The History of Phone Phreaking Blog

Exploding The Phone Book Tour, Week 3

This was another great week -- the readings in Portland, Seattle, and Bellingham were wonderful and both The Atlantic and Salon ran excerpts from the book.  Many thanks to those who attended, and more thanks still if you can encourage your friends to attend the events below!  :-)

This week I'll be reading from, discussing, and signing Exploding The Phone in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Cambridge, MA:

Monday, 2/25: Book Passage in San Francisco (Ferry Building) at 6:00 pm. http://bit.ly/YQPjfr

Tuesday, 2/26: RSA Data Security Conference in San Francisco at 2:30 pm.  (Llimited to attendees of the RSA conference.)  http://bit.ly/13EclJe

Wednesday, 2/27: Politics and Prose in Washington DC (5015 Connecticut Ave SW) at 7:00 pm  http://bit.ly/Yp1JMQ

Thursday, 2/28: Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, MA (1256 Mass Ave.) at 7:00 pm.  http://bit.ly/13EcKLy

Friday, 3/1: MIT, Cambridge, MA, room E62-250 at noon.

Next week it wraps up -- I'll be in NYC/Brooklyn and Denver, then back to San Francisco:

Monday, 3/4: I'll be a guest on the Leonard Lopate show in New York on WNYC, 93.9 FM, at 1 pm.

Tuesday, 3/5: Alpha One Labs Community Hackerspace (231 Norman Ave., #312) in Brooklyn at 7 pm.  (Correction: this is Tuesday, not Monday, as mentioned earlier.)

Wednesday, 3/6: Tattered Cover Books (2526 East Colfax Ave.) in Denver at 7:30 pm.

Saturday, 3/9: Writers with Drinks at the Make-Out Room (3225 22nd St.) in San Francisco at 9 pm.  Admission $5-$10.

The complete book tour schedule is at http://explodingthephone.com/tour.php.  Hope to see you at one of the above events!

Exploding The Phone Book Tour, Week 2

Wow.  What a week.  The readings in LA, Menlo Park, and Oakland were tremendous.  More than 100 people showed up at Diesel!  Many thanks to those who attended, and more thanks still if you can encourage your friends to attend the events below… :-)

This week I'm doing readings/discussions/signings of Exploding The Phone in Portland, Seattle, and Bellingham, Washington:

Tuesday, 2/19: Powell's Books, Portland (1005 West Burnside) at 7:30 pm.

Wednesday, 2/20: Town Hall, Seattle (1119 Eighth Ave.) at 6:00 pm. Admission is $5, tickets at http://bit.ly/UwjLP5

Friday, 2/22: Chuckanut Radio Hour / Village Books, Bellingham (Crystal Ballroom of the Leopold Retirement Residence, 1224 Cornwall Ave.) at 7:00 pm.   Note that this event is not being held at the bookstore but at the swanky Crystal Ballroom of the Leopold Retirement Residence.  Admission is $5, tickets at http://bit.ly/UwljbL

Next week is split between San Francisco and the East Coast:

Monday, 2/25: Book Passage in San Francisco (Ferry Building) at 6:00 pm.

Tuesday, 2/26: RSA Data Security Conference in San Francisco at 2:30 pm.  (Llimited to attendees of the RSA conference.)

Wednesday, 2/27: Politics and Prose in Washington DC (5015 Connecticut Ave SW) at 7:00 pm

Thursday, 2/28: Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, MA (1256 Mass Ave.) at 7:00 pm.

Friday, 3/1: MIT, Cambridge, MA (room to be announced) at noon.

Great news: we finally have a venue in New York!  I'll be at the Alpha One Community Hackerspace in Brooklyn (231 Norman Ave., #312) on Monday, March 5, at 7 pm.

More events to follow.  The complete book tour schedule can always be found at http://explodingthephone.com/tour.php.

Exploding The Phone Book Tour, Week 1

This week I'm doing readings/discussions/signings of Exploding The Phone in LA, Menlo Park, and Oakland:

Monday, 2/11: Skylight Books in Los Angeles (1818 North Vermont Ave.) at 7:30 pm.  (Note change in time: the reading is at 7:30 pm, not 7:00 pm as reported last week; sorry for the confusion.)

Wednesday, 2/13: Kepler's at Menlo Park (1010 El Camino Real) at 7:30 pm.

Friday, 2/15: Diesel Books in Oakland (5433 College Ave.) at 7 pm.  (Drinks to follow at Ben-n-Nick's just down the street after the reading.)

Next week is the Pacific Northwest:

Tuesday, 2/19: Powell's Books in Portland (1005 West Burnside) at 7:30 pm.

Wednesday, 2/20: Town Hall in Seattle (1119 Eighth Ave.) at 6 pm.  ($5 admission.)

Friday, 2/22: Village Books in Bellingham, WA (1200 11th St.) at 7 pm.

Hope to see you at one or more of these events, with more to follow in the coming weeks.

A Very Good Weekend

Exploding The Phone had a very good weekend!

• Howard Schneider at The Wall St. Journal reviewed it on Friday and describes it as an "authoritative, jaunty and enjoyable account of [the phone phreaks'] sometimes comical, sometimes impressive and sometimes disquieting misdeeds."
• Geeta Dayal at Slate also reviewed it over the weekend and connected the dots between phone phreaks and Aaron Swartz.
• Rebecca Onion, also at Slate, wrote a lovely pictoral piece on the history of the use of whistles in phone phreaking.

Finally, just to round things out, both Amazon and Barnes and Noble listed Exploding The Phone on their books of the month lists for February!

Exploding The Phone Book Tour, Week 0

Exploding The Phone had a great weekend!  First there were nice reviews in both the Wall St. Journal and Slate (with a bonus pictorial feature on whistles used in phone phreaking).  And then both Amazon and Barnes and Noble picked it for their "best of February" lists.

Like I said, it was a great weekend.  :-)

I'll be making a couple of appearances this week:

On Wednesday, 2/6 I'll be a guest on WBAI's "Off The Hook" program in New York City at 7 pm Eastern time.  New Yawkers can listen on 99.5 FM.  Everyone else, you can get streaming audio at http://www.2600.com/offthehook.

On Thursday, 2/7 I'll be giving a talk in Berkeley on "Phone Phreaks: What Can We Learn From the Earliest Network Hackers?" at TRUST (Team For Research in Ubiquitous Secure Technology) at 1 pm in the (appropriately named!) Wozniak Lounge at Soda Hall, U.C. Berkeley.  Bonus: free lunch!  Details at https://www.truststc.org/seminar

Next week the book tour kicks off in earnest, with readings at three great bookstores:

Monday, 2/11: Skylight Books in Los Angeles (1818 North Vermont Ave.) at 7 pm.

Wednesday, 2/13: Kepler's at Menlo Park (1010 El Camino Real) at 7:30 pm.

Friday, 2/15: Diesel Books in Oakland (5433 College Ave.) at 7 pm.  (Drinks to follow at Ben-n-Nick's just down the street after the reading.)

Hope to see you at one or more of these events, with more to follow in the coming weeks.