New Kickstarter Campaign Will Fund Documentary on Captain Crunch's Life and Impact on Technology (kickstarter.com) 47
"What if we told you the history you've been told about modern technology isn't quite what it should be?" asks a new Kickstarter campaign for a film about the life of John "Captain Crunch" Draper.
79-year-old Draper is often remembered for his influential early encounters with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and Draper's early association with Apple Computers is even recognized in the film's title — "Employee 13." But the trailer also promises the larger life story of Draper, "an eccentric genius who went from being a penniless hacker to a millionaire and back again." What if inventions as big as the internet were envisioned before its time by a brilliant and divergent individual you've probably never heard of?
What if someone long overlooked is responsible for inspiring some of the most legendary names in Silicon Valley yet whose notoriety is, oppositely, more synonymous with scandal rather than success?
Employee 13 is an important new film project illuminating the intriguing life and influential achievements of John Draper, also known as "Captain Crunch," a hacker and inventor with autism.
The campaign says "John's ability to see what others could not influenced an industry, society and culture," and argues that his unique perspective in living with autism "enabled his notable discoveries and contributions advancing technology."
The film is in pre-production, "but we need your help to make it happen." (And to "shed light on the dim outcome of one brilliant man's life that was scrutinized without understanding, at a time when autism awareness and support did not exist.")
A poster for the movie hails Draper as an "OG hacker, internet technology pioneer, and champion for digital privacy."
79-year-old Draper is often remembered for his influential early encounters with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and Draper's early association with Apple Computers is even recognized in the film's title — "Employee 13." But the trailer also promises the larger life story of Draper, "an eccentric genius who went from being a penniless hacker to a millionaire and back again." What if inventions as big as the internet were envisioned before its time by a brilliant and divergent individual you've probably never heard of?
What if someone long overlooked is responsible for inspiring some of the most legendary names in Silicon Valley yet whose notoriety is, oppositely, more synonymous with scandal rather than success?
Employee 13 is an important new film project illuminating the intriguing life and influential achievements of John Draper, also known as "Captain Crunch," a hacker and inventor with autism.
The campaign says "John's ability to see what others could not influenced an industry, society and culture," and argues that his unique perspective in living with autism "enabled his notable discoveries and contributions advancing technology."
The film is in pre-production, "but we need your help to make it happen." (And to "shed light on the dim outcome of one brilliant man's life that was scrutinized without understanding, at a time when autism awareness and support did not exist.")
A poster for the movie hails Draper as an "OG hacker, internet technology pioneer, and champion for digital privacy."
why yet another documentry? (Score:1)
go read his book...
http://www.allbrightmedia.com/... [allbrightmedia.com]
AC brain farts again (Score:2)
But got me to look because I was checking if it was one of the good books on the topic. I've read a number of them, but just now the names are escaping me.
I could dig them up, but it's pretty rare these days that any of today's Slashdot crowd shows much interest in any book. (That history of the founding of Netflix was a major disappointment, even though it did remind me of my own adventures in startups.)
I don't know about this (Score:4, Funny)
Blow a whistle, get free long distance calls (Score:3)
Seems kind of funny to think about today, where most Millennials and Gen-Zers get upset if you call rather than text them.
Also, with all the data breaches T-Mobile has suffered lately, it seems some things at "ma bell" never change. Someone should send the current CEO of T-Mobile one of those 2600 Hz whistles as a joke. I wonder if he'd get the reference.
Re: Blow a whistle, get free long distance calls (Score:1)
Re: Blow a whistle, get free long distance calls (Score:1)
Sounds like a you problem (Score:1)
Seems kind of funny to think about today, where most Millennials and Gen-Zers get upset if you call rather than text them.
I am 1973, square Gen-X. If you call me, rather than text, it better be important. Zero people I know, in Gen-X, appreciate bullshit calls.
I actually built (and used) a "little blue box" (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, I am old.
His first invention was a device that used the famous 2600 whistle to disconnect long distance calls from the end point and then reroute them to any number you wished. Usually this would be initiated with toll free numbers. This was back in the day when a long distance call actually cost money.
I was in university at the time and able to look up the technical journal where the Lab had published the signaling scheme for long distance and then used a few 555 oscillators to build the device.
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I read that some people had success setting their answer phone message to the "number disconnected" tone used by the phone company, but I don't know if it still works. Obviously you have to tell anyone you give the number to what to expect.
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Heard it, and seen it in action. He also used to creep around the San Francisco rave scene in the late 90s and early 2000s, hitting on underage boys. It was bad enough that there were groups of older ravers who would make a point of steering the younger boys away from him if he was spotted at a party. And some promoters flat-out would not admit let him in the door.
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I'll add my voice to the chorus. Don't downvote these posts. I met him in the mid-90s and got the same vibes. This has been covered on slashdot before many moons ago in another draper thread, when more people were around that remembered it.
It's fine to do a documentary on Draper, but don't whitewash it. You need to tell all the complexities of his character, good and bad. Any documentary that does not talk about this aspect of John's behavior is a PR piece and not a documentary. John was good at ta
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Okay, so maybe I wish I hadn't even read that. Still, if facts are facts ...
A kickstarter to make a film (Score:2)
Seems like a dubious proposition. Especially when a web search for "Mayet Media" doesn't shed much light on their competency to even make a film in the first place.
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Perhaps they pitched the idea to Netflix and got "Don't call us, we'll call you."
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Perhaps they pitched the idea to Netflix and got "Don't call us, we'll call you."
Probably https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior
In 2017, organizers of at least four hacking and security-related conferences (including DEF CON, HOPE, and ToorCon) said they had banned Draper from attending in the wake of allegations against him concerning unwanted sexual attention toward other attendees. The allegations were reported in two stories by BuzzFeed News.
Further allegations against Draper emerged in reporting by The Parallax. In the story, University of Pennsylvania computer science professor Matt Blaze asserted that Draper subjected him to a stalking campaign in the 1970s when he was a teenager and when Draper would have been in his thirties. Additionally, journalist Phil Lapsley alleged that Draper consented to an interview in exchange for a partially clothed piggyback ride.
Following reports of the allegations, Draper said that he has Asperger syndrome, which he said could have contributed to his behavior. He denied some of the allegations in an interview with The Daily Dot and did not answer others. He denied any explicit sexual intent and instead described the encounters as an "energy workout" employing techniques of applied kinesiology, a discredited form of alternative medicine of which he claims to be an advocate. Draper conceded that in some instances he may have experienced an erection during the encounters which allegedly included massages of the leg and arm muscles as well as squats and pushups while carrying Draper's bodyweight.
Describing one such workout with Draper in an authorized biography, writer Craig Wilson Fraser wrote: "The first time I tried it, my drug-fueled paranoia went through the roof that it was about to turn sexual in some way, but of course nothing of that nature ever occurred."
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The claims are credible because multiple people have reported the same very specific behaviour - the "energy exercises" and piggyback riding.
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The claims are credible because multiple people have reported the same very specific behaviour - the "energy exercises" and piggyback riding.
TL;DR
Draper conceded that in some instances he may have experienced an erection during the encounters which allegedly included massages of the leg and arm muscles as well as squats and pushups while carrying Draper's bodyweight.
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The hacker/tech subculture was incredibly homophobic when I was a young adult (and I'm a Xennial), so I could only imagine how much worse it must've been for him. It certainly doesn't excuse his alleged behaviors if that was the case, but I could see how someone with autism and same-sex desires in a homophobic subculture could come out of the whole experience a bit messed up.
At least outside of certain states that insist on being on the wrong side of history, we've made some progress since then. LGBTQ+ te
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The hacker/tech subculture was incredibly homophobic when I was a young adult (and I'm a Xennial), so I could only imagine how much worse it must've been for him. It certainly doesn't excuse his alleged behaviors if that was the case, but I could see how someone with autism and same-sex desires in a homophobic subculture could come out of the whole experience a bit messed up.
At least outside of certain states that insist on being on the wrong side of history, we've made some progress since then. LGBTQ+ teenagers can have age appropriate relationships with their same-age peers, and not feel some abnormal desire to recapture lost youth when they reach their 30s by chasing after teenagers.
Imho there's enough not alleged nor homophobia. and afaik not something that aspergers explains. You just can't go to a computer conference and do this:
Draper conceded that in some instances he may have experienced an erection during the encounters which allegedly included massages of the leg and arm muscles as well as squats and pushups while carrying Draper's bodyweight.
Having made that point I concur with your view, but I think it's OT.
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I wasn't saying that the allegations are a case of homophobia, I'm saying that in the time period when this man was a teenager, society itself was considerably more homophobic. If he had felt a desire to express attraction towards his same-age peers, he would've felt significant societal pressure to keep those feelings bottled up. It's hard enough to deal with being closeted in a homophobic society, even when you don't have a condition which results in difficulty learning proper social behaviors.
I'm not m
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I'm not making excuses for his alleged behavior, just saying that a combination of having autism and growing up in a homophobic society can certainly lead to an adult who behaves inappropriately later in life.
Screwed up children become screwed up adults. News at 11.
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Seems like a dubious proposition. Especially when a web search for "Mayet Media" doesn't shed much light on their competency to even make a film in the first place.
I'm unable to find the company or anyone claiming to be associated with it or the project?
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Why do these comments keep getting modded down? The dude chased teenage boys.
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LOL mods can't make up their minds.
What even is this? (Score:2)
Their pitch isn't for a finished product looking for pre-orders, nor someone with a script looking to raise money for filming, but lliterally someone with an idea looking to raise money to do the actual research and get a scrip
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The closest I can find to anything is that the book Beyond the Little Blue Box was also a kickstarter and they're using their graphics https://www.kickstarter.com/pr... [kickstarter.com]
That book was written by (drumroll) John Draper himself and Craig Wilson Fraser who lives in Spain which incidentally is where Mayet Media claims to be located.
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That would be the kind of information to put front and center to avoid these kinds of misunderstandings. Kickstarter is well known for rubber-stamping pretty much anything that gets pitched to it, so it's not like people pitching projects for stuff they don't own is uncommon.
That said, my objection to their general lack of useful information stands.
Maybe use Steven Levy's book instead? (Score:3)
I think Hackers would make a more interesting long format documentary because it describes what a hacker in the original meaning of the term is.
For that matter, a sequel based on The Cuckoo's Egg would be worth watching too.
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The Cuckoo's Egg was made into a documentary by PBS back in 1990: https://youtu.be/4gHNVNRQTJg [youtu.be]
I would like to see Hackers made into a documentary, without Angelina Jolie.
Autistic (Score:4, Insightful)
Aspies have a unique perspective but often an inability to network and communicate.
Phreaking days (Score:1)