As a saddening commentary, Knuth stopped sending those checks in 2008 because of problems with check fraud. Since this refers to Knuth, I carefully parsed that not as "because of check fraud," but, "because of problems with check fraud." There is an interesting difference between those two.
From your wiki link:
Initially, Knuth sent real, negotiable checks to recipients. He stopped doing
so in October 2008 because of problems with check fraud. As a replacement, he
started his own "Bank of San Serriffe", in the fictional nation of
San Serriffe, which keeps an account for everyone who found an error since
2006.[2] Knuth now sends out "hexadecimal certificates" instead of negotiable
checks.
I think Knuth also created news.ycombinator.com, google.com, and facebook.com. He refused all google stock, however, since they implemented map-reduce incorrectly, using a set of filters. In the case of fb, he was outfoxed, because he didn't have the documents to prove that he created all the algorithms for matching faces.
> He refused all google stock, however, since they implemented map-reduce incorrectly, using a set of filters.
That was a reference to google filtering their presented results instead of being driven more by search results, as they advertise that they are.
> In the case of fb, he was outfoxed, because he didn't have the documents to prove that he created all the algorithms for matching faces.
That sentence was a nod to the accusations against Zuckerberg for stealing the original code for FB.
Of course, this was all presented in the context of the prodigiously productive Donald Knuth for your reading enjoyment. In this way, the comment was meant to show though tongue-in-cheek how great Knuth is for Comp-Sci. It was not an attempt to drag any company through the mud. That happens without me.
From your wiki link: