https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/12/23/0516244/30-years-of-donald-knuths-christmas-lectures-go-online---including-2023s Slashdot * Stories * + Firehose + All + Popular * Polls * Software * Newsletter * Jobs Submit Search Slashdot [ ] * Login * or * Sign up * Topics: * Devices * Build * Entertainment * Technology * Open Source * Science * YRO * Follow us: * RSS * Facebook * LinkedIn * Twitter * Youtube * Mastodon * Newsletter Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter Nickname: [ ] Password: [ ] [ ] Public Terminal --------------------------------------------------------------------- [Log In] Forgot your password? Close binspamdupenotthebestofftopicslownewsdaystalestupid freshfunnyinsightfulinterestingmaybe offtopicflamebaittrollredundantoverrated insightfulinterestinginformativefunnyunderrated descriptive typodupeerror Sign up for the Slashdot newsletter! OR check out the new Slashdot job board to browse remote jobs or jobs in your area Do you develop on GitHub? You can keep using GitHub but automatically sync your GitHub releases to SourceForge quickly and easily with this tool so your projects have a backup location, and get your project in front of SourceForge's nearly 30 million monthly users. It takes less than a minute. Get new users downloading your project releases today! x 172566121 story Christmas Cheer Math Programming 30 Years of Donald Knuth's 'Christmas Lectures' Are Online - Including 2023's (thenewstack.io) 27 Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday December 24, 2023 @10:34AM from the under-the-trees dept. "It's like visiting an old friend for the holidays," according to this article: Approaching his 86th birthday, Donald Knuth -- Stanford's beloved computer science guru -- honored what's become a long-standing tradition. He gave a December "Christmas lecture" that's also streamed online for all of his fans... More than 60 years ago, back in 1962, a 24-year-old Donald Knuth first started writing The Art of Computer Programming -- a comprehensive analysis of algorithms which, here in 2023, he's still trying to finish. And 30 years ago Knuth also began making rare live appearances each December in front of audiences of Stanford students... Recently Stanford uploaded several decades of Knuth's past Christmas lectures, along with a series of 22 videos of Knuth from 1985 titled "the 'Aha' Sessions'" (courses in mathematical problem-solving). There are also two different sets of five videos from 1981 showing Knuth introducing his newly-created typesetting system TeX. There are even 12 videos from 1982 of what Knuth calls "an intensive course about the internal details." And on Dec. 6, wearing his traditional brown holiday sweater, Knuth gave yet another live demonstration of the beautifully clear precision that's made him famous. [apply tags ] - Related Links - CNN Shares Hopeful Signs for Our Fight Against Climate Change Ask Slashdot: Have You Read 'The Art of Computer Programming'? Donald Knuth Turns 80, Seeks Problem-Solvers For TAOCP Quantum Computing Gets a 'Hard, Cold Reality Check' 30 Years of Donald Knuth's 'Christmas Lectures' Are Online - Including 2023's More | Reply Login 30 Years of Donald Knuth's 'Christmas Lectures' Are Online - Including 2023's Post Load All Comments Full Abbreviated Hidden /Sea Score: 5 4 3 2 1 0 -1 More | Reply Login Nickname: [ ] Password: [ ] [ ] Public Terminal --------------------------------------------------------------------- [Log In] Forgot your password? Close Close Search 27 Comments Log In/Create an Account Comments Filter: * All * Insightful * Informative * Interesting * Funny The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way. * + + o o Re: (Score:3) by drainbramage ( 588291 ) writes: And the Holy Trinity: Base, Collector, Emitter # + o o Re: (Score:2) by drainbramage ( 588291 ) writes: People too weak to face up to their own irrelevance: Post as Anonymous Coward Oh, wait minute. Drat! # o Re: (Score:2) by 2TecTom ( 311314 ) writes: Only primitives believe in imaginary sky friends, people too weak to face up to their own irrelevance. It seems only fundamentalists have trouble grappling with concepts like externalism, existentialism, metaphysics,multidimensionalism, nihilism and theology. Not only that but to dismiss it all so they can apparently feel superior to those they see as merely superstitious seems suspect. Just saying. # + Re: (Score:2) by david.emery ( 127135 ) writes: your lord Jesus Christ Well, I didn't vote for him! https://www.youtube.com/ watch?... [youtube.com] o + o + 3 replies beneath your current threshold. * 1964 is more than 60 years ago? (Score:1) by ihadafivedigituid ( 8391795 ) writes: Someone can't do math. If Knuth is 86 now, how could he be 24 in 1964? How did they bungle the simple computation of how long ago 1964 was? + + o o # o # o 2 replies beneath your current threshold. + o + Re: (Score:2) by ihadafivedigituid ( 8391795 ) writes: I should have watched the 1993 video before commenting. Why on Earth are these lectures noteworthy? Knuth is a meandering, confusing, and inarticulate lecturer. o + Re: (Score:3) by Calydor ( 739835 ) writes: Have you forgotten just how long 2020 was? o o Re: (Score:2) by ihadafivedigituid ( 8391795 ) writes: Hah, I can't decide if it was super short or ultra long. Both? # + Re: (Score:2) by backslashdot ( 95548 ) writes: Not sure if they edited it, but it (now?) says 1962 not 1964. o o Re: (Score:2) by ihadafivedigituid ( 8391795 ) writes: Now I wonder if this was a glitch in the Matrix or if I misread it six or seven times. # + Re: (Score:2) by drainbramage ( 588291 ) writes: Yeah weird, I thought his birthday was 1970-01-01. o + Re: (Score:2) by gosso920 ( 6330142 ) writes: Blame it on the metric system. o + 2 replies beneath your current threshold. * Presidential Medal of Freedom (Score:4, Insightful) by holostagram ( 6735694 ) writes: on Sunday December 24, 2023 @12:02PM (#64103225) He should be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom post haste. He has likely done more to advance our society than anyone living. Somehow he did this without requiring capital markets to give him billions of dollars. Reply to This Share twitter facebook Share on Google+ Flag as Inappropriate + + Re: (Score:1) by Valgrus Thunderaxe ( 8769977 ) writes: Not more than Musk. o o # o 1 reply beneath your current threshold. * Reminds me of a U.W. Tradition (Score:2) by Dusanyu ( 675778 ) writes: Professor Bassam Z. Shakhashiri for 50 years has given a Chemistry Lecture around Christmas time for children at UW Madison last year's can be seen here http://scifun.org/xmaslect/ Xma... [scifun.org] some of the older one can be viewed here. https://digital.sciencehistory... [sciencehistory.org] + + Re: (Score:2) by bob_herrick ( 784633 ) writes: At Brown University, Professor Emeritus Josiah T. Carberry had failed to show up to any of his scheduled lectures since the mid-1920s. This makes him immensely popular among undergraduates. o * G. R. R. Knuth (Score:5, Insightful) by jd ( 1658 ) writes: on Sunday December 24, 2023 @03:47PM (#64103675) Homepage Journal Donald Knuth is never going to finish A Song of Fire and Algorithms at this rate. Reply to This Share twitter facebook Share on Google+ Flag as Inappropriate + + Re: (Score:2) by ihadafivedigituid ( 8391795 ) writes: Well played, very well played indeed. :-) o * 1 reply beneath your current threshold. * There may be more comments in this discussion. Without JavaScript enabled, you might want to turn on Classic Discussion System in your preferences instead. Related Links Top of the: day, week, month. * 501 commentsMasks Work. So What Went Wrong with a Highly Publicized COVID Mask Analysis? * 391 commentsAre Face Masks Effective? 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