by Chris Bodenner
Props to Cliff Stoll for owning up to his terrible prediction:
Of my many mistakes, flubs, and howlers, few have been as public as my 1995 howler. Wrong? Yep. At the time, I was trying to speak against the tide of futuristic commentary on how The Internet Will Solve Our Problems. [...A]s I've laughed at others' foibles, I think back to some of my own cringeworthy contributions. Now, whenever I think I know what's happening, I temper my thoughts: Might be wrong, Cliff...
Er, a reader writes:
Cliff Stoll was actually wrong even *more* spectacularly than that: he wrote an *entire book* on why everything we have now would never come to pass: Silicon Snake Oil. He doubled down on his crappy prediction. He was just making a living by being a contrarian “expert”, is all. Now? Well, hully gee, he makes Klein Bottles . . . and sells them online.
Buy some bottles here (and you gotta love the Web 1.0 design).