Over 25 years ago I was researching algorithms for a search engine I had been commissioned to write, and for its disk allocation strategy I had settled on a "bu

Over 25 years ago I was researching algorithms for a search engine I had been commissioned to write, and for its disk allocation strategy I had settled on a "buddy algorithm" from The Art of Computer Programming Vol 1. It had nice properties and was easy to make. I implemented it to a tee, only to see it fail (I think in the part that merges abandoned blocks). I banged my head against this problem for days before finally daring to entertain the notion that the algorithm might be flawed. This was TAOCP after all! Turned out my university library had an old edition and I had run into one of the scarce bugs in it (which had been duly fixed in the next edition). So yes, I have used TAOCP on the job and, to prove it, a scar of which I am rather proud.