To add to this, during one of the last conversations I had will Bill, he
asked if I had a smart phone. I said "no" and asked why. He said he was
asking only because he was interested in phones.
Miriam
Hi Karen:
Thanks for forwarding this along.
I met Bill back in 1994 or 1995.
I had just started a job with a company called World Carpets in customer
service. I posted on a newsgroup that I was blind and I wondered if anyone
had any information that might help me work with their phone system. I got
a reply from Bill saying he was blind and interested in the phone and could
we talk.
Beginning in the mid to late 70's I was a phone phreak, although, I was
totally by myself. I knew no one who was anywhere as interested in the
technology as I was--many of my schoolmates thought I was a little whacko.
Did I care? Nah.
Here's just one example of the mistaken view my schoolmates had. Over the
years, I dialed around, looking for time numbers in other parts of the
country. Amazingly, on some military bases, there were time hacks (that's
what they called their time numbers) that were wired in such a way as not to
charge when called. Even some regular commercial time numbers didn't charge
when you called them long-distance. For example, back in the early 80's if
you called the time in Juneau, Alaska, your call ended up not being
charged--it was deliberately set up that way, for some reason. When I told
friends at school that I could call the time in Juneau, Alaska for free,
they thought I was crazy, one kid laughing said, "callin' up to Alaska to
see what time it is...". I didn't give a hoot what time it was--it was just
so cool to call something that should've cost money, but, it dian't cost a
dime.
Anyway, when Bill and I talked, we talked about the kinds of phone systems
we had encountered. He imitated the sounds they made, and, I knew most of
them. Bill filled in the names of the types of machines I had called
through, and, we talked about various things we had both discovered. I had
actually even discovered one thing that Bill knew about, but, that was very
rare concerning the number 5 CrossBar switch--the kind of machine I grew up
around when I lived in Macon, Georgia.
Bill even introduced me to other phone phreaks, and, I learned a lot of
things about things I had run into--I just didn't know what they were
called.
Bill has been a wealth of knowledge, not just about phones, but, about
Linux/Unix and other varied subjects.
Bill is even featured in a book on BARD.
Read Chapter 10 of Exploding the phone: the untold story of the teenagers
and outlaws who hacked Ma Bell., and you will get a brief bio of Bill and a
little of the things he learned. The book number is DB 76279.
BARD is currently down, but, it is hoped it will be back up soon. Meantime,
you should be able to get the book on cartridge from your local library.
This book might be on BookShare, but, I haven't looked.
It is also available on Audible, featuring a great narration by Johann
North, another phone phreak who knew Bill for a long time.
