One Toy Whistle Ended up Changing the World

一个玩具哨声最终改变了世界

It’s amazing to think of how one random object can change the way our world works — and it all starts with a box of breakfast cereal.

想到一个随机的物体如何改变我们的世界运转的方式真是太神奇了，而这一切都始于一盒早餐麦片。

One significant cereal — and toy — would play a part in the creation of the world’s biggest tech company and, ultimately, to the phone, laptop, or tablet you may be reading this on right now.

一个重要的谷类食品和玩具将在世界上最大的科技公司的创建中发挥作用，最终，对于您可能现在正在阅读的手机，笔记本电脑或平板电脑，这是至关重要的。

This is the story of how the Captain Crunch toy whistle led to Apple Computers.

这是船长紧缩玩具哨声如何导致苹果计算机公司的故事。

Cap'n Crunch Bo'sun哨子 (The Cap’n Crunch Bo’sun Whistle)

There have been many great prizes found in cereal over the years, including one random item in Cap’n Crunch in the mid-60s — a simple little whistle.

多年来，在谷物中发现了许多大奖，包括60年代中期Cap'n Crunch中的一项随机物品-一个简单的小口哨声。

It was called the Bo’sun whistle, and it could replicate the whistle used by sailing captains to signal mealtimes and commands.

它被称为Bo'sun哨子，它可以复制船长使用的哨子，以表示进餐时间和命令。

The interesting thing with these whistles is the tone they give off; exactly 2600hz, and that leads to the next part of our story.

这些哨子有趣的是它们发出的音调。 正好是2600hz，这引出了我们故事的下一部分。

谁是偷猎者？ (Who Were the Phreakers?)

The Phreakers were an underground group of hackers — specifically phone hackers. This is still back in the 60s and 70s, so computers — as we know them — weren’t really a thing.

Phreakers是一群地下黑客，尤其是电话黑客。 现在仍然回到60年代和70年代，所以计算机-众所周知-并不是什么东西。

If you wanted to be a “hacker” you would have to wait a decade or two or do what the underground Phreakers were doing: hacking phone lines.

如果您想成为“黑客”，则必须等待十年或两年，或者做地下Phreakers所做的事情：窃听电话线。

Back then, the phone system worked on a series of tones, all on different frequencies. The early hackers had found out what these tones were through the Bell System Technical Journal that could be found in any library (Bell would later scramble to have all these removed).

那时，电话系统工作在一系列音调上，所有音调都在不同的频率上。 早期的黑客通过在任何图书馆中都可以找到的《 贝尔系统技术期刊》找到了这些音调(贝尔后来争先恐后地删除了所有这些音调)。

With the frequencies known, you could now play them through your phone to bypass AT&T’s analog system and be able to make free long-distance phone calls.

有了已知的频率，您现在可以通过电话播放它们，从而绕过AT＆T的模拟系统，并能够拨打免费的长途电话。

Whether you were actually looking to save money — or just wanted to circumvent a structured system — phone hacking had become a popular underground thing, and that leads us to Jon Draper.

无论您是实际上是想省钱，还是只是想规避结构化系统，电话黑客都已成为流行的地下事物，这使我们进入了乔恩·德雷珀。

乔恩·德雷珀是谁？ (Who Was Jon Draper?)

We could consider Jon Draper to be the godfather of early hacking. The Phreakers had existed for a while, but it was Jon Draper who discovered that the 2600hz frequency of the Bo’sun whistle could bypass the phone analog system perfectly to make long-distance phone calls.

我们可以认为乔恩·德雷珀(Jon Draper)是早期黑客的教父。 Phreakers已经存在了一段时间，但是Jon Draper发现Bo'sun哨子的2600hz频率可以完美地绕过电话模拟系统来拨打长途电话。

Draper would nickname himself “Captain Crunch,” and created something he called the “Blue Box” which was an electronic box that could replicate those tones used by the phone company.

德雷珀(Draper)称自己为“上尉紧缩”，并创造了一个他称为“蓝盒子”的东西，这是一个电子盒子，可以复制电话公司使用的那些音调。

Again, this seemed more about mischief than money, but wind of this underground hacking movement grew in prominence that it became big enough to be featured in an Esquire article from 1971.

再说一次，这似乎更多的是恶作剧而不是金钱，但是这种地下黑客运动的风潮越来越突出，它变得足够大，可以在1971年的Esquire文章中发表。

It was entitled: “Secrets of the Little Blue Box” and it told this entire story of the phreakers, the tones used by the phone companies, and the creation of the little blue box.

它的标题是：“ 小蓝盒子的秘密 ”，它讲述了盗窃者，电话公司使用的音调以及小蓝盒子的创建的整个故事。

A mother in Berkley, California saw this article and thought it would interest her electronics obsessed son, so she left it on the kitchen table for him.

加利福尼亚州伯克利市的一位母亲看到了这篇文章，并认为她对电子迷恋的儿子会感兴趣，于是她把它留在了厨房的桌子上。

Her son was Steve Wozniak.

她的儿子是史蒂夫·沃兹尼亚克。

在苹果成为苹果之前 (Before Apple Was Apple)

I don’t need to rehash much of this because everyone on planet Earth knows that Steve Wozniak or “Woz” was friends with a young Steve Jobs. As soon as Woz was halfway through the article, he was on the phone with Jobs reading the entire thing to him.

我不需要重述这些内容，因为地球上的每个人都知道史蒂夫·沃兹尼亚克(Steve Wozniak)或“沃兹”(Woz)是年轻的史蒂夫·乔布斯(Steve Jobs)的朋友。 沃兹刚读完这篇文章的一半时，他正和乔布斯通电话，向他朗读整个内容。

They were both psyched about this whole Phreakers movement and were pretty enamored with Jon Draper. As soon as they could, they found that Bell Technical Journal and started buying parts to make an analog tone generator.

他们俩对整个Phreakers运动都很感兴趣，并且对Jon Draper十分着迷。 他们尽快找到了《 贝尔技术期刊》，并开始购买零件以制造模拟音调发生器。

They were able to replicate and “program” in the tones with a simple tape recorder.

他们能够使用简单的录音机复制音调并对其进行编程。

Their analog version didn’t work perfectly, and Woz started working on a digital version of the Blue Box that hadn’t been attempted before. Woz said he had never been prouder of something he designed, and even though they called a wrong number on their first attempt, it worked.

他们的模拟版本无法完美运行，Woz开始开发以前从未尝试过的数字版本的Blue Box。 沃兹说，他从来没有为自己设计的东西感到骄傲，即使他们在第一次尝试时打错了电话号码，它仍然有效。

Their first attraction to the Blue Box was more prank based and there’s even the story of Woz prank calling the Vatican pretending to be Henry Kissinger in an attempt to talk to the Pope.

他们对蓝盒子的第一个吸引力更多是出于恶作剧，甚至还有沃兹的恶作剧故事，称梵蒂冈假装是亨利·基辛格，试图与教皇交谈。

He was sleeping, apparently. The Pope, not Kissinger…

显然他在睡觉。 教皇，而不是基辛格…

一切如何发展 (How Everything Went to the Next Level)

This is where the story of Apple really has its origin moment as an important milestone was about to be reached:

在这里，苹果的故事确实有其起源时刻，因为即将达到一个重要的里程碑：

Jobs came up with the idea that this hobby could be turned into something they could sell.

乔布斯想到了可以将这种爱好变成可以出售的东西。

Jobs got all the components together to make a Blue Box and figured out how they could price it. As mentioned in the book “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson, this was another moment foreshadowing what Apple would become.

乔布斯将所有组件整合在一起，制作了一个蓝框，并弄清楚了如何定价。 正如沃尔特·艾萨克森(Walter Isaacson)在“ 史蒂夫·乔布斯 ( Steve Jobs) ”一书中所提到的，这是预示着苹果将成为什么样子的又一刻。

They were able to get all the parts together for around $40 and sold it for $150. They then started shopping it around by taking it to college dorms and give demonstrations of this new technology in action.

他们能够以约40美元的价格将所有零件组装在一起，并以150美元的价格出售。 然后，他们开始将其带到大学宿舍里购物，并在实际中演示了这项新技术。

They would make calls to London, Australia, and various other places all in front of their “audience” who took to them quickly. They sold out all 100 Blue Boxes they made.

他们会在他们的“观众”面前Swift打电话到伦敦，澳大利亚和其他各个地方，他们很快就接过他们。 他们卖光了他们制作的所有100个蓝色盒子。

What they realized with the Blue Box was that they had an ideal partnership. They both had the same passion for electronics and technology, and with Woz as more of a behind-the-scenes man, Jobs could use his energy and personality to promote and grow.

他们对Blue Box的了解是他们拥有理想的合作伙伴关系。 他们俩对电子和技术都怀有同样的热情，与沃兹一样，他是一个幕后人，乔布斯可以利用他的精力和个性来促进和成长。

Woz had the brilliance in creation and invention, Jobs had the foresight in how to make that idea user-friendly, and how to package, market, and sell it.

沃兹(Woz)具有创造和发明的才华，乔布斯(Jobs)具有远见卓识，即如何使该想法变得用户友好，以及如何包装，营销和销售该想法。

Woz had the skill, Jobs had the vision.

沃兹有技巧，乔布斯有远见。

接下来发生什么？ (What Happens Next?)

On June 29, 1975, Wozniak came up with something that had never happened before: he created a motherboard that was connected to a monitor and when he typed a letter on a keyboard — it showed up on the screen.

1975年6月29日，沃兹尼亚克想出了以前从未发生过的事情：他创建了一个连接到显示器的主板，当他在键盘上键入字母时，它出现在屏幕上。

This is essentially the start of Apple, as this was the basis for the Apple 1. The Apple 1 was like a computer kit where the buyer could add, and put together, more pieces to make it customizable.

从本质上讲，这就是Apple的开始，因为这是Apple 1的基础。Apple1就像一个计算机套件，购买者可以添加并组装更多部件以使其可定制。

The main thing Jobs and Wozniak realized through this is they had a company on their hands. Their plan was to make about 50 circuit boards that would cost around $1000 and then sell them for $40 a piece.

乔布斯和沃兹尼亚克通过这件事意识到的主要事情是他们手上有一家公司。 他们的计划是制造约50块电路板，成本约为1000美元，然后以每片40美元的价格出售。

To raise the money, Wozniak sold his $500 calculator and Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus for $1500, giving them capital, a design for a product, and a plan.

为了筹集资金，沃兹尼亚克卖出了500美元的计算器，乔布斯卖出了1500美元的大众汽车，给了他们资本，产品设计和计划。

Since Jobs was on a fruitarian diet and had recently been pruning apple trees, they went with the name Apple computers.

由于乔布斯以水果饮食为食，并且最近正在修剪苹果树，因此他们以苹果计算机的名字命名。

It was thought the name Apple would take the edge off the name ‘computer’ which was still seen as industrial, foreign, and mechanical. There was the thought computers would take over, and we were facing a George Orwell, “1984” Big Brother/Government situation.

人们认为苹果这个名字将取代“计算机”这个名字，后者仍然被视为工业，外国和机械领域。 曾经有人以为计算机会接管人们，而我们正面临着乔治·奥威尔(George Orwell)的“ 1984”老大哥/政府情况。

Another big feature with the name Apple is that it would get them ahead of another big tech-based company when listed in the phone book — Atari.

苹果这个名字的另一个大特点是，当电话簿中的产品Atari上市时，它将使它们领先于另一家大型科技公司。

新苹果公司的下一步 (The Next Steps For The New Apple Company)

This would lead them to the Apple II and a big innovation. Telephone companies didn’t have a monopoly on phone lines anymore, and other companies could create devices that could hook into them.

这将带给他们Apple II和一项重大创新。 电话公司不再垄断电话线，其他公司可以制造可以挂接到电话线中的设备。

Wozniak didn’t know much about phone lines, but he knew someone who did: Jon Draper.

沃兹尼亚克对电话线了解不多，但他认识一个人：乔恩·德雷珀(Jon Draper)。

Woz had tracked down and finally met Draper earlier on, and Draper would work as an independent contractor for the newly formed Apple company. He ended up designing a telephone interface board that would lead the way for computers being able to have tone-activated calling menus, voice mail, and other such technology.

沃兹(Woz)进行了追踪并最终与Draper会面，Draper将作为新成立的Apple公司的独立承包商。 他最终设计了一个电话接口板，它将为计算机提供具有音调激活的呼叫菜单，语音邮件和其他类似技术的方式。

Going into the 80s, Draper would also help to develop the first word processor for the Apple II along with a 3D graphic design system. And this would lead to the Apple III computer.

进入80年代，Draper还将帮助为Apple II和3D图形设计系统开发第一个文字处理器。 这将导致Apple III计算机。

This would lead to the iconic Macintosh in 1984, where Apple moved to the forefront of the technology world along with this ad that would change the future of advertising and marketing:

这将导致1984年标志性的Macintosh，其中苹果与该广告一起进入了技术领域的最前沿，这将改变广告和营销的未来：

苹果的演变 (The Evolution of Apple)

This could take weeks to cover, but it’s in the 80s where — besides the Macintosh — they made their big strides with things like:

这可能要花几周的时间，但是在80年代，除了Macintosh之外，他们在诸如以下方面取得了长足的进步：

• The mouse鼠标
• Color display monitors彩色显示器
• Macintosh PlusMacintosh Plus
• Macintosh IIMacintosh II
• Apple modems苹果调制解调器

Things would continue to evolve with the release of the Powerbook, the Newton, the iMac G3, and then in 2001, along with how they would market them.

随着Powerbook ， Newton ， iMac G3的发布 ，然后在2001年，以及它们的营销方式，事情将继续发展。

Then a device that would cause an earthquake in society: the iPod.

然后是会在社会上引起地震的设备：iPod。

From there it would lead us to different versions of the Mac, the iPod Shuffle, the MacBook Pro, the iPod Shuffle, and then only July 11, 2008, the first iPhone.

从那里可以带我们到不同版本的Mac，iPod Shuffle，MacBook Pro，iPod Shuffle，然后才是2008年7月11日，第一款iPhone。

From there, you know the rest of the story as the iPhone has transformed how we exist, interact, and communicate. It’s now to the point where we have trouble imagining life without them.

从那里开始，您将了解故事的其余部分，因为iPhone改变了我们的存在，互动和交流方式。 现在到了我们无法想象没有他们的生活的地步。

Steve Jobs followed an obsessive path of design, functionality, and marketing to transform our lives. We could consider him the modern-day Thomas Edison or Henry Ford — and possibly even bigger, depending on your viewpoint.

史蒂夫·乔布斯(Steve Jobs)遵循着迷恋设计，功能和行销的道路，以改变我们的生活。 我们可以认为他是现代的托马斯·爱迪生(Thomas Edison)或亨利·福特(Henry Ford)，甚至可能更大，这取决于您的观点。

结语 (Wrapping it Up)

So if you’re reading this article on any form of Apple product, you can trace things back to all the products that came before it and all the way back to that first Blue Box.

因此，如果您正在阅读有关任何形式的Apple产品的文章，则可以追溯到之前的所有产品，一直追溯到第一个Blue Box。

The Blue Box put into motion what Apple would become, and the Blue Box can get traced back to a random encounter with a toy whistle that allowed people to undertake a bizarre new hobby.

蓝盒子使苹果公司变成了现实，而蓝盒子可以追溯到与玩具哨声的随机相遇，这使人们可以从事一种奇怪的新爱好。

If it wasn’t for Cap’n Crunch — and the Bo’sun whistle — we probably wouldn’t have Apple, and the technology as it is today. The Blue Box is what gave Jobs and Wozniak the confidence of what was possible between the two of them.

如果不是Cap'n Crunch和Bo'sun的口哨声，那么我们可能就不会拥有Apple以及当今的技术。 蓝盒子使乔布斯和沃兹尼亚克对两者之间可能发生的事情充满了信心。

Wozniak claimed: “If it hadn’t been for the Blue Boxes, there wouldn’t have been an Apple.” Jobs would back up this statement saying he was “100 sure” there wouldn’t have been an Apple without the Blue Box as it allowed them to see that it was possible to create something and put it into production.

沃兹尼亚克声称： “如果不是蓝盒子，那将不会有苹果。 ”乔布斯会支持这一说法，称他“ 百分百肯定 ”，如果没有Blue Box，就不会有苹果，因为它让他们看到了创造和投入生产的可能性。

And we wouldn’t have any of this life-changing technology if it wasn’t for a random little toy in a beloved breakfast cereal.

如果不是在心爱的早餐麦片中随机添加一个小玩具，我们将不会拥有任何改变生活的技术。