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Article by Timothy Harper AP, 29th August 1983 Neal did not stop making those calls,however. Instead he charged them to "borrowed" credit card numbers other hackers routinely shared via the bulletin boards as a way to avoid telephone tolls. The seven young Milwaukeeans first met "on the boards," corresponding by electronic messages. Their keyboards struck responsive chords in each other as they shared tips on hardware, software, what movies to see and what magazines to read. Mostly, though, they shared an unspoken dedication to this technology that allowed them, without leaving their bedrooms or dens, intercourse with a challenging new world. A few months ago, the seven agreed to meet face to face. They began gathering every couple weeks or so at homes or in pizza joints where they could exchange unlisted corporate telephone numbers and secret passwords over sausage and mushrooms. They began calling themselves "the 414s" after Milwaukee's area code, a joking reference to the Milwaukee youth gangs that take their names from the streets in their neighborhoods. The gang on 27th Street, for instance, is known as the "Two-Sevens." Neal, president of an Explorer Scout post sponsored by IBM and specializing in computers, asked the other 414s to join the scouts. They all did. Their Explorer meetings became another place to ex- a change information, although they emphasize that neither the adult leader, an IBM manager, nor any of the dozen other scouts knew about the accessing.