Robert Douglass, a fellow Drupaller, writes about a presentation he gave to a German group. What caught my eyes is this part (emphasis is mine):

I was happy with the presentation, despite the fact that two of my examples didn't work right (why do things always break when you're showing them to others?)

I can certainly relate to this. There is this thing about bad luck with laptops and conferences that I have been facing.

Last February, while in Vancouver for the DrupalCON, I was mostly offline for three days. I had no wireless then, but most attendees had it. Fair enough, I will check my mail in the hotel, they said they have broadband. I plug in my laptop, and Windows cannot detect a LAN cable. I go to the reception, they lend me another cable (brand new in sealed package). I plug it in, and no luck. The reception gives me a key to another room to try, and still no luck.

My conclusion: my ethernet port is busted. I go home, and plug it in, and it works perfectly ... What the ... ?

So, I buy a wireless card later, partially to help with the situation in conferences, but also because spring is here and I want to do some backyard computing.

Last week, while presenting in the Drupal Camp Toronto, it was my turn to go first. The laptop would  not power on at first (battery ran out). Then, I was not able to connect using wireless. I was finally able to get through the presentation using a LAN cable (luckily, I packed the Xircom card with me, just in case).

Later in the day, I was able to get wireless, when it worked (it goes down every so often).

Then, twice that day, the laptop would die when unplugged from A/C power. I speculate that the batter has finally died.

I go home, charge the battery, and unplug the A/C power, and keep working for a couple of hours ... again what the ... ?

Is this the observer effect in action, or is it the uncertainity principle?