The Home Brew Computer Club

Woz contacted me somehow, through KKUP radio, where another DJ from KPFA knew me and mentioned to Woz that he knew me. The KPFA DJ called me up and told me to contact Woz. At first, I didn't think it was safe to discuss this with a stranger, but I finally agreed to phone Woz.

I called him up, and he was really excited that I actually would call him, and talked me into driving to Berkeley to visit him. I finally locate the dorm where Woz, Steve Jobs, and Bill Klaxton was waiting for me. After the usual introductions, it became obvious that Woz didn't know how to use the blue box, and I didn't want Woz to misuse it and eventually get detected, so I took time to explain the do's and don'ts on using this amazing tone device.
Woz was relentless in his questions and I was patient enough to tell him how to make international calls, so for fun we tried to call the Pope in Rome. For those that don't know the Woz, he just loves to play pranks on everyone. Woz wanted to call the Pope and make a "Confession". By this time, I said to myself... "These crazy college kids!"
After Woz's lesson, I eventually left, with a stern warning to Woz not to make and sell them, because this would cause problems for all of us.

Woz got a little greedy and made enough of them to sell for enough money for school, and to fund his computer project which eventually became he Apple I. I repeatedly contacted Woz to make sure he wasn't misusing the box, and eventually learned he was selling them for $150 apiece. In each one, he had an inscription "He has the whole world in his hands", and instructions for making international calls.

Click here to read an interview with
Steve Wozniak, by Manish Srivastava

One day, when Woz was driving from his parents home in Sunneyvale to UC Berkeley, his car broke down somewhere near Fremont. So he thought he would try and use his blue box to place a call. Just then, a police car pulls up and a policeman gets out and asks Woz for his ID. As the cop was checking things out, he noticed the box sitting in the pay phone and asked "What's that?". Woz said "It's my Synthesizer for an electronic project". The cop was pressing the buttons, playing with it, then handed it hack and said "A guy named Moog beat you to it" and left.
Woz sold the box to another acquaintance who was totally uncool and eventually brought me to the attention of Bell Security by his constant bragging about his ability to make free calls. He was in a San Jose high school and mentioned my name to his school's Activities Director. Nothing came of it, but I tried to distance myself from him as much as possible.

Eventually, this kid got busted, who had Woz's box. From that time on, we all agreed to lay low and not mess with anything for a while. More and more of Woz's customers got busted, mostly for leaving tell tale evidence by making a large amount of 800 number calls.

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