This reads like my life...

[wraith808]

...other than the fact that I never got caught.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/08/i-was-a-teenage-hacker.html

[TaoPhoenix]

I'll get off your lawn. I was around during those days, but my parents were "good& fierce" so I never really had the right loopholes to pull those kinds of stunts. Closest I got was just beginning to optimize my Commodore 128 to begin to do local project stuff, and then it all sorta went away and I just borrowed a family Mac and went to high school and then college, and when I got out it was right in the heydey of MS Domination.

Plus back then yeah maybe the police got a little grumpy if you went too far, but it wasn't the "Terrorist = Jail" mentality we have now. Cybercrime was so new police forces barely knew what to do about it, and were lucky if they had one techie on their own crew for advice.

Closest I ever got (vague 50th place) was one of the phone company test codes (now long forgotten) that when you dialed it, caused a phone-company dial-back like testing a line. But that's it. I'm kinda dull. I'll shut up now and leave the stage to bigger stars.

[wraith808]

It depended on what the crime was.  In the circle I was in, one guy was co-opted (he's a fervent white hat today), and another was quite paranoid after that to the extent of wiping fingerprints off of glasses.  He eventually was caught, and did some time for it (though he got a really sweet deal when he came out).  I wondered for a long time if because there wasn't the extent of knowledge on the government side at the time it actually paid more to get caught...

[TaoPhoenix]

The show White Collar is fun because to get some of the best "training" you run the risk of stepping over the legal line of the law. So you can either be a goody two shoes and second rate, or first class because you Know Too Much.

[Stoic Joker]

I've often said the only difference between a hacker and an admin is a paycheck and a pair of handcuffs.

[Edvard]

Closest I ever got (vague 50th place) was one of the phone company test codes (now long forgotten) that when you dialed it, caused a phone-company dial-back like testing a line.

IIRC, it was 555-1212 (there were other uses for that line that I forget, and not just as a 'throwaway' number), wait for the click, and hang up.
Though I may be wrong as that was long, long ago in a place far, far away.  Ah, for a table phone and a pair of alligator clips...

[Renegade]

When I was a kid, other than breaking into the teachers files on the network, some typical piracy, and a tiny bit of fun phreaking, I really didn't do anything remotely like hacking. I was a pretty good kid. Not always sober, but good none-the-less.

[wraith808]

When I was a kid, other than breaking into the teachers files on the network, some typical piracy, and a tiny bit of fun phreaking, I really didn't do anything remotely like hacking. I was a pretty good kid. Not always sober, but good none-the-less.

That's about me... except for the phreaking was for the reason that the guy says in the article- access was sooooo expensive!  He even admits he wasn't really a hacker.  My friends on the other hand...

[barney]

You damned kids  !  I couldn't do any of that 'til I was in my late thirties  .  There wasn't anything to hack before that except for Ma Bell   .

[TaoPhoenix]

Closest I ever got (vague 50th place) was one of the phone company test codes (now long forgotten) that when you dialed it, caused a phone-company dial-back like testing a line.

IIRC, it was 555-1212 (there were other uses for that line that I forget, and not just as a 'throwaway' number), wait for the click, and hang up.
Though I may be wrong as that was long, long ago in a place far, far away.  Ah, for a table phone and a pair of alligator clips...

No, from what feeble amount I remember, 555-XXXX is the famous movie code for phone numbers that do not exist. This was something like 98X-YYYY (last four of your own phone number.)

[Renegade]

One thing I loved doing when I was a kid -- I think like 9 or 10 -- was doing the ring-back on the phone. You dialed a variation on your telephone number, waited a moment, hung up, then your phone rang. I think my mom hated that.

[40hz]

To do a paraphrased mashup from a famous novel:

"On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero. So...The first rule of Hack Club is: You do not talk about Hack Club. The second rule of Hack Club is: You do not talk about Hack Club."

Even after many many years.

[Stoic Joker]

On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.

I like that.

[40hz]

On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.

I like that.

Me too. Chuck Palahniuk is great for coming up with memorable lines.

[Edvard]

Closest I ever got (vague 50th place) was one of the phone company test codes (now long forgotten) that when you dialed it, caused a phone-company dial-back like testing a line.

IIRC, it was 555-1212 (there were other uses for that line that I forget, and not just as a 'throwaway' number), wait for the click, and hang up.
Though I may be wrong as that was long, long ago in a place far, far away.  Ah, for a table phone and a pair of alligator clips...

No, from what feeble amount I remember, 555-XXXX is the famous movie code for phone numbers that do not exist. This was something like 98X-YYYY (last four of your own phone number.)

Obviously, I did not recall correctly... 
I knew that about 555 designating a fake number, but I'm pretty sure me and my first hacker friend found other uses for it.
Like I said, IIRC, which is prolly NOT the case 95% of the time 

[40hz]

Wasn't area code + 555-1212 the way to get that area code's directory assistance operator? Still is too - except now you say a city name last I checked

To have the phone ringback you dialed 1191 and immediately hung up where I lived.

And yeah, I've been told 555 is the exchange prefix that goes nowhere. It was supposedly created to give Hollywood and TV shows some dummy numbers to use in movies. Urban legend has it some big movie back in the late sixties inadvertently used a number that turned out to be somebody's real home phone, and they supposedly sued and won for "megabucks." Sounds like bunk to me, but there's probably a small grain of truth in there somewhere.

[Stoic Joker]

Urban legend has it some big movie back in the late sixties inadvertently used a number that turned out to be somebody's real home phone, and they supposedly sued and won for "megabucks." Sounds like bunk to me, but there's probably a small grain of truth in there somewhere.

I was under the impression that it hit the fan with 8. 6. 7.  5. 3. 0. 9... Jenny's number on the wall. because the 555 thing showed up in movies shortly (~yearish) after that song's release.

[40hz]

^That's probably it. (My memory for pop culture is definitely impaired.)

[Edvard]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringback_number
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8675309