Clifford Stoll

Stoll has written three books as well as articles in the non-specialist press (e.g., in Scientific American) on the Curta mechanical calculator and the slide rule, and is a frequent contributor to the mathematics YouTube channel Numberphile.

While studying for his undergraduate degree at SUNY Buffalo, Stoll worked in the university's electronic music laboratory and was mentored by Robert Moog.

[5] In 1986, while employed as a systems administrator at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Stoll investigated a tenacious hacker—later identified as KGB recruit Markus Hess—who stole passwords, pirated multiple computer accounts, and attempted to breach US military security.

[8][9] In his 1995 book Silicon Snake Oil[10] and an accompanying article in Newsweek,[11] Stoll raised questions about the influence of the Internet on future society, and whether it would be beneficial.

When the article resurfaced on Boing Boing in 2010, Stoll left a self-deprecating comment: "Of my many mistakes, flubs, and howlers, few have been as public as my 1995 howler ... Now, whenever I think I know what's happening, I temper my thoughts: Might be wrong, Cliff ..."[12] Stoll was an eighth-grade physics teacher at Tehiyah Day School, in El Cerrito, California,[13] and later taught physics to home-schooled teenagers.