On November 21st and November 28th, Weaponry will continue its look at the implications
of Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin's assassination on the peace process and the Middle East in general.
So tune in on November 21st at 12.30 a.m. Tuesday night and November 28th Tuesday night at 1.30 a.m.
to listen to Weaponry's ongoing look at the implications of Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin's assassination.
Only on listener-sponsored WBAI Radio in New York City, 99.5 FM.
And this is radio station WBAI in New York, where we're broadcasting from a brand-new studio,
a brand-new interim studio.
And this is Off the Hook, where we're going to play around with the studio and see just what this thing can do.
And right now I'm looking for my intro theme.
You see, the problem is we have the old numbers, the old cart numbers, and different cart numbers here.
So I'm going to assume that five is actually two. Is that right?
Okay, all right.
So I'm going to hit this little button right over here and press this.
Ah, yes, it's 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 could be yet much worse
But if it could, it would
But I'm going to hit the bomb
But I best expect the worst
I hope that's understood
But I'm going to hit the bomb
you
I'll do it
Thank you.
Let's try a dalton now.
We want to give you the best mic.
So that one over there.
Yeah.
Go ahead.
Now try that one out.
How does it sound now?
Actually, I'm not getting you at all.
I'm sure there's a logical reason for that.
That's mic number three.
Or is that mic number one?
I'm going to turn them all on.
Mic number three.
Okay.
Mic number three does not seem to be working.
There's something I'm doing wrong here, I wonder.
There's something I'm doing wrong here, I wonder.
Have the volume up, right?
Okay.
Pushed all the right buttons, but you're not there.
Are you in any of the mics?
Try them all.
I'm not in three, right?
Not in three.
Okay.
Try two.
Am I in two?
You're not in two.
Am I in one?
You're not in one.
Okay.
There's nothing coming up on this channel at all.
Let me just bring you up so that we can hear you somehow.
Okay.
Can you hear me right now?
Yeah, you're coming through something.
Okay.
So it does not work.
It does not work as far as that particular microphone does.
We should try hitting it real hardly.
All right.
Well, for now, let's use that mic.
This one right here?
Yeah, that's fine.
This one works.
Mic number two works.
Mic number three does not.
All right.
Okay.
Already something is broken, but nothing major to deal with there.
So this is the new studio.
We have a new phone system, and presumably everything works in a different way.
You know that BAI signature of ours where people talk for long periods of time, and the
person on the air is trying to get it or it in edgewise, and it's not able to.
Well, supposedly that's not going to happen anymore, so we're going to encourage people.
That's actually like a full duplex phone connection?
A full duplex phone connection.
Wow.
We think it works out?
Let's try it.
No, I don't think it works, because we're not getting anything.
We're getting music, but we're supposed to.
Okay, we'll send that one out for repairs, and I guess we'll just have to keep you on
that microphone over there.
Okay.
This is fun.
Yeah, it's nice, though.
This place looks really nice.
It looks like a real radio studio.
It actually smells new.
It smells new.
Yes, that new radio studio smell that most radio people always smell.
But at BAI, you know, we never quite had that opportunity.
Hey, you know there's a timer on the board here?
I can time things.
I'm not going to press any buttons, because I don't want to break anything.
Maybe you can time our favorite caller.
Yes, but we all have our favorites.
Here's a manual on the phone system, which I've already glanced at a little bit, but we'll
probably be going through that as we do the radio show.
So, we have some updates on things that are going on around the world, some of which are
kind of interesting.
And we'll be taking phone calls on our brand new phone system.
Look at how those lights blink.
It's kind of neat, isn't it?
They blink totally differently than on the other system.
But don't call now, because 9X will cut you off after about 30 rings or so.
So, wait until we announce the phone number, and you won't be wasting your time that way.
Okay, let's take a look at what's been going on around the world, insofar as weird stuff.
Do you know there's certain parts of the world, certain parts of, well, of course there's
certain parts of the world, but there's certain parts of the country where you're instructed
not to dial 911 ever?
What do you dial?
Well, that's, you know, what's open to contention.
And this local fire department has an annual newspaper, and there's an article titled,
Please Don't Call 9-1-1 If You Have an Emergency.
Apparently, there's no 911 service in that part of New York State, which is near Poughkeepsie,
and there's not going to be for about two years.
According to that article, if you dial 911 here, you'll get an operator somewhere in the United
States.
It notes that the last time that happened, the operator was in Florida, and it took about
30 minutes to dispatch the fire department.
Fortunately, the fire burned itself out.
Now, what happens if you call 911 in an unserved area?
30-minute delays are not acceptable, obviously.
Basically, different things happen depending on the system and what's hooked up.
Sometimes you get a fast busy.
Sometimes you get a recorded message.
Sometimes nothing happens whatsoever.
Sometimes you get someone in our house, I guess.
There's a lot of weirdness still going on in this country, and something as standardized
in our eyes as 911 is not necessarily standardized in other places.
I told the story about how I dialed 411 somewhere in Pennsylvania in GTE land, and I got some
woman in her house, and her phone number wasn't 411, and she didn't know how I could do that.
I didn't have to pay to call her either, which was kind of funny.
So, I think, how hard would it be, how hard would it be to have 911 everywhere just at least forward, you know, to a real police department?
I mean, that's not hard, is it?
It doesn't seem incredibly difficult.
I think the thing that they're worried about is calling volume, that if they forwarded it
to another, what do they call it, public safety answering point, I think they're called PSAPs
and telephone lingo.
Well, I'm told here, and this comes from the Telecom Digest on the net, that sometimes two
or more very small communities are served by the same phone exchange.
The authorities can't decide amongst themselves which one should handle the calls.
And so, because of that, they...
I'm picturing, like, two old, fat sheriffs flipping a coin.
Basically, that's what happens.
I don't know if it's flipping a coin or so much, just loading guns and things like that.
That's what they do there.
Okay, 9x has announced that it has expanded its online yellow page services so that consumers
can now find virtually any business in the United States.
What do you think of that?
9x Interactive Yellow Pages.
It's available on the Internet's World Wide Web, HTTP, colon, slash, you know, is there
ever going to be a point where you don't have to say HTTP, colon, slash, slash?
I mean, that's supposed to be...
Actually, you're not required to type it in Netscape.
It defaults to that.
That's true, you're not.
But still, every time you see a...
Well, I think we're growing adults now.
We could say, if we don't see the HTTP, we should assume it's there, unless there's
something different there.
HTTP, colon, slash, slash.
And in fact, you should be able to knock off the WWW as well.
No, not everyone uses it.
All right.
So, I'll just say that the web page address is at www.niyp.com.
That's actually been up for a while.
It stands for 9x Yellow Pages?
9x Interactive Yellow Pages.
Oh, okay, because I was going to ask, where does the I come from?
Yeah.
9x Interactive Yellow Pages.
Yep.
It offers consumers 16.5 million business listings from throughout the nation.
The directory includes business type, name, address, and telephone number.
It's the United States' first and only complete online national business phone directory.
And it's free, right?
And it's free.
They haven't figured out a way to charge for that.
They will eventually, I'm sure.
Yeah.
Now, what's interesting about this, do you know that this service is located in France?
It is?
It's in the Paris suburbs.
If you try a trace route to www.niyp.com, you see your packets hopping across the Atlantic
and bouncing around in France before finally arriving.
Why in France?
Well, 9x had a deal with Minitel, and for a while you could call into Minitel from the
New York area using PC software they gave out to simulate a genuine 1200-slash-75 BPS
Minitel terminal with a little text-only screen.
That was kind of fun, but kind of overpriced.
If you speak French, ugly, unusable, otherwise.
And apparently, that's what this deal evolved into.
Hmm.
Yeah.
So that's kind of interesting.
So again, that's the webpage, www.niyp.com.
It doesn't exactly flow off your tongue, does it?
Yeah.
Anyway, Swiss phone books have been available for quite some time at, you can tell that to
this one, tell that etv.switch.ch, and you log in as etv.
And you can search for just about everything.
Number, name, address, lookup.
Hmm.
So it's the wave of the future, you know, these CD-ROMs that have everything.
That's where we're going.
Okay, here's something from the Risks Digest.
San Francisco has been trying for the past three years to upgrade its 911 system, but
computer outages and unanswered calls remain rampant.
For example, on October 12, 1995, that CD play only plays one song because it's in single
mode.
I see.
So I have to physically click it to go to the next one.
Okay, and then I hit this button.
Is that how it works?
Hey, we're fighting with the CD player.
Okay, apparently it only wants to play one song.
Okay, there it goes.
Good.
Okay, so what happened in San Francisco?
On October 12, 1995, the dispatch system crashed for over 30 minutes in the midst of a search
for an armed suspect who escaped.
The dispatch system was installed two months ago as a temporary fix to the recurrent problems,
and it, too, has suffered unexplained breakdowns.
Screens freeze.
Vital information vanishes.
And roughly twice a week, the system crashes.
Dispatchers are not able to answer between 100 and 200 calls a day.
Many non-emergency calls are also being lost.
Quite a nice environment there.
Okay, a power failure on October 17, 1995, at 12.08 p.m., caused a 12-minute outage
in the air route traffic control computer system affecting traffic in parts of Texas, Oklahoma,
New Mexico, Louisiana, and Arkansas.
You know, the same thing just happened this week, too.
I don't know if you heard about that.
The computer out in Ronkonkoma, something happened to it, and for about half an hour,
I believe, nobody knew where anything was, planes flying everywhere, UFOs, nobody knew
what was up there.
There was a special on, I forget what news program it was, but they were saying, they
were complaining how old a lot of the flight control systems are, and in a lot of the major
cities, even, that they were saying that it's actually scary how many times the flight control
system crashes, while there's planes in the air, obviously.
Oops, wrong mic.
Okay.
Yeah, it's scary.
You try not to think about things like that when you're up there in the sky, but it's...
I do, that's why I never fly.
I mean, when you know how computers work, when you see the kinds of horrible things that
happen to them, I mean, you know, horrible...
Well, especially when they're 50-year-old IBM mainframes.
Yeah, I mean, what are they doing?
What's wrong with these people?
They should be using Macs or something.
You know, point in place.
Well, maybe not personal computers, but...
Well, they couldn't be any worse than what they have now.
I mean, what kind of computing power are we dealing with, you know, on the mainframe
from 50 years ago?
I don't know.
What else is going on here?
The UK's two largest credit authorization systems, Barclays, PDQ, and NatWest's Streamline.
Did you know that?
I did not know that.
That's the UK's two largest credit authorization systems, Barclays, PDQ, and NatWest's Streamline.
Well, they both failed on Saturday, October 28th, leaving retailers unable to verify customers'
credit cards.
In Barclays' case, more than 40% of transactions failed due to a bug in the system's software
for NatWest.
The problem was a huge backlog of calls.
The reason was unstated, which delayed card authentication.
Both systems had contingency systems, however, which allowed retailers to telephone in authentication
requests.
Isn't that good planning?
Good planning.
However, you knew there was a however to this.
Due to the volume of sales, the lines rapidly became jammed and completely unusable.
Well, let's see.
How about this?
On November 9th, a whole village, population 3,000, had its telephones disconnected.
Actually, this comes from Cyprus.
Had its telephones disconnected for non-payment of their bills.
Entire town.
According to the newspaper report, a computer error showing all subscribers in the village
to be in default was to blame.
Reconnection took place when the problem was discovered a few hours later.
However, they had to take buses to the other town to call in the problem.
In the first place, since no phones in that town were working.
Let's see.
A big-time software pirate was arrested in Los Angeles last week and charged with two
felony counts of fraud and trademark violations.
Authorities seized an estimated $1 million in illegally copied software.
Do you think we have $1 million of software if we add everything up that we ever run on
our machine?
Millions of dollars.
We've got Unix systems.
We've got, you know, all D-based systems.
We've got things with CPM and MS-DOS.
Well, when they say millions of dollars, they're probably talking about the research and development
that went into the software.
Oh, they're adding in entire computer systems and apartment complexes for the people to
live in while they're developing it.
Sure.
So they reach these values.
But yeah, I'd say we probably have $1 million between...
At least.
Each, probably.
Easily.
You and I probably each have $1 million.
We're millionaires.
And that's not illegal software, by the way, too.
I should point out to whatever federal authorities are listening right now.
All of our software is accountable for.
Totally.
Because we've got this really neat program that does...
Well, we'll get into that later.
High-speed duplicating equipment.
He also had that and $15,000 in cash.
Thomas Nick Alephantes was the culprit's name.
He calls himself Captain Blood.
Gee.
It's kind of hard, you know, when you have names like Captain Blood for the average, you
know, Geraldo-fearing American to not see you as evil.
He allegedly sold his wares through advertising and trade publications and a mail order business.
America Online issued a warning to its users about a destructive file attached to an email
message that has been circulating through its service and also over the internet.
The message itself is okay, but trying to run an attached Trojan horse file called AOL
Gold or install.exe could crash a hard drive.
What do you know about this?
Yeah, actually, I got the warning from one of the many security mailing lists.
And apparently somebody had attached a file called AOL Gold.zip for PCs apparently running
Windows.
And the actual message that it was attached to was claiming this is the new version of
the AOL software.
And what you would do is obviously the person would download it and unzip it.
And a lot of the files would look like they should be there.
But as soon as the person ran the installation, it would format their hard drive.
Now, doesn't it say formatting hard drive?
No.
It doesn't say anything like that.
So, isn't there a long period of silence where you see your hard drive being accessed?
Yeah, but as soon as it starts formatting, I mean, it's kind of too late.
Yeah, once it gets to the FAT, it's all over.
It's gone.
Now, you say it was the new AOL software or the new AOL Hell software?
I said this is the new AOL software.
So, this is for legitimate users that thought they were upgrading their system.
Yeah, exactly.
Not for people trying to get a free AOL account.
No, no, no, no.
This was targeted towards a real AOL subscriber.
Which is something I can't imagine why people would go to such trouble to do, to get a free
AOL account.
I mean...
They give them out.
I'll tell you, it's just, it's...
I've used these commercial services, and most times, not to pick an AOL, you know, more
than any other system, because, you know, the same holds true for CompuServe as well.
It's just, it's more hassle than it's worth just to try and get on these things.
You know, I mean, I think we should all use them to see what they're up to.
But, I don't know, they have their hourly charges.
They don't have full access to the internet.
They impose censorship and restrictions of all sorts.
Who needs that?
I mean, I don't think, I don't think I do.
Okay, what do we got here?
We got a 9X bill.
9X introduces...
Oh, this is it.
This is it.
Okay.
So, you actually got a phone bill where 9X introduces their three new calling plans.
Option one provides unlimited calling to anywhere, anytime, in your local and regional calling
area.
The total monthly charge for your local and regional calls will be the same each month, guaranteed,
no matter how or when you call.
So, unfortunately, they don't say how you have to specially qualify for that.
Well, the way that you specially qualify, I know the answer for that.
Yeah.
That's by having a phone line...
For a certain period of time.
...since July of 94 until June of 95.
I think, actually, you could have it for three months, right, to June 95, and it will still
qualify you.
And what I'm more curious about is, is there some sort of a limit to this offer?
In other words, can they say, you know, after a year, well, we can raise your rates.
Yeah.
You know, to whatever it is you have to offer.
Unfortunately, they don't say.
They don't say anything there, huh?
No.
Okay.
Well, I guess we'll just have to see what happens then.
I mean, it works.
Yeah.
The calls are going through.
I mean, I haven't gotten the bill yet, but...
Yeah.
...calls are definitely going through.
So there's three options.
Option one gives you unlimited calling anywhere, anytime.
Option two gives you unlimited calling anywhere in your regional calling area while keeping
the same service you have now for local calls.
So basically, you pay whatever you want to pay to make your local calls, and then you
have a special rate for calling outside your local calling zone.
And that rate, obviously, is going to be lower than option one.
It's probably the best for most people.
Then option three, this is the one I can't understand, guarantees you a low six cents per
minute rate for the first 60 minutes of regional calling.
And even lower five cents per minute rate thereafter, the more you call, the more you
save.
Well, yeah, you also spend more, too.
I don't know.
Do you think that makes sense for anybody?
I mean, five cents a minute, that's...
Well, if you make a...
I guess if you make a lot of calls within New York State, it's helpful.
Yeah, but if you make a call locally, it's less than five cents a minute.
Oh, they're not talking about local calls.
It doesn't say that here.
It doesn't say they're not talking about local.
I would assume...
It says regional.
Yeah.
It doesn't exclude local.
So I'm just wondering about that, if local is excluded.
Okay.
Well, I guess we should experiment with this new phone system now.
It being 823, gives us plenty of time to play around.
Um, we have the potential to put all kinds of different people on the air at the same
time, and we have the potential to hang up on people and talk at the same time.
So let's just give out the phone number, 212-279-3400.
And, yeah, we press the right buttons.
Hopefully, this will work.
Okay, this is the phone set up right there.
Ready to take the first phone call on the brand new phone system?
Yep.
Okay, here we go.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Oh, wow.
Wow, you're the first.
Oh, and I'm not rebel.
Let's hope not.
I mean, imagine what a nightmare would be if you woke up.
No, that's not nice.
That's not nice.
Anyway.
Oh, but what's funny is actually just the second you pick up, it kind of beeps and goes,
beep, and then hello.
Weird.
Yeah, so it's definitely different.
It's definitely different.
But, you know, the funny thing is, why don't you talk now while I'm talking, and we'll see
if the two of us can hear each other.
Can you hear what I'm saying right now?
Blah, blah, blah.
Could you hear what I was saying while you were talking?
Oh, well, I heard something.
But you hear my voice.
I'm telling you to shut up and stop talking.
Can you hear that?
Yeah.
Okay, that's good.
See, that's what we need here.
We need to be able to shut people up.
We have to do that.
That's the New Pacifica slogan.
Shut up.
No, that's actually, that's not true.
That's amazing.
That's amazing.
Well, my phone line is a little messed up, but that's a whole other story.
We can't help you with that.
Well, we can help you a little bit with that, but we can't.
That's exactly what I'm calling now.
Okay, what's wrong with your phone line?
Okay.
Now, my question is, when 9X comes to fix my phone, it always seems to work.
Uh-huh.
You know, and I was wondering if there's something that they switch in the CO before they come
out to your place.
Well, now, what's the original problem you're complaining about?
Ever since I've had the phone line, which is, you know, almost half a year now, static.
Uh-huh.
You sound fine now.
Um, well.
Crystal clear connection there.
Get out of here.
Oh, do you hear any static?
I hear no static at all.
Uh-huh.
Beautiful connection.
I don't know.
I hear it.
Would that every American could have a connection like this?
Did you ever consider that maybe it's your phone?
Now, if only I could get a connection above, like, 2,400, you know?
Okay.
Well, now, are you talking about data connections?
Is that what's giving you trouble?
Oh, well, yeah.
Well, on my modem, it's not data, but yeah.
You know.
Do you ever hear the static when you're talking to people?
Oh, yes.
Okay.
Is it always on the same phone?
I've switched phones and moved phones around and laid new wire in the house and tried a lot of things.
Uh-huh.
And you always get the static?
Yeah.
But you don't get the static all the time.
Um, it gets worse.
It gets better.
Do you get more static when it's raining?
Uh, I have, no, no, not really.
Really?
No, it, you know, that's the curious thing.
Where do the phone lines come into your building?
Oh, they're in the back.
In the back?
Yeah.
Do you live in an apartment or a house?
This is in a loft in an industrial area.
Okay, what you need to do...
And the terminal is right down outside my window.
I'll be honest with you.
I've climbed telephone poles because it's the only way sometimes to find out what's going on, really.
Yeah.
To see if the line is bad, if the line shows up.
Sometimes you just have to go to the source.
I mean, if you've tried the phone company and they're not giving you satisfaction, you know, go to where the line actually attaches itself to your building.
Check that out.
See if there's static there.
Next time you get static, you know, grab a phone or a test set or something and run to where you know those wires come in and check it there and see if the same static is there.
If it is, then it's definitely something that's happening on the phone lines themselves, you know, in the phone company domain.
Right.
If it's not, you know it's something beyond that point.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, I'm familiar with the network interface.
Is that what you're talking about?
Or are you talking about the terminal box in the back of the building?
Well, network interface is really legally as far as you're supposed to go.
That I know.
Right.
Right.
But, I mean, if you have to go further sometimes to find out the facts, you know, it's understandable.
Yeah, the terminal is really messed up.
I mean, one of the phone guys who came to work on it said, wow, this is an old Boston box.
This thing is ancient.
It's horrible.
It's a mess.
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
Anyway.
But what's funny is they'll call on the day that they're coming and they'll say, so do you still have static?
I'm like, you know what?
It doesn't sound like I'm static right now.
So it seems like something changed.
Like, the day they're coming out, it doesn't seem that bad.
So it just seems very bizarre to me.
And I was wondering if they'd do some sort of test loop or something.
Believe me, they're not organized enough to be able to fix them properly.
They're not organized enough to have an elaborate system where they can make things sound good when they come.
I mean, what would be the point?
You know, what, just to drive us all crazy or something?
Yeah, well.
I don't really, it doesn't really make much sense.
Although, I would have to suspect that something like that exists.
I mean, I had the biggest nightmare with 9X over the past couple of weeks.
Just trying to get them to come and fix a line.
You know, we were playing all kinds of games as far as someone being there, someone not being there.
They said they didn't have to come to the house.
And then they did have to come to the house.
But there was nobody there.
And the problem obviously wasn't that, you know, the phone was in the house someplace.
The dial tone was not reaching the house.
It wasn't there.
It was on there.
And every time you call repair, they would be able to verify that fact.
Yet they still were not able to fix that.
It took them two weeks to get a dial tone to come to a house.
And it's absurd.
And, you know, I was barraged.
This is really funny.
I was barraged with those automated calls from 9X Repair saying they just wanted to check to make sure everything's okay.
And, you know, of course your answering machine gets them.
Your answering machine doesn't know what to tell it.
And I don't know what the default is.
I really don't.
You know, if you don't say anything, does that mean everything's okay or does that mean everything's not okay?
I got about three of those calls in quick succession.
Within an hour, I got four different calls from 9X checking up on me.
Yeah, I've gotten two in the past couple of days.
Yeah.
They're pretty bizarre.
Well, listen, sir, we hope your problems work out.
Oh, well, you know, sometimes.
Yeah.
But it's, you know, it's something a lot of us have to deal with.
You remember that story I sent you about 9X and getting the duplicate bills and all this?
Uh-huh.
And so I have some gentleman at the President's Helpline is now calling me on a regular basis saying, well, I'm still working on it.
And it's funny.
I've had three people from the President's Helpline now call me.
Well, you know, I complained to the President's Helpline.
And, you know, I complained three different times.
And the first two times, they lost the record of me complaining.
I've done that.
They did that to me, too.
I mean, who are these people?
They can't even keep track of the complaints.
That's all they do is make sure that you don't go to the PSC.
And, you know, if the PSC were open 24 hours a day, I'll tell you, they'd get a lot more complaints.
But they close every day at 4.30, so obviously it's a lot harder.
Yeah.
And I definitely have complained to them, and you've got to.
All right.
Listen, thanks for the call.
All right.
Let's see.
How do I hang up?
I guess I hit the next button.
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
I think it does.
I'm going to hit the next button and...
Uh-oh.
Did I hang up on everybody?
No.
Okay.
I'm going to take this one now.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hi, Emmanuel.
Oh, you're number two.
I'm second.
You're second.
I love the new phone system.
Wait.
How do you know you love it when you've just been on it for about seven seconds?
Because I hear you, and I hear you, like, really crystal clear.
And, like, you know, it's all, like, I like the way it...
If that, in fact, happens, then it'll actually trigger a log to be generated
that says there was a form of signal irregularity
Another thing is, obviously, statistically, when people come to empty out the pay phones to get
all the money out, and they obviously notice that the message accounting doesn't quite
match how much money is in the phone, then over time they can piece together what the
problem is there, and then they'll probably end up replacing the phone with one where red
boxing is not possible.
But signal irregularities are logged, as are what's known as walk-away fraud.
Walk-away fraud.
Walk-away fraud.
What's walk-away?
Is that where the phone rings and asks you for money?
Yeah, and you walk away.
They actually care about that?
It's actually called walk-away fraud.
It's in the bell system practices.
But it's walk-away.
What can they do about it?
You know, you're walking away.
You don't come out.
No, there is very much they can do about it, but it is outlined.
That's something.
Well, the friend that told me about that uses this, you know, the red box, says that the
operator does not come on.
So in that case where, obviously, there's no regularities detected in the tones, is something
else alerted?
No, normally not, but that certainly doesn't have to be that way forever.
I mean, in this day and age, where all switches are digital, and all calls are actually processed
by digital signal processors, it would be a relatively straightforward thing to start
actually looking at the frequency and the speed of the tones.
Obviously, if everyone's using a RadioShack tone dialer, the speed is always the same,
it's always wrong, and the frequencies always deviate by the same number of hertz.
Right.
That can easily be programmed into a digital signal processor.
But, you know, they can also easily fix the system, so it doesn't work in the first place.
Yeah, they could do that, too.
I mean, it's a question of priorities.
You know, I was talking to somebody who works at RadioShack.
Do you know how many people actually come back to the store saying that the dialer they
bought doesn't work?
Really?
Because they try to use it to make free phone calls.
They modify it.
In fact, sometimes they bring it back modified or crudely demodified, and they say that,
you know, it doesn't work to make the free phone calls or whatever.
You know, that's not why we sold it to you in the first place.
There's also the world's smallest potential red box, which is the Casio phone dialer that,
of course, you know, has to use some kind of a three-point whatever megahertz crystal,
but it's probably too miniaturized to modify.
You're changing a crystal in a watch is probably best left to a jeweler than, as opposed to
someone with a big, fat soldering iron.
All right.
Thanks for the call.
Joker is here, and you have, you look apoplectic.
You look angry about that.
What is it?
I can't help but notice.
I want my three bucks back is what my problem is, mostly.
Well, I know it was...
It's not 2600 you're upset about.
No.
Some other magazines.
No, this magazine is called Virtual City, Your Guide to Cyber Culture.
First of all, they use the word cyber on the cover, so there's problem one.
That's a couple of points off right there.
I saw this in a newsstand down in D.C. a couple weeks ago when I was down there,
and I was in a real hurry, and if I had leaped through it more,
I would definitely not have bought it.
If you see this magazine, do not pick it up.
The cover has a bunch of Hollywood stars in it.
Jim Carrey, Courtney Love's on there, Andy Warhol, Kate Moss.
Top line says,
Online made easy.
Money, health, kids, travel, and fun.
Life on the net.
It's your party.
How to make the scene.
Now, that's not what I...
Let's hear about that.
Exactly.
Well, no, that's not what I was reacting to.
I saw...
There's a tag on the cover that says,
Hollywood sleuths take on hackers.
So I was like, oh, this is, you know, something on hackers.
I leafed through, and I didn't see it immediately,
but I figured, well, they're advertising it,
so it's got to be in there.
Well, you turn to the third page,
and here is the article.
I'll just read the first two paragraphs,
and you see if this has anything to do with hackers or anything.
Snippin' Clip Scars the Superstars by Nicky Fink.
Online or out of line, you be the judge.
An actress appeared nude in a movie.
Suddenly, her peekaboo poses show up on the Internet.
Some hacker with a scanner thinks it's cool
to post a computer composite that puts famous stars' head
on somebody else's naked torso.
An adoring fan creates unauthorized homepages
located with flimsy gossip, intimate details,
and gift pictures about an actor.
Now Hollywood is beginning to bite back.
Bite is spelled B-Y-T-E, by the way.
Of course.
Media figures who feel used and abused by the Internet
are hiring a new breed of outside consultants,
or cyber sleuths,
to seek out and destroy offensive posted material.
Their job, to find the sites that publish
real or fake nude client photos,
known in Netspeak as pasties,
Netspeak,
delete the images,
and then track down the responsible parties.
Then the lawyers set up a cease and desist letter
warning of illegal consequences.
Hollywood publicist Larry Winko Kerr
advocates tech toughness.
My client's a bore,
and he lost some control over their images,
and our job is to maintain
as much control as possible.
Now, I'm not even going to bother
to read the rest of the article.
That is the only mention of hackers
in this entire magazine.
Well, you know, the word cyber sleuth
was first introduced
after the John Markov...
Shimomura.
Yeah, Shimomura thing.
And that...
I kind of have to say it that way.
That's sort of the first time
I think I ever heard the word cyber...
In fact, I was convinced
the book was going to be called Cyber Sleuth,
but it's actually going to be called Takedown.
Takedown, okay.
Yeah, but it's, you know, it's...
I mean, it has language like this.
I mean, we spend enough time combating,
you know, people who, you know,
think we're all kids taking down systems
and putting viruses on anything.
I mean, we don't need another section of people
misusing the word hacker,
you know, just totally grossly doing it.
Well, now it seems like anybody
with a scanner and a copy of Photoshop
is now a hacker.
Exactly.
I mean, I just thought it was really funny,
but it kind of ticked me off
more than anything else.
The last paragraph is really funny.
How do we control it?
Where is Don Buckley,
online movie marketer for Warner Brothers?
It's technology.
You can't get the genie back in the bottle.
No.
Or can you?
By the way,
Nikki Fink's email address is
N-I-K-K-I-F-I-N-K-E
at guess where?
AOL.com.
Yes, AOL.com.
Okay.
So there you go.
Have fun.
Send her a letter.
Send her a copy of that AOL gold.
And, yeah, definitely.
And I do not recommend it.
You can't suggest something like that.
All right.
Thanks for stopping in with that.
Are you going to get your money back?
It looks like you've tripped it up quite a bit.
Yeah, it's been floating around.
I've showed it to so many people
just to get a laugh out of it
more than anything else.
No, I think you got me
three bucks worth out of it.
Yeah, I guess so.
Yeah.
And I got my gripe out, so.
So we'll see if there's another one
coming out anytime soon.
We'll probably gripe about that as well.
Hey, check this out.
I just discovered something
I can do with my voice.
With this brand new board here,
I can put this button
and all kinds of weird things
happen to my...
It sounds like something's wrong
with the system,
but nothing's wrong, actually.
You couldn't do that on the OVOID.
I'm getting an outer limit.
Wait, I'm sorry.
I didn't have you up at all.
Say that again.
I said it's like the beginning
of the Outer Limits show.
Yeah.
Too many buttons here.
That's the problem.
There's too many buttons
and you don't know exactly
what they do.
Let's press this button
and see what happens.
Hello?
Hi.
A couple of weeks ago,
you were mocking AT&T
because they were calling 800
a prefix instead of an area code.
And since all 800 numbers
are not in the same geographical area,
why would you call it an area code?
It's actually a special area code.
S-A-C is the official
Belcourt term for it.
But it's...
I mean, you could say
all area codes are prefixes
to prefixes, I suppose.
But in general telephony,
it's never called a prefix.
No, prefixes universally accepted
as being the first three digits
of a telephone number,
not the area code.
But I'm saying that
that has to change
because it used to be
that an area code
did designate phones
that were in a geographical area.
And it still does.
800 has always been non-geographic,
but it's never been
called a prefix before.
And for AT&T
to suddenly start calling it
a prefix,
I think it's just going
to confuse people.
But you say it is
in the same area.
What area are they in?
Well, it's, you know,
I guess area code
is a bit of a misnomer too,
but it is, you know,
the legal term for it
is special area code
because it is
a non-geographical area code.
But it is, in fact,
an area code,
even though the area
it encompasses...
It's an area code
because it's defined
in the numbering plan area
as in NPA.
But see, now you guys
sound like the stodgy
traditionalists
that don't want to give up
on the term area code
even though it doesn't mean anything.
Well, I don't picture AT&T
as a bunch of young punks
that are trying to change the lingo.
I picture them
as a bunch of idiots
that don't know
what they're doing.
When they're saying these,
you know,
their own terminology,
they're not getting it right.
They're not saying...
Well, for that matter,
I could say the first three digits
of my telephone number
is an area code
because it designates
what area I live in.
But that's why it's odd
to see you on the side
to say, you know,
well, these are not area codes
because this is an area code
and this is a prefix.
If the terms aren't descriptive anymore,
maybe it is time to change them.
Well, look, it's quite simple.
Actually, yes,
you have a point.
We could change the terms,
but I don't think
that's what AT&T is doing.
I mean, do you really think
AT&T said that
with a conscious effort
of soul-searching
and, you know,
this is not really an area code?
I think they just screwed up
and said prefix
when they meant area code.
That's what I think.
But that may be true.
I'm sorry?
That may well be true.
Yeah, I think that is true.
I mean, knowing AT&T
the way I know them,
it's quite possible.
But, okay.
All right.
I'll grant you that.
But I think that...
And I'm glad that you granted me
that the area codes
are not area codes anymore
because they're not
in the same area.
Well, I think, you know,
my prediction is that
telephone numbers
will just be ten digits,
you know, in the future.
Just full ten-digit numbers.
You won't even need
to dial one anymore
because everything will just be
a ten-digit phone number.
And after a while,
I mean, with all these
new area codes coming out,
you know, they're crazy.
Nobody knows where anything...
You know, Minnesota
just announced a new one.
Three, two, oh.
Yeah, like, we're going
to know that, you know.
We're going to know
that three, two, oh is Minnesota.
You know, and you have
these crazy ones
that sound like prefixes.
Nobody's going to remember
the, you know,
the, what were the...
Area.
Anyway.
All right.
Thanks for the call.
Good evening.
You're on.
Hello.
Go ahead.
Oh, um, I was wondering.
I had a question
about caller ID.
Question on caller ID.
Yeah, I have it.
And, um, I live
in central Westchester.
And according, you know,
when you get an out
out of area on it,
it's somebody calling
out of your
regional calling area.
Now, um, somebody
called me from
Mount Sinai Hospital,
which is 212-241,
which, um,
Mount Sinai is on 100th,
you know, in northern
Manhattan there.
And it said out of area.
I was wondering why.
Said out of area.
That's, uh,
it should have said
not available.
Uh, well, actually,
out of area,
not available,
I guess, is the same thing.
Out of area doesn't
really mean anything
anymore because
caller ID is,
is, uh, available
for the most part
nationally.
All it really means
is that the place
calling you doesn't
have caller ID
capability yet.
Right.
In most cases,
that means they're,
they're, you know,
out of the, uh,
out of your calling
zone, 212-718-516.
If they called you
from a hospital,
and it's most likely
that the hospital
is on a private
phone system,
in which case
it probably doesn't
have, yeah,
then it probably
doesn't have
caller ID
on their phone
system.
Now, a 1A,
if a 1A was
calling you.
Nope, no caller
ID.
You'd get out of
area, right?
No, you, you,
no, you would get,
uh, not available.
Well, it depends
on what your
caller ID box says.
That's true.
So does your
caller ID box
ever say not
available,
or does it
always say out
of area?
The only message
is, according
to the, the
instructions,
the only messages
that can be put
across are private,
which is, you know,
somebody has a block
or something.
Right.
Um, out of area
and error when,
you know,
something goes
wrong, error.
So out of area
is a bit of a
misnomer too,
because they're
not necessarily
out of the area,
it's just not
available in their
area.
Oh, okay.
All right.
Thanks for calling.
Good evening,
you're on.
Yeah, hello.
How you doing?
Just calling for
Emanuel and Fiber.
Oh, here we are.
We're here.
You're there?
I, I, do I have
you on delay.
Hold on.
Well, no,
you have us live.
The rest of the
world is delayed.
Great.
Listen, Cowboys.
Cowboys?
I think there's
a distinct connection
between you guys
and Cowboys,
but I, I'm a
completely non-technical
listener, but I
think you're so
fabulous.
And I have a
suggestion.
I would like to
know from you two
and also maybe
from the really
totally involved
people that listen
to this show,
what is a hacker?
What is a hacker?
I mean, let's,
you know,
not a negative
definition, but a
positive one.
What do you guys
feel?
What are you doing?
Well, basically, I
mean, my, my main
definition of a
hacker is someone
who, who just likes
to explore, likes to
experiment, likes to
play around with
technology and do
various things, isn't
so much concerned
about, you know,
what, what is
considered proper
procedure, who you
should ask for
permission to do
something, to press a
certain button or
type a certain
command.
He's more interested in
seeing what happens
when you do it
and a lot of
people, especially
in positions of
control, don't want
certain bits of
knowledge to get
out because it's
something that could
compromise their
control at some
point.
A hacker is
someone who's not
really concerned with
either toppling that
or preserving that.
He wants to know
what happens when you
try it.
So the exploratory urge
is far more important
than the one to
reject authority?
I would say so.
I mean, rejecting
authority is certainly
a part of it, but
there's nothing
inherently wrong with
rejecting authority
or questioning it.
No, no, no.
I'm just trying to
get at the motives.
Right, but I'm
saying that's...
The recipe of the
motives, you know,
it's semi-language,
I know it's radio,
get them, you know,
get through the power
structure.
Right.
I mean, that has to
be seductive.
Well, it is, but,
you know, everyone's
different.
Everyone does it
for different reasons.
Yeah.
Well, I suggest
for the BAI folder,
that folio, that you
get, you know, you're
really hard and true
people that write in
some kind of
definition.
I think it's really
important because the
word is so badly
used, and you guys
seem to know what the
heart of it is.
Uh-huh.
The people that
listen to you, so.
All right, listen,
thanks for the
suggestion.
Put it down in words.
Put it down in words.
Yeah.
All right, well,
that's a suggestion.
If people want to have
a little essay writing
contest or something,
what do you think?
We can offer a prize?
Uh, sure, why not?
Okay.
That, you know, people
should know what the
definition of the word
is.
People should understand,
you know, what a hacker
is in their eyes.
I mean, does my
definition sit all
right with you?
Uh, yeah.
I mean, I concur
wholeheartedly.
I don't think I could
add anything more
to it.
A wholehearted
concurrence is what
I'm after.
I'm glad I achieved it.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Uh, yes.
Uh, my name is Peter,
uh, calling from
Connecticut.
Hello, Peter, from
Connecticut.
Uh, I'm very, I live
in, I live in Stanford.
Okay.
And, uh, Greenwich,
Connecticut is right,
is a town right next
to Stanford.
Yeah, they're a bunch of
troublemakers, aren't they?
They are, yeah.
It's like, I've grown up
with Greenwich all my
life, and I just moved
to Stanford.
Oh, so you're a
transplanted Greenwich
in.
I'm a transplanted
Greenwichite from, uh,
well, from Greenwich,
I'm in Stanford, and it's
a town right next to
Stanford, and it doesn't
have, it's out of the
area.
Well, it's true.
And all my friends are
in Greenwich, uh, and,
and, you know, every time
I get a call from
Greenwich, or 90% of
mine, as a matter of
fact, I canceled my
caller ID, because
everything was out of
area.
Right, now, what's your
phone company over
there?
Uh, SNET.
So, that's the
independent, Southern
New England Telephone.
And, uh, yeah, Southern
New England Telephone.
Greenwich happens to be in,
uh, the New York
Telephone.
Uh-huh.
Yep.
Well, actually, 9X,
right?
9X.
Yeah, 9X.
Well, were they the
part of Connecticut that
was served by New York
Telephone?
Yeah, Greenwich.
Well, actually, I think
it was, um, like, 75%
of Greenwich.
Uh-huh.
Well, I mean, that's
probably the reason right
there, is the two
different companies.
Is it a long-distance
call for you to call?
No, it's a local call.
It's a local call.
Local call.
Even though you're
going to another phone
company.
Going to another phone
company, and, and,
you know, I, I know
somebody, um, here in
Stanford who got a
caller ID about a year
ago, and he said,
oh, don't worry, they
say Greenwich is going
to be, uh, hooked up,
you know, real soon, and,
and here it is, uh,
they must have had
caller ID here for,
um, in Connecticut for,
um, years, a couple
years now, and, and,
I don't think they're
going to get Greenwich
on.
Well, now, do you know
what kind of switches
they use over in
Greenwich?
No, I'm not that,
um.
Because, I mean, if
they're using 1As or
even cross parts, which
I doubt, uh, then, of
course, it's not going to
work in the first place.
I mean, Bell Atlantic,
it does work, right?
Yeah, Bell Atlantic had
enough 1s and 1As that
they retrofitted the 1s to
1As and actually equipped
the 1As to do SS7.
But in 9X territory,
that's not.
No, there weren't
enough of them where
it was really worth it.
But, um, it might not
be a...
SNAT, what their
particular case is.
Yeah, it might not be
that, uh, even that
much.
It might be, uh,
something, if, if
caller ID is available
within Southern New
England Telephone, it
might be something as
simple as them not
actually connecting
their SS7 network to
the outside.
But as of December
1st, it's supposed to,
uh, go nationwide, so
I suspect that you'll
start getting some
numbers from Greenwich
after then, unless they
have antiquated phone
systems, in which case
it might be a bit
longer.
I see.
I have another
interesting thing.
My phone number is,
um, uh, 316-8600.
Okay.
So it's the, uh...
Well, everyone after
calling me can call,
can call you now.
We can continue the
party.
Well, no, it's a
Kansas, uh, uh, it's
a Kansas, um, uh,
area code.
Well, it's my
prefix.
Your, your prefix?
Oh, see, it's good
that we have this
terminology down, because
I know what you're
talking about.
Your 316 prefix is
the same as a Kansas
area code.
Yeah.
Right?
Okay, good.
I'm glad you, I'm glad
you said it that way.
So you're getting all
these calls from wayward
Kansans?
No, actually, I'm not.
I'm not.
Oh, but you could be.
I could be.
Yeah.
Well, I'm sure you
will.
It's a new prefix in
Connecticut.
Well, let me tell you,
yeah, eight, well, it's a
new area code.
Don't, don't, don't start
trouble.
860, right?
No, no, no, no.
My new prefix is 316.
What's the new area code
over there?
Well, I don't know what
the new, I'm in a 203
area code.
Yeah, but virtually all
of Connecticut changed.
Is it 860?
Well, in Fairfield County,
we still have 203, and the
other part, I think it's,
maybe it's 860, I don't
know.
All right.
Well, there's a lot of
changes on the horizon,
that's for sure.
All right.
Thanks for calling.
You know, there's a better
story comes out of
Minnesota, where the area
code is 612, and lots
of times people accidentally
call Australia, because
that's country code 61.
Yeah, actually, a similar
thing used to happen with
my parents sometimes,
where their prefix is the
same as the country code
for Guyana in South
America.
No kidding.
Yeah, so people would
forget to put the 011,
and they would just start
dialing, and they would
dial just a local call.
Wow.
So what would your
parents do?
Well, once they told me,
and I figured out what was
going on, I told them to
tell the people that they
need to dial 011 before
the number.
And hopefully the language
difficulties were.
Yeah, this was a while
ago.
I don't think it's
happened lately.
Okay.
Well, this concludes our
program for tonight.
We successfully made it
through this first night
on the new board.
What do you think?
Sounds better to me.
Sounds good, yeah.
Definitely sounds good.
We want to thank the
WBI supporters for
making this possible.
And in fact, this is a
new board, but it's a
temporary room, so we're
a bit cramped in here
right now while we're
rebuilding the master
studio.
And that will be in a
couple of weeks, where
we have to adjust all over
again to an even better
environment.
So, we'll be back again
next week in this
environment for another
edition of Off the Hook
for Fiber Optic.
This is Emmanuel Goldstein.
Have a very good night,
and let's all hope that
the button works.
Oh, good.
We'll see you next week,
8 to 9 p.m.
Good night.
Good night.
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, did they bomb
for the best
expect from birth?
I hope that
I've understood
Bum, did they
move?
No!
On November 21st and November 28th,
Weaponry will continue its look at the implications
of Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin's assassination
on the peace process and the Middle East in general.
So tune in on November 21st at 12.30 a.m. Tuesday night
and November 28th Tuesday night at 1.30 a.m.
to listen to...