In article <Xns9CCDAFE0E6D9Enoonehomecom@74.209.131.13>, Larry
<noone@home.com> wrote:
> > Did you know Steve Jobs, head of Apple hacked phones as a youth just
> > to screw with Ma Bell?
>
> They were boxes of various codename colors. Steve had a Bluebox, used
> in phone booths making your call untraceable to you.

a blue box made free long distance calls, not untraceable calls, and
they were very traceable.

> If you unscrewed
> the microphone cover off the handset, you grounded the mic pin to the
> case of the payphone to get a dialtone without paying.

that's a different trick and not required for blue boxes.

> Now you dialed a
> long distance number and quickly reassembled the mic so it could hear
> your bluebox's special tones (DTMF are different frequencies than
> Touchtones but operate the same way).

dtmf is touchtone. the blue box used mf, a different set of tones

> When you hear the 2nd "click" of
> the "tandems", the long lines stations, connecting you pressed a button
> that generated I think it was 1700 Hz into the phone mic.

2600 hz.

> The 2nd
> tandem thought the first tandem hung up on it and stopped calling who it
> was calling. The circuit remained open because your local CO had no
> decode of that tone and the first tandem didn't comprehend tandem
> control tones coming from a CO...couldn't happen.

that part is basically correct.

> The world is now at your fingertips as you DTMF'd the new country code,
> area code, phone number into your bluebox keypad. Tandem 2 had already
> "cancelled" the call, so the accounting system said the call had
> terminated without connect (or charge). After that, no more billing was
> done.

wrong. you got charged for the original dialed call, which is why
people usually used 800 numbers because those were toll free.

> Tandem 2, however, still responded to your tones, passing the
> call along the proper route to as many tandems as necessary between you
> and the Melbourne Australia spoken weather service, one of our favorite
> demo calls....(c;]
>
> It's all gone, now. Digital replaced this analog system of audio tones
> on wires....

actually, the blue box era ended by ignoring control tones if they
originated from the caller and not the central office, followed by
separating the control signals completely from the voice path, not
digital signaling. even a 2600hz notch filter was all that was
necessary.

> but, of course, Bell System CONTINUED to CHARGE the same
> RATES for a "Long Distance" call as if the old tandem system still
> existed....even though on digital it cost the company the same money to
> call Australia as it does to call the house across the street your
> girlfriend lives in.

actual cost rarely has anything to do with the final price, and it does
*not* cost the same to call australia as it does across the street.

> Long Distance has been a Ma Bell/ATT ripoff since
> the 1980s. A new ripoff industry was created by the FCC in
> "deregulation". Vast companies sprung up to share in MaBell's long
> distance game...simply charging you to complete the digital call out of
> town at amazing profit margins....even if they were charging 5c/min.

it's actually much, much cheaper after deregulation than before.

> The game continues on landline. Don't feel sorry for them for the
> bluebox calls. One of my 2nd cousins worked at a Long Lines tandem.
> Each Christmas eve, he would be at the tandem and call the entire family
> into a huge megaconference around the country so everyone could wish
> everyone a merry xmas and swap stories for hours at Ma Bell's expense.
> Family reunions were better. Telephone conferencing doesn't have 8
> tables of home cooked FOOD for us kids to gorge on....(c;]
>
> Thanks for the memories, Vic. Building the boxes was great fun....even
> for Steve, I'm sure. Did Woz do it, too?

woz designed and built them.