The Cuckoo's Egg

What made this book so interesting to me was how real it was because the author is the main character of the book. A particularly real attitude that I enjoyed stemmed from the fact that he was an astronomer surrounded by computer programmers and engineers. In the book he admits using his astronomy knowledge in a presentation to put a group of coworkers to sleep so that he could track the hacker. He boasted that it only took him 5 minutes to do so. I also got the impression that he believed astronomers have the real brains and that he only really took the job because he needed the money. His insights were especially funny to me because my Dad is an astronomer that has shared a similar situation.

Throughout the book I was amazed how determined he was to find this hacker at all costs. He really was a man with a mission and wouldn't be stopped. In the book he tells the hard points of the journey where he risked breaking the law, losing his job, and hurting his relationship with Martha. For the most part I found these risks a very interesting and entertaining adventure in computer security. For example his risks with the law showed the fine line that employers need to make between employee privacy and security. His side stepping responsibilities to find the hacker at work was entertaining and he seemed to do it with style. However forgetting to call Martha about hiking in the redwoods reminded me of the heartache that can come when people get too involved in technology.

For most of us this book is a wake up call to learn more about the risks of system level ignorance. The Cuckoo's egg is a metaphor for an imposer process in the operating system nest that can potentially harm the other children and destroy the cooperation between them. Most people only think on the process level, forgetting completely about everything else in the nest. The Cuckoo's Egg shows us one man's attempt to destroy this ignorance that started by wanting to know why there was an accounting error of 75 cents in his system. I don't believe we need to sacrifice everything that Cliff Stoll did to overcome this ignorance, but I do feel that we should at least work to be aware of its dangers in order to protect our work and family.