News and general opinion, often privacy, security or computer related, but could be about anything really, including religion, politics, the environment, business or audio books. "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence/stupidity/neglect." -- Hanlon's Razor
Even the Cresta shopping centre has not escaped the Potter marketing mania. Our local Exclusive Books took pre-orders and stayed open late to allow customers to collect their copies at 1am.
We went to see a movie first, and when we got to the shop shortly before 1am the queue was out the door and along the passage.
Only in America could major newspapers publish reviews of an embargoed book and hope to get away with it. Only in America could book stores sell copies in advance of the launch date. Are these people stupid, or just plain incompetent?
The New York Times claims to have read the book. This review was also published by the International Herald Tribune, with the graphic shown above. What a cheek. Another review was published by the Baltimore Sun. All of these papers are supposed to be run by real journalists who have dictionaries on their shelves which explain the meaning of the word "embargo".Personally I hope that JK Rowling sues these dolts for millions, along with the dumbass people who work for the stores that shipped the books in advance. I guess you don't have to be able to read to work for a book store in the USA. Its journalists like these who make us realise just how honest their papers really are. Perhaps Rita Skeeter works for the NYT after all.
Update: No Rita Skeeter just got a job as a sub-editor for The Times, the daily version of our (ahem) well-respected Sunday Times. I guess gutter journalism hasn't died here either. Sad.Book publishers are a weird lot, and seem to have no qualms about carving up the globe into pieces and then treating each piece differently. That's why I call it Apartheid. There are other words to describe it: "regional segregation", "economic discrimination", or even plain racism. Call it what you will, it sucks. Here's a recent example:
I can buy this audio book from Audible.com, which happens to be the best source for audio books on the planet. But if I want the unabridged version, I get this response:
When publishers decide to publish a work, they acquire the rights to distribute that title in certain parts of the globe. Sometimes they buy "world" rights, but frequently the rights for a book are split among several companies, each of whom publish for certain countries. As a distributor, we need to abide by the restrictions that publishers assume when they publish a work. Thousands of our titles are available for "world" distribution.
Their management knows this is a problem, but at the moment they feel powerless to deal with it, because they are dictated to by their suppliers. It's time for their customers to dictate to their suppliers. I just have to figure out how.
Apple, on the other hand, is just plain arrogant in their approach: they won't even let me sign up to their iTunes store, even though I own two iPods, sold to me in South Africa through official distribution channels. When interviewed on 702, the MD of Apple SA said there is nothing he can do about it, he's only the distributor. That sucks! I'm his customer, and he throws his hands in the air.
So not only does Apple make buggy software, they just couldn't give a damn.
If you've never heard of Jim Dale then you obviously haven't listened to any of the Harry Potter books on audio. He's probably one of the best known narrators of the 21st century.I was listening to a book recently and found the following excerpt at the end, something every parent should think about: Download the mp3 file or click the play button below."In the 'Top Ten Best Selling Audio C.D's of America and Canada', Narrator Jim Dale takes the first SIX places with his recordings of the Harry Potter books." (Amazon.com - August 2005)Jim is also a Guinness World Record Holder for creating "Most Character Voices in an Audio Book (134) in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". He won a Grammy Award in 2000 for "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". Publishers Weekly presented Jim with "Children's Narrator of the Year Award - 2006"Jim has received an Audi Award Nomination in the category "Audio book of the Year 2006 - Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince". This award was only created three years ago. Jim has been nominated three times and won the award in 2004.
