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What's 81-Year-Old John 'Captain Crunch' Draper Doing Now? (johndraper.us) 54

Posted by EditorDavid from the phreak-flag dept.
He was employee #13 at Apple Computers — after impressing Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs with his "blue box" phone-phreaking technique. Now 81-year-old John "Captain Crunch" Draper has launched a new YouTube channel and web site.

"I spent decades exploring the depths of communication technology," Draper says in a recent video, "always pushing the boundaries of what's possible, and challenging the status quo." The video is embedded at the top of the new web site, welcoming visitors to "your gateway to my world, where I share everything from my secrets of the early phone freaking days to the latest in emergency communication systems that could one day save your life." "Here you'll find insights into my current projects including advanced uses of artificial intelligence, emergency communication preparedness, and much more. Whether you're a technology enthusiast, a fellow veteran, or someone curious about the unseen forces that connect our world, here's something for you."
And clicking the "Current Projects" link leads to an interesting list:
  • "My involvement in the field of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) recently took me to "Contact in the Desert," a pivotal gathering of leading scientists pushing for governmental transparency in UAP research."
  • "Artificial Intelligence, particularly ChatGPT, has captivated my interest. I'm refining my skills as a prompt engineer, integrating AI into various facets of my life, from web development and programming to personal research on UAPs and anti-gravity phenomena."
  • "In light of global tensions, such as the Ukrainian conflict, I'm actively preparing for potential disruptions in conventional communication systems. Together with a hardware partner, we are pioneering advanced communication technologies under the unlicensed ISM band using the Meshtastic protocol. This technology, which is popular in the UK but less so in the US, facilitates secure, low-power, and nearly undetectable communication. I am advocating for its adoption in Las Vegas, where it remains largely underutilized."
  • "My YouTube channel not only serves as a platform for project updates but also as a conduit for preserving the legacy of the computing era's pioneers." [Draper's channel has already hosted a reunion with members from the original 1970s HomeBrew Computer Club.]

Draper's home page also has a 59-minute video of a conference talk where Draper tells his life story...

And five months ago Draper released a video on YouTube showing what happened when he asked ChatGPT to design his logo. It resulted in "really hokey pictures — terrible." But Draper scrolls them all to provide his critique....

There's also a Patreon account where Draper is offering to schedule Zoom meetings with subscribers (for between $22 and $45 an hour).


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What's 81-Year-Old John 'Captain Crunch' Draper Doing Now? More

What's 81-Year-Old John 'Captain Crunch' Draper Doing Now?

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  • Uh (Score:3)

    by DrMrLordX ( 559371 ) on Saturday August 24, 2024 @02:47PM (#64731976)

    Seems like something is missing here . . . is it a good idea to talk this guy up?

    • Re:Uh (Score:5, Informative)

      by divide overflow ( 599608 ) on Saturday August 24, 2024 @02:59PM (#64731982)
      I presume you are referring to things such as these mentioned in his Wikipedia entry:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      • Re:Uh (Score:5, Informative)

        by DrMrLordX ( 559371 ) on Saturday August 24, 2024 @03:01PM (#64731984)

        Yeah, dude's a bit off, which is why he keeps getting banned from cons etc.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Ziest ( 143204 )

          I've met John Draper a few times at geek gatherings. He is a bit off and and some of his behavior could be interpreted as being inappropriate. I've heard stories but they were always of the "friend of a friend" kind.

          • I don't know what, if anything, might have happened behind closed doors. But he used to creep around the Bay Area rave scene back in the day, And he most definitely is into young boys, some whom I knew for a fact to be under 18 at the time. He was so notoriously a chickenhawk that some of us on the old SFraves list on hyperreal made a point, when more than one of us were at the same party when we saw him, of one distracting him while another warned the object of his... affections... away.

      • This my reaction to the headline "What's 81-Year-Old John 'Captain Crunch' Draper Doing Now?" -> "Rubbing himself up against teenage boys".
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • I read the allegations in the Wikipedia article about him and it's disturbing to say the least. If they are true, I wonder what could've led to this behavior. A strict "sex leads to hell" upbringing? Unable to have any kind of girlfriend or boyfriend? Asperger's Syndrome would certainly compound the matter.

  • Provable things:
    1. His contribution to hacking.
    2, Apple wouldn't exist without him. Heard it directly from Wozniak that Apple wouldn't exist without John Draper.

    Unproved:
    Did he outright assault or force anyone into anything? I have met him a number of times, dude was frail for at least the past 10 to 15 years .. the accusations at these conferences emerged when? 7 or 8 years ago? I assume they were average build and adults (if not, why isn't he in jail?). It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I'm not saying

    • Provable things: 1. His contribution to hacking. 2, Apple wouldn't exist without him. Heard it directly from Wozniak that Apple wouldn't exist without John Draper.

      Unproved: Did he outright assault or force anyone into anything? I have met him a number of times, dude was frail for at least the past 10 to 15 years .. the accusations at these conferences emerged when? 7 or 8 years ago? I assume they were average build and adults (if not, why isn't he in jail?). It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I'm not saying it didn't happen .. but it doesn't seem plausible .. my bar for proof would be high. It doesn't help that we don't have good descriptions of what took place (I assume, I haven't looked).

      We shouldn't be canceling people if we can't prove not only what they did but also any sort of malice.

      He was convicted of fraud, once via phone with his goofy Captain Crunch whistle where he had a setup for people to avoid long distance charges, and also of counterfeiting sports tickets. (he plea bargained that one to a misdemeanor) Now whether that means he should be "canceled" or not is up to others. I can say that it is not out of the question for a rational observer to conclude that he has sketchy impulse control, so it is not foolishness to have a degree of distrust for the guy.

      • If he had a past history of sexual assault or similar crimes, I'd be more inclined to believe current allegations of the same. If you believe that his pst behavior suggests low impulse control and a propensity for crimes in the present day why not investigate him for arson crimes as well. I'm sure that's just as connected as any crimes of a sexual nature.

        Then again anyone going to a convention makes them several orders of magnitude more likely to be a sexual deviant and/or degenerate in my book. I think

        • If he had a past history of sexual assault or similar crimes, I'd be more inclined to believe current allegations of the same. If you believe that his pst behavior suggests low impulse control and a propensity for crimes in the present day why not investigate him for arson crimes as well. I'm sure that's just as connected as any crimes of a sexual nature.

          There were some sexual allegations. It was a bit sketchy - probably something went on, but one fellow noted he was tripping, and possibly being paranoid. Regardless, it was other adult males, and very few people care about male-male consent issues.

          Perhaps I'll explore this entire line of thought further in my newsletter.

          You do have T-shirts, I hope! 8^)

    • The most practical thing to do is just let him do his own thing and leave him alone. Unfortunately the article we're all responding to is a hype piece for Capn Crunch. There's no good reason to shine a spotlight on him.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Unproved:
      Did he outright assault or force anyone into anything? I have met him a number of times, dude was frail for at least the past 10 to 15 years .. the accusations at these conferences emerged when? 7 or 8 years ago? I assume they were average build and adults (if not, why isn't he in jail?). It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I'm not saying it didn't happen .. but it doesn't seem plausible .. my bar for proof would be high. It doesn't help that we don't have good descriptions of what took place (I

    • âoeI hear no evil therefor I see no evilâ. Make no mistake dude, Draper is a freaking disturbing old man and has been for a very long time. He took his popularity and used it to abuse young minds. That is sick and gross and Iâ(TM)m one of the legs he touched along with having mutual friends at multiple defcons of him asking young adults and teenagers to goto his room to stretch. Too many occurrences where thereâ(TM)s smoke thereâ(TM)s fire. This is real life stuff, in person, person
  • Probably sitting around and waiting for the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 to ship. Two ARM cores and two RISC-V cores. What hacker is not wanting to get one?

  • Devices that work peer to peer in an emergency make sense to me. I just don't follow why they'd force it to only offer voice transmission/reception.

    Why not 'data' in general? And let applications work on top of whatever interface/guarantees they can manage. Heck text only should work when voice can't (less information to send/receive).

    I guess having only 1 purpose means they can/should optimize a lot of stuff for that goal. Make it easy/obvious to use.

    Though I'd argue that shouldn't be impossible with t

    • My first guess is because sending voice is a priority, whereas sending data can come later.

      In an emergency, people can use voice to coordinate efforts, report and transmit information, describe situations, etc. It is also extremely low bandwidth.

      When you start transmitting data, the bandwidth requirements go up. Consider way back in the beginning, the lowly 300-baud modem. The same carrier that could transmit voice with ease, was struggling with sending a single picture. But once you open the floodgates of

  • "Together with a hardware partner, we are pioneering advanced communication technologies under the unlicensed ISM band using the Meshtastic protocol. This technology, which is popular in the UK but less so in the US, facilitates secure, low-power, and nearly undetectable communication. I am advocating for its adoption in Las Vegas, where it remains largely underutilized."

    Meshtastic is a very simple FEC-using protocol that can support anywhere from bits per second to a hundred kb/s or so. It's not "nearly un

    • Just out of curiosity, because he does have a point about potential disruptions to mainstream communications, what would a forward-thinking person look for in a long-range communication system in case of, say, natural disaster? I see ads for radios, and they claim "12 KM range!! No license needed!" but, yeah, sure. In reality, you're probably lucky to reach down the block. That's about the extent of my involvement in the radio community. Any suggestions?
  • Later on Captain Crunch went on hard-times, a virtual indigent. Steve Jobs refused any help but Steve Wozniak did help out.

    "as the story goes, Draper reached out to Jobs when he fell on hard times, but Jobs refused to meet him"

  • He used to show up to some of the hacker cons. Hated smoking. Was generally a nice guy, clearly very focused on his own world, and defensive against a world that he thought was trying to get him and simultaneously ignore his contributions. He may have had a point. I never witnessed any sexual assault behavior. While I thought the world of the old blue boxers for getting into the system and opening it, most of us were using patch boards or extenders. Still, to be able at that time to reach out to people in p

  • Any dude under 18 was referred to as 'draper bait' for a reason. I've talked with the guy, drank with the guy and have bumped into him at gatherings for decades. He doesn't hide his obviously disgusting preferences. When you scrutinize those who prop him up in the scene you see much MUCH of the same kind of stuff. Crunch, Goldstein and Stroger all waiting to goto heaven with their 2600 virgins.
  • Sounds more like a prompt scientist. /s
  • I was 16 it was 2004 I was at DEFCON at the Alexis park. I had first met Draper on a conference bridge when a bunch of phone phreaks called his WHOIS information and were shocked it was Draper himself. He was heavy on his anti SPAM company back then. Later that year I saw him at DEFCON shaking other geeks hands like myself. Later that evening a random person wanted to show us some of his tech gear like recording device for phones and other phreak stuff mostly. Draper in the room looked at me in my eyes and
  • I don't want to defame without evidence or repeat rumors, but he allegedly made some people at tech/maker gatherings personally uncomfortable to the point where people mentioned it. If he has learned some social skills and found ways to engage more people more constructively, more power to him.

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