Looking Back, Darkly · 24 March, 07:56 AM
James Robertson pointed at an old Cliff Stoll interview, which is pretty funny. I actually bought and read Silicon Snake Oil, on the strength of my admiration for The Cuckoo’s Egg. Snake Oil was a terrible book, even in 1995, when the success of E-commerce was not a foregone conclusion. Recall that Amazon.com went online in 1995, as did ITN.net (now part of Travelocity, which didn’t go online until 1996). The most interesting part of Stoll’s commentary is that he rejected the entire idea of the Internet as a third space; which proved to be spectacularly wrong.
I have to say, though, that this quote should have been a strong warning to potential purchasers of Snake Oil
As the networks evolve, so do my opinions toward them, and my divergent feelings bring out conflicting points of view. In advance, I apologize to those who expect a consistent position from me.
Stoll’s capabilities as a pundit are definitely limited at best, but on the other hand, if you want bad punditry, there’s no shortage these days
— Gordon Weakliem
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