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It is satirical. If you go to the main page, at http://www.larry.denenberg.com/ , you'll see this is described as "a celebration of Don Knuth". The jokes require you to understand who Donald Knuth is and what he's done. A premise is that we're in the far future (20002), and some of the details are fuzzy.

It starts with the title. "Knuth 3:16" makes it sound like Knuth wrote one of the books of the bible. Among CS researches, Knuth's works are held in high esteem.

The "3:16" part more specifically refers to Knuth's study of chapter 3 verse 16 of every book of the Bible. See http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/316.html .

The analysis is of the 16'th sentence of the 3rd chapter of some of Knuth's (presumed) most famous works, plus commentary.

"He was an enthusiastic musician" likely refers to the organ in his house http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/organ.html .

The text "he started life as a college football coach" refers to Knute Rockne, who is shown in the picture. This is a joke on the similarity of Knuth and Knute, with the premise that in 20002 these two famous people have been blurred into one.

"Big Dummies Guide to Visual Basic" refers to a Dr. Fun (2000) cartoon at http://www.ibiblio.org/Dave/Dr-Fun/df200002/df20000210.jpg as if it were real.



I didn't get the joke. I headed over to wikipedia to confirm that Knuth was not dead.


You made me feel a bit better that I wasn't alone in this.


I did exactly the same...


Came here to report this too.


I thought 3:16 was Stone Cold Steve Austin reference. He himself was satirizing Jake the Snake's Bible thumping


I don't get why it said he has never held a position of any present-day institution.


Must be implying that Stanford is no longer around in 20002.


Heh, ok, I missed the 20002. I dunno, if any institution hangs around that long (including some form of www hosting for the OP), maybe Stanford has a chance, if not a copy of wikipedia or Knuth's books.




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