Reviews by RokeJulianLockhart

5 stars
A nigh-unbelievable prediction of technological and scientific advancement.

That this novel was serialised in 1897 remains difficult to believe, because, for an author to possess such accurate knowledge of the effects of compromised immunology, and predict:

  • that the circuit would replace the wheel, in driving machinery, and

  • that the laser would exist

…and utilise these as the fundamental premise of the story is impressive beyond belief. Even irrespective of this, to script a mesmeric novel requires consistent, correct pace, which this novel does. However, even more impressively, to create such a novel about a Victorian alien invasion, without it appearing contrived – or hopelessly… hopeless – requires serious consideration for the weakness of what should be whatsoever weak. Yet, he, a Victorian, achieved this, and being an educated, Victorian Englishman, communicated it perfectly.

Reposts

bookwyrm.social/user/rokejulianlockhart/review/9373911


2 stars
Poor coverage, support experiences, and 2FA options.

As I summarised at trustpilot.com/reviews/6934c6f27b1370c97a88d3a1:

  • Dreadful coverage in North Norfolk.

  • Lacks FIDO2 1/2FA, and/or even FIDO 2FA.

  • Customer support can be really painful. They’re evidently outsourced and overworked, per Message-Id: <0102019929b541b0-da8605e5-02ef-415e-8287-267c06cc9202-000000@eu-west-1.amazonses.com>, where the representative merely ceased to respond, after nigh ignoring the content of every message. I was as polite as I believed was reasonable, in the interest of accuracy, and certainly provided sufficient diagnostic information for them to ascertain why my device didn’t receive the 2025 national emergency broadcast.

  • The AOSP client isn’t [F]OSS.


3 stars
Impressive design, marred by retrograde hardware capability, and abysmal OS QA.

Although I am stunned by how easily repairable it is (swapping batteries is trivial), and how durable its construction and material composition is, the software QA of its default AOSP distribution is abysmal; KEYCODE_APP_SWITCH frequently breaks, and the brightness was unable to reach 100 % for nearly a year before it was remediated. They previously operated a GitLab instance to assist in bug triage, but disabled it two years ago.