We didn't do anything new, only we have implemented our religion and our tradition in Afghanistan,
nothing else.
WBAI meets the Taliban, now in power in Afghanistan.
Tune in this Saturday from 3 to 4 p.m. to hear part one of our exclusive interview with
Brother Abdul Hakim Mujahid.
That's on Arab Voice, Crescent Rising, with myself, Barbara Nimri-Aziz, and Mahmoud Ibrahim.
Make a note to join us, Saturday afternoon, March 1st, from 3 to 4, an interview with
Taliban on WBAI 99.5 FM, listener-sponsored radio in New York.
And at 8 o'clock, this is WBAI New York.
Time for Off The Hook.
And good evening to everybody.
This is Manuel Goldstein with another exciting edition of Off The Hook, where we talk about
computers and telephones and the internet and all kinds of fun things like that.
And, you know, there was a story this week about, it sort of combined everything, combined
international intrigue with the world of hacking, had to do with Croatian hackers breaking into
the Pentagon.
You see this one?
This was kind of like buried in a couple of websites, you had to really search around,
but it was out there.
Three teenage computer hackers in Croatia broke Pentagon protection codes and copied
classified files, copied highly classified files from United States military bases, local
media, and, I'm sorry, from United States military bases, local media and school officials
said.
They didn't copy anything from the local media.
While surfing the internet on their home computer, the three high school students applied a search
program and deciphered codes, barging into the database of several U.S. military installations.
According to the Zagreb Daily, whose name I will not even try to pronounce, the databases
included those of the Anderson Nuclear Installation and an unnamed Satellite Research Center.
This was reported on Fox News, on the Fox News website, and, of course, it was later
denied by the Pentagon, who said that the hackers had simply gotten into something in
Guam and it wasn't very secretive at all.
So, depends who you believe here.
Anyway, the break-in left a trace on the internet which was tracked down by the Pentagon.
The U.S. Defense Department contacted Croatian police through Interpol, demanding an investigation
while local police searched the youngsters' apartments and confiscated their computer
equipment.
Is it nice how it works?
The Defense Department calls Interpol, Interpol calls the local police, and that's how you
get raids in foreign countries.
The damage caused by the teenagers' destruction of high-profile protection programs could
reach half a million dollars, according to that unpronounceable Zagreb Daily.
Computer hacking is not illegal in Croatia, that is, according to this news story, computer
hacking is not illegal in Croatia, and we'll have airfare prices for destinations in Croatia
at the end of the program.
The three teenagers attend a school in the Adriatic port of Zadar, specializing in mathematics
and science.
Principal, well, he's got a weird name too, I can say his last name, Principal Kirko,
said the three had no criminal intent and their success was a compliment to their education.
You know, I think that guy's going to be the keynote speaker at the HOPE conference.
He's got it right, you know, this principal saying that people hacking into the Defense
Department, they're not necessarily criminals.
How about that?
What a radical view.
This is a case of extensive curiosity, which had undesired consequences, Kirko told Reuters
by telephone.
They are excellent students in love with mathematics and computer science, they are fanatics in
a positive sense of the term.
But Kirko said the hackers' parents were concerned that they might be sued for damages.
As well as other unfortunate things that happen when you get the Defense Department angry
at you.
Well, that's the international story for this week.
Things like that are happening increasingly frequently, I guess.
You see webpages being hacked in various parts of the world.
You see it in Indonesia.
That was the most recent one, actually.
Some website in Indonesia, a governmental one, was hacked to change the message to talk
about the East Timor repression.
And if you want to see a mirror of that, we managed to capture it.
It only happened about a week ago, too.
Happened for the second time around a week ago.
And you can go to our website, www.2600.com, to see that and a bunch of other hacked websites
that have happened over the past year or so, including some U.S. governmental websites
as well, and a fur company down in the South, which was also a bit of fun.
Now last week we talked about, or a caller actually called in, talking about a new kind
of communications product called FRS, Family Radio Service.
Now it's got nothing to do with those religious lunatics.
This family radio is about talking on walkie-talkies, pretty much.
Yes, now this comes from Radio Electronics.
There's yet another way to walk the talk.
Oh boy.
And it doesn't entail a monthly service charge.
A new communications option, Family Radio Service, FRS, is a two-way medium that's not
unlike old walkie-talkies, but with smaller transceivers and a much longer range.
RadioShack, Motorola, Cobra, Midland, Maxon, and others will offer the new FRS receivers,
which have 1.5 to 3.5 inch antennas and transmit at a half watt over a distance of two miles,
depending on the terrain.
They operate on 14 channels in the UHF band from 462 to 476 megahertz, frequencies allocated
by the FCC for outdoor enthusiasts, neighborhood watch groups, and families seeking low-cost
local communication.
No FCC license is needed to own or operate these modern-day walkie-talkies.
FRS, like CB and general mobile radio service, provides two-way simplex communication.
You talk, then I talk, but not at the same time.
Though it lacks the longer reach of higher-powered CBs or cell phones, FRS has other appealing
features.
FRS phones are small and have talk times, 10 hours, and standby times of 20 hours, similar
to cell phones, using only two or three AAA cells or a rechargeable battery.
I've never seen a cell phone that you can talk for 10 hours on, but apart from that,
FRS also offers superior audio quality and greater freedom from interference than handheld
battery-powered CBs.
Users in a family or a neighborhood group can set their radios to one of 38 codes, and
the radios will receive signals only from others using the same code.
Conversations are not private.
They can be heard by anyone on the same channel.
But with as many as 14 channels and the 38 codes to choose from, chances are good that
users in a local area can avoid such overlap.
Until the FRS population grows, some early portables will lack the codes or will offer
fewer than 38 codes.
Models with 2, 7, and 14 channels will be available priced from $99 to $179 and in sizes
as small as 1 by 2 by 4 inches.
Their styling eventually will resemble cellular phones more than security radios.
RadioShack's forthcoming Flip Radio, for $149, will sport a folding design and will signal
incoming traffic with a beep.
That sounds kind of neat.
I'm not really sure how far, I guess up to two miles, I guess that's far enough if you're
near to the people you want to speak to, but also you could hear some interesting conversations
as well, and I don't think it's illegal to tune to that particular frequency and listen
in on what's going on, but that's the new FRS family radio service, and you don't have
to be a family to use it, so don't let that dissuade you.
We'll play around with those things, and maybe we'll have some over at the HOPE conference,
and maybe we'll use that as our means of communication this time.
Okay, easy pass.
Easy pass, of course, being the new quick way of getting through tunnels and bridges
and things like that by not having to stop at all, though today I had to stop because
an 18-wheeler was parked in front of the one lane on the Midtown Tunnel, so I had to wait
for that to get cleared up and then finally proceed and zip through the last 10 feet of
my journey.
Usually, in theory, this should work.
This should work very well.
Unfortunately, the planning has been abysmal as far as traffic, so many times you wind
up stuck in traffic until you are actually in the lane of the toll booth, and then you
can whiz right on through.
I finally got an itemized bill from them, and you know, it's missing a whole lot.
I think what they might have done is forgotten to send one out last month, and this is the
first one I'm seeing right now because this doesn't begin until January 7th, and I know
I was using it before then.
They basically, they give you your tag number, they give you the place that you went through.
It's known as a plaza, and they give you a three-letter code for that.
For instance, QMT is Queens Midtown Tunnel, TNB, Throgs Neck Bridge, and they have a bunch
of others as well.
And they tell you what plaza you went through, what lane you went through.
I'm not sure what class is, but I was always class 1, whatever that means.
I was class 1, the amount was always $3, as opposed to the $3.50 toll, and then they give
you the date and the time.
Now they don't tell you what direction you were going in.
I guess the lane tells you that, but if you don't know what the lane means, you don't
know what direction you were heading in.
So they don't differentiate with that particular bit of information.
But this is interesting.
This appears on the back, and this is something that they don't tell you until you actually
start using the system.
Account information will be disclosed only under judicial subpoena or to police investigating
violations of criminal law involving MTA bridges and tunnels.
A copy of the disclosure policy is available by writing MTA Bridges and Tunnels, Public
Information Office, 18th floor, 10 Columbus Circle, New York, New York, 10019.
So yes, they can track you and find out just where you were at a particular time, where
your car was anyway.
Now we're going to try this again.
We've tried it several times.
It's never worked.
We're going to try and get my data over the phone, as is my right.
I'm supposedly able to do this.
However, every time I try, they tell me that my tag number is zero and that I have never
crossed anything.
So I'd like to be able to see if I can, you know, tell when I crossed last.
I crossed last about an hour ago, and, you know, I'd like to know if it's reflected.
So let's get that on the line here.
The number is 1-800-333-TOLL.
Let's see if we finally get some information.
Thank you for calling the MTA Bridges and Tunnels E-ZPass Service Center.
Please listen closely to our new menu options.
Due to the increased demand for E-ZPass, we have established a separate 24-hour toll-free
number for application requests only.
For immediate assistance, please call 1-888-33-APPLY.
That's 1-888-332-7759.
If you are calling about the New York State Thruway E-ZPass program, please call 1-800-222-TOLL.
That's 1-800-222-8655.
Commercial account holders or rotary callers, please call again during our normal business
hours, which are Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. through 7 p.m., and Saturday, 8 a.m.
through 12 p.m., to speak to a customer service representative.
If you are an individual account holder and are calling from a touch-tone phone, please
press 1 to use our 24-hour information system or to report a lost or stolen tag.
If you already have an application but need information regarding the E-ZPass program,
press 2.
I'm going to press 1.
If you are an existing account holder, please have your 7-digit E-ZPass account number ready
to access individual account information.
Please press 1.
How did he do that?
Okay, let's press 1.
Individual account holders wishing to access their account information, please press 1
to return to the main menu.
Please press 9.
That's awfully distracting.
Okay.
Your 7-digit E-ZPass account number appears on the letter sent with your tag or at the
top of your monthly statement.
To obtain account information from our 24-hour information system, enter your account number
and press the pound button.
Okay, I'm going to do that.
I'm going to turn down the microphone while I do it.
I guess the doppelganger has taken over completely.
Okay, and then you hit the pound sign, right?
You entered.
Okay, we're going to turn that down and hopefully all the numbers are correct.
Fine.
If this is correct, press the pound button.
You know what my last number is.
If this is incorrect, please hold while we access your account.
This is the part they always seem to get broken on.
If you received a low balance light when you drove through the toll plaza, press 1.
For your current available toll balance, press 2.
For your most recent payment information, press 3.
For the most recent toll crossings charged to your account, press 4.
That's the one we want.
For tag number, 0.
There are no toll crossings on record.
For tag number, 0.
There are no toll crossings on record.
To return to the previous...
You know, that's just great.
Why do they even bother offering this service when they never give you any information?
I don't get it.
For months now we've been trying this and we never get past the point of tag number 0.
So, I don't know.
I don't know what to do.
If anyone out there has ever gotten them to say what your crossings are, tell me.
I'd like to know.
Okay.
Unfortunately, Fiber's not here tonight, so he won't be able to rebut what I'm about to say
about how the local PCS phone service is a complete rip-off in this city, anyway,
and probably in the entire state,
because two weeks ago when I went down south,
I had opportunity to experiment, to look around and see other kinds of services.
And BellSouth has this really kind of interesting service.
They call it DCS.
I don't know why they call it something different,
but it's basically the exact same service that they offer here in New York with OmniPoint.
It's DCS.
It's broadcast over 1.9 gigs,
so you basically are using the exact same kinds of phones,
the exact same kinds of services.
Now, I'll explain what they say here.
Digital Communication Service, that's what DCS stands for.
BellSouth Mobility DCS is the South's premier all-digital network.
Our advanced digital technology ensures no one can steal your number and bill calls to it.
Other mobile phone services, which are not digital,
are vulnerable to thieves stealing your number through the air and running up your bill.
With BellSouth Mobility DCS, you don't have to worry about number security.
And our all-digital network makes it virtually impossible for anyone to listen in on your calls.
Other mobile phone services are vulnerable to eavesdropping,
but BellSouth Mobility DCS keeps your private conversations private.
This phone does more turned off than most phones do turned on,
and they go into all the features and things like that.
Now, here is the interesting part, the rate structure.
Now, they have calling plans.
This is for North Carolina.
This is for a pretty wide section.
And they have up here, the rates are something like, what is it?
The cheapest they get is a quarter a minute, the very cheapest.
And the most expensive we've seen, over 50 cents a minute.
And various penalties for people who actually have the audacity to pay in cash before the bills come,
you know, prepay customers, which I think they should get more for paying before they bill,
but that's not how Anypoint figures it, so they get penalized for that.
The calling plan down there, there are several options.
You can have a monthly service charge of $26.95 and get 45 free minutes and pay 30 cents per minute.
Or you can go for the performance plan, $44.95 a month, get 120 free minutes and pay a quarter a minute.
But here's the really interesting plan, the power plan.
For $89.95, you get 360 free minutes, which is quite a lot of free minutes, I think.
And your rate after that 360 free minutes is only 15 cents a minute.
Nobody in New York has a rate similar to that that I have ever seen.
15 cents a minute. Now, it gets even better than this.
They have this service, which I've always been like, you know, complaining that they don't offer things like this.
Your first minute on any incoming call doesn't cost anything.
So somebody can call you just to tell you where they are, and you don't have to worry about paying every time somebody does that,
as long as you keep the call a minute or less.
So that first minute is always free coming in.
And if you work it right, you can pay $89.95 monthly service charge, get 360 free minutes.
Let me have a calculator, figure out what $89.95 divided by 360 is.
You have a computer there, but can it do math?
Because if you don't want to pay a monthly service charge by 360, that should tell us the per minute charge,
if you want to look at it that way.
Because I know OmniPoint charges something. I don't know what it is.
Fiber is supposed to have all that information today. Unfortunately, it's not here.
25 cents a minute. So you're paying the same amount no matter what.
If you use your phone more than 360 minutes, then this really starts to pay off.
But there's all kinds of other plans too, including one plan where the rate is 5 cents a minute.
Yeah, the monthly service charge of $14.95 and a per minute rate of 5 cents per minute on weekends.
And the weekends start at 8 p.m. on Fridays and go until 7 a.m. on Mondays.
That's for $14.95. Now what that does is, that's called a leisure plan.
Leisure plan allows you to stay in touch on the weekends.
5 cents per minute. No tricks, no contract, no nonsense.
Sign up for the leisure plan and pay only 5 cents per minute on weekends.
And I think that's for your entire local calling area. I'm pretty sure that's how that works.
So there are alternatives out there. There's many of them.
And unfortunately, we don't really have any of them here. We just have one choice.
The thing is, you have to have competition and that's really the only way you'll have competitive prices like this.
Now there is the point that BellSouth is a phone company and they have some advantages there.
However, there are all kinds of, I guess, consumer groups and the public service commissions that exist
for the purpose of making sure that one company does not have an unfair advantage over another.
So I don't think 9X is going to rush in and put OmniPoint out of business with really great rates.
I think it's up to OmniPoint, up to other companies to bring down their rates
so that these phones are actually cheaper like they're supposed to be.
Right now they're really not much cheaper than regular cellular phones.
So hopefully this will wake people up just a little bit.
$0.15 a minute. I think this is the first time I ever saw a cellular phone rate that I think would be fair,
that I think is worthwhile. I don't feel like I'm being ripped off every time you pick up the phone.
When you pay $0.50 a minute or even $0.25 a minute, it really starts to add up.
But when the rates start to approach that of regular telephones,
then you start to consider using these things like a regular telephone.
Although you should never use it as much as a regular telephone
because if you do that, you have all these radio waves emanating into your head.
And who needs that?
All right, that's pretty much the spiel on DCS service,
which is basically the same thing as PCS service down in Bell South territory.
Actually, we don't have any Bell South listeners today because we're not on Real Audio.
But if anyone out there has experiences with other phone companies in other parts of the country,
please let us know.
212-279-3400 is our telephone number.
Please feel free to give us a call with any kind of information that you have on any of these things
or any other stories or any questions that you might have on other things.
Let's take our first phone call. Good evening, you're on the air.
Good evening, Emmanuel. Three questions.
First, with the PCS, if I recall, remember that famous broadcast of fiber in the taxi?
Yes.
And you guys were talking about how the antennas have to be spaced very close together
atop of Manhattan rooftop buildings.
So like North Carolina, I believe, is all rural.
So do you think they do the antenna configuration for their DCS?
I'm not sure, to be honest.
I looked at the map that shows what their coverage area is,
and a lot of it is based on interstate highways.
So that tells me that the antennas are on the highway.
But they say that they're going to be expanding well beyond that into the countryside.
Maybe the antenna strength is more powerful than the ones in New York City?
They may have found a way to increase the power of the antennas.
That's possible.
Or they may just be putting antennas everywhere.
I don't really know how they're getting around that.
But that's something that is paramount in getting this service to be accepted by people.
Two more questions.
Two more questions.
First, I'm sort of disappointed.
Fiber has been tawdy two weeks in a row.
We need to do something about that.
Yes.
Okay.
Number two, just curious, approximately, is there any way of finding out,
or perhaps you would know, at this present point in time,
approximately how many websites are there, like www.whatever,
how many are in existence?
Is it like in the millions yet?
Well, it's definitely over a hundred, right?
Well, I would think so.
I'm just going on my personal...
Yeah, you know, there's all kinds of ways of...
You know, you ask the people at Alta Vista,
you know, with their little search robots going out there and finding everything.
There's definitely millions.
Millions.
Trillions, even.
There's no limit.
An infinite number of webpages.
And all of them are, like, in English?
No.
What made you think they're all in English?
Because, like, to do the command, like www.whatever the word is, you know...
Well, www is not necessarily English.
But, no, I mean, addresses are not a language.
Right.
They simply represent...
So, like, you can, you know, get Chinese and everything,
and Japanese, Zen, poetry...
You have to adjust your terminal to be able to display certain characters.
Oh, it makes my head spin.
And the last thing, also, about the Internet,
I was talking today to this cancer cultural psychiatrist
who has a lot of patients who are into this,
and we were talking about it, you know,
saying, well, maybe I should get into it or try web TV or something.
And he said, for the web TV, it's like a rip-off
because you're paying more than you would for cable TV plus HBO.
And according to this guy, I mean, he knows his medication,
but for other stuff, don't take it too seriously.
Okay.
He says, like, most of the stuff currently on the Internet is like scams and rip-offs.
And, like, if you're not careful and you want to do something,
like, you can get charged your phone bill and your credit card
without even being aware of it.
And so, you know, he's into this conspiracy
that it's all con artists trying to get your money or feed you misinformation.
Well, I don't know if you want to approach every life situation like that,
but, you know, you should beware of certain things,
of new products and things like that,
but that doesn't mean you should avoid them.
He was saying, like, if you want to download something by just doing clicks,
you can, like, get something charged to your phone bill.
I don't know if you ever heard of anything like that.
Yeah, you know, in fact, I did.
You might have seen this on the news.
There's this scam going on that somebody was running
where if you downloaded a certain...
First of all, you had to have a lust for porn to get started.
Yeah, that's right. He mentioned porn.
Right away, that means you deserve whatever you get, in most people's eyes.
So, people would download this particular program,
which was necessary to view these pictures.
And what this was, this supposedly was a browser of some sort
that allowed you to browse their pages.
What it actually did was, it sent a command to your modem
to, A, turn the speaker off so you wouldn't hear it redialing,
B, redial something in, I believe, Moldova,
which is a former Soviet Republic,
and pay rates of up to $3 a minute
to browse the net from that remote location.
One of his patients fell for that.
Yeah, and the thing is, the amazing thing is that
once you finished browsing, it was still connected.
So, you had to disconnect your modem
and turn your computer off to lose that connection.
And if you just walked away and went out and walked the dog or something like that,
you're still connected paying $3 a minute.
I now know why...
It's ingenious, really.
I now know why you chose the name you did.
It's scary, but every week you do the show,
it is more and more 1984.
Let's see if there's anything else.
All right, I'm going to make way for Rebel,
and maybe Monroe will call, and who knows what.
Please, please, let's not tempt fate.
Okay, and Fiber, you get back on the show next week,
or else we're going to have to get some 12-year-olds to hack you or something.
Okay, bye.
Yes, maybe that's what's happening right now.
212-279-3400.
I don't know.
I've never done anything with Web TV,
so I don't know much about that.
If anyone out there has played around with that,
then just let us know.
Good evening. You're on the air.
Hi.
How are you doing?
Okay.
I just wanted to know, with all that hacking business
you were talking about from Croatia...
Yes.
How come none of these brilliant kids, like,
decide to try to get into the IRS and screw it up?
Well, maybe they have,
and you just never hear from them again.
It's possible.
I don't think the IRS is that accessible.
I think they use their brains as far as
not having all their secrets lying out on the Internet.
Well, oh, that's the only way you can mess up a computer
is by if they're on the Internet?
Well, the Internet is the easiest way to access things.
Obviously, if you had their private dial-ups,
you could get in that way,
but that's information that you have to get in some form.
Well, also, I heard, or I read in the paper
that I think New York State was going to contract
its stuff out to third parties
to do the tax forms this year.
Did you hear that?
No, I didn't.
I think it was in the Times, as a matter of fact.
And, yeah, it was New York State was thinking of,
or in the process of sending out the tax forms
because they were overloaded.
They couldn't do it.
That's what they do.
What do you mean they're overloaded?
What, do they have some other pressing business?
It was a big controversy
because they were going to have a third party
having access to people's private...
Don't tell me.
They're going to send it to a prison in Texas someplace
and have people there do it as work release, right?
That sounds like the kind of thing they do.
Anyway, it doesn't really have anything to do
with what we're talking about,
but I just thought to see.
I guess, obviously, if it's not, then...
Anyway, that was my question.
Okay.
Okay.
Thanks for calling.
Bye.
212-279-3400.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hello?
Yes.
Oh, yeah.
Just a sec.
Let me turn down my radio.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, I had a question.
Oh, sorry.
Actually, this happened to me last fall,
and I have my baby daughter here,
and I tried to call him,
but I've never been able to get through,
so let me tell you what happened.
I was home on Friday night.
It was probably last October,
and it was about 11.30, and I was studying,
so I wasn't going to answer my phone.
The phone rang, and I didn't pick it up,
and the machine picked up,
and I was trying to screen the call,
and no voice came over the line,
and then it rang like three more times,
for a total of four times,
and nobody ever left a message,
so finally it rang again, and I picked it up.
Let's break in.
What kind of message do you have on your outgoing,
on your answering machine?
Is it something that people might find humorous enough
to call back and listen to again?
No.
No, it's just I don't have my phone number
or my name or anything.
I just say, please leave a message.
Because I made the mistake of giving out a phone number
to a salesman once,
and he called me and left a message
saying he liked the message very much.
Then ten minutes later,
his co-worker called to hear the message.
By the end of the day,
about 40 people had called up the answering machine
to hear the message
because it got spread around the office,
so that's one thing you should be concerned about.
Yeah, no, it's nothing like that,
but I finally picked it up,
and this was 11.30 Friday night,
and the man on the other end of the line,
it sounded like a youngish man,
he was calling from 9X,
and that I was going to have to hang up my phone
and they were going to call back,
and if I didn't pick up my phone,
that my service would be cut off for the whole weekend
because there was something wrong
with some wires in my neighborhood or something.
And I was home by myself,
and I found it very strange,
and I said, well, what if I don't pick up?
And he said, well, you should pick up
if you want to be able to use your phone this weekend.
And so I just unplugged his phone,
and I don't know if they ever tried to call again,
but I wondered if you'd ever heard of anything like that,
or if it was some kind of a scam,
what it would be if you'd ever...
I don't know what possible scam that could be.
I've never heard of it.
Was this 11.30 in the morning?
No, at night.
No, it's definitely...
That is definitely not 9X.
9X would not call you 11.30 p.m.
to ask you to do something like that.
Yeah, so...
Did you try...
What state are you in?
I'm in New York.
I'm in New York City.
Did you try anything like Star 69
or any of that business?
No, I didn't, actually.
I called 9X, and I asked if they thought it was them,
and they said that they didn't think it was them.
Right.
Now, that certainly doesn't sound like something they would do, so...
Uh-huh.
I mean...
It sounds like you have to deal with something there.
Well, I'm okay.
I'm dealing with it now.
So it's nothing that you've ever heard of, huh?
Not that particular scam, no.
Uh-huh.
Whatever it might be.
It sounds like somebody...
Have you ever gotten any calls since then?
Not like that, no.
I did have somebody who was calling me and harassing me,
but it was a totally different kind of person.
It was somebody who wasn't from this country,
and it was a woman,
so I doubt if it's anybody she knows
who was trying to follow up.
Right.
You see, the fact that the person kept calling back
tells me that they were just...
I don't know.
Maybe they wanted to hear your voice or something like that
or just harass you in some way.
Uh-huh.
What day of the week was this?
It was a Friday.
Friday night.
Yeah, well, I think you're dealing
with just some loony out there.
Uh-huh.
So, you know, just don't answer the phone.
That's the best way.
Yeah.
Or screen your calls.
Right, right.
But whatever, just, you know,
don't let it affect you so much
that you show a reaction to the person.
Uh-huh.
Okay, well, thanks.
All right, good luck.
Okay, bye.
That's a new one on me.
All right, this is off the hook, 212-279-3400.
Good evening, you're on...
I'm on the air?
Yes, you are.
Oh, that's cool.
Okay, um, you know the B boxes
or distribution boxes?
Uh-huh.
Yeah, well, anyway,
I read the side of one of mine.
There were stickers all over the place
with the same thing on it,
and there were three letters
and four numbers, S-A-C and 4061.
It was three letters on top
and four numbers on the bottom.
You have any idea what that is?
Um, let's see.
Where are you located?
Under Bell Atlantic in New Jersey.
Okay.
Are these phone boxes
or possibly cable or...?
No, they're just, yeah,
big, um, green, like, 4x5 boxes.
Okay, how long have they been around for?
For as long as you can remember?
Years.
S-A-C.
I don't know what it is.
I've asked on the Internet,
like, all my friends and everything,
and I have no idea.
See, I was thinking
something-something cable.
Yeah.
You know, S-A-C, like...
I don't know.
Um, you're in Bell Atlantic,
so, uh, you know,
they should either read
Bell Atlantic or New Jersey Bell
from the old days.
I have those, too,
but they're just...
I think it's an identification number
or something.
What's the name of your power company?
Um, I don't remember.
It's a New Jersey power company,
but it's not that.
I'm positive it's the phone lines.
Yeah.
I've seen the alignment
playing in it, so, uh...
Uh-huh.
It's all lined, like, every day.
Okay, well, it's definitely
a phone thing, then.
Yeah.
We just don't know
what the S-A-C means.
Uh, have you gone around
to other parts of your neighborhood
to see if they say
the same basic thing?
Uh, I haven't seen
any other of the big boxes.
Uh-huh.
Only seen that one.
Really?
Yeah.
And this is all within
how big an area?
Uh, it's, like,
Could it be the name
of the town?
Oh, no.
Okay.
Or the county, or township,
or whatever they call
things over there?
Nothing like that.
All right, I'm kind of
stumped on that one.
S-A-C.
I know, that's why I am.
We'll open it up to the
listeners, see if anybody
in Jersey understands
what S-A-C means.
But basically, it's that
and four numbers, right?
Yeah, S-A-C and 4061.
Yeah, well, that's...
You've probably just
given out your exact coordinates
to everybody listening.
Yeah, but it's within...
It's like a three-mile town.
They can just search
the whole friggin' town,
you know?
Okay.
All right, take care.
Of course, once we find
an answer, I don't know
what the next step is,
but finding out what S-A-C
means is, I guess,
you know, a start.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Speak up.
Hi, Emmanuel.
Yes.
Yes, I may have an answer
for that last caller's
question.
Okay.
I know here in Brooklyn,
at least, on some
of the buildings,
they have, like,
a little kind of plastic box
on the exterior
of the building,
and if you open it up,
it seems to have
some sort of, like,
you know,
tendon port
type of thing.
It might be
something like
a water company
meter thing.
Well, what would
a water company
have an electronic
box for?
Well, I'm not sure.
See, that's the thing
is that the way,
if it's a private house,
the way they may do
the metering is
they just go in
and they plug their
reader right into
that box,
right into,
basically,
that junction there,
and they plug
that reader
right into that
box,
basically,
that junction there.
I know it's used
in some rural areas
in Rhode Island,
for example.
I don't know,
maybe this doesn't
apply here,
but that's something
that you might
want to consider.
Okay, I will
consider it.
The other thing,
as far as the,
you're talking about
digital cellular
in the south
and things
and rates,
how familiar
are you with
cellular in Israel?
Not very familiar
at all.
Okay, I was
reading something
and I'm not,
can't remember
which journal
it was,
but talking about
the different
cellular programs
that they have
over there,
and they were
talking about
having rates
as low as
10 cents
a minute,
and also having
a plan where
basically,
you only pay
for outgoing calls.
You don't pay
for any incoming
calls.
Right, that's,
you know,
fairly standard
in many parts
of the world,
actually.
Right, that's
very standard
in many parts
of the world,
actually.
Right.
So,
you know,
I think
we'll see
it,
not because
of any bills,
but because
of simple
competition.
Once you start
getting more
companies offering
services,
you'll start
to see more
reasonable prices.
Simple as that.
And also,
you know,
consumer demands.
If,
you know,
right now,
people start
exerting their
power as
a potential
marketing force,
I think you'll see
these companies
really, you know,
getting in line.
Indeed.
The one final
question I have
is,
this is more
of a payphone
question.
Okay.
Okay.
You know,
some payphones
in certain
areas of the city
are blocked
if you're
trying to dial
a 917
area code.
I did not know
that.
Well,
non-IX phones,
mostly non-IX
service providers,
but if you
try to dial
a 917
for either
pager or
cell phone,
either it'll
give you a
message saying
that you
can't get
this number,
or one of the
problems I've
run into is,
you can call
the number,
but once you
finish dialing
and...
You can't get
touchtones
afterwards.
Exactly.
Right.
You can't get
touchtones
afterwards.
Right.
So,
that's
a bit of
stupidity
like that.
Blocking
917,
that's something
I'd like to
know more
about because
that's sort
of saying
this entire
area code
is invalid
and must
not be
dialed.
I'd like to
know who
actually
thinks that
way.
If it's
true,
then I
don't
really
expect
to get
that.
It's
just
badly
programmed.
True.
Do you
know of
any way
of getting
around that
problem of
you dial up
a number
and then
all of a
sudden,
for some
reason,
you can't
punch in
any other
numbers once
you dial
up the
number.
Is there
any way
of kind
of skirting
around that?
Well,
a lot of
phones have
that restriction,
including
9X phones,
and we've
complained bitterly
about that
because it
just should
not be.
The most
obvious way
of getting
around it is
to carry
around a
touch-tone
pad and
just simply
dial it up.
If that's
what you
have to do,
then either
don't use
that phone or
generate your
own tones.
They can't
block the
tones from
going through.
Okay,
just the
commands from
the keypad,
actually.
Yeah,
there might
be some
ways around
it, too,
where if you
go through
an operator
first or
dial in a
different way,
and then
if you
want to
eventually,
then you're
okay.
Right.
Okay.
All right,
well, good luck.
Thank you very
much.
Take care.
Bye.
212-279-3400,
good evening,
you're on the
air.
Hello?
Yes.
You wouldn't
believe what
just happened.
I got an
ISDN line.
Yes,
just now.
Well, I
ordered it
and I
talked to
my
Motorola
BitSurfer
Pro.
I'm stuck
with no
phone for
almost four
days.
We're in
the 20th
century.
Where are
you,
exactly?
I'm in
Long
Island.
Long
Island.
You'll
be dealing
with 9x
then.
Yep.
That
happens.
Is there
anything
that you
might know
that I can
talk to,
like,
I don't
know,
the central
station or
whatnot?
I mean,
just test.
They generally
have gotten
better with
ISDN
installations,
where,
you know,
they sort
of know
what they're
talking about.
Didn't
they test
the line
when they
called?
Doesn't
that mean
they didn't
finish?
There's no,
I had no
dial tone.
Right.
He said he
had to test
something out,
but he was
supposed to
be back
today,
I don't
know.
You're
using ISDN
equipment.
Yes.
Motorola
BitSurfer
and all
that kind
of thing.
I just
be on
the phone
all the
time,
and I
don't
know
what
they're
talking
about.
I
don't
know
what
they're
talking
about.
I
don't
know
what
they're
talking
about.
This is the way it used to be, right?
Where is like, the prior room name, where is it?
That was too obvious, right?
It was a bit obvious, yeah.
Somebody made Creative Cold Ice, right?
They're like, that lasted for like a year or two, right?
And they're like, he didn't, like, nobody cared, nobody.
They're like, I heard about like a previous ride,
and then like that room got busted.
Then like three days before like this AOL ride, right?
The new room after Cold Ice?
Like, I can't say, I can't say,
because it's like, it'll probably be censored, right?
Right, yeah, it probably would be.
But let me just ask you a question.
Well, put yourself in AOL's shoes, okay?
You got all these people running around,
trading illegal software, illegal in their eyes, certainly.
How would you deal with the situation?
What should they do?
Leave it be.
Just let it alone, don't do anything.
Yeah, I mean, you don't see anybody
like on IRC servers doing anything.
Well, that's because IRC is not run
by one particular system.
Not really, because like, like IRC dot,
like IDT has like IRC, and then like-
Well, you see, if you were running your own system, right?
Let's say you're running a system in your house,
a bulletin board or something like that.
And all these people started trading software on it,
putting you at risk,
because you become a trading ground for software.
What would you do?
Would you tell them to go somewhere else?
Would you tell them not to do it?
Would you tell them to hide better, or what?
Yeah, but you see, that's the difference.
It's like the response, like, they're not supposed to,
because like, they're like violating the rights.
You understand?
Like, they're not allowed to like monitor people, you know?
I don't know, look at the terms of the contract.
Maybe they are.
You see, when you sign up for a company,
you're basically accepting their terms.
I know, but like, they have so many legal loopholes.
I mean, this is the thing, right?
They only go after like one type of people.
Like, they only go after wares.
Like, you can do anything you want,
except like trade wares or piss off a guy, that's it.
I mean, you could do anything.
Like, you could like do whatever the hell you want
in the chat rooms, except piss off a guy,
or like trade wares, that's it.
I mean, like, they're like, I don't know.
Like, there's so many, like, wares rooms, right?
It's gotten to the point, like, where it's crazy.
I mean, like, they've had to make like a wares room generator
which generates like a new wares room every day.
I don't know, it does seem to be.
Using some sort of algorithm.
It does seem to be a problem for the wares people there,
but I don't know, you know, I'm trying to look at this
from both points of view and I could see AOL being concerned
and I'm not quite sure how they should deal with it
because I don't really know how their service works
and what you agree to when you sign up for it.
But, you know, if I were you, I'd look at alternatives
because it doesn't seem like AOL is really, you know,
a very happy place for wares traders.
I don't know, because I really like,
I'm not like a wares trader.
Like, I'm not even a wares group.
I just like to test out stuff, right, before I buy it.
Right, yeah.
I know, you know, all the arguments for that.
You know, but I mean, like, it's like,
I mean, like, it's like so good, but like, it's like,
it's like a minefield, you know?
I mean, it's like a minefield full of gold, you know?
I mean, like everywhere, like these AOL cat bots,
you know, cat watch bots, and like everywhere,
like, you know, wares.
I mean, for Christ's sake,
I have like Windows 97 in my mailbox.
Uh-huh.
Well, okay.
I don't know if we need to know that, but all right.
Well, anyway, we're out of time.
So I want to wish you luck in your pursuits.
I don't quite know what those pursuits will wind up doing,
but interesting, interesting things going on in AOL.
All right, that's going to do it for us here tonight.
We'll be back again next week
with another exciting edition of Off The Hook.
Until then, have yourselves a good week.
We'll see you then, bye.
The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a call.
It couldn't get much worse, but if they could they would.
From Diddley Boom for the best, expect the worst.
I hope that's understood, from Diddley Boom.
I hope that's understood, from Diddley Boom.
I hope that's understood, from Diddley Boom.
Let's go!
I hope that's understood, from Diddley Boom.
So mark it on your calendar, tell a friend, and be sure to tune in to City in Exile
on Tuesday, February 25th at 10pm.
As I speak to Smokey Robinson and Mickey Stevenson.
Only on WBAI in New York, 99.5 FM.
And you are tuned to listener-sponsored WBAI FM in New York City.
99.5 on your radio dial.
It is 8.59 and 47 seconds.
And we're coming up on 9 o'clock.
9 o'clock. At the 9 o'clock hour will be Housing Notebook.
At 10 o'clock, City in Exile.
And 11, broadcast of this evening's news.
It is 9pm exactly.
Oh, oh, oh.
Feel them spirits.
Feel them spirits.
Feel them spirits.
Lord, I thank you.
Lord, I thank you.
Feel all right now.
Feel all right now.
Feel all right now.
Good Lord, hear me.
Good Lord, hear me.
I'm not boasting.
I'm not boasting.
I'm not boasting.
Feel like boasting.
Feel like boasting.
Simply because I'm gonna put it on in the morning.
I'm gonna put it on in the night.
I'm gonna put it on anytime, anywhere.
Good Lord, hear me.
Good Lord, hear me.
No more crying.
No more crying.
No more crying.
Lord, I thank you.