8 HN users recommended this interview8 months2015–2024score 9.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN commenters love Cliff Stoll's earnest, playful personality and point to this as a delightful look at his unusual warehouse.
Numberphile visits Cliff Stoll, the man behind ACME Klein Bottles, and sees how he stores a thousand glass Klein bottles in a crawlspace under his house. A remote-controlled forklift fetches them.
“Cliff is an amazing person. Just a joy!” (HN, 2020)
I thought I recognised the name... turns out Cliff is the guy from the Numberphile videos who loves klein bottles. He is such an enjoyment to watch. [this video]
Cliff is an amazing person. Just a joy! Every time I see him on Numberphile , my life is made better. [link] [this video] P.S. Cliff, we know you're on HN. Please continue being yourself, it seems like a really great person to be!
this numberphile/Cliff Stoll video is on a different topic, klein bottles... or maybe more the travelling salesman/knapsack problem, but it's a must see. Cliff is a cool guy (whose geewhiz excitement I can only take in small doses but) he's worth following [this video]
Everything this guy does is hilarious and entertaining. See later talk about this event: [link] And he drives RC forklift under his house to store Klein bottles he's selling! [this video]
Entertaining RC forklift storing Klein bottles under his house.
Bah they forgot to mention the best bit. He keeps already-made klein bottles in the crawlspace under his house, and built a remote controlled fpv mini-forklift to retrieve them on demand: [this video]
Remote controlled mini-forklift retrieving Klein bottles from crawlspace.
If you don't happen to have the time to visit him, here is a playlist of videos Numberphile did on Klein Bottles, his basement warehouse, the intrinsic curvature of pizza, and a whole bunch of other interesting things: [this video]
Numberphile did a video a couple of years ago that featured the forklift in question: [this video] Cliff is a really neat guy. I met and talked to him briefly once (at Dayton Hamvention, 20ish years ago). He's a really, really nice guy.
It's been implemented to some degree by Cliff Stoll for his klein bottle business. Or rather, he started a warehouse in his crawlspace. Same difference... [this video]
> Of course, these days, he's the best dang Klein bottle glass blower in the game. And of course, he hires out the manufacturing. That's why he has (an awesome, little) warehouse under his hour full of them. [this video]
Shows the little warehouse full of Klein bottles under his house.
> Earnestness, for example, is pretty far away from my conception of "playful" or "flirty" or even "fun". Cliff Stoll is the most earnest person I have talked to in the past year, and also one of the most playful and fun. See e.g. [this video] I think you have a non-standard personal definition of “earnest”. As I understand the words, earnestness and playfulness are completely orthogonal/unrelated attributes.
So in 2015 [1] you said you ordered enough bottles for about 10 years, but you're already running out? That's quite the success story you have there! [1] [this video]
No discussion of Klein bottles would be complete without mentioning Cliff Stoll's Acme Klein Bottle company. [link] His warehouse is pretty unique: [this video]
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