/sci/ - Science & Math

>>15725612
Pic rel.

I actually have a cheque from Knuth for $0.32 for an error I pointed out in TAOCP. But I was lucky to actually get the cheque at all. Here's the story.
I sent in my correction and had forgotten about it until a few months later when I received a cryptic letter from Knuth saying that he'd accepted my 'challenge', was making the corrections and would deliver me a cheque for $0.32.

Luckily, I had heard about Knuth's violent confrontations with people he'd lured into pointing out errors in his books, but I was barely prepared for what happened.

Early one Saturday morning a heard a car draw up, follow by organ music coming from outside my front door. A knock quickly followed.
I opened the door and caught just a glimpse of a cloaked Knuth, TAOCP written in runes on his forehead using goat's blood, before I was hit between the eyes by a hardback copy of the METAFONT book.

Knuth pounced upon me with the speed and strength of a man half his age and pummeled me with a TeX manual screaming something about Leslie Lamport that I could barely make out.
I fought back as hard as I could and managed to roll with him towards my home office door where I'd prepared a trap in case the Knuth stories turned out to be true.

Propped above the door were all 3 volumes of TAOCP. In the struggle Knuth hit the door and received volume after volume upon his head. Dazed and gibbering in Japanese, he staggered to his feet and towards me, finally collapsing on the floor.

He reached into his cloak. Fearing a shirukin I ducked behind the sofa, only to hear him admit defeat and pull a crumpled cheque with my name on it from under the folds of heavy material.
To the families of the seven dead who Knuth taunts on his web site I pass on my condolences. To the seven: mourn you til I join you.
Be warned: don't fall into the this man's deadly trap.

>>10066912
Excuse me?
Does this Man look to you like he wanted you any evil when using his typesetting system based upon programming standards of the 70s?

I actually have a cheque from Knuth for $0.32 for an error I pointed out in TAOCP. But I was lucky to actually get the cheque at all. Here's the story.
I sent in my correction and had forgotten about it until a few months later when I received a cryptic letter from Knuth saying that he'd accepted my 'challenge', was making the corrections and would deliver me a cheque for $0.32.

Luckily, I had heard about Knuth's violent confrontations with people he'd lured into pointing out errors in his books, but I was barely prepared for what happened.

Early one Saturday morning a heard a car draw up, follow by organ music coming from outside my front door. A knock quickly followed.
I opened the door and caught just a glimpse of a cloaked Knuth, TAOCP written in runes on his forehead using goat's blood, before I was hit between the eyes by a hardback copy of the METAFONT book.

Knuth pounced upon me with the speed and strength of a man half his age and pummeled me with a TeX manual screaming something about Leslie Lamport that I could barely make out.
I fought back as hard as I could and managed to roll with him towards my home office door where I'd prepared a trap in case the Knuth stories turned out to be true.

Propped above the door were all 3 volumes of TAOCP. In the struggle Knuth hit the door and received volume after volume upon his head. Dazed and gibbering in Japanese, he staggered to his feet and towards me, finally collapsing on the floor.

He reached into his cloak. Fearing a shirukin I ducked behind the sofa, only to hear him admit defeat and pull a crumpled cheque with my name on it from under the folds of heavy material.
To the families of the seven dead who Knuth taunts on his web site I pass on my condolences. To the seven: mourn you til I join you.
Be warned: don't fall into the this man's deadly trap.

Any of you computer nerds out there feel like helping me understand the math towards the end of section 1.1 in The Art of Computer Programming? Seems like the author pulls a whole lot of variables out of his ass without telling the reader what they are or what they mean.

How does it make you feel that your God is a Christian?