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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Mon Aug 05, 2019 10:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

One thing I am doing is thinking about things - doing nothing. But I made it to the end of the long weekend - Hurray!


I was thinking that if society goes to hell and a hand basket what would I do? Of course the movie I watched last night was “The Stand”, a apocalypse movie about a deadly plague that ends humanity. Anyway, I was thinking what I would do if it all fell apart. And the answer would be to go down with the ship. At my age and with my humble involvement - how could it be otherwise. The running away and starting over is for the kids. This one is on me and my generation. I should also tell you that the thing that brings down humanity is probably something we never expected, but I digress.


In my personal life here in Toronto, in my humble and pathetic situation, how much have as much influence as I do? Seriously, in my personal life it is just me, myself and I. And I wanted this, I have to admit. So if if human society does go down I guess I am going down with it. A guy my age trying to mess with the machine and then running to the hills when the shit goes down is not a proper epitaph. I’ll tell my gang to run and start again, but I am staying. At the end of it all you cannot run from the things you have done, and the things you failed to do. The interesting thing is how this adventure has affected me internally.



Sure you can say you are just one joker with an exaggerated opinion of his place in the world, but in my little corner of the world I am it just like a lot of others scattered around the world. And who gets the blame when it all goes bad.....



But if I’m to be one to wear this I find it odd than I’m not one that gets all that society has to offer. No family and no place in society. Sure I have a title internationally but in the place I call home I’m a nobody. Whoever thought up this scenario.....



The Prisoner


As I’m watching movies I’ll offer up this little metaphor. In the movie “The Matrix” Neo never leaves the matrix but his and Morpheus’s so called “reality” is still the matrix and that is why Neo can see without his eyes and stop the machines with his mind. In the end we must rely on the AIs to keep their promise and truly free the humans that want out - but it is up to them. Even Morpheus wonders if it is all real. In the original “The Prisoner” series, Number 6 is also Number 1 and he escapes to a world that is the same as his previous captivity. If you are fearful, you just stay in one reality and don’t bother with the unsettling questions or doubts. Others like me desire to question and can think and see things outside the box. It was important to me to have a firm grasp of reality given the limits of our perception. That’s why I find myself where I am today.....



One other thing. Notice how in my sites there is no advertising and no pop ups asking to accept third party tracking. Or a pop up notice that by using this site you agree to its terms (we do have a policy page on the site from 2003
but it is obviously not the same thing). Yet some browsers say my site is “not secure”. What a laugh! Check out third party tracking for yourself and you will see what I mean.



Goodnight.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj-1b1Yvep8&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Aug 07, 2019 1:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just a quick one today.....





News of the day is that I am registered for the World Bank and IMF Annual meeting in October. I’m also rescheduling the Geneva trip later in the year due to scheduling problems with our director there but it is happening.





A ton more stuff is happening but I’ll spread it out over the week so I can talk about stuff. But while I lament my difficulties in the NGO advocacy, the other alternative was cars and media and gets thrown in my face every week. It’s like an alternate reality for me if I went on the selfish course to make money. You have no idea. It just gets constantly thrown in my face....



Later.....




(Wifi: 15 minute video!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSnGE-qVrO0&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Thu Aug 08, 2019 8:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow! I actually have time to post an update.....



Well I may be registered but I am not cleared for the event yet at the World Bank/IMF. For those that thought the session was set - it won’t be known till the end of the month. This just lets me in the door. However what I have to say has much merit and should be presented there. The economic world is changing and if we have to plan for that change it may as well be toward a system that makes people happy.


But the idea is compelling.


As AI and automation take over many previous jobs, this supposedly would leave humanity free to do better things - and what would these other things be? I have an answer and how to incorporate this massive change in the economy and keep people working and happier in their work. That would be more than a compelling idea at the World Bank and IMF. I am perfectly on spot (in terms of strategy) to show how the positive mandate solves this problem. And our organization’s background in the arts and all facets of the media gives me a hell of a lot of street credibility to what I say there if I’m given the chance.....


But we shall see......









In other news is more rejection from the festivals. Not unexpected but I have seen enough. There needs to be something other than the subjective judgement at these festivals. People pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars to apply to the festivals and lament that the system is biased or corrupt. So we will try with our lottery system and if it can work we will lobby the festival industry to offer up a few spots at each festival that are a lottery so that all filmmakers at least have a chance for a screening. That seems only fair in my mind. Earliest is next year but the advocacy comes first.....



Goodnight.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcF6Xq8Rosg&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Fri Aug 09, 2019 11:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It is strange how what you think is a liability turns out well in the end.....


Take the music industry. I was not crazy about going into it originally as it seemed an industry in total collapse and it was. But we were doing an experiment and much of the interest was in music so I started the record label. Long story short, I am making moves in advocacy that rely heavily on our music production and the media that came from it. So while it was expensive it is holding me in good stead at the present time! Who would have ever thought - In fact I am making a play to reinvigorate the arts as a viable industry again in the future economy and it is just weird how back in the day organizations and well known music industry events were not interested in my thoughts and where are they now and where am I now. I just had to put that out there as the music industry – which I am a part of – is its own worst enemy in so many ways. I am still interested in working with any organization to help the music industry, but the pretense and arrogance that persisted and was a wall to discussion in the past has to go. I just had to add that as I have a legitimate grievance with the industry perhaps not being open enough for all stakeholders to be heard. Anyway enough of that!




The original!



The present day incredible simulation that didn't work!!



So it is 50 years since the iconic Beatles photo was taken outside Abby Road Studios. I took my photo (and not a very good one) back in London in 2013 just after my speech at UNESCO Headquarters for WSIS+10. It was February and I had this winter jacket with the collar straight up as it was cold and in the photo I look like some awkward no-neck geek. To add to that embarrassment was a truck driver who hollered at me to “get a life!” So that was my Abbey Road moment. There was also a foursome from Japan there to do the thing properly – dodging traffic so they didn’t get run over! The Beatles make it all lo0k so much cooler.....












Goodnight.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t8fyiiQVZ0&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Aug 10, 2019 12:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A really short one today.


A faucet is leaking at my father’s place so I’m doing that now. And that little emergency has put everything on hold. Just like that! So a proper post tonight, but for now I am the designated plumber.



Later.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TY_9BImp3Y&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sun Aug 11, 2019 5:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I’m back.....



So the day was mostly a waste, I slept in till 5:30pm and then rushed to fix the kitchen faucet which installed without issue and even removing the old one was a breeze. I got the family a pizza and had enough time to beetle out for mocha at a Starbucks in Unionville. This was a trendy and pretentious place with upper middle class folk trying to look hip and living the life. So I ditched the car on some residential street, got the mocha and walked around looking at all the girls who finally dolled themselves up for Saturday night. Then back home to watch a movie. I watched half of “The East” and maybe will finish the rest before I hit the sack. The movie was about some girl working for a private intelligence agency trying to infiltrate some terrorist group only interested in trendy issues with good looking white people throughout. They never address some real issues like where they get the money to live and do what they do - but nobody cares about that reality - like I have to do. Just a time waster, as I live the reality of things and not some fictional fantasy. Oh - and this movie made it to Sundance - I could say more but you all get the drift.....






Anyway, where I live I am looked at as a thug and this will never change. But the people who look down on me are weak, fearful, and simple creatures at the core. I have seen this with my very eyes when push comes to shove. But I digress.......



Where I live they expect me to get out of their way when I walk down the sidewalk. This is how I grew up. Anyway I don’t get a lot of encouragement here where I live. But to be honest, the folk that came off the street to the movie premiere all stayed till the end and actually got up and applauded. Maybe they felt sorry for me but I doubt it. So that was one moment. The other that stands out in my mind is the applause I got from the group that was at my positive mandate side event at the UN last February. That had even more impact as you never know how the idea will be received. You put your heart and soul into something to find out what people really want out of life. Then craft an idea, concept and philosophy to turn that revelation into flesh as a pragmatic concept worth of policy making based upon it. And now we are into the advocacy phase of dissemination.



But I will probably finish watching “The East” even though I know how it ends: A movie with beautiful people that probably go to Starbucks to plan their next strike. For some reason they all look like models in that show with nobody over 35. As someone who has started an organization from scratch, I know how the years can add up before you become effective. Sure I would like to be in my early thirties with an org I started that was fully developed but that is not how it works. Instead I’m pushing sixty. No cool hidden locations and mission impossible style “strikes”. Just advocacy in acceptable ways, but we can bring injustices to the world stage if need be - that part is real. There are members of the orgs that are sort of like in the movie being pretty, but mostly we are just normal people hoping (for example) to get a voice at the World Bank to speak - this is not the same as the more radical stuff they do in the movie – but after all – it is a movie….. There will be no vignettes for the handsome leader spending a few days doing corporate taxes – hell I forget – I am a conglomerate of corporations when the movie was fighting the corporations. How strange is that – Ha!



Anyway, there is fantasy and there is reality as I live it. Even with help from others you are pretty much on your own with the ideas you have. For me human society can vanish in a blink of an eye. For those that know no other form of reality they can live their lives in total blissful ignorance. But for others it is this constant fight to keep thing going along smoothly, and the ones that find themselves fighting in this reality can be the ones you never figured that would be obligated to do this. The underworld of reality.....



Goodnight.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z54r8jvGj8&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Mon Aug 12, 2019 8:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well I’m going to start transitioning the sites to https and I’ll start with the simplest and most obscure site and go from there. On the main sites IAIJ will get the treatment and it should be easy as the forums are on the old .com site but the actual .org site is just a few html pages. The FOF site you are on is a total disaster for conversion so this will be last.


Actually I’m in a downer mood. I spent the weekend fixing up stuff at my dad’s place and not really doing anything else; nothing to do but wait on several fronts. You get introspective and the future will not be as exciting as the past. It does sober you up. The experiment is over, you are getting older, everyone around you gets older and you don’t have that free hand you had as a young man. But my position is still good for the time being. Just do what you have to do and make those plays.



One of the items for sale in the store!


But it is a somber time in my head right now. The absolutely vital stuff got done so I did get that. Moving forward is more advocacy but I have to admit the last 16 years was quite a ride. It still continues but at a more relaxed pace. I don’t know how best to describe it apart from that feeling. But the real downer is that https crap. We don’t need it on our sites as we don’t’ do the eStore anymore. We did have SSL encryption in 2003 believe it or not for the FOF store but that is gone now. So the conversion is for looks only. It will affect these forums so I have to figure out what to do about that. It’s all hassle and as a result a downer but I have to start – so.....



One of the items for sale in the store!


For relaxation I’m looking at NuMetal acts from Russia and here and there you come across some funny videos. But while that does give you a laugh or two the website stuff is just this incredible downer!




Goodnight.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE3l7JxrOPQ&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Tue Aug 13, 2019 8:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

All websites now have SSL certificates!



Chrome address bar with SSL certificate.


It’s not locked down anywhere yet but you can get an idea if you just put https in place of http as in this example:



https://fortressoffreedom.com



Or this forum:



https://fortressoffreedom.com/phpBB2



On the simple websites all I have to do is change the refresh to https and coding on some of the imbedded images. But on the more involved websites it gets complicated. On the message boards it is really tricky. Basically I will have to go into the database with a text editor and change http://fortressoffreedom.com/ to https://fortressoffreedom.com/ to keep embedded images on the board. So we shall see, but the simple websites and IAIJ.org will be done quickly. Then FOF and the forums for IAIJ will be done. It is still a royal pain even though some of the work is now automated. And – notice how one version says the site is not secure while the other has a padlock even though all the coding is the same in both cases. I haven’t changed anything yet! It was Google who started this in 2014 messing about with the rankings on their search engines and tagging the http sites as not secure. Safari and Firefox do this now but I believe Google set the precedence. You can get free ssl certificates now but it is more hassle and it really speaks to net neutrality at its core. But that discussion is for another time.



Safari is the worst at tagging!


In other news it is still a waiting game of several fronts. I’m still doing work at my father’s place. I also have to start stretching again. I’m getting older and nobody beats the devil on that but I don’t have to help things along by not stretching.



But I am a bit out of the doldrums as whenever you feel that you have done it all and there is nothing else to do; life just reminds you that there is still more work on the advocacy front. Humans are their own worst enemy and usually out of fear at its base. So in this way I have to keep speaking for those that have no platform to express themselves. So I still have a reason to get up in the morning.




Goodnight…..




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJunCsrhJjg&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Aug 14, 2019 8:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I’m just playing the waiting game.


One film left to go for rejection and it’s almost crunch time with the World Bank and IMF. They will make their selections and there are no guarantees. They don’t know me at all and I am fishing for a voice as I broaden my advocacy. So while I may seem to have had a Cinderella story at the UN proper, this might have come to an end.


We did have a good run at it over all these years so there is that. Came up with an idea, a concept and philosophy and presented it on the world’s stage so to speak. So there is that. Had a lot of fun - and it gave many of us a purpose in life. But nothing lasts forever so things may get negative and slow down.


That may not happen yet but I should warn you about the possibilities. I would think that with 800 million jobs being lost to automation and AI by 2030, that my ideas on work in areas that AI and automation can’t touch and work that makes us happier - would garner interest at the venues that matter. That should happen and we shall see shortly. This kind of job loss could lead to political instability and we need ideas to stop all this. I don’t have all the ideas but I have some, and the empirical evidence to back it up. I may be biased but I think these ideas are worth listening to.


In other news.....


I am going to start locking down websites starting today. If possible I’ll start with the small ones and tackle the bigs ones later. But they may all lock down together. So be prepared for outages over the next little while.




Goodnight.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B48xIcvgzYM&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Aug 14, 2019 12:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

All websites with the exception of fortressoffreedom.com, iaij.com/iaij.org are now https only. Going to http://iaij.net will get you the padlock symbol.


We are debugging and testing so to our members: test out all 30+ official sites along with the new ones and duplicates and let me know of any problems through the usual channels.
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Aug 14, 2019 2:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

IAIJ is all done!


If this board goes down then head over to:

https://iaij.com/phpBB2


Here we go.....
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Aug 14, 2019 3:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Everything is done and up and running!!!!!



Thanks everyone!
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 11:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Back to normal!



Everything with the change to https went smoothly so I can’t complain. There is probably a bit less than 40 active websites because some are duplicate redirects for the main sites like iaij.net or fortressofreedom.org but actual websites is 34 – so I have to update the website lists. But it is over including all those posts on forums from 2003! So that is one job I am glad to have finished.




Fortressoffreedom.org




So it is back to the advocacy and the music and media. It just never ends with these organizations, always spending money on things just to keep the organizations running. The payoff is the advocacy though, and I’ll be honest with you and tell you I am salty to get my ideas on how to solve the problems of job loss due to automation and AI replacing jobs in the work place. I would say – knowing the international scene as I do now – that “political unrest” is the carrot to get attention to what I have to say. Countries hate political unrest and my ideas quell this sort of thing by providing jobs and jobs people want and in areas that AI and automation can’t enter yet – so my agenda works with their agenda. So I should have a seat at the venues that matter in coming up with policy on priority issues such as this! But I can only apply and ask to speak and hopefully disseminate ideas others can be use to help this world we live in. I can’t make anyone do anything in the end. But I would love to disseminate these ideas and see human nature do its thing and have the ideas spread like a virus and actually make things better for the general public. I have the ideas – the figures – the empirical evidence – and finally the incentive for organizations and nations to want and help turn these ideas into reality. So I just wait and hope. I did my part applying but now I need to have a voice at those places that matter! Now watch everything fall flat on its face like a pancake - Ha!



Goodnight.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_B_GalsJrE&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Fri Aug 16, 2019 12:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just chilling. I shouldn’t care but there are aspects of my life you can’t escape from. These are the aspects that tie into a time and consequences of actions from that time. My dad who is now 86 was into the computer at the start and even taught computer science around the late 60’s and early seventies at NAIT in Edmonton. We had students around the world at our house back then - mostly from China.

I was one of the first school kids to learn on a computer. This was experimental work at the University of Alberta in the early 1970s on a machine that looked like a Xerox Alta but still with the light wand. And of course in the early 1980s I knew about Qubits as that was table talk back then. Then I took my dad’s course at Ryerson, deliberately failed it and declared the computer as evil. That was 43 years ago.


If technology based on the computers turns society to shit - well - who are we to blame? Do I point at my dad who is now a shell of his earlier self and say he is the bad man here. All those early pioneers are dead or senile now. I’m the last of those who remember those days when computers were born.


I’m doing my part to help mitigate the damage. All this angst about speaking at the World Bank/IMF is in part of my association to how computers are changing the world probably for the worst. I’m doing my bit. The sins of the father and all of that. I really do feel responsible by association. And I’ll go down with the ship if it goes down. I’ll be the last of the Mohikans if the shit truly goes down by 2030. People will want to hang the effigy - and - that will probably be me, but I am trying.



Goodnight.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY3I-tbpFGA&feature=share


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOdo7dhvSwg&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Aug 17, 2019 3:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It’s a rainy weekend so I updated things around the websites.




The Lawnmower Man!


I also slept in again and now the weather is good so I have to rush around to make the most of it. I did watch parts of the movie called the "The Lawnmower Man". This was a mentally challenged man who had his IQ increased by drugs and virtual reality and ultimately decided to live in virtual reality as an artificial being. The success of this - to him - would be all the phones on earth ringing at the same time.



That is a cool calling card!



For me it would be like an idea I disseminated gaining traction and dissemination around the world at the same time. I like the rough parallels with the Lawnmower Man trying to recreate himself and give himself a purpose in life, and then the hard part of disseminating his being into the outside world and the others that try to quell his expression. Sort of like me trying to disseminate the positive mandate all sorts of ways like the movie and TV series and getting nothing but rejection, but then the advocacy stuff started to work and you have a way to get the ideas out there. In the beginning I got in through the “back door” so to speak, but I did get access, and it was funny to see the character in the movie do it the same way. You just keep trying and getting denied access and just keep moving on until the next opportunity. I guess we had about eight or so rejections after the UN stuff in February so far this year. Those are the sorts of metrics of rejection I deal with. The others in my gang hate that, but I see it as just business as usual. Some venues are better than others and you obsess about those. But the world does not end if you don’t get in – you just keep trying!



But you keep trying and trying through all media to get the ideas out there. And then you hit the right crowd with the right message and the idea takes off. You literally can have an idea take hold around the world at the same time in the present. Like in the movie the Lawnmower Man, you can empress yourself in one big moment everywhere at the same time. That sort of makes all the rejection worth it. It doesn’t make the rejection easier, but it keeps you going.



Later…..





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doAnB5_eDnw&feature=share
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