John Draper
Encyclopedia
John Thomas Draper also known as Captain Crunch, Crunch or Crunchman (after Cap'n Crunch
, the mascot of a breakfast cereal
), is an American computer programmer and former phone phreak
. He is a legendary figure within the computer programming world.
engineer; he described his father as distant in an interview published on the front page of the Jan 13–14, 2007 issue of The Wall Street Journal
. Draper himself entered the Air Force in 1964, and while stationed in Alaska
helped his fellow servicemen make free phone calls home by devising access to a local telephone switchboard. After Alaska, he was stationed at Charleston Air Force Station
in Maine. In 1967, he created WKOS [W-"chaos"], a pirate station
in nearby Dover-Foxcroft, but had to shut it down when a legitimate radio station, WDME, objected. He was honorably discharged from the Air Force in 1968 and did military-related work for several employers in the San Francisco Bay Area
. He adopted the counterculture of the times and operated a pirate radio station out of a Volkswagen
van.
documentary about Hacking as Denny Teresi
) resulted in a meeting and caused him to blunder into the world of the phone phreaks. They wanted him to build a multifrequency tone generator (the blue box) to gain easier entry into the AT&T system, which was controlled by tones. Then they would not have to use an organ
and cassette recordings of tones to get free calls. At least one of the blind boys had perfect pitch and had identified the exact frequencies. They informed him that a toy whistle
that was, at the time, packaged in boxes of Cap’n Crunch cereal could emit a tone at precisely 2600 hertz—the same frequency that was used by AT&T
long lines
to indicate that a trunk line was ready and available to route a new call. This would effectively disconnect one end of the trunk, allowing the still connected side to enter an operator mode. Experimenting with this whistle inspired Draper to build blue box
es: electronic devices capable of reproducing other tones used by the phone company.
The class of vulnerabilities Draper and others discovered was limited to call-routing switches that employed in-band signaling
, whereas newer equipment relies almost exclusively on out-of-band signaling, the use of separate circuits to transmit voice and signals. Though they no longer serve a practical use, the Cap’n Crunch whistles did become valued collector’s items. Some hackers sometimes go by the handle “Captain Crunch” even today; 2600: The Hacker Quarterly
is named after this whistle frequency.
The expense of sustaining the unbilled phone calls, the redesign of the line protocols, and the accelerated equipment replacement due to the blue box is difficult to calculate, or even to separate from something as complex and dynamic as the telephone long-distance network.
The 1971 Esquire
article which told the world about phone phreaking got Draper in hot water. Draper was arrested on toll fraud
charges in 1972 and sentenced to five years’ probation. The article also brought him to the attention of Steve Wozniak
, who located Draper while working as an engineer at KKUP
, a Cupertino public radio station located near the future Apple campus. In the early and mid 1970s he taught his phone phreaking skills to Steve Jobs
and Steve Wozniak, who later founded Apple Computer
. He was briefly employed at Apple, and created a telephone interface board for the Apple II
personal computer, which he named "The Charlie Board". Wozniak has said the reason the board was never marketed was that Wozniak was the only one in the company who liked Draper, and partially due to Draper's arrest and conviction for wire fraud. While at Apple, Draper also wrote a cross-assembler used by Steve Wozniak
while developing Apple I
and Apple II
.
, the first word processor
for the Apple II, in 1978. According to The Wall Street Journal, he hand-wrote the code while serving nights in the Alameda County Jail, then entered the code later into a computer.
Draper's personal website furnishes a more detailed version of the coding of EasyWriter. Draper was in prison, in California, at the time, but under a 'work furlough' program. This meant that while he had to spend every night in prison, he spent each day working a regular job outside prison. This job was at Receiving Studios, a small band practice studio, and while there he had access to a computer, where he coded EasyWriter. He did take copies of the code 'home' to prison overnight to work on it.
Draper later ported EasyWriter to the IBM PC
, beating Bill Gates
on the bid for the IBM
contract. Draper's company, Capn' Software, posted less than $1 million revenue over six years and he subsequently sued his software's distributor, Bill Baker, over an unauthorized version of EasyWriter that Baker released without Draper's permission – they settled out of court.
Draper's OCD-like behavior and incredibly creative mind has at times led to difficulties with potential clients who find him too encompassing of the original California software community ethos – which he sticks to until this very day. Shortly after Apple released Macintosh he taught an online course in Mac programming. Currently he writes computer security software, is a senior developer of KanTalk!, VoIP client built around singer and actress Lola Blanc (born Kandice Melonakos
),Kandice Melonakos launches VoIP and hosts an internet TV show, Crunch TV.
From 2005 to 2010, Draper was the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) for media delivery company En2go, that delivers music, video and other digital content to desktops.
Draper's software development history includes:
, Russia
and England. Once he had set the call to go through dozens of countries, he dialed the number of the public phone next to him. A few minutes later, the phone next to him rang. Draper spoke into the first phone, and, after quite a few seconds, he heard his own voice very faintly on the other phone. He sometimes repeated this stunt at parties. Draper also claimed that he and a friend once placed a direct call to the White House during the Nixon administration, and after giving the operator President Nixon's secret code name of "Olympus", and asking to speak to the president about a national emergency, they were connected with someone who sounded like Richard Nixon
; Draper’s friend told the man about a toilet paper shortage in Los Angeles, at which point the person on the other end of the line angrily asked them how they'd managed to get connected to him. Draper was also a member of the Homebrew Computer Club
.
John Draper's story has also inspired several mentions in popular culture.
Cap'n Crunch
Cap'n Crunch is a product line of sweetened corn and oat breakfast cereals introduced in 1963 and manufactured by Quaker Oats Company. Quaker Oats has been a division of PepsiCo since 2001. The product line is heralded by a cartoon mascot named Cap'n Crunch, a sea captain .-Development:Pamela Low,...
, the mascot of a breakfast cereal
Breakfast cereal
A breakfast cereal is a food made from processed grains that is often, but not always, eaten with the first meal of the day. It is often eaten cold, usually mixed with milk , water, or yogurt, and sometimes fruit but sometimes eaten dry. Some cereals, such as oatmeal, may be served hot as porridge...
), is an American computer programmer and former phone phreak
Phreaking
Phreaking is a slang term coined to describe the activity of a culture of people who study, experiment with, or explore telecommunication systems, such as equipment and systems connected to public telephone networks. As telephone networks have become computerized, phreaking has become closely...
. He is a legendary figure within the computer programming world.
Background
Draper is the son of a U.S. Air ForceUnited States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
engineer; he described his father as distant in an interview published on the front page of the Jan 13–14, 2007 issue of The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
. Draper himself entered the Air Force in 1964, and while stationed in Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
helped his fellow servicemen make free phone calls home by devising access to a local telephone switchboard. After Alaska, he was stationed at Charleston Air Force Station
Charleston Air Force Station
Charleston Air Force Station is a defunct Air Force Station that operated from the 1952 until 1980. It was located in Charleston, Maine. It is the site of a radar station and other buildings. It was redeveloped into the a jail for the state of Maine....
in Maine. In 1967, he created WKOS [W-"chaos"], a pirate station
Pirate radio
Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...
in nearby Dover-Foxcroft, but had to shut it down when a legitimate radio station, WDME, objected. He was honorably discharged from the Air Force in 1968 and did military-related work for several employers in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
. He adopted the counterculture of the times and operated a pirate radio station out of a Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
van.
Phreaking
While Draper was driving around his Volkswagen Microbus to test a pirate radio transmitter, he broadcast a telephone number to listeners as feedback to gauge his station’s reception. A callback from a “Denny” (identified in the Discovery ChannelDiscovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
documentary about Hacking as Denny Teresi
Denny Teresi
Denny Teresi is a blind former phone phreak and radio disk jockey, most famous for being the person who introduced John Draper to the field. Both Draper and Teresi were doing Pirate radio broadcasts in the San Jose, California area...
) resulted in a meeting and caused him to blunder into the world of the phone phreaks. They wanted him to build a multifrequency tone generator (the blue box) to gain easier entry into the AT&T system, which was controlled by tones. Then they would not have to use an organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
and cassette recordings of tones to get free calls. At least one of the blind boys had perfect pitch and had identified the exact frequencies. They informed him that a toy whistle
Whistle
A whistle or call is a simple aerophone, an instrument which produces sound from a stream of forced air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means...
that was, at the time, packaged in boxes of Cap’n Crunch cereal could emit a tone at precisely 2600 hertz—the same frequency that was used by AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
long lines
Landline
A landline was originally an overland telegraph wire, as opposed to an undersea cable. Currently, landline refers to a telephone line which travels through a solid medium, either metal wire or optical fibre, as distinguished from a mobile cellular line, where transmission is via radio waves...
to indicate that a trunk line was ready and available to route a new call. This would effectively disconnect one end of the trunk, allowing the still connected side to enter an operator mode. Experimenting with this whistle inspired Draper to build blue box
Blue box
An early phreaking tool, the blue box is an electronic device that simulates a telephone operator's dialing console. It functioned by replicating the tones used to switch long-distance calls and using them to route the user's own call, bypassing the normal switching mechanism...
es: electronic devices capable of reproducing other tones used by the phone company.
The class of vulnerabilities Draper and others discovered was limited to call-routing switches that employed in-band signaling
In-band signaling
In telecommunications, in-band signaling is the sending of metadata and control information in the same band or channel used for data.-Telephone:...
, whereas newer equipment relies almost exclusively on out-of-band signaling, the use of separate circuits to transmit voice and signals. Though they no longer serve a practical use, the Cap’n Crunch whistles did become valued collector’s items. Some hackers sometimes go by the handle “Captain Crunch” even today; 2600: The Hacker Quarterly
2600: The Hacker Quarterly
2600: The Hacker Quarterly is an American publication that specializes in publishing technical information on a variety of subjects including telephone switching systems, Internet protocols and services, as well as general news concerning the computer "underground" and left wing, and sometimes ,...
is named after this whistle frequency.
The expense of sustaining the unbilled phone calls, the redesign of the line protocols, and the accelerated equipment replacement due to the blue box is difficult to calculate, or even to separate from something as complex and dynamic as the telephone long-distance network.
The 1971 Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
article which told the world about phone phreaking got Draper in hot water. Draper was arrested on toll fraud
Phone fraud
Whether in the form of the consumer attempting to defraud the telephone company, the telephone company attempting to defraud the consumer, or a third party attempting to defraud either of them, fraud has been a part of the telephone system almost from the beginning....
charges in 1972 and sentenced to five years’ probation. The article also brought him to the attention of Steve Wozniak
Steve Wozniak
Stephen Gary "Woz" Wozniak is an American computer engineer and programmer who founded Apple Computer, Co. with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne...
, who located Draper while working as an engineer at KKUP
KKUP
KKUP is a community radio station broadcasting a Variety format. Licensed to Cupertino, California, United States, it serves the greater Bay Area. The station is currently owned by the Assurance Science Foundation, Inc., and is a member of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters...
, a Cupertino public radio station located near the future Apple campus. In the early and mid 1970s he taught his phone phreaking skills to Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
and Steve Wozniak, who later founded Apple Computer
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
. He was briefly employed at Apple, and created a telephone interface board for the Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
personal computer, which he named "The Charlie Board". Wozniak has said the reason the board was never marketed was that Wozniak was the only one in the company who liked Draper, and partially due to Draper's arrest and conviction for wire fraud. While at Apple, Draper also wrote a cross-assembler used by Steve Wozniak
Steve Wozniak
Stephen Gary "Woz" Wozniak is an American computer engineer and programmer who founded Apple Computer, Co. with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne...
while developing Apple I
Apple I
The original Apple Computer, also known retroactively as the Apple I, or Apple-1, is a personal computer released by the Apple Computer Company in 1976. They were designed and hand-built by Steve Wozniak. Wozniak's friend Steve Jobs had the idea of selling the computer...
and Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
.
Software developer
Draper wrote EasyWriterEasyWriter
EasyWriter was a word processor first written for the Apple II series computer in 1979, the first word processor for that platform. It was written by John Draper's Cap'n Software, which also produced a version of Forth, which EasyWriter was developed in....
, the first word processor
Word processor
A word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....
for the Apple II, in 1978. According to The Wall Street Journal, he hand-wrote the code while serving nights in the Alameda County Jail, then entered the code later into a computer.
Draper's personal website furnishes a more detailed version of the coding of EasyWriter. Draper was in prison, in California, at the time, but under a 'work furlough' program. This meant that while he had to spend every night in prison, he spent each day working a regular job outside prison. This job was at Receiving Studios, a small band practice studio, and while there he had access to a computer, where he coded EasyWriter. He did take copies of the code 'home' to prison overnight to work on it.
Draper later ported EasyWriter to the IBM PC
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
, beating Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
on the bid for the IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
contract. Draper's company, Capn' Software, posted less than $1 million revenue over six years and he subsequently sued his software's distributor, Bill Baker, over an unauthorized version of EasyWriter that Baker released without Draper's permission – they settled out of court.
Draper's OCD-like behavior and incredibly creative mind has at times led to difficulties with potential clients who find him too encompassing of the original California software community ethos – which he sticks to until this very day. Shortly after Apple released Macintosh he taught an online course in Mac programming. Currently he writes computer security software, is a senior developer of KanTalk!, VoIP client built around singer and actress Lola Blanc (born Kandice Melonakos
Kandice Melonakos
Lola Blanc is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and model based in Los Angeles, California.-History:Lola was born in Germany, raised in Michigan, and now resides in Hollywood, California...
),Kandice Melonakos launches VoIP and hosts an internet TV show, Crunch TV.
From 2005 to 2010, Draper was the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) for media delivery company En2go, that delivers music, video and other digital content to desktops.
Draper's software development history includes:
- The Motorola 6800 Cross Assembler for CallComputer (1974)
- The Charlie Board (1977)
- Forth 1.7 for the Apple II (1978)
- EasyWriter© (1980)
- Advanced 3-D Graphic Design Systems for Autodesk(1986–89)
- Website Development (1994 to present)
- The Crunchbox Firewall (CTO of ShopIp 1999–2004)
- VOIP application for OnInstant (2005)
- The Channel Manager for the Flyxo Media System (CTO of En2Go 2005–10)
Legends
One oft-repeated story featuring Captain Crunch goes as follows: Draper picked up a public phone, then proceeded to “phreak” his call around the world. At no charge, he routed a call through different phone switches in countries such as JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and England. Once he had set the call to go through dozens of countries, he dialed the number of the public phone next to him. A few minutes later, the phone next to him rang. Draper spoke into the first phone, and, after quite a few seconds, he heard his own voice very faintly on the other phone. He sometimes repeated this stunt at parties. Draper also claimed that he and a friend once placed a direct call to the White House during the Nixon administration, and after giving the operator President Nixon's secret code name of "Olympus", and asking to speak to the president about a national emergency, they were connected with someone who sounded like Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
; Draper’s friend told the man about a toilet paper shortage in Los Angeles, at which point the person on the other end of the line angrily asked them how they'd managed to get connected to him. Draper was also a member of the Homebrew Computer Club
Homebrew Computer Club
The Homebrew Computer Club was an early computer hobbyist users' group in Silicon Valley, which met from March 5, 1975 to December 1986...
.
In popular culture
- John Draper appears as himself in the unreleased documentary Hackers Wanted.
John Draper's story has also inspired several mentions in popular culture.
- Elements of the movie SneakersSneakers (film)Sneakers is a 1992 caper film directed by Phil Alden Robinson, written by Robinson, Walter F. Parkes, and Lawrence Lasker and starring Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, Mary McDonnell, River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier and David Strathairn...
recall Draper and JoybubblesJoybubblesJoybubbles , born Josef Carl Engressia, Jr. in Richmond, Virginia, USA, was an early phone phreak. Born blind, he became interested in telephones at age four. Gifted with absolute pitch, he was able to whistle 2600 hertz into a telephone . Joybubbles said that he had an IQ of “172 or something.” ...
; the character Erwin "Whistler" Emory portrayed by David StrathairnDavid StrathairnDavid Russell Strathairn is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for portraying journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck...
, as well as Cosmo's experience of offering phreaking services to criminals while in prison, were based on them.
- John Draper is specifically mentioned as "Captain Crunch" in one scene in Cowboy Bebop: The MovieCowboy Bebop: The Movie, known internationally as Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, is a 2001 animated film directed by Shinichirō Watanabe. The screenplay was written by Keiko Nobumoto, based on the Cowboy Bebop television series created by Sunrise. The plot centers on Spike Spiegel and his crew as they find a criminal who is...
, in which a hacker mentions that "Cap'n Crunch broke into the national phone system with a plastic whistle."
- He is portrayed by Wayne Pére in the movie Pirates of Silicon ValleyPirates of Silicon ValleyPirates of Silicon Valley is a 1999 made-for-television film directed by Martyn Burke and based on the book Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine. The film documents the impact on the development of the personal computer of the rivalry between...
.
- Captain Crunch is being searched for by Rockford during a murder investigation on the TV show The Rockford FilesThe Rockford FilesThe Rockford Files is an American television drama series which aired on the NBC network between September 13, 1974 and January 10, 1980. It has remained in regular syndication to the present day. The show stars James Garner as Los Angeles-based private investigator Jim Rockford and features Noah...
, season 5, episode 5, "Kill the Messenger".
- In Ready Player OneReady Player OneReady Player One is a science fiction novel by Ernest Cline. The book was published by Random House on August 16, 2011. The audiobook is narrated by Wil Wheaton.Warner Bros. bought the rights to the film in June 2010....
by Ernest ClineErnest Cline-Spoken word:From 1997-2001, Cline performed his original work at the Austin Poetry Slam venues. He was the Austin Poetry Slam Champ in 1998 and 2001, and competed on the Austin Poetry Slam Teams at the 1998 Austin National Poetry Slam and the 2001 Seattle National Poetry Slam...
, John Draper is key to unlocking one of the mysteries within the story.
See also
- HackingHackingHacking may refer to:* Computer hacking, including the following types of activity:** Hacker , activity within the computer programmer subculture** Hacker , to access computer networks, legally or otherwise...
- PhreakingPhreakingPhreaking is a slang term coined to describe the activity of a culture of people who study, experiment with, or explore telecommunication systems, such as equipment and systems connected to public telephone networks. As telephone networks have become computerized, phreaking has become closely...
- Cap'n CrunchCap'n CrunchCap'n Crunch is a product line of sweetened corn and oat breakfast cereals introduced in 1963 and manufactured by Quaker Oats Company. Quaker Oats has been a division of PepsiCo since 2001. The product line is heralded by a cartoon mascot named Cap'n Crunch, a sea captain .-Development:Pamela Low,...
- 2600 hertz
- Blue BoxBlue boxAn early phreaking tool, the blue box is an electronic device that simulates a telephone operator's dialing console. It functioned by replicating the tones used to switch long-distance calls and using them to route the user's own call, bypassing the normal switching mechanism...
- Hackers Wanted (documentary)
- SneakersSneakers (film)Sneakers is a 1992 caper film directed by Phil Alden Robinson, written by Robinson, Walter F. Parkes, and Lawrence Lasker and starring Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, Mary McDonnell, River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier and David Strathairn...
(film) - WarGamesWarGamesWarGames is a 1983 American Cold War suspense/science-fiction film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film stars Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy....
(film)