10 Sep
2003
10 Sep
'03
6:23 a.m.
Sellam: I'll bet my last dollar that you've got termites - or maybe they've
got you! They love corrugated board and paper. I've had them bore holes right
through books, from cover to cover. I suggest you get help!! Art Hill
10 Sep
10 Sep
7:41 a.m.
On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 TRASIOL(a)cs.com wrote:
Sellam: I'll bet my last dollar that you've
got termites - or maybe they've
got you! They love corrugated board and paper. I've had them bore holes right
through books, from cover to cover. I suggest you get help!! Art Hill
Q: If such a critter were to start at page one of volume 1 of Knuth
("Numerical Algorithms"?) and eat straight through to the last page of
volume 3 ("Sorting and Searching"), how far would he go? To simplify the
arithmetic, we'll adjust the dimensions and say that each cover is 1/8
inch thick, and the paper of each volume is 1 inch thick.
8:17 a.m.
On Wednesday, Sep 10, 2003, at 12:31 US/Eastern, Fred Cisin wrote:
Q: If such a critter were to start at page one of
volume 1 of Knuth
("Numerical Algorithms"?) and eat straight through to the last page of
volume 3 ("Sorting and Searching"), how far would he go? To simplify
the
arithmetic, we'll adjust the dimensions and say that each cover is 1/8
inch thick, and the paper of each volume is 1 inch thick.
easy - assuming normal arrangement of the volumes on a shelf - 1 1/2" -
billp
10:26 a.m.
New subject: bugs!
From: william pointon <wpointon(a)earthlink.net>
3 + 5/8 if you're going to start inside V1 and they're all 1" thick and 5
covers to go through. But V3, the only one I have, is at least 1.5" by
itself. Maybe indeed reincarnation is the true cosmology and what Sallam
encountered some early pioneer catching up on some great reading. Karma
would seem to indicate some early IBMer.
:)
- Mike: dogas(a)bellsouth.net
Q: If such a critter were to start at page one of
volume 1 of Knuth
("Numerical Algorithms"?) and eat straight through to the last page of
volume 3 ("Sorting and Searching"), how far would he go? To simplify
the
arithmetic, we'll adjust the dimensions and say that each cover is 1/8
inch thick, and the paper of each volume is 1 inch thick.
10:48 a.m.
New subject: bugs!
> Q: If
such a critter were to start at page one of volume 1 of Knuth
> ("Numerical Algorithms"?) and eat straight through to the last page of
> volume 3 ("Sorting and Searching"), how far would he go? To simplify
> the
> arithmetic, we'll adjust the dimensions and say that each cover is 1/8
> inch thick, and the paper of each volume is 1 inch thick.
3 + 5/8 if you're going to start inside V1 and they're all 1" thick and 5
covers to go through. But V3, the only one I have, is at least 1.5" by
itself. Maybe indeed reincarnation is the true cosmology and what Sallam
encountered some early pioneer catching up on some great reading. Karma
would seem to indicate some early IBMer. 
3:50 p.m.
New subject: bugs!
'Bill Gates Speaks' Janet Lowe should have been the first reference in last
msg.
3:48 p.m.
New subject: bugs!
1.5... ;) Must cut down on the crack...
I came across two CC references to Knuth's series lately. 1) 'Bill Gates
Speaks Out' Janet Lowe somewhere talked about early programmer position
considerations being positively slanted to candidates who have been through
the series, as Bill himself has been and 2) in 'Accidential Empires', Robert
Cringely tells about Knuth deciding to take a 'little' time out to invent
TeX so that digitally published Vol 3 would look as good as linotyped Vol 1.
Still looking for Vol 1 and 2 here.
;)
- Mike: dogas(a)bellsouth.net
10:53 a.m.
New subject: bugs!
> > Q: If such a critter were to start at page
one of volume 1 of Knuth
> > ("Numerical Algorithms"?) and eat straight through to the last page
of
> > volume 3 ("Sorting and Searching"), how far would he go? To simplify
> > the
> > arithmetic, we'll adjust the dimensions and say that each cover is 1/8
> > inch thick, and the paper of each volume is 1 inch thick.
On Wed, 10 Sep 2003, Mike wrote:
3 + 5/8 if you're going to start inside V1 and
they're all 1" thick and 5
covers to go through. But V3, the only one I have, is at least 1.5" by
itself. Maybe indeed reincarnation is the true cosmology and what Sallam
encountered some early pioneer catching up on some great reading. Karma
would seem to indicate some early IBMer.
How did you get FIVE covers??
Actually, if you look carefully at how the boks are [normally] placed on a
shelf, page one of volume one ends up at the RIGHT HAND SIDE of the
volume! Therefore, the bug only needs to go through the cover to get out
of volume one and start on volume two. (We shall ignore the fact that
there are prefaces, title pages, etc. betwwen pagone and the "front" cover
(which is at the RIGHT hand side when on the shelf). So far, 1/8".
Then we have both covers and the full contents of volume two.
So far, 1 3/8".
Then, notice that the "normal" shelving of books would place the LAST
page, and back cover of volume three at the LEFT side, resulting in only
1/8" to travel to get to the last page of volume three when entering from
the left.
Thus, the total distance (IFF we assume canonical shelving) would be 4
covers and one book, for a grand total of 1.5".
The later editions are indeed thicker than the earlier ones, but the
alteration of the dimensions was explicitly stated - for the purpose of
simplifying the arithmetic.
7:15 p.m.
New subject: bugs!
On Wed, 10 Sep 2003, Mike wrote:
3 + 5/8 if you're going to start inside V1 and
they're all 1" thick and 5
covers to go through. But V3, the only one I have, is at least 1.5" by
itself. Maybe indeed reincarnation is the true cosmology and what Sallam
encountered some early pioneer catching up on some great reading. Karma
would seem to indicate some early IBMer.
Whoever he is, he likes to eat rather than read. He needs to get the hell
out of my warehouse and go find a Burger King or something.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
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8:30 a.m.
Rumor has it that Fred Cisin may have mentioned these words:
Q: If such a critter were to start at page one of
volume 1 of Knuth
("Numerical Algorithms"?) and eat straight through to the last page of
volume 3 ("Sorting and Searching"), how far would he go? To simplify the
arithmetic, we'll adjust the dimensions and say that each cover is 1/8
inch thick, and the paper of each volume is 1 inch thick.
1.5 inches...
What did I win??? :-P ;-)
Laterz,
"Merch"
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- sysadmin, Iceberg Computers
zmerch(a)30below.com
What do you do when Life gives you lemons,
and you don't *like* lemonade?????????????
10:18 a.m.
On Wed, 10 Sep 2003, Patrick Rigney wrote:
Actually, what I had said was:
each volume is
1 inch thick.
:-) To simplify the arithmetic, we'll adjust the
dimensions and say that
each cover is 1/8 inch thick, and the paper of each volume is 1 inch
thick.
Which is not THAT far off for the earlier editions. The second edition
(copyright 1973) is less than 1.5" thick, INCLUDING covers for
"Fundamental Algorithms" (the correct title for the first volume)
10:03 a.m.
>Q: If such a critter were to start at page one of
volume 1 of Knuth
>("Numerical Algorithms"?) and eat straight through to the last page of
>volume 3 ("Sorting and Searching"), how far would he go? To simplify the
>arithmetic, we'll adjust the dimensions and say that each cover is 1/8
>inch thick, and the paper of each volume is 1 inch thick.
On Wed, 10 Sep 2003, Roger Merchberger wrote:
1.5 inches...
What did I win??? :-P ;-)
NOT my copy of Knuth. I still have a LONG way to go before I get to the
end of Sorting and Searching.
If you make it to VCF, see me, and I'll probably have some stuff to part
with.
Hmmmm. maybe it's a trick question:
1) NO living being can go "straight through" Knuth! (information density
is pretty high)
2) How often are the 3 volumes sitting on the shelf together?
11 a.m.
I don't know how far they'd get in Knuth's books but they will completely
riddle a 2" x 4" and I have 1/2" thick computer manuals that they've
gone
all the way through. In fact the manuals were probably stacked up so they
most likely went a lot further than 1/2". (It happened before I got them.)
FWIW my sister's house was recently found to be infested along one wall.
The house is about 18" off the ground. The termites built a mud tunnel up
the supporting blocks and then got into the floor, one wall and INTO THE
ROOF! They had to replace a large part of the floor, one wall and a large
portion of the roof trusses. As long as termites can built a wood or mud
tunnel that connects them to the ground they can keep going.
Joe from Florida, the bug capital of the world!
At 09:31 AM 9/10/03 -0700, you wrote:
On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 TRASIOL(a)cs.com wrote:
> Sellam: I'll bet my last dollar that you've got termites - or maybe
they've
> got you! They love corrugated board and paper.
I've had them bore holes
right
through books,
from cover to cover. I suggest you get help!! Art Hill
Q: If such a critter were to start at page one of volume 1 of Knuth
("Numerical Algorithms"?) and eat straight through to the last page of
volume 3 ("Sorting and Searching"), how far would he go? To simplify the
arithmetic, we'll adjust the dimensions and say that each cover is 1/8
inch thick, and the paper of each volume is 1 inch thick.
7619
days inactive
7619
days old
15 comments
10 participants
participants (10)
-
allain＠panix.com -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
dittman＠dittman.net -
dogas＠bellsouth.net -
patrick＠evocative.com -
rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com -
TRASIOL＠cs.com -
vcf＠siconic.com -
wpointon＠earthlink.net -
zmerch＠30below.com