
The man with 1,000 klein bottles under his house [video] - cevn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k3mVnRlQLU
======
el_benhameen
I went to Cliff's house a few years back to buy one of his bottles as a gift
for my dad. He was just as effusive, welcoming, and excited for one visitor
he'd never met as he was in the video.

I thought I was just swinging by to pick up the bottle and pay the check, but
I ended up staying for about 45 minutes (because he just kept going!),
chatting about the crawlspace, the robot, and life in general. He talked about
eschewing a big career so that he and his wife could focus on making life
great for their kids. And it certainly seemed to have paid off for both kids
and dad: I've never met anyone who seemed to be having so damned much _fun_
just existing. It was refreshing to see that it's totally possible to be
driven almost entirely by intrinsic factors and still exist in the real world.
He left an impression as being an all-around fantastic human being. The bottle
was pretty cool, too.

~~~
0xdeadbeefbabe
Well how are his kids?

Edit: Seriously, he seems like a fun parent.

~~~
el_benhameen
He was wild about them, and given how creative and dedicated this fellow
seemed, I'm sure they're geniuses. I didn't meet them, though, so I can't
really say much more than that.

------
noonespecial
His tiny robotic warehouse in the crawlspace of his house is the coolest thing
I've seen in a long time.

Pure distilled mad science. He's like a living cartoon. I want to be him when
I get old so very much!

~~~
segmondy
He is a true "hacker", I was very impressed with his robot made from various
junk parts

------
slyall
Cliff Stoll in case people were wondering:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Stoll](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Stoll)

I have his original book my shelf, it was fascinating when it came out.

His Klein Bottle company is here:

[http://www.kleinbottle.com/](http://www.kleinbottle.com/)

~~~
jpalomaki
He has also written Cuckoo's Egg, a book about his hunt for hacker that broke
into computer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg)

This was really fascinating read for a young nerd around very early 1990's.

~~~
astrodust
This book basically taught me UNIX. I'm not even kidding.

------
acron0
This is incredible. I LOVE stuff like this. It makes me so happy that people
like this still exist in the world. I say 'still' because I feel like they're
a dying breed. The rationale behind everything he's done is laid bare and it
makes sense! People like this don't ever let a detail like "I have no idea how
to achieve this" stand in their way. Everything is a challenge or problem that
needs solving.

------
craigching
Ok, never heard of klein bottles before, watched the video and I learned about
something new today. Awesome robot and storage area as well :)

But, aside from that, when I went to youtube to watch the video, the ad I had
to watch was this:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYhdbxj-
yoI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYhdbxj-yoI)

First time I watched a youtube ad all the way through :p

~~~
kristofferR
Who the f __k geo-restricts an ad?

~~~
vijayr
Advertisers? They have to pay for the ads, why would they want someone who is
not from their target market watching the ads?

~~~
kristofferR
I'm pretty sure they only have to pay for the ad views (pre-roll etc), not
regular video views of the commercial.

~~~
BillFranklin
It's also here: [https://vimeo.com/121287413](https://vimeo.com/121287413)

------
jay-saint
Check out his job postings for his Acme Klein Bottle company
[http://www.kleinbottle.com/jobs.html](http://www.kleinbottle.com/jobs.html)

My favorite: _PENTIUM PROCESSOR. Must know all pentium processes, including
preprocessing, postprocessing, and past-pluperfect processing. Ideal candidate
pent up at the Pentagon, penthouse, or penitentiary. Pays pennies. Penurious
benefits include Pension, Pencil. Pentel, Pentax, and Pentaflex. Write to
pensive@kleinbottle.con_

------
devinmontgomery
This NOVA episode with Cliff is what got me interested in the Internet when I
was 8:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcKxaq1FTac](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcKxaq1FTac)

~~~
picardo
Ironic because he was also one of the earliest critics of the Internet.

[http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2010/02/27/newsweek-1995-bu...](http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2010/02/27/newsweek-1995-buy-
books-newspapers-straight-intenet-uh/)

------
bambax
Real life Gyro Gearloose!!!

In the next video he talks about how a Klein bottle is made, and how, contrary
to a bottle, it has no edge.

I'm not sure I understand why a bottle "has to" have an edge? Surely it's
possible to make a bottle with no edge? For example, if one takes a sphere and
progressively turns it into a bowl (by punching into it), and then makes the
bowl deeper, it still has just one surface and no edge, no?

~~~
talideon
The rim of your bowl _is_ the edge: it's a point where the curvature changes
suddenly. But that's not the important thing: the important thing is that not
only is there only no edge, but only one surface.

Let's talk topology for a bit.

A manifold can be thought of as essentially a flat and infinitely thin sheet.
If you have a spherical manifold (and your bowl would be a spherical
manifold), it has two surfaces: one on the inside and another on the outside.
Deforming the manifold doesn't change this.

The thing about a Klein bottle (and a Moebius strip) is that it only has _one_
continuous surface, the difference between a Moebius strip and a Klein bottle
is that the latter is a single surface with no edge whereas the former is a
single surface with one edge, unlike the sphere (or your bowl), which has two
surfaces and no edge.

So what's important here is the number of _sides_ it has, not really that it
has no edge. The lack of an edge is really only what separates a Moebius strip
from Klein bottle.

~~~
bambax
But with an ordinary bottle, the edge is the point (if I may), because if a
bottle had no edge, couldn't it be said that has just one ordinary surface?

So in fact, what I understand so far is:

\- a (hollow) sphere has two surfaces, one inside and one outside, and you
can't connect one to the other (you can't walk from one to the other)

\- a potato, or a bowl also have the same properties: two distinct surfaces

\- a bottle is not a special kind of bowl, it's more of a broken sphere (an
egg the top of which has been removed) so that both surfaces (in and out) are
accessible (but disjoint)

\- to make a true bottle out of a bowl one needs to somehow "collapse" the
inner and outer surfaces (therefore creating an edge)

\- if you make a bottle that has a hollow space between the inside and the
outside (think Thermos), then you actually have _three_ surfaces

Is this correct?

~~~
talideon
I think the confusion here is that you're taking what he's saying in terms
other than those of topology.

In topology, you deal with manifolds. Manifolds have _no thickness_ , but they
do have area.

In topology, there's no such thing as a 'filled' sphere: a sphere in topology
has no edges and an inside surface and an outside surface, much like a
football.

There are two ways you can make a 'bottle': you can deform a sphere, which
gives you a 'bottle' much like a vaccuum flask; or you can deform a planar
manifold (which is like a sheet of paper). The former will have two surfaces
and no edge, whereas the latter will have two surfaces and one edge, that
being the rim.

A broken sphere would be a planar manifold.

A vaccuum flask is simply a deformed sphere in topological terms, and thus
only has two surfaces, the inside and the outside.

~~~
bambax
Much helpful, thanks!!

~~~
talideon
One quick clarifying note: the reason he said in the video that bottles have
an edge is because he was treating it as a planar manifold.

Topology is an interesting area of study.

------
dwarman
I do like Cliff. This reminds me, I dropped my bottle last year; time to
replace it.

If Klein bottles catch your fanvcy, there's another and very different artist
doing metal and glass algorithmic artwork in 3D printers: Bathsheba (at
[http://bathsheba.com](http://bathsheba.com)). I had Cliff's bottle sitting on
top of her laser etched known universe cube at work. Each contains the other.
Too bad nobody there gets the joke. But I saw the same combo in a documentary
about String Theory, in one of the scientists' office, so I'm not alone :)

------
DanBC
The klein bottles are awesome, but they are the least awesome thing about his
under-floor space. That was amazing.

~~~
shabble
I confess that my first hope was that it was some kind of klein-bottle
glassblowing robot bodged togetehr out of bits of scrap wood and insulated
with glass-fibre.

The reality was almost as good though, it's a cute little forklift-bot, and
appears to work really well for his use (although I suspect if he started
stacking boxes on top of each other it would get a lot harder).

So, who's going to kickstart Kiva for your attic/crawlspace? :)

------
hrayr
I love this guy, I first saw him in his TED talk [1]. He kinda reminds me of
Richard Feynman (similar mannerisms and enthusiasm for science).

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj8IA6xOpSk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj8IA6xOpSk)

------
tempodox
I got one of those Klein bottles from him, and it's really beautifully done.
If you are careful, you can even store some liquid or other stuff in it. I
wonder if the mathematical original could do that, too.

~~~
raldi
You're not really storing the liquid _in_ it; you're storing the liquid _on_
it.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
True of an ordinary bottle too, which is topographically the same as a plate.

------
e0m
Definitely subscribe to Numberphile if you thought that was interesting. One
of my favorite YouTube channels.

------
nedwin
"Acme Klein Bottles - where yesterday's future is here today!"
[http://www.kleinbottle.com/](http://www.kleinbottle.com/)

------
MagnumCI
I went to a talk from Stoll years ago where he basically danced on tables, his
enthusiasm is contagious.

I've always been amused by his 'Internet commerce will never work, give up'
essay

[http://www.newsweek.com/clifford-stoll-why-web-wont-be-
nirva...](http://www.newsweek.com/clifford-stoll-why-web-wont-be-
nirvana-185306)

~~~
amdolan
Good read, as an aside I found this to be somewhat funny :) from your link:
[http://imgur.com/dTdp2g7](http://imgur.com/dTdp2g7)

------
zafka
Well, I just bought mine! It warms my heart to contribute to such a great life
style. I aspire to a similar future myself.

------
dmd
Wow, synchronicity -- I just received a klein bottle order in the mail from
him YESTERDAY.

~~~
shocks
Did he send you a personal photo gallery too?!

I love my KB. :D

~~~
dmd
He sure did! I sent him one back of my family, and also of me as a teenager
reading The Cuckoo's Egg in 1990 or so.

------
chii
> Now with a LIFETIME GUARANTEE - we guarantee that you will live your entire
> life OR YOUR MONEY BACK!

ROFL - that site is awesome. You don't need no fancy javascript, graphics or
special effects. Just pure humor and good content!

------
graffitici
Perfect model for Amazon's new distribution system! Transform people's
basements into small warehouses, complete with autonomous robots. Then ship
everything locally, as they are needed!

------
mattyohe
Clifford's TED talk is quite entertaining too:
[https://youtu.be/dSGHZ4YHP54](https://youtu.be/dSGHZ4YHP54)

~~~
ykl
Here's a link to the actual TED talk, since mattyohe's link is actually to one
of Google's promo videos.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj8IA6xOpSk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj8IA6xOpSk)

------
kazinator
Jim Croce should have written the lyrics "If I could save time in Klein's
bottle ...":

[http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/jimcroce/timeinabottle.html](http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/jimcroce/timeinabottle.html)

Eternity ... looping. Doh!

------
Shivetya
I see that little robot and I get images of the little guy from Silent Running
tending his plants

------
harel
What would be a practical use for such a feat of inter dimension glass
containerism?

~~~
hedgew
Its practical uses are both guaranteed and finite!

>You can convert your Acme Klein Bottle into an astonishing amount of energy,
over 1023 ergs! Enough to power a small city for years. To get you started,
we'll supply the necessary equation for free.

>At any time -- day or night -- you can easily check on the Euler
Characteristic of your Acme Klein Bottle. Just add the number of vertices to
the number of faces, then subtract the number of edges. So simple, even a grad
student can do it!

[http://www.kleinbottle.com/why_acme.htm](http://www.kleinbottle.com/why_acme.htm)

------
naggie
He sounds like the scientist from X-COM: Enforcer! Random gameplay:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O0Z8Fv31l0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O0Z8Fv31l0)

------
konradb
I bought one of these a few years ago and was touched by the personal note
written in it. I hadn't realised until now that it was Clifford Stoll who
actually sent these! Fascinating video.

~~~
a_c
I just bought one too. It is so heart warming seeing his personal note.

------
iuguy
Clifford Stoll is always a fascinating character to watch.

------
wodenokoto
I want a reality show about this guy, this is amazing!

~~~
DanBC
I'd watch a well made documentary. I'd probably help kickstart one.

------
hakcermani
The clicking noises from that robot, its brilliant !

------
Morendil
I own one of those. They're rad.

------
onion2k
He is awesome.

------
guard-of-terra
Is it glass wool hanging down from his underfloor ceiling in insane qualities?

I was raised to believe it's extremely dangerous to health, people crawling
there scare me. Of course it's easier with forklift.

~~~
mxfh
That was asbestos, glass wool is reasonably safe to be around.

~~~
anotheryou
jup, just don't handling it sucks (it gets everywhere and itches if it
penetrates your skin. construction workers often don't seem to give much of a
* though...)

~~~
burger_moon
I used to work with ceramic wool and in big letters on the box it says that
it's known to be a __possible __carcinogen. Not only does it kill you slowly,
it hurts more than itches unlike regular insulation. The fibers are longer and
sharper and really sting and take a few freezing cold showers to really get it
out of your skin. I certainly don 't miss those days :)

------
DrScump
a warning: the volume on this is REALLY. LOUD.

~~~
EvanAnderson
Cliff Stoll's enthusiasm warrants REALLY. LOUD.

Cliff seems like a genuinely great guy.

