klog

… if you are the chairman of a committee.

This is incredible - it’s a first-hand account of how Norway’s OOXML vote was changed from No to Yes in the space of one meeting (No meaning “there are problems with the proposal, we should not support it”, and Yes meaning “there are no problems with the proposal, and it should be supported”).

The meeting started with the chairman, who is not a technical man and has little understanding of the problems of OOXML, stating that this meeting would not adjourn until there was consensus on either Yes or No.

What followed was a real life “Monty Hall” whittle - The meeting started with 30 people voting, most of whom did not vote yes. There was no consensus, so most of the voters were asked to leave the room. Then the vote was taken again. People still had different opinions, so more people were asked again. This repeated until there was only one vote left - the chairman’s. And so Norway’s vote was decided.

So what’s wrong with that?

Let’s say the vote was about slavery. The question was - should slavery be allowed. Let’s say that the chairman didn’t understand the need to treat all humans as sovereign, and was the only person voting “Yes”.

In the first round, the chairman would vote “Yes”, and everyone else votes No. No consensus, so most of the voters are asked to leave. Again, the vote is taken, and again, the tally has one Yes, and many Nos - no consensus. So more people are asked to leave. this process continues until all voters are in agreement. You guessed it - the chairman wins.

This voting process is hilarious because it has actually happened! I’m frankly astounded that there is less outcry.

This is an example of dictatorship - a question was asked, and everyone that gave an answer different to the chairman’s was removed from the room. Eventually, he was the only person left, and so the “vote” was tallied as 100% Yes.

I was reading through Sky’s site for the Colour Of Magic film, and noticed that the book list (under Terry Pratchett > The Books) includes a book called “The Ullustrated Wee Free Men” due out this year. There does not seem to be mention of it anywhere else online… anyone know anything about it?

Oh - and “David Jason” is mis-spelled as “Daivid Jason” in the title of one of the videos in Video > Behind The Magic

Tired of my laptop dying every now and then, I have taken drastic action.

The Acer Travelmate 2420 is very badly designed where it comes to heat management. Air is sucked in from under the laptop (where your leg or the table would block the airflow) and blown out the side of the machine. A smarter arrangement might be to suck in air from above the keyboard and blow it out the side, but hell - what do I know about laptop design…

Anyway - the problem is that the bottom hole is too easily blocked, and besides, the fan is crap - doesn’t pull in enough air.

The solution is to give the fan a helpful boost. So, what I did was to build a small platform from cardboard, and stick three Thermaltake fans in it, each of which was more powerful than the laptop fan. This causes a large airflow through the laptop, keeping the usually-roasting right side of the machine actually colder than the rest of the machine!

1. front view - laptop is at perfect angle for working at. 2. back view - shows the three fans. 3. left view - my hacked power-supply (normal four-wire power cable with two of the wires hooked to a 12v PSU). 4. top view - shows the air hole which sits directly under the laptop fan, and a cardboard block at the bottom middle which helps keep the laptop in place (along with the two grooves on either side).