And we saw this object which was moving obliquely from our position,
and when we signaled at it with our signal engine, it turned directly towards us and started closing.
It was at least 300 feet across.
It was totally silent.
It was accompanied by this triangular-shaped craft.
It was accompanied by a smaller disc-like ship.
I guess you could call the triangular-shaped craft a mother craft.
That was Dr. Joseph Bruck representing C-SETI.
C-SETI is the Center for Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
He'll be our next guest here at UFO Desk Monday, November 25th at 1 a.m.
at the top of Sidney Smith's Carrier Wave.
Hope you're there once again, UFO Desk, Monday, November 25th
at the top of Sidney Smith's Carrier Wave at 1 a.m.
We'll see you there.
And it's just about 8 o'clock time for another exciting edition of Off the Hook.
The telephone keeps ringing
So I ripped it off the wall
I cut myself while shaving
Now I can't make a call
It couldn't get much worse
But if they could, they would
Bonne-dee-le-bonne
But I best expect the world
I hope that's understood
Bonne-dee-le-bonne
Bonne-dee-le-bonne
And I can't make a call
Not the road
That's the details
And I can't get much slower
Work when we built
Off the hook
To my condition
You can't evenπetix
We'll see you there
There's no romance
Short avec
Toing with
Of course
Đi allez
Toing-ta-ko-ko-k
Thank you.
Thank you.
This actually dictates that it's about hackers.
Now, this is about credit cards, and if it's about credit cards and computers, then of course it most definitely has to be about hackers.
Somebody managed to get access to 314,000 credit card numbers over the Internet in the past couple of weeks, but they did it in a rather interesting way.
Rather than accessing the entire network, as is traditional, they went out and they just stole the whole computer.
That's right.
Stolen Computer has info on 314,000 credit card accounts.
Credit card holders often worry a computer hacker will find his or her way into their charge accounts, but one thief took the low-tech route and simply stole the whole computer.
I'm surprised.
You know, I haven't seen any newspaper headlines screaming about hackers going and stealing computers now, but for some reason, I guess they don't see this as a hacker issue.
Amazing, isn't it?
Anyway, the personal computer was taken earlier this month from a Visa international office that processes charges on a number of different credit card brands, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and Diners Club, so nothing really major was hit.
Its memory included information on about 314,000 accounts, according to Visa spokesman David Mellencon.
Some issuers, like Citibank, which had about 33,000 accounts affected, began to break the news to customers early last week.
Citibank canceled the cards and issued new ones.
According to Citibank, though, others are electing to keep the theft quiet.
So, uh, that's, uh, kind of interesting that your credit card information may have been compromised and you don't even know.
Yeah.
Okay, uh, there's also controversy going on on the World Wide Web concerning such things as liquor advertising.
We've, we've, we've seen all about the, um, uh, you know, the sex and the adult material and things like that.
Well, this is different.
This is very different.
Uh, this has to do with advertising for something you have to be, what, 21 or above to buy?
The once white-hot campaign to ban alcohol ads from the web had gotten as frosty as a vodka in the Siberian tundra.
This is what happens when you read stories from MSNBC.
You get, uh, that kind of, uh, cute intro there.
Um, but, since liquor ads are now back on TV, various, uh, politicians, educators, and parents are pressuring the FCC to step in with some regulations.
So kids won't see seductive images of hip young people drinking bourbon and gin.
That's right.
According to, uh, network, uh, I'm sorry, Wired columnist John Katz, uh, if liquor comes to be perceived as the public health threat, they will definitely be coming at the net.
But we have to get past the idea that we can block things on the internet.
It's not possible.
Not possible to block things.
Well, it's interesting how this has gone beyond, uh, to simply, uh, controlling liquor, controlling access to things like this, but actually controlling seeing an advertisement for it.
It's, uh, it's quite a step.
The Washington, D.C. Watchdog Group, the Center for Media Education, isn't backing away from its crusade to protect underage kids from seeking out or stumbling into liquor or tobacco ads online.
It's something we're looking at very closely, says Jeff Chester, director for CME.
Indeed, the liquor companies that engage in practices that deliberately target underage drinkers will be liable to potential legal and legislative prosecution.
I'd like to know, uh, people's thoughts on that as well.
There's gambling on the net.
I don't have an exact, uh, address.
Maybe somebody can call in with one.
But you can actually go on the World Wide Web and gamble.
And since you're winding up in some country where it's legal, and since the appropriate taxes are being paid, there's no problem.
No problem whatsoever at all.
Of course, uh, there are people trying to, trying to change that as well and control all the other things that you see on the web and the places that you go.
That's pretty much, uh, what's been happening this week.
But there is one other thing that, uh, I've kind of been involved in.
I'm always involved in this, actually.
Sort of my never-ending quest to find the cheapest long-distance rate.
And so tonight, as part of that never-ending quest, well, we're just going to have to...
Reach out and confuse some operators.
Have you heard?
A dime a minute.
That's, uh, that's what I hear the rate is these days.
A dime a minute.
Can you believe that?
Well, let's, uh, let's quell our enthusiasm just a tad here and see if it's really true.
Okay?
Now, what's, what's the company?
It's what, uh, Sprint, right?
Okay.
We have to find out if the rumors that we're hearing are true.
We're going to call a Sprint operator and find out if they really offer rates for a dime a minute.
It's got to, got to be a catch.
This has got to be a joke.
Hang on, we're going to talk about this in a second.
Sprint operator's probably dealing with thousands of people across the country calling in in great numbers
to question them about this amazing rate that they have.
Ah, hello?
Sprint, this is Lindsay.
May I help you?
Sorry.
Yes, hi.
I was just wondering, uh, do you offer a 10-cent-a-minute rate, uh, any time of the day?
Yes, sir, we do.
Anytime?
Day or night?
Nope, not any time, but during time.
Okay, so there is a time when this rate is not in effect.
What, what time is that?
7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday only.
So, let me give an example of this.
Yeah.
7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, it's 25 cents per minute.
Ah.
But 7 p.m. through 7 a.m. Monday through Friday, it's 10 cents per minute.
And then all day Saturday, all day Sunday, it's 10 cents per minute.
So, the example that runs from Friday night at 7 p.m. until Monday morning at 7 a.m., it's 10 cents per minute.
Okay, and then from, say, Monday night, it would go from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. Tuesday morning.
Right.
It's quite beneficial to you.
Yes, do you.
I'm sorry?
It's beneficial to you on two grounds.
The first one is if you do a lot of night calling.
Mm-hmm.
The second one is if you look at a lot of the flat rates, the 25 cents and 10 cents per minute still does beat a lot of the flat rates.
And the other thing is that we have what's called sprint the most.
Do you have a number that you call particularly the most?
Um, I'd have to check my records.
Right.
Okay.
If you had a number that you particularly would call the most, 24 hours a day, that number, the computer would look in your bill automatically.
You don't have to tell us what number.
The computer automatically looks at your bill each month and sees out which number that you've called the most.
That number is automatically going to be rated at 24 hours a day, 10 cents per minute, without you having to specify, without charge.
And it's in conjunction with the Sprint Sense program, which was the one that I stated earlier.
Okay.
So, now, I would get 10 cents a minute to the number I call the most, but would that have to be after 7 p.m.?
No, see, that's 24 hours a day.
Okay, so I could call this number any time of the day or night, but it's only that one number.
You're right.
Okay.
And then the other numbers are just 10 cents and 25 cents.
I see.
Now, is that anywhere in the United States or just the 48 states or...?
Um, that's a state-to-state domestic rate.
And what about Canada?
Um, I wouldn't say that Canada is involved, but I'd have to ask the Sprint customer service to be perfectly honest.
Now, let's look at you.
And if you can hold them up, please, I can ask them.
That's okay.
I don't really know anybody in Canada.
I was just kind of curious.
Oh.
All right.
Well, thanks for the info.
Thanks for the info.
Thank you for your Sprint.
Take care.
And we certainly did use them, didn't we?
Yes.
So, it's not really 10 cents a minute, all right?
So, if you look at those TV ads, not really 10 cents a minute.
It's 10 cents a minute after 7 p.m. and on weekends.
Okay, so let's go.
Is this really Candace Bergen's home phone number?
What did he give me this number for?
Get out of here.
What would have happened if I called that number?
What would I have gotten?
I don't know.
Okay.
You got the other guy now on TV.
You know, the guy that's saying, there is no time when this rate is not in effect.
This is AT&T, right?
Except the rate is 15 cents a minute.
Now, think about this.
If...
Well, let's get an AT&T operator on the line to help us out on this one.
All AT&T customer service here, ready to help us.
AT&T, to place a call, please dial the number that you are calling.
For other requests, please say information, credit, or operator.
Operator.
Please hold for operator assistance.
They sure let me wait a while.
AT&T, how may I help you?
Hi, I'd like to know what the nighttime rate is for a call from here to, say, New Jersey.
What city in New Jersey, sir?
Dover, which is a 366 exchange, I believe, in 201.
Or maybe it's 908.
But it's Dover.
Yeah, it's definitely Dover.
Okay.
And I'm looking for the rate after 11 p.m.
All right, go ahead, Mommy.
Direct dial rate after 11 is 13 cents for every minute plus the tax.
13 cents a minute.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome, sir.
So, we have a situation here where if you sign up with AT&T, you can pay 2 cents more a minute around the clock, you know, as opposed to 13 cents a minute after 11 o'clock.
I don't know.
Somehow that rate doesn't quite do it for me either.
You know, it's a little confusing.
I mean, yeah, they charge the same rate around the clock, but sometimes it's more expensive than their discounted rate.
That can't be right.
There is one other, and I got a piece of mail last week about this one.
It's one of those companies that says same price, lower than everybody else, but you just have to dial a carrier access code first.
This one is 10811.
Let's see if we can get an operator from them.
I don't even know what the name of this company is.
Now, they advertise 10 cents a minute around the clock.
How can you beat that?
10 cents a minute around the clock, no matter what.
What could the catch possibly be?
Hi, what company is this?
iOS.
Hi, can you tell me what your rate is if I dial 10811?
If you're calling within the U.S., it'll be 10 cents a minute.
10 cents a minute.
Is that any time of the day or night?
Uh-huh.
Really?
24 hours a day.
I see.
And are there any conditions?
Not that I'm aware of, sir, but in order to make sure, you'd have to call the Bartek itself, the ones that have that, because all I am is the charge operator.
Okay, what's their number?
1-800-583-8811.
8-8-8-1-1.
Okay, thank you very much.
I'm sure I'll be using this service because, I mean, what she said, I mean, it's 10 cents a minute, no matter what time of the day or night.
It beats that guy in AT&T, it beats Candace Berger, it beats all those people.
So, let's call that 800 number as quickly as we possibly can because I'm sure everybody who's listening to the show right now is also calling to find out about those tremendous savings.
Good evening, customer service.
This is Trish Thomas coming ahead to you.
Yes, hi.
I'd just like to know, I heard about the 10 cent a minute rate.
I was wondering, are there any kind of conditions on that at all?
Yes, we do have some conditions.
Aha, what are they?
Okay, may I get your telephone number, please?
Uh, yes, it's 212-279-3400.
3-400?
Yes.
And your name, please?
My name is Emanuel.
Okay, Emanuel, um, what state are you calling from?
Let me make sure we get all the right notes to you then.
Okay.
What state are you calling from?
Uh, state of New York.
New York.
Yes.
We do have 10 cents a minute, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Okay, that sounds pretty clear.
Yeah, that sounds good.
Yeah.
We do require a three-minute minimum.
Ah.
For call.
Three-minute minimum.
So, so if I just was to call somebody and say like a few words and hang up, that would
be billed for three, it'd be 30 cents.
Right.
I see.
Okay.
Right.
And, uh, there is also, for any month that you do use us, which you just dial us when
you want to use us.
Uh-huh.
If you don't want to use VARTEK, don't dial 10811.
You will never see us on your bill.
Anytime you want to access VARTEK by dialing 10811 to get our 10 cents per minute, if you
use us as little as one time during the month, there is a $5 fee.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
And, uh, so it's, you know, it's for, for one call or for as often as you want to use
us in a month's time.
So you do have the five-month fee, you have a three-minute minimum, and we do have the
10 cents per minute, and those are on, um, calls made in any state within the domestic
United States.
Okay.
Does that include Alaska and Hawaii?
Um, let's see.
I'm new.
Let me check on that one real quick.
Okay.
Just a sec.
All right.
I'm not sure what the domestic United States is.
Um, 30 cents.
Well, now I'm, now I'm pretty confused because I don't know if, uh, 30 cents per call is
economical.
Sir?
Yes.
Yes, Alaska and Hawaii as well.
Okay.
And what about Canada?
Okay.
Canada is, uh, you know, figured at a separate rate.
We do not, uh, include Canada in those rates.
Okay.
It's okay.
I don't really know anybody there anyway.
Pardon?
I don't really know anybody in Canada anyway.
Yeah.
I'd like to ask about that.
Uh-huh.
Um, I, international rates are 20% off of AT&T's domestic, I mean, off of AT&T's basic
rates.
Okay.
So if you have a carrier like AT&T or Sprint or MCI maybe that has a calling plan, uh,
their rates may beat us on the international, but we're very competitive in the, you know,
in the United States, and that's for anyone that usually is going to have $20 or more,
$20 or $25 worth of long distance calls in a month's time.
Okay.
That's going to kind of offset that $5, you know, with the 10 cents per minute then.
Now, the $5 is a, it's a fee.
It's not, it's not a usage, right?
They don't deduct what you use from that $5.
No, no, it's, it's just a flat fee, it's going to be $5 if you use this one time, two
times, or, you know, 200 times.
Right, okay.
Okay, and what's the name of the company again?
It's Vartek.
Vartek.
And where are you based?
Uh, out of Dallas.
Dallas.
Okay, great.
Yes, I've heard of it.
Okay, thanks very much for the info.
Okay.
All right.
Emmanuel?
Yes?
May I get your last name?
I just make a note where people call in, nothing to it, no signs up or anything, just would
I'd like to have your last name.
No problem.
My last name is Goldstein, G-O-L-D-S-T-E-I-N.
Okay, Mr. Goldstein, you have a good, good week.
Okay, you too.
Okay, thanks.
Bye-bye.
I have no problem giving my name out to these people.
Well, it would appear that our quest for the 10 cent a minute raid has failed once again.
Unfortunately, uh, I don't think we're going to find that anytime soon, and, um, oh well,
there's no 10 cent a minute from Sprint, there's no 10 cent a minute from AT&T, and
there's no 10 cent a minute from this, uh, 10811 place.
That's just the way it goes.
And if you have any, uh, any, um, possibilities as to the cheapest long distance company, please
send them in.
But, you know, it's, it's very, um, it's very complicated and elusive.
You know, you, you think you're onto something, but there's always a catch.
There's always something.
Either you got to pay the same rate around the clock, which is more expensive than the discounted
rate, or you have to pay 25 cents a minute during the prime calling area, or you have
to, uh, pay a $5.
I mean, these guys, you got to pay a $5 fee, and you have to pay 30 cents per call minimum.
And that's, uh, that adds up.
Especially if you make a lot of short calls, or even if you make one short call, you're
going to pay $5 for it.
So, uh, so much for that.
Okay, uh, I guess we'll take phone calls now.
212-279-3400.
If you have any, uh, comments or questions about things like that.
I also got a, uh, a 9X, um, brochure today about, uh, all the new features they have,
including caller ID with name, caller ID on call waiting, uh, things like that.
In fact, uh, Fiverr, we, we experimented with this last week, didn't we, where you have,
you have a BitSurfer.
Right.
With blocking.
With blocking.
And we were able to successfully block everybody from calling you.
Actually, everybody, everybody except the people that blocked their numbers.
We did the opposite.
With a BitSurfer, apparently you can do this as a setting.
And you can make it so that, uh, you can block people that are anonymous, but you can also
block people who aren't anonymous.
But the way that they block is kind of low-tech.
You don't get a recording.
It just hangs up on you.
Yep.
So, uh, that's, um, kind of interesting.
But we could have, we could have locked everybody out, right?
Yeah.
Well, how do you do it on the BitSurfer?
What do you do?
Oh, uh, in the, um, well, the easiest way to do it without having to remember any arcane commands
is just to go into the menu system.
You just do AT, at symbol, menu.
Uh-huh.
And then you just go to, um, the, uh, the security menu.
And you could, um, add and, uh, add or delete phone numbers from, uh, a list.
And you can maintain a list for, uh, either of your two POTS ports if you have, uh, BitSurfer Pro.
Uh-huh.
And, uh, you can either choose to block the numbers in your list or screen the numbers in your list.
Block is, obviously, it blocks the numbers that are in the list and lets everybody else through.
And screen does the exact opposite.
It will only let the people through that are in your list and block everybody else.
Well, that's, uh, that's impressive.
And I guess you get more control over, um, over who it is you want to call you.
Although the whole thing seems kind of silly if you ask me all this blocking going on.
You just, you know, you have an answering machine pick up the phone, you see who it is,
and, uh, if you want to pick up, you do, and if not, you don't.
I think, you know, I think I have it all figured out, actually.
The phone companies want you to use these services because they want you to use their
answering machine services, you know, call-answer, and you can't hear the person.
You can't screen a call in that way because it's going to voicemail someplace and you can't
listen in.
You can't pick up when you hear the person leaving a message.
So the only way you can do that is to buy that other option that allows you to have
caller ID to see what their number is.
And your way of screening is to simply reject those people you don't like or don't know.
And, um, you know, you wind up paying a whole lot more for basically the same thing as having
an answering machine.
But I guess that's, um, that's what the phone companies are all about.
Um, anonymous call rejection we were talking about quite a bit last week.
I don't think there's a charge for using that, um, if you, if you dial the special code beforehand.
Um, but there is a charge obviously for caller ID and for various other services such as star
six, nine.
Okay.
Our phone number is 212-279-3400.
If you have any questions on these and other matters, good evening.
You're on the air.
You know, there is a, um, there is a 10 cent a minute rate.
Okay.
Where is the 10 cent a minute rate?
Believe it or not, it's AT&T.
All right.
10 cents a minute.
Any time of the day or night?
Any time of the day or night.
I have it.
There is no time when this rate is not in effect.
No time until March.
Okay.
Okay.
That's, that's it.
All right.
Until March.
What happens in March?
You have to pay $5 a minute?
Well, I don't know what happens in March.
You got to reevaluate everything.
I got to go back to them and get to find out what the deal is going to be.
What the latest, what the next, you know, sale is going to be.
But this was only open for a very short period of time.
Uh-huh.
You can check it out with the customer service.
What's it called?
Uh, I don't remember what it's called.
I don't have it.
Uh-huh.
True something.
I don't know.
True fantasy, maybe?
No, no, I have it.
And then every once in a while, you check your bill, they knock you off it.
You got to make sure.
Yeah, really.
They knock you.
You got to go back and yell at them, and then they give you all the credit back.
They just knock you off the plan.
Okay.
I guess you have to be alert to be on this plan.
You do.
I'm telling you.
Check it out.
Well, how can I check it out?
They don't offer it anymore.
Just ask them at one time.
Wasn't there a 10th-in-a-minute deal?
Uh-huh.
They'll tell you.
I don't think they're going to tell me.
I think they're going to try to sell me something.
I don't think they're going to say, yeah, you missed it.
There's no such rate anymore.
No, no, no.
They'll tell you.
They'll tell you.
They'll tell you.
No.
I had to really struggle to get it, but I got it.
I heard it.
It was only on for a short time.
Then they went to 15th-in-a-minute.
Where did you hear this?
I think it was on television for a short time.
Uh-huh.
Very short time.
And I was lucky enough to get it.
Wow.
Well.
But like I said, it only lasts until March, and then you get a...
Who knows what happens then?
I accept my congratulations, and I guess...
Check them out on it, though.
Your gain is our loss, because we won't have such a rate ourselves.
Maybe we can call you and have you place calls for us.
Right.
That'd be fine.
Okay.
Well, thanks for the info.
Okay.
Right.
I don't know if 10 cents is really, like, the magic rate or what, but, you know, it
seems nice and easy to, you know, to figure out 10 cents a minute, but, again, you know,
it's got to be 10 cents a minute, not 10 cents some minutes and 25 cents other minutes.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hello.
Hi.
How are you doing?
You know the 2600 contest for the ancient computer?
Yes.
How exactly do I enter it?
Because I'm sitting in front of a really old computer.
Well, the computer has got to be on the net.
In other words, it has to be reachable on the internet.
And what you do is you mail, I believe the...
Does that have to be, like, a dial-up connection or...
No, it has to be on the internet.
You have to be able to telnet to it or finger it or something along those lines.
Are you serious?
Yeah, that's what, you know, the oldest computer on the net, not on the phone network, on the
internet.
Well, okay, I know the difference.
Yes.
Okay, you want to know what I'm using?
I'm sitting here in front of a Commodore VIC-20.
Well, if you can get that on the net somehow...
I can get it on the net.
I can...
I have a...
I found a terminal program.
I found an old Commodore automodem 1650.
Well, there are people working to get Sinclair's up on the net, so I should warn you.
I saw Sinclair on this auction website, but I didn't buy it.
I saw this, and I have this, and how do I get it?
Well, you see, it's against contest rules for me to advise you as to how to get it on the net.
I'm just saying, if you get this computer on the net, you could win if you email us contests...
No, it's contest, I'm sorry, at 2600.com, and describe where your computer is, if we
can connect to it, and verify that it is, in fact, what you say it is, and it's the
oldest computer that we find, and you will win a lifetime subscription to the magazine.
All right.
Okay?
All right, can I give a shout-out?
You do that, or no?
Well, it's not to be encouraged, but we'll allow you one shout-out.
All right.
Just let me say, I had a Lord Shogun.
Okay.
All right.
Thanks a lot.
All right, no problem.
Hopefully, that'll get you something.
212-279-3400.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Yeah, hi.
How are you?
Pretty good.
How are you?
Great.
I wanted to get some information.
I have MCI as a long-distance carrier, and I use IDT as an internet carrier.
Okay.
They're offering long-distance, stating that they'll give you 20% or 25% off.
Do you know anything about their service?
I know it's related to their internet service.
If you use their phone service, you get a discount on their internet, or vice versa.
It just gets kind of complicated, so not using either one of those companies, I can't really say what the rate is.
Are they giving you specific numbers?
Because if they talk percentages, it gets very confusing.
They're doing the same percentage off, 20%, 25% off the same.
Then you have to go in there with a calculator and figure out what that translates to.
But if they give you something nice and simple, like 10 cents a minute, or unlimited internet service, then that's different.
You can work with figures like that.
Okay.
So who do you recommend?
Who, right now, I know it changes from moment to moment.
Who do you recommend out there for long-distance carriers?
To be honest, I don't...
I mean, AT&T seems to have the quickest service.
As far as if you ask them a question, they'll answer it and won't transfer you all over the place.
Right.
But as far as rates, it's really a toss-up at this point.
It is.
Okay.
So it's basically like credit cards.
You do shopping around and find the hot rate at the moment.
Yeah, and they're competing for your business, too.
They send you checks.
If you go to one company over another, the first company will feel like a jilted lover and send you a check to get you back.
Right.
At which point, the other company gets all upset, and, you know, it just goes on for a long time, and, you know, you could benefit from this, especially if you don't use your phone all that much.
Right.
But it's also, it takes a tremendous amount of time to figure out exactly what it is you're saving or paying, and you also have to be very careful not to be switched over for your regional calls to one of these long-distance companies because they just, right now, they are not competitive with 9X.
Right.
9X has an excellent rate.
They're giving me, they averaged my usage over a certain time period and gave me a rate, which is great.
The regional flat rate.
Right.
Yeah, I'm not sure if they're offering that to people who have phone lines, like, within the last year, but they certainly should, and that would be a way of keeping people with 9X and not, you know.
Yeah, and that's my only thing.
I don't want to switch my regional carrier.
Right.
I'm just a long-distance carrier.
Well, you have to be very careful when the long-distance companies call you because you might think you're switching your long-distance service, and I've heard several cases where it's actually the regional service that gets switched.
You have to state, don't touch my regional service.
Right.
That's what I basically have to say.
Okay, great.
All right.
Thank you.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
Have a great show.
Thank you.
212-279-3400.
Faber, do you know who your regional carrier is?
My regional carrier is 9X.
Okay.
All right.
Just checking.
Most people don't know.
How do you find out with your regional carriers?
Is there a number you can call?
Well, it's 9X unless you tell them otherwise.
Well, yeah, but what if somebody else told them otherwise?
How do you know what that, you know, how do you check?
Like 700-555-4141, you check your long-distance, but how do you check your regional?
Sounds like something an operator should know.
Don't you think?
Yeah, okay.
Took a while to get a dial tone there, but, um...
Oh, shit.
Okay, I dialed the wrong thing.
Hold on.
See if the 9X operator can tell us how to find out what our regional carrier is.
Or even if they know what a regional carrier is.
9X, Ms. Rowe?
Uh, yes, hi.
I was wondering, how can I tell what my regional carrier is?
How can you tell us your regional carrier is 9X?
Uh, yeah, but...
Are you in your long-distance carrier?
Not my long-distance.
Recently, they started switching regional as well.
Like, uh, if I call 516 from here, it could be carried by AT&T or MCI or somebody like that.
And I know there's a test number to find out what your regional carrier is, but, um, I don't know what it is.
I don't know.
I'll give you the supervisor.
Hold on.
Maybe she knows the number.
Okay.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Supervisors are useful in situations like this.
I'm going to...
Ms. Simmons, may I help, please?
Uh, yes, hi.
I'm trying to find out, uh, with regional carriers, um, I'd like to verify that my regional carrier is still 9X,
but, uh, is there a test number I can call to find out who my regional carrier is?
No, sir.
You have to, uh, speak to the business office in the morning.
It just closed the night at 8 o'clock.
Oh, I see.
So they would know what my regional carrier was, though.
Yeah.
That's the only way to find out.
Right.
Okay.
Thanks for your help.
You're welcome.
I maintain she's wrong.
There's got to be a number someplace.
I mean, it makes sense, you know?
That, that information has to be stored someplace.
There must be a number you can call.
For instance, just to demonstrate that I'm not totally insane here, if you, if you dial...
Hopefully this isn't blocked.
Oh, seven hundred, five, five, five, five.
M-C-I.
Well, now you just found out what a long-distance company is.
Hi, may I help you?
Um, no, actually, I was just calling to find out what the, um, what my, uh, oh, never mind.
Why do I have to explain myself to her?
Uh, usually people don't come on.
Usually it's just a recording.
That was very embarrassing.
Ooh, uh, okay.
Well, anyway, yeah, M-C-I apparently is a long-distance company.
I didn't know that.
I didn't know M-C-I is a long-distance company.
But that's how you find out.
You dial, uh, 0-700, five, five, five, four, one, four, one.
Actually, do you dial 0-700 or 1-700?
Maybe because I dialed, oh, I got...
I think it's 1-700.
Maybe, okay, maybe it's 1-700 then.
All right, well, whatever.
Just be careful when you dial that you might get operators.
Good evening, you're on the air.
Um, yes, go ahead.
Um, hmm, you think that's a question or a comment?
Good evening, you're on the air.
Hello?
Yes.
Oh, yes, hi.
How are you doing?
I, uh, well, I have a couple of questions.
One of the reasons I wanted to call was, uh, you had mentioned that someone was hacking
the MetroCard a couple of weeks ago, uh, and I just wondered whether there was any follow-up
on that.
They have not reported to us what their results are yet, but, uh, we certainly anticipate
hearing, especially things like hacking the MetroCard on buses, you know, where it's,
where it's, uh, transmitted over radio frequencies.
Uh, there's been a surprising lack of information as to exactly how that's being done.
I did, however, hear something today that, uh, MetroCard is, like, planning on announcing
rate reductions to get people to use the things.
Yes, 11 for 10.
You get 11 tokens for the price of 10, and that's going to start sometime in January
or February after the holidays.
Actually, what I heard was if you take a bus, you can get a free transfer to a subway if
you do it within two hours, or vice versa.
Ah, yeah.
So those are two ways of getting people to use those things.
But, you know, I don't think people are really using them in great abundance.
No, but I think they're catching on.
I recently bought one for the first time, and they're pretty cool.
Uh-huh.
But, uh, I just can't figure out how they work.
I mean, it's not UPC code.
It's not, uh, maybe it's some ultraviolet ink that's being used.
Somewhere out there is a transit employee with the answers who is mulling over whether or not
to send them to us.
Well, yes.
Just one more comment.
I know that I heard that on some of those caller club prefixes, once you dial them, this
automatically shunts you out of your present long-term carrier into the long-term carrier
of the caller club.
It automatically transfers you.
Uh, you're saying if you dial a carrier access code plus a long-distance number that from
that point on they somehow sign you up as a customer?
Yes, that's right, automatically, yes.
Not for all of them, but for some of them.
This is the rumor I've heard.
I haven't checked this out.
You see, the thing is, it requires some sort of, of, of human action to, to change your
long-distance company.
Somebody has to file a form and say that they got, uh, they got something, they got permission
from the customer to do this.
Now, if someone is doing this automatically without getting the permission, eventually
they're going to be caught.
And it's, it's not going to be very easy for them to continue doing this for very long.
I think what you'll see more often is, um, and this is kind of, kind of startling,
dialing a carrier access code and getting a $5 fee as a result of dialing that carrier
access code once.
I've never heard of that before, but apparently that's something that's, uh, I, I think what
we've done is we've, we've uncovered what the story is behind those five, uh, digit
carrier access codes that offer low rates, what the catch is.
I think that is the catch.
Yes, I wonder if that can be contested because I used that this month.
I tried it out.
And, uh, when I get my phone bill, I wonder if there's any way you can challenge that $5
sneak fee.
Well, I mean, lots of times I would use carrier access codes simply to place long distance
calls to see what the rate was and what the company was without even knowing who the carrier
access codes belong to.
So I think it's kind of, uh, it's not unlike calling a 900 number and being billed a huge
amount without being told that you're about to be billed a huge amount.
So, uh, yeah, I think you could contest it if you said that you had no knowledge that
there was such, uh, such a charge.
Yeah.
Great.
All right.
Thank you, Emmanuel.
Take care.
Take care.
2-1-2-2-7-9-3-4-100.
The program is off the hook.
Good evening.
Go ahead.
Speak up.
Yeah, I should point out, people, that, uh, we use what is known as a delay system.
What that means is that when we talk, you don't hear us for another, what, seven seconds?
Yeah, okay.
It's not, not very long.
Seven seconds.
But that means if, if I, if I pick up the phone, if you pick up the phone and we connect
and you are listening to the radio, you're not going to hear me on the radio say, good
evening, you're on the air, for seven seconds.
But we, here at the radio station, and eventually you, seven seconds later, will hear me trying
to talk to you in the past, and it's going to get very confusing very fast.
All right.
Now that's cleared up.
2-1-2-2-7-9-3-4-100.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Uh, yeah, what happened, uh, well, you'll notice there was no seven second delay with
me.
Uh, okay, I don't know what happened there.
We got two callers at once.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Notice there was no seven second delay.
Now we got him again.
This is ridiculous.
What's going on here?
Hello?
Yes.
Speak up, please.
Yes, let me, uh, turn on my radio.
Yeah, please turn off your radio.
You got me?
Yes.
Yes, okay, I was on the speakerphone.
Hello?
Yes.
Good, great.
Uh, I want to know, if there's a number that I can call to test my number?
What do you mean, test your number?
Yeah, I want to have my phone ring, you know, and I, you know, I have, uh, say, some new
gadgets I'm adding on my telephone.
I want to know.
Okay.
I just want to ring my own telephone.
You want to ring your own phone line.
Where are you located?
New York, Manhattan.
Um, well, Fiber, do you know of anything that still works?
I know 660 used to work, some exchanges.
Well, it's either, it's most commonly going to be 660 and the last four digits of your
number, or 660 and, uh, all seven digits of your, of your phone number, and then you'll
get a dial tone, and then you flash the switch hook, and you get a higher pitch tone, and
then you hang up.
Okay.
Give that a try and see if that works.
I'll try it, and I'll let you know how it works.
Okay.
Okay, thanks a lot.
Good luck.
I'm going to try that from here.
I don't, I don't think it's going to work.
I doubt it.
I think somehow we're blocked from these kind of things.
660.
And then, uh, you know, I don't even know what the last, what this phone number is, but
I'll try what I think it is.
Okay.
Hey, I got a dial tone.
Huh.
Now, how do you flash?
Uh, good question.
How do I flash?
I don't think there's any way to flash on this phone.
Okay, what I'll do is I'll just, oh, there's a flash.
Okay.
Yeah, that didn't work.
I'm going to turn this off for a second, and then pick up again.
Actually, you know, that's not going to work because, um, because we get outgoing lines.
So I'm ringing a phone somewhere in the studio, probably, but, uh, it's not the same one I
just picked up.
Oh, well.
But it does work.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Okay.
Hi.
Uh, I, uh, wanted to say that I have, uh, had MCI at 10 cents a minute.
Okay.
10 cents a minute, 24 hours a day.
Yep, and it was interesting.
I went through kind of the same thing that you had gone through, uh, but I happened to
be a long-time MCI long-distance user, and I got the thing from Texas, and, uh, I called
MCI, and, uh, I asked them a basic, I'd been having some trouble concerning, uh, uh, my internet
connection with them, and, uh, uh, I got switched over automatically for some crazy reason by
AT&T and said, congratulations for changing.
I'd never changed.
So I was calling up and getting it straight with MCI, and I said, you don't happen to
have any of these low-cost rates that they have from Texas, and she said, sure, you can
have 10 cents a minute, uh, uh, 24 hours a day, uh, uh, for six months.
So the only thing that, uh, I'm concerned about is when I get down around five months, I'll
start calling them up and seeing, uh, where the situation is.
So, okay, it sounds like you have what the other caller had, uh, 10 cents a minute for,
uh, for a limited time.
One of the things that's interesting is, it is limited with six months, it's better
than nothing.
That's true.
And, uh, uh, what I found out was, uh, uh, uh, you know, the rates may be cheaper.
They don't seem to be going up in any particular way, and, and as long as you get back in there.
Now, what had happened was the first phone bill I got, the rates were not reflected in
it, and it turned out, uh, I went back to MCI, I said, what the hell's going on?
And, and, and they said, well, uh, our record showed that you did get the service, but we
haven't engaged you yet.
So they said, uh, they engaged it, and they gave me credit for the overpayment.
That sounds, uh, sounds also like what was happening to the other caller.
Right.
You keep falling off the plan every now and then.
Well, you know, they're willing to hassle you, but if you're on top of the plan, you
can play the game.
Right.
Um, okay, well, thanks for the info.
We'll, we'll, we'll check into this a little more.
All right, bye-bye.
All right, take care.
I don't happen to have the phone number for, uh, MCI on me, but, um, what I suggest doing
is calling them and asking them about this 10 cent a minute plan and what happens after
six months.
You know, maybe you're forced to stay with them for the rest of your life.
I don't know.
There's always, there's always a catch someplace.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hi.
I was wondering if there's any way you can call pay phones in New York.
Uh, yes, uh, there are some pay phones that can be called, but a lot cannot be called.
And if a pay phone, you know, has, um, has stopped receiving phone calls, the best thing
you can do is complain about it to, uh, to, um, the president's helpline and the public
service commission saying that, uh, you need that pay phone, uh, to get called.
You're not a drug dealer, you know?
No, no.
Yeah.
Make sure you point that out and that, you know, ringing pay phones are a good thing to
have.
Uh, because Ninex has been phasing this out over the past couple of years and it's really
a disservice to people, especially when you beep somebody and you wait for two hours at
a pay phone and you wonder why they don't call you back.
Exactly.
Well, that's, that's something else, you know, it's because, you know, the phones don't take
incoming calls.
The operators are very obnoxious about it.
You ask them, excuse me, do you know the number of the pay phone?
They go, sorry, sir.
We can't tell you that.
Yes.
Well, it's because they don't know.
That's why they can't tell you.
They don't have a clue.
Uh-oh.
So, um, it's something I think if people complain about, it would be, it would be fixed.
You know, there's all kinds of, uh, weird regulatory policies that they put into effect,
like putting dials onto phones to, to combat the drug problem.
And, uh, you know, what, one, one town on Long Island, Patchogue, just, just passed this
bill outlawing outdoor pay phones.
What?
Yeah, because they don't, they don't want people congregating outdoors doing nefarious
things.
So they figure getting rid of the pay phones will, will help them reach that, that end.
That's an intelligent solution.
Yeah, they actually, they actually had merchants watching people to see what kind of conversations
they were having on phones, you know, to determine if they were, you know, up to something or
not.
And, uh, apparently they didn't like what they found.
Well, um, thank you, Emmanuel.
You're true to your name.
Okay, take care.
I don't know exactly what that means, but I'll take it as a compliment.
212-279-3400.
Pay phones are getting rather difficult to use, especially those, those yellow ones.
Boy.
I won't get into that anymore.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Yeah, speak up.
Oh, hello.
How you doing?
Um, I was wondering about two things.
Oh, okay.
About, do you know anything about, um, hacking, like, voicemail boxes?
Oh, yes.
Hacking voicemail boxes is a, is a pastime of people all around the world.
Uh.
How would I go back doing it?
Because I'm on, like, the internet all the time, and people are always talking about
how they always do it.
Uh-huh.
Well, you know, it's, um, I'm, I'm going to assume, of course, that you're not, uh, you
know, hacking into people's mailboxes that don't want you to hack into their mailboxes,
but it's, uh, you know, it's, it's pretty simple.
If you know the type of system that, uh, that is being used, for instance, a Roam system,
an Audix system, uh, there are many different kinds.
They have certain, um, certain traits, certain default passwords.
If you do some, some reading, if you ask around and, and share some information, you'll
learn the traits of various different systems, and you'll see ones that have certain weak
points.
And you can presume that the people who run these systems will be doing the same thing,
so that they, they won't be vulnerable.
And if you run a voicemail system someday, you should do the same thing as well.
Okay, I have one more question.
Okay.
How do, how would I go about finding out the number or calling a Unix box?
Uh, well, there's, there's, um, if you're, you say you're on the internet.
Uh-huh.
Well.
Right, but, uh, you know that there's, there's Unix machines everywhere, all over the internet.
You're saying you just want to connect to one, or do you want to specifically dial one?
You want to find a dial-up number for one?
Uh, either one.
Okay, well then, on the net, you know, if you just, if you just look around at, if you
go into IRC, if you look on Usenet and see where people are posting from, odds are, a
lot of those computers are Unix machines.
So, there's, there's all different kinds of varieties of Unix, and here with a list
of all the different kinds of Unix is fiber.
What kind of, right, what kind of Unix systems are there?
On the net?
Well, just in general.
It's kind of like a, it's like, it's like, it's like throwing a rock at the floor.
You're bound to hit one.
Yeah, that's true.
But how many different kinds of Unix are there?
Oh, there's, there's dozens.
Well, let's name a few.
There's, uh, various different flavors of Berkeley Unix.
Uh-huh.
There's HPUX, there's, uh, uh, AIX, there's Linux, there's Irix, there's Solaris, there's
all kinds of stuff.
Yeah.
So, uh, there's no shortage of Unix systems out there.
Okay, and how would I go about finding an SCC system, like you said in the, uh, magazine?
An SCC, well, describe what you mean.
Like, what does it do?
Oh, in 2600, it was like, doctor's office used it and they're posted on the internet.
I believe it was called an SCC, I don't know, I don't have the issue off hand.
They, uh, they used the system to do what?
Um, to file, like, uh.
Oh, okay, I know what you're talking about.
Let me, uh, let me grab an issue.
Okay, yeah, let's see, um, the, uh, what do we call this again?
The SCC OS.
Everyone turn to page eight.
Uh, yes, the SCC OS, um, you can call up with a modem and, uh, basically it's, it's used
by certain offices.
I mean, it's, it's kind of, I don't know how many people actually use it.
I've never actually seen one.
Have you ever seen an SCC?
I've never heard of it.
Yeah, take a look at this.
No, I read the article.
Okay.
Well, then you know that, uh, you know, some offices, you, I don't know anybody actually,
to answer your question, that uses, uh, what's, site client control is what it stands
for.
Um, I don't know anybody who actually has one of those, but I imagine if you read this
article and you find one, you'll be able to, uh, you know, at least, you know, stumble
around and, and figure some things out.
Um, I don't think there's any numbers given in the article.
No, there, there, there are no numbers here.
Again, ask around, you know, search for it on the web.
You might, uh, find something that way.
All right, thanks a lot.
All right, take care.
Bye-bye.
Yeah, I, I, I, I've never, I've never encountered that system at all, but that just goes to show
you how many systems there are out there.
There's so many different kinds.
And yeah, Unix is like a million different kinds of Unix, but, uh, that's only one kind
of operating system.
There's all kinds of other things as well.
Some big, some small, and a lot of them are accessible on the net.
You know, even the small ones, even, uh, you know, tiny machines that, uh, you don't
think would be able to, uh, to do very much and probably can't.
You can still get to them on the net somehow.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Oh, hi.
How you doing?
Oh, okay, thanks.
Listen, those, uh, yellow phones and these, and the calling card bit.
Now, with a calling card, you actually don't use a card.
You actually use a code, a number code.
Isn't that right?
That's correct.
Well, Fabi, you use these things, right?
What, the yellow phones?
Yeah.
Well, they're made for the phone cards, but you can use, uh, calling cards.
You can use a calling card or you can use the phone card.
All right.
Which do you use?
Um, I just use my, my calling card number.
I don't, I don't use like a phone card.
What is that?
Something, a magnetic card that you swipe?
Well, some.
You insert it.
Yeah.
You see those, those things at the bottom of the phone.
You buy them in a new stance.
Yeah.
Never use them.
It's, uh, I don't know what, what exactly is the rate on those things?
They're more expensive than a regular phone call.
And they're not very, uh, not 10 cents a minute.
I heard that.
No.
Um, so, you should play around with that and, and, and compare them and see if you save
anything with that.
But that's, that's generally what they're designed for.
It's kind of a sloppy way of trying to do what the Europeans have been doing for, for centuries,
uh, with their phone cards.
And, uh.
Centuries.
Well, it might just as well have been.
We just don't seem to be able to grasp, you know, how to, how to have a, how to have
a system.
Anyway, does that answer your question?
Uh, yes.
Thank you.
All right.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
212-279-3400.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Speak up.
Hi.
How you doing?
Yeah.
I, I was looking in 26, in 2600, and there was an article in the back called the PHF
exploit.
Yes.
That's an old exploit that, uh, works on some Unix systems.
Very cool.
Yeah.
And what do you, do you do this from, like, a browser?
Because I was, I have Internet Explorer 4.0 Alpha, and I, like, I tried to do it.
It didn't work.
Um, okay.
I'm not going to ask what you tried to do, but I'm going to let Fiverr sort of tell you
what you're supposed to do.
Well, you can do it from a browser, but, uh, the only problem is, uh, most servers that
you're going to hit aren't going to have that program where you're expecting it to be
anymore.
Uh, how old, how old a bug is this?
Um, last year.
That's pretty old.
Yeah.
Might as far as bugs go.
Yeah.
But you still will find it.
Okay.
All right?
Okay, thanks.
All right.
Take care.
Yep.
There's, uh, there's a new bug going around.
A very bad bug.
Has to do with Ascend pipelines.
Well, there's a worse bug than that.
Well, that's a pretty bad bug, you know.
Well, if you have an Ascend, but, uh, I mean.
Yeah, well, guess who just got an Ascend, you know?
Yeah, but Emmanuel, uh, I think, uh, there's, uh, much more threatening bugs floating
around.
Oh, that's true.
Yeah.
Well, there's been two that were really wicked.
Okay, tell us.
Well, one of them, uh, the latest version of SendMail.
I heard something about this.
In fact, I just patched it on your site today.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
SendMail version 8.8.2, which was the latest version.
I didn't even know we had the latest version.
Yeah, 8.8.2 was the latest version.
That's kind of cool.
We got the latest version, the latest bugs.
And anybody who had access to the site could get rude in a matter of moments.
Well, how about that?
If you have shell access to a site and they're running anything older than SendMail 8.8.3,
which is now the latest version.
Okay.
Which, anything meaning 8.8.2 or older can use a very simple exploit, which I won't go
into detail over the, uh, on the air.
But you can find this exploit on lots of security mailing lists, including BugTrack.
And, uh, you can get rude in a matter of moments, easily.
So, what you are saying is that anybody who is running, what, a newer version or an older
version?
Anything up until 8.8.2, which until recently was the latest version.
Okay.
Anything up until then has a problem?
Has the problem.
Really?
And is this a new problem or an old problem?
It's a new problem.
Well, obviously it's been in there all this time.
It's been in there all this time.
What, someone just discovered it?
Yeah, somebody just discovered it recently.
Well, all bugs existed in there.
Well, usually, most bugs have been around since...
Right, but isn't this a bug with the newest version, though?
No, it's a bug with all versions.
All versions.
Okay.
It was only discovered in what was the latest version.
That's kind of weird.
But an even worse bug than that.
All right.
Because not everybody runs SendMail.
But if it doesn't get any worse than that, it does.
All right.
Worst bug than that...
How bad did it get?
...is apparently the TCP IP stacks that have been implemented in most every Unix operating
system you could imagine, with very few exceptions.
As well as various types of hardware, like routers and things like that that have TCP IP
stacks.
When these TCP IP stacks were first coded by the programmers, they never assumed that you'd
try to send it a packet bigger than a certain point.
Like, say, trying to send it a packet bigger than 64K.
Well, guess what?
Most Unix operating systems, if you try to send them a packet of any kind, bigger than
64K, roughly, the machine will crash.
I noticed that.
Yes.
I noticed that that was happening.
Right.
And I, you know, figured there's something along those lines.
And why is it that all of a sudden this has been discovered?
It was discovered fairly recently.
No one ever tried to do that before?
I guess it never dawned on anyone, or else they wouldn't have done it like that when
they wrote it in the first place.
Wow.
Could have been avoided altogether.
But that's the biggest problem on the net right now.
What's the fix for that?
The fix for that is you're lucky if you're running an operating system with source code,
because then usually you can find somebody that can fix it for you or find a patch for
it.
But if you're running a commercial-grade operating system like Solaris, you're pretty much out
of luck.
Out of luck, meaning that...
Until the vendor comes out with a patch.
Uh-huh.
And how long does that usually take?
It usually takes as long until they notice it.
I haven't had any indication that Sun has even acknowledged this problem yet.
Uh-huh.
So usually, however long it takes the company to first acknowledge the problem, and then...
So Sun systems around the world will be prone to crashing and...
Yeah, but I don't want to pick on Sun.
This is true of everybody.
Right.
I mean, it could be a printer on the net.
You could crash it, you know?
Okay.
I've heard HP LaserJets.
Oh, no.
Yeah, HP LaserJets.
You could ping them to death.
Wow, how about that?
Yeah, in fact, there's that website.
Yeah.
Have you seen the Ping-O-Death website?
Yes, I've been familiar with that over the past couple of days.
That's pretty scary.
That's how things can happen.
Now, what kind of bandwidth do you need to do this in the first place?
No, any bandwidth at all.
It's not the bandwidth.
It's the size of the packet you send.
Really?
And...
So I have a 300-baud modem.
It doesn't...
You could have a 300-baud...
You could have a 110-baud modem with a PPP connection.
Okay.
And you can still do it.
I want to meet anybody in the city who has that.
110 website.
Yeah.
Okay.
So with a 110 modem, you can crash...
Yeah, basically what it is, is the easiest way to do it is if you have access to a Windows 95 machine.
Windows 95 allows you to specify a packet size for the ping command.
Unix typically does not, although you could always write something in Unix to do that, as many people have.
Right.
With the Windows 95, ping can do it.
I believe the option is N, as in Nancy, if memory serves.
I could be wrong, but if you type ping with no options, it tells you.
It's L?
Okay.
I'm told it's L, I suppose, for length.
Okay.
And, yeah, and what you could do, you can't specify the packet size itself as being 64K.
What you do is you specify it a little bit less.
That way, when it adds on the header, it ends up being more.
For those of you that don't run sites out there who just use the net, if you can't get through, this might be why.
Yeah.
Because there's all kinds of problems that are being worked out and fixed.
What of the SIN flooding, how is that going?
SIN flooding, I haven't heard all too much.
I think the ping of death has taken over the popularity.
SIN flooding was supposed to be the thing that broke the net, you know?
Well, this ping of death has broken the net as well, and it's a lot easier for people to do.
Uh-huh.
I mean, any schmo running Windows 95 who has this ping, or who can locate a modified ping utility, for example, that will run on Unix, can do it.
Yeah, I've seen quite a few of those schmoes recently, actually.
But, you know, some people who run Windows 95 don't cover up their addresses too well.
So, uh...
This is true.
Yeah, so we'll find out.
And then you could do things like, you know, seeing what things they're sharing.
Yeah.
Like their entire hard drive.
Yes.
Well, enough about that.
Let's see if we can grab one more phone call before...
But we'd be interested in any, I guess, stories that people might have concerning these latest antics on the net.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Okay, you're not on the air anymore.
Apparently you had a bad line.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
On the air?
Yes, there you are.
And I hear it goes by the other person there.
Go ahead.
All right, thanks.
Oh, well, first of all, I tried that thing with the 660 and the last four-digitity number.
Yeah.
And I'm up in Rockland County.
Yeah.
And it seems to work just fine.
Oh, really?
It works in Rockland.
Okay.
Yeah.
Oh, another thing about the PHF bug.
Uh-huh.
You can...
Well, I haven't found any servers that will take it.
But I've been talking to somebody who took some university.
Uh-huh.
And he...
It seems to work for him.
But you can execute any program.
Uh-huh.
And it will run on yours, right?
So you can do an X-Term and then do whatever you want.
Well, if you tell it to run X-Term, yeah.
You could get it...
It'll...
If you run X-Term and give it the display arguments, you could have it display an X-Term on your screen.
Sure.
Oh, that's a pretty bad bug.
Uh-huh.
Yeah, but unfortunately, you can't really find it all too many places anymore.
Really?
Well, look in foreign nations and things like that.
Yeah.
It's all countries.
Another thing is with the ping thing.
On Unix, if you do a dash S, doesn't that change the size of the packet?
Uh, you can't specify one that large enough, though.
Oh, it won't let you do one larger?
No, it won't let you specify one that big.
That's the difference.
Well, I guess you can always modify it or something.
Well, that's the thing.
Anybody could write a program to send the packet of any size, and again, it doesn't
have to be a ping.
It could be anything.
Mm-hmm.
No.
All right.
All right.
Thanks for calling.
Thanks a lot.
I think he writes for us.
Really?
No.
I think I'm thinking of someone else.
All right.
That's going to do it for us tonight.
Our, um...
Yes, our show is over for tonight.
Stay tuned for Housing Notebook, I believe, is coming up next.
We'll be on again next week with another exciting edition of Off the Hook, and we'll be updating
you on the latest bugs and privacy intrusions and telephone rates.
If you find that 10 cent a minute rate, then please share the secret with us so we can
share the savings.
Until then, have a good night.
Take care.
The telephone keeps ringing So I ripped it off the wall
I cut myself while shaving Now I can't make a cough
It couldn't get much worse But if they could, they would
Bon dilly bon for the best expectable word I hope that's understood
Bon dilly bon!
Bon pic basSeq
Bon dilly bon for the whole
Bon dilly bon for the whole
Thank you.
Hi, this is Barbara Nimri Aziz.