One thing is for sure, that message allegedly from Anonymous about Ohio and Rove

[HiPointDem]

43. there's more to the phone phreak history than clever 14-year-olds. i can't

remember the details anymore but what i recall was that there was some involvement of cash and power in the mix.

and wozniak/jobs got the basic idea/information from an article in esquire. written by a guy who writes a lot about intelligence & other spooky stuff.

the information was in the air, so to speak:

In October 1971, phreaking was introduced to the masses when Esquire Magazine published a story called "Secrets of the Little Blue Box"[5][6][7] by Ron Rosenbaum. This article featured Engressia and John Draper prominently, synonymising their names with phreaking. The article also attracted the interest of other soon-to-be phreaks, such as Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, who went on to found Apple Computer.[8]

1971 also saw the beginnings of YIPL (Youth International Party Line), a publication started by Abbie Hoffman and Al Bell to provide information to Yippies on how to "beat the man," mostly involving telephones. In 1973, Al Bell would move YIPL over and start TAP (Technological American Party[9]). TAP would develop into a major source for subversive technical information among phreaks and hackers all over the world. TAP ran from 1973 to 1984, with Al Bell handing over the magazine to "Tom Edison" in the late 70's. TAP ended publication in 1984 due mostly to a break-in and arson at Tom Edison's residence in 1983.[10] Cheshire Catalyst then took over running the magazine for its final (1984) year.

A controversially suppressed article "How to Build a 'Phone Phreaks' box" in Ramparts Magazine (June, 1972) touched off a firestorm of interest in phreaking. This article published simple schematic plans of a "black box" used to make free long distance phone calls, and included a very short parts list that could be used to construct one. Bell sued Ramparts which forced the magazine to pull all copies from shelves, but not before numerous copies were sold and many regular subscribers received them.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_phreak