Saturday, June 8, 2013

XBOX - The Era of The 'Male Gamer' Is Over.

Someone who earns money will buy one of these,
and let you use it.

If you're male and between the ages of 12-54, you know that Microsoft "unveiled" its new flagship version of its flagship timewaster, the XBOX. You also know that Microsoft could give a shit less about you as a market. And this enrages you.

For the last decade Microsoft (and its ilk) have given your 'market segment' a lot of attention and influence in the culture. How else do we explain unemployable fat dudes with million-plus views on their "How to Play [Game Title]" videos?

"Gaming" has been elevated culturally to a legitimate activity, right on par with home maintenance, childcare, and even slightly above food service (as if to cement it's prerequisite social privilege).

But here's another reality: employment among the 18-49 male 'market segment' is at an all-time low, and all indicators point toward a continuing downward trend.

You have no money, and Microsoft knows it.

But your parents and your employable female relationship (wife? girlfriend? relative?) are somehow content to let you sit about in their basements and spare rooms as if keeping you out of trouble was the last/best thing to do while they go about earning.

To the people who are earning incomes, "gaming" is not really a priority. So XBOX is being marketed to them for the activity they enjoy: watching television. Everybody in the world knows XBOX plays games, and that's precisely what you'll be doing while the income earners are working and sleeping.

So for a few hours a day you'll sit and fume at how "disengaged" your immediate relations are while they sit "passively" in front of the TV, oblivious to the fact that this is exactly how they see you while they are out actively engaged in the real world.


Obama, NSA, China, and the Android Surveillance Network

This is a surveillance device that lets you make calls.
It's like this: Google (Android) (and 2nd, Apple's IOS) built the world's most prolific, distributed surveillance network. Your Android (and IOS) mobile device keeps track of LOTS of data, but most importantly, *with whom you are in proximity.*

Your calling/texting/Facebook is of little value - that's why the marketing companies get that data.

The intelligence gatherers want to know who you're around and what you're talking about. So when a group (N < 1) of targeted devices are in proximity, the mic/camera are activated and 'samples' taken. Those samples are analyzed for keywords, flagged for human review if necessary.

Ever wonder why so many politicos and celebrities used Blackberry? (it wasn't a surveillance net like Android/IOS.)

Why did the NSA ask for/get months of phone data? Chinese hacking.

China wants access to the Google surveillance platform(s). If China can hack their way in, they too can spy on influential Americans.

Probable scenario: China wants to promote its wine products. It targets the Northern California wine region by undermining political support for the wine growers. This is accomplished by using the Android/IOS systems to track influential people (nodes) in the political network and interrupting or introducing conversation elements (i.e., critical messages do not relay, or conversely, messages introduced or edited by China (the "Inherent Trust1" problem.)

For scaled analysis systems to identify this activity, the NSA needs to develop 'signatures.' This is why they needs tons of phone data. Ironic that a gov't agency is coming under fire for doing its job (arguably very well, too.)

Obama's role in this is simply to be a distraction. While you're busy being angry at him or venting spittle about the NSA, Google and Apple are quietly downloading your family's photos, listening to what you talk about after sex (with both your spouse AND your affairs!), gathering data about your TV viewing2, and most importantly, which clusters you associate with.

This is not the future - it is the now. The present. What lies ahead is the revealing of this system and your eventual coming to terms with it.

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Notes:
1 - you have been taught to trust 'your' device in that when it tells you a message has been received from your friend, you believe it 100%.

2 - YouTube has an media ID system that tracks copyright infringement on the website. Android uses the same system to identify what you're watching when it samples mic audio from your phone. Most accurate market research, ever.