Way back in the day (1972), Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak designed and started selling “blue boxes,” devices that generated specific tones that would game the telephone networks of the day (called “phreaking.” These would allow phone phreaks to make free long distance calls, for instance.
It was illegal then (the two Steve’s inspiration, “Cap’n Crunch” Draper, was sent to prison for five years for his own phreaking attempts), but you can get the same fun minus the jail time now at a new website that emulates the blue boxes of yesteryear.
If you have a blue box, you might be sad as it’s no longer useful, since the tone-based telephony system phased out in the 1980s. You simply dial into the Project MF phone line, and start playing with the different tones to see what happens with different tones and combinations.
If you’re of the electrical bent, you can find some great DIY instructions to make your own phreaker box over on the Fringeneering website.
According to BoingBoing, you can use your blue box to unlock and listen to a bunch of old recordings of dial-tone multifrequency (DTMF) music, interviews with a blind phone phreaking pioneer, and other weirdness, which just sounds like all kinds of retro fun, right?
Source: Project MF
Via: Boing Boing
