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Get an Acme Klein Bottle

kleinbottle.com

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Re: Get an Acme Klein Bottle

#11

Post by jacobolus »

mbay wrote: post #5
V-eHGsd_ wrote: post #2

these are made by Cliff Stoll, of cuckoo's egg fame.

Came in here to post this. This guy is unhinged by the way. He came in to give a talk in a course I was taking at UC Berkeley and as he continued to ramble on he noticed the students starting to glance at the clock on the wall above his head. He went off on a half-baked rant about how clocks don't matter and we should think for ourselves or something, then he stands up ON A CHAIR WITH WHEELS and pulls the clock off t…

“Unhinged” is a pretty uncharitable description, and your “horrified” class sounds a bit closed-minded.

Another way to describe the same is “excitable, passionate, and non-conforming”.

But I would instead say “Cliff Stoll is a national treasure”. I’m super jealous of the middle school kids who got to have him as their science teacher.

Re: Get an Acme Klein Bottle

#13

Post by jacobolus »

Waterluvian wrote: post #6
V-eHGsd_ wrote: post #2

these are made by Cliff Stoll, of cuckoo's egg fame.

They're not made by him anymore. A glassblower makes them. But he does the rest.

To learn about the operation, watch the Numberphile video, “The man with 1,000 Klein Bottles UNDER his house” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k3mVnRlQLU

Re: Get an Acme Klein Bottle

#14

Post by dmitrygr »

We got one of these for our calculus three teacher in high school. It comes with an extremely hilarious warranty card. I do not remember the whole thing, but it does say that they warrant that the Klein bottle does not contain any magnetic monopoles. If any are found, one can return the bottle for a full refund, which they will provide after claiming the Nobel prize for physics.

Re: Get an Acme Klein Bottle

#16

Post by lagg »

jacobolus wrote: post #11
mbay wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Came in here to post this. This guy is unhinged by the way. He came in to give a talk in a course I was taking at UC Berkeley and as he continued to ramble on he noticed the students starting to glance at the clock on the wall above his head. He went off on a half-baked rant about how clocks don't matter and we should think for ourselves or something, then he stands up ON A CHAIR WITH WHEELS and pulls the clock off t…

“Unhinged” is a pretty uncharitable description, and your “horrified” class sounds a bit closed-minded. Another way to describe the same is “excitable, passionate, and non-conforming”. But I would instead say “Cliff Stoll is a national treasure”. I’m super jealous of the middle school kids who got to have him as their science teacher.

Well I mean I'd call it being dickish but that's just me.

He's a perfect gentleman as far as I'm concerned. I aspire to keep form and force of character as he has this many years on. If anyone wants a pretty amusing documentary featuring him and a pretty good picture of his personality see The KGB, the Computer and Me.

A scene of him sitting next to a guy being proper and having coffee while himself is sitting with feet on the bench and a big icecream shake comes to mind.

Re: Get an Acme Klein Bottle

#17

Post by el_benhameen »

I ordered one of these for my dad for Christmas one year, and as we live in the Bay Area, I opted to just pick it up from Cliff Stoll’s house. Guy was one of the nicest people I’ve ever met—introduced me to his family and gave me a tour of his workshop, including the robo-car he uses to retrieve the bottles from his crawl space. My dad got a kick out of the bottle but has probably since forgotten about it, so I think I got more out of the gift than he did!

Re: Get an Acme Klein Bottle

#18

Post by wonderfool »

teej wrote: post #9

I want to show a bit of appreciation for a website that loads in 50ms. Thanks for keeping it simple, Cliff.

That’s because the site has been up and unchanged for about (if not over) twenty years :)

It warms my heart to know it’s still up and that Dr. Stoll is still at it.

Re: Get an Acme Klein Bottle

#19

Post by rosser »

jacobolus wrote: post #11
mbay wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Came in here to post this. This guy is unhinged by the way. He came in to give a talk in a course I was taking at UC Berkeley and as he continued to ramble on he noticed the students starting to glance at the clock on the wall above his head. He went off on a half-baked rant about how clocks don't matter and we should think for ourselves or something, then he stands up ON A CHAIR WITH WHEELS and pulls the clock off t…

“Unhinged” is a pretty uncharitable description, and your “horrified” class sounds a bit closed-minded. Another way to describe the same is “excitable, passionate, and non-conforming”. But I would instead say “Cliff Stoll is a national treasure”. I’m super jealous of the middle school kids who got to have him as their science teacher.

> But I would instead say “Cliff Stoll is a national treasure”.

Indeed. The man has more than earned a few eccentricities.

Re: Get an Acme Klein Bottle

#20

Post by StavrosK »

megaframe wrote: post #12
pardavis wrote: post #3

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-k3mVnRlQLU

How am I more fascinated by his warehouse robot than the glass bottles. It's such a great design/implementation.

It's a great robot! His remote controller seems a bit cobbled together, but you can easily use a $50 RC controller with a $5 receiver and an Arduino to control whatever you want with 16 channels, it's amazing!
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