Bill Menees's Blog

In 1998, I wrote an IDE called MIX Builder for developing and debugging programs on Donald Knuth's MIX computer as defined in his The Art of Computer Programming book series. Dr. Knuth is big into "perfectability", so he offers a $2.56 reward to the first person to find each error in his books.

While writing my MIX emulator, I was lucky enough to find two errors in TAOCP Volume 1, so I have two checks from Dr. Knuth for $2.56. The honor of having two rewards from Dr. Knuth is way cooler than having another $5.12 in my pocket, so I'd never cash his checks. Some have described Knuth's reward checks as "among computerdom's most prized trophies". I understand that completely, but it's hard to explain it to people that haven't tried to read TAOCP and don't know Dr. Knuth's background and major contributions to computer science.

Recently, I ran across an article about Knuth reward checks in Wikipedia. It has a list of known checks, so I added my two (#392 and #462) to the list. I also scanned in the letters that Dr. Knuth sent back with his annotations. He stopped using email on 1/1/1990, so he sent his responses along with the checks via snail mail.

• Scan of check and letter about the 1^st error I found.
• Scan of check and letter about the 2^nd error I found.

Labels: Software

Knife #7 is finished. I started it on Monday and finished it today (Friday). So it's my fastest project, and I think it's my best home project so far.

It's my first steel knife with filework, and that turned out ok. Unfortunately, when I epoxied the handles on, the file work filled unevenly. So some of the notches have epoxy in them, and some don't. That's a little ugly, but it's a practice knife after all. I made this with Home Depot steel, and I didn't bother heat treating it. I just cut the long scrap off the end of the steel bar shown in the Knife #6 pics, and I started shaping it to look like a knife.

The handle and sheath are made from walnut lumber scraps that my dad got from a friend. It's a relatively easy wood to work with, and it looks nice. It's a lot easier to work with than oak or cocobolo.

The thong hole would look better with brass tubing in it, but I don't have any. I need to get some. Overall the knife would look better if I had some finer grit sanding belts. I need to get those too. The blade is a simple flat grind since that's all I can do with my belt sander.

I put the belt loop on the back of the sheath as high up as I could because the knife is so top-heavy. It still tips over though unless you put it on a stiff, wide belt.

Material: Random stainless steel with walnut handles and 1/8" brass pins. Walnut sheath.
Blade Length: 4 1/2"
Overall Length: 10 3/4"
Started: December 18, 2006
Finished: December 22, 2006

Labels: Knifemaking

I went to my school's 1^st degree black belt test on Saturday. At the beginning of the test Mr. Jones said that he was going to do something that he’d never done before in the history of the school. He said he wanted to thank a very special student that had helped him and the school out a great deal and already had all the qualities he’s looking for in a student…(then a bunch of other nice words, followed by)…

“and that’s why I'm promoting Bill Menees to 2^nd degree black belt today. He’ll test later, but he deserves this today.”

I was stunned and very honored. I kind of stumbled my way to the front wondering if it was a joke or something. :-) Everyone was very congratulatory, and Mr. J told me he wanted me to test in a couple of months with another student that’s getting ready for 2^nd degree. It was wild, and I don’t think my mind has quite adjusted to it yet. But it’s pretty cool. I'm just blown away by it.

Labels: Martial Arts