The Twilight Years of Cap'n Crunch (2007)

his time in the bay area rave scene in the late 90's/early 00's earned him a creepy reputation, mostly due to his fondness of doing "energy work" with shirtless teenage boys.

Not a single mention of energy massages. I'm disappointed.<p>For those unfamiliar, it's really hard to explain just how strange the guy is in print. He's out there.

A quote from the article: "Mr. Draper received permission from the sheriff's office to attend a computer fair in 1979 in San Francisco, where the program, named after the cult film "Easy Rider," was a hit. It became Apple's first word-processing program. When IBM launched its first PC, it also chose EasyWriter, over competition from other programmers, including a young Bill Gates."<p>I have the real story, and the author should have talked to me. After my program Apple Writer (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Writer" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Writer</a>) replaced Easy Writer and became Apple's default word processor, someone from IBM called me up and asked me to write a word processor for their PC.<p>I asked "What business terms?" The IBM guy, taken aback that a programmer would switch into business mode so quickly, said, "Okay, you get $100K in royalties, after which we own the program."<p>I thought for a minute, then said, "100K, okay, umm, that's 15 days of Apple Writer royalties right now. I think you'll need to do better than that." But IBM wouldn't budge, and that ended the negotiation.<p>Later I heard they offered Draper the same deal and he accepted. Rumor has it that the PC version of Easy Writer was really terrible and didn't last long. Later, Draper supposedly remarked, "They asked for a hundred thousand dollar word processor, and I gave them one."

<i>"Mr. Draper several years ago developed some Internet-security equipment and started a company. Some clients were interested, but the company foundered when one of its executives, a fellow raver, made off with much of the money from investors, say Mr. Draper and another executive, John Johnson."</i><p>I remember back in 2001, seeing Draper speak at University of Illinois about his "CrunchBox" security appliance. I got the vibe that he was just repackaging some open source software on it and putting his name on it.<p>I never really heard anything more about it after that talk, though - I guess this explained what happened.

I don't think the article captures quite what "obsessive" means when you're talking about Captain Crunch.<p>This does.<p><a href="http://www.webcrunchers.com/stories/esq-art.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.webcrunchers.com/stories/esq-art.html</a>

I met the captain a few times when I was living in California. Weird does not even start to describe him. I was part of the party scene in San Francisco at the time, and heard how he was banned from certain parties because of inappropriate massages. I treated that as rumor until now, when I read different comments specifically about his special massage techniques.

I think if I had a great deal of money, I'd skip flying first class a few times per year and "tenure" guys like John by giving him a few $k/month and telling him to go work on whatever he wanted.<p>Just seeing what he came up with each year would be far more entertaining than another beach vacation somewhere.

This passage really strikes me, because he is happy, though his life seems so tragic, so emblematic of the dark side of technological obsession. It's a bittersweet mixture of a "there but for the grace of God, go I" feeling and a simultaneous admiration for the purity of his life's focus. It makes me reflect on my own life:<p>"Mr. Draper's unusual behavior, such as shouting at anyone smoking anywhere near him, could wear on fellow workers and employers. 'He was not a self-starter, or associated with all the companies springing up back then,' says Mr. Wozniak. 'But, actually, John is one of the happiest guys I know, no matter what his situation seems.'"

"I'm blacklisted, man, a permanent menace to society, I guess,"<p>No dude, you're just old, in an industry with entrenched ageism. Just like the other accomplished engineers in the story living in mobile homes, couchsurfing, and living in a bus. Not a lack of skill or relevance, so much as an excess of gray hair.<p>Imagine the same story if he went for management instead of engineering, he'd be a CEO somewhere, greatly loved for his eccentricity, etc.

Wow, some of you guys are impressing me with how much you're struggling to suppress your raging homophobia in this thread.<p>I realize the need for some techies to look down on people who won't assent to their brand of whatever for a chance to climb the ladder of temporary success. Draper's more widely known and admired than most of you will ever be. So I guess you gotta do what you gotta do. (which probably doesn't involve hanging out with Woz)

Back at defcon last year he ended up joining a game of Cards Against Humanity that I was playing. He's an interesting guy for sure, and it's nice to be able to say that I hung out with him for a bit, but he wore out his welcome pretty quickly. He wasn't being rude or disrespectful - he just acted like an old man who had seen a <i>lot</i> of shit. Felt bad for him...