rowdysailor - Slashdot User

Comment Buy a set for the US Patent Office (Score 3, Insightful) 381

by rowdysailor on Sunday December 04, 2016 @11:14PM (#53422745) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Have You Read 'The Art of Computer Programming'?

We should all chip in and get a complete set for the US Patent office. It might help them get rid of some bad patents they have issued over the years.

Or if you say you are using a computer in a patent app and don't cite Knuth as prior art for something you get tossed for that as well.

Ask Slashdot: Have You Read 'The Art of Computer Programming'? (wikipedia.org) 381

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday December 04, 2016 @10:09PM from the truth-from-Knuth dept.

In 1962, 24-year-old Donald Knuth began writing The Art of Computer Programming, publishing three volumes by 1973, with volume 4 arriving in 2005. (Volume 4A appeared in 2011, with new paperback fascicles planned for every two years, and fascicle 6, "Satisfiability," arriving last December). "You should definitely send me a resume if you can read the whole thing," Bill Gates once said, in a column where he described working through the book. "If somebody is so brash that they think they know everything, Knuth will help them understand that the world is deep and complicated."

But now long-time Slashdot reader Qbertino has a question: I've had The Art of Computer Programming on my book-buying list for just about two decades now and I'm still torn...about actually getting it. I sometimes believe I would mutate into some programming demi-god if I actually worked through this beast, but maybe I'm just fooling myself...

Have any of you worked through or with TAOCP or are you perhaps working through it? And is it worthwhile? I mean not just for bragging rights. And how long can it reasonably take? A few years?
Share your answers and experiences in the comments. Have you read The Art of Computer Programming?

Comment Why maintain the shared copper plant? (Score 4, Funny) 249

by rowdysailor on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @03:53PM (#19481743) Attached to: Verizon Accused of Slighting Copper Infrastructure

Verizon does not need to share the new fiber plant. The copper plant is what Verizon has to share with other people. Why invest in something you don't get all to your self. It will be interesting to try and get T1 and DS3 lines from AT&T in the Verizon footprint. Although I suspect that AT&T is doing the same thing with their copper plant.

The regulators are getting exactly what their policies have said they want.

Remember Ma Bell is back! and this time she's pissed.

Slashdot Top Deals