Google Tech Talks: "All Questions Answered" by Donald Knuth | Hacker News Reader

Google Tech Talks: "All Questions Answered" by Donald Knuth

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130 pointstjr16 comments

Compare the reception Googlers gave Lady Gaga vs. Donald Knuth http://youtubedoubler.com/?video1=hNa_-1d_0tA&start1=115...

I'm actually glad programmer-type people don't tend to scream like that, at least for another programmer-type person. (Though it disturbs me when anyone does it for someone--I can't stand live sporting events or concerts.)

I would totally scream for Knuth!

directly from the yt comments:

"Donald frickin Knuth in the room and look at all the people still tapping away on their notebooks. What would it take? The Queen of England?"

Direct: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLBvCB2kr4Q

Thanks! The link I posted was the link cited on Knuth's website... no blog spam intended.

I loved this:

"If there were ten people like me in the world, we wouldn't have time to read each other's books." - Donald Knuth

"The answer is....I'm 73 years old and....I have friends."

I haven't heard Knuth lecture for maybe five years, but he seemed sort of stuttery -- something I don't remember from his last lecture I saw at MIT. Does anyone know if the stuttering is common / worsening? I'm worried about his mental health!!

In most of his online talks, his extemporaneous speaking style seems to be consistent. For instance compare with his Christmas trees lectures from the previos years.

I was lucky enough to see him in Manchester a few months ago, and the people who weren't expecting the stuttering were quite put off. Still, it was an incredible experience.

Link in GoogleTechTalk's channel http://www.topchan.tv/show/public1/265/GoogleTechTalks/2011-....

I was fortunate to see him in Manchester, England in February. As Manchester is the birthplace of the Small Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM), someone asked him:

Q: What would you have done with the SSEM if you had access to it?

A: Given that I was about ten years old at the time, I would probably have used it to check Facebook.

A great man, with a great sense of humour. (He later gave his real answer: he would write a program to play music on it.)

but I submitted the same link 25 days ago, and I got no upvote love: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2380269

Sorry to hear it wasn't voted up. I suspect HN has an aversion to direct link to video in submission.

He talks about The Bank of San Serrifee near the end.

http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/boss.html

Reply on news.ycombinator.com