On Wed, Jul 25, 2001 at 01:46:06AM -0700, Wayne M. Smith wrote:
> > It was thus said that the Great Mike Ford once stated:
> > >
> > > Anybody familiar with a "magazine" called 2600?
> >
> > Yes. What do you want to know?
> >
> > -spc (And yes, it fits the 10 year rule, having starting
> in
> > either 1984 or 1987, I don't recall the exact year ... )
> >
> I have heard that "2600" refers to the approx. frequency of
> a Cap'n Crunch cereal toy whistle that could be used to hack
> the phone system in tye early 70s. Any truth to this?
Yes. More correctly, the 2600 refers to the 2600 Hz signalling tone used
in the old (before going digital) telephone network. And by coincidence,
a toy whistle contained in a series of "Captain Crunch" cereal boxes
was producing exactly the same frequency. The guy first finding this out
then went by the nickname "Captain Crunch".
And the name of the magazine 2600, "The Hacker Quarterly" is derived from
this.
Regards,
Alex.
--
We have gone from a world of concentrated knowledge and wisdom to one of
distributed ignorance. And we know and understand less while being
increasingly capable. -- Prof. Peter Cochrane, formerly of BT Labs
Received on Wed Jul 25 2001 - 05:19:41 BST