Customer Reviews

Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Clifford Stoll wrote the highly-entertaining and engaging "Cuckoo's Egg," about his successful efforts to track down the person (or persons) who have hacked in to his computer network.

Unfortunately this book, which can be termed a cautionary tale about the internet and the world wide web (called back then the "information highway" or "information superhighway") has become outpaced by subsequent events to an almost absurd degree. While Stoll's writing is still engaging, and his contrarian views interesting, so many things he discusses are (in his own words about the Internet) "stale, incomplete, misleading...or simply wrong." The most prominent example is his assertion that " The Internet is a poor place for commerce." There are other assertions in the book that are equally dated. (Stoll, it might be noted, after calling the possibility of e-commerce "baloney," now sells Klein bottles on the Web. So much for his predictive abilities.)

While it is certainly no crime to have gotten predictions about the growth and use of the Web wrong--after all, almost everyone did--this book, with its almost-Luddite overtones regarding the internet, is really not worth the time except as a nostalgia item.

As an Internet junkie, let me say that I'm glad I read this book, and I encourage all computer and net-obsessed people to read this book.

He does bring up some very good arguements -- like his theory that networked systems are ruining public libraries -- but many of them are unsubstantiated and full of holes. He has complaints about everything computer-related, from how slow they are to how they look to the lack of noises they make. (He complains that his computer, unlike his trusty typewriter, doesn't make noises when he types some characters or advances to a new line... but I couldn't help thinking that if the computer *did* make these noises, he'd just complain about how loud it was.)

The most irritating thing about this book is that he paints himself (perhaps unknowingly) as a hypocrite. For example, he writes how the usenet is basically a waste of time and how you hardly ever find anything useful there, yet he keeps bringing up things he learned while reading the usenet and talking about how much time he spent there. He seems to love the Postal Service, yet when he wants to see newly discovered pictures of Saturn, he logs in online to get them, then complains about how he has to wait, rather than perhaps mailing away for them, as a snail-mail supporter would do. And I found it especially disturbing that for a man who uses computers every day for his job and pleasure, who owns five different machines, and who has obviously been a computer user since before many of us knew what computer were, he offers exactly ZERO suggestions on how to improve them. I realized this about 100 pages in and wanted to stop reading the book right then and there, but the only thing that kept me reading was my interest in seeing if he ever presented any suggestions for improvement. (He didn't.)

Since this was written about 5 years ago, I would be interested to hear if any of his feelings have changed. Most of his arguements center around gopher, FTP, usenet, BBS systems, etc., and most Internet users never use these. He only mentions Mosaic offhand a few times, but what it has evolved into (IE/Netscape and the WWW) is the most important part of the Internet today. My guess is he would find problems with it as well, and he would have similarly-flawed arguements to back them up.

On page 45 Clifford Stoll confides: "This leads to some important questions that I am not smart enough to frame." "This" may as well refer to anything related to the internet or the misuse of computers. Whether the above statement was meant to be honest or humbly self-effacing is a moot point because in the end Stoll never seriously frames or answers any of the fundamental questions regarding the information superhighway.

The writing is awful. The insipid, conversational tone betrays an utter lack of rigor and depth of thought. It is what idiotic book reviewers have come to call "accessible"---a warm welcome mat for the feebleminded. Beyond the dreadful style there lies a vast intellectual wasteland utterly devoid of argument and critical thought, but polluted with observations. The numerous, wandering anecdotes are largely irrelevant and always boring.

The only message that can be extracted directly from this book can be summarized in one sentence: the internet is not all it's cracked up to be.

There, I just saved you $14.

Ironically, this book is a qualified success---it does prove that some publishers disseminate the same mindless dreck that pervades the internet.

Clifford Stoll's Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway, raises some legitimate concerns about the Internet for 1995-and I stress for 1995. Most of his warnings about the Internet were rather outdated, and seemed foolish in today's computer age. With computer technology advancing so quickly, books about the Internet can become dated quite quickly, and that is exactly what I found in this case. Stoll discusses some of the major concerns that people had in the mid-90s about the emerging Internet phenomenon, including issues centering around efficiency and security. Perhaps these arguments were realistic for computer users about five years ago, but developing technologies quickly remedied these, and made the Internet a much more efficient resource for business, communication, entertainment--you name it. I hate to criticize a book merely for the fact that it is far outdated, but I just can't give a great review to a book full of statements and suggestions that no longer hold any weight!

Being absolutely fascinated by the author's book "Cuckoo's Egg", I was extremely disappointed by this book. Even I agree with a lot of opinions the author holds in this book, the author portraits things almost in an apocalyptic way. I disagree with that. I believe a lot of problem in the information superhighway and society can and must be fixed. However, it takes some positivism, and constructive suggestions to do so. To focus on the negatives will definately not change anything. It took me about 9 month to read the book from cover to cover, because it created such a negative mood in me, that I could only read a couple of pages and needed some positive couter balance. I believe this book is not worth the time to read it.

In Silicon Snake OIl, Clifford Stoll brings up several interesting and thought-provoking points. There is no plot in this meditative work, Stoll wanders from one idea to another, taking his mind wherever the next tangent leads. Howard Rheingold states Stoll's main theme effectively in his review of the book, "computer/online enthusiasts should turn off their computers and get a life." Stoll begins his labyrinthine mental trip by acknowledging his own weakness for computers. He makes it clear to the reader that he is addicted to the Internet and the information it holds, despite the fact that the information on the Web is not reliable, ungoverned, and mostly junk. He notes that there is a disregard for proper grammar, spelling and sentence formation that is accepted on the part of computer users. No one seems to expect anyone else to edit the phrases that spiral out from hundreds of thousands of keyboards every day. Stoll also notes the difficulty of using help features. Most of the early help programs were written in cryptic language that held novice computer users at arm's distance. Although Stoll is correct in his statement that few aspects of daily life actually require the use of a computer and that the beautiful parts of society, such as libraries, and schools are threatened with the advent of the computer, I find most of his criticism negated by his own admission of Internet addiction. Essentially, he criticizes others dependence on the computer as he surfs the Web and types his book on the computer. I also found his ramblings to be disjointed and repetitive though sometimes compelling. Overall, I would not recommend this book for those looking for a fast, gripping read or the type of reader who has to read every line. Stoll offers some interesting ideas but at the cost of lucid and organized prose.

It pains me to write this review, since I loved the Cuckoo's Egg, but this book just isn't very good. Stoll's main point is that people are spending too much time on computers and on the Internet, and it is a valid point. He says that they should live real life, which is a good suggestion. This would have made a good magazine article. The problem is that the book is full of criticism of every minutia of the computer world. After a while Stoll justs looks petty. For example, he says that when parents encourage their children to use computers, they are telling them not to be interactive. What about the old days, when kids were told to practice the piano? The book is full of criticisms provided without context. I made it to page 150, but couldn't take any more.

Paranoia over the internet and sadly his foresight was very limited. It's surprising that any educated person would predict the things he did.

Stoll demonstrates that the Internet is not all fun a games. He shows the negative aspects of computers and the Internet on society. Although a few years old (1996), the book touches base with a few of today's main Internet problems. The first and foremost of these problems is Internet addiction.

I find Stoll contradicts himself many times throughout the book. He claims that newsgroups and Usenet is a waste of time, yet he also tells the reader how much information he got while spending countless hours on them. Another thing peculiar about the author is his attitude about the Internet in general. He comes off very anti-Internet, yet tells the reader about his 15 years prior to 1996 he spent on the Internet, and even starts off the book telling the reader he realizes he's addicted.

This is not a book for anyone who is "pro-computer." Stoll does make some interesting, realistic, points throughout the book, but in some instances, fails to back them up with evidence. However, if the reader approaches the book open-minded, he/she should walk away with a better understanding of how the Internet affects our society.

I find the book to be informative with respect to the negative aspects of the Internet, yet overdramatic about it. The Internet has changed a lot through the four years since this book has been in print, and so have Internet users. I am interested in how the author feels today the Internet, Internet users, and his comments made in Silicon Snake Oil.

Silicon Snake Oil is not essential reading, it is essentially junk. It is not so much that Stoll missed a few predictions it is that he got EVERY one of them blindingly arrogantly wrong. In every single example the Internet has proved Stoll so completely wrong that he should refund the money of anyone that purchased this diatribe based on no empirical evidence but on his own narcissistic prejudices. When making such predictions with such profound certainty it is incumbent upon someone of Stoll's stature to make an effort at quantifying your pronouncements with data. When he makes the statement that "Computer networks isolate us from one another, rather than bring us together." [p. 58] where does he get that info. It does not appear to have come from any study of actual people but from some orifice of Stoll's. Study after study([...])has since indicated that people who are more connected actually have more social contacts both on and offline. While it was not possible to predict this in advance of actual studies Stoll went ahead anyway and that is what is wrong with this, and many books like it. Some curmudgeon with what seems to be bona fides plays on the worst case fears of society and we take the bait. Instead we should demand that such comments and predictions be supported by some sort of evidence. Stoll sets himself up as the wise prophet preaching a great warning to the masses. Instead he is the crazy man screaming hell and damnation on the street corner.The greatest irony is that now almost 25 years later Stoll is using the Internet, when he called e-commerce baloney, to hawk Klein Bottles.