But on the evening of 29 October
1991, thirteen disks were strewn around his $700 Amiga 500. A
fourteenth disk was in the computer's disk drive.
Mendax sat on a couch reading Soledad Brother, the prison
letters from George Jackson's nine-year stint in one of the toughest
prisons in the US. Convicted for a petty crime, Jackson was supposed
to be released after a short sentence but was kept in the prison at
the governor's pleasure. The criminal justice system kept him on a
merry-go-round of hope and despair as the authorities dragged their
feet. Later, prison guards shot and killed Jackson. The book was one
of Mendax's favourites, but it offered little distraction from his
unhappiness.
The droning sound of a telephone fault signal--like a busy
signal--filled the house. Mendax had hooked up his stereo speakers to
his modem and computer, effectively creating a speaker phone so he
could listen to tones he piped from his computer into the telephone
line and the ones which came back from the exchange in reply. It was
perfect for using Trax's MFC phreaking methods.
Mendax also used the system for scanning. Most of the time, he picked
telephone prefixes in the Melbourne CBD.
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