Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont as guests on TechStuff (Photo by Tyler Klang)

This week on TechStuff was special. Chris wrote about it the other day. But as is our custom, we give you guys a roundup each week of what we talked about so now you’ll get to hear my take on it. Our episode on Monday was all about phone phreaking, the precursor to computer hacking. Wednesday’s show was our Dragon*Con special and featured guest appearances by Sword and Laser cohosts Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont.

What is phone phreaking? It’s finding ways to navigate through the phone system from the outside. Back before computers were household objects, curious folks with an interest in technology began to explore the national phone system. Joe “The Whistler” Engressia may have been the first to discover the relationship between the phone system and sounds played at specific frequencies. He discovered that by whistling at a precise 2,600 hertz — which he could do because he had perfect pitch — he could signal the end of a phone call and even dial a new number on a trunk line without having to pay for it.

Here’s how it worked: Joe would call up a long-distance 800 number. Then he’d whistle the tone into the phone, which would signal to the switching station that the call had ended. But the connection with the station wasn’t terminated. By whistling again in a certain pattern, Joe could make another call and never be charged for it. So began the practice of phone phreaking. Future phone phreaks would discover that a toy whistle from a cereal box could replicate the 2,600-hertz frequency. Later, when the phone companies switched to multiple frequencies, phreaks developed devices called blue boxes that could replicate the paired frequencies needed to make calls. Many of these phreaks, including Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, would later move on to computer hacking and design. Listen to Monday’s episode for more on the phenomenon.

Wednesday’s show marked a special treat. I’ve met Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont before. Both of them have successful careers in the technology journalism field. They were kind enough to agree to come on TechStuff and talk about what they do even though it felt like six in the morning to them at the time. Chris and I chatted with them about covering technology, the link between technology geeks and science fiction fans and some of their favorite books. It was a lot of fun talking with the two of them and we even had a live audience — a first for TechStuff.

We hope to have guests on future TechStuff episodes. We’d like to chat with people who have influenced technology over the years. That might include famous people or it could be the folks behind the scenes whom you rarely hear anything about. Stay tuned!

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