Book : Exploding The Phone - Lapsley, Phil

-Titulo Original : Exploding The Phone

-Fabricante :

Grove Press

-Descripcion Original:

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 twentieth 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 ground-breaking, captivating book. Review An Amazon, Seattle Times, and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year Phil Lapsleys Exploding the Phone is an authoritative, jaunty and enjoyable account of their sometimes comical, sometimes impressive and sometimes disquieting misdeeds. . . . The authors love of his subject pervades Exploding the Phone and persuaded this reader, at least, that the phone phreaks are worthy of thoughtful attention.” Wall Street Journal Brilliantly researched.” Atlantic A fantastically fun romp through the world of early phone hackers, who sought free long distance, and in the end helped launch the computer era.” Seattle Times A rollicking history of the telephone system and the hackers who exploited its flaws. [Lapsley] weaves together a brilliant tapestry of richly detailed stories. . . . A first-rate chronicle of an unexamined subculture.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A fascinating book steeped in the rich history of phreakers and hackers.” Xeni Jardin, BoingBoing As a bit of tech history with themes that resonate today it cant be beat. Gizmodo Long before we ever came onto the scene there was . . . a ragtag group of folks who took the global phone network as the target of their hacking. Exploding the Phone is among the most comprehensive and engaging histories of that community ever published.” Electronic Frontier Foundation, EFF’s Reading List: Books of 2013” Exploding the Phone is an extraordinary book. . . . To have such a significant, yet underground story captured in such brilliant detail is rare, especially without turning it into a one-sided hero’s tale. Exploding the Phone is nearly perfect. I have three print copies, all paid for and autographed. You can’t have too many miracles lying around the house.” Jason Scott Eminently interesting and completely original.” Daily Beast A rocking great read about the unknown teenagers and hobbyists who defied AT&T when it was foolish to do so. In Lapsleys magnificent research he has uncovered what amounts to a secret pre-history of the computer and internet revolutions.” Tim Wu, author of The Master Switch With terrific reporting and story-telling. Phil Lapsley has put voluptuous flesh and bones on the legendary tales of the phone phreaks.” Steven Levy, author of Hackers and In the Plex The definitive account of the first generation of network hackers. . . . At turns a technological love story, a counter cultural history and a generation-spanning epic, [ Exploding the Phone] is obsessively researched and told with wit and clarity. Kevin Poulsen, news editor of Wired and author of Kingpin At on