Slashdot Mirror


Progressive Era Hacker Griefed Marconi Demonstration

nbauman writes "In June 1903, Gugliemo Marconi and his partner Ambrose Flemming were about to give the first demonstration of long-range wireless communication at the Royal Institution in London, which, Marconi said, could be sent in complete confidentiality with no fear of the messages being hijacked. Suddenly, the silence was broken by a huge mysterious wireless pulse strong enough to take over the carbon-arc projector and make it sputter messages in Morse Code. First, it repeated the word 'Rats' over and over again (abusive at that time). Then it tapped out, 'There was a young fellow of Italy, who diddled the public quite prettily.' Further rude epithets followed. It was Nevil Maskelyne, a stage musician and inventor who was annoyed because Marconi's patents prevented him from using wireless. It was the first hacking, to demonstrate an insecure system."

1 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Never hear... by LordLucless · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Wrong. You're an idiot.

    See, I can argue like you too! It's really easy when all you ever do is insult people and never make any actual points or provide information.

    You're a dick.

    Look, I did it again. I'm getting good at this. You should subcontract your commenting out to me - I can provide meaningless posts calling people names for a very reasonable fee.

    --
    Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face