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It's 10 o'clock, time for Off the Hook.
So I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself off shaving.
Now I can't make a call.
It couldn't get much worse.
But if they could, they would.
Bum, did it, bum, did it, bum, did it, bum, did it, bum, did it, bum, did it, bum, did it, bum, did it, bum, did it, bum.
Betterment murder.
Betterment murder.
Good day.
How is Shu.
Good day.
Go, go.
Good day.
Se street.
And a very good evening to one and all.
This is the program Off the Hook, which comes your way every Wednesday night from about 10 o'clock to about 11 o'clock.
And we're here tonight with a rather special story.
It's another chapter in our saga.
And what's particularly amazing about this particular chapter is that it may in fact be our last chapter.
I'm here with Fiber Optic as I've been over the last few weeks.
This is day 43 of the quest for ISDN.
Fiber Optic.
Yes.
Do you tonight have ISDN?
I need to regretfully inform all the listeners out there that, yes, in fact, I do have ISDN.
Well, your quest has come to an end.
Unfortunately, yeah.
Well, don't you have something to ask me?
Yes, in fact, Emanuel, do you have ISDN?
Well, it appears that I do.
So, as of this morning, when did your ISDN come in?
Actually, it was probably working as of yesterday.
As of yesterday?
Yeah.
But you only found out about it today?
Yes, because they actually came over and tested it.
Okay.
Tell us your entire story from where we left off last week, where you were hopefully looking forward to a Friday appointment.
Exactly.
And is that, in fact, what happened?
Yes, there was, in fact, a Friday appointment.
They did show up, which we didn't think that they would.
But, surprisingly, they did, at around 8.30 in the morning.
Considering that they said anywhere between 8 and noon, I was kind of surprised.
A gentleman from 9X Special Services, as well as an installer, came over.
They installed the jack.
They connected the line in the basement.
Apparently, it was the last cable in the building, so I guess I lucked out, or else we would have had to wait for some more wiring to be put into the basement.
So, they have this jack in, and they're attempting to test it, and they're not getting anything.
Apparently, what happened is that there was absolutely no service on it at all.
So, they showed up.
They installed the jack, expecting it to be all ready, and it was just dead.
Now, did you mention what happened when I came over to inspect your jack?
Yes.
Now, you came over over the weekend.
I hadn't actually looked at it because, you know, it was dead.
There was this jack on the wall, very, you know.
Didn't see the need to look at it any closer.
It was rather uninteresting.
Yeah.
So, yeah, so you came over.
You wanted to see the inside of the jack, so I obliged and unscrewed it and opened it up, and lo and behold, we noticed that slightly wrong jack.
Mm-hmm.
Very wrong jack.
I guess, yeah, I guess it can't be slightly wrong.
No.
I guess it is the wrong jack.
It wouldn't fit.
Yeah, it was, for those out there that are familiar with different types of phone jacks, it was an RJ45 phone jack,
which is actually a fatter plug that's used in lease lines, as opposed to ISDN, which is a normal pot service and should have a normal RJ11 jack, just like a telephone does.
Mm-hmm.
So, we noticed this, and I reported it Monday.
Mm-hmm.
And they actually understood what you were talking about when you reported that.
Yeah, they understood what I was talking about.
They claimed that you could use either one.
I didn't want to argue.
All that mattered was that she agreed that they could come and put one in if I wanted to.
Okay.
The RJ11.
So, I said, fine.
So, they came, they installed the RJ11 jack on Tuesday, and there was still no service.
Hmm.
So, now, it's...
And you were calling your spids throughout all this, too, right?
Yeah, I was calling the two numbers that I knew were assigned to me.
Hmm.
The first number, I had alternate voice and data service, and the second number, just data.
Mm-hmm.
And I had been calling them throughout the whole time.
Initially, they were both disconnected.
Then, at some point, that changed, and the first spid was busy.
Mm-hmm.
Just constantly busy.
Then, at some point, apparently, I believe it happened at some point on Tuesday, the second
number began connecting to silence, and that was a sign.
That's a sign that...
That's a sign that...
Because I was actually familiar with calling ISDN numbers that I knew were, in fact, ISDN
numbers.
Right.
If you just call them with a regular telephone, which is what I was doing, and it was just
strictly a data line and not a voice line, it connects to silence.
You hear a click, no ring, usually, and there's just a muffled silence.
That's exactly what I was getting, so I thought that was really curious.
Okay.
So, now it's Wednesday, and an installer, actually, a repair service guy from New York Telephone
shows up at around 10 in the morning, and he was just a normal repair service guy.
He heard that there was a trouble on the particular phone number that happened to be my main ISDN
number.
And he said, there's a problem with dial tone.
And I said, what dial tone?
It's an ISDN line.
So, he started scratching his head, and I explained to him that, you know, it was not
an ordinary phone line.
It was a digital service, and that there were some guys here from special services.
So, I gave him the short version of everything that had happened since the beginning of the
installation last week.
So, he unscrewed the jack for whatever reason, and he felt the need to clip on his normal run-of-the-mill
test set, and obviously got nothing.
He shouldn't have gotten anything anyway.
And he proceeded to relate to me what had happened.
Apparently, in 9X's fervor to integrate everything and show the world that ISDN is just a normal
pot service, and that any old repair service or installation technician should be able to deal
with it, since, of course, you know, this is the 90s, and digital services are all over
the place.
What they had done, apparently, is integrated repair troubles, as well as installation troubles,
into the same system, known as the craft access system.
So, what he was doing is, he has a little craft access terminal, which is a little test
set that he logs into a little computer with.
And it automatically spits out a trouble, whatever it may be, a subscriber's line that
has some kind of problem.
And he would go, and he would attempt to fix it, and that's what he basically does all
day.
What he didn't know is that the line that was in trouble was an ISDN line.
Now, okay, let's go to today's final activities.
You had a whole swarm of people show up at your house.
So, now, what happens is that, after all this was straightened out, I told him that
the special services guy that was there last left a number of his manager in the area, actually
the installation manager, okay?
So, this guy who was still here recognized who that was, called him up, and he was informed
that he could leave and that there were some special services people on the way.
So, now, they arrive about five or ten minutes later, and I let them in, and there's four
people just walk into my apartment.
Four people, huh?
Four people.
Wow.
There are two guys from special services with windbreakers that say SS on them.
Uh-oh.
Well, that must have brought back some memories.
Yeah.
It was kind of a strange parallel.
Wow.
SS.
Yeah.
There was another guy who was an installer, had all kinds of tools and things.
Yeah.
And there was a conservatively dressed woman who seemed like a foreman to be in charge of
the whole thing, just to make sure everything's going properly.
Okay.
So, what happened is, the two special services guys had test equipment, and they said that
the line should be in service.
So, what he did was, he clipped on his ISDN test set, and lo and behold, he placed a voice
call, he dialed 958, he got the first bid number back, and he tried a data call, went through
fine, he tested the second SPID number, tried to do a voice call apparently, and then it didn't work, and I informed him that the second line was data only.
So, he just placed a data call, and it worked fine, which basically says that everything
is operating A-OK.
Now, the thing that the other special services guy informed me is test numbers.
I told him, you know, once I buy my hardware, just so I can test it and make sure it's working
OK, you know, how can I do that?
I know that there's usually some kind of test numbers set up.
So, he said that the way that they're working it is that they're going to be setting up ISDN
test numbers all over the city with the suffix 9967.
And he gave me a couple of them.
He gave me one in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which is 388-9967 in the 718 area code, and he gave
me one at West Street in Manhattan in 212.
Well, let's call up the one in Manhattan and see.
Yeah, that would be 240.
Let's see if we can get ourselves a dial tone here.
OK.
OK, we've got a dial tone.
Let's dial away.
240.
9967.
All right, let's listen to this carefully.
Is it supposed to do that?
Yes, it is.
OK.
So, we get absolutely nothing on the line.
Absolutely nothing.
All right.
If you were to place an ISDN data call to that number, whatever data that you transmitted
would be echoed back.
So, it basically serves as like a digital loop back.
So, you can actually make sure that you're communicating with another ISDN number.
I see.
So, in essence, you can verify that it is, in fact, working.
Hmm.
Wow, that is something.
Yeah.
OK, well, my story very quickly is that I had someone over last week, last Wednesday,
who got to the point where he said that it was someone else's responsibility.
Construction had to run some more wires and that they had to do that before he could progress
any further.
Well, as it happens, they did do that in the latter part of the week.
However, the problem is they didn't tell anybody that they had finished or they told people
and no one acted upon it because I was calling various departments on Friday and they said,
yes, the work is complete.
You're all finished.
I said, well, that's great, except for one little detail.
No one has been over to install a jack or install the line.
And they said, oh, OK, we'll have to have someone get back to you.
Now, I went through that about three times on Friday saying someone will get back to me.
It was my hope that someone on Friday would come by and, you know, give us, you know,
our final connection to the whole ISDN wonderful, magical world.
That did not happen.
I didn't get a phone call back.
What did happen finally, though, was on Monday, somebody came by and said that they were working
on getting the final part installed.
Someone came by again on Tuesday saying basically the same thing.
And what they wound up doing was sitting in the house for a long time waiting for a call
back from NYNEX, which I thought was kind of retributive justice because I've done that
a lot.
I had this one mystified linesman sitting there not knowing exactly how to test the line.
He had an ISDN line there and he said, there's something wrong, but I don't know what it is
and I'm waiting for the guy that understands this stuff to call me.
And, of course, he never called.
And then he had to go.
He said maybe he'll be back later when he finds the test set that he wants.
He never came back.
He never was able to find anything.
So then today they came by, or actually one person came by and installed, made the final
installation, made the final test.
My two ISDN lines are both voice, no data.
Now, that's kind of unusual.
But I don't intend to use the data channel because of the one cent a minute surcharge.
What I do intend to do is figure out a way to send data over the voice channel and achieve
high speeds that way.
So since my two lines are busy, I'm told that that means that they're working.
Of course, it's kind of an iffy test there.
It's busy.
That means it's working.
I don't know.
So I'm going to get some digital equipment now.
But as far as 9X is concerned, after 43 days, our quest is at an end.
Seems that way.
It seems that they've fulfilled their end of it.
We both witnessed the actual equipment working, saying that, you know, in fact, these lines
are installed.
So as of now, myself, FiberOptik, have ISDN.
And neither one of us was the first in our neighborhood to get it either.
I was told there was...
I found out I was the second.
Yeah, I was the second, too.
Someone else managed to slip in before us.
I don't know how they did it or how long they were waiting for, but they got through.
Okay, that closes that saga.
But now it's time for another saga to begin.
We have with us on the telephone line from Pennsylvania a hacker known as Xenophile, whose
real name is Chris.
Chris, are you there?
Yeah.
Okay, great.
What we're going to do is we're going to read something that you wrote, and then we're
going to read a reply that you got to that.
Now, what's interesting is that we already read most of this a couple of weeks ago, but
I think it's particularly apropos today because of the things that have happened.
It concerns Bernie S., who is a frequent contributor to this program, who was arrested for possession
of a red box, held on $100,000 bail, and to the best of my knowledge, is still in the
very same prison awaiting a bail hearing.
The charges against him were dropped as far as red box possession, but the Secret Service,
the real SS, put in new charges for possession of software used to modify pay phones, modify
cellular phones, rather.
Okay, so Chris wrote up a press release and sent it out over the internet, and I'm going
to read exactly what it says, and then we're going to give you an update on that.
Okay, this came out on March 28, 1995.
Several friends of Ed, in quotes, Bernie S. Cummings, have prepared this press release
due to the fact that a man is being held on $100,000 bail for possessing the right electronic
components to trick a payphone into giving free telephone calls.
His promotion of these devices is not against any law on the land.
However, the governments of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and United States are acting
as though their own laws do not matter to them.
Delaware County, Pennsylvania, USA.
Ed Cummings, also known to many in cyberspace as Bernie S., actually it says Bernie SS, but
I'm sure that's a typo, was arrested on March 13, 1995 for two misdemeanors of possession,
manufacture, and sale of a device to commit telecommunications fraud charges.
He is being held in Delaware County Prison in lieu of $100,000 bail.
His story follows.
On the evening of the 13th, Bernie S. received a page from his mail drop.
Some people he knew from Florida had stopped in at his mail drop, thinking it was his address.
They were looking to purchase several 6.5 megahertz crystals.
These crystals, when used to replace the standard crystal in the Radio Shack hand telephone
dialer, and with some programming, produce tones that trick payphones into believing they
have received coins.
These are commonly referred to as red boxes, and got their name from an actual red box
pulled from a payphone in the late 70s by some curious person.
Ed Cummings met these people at a local 7-Eleven, where he was to sell the widely used electronic
timing crystals for roughly $4 apiece.
The purchaser only had two $20 bills, and Ed Cummings no change.
Ed Cummings went into the 7-Eleven to get some change to make the transaction.
The police officer noticed a van parked in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven with several
African-Americans inside.
As Ed was leaving the 7-Eleven, he noticed 15 police cars pulling into the parking lot
of the 7-Eleven.
Next thing he knew, the police were asking him if they could trifle through his car.
He said no.
Moments later, as he was talking to a detective and noticed another police officer going through
his car, he asked the officer to stop.
They did not.
In all, the police confiscated a few hundred 6.5 MHz crystals, which he resells for roughly
$4 apiece, and a large box of 100 dialers.
The police told him they would get back to him and he could have his electronics back
if the contents of the bag were legal.
In the contents of the seized items was one modified dialer that a customer returned after
modification, explaining that it did not work.
In other words, a broken red box.
The next day, Ed, Bernie S., was over at a friend's house working on their computer when
8 to 10 plain-clothed armed men burst into the house and ordered him and his friends
to freeze.
They cuffed him and took him to a holding cell.
There he was left without a blanket or a jacket to sleep with in the cold cell.
That evening, the Secret Service had been called in when someone figured out what the
dollars and crystals would do and put together.
The United States Secret Service found his home and entered it while they were questioning
him.
The next morning, at his arraignment, he was finally told of the charges he was being held
upon.
They were two misdemeanor charges of manufacture, distribution, and sale of devices of telecommunications
fraud and two unlawful use of a computer charge, or charges, rather.
His bail was automatically set to $100,000 because Ed Cummings refused to talk with the police
without his attorney present.
The Secret Service presented to the judge a nine-page inventory of what they had found
in his home.
On that inventory were 14 computers, two printers, boxes of BIOS chips for the systems he worked
with, EEPROM burners, which the federal agents had labeled cellular telephone chip reprogramming
adapters.
EEPROMs they used in everything from automobile computers to personal computers.
They also confiscated his toolbox of screwdrivers, wire clippers, and other computer-oriented
tools he used for his consulting job.
The judge dropped the two unlawful use of a computer charges due to the fact that the
evidence was circumstantial and the county had no actual evidence that Ed had ever used
the computers in question.
As of March 27th, 1995, Ed Cummings is still in Delaware County Prison awaiting his trial.
His trial has not yet been scheduled, and Ed will most likely not raise the $100,000 needed
to be released on bail.
If anyone has any questions or comments, direct them to this news group and my email box.
Thanks, Christopher Neitzert.
And Chris gave his phone number, his fax number, and his internet service address.
Now, here's where it gets interesting.
It was interesting before that, but here's where it gets really interesting.
On April 7th, a fax was received by Chris and sent over to the Temple University president.
Temple University was where he had his internet account from a detective, John Morris, subject
Commonwealth versus Cummings.
Now, on this fax, I should point out, it says, Township of Haverford, Delaware County
Police Department, this information contained in this facsimile message is privileged and
confidential and intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above.
If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any
dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited.
If you receive this communication in error, please notify us by phone immediately and return
the original message to us at the address listed above by the United States Postal Service.
Okay, after you get through all that, there's a little message to Christopher Neitzert here.
I hope I'm pronouncing that right.
I am surprised to see that someone from Temple University would send out a press release without
actually checking the fax prior to trashing a person's reputation.
It is obvious that the accusations against this department and I are made without any evidence
since it is so far from the truth.
You and Temple University have attacked my credibility and reputation.
I have received calls from friends and business associates appalled at my conduct.
as advertised and told by you and Temple University.
I therefore have contacted the Fraternal Order of Police to have your press release turned
over to S. Stanton Miller, ESQ, for any civil liability against you and Temple University
for defaming my character and for libel.
Signed, Detective John K. Morris, shield number 1765, Haverford Township Police.
I don't know how many of you have received the threatening fax from your police department,
but it's got to be something that kind of shakes you up a little bit.
Chris, how did you feel when you saw that the first time?
A little bit blown away.
I mean, it was on a township of Haverford, Delaware County stationery.
I have a copy right here.
And, you know, it was a bit shocking, but after a while it began to seem like a joke.
Maybe like, I don't know, like a cop trying to scare someone.
Well, the incredible thing is that somebody would send something like this to a civilian
simply exercising freedom of speech.
Now, in fact, you never even mentioned this guy's name.
Couldn't even find out the name of the arresting officer when we had found out about it.
That was put together pretty much like two days after it happened, maybe, the beginnings of it.
And from there, you know, it was just, there wasn't much out there about it.
So, now...
The Philadelphia Inquirer had, like, maybe a quarter of a paragraph about it right after
it, and that's about it.
Uh-huh.
This really sends a chilling effect to anybody that wants to use the Internet to spread information
about what's going on.
You pretty much described the facts as they happened.
This guy doesn't go into any detail as to what it is he's disputing.
Everything here seems to even parallel what was said in the indictment against him, as far
as how they were able to find him in the first place.
They saw what looked like a drug deal going on in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven.
I'm really kind of baffled as to what this guy means.
But apart from that, it's just, this is a really kind of slimy thing to do to somebody
to get them all, you know, intimidated, thinking that their cops are out to get them.
Yeah, that's also, then again, that's kind of something to expect in the coming age of
the information superhighway.
Uh-huh.
Sorry about that.
Now, this is not your local police, the next town over, is that right?
About 20 miles away.
20 miles away.
And this also happens to be the township that Bernie S. is currently being held in.
Mm-hmm.
As we know it, as we know it as of this morning.
Uh-huh.
You feel a little bit shaken up whenever you drive into that part of town?
I generally don't go there.
It's kind of the backwater.
Yeah?
Yeah, it's Delaware County.
Uh-huh.
A lot of woods and cows, you know.
Well, now, tell us something about this Delaware County.
Does it have some sort of a reputation?
Well, it's the most Republican county in the state, according to local polls and stuff.
All Republican candidates for the past 20 years have, like, statues and stuff in the
town squares out there.
It's pretty right-wing.
Uh-huh.
Well, it would seem that way.
Yeah.
It's just a sleepy town.
Uh-huh.
By the way, we will be giving out their phone number a little bit later on, in case anybody
wants to call them, and feel free to say where you heard it, okay?
Because if all of a sudden it's against the law to talk about somebody that's threatening
people with libel suits, if it's against the law to criticize the police for making an
arrest of this nature, then consider me a lawbreaker.
I'll be more than happy to go down in history as that, but we'll be giving out that phone
number in just a minute for Detective John K. Morris of the Haverford Township Police.
Yeah, so now, what kind of action have you taken in response to this?
None so far.
I've contacted a couple of attorneys, a couple of these who have volunteered to take the
course, Gratis, or take the case, Gratis.
You know, they just want to go after the guy because they think he's, you know, a fascist.
Uh-huh.
And I've thought about it.
I'm not sure yet.
I don't know if I should, you know, turn around and sue him.
I don't know if that will be the solution there.
I really don't.
Well, you know, I can't advise you as to what to do here, but whatever it is it takes
to drive home the point that this is not acceptable behavior to try and intimidate people.
I mean, these are cops, you know?
When cops say they're going to contact the fraternal order of police and have you sued
and all that kind of thing, a lot of people get very shaken up by that.
Yeah, it sounds like some cryptic Illuminatus thing, you know?
Yeah.
It's just, yeah, they've got the guns and, you know, it's not really cool.
That's exactly what they have.
Yeah.
And, I mean, well, what's it going to do to the future of this new media we have, the Internet,
in terms of the fact that this press release was written for the people, by the people,
essentially?
Mm-hmm.
Well, there seems to be a lot of movement afoot to control what is said on the net,
to control the kind of material that is being passed around.
Some information is deemed too dangerous for people to have access to.
And if we're going to have people suing politicians, cops, people suing every time they're criticized,
it's certainly going to have an effect on freedom of speech.
Now, Fiber, you went through, I don't want to say similar things.
You went through prosecution, obviously.
You wound up in the same state.
Does any of this surprise you as far as how the cops are reacting?
Actually, not really at all.
I'm sure it's the reason why there's so many prisons in Pennsylvania.
I think there's a certain mentality at work.
The prison state, I call it.
Yeah.
Well, I don't know.
I'm kind of surprised.
Maybe I'm just naive, but I didn't think that this kind of thing could just happen like this.
I didn't think people could just threaten someone with the apparent backing of the entire police department.
It doesn't seem like something we should expect.
The illusion of the backing.
Mm-hmm.
They could be a renegade for all we know.
I don't have a copy of the C-paper article handy that he gave his rebuttal in.
Um, however, he, uh, you know, he didn't say anything about the, uh, Colonel Otter's Police
and the rebuttal or, um, you know, just, uh, F. Stanton Miller Esquire or anything like that.
Uh-huh.
Okay, well, anyway, if, uh, BAI listeners, uh, care to voice their opinion, and remember,
you do have the right to do that, uh, and if you're worried about, uh, about caller ID,
dial star six seven first before you call them, I guess that'll, uh, if it's nationwide,
my caller ID is in effect yet, uh, or call from a pay phone or send them a fax or do whatever
you want, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's called free speech.
Uh, the number of, actually, I'm reading from a fax, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I,
the number I'm getting for the Township of Haverford, Delaware County Police Department
is 610-653-2400.
And, uh...
That's correct, and the fax number is 610-853-1708.
Okay, 853-1708, and the phone number is 653-2400?
Uh-huh.
Okay.
And, uh, the person's name is Detective John K. Morris, shield number 1765.
Uh, hey, maybe he's a pioneer, maybe this is the guy that's gonna, like, herald in a whole
new era of, uh, of, you know, protection against everyone's, uh, credibility, maybe you should
call him and congratulate him for being the first to take that step.
But, uh, it's really your decision, but, uh, when I call, I'm gonna have a few things
to say.
Uh, all right, Chris, thanks very much for, for standing up for freedom of speech and
for, uh, you know, being so brave about it, and I hope things work out, both with you and
certainly with Bernie S.
Have you heard anything else about him?
Uh, no.
Um, his attorney said they have a bail hearing, and that's as far as I know.
You know, I, I didn't want to go into detail with him because it's that confidentiality thing
I'm sure Bernie wants to maintain.
Right.
Okay, well, let's, uh, let's keep our fingers crossed for him, and hopefully this, this madness
will be uncovered at some point for what it is.
Again, thanks for, uh, thanks for contributing, and, uh, keep us updated.
Great, sure thing.
Okay, take care.
Quite a story coming out of Pennsylvania, and, uh, unfortunately, I have a feeling it's
not the last we're gonna be hearing of this kind of thing, Pennsylvania or elsewhere.
Our telephone number is 212-279-3400 if you have anything to, uh, ask, contribute, demand,
what have you.
Um, this is Off the Hook.
Good evening, you're on the air.
Hey, Mr. Will.
Oh, boy, it's, it's our friend.
Now, where, wait, wait, wait, wait, before you ask your questions, where are you calling
from?
Upstate still.
Now, how is it, you're upstate, yet you're still able to be the first person on the phone?
Oh, I'm the first person.
How do you manage to do it every single time?
I don't understand it.
It's just luck.
No, I don't think it's just luck.
I think it's fate.
That's what I think it is.
But anyway, I'm coming home in a couple of weeks for the summer, so, uh, that's fate
too.
Not this 2600 meeting, but the next 2600 meeting.
Next 2600 meeting, okay.
Oh, yeah, so, well, as long as you remind everybody there is a 2600 meeting, uh, this, uh, this
Friday, uh, at the City Court Center, usual place, uh, from 5 to 8 p.m.
In fact, there's meetings all over the place if you want to go to the Philadelphia meeting,
which, uh, has been...
Well, that's, by the way, the New York City is at 53rd and Lex.
Uh-huh.
Tell everybody.
Oh, there it is.
Okay, I have, uh, I have a list of all the meetings here.
The, uh, yes, it's 53rd and Lex.
Can I, can I ask you a question?
Philadelphia meeting, I'm speaking, Philadelphia meeting is, uh, it's 30th Street Amtrak Station
at 30th and Markets.
You can just kind of, kind of hop onto the, uh, Amtrak, uh, train and just hang out there
in the Amtrak station.
If you want to pay $50, you want to do that.
Well, whatever, or you can ride on top of it.
I don't know.
Anyway, I have a question about that.
You know, I'm still talking here.
I'm still trying to give out information.
Under the stairwell 7 sign, um, and I think that's, that's everything within our listening
range.
It was the Poughkeepsie meeting on the South Hills Mall off Route 9.
I don't know if people can get us on Poughkeepsie.
And, uh, by you, Rochester, right?
Right.
Well, which is about three hours from me.
But you're going to go, right?
No, I, I don't, I'm not going to go this time.
Oh, come on.
You'll probably be the smartest person there.
Well, anyway.
You probably will.
Marketplace Mall Food Court in Rochester.
Okay, go ahead.
Ask away.
Um, if I had an account on Echo or Escape or an internet account, and I wanted to send
an email message to, let's say, you at the well, how long does it take for my email message
to get from my account at Escape or Echo or New York City to the well in San Francisco?
Well, it should be instantaneous on the internet.
And by the way, uh, you would be sending it to me at my account at 2600.com, not the well,
because that's where I have migrated to.
Okay, but, um, okay.
So, let's say it was the well.
For how long, theoretically, how long does it take for an email message to go from New York
to California?
Can I just answer that question?
I heard something like that.
Instantaneous.
Instantaneous.
From here to Peru, from here to Malaysia, from here to Holland.
If it's on the net, it should be instantaneous.
Now, if you have a, some sort of a, uh, UUCP account where it only queries, uh, four times
a day, obviously it's going to take several hours.
Uh, or if you're on AOL, it might not get there at all.
That's, that's another matter.
What is the World Wide Web?
Uh, Fiber, go ahead.
Oh, boy, thanks.
I've said enough.
Uh, the World Wide Web is, uh, the World Wide Web, uh, yeah.
It's, um, it's a, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's this, um, it's this, uh, interconnection
of, uh, servers.
And, uh, these servers communicate in a protocol known as HTTP.
It's the Hypertext Transfer Protocol.
But what's HTML, pray tell?
HTML is the language that the actual web pages are composed in.
I can see people getting confused by those two HTTPs.
All right, well, I won't ask confusing questions.
When is New York City getting Enhanced 911?
Confused, Fiber, on that.
Uh, when's, when are we doing what?
Enhanced 911?
In fact, okay, Fiber knows something about this.
Interesting that you should mention, because, um, one of the, uh, guys from 9X, when they
were at my house at the, uh, I believe it was on Friday, uh, for some reason, just out
of the blue, he decided to mention E911.
And he said that, uh, there's a huge building in, it's going to be based in downtown Brooklyn.
And that they're going to set up this huge, like, fault-tolerant E911, like, whole exchange
thing.
Fault-tolerant?
Yeah.
So that means it's not going to be a 9X facility?
Yeah.
I don't know, but, uh, he said it was going to be specially protected and all kinds of
crazy things.
Mm-hmm.
Can you imagine if 9X sent us a fax every time we criticized them?
Oh, I just thought of that.
That would be something.
How do I have a thing?
You know, when your phone is disconnected, when you don't pay your bill, you know how they
disconnect your phone, you can only make outgoing phone calls?
Uh, I believe you can only get incoming phone calls.
Oh, yeah, I'm sorry.
You can kind of just, kind of defeat the purpose if they did that.
You can make a free phone call if, let's say, you called me, instead of me dialing your
number and getting the recording saying you can't make outgoing calls, I just star 69 you.
I've heard that works.
I don't think it's going to work forever.
And also, there used to be a trick, and I think it still works on 1As, uh, where you
could, uh, uh, three-way.
Yeah.
If you had three-way, you just, uh, flash hook, and there you get your, your three-way dial
tone.
If somebody, somebody has to call you first for you to do that, and then you can dial
away on that line.
Oh, that doesn't work on 5Es, or?
No, I think they figured out that that was a problem.
Yeah, they fixed it a long time ago.
Um, now, what if, and you could also dial star 66 and, uh, call.
Well, you'd simply call the last person you called who was busy.
Right.
Yeah.
But anyway, um, yeah, so, um, what else do I want to mention?
Here upstate, it's strange because there's no 411.
You've got to dial 555-1212.
Waste a lot of time with those four extra digits, right?
Some places you have to dial 1-555-1212.
No, not anymore, because of the new way of dialing.
Well, there are still some places I think you have to do that, and there's some places
you have to dial 1-4-1-1.
Right, like GTE land down in Morrisville, which is an hour from here.
I don't know if they have information in there, but, yeah, similar.
I do.
You've got to dial 1-4-1-1, I don't know why.
Yeah, I remember I was in a GTE place, and I dialed 4-1-1, and I got someone in their
home.
I remember you telling me about that.
Yeah, and this is from a pay phone.
I didn't have to put any money in, and they didn't know what their number was either.
When are they going to make it so that the operators pass ANI data to 800 numbers and
caller ID data to local numbers?
I thought they were, in fact, already passing ANI.
I think it is being passed.
I think...
No, local operators, zero operators are not passing the ANI?
It might be on area-by-area basis.
Oh, did they just start doing it?
Well, it's not going to last much longer if it is, in fact, still working.
We had a case recently where someone was calling from a prison.
In fact, Bernie S., who we were just talking about, called someone in Pennsylvania, from
a Pennsylvania prison, using Zero Plus, and his number was passed along to a caller ID
box.
So the days of Zero protecting you from caller ID are coming to an end.
Now, in other words, you can dial Zero and then have them connect you with an 800 number,
and then there's a number that you can call Will Tell, and they'll ask you for your phone
number.
Give them any number you want.
Say, how are you billing the call?
I'm billing it to the phone I'm at.
Yeah, exactly.
That's how I was able to prove that Bill Clinton was pranking me, because it showed up on the
bill like that.
He's getting all these calls from the White House.
Collect.
All right.
That's, well, we want to wish you well up there.
Okay.
Well, I'll be home in a couple of weeks, and I guess that's it.
I'll make my travel plans now.
Thank you very much for calling, and good luck up there.
Okay.
Take care.
212-279-3400.
Good evening.
You're on off the hook.
Yeah, hello?
Hi.
Yeah, hang on.
Let me turn on my radio.
Okay.
Okay, the thing is, I thought 800 calls, calls to 800 numbers, they were free, but I just
got a bill on mine.
What 800 numbers did you do?
I don't have it with me right now.
Hang on.
I could grab it in one second.
Okay.
It's on my phone bill.
I was really surprised, because, you know, being in the field that we're all in, I call
up for information all the time.
And I think I mis-dialed the number, or, you know, like, anything, but the 800 number
is, uh, uh, hang on.
Oh, okay.
It doesn't give me the 800 number on this, but it says, uh, to get information.
Oh.
To get information, you have to call the specific number, which I called, which is 800.
Well, yeah, they always say that, but what does it, what are you being billed for?
Uh, it's a, it's a sex line, which I, which I don't think I ever called.
If I call, I dial the wrong, uh, you know.
Whether or not you called it is not the point.
The point is, what are they, are they billing you, does it say the number?
No, it doesn't.
It just says, um, miscellaneous charges.
What, what exactly does it say?
What, what exactly does it say?
Uh, it doesn't give any information.
It says, M-I-S-C-E-L-O-A-N-E-O-U-S charges.
A miscellaneous charge.
Miscellaneous charges.
It doesn't give a phone number?
No.
Does it give a time and day?
No.
It just says miscellaneous charges.
Right.
From, uh, International Telemedia Associates for, uh, $46.26.
Whoa.
I would call them and ask them just what exactly they're talking about.
And, yeah, I got all the information from them as to when the call was made and all that.
Did they give you the number that was called?
Uh, yeah, they did.
Oh, yeah, here's the number.
It's, uh, 1-800-229-4862.
4-8-6-2.
Right, 2-2-9-4-8-6-2.
Okay.
And it's, uh, it's obviously an 800 number, and it was called for 4 minutes and 23 seconds.
Hmm.
Okay, we're going to give this a shot and see what, uh, what the, what the story is here.
Listen, listen on the air, and, uh, maybe we'll get an answer.
Okay?
Uh, I should hang on?
Uh, no, let's listen on the radio because, uh, you'll probably hear it better that way.
Okay.
And, uh, well, we'll see if we can get to the bottom of this one.
Okay.
What do you think, Fiber?
You think, uh...
I think it's another scandal.
You think it's something we should pursue?
Sure, why not?
Okay, because, uh, people shouldn't be billed for, uh, for 800 calls, I think.
You know, it's just not right.
800 is, is toll-free, and soon 888 will be toll-free.
I decided to call it 888 rather than 888.
Sounds a lot better.
Yeah.
We're having some difficulty with our phones here, as usual.
But, uh, hopefully that won't last much longer.
Okay, we're trying to get a dial tone here.
Let's see if we can get one.
There we go.
Okay.
Now we're going to dial this 800 number.
See if, uh, they actually try to bill us.
It's ringing.
Hey, baby.
Congratulations.
Oh, boy.
You've been selected as an exclusive member of our new nasty triple X phone club.
My cock-hungry girlfriends are waiting to get you.
Okay, okay, okay.
At 0-1-1-5-9-2-5-9-2-5-9-2-5-9-6.
That number again is 0-2-5-9-2-5-9-2-5-9-2-5-9-1-5-9-2-5-9-2.
Well, she's giving out a phone number.
I don't think you can get billed for that.
0-2-5-9-2-5-9-6.
Call now.
They're waiting for you.
Zero, one, one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Enough advertising for you.
Nine, two.
You going to charge us or not?
Nine, six.
Doesn't sound like it.
Well, if they do, they certainly didn't inform you you were being charged.
That's right.
Okay, well, we have a couple hundred thousand New Yorkers that witnessed this,
so if we get billed for this, and I intend to ask if we do,
you can expect another call of a different nature from us.
All right, they hung up.
They're not there anymore.
Where's five, nine, two?
They didn't hear that threat.
Five, nine, two, you know, I think that's...
Isn't that Guyana or something?
Yeah, I think it's one of the Caribbean countries.
There have been cases where, lots of cases,
where you call a foreign country for these sex lines,
and you get billed international rates,
but they have some sort of an agreement with the local phone company there
where they get a percentage of all incoming calls to that particular country.
So I don't know how you could be billed $46 for it, though.
That's kind of outrageous unless you stay on for a long time.
But, you know, if this guy says he didn't call somewhere overseas,
then it's an interesting story.
If he did, I don't know.
No comment.
Good evening.
You're on the radio.
Yeah, hi.
My name is Joe.
Hi, Joe.
Yeah, I'd just like to shed a little light on the ISDN cycle with the phone company.
Okay, go ahead.
There's a lot of new fiber optic remote telephone sites,
and a lot of the channel units that they're using for the ISDN aren't compatible with the digital switch.
And by the time it goes through the channels to get engineering and the construction people,
the layout, the proper combination, unfortunately, is a little time-consuming.
We run into it up in the Bronx also, and it is a little frustrating.
When you use the right test sets, it shouldn't have taken that long
if they followed up on their installation and repair technicians going out on it.
But they do have some problems with the different type channels, like I said,
with the different central office equipment.
A lot of it's being cleared up because I think they're going to be getting into a lot of ISDN, you know, currently.
Joe, are you a 9X employee?
Yes.
Wait a minute. How did you know that?
Well, he said we.
Oh, he did. He did, didn't he? Okay.
So, Joe...
It's sad because, you know, I work with a lot of, you know, not a lot of them lately,
but a while back we were putting quite a few of those ISDNs in.
That's the trouble we ran into.
Joe, let me ask you something.
You think we're too hard on 9X?
No, I haven't been listening to the station at all.
Someone just told me about the radio station.
But what can I say?
The truth hurts.
Well, yes, I've heard that from many people at 9X, actually.
They're doing all kinds of things over there, aren't they?
They're cutting jobs.
They're trying to streamline things.
I don't think they're cutting jobs.
I think it's just a big rearrangement.
Yeah.
And it's not easy for me to say where they're going, but there's a lot of retirements going on.
Do you think competition is going to be a good thing?
I think 9X has got them all beat, to tell you the truth.
Yeah.
Well, there is no competition yet.
I mean, there's some...
There's a lot of good equipment out there, and I think we're just going to go like wildfire pretty soon.
And we're getting the fiber optic.
I mean, it's almost 90% in the Bronx already.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
Well, let's hope the ISDN, you know, functions smoothly.
It's hard to hear that it took so long, you know.
Forty, 43 days it took us.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I know.
I know what you're saying.
But I think that was a big reason, because unfortunately, like you're saying, that the way the trouble with the repairman installers got their orders and troubles integrated or mixed up or double dispatch or whatever it was,
that seems to be the delay.
Just a few, you know, too many steps that you had to go through, you know?
Yeah.
Well, we should clarify, though.
Once they actually got the order and understood the order, we basically got our service in about a week or two.
Yeah.
All the lag time was in the under-training of the service reps in the business office who just kept stalling us and putting us off.
Well, see, I guess that's partly true, because like what you were saying about not getting rid of a lot of good talent is retiring.
That's not good, because a lot of the good people, the people that have been there the longest, that understand how the whole thing ties together.
Well, I guess the new regime, they've got to start training them a little bit better.
And like I said, I think there's going to be a big influx of this ISDN.
It's going to be, you know, it is fairly new to the repairman and specials, you know, and everything.
And like there's so many different types of equipment at these remote sites that it's a little different at each site, the type of work that they have to go through.
So, jacks shouldn't make a difference.
It's just how the end plugs are wired.
Right.
You think this one penny a minute surcharge for digital connections is going to go away soon?
That I don't know.
That I couldn't even tell you.
Because I think 9X would be doing a lot more business if it wasn't for that.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's true.
All right.
Listen, thanks for calling us.
Okay, thank you.
All right.
Good luck.
Bye.
So, the word does get out to 9X.
That's what it does, yeah.
Yeah.
That's good to know.
It's good to know they're all out there somewhere.
Words on the street.
Yeah.
You know, those cops in Haverford probably already know about this.
They're probably listening.
They probably have a repeater out there or something like that.
Who knows?
212-279-3400.
Good evening.
You're on.
Yeah.
My name is Joe.
Another Joe.
Hi.
How are you doing?
Oh, pretty good.
Could you answer a personal question?
Not personal.
Pertaining to me.
Okay.
Which seems to be in the electronics field.
Well, what's your question?
Let's see what you have to say.
I was an engineer, and in the early 90s, I got laid off.
My company moved to South Carolina, and I started training people.
I became a personal trainer, but I still get a lot of electronic magazines and things.
What would be a good field to get back into?
I used to do high-speed design.
High-speed design of what?
Well, I worked for a company that made fiber-optic modems, and we dealt in fiber-optic.
And we, the area, what we were doing is, being that their signals were digital, you know,
one megahertz digital signal is ten times that with the harmonics.
So I had to make sure whenever we interfaced our equipment with any other equipment,
I mean, I always call a signal integrity engineer.
Joe, let me give you some advice.
Fiber-optic fusion splicing.
Lots of money in that.
Oh, it seems like ATM is the next coming thing.
Well, it's still fiber.
Yeah, you do ATM over sonnet rings.
That's all fiber.
Yeah, the sonnet.
Is there, is it, you think it would be good, you think I could get back into it after four
years out of it?
I don't see why not.
Oh, okay.
I just wanted to, you know, after listening to you and reading magazines like that, like
electronic design, electronic design news, I've been reading them for the last four years.
I'm pretty much up on the current state of the art, but I haven't worked for four years
because of the layoff.
Yeah.
You think that would affect...
Well, you ask if it affects you psychologically, probably to a degree.
No, no.
With that, usually they want to hire you either right out of school or they want you to be
laid off recently.
Oh, you think some young punk is going to undercut you for the job.
Is that what you're saying?
Yeah.
Well, you might have to deal with that, you know, to a degree, but there are people that
realize that good employees come in all ages, and you will find people like that, and plus
there are certain anti-discrimination laws that will be on your side as well.
What do you mean by anti-discrimination laws?
Well, they can't just discriminate on you based on age.
That's not right.
Oh, they can't, but they do.
Everybody in my company that got laid off was in their 30s and older.
Uh-huh.
Old-timers, huh?
There's so many ways around that, you know?
Uh-huh.
They don't have to say they're discriminating.
They'll just pick someone else who is younger.
They could pay them a lot less, with a lot less experience.
Joe, I think the important thing is for you not to get all caught up in that, to know that
that you can do the job and to, you know, just find the person that will appreciate you
for who you are.
What I really wanted to ask is about, say, entrepreneurial type, starting your own business.
What would be a good area to, uh, in that type of pursuit?
Well, it has to be something that you're interested in, and only you can do in your particular way,
you know?
You mentioned they closed down all them spy shop places and things like that.
Well, they raided them.
They didn't close them down.
They're still open.
Would it be legal to, like, design things like that for people, like, uh, what they made?
Is that legal?
Well, there's some things that are legal and some things that are not legal.
You have to check into that, you know, as far as, uh, what monitoring devices are permitted
and which ones aren't.
And the ones that aren't, of course, you can still make.
You just have to make them for the government.
Yeah, because basically, I've never went to one of those shops.
I don't even know what this involves, but I know I can design things like that,
because that was an R&D.
Well, go, go to one of those stores and look over the things they have.
Okay, thank you very much.
Okay, good luck.
Thanks.
All right.
Good to help someone along in a career there.
Poor Joe.
Yeah.
212-279-3400.
Fiber optic fusion splicing?
Yeah.
What were you thinking?
There's big money in that.
Yeah, but this poor guy's going to go out there and do fiber optic fusion splicing,
and who knows what's going to happen as a result.
Do you have any idea what kind of can of worms you've opened?
It's underground.
Yeah, it's underground, exactly, and there's a reason why it's underground.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Oh, yes.
I think I have, what's his name, a fiber optic?
He's over there, yes.
Yeah, here I am.
Yeah, well, sir, what I was trying to do is,
I've been involved with a lot of scams up in Rockland County.
You know all about the prosecutor.
You probably don't know about Pat Massey, our local phone tapper who drives around with what we call the bucket truck and taps lines.
In 1990, he was the highest paid, or somewhere around 1990, he was the highest paid Rockland County employee.
By the way, he himself doesn't really have too many bad intentions.
You know, he just bust deals.
He just does drug busts and things like that.
Okay, besides talking about this guy, what's your point?
What I wanted to know is, I'm involved in a lot of litigation, and I'm being tapped and everything like that.
And on top of that, I have a lot of...
Pat Massey's listening now.
Hi, Pat.
And I'd just like to contribute to your show, but it's a little hard to get in touch.
All I have is your post office box.
Mm-hmm.
You know, if somebody could give me, you know, like a quicker line that I could use during the week to reach you guys.
You want to talk to somebody's voice? Good luck.
Yeah.
It's hard for us to keep a hold of each other.
We're always somewhere different.
I can give you our office phone number.
You can take your chances with that.
I can give you our email address.
707, right?
I can't do anything with a computer.
707?
Yeah, that's the office.
No.
I guess I have it wrong, then.
You must.
Yeah, I don't know where 707 came from.
The number at the office is...
Oh, you're talking about BAI.
Okay, yeah.
279-0707.
No.
If you want to reach us at 2600, you can call us at 516-751-2600.
Hold on.
The pen just broke.
I'll get the other one.
Aren't those pens annoying?
Go ahead.
Okay, 516-751-2600.
516-751-2600.
516-751-2600?
Yes.
That's 751-2600, right?
Yes, that's it.
Thank you.
Okay, good luck.
Bye.
That number once again.
In case you just tuned in.
Oh, I don't think so.
It's 9 minutes to 11 o'clock.
We have 9 minutes left.
Good evening.
You're on the last 9 minutes of the show.
You have to speak up, though.
Yes, hello.
Yes, go ahead.
I was just wondering about the...
You're on a cordless phone.
Yeah.
And it's not a very good one.
All right.
Get a little closer to the...
Yeah, get a little closer to the base unit there.
Yeah.
We can't hear you.
Yeah, I was just wondering, because I had a...
What do you call those cards?
The telephone cards.
Uh-huh.
I wanted to know about how the scam works when they operate on those things.
I had a $3,000 phone bill, and I used it once.
I didn't lose the card.
There was only one time that the card was out of my sight or my possession.
Wait.
What kind of card are we talking about here?
A regular calling card?
Yeah.
Well, it came with my long-distance carrier.
I think it was...
Yeah, MCI.
That was what it was.
Okay.
And I had it in my bag, and I put my bag...
You know, when you go walk into a store, they want you to check your bag.
So you think they might have looked at it then?
Because they don't need the card.
They just need the number.
Right, right, right.
So you think that's what happens is that they say people go through the bag?
I'll be honest with you, sir.
It's not your concern what happened, who got it.
The fact of the matter is, you know, if you got $3,000 worth of calls on your calling card,
you're in no way responsible for that.
Right, right, right.
So just call them and say you want that taken off your bill,
and they'll probably say they want to investigate, and you say, fine, go ahead, investigate,
call all those people, do whatever you want.
I don't know who they are.
You have nothing to worry about.
Right.
Yeah, they did that, and they said they were going to turn it over to their investigation unit.
Yeah, great, but any time, you know, the only thing preventing you from getting $3,000 worth
of calls on your bill is 14 digits, someone's going to get those 14 digits one way or another
someday.
So it's not your fault if it happens.
So continue to give your bag to the employees at various stores.
You know, don't hide your credit cards, because that's the system that they've chosen to use,
where all it takes are those digits.
You know, it's their rules you're playing by, and unfortunately, they get burned sometimes.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
Okay?
All right, thanks a lot.
All right, take care.
I don't mean to sound too harsh, but, I mean, it is kind of a stupid system.
You know, Visa and MasterCard, you know, all you need are the digits.
You don't even need the card.
You just can give the digits out to anybody, no verification whatsoever.
And they wonder, hey, people are stealing from us.
How could this happen?
Good evening.
You're on the radio.
Go ahead.
Yes.
If you, for those listeners out there, if you're in Westchester on Paragon Cable,
turn to the pay-per-view channel.
It's 38 here in Mount Vernon.
Okay.
There's what normally is the preview channel.
It has, like, a list of the movies.
Mm-hmm.
There is a red blinking box, and it says, software error.
Click the left mouse button to continue.
It's slipping through the channels.
It's been like this for, like, the past 10 hours or so.
Really?
Yes, and there's an error number of, like, 0100 and a task number, which I don't know.
I'll leave it up to you and the listeners.
So this is channel 38?
Yes.
Of Paragon Cable in Westchester?
Yep.
Okay.
So tune to channel 38.
And you don't have to pay for this, right?
No, it's the preview channel.
The preview channel.
I mean, I get it.
I have the scrambler, but for those, you know, all you need is basic.
And if anybody in the Paragon Cable building up there is listening, click your left mouse button.
It's been like that for, like, the past 10 hours.
10 hours, huh?
Wow.
I was waiting for it to change, but after, like, 10 minutes, I get it.
You might want to start running your video recorder on this one.
Because no one's going to believe you.
Okay.
Thanks for calling.
All right.
No problem.
That's a kind of technical glitch we like to hear about, huh?
That's like the person that was watching a closed caption thing on TV.
Remember that?
And they suddenly saw, no carrier.
And then it said, dialing, connect, and it started with the closed captioning again.
So guess what kind of system they use.
Good evening.
You're on Off the Hook.
Hi, yes.
I got two questions.
One is, what kind of system does Domino's Pizza know that when you're getting on your phone number,
they have your address and everything automatically?
Does it happen all the time?
Well, in Park Slope, every time I call the Domino's Pizza, they say, what's your phone number?
I give it to them.
They tell me my address.
Okay.
Well, if that's the case, I was going to say they were using caller ID, but they don't have
caller ID if they ask you for your phone number.
No, they should just get the ID and just check.
Right.
They have some sort of a cross-referencing system.
It's probably a CD-ROM or something that has phone numbers cross-listed to addresses.
And they're pretty commonly available.
Thing is, I don't think they can get that if it's unlisted.
So try giving them an unlisted phone number and see what happens.
Oh, okay.
Because I would have been saying, if it's that easy, I mean, every police department has a computer.
How come they can't respond to a 911 call?
Yeah, well, they don't have enhanced 911 yet.
When they do, they will be able to do that.
But try that experiment.
I'd like to know what happens.
Give them what you know is an unlisted phone number and see if they actually get the address.
I think they'll just act all confused.
Yeah, I like to confuse people, especially with the telephone.
Or give them their own number and see what happens.
There you go.
Yeah.
And I got one more quick question.
A&I, how can you block that off your phone?
Blocking A&I?
Like star 57?
Like the 800 number?
Call ID?
Mm-hmm.
How can you not let them know your phone number?
Well, you might be able to go through your operator.
And they might be able to block it that way.
Yeah, they might be able to get some kind of special service charge where I have to pay to have them do it.
Not if you say you're having trouble dialing.
No, like when I call an 800 number, they can get my phone number.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I'm saying if you go through the operator and say connect me to this 800 number because I'm having trouble dialing.
Oh, okay.
So all they get is the operator number.
It's possible.
Now, it's possible your number won't be transmitted and they'll get all zeros or something.
But it's also possible that that's been fixed by now.
My main fear is that they sell my phone number to other people.
It's quite possible.
That's one of the fears of many people.
I used to be a telemarketer before I learned about some other tricks.
Well, you know, sometimes it's handy to have somebody in a foreign state three-way you to that 800 number so your number doesn't show up at all.
There's all kinds of options and we'll be looking into them.
All right.
Thanks a lot.
Okay.
One more call?
Sure.
Good evening.
You're on.
All right.
Um, okay.
Uh, first off, hello?
Yeah, speak up, please.
Okay.
I just need to load the radio here.
Okay.
Um, I had a question about, uh, I know you guys were talking about ATM before, uh, synchronous transfer mode.
And I really don't know what that is.
Um, I've heard a lot of talking about that.
Can you explain what that is?
Okay.
The next voice you'll hear will be fiber optic explaining ATM.
In under two minutes.
Yeah.
And you better make it quick.
So let's go.
Uh, ATM is a new type of switching.
Uh, it's basically geared towards multimedia.
The, uh, the way switching systems work today is rather wasteful.
If, uh, there's no data actually being sent at the time, then, uh, the absence of data is still sent, whereby the actual data, or the absence of that data still takes up space on the actual medium that the data goes over.
The way ATM works is that it uses what's called cell switching, where it divides the data up into really small packets that are about 53 bytes long that are called cells.
And the way it works is that it actually interleaves the data based on what type it is.
Like, say, for example, something that's, uh, rather intermittent, like voice, wouldn't be as wasteful because it would actually interleave the empty spaces with something more continuous, like video.
So, does that make sense?
I think I understand that.
Um, there was one other thing I wanted to mention as far as Domino's goes.
Yeah.
Um, they don't have any kind of CD-ROM database as far as I know because I called them once and the first time I called they asked for my address.
From then on they always knew it.
So I have a feeling they just kind of type in it the first time.
Oh, so you think that they're keeping their own little database.
I, I would assume that's what's going on, but it could be.
Okay, well, if the other caller ever remembers doing that, that could very well, uh, explain it.
But, uh, for those of you who do business with Domino's, uh, you know, check out what they're doing and, uh, get back to us and let's know how it works.
Um, one last thing before I go.
Real quick.
Okay.
Um, I found this key sticking out inside of one of the cocots I was using.
And, um, it doesn't really open anything up, but it's kind of shaped like a T.
And, uh, the only thing that I was able to open with it was, uh, in a restaurant, there was, uh, an enclosure that the pay phone was in.
And, uh, it had this, uh, slot on it and I was able to open up that with it.
But, um, I haven't been able to open any coin boxes or anything of that sort with, um, any suggestions on what could be done with it.
I have no idea.
I have no idea what to do with that.
Uh, it's a key to something, but, uh, probably, you know, go back to the original cocot and I'm sure it'll do something there.
We're out of time.
Um, so I want to thank everybody for calling up and, uh, for being part of things tonight.
We'll be back again.
We won't be back next week.
We're preempted next week.
But the week after that is our special two-hour and 45-minute fundraiser.
So be sure to be around for that.
Whoops.
Wrong theme.
And, uh, we'll be, we'll see you again in, uh, in two weeks.
That's the right theme.
Until then, take care.
Stay awake.
Stay tuned for the news.
The telephone keeps ringing.
So I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving.
Now I can't make a call.
It could be yet much worse.
But if they could, they would.
Bum, baby, bum, for the best to expect the worst.
I hope that fun is good.
Bum, baby, boom!
Bum, baby, boom!
Bum, baby, boom!
Bum, baby, boom!