"war-dialing" etymology?
Peter Seebach
"wargames dialer", and that the term was coined after _War Games_ game out in
1983. Obviously, the technique was known earlier, but I have been unable to
find a single earlier usage in print.
I'm crossposting to the two newsgroups most likely to have people who would
know. Can anyone confirm or deny the usage of that term *before* the movie?
This etymology is so widely repeated that I've always assumed it's true. The
guy saying it's not the case assures me that he remembers the usage, but
memory is a fickle beast, and it's not unheard of for people to remember
hearing a word or phrase before it was actually used, as they gradually
translate old memories to current usage.
I haven't been able to find any phrase similar to this in pre-1983 Usenet
(thanks, Google!), but that hardly means anything.
-s
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Keith F. Lynch
> I have been told, many times, that the term "war-dialer" is a
> contraction from "wargames dialer", and that the term was coined
> after _War Games_ game out in 1983.
I checked both my personal archives and Google's. The earliest
usages I could find were:
* Wardialer (December 1988)
* Wargames dialer (December 1988, ten days later)
* War-dialer (March 1989)
The forms war-dial, wardial, war-dialing, and wardialing do not occur
in the 1980s.
Of course neither my personal archives nor Google's are complete. But
if the term was in use, the use certainly wasn't widespread. Nor do I
remember it.
> Obviously, the technique was known earlier, but I have been unable
> to find a single earlier usage in print.
More common terms are (or were) demon dialer and auto-redial, both of
which first appeared in November 1982, according to Google. Of course
the technique is far older than that.
If I recall correctly, a Hayes 1200 bps modem I bought in 1984 would
redial only nine times without a new command. This was supposedly
because of some law. Of course these days the redialing is more
likely to be due to software on a PC than a command built into a modem
being triggered by a user at a terminal. Since I've never closely
looked at any such software, I don't know if it still requires
periodic manual intervention, or whether it will keep trying forever.
I do know that I can recognize a busy signal faster than any computer
that I've seen, and that I can further shave the redial time with the
ATS11=40 command. (The default seems to be 70 ms per touchtone, but
40 will almost always work. 35 is pushing it.) This was useful when
trying to get into busy BBSs that were busy 99% of the time, and that
only had one phone line. I don't miss those days at all.
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Peter Seebach
Keith F. Lynch <k...@KeithLynch.net> wrote:
>More common terms are (or were) demon dialer and auto-redial, both of
>which first appeared in November 1982, according to Google. Of course
>the technique is far older than that.
Yeah. I got email from a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend - the guy who
wrote the program to make it look like a computer was doing that, in WarGames,
and he said he was pretty sure the term was coined *after* the movie, and
he was *there*. So, looks like I probably win this one. Whee!
Obviously, anyone who *does* have citations for an earlier use of the term
is welcome to post them. I did find a "WARDIAL3" program for the TRS-80 - and
it says it's a "Wargames Dialer", so I'm assuming it postdates the movie.
Jeff Raben
>I have been told, many times, that the term "war-dialer" is a contraction from
>"wargames dialer", and that the term was coined after _War Games_ game out in
>1983. Obviously, the technique was known earlier, but I have been unable to
>find a single earlier usage in print.
>
snip
It was also called "demon dialer" which is from "daemon dialer".
Daemon tasks run in the background while other things go on (like find
fast rebuilding in Window$ and other indexing done on many systems).
The daemon dialer would run in the background and log candidates for
later call back. (I wouldn't know anything about that)
Jeff
and stir with a Runcible spoon...
Jim
<se...@plethora.net> wrote:
> I have been told, many times, that the term "war-dialer" is a contraction from
> "wargames dialer", and that the term was coined after _War Games_ game out in
> 1983. Obviously, the technique was known earlier, but I have been unable to
> find a single earlier usage in print.
Not to mention that "War Games" brought us the auto-dial *acoustic*
modem! :-)
Jim
Anne & Lynn Wheeler
> Not to mention that "War Games" brought us the auto-dial *acoustic*
> modem! :-)
and the scene in war games on the ferry was actually from steilicom to
anderson is (in puget sound) .... and that ferry has since been
retrofitted as tourist bout on lake washington out of kirkland (one
of the "high" spots is by bill's place)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000d.html#39
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Chris Hedley
> and the scene in war games on the ferry was actually from steilicom to
> anderson is (in puget sound) .... and that ferry has since been
> retrofitted as tourist bout on lake washington out of kirkland (one
> of the "high" spots is by bill's place)
So Bill's place is next to the infamous Steilacoom nuthouse,
then? Figures, I suppose...
Chris.
Charlie Gibbs
writes:
Which, judging by the speed of screen redraws, could run at 9600 bps.
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Peter Seebach
>Not to mention that "War Games" brought us the auto-dial *acoustic*
>modem! :-)
Yes. They wrote a special program for the computer to simulate the display
as if it were dialing. That was funny.
Anne & Lynn Wheeler
> So Bill's place is next to the infamous Steilacoom nuthouse,
> then? Figures, I suppose...
steilacom is on puget sound ... sort of west of ft. lewis & south of
tacoma.
ferry is now refurbished & running as tourist boat on lake washington
out of kirkland ... east of seattle
--
Anne & Lynn Wheeler | ly...@garlic.com - http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/
Chris Hedley
> steilacom is on puget sound ... sort of west of ft. lewis & south of
> tacoma.
I'll know where to avoid should I ever visit Seattle, then! :) (Smiley
probably inappropriate having read that actress' autobiography of life
as an inmate there...)
Chris.
Glenn Snow
was the one next to the high school I grew up next to in Woodland Hills,
(southern) California...
mark schieldrop
>I do know that I can recognize a busy signal faster than any computer
>that I've seen, and that I can further shave the redial time with the
>ATS11=40 command. (The default seems to be 70 ms per touchtone, but
>40 will almost always work. 35 is pushing it.) This was useful when
>trying to get into busy BBSs that were busy 99% of the time, and that
>only had one phone line. I don't miss those days at all.
I actually liked the high price for admission in those days. Constant busy
signals usually meant a good board and great discussion, a far cry from the
adolescent drivel being hammered out in a plague of webforums out there.
BTW I was trying to remember how to speed up modem dialing -- the AT command
eluded me after all these years. Kudos. :)
- mark
danny burstein
Demon Dialer, from Zoom (telephonics) 1982 or maybe a year or two earlier.
A stand alone box which you placed between your telephone set and the wall
jack.
Among other things, it would keep redialing a busy number until it got
through and then would connect you up.
(It's primary purpose was to auto insert the local seven digit number, and
then your id code, for the early dial-around services such as MCI's
Execunet and Southern Pacific Communications similar offering)
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