A snake, some oilBook review of Silicon Snake Oil by C. Stoll. CMC Magazine

Abstract

Silicon Snake Oil could represent a first attempt to compile a database on every negative aspect that could possibly be attributed to cyberspace. In one long whine, Stoll lists off everything that can and does go wrong with computers and the online world. When I studied in Moscow in the 1970s, I experienced something similar when watching Soviet TV or reading their papers. Everything they reported on the West was true, but it was all negative. Stoll's book is like that. First you set up a straw dog and then you attack it.