February 03, 2006

• I'm from Portland, I was 12 at the time this happened. I never heard it live, but it was talked of often in my high school. The Fred Meyer's intercom hacking (along with a 2600 and phrack subscription) convinced me of the superpowers of social engineering. I still pose as a reporter from time to time.
• >"Well, yeah, until you started getting vulgar. You really upset quite a few shoppers here." "That was my plan, though." "Why?" "Because I have no life." At least the guy is able to self-diagnose. Maybe when he's older he'll know the difference between an elegant prank, and just shitting on people for no reason.
• >The Fred Meyer's intercom hacking I would dispute the use of the word 'hacking' in this context, by the way. 'Hacking' in the original sense didn't imply anything invasive or malicious. And it DOES imply more cleverness than it takes to read a list of phone extensions and find the one labeled 'all page'. If you enter somebody's house through a door they left unlocked, you didn't 'hack' the door.
• Yeah, those were the days - before Caller ID.
• Funny idea, but executed by a duchebag. why am I so angry that my spell check doesn't register "douchebag?"
• I've known way bigger douchebags than that guy, and many of them were pretty funny. But none of them were that funny. That guy makes the Prankster Hall of Fame.
• Good idea, poor implementation. He had the potential for comedy gold, and instead went for the bronze.
• We always hoped that everyone would speculate that the strikers were somehow responsible for what happened. This is not funny enough for how ugly that is.
• It harkens back to a simpler time, when a tape recorder got you free phone calls at pay phones, and everybody knew the local loop-back.
• "You can't believe this incredibly cool thing I did when I was 15, man...." How fucking lame.
• "Is your refrigerator running?"
• "Do You Have Prince Edward In A Can?"
• "Albert"..."Prince Albert.." damn... royals all look alike to me...
• We have Price Edward, but Prince Albert's on backorder.
• This was such a great opportunity, and it was squandered. The only highlight was the unending harmonica duos, but even that's pretty lame. More research, and he could have all the employees in mass confusion, getting a lengthy circle of pages and cross-pages, or having stuff moved around the store... Hell, he could have done a lot better had he and his girlfriend recited the 'no parking in the Red Zone' bit from Airplane!...
• Any prankster worth his salt would have recorded something like this. I remain skeptical.
• "Price check on the coke-and-hookers bundle"