Re: *nix

[David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk>]

On Mon 17 Feb 2020 at 22:10:48 (+0000), mick crane wrote:
> On 2020-02-17 20:18, Doug McGarrett wrote:
> 
> > > In the 50s I heard that you could tap out the number on the
> > > cradle in the public phone boxes and connect without inserting
> > > coins.

In the mid- to late-60s, there were codes that I believe the engineers
used to bypass putting in money. We discovered that they appeared to be
chosen systematically: in a city, you would dial the 3-digit code for
calling an outlying village, then the 9 they would use to call said
city, then the number you wanted.

> thinking back it was 60's. after that I heard a whistle you got in
> cornflake packets worked for a bit

By the time phone phreaking (requiring tone-dialling) reached the UK,
I had a phone at work. I know people played with it, but I don't recall
how long their window of opportunity was open.

The marginal cost of the odd evening call was swamped by daytime use
of modems/acoustic couplers. At one time, they were logging £200/month
of calls from my office.

Cheers,
David.