Out Come The Phreaks

Connecting is the latest in BBC Radio 3’s Between The Ears strand, on the subject of ‘phone phreakers:

This is the story behind the first computer hackers, told in their own words, and featuring the voices of such legendary figures as Captain Crunch, Joy Bubbles, Mark Bernay and cofounder of Apple computers Steve Wozniak.

There’s something awfully charming about the fact that the earliest hackers just put their lips together and blew, whistling into telephones to manipulate the network. And, this being Radio 3, there’s an emphasis throughout the documentary on those whistles, as well as the intercept messages and system sounds generated by the telephone network itself. Think Silbero Gomera meets the Numbers Stations uptown!

You can Listen Again, but only until next Saturday.

Posted at 11am on 06/09/04 by Jack Mottram to the radio, technology category.
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