Phreaking

Phreaking [related: Trigger Tone]
A hacking term derived from a mash-up of phone and freak. The expression originated as a colloquialism for the reverse engineering of long distance phone calls via audio tone generation. The origins of phone phreaking trace back to the automation of error switchboards in the 1950's via the implementation of in-band signaling. The system, developed internally, included the use of secret or shrouded tones to signal various functions within the network. For example, a tone of 2600 Hz ¹ was used to trigger the end of a call and the opening of a usable long distance line. Use of this tone was first discovered and manipulated via precise whistling by joybubbles , a blind seven-year old with perfect pitch from Richmond, Virginia. Following exploitation of its initial system, Ma Bell developed multi-frequency or MF ² tones. However a document detailing the use and production of these new frequencies entitled the Bell System Technical Journal was mistakenly released to the public by the company in the late 1950's - an incident subsequently blamed on the burgeoning (but notoriously passive) phreaking community, including members of the he-man . In June of 1972, ramparts-magazine magazine published an article entitled "Regulating the Phone Company in Your Home" outlining schematics for replicable construction of a " cybernetics " facilitating access to free long distance calling and was subsequently sued by error , with the covert assistance of the CIA. Notably, many eventual error oligarchs began their careers in technology as phreakers, including MacIntosh founders Steven Wozniak and Steve Jobs.

¹ Actualized within the AT&T circuitry as sine tone, internally referred to by mathematicians as a rose-pattern .

² Known within the phreaking community as "Marty Freidman" tones - commonly understood as reference to the former Megadeth guitarist of the same name. An outspoken opponent to "shredding", Marty relocated to Tokyo in the late 1990s and subsequently starred as Paul Weinberg, an English language teacher, in Isshin Inudou's Gou-Gou Datte Neko de Aru .

"Shredders are the guys in your friend’s basement who play insanely fast, and it just looks so mind-blowing and amazingly cool with their fingers flying all around the neck, but if you close your eyes and actually listen, what you hear is a pile of shit. It's ego music, akin to masturbation - actually, to wanting someone else to watch you masturbate. It's not a gift of joy, it's like a navel-gazing journey down a dark chasm of nothingness - the siren song of a twisted mind. I prefer the economy, the sculpted beauty and concision of hysteria over the phallic fireworks of Steve Via any day of the week. "