7 a.m. on Hour of the Wolf for Jack Womack, William Gibson,
Laurie Anderson, and of course, Steele I. Sparrow.
The New York Times called the Panama deception canny
filmmaking. The San Francisco Chronicle called it
riveting. And on Sunday, November 22nd, you can see it
for yourself at a special screening for WBAI at the New
Community Cinema in Huntington, Long Island. The Panama
Deception is a powerful documentary which exposes the
real story behind the 1989 invasion produced by the
Empowerment Project. Join invited guest Umberto Brown,
the former UN representative of Panama, Ramsey Clark, WBAI's
Valerie VanIsler and others for this special benefit screening
of The Panama Deception. Sunday, November 22nd at 2 p.m.
at the New Community Cinema in Huntington, Long Island.
For ticket and transportation information, you can call
212-279-0707. That's 212-279-0707 or 516-423-7610.
The Panama Deception, a film you can't afford to miss.
And it's 9 o'clock on a Wednesday night and that means
it's time for high tech on WBAI and off the hook.
And a good evening to everybody out there.
This is Emanuel Goldstein and the program is off the hook
where we talk about the newest innovations in telephone
technology, computers, security holes, hackers, you name it.
And of course, we always try to take listener phone calls at
212-279-3400. It's been a busy week. It's been eventful in
many parts of the country as far as the fight for freedom, the
fight for spreading information and meeting publicly and things
like that. We'll have some updates on the story that we had
last week and also some news items, some listener mail and a
continuation of the debate we started two weeks ago. That's
all coming up this hour on off the hook. Well, we always try to
throw in some music where it's applicable. Occasionally good
telephone songs. If you know of any good telephone songs, feel
free to write us and let us know about them so we can share them
with others. This is one that I just happened to literally
stumble across.
Hello, can I speak to Mr. Don Quixote, please?
people.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, not
Senor Don Quixote.
Hoy también siguen luchando
Conquistando el Sancho Pampa
Hoy también siguen luchando
Vaya poriquito, vaya poriquito, oh oh
Ya dimelo, but what's going on?
You've got a hole in your brain, I feel crazy
No señor Don Quijote y Sancho Pampa no están aquí
Hello?
Yeah, I'm trying to get a copy of the latest issue of 2600. Is it out yet?
Yeah, I can't seem to find it. I have the summer issue, but I can't find the autumn issue.
Well, it's at various bookstores throughout Manhattan. You know, the cool ones.
I'll give you a phone number. You can just get subscription information if that's what you want.
And then we can leave it at that.
The second thing is your information provided on the new caller ID situation is quite informative.
I'm wondering if this was published anywhere, or is this something that just the Akataka Sentai are able to gain access to?
Well, it's public information. In fact, the phone company just yesterday put out a very interesting ad for caller ID.
It seemed almost plaintive in a way.
They say it's not just for bad guys. It's not just to catch, you know, obscene phone calls and all that.
It's to see if, you know, you want to talk to your sister because that's an important call.
You don't want to talk to your nosy neighbor because she'll just waste time, so you let the phone ring.
You know, it's for everybody to use, and it makes everybody's life better and more enriched and all that kind of thing.
So it sounds to me like they're getting desperate. They want everybody to sign up for this service,
because if a lot of people don't sign up for it, it doesn't really pay for them to offer it in the first place.
So you're saying that the types of things that you've been talking about over the last few weeks are available?
Yeah, they're out there, and you'll see it more and more.
In fact, we'll be bombarded with TV commercials real soon now from New York Telephone.
We've all seen the New Jersey Bell commercials with James Earl Jones.
I don't know who we're going to get to do New York Telephone commercials, but they're coming.
They're coming, and there'll be things in your phone bill every month.
But at the same time, look to consumer groups, you know, look to programs like this one to tell you the other side of the story.
Now, you mentioned in an earlier program that if you dial star six seven, you can protect the number that you're calling from.
Only if the line you're calling from sends the number every time you dial.
If you have all-call blocking, which doesn't send your number,
dialing star six seven will have the exact opposite effect and will send your number.
So it's really kind of an absurd system.
And there's no way of telling which is which.
There's no way of telling for sure. You just have to believe what they tell you.
But there's no recording. All you get is just a little pulsing dial tone.
And that's one of the things that I certainly hope they change.
The Public Service Commission was able to get them to change the call-return policy,
where you can now block your number from being call-returned.
I'm not quite sure how, but I understand that they have made some progress in that.
One last question on this subject.
I was told that the technology is attractive or unattractive, as it may be.
Certainly it's fashionable. Everyone's talking about it.
It's been available to private industry for some time.
Certain radio stations and other people, private industries and things like that,
have been using it for a long time.
Why did it take so long for this to come to the public domain?
First of all, is that true?
Yes, it is. Within certain phone switches, PBXs,
there are all kinds of features that are probably never going to be available in the public phone system,
at least not in our lifetimes.
And that's the reason right there, because we're talking about the public phone system.
We're talking about New York Telephone running the whole show,
and they move as fast as they want to move.
When you have a private phone switch, you can do whatever you want.
And since they're in competition with each other,
since you don't know whether to buy a Merlin or a Roam switch,
or whatever it is that you want to put for your company or institution,
they compete with each other.
They offer better things, or cheaper things, as the case may be.
New York Telephone is the only game in town for us, though.
What telephone number are you going to give me?
Okay. For the magazine, it's 516-751-2600.
And that should tell you everything you need to know, and then some.
All right. But, I mean, just in terms of Manhattan,
there's no place that I can go and say, well, gee,
and every time I go somewhere, they say, well, we've never heard of it, or we just sold out.
Well, never heard of it. That's a new one.
Try downtown.
Most bookstores, like Towers, St. Mark's, Hudson News, those kind of places,
they almost always have copies.
And while you're there, check out the other magazines, too,
because there's all kinds of neat things being printed.
Right. Okay.
Support zines. It's a good way to support democracy.
All right. Thanks for your call.
212-279-3400. We have time for a couple more calls.
Good evening.
Anybody there?
Yeah.
Go ahead.
I just want to say there was an article in the Sunday Times about two hackers
being charged with breaking into a government and billing system.
This is the Seattle case, I believe.
Right.
Yeah, I heard very sketchy bits of information about that.
According to a federal agent, these two people were network navigating,
and they got into the federal court computer
and used the billing computer to break the passwords.
You mean they copied a password file and put it onto a powerful machine to decrypt
or rather just figure out what the passwords were.
Right. They copied it to the billing system and then broke the passwords.
According to the newspaper, they were charged with conspiracy to defraud the government.
Well, what were they going to do with these passwords?
I assume they were just hacking.
Well, again, that's something that we need to look at.
If they were out there to somehow cheat people and make money off of it,
obviously that's quite different than somebody just trying to see how many passwords they can crack.
I've done the same thing.
I've looked at password files.
I haven't put it on Boeing's computers.
I've put it on my own, and I've seen how easy it is to crack a password file.
It's really something, especially when you use your brain a little bit
and try to figure out different ways people might encrypt their passwords,
different kinds of patterns they may use.
Some people check against a dictionary.
Some people put a number at the end of the word.
Some people attach two words together or put a special character someplace.
Well, these two guys were convicted last month of theft of computer equipment from the University of Washington.
So I assume that the feds were watching them closely.
I'll send you the article.
Yeah, if you could do that, that would be very helpful.
Okay.
Thanks for calling.
Thank you.
And that's pretty much going to bring us to the end of our time.
The program is off the hook.
This hour seems to have gone faster than any other hour.
The discussion is going to continue throughout the next few weeks
because there's so much to talk about.
Yeah, there's something going on in Seattle.
There are things going on everywhere.
And, of course, we have the unfolding Washington, D.C. situation
and things happening here in New York as well.
The issue is very much open to discussion,
and by all means, no matter what your feelings on the matter,
feel free to express them and talk to others about them as well.
So, again, if you have articles or contributions of any sort to send in to us,
our address is off the hook, Care of WBAI, 505 8th Avenue, New York, New York, 10018.
This is Emanuel Goldstein.
Thanks to FiberOptic for stopping in, and I'll see you next week.
The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a call.
It couldn't get much worse, but if they could, they would,
from Billy Bone, for the best expected worth.
I hope that's understood, from Billy Bone.
Oh, we're going to dance.
Oh, it's going to be a total mismatch.
It's going to be a mismatch.