At first the Blue Box was used for fun and pranks. The most daring of these was when they called the Vatican and Wozniak pretended to be Henry Kissinger wanting to speak to the pope. “Ve are at de summit meeting in Moscow, and ve need to talk to de pope,” Woz intoned. He was told that it was 5:30 a.m. and the pope was sleeping. When he called back, he got a bishop who was supposed to serve as the translator. But they never actually got the pope on the line. “They realized that Woz wasn’t Henry Kissinger,” Jobs recalled. “We were at a public phone booth.”

起初藍盒子只是用來找樂子或者搞惡作劇的。最著名的一次，他們打給梵蒂岡,沃茲尼亞克假裝是亨利·基辛格，想要跟教皇通話。“我正在莫斯科參加峰會，我需要跟教皇通話。”沃茲回憶當時自己說的話。他被告知當地時間是早上五點半，教皇還在睡覺。當他再次打過去的時候，接電話的是一名充當翻譯的主教。但對方并沒有真的讓教皇接電話。“他們意識到沃茲是冒牌的，”喬布斯回憶說，“我們當時在一個公用電話亭。”

It was then that they reached an important milestone, one that would establish a pattern in their partnerships: Jobs came up with the idea that the Blue Box could be more than merely a hobby; they could build and sell them. “I got together the rest of the components, like the casing and power supply and keypads, and figured out how we could price it,” Jobs said, foreshadowing roles he would play when they founded Apple. The finished product was about the size of two decks of playing cards. The parts cost about $40, and Jobs decided they should sell it for $150.

也就是那時候，發生了一件具有里程碑意義的事件，也確立了今后他們合作關系的模式：喬布斯認為藍盒子不該再停留在業余愛好階段了。他們可以制作然后銷售。“我把剩下的元件都集中起來，比如說盒子、電源和數字鍵盤，然后想出了定價方式。”喬布斯說，這也預示了他日后在創立蘋果公司過程中將扮演的角色。成品的大小差不多有兩副撲克牌那么大，所有的零部件價值40美元，喬布斯決定以150美元的價格出售。

Following the lead of other phone phreaks such as Captain Crunch, they gave themselves handles. Wozniak became “Berkeley Blue,” Jobs was “Oaf Tobark.” They took the device to college dorms and gave demonstrations by attaching it to a phone and speaker. While the potential customers watched, they would call the Ritz in London or a dial-a-joke service in Australia. “We made a hundred or so Blue Boxes and sold almost all of them,” Jobs recalled.

追隨著諸如“咔嚓船長”這樣的飛客的腳步，兩人也給自己起了別名。沃茲尼亞克成了“伯克利藍”，喬布斯叫做“奧拉夫·圖巴克”（OlafTobark）。他們會敲響各個宿舍的門，尋找感興趣的人，然后把藍盒子連上電話和揚聲器進行演示。潛在的買家在一旁看著，他們就會現場演示給諸如倫敦的麗茲酒店這樣的地方打電話，或者是撥打澳大利亞的“打電話聽笑話”服務電話。“我們做了大概100個藍盒子，幾乎全賣出去了。”喬布斯回憶說。

The fun and profits came to an end at a Sunnyvale pizza parlor. Jobs and Wozniak were about to drive to Berkeley with a Blue Box they had just finished making. Jobs needed money and was eager to sell, so he pitched the device to some guys at the next table. They were interested, so Jobs went to a phone booth and demonstrated it with a call to Chicago. The prospects said they had to go to their car for money. “So we walk over to the car, Woz and me, and I’ve got the Blue Box in my hand, and the guy gets in, reaches under the seat, and he pulls out a gun,” Jobs recounted. He had never been that close to a gun, and he was terrified. “So he’s pointing the gun right at my stomach, and he says, ‘Hand it over, brother.’ My mind raced. There was the car door here, and I thought maybe I could slam it on his legs and we could run, but there was this high probability that he would shoot me. So I slowly handed it to him, very carefully.” It was a weird sort of robbery. The guy who took the Blue Box actually gave Jobs a phone number and said he would try to pay for it if it worked. When Jobs later called the number, the guy said he couldn’t figure out how to use it. So Jobs, in his felicitous way, convinced the guy to meet him and Wozniak at a public place. But they ended up deciding not to have another encounter with the gunman, even on the off chance they could get their $150.

這樣的快樂和利潤在森尼韋爾的一家比薩店里結束了。喬布斯和沃茲尼亞克正準備帶著剛做完的一臺藍盒子開車去伯克利。喬布斯需要用錢，急需出售這臺機器，所以他就向鄰桌的幾個人推銷。那幫人很感興趣，喬布斯就走到電話亭，往芝加哥打了一個電話作演示。他們說要到車里去拿錢。“于是沃茲和我就走向那輛車，我手上拿著藍盒子，那家伙走進車里，手伸到座位底下，拔出了一把槍。”喬布斯回憶道。他從沒有如此靠近過一把槍，被嚇壞了。“他拿槍指著我的肚子說：‘把它拿過來，兄弟。’我的神經一下子繃緊了。車門就在那兒，我想是不是可以猛關上車門砸他的腿，然后我們趁機逃跑，但很有可能他會朝我們開槍。所以我慢慢地、非常小心地把藍盒子遞給了他。”這種搶劫真的太奇怪了。搶走藍盒子的家伙給了喬布斯一個電話號碼，說如果藍盒子有用的話，以后會想辦法把錢付給他。當喬布斯照著號碼打過去的時候，還真的找到了那個家伙，他不會用藍盒子。喬布斯巧妙地說服此人在一個公共場合跟他和沃茲見面。但最終他們還是膽怯了，決定再也不跟那個持槍的男人打交道，即便那樣做有可能拿回那150美元。

The partnership paved the way for what would be a bigger adventure together. “If it hadn’t been for the Blue Boxes, there wouldn’t have been an Apple,” Jobs later reflected. “I’m 100% sure of that. Woz and I learned how to work together, and we gained the confidence that we could solve technical problems and actually put something into production.” They had created a device with a little circuit board that could control billions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure. “You cannot believe how much confidence that gave us.” Woz came to the same conclusion: “It was probably a bad idea selling them, but it gave us a taste of what we could do with my engineering skills and his vision.” The Blue Box adventure established a template for a partnership that would soon be born. Wozniak would be the gentle wizard coming up with a neat invention that he would have been happy just to give away, and Jobs would figure out how to make it user-friendly, put it together in a package, market it, and make a few bucks.

這次惡作劇為他們日后更精彩的創舉鋪平了道路。“如果不是因為藍盒子，就不會有蘋果公司，”喬布斯后來回想說，“這一點我百分百確定。沃茲和我學會了怎樣合作，我們也獲得了信心，相信自己可以解決技術問題并且真的把一些發明投入生產。”他們創造的僅用一小塊電路板的裝置,竟可以控制價值數十億美元的基礎設施。“你無法想象那給了我們多少信心。”沃茲也有同樣的感觸。“出售它們也許不是個好主意，但這讓我們看到，我的工程技術和他的遠見卓識結合起來，我們可以做出怎樣的一番事業。”他說。藍盒子的這段奇妙經歷為兩人之間即將誕生的合作關系建立了一個模板：沃茲尼亞克就是個文雅的天才，創造出一項很酷的發明，然后就算送給別人他也很高興；而喬布斯會想出怎樣讓這個發明方便易用的方法，然后把它包裝起來，推向市場，賺上一筆——