450K views · Dec 12, 2007 · 58:34 · 1 HN recommender · 10 mentions · discussed 2008–2026
Randall Munroe, creator of xkcd, gives an Authors@Google talk in 2007 about the webcomic and his background, followed by audience Q&A. Donald Knuth and Guido van Rossum ask questions during the session.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN refers to it for the moment where Knuth asks a question and addresses the Steve Jobs anecdote, a favorite geek moment.
“one of the all-time great geek moments was when Munroe did a tech talk at Google”HN comment, 2013
“one of the all-time great geek moments was when Munroe did a tech talk at Google”
Knuth asks Munroe questions at Google talk
To me, one of the all-time great geek moments was when Munroe did a tech talk at Google, and Don Knuth gets up to ask him if he's thought about doing animated cartoons, and what is his favorite log log n sorting algorithm, about 21:30 in to this: this video
“Knuth's response is "I've been told this story a number of times...but I was impressed by him more than he was impressed by me.”
Knuth comments on the Jobs anecdote
Maybe Knuth was more of a rebel back in the day, but somehow I can't imagine him having that sort of response. In Randall Munroe's Authors@Google talk [ this video ], Don Knuth asks him a question at ~21:30 and at ~25:30 Randall asks Knuth about this very anecdote. Knuth's response is "I've been told this story a number of times...but I was impressed by him more than he was impressed by me."
“This story is the subject of a fascinating exchange between Knuth and Randall Munroe”
Knuth and Munroe exchange about Jobs story
This story is the subject of a fascinating exchange between Knuth and Randall Munroe in Munroe's Authors@Google talk: this video Knuth neither confirms nor outright denies the story, but says "I've only met [Jobs] a couple of times and in each case I was impressed by him probably more than he was impressed by me".
YES!!! I was literally searching everywhere for this only 1 week ago and determined that there was nothing good out there. Relevant: this video Now, if only there was a way to enter 2 addresses (for spouses/roommates) and have it give you the places with the best cumulative commute times. EDIT: Just saw Mapnificent does this! Would also love to see this fully integrated into link .
“There's a talk by Randall Munroe (xkcd) at google where this is debunked by Knuth himself.”
Knuth debunks the story; Guido asks Python questions
There's a talk by Randall Munroe (xkcd) at google where this is debunked by Knuth himself. It also features him being asked questions about Python by Guido. this video
“it might be this one with Randall Munroe (xkcd).”
Talk with real-time translated subtitles
Google has some pretty good software for this, thought it might be internal. When they have their "Talks at Google" events, there's a screen off to the side that provides real-time translated subtitles. There's at least one talk where the speaker addresses this system, and tries to get it to transcribe funny stuff. Can't remember which one exactly, but it might be this one with Randall Munroe (xkcd). this video
“FWIW Knuth himself doesn't think this happened”
Knuth himself doubts the story
FWIW Knuth himself doesn't think this happened nor does he sound like the kind of person (to me) who would try to cut someone down like that: this video
“he showed up at Randall Munroe's Google tech talk [0]”
Knuth asking Munroe questions during Q&A
There are many more important things about Knuth and his work, but one of my favorite stories about him is that he showed up at Randall Munroe's Google tech talk [0], and, during Q&A, asked Munroe "Have you thought about animated cartoons?" and "What is your n log n algorithm for searching?" I have a special respect for people who are both brilliant and humble, and Knuth is my poster person for that. [0] this video
“Source: talk by Randall, might be this one but I'm not sure”
Randall explains origin of the xkcd name
Randall wanted a unique short string associated with all his work. That way he could Google "xkcd" and find everything he ever did online. I believe he had a script that generated all possible 4-letter combinations and filtered out ones with any search results, and settled on "xkcd". But he became a victim of his own success when the comic became so popular and "xkcd" is now synonymous with the comic. Source: talk by Randall, might be this one but I'm not sure: this video .
“Knuth comes up to ask a question at 21:30”
Munroe's Google talk with Knuth question
FWIW the XKCD talk at Google is here (wow, 18 years ago! I remember watching this video when it was posted): this video (Knuth comes up to ask a question at 21:30) (Can't tell from the video where he was sitting otherwise, though there are definitely at least some people sitting on the floor.)
