What My Dad Taught Me About Tech
Not the exact same dialer my father carried, but pretty close. (Via PhishMe.)
Note: This post inspired by Gizmodo’s feature on what our dads taught us about tech.
My father didn’t enjoy gadgets for gadgets’ sake. He bought fish from Nova Scotia, Iceland, Florida, and other places a long way from our home in upstate New York. He and a handful of employees cut it all up and sold the filets. He grew up in rural Long Island, then on a working upstate farm, and couldn’t type beyond finger pecking. Still, the very first device I can ever remember thinking was amazingly cool–or whatever equivalent of “cool” a 6-year-old had in the mid-1980s–was a tiny device he held up to the phone receiver at five in the morning.
It was roughly the size of today’s iPhone, though small in my dad’s gargantuan hands. The label read “Radio Shack,” it was sharp-edged and brown plastic, and it had a big speaker under its flip-open cover. If you slid open the case in the back, there were lots of switches, and maybe even transistors. The main magic, though, was when my father would pick up the kitchen phone handset, hold the speaker up to it, and generate a series of squawks and beeps. When the analog argument was over, he’d maybe punch in a few numbers, then put the device away and start talking. “Jim? Rick Purdy. I need Icelandic Cod by Thursday …”
I picked up my tech obsession, indirectly, from my dad’s cast-offs. After he sold off and closed Statewide Foods the first time, to try a white-collar job and spend more time with his kids, I inherited his office’s bookkeeping computer. It was a Gateway 486DX-33, “Turbo” switch and all. I installed Windows 95 when it arrived from a dozen or more 3.5″ floppy discs. I upgraded it with a CD-ROM (4x) and sound card (Creative, 16-bit) for proper gaming capacity, but then had to check out every single Windows setting, BIOS switch, CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT script, and potential hardware problem when System Shock wouldn’t stop crashing with a terminal-type “Divide Overflow” message. In the end, the culprit was an obscure BIOS setting that put the hard drive into a necessary “Turbo” mode. I will never again buy, name, or accept anything in my life with a “Turbo” label–ever.
Cut to 2010, and I’m a 29-year-old writer who earns his wages detailing the kinds of work-arounds and system fixes that filled my formative years. Interviewed by the local alternative weekly, I brought up that brown box of my father’s. I mentioned it again in my next phone call with my father, and he explained the mystery I’d managed to never directly ask him about.
The device was a Radio Shack tone dialer, and he discovered it in the world of long-distance brokers. It was a kind of “red box” phreaking tool. Rather than pay then-monopoly rates to AT&T/Bell/NY Telephone for long-distance calls, the tones and squawks from the device activated something deep within the local phone switching station, which in turn connected and authorized him to use his own much cheaper carrier to call Iceland, Canada, or wherever he needed fish from.
The conversation about the “brown box” was the last I’d ever have with my father. He passed away on March 23, 2010. A heavy manila envelope had arrived four days earlier. Inside was a brown, dust-flecked device, with a speaker and all the switches still set up.
Every generation thinks they’re the first to stumble across everything. I’m typing this from a smartphone tethered to my laptop to avoid Panera’s unusable lunchtime Wi-Fi. My dad was sneaking around legitimacy to get things done long before his son.
Well written article. Sorry for your loss.
Chris K.
20 Jun 10 at 8:56 pm
I am very sorry for your loss and Thank You for all the great things you bring to the table as a writer. God Bless.
Daniel
20 Jun 10 at 10:29 pm
Thoughtful memories well told.
I can kind of relate to this, my father used tech to get ahead in business at the time too. When computers or least personal ones were a new thing. It was great! I got access to stuff that normal eleven year olds didn’t get access too. He’s still a firm believer in the right tool for the right job and will pay the little bit extra for it.
Every moment is precious, I’m conscious of this, to make it home 2-3 times a years to spent a couple of days with him.
Gavin
21 Jun 10 at 2:36 am
It’s amazing the little things that our parents give us along the way that have a huge impact on our lives.
Animeman
21 Jun 10 at 3:33 am
Well written article, I am sorry to hear about your fathers passing. My own dad taught me how to be an electrician, I would go on jobs with him and he would hand over exactly half of what he made to me afterwards. Sure I would just dick around and put in a few outlets, run some Romex, but he taught me the value of hard work. He is also the type of guy who will circumvent the rules if it fits the current situation, a trait I picked up on early.
Ryan
Ryan C
21 Jun 10 at 8:23 am
Great story. Your Dad sounds like a great guy. Sorry for your loss
John M
21 Jun 10 at 8:30 am
Wow, similar story to mine. I had a freaking T-1 in my house when I was 13 years old. My dad’s business was an ISP. He helped pretty much invent video-conferencing. My dad was the best Idea-man in history, but never had what it took to finish ANYTHING. And another commonality was that my father passed away April 27th, 2010. It was my first Father’s day without mine. It sucked. I miss my father and my friend and my mentor. Sorry for your loss. if you ever want to chat, shoot me an email. Great story.
Thanks,
Bailey
Josh Bailey
21 Jun 10 at 9:10 am
Wonderful portrait of you Dad Kevin
‘
love
Uncle Bill
william j sherman
21 Jun 10 at 10:43 am
Great story well written, I can picture you watching your dad with awe as he dialed with the tone box. Sorry for your loss…
P. Singh
21 Jun 10 at 4:37 pm
Well done.
jason s.
21 Jun 10 at 6:07 pm
Heartwarming piece.
I’m sure many folks, not just myself, can relate to your upbringing and following in your father’s footsteps of “less than kosher” technical know-how.
Really hit home for me. Thank you for that.
Mike Schuster
22 Jun 10 at 4:39 pm
You have quite a talent for writing. Your dad, I’m sure, was very proud of you.
Brett A
24 Jun 10 at 10:50 pm
I’ve been drawn to Lifehacker for some time – not simply for the computing news – but for the thoughtful, well written reviews. You write in a way that invites others to share in your quests for knowledge, for community, and for innovation. Some see knowledge as a way to have power over others – they are reluctant to share. You share freely, and in doing so, empower others to grow. You are an insightful pioneer in the rapidly advancing knowledge and computing explosion. Most importantly, you have the courage to share of yourself, to let us see the experiences that shaped your perceptions of the world. Kudos to you Kevin. My deepest condolences for your loss. I celebrate the gifts your father freely shared with you. Thoughts from a fellow WNYer.
Valerie
26 Jun 10 at 12:50 pm
While we had very different fathers, your early child hood memories parallel mine. Thanks for stirring up some thought of my early computing days. I had a 486 sx33. Worst computer that I have ever experienced.
Growing up, my perception of Phone Phreaks was that they were punk kids resembling the characters in the movie “Hackers”. It is very interesting to hear about it used in a practical application by someone in a low-tech business. Sorry for your loss and thank you for this article.
JL
Jordan L.
13 Jul 10 at 10:56 am
My condolences for the loss of your father, and thank you for the reminder that I should make more time to spend with mine.. I will.
Thinking back to my childhood in the 80s, and my many ruminations spent waiting for Space Invaders or a similar cassette to load, I could never have imagined the technology that would become available to us today… Or that it would be my Dad coming to me with technical problems. Back then I knew he could fix anything.
Those days of innocence seem so far away now.
Kevin L.
15 Aug 10 at 9:01 pm
love this article kev.
alexis
18 Aug 10 at 4:07 pm
Really great piece. I too carry on life-hacker traditions learned from my dad. I remember talking to kids at school about listservs and they looked at me like I was nuts. They thought I was making it up… When I was really little (1977ish) I sorted cards for him at the UT Austin computer lab and thought I was so tron. Thanks for sharing!
J-Ro
14 Oct 10 at 2:57 pm
How can you be only 3 years younger than me and not have OWNED your own Radio Shack modified-for-phreaking tone dialer back in the day? I thought you were smart….now, not so much.
Peter Wakeman
20 Oct 10 at 12:26 pm