Sometime around summer of 1974, I get a call from this Adam Bauman from LA..
He started bragging about all the cool things he could do by sounding like anyone
he wants to be.. He's an excellent Bullshit Artist of the likes I haven't seen since
the "Pre-bust" days.
Because of this, he has obtained a lot of information that wouldn't have been gotten
any other way. This was about 2 years after my bust. By this time, I was interested
in completely different things, like computers. I was involved with Call Computer
at that time. Really spending lots of time hacking in programs I've written to solve
complicated filter design problems. The last thing on my mind was the phone company
and it's forbidden secrets.
Somehow I let Adam talk me into seeing him, provided he came up to where I lived.
He agreed to drive up from LA.. to meet me. At that time, I was living in Mt. View
on Montecito Ave in a sleazy apartment complex studio apartment.
Adam also brought up Dave, who also was interested in the phone company but was also
more interested in Computers, and had lots of interesting discussions on computers
with Dave. Adam had figured how to get into Southern Pacific's internal phone system,
which linked just about every city in the South West with their OWN private links.
For those wondering, Southern Pacific soon offered their OWN long distance service
which eventually became known as SPRINT a few "Buyouts" later... :-)
Adam had also gotten into Cosmos and was eager to use my Acoustical Coupler modem
and ASR-33 teletype. This was normally my link to Call Computer and the Arpa Net.
At that time, the ARPA net was a "Gentleman's System" or one that allowed
access into each other's computer without passwords. It was mostly used by the Academic,
Military, and Scientific Community, where research was being done. I often got on
to run MACSYMA to help me with my calculus homework. It saved me a lot of time.
When Adam learned I had a modem, he immediately started spieling about COSMOS. He
had gotten the access information from one of his dumpster dives or bullshit sessions
with telco engineers. He also learned the importance of COSMOS and in order to access
it, he HAD to tell me. I really didn't want to know this "Forbidden" information
but is practically shoved down my throat. I was really not liking the idea of having
Adam dial up a LA.. number to "Modify" someone's phone service, especially
from MY phone line, but before I could stop him, he was already connected.
Cosmos was a terminal interface with equipment that could do things like change someone's
phone number, service options, and no doubt do a lot of other things the phone company
would NOT have outside people have the capability to do.
By Sunday, Adam and Dave finally left, and I shrugged off the weekend as a rather
interesting one, because Dave was telling me all about this interesting computer
language called APL. I went back to my programming work, which was a BASIC program
that would help me design filter circuits for some contracting work I had to do.
In the meantime, Adam drove back to LA, but during his first visit, I was somewhat
careful and not that willing to part with much information.
My next encounter with Adam was in early April in 1974, where he took a bus from
LA to visit me, but we had worked out an arrangement where I drove him to FineGold
Ranch near Fresno. Adam at this point was in his Senior year of high school and FineGold
ranch was a private high school set in a ranch style with cattle, and other farm
like lifestyle. This was on a Friday, so we stayed as guests through the weekend.
During that time, Adam had obtained a blue box and was using it on the school's business
phone. I had brought a portable terminal with me which had a built-in modem and we
logged into a number of computers, including Call Computer, where I did some of my
computer work while I was there. We had to be somewhat discreet about the use of
the phone of course.
After that, I go down to LA to visit Adam's friend Dave for a weekend which was when
we pulled the White House Toilet Paper Prank.
Soon after that, Adam comes up one more time to visit me, and by that time, I got
to know him better, but was still not happy with the carelessness he exhibited with
his knowledge. This time he brought up his blue box, but it wasn't working right.
It was out of tune, and he talked me into tuning it up, much to my regret.
So, during that time, every Wednesday, at Menlo Park was the Peoples Computer Company,
a small non-profit group of independent educators in a small storefront on Menalto
Rd. Across the street I met this dude that makes electric vehicles and on many occasions
found really interesting.
PCC (people's Computer Company) had a PDP-8, running EduBasic, and had tours of children
from the local schools play games and learn about computers from various field trips.
Every Wednesday, they had Pot Luck Dinners, where I met Gordon French, Steve Wozniak,
Steve Jobs, and a host of other computer hackers and professionals. At that time,
I had actually gotten a job working at Call Computer, which was using a BTI-2000,
running on a modified HP-2000, but running their own software, which was BASIC.
I took Adam to one of these POT LUCK dinners where Adam tried the blue box from the
pay phone. As I had walked to a small food market several doors down, Adam flagged
me and he had Dave on the line from LA, and shoved the phone in my face and said
"Talk to Dave". I did, and wasn't that concerned about the legality of
the call at that time. It turned out that Adam was paid some money by the FBI to
come up and visit me to learn if I was still into blue boxing. When it was evident
that I wasn't into it anymore, Adam, under direction of the FBI, did everything in
his power to get back my interest in blue boxing by telling me about new codes that
were discovered and always bringing up the subject. Adam then slipped out to call
the FBI on several occasions. This was learned many years later, after I had filed
for my FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) FBI records.
At the PCC every Wednesday, we had a lot of renegade computer users, all interested
in pursuing interest in computers, and several trips to Xerox PARC were arranged
where I met Tovar and a few others from PARC. This was about 5 years BEFORE Jobs
visited Xerox Parc where he got the idea for the Mac Operating system.
Xerox PARC has this really cool mouse driven computer, running on 4 MB "Platters",
running a variety of really innovative software like "Small Talk", and
"APL", all were fascinating and very useful for an electrical engineer
like me for calculating circuit problems.
Woz, working for HP at the time, was not making blue boxes anymore, but had just
obtained samples of a Video Display chip at the time, and was designing circuits
for his TV Terminal. I had introduced him to Alex Kamradt of Call Computer, where
Woz was working on a TV Terminal to sell to Call Computer's customers.
My tenure at Call Computer was soon over, as Les Vogal a high school whiz kid took
over my job as System Admin., helping Alex write "Manager" a database manager
program. At that time, I had landed a job at KSJO as Chief Engineer.
After Adam returned back to LA, sometime in 1974, I was arrested again. Being very
surprised at being arrested, I eventually learned why. It was Adam's work and visits
to me that got enough evidence to arrest me and "revoke" my probation.
The FBI had placed a tap on the Menalto pay phone outside of PCC (under direction
of Adam), and when Adam had shoved the phone in my face asking me to talk with Dave,
they had my voice as if I had made the call.
Later on, I had learned that Adam had also entrapped several other people who wouldn't
have blue boxed had Adam not approached them.
Between my initial arrest and my eventual incarceration at Lompoc Fed prison camp,
the PCC Pot Luck Dinners eventually evolved into the Home
Brew Computer Club.
During that time, Intel came out with the 4040, and the 8080, and Bob Marsh and friends
who also showed up for the Pot Luck Dinners had designed the SOL, as well as MITS
from New Mexico put out the Altair 880 computer kit. 6 months later (1974/1975),
the first Computer Store opened up in Mt. View. It was the coldest day on record
and it snowed in Mt. View for the first time in history. The store sold old ASR-33
teletypes, parts, tape readers, Altairs, and also Cromenco was sold. Woz had also
made a deal with the store manager to stock 15 APPLE I computers, after he did a
killer demo at the Home Brew Computer Club.
I never saw Adam ever again from that point on, except a few years later, in 1980
or 1981 at the Apple Computer trade show in Anaheim, someone reported seeing him
at that trade show. I never encountered him again.