From 6.30 to 10.30 p.m. at the Brecht Forum. Speakers include economist Ed Boerstein, who worked with Che in Cuba, Magda Enriquez, U.S. Representative of Nicaragua's FSLN, history professor Gerardo Renique of City University of New York, attorney Michael Ratner, author of the forthcoming book Che and the FBI, and WBAI Program Director Samari Marksman, host of Behind the News. There'll also be a number of poets presenting work celebrating the life of Che. That's Saturday, October 4th at 6.30 p.m. at the Brecht Forum, 122 West 27th Street in New York City. For more information, call the Brecht Forum at 212-242-4201. That's 212-242-4201. And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, where it's 8 o'clock. Time for an exciting edition of Off the Hook. The button doesn't work. Can you believe that? The button doesn't work. Hang on, I have to reach all the way over to the other side of the studio. There we go. That's why we need to ask for money occasionally. It's 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 cough. It couldn't get much worse. But if they could, they would. From Diddley Bom, but the best is paid for worse. I hope that's understood. From Diddley Bom! We'll be right back. And a very good evening to everybody. This is Off the Hook. And we're broadcasting live. Over the radio. And over the internet. Hello to all you people all around the world. Everyone, of course, is welcome to call Country Code 1. If you're outside the country only. 212-279-3400. It's Off the Hook. The Army's preparing. You better beware. Politics is slapping and they don't care. Liberty and freedom. They're the ones that you say. They're going to lock you up and put you away. You're going to fight the system. The battle's not lost. You're fighting the system. Or the fight's got its cost. You're going to fight the system. The battle's not lost. You're fighting the system. Or the fight's got its cost. Police can't straighten them. They're ready to fight. It's time for the trench. You're pounding through the night. Amplesties screaming. Change away the day. Young men on the payments. All the time to pull it to these end. You're going to fight the system. The battle's not lost. You're fighting the system. Or the fight's got its cost. You're going to fight the system. The battle's not lost. You're fighting the system. Or the fight's got its cost. You know, I only hope the day is right around the corner. Where you can listen to WBAI around the clock on the internet. Because it's happening all over the place. There's radio stations on the net now around the clock. And if we can work it out here, we're certainly going to do that. And that way, when you go off to all different parts of the world, you can bring BAI with you. That's right. All the time. Well, this is an interesting edition of Off the Hook because we'll be getting phone calls hopefully from all different parts of the country as well. And New York City, which, as many of you know, New York City is facing a crisis with the split of the 2-on-2 area code. And I didn't expect fighting in the street, but there is fighting in the street. Because apparently one of the chowderheads in charge was proposing that the east side of Manhattan take on the 718 area code. And that kind of thing just is not going to fly. I could have told them that. So there's negotiations going on. The latest I heard was that the State Public Utilities Commission has endorsed the plan for basically an overlay. What an overlay is, it means that you have two area codes in the same place. So when you're in Manhattan, you could be either 2-on-2 or 6-4-6. And if you get a new phone number, you're going to be 6-4-6. But, you know, I've heard a lot of suggestions as to how to deal with this so these kinds of problems do not happen. And I think it's very logical that you use the 2-on-2 area code sparingly. You don't give it out to all these PBXs that just have out dials, you know. Now, let's say you're at, oh, what's a good company? Sony World Headquarters in Manhattan. I don't even know if Sony World Headquarters is in Manhattan. But they've got to have some kind of headquarters of some sort. And they make outgoing phone calls. Well, each one of those phones they use grabs an outgoing tie line or foreign exchange line or whatever. It's a phone number that if it shows up and you call their ID and you call it back, it's just going to ring forever. Because it's not really a phone number. It's in the 2-on-2. Thousands and thousands of numbers are in the 2-on-2 area code that do that kind of thing. It's a waste, you know. People are willing to fight for the 2-on-2 area code. They, I don't know, they should use that kind of thing sparingly. I know it sounds silly to be talking about an area code like this. But for God's sake, people, 2-on-2, it's like, you know, it's the easiest one to dial. There are no easier ones. 3-on-2 isn't as easy. 2-on-3 isn't as easy. And 6-4-6 certainly isn't as easy. Okay, enough of that. We have a bunch of interesting things that have happened this week. I guess probably one of the most interesting things is a letter I got in the mail. Actually, I got this letter yesterday. And it scared the heck out of me. It really did. Because it came from the National Security Council. And as you recall, last week we did this thing about the pagers of the White House. So I get this letter from National Security Council, Washington, D.C., official business. That's all the return address is. That's the whole thing. So I open it up. And it's a letter. And the letter says, This is in response to your Freedom of Information Act request dated April 15, 1988. Concerning records pertaining to the National Emergency Telephone System and the 710 Area Code. As an organization in the executive office of the president that advises and assists the president, the National Security Council is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. However, the NSC accepts and processes requests from the public and releases information as appropriate on a discretionary basis. We have completed a search of our holdings, and we are unable to locate any records responsive to your requests. Sincerely, Rod Subers, Deputy Director of Access Management. And it took them over nine years to search their records and discover that they didn't have anything they could help me with. I mean, I'd forgotten about this. Nine years of searching. I mean, Reagan was in office when this happened. Reagan. Not even Bush. Bush came and went. I mean, you have to wonder. Just like, what kind of fairy tales are going on inside that place? Once there was an old lady who lived in a show Had so many children, she didn't know what to do Gave them some bros without any breath Bip them soundly and send them to bed Umty Dumpty sat on a wall Umty Dumpty at a great fall All the king horses and all the king's men Couldn't get our feet together again Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa And if that isn't enough for you, there are some new laws taking effect in this nation of ours. In Connecticut, for instance, it's now a crime to jump in a trash bin. Yeah, horrors of all horrors. It actually, they actually criminalized something that a lot of hackers do to get information. Dumpster diving, going through a company's trash to get trade secrets becomes illegal in Connecticut under trade secret protection laws. Victims of dumpster diving will be allowed to sue in state courts. Interesting. You jump into IBM's dumpsters and IBM takes you to court. It's garbage! For God's sake, they throw it out. Why are they throwing it out if they want to keep it? They've got to make up their minds. My garbage isn't protected by law. Can you imagine if you could sue the garbageman for taking your garbage? I mean, it's a trade secret, after all. It's pretty scary. Okay, and of course, we have the bill to outlaw radio as we know it. Here's something that we found on the internet, reprinted from the World Scanner Report of yesterday, September 29th. If Representative Billy Towson, the Republican of Louisiana, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection, and his asinine HR 2369 have anything to say about it, radio as we know it will become history. It's not the position of the World Scanner Report to run off too deep into politics, so I won't take valuable technical space here to print Towson's proposed bill in the House of Representatives. You can find it all over the internet and in the mainstream radio magazines like Popcom and Monitoring Times. Instead, you'll find my views as Relay to California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. You, dear readers, know, of course, they pretty much already have our guns and our automobiles. And I know a lot of people would disagree with certain aspects of this, but there are interesting parallels to be drawn. Now they want our radios. I have long contended that the three most vital ingredients of a free society are self-defense, transportation, and anybody? Barney? No. Barney? Communications. I guess you could put sharing in there somewhere, but self-defense, transportation, and communications. I think speech should be in there somewhere. But anyway, he says, forgive me for suggesting it, but if there ever was a time for hysteria and panic, this is it. So feel free to be hysterical and panicky out there. I mean, the America of we the people is on the brink. Please become informed in radio and electronic communications before lending your support, or even casual credibility to H.R. 2369. Radio signals know no boundaries. Some are dangerous and harmful to body and or brain. Radio waves cook your food. Even harmless radio waves can contain harmful or threatening communication. Like this one. The right of the public to protect itself and to detect jeopardy, danger, and potential harm seems constitutionally guaranteed. It is not a privilege that can be deprived. The people have the God-given right to use their eyes and ears to detect things visible and audible that pass through their property and bodies. Why is there a controversy over the people's right to detect radio waves that pass through their property and bodies? Radio waves are only a form of light waves. The two are fundamentally the same. And what's more, sound waves aren't all that much different. Radio, light, acoustical waves are energy. Privacy always has been and should continue to be the primary responsibility of the sender and receiver of communications. If you loudly speak of top-secret matters to your colleagues in a public restaurant, how do you know about that? Do you have a reasonable expectation to privacy? Are others required to plug their ears? Well, yeah. If it's a secret, they shouldn't be listening. If one were to disrobe on a city street, would they have any reasonable expectation of privacy? Hmm, would it be incumbent on others to shave their eyes or avert their gaze? Certainly, some would do so. Not all. And would those who didn't be criminals. When a radio signal is broadcast in the clear, regardless of audience and intended receiver, there cannot be any reasonable expectation of privacy. When we verbally speak to others and want privacy, we lower our voices to a whisper and or seek a secure place. When we undress for showers and bed, we do so in a private place. If we want privacy in radio communications, it is incumbent on us to implement encryption or other secure measures. I like this guy to office. I mean, this is it. Yes, exactly. It is not incumbent on watchers to avert their eyes to public sites, nor listeners to close their ears to audible sounds. So why is it incumbent on the public to not operate a radio receiver just because some people choose to use it for their means of private communications? Why does the government feel obliged to legislate this illusion of privacy? Please note that the cellular telephone industry first created the illusion of privacy and then convinced the government to sanction it regarding the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 and then the Telephone Dispute and Disclosure Act of 1994. My dear senators, I hope you can sense the preposterous nature of these acts and those now about to follow in their wake. Please exert your opposition to H.R. 2369 and anything resembling it. I am adamantly opposed to government imposition on harmless, passive activities that the people can do in their homes, automobiles, and other private domains that do not impinge on the rights of others. This includes radio monitoring. The issue crystallizes to a very simple framework. We, the people of the United States of America, do not have a reasonable expectation to privacy when we disrobe in public, shout in public areas, and communicate via radio waves. That was written by Bill Cheek, citizen of California State. And this was reprinted from the World Scanner Report of September 29, 1997. I don't think anything really puts it into words much better than that because that's how absurd these regulations are. And they extend to the internet. They extend all over the place. It's the same kind of cluelessness that legislators have that gets this kind of stuff talked about in the first place. All right, we have a couple of letters from around the world from people that listen to our show on real audio. And they listen to it on tape. Well, not really on tape, but they listen to it delayed because we put it up on the website, www.2600.com, and you are able to download it or listen to it live at that point. But tonight, we're on the internet live as we speak, so people all over the world are potentially able to hear us. So we'd like to hear from those people tonight. Those of you in New York, yeah, we'd like to hear from you too, especially if you have something to say about the 212-646 crisis, because it is a crisis. I'm not going to use 718. I refuse to dial it. I won't dial it. Simple as that. And that's not meant to be in front of those people in 718. I mean, you know, if you're just 718 people, that's all there is to it. I don't mean that in a bad way either. It's just different, okay? No, it's... Oh, boy, I'm going to get in trouble for this. All right, let's read these letters. It's not like a 201 or something like that, you know? I was listening to the Off the Hook show for the 9th of September. You were talking about cellular that can be rented by the day, etc. I don't know if you've gotten any more information on this, but we have had this in St. Louis for over two years now, and Ameritech calls it pick-up-and-go cellular. For $30, you get 60 minutes of time on a cellular carrier. You can either buy the old phones from them, usually costing around $30, or bring in your own. The airtime is 50 cents per minute, and is also subject to the same roaming charges and stuff like that. The airtime is deducted from the balance of the card. The phone number is created in the pick-up-and-go pool of numbers, and the card number that you purchase is linked to the number of the phone or the ESN after you purchase the card. After purchase, you call a special number with the phone you have, and then enter the number off of the back of the card. Then you scratch off a special silver patch like a lottery card that contains an authentication number. This adds the balance into the computer. The card then becomes invalid. Fascinating. New ways of communicating. Phone cards, temporary cellular phones. You know, I saw an advertisement for Sprint PCS, and they were offering all these great rates. I mean, it looked like they were great rates anyway. You know, the large number of minutes for a certain amount of dollars per month, and all kinds of other things that looked like they were better than OmniPoint. So I decided to call them to find out, hey, what's up with these rates? It's, you know, how much does it cost after you use a certain amount of time? Now, here's the interesting thing. I called them. I just called their 800 number like it was listed in the full-page ad in New York Times last week. And, you know, I was put on hold for a few seconds, like I expect to be. Not like the OmniPoint 45 minutes. No, this was a few seconds. And as the phone rang, someone picked up, I heard them finishing talking to somebody on the, you know, I guess who was sitting next to them. And I expected them to, like, you know, finish their paragraph or whatever and then start talking to me. Except, it never happened. They continued to keep talking to the person next to me. Apparently, they had no idea whatsoever that they were talking to a customer. So they just continued this long conversation. And, um, I managed to grab a little bit of it. I figured, you know, when you call up these people, they give you a little recording that says this phone call may be recorded for customer quality or something like that. And it works both ways, folks. Yeah. Phone calls may be recorded for customer quality. What I did was I, um, I called up my OmniPoint phone. Enter your password. Okay, I'm going to enter my password. I put this on my OmniPoint voicemail. I'm going to try and, uh, see if it actually works. It should be one new message. You have more than ten messages. One is new. And more than ten are saved. To listen to your messages, press one. Okay, the one new message is the one that, uh, that this is. Four, forty-six, P.M., telephone number. Five, six, seven, eight. Note how it gives the phone number. Even if you don't want it to give the phone number. Four, two, six, seven, eight. It'll do that no matter what. Here we go. Yeah, uh, yeah. And I think, well, you know, I really should... She's a Sprint PCS representative. She's developing the attitude of, you know, I'll do what I can and let the rest go. And mostly, you know, I'm kind of laid back, about everything, and I have that attitude. But for some reason, since I've been in here, I've caught myself kind of taking it home with me, and I've never allowed myself to do that. I don't do that. You know, I get home and I get to thinking, well, I could have done this or should have done that or should I do? And then I think, well, I need to trade departments if I'm doing this, you know. Once I hit that door. Yeah. I don't let it bother me. I really think the only way of surviving is, you know, it works okay if it doesn't. I try to, you know, my philosophy is you do the best you can. Yeah. Is that good? Yeah. I know. I have to get to that point. I think part of my frustration, though, has been that we got such a little training, and what we got was so scattered, you know. We never saw the same instructor two days in a row. What were we doing? Fourteen. It was the stepchild of all stepchilds, I think. And I wasn't that great with computers when I came in and started the training. So I think that part of my frustration has been trying to learn all this, trying to make the feeling of pressure to make the sales, and then feeling the pressure to, you know, do the computer thing. You're the same, though, that I was in my camera. Really? I had very no care. Well, you know what I'm talking about, though. Yeah. Okay. Well, that went on for another 20 minutes or so. So I think they got trained a little too fast. I agree with her. It sounds like they definitely got rushed through it and thrown onto the sales floor. So the Omniport never did that. So if you call Sprint PCS, you may get a whole earful of someone's conversation before you actually get any help. Eventually, I called back, and I got somebody else who picked up the phone and started speaking to me at the same time. And they said their rates are something like 10 cents a minute after... 10 cents a minute around the clock. Now, to me, that does not sound right. If someone can verify that, if Sprint PCS offers 10 cents a minute around the clock after you use up however many minutes are on your plan, I'd sure like to know about it. But rather than run out and get their service and find out later that they didn't get trained enough to tell me the price, I'd just like someone to verify that. Okay, another letter. I have ADSL right now from Simpatico, a Saskatel-owned company. Is it Saskatel or Saskatel? Which is it? The one. Which one did I say first? Saskatel. Because it's spelled S-A-S-K-T-E-L. Should there be an A in there somewhere? Saskatchewan, actually. So, it should be. Anyway, he forgot to mention, referring to the network who was on a few weeks ago, he forgot to mention a couple of really cool points about ADSL. You get telephone service and the ADSL connection for $80 per month, Saskatoon and Regina, and this includes free usage of the ADSL, Ethernet 10-Base-T, or AUII modem, $2,000 to $6,000 bucks. Yeah, right. A little bit of sarcasm over the internet there. The installation uses your regular copper twisted pair coming into your home. That is very cool. This dummy mentioned, well, you know, folks, when you're calling up, you shouldn't refer to our guests as dummies, all right, because we're all sort of on the same side here. You know, so we've got to be sort of polite. So I'll say the gentleman mentioned that you cannot use the phone at the same time as ADSL, and he is dead wrong. He's incorrect, according to this listener, this internet listener. Yes, you can use the phone at the same time as you use data. Anyways, the dude was a big dummy, if you want some, well, you know, he just goes on about all that. Oh, boy. I'm sure we'll get some response to that as well. The speed I get is a theoretical 1.5 megabytes. Incoming, 500K outgoing. And I've had the connection since December 96, and it rocks. Well, we'll see. We'll see if we get it here. We'll see if certain people have to eat their hats. All right. Isaac is here. Isaac, how are you doing? Yeah, I'm here, and I'm fine. Now, you're the person in charge of putting up real audio recordings of the Beyond Hope conference, which took place in August. We recorded, as you know, the conference on video and audio. Actually, it's on the same tape. And I'm very slowly making my way through encoding all of the audio tracks from all the panels. There's only about seven left. All the, well, I wouldn't like to say more interesting ones, but the ones that were in high demand from people who contacted me, GSM, the Metricard panel, the Loft I recently uploaded, they're all on the site. You can actually find those at www.hope.net, right there in the front, where they should be. Yeah, I've got about seven more, so I'm very slowly making my way through those. Okay. It's long work. So the, I guess we'll put up about, what, a couple a week? About, yeah. Okay. Go to www.hope.net for that, and you'll see all the files there. And there's a link to that from the 2600 site as well. Okay. 212-279-3400 is our telephone number, and I guess we want to hear from people from all over the place, see who's out there, and see just what it is they have to say. Where should we go? We don't want to go to, we don't want to go to that line there because that one is, okay, let's try this one over here. Good evening. You're on the air. Hi, I'm calling from San Francisco. San Francisco. That's about as far away as you can get. Yep. At least in this country. See, I guess the net connection is working just fine. Yeah, it's working great. Actually, right now, I'm at the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 launch at Fort Mason in the city. Wow. And I'm sitting on a T1 line. Uh-huh. It seems to be working really good. Cool. Yeah, you know, a 28-8 connection should be enough to listen to the show. Yep. But a T1 certainly can't hurt. Right. Yeah. I wouldn't mind seeing a 56K or a 128 link. That'd be great. Uh-huh. So tell us what San Francisco is like this time of year and what's going on there. Right now, it's fog's coming in, kind of breezy, nice, cool. Yeah. It's not humid and hot like New York, sorry. Well, actually, it's not very humid and hot here either. Oh, really? It's rather chilly and cold. It's great. It was there two weeks ago and it was pretty nasty. Yeah. Well, that happens in the later part of the summer. But you know, right now it's dark here. I'll bet it's not dark there. Uh, no, not at all. It's very nice out. Very nice. It's still sunny. See, that's a three-hour time difference there. Yeah. Wow. So, you had no trouble whatsoever actually listening to the show? No trouble. Just waiting for the link to activate itself, popped it on, spawned the player and it's ready to go. Okay, great. Is there anything you want to say to our listeners? Uh, just what's up to New York from California. See you guys later. Okay. Thanks for calling. Take care. Not bad. Not bad. Not bad at all. Yeah. Although he sounded like he was coming through the internet too somehow. You know, maybe it's just a weird speakerphone or something like that. San Francisco. You know, I heard another radio station on the net. I'll say what station. I don't care. It's WFMU. They have a great website and you can listen to them all the time on the website. And they had a show on the other night where they were giving away concert tickets and the question was what is the area code for San Francisco? You know, nobody got it. Nobody could even open up the phone book or call information or what. Nobody. He kept pleading saying does anybody know the area code for San Francisco? Of course, we all know it's... not 2-1-2. Correct. Right. Very right. Good evening. You're on the air. Thanks. I was just wondering about the... with the conference that you're saying you're getting that for people. Did anyone ask for... Did anyone want to get the Steel This Radio? Was anyone requesting the Steel This Radio panel? Well, I know I was. I don't know if anybody else was but that's the one that we didn't record and if anybody out there has a recording of it please let us know. The Steel This Radio panel took place Saturday night and for various technical reasons we weren't able to record that one but if anyone has an audio recording it would be very helpful. I would like to know is there anyone I can contact after the show about setting that up because we have the transmitter and I want to get us on the web and I don't really know too much I don't know about how to do that and I want to know if I can do it with the computer that I have and the transmitter that we have. Well, obviously you need net access. What kind of net access do you have right now? I don't have any. I go to a cyber cafe. Isaac, what would they need? To actually broadcast real audio live? Yeah. Minimum, maybe a bonded ISDN. I really don't follow that kind of thing but you're going to need to be speedy enough to serve a couple of people. Yeah, I think you might want to start looking for people to donate access to you as far as that goes. What are you talking about? That's something we're actually looking into at BAI too. I'm sorry. We're looking into that at BAI too getting people with the bandwidth to donate some resources so that people from around the world can connect. I believe on a T1 you can still only get maybe two dozen people at once to actually be able to listen so it sounds great to be able to be all over the world and maybe if people only listen for a little while that works out but it's still not that much. I think once ADSL becomes commonplace the potential for getting a lot of listeners around the world will increase. It's definitely something to get involved in now. Okay, that's what we need. We need either an ISDN or a T1 that's what we need? I would say you'd need a T1 if you want to be sending out. Absolutely, because a lot of people are going to be connecting and if you want more than one or two people to be able to connect at the same time you're going to need a T1. And if you're archiving and not broadcasting it's different? Archiving is different because that's just a simple thing of downloading. You would record it convert it to real audio and then download whenever and however you wish. And again, bandwidth is a question of how long it's going to take to download the show but you can have theoretically a very limited site. It just would take longer. All right, thank you. All right, good luck. Thanks a lot. And Steal This Radio, yeah, that's the radio station down on the lower east side. They're at 88.7, yes. And boy, they have some really interesting things on the air, I've got to say. I wish the FCC would just back off and let us all program radio the way we want to. All right, 212-279-3400. That's not a seditious remark or anything, is it? No, no, not at all. I don't want to get indicted. All right, good evening. You're on the air. Hi, how are you doing? I was wondering if you guys knew anything about about eight like automatic teller machine networks. Well, these are people that have encrypted pretty much the sessions, so I know it's not the easiest thing in the world to compromise. Well, I mean, just as far as I was curious from a user point of view, there are these fleet ATMs in the Port Authority that I use all the time. Okay. And so I walk past them all the time coming into the city from Jersey, and I realized the other day for the first time, hey, you know, I can probably make my deposits here. So I walk into the booth, and I notice that there are deposit slips, deposit envelopes, and a little sign that says, you know, deposits received after 3 a.m. will be posted the next business day. Okay. And I go to make my deposit, and there are these touch screens. Right. So the buttons are all software dependent, and there's no deposit button. So I went to another one of the machines, and finally I realized they hadn't installed the version of the software they had loaded onto these machines did not have any deposit button for you to hit. Was there a deposit chute for you to put deposits in? Oh, yes. Because once I came across a machine that didn't have, it was the exact opposite, they didn't have the deposit chute, but they did have deposit on the menu. So if you select a deposit, it would try to open a chute it didn't have, and it would totally hang. Well, this one, it had a chute, but it didn't have the button. So I called Fleet, and I told them about that, and I figured, and they said, okay, you know, we'll take care of it. I was dialing some 800 number, and I figured they would never, ever, you know, be responsive enough. Next time I went to the city, which is a few days later, it was all taken care of, and I was wondering if there are quite a number of them in the Port Authority. I was wondering if that's something that they could do a network district, like if they could just upload over some kind of a software network, a new version of the software, or if it's something that has to go manually around from machine to machine. I'm sure they have a way of contacting their machines, because you see them occasionally going down for some sort of maintenance, and there's nobody there doing any maintenance, so obviously they can receive messages from remote areas, which I assume are on a closed network. I sure hope they are, anyway. Okay. The fiber's not around this week? No, he's not. Okay. I kind of wanted to run this by him just because he seems to have this uncanny way of knowing a little bit about everything. Yeah. Well, we'll ask him next time he's in. Okay, great. Thanks a lot. Take care. And speaking of that, a programming note, we're not going to be on next week, and we're not going to be on the week after that either, and we're not going to be on even the week after that, because there's all kinds of special programs coming up on the fundraiser that's taking place this October. So our next show will not be until, I think, October 24th. Mercy. So it's going to be a whole different world by the time people come back here. Speaking of different worlds, I don't know how many of you have seen it, but the payphones are changing. You know, the Bell Atlantic, the Bell Atlantic payphones, they're putting those little signs, but I guess they're taking down the 9X signs, and they're replacing them with little Bell Atlantic ones. I don't think they're that attractive, because you could see 9X, or if they happen to say Beyond Hope, you could see that from across the street, but Bell Atlantic, you can't see unless you're standing right next to it, because most of it is like a logo of some sort, and the actual letters are very tiny. But they're definitely changing, and I think they're doing it very slowly. A lot of phones are half Bell Atlantic, half 9X. I think that's to get it into our thick skulls that it's the same company, and hopefully we'll accept it. But the phone bills, the phone bills have been laser printed to say Bell Atlantic now instead of 9X, and the envelopes still say 9X, but I imagine after a while, after a while, they're going to, they stamped them saying Bell Atlantic is now 9X, so that you won't get too confused. It's all a lot of fun for everybody. All right, 212-279-3400. Anybody overseas? Anybody overseas listening? I mean, I realize it's probably, you know, people sleeping on the other side of the world, but if anybody is listening on real audio, I mean, I'm sure you know how to dial overseas. Usually you dial 00 to get overseas, and then the country code, which is 1, and then our phone number, 212-279-3400. And you'll probably get a busy signal, but just keep trying. Good evening. You're on the air. Hello. How you doing? I'm fine. Do you know anything about the 000 area code? The 000 area code? Yeah. Other than it doesn't exist? Why? Did you hear something about it? Because I got a call from Bell Atlantic, and then I did a call return or whatever, and I got 000, and then 7 digits right after it. Is that what showed up on, when you dialed Star 690, the announcement said that number? Yep. Did you try calling it? Nope. Okay. Well, it probably isn't going to go through, but that's similar to what Omnipoint does with new phones before they're activated. They show up as coming from area code 999. Both cases, those area codes do not exist, and the numbers being sent out are just, I guess, the best way to describe them are fake numbers. Oh, cool. I'd love to be able to figure out how to do that for individual people, not just AT&T and Omnipoint or Bell Atlantic. It was Bell Atlantic, you said? Yeah. Interesting. Now, who was it who called you? Is that the customer service department? Yeah. Okay, so everyone out there try to get a customer service department to call you and we can experiment and compare numbers. I'll bet the last seven digits, though, have some meaning within Bell Atlantic. Yeah, because it was like 0, 8, 3, 4, and 7, 5, something. Yeah, it's probably some sort of internal extension of some sort, but it's interesting. Definitely keep track of that kind of thing. We can use it to figure out how it works. All right, thanks. Thanks for calling. Yeah, just some of the experimentation that we're up to. Good evening, you're on the air. Yeah, hi. How you doing? All right. Yeah, I just wanted to comment on what the guy was saying about the 00 area codes. Okay. Well, it's more actually of the same type of thing that happened to me. It was actually a while ago, a few years ago. We were like, my whole family were out for like a vacation and we came back and we had like a ton of messages on the answering machine and a couple of them. they were like 45 minutes long and whatnot and just like people just talking about like different sorts of stuff sounded like, I don't know, like a lot of them would ask like if some guy got out of jail and like what that all sorts of weird stuff and like a lot of the calls were placed to like Russia and Australia and like the whole number would like begin with like a string of like seven zeros followed by like another three digits. Really? Yeah, and it was like a $300 bill. I mean, it got canceled, but... Do you remember what company it was? Billed by? Yeah. Just AT&T, I think. It was AT&T? I'm pretty sure it was. That's unusual. Yeah, and it was really odd. So the originating number, you're saying the originating number showed up as seven zeros and then... Something like that, like a lot of zeros, like more than three zeros it was. So were they... 0000, like 3011 or something like that. Right. Were these third number calls? They billed it to your number from a third number? I don't know. See, we were gone and I don't even know because they got recorded onto our answering machines. Uh-huh. That was like part of the proof that we had that, you know, that's why they dismissed the bill. Right. Because we might have made like maybe like five bucks worth of calls because we were like on vacation. Right. And we came back and we had these like messages. Well, you see, the phone companies, I got to tell you, the phone companies will try and get you to pay for these calls one way or another by saying that, you know, that you accepted a collect call or you agreed to have a third number bill put on your phone. Even if, I mean, I ran into this with a phone company once where they billed me for a collect call on a line that I don't have collect call allowed on. You know, you can block these things. It's a service. And not only that, but it was a data line and it was always in use. So even if I wanted to accept a collect call on this line that had collect call blocking, I wouldn't be able to do it. And when I told the company this, they said, well, sorry, but obviously you accepted the collect call because the computer says that you accepted the collect call. And it doesn't matter that you don't accept collect calls and that it's impossible to do this. We're going to bill you for this anyway. And I got to tell you, thank God for the local phone company because Bell Atlantic 9X, whatever you want to call them, they are very sympathetic to this kind of thing and they will take it off your bill and let you deal with them directly if you call the right people. Yeah. It was really odd, the fact that it actually got recorded onto our answering machine, which is like really messed up because, I mean, it was set for like four rings after which we were answering and it recorded both sides of the conversation. You know? So it was really, it was really like a weird conversation too because it's not... You're saying, wait, the answering machine recorded both sides of the conversation as well? it was really odd. I don't know, I never like encountered anything like this from anybody aside from the fact that we had those weird phone bills, we also had the whole conversation recorded on our answering machine. That's interesting. You've got something weird going on. There was like nobody in the house. Uh-huh. We were all the way, yeah. I actually can ask you another question. Yes, go ahead. I switched on your phone system, you know, like when you have to like, you dial like eight to four lines and you dial the number and then like access code. Okay. Do you know of any like maybe possible holes in that or aside from like brute forcing like codes? What kind of system is it? Do you know? No, I don't know. Does it require a special phone or? No, no, no. It's a regular phone line. You have to, you dial like eight and then you dial a phone number you want to dial and then it like gives you a little tone. How many digits is the code? The code, let's see, it's like eight digits. Eight digits? A digit code and then you can get an outside call. And you can use your code from any phone? You could call an 800 number and use that code, yeah. No, I'm saying you can go to somebody else's phone and use the same code. Yeah. You know, I'd say there probably is a hole in the system but probably the biggest hole is people's willingness to give out information. I'm sure some place on that campus is a printout of everybody's name, their social security number and their phone code right next to it and you just simply apply that or other things. Codes are very similar sometimes. You know, they're off by only a couple of digits. Like apparently it's like it jumps, like I mean we get registered pretty close again and like it jumps by like a few, like a lot of digits so it's not like it's sequential or anything. No, it wouldn't be sequential but sometimes they're, you know, like the first four digits maybe are used a lot which cuts it down quite a bit but something else you have to remember systems like this obviously record the number you call but they often record the number you call from as well and it's not, it's not, you know, it's not very hard for them to figure out where the calls are coming from or who's doing it. Right. So you just gotta be careful with that kind of stuff. Like I mean they do supply with an 800 number you can call so technically if you do have somebody else's code you could just call the 800 number from like a pay phone and just use their code to call out. I see. So yeah, I guess, yeah. What college is this? This is Rutgers. Rutgers, okay. Well I'm sure there's people out there that are listening now that go to Rutgers that can probably give us all kinds of information on the system and we'll let you know if we find out something. Yeah, I'm actually listening to Real Audio right now because the reception here isn't that great? Uh-huh. And so it's very cool. Great. Yeah, except there's a little too much bass. It's like it almost like shattered my speakers. Try turning your bass down. Oh I did, yeah, but I mean like you know as opposed to the irregular like recorded ones. Right. It's a little too much bass. Okay, those technicians over there handling this that's a comment from the listener too much bass. We'll try to turn down the bass. All right. All right, thanks for calling. Okay. I don't think I can turn down the bass. I mean, what am I going to do? I guess we we just shouldn't speak bassy. That's true. All right. 212-279-3400. So that technically was a call from out of the area. Rutgers I guess is sort of out of the area even though they really should be in the area. I don't know. It's that station from Delaware that keeps interfering with us. And San Francisco. So if you're calling from someplace outside the local area if you're listening on real audio tell us because you might you know go through an entire phone call and not realize that you know you're calling from Bombay or something and we just never mention that fact. It'd be kind of interesting. Good evening. You're on the air. Yes, Emmanuel. My finger slipped. My finger really slipped. My finger really slipped. No, we don't have time. Good evening. You're on the air. Hey, how you doing? I'm not from overseas. My name is John. I'm from Brooklyn. But I would like to talk about the 212 issue. About 10 years ago 718 which was Brooklyn used to be 212. And we gave in. We gave up. We didn't fight. We said nothing. We laid down and we allowed the phone company to change our area code of 212 to 718. That was something that I think people of this area would like to forget. But yeah it's certainly something that happened and I don't think we should ignore the fact that we gave in. Yeah, there's something about it being like an identifying factor. And I felt a split between me and Manhattan. I really did and the Bronx and the rest of all boroughs. Yeah, I mean look what's happening now. People on the east side are getting the proposal that they're going to be 7182 and they're saying I don't want to be associated with those people. No, it happened. We were together. We were a community and then 718 came along and it divided us by the East River. It did. Yeah. Well, it's something to think about. It's a damn shame. And I'm glad you're addressing that issue. Okay. Okay. Thank you for calling. Alrighty. Is it me or am I having trouble telling when people are being sarcastic or not? Look, it's a real problem. Okay? Okay? 718 is something that I don't know. Well, I like the idea if we can't have four digit area codes which I think was the best idea you know maybe it's not too late to fix that mistake. We could have kept 212 and just added a digit to it and had 10 of them. At least overlay area codes allow most of us to keep the 212 and just new people won't have 212. It doesn't seem fair either though. Good evening. You're on the air. Yes, speak up. It's you. Emmanuel. Yes, how you doing? Pretty good, man. How's it going on? Okay. Where are you calling from? West Virginia. West Virginia. Wow. Do you ever think you'll be syndicated? Well, in a sense we're syndicated now and we're sort of syndicating it on our own because Pacifica isn't really the kind of network that pops up in every city. I'm sure you don't have a Pacifica station out there in West Virginia. No, I don't think so. So we have to take technology by the horns and make it work somehow. Can I pull you off satellite anywhere? No. We haven't hijacked a satellite yet although that could very well happen. Right now this is the best way and we're hoping to do this every week although for the next three weeks we're going to be preempted but after that we should have it down where you can tune in every Tuesday at this time. Okay, because I was going to say if you all were local I could get you all here or an ISP down here and I could do the real audio for you. That wouldn't be a problem. Well, I know we're looking for things like that and if you check our website we're going to have announcements as to what we are doing. If we need something we'll ask about that too so we may very well need to do something like that. Okay, cool. Another thing I want to ask you about a while back you had written up where you supposedly could get ISCN you could get like a date over voice and you all didn't get did you ever get that? Are you talking about the thing with PSI? Yeah. Yeah, we after publicizing it on the web page and on the radio station they finally saw Reason and gave us our money back and that was the end of it. That's great because we've been doing it here for a while we've got ADSL here actually. You have ADSL? They're testing it I don't have it a friend of mine has got it but they're testing it here and I didn't know how to get in a beta program or anything but they opened it up and he got in and it's just like a network well I guess it's like a CSU-DSU is what it looks like and then you get a network card and he's running a Linux box and we get like 1.5 meg downloading but we don't get as much uploading it's like in the 500 or 400K. I think it's supposed to be around 640 but yeah that sounds about right. Now supposedly they're going to make it better after they initially install it they'll make it much faster but I mean look at what you have now it's still compare that to what you could get with ISDN yeah it's 128K it's a lot better yeah it's a lot better than that and it's using existing copper wire what kind of do you know what kind of prices they're talking about down there? no I haven't heard anything on prices I actually don't think he's paying anything right now probably because it's a test yeah but I mean I don't know if they're going to mass market it or if the test doesn't go good if they won't market it but it should I mean we're Hick State we have plenty of people what's your phone company? Bell Atlantic oh we're in the same phone company yeah how about that that's right they just took over you all not too long ago yeah they took us over they're putting their plates on our payphones James Earl Jones is everywhere when you had the I was listening to some shows on the web you had them archived for like ever and when you had on Cocots there's a company around here and it's a really odd name for them I'll have to find it and call you back whenever you get it back on but they do Cocots and theirs you can call and you can punch in pound one nine and you can hear what's going on around it and that's very interesting I wonder why they need a feature like that on Cocots they program all kinds of speed dialing in there pound one nine gave you what if you dial in you can hit pound one nine you can hear what was going on around the phone okay I see what you're saying you dial in and you hit pound one nine and it's like a room monitor type of thing yeah I wonder why they need a feature like that it's I mean why do you need a feature like that for your answering machine you know it's just something I guess they decided to put on there it depends on the brand of Cocot I guess but that was very interesting just someone to be able to call in and hit it and be able to hear who's around it yeah that is kind of neat the other thing I thought you were talking about this at first is the speed dialing that they have just try dialing pound and a few numbers on a Cocot and you get all kinds of shortcuts still have a number sometimes unrestricted yeah you get that too sometimes yeah that was an accident that happened at our school not too long ago we have all Cocots and someone was hitting pound something like 118 it was taking them to 911 wait did they write a letter to 2600 about that it was well there was one written a long time ago I don't know if it was there or not because this happened like three years ago we printed a letter I think either last issue or the one before that about something like that happening to somebody with a Cocot in a school it may have been it but yeah that's got into our school too now so all these kids are dialing 911 by accident getting in a lot of trouble they'll take it easy alright thanks for calling alright man see ya take care West Virginia Rutgers and San Francisco tonight not bad not too shabby let's see if anybody out of the country Canada Mexico Europe Asia Antarctica Africa good evening you're on the air yeah good evening how you doing guys pretty good how are you good I'm a first time listener I'm calling from Connecticut not that far away okay you're listening on the radio right yeah I listen on the radio and I just watching it over the web here too just want to see you guys doing a great job I mean I've been looking for something like this for a long time well you found it and we've been on the air for a long time too our first show was 1988 I think yeah I found your I first found your guys magazine in a magazine store called Barnes and Noble and I just started breezing through it and I found a lot of likings in there and I just have a quick question for you go ahead do you have anybody any backdoor access codes for Octel voice messaging systems well we usually give out the codes at the end of the night but I don't think we have anything like that on us right now if they exist though you'll hear about them perfect alright thanks for calling but seriously folks we don't give out codes in the air we don't give out codes in the magazine and we don't advise people be too liberal with codes just methodology is what we're about figuring out how to do it figuring out how the system works where the weaknesses are that kind of thing and then it's up to you to do whatever your values tell you to do alright good evening oops I guess I gotta hit the button first good evening you're on the air hi how you doing I'm doing pretty good how are you pretty good where are you calling from I'm calling from Columbus Ohio Columbus Ohio wow that's right yeah I was listening to you on the web it's the real heartland of America there that's right the vast cow town hey don't knock cows I mean we need cows that's right yeah I was listening to you on the web and of course I'd disconnect to call you I just want to let you know that hey it's working and it's almost as good it's just a little you know a little bit of a fuzz or anything but almost as good as your normal real audio shows and all that that are on there would you say we're too bassy what's that are we too bassy bassy too much bass do you think there's too much bass no there's just kind of like a hiss in the background I know what you call that but okay but anyways I like the show and I just wanted to call to say hi and I'm listening from Columbus okay well thanks for calling take care then alright so we've heard from Columbus West Virginia Columbus Ohio correct West Virginia San Francisco and Rutgers New Jersey maybe we shouldn't have Rutgers in there it just sounds out of place it's too close Columbus would have been interesting you know raise a man from the dead and have him call in that'd be cool yeah good evening you're on the air hey Emmanuel how you doing fine where are you calling from do you really want me to make your day um okay world Greece from Greece you're not calling from Greece why not I don't know you don't sound like you're calling from Greece somehow and uh okay alright wait wait wait you gotta prove it to me somehow alright what time is it there now ah right now it's excuse me 4am it's 4am 4am well it's actually 7 minutes to 4am right something like that okay we will be checking oh you have a computer that's gonna check that we're checking right now what is your country code please country code would be 031 31 we have we've brought in a Greek person alright and uh can you can you say something to this person put on those headphones and just say something say something in that language this is this is this is the lifetime alright say it again I'm flying I had an emergency back home okay wait go ahead speak okay okay he's calling from Patra I'm calling from Patra Greece are you in the university there yeah but I'm not exactly at the university let's just say I won't disclose that information you're not writing a call through Greece are you so where are you really I'm in Greece as far as you guys are concerned of course we're concerned yes but you're not really in Greece right now now are you well it's a big world okay no one's gonna find you okay all right you're a Greek person that knows how to route phone calls through Greece that's fine yeah actually there are about 20 people that own Greece so really ask Manos over there and the Anastas family is not one of them I take it all right just like I had an emergency back home and I had a flight there and I knew you guys were gonna connect this because I was talking to Porkchop and I started connecting and I'll be I'll set a world record for the hook well okay that'd be great but you gotta be actually sitting overseas listening to the show on a computer for it to be an official world record yeah I'm listening talking to I'm listening I'm taking the seat on a computer yes but you're not overseas listening to it on computer are you well no I think the hesitation in your voice tells me that you are not but it's it's a start it's a start we got a phone call from Greece you are the social engineer we got a phone call from Greece and I'm sure we'll be getting a phone call from AT&T later on asking a phone call from Greece but thank you very much for calling in and sharing that with us let's see if we can squeeze in one more phone call good evening you're on the air speak up you're on the air yes you I'm calling from Knoxville Tennessee Nashville Tennessee Knoxville Knoxville Tennessee yeah you must get a lot of confusion there with Nashville sorry about that yeah well it's okay Knoxville Tennessee wow just wanted to say I really love your show that's cool signals coming in okay or the real audio is coming in okay yeah it's coming in over the 288 it's a few seconds behind here are you listening to it right now yes can you hold the phone up so I can say something and see how long the delay is okay sure okay testing one two three four are you listening to it right now wow that's delayed can you hold the phone up so I can say something and see how long the delay is okay sure okay that's a long delay you get it yeah wow that's more delay than we usually are oh wow that is something well listen thanks very much for calling up and hopefully we'll be on again every week although not for the next three weeks yeah no I can't wait tonight this live show over the internet seems to have reached all over the place but maybe not Greece I don't know we'll find out about that again we won't be around next week the week after or the week after that but we will be back on October 24th and hopefully we'll be here for a while then and we expect to be on the net every week from that point on so I guess connect to that same old website when you find yourself on online next Tuesday the next Tuesday that comes around this is Emmanuel Goldstein for everybody have yourselves good night we'll talk to you later 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 but the best expect the worst I hope that's understood from Bigly move move I'm the only I'd move to the Herr 'll let's see 50 years since the Central Intelligence Agency was set.