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Stalking the Wily Hacker: 40 years later – Cliff Stoll [video]

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Re: Stalking the Wily Hacker: 40 years later – Cliff Stoll [video]

#91
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know what was it called, and when/where it aired? It is possible that some here have different methods for finding things.

I think it was called Spycatcher. It was on a commercial channel, possibly Yorkshire TV.

It looks like it was the Yorkshire Television (YTV) series "Science Fiction" episode titled "Spycatcher".

Search-engining turned up a discussion[0] from 2011 where a poster, "ukscone", purported to have been an adviser and actor in the production, and to have a PAL VHS copy. Searching "ukscone" on the Raspberry Pi forum got me to a Github profile[1], a Mastodon account[2], and a personal website[3] (with other "social" links). I'm not a "social network" person (beyond HN), but perhaps somebody here who is interested and has access to one of the various "socials" in question would reach out to "ukscone". (I'm not seeing an email address or I'd do it. I'm an old curmudgeon who no longer wants to participate in social networks.)

[0] https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=1067

[1] https://github.com/ukscone

[2] https://cupoftea.social/@ukscone

[3] https://eightgrubs.com/

Re: Stalking the Wily Hacker: 40 years later – Cliff Stoll [video]

#92
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The book is brilliant. Also worth mentioning is the rather dramatic PBS Nova episode from 1990, The KGB, the Computer, and Me -- starring, of course, Cliff Stoll. It's an entertaining take of the same topic. I couldn't find a way to pay for a copy of it[], but this one on YouTube is pretty clean compared to the state of many other old NTSC things on our modern interweb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW8YBrH4Q6o []:…

Already got my Klein bottle last year! (I recommend everyone do it—the personal notes from Cliff are priceless.)

Bought my wife a pair of Klein bottle earrings. They arrived with pictures Cliff had taken of them in his garden. Lovely man.

Re: Stalking the Wily Hacker: 40 years later – Cliff Stoll [video]

#93
post #50

I saw him speak at the Dayton Hamvention two times. Absolute fun and like no other. When I was CSO at Relativity, I conducted security awareness training for all, and gave each one a copy of Cuckoo’s Egg.

There's nothing like speaking to the choir. When you have the same common denominator, it makes storytelling easy. The Defcon ham radio village was packed -- I picked up a lot of info on meshtastic. Last night set up a node in my attic.

Super. I have begun to look at meshtastic.

The talk was wonderful.

w8lvn

Re: Stalking the Wily Hacker: 40 years later – Cliff Stoll [video]

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it was called Spycatcher. It was on a commercial channel, possibly Yorkshire TV.

I remember making that video - we went up to Calistoga and spent time in a mud-bath. If you find the video, I'd enjoy seeing it! Thanx, -Cliff

Cliff,

I haven't quite given up on this, but I am running out of leads. I'm dropping this here mostly to benefit others by leaving some information all in one place.

It seems that it was first episode of the first season [S01E01] of a Yorkshire Television series named Science Fiction (oh, how I wished they'd picked a less-ambiguous name). This episode was named Spycatcher.

It's listed on IMDB[0] with an air date of Feb 15, 1990, but that date may be wrong. It was discussed twice[1] in TV-section articles in the Hull Daily Mail (Feb 10th and 13th, 1990), and some freely-visible blurbs from those suggest that it aired on a Tuesday at 7:30PM. That more-strongly ties the date down at February 13, 1990 than the IMDB's entry of Feb 15th.

Except: The verdict in Germany didn't come until Feb 15th[2]. I wonder of the Yorkshire Television Science Fiction episode had the same conclusion as the PBS Nova episode did, or if it left things more open-ended. That would help to pin down the date. :)

Some of the clues along the way include an old copy[3] of your own web pages at Berkeley, and one comment[4] on HN from a couple of years ago (they gave up on finding it).

I don't know enough about British television norms (much less the history) to really understand how any of this stuff flows, but I'm gaining the impression that the remains of Yorkshire Television might be owned by ITV, and that archives are likely to still exist.

I've seen reports that people have had success purchasing personal-use copies of old programs by sending an email to viewers.requests@itv.com if anyone wants to go that route.

[0]: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1385328/

[1]: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/search-newspapers/re...

[2]: You're mentioned in a world record by Guinness! :) https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/612868-fi...

[3]: https://web.archive.org/web/20090415204255/http://www.ocf.be...

[4]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39154781

Re: Stalking the Wily Hacker: 40 years later – Cliff Stoll [video]

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it was called Spycatcher. It was on a commercial channel, possibly Yorkshire TV.

It looks like it was the Yorkshire Television (YTV) series "Science Fiction" episode titled "Spycatcher". Search-engining turned up a discussion[0] from 2011 where a poster, "ukscone", purported to have been an adviser and actor in the production, and to have a PAL VHS copy. Searching "ukscone" on the Raspberry Pi forum got me to a Github profile[1], a Mastodon account[2], and a personal website[3] (with other "socia…

It looks like we've been doing our homework in parallel. I've gone down a different rabbit hole here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49458147

Re: Stalking the Wily Hacker: 40 years later – Cliff Stoll [video]

#98

I would not take the advice of somebody, if that persons basement is not full of klein-bottles. Everything else is just surface level ..

I wanted it fractal glass etched with clifstolls name, but they wouldn't do that.
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