I see Bookshare also has it.

-----Original Message----- 
From: Mike Duke, K5XU
Sent: Sunday, July 21, 2013 4:31 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Fw: New book on BARD and Audible about the Legendary Phone Hackers

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!"