3 ms·

Oh, how I wish I had your scripts (and insights!) when I was analyzing Unix logs in 1986, looking for the footprints of an intruder...

mercer 3y ago
I was about to ask you to get around the campfire and tell the story again, but I see other commenters got ahead of me :). I'll be getting another Klein bottle soon for a gift, if you still do those :). Hope you're doing well!
- CliffStoll 3y ago
  My smiles to you Mercer: it's fun to look back over my shoulder to a slowly vanishing time, when the Arpanet backbone ran at 4800 baud and a 1 megabyte Unix workstation was hot stuff...
neilk 3y ago
You should write about that sometime! /s
h0p3 3y ago
I'm kinda glad you didn't; it might have made the book I read as a kid (and again as an adult, and again with my offspring) less interesting somehow.
- CliffStoll 3y ago
  Uh, yes, h0p3 ... I didn't exactly start on that adventure thinking I'd write a book. Chasing after those hackers was orthogonal to my work in astronomy and the Keck telescope.
  - h0p3 3y ago
    Yes, sir. I appreciate that. I think you made that very clear in the book as well. I'll agree that having OP's tooling back then would likely have been quite useful to you and others. I'm often terrible with words. What I meant to say was: thank you for writing the book. Your story has been an important part of my family's lives for three generations (your work is also mentioned 3 times in my ℍ𝕪𝕡𝕖𝕣𝔱𝔢𝔵𝔱, and, prominently in my record of reaching out to others out of the blue [I've a habit of knocking on doors with low success rates]). Never thought I'd have the chance to say that to you. =D. `/salute`. Thank you, sir.
    - CliffStoll 3y ago
      Thanks to you for brightening my afternoon -- oh, you brought a smile to my face. My happy wishes to you and your family! =Cliff
eigenvalue 3y ago
Thanks for the comment! Going to check out your book now— I somehow hadn’t heard of it before despite it being right down my alley!
- CliffStoll 3y ago
  Please purchase 30,000 copies of the paperback -- at a nickel royalty per book, it'll help with my kids' tuition this month.

mercer 3y ago

I was about to ask you to get around the campfire and tell the story again, but I see other commenters got ahead of me :). I'll be getting another Klein bottle soon for a gift, if you still do those :). Hope you're doing well!

CliffStoll 3y ago
My smiles to you Mercer: it's fun to look back over my shoulder to a slowly vanishing time, when the Arpanet backbone ran at 4800 baud and a 1 megabyte Unix workstation was hot stuff...

neilk 3y ago

You should write about that sometime! /s

h0p3 3y ago

I'm kinda glad you didn't; it might have made the book I read as a kid (and again as an adult, and again with my offspring) less interesting somehow.

CliffStoll 3y ago
Uh, yes, h0p3 ... I didn't exactly start on that adventure thinking I'd write a book. Chasing after those hackers was orthogonal to my work in astronomy and the Keck telescope.
- h0p3 3y ago
  Yes, sir. I appreciate that. I think you made that very clear in the book as well. I'll agree that having OP's tooling back then would likely have been quite useful to you and others. I'm often terrible with words. What I meant to say was: thank you for writing the book. Your story has been an important part of my family's lives for three generations (your work is also mentioned 3 times in my ℍ𝕪𝕡𝕖𝕣𝔱𝔢𝔵𝔱, and, prominently in my record of reaching out to others out of the blue [I've a habit of knocking on doors with low success rates]). Never thought I'd have the chance to say that to you. =D. `/salute`. Thank you, sir.
  - CliffStoll 3y ago
    Thanks to you for brightening my afternoon -- oh, you brought a smile to my face. My happy wishes to you and your family! =Cliff

eigenvalue 3y ago

Thanks for the comment! Going to check out your book now— I somehow hadn’t heard of it before despite it being right down my alley!

CliffStoll 3y ago
Please purchase 30,000 copies of the paperback -- at a nickel royalty per book, it'll help with my kids' tuition this month.