@darius @theuniverse If you haven’t read Phil Lapsley’s Exploding the Phone, the result of many years of original research into the history of phone phreaking, it might make a really interesting counterpoint to Stacy Horn’s book. Very much to her credit, Echo was famous for its supportive vibe, unlike other early NYC ISPs, which tended to be more like the city back then, rougher, often a bit gnarly. But precisely because phreaking is *so* different, and such unknown territory, the stories he tells — most of all about how scattered misfits found each other on “the world’s largest machine” — you might find lots of strange resonances. Chock full of neurodivergence, too. I loved it, much more than the usual tech history. He’s a tremendous writer, and I never understood why the book didn’t get more attention.