The Cuckoo's Egg: Cliff's Persistence
"The Cuckoo's Egg" is a story of persistence, love for one's work and is just
plain funny! The story starts out with Clifford Stoll being "recycled" to a
computer analyst/webmaster.
Cliff, as he is affectionately called, is a long-haired ex-hippie that works at
Lawrence Berkeley Lab. He originally was an astronomer, but since his grant
wore out, he became a mainframe master. He was glad that instead of throwing
him out into the unemployment office, the Lab recycled their people and
downstairs he went, to the computer lab.
A few days after he becomes the master of the mainframe, his colleague, Wayne
Graves, asks him to figure out a 75cent glitch that is in the accounting system.
It ...
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comes from the Tymnet. Tymnet is a series of
fiber-optic cables that run from a major city to another major city. So if you
were in LA and wanted to hook up to a computer in the Big Apple you could call
long distance, have a lot of interference from other callers and have a slow
connection, or you could sign-up to Tymnet and dial locally, hop onthe optic
cable and cruise at a T-3 line. The lab had only five Tymnet lines so Cliff
could easily monitor every one with five computers, teletypes, and five printers.
That was the difficult part, where to get all that equipment. At graduate
school they taught Cliff to improvise. It was a Friday, and not many people
come to work on Saturday. Since it was easier to make up an excuse than to beg
for anything, he "borrowed" everything he needed. Then programmed his computer
to beep twice when someone logged on from the Tymnet lines. The thing is, since
he was sleeping under his desk, he would gouge his head on the desk drawer.
Also, ...
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the FBI
lifted a finger. The FBI listened but, they stated that if they hadn't lost
millions of dollars in equipment, or classified data, they didn't what to know
them. The hodgepodge of information between the CIA, NSA,and Cliff began to
worry his lover, Martha. A little background on her. She and Clifford have
know each other since they were kids, and lovers since they turned adults. They
didn't feel like getting married because they thought that was a thing that you
do when you're very bland. They wanted freedom. If they ever wanted to leave
they would just pack their bags, pay their share of the utilities and hightail
it out of there. Well back to the plot. She too was an ...
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The Cuckoo's Egg: Cliff's Persistence. (2008, November 4). Retrieved November 4, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Cuckoos-Egg-Cliffs-Persistence/92511
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"The Cuckoo's Egg: Cliff's Persistence." Essayworld.com. November 4, 2008. Accessed November 4, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Cuckoos-Egg-Cliffs-Persistence/92511.
"The Cuckoo's Egg: Cliff's Persistence." Essayworld.com. November 4, 2008. Accessed November 4, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Cuckoos-Egg-Cliffs-Persistence/92511.
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