To report the unconstitutional suspension of a legally elected Parliament, press 1.
In order to report the bloody suppression of resistance to the unconstitutional suspension
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In order to report the unanimous support of the unconstitutional suspension of a legally
elected Parliament by the morally bankrupt leadership of the Western democracies, press
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For all of the above, press 4.
You have selected option 4, all of the above.
All of our unprincipled collaborators with Western business interests are busy right
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Please wait until the regime has had time to consolidate its power and try your call
again.
And it's just about 10 o'clock.
Time for another edition of Off the Hook.
Now I can't make a call.
It couldn't get much worse.
But if they could, they would.
Bum diddly bum for the best, expect the worst.
I hope that's understood.
Bum diddly bum!
And this is Off the Hook, the program that speaks about technology and new advancements
for mankind and all kinds of fun things like that, with special emphasis on telephones,
computers, privacy, and anything else that just happens to come up along the way.
We have a rather interesting show tonight.
We're going to be playing some sounds that I don't think have ever been played on the
air before.
Stay with us.
But first, a look at this week's news, courtesy of the Risks Digest on the Internet, which
every last one of you should be a part of in one way or another.
But more on that later.
This is a story from someone named John McKay, something that we should all keep an eye out
for.
Today, I tried to send a fax to a local lawyer.
It dialed, but instead of reading the paper it generated...
I'm sorry, I read that wrong.
It dialed, but instead of reading the paper that was fed into it, it generated a copy
of a document from the lawyer to a Canadian embassy many thousands of miles away.
That's right, a fax machine sending instead of receiving.
Boy, talk about a strange turn of events there.
Here's something else that you might not be aware of.
You make a conference call.
Strange things can sometimes happen there as well.
This is a story from an anonymous contributor to the Risks Digest.
Recently, I had a co-worker at our headquarters arrange to pull me into a conference call
that a vendor had arranged.
We had a conversation about their product, after which I hung up.
Now, in the old days that would be the end of the story, but this is 1993 and it's not
the end of the story.
After he hung up, apparently the vendor techs all discussed the number of bugs in their
product and how glad they were that I would not be able to evaluate it for several weeks
since I gave them time to fix them.
How did I know this?
My co-worker noticed I'm still on the line and, after turning mute on with his phone,
rejoined the conversation.
And this was a computer security vendor, no less.
Well, no real new developments there, but as we have more and more conference calls,
it's harder and harder to tell who's there and who isn't.
And here's a story about unauthorized changing of address in the United Kingdom.
See, in the United Kingdom, when you move, you ask the Royal Mail, that's what they call
their post office, the Royal Mail, you ask them to forward all letters addressed to you
to your new address.
You can apply for this service by post or in person.
And a day or two after receiving your application for redirection, Royal Mail sends a letter
informing you that such service has been requested.
And this letter is clearly marked, do not redirect.
Deliver to original address.
This system was in practice five years ago and it's the only company which seems to understand
that change of address can be requested by fraudsters.
And speaking of fraudsters, nine postal workers among 40 arrested in Washington area thefts.
This is from the Washington Post.
Thousands of Washington area residents have been targeted by sophisticated scam artists
who have pilfered mail from homes and post offices to get credit cards, checkbooks,
and information that they have used to steal millions of dollars.
That according to the authorities.
The article continues with details of the fraud, none of which will surprise our listeners.
Such things as thieves monitoring external mailboxes on homes for weeks in wealthy neighborhoods
to steal credit cards and new checks arriving in the mail.
Or pre-approved applications for credit cards being particularly vulnerable since the thieves
fill them out, send them in, and then intercept them shortly after postal delivery.
The thieves impersonate bank officials to obtain personal information from victims,
then impersonate the victims when they call banks for new personal identification numbers.
Some victims have seen as much as $300,000 stolen through their accounts.
The credit card companies have swallowed the charges.
Of course, that winds up translating down to everybody, doesn't it?
At some point or another.
A task force has been formed including members of the Postal Service,
the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration,
DC Police, and other law enforcement agencies.
They like it better when they all work together.
Theft has struck hundreds of people in some neighborhoods,
and residents are organizing to repair insecure mailboxes and watch over them.
Now some residents are renting post office boxes,
but how often have you gotten a piece of mail for the wrong post office box?
It's notoriously inefficient sometimes.
Current credit card and bank fraud costs about $4 billion a year in the United States,
according to these figures.
Now there are several safeguards with regards to credit cards.
For instance, some new credit cards won't work until the card owner confirms the receipt of them.
You get a credit card and there's a little sticker attached to it saying,
this will not work until you call us and tell us you got it.
And to authenticate the card holder before activating the card,
officials will use a personal profile asking for previously registered details of personal life.
Of course, if somebody registers for a card in the first place,
then they'd be the only ones to have that information.
So it won't really stop everything.
The credit thieves use classical scavenging techniques,
using all mail to learn about a victim,
or dumpster diving to retrieve discarded documents with tidbits of personal information.
Different from hacker dumpster diving,
where they go and find information about huge companies and computer systems.
This is something that's aimed at personal people, as it were.
Some thieves have re-recorded fraudulent information on discarded, expired cards,
and used them successfully.
A lot of technologically advanced ways of stealing.
In Canada, some banks send credit cards only by registered mail.
Now, this contributor to the Risk Digest, PhD, Michelle Cabay, says,
This sounds good in theory, but in fact I have never been asked for identification.
I've often sent the clerk to collect registered mail and parcels without any trouble at all.
Holding the notification card seems to be all that is demanded by clerks at Canada Post.
We must sign a register, but such signatures cannot be verified and are thus useless.
Perhaps banks will be interested in requesting improved authentication measures by postal employees.
In the United States, some credit cards include a digitized photograph laminated into the card.
This technique presumably reduces fraudulent use in person,
but does not yet affect use in banking machines or by phone.
And photos would not stop fraud by thieves who steal application forms and create new cards,
when legitimate cards are stolen.
Of course, some of us privacy advocates take exception to having our pictures on every single one of our cards,
especially digitized. Yuck.
Use of cards over the phone must be the easiest channel for abuse.
Because there is no personal identification number, there is no authentication at all.
Simply reciting a number suffices to debit the credit card account as long as the card is currently valid.
And if a PIN were required, how could it be recorded by the salesperson without compromising the card's security?
This contributor thinks there should be a method for entering card numbers and PINs via touch-tone phone panel.
Such a system should preclude the order taker from seeing the account number or at least the PIN.
If a direct link between the customer's phone and the validation system were not feasible or affordable,
an encryption routine on the receiving end could convert the transmitted PIN into a temporary time-slash-date-dependent version,
which would be unusable at any other time.
While painful to some of us, this cryptogram would then be manually entered into the validation system by the order taker.
Decisions on improving security boil down to cost and benefit as always.
As long as interest rates and card service charges are still acceptable to the victims of these services,
there will be little incentive to change.
I look forward to seeing a credit card company with the vision to protect its users
and succeed in lowering costs as a result of lowering fraud.
Then the industry will change its ways.
Right now, it's sheer anarchy.
Well, this is Off The Hook, and we have plenty to talk about tonight.
That's just a slight overview of some of the things going on.
Here's a rather big story.
Did you know that in less than 30 days, New York Telephone will not exist?
It's true. Absolutely true.
And we'll give you the details in just a moment.
And we're back.
Emmanuel Goldstein here.
FiberOptic is in the studio.
Hi.
How are you doing?
Okay.
You know something about this story, don't you, about the dismantling of New York Telephone?
Yes.
Yes.
Well, and they are going home, and they are taking their tents with them,
and no more New York Telephone.
It's true.
At the end of December, there will be no more New York Telephone.
Am I incorrect in saying this?
Well, not exactly.
New York Telephone will be gone as a name,
but as all the other regional bells have either already done or are working towards,
is simply being known by their Arbok name.
So it will simply be Ninex.
So Ninex is going to be the only phone company in town after January 1st.
Well, I'm sure it would still take them a while to get rid of all their old stationery.
Yeah.
And their vans, too, you know.
Yeah.
They've got to repaint all those vans.
Yeah.
You know, it's kind of interesting because some of you might know out there,
we just got a telephone company van over at 2600,
and we're going to paint it in exactly the same colors as New York Telephone,
except New York Telephone appears to have outsmarted us there,
and they're going to change their colors to Ninex's colors, whatever those might be.
I think they're kind of the glow-in-the-dark things.
I think they're gray and blue and yellow or something similar but not exactly the same.
Well, I prefer the old one.
So I don't know.
If you see a New York Telephone van in the next 30 days, it probably belongs to New York Telephone.
If you see one after that, it probably is ours.
So that's something to consider.
The official story that appeared in a very small paragraph in Newsday last Thursday is entitled
Bell Tolls for Tells, which, of course, tells you that this comes from Newsday.
As part of a major marketing campaign designed to make itself a global name,
Ninex Corporation will do away with the names of its two major subsidiaries,
New York Telephone and New England Telephone.
Company officials outlined the plans in satellite broadcast to thousands of employees
throughout New England and New York.
Its marketing slogan will be just call us Ninex or don't call us at all.
All right.
I tacked on that last part but I think we can all say that.
The changes will begin January 1st.
Ninex subsidiaries will repaint their trucks and change their letterhead.
Although the names of New England Telephone and New York Telephone will be seldom used,
the subsidiaries will continue to exist for legal and regulatory purposes.
So I guess the names will still be there but they won't be using them anywhere.
So we don't have a similar situation yet with Bell Atlantic.
Bell Atlantic still has New Jersey Bell.
As far as I know, they will be existing past January 1st.
But as you said, yes, this is something that is happening throughout the country.
I think Southwestern Bell is one of them.
Southwestern Bell, to my knowledge, has always been Southwestern Bell.
I don't think they ever had subsidiary box.
But over the past few years, U.S. West has done away with –
there used to be Pacific Northwest Bell, Northwestern Bell, and Mountain Bell.
Mountain Bell, yeah.
Those three.
That was a classic.
Now it's just U.S. West and it's been for a while.
A lot of historians out there will probably remember all the different phone companies,
some small ones, some big ones.
Actually, in New York, there will still be all the independent phone companies.
In upstate New York, there are some companies that aren't affiliated with New York Telephone or Ninex in any way.
And, of course, GTE has telephone companies all throughout the country.
In fact, they're the biggest overall phone company.
So those will still continue to exist.
But no more New York Telephone, just Ninex.
So better get used to it.
All right, we have something really, really interesting today.
Those of you with tape recorders may want to get them ready
because we've got something that we've been kind of promising for a whole lot of months now.
But basically, we've been talking about caller ID.
And tonight, we will, for the first time in radio history,
and I challenge anybody else out there to tell us when they have ever done this
because I think this is the first time ever,
we will be playing the actual caller ID tones over the air.
So you will actually get to hear what caller ID sounds like to your telephone.
And this might be an opportunity for those of you, those more adventurous ones of you,
to actually decrypt the data and figure out what is being sent and what is not being sent.
So while you're scrambling to get your tape recorders to record this information,
let me first of all say that this has been an interesting week in another way
because we were able to perform an experiment with Cable and Wireless,
the long-distance phone company.
Now, several weeks ago, we made the discovery that Cable and Wireless
was somehow transmitting caller ID data over 800 lines.
Now, this is different from ANI information.
Most 800 numbers do transmit ANI information, but caller ID is different.
It shows up in the little box that you buy,
and anybody with an 800 number through Cable and Wireless
would be able to see immediately who is calling them.
Now, Fiber, perhaps you could just, in as general a term as possible,
tell the people what the difference is between ANI being sent and caller ID being sent.
Well, basically, ANI has been around for an extremely long time
and is usually used by switching systems to identify the calling party
to a foreign piece of equipment outside the switch,
whether it's another switch or a billing system and so on and so forth.
Caller ID, on the other hand, is a perk of Signaling System 7.
It's a feature basically where the originating number on the same SS7 network,
like say New York Telephone's network, would be sent to someone at the other end
and could be displayed on a caller ID unit.
Okay. Now, what we discovered over the past couple of days
is that not only is Cable and Wireless transmitting this information over 800 numbers,
but on any long-distance call that they make where this data is made available to them.
In other words, this is what we tested.
We tested a number from New Jersey,
and this person from New Jersey used Cable and Wireless to make a 1-plus call.
In other words, they had selected Cable and Wireless as their long-distance company,
and they used them to call a number that we had caller ID on,
and the information was transmitted on a 1-plus call.
Now, theoretically, this means anywhere in the country where that information exists,
it can be transmitted anywhere.
It can be transmitted throughout the nation now.
That's why caller ID has come yet another step closer.
Fiber, what do you think is the significance of this?
Do you think this is a promise?
I think it's very interesting because they're making use of both ANI and caller ID,
and apparently at some point in whosoever network it is,
whether it's the local Bell operating company or whether it's Cable and Wireless or both,
it would seem that Cable and Wireless is actually indicating either on their SS7 network
or on the Bell's SS7 network to convert the ANI to caller ID data.
So it seems like we're sort of bridging the gap with something that's already been around for a long time,
being ANI, and having numbers being delivered to caller ID devices.
And we're doing it very quietly too because not very many people know about this.
I don't know if any other companies are offering this service or not.
Actually, Cable and Wireless has not really been advertising this in any way,
so people might be surprised to find their number being thrown around like that.
I know with the 800 numbers, it's not possible to block your number,
at least not if you call directly.
If you call through the operator, of course you can,
but STAR 67 will have no effect on blocking that number.
Now, we didn't try STAR 67 with the OnePlus call only because New Jersey does not have,
yet anyway, does not have per-call blocking.
So it would have been rather useless to even try that.
It would be interesting to see what happens after they do have per-call blocking,
whether STAR 67 will have any effect on a long-distance call.
So that's the latest as far as that goes,
and it's kind of strange how things are progressing so quickly.
9X...
No, that's not me.
9X will be offering caller ID throughout their area, of course.
Most of the area already has it.
I got a call from 518 Area Code the other day,
and it showed up as private number.
This was a regular call through New York Telephone,
so I don't know.
Some weird things are happening.
Okay, now it's time for the caller ID feature.
And it took a fair amount of hassle to get this information,
but we were able to do it.
Basically, it involves listening to your phone line
as the phone is ringing.
In other words, sort of tapping into your line before you answer it.
So you can hear the actual ring voltage coming down the line,
and in between the first and the second ring is where the data is sent.
So what you will hear now, there's two versions of this.
The first number that we sent, we sent the full number.
The second time, we blocked the number.
Okay, so on the first attempt, we sent the number out.
There should be a full number in the data there.
On the second attempt, the only thing that showed up in the caller ID box
was private number.
The number supposedly was not transmitted.
Now, what you will hear first is you'll hear a ring,
and perhaps you can explain why this ring is going to sound the way it does.
Okay, well, do you want to play it first?
Well, I'd rather people know what they're about to hear,
the rather harsh sound that they're going to hear.
Basically, they're actually hearing ringing voltage,
and anyone can do this basically if they place a relatively small load
across the two wires on your phone line.
So the load isn't big enough to pick the phone up off the hook.
You can actually hear the rings as they're coming in,
and you're actually hearing, I forget, I think it's 60 hertz or something
of basically AC ring voltage.
Right. Okay, so that's what we're going to hear.
We're going to hear the beginning ring.
After the first ring, you will hear the caller ID data,
and then we'll hear a ring or two after that.
So here is the first number.
This is the full number being sent.
First number.
Okay, that was the number being sent, and that is the sound of the ring.
That is what your phone actually sounds like.
In fact, that's how phones used to ring when you used to call someone
on a step-by-step system.
Yeah, why was that? Is there no filtering or anything like that?
They actually just actually played the sound of the ringing voltage.
They didn't actually have any tone generators.
Okay, now while that's fresh in everybody's mind,
we're going to play the second one now.
This is the number being blocked.
Now, to me, that sounded rather similar.
What do you think?
Yeah, it sounds quite similar.
In fact, only a relatively small part of the data is different.
Uh-huh.
Now, what we're going to do now is play both bits of data next to each other.
All right.
Sorry, that wasn't it.
That was a tape being pulled back.
So we're going to hear one followed by the other immediately
and see what that sounds like.
Okay, well, you think there's a difference?
I do, yeah.
I think there's no difference.
And if there's no difference, what does that say?
You know, it's hard to imagine.
Okay, here we go.
One, two.
Beep, beep.
Beep, beep.
You think those sounded different?
To me, they did, yes.
Okay, in what way?
Well, to put it into words,
the preamble at the beginning sounded exactly the same,
but the little scritchy data part in the middle sounded slightly different.
Okay, well, it's hard to argue with a statement like that.
I'm going to play the two really, really close to each other now
so our listeners can make the final determination.
The two bits of caller ID data from two separate calls.
Beep, beep.
Beep, beep.
Well, you could be right, I suppose.
But that is what it sounds like.
That's the actual noise that comes through.
Are you surprised?
Me?
Yeah.
Oh, no.
Did you ever hear it before?
Yeah, well, actually, if anyone had an old AppleCat modem
and used the half duplex,
right before they came out with 1200 bits per second full duplex,
which is known as the Bell 212A standard,
they came out with Bell 202 right after 300 baud.
And Bell 202 is half duplex, 1200 bits per second.
And that's the same thing caller ID uses.
Okay, now, we're trying to figure out a way
where we can actually just feed this into something
and be able to read the numbers
and see what's really being generated.
Now, how is the privacy bit set?
It's kind of hard to know exactly
whether or not that data really is going through.
Now, when you pick up your phone,
you make that phone call on a number
that passes the caller ID information out,
and you dial star 67
or you already have blocking on your phone line,
well, does your number go out or doesn't it?
Any idea?
If I had to take a guess.
Uh-huh, which is all we can do here.
Yeah, I mean, at least according to the standard,
the number is not supposed to be sent.
It doesn't get sent at all.
No, in fact, what I would imagine
is that that entire field with a number
and what it would normally be would just be empty,
and there's a message type indicator
that's part of the little flurry of data that gets sent,
and the message type should indicate that it's private.
Mm-hmm.
Could there be a system, though, where the number is sent
but there's a little privacy indicator beforehand
which is seen by the receiving end...
Oh, sure, yeah.
...that says, don't show the number?
The message type is sent before the number
as part of the little data packet,
and, you know, we can only assume
that the number isn't in there.
Okay, well, obviously, there's only one way to find out,
and we've taken the first step towards that now.
Yep.
All right, listen to phone calls, 212-279-3400
if you have any questions about caller ID, new technology,
interesting things that have happened to you
involving things like this in the past week or so.
Give us a call now.
The program is off the hook.
We're on the air until 11 o'clock.
And, again, our phone number is 212-279-3400.
Let's take the first phone call.
Good evening. You're on.
Yes, hello?
How you doing?
Yeah, hi.
Very interesting so far.
There's one subject I'd like to bring up,
and that is that the phone company, New York Telephone, that is,
has been involved before the PSC with a case
which has culminated in finding by the hearing examiners
of the Public Service Commission
that there is a $286 million excess of revenues,
and that should result in reducing some of the rates.
Yeah, you know, I saw that in the newspaper.
I saw that the Public Service Commission is recommending that rates be reduced.
In fact, they recommended that the touchstone fee be reduced by up to 50%.
But, you know, that wasn't good enough for me.
I want that fee to be gone once and for all
because it's completely unfair to people.
Well, the big issue that was advocated by the Consumer Protection Board
and by Erie County, Nassau County, and Buffalo
was because various studies have shown
that the residential rates in New York Telephone's area
are the highest in the nation.
And in the last rape case,
the phone company came before the Public Service Commission
and said, look, we have a deficiency in revenues,
and you have to raise our rates.
So fine, what did they do?
They raised the basic residential rates.
Now they come in and now that they've been pulled into before the commission
and the finding has been made that they have excessive revenues,
we think the fairest and first thing they could do,
especially since rates are outrageous in New York Telephone,
residential rates are outrageous,
the first thing they might do is just reduce
or have some kind of give back of the residential rates.
Do you really think so?
Pardon me?
Do you really think they would do that?
No, we're demanding that the Public Service Commission order them to do that.
Right. Yeah, because they're not going to do that on their own, certainly.
Oh, they're not going to do that on their own.
And the problem is that the staff of the Public Service Commission
also has poo-pooed the idea of reducing the residential rates
and just called for the touch tone and a few other areas switched access,
which in the old days they'd tell the phone company,
you've got to reduce your rates, fine,
so they'd reduce the princess phone by a nickel or something like that.
But the big issue, by the way, the reason I'm calling is that
if I want to bring to the public and through your show,
which is a wonderful place to do it,
is that we should build some kind of pressure upon the Public Service Commission
which is going to meet on December 15th.
What had been recommended by or found by the hearing examiners
was that their recommended decision goes along with the company and the staff
in that there should be no reduction of basic residential rates.
And we're asking the public, I'm speaking on behalf of the American Telephone Consumers Council,
and also I represent Erie County, Buffalo, and Nassau County
in the rate proceeding is to call or put pressure on the Public Service Commissioners
who will be making a finding on this probably at their meeting,
which will take place on December 15th.
What is the American Telephone Consumers Council?
That was a group formed many years ago which resulted in a number of things,
such as your right to interconnect your phone to telephone company lines.
And for a long time the American Telephone Consumers Council worked with the UAW,
which was entering rate cases in Michigan and Indiana and New Jersey.
Can our listeners join this group?
Well, they could, but the membership, we don't, we sort of, well, let me put it this way.
Sounds like I've thrown you for a loop here somehow.
I've thrown you for a loop because we once had a big program to get members up in Boston,
and one of our supporters put a big ad in the paper, and I think we got three members.
So we haven't thought in terms of membership.
We're actually an alliance of people who are interested.
Well, I mean, I imagine there are a lot of our listeners that want to be involved in this,
and it sounds like you have a way of getting involved.
Yeah, well, if they, I could give you my name and address,
and I'd be glad to field any questions that people had or maybe.
There was a basis there for reviving the ATCC.
Okay, well, if you give out that information and also the information on the December 15th meeting,
then we have to move on.
Oh, very great.
My name is George Levine, L-E-V-I-N-E, and I can be addressed at 1361 Madison Avenue.
And for a phone company, I mean a phone number in New York City,
it's 212-427-0268, or during the day I'm available at 627-6410.
And as for the Public Service Commission, the commissions meet usually,
or their next meeting is supposed to be December 13th,
and that's why they, I mean, the name of the head of the commission is Bradford,
and we suggest that you either call the commission or write to the commission.
And another one to write to is the, let me see, well, I guess the most effective thing to write to your commission
is if you know any of the assemblymen or the legislators.
Is this meeting open to the public?
Pardon me?
Is this meeting open to the public?
Yes, but I'm not sure.
One was held in New York, the last one where they gave them $240 million was held in New York.
Now, this one may be in Albany, and I don't have that.
In fact, but if you call the Public Service Commission, they'll, I don't have their number handy,
but they'll tell you when the meeting will be held.
It sounds like people are trying to reach you already.
Oh, yeah.
Anyway, that's, it's nice to have a rate reduction,
but it's most important to have it where it really helps the public.
Okay.
Well, listen, thanks for the information.
A pleasure, and you're doing a great job.
Okay.
Take care.
You notice the call waiting coming in on his line there?
Yep.
It's a digital call waiting.
You can't hear a tone.
You just hear a dropout for a second.
That's fascinating.
But, yeah, we'll keep you updated on any Public Service Commission findings that they find out, as we find out.
212-279-3400.
Good evening.
You're on.
Yeah, hi.
I'll be contributing to WBAI, but I'll be making my check out to my favorite producer,
not the WBAI Pacifica Foundation, and that's to show my objection to the boring programs in between.
Okay.
Can I ask who your favorite producer is?
Pardon?
Who is your favorite producer?
Gary Null.
Oh, why are you telling me that?
I thought he was going to make my night.
Gary Null.
As if he needs help.
212-279-3400.
Wait a minute.
Is he implying this program is dull?
Is that what you get out of this?
Yeah, I think that's what he was implying.
Well, if the program is dull, maybe we should just be playing, you know, middle-of-the-road music or something like that.
Or maybe New York needs another classical music station.
Or, I don't know, how about a station that does nothing but talk about sports?
What do you think of that?
We could use that.
I know we have one on AM, but we don't have one on FM, do we?
You need to talk about sports and get that nice, clear FM sound.
Or, I don't know.
I'm sure there's all kinds of things that can be done with a radio station right smack in the middle of the FM dial.
It's up to our listeners to decide.
Good evening.
Hello.
How are you doing?
Let me say, first of all, that if this is a dull show, it's one of my favorite dull shows.
Okay.
I can live with that.
Two things.
One, I'd like to suggest if you want to know how a caller ID works, perhaps you could go to, like, Radio Shack and get by the service notes on the caller ID that they sell.
As long as you just do that and you don't talk to any of the salespeople.
Yeah, but you could examine the schematic and perhaps build something to decode and see what's going on with the private numbers.
But what I was calling about was I used to live in 609, and I could receive my caller ID 718.
Now, I've just moved to 718, and when I receive calls from 609, it says out of area.
Really?
Now, what year were you able to see 718?
Last week.
Last week, and it was going over?
Oh, yeah.
I mean, Brooklyn, fine, you know.
Do you know what long-distance carrier was being used?
No, no.
Because if it was cable and wireless, then that would explain it.
If it wasn't, there's two possibilities.
The person might have been using 10NJB, which I understand does transmit caller ID.
Not from 609.
No, 2609.
Wouldn't you use?
No, you can't.
I'm sorry.
You'd use 10NYT.
That doesn't reach 609.
It doesn't reach 609.
No, 609 is not in our ladder.
Only 201 is.
Okay, then it would have to have been cable and wireless, or there's something else at work here.
Yeah, well, I'm using MCI out, and different people call me, and I haven't had any trouble.
718, 516.
Uh-huh.
Yeah, that's all local.
That's all New York telephone that you're getting.
Anything outside that area, though, anything north of 914, or even parts of 914,
or over in New Jersey would be a long-distance company.
Well, I do get 914 and 609.
You get 914 as well?
Yeah.
But calling out to here, bouncing a call from one 609 to another 609 using call forward,
I don't know if that means anything, but it says out of area, and that's also using MCI.
So if you forward within 609, you lose the caller ID, in other words?
Well, I haven't tried a direct 609,
but all I'm saying is that this particular one was call forwarded from within 609.
Okay.
All right.
Just wanted to pass that.
Okay.
That's interesting.
Thank you.
Great dull show.
All right.
Take care.
Bye.
A lot of weirdness going on with caller ID, spreading, spreading like a disease.
And we're here just to let people know it's progress.
Oh, nobody there.
Yeah.
Good evening.
You're on.
Hi.
How are you?
Okay.
I just want to say not to take to heart what the caller before last said.
I listen to WBAI all the time,
and I've heard him call with exactly that same message to a number of other hosts.
Maybe he's a recording then.
Well, I just think that's really sad
because I don't think that Gary Knoll himself would really appreciate that kind of bad manners.
No, I'm sure he wouldn't.
Well, anyway, keep up the good work.
Thanks.
Anything you want to say about the program?
I enjoy it.
Okay, just that.
Okay.
That's good enough.
Thank you.
Okay.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
That's nice, people to call in just to say they enjoy the show.
212-279-3400 if you want to call in and tell us you enjoy the show
or call in with a question or comment about technology, computers, telephones,
caller ID, Big Brother, hackers, anything like that.
Well, that's the number, 212-279-3400.
Good evening.
You're on.
All right.
I've got three questions for you.
Okay.
Do you know the numbers by which a person can call an 800 number that,
strictly speaking, does not operate in one's area by using MCI
or by some other securities route?
You're getting a recording saying the number you are trying to call can't be reached from your area.
Right.
Well, every number has a translation.
Well, most numbers do.
They have translations to local phone numbers.
Do you know the name of the company you're trying to reach?
Yes.
It's the Apple Bank for Savings.
Uh-huh.
You might try 800-information.
They might have a number that you can reach.
Any suggestions, Fiber?
Yeah.
Well, only that it sounds like when you subscribe to 800-service,
you can get what's called bands, and it sounds like this 800 number is probably band 1,
which means it's only reachable just local to the area that it covers and not from outside,
as opposed to, say, band 6 or 7, which would be nationwide.
I see.
All right.
Secondly, I'm looking for a device that is variously described as a pocket dialer,
an automatic dialer, or a touch-tone generator,
and I'm comparison shopping among the various types of products.
It's very difficult to get any type of Consumer Reports kind of article comparing the different types of devices.
RadioShack produces two different types.
Sharp Electronics produces one.
Has one built into one of its personal computers, portable computers, or rather palm-top computers.
DAC Products produces the most sophisticated type that I've seen thus far.
That's the part that doesn't have a built-in computer.
But do know of any articles that compare different products of this kind.
Do you know of any that have built-in cassette recorders?
Built-in cassette recorders?
Yes.
That's an interesting combination.
What are you looking for this to do?
To generate touch-tones.
These devices have all the fancy features.
Some of them have built-in clocks, built-in calculators.
One has 450-memory.
Some have only 33 different memory, and so forth.
See, the RadioShack one is a nice basic touch-tone unit.
It doesn't do much else except that.
It does have a tendency of getting you thousands of dollars of free calls if you modify a few things.
I think I'm doing that.
Apart from that, it's just a touch-tone pad.
DAX is probably the place I would suggest looking because they have all these weird ones that do all kinds of other things.
There are calculators and computers.
I don't know about cassette recorders. That's a new one.
Fiber, anything on that front?
Nothing rings a bell with a cassette and touch-tone combination.
Well, DAX has a reputation for importing rather sleazy products from China.
Do you know if that's true of this case as well?
I have no idea where that would be from or if it's sleazy or not.
What are the prices they're quoting you for things like that?
The maximum for the more advanced models from Sharp and from DAX is about $50 or $60.
The Cyan one with the built-in computer is $500.
That's the Series 3A.
I don't really think you need a built-in computer for a touch-tone dialer.
I know.
I just wouldn't go too far with regards to this.
Maybe a couple of little gimmicks on it, but it's really just a touch-tone dialer.
Do you know of any other manufacturers apart from the ones I've just mentioned?
No, but I would look in electronics magazines, catalogs, things like that.
Maybe Popular Communications might have something.
If you look around in those particular publications, you might see Appointed or something else.
Okay.
And finally, do you know of any Consumer Reports-type comparison of the prices
for all the various long-distance phone companies, including all the resellers?
I've seen that being put out.
I'm not exactly sure who does that.
I think there was a company that did nothing but that.
But the problem is it gets so complicated after a while,
and what might be a savings from here to Jersey is not a savings from here to California.
So even with all the data laid out in front of you,
which is a job in itself just getting all that information,
you still don't have clear-cut answers.
It's very difficult to reach a conclusion as to which long-distance company is cheaper.
What I do is I have a combination of services from all the companies,
and I just use whatever seems to make sense at the moment.
I have calling cards or 950 numbers that, depending on what part of the country I'm in,
are cheaper than anything else.
950 numbers?
Yeah.
It's a way of making phone calls similar to a calling card, except you don't use a 14-digit code.
You use more like an 8-digit code preceding the number you're dialing.
It's basically meant for areas that don't have equal access yet
so that you can place calls in the carrier of your choice.
950s are fading thanks to the companies that don't really want to offer them anymore,
but basically there's no surcharge on them.
It's like a calling card call without a surcharge, which is a great thing.
Where do I get information about these 950 numbers?
Well, there's two companies that if you try really hard,
you might be able to get 950 service from.
Cable & Wireless is one of them, and Metromedia Long Distance is the other.
I don't have numbers for them right here, but they're both listed with 800 information.
Basically, for Cable & Wireless, you dial 950-0223.
For Metromedia, it's 950-0488.
There's no charge for that. It's a toll-free number.
Basically, it's like making a phone call from your house.
That's how cheap it is. No surcharge.
That's really the way it should be.
It should be easy enough for you to be able to use a phone anywhere in the country
and call anyone else in the country as if you were at home.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Okay.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
Of course, you'll get all kinds of excuses as to why that's not possible
because of the increased billing.
Come on. Let's be realistic here.
These days of computers and full accountability,
there's no difference from making a phone call from one phone or another phone.
There's no reason for a surcharge.
The surcharges are crazy.
They're like 75 cents sometimes, which is more than the call will cost.
It's almost as crazy as charging so much money for information.
Information now costs 75 cents within this country, $3.95 outside the country.
I don't know what these phone companies are thinking,
but that's not a way to spur people making phone calls, that's for sure.
212-279-3400.
Good evening. You're on.
Hello.
Hello.
Yes, go ahead.
Hi.
How are you doing?
Oh, I'm on the air?
Yes, you are.
Okay, let me just turn down the radio.
Okay.
I just wanted to confirm what you said at the beginning of the program
about that strange fax situation.
The same thing actually happened to me.
Really?
I was sending a fax to a friend of mine who actually works at a competing company,
and it was just a funny fax, and I dialed the number,
and instead of my fax going through, I received something from the other company
that I'm sure they would not have wanted my company to be able to see.
That's funny.
I couldn't believe it, but it happened right before my eyes,
and it was something directed to somebody else.
They had not intended to send it to our phone number at all.
I always thought fax machines knew that they were being called
and that they should be receiving something and not sending something,
but I suppose it's possible that with really cheap systems that they could get confused.
I don't know.
I have a friend who works for AT&T who's a real high-tech guy,
and I mentioned it to him.
He said it was like a one-in-a-million chance
that literally microseconds would have to be just right for that to happen.
Well, with millions of faxes being sent every day, it's not uncommon at all then, is it?
Yeah, it really happened.
It was astonishing.
Wow.
Well, all kinds of weird things happen with phones.
I remember people saying they get connected to people that they know
without calling them sometimes, and all kinds of bizarre things of the past mostly,
but sometimes still you get weird connections.
People should be aware if there's something really confidential,
they should not be sending it by fax.
Okay, Fiber, what do you have to say about this?
I've been told that some fax machines have a feature known as polling
where you can actually call the fax machine and pick up your fax,
and it would seem that that sounds like something like what happened.
Yeah.
That's interesting.
So it's actually a feature where you call up and ask the receiving fax machine,
do you have anything to send to me?
Yeah.
Do you think that might have happened in this case?
It certainly sounds like it.
I'm asking the caller.
Do you think that might have happened?
Do you know if your fax machine has that feature?
I don't think my fax machine has that feature.
Well, then it's a mystery.
I think it was simply because I had made the phone connection.
Their fax machine had answered,
and somebody else was sending a fax out at the same time.
Well, that's one of many fax stories I'm sure we'll be sharing in years ahead.
Yes, it really does happen.
Okay, thanks for calling.
Great show. Thanks.
Thanks.
We get to hear firsthand knowledge of something that we're talking about.
Nothing ever weird happens in my fax machine.
We get a lot of weird faxes, but no weird encounters like that.
Too bad.
If you have weird things happening on your phone or with your phone,
on your fax, modems, whatever, let us know.
Spread the word.
Good evening. You're on.
Hello.
Go ahead.
Oh, how you doing?
Okay.
I have one question and one comment to make.
All right.
The comment that I have to make is,
if you don't have touch-tone service on your telephone,
it's possible to use it if you want to beep somebody.
After you dial the telephone number using pulse,
if you switch it over to tone,
you can call up and get bank information,
or you can beep somebody.
I don't know if you ever mentioned that.
Right.
Yeah, absolutely, because your phone still is generating touch tones.
The only thing that not paying that fee will do is tell the phone company
to tell its computer to ignore your touch tones.
But, yeah, the tones still go out just fine.
Right.
I didn't realize.
I just gave it a try just for the hell of it, and it seemed to work.
Yeah.
On some phones, especially newer touch-tone phones,
you can stay in pulse mode using the push buttons and then hit star,
and that will switch it over to tone from that point on.
Mm-hmm.
So you might want to try that as well.
Oh, okay.
And, second, I need to know how to get in touch with 2600 for subscription information.
Do you have an address or a fax number?
Well, fax won't do you any good because all you'll be able to do is send a fax.
But I'll give you a phone number, and that will tell you everything you need to know.
Okay.
Area code 516-751-2600.
Okay.
That should answer all your questions.
Okay, thanks.
All right, thanks for calling.
Bye.
Off the hook is the name of the program.
We're on for another 10 minutes or so.
This is Emanuel Goldstein with FiberOptic.
FiberOptic, Fiber, any updates on your upcoming prison stay?
Nothing new yet, only that this past week I was given the option by the Secret Service
to come and pick up my previously seized property,
basically some of which they've had for almost four years now.
And I didn't exactly get the impression that they were being nice and giving it back.
It seemed more like that they were cleaning up since it was the end of the year
and they would have just gotten rid of it anyway if I hadn't claimed it.
And did they give everything back?
Almost everything.
What didn't they give back?
My laptop computer was not returned.
That's probably the most important thing in that list, isn't it?
Well, I was actually more set on getting a lot of my computer books back, which I did.
Other things were missing, like my telephone answering machine as well as my power strips.
Well, I'm sure the Secret Service has put those to use somewhere.
You also found out where you're going, right?
Yeah, that's right. That's correct.
I found out that I've been assigned to a place in Pennsylvania called Schoolkill.
Okay. Well, that's kind of a weird name.
And you report on, I believe, January 7th.
That's right.
All right.
For those of you who don't know about this,
FiberOptic was sentenced to a year in prison for hacking activities
and being part of a conspiracy and other such nebulous things.
With good behavior, he can be out in as little as ten months.
And also, at one point, I don't know if we mentioned this on the air,
you found yourself in the same room as the World Trade Center bombers.
Yeah, that's correct.
When I had to be processed yet again by our friends at the Federal Marshals,
I was basically sitting in the waiting room, which you have to get buzzed into,
which is basically sort of an extension with some cell rooms, some cells.
And I guess the Trade Center bombers must have had to make a court appearance or something
because there I was pretty much face-to-face with them as they were let out in shackles
with nice three-piece suits on.
And it was a pretty interesting experience because the little walkway is extremely narrow,
so basically they're just standing right in front of me breathing on me.
Wow.
And it's interesting how computer hackers are treated literally alongside accused terrorists.
Interesting saga there.
All right, well, at least that leaves us with four more weeks
where we can share all kinds of information and still have you with us.
And anybody that wants to send Fiber any mail here at the radio station can do so.
You can write to Off the Hook, Care of WBAI, 505 8th Avenue, New York, New York, 10018.
And you can send us any mail with that, including newspaper articles,
letters that you might have, questions about technology, things like that.
All right, our phone number is 212-279-3400.
Let's take the next phone call.
Good evening, you're on.
Hi, Emanuel.
A couple things.
One, a note about the polling feature of fax machines.
It's a feature of the fax machine which is going to be polled,
not a feature of the fax machine which calls.
So if you are going to send a fax and you call the fax machine,
which has got a document sitting on it ready to be sent,
either because someone set it down there and meant to run and go get a number someplace
and left it there, or for some other reason,
and that fax machine is set to automatically accept polling,
then when you hit start or whatever, or perhaps when that answers,
the faxes will negotiate and one of them will get the upper hand.
Interesting way of putting it.
Yeah, well, if that's the one that's set to poll, then it'll send it off
and presumably the one you're talking to will know to receive,
especially if it's one of those that's a manual one that's kind of cheap
and you just have a go button and it has to figure out whether it's going to be receiving or sending.
Probably it checks first to see if it's got a tone on the other end,
and if it does, like an answering fax machine would generate, then you'll get the fax.
The other thing is, the other day I called a number in Connecticut
and I left off the last digit and I got connected to the appropriate number.
You did?
Yeah.
Were you dialing pulse or touch tone?
This was touch tone.
And you got connected anyway, even though you didn't dial the last digit?
Yeah.
Did you try it again?
I haven't gotten a chance.
It wasn't really my number.
Actually, it wasn't my call, but I was present.
Okay.
Well, I won't delve into that, but it sounds like a bit of a fluke.
Maybe somehow a tone got in there?
No tone got in there.
It was the right number.
Well, what made this happen in the first place?
The person who was dialing the number left off the last tone to go check and figure out,
make sure he had the right number.
And before he could find the number, it started ringing.
Well, if I were you, I'd try to do that again,
and if you can get that to happen consistently, you might have something.
Actually, I remember being able to do this on my home number at some point a few years ago
on a regular basis.
This was from a pulse phone, actually.
Yeah.
And I could call him.
I believe it was on the same switch, too.
I know some step switches of the past, you were able to do all kinds of tricks like that
because of the mechanics at work.
You were able to take shortcuts and make phone calls in that way.
But these days, I don't know.
It seems awfully strange.
Well, you never know.
Okay.
Well, keep trying.
Let us know if it works again.
Okay.
All right.
Take care.
Bye.
Any light to shed on that one, Farber?
Sounds awfully strange, if not impossible to me.
Okay.
Well, we agree on that, then.
That does sound weird.
But weird things are possible, so by all means, try weird things and see if they work.
Good evening.
You're on.
Yes, hello.
Hi.
How are you?
Okay.
What can we do for you?
Okay, yes.
What's the number you dialed to have a phone ring back?
Where are you located?
I'm on Long Island.
Long Island.
Most places on Long Island work with 660.
And then what you do is you dial 660 plus the last four digits of your phone number.
That's four digits.
Yeah.
You'll get a dial tone.
I've been trying it.
I've been having problems.
All right.
What's been happening?
I just don't know.
Of course, I put it with 660 and then the first three.
But is it the first four digits now?
Well, do you know how many digits it's waiting for?
No, the last four.
Okay, the last four digits.
Is that what you're putting in?
I was doing 660 and then my first and then the exchange.
No, put the last four digits.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Don't tell me to do the exchange.
No, not the exchange.
And then what you do is you get a dial tone.
You hang up once, pick up again.
You'll get another tone.
And then you hang that up.
It'll ring back.
Okay.
All right.
They had told me to do the 660 and then just my actual exchange, not the last four digits.
That's why I didn't know what was going on.
That's what comes from not asking the experts, you know.
Okay.
Love your show.
Thanks for calling.
660 works in some places in New York, but not all places.
I believe DMS 100 it works from, but not all of them.
And some places 660 is waiting for 10 digits, area code and full number.
So experiment around.
Some places 660 just gives you a dial tone and nobody can figure out what to do after then.
Anybody can figure that one out, please let us know here because we're dying to know that one.
Good evening.
You're on.
Hello.
Okay.
Let's try this one over here.
Good evening.
Hello.
Yes.
You're the last call.
Go ahead.
Hi.
Okay.
I was wondering, do you know anything about something called the craft access system that
New York Telephone uses?
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
I guess we know a bit about that, but that's going to take a little bit to explain.
Now, maybe Farber can just very briefly give us an outline of that and another show we
can go into more detail.
Well, briefly, lots of linemen use the craft access system.
They use what's called a craft access terminal.
Most commonly, there's two types that they use.
There's a big yellow test set with a little screen and a little tiny joystick on it.
They call it a joystick?
I don't know if they call it a joystick.
The other kind looks more like a little palm top computer.
Basically, in either case, the main purpose of it is to pick up dispatches for jobs and
to do tests on phone lines and to look up line records and maintenance reports and so
on and so forth.
Oh, you said something about line, anything about the records, the phone numbers that
the person called?
Yeah.
Commonly, a craft access terminal would be capable of doing a mini line record inquiry,
which would allow the technician to enter in the seven-digit number and get a brief
little trouble history back.
Is that used locally only for now, or is it...
It's only...
I mean, they're used within various different Bell operating companies, but the craft access
system itself is only local in each case.
I hear it's experimental also.
Well, if it's experimental, it's been experimental for the past, oh, I don't know, six years
or so.
So it's an experiment that every linesman is participating in.
It's pretty much commonplace.
Thanks for the call.
We're out of time.
Okay.
That's a very interesting subject, though, and something we can spend much time on in
the future.
But that's going to do it for us here tonight.
This has been another edition of Off the Hook.
We'll be back again next Wednesday night at 10 o'clock, talking about all kinds of new
developments in technology and de-evolution and that kind of thing.
For FiberOptic, this is Emanuel Goldstein.
Have a good week.
We'll see you next Wednesday.
Good night.
Bye-bye.
Good evening.
In the news tonight, the Supreme Court looks at a case that compares the practices of some
anti-abortion activists with the actions of organized crime.
Congress looks at banning ammunition instead of banning guns.
And in New York, the region reacts to yesterday's shooting on the Long Island Railroad.
With these and other stories, I'm Jose Santiago in New York with Vern...