December 18, 2025
Payphones, punks, and one link
How the RESISTORS put computing into 1960s counter-culture
Teen rebels dialed a computer with a payphone—and the comments went full nerd
TLDR: A 1960s teen club called the RESISTORS hot‑wired a payphone to dial a computer, proving hobbyist hacking existed before PCs. The comment section mirrors that DIY vibe: one cryptic code link and nothing else—pure nerd energy that says the roots of today’s tech culture run deep.
The Internet wasn’t even a thing yet, but these Jersey teens were already out here breaking the rules. In 1968, a strike shut down a fancy computer conference, so a scrappy crew called the RESISTORS whipped out an early “modem,” slapped it on a payphone, and dialed into a remote machine. Boom—instant demo, crowd stunned. They learned in their mentor Claude Kagan’s barn, scored a donated minicomputer, and even brushed shoulders with pioneer Ted Nelson. Translation: before “home computers” were cool, these kids were already playing with them for fun—punk spirit, phone lines, and all.
And the community reaction? Deliciously on-brand. The top (and only!) comment is a drive‑by code drop: “Trac64 implementation” with a mysterious repo link. No commentary, no nostalgia essay—just pure “if you know, you know.” It’s the perfect nerd flex for a story about teens improvising tech with whatever they had. The strongest opinion being expressed is… silence, punctured by a single link that dares you to click. Drama? The classic kind: one cryptic post hijacks the vibe and sends everyone down a rabbit hole. Jokes and memes wrote themselves: of course a tale about dialing up via payphone ends with someone quietly dropping source code like a mic. Chef’s kiss.
Key Points
- •In 1968, the RESISTORS used an acoustic coupler and a pay phone to connect to an off-site minicomputer during a conference disrupted by a telephone operators’ strike.
- •Computerworld featured the RESISTORS on its front page, noting strong interest from professionals and the group’s outreach to youths in Trenton.
- •The RESISTORS, with fewer than 70 members over a decade, produced notable alumni, including a Cisco Systems cofounder and bestselling computing authors.
- •Engineer Claude Kagan mentored the group, worked at Western Electric (AT&T), specialized in Fortran and BASIC, and secured a DEC PDP-8 donation.
- •The article is an adapted excerpt from W. Patrick McCray’s MIT Press book, situating the RESISTORS within early hobbyist computing before the Homebrew era.