Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 256 pages
• Published by: Anchor; 1st Anchor Books Ed edition March 1, 1996
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0385419945
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0385419949
• Book Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Weighs: 7.2 ounces

From Publishers Weekly
Computer expert Stoll presents a backlash account of the Internet, questioning whether its potential influence is as far-reaching and positive as supporters claim.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Stoll, a Berkeley astronomer who chronicled how he broke a computer spy ring in The Cuckoo's Egg (LJ 9/15/89) and who has been netsurfing for 15 years, does an apparent about-face here, warning that the technophiles are trying to sell us a bill of goods on the promise of the Internet?one on which it can't deliver and that, ultimately, both ignores the cost of forsaking human interaction and actual financial costs. His is a lone voice countering the mass of media hype that has been touting the national information superhighway and the rush of individuals and businesses to get connected. In chapters dealing with everything from education to E-mail (Stoll reports he lost less mail via the U.S. Postal Service) to the "virtual" library, he details the limitations of the networks. Though he is occasionally not quite up to the minute on some library implementations, his message nevertheless should be read as a caution to every librarian rushing down the information highway. [For an interview with Stoll and an excerpt from his book, see p. 100.]?Francine Fialkoff, "Library Journal.
-?Francine Fialkoff, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reader Reviews
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.