to be my ‘knight on a white horse’ and there is something satisfying on that setting. I get to see Microsoft lose thrice over. 

As such those with an affinity with technical support to consider the places they can flock to. I gave some of my IP to Elon Musk (Musk already owed the ideas anyway), and I keep on fueling gaming IP to other channels too (non Microsoft systems) and there the Amazon Luna has options too. Still the news from this morning (even as it doesn’t hit me hard) it made me see that I have to put my affairs in order and one of them is to deny Microsoft my IP.

And there is a second setting, as Google and Microsoft are shedding people, the larger companies need to scoop them up quickly, because internationally these people will be wanted rather quickly. For Americans there is Canada as a first, but do you think they will spread their wings to other nations? Time will tell, but as I see it 2025/2026 will be the year where we all consider the stage of the brain drain. And take that with faltering AI projects, the turn of of places suddenly being short on tech support will falter massively and as we know: “no support, no sales” a nice catch phrase, but their AI will tell them at some point (one might hope).

So have a great day and I will ponder what will become of me when the biopsy doesn’t show a benign setting. 

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The wave of brains

This is a setting that might be, in gaming. You see I promised you something new and I found it. A game unlike any game we have seen and in part one we get to see life on mars, life as Elon Musk envisions it. The story starts (with a wink towards Bethesda) with you as an astronaut, you are in a prison, or a detainment centre to be more precise. You found your way here and it is the start of another RPG. Yes, but one with a difference (that’s what we all say). In this setting we have a completely self reliant system and that is what saved you. You don’t know to much about this as you have a serious blunt on your head, as such you remember nothing. The systems are self reliant, the systems provide nourishment, oxygen and water. But nothing more. So the first thing you need to do is to get out of here. As you become more reliant on the systems you see where things go and how they work. As such the first two hours you are learning the systems and looking more and more apt in getting things to work. Then you get to the first setting, the droid reactivating system. That gives you a few options and one works the janitor droids and one maintenance droid (a wink to the game Paradroid). As this continues you will see that one path needs to be cleared of junk (the janitor droids). As they progress you can review other systems and get them to up and running. But you will learn that there isn’t enough power to do this. And as the monitor systems has thousands of records, you get to see the settings when things were working. And as you get around, you find bodies with identity tags and as you have a universal tag, you get to become all of these people. This will give you access to their mail and conferences. As you become more agile you get to access other places and when the maintenance droid gets to the first tower, we get power to this dome and as it gets power, oxygen, sustenance and water becomes available. As well as a much larger place to explore. Now that we have access to the first dome we get to explore and we see the first settings of the damage caused. The place is deserted, thousands of corpses and no explanation. Then we get to a security station and we see the larger setting. A space ship crashed into one of the domes, that made the air escape and cause the brownout of the fusion reactor. As such we need to create a larger energy dump and the solar panels will take its time to do so. 

As we create the energy to do so, we need to inspect the oxygen and water supply points. As such we get a larger setting, because there is a few days of water left, this also hinders the sustenance creation. But it we get the water back online, it will all be ok. It is an idea that I am having and this will relate to the larger setting of the space ship, which apparently came from earth. As such there is more to this story and for now it is about creating the challenge of getting this into the Science part of sci-fi (we tend to forget about that) and as this is set it becomes about the sanity of 3 domes supporting up to 10,000 people. As I was shown the first dome, we need to set the next stage and in this where did I get to?

Anyway this game goes into a larger setting when the spaceship (which comes from earth) has a much larger issue and that is the lore that needs to be created. A setting that comes with bad news (isn’t there always) but this will be about after the bad news and that is part of the storyline. The ship is an ark of sorts (they are all dead) and that becomes the next stage if this all and what happens when the droids are the hazard? So security and battle droids are next but that is on the next installment. Anyway so for my mind created three domes with a optional population of 5,000. And the requires a little more consideration. We might be in the detainment centre, but that is linked to the retail and civilian dome. As such we have a start. I reckon that I can build from that. It is much more entertaining whilst America is losing India as an ally and trade partner. I reckon that President Modi has had enough of their 50% tariff. So when Wall mart loses all these Chinese and Indian articles that they can flog of cheap they are bound to American articles that no one can afford and China? They gain over a billion customers to Chinese goods. Yes, this was a good idea, wasn’t it? So whilst we fight over who is whose customer China gains a billion of them and now (as I see it) America need Bangladesh to avoid Walmart with its 2.1 million employees from going flat (that will one hell of a unemployment bash coming) So whilst the US government will rely on the Microsoft cloud accounts to spike up their IP engines. The larger issue will be the it will also end Microsoft and their 280,000 employees soon enough. Thank god I kept my cloud setting encrypted and out of the hands of Microsoft. So whilst America will be facing more and more hardship, we will see the larger setting that America sunk their own fleet (which makes for an awesome video game). And that was before BRICS became a world power. Now we get a new stage, as I personally see it America is beyond broke. And I know that a nation cannot be broke, but what do you call it when a nation cannot fulfill its debts? And the interest on $37.31 trillion is nothing to be sneered at, that implies that America will need to hand over 1.67 trillion in interest every year. I warned for that years ago, this was going to happen and now that the moment is there. Others go “It is more complex than that” Really? Interest is due, so where will you get the money from? Why do you think that some funds are setting their momentum now in Bitcoin? They know this is about to happen. As such we see President Trump making complements that Canada would be great as a 51st state. All he wants are the resources and Prime Minister Carney sees through him in an instant. And that is keeping Canada safe for now. Who when we look at this in a gaming setting, we see that earth is heading for a massive war between America and the nation who are not broke. As such there will be a fight over Canada and Greenland. But America misjudged their opponents and Canada has the Commonwealth and Greenland has the EU (as Denmark is in the EU). So this will be far from over and whilst people might be looking at the trivial news. I see this as good a place as any to inform the people, through a video game. 10,000 corpses holding onto information that is todays news. And as we adjust the focal point to what the news is telling the people we get a new iteration of what is real and what is lullaby news. 

I actually never considered this before but gaming could inform millions of people on what actually is. Did anyone else figure this out?

Have a great day. For me the next step is catering the news and setting it up as a lore creator. Whilst everyone is focusing on AI (which does not exist) I use the NIP (near Intelligent Parsing) systems to flake over the news, the public available news (no one wants the news according to Rupert Murdoch). And that is the second tier in this story. All brought to you by that old geezer no one cares about (mainly me). 

Have a great day.

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