Comments on: Knuth launches The Bank of San Serriffe

By: Matthew Sparkes

Matthew Sparkes — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:12:09 +0000

Ah, you spotted my deliberate spelling mistake. You all now have an account at the fictional bank of PC Pro with a balance of £2.56.

Also, jbox, I do have two cheques, which of course won’t be listed on the bank’s site. I feel you may have slightly missed the point of the fictional bank…

By: c6ten

c6ten — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 01:47:01 +0000

“I’m lucky enough to have two, which I’ve stashed away at home.”

I’ve got three, but I’m not going to show them to you…

By: Henrik

Henrik — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 02:04:31 +0000

No, sorry… It’s the numbers on the check. Explained here:
http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/news08.html

By: Henrik

Henrik — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 02:01:39 +0000

I think it’s the signature that’s the problem…

By: Andy

Andy — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:10:42 +0000

Why not just use Paypal? Make a free email address just for this purpose..

By: Austin Hook

Austin Hook — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:48:45 +0000

How dangerous can it be for someone to just know your bank account number? Does that mean it’s dangerous to issue a refund to a customer who needs one, if you don’t know him personally?

By: Philip

Philip — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:28:22 +0000

patarroyo said: “It’s check here. We don’t like to exhibit overtly French influence. Makes us look effete.”

Kindly explain the effetely Francophone pronunciation of the words “garage” and “herb” that is common in the USA, in that case.

By: jbox

jbox — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:08:37 +0000

If the author has 2 then why is his name not listed on Knuth’s site? Just curious if you earned them or acquired them.

By: John Drinkwater

John Drinkwater — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:40:07 +0000

patarroyo,
You might be missing something, this is a (British) English Web-site, notice the .co.uk domain…
Whereas it might be forgiveable to have not transliterated American English in a direct quotes, in the English sentences above the author uses both check and cheque.
Ergo, he fails at proof-reading.

By: Mike Hanson

Mike Hanson — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:09:02 +0000

“Check” vs. “Cheque”

Just blame Noah Webster.