3 ms·
Tim Berners-Lee and the Toilet Paper Protocol
- sethg 15y agoRelated: a 1984 paper by Knuth, “The Toilet Paper Problem”. http://www.jstor.org/pss/2322567 http://www.jstor.org/pss/2322567
- carterschonwald 15y agofor those who encounter a paywall: http://lts.cr/bzJ http://lts.cr/bzJ to direct dl the pdf
- carterschonwald 15y agofor those who encounter a paywall: http://lts.cr/bzJ http://lts.cr/bzJ to direct dl the pdf
- carterschonwald 15y agofor those who encounter a paywall: http://lts.cr/bzJ http://lts.cr/bzJ to direct dl the pdf
- InnocentB 15y agoDonald Norman (of The Design of Everyday Things fame) talks about the various strategies for this in his newest book, Living With Complexity. It's an interesting problem because it turns out enough people follow the antisocial strategy of taking from the larger roll (what Berners-Lee calls K in his protocol) that both rolls will often run out within short intervals of each other (less than µ). Norman proposes the strategy of "nearest roll first" instead of "smallest roll first", which is an easier strategy to accommodate through toilet paper dispenser design. Many public stalls hide the spare roll inside a contraption for this purpose.
- tzs 15y agoI'd go for the smaller one because of physics. It has a smaller moment of inertia, and so less force is required to pull out an adequate length of paper. When I attempt to pull out a proper amount to cover my fat programmer's butt there is a significant breakage problem with large rolls.
- qq66 15y agoTim's email address is timbl@w3.org. Is this faked?
- jasonkolb 15y agoI've met Tim a few times, this doesn't sound like something he would write. But whether it is or isn't, it is hilarious.