Workers of the world unite May 1st May Day 2 to 6 p.m. with Mimi Rosenberg and
Ken Nash we build bridges
hi I'm Rosie Perez and this is WBA I listener supported non-commercial radio
in New York and you are listening to WBA I New York it's seven o'clock and time
for the very last edition of off the hook stop stop stop stop stop stop the
very last edition of off the hook from Harlem
phone keeps ringing so I ripped it off the wall cut myself while shaving now I
can't make a call
much worse but if they could they would for the best expect the worst I hope that's understood
I'm sorry folks we have we have here at these modern studios which we are now
going to be leaving it's actually a lot of people don't know this it's voice
activated so that when I'm on at seven o'clock on a Wednesday evening and I say
off the hook that's triggers the theme to play so I forgot about that when I
said off the hook it just started it that's not gonna happen again but yes
this is our last show from the Harlem studios next week we move we have no
idea where we're going now we do we actually do know where we're going it's
very exciting but let me introduce people first we're also joined tonight
by Mike hi Rob T Firefly good evening Kyle present and Bernie s greetings
from Philadelphia well we're not going to Philadelphia next week but we are
going to be going I'm told Brooklyn to our new building in Brooklyn it's very
exciting and it's going to be kind of rough too because we're still as we
speak we are hammering nails and and and running wire and things like that it's a
work in progress but it is going to be a work and it will be progressing and it's
going to be fun and different and part of history this place though I'm going
to miss this place I'm gonna miss the studios here at WHCR these folks are
outstanding as far as their hospitality they've put up with us for how long have
we been here it seems like forever we're we're the the person that crashes on the
couch just for a couple of nights and stays for like a year it's been over a
year we stayed over a year anyway WHCR is our Harlem Community Radio they're
here at the at City College in New York and they run a great radio station too
there's another radio station happening right here you might want to after our
show you might want to tune in 90.3 in Manhattan or just go to WHCR.org
amazing people doing amazing work at a different radio station and that's the
magic of radio is that there are so many different outlets out there and and this
station really has been very gracious to us and I'm gonna miss this place I'm
gonna miss this college too because whenever we come here is just it's
hopping with activity students just all enthused about various things and the
community too I absolutely love the community up here so I'm gonna try to
find reasons to come back even though we don't have a radio station here but we
will be in Brooklyn we will be right smack on Atlantic Avenue and that's
gonna be that's gonna be an adventure right yeah it's a it's an interesting
area down there it's a sort of a central area in Brooklyn as anyone who's been
down there knows it's right near that mess that Jay-Z calls a stadium it's you
know sort of central to what's going on and there's there's a lot to do down
there apart from broadcast your own radio station at WBA is shiny new
facility well shiny in progress new facilities it's an awesome facility it
is a lovely facility it's a building and we just are building things within the
building it's it's the kind of thing that is precise what people told us was
not possible when we were back on Wall Street we could never do this well it
looks like we're doing it looks like we're moving into a really cool place in
a hopping neighborhood and it's going to be ours and the place where hopefully
we'll just keep getting better I'm looking forward to that and we are and
it's a it's a very nice building it's it's got the things we need and it's got
places for us to put everything we need and it's got places for us to put all
the people we need I was there on Monday I met actually the landlady of the place
and she's she's actually a very nice person very enthusiastic really
incredible person I mean she's the landlady yeah but she doesn't act like a
landlady she packages premiums and and helps out and knows about the radio
station listens to the radio station it's exactly the kind of environment we
need to be in exactly she knows what she knows what we're doing she knows how
we're doing it and she's enthusiastic about it and as happy to be part of it
as any of us are so history awaits and next week actually begins the spring
fundraiser so that's gonna be fun too wow it's gonna be a carnival ride for
sure because undoubtedly we won't have everything we need right away I don't
think we're gonna have enough phone lines there it might be noisy you might
hear people walking up and down the hallway I don't know I don't know what
to expect but it's going to be different it's going to be a step in a good
direction and I hope all of our listeners as we start that particular
fundraiser are there for us and and we're gonna have new premiums this time
too so it's gonna be awesome and I wanted to add the the actual date for
the cutover for the first broadcast is May Day isn't that something I don't
know if anybody's realized that but yes Friday May 1st is is the day it all
begins so if you're participating in the general strike you can come by and lend
a hand exactly yes because well actually you know May 1st has always been a
holiday here at WBAI employees would get the day off and that's not the way it
is and with with most establishments in the country so maybe this May 1st they
won't be taking the day off any paid employees that are left and certainly a
lot of volunteers will be helping out yes Bernie I just want to say listeners
have a our listeners have a unique opportunity at 6 o'clock on May Day 6
a.m. May Day if they want to get up early here's some here's some historic radio
because our program director interim program director Mario Murillo will be
will be doing the first broadcast from Brooklyn at 6 a.m. and just listening to
this cutover from from from Harlem to to Brooklyn it's just interesting I like
listening where stuff it's live and happening it'll be smoother than the
cutover of your phone as it hands its signal off to one one's on to another
but yeah you know it's it'll be interesting to hear that but you know we
just did it right now we just had a show from Brooklyn before us I think I was
going for a different facility but we just cut over from Brooklyn to here it's
it's not that big a deal but as far as history goes it's a huge deal and yeah
I'm looking forward to it I really am don't know how we're gonna park I'm
don't know how I'm gonna get there yet but I didn't know that about Harlem
either it's very centrally located like every subway goes there yeah and and we
will be right after rush hour so that's gonna be a lot of fun too but we'll see
you know whatever happens happens okay we have things to talk about relating to
the various subjects that we've been discussing over the past few weeks I
guess the biggest one the most important right now is the whole stingray thing we
were talking about stingray that's when authorities pretend they're a cell phone
a site and and grab your information and and route your phone call through them
well turns out and in all places Baltimore a city judge has turned back a
challenge has happened on Monday to the Baltimore Police Department's use of the
controversial cell phone surveillance tool in a murder case ruling that a
suspect can't complain about police deploying the device to find a stolen
phone the case is the latest in recent months in which police disclosed one
disclosed use of a cell site simulator which for years was shrouded in secrecy
Anthony Todd is accused of killing Kevin Gibson in March 2013 police traced the
victim's stolen cell phone to Todd's home detectives testified that the
killing created an urgency that left no time to get a court order the judge's
ruling was of course a victory for law enforcement amid recent questions about
the device known as a stingray the device is so secretive that the FBI has
required police and prosecutors to sign a document agreeing not to discuss its
use even to judges or legislators that's the real story right there of
course you know it's really hard to say oh yeah you know this guy should have
won because he's a murder suspect and and and they can't admit this in in court
because they using the stingray tech you know the average person is gonna say
wait I don't see a problem here I see this as a good thing because justice is
being served the real story is what I just read about the fact that even
judges legislators nobody is allowed to know about this it's it's it's all in
secret the stingray works by mimicking a cell phone tower tricking all phones
within a range of up to a mile to connect with it and for years police
have referred to it in affidavits using terms such as sophisticated technology
and if questions arose the non-disclosure agreement instructed
prosecutors to drop cases rather than reveal details about it we talked about
a case last last week exactly that same thing happened right I mean and if you
are the the sort of tough on crime people then this should really offend
you because people who may in fact be guilty are having their cases dropped
because of these procedural that's good that's yes exactly yeah people will have
their cases dropped that are guilty because they don't want to talk about
the stingray they don't want to talk about how it works or what they're
allowed to do with it or what they think they're allowed to do with it
Emmanuel Desperate I have a theory about why the FBI is so willing to let
alleged dangerous criminals walk out on the street rather than the FBI reveal
how their secret surveillance technologies work I think it's too
prompt I think one I don't think they want the general public knowing how
maybe three-pronged why the general public they don't want the public
knowing how they're eavesdropping on a lot of people who aren't even under
investigation and they don't want civil rights advocates like the ACLU and EFF
challenging what many think is an unconstitutional form of electronic
surveillance because this is all the stingray use is done without judicial
oversight and three and also Bernie it's not just for suspects it's everybody in
the area exactly political protest everything they're just doing this
without warrants without any judicial oversight and thirdly if they have to
reveal how this technology works it will provide more information to hackers and
applications developers who will write applications for mobile phones that
might be able to detect which might be able to detect when their phone is being
being used in a man-in-the-middle attack through one of these stingray so they
have a lot a lot to lose on this some of the cases they're using these on
probably or national security related but they're also using them for a lot of
cases like the FBI has been doing for many generations for political
surveillance and other kinds of things and I think it has to stop yeah and the
concept that's blowing me away particularly right now is the fact that
they can get away with throwing due process out the window because they
don't have time to get a court order they don't have time to let the system
work as it's designed to it's such a bother Rob how many people how many
people can get away with a crime because they don't have time to do
things legally you know can I go out speeding because I don't have time to
drive the speed limit can I go murder somebody because I don't have time to
wait for them to die naturally it's you know for them to just the rules for all
of us and then there are the rules for law enforcement and they're always very
very different and contrary okay I don't have time for that so that's that's where
that stands at the moment but we also have a couple of listeners wrote in to
tell us about the Android IMSI catcher detector it's an app to detect the IMSI
catchers what devices such as stingray false mobile towers base stations acting
between the largest mobile actually the target mobile phones and the real towers
of service providers and as such they are considered a man-in-the-middle
attack and the USA the IMSI catcher technology is known under the name
stingray and these guys are developing an app to detect a stingray through and
I'm sorry they printed white on white on their web page so it's kind of hard to
see what the detection methods is such as want to read that Kyle because I can
barely see it such as checking tower information consistency prevent it
prevents silent app installations check the LAC and cell ID consistency also
you have the ability to check neighboring cell info and it's signal
strength monitors and looks for silent SMS and detects femto cells and femto
cells are very small so this is exactly what we were talking about as far as
something that needs to be done and these guys are developing it now I
believe they're looking for support do we have the the information as to how
people can contact them yes go ahead Barney you can just be just search
online for the for the acronym a I am isn't Mary s I CD aim s ICD it's the
Android MC catcher detector but a I am s ICD is the name of this application and
it's really interesting to visit this website and see all the work that people
are doing to develop Android application that will on certain phones ultimately
be able to tip people off in some cases if they're being subjected to a man in
the middle attack by a law enforcement well I think it's really inspirational
to see this happening and to know that there are people working on on fighting
back against this sort of thing now this particular project they they stress
they're still an alpha stage they're looking for people who can verify their
app on actual IMS I catchers stingrays and other fake base stations expect
false alarms they say and also it's important to note the things that the
app does not do it does not provide secure phone calls secure data
transmission app permission control secure application sandboxing secure SMS
does not provide firewalls full device encryption and does not prevent already
installed rogue applications from full access and spying but you knew that all
right so any other reports on things like that please write to us OTH at 2600
dot-com we'd love to hear further details on various things like that we
got a lot of mail for the various things we were discussing another advantage
Christopher writes of an FM receiver in your phone is that the phone's power
consumption for receiving a strong FM signal is much less than the phone's
power consumption for streaming FM music data from a cell phone tower FM is free
but I need to plug in earbuds to make an FM antenna or the option doesn't appear
that's interesting the option doesn't appear on his phone unless he plugs in
the the headphones I knew it didn't work because you need the antenna but it
doesn't even show up Christopher dropped Verizon Verizon wireless he says because
I was outraged that Verizon required an extra payment to turn on a GPS receiver
that gets a free signal from the satellites I bought an unlocked Motorola
defy water resistant he says and got a T-Mobile chip GPS is free as it is in my
car or on my handheld GPS and finishes by saying one of my requirements for a
cell phone is the ability to remove the battery I think the NSA and police
towers have more difficulty tracking a phone without onboard power I mean I'm
not sure if this is a person we talked to on the air or not but it is
legitimately true that some cell phone GPS receivers do not work when not
connected to the internet or a data network of some sort not all GPS chips
on smartphones in particular have the ability to pull down sort of all the
data they need in order to compute your location directly from the satellites
some of them can only get that data from the internet and that's done for
cost reasons a lot of the time and I'm sure the carriers are not exactly sad
that it involves you paying them more money but it's not necessarily a wholly
invented scam just to get your money Emmanuel yes Bernie go ahead Mike is
right and there's also a concern that some cell phone chipsets notably as some
from Qualcomm don't even allow apps to break the connection between GPS and
your and your cellular carrier in other words spy on your location you could
like modify your phone to like break the GPS filters in your phone and so forth
yeah I was just gonna say you'd have to remove it yourself maybe really do some
utility knife microscopic hardware hacking of your phone to disable that my
phone I don't know it's not the exclusive to Verizon I mean I mean it's
not Verizon isn't isn't blocking everybody from accessing GPS without
their cell phone network being connected to to your phone my my black my black
crazy 30 allows me to not only monitor received GPS signals but also GLONASS
signal which is GLONASS is the the former Soviet and Russian satellite
navigation system I can receive data from both of those satellite networks on
my blackberry c30 without my cell phone being connected to Verizon's network
which I think is kind of neat fairly common on newer especially higher-end
cell phones that can receive from more than one network which increases
reliability all right well another letter from another listener Justin
writes him to say I wanted to let you know about a film known as the deep web
can find out more about it deep web the movie calm Joe Rogan interviewed the
director recently I've no doubt the movie is going to be fantastic I don't
have Joe Rogan is but the director Alex winter was Keanu Reeves a sidekick in
Bill and Ted Bill and Ted final if that really qualifies you for much but okay
he apparently knows his stuff that's good enough for me the movie is mostly
concerning the Silk Road legal battles that are ensuing so yeah look forward to
seeing that yeah I'm aware of this movie it was funded through Kickstarter I was
one of the backers of it and Alex winter actually you know apart from being a
bill from Bill and Ted he actually does know his stuff he previously did a
documentary on Napster and the whole file-sharing explosion and it was
actually a decent film and it was made by people who know he was Bill he's an
actor yes I didn't know that I thought he was somebody behind the film no no
he was Bill and Keanu Reeves actually narrates the new film I believe but but
yeah it's supposed to be a good film and I'm really I'm looking forward to seeing
well just the blurb that they give on their site deep web gives the inside
story of one of the most important and riveting digital crime sagas of the
century the arrest of Ross William Albrecht the convicted 30 year old
entrepreneur accused to be dread pirate Roberts creator and operator of online
black market Silk Road the film explores how the brightest minds and thought
leaders behind the deep web are now caught in the crosshairs of the battle
for control of a future inextricably linked to technology with our digital
rights hanging in the balance okay I'm sold I mean so I'm willing to believe
you Rob if you say that they actually know what they're doing but the the
title of the film and the the weird Hollywood credentials and that blurb a
manual just read do not instill me with confidence but what would I mean come on
the deep web what better title is there than that almost any title I don't know
I think it might be a little overly cynical here like here's a documentary
about the Silk Road that would be a better title oh that's really exciting
that's not exciting lined up around the block it's all it's honest that's what I
want in a title I think they were gonna call it CSI cyber but it turned out that
was taken yes you know I've yet to see that and I really should I guess okay
good news section we have a whole good news section this week this from the
Electronic Frontier Foundation calling all New Yorkers speak up for fair repair
and something I know is near and dear to your heart Kyle if you're trying to
tinker with repair or even recycle your electronics whether it's a computer a
tablet or a toaster or maybe even a car increasingly you face two major hurdles
the first bizarrely enough is copyright law you see you may own your device but
you probably just rent or license the software that runs it and that license
will come with all sorts of legal and technological restrictions that
particular problem that's been getting a lot of attention in the last few days in
the context of cars and tractors automakers have told the Copyright
Office that car owners don't really own their cars and shouldn't be allowed to
tinker with them yeah that's true but there's another another hairy problem
here would-be repairers need access to the tools and documentation for their
devices now New York is seeking to become the first state in the United
States to solve that second problem with fair repair bills that guarantee
customers can get access to the tools they need to service and repair their
stuff if you're in New York we need your help to get those bills passed our
friends at the digital right to repair coalition have set up a tool to let you
email your state legislators and tell them to support these bipartisan bills
and you can find out all of that at EFF that org that blurb written by Parker
Higgins who by the way has a column in this issue of 2600 so I think this is
really awesome news Kyle you think so too yeah this is the first I've heard
about it and as far as moving this far ahead in in New York specifically but
the real important thing is the would-be repairers there are a lot of independent
mechanics and small shops as well as hobbyists and individual owners and it's
incredibly difficult to get information about and to communicate with vehicle
computer systems and nowadays we have a lot more computers in cars so this is
really critical stuff and I'm glad to hear it's going forward in this way it's
important to note Kyle that this bill specifically does not apply to cars and
motorcycles so that would would not be a part of this but I I did I didn't use
the form on the website because I was feeling a little old school section
mailed a paper letter to my New York State representatives and one of their
one of the representative himself but one of their staff wrote back to me
today you know thanking me for reaching out these people do not get nearly as
much mail as the Federal Congress they would be excited to hear from you if you
live in New York State I would highly encourage you to go to this website and
fill out the form but you want you send paper mail I sent paper how did you get
the address to send paper mail to I googled my New York State Assembly and
the New York State Senate both have you know you can type in your address and
we'll tell you who your representative is because if you're a normal person you
probably don't already know and it will give you their address what's the
website just type New York State Assembly assembly into your favorite
search engine and it will come right up okay thanks for that clarification and
that it would not at all be a bad thing if that was expanded to cars and
motorcycles but it it actually isn't so much of a bad thing that or at all that
you would get it get movement on this with like agricultural vehicles and
commercial trucks those are the backbone of the economy and a huge part of what
is really you know how goods and services are moved around so getting
support and getting that contingent on board and and and putting some emphasis
behind any kind of action or legislation locally regionally or nationally is
great because it it applies to those independent mechanics that are working
on commercial vehicles as well and it just it really does apply to cars and
and motorcycles and stuff too so I hope that it is expanded because it it would
not at all be a bad thing I think all right and a website to check out as well
that deals directly with this is New York dot digital right to repair org and
they have all kinds of information about this there and if you're interested in
the the concept of right to repair as does apply to vehicles cars and
motorcycles there are projects out there one of them is the open auto project who
they've spoken at hope our friend Tiffany rads involved with them that's open auto
if I remember correctly and and they're working toward getting this in place for
vehicles and I can't really emphasize this enough this is really important
stuff because this is the dealerships the manufacturers and their service
center so their dealerships against independent mechanics and people that
are owners of those vehicles and that that understand that they are using
proprietary software in some cases but they're they're they're also really
trying to maintain their own equipment in an economical way and these
dealerships hold huge huge power over you if they're locking you out of
communicating with your vehicles commute computer system for diagnostic stuff for
upgrades for changes to maybe you prefer Celsius instead of Fahrenheit little
stuff like that which you can modify from dealership computer systems I'm
talking about the gecko star system in Mercedes all these different
manufacturers have their own different computer system and it really they
don't want us talking about it on the air it holds you hostage and they can
charge whatever they want for you know simply connecting something that has the
right keys or whatnot to communicate with the car charge you hundreds of
dollars for labor that is really not labor for them they can they just have
the control in their exercising it and to focus for just a moment on what this
bill before the Assembly and Senate would would actually do it's primarily
focused on electronics manufacturers so if you drop your phone and the screen
breaks which is a thing that's happened to me and what I had to do was throw out
my phone my rather expensive phone because I you can't get replacement
glass you can't get replacement parts you can't get instructions for installing
more careful I should be you're right but also I should be able to pay you
know a hundred bucks or whatever glass actually cost to someone in my
neighborhood and get it repaired and and I think that's a huge win for consumers
it's a huge win for small independent businesses it's a huge win for the
environment because I wouldn't have to have a drawer full of no longer wanted
phones and so I think this bill even though it excludes the motor vehicles is
is still hugely important wait you keep all your old phones I have a drawer of
them I think I do too no I did just want to know if other people did that as
I cannot even reconcile throwing them away and having them wind up in a
landfill some place but like also they're not doing anyone in any good in
my drawer so they're great for movie props all right no that's cool like a
lot more of our devices are standalone computers themselves so we should we
should have access to all kinds of these things and consumer electronics are no
exception and we are seeing this across devices whether it's professional
consumer prosumer whatever kind of device it is there's low stuff that's
controlling it and that you ought to if you want to know how your devices are
working or or repair them I mean you really need to have access and be
allowed to not and not just technically I mean legally because that's a real
barrier to a lot of people but this whole this whole concept that you don't
own something you bought that you're simply leasing it or renting it or
whatever that's something that we're not used to we don't want to become used
to that it's it's it's madness or if you know how to access it and and repair it
publishing that and sharing it with other people that are owners of that
product that's you know becomes a legal thing and people are really petrified to
do anything and talk about it with regard to this and it really makes it
impossible and and and so supports planned obsolescence and and are you
know overall the the fault fault failings of a consumer culture so let's
hope New York is the first state to do this yes Bernie the legal linchpin
behind all of this is many of our longtime listeners who remember is the
digital Millennium Copyright Act which we we had to fight back and like what
15 years ago because that law makes it a federal offense to to circumvent a
a technical technological measure that that that basically protects a piece of
intellectual property which a lot of this a lot almost all this this software
that runs your your what consumer electronic devices your car your truck
your tractor whatever so on basically a lot of this legislation that's being
kept is pending is that provides them safe harbor for people that so they
don't get convicted under laws like the digital Millennium Copyright Act which
is still really stinky piece of law yeah absolutely right I mean I that's
the genesis of this kind of attitude the sentiment and and it absolutely a lot of
times the the security measures will be vague or just a token measure they're
not actually going to secure you if somebody breaks off a mirror and starts
running you know accessing your canvas and and turning on your car and running
away with it you know it's cruddy encryption insofar as protecting you but
as far as you being able to modify and to do diagnostics on that same vehicle
network it's because it's there and in a symbolic way you can't even think about
it talk about it share about it anything you know let alone fix it well you had
me when you said we could change Fahrenheit to Celsius on the display on
the dashboard that's yeah it's there it's it the capabilities in there good
luck trying to find somebody at a dealership that will even understand
what you're talking about let alone do it so you know that kind of control that
kind of power that kind of ingenuity that you can exercise on your own
vehicle as well as all other bits of technology that's essential okay so
that's good news New York is moving in that direction hopefully other states
will follow too here's another bit of good news you might have heard of
regulators declared victory on Friday after Comcast and Time Warner Cable
confirmed that they had aborted their 45 billion dollar merger which would have
created a truly national cable company with unprecedented control over the
future of the country's television and broadband markets that deal would have
brought together the country's two largest cable operators at a time when
the internet acts as the ultimate gateway for information and entertainment
when vast technology changes revolutionize how people watch and pay
for television they would have controlled as much as 57% of the nation's
broadband market under 30 just under 30% of pay television service and the
feds didn't go for it the feds didn't you know I think a lot of this has to do
with all the talk recently about net neutrality we've been having this debate
for a couple of years now and I think that they it was particularly bad timing
for them to propose this mega merger and it just fortunately we have right now an
administration that sees that and you know a few years ago that would not have
been the case we could have been stuck with this yeah I mean I'm really excited
that this merger which would have been terrible for people has been beat back
although there's still a lot more work to be done on ensuring actual competition
in the broadband industry but you know the the lack of one entity controlling
you know a real an actual majority of the market is will make that fight a
little bit easier it was it was pretty it was pretty and you know encouraging
to see this especially for people who remember the bell break up and the
aftermath of that and who saw it all happen before basically when one entity
isn't too much control and I can't say I was actually all that hopeful that that
day would come out well for anyone but and it's it's still I guess not what I
call a good situation because they're still both kind of objectively terrible
companies doing things in terrible ways but at least they're two different
companies still doing things in terrible ways against each other rather than as
one this is more time for independent ISPs to start springing up everywhere
and just like dial-up and stuff back in the day I really wish people would would
take an interest in their infrastructure instead of letting these companies
persist and to get larger and larger and you know it's not infrastructure doesn't
have to be hard and it's maybe not as glamorous a topic but this this is case
in point otherwise these companies just get huge and continue to be terrible and
one of the grassroots organizers that was opposed to this whole merger in the
first place said this is a victory not only for the Department of Justice but
also for providers of content and streaming services who work to bring
innovative products to consumers across America and around the world actually
that was Attorney General Eric Holder that said that but just you know imagine
eight years ago that would not have been said by the Attorney General so when they
get it right I think we need to acknowledge that we certainly acknowledge
when they get it wrong was that like his last speech as Attorney General we have
no one now well yeah I guess it was his it's pretty good I think when people see
the end of their employment they start taking more chances and saying what's
really on their minds yeah as a performer I know you want to go out on a
high note if you can all right let's just hope that that stays put it doesn't
happen again down the road you know they we can be vigilant about this we
have to be vigilant about this because these things are always going to be a
threat absolutely just like the cybersecurity bill you guys know about
this Bernie have you you've heard about the cybersecurity bill right it was it
was it was a close vote it was 355 to 63 in the house it was oh boy yeah speaking
in support of the measure before the vote one of the congressmen said that
people always ask me what keeps me up at night it is a cyber attack against this
nation that concerns me the most really that's that's what concerns you the most
as cyber attack not not a comet maybe or something yeah so that passed by a wide
margin representative Michael McCall of Austin John Ratcliffe of of Heath which
is in Texas they both sponsored they're both in Texas they sponsored the
National Cybersecurity Protection Act which passed out of the house Homeland
Security Committee earlier this month and of course the White House has said
that they support this I imagine there's a bill on the Senate that's about to
pass so we're why are we opposed to this does anybody want to put that into into
words what's what's bad about go ahead Bernie I can say from this article here
written by Andy Grieber we only have 25 minutes so make it quick it says this
bill would significantly it does now significantly increase the NSA's access
to our personal information and authorize the federal government to use
that information for a myriad of purposes unrelated to cybersecurity and
this this is from a letter signed by 55 civil liberties groups and security
experts that includes the American ACLU the Electronic Frontier Foundation the
Freedom of the Press Foundation Human Rights Watch and many other of our
friends like this and it's really disappointing that this this passed
without any real public debate but hardly surprising I mean Bernie of
course the only way this can pass is without any real public debate because
we've successfully blocked some bad bills through organizing and the like
and they are learning something that they've known about for a long time in
other areas which is that you have to do this stuff quickly without the public
noticing so that no one can organize against it and that way you can just
pass this stuff yep we're gonna have to cyber in more creative ways though I
suppose so okay so that's something to you know keep watching C-SPAN folks
that's how you learn about these things that's how you see what people are
actually saying people that you elect or people that are elected to represent you
I mean most of this stuff has to be stopped before it gets to the C-SPAN
phase but well they haven't voted on it yet so you can certainly didn't you just
tell me the vote yeah but I'm saying if people were watching C-SPAN before the
vote now it's too late obviously for that although it hasn't been signed into
law yet so if people get educated it's never really too late all right moving
on and I want to take some phone calls because this might be our last chance in
quite a while we have we have the move coming up next week and we have a
fundraiser so those two things preclude us from taking phone calls and I don't
know when the next time we'll be able to take phone calls will be I honestly do
not know I don't think the phone lines are set up in the new facility yet so it
could be a while two one two two zero nine two nine hundred is our telephone
number now what's gonna happen when you call that number it'll ring a lot and
then it'll probably disconnect or transfer you someplace you don't want to
go when that happens call back all right and we'll we'll try and get everybody on
the air try get as many people on as possible but I'm not going to go to the
phones until I see at least six lines ringing because sometimes we just get
little tones and funny noises and then we have we have to fill time while the
populates again Bernie what's this I hear about you running for president I
just got a bulletin Bernie s running for president what's this about
oh yeah Bernie s is running for president actually it's Bernie Sanders
probably he may be my favorite senator US senator oh the guy that the socialist
Vermont how are you related to him I'm not we just happen to think the fair
share the same first name and last initial well you had it first right I
mean okay it's gonna confuse a lot of people yeah he just announced well he's
going to announce he's like his staff has announced that he's going to
announce soon so there's gonna be some competition and you know I this is the
kind of the kind of demographic that would vote for Bernie Sanders the kind
of people that would probably vote for Elizabeth Warren who is announced she's
not gonna run but I'm enthusiastic that we have more voices like this in the
race I know you know people use blackmail a lot to prevent people from
running is there any way we can use blackmail to force Elizabeth Warren to
run you know that's just what is anybody have anything in her closet that yeah I
just that really frustrates me but hopefully yeah this other Bernie s will
will force Hillary Clinton to maybe answer a question or two that would be
nice I mean I actually think it's probably smart politics for Elizabeth
Warren not to run this cycle and so it'll be fun to have Bernie Sanders in
the race and hopefully get Hillary Clinton at least to acknowledge the
existence of progressive how about she's vice president then can we get that
Hillary Clinton now Elizabeth Warren that look look fine with me you know
first woman president but not only that to can't to female candidates in the
same ticket I mean where if it's up to me well I'm still not sold on Hillary
but if it's up to me then then that sounds fine Bernie s can be Attorney
General are you all right with that Bernie already I'm confused it's not you
I've realized that now it's the guy from Vermont okay but it's gonna be
interesting though if we if we make it interesting yeah if we're not careful
all accidentally vote for the wrong Bernie s and then Bernie you'll have to
go and be president so apologies in advance of that okay so what happened we
had a full switchboard now we only have one because they all got transferred
away someplace so folks wherever you are hang up call back 2 1 2 2 0 9 2 900 this
story which kind of frightens me glitch with pilots iPad app delays American
Airlines flights American Airlines experienced an iPad meltdown on Tuesday
when several flights were temporarily grounded by a software glitch with the
handheld device airlines are running through iPads is that really a thing
yeah it's it's this game where you have to fling the planes at like piles of
pigs or something oh please no it's actually a lot of pilots use the iPad
and for navigation and running you know loading up maps and stuff like that it's
convenient and really big screen that you can open up and have in your
briefcase but don't the airlines already have something like that I mean they
should have right I mean the alternative is carrying around big binders of paper
and this is an improvement built into the console it hasn't they never thought
of that like why why should it be no Mike's absolutely right they had like
huge binders and it would have all the tower frequencies for different airport
so you think it's a better idea to have something that belongs to the pilot or
that is outside the aircraft and brought in each time that could be subjected to
well exactly what happened rather than have something that's hardwired into the
into the plane that's deep and that then you have to like connect the plane to
the internet in order to get new data onto it which happened you know and new
data is coming in all the time that that seems harder to me than giving every
pilot you know a not very expensive consumer like is this part of the whole
fear of the airplane being hacked by the internet so it just seems like a lot of
work to run an Ethernet cable to an airplane well they did that on one of
those TV shows I ran it down yeah I saw that on the internet okay based on
reality I don't think this is issued by the airline anyway I think this is for
pilots like who have a preference or this to augment the the equipment that
they do have access to it's just another tool and it's in lieu of carrying like a
Jepson airway manual or something like that okay yeah well it's it's but the
things went down and and airlines weren't able to operate I don't think
he's plugging it into like even charge it in the plane okay well if you're a
pilot let us know just what you do with your iPad in the in the cockpit there
two one two two zero nine two nine hundred let's see if we can take some
phone calls good evening you're on off the hook okay hopefully it's not in a
different room okay she should be on the way back now yes good evening I want to
ask you guys if you've done any report on what's called uninterruptible I'm
blanking on it now but one version of it is a fly-by-wire so you can put it in
your search engine please let's stop saying Google and making them more of a
CI Hill and a monopolist but it's called uninterruptible it was developed by
Boeing and what it is and and this is also before the fourth flag of September
11th oh one and what it is is a way where the would allegedly prevent
hijackings because in other words they can actually take over the plane and you
know fly it or land it and of course I'm sure there's a lot on the internet about
what happened with the mi-370 and then you know the Malaysian 17 etc etc because
those are some mysteries but it's called uninterruptible in fact put it
in your search engine it's also fly-by-wire and the other version of it
should come up but I'd like to know if you've done any report on that or any
discussion on that a remote you know flying okay I'll ask the people here and
and please listen on the radio and I have any anything on this and then you
I think what you may be calling it about is technology being worked on to allow
passenger airlines and maybe other airplanes to be flown remotely by the
airlines without having to pay pilots to sit in there we've got to have two
pilots there now case one drops dead the other one can take over sort of thing
but there's a lot of problems with that you can't react as quickly remotely when
you're in the cockpit you can feel you know turbulence and all these things
I think you really need the response time with a human being in the in the
cockpit is much preferable than having that data fed by wire or by you know
some wireless technology would have to go up to a satellite to be satellite
delay and all these other things I think it's a bad idea to fly passenger
airlines by wire from a remote site I just think it's stupid and we need real
life pilots yeah and definitely you could you then open it up to be being
technically hijacked and in some way or another it's certainly not impossible
though considering the amount of technology that has been put in into a
remote piloting of say drones but again there's obviously a lot more that the
pilot can feel as far as sensory inputs then as opposed to a remote control
instance like like what you said Bernie but would this be something that that
people are advocating replace a pilot or simply if if something happens to the
pilot this is a backup which is better than nothing I'd say the latter yeah
yeah more so the latter yeah maybe give it a generation of unmanned cars you
know on the roads and seeing how good or bad they are before applying the
concept of Google planes okay planes also I'm in favor of what the caller was
talking about as so far as genericizing the trademark of Google and allowing
sentences like I do my googling with duck duck go well we all we said
favorite search engine before so I think I think we try as much as we can let's
see if we can get another phone call to good evening you're on off the hook
speak up go ahead yes you're on the air okay go ahead how about the the drone
pilots being replaced by an automatic system or they can eliminate the drone
pilot all together so they stop having these issues that people are getting
upset with blowing up children things like that so we can blow up children
without any any kind of worry about the mental anguish that we would suffer as a
result it's it's in the pipeline it's it's a robot control system they set the
target they push the button and there is no pilot yeah that's kind of the epitome
of a drone I would think it's but but it's it's in the pipeline and they're
getting ready to sign off on it so I can't say I'm surprised in the slightest
at that and that's all I said you're you do much too good a work up there thank
you very much we'll try to we'll try to tone it down a bit then two one two two
zero nine two nine hundred good evening you're on off the hook speak up yes go
ahead yeah I'm curious about the automobile thing where a lot of times
like hot rodders want to change electronics you know to get a different
different performance that's a regular practice and are they not going to be
able to do that or would they have to go to the manufacturer exclusively to do
that if that was passed well as of now I mean it's it's really difficult there's
a lot of third-party companies that probably have relationships with
manufacturers in other words they can license attributes of protocols and then
create a product that interfaces with the vehicle so there is some aftermarket
like aftermarket ignitions and these kinds of things that do run separate
computers but oftentimes you'd have to delete the entire stock electronic
system or or have it run side-by-side and so on but absolutely I mean is there
would be a legal workaround but they have to pay for the right right you end
up like selling buying 10 downloads of XP or something correct yeah you'd maybe
and I know some I'm not gonna start throwing manufacturer names out there
but there are some companies that have limited amounts of VIN numbers that can
work on certain types of vehicles and it has to be programmed for various things
that you know and you license it for in other words however many cars you know
unlimited numbers of vehicles versus another product and it varies but
there's certainly a market there but it is they're charging you they're passing
on the cost that the manufacturers charge them to license it to work on it
at all so you end up paying that you know a couple hundred dollars more so
you know you end up getting it into the cost of tools and tools are quite
expensive right right all right thanks thanks for your call all right thank you
very much yes we should do that too as well as our listeners but Kyle you
mentioned something and I think this is kind of cool maybe people don't know
this but mechanics use the word delete in an interesting way when they're
talking about features or something how exactly is it applied I don't know where
it comes from it's a definitely a tuner term and terminology it's jargon example
like how would it be is um you could do like door handle delete or you could
delete the door handles or you could delete attributes features like you
could I like I've done conversions and deleted the air conditioning because
it's extra weight and I don't buy deleted the air conditioning mean remove
the air I remove the air conditioning compressor and made the belt smaller so
that the only accessory was the alternator it's stuff like that mechanics
always talk that way I'm not sure I'm not really sure where it comes from I
can't imagine him in the 1940s talking about deleting something but I think
more it's more of like a 80s parlance because the relationship to computing
but I don't know you know Kyle I'm pretty much the opposite of a automobile
expert but deleting the door handle seems unwise to me oh you could have
remote doors that open by a button or some other crazy you're deleting one one
door handle but you're installing another one it's a you could also say
you have shaved door handles there's all kinds of stuff we don't have to get
into that right now but we are gonna try to take some more phone calls to into a
two zero nine two nine hundred this could be the last phone calls we take in
a while might be the last time we ever give out this phone number I don't know
can we have a two one two number in Brooklyn is that legal yes okay all right
well that's easy I mean I don't know if we'll get it but it's legal all right
let's take a phone call good evening you're on off the hook speak up all
right well that's not really needed good evening you're on off the hook go
ahead yeah you're talking about copyrights and cars copyright holders
have an exclusive right to copy their own work but if they use that right to
monopolize a market that they don't have exclusive rights to such as car repair
then they've committed an antitrust violation and they call that violation
tying because they're tying a legitimate monopoly to an unpermissible monopoly
until they change the law and make it so that they can do exactly that yeah
well yeah it would be a thing you might have to argue because yeah how how much
copying does it take to to do a car repair without authorization from the
copyright owner there was a case years ago where somebody did a repair of a
design patented car top which is a little different than copywriting
and
they the court said as long as it's not a full rebuild of the design patent
holder doesn't have a right to regulate
so so that that could be
it could be if you had a bunch of
guys who are finding themselves pushed out of the
repair market because of these copyright policy they could get together and
manufacturers that are trying to do it the other thing that people could do is
vote with their wallets and buy cars that don't do that
yeah yeah stick with the manufacturers that are less hostile to to home
home mechanics and independent repair but do we know of manufacturers that are
like that
I don't know okay well we're going to find out and spread that around but as
far as getting together I definitely think truckers and guys that work on
agricultural stuff and and consumer electronics which we discussed was part
more of the emphasis on this particular program in New York those are good
groups to get together and there are a lot of smart people that are involved in
logistics and transportation and care a great deal about how their engines and
equipment works and their ability to understand exactly you know the wear and
tear and and and how it's behaving in any given circumstance amazing to the
see all these communities coming together to talk about technology and
control of it I remember you gave a talk down in Virginia Tiffany rats a car
space with a bunch of mechanics you're talking to truck drivers about getting
control of the technology basically the same conversation we have with hackers
except now it includes people involved with cars and trucks and include any
piece of technology because it the same issues are going to pop up in in all of
that also if the little guys are having difficulty getting the support to deal
with the software of these car companies they could use the threat of an
antitrust action you know you're tying this product to your copyright and that's
illegal do you want me to bring a suit or do you want to give me the part I
need yeah or the support I need the literature I need and I found that worked
when when the monopoly of baseball tried to monopolize providing baseball cards I
said you know you've got a congressionally imposed monopoly on
baseball but that doesn't give you any kind of a monopoly over cardboard so if
you think you're gonna you're gonna put this together did you just say that or
did you actually take action against them oh I just said it okay because it
sounds like you could bring suit against somebody and I would definitely could
but I didn't have to because that so scared them that they never went after
my client again oh great okay he is a lawyer I knew you were a lawyer yeah I'm
the lawyer who is the last survivor of the people who represented of the firm
represented major Armstrong interesting Edwin Armstrong yes yeah Wow great well
thanks thanks for calling and best of luck keep us appraised of any other
ideas you might have okay very good all right okay let's see if we can squeeze
in one final call here in Harlem and good evening
you're an off the hook speak up this is the last caller and they're not saying
anything caller are you there yes hi hi yeah just had a run-in with Verizon I
have a jack and I turned off my phone about eight years ago and it's a copper
wire and the box is like six feet away behind my house so I said I'd like to I
called the number and I said I'd like to activate the line and so everything is
Fios now so they don't tell me that so they take my order they take me
information and then like three four hours later somebody calls me from a
Long Island number it says okay yeah we set this up this is going to be for
Fios the guy's gonna come and put boxes on your house and a box has to stay
plugged in yep I hold them they basically they screwed you out of your
copper I'm sorry we're out of time Bernie maybe you can in a couple of
seconds sum up what what they're doing yeah Verizon is trying really hard to
allow their copper their outside copper plant to rot away so you have to use
Fios which is not subject to title to regulation and they can still be a
monopoly without all the responsibilities all right that's gonna
have to be the final word from from our Harlem studios I know Rob you have
something to say 2600 meetings this Friday all over the place 2600 comm
slash meetings all right and we want to of course go out with something
appropriate so I think probably the best thing is this song about Harlem from
Bill Withers Bill Withers amazing musician just inducted into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame this month and just the author of so much amazing
material but I'm gonna miss Harlem I'll come back here as much as possible see
you next week from Brooklyn have a good night
man it's a really hot well it's too hot to sleep I'm too old to eat I don't care
if I die or not
winter night in Harlem oh radiator won't get hot well the mean old landlord he
don't care if I freeze to death or not
Saturday night in Harlem
everything's all right you can't really swing and shake your pretty thing
the parties are out of sight
Sunday morning here in Harlem now everybody's all dressed up
the hip folks getting home from the party and the good folks just got up
crooked delegation wants a donation send a preacher to the holy land
Lord, honey, don't give your money to that lying and cheating man
Saturday night in Harlem
everything's all right
you can't really swing and shake your pretty thing
the parties are out of sight
Sunday morning here in Harlem now everybody's all dressed up
the hip folks getting home from the party and the good folks just got up
crooked delegation wants a donation to send a preacher to the holy land
Lord, honey, don't give your money to that lying and cheating man
ha ha
hey hey hey yeah
ha ha ha ha hey
hey hey hey hey
ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha