Elder Days Era

The time period from 1970 through 1979, in which the cyber frontier blew wide open with hackers investigating the wired world. During this Elder Days Era, phreaker John Draper learned that the free Cap’n whistle in Cap’n Crunch cereal boxes reproduced the 2600-megahertz tone used by long-distance telephone companies, thus giving him the capability to make long-distance telephone calls for free. Also, Yippie Abbie Hoffman began the Youth International Party Line newsletter to tell others how to get free telephone service and other cracking tips; Dennis Ritchie developed a new computer language called “C”; the first personal computer (PC) appeared; the Apple computer was developed in 1977 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak; and the first PC Bulletin Board System (BBS), a virtual clubhouse allowing hackers to meet online, was put into operation.

See Also: BBS; Draper, John; Jobs, Steve; Wozniak, Steve.