So JK Rowling has just published a new novel and it’s causing some reactions! Written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, The Ink Black Heart tells the story of what the fuck I can’t read this, the typeface is too small for my Kindle.
Well, the reviews are in, and reviewers agree that what the fuck I can’t read this, the typeface is too small for my Kindle.
Let’s check out what Amazon customers are saying about the book.
Oops, that typeface is looking pretty small too. Here’s that review is in bigger type:
This book is unreadable on the kindle. Do not waste your money on it. It is quite disappointing that the publisher of a best seller (with a large number of pre-orders) could not be bothered to make sure their customers could actually read it. Much of the text appears in tiny type in two columns. The two columns on each page represent different conversations. Even if you could read the tiny type, in order to read the entire column of conversation, you have to go forward several pages and then go back to read the conversation in the next column. If you try to read everything on the page, it makes no sense.
Anyway, this sounds like another big winner for JK Rowling!
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OT, but I have a question about Lenovo laptops.
My personal Lenovo laptop (with pre-installed Windows) has been regularly urging, cajoling and trying to outright manipulate me into installing something called Lenovo Vantage. I gather it’s some kind of update/security assistant (and possibly something else) custom made for Lenovo computers. It’s not easy to find out if it’s free, how useful it really is and why the fuck it doesn’t come pre-installed if it’s so important. I’ve been getting some regular updates automatically anyway. I’ve been suspicious because Lenovo/Windows spams me with all kinds of stupid commercial shit, obscuring any potentially important notifications.
I now see that my university’s IT department recommends installing Vantage on Lenovo work laptops, because it’s good for the security and whatnot. Of course, the uni has some business version of Vantage available on license. I should probably ask the IT dept what they recommend for me – as a student I might be able to use the business version on my own laptop for free.
I’d like to ask any Lenovo users here, what the spammed version is like?
@Lumipuna
Perhaps I have too long a memory, but I’d be wary of trusting anything from Lenovo. Or trusting your university’s word on this. Or trusting vendor bloatware in general.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfish#Lenovo_security_incident
Edit: removed oodles of links to hopefully speed up the approval
@Lumipuna
I have a Lenovo device. Mine is new and came with vantage preinstalled. My work computer also uses it. From what I can tell it is a method to interface with Lenovo specific updates and Lenovo specific machine details. For example, I can see that my Lenovo warranty is still in effect.
It’s not necessary though.
@Lumipuna: Don’t install it. I’ve had to get rid of so much bloatware off this Lenovo (it was a gift and I don’t have any other working laptops). The damn thing also holds less charge than my 90s computers.
I recommend nobody buy them. I’m saving up to get another Chromebook, since almost everything I do is online, and I can always save to an external drive.
@Bumblebug: Can you recycle them? Maybe not the covers (if hardback), but the insides for sure. I chucked an MMPB of “Dianetics” in our recycle bin once — neither of us had any idea why it was in the house. And also books that had lost structural integrity, pages and chunks falling out. Nobody’s going to want donated HP copies anyway; there are way too many copies of each volume already in circulation. I’m hauling a lot of stuff to the local used bookstore, and they have WAY too much Potter already. They probably toss any more in the dumpster.
Ending up as generic recycled paper is the best use for them. At least they might become something useful to mankind.
@RSP:JV, IM:
I’d read that story before so I almost clicked away but decided to look again. First time I cried, second time I ‘only’ teared up.
Thanks for the feedback. Maybe I’ll do without.
I banned Feliks for his assorted violations of the comments policy
@David:
And there was much rejoicing!
adding to the chorus of don’t install lenovo vantage. it’s on my work laptop and it popped something up about an update that i didn’t read carefully enough and clicked “OK” on. it proceeded to install a firmware update and force reboot while i was in the middle of a call.
@Ada
Oh dear, I hope they don’t make Vantage the only way to install firmware updates though. Those updates can unfortunately be vital for device security these days, as firmware complexity has been ballooning for the last couple decades.
But yeah, installing firmware updates automatically and without warning is… also not something I’d recommend, due to the possibility of bricking the device 😮
@David: Hip hip huzzah!
But really, the higher purpose of this thread is providing useful info to Lenovo users.
Here’s an interesting review of the new Rowling book. It gives away the ending, if anyone cares. https://www.avclub.com/j-k-rowlings-latest-novel-is-a-self-pity-party-1849478986
https://www.reddit.com/r/autism/comments/x46xs6/comment/imtumjn/
A new book! Fun fact: Said new book features an autistic terrorist who is able to be convinced by her “internet friends” to strap on a bomb and kill herself. See the thread.
Fun fact 2: Robert Galbraith, her pseudonym, is actually the creator of electroshock conversion therapy AKA torturing gay people with electrodes until they agree not to be gay. It’s also JKR’s new pseudonym! Yay for homophobia! Seriously it would’ve taken two seconds of googling to find out about this guy.
Fun fact 3: Isn’t it just hilarious that a vocal TERF is using a male pen name… the same person who hates trans ppl writes under a man’s name… not to mention that she was born Joanne Rowling, and wrote as “J.K.” (the K standing for her grandmother Katherine, she has no actual middle name) because boys wouldn’t read Harry Potter if it was written by a woman. (Yes, this is actually what her publisher told her. Gotta love the ’90s.)
The next Harry Potter book will “clarify” that there was absolutely nothing immoral about he Ministry using Dementors to suck the souls out of prisoners who were locked up for crimes they didn’t even commit. The only thing immoral about Azkaban was that Bellatrix was forced to live on the same island as Sirius, thus denying her sex-based right to a separate but equal concentration camp with only biological adult human females.
@bcb
either that or Bellatrix was actually a trans woman which is why she was so violent and insane. Think about it, she never gave birth so how can we know if she was a “real” woman.
I’m still working on the logic of using a pen name but also immediately saying “Hey, it’s actually me, the world famous household name author everyone knows”.
I think the Galbraith novels weren’t selling well on their own merits, such as they are, so Rowling had to do the reveal.
@LouCPurr: IIRC, the first one only sold about 5,000 copies worldwide (which is good for a new novelist), so the pseudonym was “accidentally” revealed.
Because she didn’t have enough money already, I guess?
Robert Galbraith Heath was indeed a terrible individual, but there are many other Robert Galbraiths, and it’s possible that none of them are reasons for Rowling’s pseudonym. I agree that it would be pretty on point for Rowling if that were the reason> I just can’t believe she thought too hard about it.
It does seem that Rowling did want to keep her involvement with the Galbraith books a secret. The leak actually came from her lawyers. Albeit sort of by accident.
https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/practice/jk-rowling-leak-solicitor-penalised-by-sra/5039249.article
She also sued her (presumably former) lawyers.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23515054
But Marty, bless him, put a post on his Facebook thanking me for my help. That was nice of him, but I did point out that rather exposed me. What if the IRA came after me to find out where he now lives?
“That’s ok. You don’t know where I live.”
“That just makes it even worse!”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/371455.stm
I’m not sure I buy the denial, and wonder if the lawyer was the patsy/fall guy.
In other news, Lenovo still keeps trying to reinstall itself. Grrrr.
@GSS ex-noob,
I heard that story was up for a Hugo this year. At the very least it should place since it’s a good story.
It was linked in a discussion of how a story written in an unusual format like text messages and blog comment sections can be made to work in a story’s favor if the writer takes the time to format things correctly. Another story, written to look like like a Usenet Group FAQ post (back when Usenet was still alive and viable), was this one:
https://ansible.uk/writing/c-b-faq.html
A look at some of the more practical side effects on society when someone actually does create a computer virus that can crash a human mind like in the book Neuromancer.
Going back to Harry Potter for a moment, there were a few side plots I was disappointed never got taken seriously at all, even though they would’ve provided an excellent opportunity for some worldbuilding. Like that whole Hermione and the House Elves thing – an exploration of why the Elves didn’t (apparently) want to be freed from their servitude to the rich Wizards would have been a great opportunity to see some of the history of how magical humans / magical non-humans relate to each other.
Like, is there something in HE nature that binds them to certain places that the rich Wizards took advantage of to create a permanent servant class for them? Did the Wizards rescue (at least some of) the HEs from some extinction-level disaster and they’re serving the humans out of gratitude? There was clearly some sort of cultural reason why the HE’s didn’t like the idea of freedom, if their reaction to a freed Dobby and that fired female HE from Prisoner of Azkaban was any indication; what the reason was could’ve made for an interesting background story.
And there’s any number of ways that info could have been slipped in without slowing the story down at all. Some combination of one of the other students / a teacher pulling Hermione aside and telling her what the deal is with the HE servants and why they shouldn’t be freed (she’s Muggle-born so wouldn’t know this stuff already), then her going to do some research to see if what she’s been told is true / accurate and where to go from there. Or maybe she and Dobby have a discussion about why the HE’s don’t (seem to) want freedom, and see if there’s something else they may want her to do instead, like agitate for a better-furnished closet to sleep in, or a better health care and vacation package than what the Wizards currently give them (IF they’re gettIng anything like that now, that is). A million ways to work that subplot to enhance the overall story, and it ultimately went nowhere.
Brief but related side question: in the second (I think) HP book there was a throwaway reference to Wizards in the Middle Ages and Reformation periods secretly taking the place of Muggles accused of witchcraft and enduring (with precautions) their punishments for them to spare their lives. Was there any reference in either the Fantastic Beasts books or movies about wizarding folk doing the same for the victims of the Nazis?
I mean, we know many of the wizards that come from Muggle families keep in touch with their non-magical relatives; wouldn’t some of them be upset enough by the death camps to get as many folks as they could away from them? The wizarding folk have shape-changing illusions at their command; disguise some scarecrows as the would-be victims, then get the intended victims to a place of safety while the Nazis unknowingly destroy a bunch of straw bundles.
Was anything like that where referred to in that part of the franchise, or no? I haven’t read any of those books, and have only seen the second movie, and I was wondering if they ever went there in any shape of form.
@Alyson,
The practice of women having to use male-sounding names to get anything published at all (outside of ‘female subjects’ like romance novels) has been around since long before J.K. Rowling was even born. Especially if they’re wanting to write in genres that have always been male dominated. The only cases of the reverse happening – men having to take female-sounding names to get published – that I’m aware of is in the Romance genres. Where it’s assumed that the predominantly female fan base won’t read a romance book written by a man. So that wasn’t something that was an invention of the 90’s by any shot.
@Elaine the Witch:
either that or Bellatrix was actually a trans woman which is why she was so violent and insane. Think about it, she never gave birth so how can we know if she was a “real” woman.
Meaning that Delphini, her daughter by Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, was a crisis actor? (Admittedly not written by Rowling, but with her official approval.)
More stats than almost anyone needs about the Hugos:
https://www.thehugoawards.org/content/pdf/2022-Hugo-Award-Details-Final.pdf
I’m psyched because a friend of mine won one.