Tag Archives: Saudi Arabia

October 27, 2022 · 06:58

The day After

Yes, I am a little slow today. The giddiness and Cheshire Cat behaviour in me after yesterday’s article slowed me down considerably. It is not everyday that you realise that you have a corner that tech giants like Amazon, Google and Microsoft (optionally Apple too) are overlooking. You want to shout what they aren’t seeing from every rooftop, but that gives them the idea and leaves me out of pocket, so I am refraining from this. And at the moment the commercial manager from the Saudi Consulate is already 4 week late, as such there are (hopefully) more gains for me.

But it is not about that, but there is a link to some degree. Several give it to you, but I am going with the South China Morning Post who gives us ‘Saudi Arabia reaffirms energy ties with China amid US fears over oil cuts’. The article (at https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3197218/saudi-arabia-reaffirms-energy-ties-china-amid-us-fears-over-oil-cuts) also gives us:
 

  • Saudi and Chinese energy officials agree to expand links in energy.
  • Riyadh’s relations with Washington have long been unbalanced and the kingdom has more options now, Chinese analyst says.

And I warned for this some time ago, and there is a second speculative setting. A second decrees is not entirely fictive. The stage where Russia will push for this is decently large, Russia has a voice in OPEC+ and America has made enemies, especially by not dealing with Iran. Any win they get here reflects positive on Iran, it leaves a positive light on Russian acts and leaves America and the EU with negativity. I warned about this around February 10th 2022 (well over 10 months ago) when I wrote “The US has a massive disadvantage especially when they were all huffy and puffy on Saudi Arabia, reality bites and that presentable stage will have to be stopped at the earliest convenience (not for me, I am happy if the BAE takes over), yet these stages (also the one the CAAT forced) are all stages that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia took notice of and China will be happy to show that with every presentation they bring.” The stage with tea grannies (image was there as well), and now we see the deployment of that stage and of course Russia wants every pound of hardship given to the EU and the US. In this OPEC+ is a much larger stage where Saudi Arabia is a strong voice, but not the only voice and Russia has other allies. The problems here is that this stage works for China, so not because it helps Russia, but because China has a lot more to gain, especially when the EU and US are slowed down. I did not have a view on the stage a day or a week ago, I saw this danger 10 months ago. So when we are given “Riyadh’s relations with Washington have long been unbalanced” we are given a much larger truth. The Biden administration has options 10 months ago, now not that many and China’s grip is growing, Washington allowed it to be that way. Washington has a delusional stage that reflects on ‘We can have our cake and eat it too’, it is delusional because you cannot have or do two good things at the same time that are impossible to have or do at the same time. You can have cake, or eat cake, but the ‘analysts and theorists’ come with that example, yes we can and where are those dopey’s now? Now that the ball is handed to the other party when you are deep into defence? 

That is a stage that is becoming increasingly hard for the US. They lost the option of being a super power a long time ago, they forfeit what they have because they believed the wrong people and now that is becomes a game of spin, we see the larger stage that ABC showed in the beginning of the month with ‘US ammunition supplies dwindle as Ukraine war drains stockpiles’, yes they were willing to hand it out, but they aren’t replenishing stocks, as such the Ukraine will soon be dependent on the EU and the US cannot afford to replenish its stock at present and the makers of ammunition are all about the green, they have profit margins. As such the day after looks less and less appealing. So they are losing provisions on one side and are losing revenue and resources on the other side. An unbalanced stage from the beginning and that is the larger folly. But the US can revisit those theorists with their ‘You can have your cake and eat it too’ and ask for an explanation. They will not get anything useful, but that is the problem with these theorists on inactivity. I gave the world this view 10 months ago and reading between the lines there was a lot more, but the US doesn’t pay me, so I see no reason to spell it out to them, they pay massive amounts to people to do that for them.

Giving the stage to every Tom, Dick, Harry and tea granny with a cause is now costing too many players too much and the invoice will be due, in this case the invoice is most likely offered to China who sees several reasons and several benefits. If you want to warn us of the Chinese danger, handing them billions in revenue is not a good idea. It diminishes your danger message and it leaves you with empty coffers as well. Wasn’t the Huawei story enough of a warning? 

I will let you mull that all over today, have a great one.

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October 26, 2022 · 14:17

When you can’t see it

This happens, we all cannot see things at times. I am no exclusion to that equation. We all look in directions and we see things, but we also miss things. Things in front of us and things outside of our peripheral vision. This happens to us all. But what does it take to miss a larger stage? This is the thought I giggled about when I saw (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63394516) ‘Google and Microsoft hit by slowing economy’ a mere 4 hours ago. There we see “Alphabet, which owns Google and YouTube, said sales rose just 6% in the three months to September, to $69bn, as firms cut their advertising budgets. It marked the US firm’s weakest quarterly growth in nearly a decade outside of the start of the pandemic”, and it made me giggle because it implies that they have no idea what they are missing. The fact that I am holding on to a $500M revenue stream per month implies that there are options and they go beyond the KSA. Now that Google sees the shores of recession implies that they will seek (hauntingly) for new revenue streams. A larger stage that works for poor little moi. And a stage that holds a little more than I suspected. More because if Amazon and Google remain in the dark, they are hindered by blinkers, or they are just not wake. In an age of recession they remain unchanged towards focal needs and revenue needs. It boggles the mind, but my share just increased 1% and that is not a bad thing, it implies (not guarantees) an optional $5,000,000 a month extra, and an optional additional commission more. And that is merely the second pay-cycle. It is weird, but it implies that for once timing is on my side (which is a perfectly lovely consideration to receive). And to be honest. I do not care about Microsoft, they made their own bed, yet Google is another story and even as I think that Amazon has a better stage, Google is not out of the race (Microsoft can live with their wooden spoon for all I care). So as timing goes on and we consider “Profits at Alphabet dropped nearly 30% to $13.9bn in the quarter, as YouTube ad revenues declined for the first time since the firm started to report them publicly. Sales growth at the firm has slowed for five consecutive quarters” my solution could add well over $6bn annually and that I not the high point, merely the lowest median. So there is plenty of room to grow. And I am smiling like a Cheshire Cat because the big wigs at Google and Amazon are still in the dark, lets hope they remain ignorant until one of them pays me.

I am allowed a small victory dance this morning.

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October 23, 2022 · 20:56

Silence is sewage

Yes, that is quite the difference from the original ‘silence is golden’ isn’t it? But that thought started recently when I was given ‘UN, international community condemn Houthi drone attack on Yemeni oil terminal’ (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2186011/middle-east). The idea started when I had a look and not entirely to my surprise I could not find anything from the BBC, the Guardian, the NOS, and that list goes on. Houthi terrorist actions continue, using Iranian materials and the west ignores it, how quaint. They did mention that Iran is delivering its drones to Russia, but the political parties are all about a hands off regarding Iran. I did make mention of an optional solution to take care of Iranian and Russian nuclear plants, perhaps I need to make that public domain. Perhaps they will wake up then. But back to the events at hand. The Arab News gives us “The UN on Saturday condemned an armed drone attack launched By Yemen’s Houthi militia on a southern oil terminal in Hadramout province a day earlier, saying it was a “deeply worrying” military escalation”, well it isn’t in most newspaper, so I reckon it is not that Important or that critical. And we also get a name with “I condemn the aerial attack claimed by Ansar Allah yesterday”, we also see very little regarding that terrorist and the BBC or the Guardian. One could speculate that the Iranian stakeholders in the UK have a lot more sway than anyone is willing to acknowledge, yet that is mere speculation from me. In addition we are given “Bin Mubarak said he also held a call with the US ambassador to Yemen, Steven Fagin, to discuss the consequences of the attacks on civilian facilities and commercial ports, and how it would worsen the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, adding he “demanded strong measures to put an end to Houthi terrorism.”” It sounds nice, but if the media shuns it to this degree, there is every chance that the Americans will not do too much in the end. They have so far not done anything successful in reigning in Iranian events, so I would not hold my breath on this either. 

The larger problem is not the these events are happening, it is that the powerful voices are lulling the people to sleep, ignoring what Houthi terrorists are up to in Yemen and in Saudi Arabia, all funded by Iran and we need to wake up, we need to see that Iran is becoming a much larger danger than we could ever be comfortable with. For China it is yet another option to spread its influence in the middle east. Consider cardinal Richelieu (Alexander Dumas, the 4 musketeers) stating “who will do something about these blasphemers?” The informative path is open, and those doing something will end with a lot more than the silent ones, but the US and UK could enjoy a further restriction of a million barrels a day. Do you think they will not buy them? The US has had an option to do something for well over 2 years and they did not. It was all about the pariah Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, but what happened when the US needed cheap oil (for whatever reason, they sell most of theirs). Yes, and now the ante is upped because no one is doing anything about Iran, no one is acting when inaction is no longer acceptable. 

When the Yemeni port is hit, when that port becomes inoperable, we will see some tea granny (CAAT) make claims that this was all the fault of Saudi Arabia, all whilst it is the western world that is in part to blame as they are hiding behind ‘Silence is sewage’ and they are fine with that, t least their stakeholders are, are you? This war has been going on for well over 8 years. Not in any point in time did terrorists have such a hold in disturbing a population and several nations. 

The fun part (for me) is that if China makes a stand, when it actually does something about the terrorists by supplying the Yemeni and Saudi governments what they need, what will the west do? For them it will then be too late. There is now a larger area that is in the mix and it could cost the EU and the US a lot more than they ever imagined and the papers will prove me right. Which paper had anything on the attack on  the harbour in Hadramout province? So far I found France24 with a decent piece, the rest? As far as I can tell, not a word. Why is that?

The age of Silence is golden is over, it was never a real golden era to begin with, it only supported greed driven entities and it supported them well. We need to change the book of tactics before it is too late for too many, but that is merely my view on the matter.

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October 23, 2022 · 00:29

Wheels are for sleeping

Yes, that is the indication. So far I have been busy redesigning over half a dozen games and I get the impression that asleep at the wheel is a common factor at both at Amazon and Google, might be at Microsoft a well, but I do not care about them, they can become obsolete all on their own. The redesign is essential as there are factors for a larger audience and one does want to entice that audience as such I started with half a dozen games, kept the overall appeal, kept the foundation of the game, but the rest got upgraded to the improvements we got the last decade. And 3 of them had 90+ scores, so they can be remade into something better fitting this decade and this generation. Even as I am looking into Unreal engine 5 (where applicable), we have a much larger optional setting and this I did after having a sandwich, before I had a cup of milk and I am merely waking up. We have had a lot of games that were contemporary, we had games that were in the stage or the age of the arcade, but why are they abandoned? They were good games and even as we see everyone go nuts for some goat simulator (for some reason Microsoft got that right and it is massively addictive to some), they forgot a game like Soul Edge (1995), the Dreamcast had it as Soul Calibur (1998) where it scored a whopping 97%, a game that close to perfection was partially forgotten and what was rereleased was nowhere near as perfect and the makers decided they were more clever and created a lesser product. The lines in those days were that this game alone was reason to buy a Dreamcast. Why are these gaming executives so short of memory? Soul Calibur was all about fun and they created a game that did that and more. There are a lot more examples and more could be done to make it changed enough to get a new IP registered. One day and I come up with half a dozen games that could be upgraded and Google (deciding not to be a developer and dropping the Google Stadia coming January) is letting $500 million a month slip by, well they must have the corner on something. I for one am willing to guess that they got the corner on Melatonin (sleeping ingredient). And that is merely one part of one branch. I  truly wonder what Tencent is up to, because if they are more awake then there is every chance that Amazon will lose their share as well. And these two got that done in under two years. Good going guys (girls also). 

And as I am vamping a few more titles, I remembered a game from 1991 called Streets of Rage, a simple game, but addictive and a game that could entice plenty of people. You see, this new ‘gaming’ industry is a lot less about making money. It is about the microtransactions, that is where they think the real money is and when my solution is accepted and 50 million subscriptions start cancelling the other options, these people will learn the hard way what an empty IP looks like. They all ignored that gamers want to have fun and for some it is racing, for some it is stealth, for some it is bashing and in these groups none of them are overly excited of microtransactions. So when they get a micro-transaction free environment, they will move. I am completely convinced of that. These people also are not interested to pay by watching advertisements. So there are two elements that would fall away pretty quickly and in all that the current ‘champions’ would end up being tomorrows losers. I reckon that is here Tencent is heading as well, so they will get two tiers of advantages of all those who haven’t figured it out yet and that will cost the wrong people a lot of marketshare. But not to fret, they are willing to lose that marketshare, I know because I cannot  see them making any alterations, so they are definitely waiting until it is too late. But that is big tech for you. So whilst they are asleep at the wheel, I will continue embellishing my IP for the current customer line. And there it will stay, especially when the right people figure out I wasn’t making a funny, and that my part in gaming since 1984 implies I actually know stuff. But feel free to disagree, it is your right and when you come up short, you merely did it yourself.

As such I do hope to have a field day. Because hope is still part of that equation, we all hope, we can do little more. And lets give Microsoft a hand, only yesterday we were given “Many enterprises continue to leave cloud storage buckets exposed despite widely available documentation on how to properly secure them”, and the hand was not in sarcasm. You see ‘despite widely available documentation’ implies that this is a Layer 8 ID10T issue (aka: idiot users). So when we read “SOCRadar, the threat intelligence firm that reported the issue to Microsoft, described discovering the data in an Azure Blob storage bucket that was publicly accessible over the Internet. The data was associated with more than 65,000 companies in 11 countries and included statement-of-work documents, invoices, product orders, project details, signed customer documents, product price lists, personally identifiable information (PII), and potentially intellectual property as well.” Yes, it gets to be that bad and it is NOT all on Microsoft, some is, not all. But keep screaming that Azure is fine, especially when 65000 companies are placing their data on the internet. As such the China and Huawei issues are not an issue, people are placing their data online all by themselves. Cisco was also a factor, but they seemingly fixed the issues they had. In all this it matters, because streaming opens a new can of worms and I am opening a separate one as well, especially when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia buys my IP. In all this we see that there is a much larger need to stop being the inclusive wanker. It is time to call out the larger flaws and stop messing about, or buy a Jaguar (a Crazy People 1990 reference).

This is one of the reasons I do not want Microsoft anywhere near my IP, and that is in part why I offered it to Saudi Arabia. These tech players might bully me, but they have a much larger problem if they mess with Saudi Arabia and when the Saudi party realises just how big the IP can be, Microsoft will be kept outside, of that I am convinced. It was also in part why I hoped that Amazon would have called earlier, but they slept for months, so I am happy to head to plan B. And as I embellish my IP the chances will increase and increase. Some wheels might be for sleeping but my cogs rotate unrelentlessly and they keep on rotating, I owe that to myself even if it is merely to show where all the others went wrong.

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October 20, 2022 · 14:01

The evolution of gaming

I have spoken on this before, and in that I tended to be specific, almost micro-manageable. It comes when you design IP, it is a path where you want to track every element so that you are not left in a loop, left with too many unknown parts. It is the way things go and especially when you do not have a brain-storm team, you end up designing as much as possible all parts of the equation. This is not new, this is how it is. 

However, In this stage I need to take a helicopter approach, I need to oversee everything (sort of), I need to take a wider stroll over this stage because the next part is not how to create a game, most can do that, most can set that stage. I need to create a stage where close to a dozen games a year can be created, a dozen a year for 3 years at least. So that the people are given new choices, new options. Streaming is a different kettle of fish and it cannot be approached in old ways. Weirdly enough the one I bitched about the longest (Ubisoft) has a clear advantage in streaming games. As such their approach towards GaaS is not the best but it is the most evolved one and they have a truckload of IP that comes with it, as such they are in pole position to get there. They lack elements, but they have a clear group of titles that could become clear winners in a streaming station. There are other elements in play and not all the players are clearly identified and there are other elements, like certain titles (example the Horizon games) that people would want to play again and those are not contenders, they are happy alliances. But it cannot be just about that, any system needs new titles, remastered titles and the less known, the better the chances. It comes as an addition towards the 50 million subscriptions I made a claim towards, but to sit on my laurels is not my way, If I can make the essential steps to make it not 50 million, but up to 75 million from year one onwards, I will have succeeded to a much larger degree and to end up seeing Microsoft executives choke on their Azure yaps, all whilst none of them look blue is a clear win for little moi and I like my wins, especially when it is warranted. And for them? Well the old saying (my old saying) applies. The blowback of sarcasm is merely irony, and I like to serve my irony with a wooden spoon award. It is not enough for them to fail, I want all others to see why they failed, why they should have been regarded as stupid from the get go and that is merely my bonus. So I am vamping up two of the three elements and it should be enough to get the ball rolling, and then I hit a snag. Well not exactly a snag, because I cannot test the snag. It leaves a trail and that I cannot use at present (well not until after the Saudi government paid me). And I have a stage that needs to be repeated a dozen times so that there is a floor-plan to work from and that is going according to plan (for now). There are two elements in play. How to make a worksheet, a plan of attack on the premise of art where we can identify enough elements to make sure that most hurdles are addressed, that most issues are identified. That is the task and that is not simple project management. Some project managers will make claim that they can do that, but outside of less than a dozen, how many +90% games have been released? The Xbox has released 6 games with a 90+ rating since 2020, over two years only 6 make the cut. Sony had 8, a clear win, but still low when you consider the investment of the dozens of games that were created. And it is not merely the 90+ games. One real hit was AC Origins which only got 81%. So there is another pool to work with and I decided to look at another pond altogether. I wrote about that too and when you consider the alternatives the investment per game decreases enormously creating a shifted investment number, one that is ultimately more rewarding. And there we have the station we need to look at, the second branch is close to complete with well over a dozen titles. It will take mere days to get the second dozen and branch two will be close to complete and then branch three starts, but I will not write to much about that. I like my surprises a much as I like to serve my plate of irony.

The evolution of gaming is underway, not because I said so, but because streaming games have advantages over console games, but it comes with additional dangers. A much better testing phase is required, the one elements too many game designers are weak on. Do not take my word on it, you merely have to look at the title AC Valhalla, released two years ago and it was still receiving patches three weeks ago. That side needs to improve, it needs to improve a lot. And there is the rub, any solution consultant that gives you the ‘these things happen’ line is wasting your time. Proper testing takes care of that and this is not done by too many. Streaming can only truly evolve when they have a better handle on it. This is not because it is GaaS, it is because Service will only last when the product is properly made and there Ubisoft left too many issues in the field. So you need an alternative to what they have, and there the second branch is the optional solution to getting traction to more people, and in streaming traction is the game that makes you the winner of the streamers and I have no intentions of losing, that is one definite that I am making clear to one party and optional Tencent too. But Tencent is complicated, they decided to work with Microsoft, making them the optional loser from the start, but that is the stage I am faced with, the question is what are my options next? If the Saudi government buys what I have, I am in the clear and my retirement starts. But if they decide otherwise, I will need an options and this is merely one of three IP bundles, so I am not out of the game yet, but I reckoned that the idea and proof towards $500,000,000 a month would have been enough, but I cannot rely on people making sense at times, as such I need a fallback position (as expressions go). And there I am doing work that is less creative, way too much tedious but essential, I get that. So here I am trying to work things out. On the other hand, in 6 hours 55 minutes and 23 seconds the premiere of Black Adam starts, so off to the city I go and have a bit of fun, I have earned it. 

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October 19, 2022 · 17:29

She just doesn’t get it

OK, I have been sitting on this for a few hours. It started when I saw the article (at https://www.theguardian.com/global/2022/oct/17/senator-raises-alarm-saudis-could-share-us-defence-technology-with-russia) titled ‘Senator raises alarm Saudis could share US defense technology with Russia’, I wondered who wanted to play the daily mail card with a title like that and of course, everyone favourite political tool and least acceptable journalist Stephanie Kirchgaessner was there. The person who bashes Saudi Arabia whenever she can. So I decided to take a gander towards PROPERLY informing the people. Well, we all need a hobby, don’t we?

It starts from the very beginning. “A senior Democratic lawmaker has raised alarms about the possibility that sensitive US defense technology could be shared with Russia by Saudi Arabia in the wake of the kingdom’s recent decision to side with Moscow over the interests of the US” this is the first shovel of BS. The kingdom doesn’t side, it seeks a path that is the best for any nation, its own nation. And in continuation the US did this to themselves! So when we get in continuation “following Opec+’s decision to cut oil production, said he would “dig deeper into the risk” in discussions with the Pentagon.” OK, OPEC+ decided to cut oil production, this is the right of OPEC+. Now, we can argue if it was Russia pushing that button, which might make sense, but I did not see the papers on that meeting, so I actually do not know the exact setting there. But oil production was cut and here lies the rub. “If you want cheap oil, you do not bite the hand that feeds you that cheap oil. President Biden promised to make Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman al Saud a pariah and he did keep his word. But it was never based on any actual facts and any factual rulings. So when this happened the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was treated as a lessened ally. This has CONSEQUENCES! So I was pretty much howling with laughter when President Biden and Boris Johnson went like shivering little chihuahuas asking for cheap oil. OK, Boris Johnson probably took a page out of Oliver Twist and asked “please sir, can I have some more?” But both faltered and failed. 

As such we now get “The decision was seen in the US capital as a sign of Riyadh siding with Russia in its war with Ukraine, and as a possible attempt to hurt Joe Biden and Democrats ahead of next month’s critical midterm election by raising the price of petrol at the pump” Now, I personally disagree with the Russia setting, but I get that some might think that. Why? Because they are missing the obvious especially some journalist who is friends with an UN essay writer named Eggy Calamari (or something like that). To see this, you merely need the use of a calculator or an Abacus. We get part of this from Robert Kaufman in Newsweek “The U.S. imports oil because consumption of oil products—about 20 million barrels per day—is greater than the quantity of crude oil it produces, about 18 million barrels per day” this is supported by the EIA (Energy Information Administration) who gives us “the United States exported about 8.54 million b/d of petroleum to 176 countries and 4 U.S. territories.” So it sells its own oil for $100 per barrel (fictive example number) whilst expecting that it can buy crude oil from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for $60 per barrel (also fictive example number) hence pocketing $40 per barrel in its own pocket and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia basically says that this stopes now. The US can buy oil at the Brent Crude Oil price and the greedy people do not want that, so now they need to do with less, even though they know that they sell the bulk of their oil, leaving the US and its citizens without oil. And no one is looking at that part of the equation. 

So when I saw “Both Biden and his Democratic allies in Congress have expressed frustration with the move and called for a realignment in the Saudi relationship, with the US president warning that Saudi would face “consequences” for the move”, my living room just filled with laughter. What consequences? The KSA can watch the US implode upon itself and it better realises that there is also a consequence to it selling its oil. You stopped treating the KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) as an ally years ago, you wasted time by censoring too much of the actions by Iran on the KSA and Iran’s actions in Yemen. All this was enough to stop the pumps and Russia would not have been a factor. It is my personal speculation that the KSA is keeping a distance between them and Russia, too close ties might make them lose a lot more friends and the KSA would be left with Russia, Lithuania and North Korea, two nations it does not care about for one inch. And that was all visible, but the wannabe journo does not give you that, does she?

There is however one side that is valid. It comes from Senator Blumenthal. “Richard Blumenthal  seeks reassurances from Pentagon that ‘they are on top of’ risk of sharing information with Gulf state” I believe the question to be unfounded, but it is a fair question. There is an essential need for the US to seek the best path for America and keeping classified out of Russian hands is a fair call to make. Yet the added “siding with the Russians in this manner – is so dramatic. I think it calls for a response” is partly false. You see OPEC+ is a group of 23 members and Saudi Arabia is only one of them. That majority is a lot larger and I do not know (but expects) that Saudi Arabia was one of them. This is the consequence of dropping Saudi Arabia as an ally. The BS sanctions in the US and the UK with the tea granny organisation (CAAT) all whilst Iran is attacking without consequence and now that Iran is sending its drones to Russia, will these two players do anything at all? or will thy merely pretend to make calls to Tehran all whilst they know perfectly well that this will have no consequence? When you drop a friend from your party you should not cry over the fact that there are consequences of that act. Even on the premise of all this, I was happy to offer my IP to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. If this enables more power to them to include technology and social media, my choice will give me the same pebbles but now with a much larger stage where the other wannabe’s can cry over even more spilled milk.

So when we are given “Jeff Abramson, a senior fellow at the Arms Control Association, said Saudi Arabia had been a major purchaser of US military equipment, including some of its most sophisticated weapons systems, for decades” true, but not lately isn’t it? That is why China is at the gates of Riyadh ready to sell THEIR equipment to Saudi Arabia, making the US lose even more billions in revenue, and in part this was paid for with millions of barrels of oil per day, as such the United States did this to themselves, but I do recognise that they want their secrets to remain THEIR secrets, especially as we see that Russian hardware is buckling all over Russia and the Ukraine. And it is then we see the larger screw up. It is given with “It is plausible that the Saudis have information about those weapons”, this implies that Jeff Abramson is not clear or is in cautious denial implying that there is no danger or he just doesn’t know what the commercial people informed Saudi Arabia about and it seems to me that Stephanie Kirchgaessner never picked up on that because there is no follow up on the foundation of ‘plausible’ and in addition we see “Prince Khalid bin Salman, said on Twitter that the decision by OPEC+ to cut oil output was made unanimously for “purely” economic reasons” which raises the question of what the US will do about the other 22 votes? This article raises one decent question and hides it in the BS of several other sides. Yes, the Guardian is really proud of the journo they have there, aren’t they?

I wonder what comes next, but if I have my way that would be a moot point because the impact would cost tech firms well over $500 million a month, they will not lose all that money, but they will lose a chunk of it and with that a lot more in the aftermath. Yes, these people really keep their eyes on the price. 

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October 17, 2022 · 19:55

The ranking of potatoes

There was an insight in July. In this I wrote “I sometimes get a month subscription to load up on missed things and I have to as we all have budgets. I reckon that the UK is facing a much harder time. When they get to decide on two of the items (Food, Rent and heating) Netflix will be the first to go, and after that cheaper internet deals” and guess what. The Guardian gave us 4 hours ago (at https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/oct/17/uk-homes-cancel-streaming-services-to-reduce-spending) ‘UK homes cancel streaming services to reduce spending’, all whilst my quote comes from Realisation, which is three months older (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/07/14/realisation-2/), so the issues given three months ago were largely ignored (like wannabe analysts stating that the loss of subscriptions were a mystery to them, or something like that). I saw the writing on the wall and the Guardian caught up three months later. As such I look at “total number of homes with at least one subscription fell by 937,000 from January to September” I see no real mystery here. As such we also get “The premiere of two of the most-hyped and expensive shows of all time – the $650m (£580m) productions of Rings of Power and House of the Dragon – failed to prove a big enough draw to reverse a decline of another 234,000 homes with at least one paid streaming service in the third quarter” yes, because these people really want to put their housing or food on the template of chance when it comes to a TV series and the setting that they are the most expensive or most hyped shows do not matter. People need to pay for food, people ned to pay rent and these elements were out on the shelf for too long. There is no real cap on food and the rent cap is limited to say the least. So these series miss out and those who have a few quid left, they will buy it when it is released on bluray. Which is given to us as “as cost-conscious households choose paying for essentials – such as energy, food and mortgage repayments – over home entertainment”, a simple part of the equation I saw three months ago and that is to some extent the solution I saw in gathering 50 million subscriptions. Because that will become a much larger station and it will get the one doing it $500 million or more. But then these people were aware, were they not? Consider that I accused Amazon and Google of letting that lie on the floor and three months after I stated the writing was coming to a wall near them. They did wake up and investigate, did they not? For all I care Elon Musk can buy it now and make life for them and Microsoft a lot harder. But I cannot do that yet, I am still awaiting response from Riyadh. So when we are given “The world’s biggest streamer, which has cut staff and become more disciplined with its $17bn annual content budget after earlier this year reporting its first subscriber declines in a decade, is forecast to add just 1 million new signups globally when it reports third quarter figures on Tuesday” I wonder if they caught on at all. More disciplined is a joke expression, it is like Google with their wannabe cheerleading “I am a lion”, all nice, but we know that the hunt is done by the lionesses, the lions just get them pregnant twice a day if possible. You see the lions are their for the lionesses the real hunters and “lions mate roughly every 15 to 20 minutes for two or three days—200 to 300 times in succession”, as such when you realise that what were the salespeople hoping at Google? For me the laughing matter becomes when (or if) Riyadh buys my IP, when they trump Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook all in one swoop. I wonder who will be crying like a chihuahua then? Will it be Reed Hastings, Andy Jassy, Satya Nadella, Mark Zuckerberg or all of them? And it was not a hard equation, the fact that I saw this coming 26 weeks ago makes it that easy and there is optionally more, but I want to have a little more fun with this, as I should be allowed to.

The ranking of potatoes is not who is the biggest, it becomes a ranking of whom was the most idle of the lot and that insight might give you a few handles on where you have to go with what you have. 

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October 13, 2022 · 19:41

Freezing Arabia

OK, this was new. I had the story for about a week. I got it from the Dutch news channel NOS, but they weren’t the only one to have it (at https://nos.nl/artikel/2447021-schaatsers-en-skiers-in-2029-naar-saudi-arabie-voor-aziatische-winterspelen). It looked ‘cool’ enough, but I had no idea what to do about it. Saudi Arabia has been appointed as the place where the Asian Winter-games will be held in 2029. The place will need to build its ski and skating resort. So in the place where (according to legend) demons go to cool off, it will become the future place to freeze solid. So the place where it was at one point (June 2012) 51.4 degrees Celsius it will need to become cold enough to hold snow for well over two weeks, and they also need to hold water in a solid form. The second is not too difficult, even though you see the man made pond in Neom on the image. 

Covered ice rinks are not new, I reckon that the technology now exists to make one stay solid in the centre of Riyadh. It is the ski challenge where snow is kept fresh for two weeks, that will be decently new. More interestingly it should become the jewel in many crowns to pull that off. So consider that you are looking at designed slopes, those slopes optionally need to be adjustable and then dozens of snow machines, will need to cover that area within a timing of 8 hours. The technical stage seem clear, but I reckon that this has never been done on that scale and it will be an enormous technical achievement if the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be able to pull it off. I wonder if they will also create the worlds first artificial bob sled track, but that is all for another day. I reckon that we will see initial releases of images and plans around 2026. For now we can start to get used to the idea that there can be snow fields in Saudi Arabia, I wonder if any Saudi’s ever considered the expression ‘when hell freezes over’ because if they pull this off they will be the first nation in history to show that hell can freeze over and that gives me ideas on collecting outstanding debt markers with hundreds of ladies. I am devious, if not extremely creative at times. 

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October 12, 2022 · 19:52

No one wonders?

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

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

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

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

 

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October 8, 2022 · 15:30

Another fine mess I got myself into

Yup, a paraphrased line from Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. It is still in part true. I got yesterday’s IP and created a second iteration making it more and more innovative. It was already innovative, but I want to stretch the IP to its maximum. Yet there was also the printable display. Even as a concept it is worthy of pursuing and improving upon. The initial part is not merely the materials used, but how they are applied. You see, if I can make this solution a little more flexible, than they could fit a column. I checked dozen of mall video’s (not just the one in Toronto) and I saw that there are options for hundreds of columns. So there could be a market for thousands even tens of thousands displays. The printable display was a solution with 1-2 markets in sight, but now I see that there is a much larger application if only part of the solution could be set to a more flexible mould. It is not out of the question, but I tend to focus on longevity. The solution needs to work 5 years from now and that is a rather tall order when the foundation of the display is too flexible. So I got myself into a little bit of a mess. I can see the solution, but not what materials are best to be used for the flexible display. I still have v1.3 (non flexible printable display) yet my soul is greedy for the cerebral victory, I have to solve this. And solve it I will, but that is the mess I got myself into. 

A such my mind wanted to travel all over the place and see what else is possible, but to be honest. I do not really have to the first version of the printable display is optionally fine and is close to becoming public domain. It is a setting where I feed the hungry small fish public domain, a setting that the larger fish cannot have and they become jealous and wonder what else I have and now we have ourselves a clambake. You see I feel certain that when the larger firms see all this IP pass them by, they will suddenly decide to wake up (a speculation from my side) and suddenly they are all interested in all the other stuff (except for the military applications, they are DARPA and DARPA alone), OK, that was not quite true, one solution was handed to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia because if Europe and the US will not deal with the Iranian navy, I reckon that the KSA was entitled to this freebee. In addition with the Russian threats, when they act on them the snow-globe solution (see previous blogs 2021 and 2020) becomes public domain too. I have to let then know that there are people who do not now and not ever trust Iran and those willing to act will get the ammunition they need. Which off course implies that I got myself in additional settings that relates to ‘That’s another fine mess I got myself into’. As such I tend to get myself in plenty of messes, but for now I am focussed on getting my printable display to V2.0, which should be enough, but the mind yearns for challenges and it seeks new frontiers to investigate. I will let it do its stuff, it is how I got the latest IP in the first place. I have no idea what the value is, but I actually do not care. The larger station is now my streaming solution that could entice well over 50 million new subscriptions. It is enough for now. 

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