Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway by Clifford Stoll

Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway Reviews

• 
  Brian

  Charmingly outdated. Still worth considering.
• 
  Benjamin Romney

  I agree with many of Clifford Stoll's thoughts, but find that many of his predictions about social networking, etc. have been proven wrong. Not that what he thought social networking would do hasn't been accurate, but the fact that it has taken over as much as it has, unfortunately shows that most people don't have the foresight that he expressed in his early opinions about the internet. The social implications were pretty often spot on. Most people have moved in a direction that shows that they are more caught up in the glamour of the internet than in the realization that much valuable time is wasted in their lives because of the hollow results of the time spent.
  
  the book is now a bit dated, but should be studied by those who are continuing to develop the internet and social networks. Perhaps if some of Stoll's wisdom and observation were included in the programming efforts, less damage to society would occur.
• 
  michelle

  i can't even explain how much i loved reading this book. he is just WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING in such a delightful way. i've never seen such an extraordinary lack of foresight. cliff stoll is a smart guy who just spent a lot of time in the 90s being wrong, wrong, wrong about the future of the internet.
• 
  Kurtbg

  I've wanted to read this 1995 book about a wary view of the developing internet for a while. I read Cliff's book "The Cuckoo's egg" about tracking down a hacker. This book is dated. In that I mean this was written pre-explosion of the WWW. The internet had grown in a text based, bulletin-board, that was dominated in academia by mainframes running UNIX. The multi-media driven web it is now.
  
  The author's aim was to offer an anti-view against the emerging Web as it robs individuals of real and true-life experiences. The humanity of activities is pared down - the aesthetics of living changed. For example,
  writing an email is not the same as sitting down to write a letter. For an email, your type up what your want, do some quick editing, and maybe do a spellcheck but hardly a grammar check. You're done in 1 minute.
  Writing a physical letter implies a real commitment and desire to communicate with someone. Time is spent thinking about what to communicate and how. A mistake means eraser marks or cross-outs. When done, there addressing and postage. When you may be waiting up to 1-2 weeks the meaning of the letter becomes more important. The quality and will to communicate has been diminished by the ease & informality of email.
  
  He addresses e-books, online chat and role-playing games.
  
  He's definitely off on the majority of his predictions on where the internet (and the web built on top) is going. e stated money transactions would never work. Way off.
  
  I was more interested in the concepts he would touch on that speak more to psychology and the replacement of the physical experience with a virtual or electronic-dependent experience. Take for example the difference between reading an old classic bound book with the same book on a Kindle. Why make friends online while not engaging in the
  society in your own geographic community.
  
  His main point is that the tactile and physical interactive world in his eyes is much richer than the poorly represented and impersonal electronic proxy of avatars. A web-dependent society is one disconnected from real human experiences.
  
  I'd be interested in reading an update version with the authors comments on his "pre WWW" vs. now.
• 
  David

  An old book by Clifford Stoll on the perils of uncritical incorporation of online everything into our daily lives. It's remarkable how well the criticisms in this book hold up. The Internet and online resources have changed a lot since this book was written, but the uncritical way we interact with it -- and with related networks -- remains the same.
  
  Of course, Stoll writes in a long skeptical tradition, and he acknowledges it: "Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end. We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate." (Thoreau -- Walden, naturally. Quoted at the start of chapter two. The quote is appropriate both for the attitude and for the dated technical reference -- magnetic telegraphs for Thoreau, 8-bit color depths for Stoll.)
  
  Recommended to anyone who believes e-mail has made the US Postal Service obsolete; anyone who checks a Blackberry just because it's there; and anyone who has, without any sense of irony, sent an instant message to someone sitting less than fifty feet away.
• 
  John Kirk

  A lot of this book is outdated (since it's 15 years old), but there are also some points which are still valid. When he talks about what computers can do, he's normally wrong, e.g. saying that online shops don't display photos of what you're buying. However, when he talks about what computers should do then he's worth listening to.
  
  Basically, he's saying that there are only so many hours in the day, and time spent on computers is time that you don't spend doing other things, so computers can get in the way of living your life. The main snag is that this gets quite repetitive, so it would work better now as a chapter rather than a book, e.g. an extended essay.
  
  Most of his prophecies about computers were wrong, but I think he did accurately predict some future trends. Look at all the people who go to music concerts (spending a lot of money on tickets) and then spend the whole time holding up their phone/camera to film it. I don't understand that mindset at all: either watch it on TV (bigger screen and cheaper) or enjoy the live performance.
• 
  Andy Scott

  I was interested in this book because of its commentary on the internet from what is now 20 years in the past. And it was indeed interesting to see the insight the author had about the effect of and problems with the internet. However, some of the problems he mentioned have been resolved, but I agree with him that there are a variety of ways in which computers are less efficient than paper.
  
  Overall, the book was seemingly random in its organization, but an easy read, nonetheless. I particularly enjoyed his commentary on the role of the internet in education, its effect on libraries, and the problems of maintaining records and compatibility over long spans of time.
  
  In the end, I would like to read the author's first book (which is somewhat strangely promoted in this one), and would recommend this book to a few of my technology-zealous colleagues to give them a bit of perspective.
• 
  Saul

  This was the first book I ever read that made me think technology is not all this it is cracked up to be. It's a good message for our society. Since then, I've continued to realize how IT represents a double edged sword if we're not careful. Still, I'm uncertain if people will enjoy this book as much as Stoll's first book, The Cookoo's Egg. That's because it's a straight non-fiction about technology. True, so was his previous book. But unlike TCE, we miss all the mystery about nameless hackers that are being hunted. That doesn't mean this is a bad book, just not the same as before. Expectations should be adjusted accordingly.
• 
  Tommy /|\

  Written in 1995 - this is Stoll's perspective that the internet is a time-wasting, soul-sucking device that removes a lot of the best parts of Life by tying the user to the keyboard. His lamentable position is nothing new - and has been extolled many times since then in print, tv, and in face-to-face lectures and discussions I have attended as a student. Some of his predictions - such as the one detailing eCommerce as a non-viable commercial entity - are not only laughable but also downright embarrassing. Still, it provides an interesting snapshot of how the internet looked just as the information revolution was taking its first step of infancy.
• 
  Jonathan

  I remember this being too preachy but I still finished it as I had enjoyed his previous book, The Cuckoo's Egg. This book is more like, "See here, I've earned the right to tell you what's what after what I caught that hacker and earned my Ph.D, so listen up! The internet is trouble! Watch yourself!"
  
  He got it all wrong. But, at the time, it was a scary new thing for an old IT--er--hacker--er--ASTRONOMY MAJOR, as I recall. After catching the hacker, I think Stoll should have gone back to his observatory and looked at the stars, and left the internet alone.
• 
  Eric_W

  Goodness, there's a name out of the blue. I had totally forgotten Clifford Stoll. I read the Cuckoo's Egg years ago and then when this book came out it was requested by all the Luddites on campus (many of them good friends) who were terrified by the Internet and computers. Stoll became their god for a while since here was someone on the inside with doubts. Of course, Stoll was mostly wrong, and that's why we don't hear much from him anymore.
• 
  Meghan

  IDK if I've ever given such a low rating before, but this was painful. I had to read it for a school book review or else I probably couldn't finish it. I was tempted to give it one star, but I learned a few things, so it wasn't the absolute worst. After some thought that could change. I won't say much more besides that my book review isn't gonna be that nice. My school books aren't usually this eye-roll inducing..
• 
  Kaethe

  And then, in this book, Stoll goes from being a funky grad student with a problem to solve to a cranky old man, insisting that the kids stay off his yard. And turn down that racket they call "music". I give the man props for being an important voice in internet safety, but that's really all he knows.
  
  You can give this one a miss.
• 
  Carlos Scheidegger

  Nowadays, it's funny to go back and read Stoll's description along the lines of "what, they really expect me to buy books and newspaper on the internet? that's nonsense". But at the time I read it (circa 2000) it was an interesting, thought-provoking piece, regardless of whether it was ultimately wrong.
• 
  Rogue Reader

  Self professed geek is really an iconoclast. Everything Internet he touts as impossible and absurd has come about - a reverse prophesizer too ignorant and limited in vision to conceive of possible futures.
  
  "They're [computer] irrelevant to cooking, driving, visiting, negotiating, eating, hiking, dancing, speaking, and gossiping."
  
  I wonder what Stoll's doing now.
• 
  I DRM Free

  I read this as a teenager right when it first was published. I really respect Mr. Stoll but I disagree with pretty much everything he said in this book. I don't remember much about it and would like to re-read it. But I believe time has proven him somewhat wrong in this book.
• 
  Urbaer

  I'm a bit mixed on this book. The first time I read it, I thought that Clifford had some good points. The second time I read it I just felt that he might be a little jaded.
• 
  Katy

  ... information highway. Speeds us up? or just gives us more to do, fills time, vacuum of time. Clifford knows.
• 
  Trevor

  Disappointing follow up to The Cuckoo's Egg. Lots of cynical rantings about technology and the internet in this book.
• 
  Rae

  Stoll explains why the Internet is highly overrated and a waste of much of our time. I liked this as it has that "Luddite" flavor.
• 
  Jean-marc Liotier

  Mostly a rant. By all means read the Cuckoo's Egg, but pass on this one.
• 
  JoAnn

  A great book in its time. It was a warning and a painting of a picture to come that showed the author's vision to be true.
• 
  Lee

  An interesting read but is very dated.
• 
  Susan

  Found on the free shelf at B/H Library
• 
  Lysergius

  Sour grapes or genuine concern? Dotcom boom or bust?