Clifford Stoll Quotes & Sayings

Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don't let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months. — Clifford Stoll

The astronomer's rule of thumb:
if you didn't write it down, it didn't happen — Clifford Stoll

I claim that this bookless library is a dream, a hallucination of on-line addicts; network neophytes, and library-automation insiders ... Instead, I suspect computers will deviously chew away at libraries from the inside. They'll eat up book budgets and require librarians that are more comfortable with computers than with children and scholars. Libraries will become adept at supplying the public with fast, low-quality information.
The result won't be a library without books
it'll be a library without value. — Clifford Stoll

Here are my strong reservations about the wave of computer networks. They isolate us from one another and cheapen the meaning of actual experience. They work against literacy and creativity. They undercut our schools and libraries. — Clifford Stoll

The Internet is a perfect diversion from learning ... it opens many doors that lead to empty rooms. — Clifford Stoll

VI was predecessor to hundreds of word processing systems. By now, Unix folks see it as a bit stodgy - it hasn't the versatility of Gnu-Emacs, nor the friendliness of more modern editors. Despite that, VI shows up on every Unix system. — Clifford Stoll

The virtual community? The word virtual does not mean "virtue." It means "not." When I go to the store and they say: The shirt that you brought in is virtually done. It means it is not done, in the same way that the virtual community is not a community. There is no commitment there. When you log off, you are not a member of it anymore. My flesh and blood community, the sense of knowing my neighbor, knowing the guy across the street, having dinner with the people down the block, getting along with each other and making compromises, that's a genuine community with a commitment. — Clifford Stoll

I spend almost as much time figuring out what's wrong with my computer as I do actually using it. — Clifford Stoll

While I admire the insights of many of the people in the world of computing, I get this cold feeling that I speak a different language. — Clifford Stoll

The information highway is being sold to us as delivering information, but what it's really delivering is data ... Unlike data, information has utility, timeliness, accuracy, a pedigree ... Editors serve as barometers of quality, and most of an editor's time is spent saying no. — Clifford Stoll

What's society going to be like when the kids today are phenomenally good at text messaging and spend a huge amount of on-screen time, but have never gone bowling together? — Clifford Stoll

Cliff, I'd like to take over, but our charter prevents it. NSA can't engage in domestic monitoring, even if we're asked. That's prison term stuff. — Clifford Stoll

Computers in classrooms are the filmstrips of the 1990s. — Clifford Stoll

So what? Somebody's always had control over information, and others have always tried to steal it. Read Machiavelli. As technology changes, sneakiness finds new expressions." Martha — Clifford Stoll

Rather than bringing me closer to others, the time that I spend online isolates me from the most important people in my life, my family, my friends, my neighbourhood, my community. — Clifford Stoll

If you don't have an E-mail address, you're in the Netherworld. If you don't have your own World Wide Web page, you're a nobody. — Clifford Stoll

It's a great medium for trivia and hobbies, but not the place for reasoned, reflective judgment. Suprisingly often, discussions degenerate into acrimony, insults and flames. — Clifford Stoll

If we built houses the way we build software, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization. — Clifford Stoll

No computer network with pretty graphics can ever replace the salespeople that make our society work. — Clifford Stoll

We'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Internet. Uh, sure. — Clifford Stoll

Data is not information, information is not knowledge, knowledge is not understanding, understanding is not wisdom. — Clifford Stoll

I sense an insatiable demand for connectivity. Maybe all these people have discovered important uses for the Internet. Perhaps some of them feel hungry for a community that our real neighborhoods don't deliver. At least a few must wonder what the big deal is. — Clifford Stoll

Call me a troglodyte; I'd rather peruse those photos alongside my sweetheart, catch the newspaper on the way to work, and page thorough a real book. — Clifford Stoll

The Internet has no such organization - files are made available at random locations. To search through this chaos, we need smart tools, programs that find resources for us. — Clifford Stoll

Why is it drug addicts and computer aficionados are both called users? — Clifford Stoll

Im a scientist, once I do something, I want to do something else. — Clifford Stoll

Merely that I have a World Wide Web page does not give me any power, any abilities, nor any status in the real world. — Clifford Stoll

Of course. NSA is rumored to tape record every transatlantic telephone conversation. Maybe they'd recorded this session. — Clifford Stoll

Over the past decade Stallman created a powerful editing program called Gnu-Emacs. But Gnu's much more than just a text editor. It's easy to customize to your personal preferences. It's a foundation upon which other programs can be built. It even has its own mail facility built in. Naturally, our physicists demanded Gnu; with an eye to selling more computing cycles, we installed it happily. — Clifford Stoll

The Internet is a telephone system that's gotten uppity. — Clifford Stoll

If you really want to know about the future, don't ask a technologist, a scientist, a physicist. No! Don't ask somebody who's writing code. No, if you want to know what society's going to be like in 20 years, ask a kindergarten teacher. — Clifford Stoll

For years, we've been bludgeoned with the cliche "information is power." But information isn't power. After all, who's got the most information in your neighborhood? Librarians. And they're famous for having no power at all. And who has the most power in your community? Politicians. And they're notorious for being ill-informed. — Clifford Stoll

The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works. — Clifford Stoll

Electronic communication is an instantaneous and illusory contact that creates a sense of intimacy without the emotional investment that leads to close friendships. — Clifford Stoll

Minds think with ideas, not information No amount of data, bandwidth, or processing power can substitute for inspired thought. — Clifford Stoll

When I'm online, I'm alone in a room, tapping on a keyboard, staring at a cathode-ray tube. — Clifford Stoll

It's easier to apologize afterwards than getting something allowed in the first place. — Clifford Stoll

Data isn't information, any more than fifty tons of cement is a skyscraper. — Clifford Stoll