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Talk It Over With Captain Crunch
John T. Draper is most famous as "Captain Crunch," the legendary phone phreak who taught others how to make illicit use of Ma Bell's facilities to call almost anywhere, almost any time, for free. But (as a glance at his personal page will show you), that is just about the least of Draper's accomplishments. Not only that, he's still going strong. This is your chance to talk directly to a man without whom the modern-day personal computer -- and modern hacking and many other things we take for granted -- might not exist at all, and certainly would not exist in their current forms. One question per post please, and try to avoid asking questions that could be answered with a little online research. We'll send 10 or 12 of the highest-moderated questions to Draper tomorrow, and run his answers as soon as he has time to reply.
You know... it should be phrased more like "How has your view changed?"
It assumes that it has changed, but everything changes, so it's a safe bet. The difference, though, is a detailed answer vs. a "Yes" or "No." Lately, I've seen interviews (william shatner, others) where the questions have promoted short answers that completely fulfilled the question.
You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.
I had the opportunity to meet you briefly about 4 years ago at a 2600 gathering in San Jose, and you were talking about your "latest" (at the time) escapade to India, (or was it Pakistan, I don't remember) explaining that you frequented night clubs and danced the night away. (Of course all the while speaking about current tech issues etc.)
With a moniker like "Captain Crunch" one can only assume you carry that spirit with you in everything you do. As your current project demands, do you get put infront of the gun frequently? How do you deal with it?
since '83, phreaking hasn't been the same... it's more hacking and stealing now (but some people argue that's what it was then, as well). Before that, the phone company used tonal verification for coin drops into pay phones (which is what the whistle, and later black/red/orange/etc boxes spoof). Nowadays, phones mostly handle this internally.
I remember some pirate/hacker (child/teen-hood) friends using different colored boxes for their long distance downloads and uploads, but that ended before I actually built one myself. I was even saving allowance money for parts when one of those guys told me they no longer worked.
nowadays, I suspect it's easier and more common to steal phone and/or credit cards than to hack the phone company to steal long distance. After having credit cards stolen, myself, though, I definitely have a VERY negative view of this practice.