

Computer Musings by Professor Donald E. Knuth - stardotstar
http://scpd.stanford.edu/knuth/index.jsp

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ColinWright
I was really looking forward to watching some of these during my lunch break.
I followed the links, picked one I thought I'd enjoy, clicked the link ...

"Install Microsoft Silverlight"

With a heavy heart I close the tab in the browser on my Linux box.

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 _Added in edit:_

Thanks for the suggestions. The problem isn't so much that it's Moonlight,
_per se,_ it's more that I have to go through a bloody great clog dance to
find the resources, download, install, then find the video, see if it plays,
and so on.

I was looking forward to a break during lunch to see something interesting,
and instead I was going to be sucked into what amounts to system
administration yet again.

That's why I was so disappointed. Mostly, anyway.

~~~
stiff
While I still share the sentiment, it works just fine on Linux and Firefox
with a recent version of Moonlight (<http://www.go-mono.com/moonlight/>).

~~~
ColinWright
That certainly eased the pain - thank you. Still took 15 minutes to sort out,
but now tomorrow I can watch a video.

Thanks.

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huhtenberg
Of all places on the Internet it was _really_ odd to see Standford's site
requiring Silverlight to watch its content. WTH, how could something like this
happen?

~~~
anamax
Stanford is Stanford, and Knuth is Knuth, in part because both know what
issues are important.

Silverlight is reasonable and has market share. Since their goal is to get
distribution....

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michael_dorfman
I'd strongly recommend these, if you are interested in these kinds of things.
I look forward eagerly to watching the annual Christmas Tree lecture every
year (this year on on Bayesian trees and BDDs, to be held December 8, probably
posted online a few days later).

One year Knuth offhandedly mentioned a question I had posed in an email a few
days earlier (regarding TAOCP), which was a big thrill, and indicates that
despite the warning that email may take 6 months to reach him, it is often
much quicker.

~~~
jasondavies
Computing Bayesian network probabilities using BDDs sounds interesting. Are
there any references for this, or do I have to wait in suspense for the
lecture? :)

~~~
michael_dorfman
I don't know of any off-hand, but there must be; Knuth is usually collating
the work of others.

The abstract for the lecture is here: <http://www-cs-
faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/musings.html>

