The Mighty Sparrow returns Sunday, November the 26th at Columbia University's Ferris Booth
Hall.
Stay tuned for details.
It's 8 p.m.
This is WBAI New York time for Off the Hook.
The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a cough.
It couldn't get much worse, but if they could, they would.
Bum-Dig-Lig-Bom for the best, expect the worst.
I hope that's understood.
Bum-Dig-Lig-Bom!
Bum-Dig-Lig-Bom!
Bum-Dig-Lig-Bom!
And a very good evening to everybody.
This is Off the Hook.
Emanuel Goldstein here with you on this Tuesday night from 8 p.m. until 9 p.m.,
where we talk about the latest happenings on the net and over your telephone lines
and all kinds of other fun things that are going on out there.
We're going to do things a little differently tonight.
We're going to start taking phone calls almost immediately at 212-279-3400.
That way we get the Jerry Brown backlash there for those political people that are into technology.
Yeah, we know you're out there.
So give us a call if you have anything interesting to say or questions to ask or things like that.
We've got a couple of fun things that, you know, if you check your mail,
if you check your mail often enough, you find some really funny things with your phone bill many times.
Apart from the funny numbers that the phone company expects you to pay,
you'll also find some funny numbers that they expect you to call sometimes.
And in my MCI bill, I get a bill from every phone company, by the way.
It's the only way to really find out what's going on.
In my MCI bill, I got this little notice called,
We Speak Your Language.
MCI's customer service professionals are always ready to assist you.
A bilingual representative will answer any questions you have.
And then they give all these toll-free 800 numbers.
But the funny thing is, they don't say what language they are.
They spell it out in the letters of the other language.
But in many times, those letters are not even remotely similar to letters that we've ever seen before in any sense.
So, what we're going to try to do, and we'll try to do this as, you know, as tastefully as possible.
And also, we'll do one every few minutes.
We're going to call up certain numbers and find out just what language it is exactly that these people will help us in.
And these are MCI operators.
They might be recordings at this hour of the day.
We're not quite sure.
So, let's try the first one.
It's 1-800-560-0726.
Let's see what we get.
Well, that was MCI.
I don't know quite what they were saying.
But I also don't know how they're going to help us if they just say that and don't say anything else.
Thank you for calling MCI.
I'm going to be speaking.
How can I help?
Oh, yes.
I'm sorry.
Which language is this?
This is the Arabic language.
Oh, this is the Arabic language.
Okay.
I wanted a different language.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
Are you up in 24 hours?
In English, but in language until 10 o'clock.
Okay.
So, if you don't speak English, it's until 10 o'clock, but otherwise 24 hours.
Yes.
We speak a different language until 12.
Some languages stop at 10, some stop at 12, but English 24 hours.
Okay.
Some languages stop at 10, some stop at midnight, but English is 24 hours.
Correct.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
Right.
Boy, I'm learning a lot.
Wow.
So, you can speak English 24 hours a day on MCI, but Arabic, I believe, was until 10, and
other languages, they speak up until midnight, and then I guess they go back over to English.
That's kind of neat.
You know, Newt Gingrich would be very proud of this because he went on TV yesterday and
said that, you know, if we don't make English the mandatory language of this country, we're
going to have states and regions splitting off like Quebec almost did yesterday because
the only thing that makes countries split apart is language.
We all know that.
So, I bet he'll be proud of what MCI is doing here.
English 24 hours, other languages, part-time.
Okay.
Let's take some phone calls, and we'll check out some other languages.
That looked kind of Arabic, actually, that writing there.
So, if you want to speak Arabic to an MCI operator, it's 1-800-560-0726.
Good evening.
You're on the radio.
Thank you.
Yeah, hi.
Can you tell me if there's a terminal adapter, an ISDN terminal adapter that's integrated with
a telephone, unlike, let's say, the Motorola BitSurfer, which is just a terminal adapter,
sort of leaving out the caller ID features?
Well, actually, Fiber's not here tonight, but he would be the person to ask that question
as far as what specifically ties into ISDN.
And the BitSurfer Pro, I know, is, oh, Fiber did show up.
How nice.
Fiber, why don't you ask, you want to answer that question one more time?
Sure.
Right now, I'm using a Motorola BitSurfer, which doesn't allow the caller ID features.
Motorola came out with a BitSurfer Pro, but that's another nearly $400.
I feel that before I put out another $400 to Motorola, I'd like to look for something
that was like an integrated telephone and ISDN terminal adapter all in one package.
Do you know of anything like that?
Yeah.
Incidentally, there's a firmware upgrade to the Motorola BitSurfer that does support caller
ID for voice calls.
Well, I got the upgrade, the hardware upgrade.
They sent me the two chips, and I put it in, and it doesn't give you the caller ID facility.
When I called them and said, well, why did you send me the chips?
They said, well, that's so that you can use it with Win95.
Do you know which revision of chips they sent you?
Gee, I don't know.
I can tell you it was last week.
Yeah.
You don't know if it was 1D, Prototype 3, or 1F?
I closed the case already.
I don't know.
And I want to tell you, that was some engineering job to get the case open.
Oh, yeah, yeah, with the invisible snaps.
Yeah, it kind of left me with leaving a couple of scratches on the side, so now even if I
want to move it off as a used item to try to recoup some of the cost of a new terminal
adapter, it's lost some of it.
Yeah.
Well, there's two that you want to have.
You want to either have 1D, Prototype 3, or the other one is, the latest one is 1F.
And 1F supports caller ID logging for voice calls.
Oh, so in other words, it'll log into a file.
It'll log it into a register, yeah.
It logs it in a register.
Incidentally, I have the BitSurfer Pro myself, and it's good timing that you should ask this
question, because I just got the firmware upgrade to the BitSurfer Pro today.
And you could actually upgrade it through software.
You don't have to swap chips.
And the BitSurfer Pro actually allows you to use a caller ID box.
It actually will do the conversion and allow you to use an analog caller ID box.
Is that straight out of the box, or are you going to take it out of the box and then call
them up for the upgrade?
No, no, not at all.
It's right out of the box.
Actually, if you buy it now, I actually got it for beta testing.
And I had to do a software upgrade to it, because there's various problems with my unit where
it wasn't loud enough.
The caller ID data wasn't loud enough.
And they're having some electrical problems with interference in metropolitan areas, like
from radio stations and so on.
So there might have to be a hardware fix to it at some point in the near future.
But one thing you might want to consider is, I don't know what revision you're using.
You can see, without having to open it up, you can type A-T-I-8.
I'm not in front of this now.
Okay, well, just for future reference, and it'll tell you one whatever, one A-B-C-D-E-R-F.
Okay, and what I'm looking for is E-F.
Yeah, you want to have at least D prototype three or F something.
Or F something.
If you have E something, then you're out of luck.
The thing is, you can get support for custom calling features, if you have the D prototype
or if you have F.
And this support also is available in BitSurfer Pro, as well as an additional voice port and
so on.
And just some information I was able to find out, just from poking around, I noticed that
they had added support for B-Channel X25, as well as frame relay in the BitSurfer Pro,
although that's undocumented as of yet.
It's probably still in the testing stages.
Well, I had run around a little bit with Nortel, but for some reason, they were all very confused.
I can't seem to get a straight answer on exactly if they make a product.
But with this, since all I'm looking for is the caller ID features, I guess hardware upgrade
is my answer.
So I guess I'll say thank you very much.
Okay.
Yeah, I would certainly recommend the BitSurfer Pro.
I think it's a really great product if what you're looking for is a really rich variety
of features for both voice and data.
Well, what I didn't like about Motorola's move was that they put out the BitSurfer, I
got caught in the middle of the hype, I bought the BitSurfer, and then a month and a half
later, they released the BitSurfer Pro.
Yes, I hear that.
I'm in the same boat there.
I'm kind of feeling a bit perturbed about that myself.
And I'll tell you something, instead of giving them $300 or $400, I would rather give $600
or $700 to another company.
I'm really aggravated at this point.
All this computer stuff seems to have an emotional effect on me, and I feel ripped off by these
people at this point.
I like Motorola, but right now I feel like...
Anyway, let me let you get to another caller.
Call us.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for calling.
I call that Macintosh syndrome.
You know, they make you buy all this memory for a machine, and then all of a sudden they
introduce a new one.
And by the way, the chips don't work anymore in the new machines.
That's happened to me about six or seven times now.
So, yeah, that's the story, the latest on ISDN.
Fiber, any new features on your line this week?
Yeah, actually, as of the end of last week, I got a call answering with message waiting
indication, which is basically 9x voicemail.
And if a call comes in and I'm not around, and the phone rings about four or five times,
transfers to voicemail, or of course, if my line is busy.
And with the addition of that, on my Motorola Bitsurfer Pro, there's a little flashing yellow
light indicator.
That's the message waiting indicator that lets me know that I have voicemail, just in case
I happen to walk in the door, and I noticed you left me a message.
You really like that.
Yeah, I do, actually.
You really like that 9x voicemail.
I don't know.
I mean, my answering machine has a little flashing light, too.
Yeah.
You know, and I can do whatever I want with that flashing light.
But, I don't know, I just, it's 9x, you know, I don't trust 9x for anything, and voicemail,
I don't know.
But you haven't had any trouble yet.
No, no trouble as far as that goes.
You haven't filled up your mailbox to capacity.
No, actually, I have, I think, about six or seven safe messages, and it says that they'll
be saved for the next 30 days.
Oh, really?
And it doesn't matter if, it doesn't matter if you have, say, another 50 messages come
in.
I don't know if there's any upper limit.
I certainly haven't reached it.
Oh, I think you'll find out pretty soon.
Yeah.
All right, shall we try another language?
Let's give another language a try.
We're calling 800 numbers that belong to MCI that give language assistance for strange
languages.
They won't tell you what the language is because they print out the language in the language
that it is, and sometimes you can't read what that language is.
This one looks sort of like Chinese, but I can't really tell for sure because the one
underneath it looks just like Chinese as well.
In fact, if I'm not mistaken, those are the exact same characters, so maybe it's two
different dialects of the same language.
What do you think?
Uh, they look practically the same to me.
They look practically identical.
In fact, one is a little tighter than the other, so let's call them consecutively, well,
not consecutively.
That would be something if we call them at the same time.
Maybe it's a Mandarin Cantonese.
It might be Mandarin Cantonese.
That's what I'm thinking, too.
Okay, this is 1-800-777-0958.
Let's see what MCI language we get.
Okay, I think we have...
Oh, dear.
Um, I...
What language is this?
Mandarin?
I'm sorry?
Mandarin.
Oh, Mandarin.
Ah, no, I want English.
How do I get English?
You don't get English?
Okay.
Let me transfer you, okay?
Okay, thank you.
Okay.
Being transferred to English.
Next sound you hear will be that of the English operator.
Or maybe you can't do...
Calling MCI.
Sir, just hold on the line, okay?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
On a new telephone line, press 1 now.
Ah.
If you are an existing MCI customer, press 2 now.
Are we existing?
You're calling from a rotary telephone.
Please hold for assistance.
Please key in your home, area code, and telephone number.
Please key in your home, area code, and telephone number?
How do you do that?
What do you mean?
Well, they said, please key in your home, area code, and telephone number.
As if you're supposed to key in three things.
Your home...
I mean...
That doesn't...
I don't know.
Somehow that was lost in the translation, and that was MCI English.
Let's, uh...
All right.
I'm going to try that other number.
I guarantee you it's Cantonese.
Yeah, it probably is Cantonese.
But let's see if we can appreciate the difference in the dialect.
How many times do you have the opportunity to do this?
1-800-825-8881.
Hello, what language is this?
What language is that?
Um...
Chinese.
Uh...
Which Chinese?
Cantonese.
Uh...
Cantonese.
Ah, okay.
Uh...
Sorry, I'll...
I have the wrong number.
Uh...
Are you dialed to MCI?
MCI, yes.
Okay.
What language do you speak?
Uh...
Well, mostly I speak English, but I delve a little bit into Swahili and things like that.
Probably I can help.
Okay.
Uh...
I was wondering if, uh...
What...
What time are the different languages open until?
For instance, what time does Cantonese stay open until?
Are we open?
Okay.
English and Chinese, they open 24 hours a day.
Oh, English and Chinese are open 24 hours.
Yes.
Is that both Mandarin and Cantonese?
Yes.
Okay.
All right, great.
That's...
That's all I needed to know, then.
Uh...
You need some help for, uh...
Your account?
Uh...
No, I don't have an account yet, but, uh...
I probably will open one soon.
Okay.
If you call to, uh...
English...
Representatives, I can give you the number.
Um...
Okay.
What's the number for the English representative?
1-800.
Uh-huh.
4-4-4.
3-3-33.
Okay.
That's three fours and four threes.
Yes.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for calling inside.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
I could have said something in Chinese, but, uh...
Actually, I would have said it in the wrong dialect, you know.
Yeah.
And that would have been an insult.
Would have been fighting words.
And he has my number because I called him 800 numbers, so...
I don't know about that.
Okay, so that's, uh...
So, so far we've done Arabic, um...
Cantonese, and Mandarin Chinese, and we still have a bunch of others.
And some of them actually say what they are, which, uh...
I'll get to in a little while.
Is there a Swahili on there?
I don't think so.
No?
But if there is a Swahili, it doesn't say Swahili.
At least not in English, it doesn't.
But it could very well be.
Okay, let's go back to the phones.
You know, this line is broken.
This line has been broken now for about, uh...
A couple of months.
I'm going to press it anyway and see what happens.
Nothing happened.
Okay.
So it really is broken.
Okay.
212-279-3400.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Good evening.
You are on the air.
Uh, Emmanuel.
Yes, you are on the air.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Radio confusion here.
Uh, some interesting news concerning 1-800-MY-ANI-IS.
Uh, it doesn't work anymore.
Apparently, uh...
That's the news.
I don't know if I'm getting this weird radio echo.
What is this?
Well, that's because we're on delay and you're listening to the radio instead of to your phone.
I realize that.
Yes.
I have my volume all the way down and it's like, what's happening here?
Uh-huh.
1-800-MY-ANI-IS no longer works.
That's the news you want to report tonight, right?
Yeah, did somebody else report this other number?
It's 1-800-568-3197.
5-6-8-3197?
Well, that's harder to remember.
Huh?
That's a lot harder to remember.
Yeah, I know, but...
What are you going to do?
Well, let's try it right now.
That's, uh, 5-6-8-3197.
Is that what you say?
Okay.
That's, uh...
Let's see if it works.
Doesn't spell anything.
Doesn't spell a thing.
But that's its beauty, you know?
It exists by itself.
Here we go.
Thank you for calling the InfoAccess Telephone Company's automated blocking system.
Ooh.
This service is available for touch-tone callers only.
Your telephone number is...
2-1-2-2-7-9-3-4-0-7.
If this is the number you wish to have blocked, please press 1 now.
Please press 1 now if this is the number you wish to have blocked.
Well, what do they mean by blocked?
Blocked from what?
Number blocked.
Please press 2 now.
Um, gosh, I'm just going to hang up because I'm confused.
How's that?
Okay, uh, is the caller hung up, too?
I guess he got confused as well.
But, um, what do you think that's all about?
Blocking numbers.
We can just block a number by calling an 800 number.
Block it from what?
I don't know.
From the people that they'll connect you to shortly afterwards?
I don't know.
You can either block it or unblock it.
Or you can hang up.
1-800-568-3197.
Maybe you block it and it doesn't really do much of anything and you'll find a nice $200 credit on your phone bill.
Or maybe a $200 bill.
Yeah, that's what I mean.
Maybe I got forwarded to something that I don't want to be forwarded to.
Well, anyway, uh, let me update people on the Bernier situation because it's always, uh, always nice to, uh, know where that story lies.
Uh, we had a conference this past, um, weekend called PumpCon down in Philadelphia and I saw Bernier for the first time since, uh, that time I saw him in County Prison, uh, which was a pretty awful place.
And he's actually out, he's actually, uh, got a job now and, and he's trying to repair his car which was torn apart by the cops when they were looking for things that they never found.
Uh, trying to find a place to live.
Uh, of course, there's a big, um, a big nagging, uh, doubt that hangs over all of this and that's the, uh, the fact that the Secret Service, uh, particularly this, uh, this agent Tom Varney who, I don't know what, what exactly is going on here.
But this guy seems to have it in for him where, where he, uh, he basically wants to go to everybody possible and say that Bernie S is a big threat to society of some sort.
But, uh, when you ask why, there's never any evidence given except for the fact that he had the wrong kinds of books.
Imagine that.
The wrong kinds of books.
He had all kinds of, uh, Lumpanics and, and, and, and various other alternative publisher type of, uh, of, of publications, uh, including things on how bombs are made.
And, yes, people do have these books.
These books are found everywhere.
You know, I even have some of these books.
Maybe a raid on St. Mark's Bookstore is in order.
Maybe that's what we need to do.
Maybe that's true.
They carry these books.
I know.
Everybody does.
The thing is, the more you, the more you try and make these books forbidden, the more interesting they're going to get to people.
And, uh, he has never been accused of blowing anything up, of even possessing anything that could blow something up.
Just having books.
Uh, now, of course, this was all spurred by him being found with a red box, with, with actually the, um, the components needed to make a red box, and then with an actual red box on his, uh, person, um, which he has never been accused of using.
Again, a similar type of a thing.
This put him in prison for seven months.
No bail.
And, uh, being treated like some sort of, uh, menace to society.
Now, you'd think that would be enough.
But, no, they actually want, uh, Tom Barney and the Secret Service actually want to put this guy back in prison for two more years.
And the reason they, they, the way they think they can get about, uh, doing this is to go to a probation officer.
Now, Bernie has had been on probation for an equally, actually, I think an even more ridiculous charge for taking the batteries out of a, of a tone dialer.
Now, the situation was that he was being questioned by a cop, uh, about this device that he had, uh, on his person.
And he was not under arrest.
He was not even, uh, told to, to, to stay put.
And so, while the policeman was, was doing something else, he removed the batteries from the, from the tone dialer.
And this, in the policeman's eyes, was a horrible thing to do because it wiped the memory of the tone dialer.
And then he couldn't find out who, uh, Bernie S. had called last.
Now, this is just for having one of these things in, uh, in his possession.
But that put him on probation.
And now, being arrested for possessing a red box has made him a probation violator.
And the Secret Service is now trying to get him locked up for two more years, uh, because he violated probation.
And when you, when you take this apart, when you look at it, uh, on, on an individual component level, you see how ridiculous every single component is.
And when added together, it, it, it doesn't make it any less ridiculous.
Yet that's, uh, precisely what it is they're trying to do.
So, um, while it's good that he's out now, uh, and he told this story to the people at PumpCon, went on for about two hours, and it was all really interesting because he remembers all these, uh, all these little details and, and, and, uh, things that you just would not believe.
It's, it really is a fascinating story.
I think there's an incredible book in this if he ever has the time to write it.
Um, so while that is good, seeing him out in, in, in the open, um, it's really, really bad and sad that, uh, we have to actually think going back to prison is a reality.
And I, I just, I, I can't imagine what kind of thinking goes behind something like that.
Anyway, we may be hearing from Bernie S. later on.
I'm not sure if he'll have time to call us tonight.
But he is out, and he is, uh, he, he, he found himself a job very quickly.
And he's trying to, uh, he's trying to, uh, make the best of the situation.
Actually, I don't think I could hold up as well as, uh, as well as he's been doing.
Okay, 212-279-3400.
Let's, uh, take another phone call, then we'll call some more languages.
Good evening, you're on.
Good, good evening.
Um, one nice minor feature.
Yes?
Of, um, uh, 9x call answering, uh, depending on the number of rings the subscriber to it has set it to answer at.
The caller hears, if it's about to be answered by the voicemail, the caller hears a little pip tone either between, say, the fourth and fifth rings or in the middle of whichever is the ring before it's going to answer.
And, of course, this is very nice, um, especially if it's in an area where you cannot get local flat rate service and you're even calling someone right in your own neighborhood and you don't want to leave a message.
It's, it's only if they happen to be there to pick up that you want to talk to them, then you can hang up and you're not charged for that call.
Um, the other, to change the subject, uh, 108 degrees but still 9x, I would, um, ask if, uh, you or any caller calling in has any information yet about the, um, new optional high price flat rate calling, uh, that is even available in the four boroughs
other than Staten Island if you call the operators at the 800 number given in the television commercials or the regular 890 plus four digits, uh, regular business office.
They're still completely confused at this point, and I haven't gotten any printed matter, which they say will be a separate bill and separate mailing besides whatever may be in, um, uh, the 9x express formerly, hello.
Can you tell us what these rates are?
That's what I'm asking you.
Well, and the strangest thing about it of all is they ask you for your area code phone number, so they bring up your account, and they say,
we are offering this to you individually, not to your neighbor in, in the same neighborhood on the same exchange, not to Joe or Betty across town,
but to you, customized to what your average calling within the downstate ladder has been during the period July 94 to June 95.
So you're, the person in the apartment next to you or across the street might be paying a different rate for the same service.
That's kind of weird.
What kind of things do they are for you?
Well, let's see.
There was one, to be able to call, what would it be?
I think my, the, the, the New York City, um, home calling region, which is the five boroughs, would be $16 and something a month on top of my basic access line charge of whatever that is, $660 a month plus the FCC line charge.
And then there's another thing where your first hour of calls, and different reps give it two different ways.
Some say that it's $0.06 for the first minute of every call and $0.05 for every additional minutes.
Others say it's $0.06 per minute for the first 60 minutes, and then if you happen to do more than an hour of that calling in the billing cycle,
then subsequent with, from the 61st minute, it's $0.05 a minute.
Um, now that, that being all timed, I guess that would be for places, yeah, they say it replaces the $0.13.7 rates to, um, for the first minute to the other home calling regions.
Well, it sounds, it sounds now like 9X customers finally have the opportunity to devote all of their time to trying to figure out, uh, the, the billing, uh, methods.
Having neither gotten my next bill, nor the, um, legal notices having appeared in the papers yet, uh, covering it, nor, um, having received the separate mailing.
I just thought maybe either you or some, uh, other caller in, maybe a, a 9X representative.
Yeah, that would be, that would be very nice.
I heard a rumor, in fact, that they were offering unlimited access, say, from 212 to 516 or something bizarre like that.
Uh, that would be great if they did, but, uh, I, I have to have my doubts about that.
Right.
All right, thanks for the info.
Okay, bye.
We'll keep our ears open for that.
Um, do you hear anything, anything weird?
Well, I know the original flat rate, uh, charges are listed in the front of the phone book, and they always were.
I don't know about anything new.
No, this is, there's definitely something new on the horizon.
Something brand new.
Um, well, what they might want to do is, uh, request the, uh, new tariffs from 9X.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, it doesn't matter that they don't know what they are.
They can certainly get a copy of the tariff sent to you.
Yeah, that's, uh, that is your right as a consumer.
Or even call the, uh, Public Service Commission.
Public Service Commission or the President's Helpline, both of which are listed in the front
of your phone book.
Yeah, either of those people can get you the tariff.
Do you mind if I demonstrate, uh, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna call your number and have it
answered, but I'm gonna call it and have it ring.
The funny ring.
When the call answering picks up.
Okay.
Or it starts to pick up.
And I'll, I'll do this in such a way that you can't actually hear your number.
You can't have an answer.
I don't really care.
Your number, well, you know, your message is your private message.
I don't want to, you know, blurt that out over a 50,000 watt radio station in the middle
of New York.
Well, I don't do anything embarrassing in my greeting.
Well, that's your opinion.
Let's, uh, let's listen to the ring here.
Now, after about four rings, you'll hear a difference.
And that's when call answering starts to kick in.
Okay, I don't know if you heard that, but that, that little click, that was it.
That was, uh, that was call answering actually clicking.
And then if, if you're trained to listen for that, you can actually, uh, say, okay, I guess
he's not in and hang up before call answering picks up.
And, uh, if you, if you're able to, to do that, you know, you're, uh, you know, you're
ahead 10.2 cents or whatever.
Every time you do it.
Well, uh, it doesn't bother me.
I subscribe to service and I'm ready to pay.
Okay, well, that's, that's handy information to have then.
So, you're open from, from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. starting tomorrow.
Okay, through, uh, Sunday.
Okay, but tonight I can call until midnight.
Exactly.
Okay, great.
Thank you very much.
Can I help you with something right now?
Um, no, that's okay.
I think, I think you've been very helpful so far.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for calling.
Bye-bye.
That is friendly Indian service.
Very friendly.
If I've ever seen it.
So, yes, they, they certainly are not, um, not lying when they say it's MCI friendly
Indian customer service because that's exactly what we got.
Uh, shall we try one more?
Okay, come over here.
Look at this.
Look at these, uh, characters here.
Now, they look sort of similar to, uh, the Chinese characters, but what do you think that
is?
You think it's Korean?
I think it might be Korean.
No, that looks like, uh, maybe.
No, this one is Korean.
That's Japanese on top.
Japanese and then Korean.
Yeah.
All right.
We'll see if that's right.
Go back to your position and we'll, uh, we'll call that.
It doesn't say friendly Japanese, so we don't know what we're going to get.
MCIの日本語カスタマーサービスにお電話いただきましてありがとうございます.
お客様のご都合に基づきまして、次のオプションをご用意いたしました。
日本語によるオートマチックシステムでフレンズ&ファミリーの番号をご登録なされたい方、
あるいは登録された番号を確認されたい方は1を押してください。
FAXでご登録もできますので、その説明をお聞きになりたい方は2を押してください。
フレンズ&ファミリーギフトというプログラムについて、
ご質問のある方は3を押してください。
Yeah, whatever language it says, they have a lot more to tell you than all the other ones.
I think she's repeating the same thing over and over.
Is it?
But that is Japanese.
Oh, definitely, yeah.
Okay, well, maybe it's a recording.
Well, this is just a guess, but I'd hit one or two.
Oh, okay.
You didn't tell me you knew the language?
Did you hear that?
I heard an echo.
Yeah.
Hello, is this Japanese?
Yes.
Oh, what time are you open until speaking Japanese?
In California.
Well, in New York, actually.
Okay, we open until 9 o'clock in California, so 12 midnight for you.
I see.
Okay, great.
Thank you very much.
Okay, thanks for calling me to see you.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye now.
You know, I think it must do them good to speak English now and then, you know?
Yeah.
They sound sort of relieved, you know?
I can speak English now.
It's like, you know, Newt Gingrich would be happy about that, too.
We're sort of freeing their minds of these foreign languages, which, you know, pollute
the culture and make people want to break away and form new countries within your own.
Yeah.
Okay, 212-279-3400.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Yes, how are you doing?
Okay, how are you?
First of all, I just want to say congratulations to Bernie S.
Well, it's too early to congratulate us yet because he's still facing more prison time,
but at least we can be happy now that he's out.
Exactly.
Anyway, let me get to my question.
I was thinking of switching over to PC Unix or something like Linux as my operating system
on my computers.
Okay.
And I was just wondering if you guys could talk for maybe a minute about the pros and
cons of doing it.
Okay, we can set the timer for a minute on that.
A minute starting now.
You're switching from which to which?
I'm actually switching from a Windows platform to a Unix platform.
Oh, well, yeah.
I mean, I'll just say this.
Windows is, I hate Windows.
I really do.
Windows is, you know the book Windows for Dummies?
I think that's like, you know, it's overstating it because Windows is for dummies, so how can
you have a book Windows for Dummies?
It doesn't make any sense.
I like systems, and this is my personal choice, where you actually have a prompt and you actually
type the command and you see it executed and you can, you know, investigate further
if you need to and delve into the programs and things like that.
And plus, myself personally, I've had horrendous luck with Windows over the years.
I think everybody's had the same luck that you've had.
No, no, no, no.
No one has had this kind of luck, but I won't get into that.
Fiber, what do you think?
You think Windows is acceptable?
Well, it depends on, no, Windows isn't acceptable for any stretch of the imagination.
But it depends on how big of a leap you want to make.
You might want to consider using Windows 95, which is night and day compared to the original
Windows.
Well, actually, I'm using, I have two machines.
I'm using Windows for work groups on one, and Windows 95 on the other.
And although I've seen a big difference in Windows 95, now I'm getting into programming
and stuff like that.
It's just, I've been having a lot of problems.
And I've heard that great things about Linux, and I'm wondering if I should make the switch,
do you think?
Well, first of all, it's pronounced Linux, even though Fiber and I disagree on this.
Yeah, I disagree because the guy's name is Linus.
Yeah, I know, but I read in the book it's supposed to rhyme with, what is it, Minix?
Or whatever that operating system is.
I don't know.
But never mind.
That's not the important thing.
The important thing is that with any Unix-based system, you can do so much.
You can do lots of things at once.
You get multi-user, I mean, do you want a multi-user environment?
Yeah, I'm trying to set up a network as well.
Uh-huh.
I heard you can run, I have a 4666, and I was talking to someone who's running a 50-person
network off of his 4666, running Linux or Linux, whatever you want to say.
Sure.
I mean, that's what it's designed to do.
Yeah, you could certainly do that.
Although, in practice, I found that in really busy application server environments, that
the NetBSD kernel has proved to be a lot more stable than the Linux kernel.
Oh, really?
So, it's something you might want to consider if the machine is really going to be stressed.
Right.
Yeah, the Linux kernel is, sometimes, it does weird things.
Like, sometimes it eats itself.
And we've had situations like this on 2600.com where, like, files have mysteriously vanished.
Yeah.
And it's like, you know, there's some sort of a purge going on from within.
And, you know, if you keep an eye on the thing, it won't really hurt you that badly.
But, and you keep backups, of course.
Well, you mentioned 2600.com.
What do you suggest for a worldwide web server?
Would you suggest Linux or?
Well, if you're expecting to be, like, you know, Mr. Cool Sight of the Month.
Right.
Then you might consider something with a little more pep than Linux.
If you're just going to be putting up a web server just for kicks, there's no reason why you can't use Linux for that.
But just in practice, just from what I've seen, it, the NetBSD kernel just seems to be a lot more stable in general.
Only because it's been around longer and it's been put to the task.
The Linux is obviously not as old as Berkeley Unix is.
But there is lots of support.
Oh, yeah, there's definitely a lot of support, but that goes for both.
That's a great thing that I've seen.
That's really why I'm interested.
I wanted to get a little information on it, so I went on the net and just searched for a couple of Linux things.
It was amazing how many people are using it and how many people are willing to help you out with it.
Yeah, the other thing is if you even go to Barnes & Noble, there's certainly a lot more books about Linux than there are about NetBSD.
Right.
Now, NetBSD is not the same as FreeBSD, is it?
Well, FreeBSD, I think, technically, doesn't really exist anymore.
I think they were merged into what's known as the Net3 distribution.
Okay, but is NetBSD free?
Yeah, it is.
Ah, okay.
It's not FreeBSD.
No, the one, FreeBSD, technically, I don't think exists anymore.
Like I said, I think that was merged into a distribution along with the NetBSD, and it's still known as NetBSD.
The other one that is not free, the commercial Berkeley Unix, is called BSDI.
Well, you guys have been a lot of help.
Yeah, and the timer has run way over, so we're in violation of that.
So, all right, thanks for calling.
212-279-3400 is our telephone number.
What do you say we do another language?
Sure.
Okay, let's go for it.
I think this is the one, well, okay, let's assume that one's Korean.
Yeah, we don't know what it is.
Let's go to another one here.
Yeah.
This one says, this is spelled out in English.
Parasar-representanteng-nag-sasalita-eng-tagalog.
Oh, that's Tagalog.
That's Filipino.
Well, you're no fun if you're going to know all of them.
All right, now I have to skip to another one.
How about this?
An MCI su idioma es el nustro.
Um, Spanish.
All right, all right.
It doesn't look like Spanish the way they did that, though.
All right, how about this one?
We'll see.
We'll see how smart you are.
Okay.
Moimi Pol Polskul.
That's Polish.
I should never have brought you in here.
All right, well, here's another one.
I can't even read it, but, you know, I think that's Russian.
Yeah, I think that's...
Let's just make sure, though.
It looks like it's Russian.
Can't speak it, though.
No, I'm not going to let you look at it.
Oh, come on.
No, no.
Let's see what this is.
That's different.
Okay, well, I guess we get the idea.
Sure.
They offer service in a lot of language.
Yeah.
We have Arabic.
We have Mandarin, Cantonese, friendly Indian.
We have Japanese, Korean, Polish, Spanish.
It's weird how they threw the Spanish in the middle of all these other languages.
Yeah.
It didn't quite jump out at me.
I mean, where's French?
French isn't in here.
French, Italian, where's the common languages?
Russian and Vietnamese.
And we know that because it says Viet in the middle of it.
And then there's the Filipino language.
Right, Tagalog.
Tagalog.
Tagalog.
Okay.
Those are all the languages there.
And it's kind of neat that they have all that.
And, of course, if you want MCI in English, it's three fours and four threes.
Makes sense.
It's 212-279-3400 is our telephone number.
And tonight we're speaking English, so give us a call.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
I have two questions.
Okay.
First of all, why don't red boxes work in the New York City area anymore?
Because people were bad.
People used them so much that they said it only takes a few people to spoil it for everybody else.
And they modified the phone so it doesn't work anymore.
Well, actually, you know, it does work in quite a few places.
Is that only in New York that it doesn't work anymore?
No, it's everywhere.
Or in the whole country?
Well, they're starting to catch on after a couple of decades of this thing working.
They're finally realizing, hey, maybe, you know, and a major motion picture coming out explaining how to do it.
Maybe we shouldn't make it so easy where people just have to play some beeps into a phone and make it think that it swallowed a quarter.
Okay.
So you will still find some phones, especially ones that haven't been repaired in a while.
You know, like maybe those ones that still have rotary dials on them.
You see those occasionally.
Not the ones in Times Square that they use to fight drug dealers, but the ones that really still have rotary dials on them.
And sometimes they don't switch the inside mechanisms of those for quite some time.
Or ones that are indoors.
Yeah, ones that are indoors aren't serviced quite as often.
They don't need services much.
My second question is, I got these phone calls to my house.
Some people are saying they're the people upstairs.
I don't know what's going on.
They say they're part of the phone company.
Excuse me?
The people upstairs?
Something like that, yeah.
Now, you're going to have to go a little bit more into detail than that.
Okay.
Well, go into some more detail.
You're getting calls for the people upstairs, and they say it's the phone company.
Yeah.
And what do they want?
Yeah, what do they want?
I don't know.
They just want to talk to them.
Why don't you give them the people upstairs' phone number?
Because I live in the house, and there's no people upstairs.
Oh, there's no people upstairs.
Okay, now we're getting somewhere.
So, do you explain this to them?
Do you say to them, there are no people upstairs?
Yeah.
What do they say then?
I don't know.
They just bug out.
Like, they go all crazy.
They go all crazy.
Well, you know what?
You can always get their phone number and have the people upstairs call them back when
they get in, and that way at least you know who you're dealing with.
I don't know.
This is not a common problem.
All right.
Thanks a lot.
All right.
Good luck with that.
I don't know.
What do you think?
People upstairs.
Yeah.
Sounds like he's living out a horror movie or something.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, I'm sure we'll be reading about that in the paper.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Yes.
Tell that guy it's a prank call.
You know, that never crossed my mind.
It must be a prank call.
Let me ask you something.
Yeah, that could be it.
Right?
Yeah.
That could be it.
Let's give out a number.
If you call up, they give you your home address.
There's a number you call to get your home address.
Right.
If you dial in, let's say 279-3400, they would give you an address?
Well, there is that service in New Jersey, which is being offered for a fee, where you
can give them information.
They give you the address, or you give them a number, and they give you a name, things
like that.
But it's nothing new.
It's just a question of people actually getting access to this information.
You can get a CD-ROM that has everybody in the country that's listed.
That's about $50 a CD-ROM.
Yeah.
It's getting cheaper, in fact.
And it's a little bit out of date.
It's usually about a year out of date, I find.
A year out of date.
Interesting.
But sometimes that's handy to have, because people's numbers go unlisted sometimes, but
they never go unlisted if they ever had them unlisted at one time or another.
About a year ago, I used to be able to call 201-976-2121, the lottery information.
Oh, and it worked in 201.
And it worked with my 718.
And now, for some reason, it says, dude, the number you have called cannot be reached
this way.
Please try again.
Well, yeah, probably.
You're dialing this as a local number, or are you dialing it from here?
You're no, 1201.
All right, so you're dialing it from out of state.
Yeah, from New York City.
Okay, what's your long-distance carrier?
Excuse me?
What's your long-distance carrier?
AT&T.
Okay, so that's probably AT&T giving you that recording.
You might want to try 10NJB.
No, 10NYT.
Oh, is it?
Okay, I'm sorry.
10NJB comes the other way.
Okay, 10NYT to get over there, and maybe it'll route the call, though I doubt it, because
they generally don't let people do that with 976s.
Yeah, it's just an information number.
It's nothing special.
Yeah, it really is nothing special.
I mean, I think that's it.
You know, these 976 numbers are not worth what people pay for them, and certainly the
other 970s and 540s and all those kind of things, they're not worth it either.
Right, right, right.
A person who came home from overseas and told me, when they have call waiting in another
country, the tone, the beep is different than it is over here.
It's kind of funny you should say that, because just yesterday, my call waiting tone changed.
I was telling Fiber about this before.
All of a sudden, I get double call waiting beeps.
Yeah.
It goes beep beep instead of beep.
And, you know, for most people, I guess that wouldn't mean much, but for me, that's like
something to focus an entire day's activities around.
I'm trying to figure out how that happened.
But what's it like in Europe?
What kind of call waiting?
I didn't even know they had call waiting over there, to be honest.
In the Middle Eastern country.
Uh-huh.
A type of, like a double beep or something.
A double beep, too, huh?
A different type of busy signal indicating to the party that you're home and you're on
call waiting.
Call back later.
Oh, okay.
Well, what if the person wants to pick up the phone?
Can you do that?
I don't know.
I don't know.
Interesting.
Okay, well, that's something I've always liked to, I always wanted to see happen.
You know, where you could know the person's on call waiting.
Anyway, that's a suggestion for the future.
212-279-3400.
Good evening.
You're on.
Hi, yes.
I just wanted to ask a couple of questions.
First of all, I have this real problem with Bell Atlantic.
Right now, we're trying to get a PRI connected to do some services, provide internet services,
and they've just pushed our date back from November 2nd to December 8th.
Wow.
Yes.
I mean, there's just no way we can, you know, it's kind of like, can you stay in business
that long?
Yeah, really?
That's unreasonable.
Yeah, I don't know if there's any way.
I mean, is there anything we can do to get them to move that back up or something?
Oh, Fyber, you went through similar things with 9X.
Well, originally, but it's not that way anymore.
Yeah, things have gotten a lot better.
Are many people doing what you're doing right now in your area?
Well, pretty much the only people besides us is UUNet, and they're in Newark, actually.
Well, where in Bell Atlantic are we talking?
New Jersey, Bill?
Yeah, we're talking about...
A former New Jersey, Bill?
Yeah.
Yeah, that's where it is.
Hmm.
Basically, I mean, you need to play hardball with them and, you know, call the PSC or whatever
they call it over there and get them to answer some pretty hard questions as to why it's going
to take them two months to, you know...
It kind of gave us an indication that it was because the AT&T equipment on our switch, it
wasn't up to date, and it can't handle a PRI, and they're not willing to forward exchange
us on a PRI.
So you're saying that the 5ESS that you serve by does not provide ISDN service yet?
That's what they're saying, that it won't do a PRI.
It'll do a BRI, I guess, or something, but it won't do a PRI.
That's rather peculiar.
Yeah, it is.
Where are you located?
In Newark?
In Fairfield, actually.
Yeah.
Huh.
Well, again, I think the best thing to do is to put pressure on the phone company.
Call...
I don't know what the equivalent of the president's helpline is over in Jersey, but there has to
be one, and you can at least get them to pay more attention.
Yeah, I know they do have a similar 800 hotline for Bell Atlantic as they do in New York, the
Get ISDN number, which is of limited use, but it does say whether or not ISDN is available
based on a certain area code and exchange, although it's not updated.
It's not always right.
No, it's not always as up-to-date as possible.
They update it in little spurts, but I think there's something similar for Bell Atlantic.
The other thing is you might want to bring it to the attention of the executives at
Bell Atlantic.
I mean, I've been in touch with some executives at 9X in the recent past, and you'd be surprised.
They might actually want to help you and actually be shocked that you were turned away.
And you could actually help them, because they've never really done this before.
Yeah.
Anyway, best of luck to you, and keep us updated on that.
Is Bernie S. on the line?
Hello.
Bernie S. is on the line.
How did I know you were there?
You just suddenly popped in in cyberspace.
Isn't that cool?
I'm sure you're psychic.
Are you part of the Psychic Friends Network?
I don't want to talk about that.
Him and Dionne Warwick.
But we can't help but notice you're not calling us collect.
You're calling us direct.
It's not Locktel.
I wish I were calling earlier in the show, but I couldn't get a phone until just now.
You mean in the real world you couldn't get a phone?
That's right.
Believe it or not.
It's kind of funny, isn't it?
It's ironic.
When I was telling the folks how we're happy that you're out and all that, but how it kind
of sucks that we're actually thinking you might be going back to prison.
There's a possibility.
So update us on that.
Well, I want to say hi to Fyper.
Hello there.
Hey, how are you?
It's good to talk to you now that you're on the other side of the fence.
Isn't it weird?
I imagine you can still remember how it felt when you got out.
It was like looking at everything and everything appeared brand new.
I kind of felt like a two-year-old who was seeing everything for the first time.
What was your first real food?
That new Pizza Hut pizza that has pepperoni and cheese in the crust.
Oh, you went to Pizza Hut?
All the things in the world you could have eaten and you eat Pizza Hut.
He goes to a franchise.
Yeah, the past couple of weeks I've been...
I mean, prisons are franchises.
You realize that.
The next day someone took me to old original book binders in Philadelphia and I had lobster
tail.
Oh, that's a bit better.
We had cheesesteaks over the weekend.
Yeah.
Down there on South Street, so that was kind of neat.
Mm-hmm.
Just like old times when we were taking you to prison.
Yeah.
That's right.
Yeah.
For some reason, cheesesteaks remind me of prison.
I don't know why.
Yeah, I'll never eat them again.
Yeah.
So, okay.
There is a possibility I may be reincarcerated.
But the federal case, the federal conviction was a violation of a county probation I had been
on from a 1993 incident in which I was alleged to have removed batteries from a tone dialer
that was in my possession.
Mm-hmm.
And the law enforcement officials in that case, which were local law enforcement, you know,
just local rural town, claimed that the removal of these batteries constituted a tampering
with evidence in that they believe that there might have been numbers stored in that touch-tone
dialer that they could have used against me.
And since they could no longer do that, that they were going to charge me with tampering
with evidence.
So, I mean, there's a long story getting into how they realized I had a touch-tone dialer
and why the batteries were removed.
But the bottom line is I ended up pleading no contest to it.
They wanted me to plead guilty, but because I was not the person who removed the batteries,
I was with two individuals who I refused to implicate.
Well, that's a revelation I don't think has been made before.
Ah.
You did not actually remove the batteries in the first place.
Oh.
Well, but it doesn't matter because I am not the kind of person who is going to implicate
others in anything.
And so I was with two other people, one of whom Fiber knows and is not particularly fond
of, and this person probably didn't deserve the refusal of mine to, of me to implicate
him, but I still did that.
Well, this is going to make for some interesting conversation after the show as we try to figure
this one out.
You can imagine who it is.
We're imagining, we're thinking.
But the important thing is, where does this leave you?
This leaves me with a date has not yet been sent for this.
My permission has been revoked.
And although, the only reason I'm not in jail now is because this county, Northampton County
in Pennsylvania was unable to find a sheriff to send down to the federal marshals on October
13th when I was released to pick me up.
There was a detainer issued to prevent my release from federal custody so that the sheriff from
this county could pick me up and do what they wanted to do to me.
But they were on it, since it was a Friday, the third, actually it was Friday the 13th.
It was Friday the 13th.
You went in on the Ides of March.
In the Ides of March.
And I left on Friday the 13th.
And it's just one of the many bizarre aspects to my case.
Because I spent all morning, in the morning, like 6 o'clock in the morning, I was taken
by the federal marshals up to Philadelphia, the federal building, and put in a holding
cell waiting for these sheriffs from Northampton County to pick me up.
And I waited and waited.
And 1 o'clock in the afternoon came along, and some federal marshal walked to the front
of my cell and said, OK, you can go now.
And for once in my life, I just didn't ask any questions about something.
And all I said was, where's the door?
Yeah.
They showed me the door, and I went down the escalator and stepped out onto the street.
It was a beautiful, sunny day, Friday the 13th.
And there were things I hadn't seen for months and months, like women.
Yeah, they're out there.
It was quite an experience, I'll tell you.
So women and cars and birds singing, and it was like being reborn.
So even though it was seven months, it still seemed like a lifetime.
But a subsequent visit to this county probation officer led me to believe that it's very likely
I will be reincarcerated in county or state custody.
The Secret Service evidently called this particular county probation officer and told him what a dangerous
person I was, have information on things that concern them so much, such as a few books like the
Anarchist Cookbook, things like that that explain how to make explosives and things like that.
And I had frequencies that the Secret Service uses in their communications.
Things that are easy to get, things that are legal to possess.
I can buy a book at Radio Shack called Police Call that has the same frequencies listed in it.
Exactly.
Well, Bernie, we're down to our last minute.
So in that minute, can you tell people what they can do to help?
Good question.
I really don't know.
I can tell you that these are not reasonable people that I'm up against, and it's almost impossible
to reason with unreasonable people.
They simply don't want to hear anything, frankly.
So anything that I say or anyone else says in my defense, it seems to me as if they're just going to
disregard it.
So I don't know.
Maybe I have to talk with you in more detail about this offline.
But what I don't want to do is raise their ire.
I feel like I'm on the edge here.
I don't want to raise their ire with them being deluged by people who are incensed by this.
Yet, on the other hand, I feel like I could use some support.
Well, let me give out the email addresses.
That way people can write to us, at least, if they have something to contribute.
Right.
And I wish you the best of luck.
We can reach Bernie S, B-E-R-N-I-E-S, at 2600.com, or you can reach me, Emanuel, at 2600.com.
You can also reach Fiber, Fiber, at 2600.com.
Sure.
Hopefully, we'll be ISDN by the end of the day.
We'll see about that.
Bernie, we'll probably talk to you again next week.
Right.
And we'll update the folks on your situation then.
But if anyone has any suggestions or ideas or ways of helping, please write to us.
You can also write to us here at the radio station, WBAI, 505 8th Avenue, New York, New York,
1001-8th Avenue, and make that attention off the hook.
Final thank you to all those who wrote me and sent me things while I was in a federal prison.
It really made the difference between...
That always does make a difference, and again, we want to thank people for doing that.
Thanks, Bernie, for checking in, and we'll be back again next week from 8 to 9 p.m.
And you're up next?
Housing Notebook.
Okay, Housing Notebook is up now.
Are you doing Housing Notebook?
I'm engineering it.
Oh, Jim Freund will be here engineering Housing Notebook.
So look forward to that.
You'll get my webpage anyway.
Okay, yeah.
You'll get his webpage.
We'll be back again next week.
This is WBAI New York.
Good night.
Thank you.
We'll be back again next week.
Thank you.
We'll be back again next week.
And you're tuned to listener-sponsored, non-commercial Pacifico Radio, New York City, WBAI, broadcasting at 99.5 FM.
Stay tuned now for Housing Notebook.
Paint peeling off the wall, dirt piling in the hall, ice on the pipes but no steam at all.
Landlord, landlord, landlord, low-down, rotten, good for nothing.
Landlord, landlord, low-down, rotten, good for nothing.
Landlord, landlord, low-down, rotten, good for nothing.
Gonna raise your rent someday, kick you out if you can't pay.
You and the goddamn O.P.A. Landlord, landlord, low-down, rotten, good for nothing.
He's against public housing.
Can't stand the fuss we're rousing.
We'll take care of him later with the right extermination.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.