[alister]

In case there are readers who don't know who Clifford Stoll is, he's the author of The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage, that was practically required reading if you were a programmer or hacker in the early 1990s.

I didn't understand how hijacking worked on Amazon until I read this lucid explanation. Clearly he's still a great writer.

He's on Hacker News as CliffStoll. This makes me wonder how Hacker News deals with someone registering a famous person's name if they are not that person? I'm guessing that it's not a big problem here on HN because there's nothing being sold.

[CliffStoll]

Yep, I'm the same guy. Almost 40 years ago, I chased down those German hackers in my unix boxes; not knowing a thing about writing, I wrote Cuckoo's Egg. (a long story there - how to write a book)

Since then, I've lowered my periscope: my wife, Pat, and I decided to stay home together and raise two kids. They're now fledged - hooray! During that time, I started this micro-business of making Klein bottles - much fun!

Alas, but this past December, my wife left this vale of toil and tears. During the day, staying busy helps keep the grief under control; other times I'm in deep sadness, trying to find my way without her.

To all my friends & acquaintances on HN: my deep thanks for your kindness & support across decades. It's a joy to be considered a member of the tribe.

[alister]

I’m so sorry to hear about your loss. We’ve never met but I feel like I know you because of your book and many other works, and I feel your loss.

[encom]

>how Hacker News deals with someone registering a famous person's name

I registered as britneyspears, but dang got mad and made me change it. :(

I thought the absurdity of Britney being on HN was amusing.

[earleybird]

Say it aint so. I learned all about lasers from Britney.

https://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm

[Anthony-G]

Great stuff! I always enjoy seeing websites from the 90s still being served to the public – even if they haven’t been updated in decades. Hedy Lamarr’s story was very interesting: https://britneyspears.ac/physics/intro/hedy.htm

[unethical_ban]

You'd think an ENCOM representative would be allowed to have whatever name they wanted.

[mrlatinos]

His NOVA episode on the same subject is worth a watch as well https://youtu.be/Xe5AE-qYan8

I think most younger readers will be familiar through his videos on the Numberphile YouTube channel.

[davidw]

The first time I lived in Italy, back in the mid nineties, with expensive phone service and no home internet connection... I had a copy of that book and I think I read it like 10 times.

[servercobra]

I just saw him give a talk at Thotcon in Chicago about catching one of the first hackers and it was by far the best talk I've seen in quite a while. He's eccentric, animated, and an amazing storyteller.

[CliffStoll]

Oh, Thotcon was way fun, Server of cobras. The organizers gave me liberty to fool around, and there was a full house. Terrific time there!

[tptacek]

I saw him give a talk in the late 1990s and he was one of the best presenters I've seen, I'd go out of my way to see him if you have a chance.

[stn8188]

This is amazing. I was literally reading the 3rd chapter of the book "Machine Beauty" in bed, saw the baby Clifford Stoll mentioned and looked it up because it sounded familiar. Of course I've seen the beautiful glass bottles here on HN before, so I went back to my book. After putting it down and hopping on HN, of course I see an article referencing this exact topic! Such a small world.

[dunham]

I think that was the book that I read on my Palm Pilot. But it's been a while.

I had the klein stein at one point, but got rid of it when downsizing. It was hard to clean, so not practical for drinking, and not as pretty on the shelf as a classic klein bottle. I'd recommend one of those if you're thinking of getting one.

[wglb]

When I was doing security training for the engineers at Relativity, I gave each attendee (ultimately all of engineering) the book.

I saw Cliff speak twice at the Dayton Hamvention. The first time was a retelling of his Cuckoo's Egg story, and the second time was about the joy of learning and all the marvelous things you could get at the flea market to build something.

Thanks, Cliff!

[riffraff]

Reminder that there's also a film/dramatization/documentary of the events from the cuckoo's egg, with Cliff playing himself.

"The KGB, the Computer, and Me".

It can be found online, and it's worth a watch just because of him.

The man exudes good humor and niceness.

[CliffStoll]

Yes, Riffraff -- We did that film (yep, 16mm film) just a few months after I finished writing Cuckoo's Egg. At the time, the world was ignorant of words like "Internet" "Unix" and "e-mail", so I had to define each of these as I went along.

[ednite]

Wow! One of my all time favorite books and authors and the reason I got into this field. Thanks for that info.