Stephen Wozniak, a founder of Apple Computer, was speaking to the choir Saturday at a conference in Midtown Manhattan, recalling an era when the word "hackers" referred to technological wizards, not rogue computer users... Mr. Wozniak described his relationship with John T. Draper, a man who became known as "Captain Crunch" 35 years ago when he showed how a plastic whistle that came in Cap'n Crunch cereal boxes could be used to manipulate the national phone system. . . .
Stephen Wozniak, a founder of Apple Computer, was speaking to the choir Saturday at a conference in Midtown Manhattan, recalling an era when the word "hackers" referred to technological wizards, not rogue computer users.

His choir was a group of self-described hackers, about 2,000 of them, listening to Mr. Wozniak's keynote speech at the H.O.P.E. conference - Hackers on Planet Earth, put on by the hacker magazine 2600 News.

Mr. Wozniak described his relationship with John T. Draper, a man who became known as "Captain Crunch" 35 years ago when he showed how a plastic whistle that came in Cap'n Crunch cereal boxes could be used to manipulate the national phone system.

Mr. Wozniak said he had not cared that the technology could save him a few dimes. Rather, he said, he found it wonderful that a simple tool, cleverly used, could control something complicated and powerful in a forbidden way.

In an interview before the speech, Mr. Wozniak, 53, lamented that people now "think of hackers as terrorists" and argued that this fear had caused the government to give undeservedly harsh punishments to violators of computer fraud statutes.