The legendary Cliff Stoll gave a delightful talk at DEFCON on Stalking The Wily Hacker (40 Years Later) at DEFCON. It's now online. If you've never seen Cliff, a Klein Bottle, or an overhead projector before, rush over to the youtubes and fix that right now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=656058JxTM0
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@mattblaze somewhat fascinatingly, Hess also gave a retrospective talk this year: https://media.ccc.de/v/ho26-124-vom-hacker-zum-spion-die-geschichte-des-kgb-hacks-der-1980-jahre
unfortunately it’s as of yet untranslated from German and full of AI slides, so I can’t speak much more of it…
@mattblaze @briankrebs I was fortunate enough enjoy Cliff' brilliant soliloquies in person
as a member of the Berkeley Macintosh User Group back in the day.
@mattblaze He takes the meaning of "peripatetic" to a whole different level.
@mattblaze I get tired just watching him talk 🙂
@mattblaze Now I'm late for bed but that was worth every minute of my time, thanks for sharing this.
If, like me, you find it impossible to believe that this was 40 years ago, you're probably overdue for a colonoscopy.
@mattblaze YTV (Yorkshire Television) in the UK produced a 30minute documentary in 1989/1990 based on the book as part of their series Science Fiction. I consulted, wrote the onscreen computer simulations and acted in it. Was one of my favorite TV gigs. Did most of the filming in Germany with some reshoots in London. Had to smoke so much for the camera I quit for about 5 years
Cliff’s brilliance as a hacker is self-evident. But his brilliance as a storyteller is a bit deceptive. He makes it look like the spontaneous, incoherent ravings of a deranged madman. But every word is actually a perfectly crafted step on a path he’s guiding you down.
One critique, though. I wish he'd knock off the (mostly pretend/affectation) schtick about running over time. It's a really bad message to send at a conference. Running over is incredibly disrespectful of the next speakers and conference organizers who are trying to keep things running.
@mattblaze That's a pet peeve of mine, too. When I assigned presentations to my engineering students, I always made it clear to them that I would take points off if they went over the specified time limit. I wanted them to get comfortable with speaking within time constraints.
@mattblaze Having been on the receiving end of a presenter running (sometimes significantly over time) it is a cardinal sin, as it disrupts all other speakers following that session
@mattblaze I just found out his ted talk and i think its gloirous.
@mattblaze My god, he’s just like you’d expect and looks like he rode his bike to the talk.
@LabSpokane And he's ALWAYS been exactly like that.
@mattblaze @LabSpokane I have lots of favorite things about this talk. One of them is that he wears his backpack for the whole thing. He has props stashed in pockets and all over the stage so you really have to wonder what kind of turbo-powered exhibits are in that backpack, just in case.
@mattblaze Loved his books as a kid — even that super wrong one 😂
