The man with 1,000 Klein Bottles UNDER his house - Numberphile on HackerTube: recommended by 8 Hacker News commenters across 8 separate months, 2015–2024.
interview · evergreen
Numberphile visits Cliff Stoll, the man behind ACME Klein Bottles, and sees how he stores a thousand glass Klein bottles in a crawlspace under his house. A remote-controlled forklift fetches them.
HN commenters love Cliff Stoll's earnest, playful personality and point to this as a delightful look at his unusual warehouse.
“Cliff is an amazing person. Just a joy!”
14 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
this numberphile/Cliff Stoll video is on a different topic, klein bottles... or maybe more the travelling salesman/knapsack problem, but it's a must see. Cliff is a cool guy (whose geewhiz excitement I can only take in small doses but) he's worth following ▶ this video
in “The KGB, the Computer and Me – The Cuckoo's Egg Story (1990) [video]” · View on HN
Cliff is an amazing person. Just a joy! Every time I see him on Numberphile , my life is made better. [link] ▶ this video P.S. Cliff, we know you're on HN. Please continue being yourself, it seems like a really great person to be!
in “Being OK with not being extraordinary” · View on HN
I thought I recognised the name... turns out Cliff is the guy from the Numberphile videos who loves klein bottles. He is such an enjoyment to watch. ▶ this video
in “Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?” · View on HN
If you don't happen to have the time to visit him, here is a playlist of videos Numberphile did on Klein Bottles, his basement warehouse, the intrinsic curvature of pizza, and a whole bunch of other interesting things: ▶ this video
in “Acme Klein Bottle” · View on HN
Bah they forgot to mention the best bit. He keeps already-made klein bottles in the crawlspace under his house, and built a remote controlled fpv mini-forklift to retrieve them on demand: ▶ this video
in “How a Berkeley Eccentric Beat the Russians – Then Made Useless, Wondrous Objects” · View on HN
Everything this guy does is hilarious and entertaining. See later talk about this event: [link] And he drives RC forklift under his house to store Klein bottles he's selling! ▶ this video
in “Running a fake power plant on the internet for a month” · View on HN
To learn about the operation, watch the Numberphile video, “The man with 1,000 Klein Bottles UNDER his house” ▶ this video
in “Get an Acme Klein Bottle” · View on HN
You should also watch the related video about how he stores Klein bottles under his house. It's fascinating. ▶ this video
in “Cutting a Klein Bottle in Half [video]” · View on HN
No discussion of Klein bottles would be complete without mentioning Cliff Stoll's Acme Klein Bottle company. [link] His warehouse is pretty unique: ▶ this video
in “4D Toys: Klein Bottles” · View on HN
So in 2015 [1] you said you ordered enough bottles for about 10 years, but you're already running out? That's quite the success story you have there! [1] ▶ this video
in “A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing” · View on HN
> Earnestness, for example, is pretty far away from my conception of "playful" or "flirty" or even "fun". Cliff Stoll is the most earnest person I have talked to in the past year, and also one of the most playful and fun. See e.g. ▶ this video I think you have a non-standard personal definition of “earnest”. As I understand the words, earnestness and playfulness are completely orthogonal/unrelated attributes.
in “Earnestness” · View on HN
> Of course, these days, he's the best dang Klein bottle glass blower in the game. And of course, he hires out the manufacturing. That's why he has (an awesome, little) warehouse under his hour full of them. ▶ this video
in “Being OK with not being extraordinary” · View on HN
It's been implemented to some degree by Cliff Stoll for his klein bottle business. Or rather, he started a warehouse in his crawlspace. Same difference... ▶ this video
in “CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work” · View on HN
Numberphile did a video a couple of years ago that featured the forklift in question: ▶ this video Cliff is a really neat guy. I met and talked to him briefly once (at Dayton Hamvention, 20ish years ago). He's a really, really nice guy.
in “Acme Klein Bottle” · View on HN