Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: Swordmaker

Just a little history - John Draper was also known as the Phone Phreak “Captain Crunch” taking his name from a whistle that was available in the same-named serial as a prize that would reliably emit 2600 Hz. The two Steve’s had a period where they were building “Blue Boxes” to sell to other phone phreaks. Draper also wrote the first text editor available for the IBM PC - EasyWriter.


6 posted on 10/12/2011 2:36:29 PM PDT by fremont_steve
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies ]


To: fremont_steve

Supposedly, Draper was working informally off the books with Apple to create an Apple II “phone card,” an internal modem that would have been way ahead of its time in an era when modems had acoustic couplers. Someone, either Draper or Woz, I think, made a comment to the effect that “with a dozen of these, I could bring down the whole phone system.”

AT&T got wind of that, and threatened Apple (Jobs in particular). It was never built.


29 posted on 10/13/2011 7:40:08 AM PDT by ReignOfError
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson