For Free Speech Radio News, this is Maiba Liebenthal.
The French government agreed to introduce the legal right to a home for all today.
The plan, which is likely to sail through both houses of parliament before April's presidential
election, is a response to homeless campaigns which have embarrassed politicians into action,
Professor Anne Stoney Cross reports from Paris.
And it's 7.01, time on WBAI New York for another edition of Off the Hook.
The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a cough.
We couldn't get much worse, but if they could, they would.
Bon Diddley Bon for the best, expect the worst.
I hope that's understood.
Bon Diddley Bon!
Bon Diddley Bon!
And a good evening to everybody.
The program is Off the Hook.
Emmanuel Goldstein here with you on this Wednesday evening.
Special edition of the program.
We have the first of our two fundraising shows.
We won't be on again next week, but we will be on two weeks with our final fundraising
edition.
So hopefully we'll do well.
The station will remain where it is, and more editions of Off the Hook can come your way
in weeks to come.
Joining me tonight over there is Jim.
Nord to you all.
And Redbird.
Good evening.
Mike.
Hi.
And over here is NotKevin.
Hello.
Bernie S. joining us from Philadelphia.
Greetings from Philadelphia.
And we have a couple of special guests tonight.
We have Phil from Make Magazine.
Hey.
How you doing?
Great.
And on the phone with us from California is Mitch Altman, inventor of the TV-B-Gone.
Howdy.
Which I guess is sort of a hint as to one of the things we'll be offering tonight for
those of you who are kind enough to call us and pledge.
So you can save time and call right away, 212-209-2950.
This is the first show in the winter fundraiser, and we do have to have the winter fundraiser
every year.
There's no getting around it.
And the fact that we haven't had much of a winter this year doesn't get us out of it.
We still have to go right ahead and do that.
So 212-209-2950 is our phone number.
A pledge of $50 will get you a TV-B-Gone.
But we'll get into more details as to all the cool things that we have for you guys.
If you call now, it's your best opportunity to confuse the pledge volunteer if you're
into that.
Why would they be more confused now?
Well, they haven't had a time to look over our wonderful premiums list.
What were they doing all the time before?
They'll have to explain it to you because you won't have heard it on the air yet.
They should come in hours beforehand and look it over and get acquainted with it.
But hopefully they're catching up.
I think they're catching up.
People should call in and test them.
212-209-2950.
Let's not cause too much animosity between on air and down the hall.
Okay, we have a couple of interesting stories.
First of all, this is kind of lead-breaking news because it's just happened.
A new feature has been added to the 2600 website.
We now have actually to the HOPE website.
We now have something known as the HOPE forums available for people to speak
about various HOPE-related issues, whether it's memories of conferences past
or plans for the future conferences, as well as any chance that we might have
to keep our hotel from being torn down and replaced with an office tower,
which is what has been announced as the plan for the Hotel Pennsylvania.
Not very good news for us since that's been our home for the HOPE conferences
for five out of the six conferences that have taken place since 1994.
Go to talk.hope.net.
Talk.hope.net will bring you to a forum much like all the other forums you see
online, except this one will have all kinds of discussion concerning
the HOPE conferences, 2600, maybe even off the hook.
It's interesting because right away, we put this up maybe about an hour ago,
and already it's being flooded with posts and new people registering.
It's really kind of cool seeing it grow like this.
We have a section on there for upcoming events,
upcoming non-HOPE events, events in addition to HOPE.
One of the things that we asked initially was about the chaos camp
that's taking place this summer.
Every four years in Germany, there's a hacker camp outdoors,
and this summer is the Germans' turn.
Every four years alternating with this, it happens in Holland,
and of course the other years are HOPE conferences.
We almost immediately got a response back from somebody over in Germany
saying that the dates that they're aiming to have the CCC camp
are August 8th through August 12th.
So those of you planning on going to Germany for the camp,
mark that down in your calendar.
It's five days.
It's five days.
Well, there's a lot to do.
There's a lot to do out there, and it's really great to build the place,
to build the village from scratch.
You go out there, there's a field, and then before you know it,
there's internet connectivity, electricity, tents,
buildings being constructed.
Phil, you've never gone to one of these things, have you?
No, no, I haven't.
You have to.
Okay.
You have to.
It's mandated.
I'll start booking the tickets right now.
Of course, I don't believe this is confirmed yet,
but they say in a week or two there'll be more information on this.
The CCC organization is still busy negotiating with the owners
of the preferred location.
It might happen a week earlier or it might happen a week later.
We're also told that there's going to be a hacker camp in Croatia in May,
and there's a website about that at www.yaxwe.org.
www.yaxwe.org.
I'm not going to try and pronounce whatever that says,
but a hacker camp in Croatia.
Within an hour, we've learned of two events taking place this year,
which is pretty cool.
Actually, another event, someone else posted about this.
For the third year in a row, the folks from North Carolina 2600
will be putting on CarolinaCon.
It will take place on April 20th and 21st in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Their website, carolinacon.org.
Lots of places to go to.
Yeah, it's cool.
Now, there's a place where you can share information
and learn all sorts of things.
But one of the really important sections of this forum site
is the one where we hope to share ideas about how to save the hotel.
Basically, plans were announced about a week and a half ago
to demolish the hotel and replace it with a big, shiny, new
2.5 million square foot office tower with five trading floors.
And while I question the need for such a thing right now,
I think the real reason is so that the executives don't have to
ride the subway down to Wall Street and see the likes of us down here.
The hotel is something that's been around since 1919,
always crowded, always full, and always full of interesting people
like hackers and various other folks running conventions.
So we hope to see it still around.
They tell us it's probably going to be there for 2008 at the very least,
but we'd like it to be there a lot longer.
On talk.hope.net, you can share ideas, get information,
and maybe figure out a way that we can stop this thing.
So pretty cool.
Pretty cool, as I can see by the stunned looks of people around me.
Okay. Other news. Other news going on.
Finally, finally, finally, this is happening after many years of delay.
The MTA, Metropolitan Transportation Authority,
has started to install new high-tech information screens
on the L line.
This is sort of similar to the new high-tech information screens
that have been on the London Underground for about 50 years now.
The digital system not only shows riders
when the next two trains are going to arrive,
it also tells them with a state-of-the-art public address system.
I don't know what's state-of-the-art about making an audio announcement,
but apparently they figured that out too.
MTA officials say the new audio system means no more garbled messages.
We'll see about that.
What a shame.
Right now, the MTA can still make the garbled messages.
They still have the old system.
The MTA is just testing the system,
so the information they put up there is wrong.
They have fake trains.
It's really kind of funny.
If everything goes well, they say the system will be
fully operational within the next few weeks.
And after that, get this,
it will start to expand to the numbered lines,
in other words, the old IRT.
And according to another article I read on this,
they seem to be saying that it's going to spread
to all of the numbered lines by the end of 2007.
How is that possible?
They were shutting down the L train every single weekend
for years to install this.
Is that why it was shut down?
No.
That's not why?
No, they were installing the no-person signal system.
That's why?
You mean they've been inconveniencing people now
for many, many weeks so that they can fire somebody?
Well, the idea was that the L train would become automated
and you needed a separate signal and control system
as opposed to just a signal system.
Because obviously, if you're signaling
and there's no one there to interpret the signal,
you have a problem.
So it had to be a control system as well.
So that's what they were installing.
I thought it was a service improvement.
Instead, they're doing this,
they're inconveniencing everybody
just to save themselves money and have less employees.
Right, and even more so,
there's going to be plenty of legal action
that will essentially prevent them from doing that.
So will they have to shut it down again
to uninstall all this stuff that they've...
No, you just ignore it.
It gives the signal, but like I said,
if you look at it,
you have to have a control system in place as well.
I think it's called CBTA or something like that,
the new system.
I've heard mention of it.
Something like that.
Okay, well, that's good news then.
That means maybe those signs will show up in other places
because, believe me, they'll be very popular.
When you can look at a sign and say,
yeah, the express train will be here in four minutes
and the other train, the local train,
will be here in six minutes,
you'll be able to make a decision then.
Just like in Europe has been doing for, what, decades?
Yeah, decades, decades, definitely.
Well, you know, we have to make sure.
We have to be sure that it works
before we actually do it ourselves.
I was in Washington, D.C. this weekend,
which is not, in other words,
in other ways, a very advanced city.
And, you know, they have this thing.
And I do have to say,
it didn't make my life that much better.
But, you know,
they don't have as many trains down there either.
It's very simple.
It's a simple system.
There's either a train or there isn't.
There's not an express.
There's not a two.
There's not a three.
You know, it's one line per track, right?
They have in Washington.
Yeah, I mean,
it's not very exciting on the L line either.
But it will be exciting on the Lexington Avenue line.
Mark my words.
Oh, well.
They've been marked.
Yeah.
Now, here's another invention for The Times.
Congressman Anthony Weiner has called
on transit officials to install new garbage cans
that have been approved
by the Department of Homeland Security.
He wants to install those in the subway.
Basically, these are bomb-proof receptacles.
And they've invited anybody to test them out
to make sure they are, in fact,
impervious to various explosives.
Apparently, how it works,
they're intended to absorb the blast of a bomb,
potentially saving the lives of people nearby.
I'm not really exactly sure how they do this.
I think they send the bomb material up instead of out.
Explosives chemistry was the thing I loved back in college.
And a bomb-proof thing,
a bomb-proof garbage receptacle is not really bomb-proof.
What it is, is it directs, as you say,
it directs the force of the bomb upwards, generally,
towards the ceiling,
rather than out using the garbage can as shrapnel.
So it's relatively easy to build.
You can do it fairly well, pretty easily.
But of course, if you're leaning over the garbage can
as the bomb goes off, you have a problem.
That's true.
And another more interesting problem
is that subways are open-cut.
And in some cases, there are actually power lines
and other things above the tracks
and above where the garbage cans could be.
So you have to place these carefully
so you don't cut through things up above.
Mm-hmm.
Interesting.
Can't the bombers just not put their bombs in the garbage?
That's the other thing.
Oh, you're suggesting that bombers
place the bombs maybe on the subway platform.
Or wear them.
Anywhere.
Or wear them.
Ooh.
That would be original.
OK.
Yeah.
They could put them on the track.
Then since the people can't go on the track,
they won't be able to get them out.
So bombers are not restricted to trash cans.
So maybe this is a whole big waste of time
taking all the trash cans away and replacing them
with these big expensive things that are...
Well, no, no, no.
But the point is,
you start loading up your trash can
with various bombs that are all timed to go off together.
Why does this show always turn into Tips for Terrorists?
It seems we always go down that road.
What I noticed about some of the garbage cans
now in the Hoboken Pass station at Jersey
is they're just kind of the frame.
It's sort of like the opposite of what you're describing here,
where you can actually see the bag,
and it's a transparent bag.
So potentially you could see the explosive
before it goes off.
Ah, amazing.
Which is just as silly as any of the other solutions.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, speaking of crazy things going on,
I think we all heard about the story
of a poor guy out in California
being set on fire by his cell phone.
That's right.
A cell phone apparently ignited in a man's pocket
and started a fire that burned his hotel room
and caused severe burns over half his body.
You think this is funny?
You think it's funny to have a cell phone
light up in your pocket and burn you?
Well, unbelievable.
The 59-year-old man was in stable condition Monday,
with second- and third-degree burns
to his upper body, back, right arm, and right leg.
Firefighters arrived at the residential hotel
Saturday night to find him lying on the bathroom floor
after a malfunctioning cell phone in his pants pocket
set fire to his nylon and polyester clothes.
The flames then...
I fail to see the humor in this.
The flames spread to a plastic chair.
Setting off a sprinkler,
the sprinkler held the fire in check.
So the sprinkler came to the rescue.
Now, get this.
This is the thing that really annoys me.
Authorities...
Because this is so absurd and silly.
Authorities declined
to name the phone's manufacturer and model.
Why?
Is it a cop they're trying to protect or something?
It's a phone, for God's sake.
Shouldn't we know what phone did this?
What phone is responsible?
Yes, Bernie.
It's not necessarily the phone
or the phone manufacturer's fault
if this person was using a battery
that was made by a third-party company
that could have been defective.
That's true.
If the battery itself is exploding...
Name the battery, too, then.
They'll have their day in court.
They can defend themselves.
Typically, these lithium-ion batteries
can either be made by the manufacturer of the phone,
or if you want to buy an extra battery,
say, yours goes dead.
You should be careful
you're buying one of quality,
because batteries,
these lithium-ion batteries
can be pretty dangerous
if they're not manufactured properly
and the chemicals can leak into the other cell
and cause it to overheat and then explode.
And that could very well be what happened here.
That has happened in some of these other cases
where they've been exploding cell phones.
It's inferior-quality batteries.
Now, it could be a genuine battery
from the manufacturer that could have failed,
but cheaper the battery,
the more likely it may be an inferior product.
So just keep that in mind.
Okay, and something else is going on this week.
Rather interesting story.
Verizon has agreed to spin off its operation
in three New England states
and merge them with Fairpoint Communications
as the phone giant continues to sell assets
to lower its debt
as it focuses on the costly fiber upgrade
of its network.
Of course, if it gets rid of a lot of its network,
it won't have to upgrade it.
Now, this is interesting
because what this means is that
the phone company in New England,
which is Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts,
New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine,
will no longer be Verizon.
It'll be something else.
Is this something we should be happy about?
What do you think, Mike?
I don't really know.
Of course, Connecticut had SNET for a while.
Southern New England Telephone, yeah.
Maybe they still have.
I don't know.
That was an independent company,
and I think that got swallowed up
when GTE merged with...
Who'd they merge with?
Verizon.
Yeah, and I think it became Verizon.
Yeah, GTE and Bell Atlantic became Verizon.
Yeah, so it all became Verizon.
But, I mean, we're always complaining
about how everything's being consolidated,
how AT&T is now back.
Have you seen Colbert's explanation of that?
Explain.
He had a great segment on his show
The Comedy Central Show
where he explained the mergers
and had a great diagram.
It's on YouTube.
You should check it out.
Well, tell us about it.
Well, I can't explain it.
You gotta really watch it.
Well, then don't bring it up
if you can't explain it.
There are people here
who don't have net access.
Well, it's similar to the explanation
that we gave,
except, you know, very comical.
So check it out.
Anyway, so AT&T.
AT&T is basically back after...
Who'd they take over recently?
They took over...
Singular.
No, they took over...
No, they always owned Singular.
Actually, Singular sort of owned them.
It's very...
Well, SBC...
SBC, that was it.
...bought AT&T
and then took AT&T's name.
And now AT&T
is gonna take Singular's name.
Like, there's not gonna be
any more Singular,
which is what I thought
was gonna happen to start with.
When they merged,
people knew AT&T's name
more than they knew Singular's name.
It's very confusing.
It is.
But apparently,
AT&T is gonna be
this big, massive company now.
So here we have a situation
where Verizon is becoming smaller.
And another company
is raising its head on the horizon.
I don't know.
I hear there's opposition to this,
but I have to ask myself why.
Why is there opposition to this?
Bernie, any ideas?
Well, I know
some Verizon employees
are against this.
If you go to
stop-the-sale.org,
so stop-the-sale.org
separated by hyphens,
you can read about
why Verizon employees
are against this.
It's their union
and it's the Communications Workers
of America
that are against this
for reasons that
may or may not
have anything to do
with customer service.
But it's worth reading
their viewpoint anyway
because there's
some interesting
information there.
Okay.
Yet another development
in the exciting world
of telecommunications.
And here's something
that I found
that is rather weird.
We were talking
about voicemail a lot
over the last few weeks.
And I was looking
into Sprint PCS voicemail.
Bernie, let me ask you
a question
because you have Sprint.
And somebody told me
that with Sprint voicemail,
you're able to hold on
to your voicemail messages
indefinitely?
Well, not unless
you re-save them.
30 days is the default
amount of time
they will be saved.
If you ignore them
more than 30 days,
they will go
into the big bucket
which you cannot
retrieve them from.
But before 30 days
is up,
you can re-save them
if you have to go
through this
convoluted process
on your phone.
You hit a few buttons.
But you can save it.
Again, but you have
to keep doing that
every 30 days
or you're not
going to be able
to retrieve
your messages.
So you're not
going to be able
to keep doing that
every 30 days
if you want to keep it.
Unlike the email system
which will just
save them indefinitely.
Okay.
Somebody told me
they were able
to save them indefinitely.
So maybe there are
different features
for different people.
That's possible.
Oh, gee.
Yeah.
It wouldn't be
the first time.
But this is kind of
surprising what I found.
Do you know that
Sprint PCS voicemail
is a product
that can be found
on Amazon?
Yeah, it's true.
Product description.
This feature lets you
receive voice
messages when you
are unavailable
to receive calls.
Voicemail is included
with all plans.
Blah, blah, blah.
Sprint PCS voicemail
answers your calls
and takes messages
when you're not available.
Voicemail allows you
to retrieve
your messages
quickly and easily.
Gift wrapping
is not available
for this item.
This item can only
be shipped
within the United States
and there's one
customer review
based on this.
I swear it.
Oh, here it is.
What does the customer
review say?
Well, I don't know
if I printed that out
because I can't see it.
It's there
on Amazon.
I don't know why
it's there.
Phil, do you have
an idea, Phil?
No, but did you see
if there's any
used versions?
Because usually
with Amazon
you can always
get used versions.
That might be good.
That might be better.
You can listen
to some interesting
messages.
The review highly
recommends the company.
Sprint voicemail
works very well.
I've never had
a problem, etc., etc.
Yeah, except
what in God's name
is it doing there
on Amazon.com?
I'll tell you something.
Okay, we have
a couple of
interesting bits
of mail, too.
This actually
has to do with
we're talking
about MI5's
mailing alert
system,
which started
last week.
MI5 being
the spy agency
in England.
They will tell you.
They will send you
email if a terrorist
attack is likely,
is imminent,
or if the condition
changes.
Now, we talked
about the alert
level in England
last week,
and we said it was
severe, and we
incorrectly said
that severe
was the highest
possible threat
level.
There's one above
it.
Anybody care
to guess?
Critical.
Well, you already
knew.
Well.
Okay, good guess,
though.
Good guess.
Critical, yeah.
Severe means
an attack
is highly likely.
Critical means
an attack
is expected
imminently,
so I guess
there should
be definitely,
though.
There should be
no danger
to colorblind people.
Now, below
severe is
substantial,
an attack
is a strong
possibility.
I would just
stop there
at strong
possibility.
That's enough
to get me
scared.
I just have
to say that
if I were
in the United
Kingdom
and I was
told that the
level has
changed
from severe
to substantial,
I wouldn't
know if that
was more
likely than
possible, do we?
Green is not
really considered
unlikely.
It's just,
be alert still,
but everything
is okay for now
or something
like that.
What's the
difference between
possible but
unlikely and
not likely?
You just have
to get into
the heads
of the people
over there
to figure
that one out.
According to
Tim, who sent
us this list,
we have been
at severe
for several
weeks now.
We have
never
materialized
because of
this or
because it
wouldn't have
happened anyway
and this is
just added
paranoia and
fear.
It's important
to be afraid.
If you're
not feeling
afraid,
remember
to be
afraid.
Well,
if the
terrorists are
doing their
job,
we'll be
at green
or low
alert.
Michael writes
in,
thanks for
the show,
always great
to listen to.
You mentioned
the email
service from
the British
Intelligence
Service in
the last
show.
Have they
ever heard
of emails
being spoofed?
Of course,
no one
would ever
do this,
but what
if a
terrorist
sent out
an email
suggesting
that the
British
Intelligence
Service
was
doing
their
job?
I
don't know.
It's
really
kind of
bizarre.
Michael,
by the
way,
is a
Brit
living
in
Copenhagen
and he
says to
check out
crack.dk.
It's a
searchable
database
for
crack.dk.
How did
that
happen?
All
Danish
citizens
getting
listed
online,
crack.dk.
Is
that a
free
service?
I
imagine
so.
It
sounds
similar
to a
lot
of
the
background
searching
services
in
the
UK.
I
imagine
so.
It
sounds
similar
to a
lot
of
the
background
searching
services
in
the
UK.
I
imagine
so.
It
sounds
similar
to a
lot
of
the
background
searching
services
in
the
UK.
I
imagine
so.
It
sounds
similar
to a
lot
of
the
background
searching
services
in
the
UK.
I
imagine
so.
It
sounds
similar
to a
lot
of
the
background
searching
services
in
the
UK.
I
imagine
so.
It
sounds
similar
to a
lot
of
the
background
searching
services
in
the
UK.
I
imagine
so.
It
sounds
similar
to a
lot
of
the
background
searching
services
in
the
UK.
I
imagine
so.
It
sounds
similar
to a
lot
of
the
background
searching
services
in
the
UK.
I
imagine
so.
It
sounds
similar
to a
lot
of
the
UK.
I
imagine
so.
It
sounds
similar
to a
lot
of
the
UK.
I
imagine
so.
It
sounds
similar
to a
lot
of
the
UK.
I
imagine
so.
It
sounds
similar
to a
lot
of
the
UK.
I
imagine
so.
It
sounds
similar
to a
lot
of
the
UK.
I
imagine
so.
It
sounds
similar
to a
lot
of
the
UK.
It
sounds
similar
to a
lot
of
the
UK.
It
sounds
similar
to a
lot
of
the
UK.
It
sounds
similar
to a
lot
of
the
UK.
It
sounds
similar
to a
lot
of
the
UK.
because this is our first fundraiser show and we have a couple of special
guests with us as previously mentioned. First, Mitch, welcome. You're out there in
California, inventor of the TV-B-Gone. How has your device been
progressing over the years? Well, people still seem to want to turn TVs off and
I'm here to help them. Have you expanded maybe to other things like noisy kids or
loud cars, things like that? Well, there are a lot of requests for such things but
unfortunately they're not remotely controllable. Not yet, anyway. So tell us
about some of the the changes that have taken place. First of all, okay, this
device, basically it's... how big would you say this is? It's about the size of...
It's the size of the the device that you would be using to remotely control
your car. It's about the same. Okay, but yeah, so it's got a little keychain
thing attached to it anyway. You press the button and it cycles through all the
possible frequencies of TV sets and eventually it comes across the one
that tells that particular TV set to turn itself off. It's best state. Yeah, it is
its best state. It saves a lot of power, too. And it's a lot of fun in bars,
it's a lot of fun in department stores with a million... we have a TV set on here.
That's a video monitor. I was just gonna say, I don't see an
infrared. There's a TV set next to it, though, that we already did turn off.
It's already off. Yeah, and believe it or not, Kevin, you used a TV-B-Gone to do that,
right? Oh yes, I did. Saved yourself from walking all the way to the other side of
the room to turn it off. So yeah, we use this for legitimate purposes, as well as
illegitimate purposes, but is it really so illegitimate to turn off a blaring TV
set, like in a restaurant, when you don't want to hear Oprah in the
middle of the day? No, it's totally fair game. Unlike the book 1984, it's not
illegal to turn TVs off. And in fact, usually people don't even notice because
they tune it out because it's just noise, but when they do notice, they're thankful.
I find that people get so entranced when a TV is on, they just sort of stop what
they're doing and stare, and there's this vacant look on their faces. And they're
not the kind of people that normally would turn on a TV set and look at
the garbage that's there. But some people just are affected more by others
when they see a TV on. Like, for instance, if you're in a checkout line,
increasingly they're putting TV sets in checkout lines because you're a captive
audience. In fact, there's a company called Captive Audience that sells
marketing, sells advertising space or something like that. And yeah, it's for
those people. I like to think they're the ones that are rather weak and we need to
step in and help them and turn the thing off so they can snap back out of it and
get back to life. Yeah, I'm actually one of those people that's one of the
reasons why I invented TV Beyond. When a TV is on, I can't help but look at it and
be way distracted by it. And Captive Audience, that's such an insulting name,
really. I was at a gift show or gift fair in New York City at the Javits Center,
and they had these monitors all over the place advertising to everyone everywhere
you went. You couldn't look anywhere and not see one of these things. And when
they advertised for themselves, Captive Audience, that's when I knew I had to
turn every one of them off. Yeah, and we've had some fun, you and I, walking
through various retail markets. In fact, Nat Kevin was with us as well.
What was it, Circuit City, a Virgin Megastore? Best Buy. Best Buy, all of them.
Yeah. Movie theaters. Movie theaters. Yeah, I don't know why movie theaters have TV
sets. That doesn't even make sense. But they don't for long if we're in the
premises and simply hit the thing. You got to be sort of careful not to be seen.
It's easy not to be caught doing this if you don't hold it out and make it obvious, right?
Yeah, it's designed to be stealth. That's why it looks sort of Batman-like and just fits in
your pocket. And it's very easy to turn off TVs without people noticing. The movie theaters owned
by Sony are the best, and Sony has the most sensitive IR receivers on their TVs. You can
turn them off very, very easily. And also, if you look online, there's a bunch of people who
have posted modifications for their device, such as mounting the IR diode in your hat or
something like that, and also adding an amplifier and using sort of like a spotlight of an array of
infrared diodes to extend the range. So they can just walk around. They don't have to hold
anything because it's pretty much implanted on their skull. It's in their hat, yeah. Wow, that's
cool. Everywhere you look, the TV turns off. Kind of fun. And then the high-power one really
is a great feeling of control and power. Once you use one of those, or at least speaking for
myself, I've used one of those, and it's almost hard to go back to the regular one as good as
that is. And in the Chaos Computer Congress that I was at in Berlin a couple weeks ago, I had a
workshop in teaching people how to do that, and it was a lot of fun. Yeah, opens up a lot of eyes
and turns off a lot of TV sets. Anyway, we are offering Mitch's fabulous invention, the latest
version of it, the TV-B-Gone. Turn off any TV set in your area and people will not know who did it.
By calling 212-209-2950 and pledging $50, you can get one of a limited number of TV-B-Gones that
we're offering tonight. All callers also who pledge $25 and above will get an off-the-hook
t-shirt. So if you call and pledge $50, not only will you get the TV-B-Gone, but you'll also get
the off-the-hook t-shirt. 212-209-2950, that is our phone number. And again, we have a limited
number of these things, so it's best that you call quickly and avoid the rush. Although the rush,
I believe, is starting right now. I think we've all played with this in this room. It's kind of
hard not to. It's kind of hard not to be drawn into it. Mitch, you must have some interesting
stories or adventures that people have gone through using TV-B-Gones. Yeah, I've been using
it longer than anyone since I was the first one to use the prototype. It's been a couple years.
You know, I really like turning off TVs in places where people don't go to watch television,
because I don't go to places where people are there to watch television since I don't like
television. So restaurants are one of the prime targets. I was in a restaurant with my family
and my brother's family, and of course they know I have a TV-B-Gone. They didn't even notice when
I turned off the huge screen TV in this otherwise nice restaurant, but the waitress did notice.
And that's the odd thing. The only people that seem to notice are the people that work at these
places, and they feel it's their obligation to turn it back on. So she did, and then people in
the room started noticing, and of course I turned it right back off. And when she came back,
she went to reach to turn it back on again, and before she reached it, I turned it on.
Oh my god.
Then she like jumps back a little bit noticeably, and then people in the room start to titter. And
just as she's like about to turn it, I turned it off again. So then everyone laughed.
And then the next day you're able to pick up the TV set because it's outside in the trash,
because they assume it's broken.
Yeah, actually someone who I met in Paris said that they went to their favorite pub that got
a brand new TV that really ruined the place. And he would turn it off every time he went in,
and that actually happened. And he asked the guy, what are you doing with this TV?
And he said, oh, it's broken. Will you mind if I take it?
I don't know if you remember this, but there's a big new huge Chase Bank building by Astor Place.
And we stood up next to the window. They had two TV sets telling you that it was the Chase
building in case somehow you missed that. And we were able to turn both of those sets off.
And we felt pretty good about that. A couple of weeks later, I came back and they had replaced
those two TV sets with two big LCD screens that could not be touched in that way. But I just
wondered, did they think those TV sets were broken and replaced them as a result?
I actually just went by that bank and they now have the TVs in a metal frame that cover up the
infrared port.
They're smart. They must listen to us.
Well, at the Chaos Computer Congress, there were a lot of TV guns to be had there.
And there's a huge store there called Saturn across the street from where the Congress was held.
And they ended up putting tape over all of their TVs.
Wow. Well, I guess that's what you have to do in order to keep this going.
I used it at a restaurant that had a bar and the bar had a TV set.
And somebody was talking to somebody else.
They're telling a really good story.
But then someone said, hey, look at that.
Like somebody had thrown a ball into a basket or something.
And everybody was wow.
So the guy just like turns to the TV set and doesn't turn his head back, like move it as an
inch in the middle of a story, you know, and he's frozen there.
So I just, you know, surreptitiously hit the button.
And a couple of seconds later, the thing goes out and he keeps staring for about two more
seconds. And then he turns to the right and continues his story without even like any kind of
other other reaction.
And no one else seemed to care that the TV set was now off.
It was like they were they were freed from their trance.
It was it was a really good feeling.
I felt like I did good that day.
You gave everyone several minutes of their life back.
And the thing is, I was there for about an hour.
Nobody even tried to turn the TV set back on.
And there were a couple of instances, too, where they can't find the remote so they can't
turn it back on. But this one, I think they just didn't care.
OK, we had a whole flurry of calls.
We had over 10 calls at once there.
So I know a few of them probably didn't get answered.
We're down to about five now.
Two and two, two, zero, nine, two, nine, five.
Oh, again, we're offering the TV be gone for all pledges of fifty dollars and the twenty
six hundred T-shirts.
Actually, I'm sorry, the off the hook T-shirts for twenty five dollars.
And if you pledge for a TV be gone, you'll also get an off the hook T-shirt because
everything twenty five and above will get you that.
Now, in addition, we have with us Phil from Make Magazine.
And Phil, Make Magazine's a really cool publication.
We try. Yeah, you succeed.
You really do. Tell us something about its history, how long it's been around for.
Roughly two years now, almost to the date, and it's working out pretty well.
It turns out there's a lot of people who want to learn about building things and doing
electronics and all the hobbies and all the things you normally associate with the old
popular science magazines from the 50s and 60s and people who have a do it yourself
mentality. It's coming back and we can't we can't get these out quick enough.
And people are reacquiring skills like soldering or they're learning to do projects
with their kids or whatever.
And we're quarterly, you know, somewhere to twenty six hundred.
And, yeah, it's worked out.
It's worked out pretty well. I hear all kinds of rave reviews about Make, Hamfest and
various other places. I know, Bernie, you're a fan of this magazine, aren't you?
Absolutely. It just brings back the creative spirit that, like Phil mentioned, popular
mechanics, popular electronics is a good magazine that's now defunct many years.
And this is sort of a good combination of both.
It gets into both the elect the electronic stuff and mechanical stuff.
It's not just building circuit boards.
In fact, some of the projects Phil didn't necessarily even have a lot of electronics
involved, right? Oh, yeah.
I mean, you can build a cigar box guitar that's in our volume four.
So if you just want to take old junk and turn it into something, things like fixing your
car. We show you how to make a spud gun if you want to make a potato cannon.
You know, didn't didn't we?
Bernie, are we allowed to talk about this, Bernie?
What happened?
Well, OK, we were in a state.
Should we name the state?
Oh, yes. It was the state of Ohio.
OK. I was just a driver.
I don't think I did anything.
Yeah, we I had come into possession of one of these potato cannons or spud guns.
This thing is about the size of a bazooka.
Yeah. I don't know how we're able to walk around with that, but I guess Ohio, you can
do that.
I guess it's normal in Ohio to be walking around with a bazooka.
But anyway, I believe there was a police station or something on the other side of the
field from from the hotel where we were staying.
And a potato was launched into the air several hundred feet in that direction of the
police station.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. We fired at a police station, though.
I don't think.
I thought we fired into a vacant field or a lake or something.
Well, it was across the field.
But there was and then later there was the supposing day of the Dayton Hamvention from
the middle of the giant parking lot area where the flea market goes on.
I fired a large spud in the direction of the lake that was in the golf course.
It was maybe several hundred feet away.
And I pointed at the was with the Jeff Flash, as a matter of fact, I pointed at the
pond. I said, it's going right there.
And I shot this thing up and I couldn't have done that again if I tried.
But it landed right in the center of this pond, hundreds and hundreds of feet away.
And you can read about how to make one of these things in Make Magazine.
Remember what issue that was, Phil?
Yes, it's volume three.
It's a great article and there's just so many fun things you can build with regular
household materials that will just amuse you and your friends to no end.
So I highly recommend Make Magazine.
And I think we can get Make Magazine as a premium for pledging to that.
Yes, we have a couple of premium choices involving Make Magazine.
Let me tell you about the the really big one first for and we only have four of
these. So if you if you want to pledge for them, you got to call right away.
An entire Make Magazine box set.
Now, Phil, what's included in that in the box set?
You get volumes one through four and it comes in a collector's box.
It's a pretty big box. It's a pretty big box.
And that's the first year of Make.
So that's you know, it's girthy.
It's it's about the size of a phone book.
It's maybe, you know, each issue has almost 200 pages.
Wow. Not really any ads.
And it's a few.
And then color photographs, all how to's.
And these are the type of things you'll save for years and years and years.
These are we hope they stand the test of time.
And in addition to that, that this premium package includes an MP3 player kit.
Want to tell us something about that?
Right. This is a big deal.
So there's millions and millions of iPods out there.
You know, we all have one, probably.
I think it's standard issue.
But a lot of people are starting to think about their electronics and they want to
learn how they they work.
And like a lot of our grandparents, they built their own FM radios or AM radios.
And that's how you got, you know, you started learning things.
And then these people went on to be engineers.
And now we have all the wonderful things that we have now.
But we thought it'd be neat to do something like that with with an MP3 player.
So if you're ever if you want to learn how to build an MP3 player, just like you
can be just like Apple sort of and build your own MP3 player.
This is an open source hardware and software project.
So you get all the parts that you need.
The printed circuit board called a PCB.
And we have detailed step by step instructions.
And lots of people buy these and they put them in all sorts of enclosures from a
laser tag gun.
When you pull the trigger, it just skips to the next song.
People put it inside of a digital camera case or an old fashioned case.
So you can pretty much do anything you want with it.
And you learn about all the specific things that go into how an MP3 player works.
And when you're done, you have a music player.
So all of that, the Make Magazine box set and the MP3 open source player kit for a
pledge of two hundred and fifty dollars, you'll get that entire package.
And I got to say, the the actual value of of these items is pretty, pretty darn close
to that. And don't forget, you're contributing to the radio station.
That's a that's a real reason for your phone call.
So that is that is not a bad deal right there.
Two one two two zero nine two nine five.
Oh, if you have two hundred fifty dollars that you want to spend on something decent
and good and fun, that'll last a very long time.
What better way to do that and support your favorite community radio station?
Two one two two zero nine two nine five.
But like I said, we only have four of those.
So once they're gone, they're gone and they're not coming back.
You know, I'm just looking here at this MP3 player, which I guess has already been
put together in it. It looks like something you could use maybe to take over the
world. It says make open source flower power.
And there's all kinds of little doodads in it, chips and whatnot.
And I bet if it comes with an explanation of what they actually all are.
Yes, this is my contraption version.
And what I did was I used a laser cutter to cut out acrylic and the outside of it is
plastic. So it's it has a little protection.
And then the charger portion, the battery portion can also be used to charge
something via USB. So I can actually use my MP3 player to charge an iPod if I
really wanted to. In addition to being my own MP3 player, I can use it to charge my
cell phone, too. So it does a little bit of everything.
We've got one more item to one more pledge level for a pledge of seventy five
dollars. You can get also from make a USB charger and we'll tell us about the USB
charger. This is called the Minty Boost Kit.
And if every anyone out there who has a cell phone, an iPod or anything that you
charge via USB and that's pretty much everything now, this is a twenty dollar kit
and it's probably twice as good as the ones that you can buy in the store for twice
the price. You build it yourself and then you put it inside of an Altoids tin.
So when you're when you're done with your little Altoids and this is the small
Altoids tin, that's a little tiny tiny Altoids tin.
And you always bring this with you and you always have up to six hours of extra
playing a video playing on your iPod or, you know, 20 hours on another type of music
player or any type of portable power that you need.
This is a kit that you construct.
I see three calls on the line.
Two one two two zero nine two nine five.
Oh, but wait, we're not finished describing this yet.
There's more and there's more uses double A batteries and those are rechargeable.
So you're actually helping the environment by not just, you know, tossing discarded
batteries for some of these chargers like the nine volt battery chargers that you see
for iPods and other things.
You really don't charge nine volts that often.
And you're also losing a lot of the voltage.
It goes from nine volts to five volts.
This one is taking smaller capacity batteries and bringing them up to five volts.
Now, OK, for the seventy five dollar pledge, you get that USB charger.
And in addition to that, and in addition to the off the hook T-shirt, you get something
known as the maker's book.
Yes. What's that?
This book is a book that we put together the first year of make and it catalogs
around 100 people who are makers.
There are people who build interesting contraptions in their garage.
There's a guy who made an alarm clock that cooks bacon.
That's so that would wake him up.
There's a person who makes Nixie tube clocks.
There's a person who made a low cost baby warmer.
Unbelievable. Who a baby, a baby warmer in the in some countries babies.
Yeah. Well, in some countries, the mortality rate is, you know, babies die because they
don't have the right equipment.
So a doctor, she made a baby warmer from low cost materials like a light bulb with
basically a dimmer switch.
Wow. And it cut the mortality rate in half.
And so, you know, little things like that.
So we catalog all these things.
So it's a great coffee table book, beautifully illustrated.
And the photographs are fantastic.
And of course, you can go online and Google for maker's book if you wanted to see
this, but definitely one to have, especially if you know someone who you want to get
inspired about building things or engineering, or just you want to see a lot of, you
know, bizarre things that you never thought people made themselves.
And these aren't, you know, necessarily companies.
These are just regular people.
So 212-209-2950 is the phone number to call for a $75 pledge.
You'll get the USB charger, the maker's book, which sounds really pretty fascinating.
And the off the hook T-shirt, $75.
Again, limited number of those 212-209-2950 for a pledge of $250.
You'll get the entire Make Magazine box set along with the MP3 player kit, which is
guaranteed to make you a person to be looked at with interest by all sorts of people.
And it'll provide you with a valuable service, too.
Yes.
We only have, we might be out of them by now, but we had four.
So if they're still available, 212-209-2950 for a pledge of $250.
For a pledge of $50, you'll get the TV BeGone, the amazing device used to turn off television
sets.
And for all pledges, $25 and above off the hook T-shirts that tell the world that you
listen to the show about technology and hackers and all sorts of things like that.
212-209-2950.
And of course, with your pledge of any amount, you keep the radio station going.
That's the real goal.
That's what it's all about.
Because if you go around the dial, you'll hear a lot of garbage on the radio.
You'll hear a lot of music and a lot of the same repetitive crap.
And it's all paid for already.
They don't need to ask you for money because they've already taken it from you through
advertising, through adding costs to products and things like that.
We don't do that.
We don't have commercials here.
And that means we can do things like say, it's all a bunch of crap.
You know, we can talk about things honestly and not have to worry about sponsors.
The only sponsors we have to worry about are you, our listeners.
If we get you upset, then we have something to worry about.
212-209-2950.
That's the number to call.
Pledge whatever you can afford.
So we have a good number of calls on the line now.
So please keep them coming in.
Now here are some listeners that apparently we have pleased, who have called in.
And we want to thank them.
We want to thank Paula Jay and her family from Flemington, New Jersey.
Steven from Granby, Massachusetts.
Melissa from Brooklyn.
Mark from Bloomington, Indiana.
Karen from Mount Vernon, New York.
Tekia from Ocean Beach, New York.
Jerome from Passaic, New Jersey.
And Nora from Portchester, New York.
Okay.
And I have also this pile of people that don't want to be thanked on the air.
Why do you have the pile then?
I'm not exactly sure, but I'm going to thank them not by name.
Okay.
Those anonymous people out there.
We couldn't do it without you.
212-209-2950.
That's what I like to see.
Look at all the little red lights on the board there.
That's very nice.
We want to thank those people too.
And those people who are about to pick up their phone and dial 212-209-2950
because you make all the difference.
Again, we're not going to be on next week.
So if you want these particular items, you got to call now.
212-209-2950.
Pledge of $25 and above gets you the off the hook t-shirt.
Pledge of $50 TV be gone along with the aforementioned off the hook t-shirt.
$75 a USB charger and the maker's book from Make Magazine.
$75 pledge for that.
$250 to make magazine box set along with the MP3 player kit.
212-209-2950.
A lot of varied material that we have here.
I'm very impressed with what we we've come up with.
And the electronics that you can build, you know, that lasts a long time.
It's you learn from it.
It's something you're, it's not just something you're going to throw away.
Something you're going to take care of.
It's something you're going to learn a new skill.
Now it's, it's interesting because you have a whole community of people reading
Make Magazine and it seems to be growing by the issue.
Uh, has this community not existed before?
Well, it seems like you guys should've been around forever.
Well, the thing is, I think, uh, we didn't make this community.
It was already there.
Uh, it was just time and, uh, with the internet, with publishing, with
technology, all kind of, um, from wikis to just websites and blogs, uh, there
was just a great way for people to share information.
So, uh, you know, we didn't find the audience.
They kind of found us.
And, uh, I'd like to mention that, uh, that the makers, uh, around the country,
uh, including Philadelphia have, uh, have joined and, uh, hold regular meetings
or at least semi-regular meetings.
The, uh, the, the Make Philly group, uh, has, uh, had several
meetings here in Philadelphia.
And we've, uh, put some pretty good projects together and, uh, had, we
have little competitions at a lot of our meetings where we, we bring, uh, we
bring materials and we're given a task to, to build a, uh, like a, like a race
car from just household materials.
That's a model race car that will, that will beat all the other
contestants or something like that.
Something just fun competition.
You spend a couple of hours trying to outdo other makers and, uh, it's a lot
of fun, so, uh, there's probably a group in New York also, Phil.
Um, well, there will be.
So, um, yeah, we're going to try our best to have, uh, regular meetings
in, you know, all cities and we'll see.
Awesome.
Yeah.
Just don't have them on the first Friday of the night.
No, no, no.
First Friday of the month.
Right.
Then it would be a tough choice, but, uh, wow.
Yeah, that's, that's, I mean, that's great that, uh, the community is out
there and it apparently seems to be growing and it's, uh, it's, it's a
magazine, you know, magazines, uh, people were afraid they were dying off.
I certainly was.
And that seems like they're, uh, they're, they're being read.
New magazines are coming.
Yeah.
I think general magazines, people aren't so interested in, but very, um, specific
magazines about, uh, smaller topics, uh, while seemingly smaller topics like
people magazine, you might not read, but like a magazine that teaches you
something that might be more interesting.
Yeah.
The eclectic ones.
Yes.
That's what we're all about.
Two one two two zero nine two nine five.
Are we're coming into our closing minutes here.
Uh, and also I understand we have a couple of announcements.
Jim, you had something you want to tell people?
Yeah.
We've, uh, talked a number of times about the demonstrations of the new voting
systems, the, uh, touchscreens and the optical ballot, uh, devices and the last
demonstration and the public hearing are coming up next week.
Uh, the demonstration Monday, January 22nd at Medgar Evans college auditorium,
1650 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, between five and 9.
PM.
Usually they end early.
So get there between five and seven, if you want to hear any of it.
And the public hearing will be Tuesday, January 23rd at the board of elections.
That's at 42 Broadway.
That's between, uh, Bowling Green and Rector street stations.
I don't know what the exact cross street is, but you'll find it 42 Broadway,
sixth floor, New York, New York.
That's Tuesday, January 23rd at 4 PM going until every speaker is heard.
So go, uh, go to Medgar Evers college this coming Monday, take a look at the
voting machines that are proposed and then give the board of elections
a piece of your mind on Tuesday.
Okay.
And I believe, uh, Bernie, you also had some kind of announcement
to make down there in Philadelphia.
Yeah.
I wanted to mention real quick that tomorrow night in Philly, there's
a public forum on media ownership.
This is an opportunity where you can actually meet two commissioners
of the federal communications commission, two FCC commissioners,
uh, Michael cops, uh, good guy and Jonathan Aylestein.
And you can, uh, you can voice your concerns about media ownership or
anything else about, uh, media regulation, uh, directly to the FCC
here in Philadelphia, Temple university tomorrow night.
Um, if you want this at six o'clock, it's free to the public.
And, uh, if you're interested, you can go to media tank.
Dot org.
We'll call area code two, one, five, five, six, three, 1100.
This is a really good event.
There's a lot of good people.
And, uh, you can actually talk to an FCC commissioner, which
is a rare, rare opportunity.
I just handed another card.
I want to thank, uh, Brad from Windsor, Ontario for pledging.
And we should also of course, thank, uh, Phil and Mitch who donate the
premiums so that all of the money that, uh, you pledge when you call us
at 2 1 2 2 0 9 2 9 5 0 goes directly to the station to help keep off the hook
and all the other programs on the air.
So, uh, there's still a few minutes left to call and get these premiums.
Yeah.
Thanks very much guys for, for donating.
And, uh, Mitch, I'm sure we'll be hearing from you in the future
with, uh, the latest version of TV guns and other things you might be up to.
And, uh, Phil, and thank you for coming in and best of luck with, with, uh,
yeah, make magazine and, uh, keep doing what you're doing.
And one more time, the, uh, premium levels TV beguns for a pledge of $50.
Uh, of course, um, the, uh, off the hook t-shirts available for all
pledges, 25 and above, uh, USB charger and the maker's book for $75 and the
make magazine box set along with an MP3 player kit for pledges of $250.
If they're still available, 2 1 2 2 0 9 2 9 5 0.
Please keep those calls coming in.
We won't be here next week.
We'll be here in two weeks.
See you then.
Oh, and don't forget to check out talk.
Hope.net or brand new forum.
Good night.
Get away, get away, get away, get away, get away, get away, get away, get away.
I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I.
Yes, yes, yes.
What do we have here?
What do we have here?
And you're listening to WBAI New York, 99.5 FM.