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Clifford Stoll
(4 Jun 1950 - )
American astronomer and author who in 1986 started a year tracking a hacker in California's Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory's computers which led to discovery of the intruder's effort to attempt espionage on linked computers of military and defense contractors. Eventually, the hacker was traced to West Germany, where he was arrested as part of a spy ring trading secrets to the Soviet KGB. His book about the quest to expose the criminal, Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage (1989), was a best-seller, which he followed with two more titles on computer technology.
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Science Quotes by Clifford Stoll (9 quotes)
Computers teach us to withdraw, to retreat into the warm comfort of their false reality.
— Clifford Stoll
In Clifford Stoll, Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway (1995), 136.
Computing is … a motionless consumption of the mind. … A generation of network surfers is becoming adept at navigating the electronic backwaters, while losing touch with the world around them.
— Clifford Stoll
In Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway (1995), 137.
Data is not information, Information is not knowledge, Knowledge is not understanding, Understanding is not wisdom.
— Clifford Stoll
Attributed to Cliff Stoll and Gary Schubert, in Mark R Keeler, Nothing to Hide: Privacy in the 21st Century (2006), 112. A similar quote, 'Information is not knowledge, Knowledge is not wisdom,' is in the lyrics of Frank Zappa's album, Joe's Garage, track 'Packard Goose.' The sentiment of the above quote is presented in Clifford Stoll, Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway (1996), 193-194. The elements of the above quote are fragmented and distributed within three paragraphs. “Data isn't information ... information is not knowledge ... doesn't mean you understand ... There's a relationship between data, information, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. ... perhaps knowledge becomes wisdom.” [If you know a primary print source and date for Stoll and Schubert's quote, in the exact words of the summary form as above, please contact webmaster.]
Data isn't information, any more than fifty tons of cement is a skyscraper.
— Clifford Stoll
In Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway (1996), 193-194.
Data isn't information. ... Information, unlike data, is useful. While there’s a gulf between data and information, there’s a wide ocean between information and knowledge. What turns the gears in our brains isn't information, but ideas, inventions, and inspiration. Knowledge—not information—implies understanding. And beyond knowledge lies what we should be seeking: wisdom.
— Clifford Stoll
In High-Tech Heretic: Reflections of a Computer Contrarian (2000), 185-186.
Minds think with ideas, not information No amount of data, bandwidth, or processing power can substitute for inspired thought.
— Clifford Stoll
In Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway (1996), 194.
Spending an evening on the World Wide Web is much like sitting down to a dinner of Cheetos, two hours later your fingers are yellow and you’re no longer hungry, but you haven’t been nourished.
— Clifford Stoll
Quoted, without source, in Harmik Vaishnav, Dictionary of Humourous Quotations (2021), 32.
Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don’t let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months.
— Clifford Stoll
Epigraph in David Karp, Windows 7 Annoyances: Tips, Secrets, and Solutions (2010), 582. Widely seen quoted, but without source. If you know the primary source, please contact Webmaster.
Why is it drug addicts and computer aficionados are both called users?
— Clifford Stoll
In Clifford Stoll, Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway (1995), 136.
See also:
- Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage, by Clifford Stoll. - book suggestion.
- Booklist for Clifford Stoll.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
