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  • Hacker News
  • I would not take the advice of somebody, if that persons basement is not full of klein-bottles. Everything else is just surface level ..
    by 21asdffdsa12
  • It's been a few years - and I guess decades - since I read Cliff's book. One thing I recall is his journey from a Berkeley hippie to a man dealing with the military and men in suits and realizing that they are also good and necessary people. And also becoming a family man if I remember correctly.

    It's a really important part of the story in my mind of Cliff growing up - sort of - as part of the experience.

    by xyzelement
  • Thank you Cliff!

    I had shivers most of the time during the talk, it was touching me from the inside and flipping me back like a latex glove. And while I knew your story I confess I listened to you for the first time.

    It was the most amazing cyber space trip ever, feeling those copper lines and understanding you could interface with their content.

    You simply represent what a hacker is, I'm getting older and loosing motivation and creativity, but after hearing you I swear I will never give that up and I promise I will keep the hardcore digging for those cents.

    You are our father.

    by _bsds
  • The Cuckoo's Egg is still one of the best security books ever written. Glad he's still around.
    by Sorrel47
  • What a fascinating video. What a treat to hear him talk.

    Much of my excitement has been dying off due to the commercialization of the hacker community, the culture war, and the constant legislative losses for privacy and effective ownership of goods you purchase because they've code in them you often cannot legally circumvent the "digital lock" on.

    I'm curious what can be done to get it back. It seems the more I care, the more I get jaded due to the constant loss of freedom with tech.

    by rockskon
  • A coworker suggested that I read The Cuckoo's Egg and I sorta shrugged it off. When I got around to reading it, I was pretty happy that it exists. It's a real time-portal to a pre-security internet. You can skip all the descriptions about how tech works, which are included for normies. Imagine not using passwords or just using 'password' or all the other stuff that we did when we were young and stupid. Then imagine government agencies doing the same. What? Yep. That's what the book is about.
    by alsetmusic
  • I saw him live in a presentation he gave in Chicago, early 90s. He and his book are the cause of my switching from a very young PhD in thermodynamics career to going back to school for CS, then working in the latter field until retirement, years back. I also read his Silicon Snake Oil book, as soon as it came out, which he - himself - publicly claimed to have been in error, in parts, sometimes, but about which I now think - looking at X, TruthSocial, TikTok, etc. - that may, in fact, has been premonitory...
    by netfortius
  • I watch a lot of videos at 1.5x. Older Cliff Stoll videos don't work at 1.5x. Cliff at 1.0x is already like other people at 1.5x.

    I am so stoked to see Cliff at 1.0x in 2026 is still like other people at 1.5x. I am so glad to see Cliff still out there talking. "The Cuckoo's Egg"[0] was formative for me when I was a kid getting into computers. I am so happy that Cliff is out there making formative experiences for new hackers today.

    Great talk, Cliff. (The "adjusted for inflation" quip about the budget made my day, too.)

    [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg_(book)

    by EvanAnderson

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