Trivia for a Change: Harry Potter IV

I've been on a severe writing project lately, with little time to post. But I did take time out to see the latest Harry Potter flick. I suppose the best way to describe my reaction would be what Bilbo Baggins said about his life before handing the ring to Frodo. "Feeling stretched thin."

It's a great 2-1/2 hour flick. But against a 700-page novel, with numerous twists and subplots, the movie simply has too much territory to cover. Scenes are cruelly cut to the minimum, leaving many without the right setup. There is one, count 'em one classroom scene. When one of the minor characters dies, there's no scene to cover the response: the next scene, with Harry going up to Dumbledore's office looks like it matches with the death, but there's no reference to it.

I hear that the DVD version will be considerably longer. I pray for that, because this was simply too fast, too thin, and not the homage to J.K. Rowling that the previous movies strived and succeeded in being.

Back to Grid Discussions

The main character in the novel I'm writing manages several rogue botnets that carry out his Quixotic will. They are his NSA, his mob assassins, his librarians, and his bodyguards. They sit, not interrupting, not interfering with their hosts, until they are triggered to do their master's bidding.

The idea that grid computing could be sabotaged by hackers getting into the system is precisely why I wrote several patents on the subject of creating fiduciarily responsible distributed computing environments. The idea that a grid computing operation would naturally be safe is absurd, even though one of my commenters pointed out that internal networks didn't have to worry about such things.

If low-paid editors from ZNet can write about it (sorry, David B., I'm just guessing from friends in the industry), then hackers are already working on it. Grid computing needs to quickly grow up and take on the reins of security, auditability, and introspection for the purposes of ensuring that what is performed is what is requested.

Even if fiduciary responsibility isn't needed in grid computing projects, auditability, accountability and the management of individual grid notes is a prime requirement.

Honored

This evening my spouse and I were honored by our private school for being founding members. Nine years of operations, eleven years of nurturing. As they called us all up for a group gift presentation I found myself hugging all these incredible people, people I had grown with over eleven years. People, even those with whom I had little in common, I knew better than I knew almost anyone with whom I grew up. People that had sacrificed, argued, cried and stood together in solidarity to bring our little school of twenty three kids to a powerful 160-student school with all the growth potential, politics and culture an expensive tuition can allow.

We are all blessed to be part of it, and I feel humbled by the opportunity offered to me to make a difference not only for my children's education, but that of my friends and neighbors. Mazal tov and yashar ko'ach!