Tag Archives: reuters

March 18, 2025 · 20:36

And another stage erupts

That was always going to be the case. Hamas thinks it can play the blame game and Israel has had enough. So when you think of the Trump setting as well as the Egyptian setting for a ‘riviera’ stage, Consider that this was not due to Israel. It was Hamas that decided not to release the hostages. They are holding onto and straws they can and now the world see that any peace is possible, but not until Hamas is eradicated, even the people in Gaza are starting to realise this.

And in the setting we see Mark Rubio (at state.gov) give us “They feel like Hamas is not serious about negotiations.  They are still holding hostages and bodies in terrible conditions.  They are insisting on these dramatically lopsided trades of hundreds of people for one or two.  The President’s expressed his frustration about it as well.  So the Israelis are going to do what they believe is in their interests to sort of force Hamas to make decisions.  As I said, Mr. Witkoff is heading to Qatar, and hopefully that’ll bear fruit and all of these hostages will be released.  They should all be released.  They should all be released.” In addition there are settings where we get Al Jazeera also gives us “Rubio says Hamas ‘must be eradicated’, casting doubt on Gaza ceasefire deal”, as I see it, my response is: “Welcome to the party pal”, I have been telling you this for over a year. The setting is that the hostages have been there for over 528 days. Enough is enough. 

And this is not the only thing. The disgraceful setting of that UN loser (António Guterres) is also one that requires mention. We are given “UN Secretary-General António Guterres says he is “shocked” by the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and has called for the ceasefire to be respected.

In a statement, Guterres urged for humanitarian aid to resume for people in Gaza and for the hostages held by Hamas to be released unconditionally.” He didn’t say “He is “shocked” by the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. The hostages held by Hamas are to be released unconditionally and immediately and has urged for humanitarian aid to resume for people in Gaza and the ceasefire to be respected.” No, he is setting to onus on Israel, what a loser he is. I understand the setting that there is no talking to Hamas, and that is the only way he might make some inroads into Gaza. But I reckon that after 528 days it is over. We have no idea how many people are still alive and Hamas knows it will be the end of them. So as Gaza’s are dying today and tomorrow, let it be clear that this is due to Hamas, they started this and now it is coming to an rather rough end. 

So as these Palestinian losers in Universities go all anti-semitic, consider that we also get
(via Reuters) that ‘Rubio says US to revoke more student visas in coming days’, with the byline “In the days to come, you should expect more visas will be revoked as we identify people that we should have never allowed in”, as such the people who think they had a clue (and mindlessly repeated slogans from actual Israel haters) consider that mindlessly repeating slogans you never understood is removing you from academic consideration and throwing in the lap of the fast food industry (they are short staffed now), and it will come with a maximum annual income of $27557 or $13 per hour. Do you really think that you had a clue what was going on? I was in Rafah in 1982 and I did not completely get it, but in those days Yasser Arafat and the PLO were a much larger danger. So as you are reporting the words “From the river to the sea, we will be free” consider that you openly called for the eradication of 9,757,000 million Israeli’s and you are getting all that comes on top of you now. 

 And for your consideration, when you see the damage that is, how does Al Jazeera get the numbers “At least 326 Palestinians have been killed as Israel launched a massive assault on Gaza, shattering the fragile two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas.” How did they get the number 326? There is little communication, there is a lack of resources and a lack of adequate assistance in Gaza. They are summoning Humanitarian aid, but they know EXACTLY how many people were bombed? I doubt this sincerely. I will not argue that there are victims here (like the Israeli hostages) but the rest is all on the people in Gaza’s. Just remember the hundreds that came to ‘wave goodbye’ to the Israeli’s, to show ‘force’ to Hamas. Now it counts against you and Israel will not feel to burdened by the amounts of people killed in Gaza. You all support a terrorist organisation and the world has had enough. As such what is the UNRWA still doing active? Wasn’t there a call on October 29th 2024 ‘Coalition calls for UNRWA funding to be diverted to other aid groups after laws passed to ban group from Israel’? We were given “Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, passed laws overnight banning UNRWA from operating on Israeli soil — putting it at risk of collapsing when the laws take effect in 90 days.” So how are they still operating? Did Hamas ‘offer’ a helping hand? 

In this Simon Birmingham “The Coalition supports increased humanitarian aid into Gaza, but it should be delivered by groups other than UNRWA.” In this I wonder what is more important to these individuals. Actual aid, or their pay-slip. I reckon that there is some provision around that they still get paid as long as they are there. So in this, who is minding the UNRWA store as there is every indication that Hamas gets their piece of pie from that bag of money and eradicating Hamas is what is at stake at the moment (or should I refer to the steak).

Well that is the goods I have today, it was only time when Hamas goofed it all up, all whilst them releasing all the hostages stating “You see, we can be talked to, we can negotiate”, I knew that was never going to happen.

Have a peaceful day today.

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March 16, 2025 · 05:59

Political Dundie Awards anyone?

There is a special award that people fear. It is a lot worse than the Razzies (Golden Raspberry Awards), it is the “Dundie Award for Worst Salesman of the Year” and this year it goes to President Trump. In one swift setting he made the Commonwealth drop America as an ally and in the second setting over two articles the first being (at https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/portugal-wary-trumps-nato-policy-pick-fighter-jets-2025-03-14/) ‘Portugal wary of Trump’s NATO policy in pick of fighter jets’ where we see “Portugal could replace its aging American-made F-16 fighter jets with European jets rather than F-35s following U.S. President Donald Trump’s policy shifts, the country’s defense ministry said on Friday.” And the second one is seen (at https://news.az/news/canada-explores-alternatives-to-us-made-f-35-fighter-jets) with ‘Canada explores alternatives to US-made F-35 fighter jets’, where we are given “Canada is considering alternatives to the U.S.-made F-35 stealth fighters and has begun discussions with competing aircraft manufacturers, Defense Minister Bill Blair announced late Friday, shortly after being reappointed to the role in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s newly established Cabinet.” The F35, which is currently going as hot cakes although each of these hot cakes go for the price of $109,000,000 each. So I reckon that Lockheed Martin is out a few pennies now and in light of the fact that sustainment costs are estimated to be around $1.58 trillion for the entire life cycle, these pennies tend to add up. And that is before you realize that several countries are still on the fence to change their order now. As such we might think that Saudi Arabia now certainly gets consideration as a customer (after a few years of denying them as a customer), yup President Trump really put his foot in that one. The nice part is that Portugal wasn’t a factor until yesterday and now it is costing Lockheed Martin billions. Considering that Norway recently got three of them nearly completing their order of 52 of them bad boys, consider what Portugal is now replacing and Canada is openly seeking another vendor. Of course, the Eurofighter (Eurofighter Typhoon) might have the inside track here. Yet wouldn’t it be the icing on the cake if China with its Chengdu J-20 wins that one? The irony to this  will be seen as howling with laughter.

OK, I admit that it is unlikely to happen, but the setting that President Trump started with the option of gaining a 51st state and now needs to build second wall to the north to keep the dozens of mighty dragons at a walls length. Canadians merely will have to fill the space between the two walls with water and we have a whole new setting movie like setting. I merely ask that they send 10 canoes to every Native American community there is (there are a few dozens), as such we get a new setting. It is as far as I can tell the first time a president became a clear and present danger to its own defense system selling on a near global scale. The distance between Canada and Portugal makes it near global as I see it. A parameter I actually didn’t see happen as a president is there for a mere 4 years and these babies get sold with decades in mind, but there you have it and there is more. YouTube is getting more and more video’s with American shops (Supermarkets and LCBO shops) where alcoholic drinks from the US and groceries from America are banned by the thousands of Canadian customers, this is all adding up. Perhaps the White House could consider pissing off the people with a nationalistic view? As I see it America first is now becoming America dropped first. In the last week we saw headlines like ‘Jack Daniel’s maker says Canada pulling stock worse than tariffs’ and in this case it grows with “Morgan Stanley analyst Eric Serotta said in a note to investors that tariffs would pose unique challenges for Brown-Forman, with the effects likely to linger. He added that 55% of the liquor manufacturer’s sales come from outside the U.S., and bourbon laws require domestic production so it cannot be produced internationally.” And this opens the doors of ‘connoisseur’ of that liquid as they might now explore the excellence of Japanese Whiskeys. A worry that the makers of Jack Daniels never had before. It makes it not a temporary, but a permanent loss. That threat is now at Lockheed Martins door if these nations pick the Eurofighter. It makes a tremendous win for Eurofighter GmbH, BAE Systems, Airbus, Alenia Aermacchi, and DASA. They are now offered billions of new business on a silver plate because of this and that could also mean that Saud Arabia might now set their sights to the Eurofighter as well. The one nation that was fixed on the F35 could now be shopping somewhere else. That implies a loss of planes, support systems and infrastructure spanning up to a new market of up to 283 combat aircrafts. How many trillions will that amount to? I reckon that it is up to five times the infrastructure of Norway, making the RSAF a $6,000,000,000,000 crown jewel for any company. All that lost by trying to force annexation down the throats of Canadian and pissing off NATO by catering to President Putin all whilst they are in a stage to denying assistance to NATO. So what is next? Consider that The Five Eyes is comprised of Commonwealth nations plus America, it is not without risk that the four will go it alone. You see intelligence merely matters as long as you have it and that is where the CIA might come up short soon enough. A larger setting that short sighted people in the White House administration overlooked. That can be considered as we saw the news by AP yesterday ‘Musk meets with head of National Security Agency to ensure it is aligned with Trump, spy agency says’, I reckon that there will be a certain level of panic whilst the CIA reports that their meeting could get seemingly cancelled. Now the NSA will have to focus on local issues and read in the FBI to at least a dozen projects. I know, it is merely speculative what I say, but that danger wasn’t even realistic last August, now in less than 9 months the pregnancy issues of intelligence might become a massive issues for America and it only recently got over the issues of that traitor Manning and COVID issues. So that is another mess America now has to deal with.

In the second stage, why was Elon Musk dealing with this? Shouldn’t the NSA address any issues directly with the President of the United States? And the questions rise. And the Political Dundie Awards (PDA) has a nice ring as Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) is a pattern of behavior in which kids go to extremes to ignore or avoid anything they perceive as a demand. That aligns here just so beautifully. 

Ah well, Another day another giggle with a coffee. So you all have a nice day and Canada, I have your back (although from a distance). By the way congrats to Markie Mark of the British Bank, now to be known Markie Canuck of Canada.

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February 27, 2025 · 01:35

When words become data

There is an uneasy setting. I get that. You see AI does not exist, and whilst we all see the AI settings develop and some will be setting (read: gambling) 500 billion dollars on that topic, we now see that META is banking on a 200 billion on the stage. But what is this stage? We can tun to Reuters  who gives us ‘Meta in talks for $200 billion AI data center project, The Information reports’ (at https://www.reuters.com/technology/meta-talks-200-billion-ai-data-center-project-information-reports-2025-02-26/) where we are given “A Meta spokesperson denied the report, saying its data center plans and capital expenditures have already been disclosed and that anything beyond that is “pure speculation”” However, when we set the stage on a different shoe we see another development. You see, when we think of this in non-AI terms we get that a Data Centre generally ranges from $10 million to $200 million with a typical commercial data center costing around $10-12 million per megawatt of power capacity; smaller data centers can cost as low as $200,000 to build. So when we consider that the upper range of a data centre is $200 million. So what kind of a data centre gives the need to be a thousand times bigger? Now, consider that there are enough people clarifying that AI does not exit. I see AI what some people call True AI and that springs from the mind of Alan Turing. He set the premise of AI half a century ago. And whilst some of the essential hardware is ready, there are still parts missing. Yet what some now call AI is merely Deeper Machine Learning and it gets help from an LLM. This setting requires huge amounts of data, so when you consider that that data comes from a data centre. What on earth is META up to? When need a data centre a thousand times bigger? The only size that makes sense for 200 billion is a data centre that could gobble up whatever Microsoft has as well as Google’s data centers in one great swoop and that is merely the beginning.

Speculation
The next part is speculation, I openly admit that. So when (not if) America defaults on their loans we get an implosion of current wealth and the new wealth will be data. Data will in the near future be the currency that all other parties accept. As such Is META preparing for a new currency? As I see it the simplest setting is whomever has the most data will be the richest person on the planet and that would make sense, that explains Trump’s 500 billion for a data centre and now META is following suit. You see Zuckerberg is really intelligent. I saw that setting 5 years before Facebook existed, but my boss told me that my idea was ludicrous, it would never work. Now we see my initial idea spread all over the planet with every marketing organisation on the planet chomping at the bit to get their slice of pie. So Zuckerberg does have the cajones and the drive to proceed. When data is currency they will be one of the few players in the new economy. And when you take my speculation (possibly even insightful presumption) these data centers make sense and being able to set predictive data learned from active and historical data makes sense in a very real way. Predictive data will be the wave of the future. It still is not AI, but it is in very real ways the next step in data needs. Predictive analytics set the path of this wave 1-2 decades ago. And now we see more data transformations and when the main roads are dealt with the niche markets can be predicted and seen in very real ways.

And the stage is more real than you can see. When people like Zuckerberg are cashing out to get their data centers up and running, there is a real drive to be first to cash in. As I see it, my next step would be to score a job with a data centre doing mere maintenance and support work. You see, as all these big players evolve their needs, their manpower will need to come from infrastructures that these data centers require. So support and power will have the greatest staffing needs in the next decade. Just my thoughts on the matter.

Have a lovely day today

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January 25, 2025 · 05:31

How does commerce work?

That is at times the question. As I see it President Trump has a flawed nd warped view of one. We get that from the Middle East Monitor, aka MEMO (at https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250123-trump-calls-for-1-trillion-saudi-investment-lower-oil-prices/) where we are given ‘Trump calls for $1 trillion Saudi investment, lower oil prices’ And I thought it was an error, but it was not (several publications give me a similar view). The weirdest part is “US President Donald Trump, on Thursday, said he will demand Saudi Arabia and OPEC bring down the cost of oil and will ask Riyadh to increase a planned US investment package to $1 trillion from an initial reported $600 billion” (source: Reuters). And the weird part is set in fact. When we see that USA exports 10.15 barrels of oil daily and IMPORTS 8.53 million barrels of oil, we come to the conclusion that America want cheap oil so that they can get a better margin on selling their oil (which will not be cheaper). So why would Saudi Arabia and Aramco do that? Would anyone do that? As such I think that America is thinking of getting the (speculated) $40,000,000 a day margin to settle their mega trillion dollar debt. It also makes me wonder how close are they to becoming bankrupt? And beside that, they want Saudi Arabia to invest a trillion dollars over 4 years. To be honest it seems like a radical stupid notion to get someone to invest a trillion dollars and lower the price of oil so that Saudi Arabia will be regarded as a friend? Sounds a weird approach to business to me. The quote given is ““But I’ll be asking the Crown Prince, who’s a fantastic guy, to round it out to around $1 trillion,” Trump told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “I think they’ll do that because we’ve been very good to them.”” So exactly how has America been good to Saudi Arabia? Saudi Arabia has not been able to acquire the F35? Whilst Saudi Arabia civilian targets were hit by Houthi Terrorists, America did not come forward to sell necessarily equipment. So how has America shown themselves as a worthy ally?

You see, in my books an ACTUAL ally will aid when needed and supply hardware when needed (and paid for in some cases). There is also the notion that Iran have been circumventing the US Navy in several cases to deliver hardware to Houthi Terrorists, some navy. The funny part that MEMO describes “he will demand Saudi Arabia and OPEC bring down the cost of oil”, so now Saudi Arabia is seen separate from OPEC? OPEC is called that as it is the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. So, Saudi Arabia is not part of OPEC? A weird setting as I see it and if America is as broke as it seems to be, it makes some sense, but this would be regarded as a desperate knee jerk move (as I see it).

And on this setting, it has every notion of driving the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia straight into the fold of China and their plans for the world according to China. So how does that help America?

Just a thought to have this lovely Saturday morning.

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November 19, 2024 · 00:43

Where is the west now?

The Arab News gave me an article that made me shiver. No, this is not some BBC article or a similar article by the Guardian. The article (at https://www.arabnews.pk/node/2579777/world) gives us ‘Emergency declared in New Delhi as smog hits highest level this year’. This is not some article about luxury jets. We are given “Pollution in Delhi and the surrounding metropolitan area — home to around 55 million people — reached the “severe plus” category as some areas reached an Air Quality Index score of 484, this year’s highest, according to the Central Pollution Control Board.” It comes with an added “Delhi was ranked as the most polluted city in the world on Monday by Swiss group IQAir, with a concentration of PM 2.5, 138.4 times higher than the World Health Organisation’s recommended levels.” That is not nothing. 138.4 times higher. Or as they might say 13840% of the recommended levels. We see Reuters, AP News, not the BBC and not the Guardian. I reckon that it doesn’t involve jets from the ultra rich. We are given that “Mahesh Palawat, vice president of meteorology and climate change at forecast company Skymet Weather, said people in the capital region are faced with serious health risks.” This is a frightening revelation. I keep on wondering how it could have gotten this bad. I have experienced smog in Europe, but I reckon that the Indians see that as a cool summer breeze compared to what they face. I wonder if there is a to the point card with up to date information (per day) how the rest of the world would react. I also wonder who will get the blame for this. I do believe that there would be enough blame to go around in the Indian political structure. Yet there is in me a realisation that New Delhi needs to do something about the population. As of 2024, the population of New Delhi, the capital of India, is over 33 million people. This is a 2.63% increase from the previous year. So at what point does the setting of ‘full’ apply? Consider that New Delhi has 30% more people than the entirety of Australia (or 90% of Canada for that matter). We at least have a decent amount of land to spread that population around, as does Canada, India seemingly has not. 

So whilst we get “On the AQI scale from 0 to 500, good air quality is represented by levels below 50, while levels above 300 are dangerous.” And the levels in New Delhi are 50% higher than dangerous. So when will we see the Guardian or the BBC offer ‘solutions’.

Have a healthy day, optionally with a decent amount of fresh air.

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October 12, 2024 · 16:11

The afterthought

It is Reuters that gave us ‘Exclusive: Stop Israel from bombing Iran’s oil sites, Gulf states urge US’ (at https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/stop-israel-bombing-irans-oil-sites-gulf-states-urge-us-2024-10-11/) Now normally this doesn’t bother or alert me, but after the 6th when I wrote ‘Is it merely political?’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/10/06/is-it-merely-political/) where we got to see “A loophole allows middlemen in countries like Turkey, China and India to refine Russian oil in petrol and diesel before selling it elsewhere — exempt from sanctions. According to a report first seen by POLITICO, Western countries spent $2 billion on this rebranded fuel in the first half of 2024” Now we see Gulf states all ‘worried’ about Iran, or are they perhaps worried about the cheap deal they have from Iran counting in the billions? A setting that most of us ignored as we were unaware of the loophole. But now, even after Iran threatens Israel, we are given “Gulf states are lobbying Washington to stop Israel from attacking Iran’s oil sites because they are concerned their own oil facilities could come under fire from Tehran’s proxies if the conflict escalates, three Gulf sources told Reuters” and in the article we aren’t given any names are we? Which Gulf sources? I think that we are entitled those answers, are we not? Isn’t it interesting that Reuters missed that beat, but then the media is becoming less and less reliable. And it makes sense that the first thing Israel goes after is the money, hence the oil. And in all of this Gulf states are urging the US to stop Israel from bombing oil sites? Who are the stake holders, what Gulf nations are involved and how is that money flowing? More important how can we track that money. How can we expose these exploiters? 

These are all questions that are derived from the article on the 6th of October that Politico gave us. If they rebranded 2 billion of Russian oil, there is nothing to stop us thinking that Iran gave others a lot more and from the gulf states there is plenty of players around to do whatever it takes to get a share of a mere 50 million and this has been going on for a while (a speculative thought). The Russia story came out relatively fast, but the Iran dilemma has been going on for decades and now with the Hezbollah eradication as well as the pounding of Hamas, these stake holders are worried that their well dries up and now they are speculatively crying like little bitches that their free ride is drying up. OK, that might have been a little over the top but the sentiment comes across, does it not? Now, I could be wrong, one sides does not prove the other. To put it simplistically every cube is a orthotope, not every orthotope is a cube. As such what is happening in Russia might not happen in Iran. On the other hand, what was set in motion to be applied to Iran was pretty much a setting for Russia as well. And the media isn’t asking questions, why not?

Until recently when Politico showed us the loophole no one asked questions and now they should have asked a few questions, yet they still are not. How weird is that?

Apply that to the fact that we are merely give “three Gulf sources told Reuters” and no one wakes up? Why is that?Journalists are not that dim, as such, I suspect that at least one stakeholders has a larger finger in the journalism pie of Reuters. Just a thought to consider.

Have a great weekend.

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August 10, 2024 · 13:06

A little late aren’t you?

It was the setting I was waiting for. The US has given in to its economic pressures and possibly the fear that China might get to much of a headway. Reuters this morning gives me (and other readers) at https://www.reuters.com/world/us-lift-ban-offensive-weapons-sales-saudi-arabia-sources-say-2024-08-09/ the headline ‘US to lift ban on offensive weapons sales to Saudi Arabia’, which sounds nice but is possibly a little late. Colonel Turki Al-Maliki a member of the Saudi airforce had given us the goods, going all the way back to February 2021. Reuters reported on these attacks in March 2021. In this Reuters is important as they give us ‘Houthis have fired 430 missiles, 851 drones at Saudi Arabia since 2015 – Saudi-led coalition’, the setting is important because civilian targets were aimed at by Houthis amongst them were Saudi airports and structures. So the blockage by the US was weird, especially as the Houthis are a terrorist organisation. So the about turn under the guise of “The Saudis have met their end of the deal, and we are prepared to meet ours”, a little late, isn’t it? But at present the Chinese representatives of parties like the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group is nothing to be sneered at, with the Chengdu J-20 as an optional buy which was (allegedly) discussed at the World Defense Show 2024 in February 2024 (a speculation from me) is giving the Chinese hope to gain much more from the American Defence Industry. Should the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia take that offer, the setting would open the doors (for China) to larger possibilities in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates as well. The damage to the American Industry could amount to an estimated loss of $30-$50 billion over these three nations alone. Not to mention the lucrative service and consultancy jobs. It would be the first definite slam to the value of the US dollar. China is rearing to take up that option in a heartbeat. I discussed (and partially speculated) this in ‘The next Furlong’ which I wrote on March 10th 2022 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/03/10/the-next-furlong/), as such I was and am now in a stage to emphasise the term ‘told you so’. This setting was clear then and it is a speculated more clear now when we see “Under U.S. law, major international weapons deals must be reviewed by members of Congress before they are made final. Democratic and Republican lawmakers have questioned the provision of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia in recent years, citing issues including the toll on civilians of its campaign in Yemen and a range of human rights concerns.” We are about to go into election mode and some politicians will fear for their job a lot more than the American Economy. As such China has a decent chance to crush the American Defence industry. I doubt they fear the Russian abilities as the Russians are getting clobbered by the 20th largest army in the world. The Ukrainians are still damaging the Russian, even after the Russians bombed Ukraine into the stone age. That is not a good sales talk, especially  with the current Russian losses stated below

As such we can accept the Reuters statement, because of its projected validity, yet the words we are given “Democratic and Republican lawmakers have questioned the provision of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia in recent years”, yet the article doesn’t emphasise the attacks by Houthi’s on Saudi civilian targets, which Colonel Turki Al-Maliki showed many clearly going all the way back to 2021, many articles were drowned out by (speculatively speaking) by anti Muslim and anti Saudi voices. Now that China gets to move into a much stronger position, the American administration is taking the gloves off and do what needed to be done in 2021. I reckon that people like Stephanie Kirchgaessner will possibly raise anonymous sources to throw sand in the cogs of common sense. China will love this as this will enable them to get a squadron on Chengdu J-20 into place and optionally ‘gift’ three service teams in the mix, two for maintenance and one to train  Saudi troops. The losses to America will be vast and it will a long term loss. 

As such I think that they were over 2 years late to the party. The initial transfer settings were optionally carved (I have no clear evidence of this) in the airshows of 2021 by SAMI. That would have been the first introductions of Chinese hardware that was to replace whatever America wasn’t giving them at that time. As I personally see it, it might be too late now. You see the Russian losses as shown above are the second piece of evidence. In that setting Russia is no longer a contender and as they are now ‘acquiring’ missiles from North Korea we see a larger question mark, is it merely the lack of missiles or does Russia have a larger problem. I do not know, but Russia isn’t telling, so we are left to our speculations and the Kursk clambake of 2024 Makes things worse for Russia. And in that setting China gets to be the big winner. OK, I admit, this victory would be largely held by the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group (and supporting parties).

Have a nice day and feel free to watch American revenues move to the far east.

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August 4, 2024 · 21:00

The judge shouldn’t

I have two things on my mind. The first is the Olympics. I do not follow it every second, but I was ‘witness’ to two events. The first is a Canadian swimmer, I refer to her as Funny Flounder. I have a thing for alliteration. It is Summer McIntosh. This 17 year young swimmer, on her first Olympic challenge got 3 golden medals and one silver one, she also broke a few of her own world records. I reckon that over the next 6 Olympics she will win a lot more. It is amazing that any person at that age can have so much drive and focus. I know I have focus, but I could never achieve that result in any discipline, not even when I was in the height of my fencing days. Then there was the Dutch Femke Bol. I saw her in the last half of the leg she did, going from 4th to 1st and win the golden medal. I have never seen such an achievement and I am happy I did now. Yet, this was not what was occupying my mind. 

On my mind was the article (at https://www.khaleejtimes.com/business/tech/apple-asks-us-judge-to-toss-antitrust-lawsuit) where we see ‘Apple asks US judge to toss antitrust lawsuit’ we are given that it is one of five blockbuster monopoly cases pending against Big Tech companies. It was a story originally by Reuters. We are given “a lawsuit by federal and state antitrust regulators accusing it of illegally monopolising the smartphone market, saying the case would have a judge redesign its popular iPhone”. Fist off, I am not an expert on anti trust lawsuits and it will probably show in a moment.

I stand by Apple in this case. You see these people are in a wrong state of mind (and then some). I do not have an iPhone, I am an Android person and I will remain an Android person. I have nothing against Apple, I have had an iPad since the very first generation in 2010, it my present from me to me to use in University. It never let me down and in 2020 I replaced it with the iPad Air. 

The first never let my down until it was replaced and I am happy with this one too. So I do like the iOS system. My issue was that the world was eager to play down the iPhone for too much and in an age of wannabe’s thinking of their ego we saw the iPhone take the market by storm. It pretty much destroyed Nokia, Motorola and Microsoft (yes they had a mobile once). It headed ahead of Samsung (a brand I hate) and made short work of Google Pixel and Huawei with their assortment of mobiles. Actually the US government reduced the market share of Huawei. So to these antitrust regulators I state ‘Screw you’ (with a clear lack of anti trust laws). You see whilst the others were propagating their own ego’s and hide behind marketing presentations that were there to ‘appease’ the share holders, Apple did something else, they approached the customers, they listened and approach clients with presentations and newish innovation. So whilst they did that and released the ear buds and the smartwatches, the people looked and listened and joined the iPhone crowd. And there is more, The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 has ben around for a while, so where were they when Netscape was murdered by Microsoft? We have United States of America v. Microsoft Corporation, 253 F. 34 as well as the overturning in 2001, after 11 years in court. There is a difference. Apple created iOS in a presumed (by me) towards the IoT (Internet of Things) and Apple has always heralded interconnectivity on their systems. I have two really bad issues with Apple, but not with my iPod and iPad, they always functioned perfectly. 

This matters, because the US regulators are apparently fond of shooting themselves in the foot. 

And that is what will happen if a judge redesigns its popular iPhone. And the setting (as I see it) is that they never minded anything as Apple stayed in its niche market, but now with the smart phone it is different. You see ever since I looked into matters (around 2011) I saw that the stage was going to change. Mobile devices were going to be generic with optional simplified hardware, the power as going to be the software. So 5 devices and one program solution and for the most that is coming to pass. We have Apple, Google, Huawei and Samsung for the most and Microsoft is out of THAT race. The lag that Motorola and Nokia have are just too big. So when I see “The Justice Department, 19 states and Washington, D.C., accuse Apple of an illegal monopoly on smartphones maintained by imposing contractual restrictions on, and withholding critical access from, developers” I say ‘bollocks’ The issue is who are the iOS developers? In 2011 I have cess to the development kits of Apple (schoolwork) and I never entertained it other than the assignments I had. I was an Apple user, not a developer (I regret that a little right now). 

So when we see “an illegal monopoly on smartphones” I say that this is not an illegal monopoly, it is a system setting that they selected, other than Android (Google, Huawei, Samsung) and Windows (Microsoft), actually I am hard to keep a straight face when setting Windows on a mobile phone. Can you imagine the CrowdStrike damage mobile phones might have had to endure? Oh and when we see this did anyone consider the consequences that were on IBM, who basically forced people to rely on IBM hardware. Perhaps HP can rephrase the nightmare they faced on IBM with their printers. 

There is a second tier to this all, we need to consider that The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 is no longer the best way to go about this for more and more devices. As the mobiles become more generic and it will be on the software to trample a path into this all. When we consider that Google now has the Pixel 8a, Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 8, Pixel Watch 2, Pixel Fold, Pixel Tablet. At least three of these systems are nearly identical, they have 1-2 processors difference. Their difference becomes the software. But that is now, I expect in the next 2-3 years that there will be more devices all powered by the same software and optionally the connecting devices (through the mobile phones) . The lawmakers of 1890 would have never expected this and the differences will grow even more.  And a prime example here is Microsoft. We now get “All you’ll need is a compatible Fire TV Stick, a Bluetooth-enabled wireless controller, and an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription to stream Xbox games. Microsoft is working to allow Xbox Cloud Gaming to stream your entire Xbox library, and not just titles that are part of Game Pass.” Did anyone consider “a compatible Fire TV Stick”? So how long until they revamp the gaming industry with that solution? How long until they (a speculative view) impede devices through that connection where an error stops the Sony Playstation or Nintendo Switch to no longer with with their software because (speculative) software by Microsoft impeded it? Oh, they’ll be all apologetic, but the damage will have been done. We see (at Microsoft) “The Program Install and Uninstall troubleshooter helps you automatically repair issues when you’re blocked from installing or removing programs. It also fixes corrupted registry keys”, so this issue has been around from Windows 7 (2009), and was still around in Windows 10 (2015), so it was an issue for at least 6 years. Do we really want them to get involved? Come to think of it, l I would be on the first plane to Shenzhen if it comes to that. Oh and I haven’t even considered the damage that solution would do to the Amazon Luna. Apple had a solution and it has propagated that solution to all things Apple. They marketed their solution widely and innovatively and innovation is what is missed in many Big Tech companies. Too give another example, last year Apple did something Awesome. We see a meeting with a youthful young sprout (Tim Cook) reporting to Gaia and getting lectured by her. The brilliance was that plenty of companies took a paragraph out of their time to publish that they are on track to be carbon zero. Apple made it a presentation (advertisement) whilst giving a report of their directions. It was funny and it was pretty brilliant. Google and Amazon missed the boat and there was no value in copying that. So that is the innovative presentations that are Apple. The bigger picture is that mobile phones are presented through marketing and Apple marketing slaps the marketing of Google and Samsung. So we see “an illegal monopoly on smartphones” all whilst the others aren’t doing their bit to keep up (or seemingly keep up), so why punish Apple for that?

As I see it the judge has to toss the case, of not for the logic then for the reality that if this setting is pushed and Microsoft steps in, then we come to the conclusion that the US government is merely a tools for Microsoft to stop it from collapsing on itself (my personal view).

Well that was me today. 190 minutes from Monday here now, Vancouver is still pre Sunday breakfast. Have a fun day everyone.

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July 26, 2024 · 04:42

The misaligned cogs

This is a little hard. I just read an article on the Military hacks by North Korea, it doesn’t fit. Let me explain with a little time line.

2012
The Dutch had a press tour in North Korea. The Koreans confiscated temporary their camera’s and the Dutch were howling with laughter, they still had their iPhones and Android equivalents. They kept on filming. The Korean officers had no idea what a smartphone was, as such the Dutch had all the footage.

2014
Sony get hacked and soon thereafter we get all kinds of ‘leaked’ information. In addition within a year (I have no specific date) we get an amalgamated

The FBI later clarified more details of the attacks, attributing them to North Korea by noting that the hackers were “sloppy” with the use of proxy IP addresses that originated from within North Korea. At one point the hackers logged into the Guardians of Peace Facebook account and Sony’s servers without effective concealment. FBI Director James Comey stated that Internet access is tightly controlled within North Korea, and as such, it was unlikely that a third party had hijacked these addresses without allowance from the North Korean government. The National Security Agency assisted the FBI in analysing the attack, specifically in reviewing the malware and tracing its origins; NSA director Admiral Michael S. Rogers agreed with the FBI that the attack originated from North Korea. A disclosed NSA report published by Der Spiegel stated that the agency had become aware of the origins of the hack due to their own cyber-intrusion on North Korea’s network that they had set up in 2010, following concerns of the technology maturation of the country.

The sources were the New York Times, Times magazine, The verge and CNBC. I had issues with the release of information, but my issues were speculative and based on the Dutch field trip to Korea

2017
In ‘The Good, the Bad, and North Korea’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2017/09/30/the-good-the-bad-and-north-korea/) I wrote “I got this photo from a CNN source, so the actual age was unknown, yet look at the background, the sheer antiquity that this desktop system represents. In a place where the President of North Korea should be surrounded by high end technology, we see a system that seems to look like an antiquated Lenovo system, unable to properly play games from the previous gaming generation, and that is their high technology?” This is my second opposition. Between 2012 and 2017 they had apparently gained the ability to produce their own smartphone. This is realistic.

2024
Now we get “North Korean hackers have conducted a global cyber espionage campaign to try to steal classified military secrets to support Pyongyang’s banned nuclear weapons programme, the United States, Britain and South Korea said in a joint advisory on Thursday.

The hackers, dubbed Anadriel or APT45 by cybersecurity researchers, have targeted or breached computer systems at a broad variety of defence or engineering firms, including manufacturers of tanks, submarines, naval vessels, fighter aircraft, and missile and radar systems, the advisory said” (at https://www.reuters.com/world/north-korean-hackers-are-stealing-military-secrets-us-allies-say-2024-07-25/).

My issue (still speculation) is two fold. In the first we get to se that the Sony Hack was apparently not North Korea, but the Guardians of peace (the Lazarus group). We see references to “links to” and a small byte that they are “Originally a criminal group”. It is my speculation that these criminal ‘masterminds’ are either Russian or Chinese. They cater to North Korea as it allows them to act freely and I would expect them to share whatever intel they get with North Korea.

Even if these formerly known criminals were behind this setting, the whole picture doesn’t add up. I reckon that we all work at our own speed, however when we see Reuters give us “one elite group of North Korean hackers had successfully breached systems at NPO Mashinostroyeniya, a rocket design bureau based in Reutov, a small town on the outskirts of Moscow.” I do not debunk that setting, but over the timeline I have seen (many might have seen it), it is possible that this last statement is a smokescreen. Was it breached or were the Russians willing to hand over that ‘victory’ to make them sound more of a threat? In addition when we see “The hackers, dubbed Anadriel or APT45 by cybersecurity researchers, have targeted or breached computer systems at a broad variety of defence or engineering firms, including manufacturers of tanks, submarines, naval vessels, fighter aircraft, and missile and radar systems” I mostly worry about the state of cyber security at our own shores. That they get breached by China or Russia is understandable, They are on par in technology with us. North Korea is not. It is like a hacker with an 80282 AT computer, a processor from 1982 coming up to a server with a Xeon processor stating ‘gimme your data’ It is like a swimmer slamming a great white shark with a BB gun. Utterly ineffective. That is merely the hardware, These hackers would have lacked at least a decade of hacking skills. The NSA and GCHQ would be running circles around them. No, I believe that this is another player making North Korea their patsy. 

Now consider that all (or some) of my speculations are wrong. I get that, this is realistically possible, we still get the stage that the time line doesn’t fit. It is like going from an Apricot PC, to an IBM Q System One in a little over 7 years, without the required resources mind you. The other, more realistic, option is that defence and engineering firms have made a booboo and failed their cyber security requirements and now all avenues are racing to hide these facts. 

Can North Korea get to this point? Yes, that is possible, but it seems to me that ‘western’ criminals are using that place to hide their actions and loot whatever they can, whilst they part time hack into places and hand these secrets over to North Korea. OK, I am still speculating. However, remember that building in Russia filled with hackers? Russian forces had to intervene there. It seems to me that these hackers would like another place to work from. It doesn’t make China innocent either. They might have the same issues and these hackers also need a place to work from. In this story, I merely come to the speculated conclusion that the term ‘North Korean Hacker’ is almost an newly seen oxymoron. 

In all this the cogs are not aligned. In 1776 native American Indians got their hands on rifles. It took time to get good with them. In 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, led by Saigo Takamori faced Japanese forces with modern weapons, it took them time to adequately use these weapons. With the complexity of a system the time line expands. The timeline expands even more when excellence of a system is required. As such I feel that these technology skills do not fit the abilities of the North Koreans. But that is merely my point of view.

Have a great Friday, another 150 minutes until I have breakfast.

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May 14, 2024 · 21:00

Bully tactics?

I know, I added a question mark, because the Reuters article leaves me (at https://www.reuters.com/technology/uae-releases-new-ai-model-compete-with-big-tech-2024-05-13/) with questions. It is nice to see that the UAE is going all in for the AI generation and the Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute (TII) is releasing a Falcon 2 series: Falcon 2 11B, a text-based model, and Falcon 2 11B VLM based system. However the US gives them scrutiny with the statement “American or Chinese technology.” As such the US is drawing battle lines in the middle east. Considering that we see “Emirati AI firm G42 pulled out Chinese hardware and divested stakes in Chinese companies before securing a $1.5 billion investment from Microsoft that was coordinated with Washington”. The danger for the US is that so far Microsoft hasn’t been delivering anything other that mediocrity. As such should this fall over the US will lose a hell of a lot more. Considering that the UAE is now BRICS, there is a chance that Microsoft (and a decent one) that Microsoft will go into its Delay, Blame and Miscommunication protocols. On the other hand I know NOTHING about either the Chinese or the American chip in question. The better setting is that UAE’s Falcon and Meta’s Llama, have made their code publicly available for anyone to use. As such that would imply the better creation of traction with the population. We are also given “Al Bannai said he was optimistic about Falcon 2’s performance and that they were working on “Falcon 3 generation”” In the end this was the first I heard about the Falcon, so we will be getting a lot more soon enough and I should look into the TII and what else they have cooking. You see “a vision-to-language model that can generate a text description of an uploaded image” has added bonus regarding yesterday’s blog. A simple scan of the boarding pass, or luggage tag could imply that booking a new tourist could be done in seconds. I have never been able to check into a hotel in under 5-10 minutes. Take that amount and multiply it by 53 million. That is an annual saving of 505 years. And that is only one country. That and a few other blogs I have written about shows you the essential need to upgrade tourist systems. The question. Then becomes whether such a system will have an Arabic setting and the UAE will have a system that benefits the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Indonesia. All places with growing tourism at present. That is a setting not to be ignored. And the west? Well that remains the question, they will see the benefit of upgrading son enough and when Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt and others see that time benefit, they will all come on board regardless of where that chip originated. 

Time will tell who wins that caper in the end, because the $1.5 billion investment doesn’t last long when you are confronted with Delay, Blame and Miscommunication tactics (if that happens). 

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