Exploding the Phone
Before smartphones, before the Internet and before the 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. Unfortunately for the telephone company, the network has a billion-dollar flaw. And once people discovered it, things would never the be the same. Phil Lapsley's 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.
Stats for nerds
23recommend
47mentions
26people
2014–2026years
79% recommend21% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- 'Exploding the phone' by Lapsley is such an incredible book on the phone phreaks.
- Evan's stuff is excellent and worth watching/listening to.
Shameless plug: if you like his stuff, you might also like my book, "Exploding The Phone", which is a history of phone phreaking. https://explodingthephone.com/
Evan narrated the Audible version. :-)
- Exploding The Phone was an excellent read.
- Yes! This is what I concluded when, a few years back, I did a similar analysis to what matthiasl posted. <shameless plug> If you're interested in this kind of thing, please check out my book, Exploding the Phone. https://explodingthephone.com </shameless plug>
- 1. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - Steven Levy[1]
2. Inventing the Future - Albert Cory[2][3]
3. Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier - John Markoff and Katie Hafner[4][5]
4. Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker - Kevin Mitnick[6]
5. Not a book, but definitely consider watching "Halt & Catch Fire"[7] if you haven't seen it yet. It's an amazing show that deals with, loosely speaking, "the history of the computer industry".
6. Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell - Phil Lapsley[8]
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Compute...
[2]: https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Future-Albert-Cory/dp/17362...
[3]: Note that AlbertCory is an HN'er! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28059246
[4]: https://www.amazon.com/Cyberpunk-Outlaws-Hackers-Computer-Fr...
[5]: Yes, I'm aware there are substantial question marks concerning the veracity of some of the information in this book, especially as it pertains to Mitnick. Nonetheless, I believe it's worth reading, but also suggest reading other books about Mitnick, including his autobiography, to get the other perspective
[6]: https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Wires-Adventures-Worlds-Wanted/...
[7]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire_(TV_series...
[8]: https://www.amazon.com/Exploding-Phone-Phil-Lapsley/dp/08021...
- A pair of books I’d recommend for 2024, which I didn’t get the chance to reread this year, would be:
- The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Gaiman), which is beautiful in a way I can’t quite describe
- Century Rain (Reynolds), which is best described as a hard boiled 1930’s noir hard science fiction novel.
Books I read this year which I really enjoyed:’
- Exploding The Phone (Lapsley): Super engrossing description of the phone phreak scene almost from its start to its end
- Hyperion and sequels (Simmons): Probably one of my favourite science fiction series now, and I’ve already felt the need to go back and re-read passages from it. Also really enjoy how each part of the series (Hyperion, then Fall of Hyperion, then the Endymion books) re-invent the style and the story.
- The Annotated American Gods (Gaiman, Klinger): 1000’s of footnotes is a great way to revisit the story :)
