Velorien comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 20, chapter 90 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Which would be fair, but we are dealing with Harry Potter, chaos magnet extraordinaire and number one target of the Dark Lord believed to be somewhere out there, as well as of any Death Eaters seeking vengeance. There are few circumstances in which he does not need to be considered as a special case, and I think McGonagall knew that by this point.
Which they've basically handled by giving the most imaginative one in the group(Harry himself) an unlimited supply of magical gadgets to defend himself and his friends as well as unlimited access to their war councils. I can think of worse strategies.
I'm no longer sure how this relates to my original point, which was that McGonagall's behaviour at the time of locking the Time-Turner was unreasonable given that other, less restrictive, options were probably available. At that time, IIRC, Harry had been given no other special gadgets except the Cloak, and was still in the process of fighting tooth and claw to be included in decision-making at all, rather than being treated as a passive, blissfully ignorant object of protection. (and I'm not sure what unlimited supply of magical gadgets you're referring to even with regard to the present)
The trinkets line referred primarily to
as well as the fact that she unlocked his Time-Turner basically for the asking.
At the time she locked it this was not the case, granted. But at the time she locked it Harry was abusing it wildly, and there was no obvious danger. Stopping him was the main priority, and the shell did that quite effectively.
I see. I hadn't made the association between Harry asking for those things and him actually getting them, since generally throughout the story his requests for sensible safety measures end up ignored by the authorities.
Those are far from unlimited. (except for the invisibility cloak). What about Muggle artifacts, though?
Has he asked for any? And if Harry's imagination has not discovered the limits yet, I think "unlimited" is a fair approximation.
He bought a bunch of stuff at the hardware store. But nothing beyond that. One can imagine giving them Muggle comms and possibly weapons.
Magic in the Potterverse(as is most modern fantasy settings) is incompatible with modern technology. See http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Electricity
Huh. On the other hand, Harry was able to use his car battery to waste Draco's shield bubble. It could be only sufficiently complicated stuff, rather than just a brute current.
Might be useful if they get kidnapped out of Hogwarts though, like the portkeys.