Woz Expounds On His Hacking Shenanigans and Online Mischief

coondoggie writes "In his keynote address at a security conference today, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak admitted he has enjoyed many adventures in hacking often for the sake of pranks on friends and family, especially back in his college days and the early years of working on computers and the Internet. 'I like to play jokes,' said the Wozniak jovially as he addressed his audience of thousands of security professionals attending the ASIS Conference in Chicago. The famed inventor at Apple admitted he also had some fun with light-hearted forays into hacking computer and telecommunications networks several decades ago back in his college years and while learning about electronics and computers."

Comments

TV goofin'

[Tablizer]

Somewhere I read an interview of Jobs where he expanded on how he and Woz would cause interference on the dorm TV from a distance. At first they just wanted to get others to leave so that they could watch their favorite show. But then they went further.

When students stood up to adjust the antenna, they'd make the set suddenly work, but go snowy if the student walked toward the set. Thus, the student would have to stand in one spot throughout the show to "get a good signal". They "fine tuned" the people to control where and how they stood, practically making them dance, and training them like dogs.

Sounds like great fun. I remember those days of finicky TV signals, though, and can see how such a trick could grow.