Acme Klein Bottle

If you have the time and the inclination, one of the best things you can do is go talk to Cliff Stoll at his home in Berkely from which he operates Acme Klein Bottle. He not only sold me the bottle, but gave me a tour of his &quot;warehouse&quot; - Actually the foundation of his house, which he drives a custom RC forklift around to store his bottles.<p>This is the same Cliff Stoll of The Cuckoo&#x27;s Egg: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg_(book)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg_(book)</a> - Which inspired me as a child to pursue my calling of being a systems administrator (Or Site Reliability engineer, in a slight evolution that would look more akin to what he was doing than what the Sysadmin title has come to mean)<p>His Klein bottle site has of course been discussed on HN before: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=20246665">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=20246665</a> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14014218">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14014218</a>

Of course you should buy a klein bottle from Cliff Stoll. Mine came with a nice note. You won&#x27;t find less orientable decor at a more reasonable price.

The bottles are beautiful. My dad still has one in the kitchen that I gave him for Christmas 25 years ago. I don’t think the website has changed any since then either.

One of my favorite parts of this was actually the peripheral material he sent the Klein bottle with. A packing slip, invoice, a list of &quot;quality assurance&quot; checkboxes, all brimming with math jokes.

I bought one of these for a mathematician I know. He immediately weaved some water in it and said: &quot;look, there&#x27;s water outside the bottle&quot;.<p>When I bought it some months ago, it came with a fun note, some hand written comments, and a sticker.

“Glass Klein Bottles for sale - inquire within”<p>Still puts a smile on my face, every time.

It&#x27;s so fun to see Stoll enthusiastically still participating in forums like this, commenting, adding anecdotes; just hanging out. A wonderful person and a true legend.

The best part, after placing an order:<p>Thanks again for entrusting your delicate topological needs to Acme - happy home of handles, holes, and hyperbole. -Cliff Stoll (and Pat, Zoe, and Danny) [any profits go directly into Zoe &amp; Danny&#x27;s College and&#x2F;or Bail fund]

I&#x27;ve got a Klein Stein, and it&#x27;s really cool, but I wish I had bought a regular bottle instead because it&#x27;s not quite as interesting when you show it to people who have never seen one before. They just think its an all-glass insulated mug.

That reminds me, I&#x27;ve been meaning to order a portrait of Gauss from him. (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kleinbottle.com&#x2F;gauss.htm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kleinbottle.com&#x2F;gauss.htm</a>). I&#x27;d order a Klein Bottle but with small kids in the house that&#x27;s just asking for trouble.<p>I also regret never stopping by when I lived literally right down the street.<p>(Apparently you can get portraits of Gauss cheaper on eBay! But I would like to overpay for this one for the cool story.)

His &quot;TOP OF PAGE&quot; button is just a link to the page ...<p>also, bonus Minecraft bottle: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kleinbottle.com&#x2F;images&#x2F;Minecraft%20Klein%20Bottle%20at%20night.gif" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kleinbottle.com&#x2F;images&#x2F;Minecraft%20Klein%20Bottl...</a>

Got a Klein hat a while back, got a nice picture of Cliff mailing it out along with. If you get one, make sure to hang dry.

I have one of these lovely bits of glassware proudly on display in my house, up on a high shelf where the cats can&#x27;t reach it, next to a volumetric flask full of obsolete currency.

One of the best gifts you can ever gift yourself.

i&#x27;ve just noticed the truly teeny tiny size that you can buy as a pair of earrings!

i totally fail to understand what&#x27;s so fascinating about those bottles and why they show up on hn regularly. could someone explain?