You may have downloaded the latest version of Intel driver to optimize your Windows 10. However, there is a chance that the software installer might display the error Failed to parse setup.xml error. Such error may occur when you are trying to accomplish the unattended installation; however, it may display under different circumstances too. You can try utilizing the Device Manager for updating the driver and check whether it works or not. Download the new driver setup again from Intel site and then store it to the PC. And then again remove the particular driver.

Source :- https://elinajohn.wordpress.com/2020/02/19/fix-failed-to-parse-setup-xml-error-intel-software-installer/

QuickBooks TLS error is commonly encountered by users when they have recently updated to Windows 10 and have started using the QuickBooks application on it.
The alert message comes up with the text “QuickBooks TLS 1.2 Failure Error“. Or “QuickBooks requires TLS 1.2 for secure communication.” In this blog we
discuss about TLS and what causes the error.If you need any assistance then dial (844)-888-4666.

In an author’s note prefacing his novel, Ronald Clark writes of “the sliver of chance” that separates history that what might have been.  The sliver of chance in this instance is the failure of the Trinity test in June 1945.  With the atomic bomb an apparent dud, the United States moves forward with Operation Olympic, the invasion of the Japanese home island of Kyushu.  The unintentional death of the Japanese emperor enrages the island’s population, ensuring a vigorous and bloody defense.  With casualties mounting, the U.S. resorts to biological warfare and withdraws troops from Europe in preparation for an invasion of Honshu, actions which cause a split with its British ally and create an opening that the ambitious Soviets are quick to exploit.

Clark’s premise is a familiar one to readers of alternate history, having been used in novels such as David Westheimer’s Lighter than a Feather and Alfred Coppel’s The Burning Mountain.  Yet Clark’s book is much inferior to these works.  The narrative form is particularly weak; Clark attempts to relate events from the first-person perspective of a female correspondent who just happens to be at the right place at the right time to observe key developments, yet sections are also included recounting conversations more appropriate for a third-person format.  Such laziness also extends to characterization; with the exception of a few historical figures, most of the characters are little more than mouthpieces for dialogue designed to move the plot along.

But perhaps the greatest weakness of the book is with the plot itself.  Many of the developments in the novel seem to be less about considering the consequences of his suggested point of divergence than reaching a predetermined conclusion that is historically highly improbable.  The chapters themselves are so focused on this that the action within the novel takes a back seat to explanation, with more space devoted to recounting fictional parliamentary debates than in describing the events that they are about.  Fans of alternate history would be better off avoiding this book in favor of other works of the genre, most of which are superior to this tepid contribution.

Whereas Annihilation took place inside Area X, Authority takes place outside, at Southern Reach. The folks at Southern Reach are charged with studying Area X, putting together expeditions to send into it, and potentially protecting the world against Area X and whatever might come out of it. Unfortunately, Southern Reach is currently a dysfunctional environment at best.

A man who prefers to be called Control but whose real name is something else is sent to Southern Reach to be its new director. Grace, the assistant director, takes an immediate dislike to him, leading to a power struggle that stretches across most of the book. While trying to get Grace to accept his authority, Control, a spy from a family of spies, also attempts to get his bearings. He interviews the twelfth expedition's biologist, learns as much about Area X and Southern Reach as his new employees are willing and able to tell him, and tries to figure out if the previous director was as unstable as the mess in her office made her look, all of which he reports back to his shadowy boss.

Although I wasn't really a fan of the first book, I continued on with the trilogy in the hope that it would improve and maybe give me a few more answers. It did provide me with a few answers - some of the things the psychologist said and did make a lot more sense now, for example - but it also left me with more questions and less trust that the final book in the trilogy would answer them.

Annihilation had its problems, but it was far more interesting than Authority, which spent way more time than I'd have preferred on Control's family history and his obsession with the biologist (who wasn't really the biologist and who preferred to go by Ghost Bird). I kept reading because of the book's occasional links to Annihilation and the mystery of Area X, but they were crumbs in a sea of crap about Control's mother, grandfather, and father. Yes, that info tied into one of the big revelations about Control's situation, but surely it could have been more tightly written?

It didn't help that, after a point, I just wasn't interested in Control. He acted like he was some kind of hotshot spy who'd slide into Southern Reach, figure out the right power games to play, and end up with the power to improve Southern Reach's operation and get the info his boss needed. Except that it turned out he wasn't nearly as slick and competent as he tried to tell himself he was. Some of it was lies, to himself and to the reader, and some of it was that, despite his preferred name for himself, he actually had even less control over his situation than I initially thought.

I really liked when things started to get weird and creepy near the end of the book (ooh, that scene with Whitby!), but it was too little, too late. Also, a word of warning for animal lovers: Control has a cat that he ends up abandoning near the end of the book. No further information was provided about the cat's fate, so I prefer to think that he somehow found a safe place and thrived.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

"...All change, all worthwhile human change, comes from the common man. It is never handed down to us from our betters. My goal is to free the common man to effect that change. Sometimes that means enabling him to have a place of his own on Mars. Sometimes it means evening the odds between a nation that can afford War-bots and one that can’t. But as far as trying to figure out who the good guys are, I gave that up a long time ago. That’s a road to nowhere. Don’t go looking for heroes, Josh. You’ll never find one."

I distinctly remember looking at the progress meter on this at 15% and groaning -- it was well interesting, well-written, but I didn't care about any of the characters or the story, and by 15% I should at least have started to get invested in something. I don't say this to beat up on Faria, but to encourage patience in his readers. Because by somewhere in the 20-30% I was glad I stuck with it.

Basically, there's a pretty corrupt government on Earth and a few very powerful transnational corporations (and one that's even more so) who control a small population of miners and other laborers on Mars. Some of those on Mars start to get ideas about self-determination, self-government and whatnot. Throw in a kid who may or may not be having some religious visions that put him right in trouble's way. Tying all of these together is a combination Internet/Simulated Intelligence enabling and supporting communications, and just about everything else in their lives. At some point the kid and some of these people on Mars get together and work toward similar ends -- and that's when everything gets weird.

Faria spends a lot of time setting his dominoes up before knocking them over -- and you'll end up not seeing exactly all the designs he had in mind. Two of the biggest are pretty apparent, but I think he wants you to see those events coming, so that you're smarter than the characters who don't understand their circumstances. It's the ideas floating around these events -- both leading up to them and what comes up in reaction to the various events of the novel that got and kept me interested in this book.

The science fiction part of this is well-done: the mines (why does everyone mine Mars?); the various robots; the Mad Max-ish desert areas of Mars; the political/corporate powers -- even the detail about the ways they messed with the moons of mars to help land ships there -- I ate all that up. My major criticism is the female characters -- there are 3 of them: Josh's mom, Emily, and Emily's mom (who really is just a name for most of the book until she finally shows up). Note that two of those are defined only in terms of their relation to someone (Josh's mom has a name, I'm pretty sure, but it didn't stick with me). You could make the case that Emily is really the only female in the cast, and that's just not right.

I'm not going to get deeper on any of the characters, because at this point, they really don't matter that much -- I think that may change, but let's let my lack of description of them sum up my lack of investment with them.

I'm not sure I cared that much about any of the characters in the end, really. But I want to know what happens to this world -- well, worlds: Earth and Mars -- and the societies represented next. It reminds me of the early Foundation novels that way, you don't get that invested in any of the people, but man, you've gotta find out what happens next.

This feels like the beginning of a trilogy -- and I'm in for the long haul.

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this novel by the author in exchange for this post. I really appreciate it.