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Don Knuth letter about libraries increasingly unable to afford prices (2003) [pdf]

cs.stanford.edu

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Re: Don Knuth letter about libraries increasingly unable to afford prices (2003) [pdf]

#91

Post by shagie »

bigbillheck wrote: post #81
justin66 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sending a working person a 14 page letter about anything expecting them to read it is wild to me. You really cannot understand why Donald Knuth would expect the editorial board of The Journal of Algorithms to read his letter?

Editors not knowing who sent in a document is one of the pillars of the double-blind system.

https://www.combinatorics.org/ojs/index.php/eljc/article/vie...

> Herb Wilf has co-founded two major journals, Journal of Algorithms in 1980 with Donald Knuth ...

When the founder of the journal writes the editorial board (not the reviewers of papers), it is probably expected to be read.

Re: Don Knuth letter about libraries increasingly unable to afford prices (2003) [pdf]

#92

Post by RheingoldRiver »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #83
ForHackernews wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's there to understand? It's capitalism 101. Producers will charge the maximum the market will bear.

Sure, but who the hell buys a digital copy they can't even resell for more money than a physical copy?

I usually prefer digital books for a lot of reasons, they're convenient to bring with me places & I can change my mind about what I will read; I don't get wrist pain from holding the book open; I can read in the dark with just the ereader's backlight on; I have control over font & font size, so I don't have to get used to differences every book I read; there's no chance of papercuts; you can use ctrl+F.

The downsides of ebooks are that I can't write in margins (if it's nonfiction, I would never write in a fiction book), and the ereader chassis conducts heat better than paper so it's extremely cold at first in the winter. Also footnotes are annoying as shit compared to footnotes in paper media, and tabbing back to a known earlier page (e.g. a map for fantasy novels) is worse UX than in a physical book.

Cost aside, ebooks win almost always, although sometimes I'll buy a nice edition of a book I love to decorate my bookshelf, and when I read paper books I enjoy the things they're better at than ebooks.

(And of course there's audiobooks, where physical media makes little sense)

Re: Don Knuth letter about libraries increasingly unable to afford prices (2003) [pdf]

#93

Post by lupire »

queuebert wrote: post #86
sam_lowry_ wrote: post #12

He is attending the wrong library. Library Genesis is the way, now. And Library Sci-Hub. And I am only half-kidding.

Pro tip: If you are near a university, the free public wifi may give you access to its journal subscriptions.

Where have you seen this?

Every one I've seen requires login, and usually university membership for the good stuff.

Re: Don Knuth letter about libraries increasingly unable to afford prices (2003) [pdf]

#94

Post by tombert »

WillAdams wrote: post #90
tombert wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very cool! He just needs to write a book on obscure cartoon history, and I'll be shoe-in. Until then I think I will just have to deal with living in envy.

You are aware that his first publication was in _Mad Magazine_? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potrzebie (scroll down to "System of Measurement") or see: https://webmadness.net/blog/?post=knuth

I was not aware of that. That's a fun fact that I did not expect to learn today.

Re: Don Knuth letter about libraries increasingly unable to afford prices (2003) [pdf]

#95

Post by SpaceBuddha »

irrational wrote: post #65
juls333 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's honestly quite tragic as we don't evolve anywhere fast enough to not be hit by global depression as the digital solitude clashes with the innate human needs of real socialization.

You aren’t supposed to socialize at brick and mortar libraries.

Where on Earth did you get that idea? Every library I've ever been to has offered all kinds of events geared to "socializing," from Group Crochet, to Book discussions, to AA. Not to mention how common it is for libraries to offer "teen spaces" where kids are free to hang out, work on homework together, etc.

Re: Don Knuth letter about libraries increasingly unable to afford prices (2003) [pdf]

#97

Post by skeaker »

2devnull wrote: post #84
valdiorn wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good. There no reason to rewrite undergrad calculus books every semester besides money grabbing. The math hasn't changed in 100 years and there shouldn't be an incentive to write an updated version of the book for the 50th time.

The language changes, but more importantly students backgrounds and facility with the English language changes. Not that dumbing down the text or replacing old timey words should cost much, but cost disease and all that.

Granted, but they definitely do not change enough to warrant a new edition every year. This can and has been experimentally confirmed by countless students even before Library Genesis simply by showing up to class with an old edition of the textbook and still learning the material fine.

Re: Don Knuth letter about libraries increasingly unable to afford prices (2003) [pdf]

#98

Post by OneDonOne »

sam_lowry_ wrote: post #12

He is attending the wrong library. Library Genesis is the way, now. And Library Sci-Hub. And I am only half-kidding.

Not all of us are able to, or want to, use ebooks. Especially textbooks where one may be going back and forth through chapters fairly frequently. Simply saying "muh Libgen" ignores how most people , especially teenagers, study. For teenagers, any smart device will lead to distraction if connected online. They usually choose Insta over the PDF reader in their distraction.

Re: Don Knuth letter about libraries increasingly unable to afford prices (2003) [pdf]

#99

Post by dekhn »

anonzzzies wrote: post #26
thrtythreeforty wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Don Knuth sent me a 14-page letter, you bet I'm gonna read it. I might frame it.

I would definitely frame it. I framed an email from Norvig and a note from Dijkstra. Get joy from small things.

I have a blog post by Norvig where he gently chides me for wasting enormous amounts of CPU trying to find a counterexample to the Beale Conjecture. Not exactly frameable, and not exactly something to be proud of, but I got a chuckle nonetheless.

Re: Don Knuth letter about libraries increasingly unable to afford prices (2003) [pdf]

#100

Post by Pet_Ant »

irrational wrote: post #65
juls333 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's honestly quite tragic as we don't evolve anywhere fast enough to not be hit by global depression as the digital solitude clashes with the innate human needs of real socialization.

You aren’t supposed to socialize at brick and mortar libraries.

Libraries are not archives of books. They are community hubs. My local library has programs for seniors with early mental impairments to do puzzles with volunteers to slow the progression of their decline. Another has programs for street youth.
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