Creating Delay in the New Age ----------------------------- by Screamer Chaotix (screamer@hackermind.net) As the telephone network matures (I would never say "improves"), more and more technological flaws are disappearing. The days of the blue box, tandem stacking, juicing, and busy signal conference calls are long gone. Fortunately, there are still ways to enjoy some of the cool tricks of yesteryear, right here and right now. You're not really "exploiting" the system like in the old days; you're using it in a creative way. But hey, it's all about having fun, right? We all know there are ways to do things for free, so I won't bother mentioning those things here. I will assume everything you do is perfectly legal, as this won't cost too much anyway. Naturally this all depends on your long distance provider and how long you actually keep the connection open. For everything that follows, you will need: friends with 3-way dialing (preferably friends around the world), a cell phone, a home phone, and a payphone. Creating delay in a telephone call used to be an old favorite of phone phreaks everywhere. Using tandems and blue boxes, you could route calls anywhere you wished, and could keep the connection open for (usually) as long as you liked, meaning you could call someone and actually let your voice travel around the world. As I mentioned before, these old techniques no longer work, but there are new ways of going about it. All in all, this isn't too difficult to do - you just need a few friends handy and a couple of conference calls (relax, I provide free ones... isn't that nice of me?). Let us assume you only have friends in the United States (for those of you with friends around the world, this trick will be even better, albeit more expensive, if they play along). We will be routing this call through several different states and, once you get the hang of it, you should be able to figure out how to make the longest delay possible. Begin by picking up your cell phone. Dial 267-295-3430, a conference call in Philadelphia. (Enter any room number you like to create a conference - just be sure to use the same number for every conference you make. I like 666 - it's easy to remember and upsets so many people.) Next, use your home phone and dial the same number. Now everything you say through your cell will have to go through Philadelphia before reaching your home phone... already you might experience some slight delay, but we want to boost that up a bit. Oh, and keep all connections open until I say to close them! From your home phone, 3-way to 760-477-2000, another conference call, except this one is in Palm Springs. Enter the same conference number you entered before. The next step involves a friend. Have them dial the Palm Springs number and enter the same conference room number you used before. To recap, if you speak into your cell phone, it will go to Philadelphia, back to your home phone, out to Palm Springs by way of 3-way, and then down to your friend. At this point, feel free to bring in any other friends you'd like to. Just ask your first friend to 3-way to them, and then they can 3-way to other friends. The more steps, and the further the distance, the more of a delay you will eventually get. Now for the payoff. Walk to a payphone and tell the last friend who was called to 3-way to that particular payphone. When it rings, pick up, and speak into your cell. I've managed to get out almost a complete sentence using this method, and it makes you feel like you're back in the golden age of phone phreaking. Naturally, everything I've just explained could be done without conference calls, but they are a great way to create an extra step between two people if needed. Here's a list of some free conference calls, all provided by www.freeconference.com. All you'll pay is the cost of the call, and hopefully you're not sitting on the side of someone's house in the middle of the night when you place it. 702-851-4040 (Las Vegas, NV) 716-566-6067 (Buffalo, NY) 760-477-2000 (Palm Springs, CA) 585-295-5551 (Rochester, NY) 267-295-3430 (Philadelphia, PA) Shouts to Dash Interrupt, Leland D. Peng, Sparky, wlnt3rmut3, Unreal, dual_parallel, and big up to Panther!