Some list members may find this book to be quite 
interesting.

I also suspect that some of you will know one or more of the 
people included in the book at least by name.

K5XU

-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Friday, July 19, 2013 7:19 PM
Subject: New book on Audible

Hi listers:

There is a new book up on Audible that some of you might 
find interesting.

It's called "Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the 
Teenagers and
Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell".

The reason I say this is that several of the folks mentioned 
in this book
are blind.  Some of you may know them.  Two people who are 
mentioned have
chapters all their own.

This book should bring back memories to some older folks on 
this list.

How many of you remember the hiss of long-distance calls. 
How many remember
the little cheep-clunk sound when the party you called hung 
up, or the
series of 2 or three cheeps when the person who called you 
hung up.  What
about the tones you would hear on long-distance calls as 
they were being put
through, or, sometimes, that you would hear in the 
background?  They sounded
almost like touch tones, but, were faster and different, 
sometimes, you
could even say, musical.    I even remember hearing those 
little tones in
the background on television, because the tv audio from the 
network used to
run on phone lines.  As I grew up, I wondered, "How does it 
all work?  I
wish I could have read this book back then, but, the story 
wasn't completely
told and it wouldn't have been good for the phone company if 
this book had
been written back in those days.

As a kid, I did learn some things that are talked about in 
this book, by
experimentation and questioning of phone company employees, 
some of whom
talked quite freely about codes and systems, figuring I 
couldn't do anything
with the knowledge.  After all, only operators could dial 
those codes or use
the systems and special services offered.  And, they must 
have thought,
"he's just a blind boy.  It can't hurt to tell him what he's 
asking."  Even
one of the operators' supervisors gave me a few pieces of 
information.

Fortunately for me, it was getting harder to do what is 
described in this
book, even as I was learning.  That was probably a good 
thing--it kept me
out of some of the trouble I could have been in.

After the publisher's summary, I will give one Web address 
for those who
wonder what the network sounded like back then.

The book is written by Phil Lapsley, and narrated by Johann 
North.

Here is the publisher's summary:
Before smartphones, back even before the Internet and 
personal computer, a
misfit group of technophiles, blind teenagers, hippies, and 
outlaws figured
out how to hack the world's largest machine: the telephone 
system. Starting
with Alexander Graham Bell's revolutionary "harmonic 
telegraph", by the
middle of the 20th century the phone system had grown into 
something
extraordinary, a web of cutting-edge switching machines and 
human operators
that linked together millions of people like never before. 
But the network
had a billion-dollar flaw, and once people discovered it, 
things would never
be the same.
Exploding the Phone tells this story in full for the first 
time. It traces
the birth of long-distance communication and the telephone, 
the rise of
AT&T's monopoly, the creation of the sophisticated machines 
that made it all
work, and the discovery of Ma Bell's Achilles' heel. Phil 
Lapsley expertly
weaves together the clandestine underground of "phone 
phreaks" who turned
the network into their electronic playground, the mobsters 
who exploited its
flaws to avoid the feds, the explosion of telephone hacking 
in the
counterculture, and the war between the phreaks, the phone 
company, and the
FBI.
The product of extensive original research, Exploding the 
Phone is a
groundbreaking, captivating book.

If you would like to hear actual sounds from the old 
network, feel free to
visit the address:

http://www.wideweb.com/phonetrips

The best audio is to be found in the section of recordings 
contributed by
Evan Doorbell.  Particularly, down the list a ways is his 
series, "The
Sounds of Long Distance," a comprehensive series featuring 
the many sounds
many of us ran into as we were dialing around, along with 
explanations of
what they are all about.  Evan Doorbell was very particular 
about how those
sounds were recorded, and now, thanks to him, you can hear 
what the old
network sounded like.  Today, the network sounds much the 
same from
California to New York.  Not so back then.  And, back then, 
when you made a
long-distance call, you felt the distance.  For me, 
personally, I felt a
sense of adventure every time I dialed out to see what I 
could find.  I am
not mentioned in this book, but, I know some of the folks 
mentioned herein,
and, I can understand the way they feel about what one 
person called "the
biggest machine in the world."

Enjoy!"