Clifford Stoll: The call to learn

I guess the bell tower experience was extremely meaningful to Stoll, because I heard him speak in Berkeley in 1998 or 1999 and he also told that story at the end of his lecture. Maybe it's his equivalent of Richard Stallman's experience with the unmodifiable printer drivers.

Loved reading Cuckoos Egg back in the day but man ... can't sit through watching all that manic pacing and twitching.

"The first time you do something it's science The second time you do something it's engineering The third time you do something you're a technician"

Funny quote.

A truly unique character. He's not kidding about making the Klein bottles either: http://kleinbottle.com/ I've got one on my shelf at home.

The Cuckoos Egg wil always be one of my favorite books, bless this man.

This guy is fantastic! I wish we had more scientists like this. I love how he outlined this talk on his hand and forces cameraman to display it.

This video is distrubing, and it makes me wonder how Stoll ever got a TED talk. He seems to be severely hyperactive, have a lot of trouble focusing, staying on track, or remembering what he's supposed to be talking about. He also seems to have boundary issues and is insensitive to social cues or norms. The performance is reminiscent of someone on some sort of stimulant or maybe in a manic phase.

I have trouble imagining how he could have enough focus to write a book or be productive in any way while in such a state. Was he always like this?