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.

Comments

Allow me to explain

[Subcarrier]

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.

Hmmm....

[Kirby-meister]

...I knew that degree in CS would come in handy some day.

Let's simulate it !

[Raiford]

Perfect problem for a language that supports multiple threads. Sounds like a nice Java applet.

Usability a curse..

[Space Coyote]

I mean really, discovering the perfect toilet paper algorithm seems all well and good, but I fear the consequence will be that people start to disregard the 'you empty it, you replace it' rule. Good usability does not require that the user be shielded from the process. Rather, the user should be well aware that, once a role is emptied, it needs to be replaced. If the issue is that guests mess up the system, I suggest hanging out with a smarter group of friends.

Disclaimer: This post was written deliberately in the long-practiced computer science tradition of over-analyzing simple problems.

Re:I'm disappointed...

[haystor]

I think Emacs has a minor mode to enforce correct toilet paper selection.

Over the top or out from the bottom

[SiliconEntity]

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.

Re:Over the top or out from the bottom

[Grond]

Should the paper come over the top of the roll, or out from under the bottom?

There was a slashdot poll about this a long, long time ago (about the time I started reading slashdot, in fact...heh, even then there were people whining about how "slashdot had changed" and "we never have cool polls anymore...like that one about the toilet paper").

Ahh, here it is. The winner with 60% of 13401 votes is "Over". Under got 12%, 18% didn't care, and 8% answered "Huh?" I guess the "Huh?" group lives/lived in societies that don't use toilet paper (either because they use bidets or just go without...)

Re:Over the top or out from the bottom

[3ryon]

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 think a lot of people feel this way...until they have cats.

Re:Over the top or out from the bottom

[rgmoore]

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.

That depends on the number of small children and pets in the household. If you make the free end of the toilet paper too easy to grab, then the simple minded and easily amused (I guess that might include some adults too) will sit there and unroll the whole roll just for the fun of it. It's like many things involving children and pets: making things too convenient can wind up causing problems when those who shouldn't be messing with things have access.

Re:Too much time on their hands

[jweb]

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.

under is easier to tear one-handed

[Crag]

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.