Clifford Stoll

[Ken D'Ambrosio]

At our last babblefes^H^H^H^H^H^H^H meeting, someone mentioned Clifford
Stoll, and we had some fun chatting about him.  He's the one who wrote
_Cuckoo's Egg_, occasionally rants about computers in the classroom, and
has an intersting side hobby: klein bottles (www.kleinbottles.com).
Someone had seem him speak, and mentioned he was a blast, so I decided,
WTF, and pinged him.  Alas, it's not to be, but his reply was enjoyable
enough that I've included it here.  I'm also doing it because he asked
me two questions, one of which I think I know the answer to, and the
other of which I simply haven't been in NH long enough to know.  So,
without further delay...

Okay, one tiny delay.  Rob Lembree e-mailed me earlier, and made a good
point of something I should let everyone know: the meetings, kind of by
definition, are tentative.  Since we get the room for free (part of the
you-eat-here-you-get-the-room deal), if someone else *does* pay for the
room, they trump us.  Chris at Martha's said that it was unlikely... but
in any event, I'll do a check every Wednesday prior to the meeting, and
send out an update if something goes awry.  Worst-case is we have dinner
at Martha's, and drink ourselves into a PDP-11 or something.

Anyway, Cliff's reply:

Re: Greetings, fellow WELL-ite...

A grin back to you Ken!

  Aah - you own a Klein Stein *and* an Klein Bottle hat?  Thanks to your
largesse, my kids eat sandwiches made with real peanut butter!  Then,
too, my favorite alewife has used her share of the Manifold Profits to
invest in almost a dozen Tulip Bulbs ... we'll retire in style when the
Dutch Tulip Bulb Bubble repeats.

Yep, your friend told your right - I occasionally speak at pool halls,
speakeasies, Linux users groups, opium dens, and various other houses of
ill repute.  Your pal probably warned you of what to expect at my
spoutathon -- I take no prisoners.

  Alas, bittersweet news about tempting me to Nashua:  The obvious
method (lucre, either filthy or well-laundered) is presumably beyond
your finite but unbounded means.  Worse, my wives won't allow me to
travel east of the Yreka Bakery unless everyone tags along.  And what
with the kids demanding a trip on Amtrak, it seems less and less likely,
as both the trains' and my family's finances head south.  And should I
be long away from Acme, think of those thousands -- perhaps millions --
of prospective manifold customers who'd be sorely disappointed to learn
that the World's Only Klein Bottle Emporium was closed just when they
had a hankering for a nonorientable surface.

  Which is to say that I don't expect to come east soon.  I'll let you
know if'n  I find someone with scorch marks on their wallet, willing to
bring my entourage to the East Coast.

  Warm wishes to you and the Linux gang from a guy who first booted a
Perkin-Elmer 3240 using Bell Labs Unix Version 7...

-Cliff (on a wet, windy, blue Monday evening in Oakland, where even the
drug dealers are holding umbrellas)

  PS - Whatever happened to Digital Drive in Merrimack?  Do bars in
Merrimack still use DecTape hubs as beer coasters?