CliffStoll

5 ms·

61.
by CliffStoll 1y ago
Yep, I no longer make regular Klein bottles. I'm a so-so glassblower. (Indeed, most glass workers would consider me a good physicist. Physicists would say that I'm a good computer jock. Computer people think that I know a lot
62.
by CliffStoll 1y ago
Yep, Ritkew ... that homebrew forklift helps pull boxes of glass manifolds every day. The crawlspace is maybe 2 feet tall, and I don't like crawling around there. It's how I cheat my chiropractor.
63.
by CliffStoll 1y ago
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!
64.
by CliffStoll 1y ago
Thanks, Resistor-burner! I have fun with every Klein bottle order. When someone buys a Klein bottle, I celebrate by walking through our backyard garden, looking for new blossoms. I usually take a few photos and send these to my custo
65.
by CliffStoll 1y ago
Fame, alas, is of little use when you're a tiny seller. Indeed, Amazon's brand registry and seller interaction systems are built to minimize human interactions.
66.
by CliffStoll 1y ago
//(blush)//
67.
by CliffStoll 1y ago
Hi Matt, All of a sudden, I got three or four Klein bottle orders. That's a lot for an hour! One of the orders (thank you Bryan in Johnstown) mentioned Hacker News. And, well, here I am.
68.
by CliffStoll 1y ago
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 m
69.
by CliffStoll 1y ago
You're welcome, Colin! Across the decades, I appreciate the smiles and advice from Hacker News. How'd I ever reach 75 years old?
70.
by CliffStoll 1y ago
Cliff Stoll here. The brand hijacking on Amazon USA was fixed. But Amazon Canada listing is still held by Amvoom. I'm unable to sell Klein bottles in Canada. sigh If anyone knows how to fix this, please send email to me! Many than
71.
by CliffStoll 1y ago
I wandered lonely as a clod, Just picking up old rags and bottles, When onward on my way I plod, I saw a host of axolotls; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, A sight to make a man’s blood freeze. // Some had handles, some were pl
72.
by CliffStoll 1y ago
And the Axiom of Choice implies the Banach-Tarski parodox. It's anti-intuitive: Disassemble a pea into a finite number of pieces. Then reassemble those pieces to create the sun.
73.
by CliffStoll 1y ago
Terrific article by Nicolas Hatcher! Aperiodic tilings are fun to make from paper, wood, and ceramics. I've cut tiles from ceramic field tiles. No surprise that concave cuts in ceramics are a high stress, so Kite and Dart tiles don&#
74.
by CliffStoll 1y ago
Outstanding work and a delightful read.
75.
by CliffStoll 1y ago
Applied topology. Might a Klein bottle actually be a useful?
76.
by CliffStoll 1y ago
Is there any SVG extension which allows density of line? I have a plotter which can lift/lower a pen; it's driven from SVG files. It'd be sweet to allow the pen to lower while the line is being drawn (as we often do with ha
77.
by CliffStoll 2y ago
// blush //
78.
by CliffStoll 2y ago
Thanks JM. Long time back, and lotsa changes. Cleaning out my attic last month, I just found a stash of punch cards left over from the 1980's. Some paper-tape that has my phd dissertation. And a fortran manual from my high school&#x2
79.
by CliffStoll 2y ago
Thanks D'moy! I'm still having fun with Klein bottles and other topological manifolds. Toying with immersions of the projective plane and several knot embeddings. At the moment, retirement mainly means "start taking out req
80.
by CliffStoll 2y ago
Similar experience: Citibank Retirement. I had about $80,000 in IRA/CD's. I'd created & contributed to them over a period of 35 years. Last year, it's time to retire, and Citibank won't give me half the money.
81.
by CliffStoll 2y ago
In the 1970's, I had the honor of working with Bill Hartmann, Bob Strom, Gerard Kuiper, Clark Chapman and Ewen Whittaker, at Tucson's Lunar & Planetary Labs. They used large earthbased telescopes to photograph the moon's
82.
by CliffStoll 2y ago
You betcha! And FM broadcasts have a high-frequency pre-emphasis, which adds something like 10dB of boost to audio high frequencies. This is to reduce high frequency noise that occurs in analog FM systems. Radio receivers have a matching
83.
by CliffStoll 2y ago
FM Radio transmitters broadcast a continuous 19 KHz pilot tone to indicate that it's a stereo broadcast. If it's present, then there's also a 38 KHz AM modulated carrier, which has the stereo information. The main FM modulat
84.
by CliffStoll 2y ago
I'd always wondered why 47 ohm resistors were so common! Yellow and Purple striped critters inside of HeathKits.
85.
by CliffStoll 2y ago
I'm personally grateful to Jim Simons -- and his foundation -- for supporting and extending mathematical research in Berkeley, and throughout the world. Jim Simons did fundamental research in topology; his work in mathematics, cryptogr
86.
by CliffStoll 3y ago
My website is on a pi-4 and hasn't had a hiccup in 4 years. So far, the SD-card has worked great.
87.
by CliffStoll 3y ago
Thanks, oh Shackleford. Dark times (in life, at night, or during an eclipse) can lead to remarkable observations and insights. I'm honored that m'book played a part in your own story.
88.
by CliffStoll 3y ago
And thank you for your kind note -- the technology in the book feels antique today, but I suspect that many infosec people recognize both the story and my attitudes. Best wishes to you in your computing career!
89.
by CliffStoll 3y ago
My warm greetings and smiles to my Hacker News friends — I’m honored by both your kindness and attention. Like many of you, I began computing as a teenager (in 1965: assembler on an IBM 1620); like many HN contributors, I’ve had fun with s
90.
by CliffStoll 3y ago
Rumors of my death are slightly exaggerated - Mark Twain

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