First real-life technomancer died today, Whistler aka Joybubbles died today age 5 Options

[Buster]

"Whistler", born blind, learned to whistle the song of the telephone system back in the 50's (1950's, not 2050's) when he was only 7 years old. His perfectly pitched ear learned to pick out the 2600 hz tone used by the phone system. He whistled the tones back and learned he could make free long distance phone calls and do other interesting things with the phone system that got him arrested back in the 70's. He was then hired by the phone company as a troubleshooter for the same system.

Declaring he would never grow up, he insisted he would remain 5 years old up to the day he died. He went on to found the Church of Eternal Childhood.

Interesting life story of an original phone phreak.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/magazine...serland&emc=rss

[hobgoblin]

you got to love being arrested and then hired. im not sure if he was the first to experience that, but im damn sure he was not the last one.

[Aaron]

If by "today" you mean "August 8, 2007," then yes, he did.

He was one of the few people who could truly be described as "the man, the myth, the legend." Well, the boy. Sort of. It's complicated.

Anyway, the nickname "Whistler" was his in college. When he passed away, his legal name was Joybubbles. Wikipedia has a short but fairly solid biography.