Tag Archives: South Korea

The size of that

Something no woman has ever sad to me, but that is for another day. You see, the story (at https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/saudi-arabias-ai-co-humain-looking-for-us-data-center-equity-partner-targets-66gw-by-2034-with-subsidized-electricity/) In this DCD ( Data Center Dynamics) gives us ‘Saudi Arabia’s AI co. Humain looking for US data center equity partner, targets 6.6GW by 2034 with subsidized electricity’ and they throw numbers at us. First there is the money “Plans $10bn venture fund to invest in AI companies”, which seems fair enough. But after that we get “The company said that it would buy 18,000 Nvidia GB300 chips with “several hundred thousand” more on the way, that it was partnering with AWS for a $5bn ‘AI Zone,’ signed a deal with AMD for 500MW of compute, and deployed Groq chips for inference.” I reckon that will split and split again, the shares of Nvidia. Then we get the $5 billion AI zone and then the AMD deal for 500MW of compute and deployed Groq chips for a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning. Yes, that is quite the mouthful. After that we get a pause for the “How much of Humain’s data center focus will be on Saudi-based facilities is unclear – its AMD deal mentions sites in the US.” As such, we need to see what this is all about and I am hesitant to mention conclusions for a field that I am not aware of. Yet, the nagging feeling is in the back of my mind and it is jostling in an annoying way. You see, lets employ somewhat incorrect math (I know it is not a correct way). Consider 18,000 computers draining the energy net of 500 watt per system per second. That amounts to 9,000 GW energy (speculatively), and that is just the starting 18,000. As such the setting will be several times the amount needed for fueling these AI centers. Now, I know my calculations are widely of and we are given “At first, it plans to build a 50MW data center with 18,000 Nvidia GPUs for next year, increasing to 500MW in phases. It also has 2.3 square miles of land in the Eastern Province, which could host ten 200MW data centers.” I am not attacking this, but when we take into consideration that amount of energy requirements for processors, storage, cooling and maintaining the workflow my head comes up short (it usually does) and the immediate thought is where is this power coming from? As I see it, you will need a decently build Nuclear reactor and that reactor needs to be started in about 8 hours for that timeline to be met. Feel free to doubt me, I already am. Yet the needed energy to fuel a 66GW Data centre of any kind needs massive power support. And the need for Huawei to spice up the data cables somewhat. As I roughly see it, a center like that needs to plough through all the spam internet it gets on a near 10 seconds setting. That is all the spam it can muster in a year per minute (totally inaccurate, but you get the point). The setting that the world isn’t ready for this and it is given to us all in a mere paragraph. 

Now, I do not doubt the intent of the setting and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is really sincere to get to the ‘AI field’ as it is set, but at present the western setting is like what builder thought it would be and overreached (as I see it) and fraudulently set the stations of what they believed AI was and blew away a billion dollars in no time at all (and dragged Microsoft along with it) as they backed this venture. This gives me donut (which I already had) on the AI field as the AI field is more robust as I saw it (leaning on the learnings of Alan Turing) and it is a lot more robust then DML (Deeper Machine Learning) and LLM (Large Language Models), it really is. And for that I fear for the salespeople who tried to sell this concept, because when they say “Alas, it didn’t work. We tried, but we aren’t ready yet”, will be met with some swift justice in the halls of Saudi Arabia. Heads will roll intuit instance and they had that coming as I foresaw this a while before 2034. (It is 2025 now, and I am already on that page). 

Merely two years ago MIT Management gave us ‘Why neural net pioneer Geoffrey Hinton is sounding the alarm on AI’ and there we get the thing I have warned about for years “In a widely discussed interview with The New York Times, Hinton said generative intelligence could spread misinformation and, eventually, threaten humanity.” I saw this coming a mile away (in 2020, I think) You see, these salespeople are so driven to their revenue slot that they forget about Data verification and data centers require and ACTUAL AI to drag trough the data verifying it all. This isn’t some ‘futuristic’ setting of what might be, it is a certainty that non-verified data breeds inaccuracies and we will get inaccuracy on inaccuracy making things go from bad to worse. So what does that look on a 66GW system? Well, for that we merely need to look back to the 80’s when the term GIGO was invented. It is a mere setting of ‘Garbage In, Garbage Out’ no hidden snags, no hidden loopholes. A simple setting that selling garbage as data leaves is with garbage, nothing more. As such as I saw it, I looked at the article and the throwing of large numbers and people thought “Oh yes, there is a job in there for me too” and I merely thought, what will fuel this? And band that, who can manage the see-through of the data and the verification process, because with those systems in place a simple act of sabotage by adding a random data set to the chain will have irreparable consequences in that data result. 

So, as the DCD set that, they pretty much end the setting with “By 2030, the company hopes to process seven percent of the globe’s training and inference workloads. For the facilities deployed in the kingdom, Riyadh will subsidize electricity prices.” And in this my thoughts are Where is that energy coming from?” A simple setting which comes with (a largely speculative setting) that such a reactor needs to be a Generation IV reactor, which doesn’t exist yet. And in this the World Nuclear Association in 2015 suggested that some might enter commercial operation before 2030 (exact date unknown), yet some years ago we were given that the active member era were “Australia, Canada, China, the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), France, Japan, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States” there is no mention of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and I reckon they would be presenting all kinds of voices against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (as well as the UAE) being the first to have one of those. It is my merely speculative nature to voice this. I am not saying that the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) is a passively safe generation III+ reactor could not do this, but the largest one is being build by Hitachi (a mere 4500MW) and it is not build yet. The NRC granted design approval in September 2014, and it is currently not build yet. That path started in 2011. It is 2025 now, so how long until the KSA gets its reactor? And perhaps that is not needed for my thoughts, but we see a lot of throwing of numbers, yet the DCD kept us completely in the dark on the power requirements. And as I see it the line “Riyadh will subsidize electricity prices” does not hold water as the required energy settings are not given to us (perhaps not so sexy and it does make for a lousy telethon) 

So I am personally left with questions. How about you? Have a great day and drink some irradiated tea. Makes you glow in the dark, which is good for visibility on the road and sequential traffic safety.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media, Politics

The one does not imply the other

We have seen the news on tariffs, we have seen the news on DeepSeek and it has exploded the views on LinkedIn as every influencer wants to cash in on the news on DeepSeek, in one way or another.

However, we forgot about one part. We forgot that we still have a nation called Ukraine that is at war with Russia. Some time ago we saw that Russia is unable to fight this war alone, so they called in the help of North Korea. We all saw them being proud as peacocks marching in unison and it looks impressive to almost any soldier and their generals. Yet the reality is different. We are given (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjder8zgk48o) ‘Ukraine says North Koreans may have pulled out of front line’, my first thought was “Is it merely a regrouping tactic?” That happens. We can on the offense, we can select defense or we can evade. Evasion makes sense after the losses reported, but evasion towards what? Regrouping, or pulling out. Regrouping makes more sense to me. 

The BBC reports “Western officials told the BBC that, out of some 11,000 troops sent from North Korea to fight for Russia, 1,000 had been killed in just three months.” A setting that boils down to decimation of ones troops. This is not surprising, as war is a lot different from parades. But decimation is a serious setting. It amounts to the knowledge that most opponents could do serious damage to the North Korean army. So whilst it might bolster 1.3 million active troops. A decent skirmish could cost that army 130,000 troops and that is merely in the first three months. The larger setting is that Russia mistook parade strength in actual battle strength and that is just not the case. The Ukrainians know that and also realize that the fight is not yet over, more important the smudge they delivered will also soil Kim Jong Un and he does not take kindly to get soiled. I reckon that the regroup comes with the message that they better be successful or not come back at all. This is the setting of desperation and desperate soldiers are a lot more dangerous. I am inclined to believe the quote “The newspaper quoted US officials as saying the withdrawal may not be a permanent one, and the soldiers could return after receiving additional training or after the Russians come up with new ways of deploying them to avoid such heavy casualties.” The BBC gave us. There is every chance that they will get reinforcements from Pyongyang and the clear message to succeed or do not come back alive.

That last part is speculation bordering on presumption, yet with the facade we have seen with President Putin and Supreme leader Kim Jong Un my view seems to be a decently accurate one. My biggest worry is how much damage will Ukraine get in the coming year, because this is not over, not even close and unless Russia is given a truckload of damage, this will not end. Hence my two inventions that could have woken up DARPA with the intent that they test the ‘contraptions’ before handing it to Ukraine. As such I created something to block ports (a sneaky stealth system) and smelting to meltdown nuclear reactors. If the ones in South Russia stop working that army loses a lot of power (and heating) setting the Russian army to a stand still, should places like the Port of Olya gets stopped to utilize troops and materials for the front the reinforcement setting fall short. I saw that the solution is less effective in Odessa as it is a much more spread but part of the harbor could be blocked, the Nuclear reactor solution has a few question marks and both inventions were designed to aid Saudi Arabia and take Iran out of the equation. But they work on Russian principles as such it should work for both. 

Yet, this is not about me, it never was. People don’t consider the larger window. When a near defeated President Putin runs to North Korea for help, what more will he do? Consider that he mobilizes all his troops and North Korea does theirs. Do you think South Korea will be overlooked? The larger setting is that should (being the operative word) be successful, the pressure on Japan grows immensely. Do you think that any dictator (sorry I meant supreme leader) will simply stop at one win? Do you think Ukraine is enough for President Putin? It is this the shallowness how some people think?

The reality is quite different. They see that losses are a mere hinder block to more and they both want more, they both are on the verge of seeing the loss of basic necessities in their countries and they realize that they are now on borrowed time, they both are. They need a decent win to ‘depart’ the scene with the honor of victory and that is where we currently stand. Russia and North Korea never counted on the tenacity of Zelensky and his troops. So where will this go? That depends on the support the Ukrainian troops receive in the near future and that is where we come in, preferably as soon as possible. 

Have a great day in supposedly peaceful resolution.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media, Military, Politics

My presumption is real

This article goes over several parts, parts you might agree with and parts you will not agree with. That is fair! You see several parts are set to presumption, which is still better than speculation. The difference is seen in the meaning. Presumption is an idea that is taken to be true on the basis of probability. There is more than probability in my case. I have worked in IT since 1983, as such I have been around (at least twice). Speculation is the forming of a theory or conjecture without firm evidence. And both are important because I am talking from the past, which is not always seen or accepted as evidence. This is fair, and this is why people might disagree and I get it, never take anything for granted, not Ven when I say it. I love the expression from NCIS in this case ‘Trust but verify’ Gibbs was right, always verify what you learn. It is the only real way to move forward.

So this all started yesterday with an article. The article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66118831) gives us ‘Gallium and germanium: What China’s new move in microchip war means for world’, they say it is 8 hours old, but I saw the article a little over 25 hours ago, so not sure what changed. The setting is “Under the new controls, special licences are needed to export gallium and germanium from the world’s second largest economy. The materials are used to produce chips and have military applications. The curbs come after Washington made efforts to limit Beijing’s access to advanced microprocessor technology.” You can turn and twist this to your heart content, but the setting is inaccurate and largely incorrect. Not what you read, that is fine. But there is a whole mess that precedes this and to see this we need to go back to the 90’s. You see, the IT world saw hoe the arms race was going and how military contractors were filling their pockets and the IT world took a page from that stage and started its IT Armistice race. I was caught up in it as well. A 386, a 486, a 486DX2, the Pentium, the Pentium 2, the Pentium-450, the Pentium2, as such between 1993 and 2002 I had wasted thousands on 7 systems, 7 systems in 10 years and I had enough. You see for the most the Pentium2 was enough to do 90% of everything I did, except gaming. Then I switched to consoles and saved myself thousands more. As such I avoided to the largest extend the graphic card war which might seem small but high end gaming needs a $1200 card, my PS5 was less then a thousand dollars on day one. In this Microsoft also pushed the borders, making us upgrade again and again. Oh, they played their cards cautiously and they played it well. Yet consider “Vista alone had 50 million lines of code, 10 million lines more than its successor, Windows 7. Because of the excessive amount of bloat and code, it was very slow on devices at the time, even on the latest and greatest hardware of 2007. This meant that it was more expensive to buy a machine that ran Vista properly.” Between Windows XP and Windows 7 we had the Vista nightmare and it cost too many too much. Yet weirdly enough with a little effort (Suse Linux at $99) you had an equal if not much better option, it would work on most Pentium2 systems like lightning. You could download it for free but for that money you got the discs and a DVD, the DVD had all the discs which included Linux and a truckload of programs, even open office I believe. If not it was easily downloaded. A linux lookalike version of Microsoft office that was free. It had an SQL database and so much more, even a nice collection of games, but they were not high resolution games. Fo that you needed a console and you saved thousands. It is this armistice race. We went though thousands of processors and that is what counts, because that drained the Gallium and Germanium we had and now China is one of the few that has it now. You see, we might act against China, but Gallium is found in Japan, South Korea, and Russia as well. China has however 90% at present. That does not mean there isn’t more, but finding it is not easy. Germanium is also found in Canada, Finland, Russia and the United States. China has about 60% and that is where we see the odd duck out (on your left). And is it not interesting that the second material is not mentioned that it is also found in Canada and the US? In this greed was again a much larger stage to this. The IT Armistice race dwindled whatever the west had and now China and Russia seem to have the upper hand. Still the larger stage is not merely who has it, but it becomes who can find it better, because that is where this is heading. I get it, we all need the latest PC (or MAC) but ask yourself, what allows you to do what you need to do? That is the question that IT providers like Dell and HP were eager to avoid at all cost as it impacted their bottom dollar. They will make the ‘party line’ To enjoy the best of Windows (whatever version) you are best off having a (the latest chip). That is what caused a large part of the drain and I was every bit as guilty. By the time I figured out what was going on I my bank account had about $22,000 less (11 systems with 2 still in use). You can scream whatever you want on how I could ‘save’ some dollars, but the truth is that we all enjoyed that feeling of the latest system, but it came at a price. So when we now see “a Pentagon spokesperson said the US had reserves of germanium but no stockpile of gallium” and why is that? It it is such a crucial element, why is there no stockpile? That is an easy answer, but no answer will be forthcoming. A race for supremacy, all whilst at least two racers are no longer able to keep up and that race is about to turn nasty for at least one of them. The Commonwealth might rely on Australia, but until the deposits are found the UK is in a tight spot. As I personally see it we might have to take a step back and see how else we can get the job done. As such I am phrasing an extremely speculative question. French chemist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran found in 1875 the substance we now know to be gallium, it is in group 13 of the periodic table and is similar to the other metals of the group (aluminium, indium, and thallium. My question becomes Is there another solution that employs indium or thallium? I honestly have no idea, I do not even know where these two are found and whether they can do what Gallium does. Also there is Rhodium, can it (or a combination) get the job done? I have no idea, but it seems to me that the head-banging against a wall we raised ourselves is massively stupid to say the least and there is every chance that there is a chemist and an electronic engineer who will laugh at my suggestion, which is fair enough. To see this we need to look at 1965 when Friedrich Schächter created a ballpoint that works in space as it is a pressurised ink solution. In in 1967 it was reported that NASA purchased approximately 400 pens for $2.95 a piece, all whilst Bic pens were $0.29 in those days. Russia decided to solve it by using a pencil, which costed $0.39 at the time. So we can caress our ego’s or find another solution.  And this is merely one of many issues. So will you embrace someone who adds 10 million lines of code, or seek whatever else is out there? I get it, the other solution will not work for everyone, but over 2 billion people use a PC out there. I am willing to bet the bank that at least 25% could do with a cheaper solution. There are (according to some) an estimated 300 million computers in production annually. I feel certain that at least a third doesn’t need to be bought and if Microsoft woke up and recreated Windows XP for households and adds a decent office version to it several other gallium issues could suddenly be less stringent. In 2018 970 units of Gallium were used. In 2022 it was almost 3500 units (the chart did not clearly give me what the units were). Why is that? I know that PC output is not over 300% in 2022. There might be other uses as well, but I would not know that, but the more I see the more questions I end up with and the BBC (or its article) isn’t giving me the goods. There was no mention of Canada or the US in it, was there?

It is time for plenty of people to wake up, I for one would send a wake up call (plus coffee) to Dr. Stefanie Tompkins of DARPA, perhaps they can find alternative options for these two metals? Not the weirdest idea and as the Pentagon needs these materials it seems to me that between lunch and diner DARPA might find an answer, these boffins are kinda clever so it is one way to go. What do you think?

Enjoy the middle of the week, its all uphill in anticipation to the weekend until Friday. 

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media, Military, Politics, Science

Two voices do not make a truth

This is a setting we must accept. Even as I am one of these two voices I accept that two rights don’t make a truth. Yet the implied stage is now setting a dimension for a larger orchestra. To this we look at Ben Rich (at https://au.news.yahoo.com/saudi-arabia-using-sportswashing-simply-202104084.html) where he gives us some of the ideas that matter. He gives us “While human rights abuses will undoubtedly continue to plague the Saudis’ efforts, bin Salman is betting big they won’t stand in the way of other states and companies engaging with an increasingly open and cosmopolitan kingdom. If history is anything to go by, he may just be right.” And even as he does not give us some elements, like the building of an Saudi English speaking news channel to rival El-Jazeera (see the Financial Times at https://www.ft.com/content/2c6f8228-5bcb-46dc-a817-0990727b7d35) there is more than simple sport washing. Saudi Arabia is setting itself up to be the axial of 5G telecom (with a little help from Huawei). Going well beyond its own borders, it is about to become the center between Europe and Asia pushing deeper and deeper into Europe. I reckon that within a few steps (timeline is too hazy) it will equal, if not surpass Vodafone. That would make Saudi Telecommunication Company (STC) one of the larger telecom giants on the planet. Less then 10 years ago that would have been an illusion, but Huawei had the goods and as America and its minions made all the claims for an anti-Huawei lacking evidence, we now see that the KSA has the fastest 5G on the planet and it is nation wide. The US is nowhere close to these numbers, at present only South Korea and Canada are close and they are about 30% behind. That is the reality of doing what needs to be done. There is even more in eSports and a few other areas. It is not about what is the best, it is who is wielding technology power and as we see the numbers it is no longer the US, even Europe is lagging behind. This is the larger stage that allows Saudi Arabia to be the voice of tomorrow before Vision2030 is due. As we see that Fox News is no longer a consideration regarding the joke they have become we see a lagging CNN and beyond that there is BBC World and Al Jazeera. This gives Saudi Arabia the push they need to become a larger voice on the news channels and did anyone consider where the advertisement money will go at that point? We could consider that Fox’s ad revenue also surged 43% to $1.88 billion. Yet at what cost and when the people shy away from Fox (as they are about to do) where will that ad revenue end up? I am not saying that this will end up in Saudi hands. Yet the world has 1.8 billion Muslims. Wo where do you think that they will put there advertisement money? One of my IP’s were banking on that and even as advertisement money was not a goal for me (merely a soft sideline) others will see it as serious money. It will also entice places like Bangladesh and Indonesia to the world stage, it will allow Egypt to be more prominent on the Mediterranean area and that list goes on. These are merely two of the elements that Ben Rich does not touch on. He shows us other matters and I believe him to be right. 

Yet the elements when combined gives us a larger stage created by Saudi Arabia and created for muslims and that is part of my IP. I wanted to fight islamophobia and I am about to be proven right. Not through my own IP, but in other ways too. The US (EU too) has overplayed its hand and from the initial pariah that Pre-President Biden proclaimed Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud to be, this same person is about to become a world leading voice on the global stage and it was something that I saw coming 3 years ago. The laughable joke (aka an essay by United Nations Eggy Calamari) has shown the world that presentation is only nice if you have the evidence to support it and we are about to face a new stage where the evidence is shown and presented by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, all leading up to vision2030, optionally up to 2 years ahead of schedule. 

As I see it that gives the song Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival an interesting twist. You see one man’s bad moon is another man’s illumination. Or as the expression goes some persons junk is another persons treasure, which is good unless you are adopted. what matter is that the stage we see and the stage we get onto are not the same and the presenters have given us a stage for decades that no longer applies and even now we are given the runaround. But over the next few years we see that the media that was in charge no longer has holds on any of us and that is when the STC gets to reveal and release their news channel and all the lost revenue attached to that. As such, how much credence do you think a player like Fox News will have after 2025? I leave it up to you to ponder this.

Enjoy the day and the weekend that is about to follow (all 48 hours of them).

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics

I’ll buy that for a Yuan

It is a little unlike I stated things earlier, yet Al Jazeera (at https://www.aljazeera.com/program/counting-the-cost/2023/4/1/can-russia-and-china-succeed-in-dethroning-the-dollar) gives us ‘Can Russia and China succeed in dethroning the dollar?’ I cannot agree, because personally I believe that any partnership there will be facing an united front to dethrone that idea. Yet I made notions to some degree that there would be coming a new world order, America is exiting the stage on the right and with the debts they have it is game over for them. If only they had taken my warning 25 years ago and overhauled their tax system. I personally hoped that the new world order would include the Commonwealth (I am commonwealthian after all). Here, in Al Jazeera we see more but not the names. In some sources I saw a list of countries. Yet I personally believe that this list is most likely to include China, Saudi Arabia, India and personally I would include the Commonwealth, not merely the UK. And the issue is that China could pull this off, the US and EU are too weak, they are all hot air and they aren’t getting the job dome, they are both too deep into debt and the EU is dragging half a dozen members along who are slowing them down, they all want a slice of the pie and aren’t contributing enough. 

Yet in my view, I never considered dousing the dollar (perhaps my folly), and with oil being the ignored requirement Saudi Arabia becomes a required ally for that new order. India with its consumer base of one point four billion cannot be ignored either, that and the case that they have the ability to fill IT infrastructure needs nearly everywhere. There might be one or two other players China needs, but they will feel that inviting the Commonwealth might do the trick, as Canada in the west and Australia in the east will settle issues the assassination triangle will be filled. You know, I wrote about it. Segregation, Isolation, Assassination. America segregated itself with silly settings of free speech (Karen’s anyone? Proud boys and that list goes on), now they are one step away from becoming irrelevant and obsolete, if only they had acted these last to years. We saw someone start an insurrection, claiming to take the nation back. This act is now 2 years old and still the people behind it all are walking the streets free with in the end a porn star ‘saving’ America. That time is now showing to be their downfall, inactions from too many sides is hurting them bad and all along China kept moving slowly step by step and now that China has infrastructure and defence deals their goals are almost met. The wet merely grinds towards a halt through inactivity. The news is all around us and the media is carefully ignoring a lot of it. The benefit of stake holders I speculate.

I warned of parts of this well before 2019, well before covid and now that timeline is nearing completion. That all sounds nice, but am I correct? That would be a fair question, but consider that the larger deals out there involve China and Saudi Arabia, who of them has the US dollar? I am not saying this is essential, and as long as there is an alternative, these two might seek the alternative. And consider the two refineries that are commencing the build, where will the oil come from? Exactly, from Saudi Arabia and the peace process that China instigated will give them even more oil, we might shout loudly, but in the end, the US gave us the expression that was hanging around too many necks. Money talks and bullshit walks. And now others are telling the US to keep on walking.

I merely hope that this new order will exclude Russia (who is now presiding over the Security Council) and it will include the Commonwealth. Now consider that the United Nation Security Council (UNSC) has been around since 1945 and we are given “The Security Council’s five permanent members, below, have the power to veto any substantive resolution; this allows a permanent member to block adoption of a resolution, but not to prevent or end debate.” Now consider that NO ONE seemingly had the idea to remove the veto right of any permanent member who instigates a war for the duration of that war? For some reason that never dawned on any of them and the 5 members (China, United Kingdom, Russia, France and the United States) merely accepted that setting? How is that working out for them now?

The United States is now massively boxed in and to a much larger degree it is all due to their own inactions. As such there is every chance that the mediocre 5G technologies will soon see a lot more of Huawei, because they have been fully rolled out in China and Saudi Arabia, who had until recently (I didn’t recheck the numbers) a 5G network that is 700% faster than the US, how is that adding up to your view of a technology first nation? To be behind Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Canada? Al Jazeera raised a point that most were happily willing to bury anywhere, but I believe it is slightly too late for that. 

Enjoy the day and for your consideration there is a Canadian 16 year old blasting a whole range of records and she set at least two new world records. According to CBC, she is nowhere near done yet.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media, Politics

Blocked by greed?

It happens, good ideas fall down merely by the setting of greed. I get that some people revere greed, they pray qt the shrine of coin to get more, forever they prey to get more. Yet what happens when greed gets in the way of a good deal? For that we merely have to look at the place where boobs and smiles are as genuine as a crooked politician trying to get reelected. The forever need to drive that movie that will bring in a billion plus and some make it. Some make movies that gets the juices of desire flowing. Marvel is an excellent example. But you need a small education in reality. You see when we think directors one of the most famous and most achieved directors is Steven Spielberg, he gained revenue of $10,665,089,317 yet it took him 37 movies to get there and there are many nowhere near as good as him. So how about that $1 billion mark? When we look at franchises Harry Potter might be one of the most visible ones. In this Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II (2011) is the only one that passed the one billion mark. Does this mean that we lower the bar? Not necessarily, yet that one billion mark is too visible, too much of an orgasm point for all the wrong people. All whilst there have been a good selection of options out there and they are overlooked. 

I mentioned before that the comic book called The Trigan Empire has every option with a right director to get to the high point, optionally with a blonde John Cena in the title role. They might not make the one billion, but they could make a massive profit, an amount that goes further than merely return on investment. There are so many others. There was Franka, a modern version of Brenda Starr, but with subjects that matter today, options that make women herald this next hero. There have been so many comic books in the 70’s and 80’s, all making a good chance to rake in the revenue and most of them not from the USA.

So why does this matter?
It matters because SKollywood is becoming a thing, because more and more people are accepting movies with subtitles and South Korea is producing more and more movies that are connecting to people, perhaps not in the US, but guess what? Over 2/3 of Hollywood revenue is often international. That Harry Potter movie only made $381M in the US, the rest, almost a billion came from outside the US and Hollywood needs to change steps and up the game because Korea (south part) is bringing people the Witch and more movies that are connecting to people all over the world. A stage Hollywood never considered is now becoming a reality. Who saw the Japanese movie Audition? That was intense stuff. Other movies like Old Boy and the ring found American versions, but non-Americans look at what is. You see we all liked the Departed, but those who saw the original Hong Kong version will find it lacking. Not the actors, not the script, but the original in Hong Kong just had that little more and Korea is producing a whole fleet of movies, as are several other nations. 

All this and then we get to Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus and a whole range of others. Hollywood gets 3500 scripts each year and 350 are being made, so what is failing, because something is, the revenues do not lie. So far this year Avatar 2 and Maverick were the only two movies I ran to a cinema for and that is over the last 20 weeks. The well is drying up and Hollywood needs to set the steps to new heights, because they cannot afford to lose more and as I see it pointing the finger at streamers is not good enough. Japan and South Korea have their share of amazing movies,  so it is not merely the materials. I personally believe that it is the process that is failing. People have the wrong mindset at present. It should not be what gets me the most, it needs to be what can I do to get enough and up the quality of movies, that is the real trick and as far as I can tell, they haven’t figured out how to go about it. My evidence? The Trigan Empire, I made mention of it well over a year ago and since then no one picked it up. Not Netflix, no other streamers and not Hollywood. But I do remember hearing all kinds of complaints that Anansi (American Gods) is too black, or something of that nature. With the quote that “Charles Eglee, thought Mr. Nancy wasn’t right ‘for black America.’” In this I think he should talk to the writer (Neil Gaiman), as we see that it is more and more becoming all about perception the natural outcome is that others will reject what is there and over 65% of the revenue comes outside of the US. 

I let you decide what you watch, it was always your choice, but do you want American gods the way it was written, or what some producer thinks it needs to look like? Perhaps some of them remember the Justice league movie and what happened in the end.

Just food for thought, in the mean time South Korea has a few new gems coming this year. I wonder how far they make it this time, so far their record is pretty impressive. 

Leave a comment

Filed under movies

What did I say?

I have said it again and again. The US is in several dangers, financial being a large one and Al Jazeera gives us ‘UAE arms deals: What weapons is the Gulf state buying and why?’ (at https://aje.io/pn5gad), it is the second line that should concern people. The mention of “purchases from South Korea, Israel and France”, Israel makes sense, its Iron Dome is pretty essential in any defence setting, yet the US is not one of the mentioned, so no Northrop Grumman or Raytheon. It is South Korea and France. France needs the sales, but in the end, the US is overlooked (again). There is a setting that the US could still set itself on and that is to grow UAE defence growing, Manufacturing plants in the UAE (or Saudi Arabia), but there is no real information on where the GAMI is going at present, so when we see “has one of the most potent air defence systems in the region, relying mainly on American-made weapons like the older HAWK missile, the more capable Patriot PAC-3 missile and the THAAD air defence system which was used for the first time in combat this year, destroying a Houthi missile” we also see that out with the old and the new is increasingly likely not going to be American, so when one changes, where does that leave the sales pipeline of the US? When one falls over, where do the others go? Consider that the HAWK was not the latest solution when I left the army 20 years ago, so why are the American salespeople not all over that wreck from day one? It should have been a clear path for the US to cement a better stage with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and optionally Qatar. If they can keep one of these four it is close to a miracle. And at the edge is China, ready to sell whatever they can and when I initially stated that the US could lose hundreds of billions everyone was stating that I was nuts, that I was demented and I didn’t know what I was talking about. Over the last months we have seen activities that show that the US is in a sliding place and now Al Jazeera adds to that. People might laugh at the size of the UAE, but with the UAE the options for Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt will also grow and neglecting any options is folly and it could cost the American industry a lot more than anyone bargained for. It might be merely my view, but so far I have been spot on, something the others will yet have to prove. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Military, Politics, Science

The thin ice

We have all been there, whether it was in early years when you were trying to cross ice that was not deemed safe, or perhaps later in life when you relied on a stage where you could not be certain, we all have been there, and so was I, not merely was, I am doing it again today.

There was no doubt that the AUKUS stage was set, it was set and prepared for, the French never had a chance and we need to realise that. We need to realise two main parts here (well actually a few more, but let’s start with two).

The first is the Guardian (not the only one) who gives us (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/17/france-recalls-ambassadors-to-us-and-australia-after-aukus-pact) ‘France recalls ambassadors to US and Australia after Aukus pact’, some newspapers, not all give us “That deal became bogged down in cost over-runs, delays and design changes”, which is fair enough. Yet the US with the Zumwalt and F-35 fiasco’s will have to button down the hatches very clearly to avoid the same disaster projects. The second one is less clear, it is about a united front towards China. I never stated that China was an innocent bystander, they were not. We might not be in a war or a seemingly hostile environment, but there is an issue and the US who has no hope to counter this alone found a way to add two horses, the UK and Australia to pull that carriage towards the China sea. France was left behind and that will have repercussions down the line, yet in all this, consider the media, who are they serving? Which stakeholder are they servicing? Consider the new Collins class submarines, in all the news (from all sides) who have been giving exposure to “That deal became bogged down in cost over-runs, delays and design changes”? That list is not that big and why is that? It was the Weekend Australian of all places that give us “According to informed sources, the costings for Core Workstate 2 submitted by Naval Group were at least 50 per cent higher than the Defence estimate of $2.5-$3bn. This total included completion of the submarine construction yard being built at Osborne North by government-owned Australian Naval Infrastructure to the functional requirements of Naval Group. Naval Group has declined to answer questions on the funding issue — or indeed on virtually anything else — but is understood to have submitted, without success, a much-reduced figure to Canberra.” They did so on the 22nd of May 2021 (at https://www.theaustralian.com.au/special-reports/funding-threat-hangs-over-future-submarine-program/news-story/827aef23757bef95adc822d7acd696ec), Australia and Submarine give us 74 million hits and we needed to get to page 16 of that search to get this information. Whilst a lot are ‘hiding’ behind “cost over-runs, delays and design changes” it was the Australian that gives us the “at least 50 per cent higher” that is not parts of a glass of wine, that is the entire barrel when you considered that the meek estimate of an annual $3bn was offered. I feel certain that political income trimming will not produce the missing one billion and short change. So what gives?

I do understand that I need to be careful, mostly because this is not my field of expertise. Most of my Submarine knowledge comes from Operation Petticoat (Cary Grant, Toni Curtis), The hunt for Red October (Sean Connery) and Silent Hunter (EA Games). They are not the same, and I do fully realise that. We could hope for the involvement of Paul McCartney and if he gets involved we can paint those 12 beasts yellow, but still, not a real solution, is it?

Oh, and for the reality of it all China has at present 74 submarines, so our chances are not great, they also allegedly have a much better fifth generation fighter (Chengdu J-20), so are we out to rumble or show our teeth? In this we are about to order a set of teeth for the price of $75,000,000,000 so we better get it right, being in a nation with 25,000,000 people, it is not an invoice we should be happy about, I get it, it might be an essential one, but that does not mean we need to be happy. 

The thin ice is a dangerous place, it is more than ice that is seemingly missing layers of stability, there is dangerous waters below and even if it is not deep, the hypothermia can be equally deadly as is the deepest ocean. This thin ice we face also hides stuff. It hides stakeholders who decide what we can hear and what we should not be allowed to hear and the media is at fault. Hiding too much for too many, the stakeholders are the media uncontrolled and unregistered set of lobbyists who shape the story we are allowed to see and if fake media wasn’t dangerous enough, filtered information bringers (like breakfast shows) add to the danger, add to keeping us uninformed. I agree with campsite leaders (Mike Burgess, Richard Moore, and William J. Burns) we do not need to know all, I have no problems with that, but they do not respond to stakeholders, the stakeholders are in it for corporate executives and boards of directors, they do not get to dictate us anything. What these people get away with is close to unacceptable and when they dictate our budgets and defence to us, I shiver and I do get worried and a little scared. And the media is helping them!

So we have a few issues, apart from the US Military construction follies, we have a new stage where we become a buffer opposing Chinese acts. I think that the utter lack of working actions by the UN against the Uygurs is part of this, the blatantly evidentially unsupported actions against a firm like Huawei is another. I see in part the accusation against Huawei and the entire NATO collection of jesters have NEVER given clear evidence on how they are a threat. You think it does not matter, but it does. A market where lazy people want to make claims so that they can get some coins whilst they slept through the motion is an invalid act and that needs to be said. It is a clear setting. Corporate executives used (as I personally see it) stupid politicians so that they could steal work orders and sales. A market that they are still likely to lose comes from sitting on your hands. This taints the China setting, and these stakeholders know this. 

If we were to investigate the US national 5G environment, we would learn that 5G at 4G LTE speed is not really 5G. Canada, South Korea and Saudi Arabia have a much better handle on that. 

So let’s make sure that OUR National defence is properly set up. Are nuclear submarines the wrong choice? I do not know, I believe that nuclear powered systems have a space and when you see what needs to be done to keep a diesel submarine fed over 3-4 years, a decent case for Nuclear submarines can be made. And let’s make sure the people understand that a nuclear submarine does not mean its weapons are nuclear. I get the distinct feeling that too many people do not realise that. A nuclear submarine means a nuclear powered submarine and we need to see the difference. If that takes away coins from Saudi Arabia, then so be it. We are not here to pay for the existence of Aramco (or Saudi Aramco as it is often referred to). 

Yet underneath it all, I recognise that I am on thin ice. I am not an expert on submarines, or an expert on far east tactics. I do however feel that we all have been watching disjointed parts of information because that is what the bosses of stakeholders seemingly want, We merely need to find out who the stakeholders are and who they report to. If you doubt me, consider the actual news sources, the actual news given and the complete news and wonder what was missing from a lot of them (not all) and also realise that a news article cannot give EVERYTHING, but some parts should not have been missed. Should you doubt that, consider a look into Litecoin and how we are now seeing more and more “the Litecoin creator also said that not much can be done by the Litecoin Foundation about bad actors spreading fake news”, as well as “According to the fake press release on Monday (September 13, 2021)”, a pump and dump action involving BILLIONS implies orchestration, so why is the FBI not all over that? Why is the news smothering events there too? This was not some prank, this got past EVERY filter and check of Canadian Global News until it was way too late. So what happens when it is not merely a multi billion hustle, but what happens when it impacts the national security of more than one nation? Consider that when you walk the thin ice too, the thin ice is dangerous because the weaknesses are below the ice and  below that is water, and often you do not know how cold or how much water there is.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Military, Politics

Maximising digital exploitation

Yes, that is what you all fear is it not? To get digitally exploited and would you believe it, governments and politicians are making it happen. The first one to do so is South Korea. The news (at https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-antitrust-tech/s-korea-parliament-committee-votes-to-curb-google-apple-commission-dominance-idUSKBN2FQ05V)  gives us ‘S.Korea parliament committee votes to curb Google, Apple commission dominance’ and here we see “a key step toward banning Google and Apple from forcibly charging software developers commissions on in-app purchases” and it is not just that, we also get “the amendment bans app store operators with dominant market positions from forcing payment systems on content providers and “inappropriately” delaying the review of, or deleting, mobile contents from app markets” As I personally see it, this is what organised crime has been waiting for and South Korea just made it happen. So as you ponder ‘or deleting, mobile contents from app markets’ consider that one infected app maker can now make claims rejecting deletion (or massively delaying it) and as such thousands of tablets and mobile phones will get infected and spreading the backdoor. There was a reason for the jumps that Apple and Google had made, in this we were decently safe. Now consider that we become the infection point because we were told that brand X is 25% cheaper, gives 50% more credit and is just as fast. That short sighted thinking will get you slammed, will get you hammered and could cost you your device. So as other sources give you “We do not expect any issues”, or “We are not aware of any issues at present” consider the carefully phrased denials and the consequences for your hardware. And whilst you remain in denial of this all being for consumer good. This all got started by some greed driven upstart that was making $5,100,000,000. So how much extra do you get? When you consider that one player has V-bucks (their currency) is at 1000 for £6.49/$7.99. When did they give you more for the same amount? They did made over 5 billion last year alone. So when we get to the quote by someone we care not for we see “Dominant app store operators with large platforms should by now look to profit from value-added services, not just taking a cut from apps sold on its store”, yes, so how stupid was that? Now the value added services like security, testing and storing must be paid for, as such the small players will soon stop existing, all to help out the multibillion app players. In the old setting all developers had a decent chance, that will now seize and as the damage to consumers start stacking, the larger failing will be seen in 2022, or as soon as you suddenly get a message that you became a DDOS agent. So whilst you get rid of all the games and utilities, it will be too late. You will need to factory reset your device hoping it will be enough (it might not be). Yes that was real clever thinking and when we regard “the rushed process hasn’t allowed for enough analysis of the negative impact of this legislation on Korean consumers and app developers” which is given to us by Wilson White, a policy director at Google. We will need to ascertain a few issues. In the first when this is pushed through we can no longer hold Apple or Google accountable when we get transgressed upon, we will get to drag these politicians into courts and in front of the camera and we can advertise just how stupid and shortsighted they were, it is the smallest reward for days and optionally weeks of our devices not being able to function because short sighted people thought they knew what they were doing. As I see it a ‘sorry’ statement will not be any defence and that is the larger setting, these politicians will openly ignore the damage done to the people, they will deny catering to organised crime and we are left with the damage. Yet they too will feel that impact hen EVERY developer will have to pay to be on the Appstore. When 10%-25% fall away, the larger players who were greed driven will merely shrug with a ‘so what’ and the rest will be looking for a job and that will have a few larger impact settings as well. The Appstore settings as they are for now will enable developers to get decently quality systems to develop. When that comes with the additional $750 annual bill that falls the developers way. Consider the impact when you consider that there are 23 million Apple developers and well over 6 million Android developers. When they get the additional bills it will push a whole lot of them out of that field, the impact will be seen and felt in almost all walks of life. As I personally see it there is every chance that 2022 will become the year of the digital exploiters and in that setting it will not be about Apple or Google, but I will leave you all to figure that part out and be sure to feel the pain of what happens when you go to any other app store to save a dollar or two. The impact will be seen and felt almost everywhere. 

So as we see that South Korea got there first, the US is right behind them. They are hiding behind the quote “a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill that would rein in app stores of companies that they said exert too much market control, including Apple and Google”, so when the damage hits, it will hit hard and it will hit almost complete. Consider that I am wrong and consider these advertisement statements we see and how much deceptive advertising you have seen on your phone or tablet? And that part has been around for almost a year. If these politicians cannot even keep the advertisement section clean, how much use are they when you get infected? That is the setting none of them are willing to stay around for. 

That is the danger and it is not merely on a simple setting, when the app store can be ‘avoided’, we will get to see headlines like “Mobiles Hacked for 5th Time in 2 Years in Latest Breach; Nearly 150 Million Affected”. You think I am kidding? Last week Newsweek reported that something similar happened to T-Mobile with only 50,000,000 victims. So there if you are an American there is a 1 in 6 chance that you are one of them, so how often do you want to lose control of YOUR data?

That is the larger danger and that danger is currently rapidly increasing. 

Leave a comment

Filed under IT, Politics, Science

49 weeks later

There is an upside and a downside to the phrase ‘I told you so’, the upside is that you feel good, the downside is that these people automatically think you are arrogant and their ego goes on the defensive. Yet the first part tends to such a nice feeling that we give in, until today I largely avoid the situation. Yet after all the accusations of Arab lover, chinky chow and so forth, the idea that they are massively stupid and I am not is slightly too overwhelming, so here I go “I told you so, you moronic dumbo’s!”, phew, nice to get that off my chest. I saw the 5G station on more than one setting coming, my IP is set to that and now it can be sold to both China and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it has nothing to do with the titles called onto me, it is the smallest whiff of greed. Not greed perse, but the need to get coins from those who can afford them and they will get to become massively richer (by my standards) in the process. Even as my IP started before that (it started when I saw the plans for Neom City), the stage we are now in was given with my article on the 15th of November 2019, 49 weeks ago, titled ‘There is more beneath the sand’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2019/11/15/there-is-more-beneath-the-sand/), you see the issue with Huawei was a larger issue, and if these idiots on the other side of the Pacific river (aka Americans) had given clear evidence there would have been a debate, the evidence never came and now we have an issue. The data released by Statista shows this. On the other had, my prediction was also wrong, the USA did not end up in 4th or 6th position, they are now in 8th position, massively behind Australia and South Korea.

What is scary is how well I saw the prediction unfold, whilst bulletpoint managers were making fun of me in the hallways, they will be largely silent now that we can see that the 5G network of the KSA (who embraced Huawei) is 12% faster then number two (South Korea), 75% faster than number three (Australia) and well over 100% faster than number 4 (Canada), it is at present 752% faster than the US, that is what I saw happening (well not that extreme, but it is a bonus). So when I wrote “Saudi Arabia already has ties to Huawei giving Saudi Arabia the option to pull ahead and make the monthly gap larger on a daily basis. The difference is that intense. There is more and more evidence to see that the EU is not going the way of the US and that will give them an advantage on the hardware range, yet they still have all the other old hardware to deal with. They could face two issues, let’s not forget that Riyadh faces that too, but if Neom City shows the benefit to a newly constructed fast internet city, what we saw in the UK 5G image, that path will be faster seen in Neom city, merely because the change is pushed from the beginning and not after the fact (as most technologies are)”, I was not kidding and the numbers now show it. The added “a presentation by Edward Burton, President and CEO, U.S.-Saudi Arabian Business Council from June 2017. (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2018/05/02/are-there-versions-of-truth) in the article ‘Are there versions of truth‘ I had not realised all the elements at that point (why should I?) yet I saw that Vision 2030 would be a bigger issue yet the larger impact would be visible beyond “90 executives from both countries to sign new trade and investment agreements worth $350 billion” the fact that in these 90 we would see “Lockheed Martin Honeywell JPMorgan Chase The Dow Chemical Company ExxonMobil Jacobs Engineering Baker Hughes McDermott International” was clear, the fact that Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Steven J. Demetriou) was involved was a clear indicator of that. I believed that whatever think-tank Edward Burton responded to was seeing ‘roadmap for economic development‘ and ‘Identifies general directions, policies‘ and optionally ‘CEDA established new operating models‘ and realised that this went way past the Council of Economic and Development Affairs (Saudi Arabia) there was an actual global impact” shows that I was not alone in this belief and if they pushed through the landscape of the rich will change in the US. Those who spinelessly followed the US administration in following anti-Huawei sentiment are now in danger of losing it all (which I have no problem with), and when I sell my part I can retire with the knowledge that the stupidity of bullet point management will hit those people squarely in the face. And it is in this setting that I actually am getting another idea for pushing a new technology. If they had not thought of it, there is every chance that Google overlooked it too, as far they do not show to have this, so I can change from video game to 5G IP and take a gander at this. And I feel great, I see close to half a dozen that these so called heavy important business people did not look at, their sight is merely focussed through dollar shaped pupils and innovation has never focussed to that degree, thee are times that they overlap, but it is set to a larger station and I know exactly where to look. Perhaps Branson was aware? The application would be highly industrious in the application for Hyperloop, their speed would partially depend on it (well the safety features would), as such I see new shapes and options, and some of them were visible 49 weeks ago, I wonder what else they are missing.

Well, it sorts me out for the weekend, how about you? Any new plans for the weekend?

Leave a comment

Filed under IT, Politics, Science