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Toilet Paper Algorithms
ziani writes "Computer science professor and ex-Apple technologist Don Norman posits a new "forcing function" in toilet paper use algorithms." Browsing through his website is a good way to kill a couple of hours.
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I wonder if he was inspired by Snowcrash, and the long discussion of the issues related to toliet paper in the Fed Building in which yt's mom works? Sounds pretty similar, but less funny.
Academics, especially professors, spend a good deal of their time brown-nosing and kissing other people's asses in the hopes of securing yet another research grant. Hence, the seemingly odd fascination for toilet paper, the uses of.
"I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them." -- George H. W. Bush
This topic is full of shit!
Table-ized A.I.
...I knew that degree in CS would come in handy some day.
"player 4 hit player 1 with 0 stroms"
Disclaimer: This post was written deliberately in the long-practiced computer science tradition of over-analyzing simple problems.
___
Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum.
I think Emacs has a minor mode to enforce correct toilet paper selection.
t
The Japaneze have built several toilets which, when you're done answering nature's call, you reach on one side of the bowl where controls are. There you can clean your butt by having warm watter sprayed around the exit area, maybe some soap, rinse, and then blow dry.
:D
Don't forget to flush!
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
Decided to take a look, see what kind of dual-roll dispensers are available, and voila... a sale!
Don't know if it was deliberate or not, but what a great way to utilitze the Slashdot Effect...
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
The article does a good job of analyzing which roll to choose, but neglects the most important question of installing toilet paper rolls.
Should the paper come over the top of the roll, or out from under the bottom?
Clearly, over the top is better, because no matter how long or short the loose end is, it is always on the front so you can find it. With the under the bottom system, the loose end can be hanging behind the roll and you have to roll it until you can grab it.
I would like to see one where you push a button to get the number of sheets. For example, there might be a 1, 2, and 3 button. Pushing a given button twice means that you get double that number. So, if you want 4 sheets, you push 2 twice.
Then again, I don't know what the prior person left on the button. Thus, maybe a foot peddle press for each sheet.
Also, why are the flush mechanisms so fragile? It seems every house and appartment I have ever lived in had problems with the flushing and fill mechanisms. They always leak, or get tangled up in odd ways, or settings drift over time, etc. Is QA bad? Or is it just a hard engineering problem to solve? Any craptologists out there?
Perhaps it is time for Digital Toilets. But, I don't want to know what happens during extended blackouts (which I have been in) or dead batteries.
I guess we are just stuck with crappy crappers.
Table-ized A.I.
If you want to make a fast buck, go the the hardware store, buy a bunch of sand-paper, and resell it at a Trekkie convention as Official Klingon Toilet Paper. (You might need to print up some fancy-looking packaging.)
Sells like hot cakes.
I just don't like to be around when they test it on a dare.
Table-ized A.I.
What kind of anal person wastes time on scheduling/queuing algorithms for TP?!?!
It may seem stupid at first, but it could make for an easy introduction to algorithms for young students. Just because it's a somewhat inconsequential topic to everyday life doesn't mean it's not something that's useless.
For example, in my macroeconomics class my freshman year of college, the professor attempted to explain many of the economic concepts in terms of beer and college students. Law of supply and demand: Price of beer goes up, supply of beer goes up, but demand for beer goes down (college students, of course, being limited in budget). Compliments and substitutes: Price of pretzels goes down, demand for beer goes up.
Yes, they are simplified examples, but I firmly believe the only reason I remembered anything from that class to this day is because of the examples she used.
Think For Yourself. Question Authority.
The author discussed, in true binary fashion, "available" vs. "unavailable" for a second roll.
People have also discussed "over the top vs. under the bottom".
There is a middle ground: two rollers, one "over the top" and the other "under the bottom". This would also self-regulate the usage of the rolls, ensuring one ran out before the other.
Which one runs out first depends on the physical characteristics of the holder.
For a fixed holder, the answer is probably "over the top".
But for a hanging holder, where the weight of the paper itself levers the paper into the wall, increasing the overall friction, "under the bottom" allows you to mitigate friction effects, while "over the top" increases them.
Since a fixed holder results in the choice being user preference, that doesn't solve anything; clearly, the fix is in two parts: (1) use hanging holders, and (2) make the primary roll "under the bottom" and the secondary roll "over the top".
Another solution (which is only statistical) is to locate rolls on either side of the toilet. Left handed people are outnumbered by right handed people 20 to 1, on average. But this fix only works "on average", as a result.
All in all, a "P-P complete" problem.
-- Terry
This is one of the textbook examples of what people in several fields (such as economics evolutionary biology) have for some time referred to as "super-rational" behavior.
Th conventional definition of "super-rational" is taking into account the consequences of everyone (or at least the majority) following the strategy. It doesn't actually imply that the actors are rational (or even thinking). One of the topics where it has been used is the biological question of how altruism evolves. The best explanation so far is that a population that behaves altruistically among themselves has a survival advantage over purely individualistic populations.
The double toilet paper example is used as a clear way of illustrating this concept, in a way that doesn't impinge on people's social or religious ideologies. Very few people have any strong feelings about which roll you should use, so they are able to follow the argument without their beliefs causing distraction. And it's clear that a population could behave in a super-rational fashion in this case without being consciously aware that they were doing so. An irrational preference for the inner part of the roll would suffice.
If you ask google about "super-rational", you'll find a number of links to this concept buried among the silly and/or pretentious sites.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
One can catch the paper against the roller holder and get more friction making tearing easier when the roll is installed "backwords". If you try to do this with a forwards roll you'll have to loop what you've got up and around, which tends to get complicated when one is focussed on the latest issue of Popular Mechanics... or whatever else one might read on the toilet... one-handed.
Oh, man. When I read "forcing function," I was going to suggest more fiber, but this is a bit different...
My
Limekiller
There is more to computer science than mastering the latest buzz words.
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Furthermore, most homes have something nice and pretty called a "under-sink cabinet" in the bathroom, which is where you keep the extra toilet rolls when you have a one-roll holder. It solves the problem of which roll to take paper from (the one in the holder, not the one out of sight in the cabinet, in case you are part of the few percent of the population that doesn't get this). And that is why most homes don't bother with ugly, bulky, industrial-looking dual-roll toilet holders. People who have a separate room for their toilet and no under-sink cabinets usually install a little cabinet in that room, useful not only for holding toilet paper but also cleaning supplies.
Most normal people understand this. Most normal people know to look in the cabinet when they run out of toilet paper. (Most normal people also know not to keep any incriminating or unusual personal items there because they understand that other people will be looking there.)
I think the fact that one of the foremost HCI experts in the countries thinks it worthwhile to share his profound insights on this matter tells you a lot more about the state of HCI research than anything about toilet paper. Apparently, HCI researchers think that the rest of the country consists of idiots who don't even know what to do in the bathroom. In different words, I think a lot of HCI research is roughly at the same level of worrying about installing dual-roll toilet paper holders in the home.