And this is WBAI in New York, coming up next, Off the Hook.
No silence deep enough.
There is no silence deep enough.
No corruption big enough.
No corruption big enough.
No politician big enough.
No politician big enough.
To bury your story.
Genocide in East Timor-Leste.
Several hundred people walked in a funeral procession at the cemetery in Dili, East Timor
on November 11, 1991, when Suharto's troops fired automatic weapons at point-blank range,
killing more than 270 people.
Jose Ramos-Horta, Nobel Prize winner and Timorese independence fighter, will be at St. Bartholomew's
Church at 105 East 50th Street this Tuesday, November 12th at 6 p.m. for the fifth annual
commemoration in memory of the victims and the survivors of the 1991 Dili massacre.
Organized by East Timor Religious Outreach and supported by the East Timor Action Network,
call 718-788-6071 for more information.
This has been a public service announcement brought to you by WBAI New York.
And coming to you live from the Empire State Building, it's now time for Off the Hook.
Let's go!
Let's go!
And good evening to everybody.
This is another fun-filled, exciting edition of Off the Hook, the program for computer
hackers and those wanting to learn about the Internet and the phone system and Big Brother
and how it all affects you.
It's Manuel Goldstein here with you for the next hour.
We'll be taking lots of phone calls because we haven't been on in a couple of weeks, thanks
to that great national holiday known as Election Day, which took place last week.
What fun that was.
And you know, I can hardly wait until all the elections are done electronically somehow
because, you know, we all know we're moving towards that.
We're moving towards this vote from your house type of mentality and you do everything else
from your house now.
You shop from your house, you pay taxes from your house, you know, you socialize from your
house, you do everything from your house.
So the next logical step, of course, is to vote from your house and that's going to wind
up with a few problems, I guess is the best way to put it.
And since our entire democratic system is based on the concept of voting, well, you
could see things start to crumble when we begin to rely on that.
Just like lots of us who depend on the World Wide Web for our view of corporate America
are beginning to experience a little bit of shock.
And we've had some instances over the past couple of months involving such agencies as
the CIA, Department of Justice, and a couple of others.
But this happened in Chile last week, actually.
A computer hacker broke into the Internet site of the 6th Ibero-American Summit of 19
Latin American nations, also Spain and Portugal were amongst those, and they filled it with
dirty pictures and all kinds of raunchy humor and embarrassed everybody there.
The hacker inserted pictures of nude women on a list of activities planned for the first
ladies at the summit.
So you can imagine the effect that had on people browsing the web on that day.
But I guess a little bit more of an educational kind of a hack, if you want to call something
like this a hack, would be a more political statement, such as what happened last night
at a fur company, Kriegsman Furs, yes, www.kriegsman.com.
You won't find anything there now, we got an anonymous tip about this one at about four
in the morning, and we were able to capture most of the site.
And basically, imagine this, imagine a fur company, a company that does nothing but sell
furs, having a huge anti-fur statement on its worldwide web page.
Yeah, this is what it said.
First of all, a message from the author, I did not hack this site in order to cause trouble
for anyone, except maybe Kriegsman Inc.
I fully understand the responsibilities of a system administrator and understand it is
a thankless job.
This is in no way the administrator's fault or whoever is in control of security.
I tried to do this as carefully as I could in order not to cause any problem for the
site administrators.
Anyway, this was done in the name of animal rights.
Today's consumer is completely oblivious to what goes on in order for their product to
arrive at the mall for them to buy.
It is time that the consumer be aware of what goes on in many of today's big industries,
most importantly the food industries.
For instance, dairy cows are injected with a chemical called BGH that is very harmful
to both humans and the cows.
This chemical gives the cows bladder infections.
This makes the cows bleed and guess what?
It goes straight into your bowl of cereal.
Little does the consumer know nor care.
The same kind of thing goes on behind the back of fur wearers.
The chemicals that are used to process and produce the fur are extremely bad for our
earth.
Not only that, but millions of animals are slaughtered for fur and leather coats.
I did this in order to wake up the blind consumers of today.
Know the facts.
And there are links to all kinds of other homepages, the animal rights FAQ, the American
Anti-Vivisection Society, the Animal Rights Picture Gallery, People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals, and believe it or not, 2600.com, for some reason, they decided to put a link
in to us, which is cool, you know, it's all in the spirit of education and how to use
the net to get out a message.
They have the logo, Kriegsman Furs and Outerwear.
I'm not sure what the actual slogan is.
I think it's, I think you don't have to know furs, you just have to wear them or something
like that.
You don't have to know death, you just have to wear it.
A killing tradition for 115 years.
Now, you could say, you know, and I'd like to know what people's opinions on something
like this is.
This is vandalism, you know, this is somebody going in there and, you know, painting graffiti
on the wall of, you know, of a huge multinational corporation.
But look at it in a different way, and you see an individual person with obviously more
brains than most of us, going in there and saying something that would not otherwise
be said or heard, and using the people that he opposes in order to get that message out.
So you're reaching, you know, a lot of times we spend preaching to the converted, you know,
we speak on WBAI, but, you know, the people listening lots of times are more educated
than the people who listen to all those other radio stations, and I know I'm not offending
them because they're not listening.
So when you preach to those people, when you say things that they already know, it's kind
of, you know, okay, here's something new.
This way, you get out to different people, you know, the people that may have never gotten
a message like this.
And I think we can see from the attitude of the person that they didn't want to cause
damage, they didn't want to make things overly difficult for system administrators.
I think the most important thing, and the thing that is the whole potential of the net
is that everybody has a way of getting their message out, and if they're clever enough,
they can get the message to as many people as those of us with millions of dollars to
spend.
So it's good to see something that involves a little bit of thought, and it's also kind
of rare.
Speaking of lack of thought, if you browse the web and search for the word hacker, you
would have seen this story coming from Yahoo News, and this is one reason why I think that's
an appropriate name.
Computer Hacker Tries to Hire Rapist.
See this one?
Yeah.
Computer Hacker Tries to Hire Rapist.
A Vermont man who used a computer online service to try to hire someone to rape and sexually
mutilate his wife unknowingly employed a policeman for the job, according to the Massachusetts
Attorney General's office.
Harold Clarkson, 50 years old, was charged with two counts of hiring someone to commit
kidnapping and sexual assault.
Clarkson identified himself on the American online service as Trudy 21, a 21-year-old
woman from North Carolina.
He said he wanted to hire someone to kidnap his sister, beat her with a baseball bat,
all that kind of jazz there.
And that's pretty much the whole story.
Now, the thing that obviously bugs people who listen to this radio show is where do
they get the word computer hacker?
You know, just because somebody is an AOL user, is everybody that's on AOL, they all
computer hackers?
You know, that's an awful lot.
That's an army of hackers there, and quite an army at that.
I don't think that's really what's going on, is it?
I mean, that's not the facts.
So this is something that needs to be corrected.
We need to reach these people and say, look, just because somebody uses a computer to communicate
with somebody else, that does not make them a hacker.
So everybody who considers themselves a hacker is not maligned by, you know, people who simply
use computers as tools.
That's what they are.
I mean, everybody who works in an office, are they all hackers?
They're all using computers, too.
You know, lots of them are using modems, some of them are even on the internet.
It's just ridiculous.
Well, you know, all the rest of my story is just falling behind the CD player, so I guess
I won't be able to get to those.
You know, this studio is not very well designed for stories.
No, they're gone.
They're...
If they fell in the back, yeah, if you could get those, that would be nice, thank you.
Are they back there?
I don't believe this.
No, they're well behind all the electronic equipment there.
That's really a shame, because there are some good stories.
If you can figure out how to get all the way back there, and don't electrocute yourself
either, because that would be bad.
We have other items for you.
Oh, thank you very much.
Thank you so much.
Just some things the studio is not designed for.
Okay, we have the British Telecom taking over MCI.
Yeah.
Bigger is better, right?
Well, some people are saying bigger is not better, because British Telecom is paying
through the nose to get MCI, and they're not really getting all that much.
If they had paid just a little bit more, they would have had AT&T, and that probably would
have been better.
So now we have a huge phone company.
It hasn't happened yet.
This new company is going to be called Concert Global Communications, PLC.
It makes MCI look good, but it's really going to be weakening British Telecom, and it's
unclear what that's going to mean to customers here, except a new nice fancy logo with different
company names and things like that.
MCI's reputation and business is largely confined to the United States, though the big growth
prospects for the combined entity are in its international operations, obviously.
British Telecom is suffering from all kinds of problems as well.
They've cut their payroll nearly in half in the last couple of years, and they only have
about 130,000 employees now.
They had a lot more than that only a couple of years ago.
Earnings growth has eluded the company, its stock price has languished, and MCI has not
done much better.
So who knows where this is going to lead.
It might just be something that is done for show, to get a lot of attention and maybe
raise the stock price up a little bit.
But what will it mean for us?
I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
More immediately, more immediate danger, I guess, to us is the proposed Bell Atlantic
9X merger, which seems to be getting closer and closer.
I'd like to read you something from this guy at 9X.
This was in the Daily News on Tuesday, actually I guess today, today is Tuesday, right?
Today's Daily News.
So if you have a copy, you can run and get it and read along with me.
He is the 9X, this guy, Stanley Fink, 9X Senior Vice President for Regulatory and Government
Affairs.
And he thinks that the takeover of his company by a bigger company that's, you know, down
to the south a little bit is a good thing, you know?
I mean, I know Giuliani was getting on everybody's case about the Time Warner dispute with Fox,
you know, making it like these Southerners are coming up to New York and telling us what
to do.
Well, I don't know, maybe he should say something about the Bell Atlantic takeover for the same
logic.
We'll see if that works.
A quiet revolution has begun in New York.
Oh boy.
A quiet revolution, yes.
At 9X, we've made virtually all our services available at a discount to companies that
will be able to resell them.
These companies will soon offer more choices for local telephone services at home and at
work.
We've done this because we believe competition benefits everyone, customers, competitors,
and ourselves.
9X will eventually have a smaller share of a larger local market, but we'll also have
the opportunity to grow by expanding into new markets.
Growth is what our proposed merger with Bell Atlantic is all about.
In New York, the merger will spur job growth and local economic development.
The new Bell Atlantic will be headquartered in Midtown, bringing jobs to the city and
promoting New York's position as world capital of the information age economy.
9X has worked with New York regulators and federal legislators to make this new competition
possible.
We recognized that changes in policy would stimulate economic growth, innovation, and
new and improved services.
Last year, 9X negotiated a regulatory plan that included a freeze on basic rates for
homes and small businesses until the year 2002, a plan that at the same time gives 9X
the ability to better compete.
In addition, we are eliminating touch-tone charges, lowering access charges, and introducing
regional calling plans amounting to nearly $2 billion in consumer savings over seven
years.
Our merger won't change these commitments.
Basic rates won't go up.
And, by the way, these rates apply to some of the largest local calling areas in the
country.
In New York City, calls to and from anywhere within the five boroughs are local.
Some have compared New York rates to cities where you have to pay a toll to call across
town.
In reality, New Yorkers pay almost exactly the national average for their local phone
bills.
Now, I just want to break away from this for a second just to point out something written
by Catherine Abate, who is a state senator here in Manhattan and a member of a coalition
of union and consumer groups probing the 9X Belt Atlantic merger.
And she says that, I guess in opposition to what Mr. Fink says, New York City customers
pay an average of $25.42 a month for basic monthly service, 90% higher than Los Angeles
residents pay.
90% higher.
And Mr. Fink says New Yorkers pay almost exactly the national average.
There's a disagreement here, obviously.
These two have to meet.
Also as part of our, continuing with the Stanley Fink letter, as part of our seven-year commitment
to the state, 9X proposed and last year adopted what are some of the highest service quality
standards in the country.
Wow, that's quite a statement right there.
I don't know if you've been reading the papers recently, but we have not exactly been meeting
those goals now, have we?
No, in fact, in unprecedented moves, 9X has had to pay back, I think it was something
like $112 million in penalties to customers for poor service.
And there have been studies done of customer satisfaction and I believe Ameritech got 99%
of its customers were satisfied with its service.
And every other phone company came in somewhere in the 90s, but 9X was last, 82%, and I think
that's kind of high.
Jokers.
No, that's what I was going to say, is that, wait a minute, they're committing themselves
to this customer service and they were voted last, dead last.
I think, I don't, I remember seeing it in the news as well.
It's all playing with words, you know.
It's saying that, yeah, we've adopted this high quality standard here, but we're failing
to mention that we're adopting it because we never had it before and we're kind of forced
to by law and by angry consumers.
Anyway, let's wrap this up, this article.
So we're well on our way to meeting those standards as evidenced by our improved third
quarter service quality results reported by the New York Public Service Commission last
week.
I don't know where they're getting that from because everything I've heard has been, you
know, 9X going down and being fined and having horrible things happen.
We are gratified that the Communications Workers of America is now supporting the merger.
Somehow I don't think that's entirely true either.
According to this, the union and the management of both companies reached agreement last week
to work together in the merged company in a partnership based on mutual trust and respect.
Right.
We are committed to New York.
Our merger with Bell Atlantic will advance our efforts to improve service and we will
remain the state's largest employer and investor and continue our 100 year tradition of community
involvement.
Experts agree, communications is one industry where bigger is better.
Well, you know, that's something I really have to stop right there and point out something.
You know, AT&T was broken up because experts said communications is one industry where
bigger is not better and things have to be, you know, broken down and there has to be
lots of competition, which doesn't seem to be happening in this case.
Things seem to be getting bigger and bigger and more monopolistic.
Continuing, 9X already faces competition from multinational alliances and large foreign
and domestic corporations.
I feel the nationalistic fervor starting to be rankled there.
Our competition has announced that it plans to capture a third of the local market in
five years.
Oh, not if I can help it.
With the new Bell Atlantic size and scope, we can compete more aggressively for long
distance and we'll be better able to offer new choices for video, internet access and
information and entertainment services.
We're excited by all this.
The new Bell Atlantic can't wait to show you what we can offer.
Oh boy, you know, keep these people away from the internet.
That's all I have to say.
You know, I don't want them controlling how the internet works.
I'd much rather have people like our friendly web hacker, you know, playing around with
things rather than these people dictating rates and rules and horrible things like that.
Here's something, you know, just to point out that I'm just not blowing hot air here.
This little extra news bulletin you get with your phone bill, okay, they give you all these
neat little features, repeat dialing service, call return, new 9X custom calling services
making it convenient to stay in touch and everything that they have here has a charge.
You know, everything, if you star 69 somebody, it costs you money even if you don't get through.
Now, that's not right and any other business that would not be tolerated but 9X not only
does that but makes it, you know, kind of shady.
They don't exactly advertise that very loudly that, yeah, you get a busy signal, you get
charged for that when you star 69 somebody.
That's just not right.
9X though, you know, they're not the only ones.
I have a letter here from AT&T.
They just sent this to me.
I haven't even opened it yet.
Just proof that I know this is going to be some sort of a scam before I even look at
what they have to say.
It's really easy.
Okay, let's see what we got here.
Find the scam in less than 30 seconds.
Now you can use AT&T for your regional calls too.
Does it make sense to use the company you trust for your long-distance calls for calls
closer to home as well, especially now while we're offering you a little something extra?
Act now and receive a bag of cocaine.
Oops, no, no, no, no, no, no, but it might as well be.
Come on, a $15 bonus.
I mean, this does nothing for any of us.
You know why?
Because AT&T rates are not cheap for local calls.
They're not.
They're expensive.
They're timed.
I know somebody, in fact, this is interesting because I happen to know somebody who fell
for this scam, and yes, it is a scam.
They had the 9X unlimited regional calling plan.
You know, they were able to call all the way to 516, all the way to 914, 718, pay one low
monthly charge or whatever the charge was, and not have to worry for the per minute thing.
They thought they were changing their long-distance company to AT&T.
In fact, they were changing their regional company.
So not only do they get to pay for every single phone call they make regionally outside this
immediate local calling area, out to 516 and 914, but they lost the 9X regional calling
plan and they no longer have that option.
So they got it from both ends.
Got to be careful what you read in the mail because it's not always the way it seems.
Our phone number is 212-279-3400, and I guess that's pretty much everything that we've got
here, and we want to devote some more time to telephones because, well, we haven't been
on in a while, and we need to catch up, see what's going on.
212-279-3400 is our phone number, and I guess we'll just move to the first line.
Hope it's not you-know-who, and we'll just have to see, though.
Good evening.
You're on.
Hi.
No, it's not you-know-who.
It's the other alternate.
You're on almost as much as he is, though.
I know, but, you know, only on your show for some reason.
I'm sorry you were preempted for Erection Day, but that's neither here nor there.
Two things, okay?
Are you familiar with what's going on at this place called Gold Bar at the Lower East Side?
Why don't you tell us?
All right, because my friend is a DJ.
He goes by the name Neil Sonar.
He was even written up in New York Press in the Village Voice, and they were having some
sort of ISDN internet party thing in conjunction with Apple Computer.
The point is, Apple Computer was giving away this, like, keepsake that I think is going
to be more valuable in the future than the Mr. Spock ornaments from Hallmark.
It's basically like an AM-FM radio, but it looks like, you know, in scale, a mini-Apple
computer.
Have you seen it, or do you know anyone else who owns one of those thingies?
Nobody here has heard anything about that of which you speak.
In any case, if I can get one or two from him, you know, could I, like, send it to you?
Sure.
Oh, send us anything you want, absolutely.
Okay, great.
We like things like that.
Okay, now, the other thing, oh, yeah.
Just to break in, if you have something that you'd like to send us, our address here is
off the hook care of WBAI, 505 8th Avenue, New York, New York, 10018.
And I'm sure you and Fiber, of course, would submerge any packages in water as a precaution.
I'm just kidding.
This is before you open it.
No, we have people that do that for us.
Okay, the other thing is, I wrote this to you in a letter a few months ago, but I don't
know if you read it or got it, because you said you're deluged with mail.
I have an idea for sort of like a 2600 party mixer, where, like, you know, all the guys
could wear pencil patches, and all the women could wear those 1950s wingtip glasses.
What do you think about adding some sort of social element to, you know, the mission you
guys are on?
Well, you know, we do have a social element to that.
There's an online social element, and there's also, you know, an offline in-person element
at the meetings once a month at Citicorp.
When's the next one going to be?
The next one, I guess, will be the, whatever the first Friday of December is at Citicorp
between 5 and 8.
Is that for real?
Because I always thought, like, you were just like, you mentioned that for years, and it's
just a joke.
No, it's not a joke.
You really are.
No, people actually show up there.
They're, like, in person, not on an astral plane.
Absolutely.
Okay, how about this?
I won't give my name or anything, but it's going to be December and cold, so, like, if
I, like, don't know the secret handshake or something, look for a 300-pound man wearing
a Tibetan hat, and that'll be me.
Hashtag.
That sounds fascinating, except for the fact that I'm not going to be at the December meeting,
but other people here will be.
Will Fiber be there?
I'd love to meet him.
He may very well be, but I'm going to be elsewhere for this one.
But lots of people show up for meetings all around the country.
Okay, and the last thing, and I'm pretty sure Rebel will be next, if not Monroe.
I don't know if he's dead or he closed.
I haven't been listening lately, but are you going to be on TV anymore?
Because I saw you that time at 2 a.m. on ABC News.
Are you, like, friendly with those people, and do they, you know, have you on occasionally
or what?
Well, you know, sometimes they just sort of tell you at the last minute, hey, you want
to do this, and you say, okay, and then you wind up being on TV at 2 in the morning.
You know, you don't really know when it's going to happen.
It just sort of happens sometimes.
And sometimes, you know, like Learning Channel and Discovery, they keep re-airing those documentaries
over and over again, and people call me saying, hey, you're on TV now, and, you know, it's
okay.
I've seen it 50 times already.
Just 30 more seconds.
I would like to hear, like, Bernie S. on live again just to see what's happening.
And the last thing about it, this is scammer, isn't it?
Talking about 3 in the morning, one of those infomercials is basically you send in some
money, and this guy, like, sends you these phone cards, which you give away for free
and which people use, but they have to use with their credit card, and it's a flat rate
of 16 cents per minute.
And, like, it's all computerized, and you get, like, a commission for each completed
call.
Have you seen that?
I haven't seen that.
I'd have to study it a little bit more, but I'd be very suspicious of something like that.
Okay.
You're live.
My favorite show on BAI after Mike Fader, Chris Wentz, Bob Fierce, and Delphine Blue,
so take care.
Okay.
Bye-bye.
Thanks.
He just named half the schedule, and, okay, well, I guess it's good to be in the top 10
anyway.
Joker?
I'm just wondering if you saw any further info on the whole WorldNet crash thing.
No.
Why don't you tell us?
Oh, no.
I'm just, you, in all the news stories, you didn't mention it, the fact that they were
out for, like, two days or whatever.
Tell us about that.
Their whole network dropped for two days.
Nobody was able to get mail, no connections, no nothing.
It was just, I was just wondering if you were going to mention something in conjunction
with the fact that AT&T is trying to take over, you know, local service, and they're
trying to take over the net, and they can't even do it right, and the fact is if 9x and
Bill Atlantic tried to get into it, we're all screwed.
What was the problem?
I don't know.
It, you know, they attributed it to, you know, server failure or whatever.
I mean, of course...
Well, it happens to almost any site.
AOL went out a couple of months ago.
You know, it just, things happen.
Glitches occur.
But when you, when you try and say that, you know, we're perfect and it never happens to
us, that's where you open yourself up to all kinds of problems.
212-279-3400.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
We're perfect and it never happens to us.
Always.
All kinds of problems.
Yes.
I think we're puzzling this person here.
Are you there?
Yes.
My name is Ray, and I was hearing about the Bill Atlantic merger, et cetera.
Uh-huh.
My wife and I have a Bill Atlantic 9X mobile cellular phone.
Today she tried to make a call at work.
I tried to call her.
The service was disconnected.
Are you using that service now?
Hello?
I hear a clicking.
Yeah, well, you're cutting in and out.
Are you using a cellular phone?
No.
You're not.
I'm on a wired phone.
You're on a regular phone.
Boy, this is a lousy connection.
Well, try and say that again, because it sounds like you have something interesting to say.
Hey, put me on hold for a few moments and come back to me?
Well, is the problem on your end?
The light on my phone has flashed on and off a little bit.
Okay.
Can you possibly move to another phone?
Yeah.
Do you want to put me on hold?
I'm going to put you on hold for about a minute.
I'm going to take another call.
I'm going to come back to you.
Hopefully by then you will have found a better phone, and maybe it's not your fault anyway,
but we're going to try that.
You're putting that person on hold.
That's the worst connection I think I've ever heard.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Go ahead.
Speak.
Yeah, hello?
Yes.
Yeah, I'm calling.
Yeah, I received my phone bill, and on my phone bill is local calls saying that it's from MCI.
How can that happen?
Because you are unwittingly signed up for MCI as your regional carrier.
For long distance, yeah, but not for local.
Yeah, well, by local you mean not next door, but like maybe 10 miles away, 20 miles away?
Anywhere.
Like I call from Long Island to Brooklyn.
Yeah, that's a regional call.
And what happened was, did you get a call from an MCI representative at any point?
Yeah, they said if I switch this, mail me $50, and then a week later another phone company called
and said if I switch this, they would mail me $100.
Well, you can make a little bit of cash that way, but eventually the savings run out
because you're paying a timed rate for every single phone call, and it is more expensive than the 9X rate.
So if you want to change back, just call 9X and change back.
Also, it's not cheap like that.
Yeah, it's a long distance phone company, which is why it's not cheap.
Oh, so they're not charging me local rate?
No, they're not.
They're charging you different rates.
Oh, I didn't realize they were allowed to do that because I just signed up for the long distance.
Right.
Well, what does your phone bill look like?
Does it look higher than it usually is?
It's very, it seems like when I pick up the phone and start talking, that's when I'm charged.
Right.
Well, that's what will happen to you if you select one of those companies at this point.
They may introduce a better rate structure, but right now, the rates that they have are not competitive with 9X that I can see anyway.
Well, I'm better off going back to 9X.
Yeah, what you should do is call your 9X business office and say that you unwittingly switched on your regional calls.
Make sure you say regional calls.
Yeah.
They'll know what that means.
They'll switch you back.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you.
That's happening to a lot of people, so be careful when you get those $50 checks from MCI.
You know, there's something in it for them, too.
They don't just give away money.
They really don't, although sometimes they do, but that's another story.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Okay.
This is a lot better.
Yeah.
Now, what was that?
It was your phone, huh?
I don't know.
Anyhow, my wife tried to make a call from the cellular phone.
She couldn't get through, and I tried to call her, and it said the line was disconnected.
That service has been discontinued.
You know, as if we didn't pay our bill.
We always pay our bill on time.
And I was wondering if maybe a lot of other people suffered the same thing around, you know, like within a day or two of today.
Maybe they've had a computer glitch.
I intend not to say anything for a day or two because I figure the longer it's out, the more than I can allege it is a breach of contract.
And as you know, the cellular companies will try and extract a penalty from the customer if the customer breaches the contract.
And I feel I have the same right and privilege as the customers do, and I want to get money for their breaching my contract.
Well, now, tell us exactly what has happened again.
Okay.
My wife tried to make a call.
She tried to call home.
I was at home.
The call wouldn't go through.
She said you have to, not putting in a valid PIN number or something like that.
Then she called me from a pay phone, so I tried to call her on the cellular phone, and I can even let you hear the recording if you wish.
Sure, go ahead.
Okay, one moment.
Live demonstration of a 9X, Bell Atlantic.
Okay, just conference, and I dialed the cellular phone number.
Okay.
We're sorry.
The number you have reached is not in service.
Please check the number and dial again.
Thank you.
Bell Atlantic 9X Mobile, 3-3-22.
So it says our number is not in service.
Right, that's very interesting.
Now, have you had any kind of conflict with these people at all?
Well, actually, I have said nasty things about their service.
I sent by e-mail to their worldwide website, and they alleged that it went all over the Internet, which if it did, it's not my fault.
I sent private and confidential e-mail to them.
How did they allege this?
Well, it's a long story.
It just so happens my wife works a little bit in connection with Bell Atlantic 9X Mobile, and they complained to her boss about what I wrote.
Okay.
By the way, this is not a demo line.
We're paying full price like everybody else.
We're not doing this any favors, but their service, frankly, stinks.
Right.
We had AT&T Wireless for a year.
We've had Bell Atlantic 9X Mobile since January, and really, comparing it to service, their service stinks, and I said that much to them.
However, we've always paid the bills on time, and if other people have had their service cut off like we did, I'd like to get together with others for a class-action lawsuit.
Well, now, that's interesting if your service was cut off simply because you criticized their service.
There's nothing on a personal level going on here?
No.
What address did you send it to?
Well, their website is, I think, B-A-N-M.com, and when I logged on, I found somebody's e-mail address there.
It was one of the people working there, and I sent him e-mail.
And the funny thing, some of the people who sent me e-mail back, I tried to e-mail them back.
I tried to reply, and it bounces.
So, frankly, I don't think they know how to run a website either.
Interesting.
Well, okay, so you complained, your service, apparently.
When did this happen?
Well, this was months ago.
I said how bad the service was compared to AT&T.
There's no billing dispute?
No, no billing dispute at all.
I see.
Well, it could just be some sort of a clerical error.
You might want to call them just to see what the status of the account is.
Well, we paid in person, and we have the receipt that shows the date paid.
The amount was paid in full.
It was paid before any late date, like a week before it was due.
So if there's any problem with bill payments, because they screwed up at their end,
but then that's their problem, not mine.
Right.
That is true.
But I'd just like to satisfy my curiosity and see why it was turned off in the first place.
It could be harassment.
It could be incompetence, you know.
But either way.
Or just bad service.
Do you feel you're locked into some sort of a contract that's not?
Yeah, well, my contract would expire in January.
And as far as I'm concerned right now, they're breaching it.
Right.
And just today by accident, we found out that, you know, the service is not working.
And I figured if I complained right away, they might say, oh, it just went out.
They'll say, you know, an hour before it'll be fixed up.
If I wait for a couple of days, they can't tell me it's been out for only an hour.
And then I have more grounds, I believe, for a breach of contract position.
All right.
Well, now, did you want other people to contact you?
Yeah, I'll tell you what.
I'm going to put a message on Alt 2600.
Good luck.
OK.
I know all the other stuff that's on there.
Yeah, I know.
Yeah.
You have to wade through it with a scythe or, you know.
Do this.
Put WBAI somewhere in the subject.
Good.
Because that way people can scan through the tens of thousands of messages that get posted there every day and find your message.
All right.
All right.
And then hopefully you can get together with other people.
Will do.
All right.
Good luck.
OK.
Thank you.
All right.
We have a one-to-one confrontation with the phone company.
BAI, good evening.
You're on the air.
Hi.
Thank you for taking my call.
No problem.
I wonder if you can tell me where I can get one of those gadgets where you sort of attach or place near your telephone
that will tell you if someone else is on your line.
Well, Radio Shack has things like that.
Almost any electronic store basically has devices that will light up if another extension is lifted,
if somebody taps into the actual wire on your phone line.
What do I ask for?
I don't know what the exact.
Joe, do you know what the exact name of that is?
Yeah, the device is actually measure voltage.
Measure of voltage.
Basically what you just tell them exactly what you just told us,
saying you're concerned about potential people listening on your line
and you want a device that will let you know if, A, another extension is picked up
or there is a significant fluctuation of voltage on your telephone line.
But you know, a lot of phones, a lot of phones do that already.
They have the lights on them and some of them even chirp whenever somebody picks up an extension.
Oh.
Sometimes people with those phones, they hear a chirp at around 2 in the morning or they see a light flicker
and that's the central office sending some sort of a test down the line.
Oh, I see.
So it's nothing to get concerned about, but it just shows you how sensitive they are.
So if somebody actually picks up the phone, you'll definitely notice about what's going on.
Can I ask you one more question?
Sure, go ahead.
My daughter has a cellular phone,
and she got a bill where someone had made calls to India or Pakistan.
And we had had someone who was living in the basement,
and we were wondering if there was some way, because he knew something about electronics,
that there was some way he could have picked up on her cellular phone
and made these calls.
These calls were almost over $1,000.
Have you gone down to the basement recently to ask this person?
We don't have access, you know, to the basement.
And we asked him last night, and the father denied it.
Uh-huh.
Well, what makes you think it's this one person in the basement?
Because they're from that area.
Okay.
They're the only ones from that area in this building, and it's a small building.
Yeah, but you see, the thing is, it's a large area, and it could be anyone.
The way cellular phones work, it's just so easy to use them fraudulently.
And I think everybody who has ever had a cellular phone has confronted this at one point or another.
I see.
It's a remarkably insecure technology,
and it's not by any means necessary that the person be next door to you or even in the same town as you.
Yeah.
It could be anybody.
Because it's never happened before.
Yeah.
Well, now, what you have to do is contact the company and say these aren't. . .
Yeah, we did.
Okay.
Are they taking them off?
Yes, they did, but it's just the very idea that someone could do it.
You know, that's an invasion.
Absolutely, but I would not take it personally because probably the person that did this
did it with 100 other phone numbers at the same time.
Yeah, I see.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
All right.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
The last thing you want to do, I think, is confront people and accuse them of things
when they have no idea what you're talking about.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Oh, no, you're not on the air.
It's got to be you.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Yes, go ahead.
Yes, I have a question.
Two quick questions.
All right.
You've come to the right place.
Great.
I called a residential number, and I've called the number before.
I got a recording that said I needed to push star 82 and then redial the number.
Right.
What that is, somebody has anonymous call rejection.
If you are coming in with your phone number blocked, meaning that you're not advertising
your phone number when you call out, they have the option of rejecting you and saying,
the only way I'm going to pick up my phone or even allow it to ring is if you tell me
who you are before I pick up.
It's a very confrontational way of making a phone call, obviously.
There's an easy way around it.
If you simply call from outside the area, route through an operator, go through a payphone,
things like that, use a calling card, they don't block calls from out of area.
They only can block calls that are anonymous.
Okay.
This kind of segues into my second question.
I received a NYNEX announcement in my bill saying I could get caller ID blocked.
Is that a legitimate going through them or should I get a caller ID block machine?
No, no.
To block your caller, it sounds like you already have caller ID block.
Okay.
Which means that every time you dial, your number is not transmitted.
That's what you want, right?
Yes.
Okay.
You just tell them you want that and it won't be transmitted, period.
There's no hardware, there's no charge even.
There are some companies that actually sell you a device which dials star 67,
which is basically what you would dial if you weren't blocked to block your number.
And they charge you something like $25 for a device that does nothing but dial star 67.
You don't have to dial star 67 if you're permanently set up to have your number blocked.
Okay.
All right?
All right.
Thanks a lot.
All right.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
And just to demonstrate something, we have a service set up.
And hopefully it works because half the time things don't work around here.
But we'll see if this does.
We have a voicemail system set up.
And I'm going to give out the number after it works because if it doesn't work, it's useless.
And this will tell you if your phone number is blocked or not.
Listen carefully.
If you'd like to make a call, please hang up and try again.
If you need help, stay on the line and a hacker will assist you shortly.
Welcome to the 2600 Voice BBS.
To enter the BBS section, press 1.
To enter the 2600 voicemail system, press 2.
For voice files, press 3.
For special phone services, press 4.
We want special phone services.
Press 5.
This is the phone services section.
Press 1 if you have a string of touch tones you'd like us to decode.
Press 2 if you'd like us to tell you your caller ID info.
Or press star to go back to the main menu.
Well, we will press 2 to find out our phone number.
2
1
2
2
7
9
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
4
0
8
This is the phone services section.
Okay, so as you can see, we were able to find out the phone number that we were calling out on.
It was transmitted because we don't have caller ID blocked for some reason here.
I think we should.
I don't know if our phones are even capable of dialing star 67.
Let's see if they are.
Star 67.
How do you like that? We can't even block it.
That's because we're on some sort of crazy centric system here.
The number is 516-473-2626.
So if you have any questions at any time about your caller ID, whether or not it's blocked,
you can call that number and test it out.
And if you think you've found a way to block it or to make it sound like a different number or whatever,
that's the number to experiment, play to your heart's content.
So 516-473-2626.
And there's also a whole community of people there posting information about various other things they've found.
So feel free to jump in and be part of that.
212-279-3400 is our phone number.
Good evening. You're on the air.
Hi.
You had recently, I think it was from the fellow who was your first or second caller,
this evening, a couple of weeks ago, a most bizarre call.
He was under the impression that the Philips company of the Netherlands
were about to buy or had just bought the Norelco shaver line.
Well, Norelco, after all, is a sort of acronym for North American Philips.
Philips has owned that line of shavers.
I imagine they probably sell it under the Philips name on other continents.
They have been selling it under the Norelco name in this country since 1948.
All right. Well, I'm glad you called up to clarify that very important issue.
I don't even remember that, to be honest.
Does anybody remember that?
Well, okay.
Well, you know, it wouldn't be the first time a company accidentally bought itself,
but I guess the people at Philips are too sharp for that kind of thing.
Good evening. You're on the air.
Yes, I remember that question.
Let me ask you something.
Other parts of the country, do they have this phony FCC charge, the 350 Align?
Well, it's not really an FCC charge.
It's a charge that the FCC allows the phone companies to tack on,
and that's why they call it an FCC charge.
But, yeah, I believe that's standard across the nation.
Oh, so with Star 82, I called Jersey recently.
My number is blocked, and it says the party's not accepting any private calls.
Please dial 1182 or Star 82 to let your call go through.
Now, you are where?
In Brooklyn.
You're in Brooklyn. Okay.
9X is probably passing on that information.
I understand caller ID is available in California.
It's national.
It's national, right.
So your number will be passed on.
Try going through an operator.
Try using a calling card if necessary, even though there's a surcharge for that.
Can anything be done when you're calling a radio station,
the two-minute ringing gets automatically disconnected?
Yeah, something can be done.
It's a simple software setting.
9X won't do it.
9X has to, in the central office,
simply put unlimited ringing allowed like it always has been in the past,
rather than whatever it is they have it set to right now.
Now, you know, we could break into their computers and fix that,
but that would be wrong.
You know, it's much better when they do it.
Who can I complain to about that?
Call, you know, I could say call your business office,
but they're not going to know what you're talking about.
I would just go as far up as you can.
The president's helpline, and if it really becomes a pain for you,
call the public service commission and explain the situation to them.
I have to tell you, it's probably very unlikely they'll be sympathetic
because they won't see the point of letting a phone ring more than 20 or 30 times,
but all of us that listen to this radio show, of course, you know, we understand that.
How many times do you actually let the phone ring that many times,
unless you're calling us, you know?
There aren't that many phone lines that are used for that purpose.
Right, right.
Would you know anything about this new stuff, Web TV?
Do I know stuff about it?
No, this new box they're selling in the stores.
I know there's a sort of a scam going around the Internet that says,
invest all this money now and you'll be making a lot of money real soon,
you know, percentages, pyramid schemes, things like that.
I don't have enough info to really pass judgment on it now, though.
Right, okay.
But it's something to, I mean, it'll be happening for sure.
It's not on the market already.
Sony, I think, markets something like that.
Right.
So I wouldn't invest money in it, though.
Right, right.
Because a lot of people got that e-mail, too.
Yeah, okay.
All right, take care.
Take care.
You invested money in it?
We have one in our office.
Okay.
You didn't send the guy $600, did you?
No, it's $300, and you can get it at an electronic store.
No, I mean the guy that's sending everything out on the Internet,
saying, you know, send me this amount of money
and you'll get a percentage of every single Web TV thing that you sell.
Oh, no, I didn't hear about that.
It's the usual pyramid thing, and, you know, you just got to be really careful.
Did you hear they can't sell these Web TV outside the U.S.?
Why is that?
Because it has the strong encryption, and the government classified it as munitions.
I thought it was NTSC, maybe.
Uh-uh.
A TV set as a munition.
The Web TV box is classified as munition.
I know commercial TV can be used as a weapon,
but that's usually amongst our own population.
All right, 212-279-3400.
Good evening, you're on the air.
Hello?
Yes, go ahead.
Oh, yeah.
Did you say, you know that call block doesn't work for government numbers?
Are you standing in a bathroom?
No.
It's a very loud echo on your voice.
It sounds like you're in a hallway or a bathroom or something.
I'm sorry, continue what you were saying.
No, it doesn't work.
I mean, it doesn't block out government and police emergency numbers.
You're saying when you call 911.
Of course not.
It's a different technology that's used, and that's, you know, for...
for certain government offices.
Do you want to give me an example?
Well, that's what the literature says.
911 and probably if you call the police department or whoever they, you know,
if the government wants to get that number, you know, it gets the number.
Well, if you call 911, your number will not be blocked.
That much I can guarantee you.
But I do not know of any other office other than the operator
where your number won't be blocked.
If you know something like that, I'd like to know what it is,
because as far as I know, 911 and the operator are the only two numbers,
and 800 numbers, of course.
You call 800 numbers, you can't block them.
Then your number will be transmitted.
Okay?
Well, I know that the government can have access to it if it wants to.
So if you call the FBI, I'm sure they can just put a, you know,
flip a switch and get your number.
If you call a normal seven-digit number.
That's an interesting question.
I mean, I don't know for sure if that is true.
Well, that's what the literature says.
I mean, from the phone company, that the government can,
I mean, that a government office can get your number.
Do you have that in front of you?
Do you have the literature?
Well, why don't you call the phone company, and I'm sure they can just,
they have your number down, you know, they have,
when you place a call through, you know, they switch it through.
They have to for the charge.
Yes, but that does not mean the number is transmitted over to them,
to the person that you're calling.
I mean, I see the point you're making.
I'm just not certain that the system is that, you know,
that easy for them to use to find out who's calling them,
unless it's a special number like 911.
But I'm sure we'll do some experiments with that.
Well, they might not even want to, you know,
the phone company might not even want to tell you.
Might not even want to, you know, why should they even tell you?
Well, you know, there's all kinds of reasons for them to keep it secret,
but in the end, I think the truth will come out,
and we'll find out if they are, in fact, blocking that.
Thanks for the call.
Interesting point, though.
212-279-3400.
We have about eight minutes left.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Yes, hi, sir.
Emmanuel?
Yes, go ahead.
Hi.
My question is this.
I had called a number accidentally,
and the person was recording like a 9X recording.
Okay.
And it said that the party is not accepting private calls.
Right.
Is that a normal 9X message?
Well, this is what we've been talking about tonight, yes.
This is known as anonymous call rejection.
Oh, ACR.
Yeah, where somebody simply programs.
There's two ways to do it.
You can have a hardware device that, when it fails to see a number,
will just block it and put its own recording there,
or 9X provides a service as well for a charge.
I don't know what the charge is.
And they will not allow calls to go through.
I think it's kind of a pointless unless you are just nothing but the subject of harassment.
I cannot imagine why you would want this service.
I mean, what is the harm of having your phone ring
and not knowing who it is when you pick up the phone?
You know, that's how we've all grown up on phones.
They're not necessarily, you know, people kicking in your door
and, you know, demanding to see everything.
Wow.
One other question, if you don't mind.
If you were to get a Reuters service, is that a normal phone line?
A Reuters? I'm not following.
You know, the Reuters news, you know, stock market ticker.
Right.
Would that just be a normal tip and ring type of, you know, phone line?
I don't believe so.
Okay.
All right.
All right.
Okay, thank you.
All right, thanks for the call.
I don't think anyone's ever asked me about that service before.
212-279-3400.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hello?
Yes, speak up, please.
Hi, there.
Yes, three quick things.
I know time is of the essence.
It certainly is.
While listening to a previous call, I had the idea,
as far as the ringing and the 9X termination after a fixed amount of time,
that, to me, sounds like it could be handled as a class action,
namely all those who subscribe to 9X,
in that it is, in effect, a service cut without having a hearing
and proposals and rebuttals to that.
It's a service cut.
We were used to it ringing forever, and now we can't.
So I think on that basis, perhaps, you know, somebody might want to tackle it.
Well, that's a very good point.
But the thing that you need in a situation like this
are a lot of people getting together and saying that.
That's why there's no more touch-tone fee because a lot of people got together
and said, hey, this is unfair.
You know, people petition the PSC for rate reductions or for reclassifications.
And this is something, if enough people got together.
The thing is, the average person who does not call WBAI, how does that affect them?
It might.
Somebody might want to reach somebody who is expected in momentarily,
and let's say they can't dial for some reason.
They just want to keep it ringing.
I mean, I've done that, not lately.
I mean, even before BAI and before the ringings were short.
I mean, once in a while, somebody might need to use it.
I mean, just theoretically, it could be, you know,
there are instances where that might be somebody, you know, we need that service.
Okay, I don't want to dwell on that, but, by the way,
you were ahead of your time in calling for the elimination of the surcharge
for the touch-tone.
That eventually was defeated, was gotten rid of, the extra charge, I remember.
It took long enough, but it happened.
Right.
Now, quickly, two other items.
On the real-time audio, which I was amazed by that demonstration some time ago,
I believe you said it would only work with a T1 or copper solid wire.
Could that work with, or could it work with fiber optic lines?
No, the real audio, as far as broadcasting audio over the Internet.
Yes, with a fast modem, 28A, you know?
You don't need any particular, any special phone equipment.
Obviously, the more your bandwidth, the more consecutive
or parallel connections you can have at the same exact time.
Yeah.
I mean, you can use a 28A modem easily and, you know, get a show,
get a radio show, get whatever it is that, you know, that you want to hear.
Right.
Now, could the cost be cut down or could you have more capacity on one line
if you had a fiber optic versus a T1,
which maybe can accommodate up to 150 or so, I think you said?
A T1 will be able to accommodate about 23, I think.
Oh, that's all.
Yeah.
Would fiber be expanding that limit?
It's, um, fiber is really, fiber optic, the fiber optic person is the person
that really should answer questions like that.
Okay.
I don't want to say something that might be misconstrued.
Sure.
But the, um, you know, well, what is it you're looking to do?
Why don't we just cut to the chase?
Doug, send up real-time audio on the net.
Uh-huh.
You want people to be able to connect to you and hear something real-time?
Well, not me or anybody for that matter.
Yes.
Okay.
How many people do you envision listening at the same time?
Oh, hopefully thousands.
Well, you see, that's where you run into problems
because to have thousands of people listening to the same thing at once,
you need bandwidth for that.
Right.
And that's where the expense is.
You see, real audio, real audio is something that's offered for free to consumers,
but the people that put out the real audio program have to pay for the servers,
for the actual pieces of software that distribute it amongst many people.
And you can get a server for 4 people, you can get a server for 20 people,
you can get a server for 100 people.
That's where the expense comes in.
And, of course, you need the bandwidth to handle that amount of people at the same time.
I say that because NPR has initiated that, oh, maybe a year ago or so,
a certain number of their programs,
and I was hoping maybe even Pacifica could do that in addition to the satellite.
If we had a tenth the money NPR did, yeah, we could do something like that.
Okay.
I just wanted to find out what the possibilities are.
Maybe Fiber could address that sometime in the future, the person, that is.
Yes, thank you.
We are working on that.
Thanks for the call, by the way.
We are working on getting the show up on real audio and other audio means as well,
but we'll be updating people as far as that goes.
You can hear a couple of the shows on the worldwide website, www.2600.com.
A couple of the old Bernie S. shows are up on there to give you an idea of what we have right now.
Hopefully in the future we'll be able to do more things on the web,
get people from all over the world listening and calling in live.
That's going to do it for us tonight.
We'll be back again next week with another edition of Off the Hook.
Housing Notebook is up next.
Until then, have a good week.
Stay awake and send us whatever technological innovations you happen to find.
Have a good night.
No silence deep enough.
There is no silence deep enough.
No corruption big enough.
No corruption big enough.
No politician big enough.
No politician big enough.
To bury your story.
Genocide in East Timor continues.
Several hundred people walked in a funeral procession at the cemetery in Dili, East Timor,
on November 11th, 1991,
when Suharto's troops fired automatic weapons at point-blank range,
killing more than 270 people.
Jose Ramos Horta, Nobel Prize winner and Timorese independence fighter,
will be at St. Bartholomew's Church at 105 East 50th Street
this Tuesday, November 12th, at 6 p.m.,
for the fifth annual commemoration in memory of the victims
and the survivors of the 1991 Dili massacre.
Organized by East Timor Religious Outreach
and supported by the East Timor Action Network.
Call 718-788-6071 for more information.
This has been a public service announcement,
brought to you by WBAI-New York.
And you are tuned to listener-sponsored WBAI-FM in New York City.
It is 9 o'clock and 45 seconds.
Coming up now is Housing Notebook.
Paint peeling off the wall,
dirt piling in the hall,
ice on the pipes but no steam at all.
Land low, land low,
low down, rotten, good for nothing.
Gonna raise your rent someday,
kick you out if you can't pay,
you and the goddamn OPA.
Land low, land low,
low down, rotten, good for nothing.
He's against...