Well Vinny,
There was no doubt about it. Joy Bubbles, as he was known, was more than a
little weird in several ways but I won't go there. I just knew somebody
that knew him personally and never wanted to be in a room alone with him, if
you get my drift.
Phil.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Vinny Samarco" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:58 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Famous phone hacker "Joybubbles" dies. (fwd)
> Phil,
> For the last five years or so, Joybubbles has had a column in Playback
> Magazine. He certainly didn't talk like a child. What a sad life!
Without
> the Lord, All is Vanity.
> Good to be back on. Our server has been down since Friday.
> Vinny
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, August 27, 2007 7:43 PM
> Subject: Fw: Fw: Famous phone hacker "Joybubbles" dies. (fwd)
>
>
> >I heard this guy a few times on Denver talks shows when I first moved to
> > denver. He was a character, to say the least, as you will read below.
> > Thanks Todd and Lelia for sending this over. It was fun to read some
> > details about his life.
> >
> > Phil.
> >
> >
> > > >
> >> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> >> > Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 01:59:25 -0700
> >> > From: BlindNews Mailing List
> >> > <[log in to unmask]>
> >> > To: Blind News <[log in to unmask]>
> >> > Subject: Famous phone hacker "Joybubbles" dies.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Famous phone hacker "Joybubbles" dies.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > "Phone phreak" spent years in Denver,
> >> > troubleshooting for Ma Bell.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > By Douglas Martin
> >> > The New York Times
> >> > Denver Post - Denver,CO,USA
> >> > 08/20/2007.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Joybubbles (the legal name of the former Joe
> >> > Engressia since 1991), a blind
> >> > genius with perfect pitch who accidentally found he
> >> > could make free phone
> >> > calls by whistling tones and went on to play a
> >> > pivotal role in the 1970s
> >> > subculture of "phone phreaks," died Aug. 8 in
> >> > Minneapolis.
> >> >
> >> > He was 58, though he had chosen in 1988 to remain 5
> >> > forever, and had the
> >> > toys and teddy bears to prove it. The cause of death
> >> > has not been
> >> > determined, said Steven Gibb, a friend and the
> >> > executor of the Joybubbles
> >> > estate.
> >> >
> >> > Joybubbles, who was blind at birth, was a famous
> >> > part of what began as a
> >> > scattered, socially awkward group of precocious
> >> > teens and post-teens
> >> > fascinated with exploring the phone system. Foiling
> >> > it passed for high-tech
> >> > high jinks in the '70s.
> >> >
> >> > "It was the only game in town if you wanted to play
> >> > with a computer," said
> >> > Phil Lapsley, who is writing a book on the phone
> >> > phreaks. Later, other blind
> >> > whistlers appeared, but in 1957, Joybubbles may have
> >> > been the first person
> >> > to whistle his way into the heart of Ma Bell.
> >> >
> >> > Phreaks were precursors of today's computer hackers,
> >> > and, like some of them,
> >> > Joybubbles ran afoul of the law. Not a few phreaks
> >> > were computer pioneers,
> >> > including Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, founders of
> >> > Apple.
> >> >
> >> > Joybubbles felt that being abused at a school for
> >> > the blind and being pushed
> >> > by his mother to live up to his 172 IQ had robbed
> >> > him of childhood. So he
> >> > amassed piles of toys, Jack and Jill magazines and
> >> > imaginary friends, and he
> >> > took a name he said made people smile.
> >> >
> >> > But he never lost his ardor for phones, and old
> >> > phone phreaks and younger
> >> > would-have-beens kept calling. Joybubbles loved the
> >> > phone company, reported
> >> > problems he had illegally discovered and even said
> >> > he had planned his own
> >> > arrest on fraud charges to get a phone job. And so
> >> > he did, twice.
> >> >
> >> > Well before the mid-1970s, when digitalization ended
> >> > the tone-based system,
> >> > Joybubbles had stopped stealing calls. But he was
> >> > already a legend: he had
> >> > phoned around the world, talking into one phone and
> >> > listening to himself on
> >> > another.
> >> >
> >> > In an article in Esquire in 1971, the writer Ron
> >> > Rosenbaum called Joybubbles
> >> > the catalyst uniting disparate phreaks.
> >> >
> >> > Particularly after news accounts of his suspension
> >> > from college in 1968 and
> >> > conviction in 1971 for phone violations, he became a
> >> > nerve center of the
> >> > movement.
> >> >
> >> > "Every night he sits like a sightless spider in his
> >> > little apartment
> >> > receiving messages from every tendril of its web,"
> >> > Rosenbaum wrote.
> >> >
> >> > Josef Carl Engressia Jr. was born May 25, 1949, and
> >> > moved often because his
> >> > father was a school-picture photographer. At 4 or 5,
> >> > he learned to dial by
> >> > using the hookswitch like a telegraph key. Four
> >> > years later, he discovered
> >> > that he could disconnect a call by whistling. He
> >> > found this out when he
> >> > imitated a sound in the background on a
> >> > long-distance call and the line cut
> >> > off. It turned out that his whistle precisely
> >> > replicated a crucial phone
> >> > company signal, a 2,600-cycles-per-second tone.
> >> >
> >> > Joybubbles' parents had no phone for five years
> >> > because of their son's
> >> > obsession. Later, his mother encouraged it by
> >> > reading him technical books.
> >> > His high school yearbook photo showed him in a phone
> >> > booth.
> >> >
> >> > By the time he was a student at the University of
> >> > South Florida, Joybubbles
> >> > was dialing toll-free or nonworking numbers to reach
> >> > a distant switching
> >> > point. Unbeknownst to telephone operators, he could
> >> > use sounds to dial
> >> > another number, free. He could then jump anywhere in
> >> > the phone system.
> >> >
> >> > He was disconnected from college after being caught
> >> > making calls for friends
> >> > at $1 a call. In 1971, he moved to Memphis, where he
> >> > was convicted of phone
> >> > fraud. In Millington, Tenn., he was hired to clean
> >> > phones, a job he hated.
> >> > In 1975, he moved to Denver to ferret out problems
> >> > in Mountain Bell's
> >> > network.
> >> >
> >> > He tired of that and moved to Minneapolis on June
> >> > 12, 1982, partly because
> >> > that date's numerical representation of 6-12 is the
> >> > same as the city's area
> >> > code. He advertised for people yearning to discuss
> >> > things telephonic and
> >> > weaved a web of phone lines to accommodate them. He
> >> > lived on Social Security
> >> > disability payments and part-time jobs like letting
> >> > university agriculture
> >> > researchers use his superb sense of smell to
> >> > investigate how to control the
> >> > odor of hog excrement.
> >> >
> >> > Joybubbles is survived by his mother, Esther
> >> > Engressia, and his sister, Toni
> >> > Engressia, both of Homestead, Fla.
> >> >
> >> > His second life as a youngster included becoming a
> >> > minister in his own
> >> > Church of Eternal Childhood and collecting tapes of
> >> > every "Mr. Rogers"
> >> > episode. When asked why Mr. Rogers mattered, he
> >> > said: "When you're playing
> >> > and you're just you, powerful things happen."
> >> >
> >> > Copyright 2007 The Denver Post or other copyright
> >> > holders.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_6669861
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > --
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> >> >
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> >> >
> >>
> >
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> >> >
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> >>
> >
>
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