John Draper facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
John T. Draper
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Draper at Maker Faire Berlin, 2015
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| Born |
John Thomas Draper
March 11, 1943 |
| Other names | Nicknames include Captain Crunch, Crunch, and Crunchman |
| Occupation | Computer programmer, former phone phreak |
John Thomas Draper (born March 11, 1943) is a famous American computer programmer. He is also known by his nicknames Captain Crunch, Crunch, or Crunchman. These names came from the Cap'n Crunch breakfast cereal mascot. A toy whistle found in the cereal boxes could be used to make free phone calls.
John Draper is well-known in the world of computer programming. He is also famous among hackers and security experts. He often travels a lot and lives a nomadic lifestyle.
Contents
Early Life and Discoveries
John Draper's father was an engineer in the United States Air Force. As a child, John loved to build things. He even built his own radio station at home using old military parts. He faced challenges in school.
In 1964, Draper joined the U.S. Air Force. While he was stationed in Alaska, he helped other service members. He found a way for them to make free phone calls home. He did this by finding a way to access a local telephone switchboard.
Later, in 1967, he was in Maine. There, he started a pirate radio station called WKOS. A pirate radio station broadcasts without a legal license. He had to shut it down when a licensed station complained.
Draper left the Air Force in 1968. He then moved to Silicon Valley, a famous area for technology companies. He worked as an engineering technician at different companies. He even worked on early ideas for a cordless telephone. He also took college classes part-time. During this time, he also worked as an engineer and disc jockey at a radio station.
Discovering Phone Phreaking
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While testing a radio transmitter he built, Draper asked listeners to call a phone number. This was to see how well his station was working. Another pirate radio operator, Denny Teresi, called him. This call led Draper into the world of "phone phreaks."
Phone phreaks were people who studied and experimented with telephone networks. Sometimes, they used their knowledge to make free calls. Many of Teresi's friends were blind. They asked Draper to build a special device. This device was called a "blue box." It could make different sounds to control the phone network. Before this, they used an organ or cassette recordings to make these sounds. One blind boy, known as Joybubbles, had perfect hearing. He could identify sounds very precisely.
Draper found something amazing: a toy whistle from Cap'n Crunch cereal boxes. This whistle made a sound at exactly 2600 hertz. This was the same sound that AT&T used to signal that a phone line was ready for a new call. This sound could trick the phone system. It would disconnect one end of the call, while the other side could act like an operator.
This trick worked on older phone systems. These systems used sounds to control calls. After 1980, new systems were put in place. These new systems used different signals. This made the toy whistles and blue boxes useless for phone phreaking. Today, these whistles are special souvenirs. A magazine called 2600: The Hacker Quarterly is even named after this special sound frequency.
Becoming Known
In 1971, a journalist named Ron Rosenbaum wrote an article about phone phreaking for Esquire magazine. The article talked a lot about John Draper. This made him quite famous among people interested in the counterculture.
Because of the article, Draper was arrested in 1972. He was accused of making calls without paying. He was put on probation for five years. However, the article also caught the eye of Steve Wozniak. Wozniak was a student at the University of California, Berkeley. He later helped start Apple.
Wozniak found Draper while working at a radio station. They met to share ideas on how to build blue boxes. Wozniak's friend, Steve Jobs, was also there. Wozniak and Jobs later started a small business selling these blue boxes.
Working in Tech
Early Apple Projects
In 1977, John Draper worked for Apple as an independent contractor. Steve Wozniak asked him to create a device. This device would connect the Apple II computer to phone lines. Wozniak thought computers could act like answering machines. Modems were not common yet.
Draper designed a device called the "Charlie Board." It was meant to dial special toll-free numbers used by big companies. It would then make sounds to access their phone lines. In theory, this would allow unlimited free long-distance calls. Wozniak said it was an "incredible board." However, others at Apple did not like the idea. So, the device was never sold as a product. But some of its ideas were later used in phone menus and voicemail.
EasyWriter Software
John Draper faced legal issues related to phone fraud in 1976 and 1978. While he was in a work-release program in 1979, he wrote a program called EasyWriter. This was the very first word processor for the Apple II computer.
Later, Draper changed EasyWriter to work on the IBM PC. IBM chose it as the official word processor for their new computer. It even beat out a program from Microsoft. Draper started his own software company called Capn' Software. However, it did not make a lot of money. Another company later created a new version, Easywriter II, without Draper's knowledge. Draper sued them, and they settled the case outside of court.
Other Projects
In 1986, Draper joined Autodesk, a company that makes design software. He designed software for video displays. He was hired directly by one of the company's founders.
From 1999 to 2004, Draper was the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) for ShopIP. This was a computer security company. They designed a firewall device called The Crunchbox GE. A firewall helps protect computers from online threats. Even with support from Steve Wozniak, the product did not become popular.
In 2007, Draper became the CTO at En2go, a software company. This company developed tools for delivering media. It is not clear when Draper left the company. However, several officers, including Wozniak, resigned in 2009. En2Go also did not become a successful company.
See also
In Spanish: John Draper para niños
