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This seems made up to me. A bit too much like the movie Sneakers or something. Plus the resolution with the uncle being able to get the answer seemed too conven

This seems made up to me. A bit too much like the movie Sneakers or something. Plus the resolution with the uncle being able to get the answer seemed too convenient. Is this a confirmed story?

rglover 13y ago
Most likely made up, but that's the fun in the story. Doesn't need to be true to be good.
barclay 13y ago
"Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story..."
vivin 13y ago
Yeah, if he almost got fired for it, how was even able to find out? Were they like "Well, it's the President's bomb-shelter, but we were almost going to fire you for asking us about that!"
runjake 13y ago
Who knows? I remember reading this story back when it originally published. The fact he included the area code and exchange in the story lends a certain amount of credibility to his story as he was essentially inviting phreakers to have their own fun. I have similarly-exhilarating stories that I won't go into. But they gave my teen-aged self a great deal of fun touching the fabled "cloak and dagger" world. So, it's believable to me. Back in those days, there wasn't such an emphasis on domestic COMSEC. Anyone remember romulus at a certain US IC agency?
jff 13y ago
I'd say the second half is probably false. I wouldn't doubt that somebody managed to find a weird number where the owners were evasive, but this sound a lot like "My uncle works at Nintendo and he told me there's a secret level if you can get Mario to jump into the sun". If the number was such a big secret, how did his uncle, working at a random federal agency, find out what it is? Need to know should have kept it from the uncle, and goddamn common sense (and the threat of prosecution) should have prevented him from blabbing to his idiot phreaker nephew. Edit: this guy watched too much X-Files as a kid. Replace the caller with Mulder and the uncle with A.D. Skinner, you've got something straight out of an episode.
- lanstein 13y ago
  There is a -1! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8GOytc32RE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8GOytc32RE

This seems made up to me. A bit too much like the movie Sneakers or something. Plus the resolution with the uncle being able to get the answer seemed too convenient. Is this a confirmed story?

rglover 13y ago

Most likely made up, but that's the fun in the story. Doesn't need to be true to be good.

barclay 13y ago

"Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story..."

vivin 13y ago

Yeah, if he almost got fired for it, how was even able to find out? Were they like "Well, it's the President's bomb-shelter, but we were almost going to fire you for asking us about that!"

runjake 13y ago

Who knows? I remember reading this story back when it originally published. The fact he included the area code and exchange in the story lends a certain amount of credibility to his story as he was essentially inviting phreakers to have their own fun. I have similarly-exhilarating stories that I won't go into. But they gave my teen-aged self a great deal of fun touching the fabled "cloak and dagger" world. So, it's believable to me. Back in those days, there wasn't such an emphasis on domestic COMSEC. Anyone remember romulus at a certain US IC agency?

jff 13y ago

I'd say the second half is probably false. I wouldn't doubt that somebody managed to find a weird number where the owners were evasive, but this sound a lot like "My uncle works at Nintendo and he told me there's a secret level if you can get Mario to jump into the sun". If the number was such a big secret, how did his uncle, working at a random federal agency, find out what it is? Need to know should have kept it from the uncle, and goddamn common sense (and the threat of prosecution) should have prevented him from blabbing to his idiot phreaker nephew. Edit: this guy watched too much X-Files as a kid. Replace the caller with Mulder and the uncle with A.D. Skinner, you've got something straight out of an episode.

lanstein 13y ago
There is a -1! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8GOytc32RE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8GOytc32RE