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Woz Expounds On His Hacking Shenanigans and Online Mischief 65


Woz Expounds On His Hacking Shenanigans and Online Mischief

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  • by NotQuiteReal (608241) on Wednesday September 25, 2013 @11:08PM (#44955925) Journal
    Kid's will be kids. Case dismissed!
  • What's with all the fluff articles lately? I read a detailed article many years ago about Woz' phone phreaking adventures an his love of jokes and pranks is well known. I'd love to read a modern article on some of the (presumably hilarious) details, but this is certainly not it. :-)

  • Who has a pic of a naked Woz in his inbox?
  • Geeks like to play pranks? Amazing!

    What'll be news next? Women like shoes? Cats like to sleep? Cowboyneal likes tentacle porn?

  • by Anubis IV (1279820) on Thursday September 26, 2013 @01:13AM (#44956625)

    1) He did some phreaking (phone hacking, back when audible frequencies were used to control the networks).

    2) He made a TV jammer and then had friends go try out elaborate steps to "fix" the issue.

    3) He snuck into computing facilities and tested out his punch card programs in the middle of the night when they weren't in use.

    That's about it from the article. No particularly scintillating details even. Just stuff most of us have already heard.

  • by raymorris (2726007) on Thursday September 26, 2013 @01:16AM (#44956643) Journal

    I wouldn't admit to hacking anything in today's USA.
    The Obama administration doesn't like people to be smarter than them.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Can't you Americans have any discussion on government behavior without immediately making it a red/blue thing ?
      I have no doubt someone else will respond, pointing out how this is actually a Bush instigated problem, after which someone else undoubtedly will find a way to blame Clinton, etc,etc.
      After that someone will remind us that the problem is the system itself and that red and blue are just 2 sides of the same coin and that you should vote independent.
      By that time the thread is swamped by political shill

      • It helps if you think of the sides as fans of rival sports teams. There's no real distinction between the teams, but their supporters don't see it that way.

      • by mjwalshe (1680392)
        its making it a "black" thing actually
    • This is why we need total surveillance by the government in our society. We all know that to achieve the best results, we need that government to have perfect information and perfect law enforcement. If that's what it takes to jail menaces like Woz, then so be it, because society will be better off without any "troublemakers" around.

      Just think - if only the law breakers who started the women's rights movement, the civil rights movement and the gay rights movements had been properly surveilled then they cou

    • They'd have a hard time arresting the man for claims of nonspecific security breaches ocurring prior to the passage of the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act [] and the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 [].

    • by operagost (62405)

      The Obama administration doesn't like people to be smarter than them.

      That's a pretty low bar.



  • As computers shifted to a position of greater importance in society, the potential damage even a playful hacker could do increased. Enforcement an penalties increased correspondingly.

    A bit of online mischief has long been part of learning to be a good computer engineer, whatever the exact role. It's just that the chances of getting caught, prosecuted, jailed and/or financially ruined have increased too. The bumbling beginner, whatever their potential, won't have learned properly how to mask their identity.

    • I think it's kindof balanced out. Sure, in theory someone could do more damage now, but in practice it takes a fair bit of know-how to do damage against anything that isn't extremely poorly set up (I'm looking at you, publicly-facing SQL servers). Meanwhile, back in the day a single guy with a box that could generate the right tones could potentially control all telephone routing for an entire coast.
  • TV goofin' (Score:5, Funny)





  • There is probably a very long list of possible good entries into the list and I hope people reply here to add their own.

    This is a short list of "things that were okay/acceptable before but terrible now." (Mostly things I did as a child)

    1. Fireworks
    2. Children playing/hiking far away from home
    3. Play with guns (both toys and real... yes I knew how to use a gun from a very early age and how dangerous they are. Still here, no one was harmed.)
    4. Play with knives
    5. "Hunted small game" (meaning killed small anim

You will lose an important tape file.