Model Railroad... Hackers??

[ngauger]

Unless it was someone's "Calling Card" number

[sgtcarl1]

That was in the days before calling cards were readily available.That was over 20 years ago!!

[ezdays]

As I recall, back then it was possible to get switched using a sequence of numbers using pulsed dialing. Later on there was that guy that discovered he could blow that whistle from a Cap'n Crunch cereal box into the phone and get the same results when they switched to tone dialing. I'm not sure, but didn't he spend some jail time for doing that???? Now he could indeed be called a hacker, as was the thousands that took up the practice.

Speaking of getting someone's calling card #, I remember back in the 90's using a pay phone in the Anaheim Convention center. A few weeks later, our phone bill arrived in a large box. Within days they ran our long distance bill up past $20,000. I picked out the calls I made and just paid those, the phone company ate the rest. I'm hoping by now that the phone companies have ways of stopping that from happening.

[MountainMan]

For a while when I was in high school, we could make telephone calls from any public pay phone for free by using just a bobby pin. We all carried one. Does that mean I was a "hacker"?

[scubadude]

For a while when I was in high school, we could make telephone calls from any public pay phone for free by using just a bobby pin. We all carried one. Does that mean I was a "hacker"?

Actually, I think it made you a thief!!

[lightbender]

For a while when I was in high school, we could make telephone calls from any public pay phone for free by using just a bobby pin. We all carried one. Does that mean I was a "hacker"?

Actually, I think it made you a thief!!

Stealing from the phone company was also called phreaking or blue boxing and the most famous of all phone phreaks were the Steves...Wozniak and Jobs. They later went on to steal a corporate name from the Beatles an operating system from Xerox and a GUI from Atari.

Yes I do have a Mac.

Tony.

[Brutus]

I read this book when it first came out years ago and it pretty well covers your story:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Steven-Levy/dp/0141000511/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241446003&sr=8-3">http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer- ... 003&sr=8-3</a><!-- m -->

Amazon.com Review
Steven Levy's classic book explains why the misuse of the word "hackers" to describe computer criminals does a terrible disservice to many important shapers of the digital revolution. Levy follows members of an MIT model railroad club--a group of brilliant budding electrical engineers and computer innovators--from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s. These eccentric characters used the term "hack" to describe a clever way of improving the electronic system that ran their massive railroad. And as they started designing clever ways to improve computer systems, "hack" moved over with them. These maverick characters were often fanatics who did not always restrict themselves to the letter of the law and who devoted themselves to what became known as "The Hacker Ethic." The book traces the history of hackers, from finagling access to clunky computer-card-punching machines to uncovering the inner secrets of what would become the Internet. This story of brilliant, eccentric, flawed, and often funny people devoted to their dream of a better world will appeal to a wide audience. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.