Analysis of Deathly Hallows Cover

You know, I knew I was forgetting something. I have been remiss. How could I have forgotten to mark such a momentous milestone event as the release of the cover for Deathly Hallows? (All these images are from Mugglenet and the Leaky Cauldron).



Here is the full version with the back-cover where you can even see Voldemort. In a word, ominous!


And here is the UK children's cover.


And for sake of completeness, here is the UK Adult's cover.


So time for speculations and a comparative analysis.

US Edition: (The best one of the lot in my opinion)

First impression is that this is the FINAL confrontation between Harry and Voldemort. Just hope it doesn't end like The Final Problem with Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls.

Following up on my theory that the Deathly Hallows is the name of a place, the background coliseum like arena seems to be it. In the full view of the cover we can see what look like stage curtains so this leads me to believe that it is an amphitheater of sorts. And Harry and Voldemort are merely players on a stage, perhaps on the hallowed battlegrounds of magical battles fought long ago, perhaps even as far back as the Hogwarts' Founders era. Further, Harry is raising his hand up in the air as if he is about to call a superior power to his aid.

*Begin parenthetical Star Wars references*
(Go Harry! Voldemort is just a big ugly walking carpet with scales instead of fur! No offense, Chewie - you're far more likeable than Voldemort.).

Noticeably absent in this picture is any other source of help:

No Ron (Han is frozen in carbonite!),
No Hermione (Leia has been captured by Jabba the Hutt!),
No Ginny (Luke, find a romantic interest you must! On this the analogy depends.)

Luke - I mean Harry - you must face Darth Vader - I mean Voldemort - alone. (No, Harry. I am your father! Don't listen to him Harry! Vader - ahem Voldemort - murdered your father!)
*End parenthetical Star Wars references*

And notice what seem like wooden ruins in the foreground. And are those shadows in the background? - perhaps shadows of hooded Death Eaters waiting silently on Voldemort's orders. Or are they the silhouettes of grave-markers, magical heroes who've died waging the eternal battle between good and evil on this hallowed ground? And aren't Harry and Voldemort gazing off to an external point not visible to us? Voldemort's outstretched hand seems like an attempt to stop whatever Harry is attempting to do. As a final note, Harry doesn't appear to have aged that much, so it looks like the plot-line will stay within the timeframe of a year or so.

UK Children's Edition:

What on earth is this travesty? Sorry, when did the target demographic become 8 year olds? About the only potential clues are what the other horcruxes might be. Most of it seems like buried treasure. Not nearly as emotionally captivating as the US edition cover. The only sad part is that it only shows the trio on the horcrux hunt. That probably means no Ginny ::sobs:: (Harry, you dunderhead! Have you forgotten that "the power the dark lord knows not" is love?!)

UK Adult's Edition:

Pretty straightforward and banal, yes? It's Slytherin's locket, the next horcrux Harry will probably destroy. Where is the emotion, where is the drama? ::yawn::

Verdict: Mary GrandPre has made a completely awesome cover once again! Poor UK children :(

And, though I'm now "deathly" scared for Harry, I really hope he survives. Or if he doesn't, we'll have to take comfort in what a wise man (Dumbledore) once said: "To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure". On second thoughts, Harry's mind definitely does not qualify!

Ok, all my thoughts on the cover for now.

-- Arkajit

P.S. A peeve (No not Peeves the Poltergeist!): You have failed me for the last time, Admiral Digg! A mere 368 Diggs for the cover art release? What?!

Disclosing Web Vulnerabilities

Today, I was reading this article by Scott Berinato from a link I followed off Slashdot, and I was reminded of some of my own experiences with disclosing web vulnerabilities.

Recently, as I've begun to be introduced to the topic of computer security, I've started to notice vulnerabilities more frequently in my daily online experience. Indeed, I find it quite exciting when I find actual examples of the security concepts or potential vulnerabilities I've read about. It makes the concepts that much more real for me.

That said, I can still relate to the feeling of uncertainty involved with discovering and reporting security vulnerabilities. In trying to be helpful in reporting the vulnerability in an application to the author, am I in danger of being suspected of hacking? Is it then worth the risk and hassle of legal entanglements?

The last paragraph of Berinato's article was particularly ominous:

A gray pall, a palpable chilling effect has settled over the security research community. Many, like Meunier, have decided that the discovery and disclosure game is not worth the risk. The net effect of this is fewer people with good intentions willing to cast a necessary critical eye on software vulnerabilities. That leaves the malicious ones, unconcerned by the legal or social implications of what they do, as the dominant demographic still looking for Web vulnerabilities.

That is truly a scary thought as the potential implications are a decline in the security of the Internet and a loss of faith in its realibility.

-- Arkajit

Math and Happiness

There was an article on CNN today about a study done that relates students' confidence and happiness to their success in math.

On the surface, I was surprised by their findings that less happy students with lower confidence were better math students; conversely "confident students do worse in math". At the very least, they were contrary to my experiences, and I would have liked to see some of the actual analysis rather than the simple report of the raw data.

But I do see some possible ways to reconcile these results. From my own background, I can distinctly recall three major phases (thus far) in my mathematics education.

In the first phase - think back to your first contact with math :) - it is still a very novel thing, pretty cool and different from most other subjects you're used to, still very puzzle-like and playful. It's like learning a new language - at the beginning the new words and phrases are foreign, mysterious - you're fairly engaged.

The second phase is the downer. It involves much more rote computations and you start to get bored, frustrated, unhappy. Keeping with the learning a new language analogy, I liken this phase to learning the "grammar". Basically, this is where you pick up many of the fundamental computational tools you'll need in more advanced mathematics.

The third (final ?) phase, for me, began at the moment when I started higher mathematics and the now ingrained tools were applied in various contexts: pure mathematics, physics, engineering, computer science, etc... For example, I found myself drawn to the beauty and elegance of proofs, the synthesis of topics I've learned previously, and the amazing satisfaction of finally solving the problem. In this respect, this phase is very much like the first phase again where it becomes much more enjoyable again. In the language analogy, it's like finally being able to talk and use the language for extended periods of time - that's when the true beauty comes out.

Of course, I'm still very much in the middle of my mathematical journey and there may be more phases. Also, the phases sometimes tend to oscillate :P

So, anyway I think this is a possible confounding variable that needs to be considered when analyzing the results of the study correlating success in math and student happiness. For example, I can certainly relate to the phase two feeling of being very proficient at math from a pure computational standpoint yet not being very satisfied with the overall experience. On the flip side, proficiency with these tools, like a firm grasp of grammar in English, is essential to fully appreciate the language of mathematics. But in the end, the ability to imagine and play are just as vital for happiness in mathematics as in other fields.

-- Arkajit

More Products from Google Labs

New product of Google Labs is out today: Google Code Search! I just started experimenting with it and it looks like it could be quite useful. It indexes many open source code projects and allows for regexp pattern matching (what else?). This is great! Now it's easy to find all the examples I need to learn how to use new functions or features. One thing I would have liked to see was a searchable index of library functions from popular languages, such as C, C++, Java, etc... It would be really nice to have that all in one place.

Incidentally, I also started using the new Google Reader, another product of the Google labs, last weekend. It is now a permant fixture on my home page - I actually don't even have to visit the actual Google reader site that often unless I want to add or change feeds. All the snippets appear right on my home page!

For now, I can only wonder what will come out of the labs next?

-- Arkajit

Space Blogging

Blogging has broken new frontiers: Blogs in Space! Ansani, the Iranian space tourist, begins her blog "A long, long time ago in a country far, far away ...". Awesome Star Wars reference!

As far as I know, there haven't been similar blogging milestones from other extreme parts of the world. So here are some new challenges for the blogging community:

• Blogging From Under the Sea
• Blogging From Atop the Summit of Mt. Everest
• Blogging From the Moon
• Blogging From Middle Earth
• Blogging From Hogwarts
• Blogging From Tatooine
  

So maybe those last three are best left to fantasy (I can just imagine Hermione saying "Honestly, are you ever going to read Hogwarts, A History. All those Muggle substitutes for magic don't work around Hogwarts!") :P .

But at least there could be records for highest/lowest elevation blogging, etc... It would be interesting to see how it would turn out. Though I'm not sure how feasible it is currently :)

-- Arkajit

The Man Who Saved The World

Today is the 23rd anniversay of the day Stanislav Petrov a USSR colonel averted a potential nuclear disaster by refusing to believe computer warnings that the US had launched a missile attack against the Soviet Union. His judgement to disregard the warnings as false proved sound; the warnings were in erorr. But had Petrov acted on the warnings and notified his superiors, it is not a stretch of the imagination to think that the anxious Soviet command would have launched a full "retaliatory" counterattack and ensuring MAD.

Anyway when I first heard this story, my first reaction was that it seemed that it was straight out of War Games or any other Cold War era film built around the nuclear war hype. Another more recent movie that came to mind was Denzel Washington's Crimson Tide. I was shocked. These scenarios which sound so fantastical and hilarious when you're watching a movie were appallingly real. What was most disturbing was the eery similarity between reality and fantasy. Those who have watched War Games will remember that the plot also centered around a human decision to not accept a computer warning which was later shown to be in error.

Petrov's story was only declassified eight years ago and it is now set to appear in a documentary: "The Red Button & The Man Who Saved the World". Here's to Petrov and the hope that our luck will hold out.

-- Arkajit