Well that was a blast from the past. Got contacted by a friend from the 80s who had introduced me to someone who gave me one of the best bits of advice I ever got.
"Never take a bank for less than 6 digits or more than 7"

I never actually took a bank it was more about knowing the limits to push

I'm just going to put this out there.

I miss bangpaths

Found my tone dialer in an old rucksack. For over 15 years I didn't ever leave my house without it. Picked it up sometime in the mid 80s in Amsterdam & think I paid the equivalent of 5 quid for it. Needs new batteries but think only use these days is playing Axel F. & Happy Birthday on it?

@bsky.realhackhistory.org you've inspired me to start digging through my notes and printouts. found part of one long printout from ProQuest/ABI Inform I did around 1995. That was the 1st time I heard about defcon

Just found the video tape of a Thames (or was it LWT) news story on hacking that I was on, wrote the software for & helped organise in the late 80s. Wonder if Andy Ritchie/Zac Franken is on Bluesky as he was on it too. Lots of video of him walking down the street

Guess I should finally accept that my invoice is not going to get paid eventually after all

Holy Shit Wayne was always a bit off but we had some great conversations in the early to mid 90s but I didn't realize he'd gone the full Icke, a complete head the ball

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_M...

Wow it looks like the Oblomow/Oblomov in Bochum still exists and in the same location.

I was last there in 1989

ein Bier und eine Pizza bitte

something something scheisse something

Still one of my favourite pieces of mail from BT as it could have gotten quite nasty if they had gone ahead. Although with a good barrister i'd probably have gotten away with a slap on the wrist. The laws in the UK didn't really catch up with hacking & computers until the following year.