[00:10.040 --> 00:15.100]  Perspective with Luis Reyes Rivera and a host of friends.
[00:15.100 --> 00:18.620]  A new program at WBAI.
[00:18.840 --> 00:28.740]  Every Thursday at 2 in the afternoon, we'll be featuring straight up poets, writers, musicians, performance and visual artists.
[00:28.740 --> 00:43.980]  But this time around, as cultural workers, as analytical critics, who'll engage in laying out oral history and dialogue as much on political social issues as on their particular art form.
[00:44.200 --> 00:53.860]  So join us every Thursday at 2 in the afternoon on WBAI 99.5 on your FM dial.
[01:00.920 --> 01:06.800]  And you're listening to radio station WBAI in New York, where the time is 7 o'clock on a Wednesday night.
[01:07.000 --> 01:08.960]  Time, once again, for Off the Hook.
[01:14.250 --> 01:18.670]  The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
[01:19.670 --> 01:24.210]  I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a cough.
[01:24.850 --> 01:29.510]  We couldn't get much worse, but if they could, they would.
[01:29.510 --> 01:32.430]  From Billy Bon for the best, expect the worst.
[01:33.110 --> 01:34.930]  I hope that's understood.
[01:35.290 --> 01:35.950]  From Billy Bon.
[02:23.440 --> 02:25.940]  Okay, the very first thing we have to do is get Bernie S.
[02:25.980 --> 02:26.580]  on the telephone.
[02:27.740 --> 02:28.440]  Right, Jeff?
[02:29.200 --> 02:29.720]  Absolutely.
[02:30.000 --> 02:32.140]  Okay, let's dial his number then.
[02:44.600 --> 02:45.300]  Bernie S.
[02:45.320 --> 02:48.020]  will be coming to us from the streets of Philadelphia.
[03:11.690 --> 03:12.210]  Hello.
[03:12.630 --> 03:12.930]  Hey.
[03:13.470 --> 03:13.910]  Hey.
[03:14.110 --> 03:14.810]  You're on the radio.
[03:15.390 --> 03:15.710]  Oh.
[03:16.890 --> 03:17.410]  Hello.
[03:17.410 --> 03:18.530]  Caught you by surprise, eh?
[03:18.970 --> 03:19.250]  Yes.
[03:19.690 --> 03:22.730]  Okay, we're here on another edition of Off the Hook.
[03:22.830 --> 03:24.890]  Bernie, you're in the street in Philadelphia, is that interesting?
[03:25.070 --> 03:28.110]  Actually, I'm in a building descending to the street in Philadelphia.
[03:28.310 --> 03:29.350]  You're in an elevator right now.
[03:29.930 --> 03:31.670]  Actually, I'm on a stairwell.
[03:31.910 --> 03:32.290]  I see.
[03:32.450 --> 03:33.770]  Okay, that's pretty exciting.
[03:34.510 --> 03:34.770]  All right.
[03:35.070 --> 03:44.750]  Well, we're coming to you with another edition of this program, talking about high technology and all the changes that are going on in the world of computers, phones, and whatnot.
[03:46.370 --> 03:50.010]  We haven't talked to you in a couple of weeks, Bernie, so tell us if anything new is happening down there.
[03:50.690 --> 03:59.930]  Um, well, I'm approaching, uh, Independence Park, which, uh, you know, contains, uh, Independence Hall, where our constitution was, was written and signed.
[04:00.270 --> 04:04.670]  And, uh, the federal park police have really done a number on this, on this place.
[04:04.910 --> 04:21.110]  They've erected these, uh, these really hideous tents, um, blocking, uh, foot traffic through the park, which, uh, they've installed these, uh, $2 million magnetometers for, uh, you know, detecting bombs and metal objects, you know.
[04:21.410 --> 04:25.270]  In case somebody would want to blow up this, uh, kind of a small building, really.
[04:25.430 --> 04:27.070]  There's no, nobody, nobody works in it.
[04:27.170 --> 04:28.890]  It's just a, whatever.
[04:29.150 --> 04:30.490]  I think it's a huge waste of money.
[04:30.490 --> 04:40.510]  Well, coming down here to, um, uh, to Wall Street, I don't know if you guys noticed on the way down, but, uh, the, the, the, the soldiers in full military, uh, gear are, well, they're not really the soldiers, I guess.
[04:40.650 --> 04:43.750]  They're, they're, they're the police department, but they have, uh, machine guns and helmets.
[04:44.170 --> 04:44.610]  You notice that?
[04:44.730 --> 04:45.910]  They're standing around outside the stock exchange.
[04:46.090 --> 04:48.910]  It's like, you know, some new wave of paranoia has suddenly hit.
[04:49.110 --> 04:51.710]  And, uh, all of a sudden they, they, they, you know, last week they weren't out.
[04:51.810 --> 04:52.550]  This week they are out.
[04:52.990 --> 04:56.690]  And, and there's, there are all these, like, banks on, on, on Wall Street, obviously.
[04:56.690 --> 05:06.150]  But, I don't know if you caught this one, walking by the, uh, the Deutsche Bank, the German Bank, there are these, uh, two, um, soldier-looking guys in, in, in blue fatigues.
[05:06.450 --> 05:11.250]  I don't know if they're German soldiers or what, but they're just standing there looking fierce and not blinking or anything.
[05:11.550 --> 05:12.710]  You know, like they're statues.
[05:13.150 --> 05:13.690]  No guns.
[05:13.950 --> 05:14.670]  Well, I don't know.
[05:14.850 --> 05:17.230]  I imagine they're, they were guns themselves, probably.
[05:17.370 --> 05:20.110]  There's, like, something about them that just, you, you don't want to mess with.
[05:20.190 --> 05:22.490]  But, I mean, come on.
[05:22.690 --> 05:24.150]  What, what, what are we moving towards here?
[05:24.150 --> 05:30.410]  What kind of society is, is we walk down a public street and you're met with different kinds of soldiers and all kinds of machine guns and things like that.
[05:30.450 --> 05:33.110]  I mean, are we any safer right now than we were two years ago?
[05:33.250 --> 05:33.730]  I don't think so.
[05:33.730 --> 05:36.650]  I ran into some, uh, other paranoia here in Philadelphia last night.
[05:36.850 --> 05:46.230]  Um, on my walk home, uh, north on 6th Street, I, uh, walked past what, uh, used to be labeled as, uh, an MCI building.
[05:46.670 --> 05:50.070]  Uh, kind of hard to miss because there's a big microwave tower there.
[05:50.110 --> 05:53.450]  They don't use the microwave antennas for anything anymore, but the tower's still there.
[05:53.450 --> 05:53.770]  Right.
[05:53.950 --> 05:58.830]  And it used to say MCI all over it and there was a fence around, typical switch facility.
[05:59.370 --> 06:02.750]  And I was walking by and I noticed there's no more signs around there that say MCI.
[06:02.990 --> 06:07.290]  And there was a guy, uh, in a t-shirt walking around in the parking lot, looking down at his feet.
[06:07.410 --> 06:07.790]  And I said, hey.
[06:08.290 --> 06:10.390]  He looked up at me with like a fear in his eyes.
[06:10.470 --> 06:11.970]  I said, is this still an MCI facility?
[06:12.330 --> 06:13.970]  He said, and what's your name?
[06:14.130 --> 06:15.810]  You know, I said, no, my name's Bernie.
[06:15.810 --> 06:18.290]  And, uh, you know, I used to work for 9X.
[06:18.370 --> 06:19.630]  I'm just curious about the facility.
[06:19.630 --> 06:20.350]  I was walking home.
[06:20.810 --> 06:22.570]  And, uh, he got really paranoid.
[06:22.790 --> 06:25.610]  He said, yeah, since 9-1-1, they took down all the signs.
[06:26.290 --> 06:26.930]  And, uh...
[06:26.930 --> 06:28.470]  Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
[06:28.550 --> 06:29.330]  Hold on one second.
[06:29.690 --> 06:32.390]  Since when is MCI a target of terrorists?
[06:32.710 --> 06:35.530]  I think it's a bigger target of shareholders right now, frankly.
[06:36.710 --> 06:37.030]  Well...
[06:37.030 --> 06:40.250]  With all this Bernie Evers, uh, shenanigans.
[06:40.470 --> 06:43.750]  But, uh, frankly, this guy said that it's company policy.
[06:43.910 --> 06:48.170]  They took down all the signs, all the markings indicating this is a telecom.
[06:48.290 --> 06:49.970]  This guy, they've got a DMS-250 in there.
[06:50.390 --> 06:53.450]  And, uh, he said that would be a potential terrorist target.
[06:53.710 --> 06:55.990]  And, like, it's crazy.
[06:56.270 --> 06:59.470]  Well, right next door to us, 100 Wall Street is MCI.
[06:59.570 --> 07:00.750]  And I think they still have the sign-up, right?
[07:00.770 --> 07:02.350]  I mean, uh, I don't think they took it down.
[07:02.870 --> 07:03.630]  We shouldn't say.
[07:03.790 --> 07:05.150]  Maybe I shouldn't have given out that information.
[07:05.330 --> 07:15.290]  But, you know, the reason I say that is because uh, once Bill SF was visiting us here at the radio station from Amsterdam and, uh, I inadvertently gave him the wrong address because we had just moved down here.
[07:15.430 --> 07:17.010]  And I said it was 100 Wall Street.
[07:17.310 --> 07:20.470]  And he called me from the 10th floor of 100 Wall Street.
[07:20.870 --> 07:26.710]  Uh, the, the security guard downstairs had called my phone to make sure it was okay to let him upstairs.
[07:27.270 --> 07:28.470]  Because that's the phone number.
[07:28.590 --> 07:31.030]  That's the phone number that he gave him of the person upstairs.
[07:31.390 --> 07:34.290]  And, and we realized, wow, what an easy way to get into a building.
[07:34.290 --> 07:36.410]  All the security guard has to do is call a number.
[07:36.710 --> 07:38.570]  Or get somebody on the other end to say it's okay.
[07:38.730 --> 07:39.610]  And they let him into the building.
[07:39.710 --> 07:41.510]  So he was wandering around MCI, you know.
[07:41.950 --> 07:44.130]  Uh, and of course we were over here on 120 Wall Street.
[07:44.310 --> 07:45.910]  So, uh, we, we cleared that up pretty quickly.
[07:46.130 --> 07:47.770]  I don't think you can get away with that these days, can you?
[07:48.150 --> 07:48.870]  No, I don't think so.
[07:48.970 --> 07:49.150]  Hmm.
[07:49.150 --> 07:50.770]  Um, I don't know.
[07:50.910 --> 07:53.410]  It seems pretty weird that MCI would, uh, be that paranoid.
[07:53.610 --> 07:55.690]  Maybe that's why they don't want to tell us where they are when we call them.
[07:56.110 --> 07:57.770]  You know, maybe that's why they're in India now.
[07:59.370 --> 07:59.950]  Who knows?
[08:00.330 --> 08:01.410]  Could have told us in India.
[08:01.570 --> 08:04.130]  You know, India's got its share of, uh, paranoia.
[08:04.390 --> 08:05.330]  Yeah, yeah, that's true.
[08:05.370 --> 08:07.210]  But it's not aimed at MCI necessarily.
[08:08.290 --> 08:10.190]  But, uh, we'll, we'll, we'll see about that.
[08:10.490 --> 08:11.890]  But that's, uh, that's pretty interesting.
[08:11.890 --> 08:13.970]  Um, uh, interesting goings on there.
[08:14.270 --> 08:17.710]  Uh, we, we talked a little bit about the, uh, the color coding last week.
[08:17.990 --> 08:34.010]  Um, and, um, and we have, um, a lot of listeners wrote in with information, uh, including one person saying that we can always find out what the New York City terror alert status is by going to www.nyc.gov slash html slash oem.
[08:34.230 --> 08:35.070]  Kind of a strange address.
[08:35.330 --> 08:39.730]  I'm gonna, I'm gonna go there right now, in fact, see what, uh, since this computer is right here next to me.
[08:40.290 --> 08:43.830]  Um, and that will tell you what color it is in New York, in case you need to know that.
[08:44.150 --> 08:46.330]  It's the Office of Emergency something?
[08:46.650 --> 08:46.890]  Management.
[08:46.970 --> 08:47.350]  Management?
[08:47.710 --> 08:47.870]  Yeah.
[08:48.930 --> 08:49.750]  Something like that.
[08:50.330 --> 08:51.950]  Um, and...
[08:51.950 --> 08:53.690]  Is that a city, uh, is that a city agency?
[08:53.950 --> 08:54.710]  Uh, yes.
[08:55.110 --> 08:55.130]  Yeah.
[08:55.130 --> 08:59.210]  Because, uh, the city color is different from the national color.
[08:59.850 --> 09:03.790]  Um, and I don't know why that just happened.
[09:03.810 --> 09:07.110]  Each, uh, each state has its own, uh, emergency management agency.
[09:07.250 --> 09:09.650]  And, of course, there's FEMA, the federal emergency.
[09:09.650 --> 09:10.670]  Emergency management agency.
[09:10.890 --> 09:11.630]  There's all these emergencies.
[09:12.170 --> 09:14.250]  They're just looking for emergencies to manage.
[09:14.450 --> 09:14.810]  That's right.
[09:15.190 --> 09:16.070]  Okay, terror alert status.
[09:16.150 --> 09:21.290]  While the national terror threat level was recently lowered to yellow or elevated, New York remains on high alert.
[09:21.510 --> 09:26.430]  As such, the city continues to be prepared for any emergency, whereas before we only prepared for some.
[09:27.170 --> 09:32.670]  Uh, learn more about Operation Atlas, the NYPD's comprehensive security initiative, by clicking here.
[09:33.330 --> 09:33.850]  All right.
[09:34.190 --> 09:37.310]  Didn't someone write in and say that, uh, Hawaii was at green?
[09:37.510 --> 09:37.650]  Yeah.
[09:37.730 --> 09:37.950]  Uh, no.
[09:38.030 --> 09:39.870]  Hawaii is at blue, according to this person.
[09:40.050 --> 09:41.250]  Now, I'm not sure how to find that out.
[09:41.370 --> 09:44.210]  Does anybody know how to, uh, how to reach Hawaii's, uh...
[09:44.210 --> 09:45.850]  Why don't we try, uh...
[09:45.850 --> 09:46.210]  Yes, Jim?
[09:46.370 --> 09:50.430]  Why don't we try, uh, finding Hawaii's, uh, government site and, uh, going there?
[09:50.430 --> 09:54.890]  All right, well, someone should come with me, because it's very hard for me to, uh, talk on the radio and surf the air.
[09:54.970 --> 09:57.090]  Wasn't there a, uh, wasn't there an Elvis movie called Blue Hawaii?
[09:57.610 --> 10:00.070]  Uh, maybe that's got something to do with it.
[10:00.170 --> 10:11.950]  But this person says, uh, you mentioned in Off the Hook, you want to know where another place, uh, is that blue Hawaii governor, the Hawaii governor mentioned that the state has always been on blue, even since 9-11, even when the nation is at orange.
[10:12.610 --> 10:20.570]  Um, and Tom Ridge has mentioned that red will only be used in really severe cases where they have evidence of attacks and only on the regions that they have evidence of a threat.
[10:21.930 --> 10:22.690]  Yeah, okay.
[10:22.910 --> 10:23.650]  Makes a lot of sense.
[10:24.590 --> 10:27.470]  Um, all right, Mike is over here, uh, looking up Hawaii.
[10:27.930 --> 10:28.890]  Uh, oh, so it's right there.
[10:28.970 --> 10:30.350]  Hawaii terror-coded code yellow.
[10:30.910 --> 10:37.690]  Uh, due to the growing conflict in Iraq, Hawaii governor Linda Lingle elevated Hawaii's terror alert status to yellow.
[10:38.410 --> 10:38.930]  Elevated it.
[10:38.990 --> 10:41.650]  That means that, uh, that it wasn't that yellow before.
[10:42.270 --> 10:42.650]  Right?
[10:43.030 --> 10:43.870]  What's below yellow?
[10:44.070 --> 10:44.830]  I guess that would be blue.
[10:45.270 --> 10:45.930]  No, it would be blue.
[10:45.930 --> 10:47.210]  Green is above blue.
[10:48.270 --> 10:51.530]  Yeah, Hawaii terror alert status was previously at blue or guarded.
[10:52.730 --> 10:53.850]  What's green called?
[10:54.070 --> 10:54.550]  All clear?
[10:56.030 --> 10:57.830]  Green is low.
[10:58.810 --> 10:59.090]  Okay.
[10:59.250 --> 10:59.470]  All right.
[10:59.470 --> 11:00.050]  I thought blue was the low one.
[11:00.590 --> 11:04.790]  Who wants to, who wants to take out a bet, you know, that we're never going to be at low?
[11:05.450 --> 11:07.530]  I mean, anybody make this interesting, put some money on it?
[11:07.530 --> 11:08.010]  No, no, no, no.
[11:08.110 --> 11:09.110]  Gamble the license, maybe?
[11:09.470 --> 11:09.630]  No?
[11:10.970 --> 11:13.350]  I'm hoping for any color but yellow or orange.
[11:13.610 --> 11:14.730]  We should make up our own colors.
[11:14.730 --> 11:18.770]  How about a color code indicating the threat of our government right now?
[11:18.990 --> 11:22.890]  Let's say, uh, it won't be low while this president is in power.
[11:23.430 --> 11:23.910]  No.
[11:24.150 --> 11:26.150]  I guess directly proportional to the intelligence level.
[11:26.230 --> 11:26.590]  I get it.
[11:26.790 --> 11:27.370]  I think so.
[11:27.850 --> 11:32.030]  I like, I like Michael Moore's site where he uses the term ripe avocado.
[11:32.030 --> 11:34.590]  So, yes.
[11:35.370 --> 11:35.870]  All right.
[11:35.930 --> 11:40.890]  Let's take a look at some, uh, listener mail and, um, news stories.
[11:41.490 --> 11:42.330]  I love the show.
[11:42.410 --> 11:50.290]  Just want to tell you that the company that does Microsoft, Broadband, XP, 2000, ME, 98, et cetera, uh, phone support is moving all contracts to India.
[11:51.350 --> 11:52.510]  Uh, Convergis Inc.
[11:52.550 --> 11:55.510]  is the company that does the Microsoft Corporation phone tech support.
[11:55.510 --> 11:59.710]  They have offices everywhere in the world, and they do phone support for many other companies other than Microsoft.
[12:00.270 --> 12:05.870]  Notice has been going around that all the Microsoft Corporation contracts will be moving to the India centers.
[12:06.490 --> 12:12.910]  Uh, most of the support now is in India, like 98 ME support, and they find it cheaper for workers for the price of one.
[12:14.730 --> 12:23.750]  Um, and, um, you can go to, uh, www.convergissucks.com, which is not their official site, I don't think.
[12:24.090 --> 12:29.830]  That's spelled C-O-N-V-E-R-G-Y-S-S-U-C-K-S dot com.
[12:30.350 --> 12:34.230]  Um, you'll have to sign up to the forum to see it all, but it is worth it, they say.
[12:34.610 --> 12:35.110]  All right.
[12:35.330 --> 12:37.430]  Uh, thanks, uh, thanks for that, uh, letter from John.
[12:38.210 --> 12:42.110]  Um, this person writes in, uh, I like your bid on off the hook.
[12:42.110 --> 12:44.850]  We try to get where the call center is for various corporations.
[12:45.110 --> 12:47.510]  I'd like to hear where 411 for Verizon is.
[12:47.970 --> 12:50.670]  Um, when I called, I got, uh, this response.
[12:50.890 --> 12:52.090]  We are centrally located.
[12:52.270 --> 12:54.510]  That is all we can tell you for security purposes.
[12:57.110 --> 12:57.750]  Centrally located.
[12:57.930 --> 12:59.490]  Well, I don't think we can even call 411.
[13:00.290 --> 13:01.270]  Let's, uh, let's give it a shot.
[13:01.290 --> 13:02.310]  I don't think we can, though.
[13:03.150 --> 13:05.250]  Um, I think it's blocked.
[13:08.230 --> 13:12.030]  Of course, if we do get through, we'll have to deal with, uh, James Earl Jones or whatever the computer.
[13:13.170 --> 13:18.090]  If you call 411 from your Sprint PCS phone, you get charged, like, $2 or something ridiculous.
[13:18.590 --> 13:18.710]  Yeah.
[13:19.270 --> 13:20.230]  Well, something happened.
[13:23.840 --> 13:24.240]  Nothing.
[13:24.440 --> 13:25.020]  Nothing's happening.
[13:25.200 --> 13:25.320]  In the city?
[13:26.120 --> 13:26.280]  Oh!
[13:26.900 --> 13:27.560]  Something's going to...
[13:27.560 --> 13:28.200]  What state?
[13:28.460 --> 13:29.420]  Uh, no, uh, hello?
[13:29.720 --> 13:29.900]  Hello?
[13:31.000 --> 13:31.400]  Confusion.
[13:31.600 --> 13:31.940]  What listing?
[13:32.280 --> 13:33.920]  No, no, uh, human, please.
[13:34.700 --> 13:35.440]  Thank you.
[13:42.160 --> 13:43.380]  What city and state, please?
[13:43.560 --> 13:46.140]  Uh, yes, hi, we just need to know the location of the call center, please.
[13:46.520 --> 13:47.600]  The call center?
[13:47.600 --> 13:48.020]  Yes.
[13:49.740 --> 13:51.100]  In what city and state, sir?
[13:51.120 --> 13:52.700]  No, your call center, where you are right now.
[13:52.820 --> 13:52.980]  Oh, okay.
[13:53.300 --> 13:53.980]  Greenville, Mississippi.
[13:54.380 --> 13:55.360]  Okay, thank you very much.
[13:55.500 --> 13:56.000]  Thank you.
[13:56.460 --> 13:58.080]  See, I think it's all how you ask.
[13:58.560 --> 13:59.600]  She counted it, too.
[13:59.780 --> 13:59.940]  Yeah.
[14:00.240 --> 14:01.500]  I also got her off guard.
[14:02.040 --> 14:03.440]  So, uh, everyone out there...
[14:03.440 --> 14:07.080]  Now, Verizon just made 50 cents or something off of us by us doing that, so...
[14:07.080 --> 14:12.340]  People out there, uh, you'll be donating money to Verizon, but you can find out where they are, and let's see if Greenville, Mississippi is the hub.
[14:13.120 --> 14:13.580]  All right.
[14:14.080 --> 14:16.140]  Was that a security violation, knowing where they are now?
[14:16.140 --> 14:18.520]  Now, now everyone knows it's come on the radio.
[14:18.860 --> 14:19.860]  They're going to have to move it.
[14:20.180 --> 14:23.700]  She could have been a quick thinker, though, and she might actually be somewhere else, and that's just what they say.
[14:24.180 --> 14:27.440]  Verizon doesn't serve Mississippi as a local exchange carrier, does it?
[14:27.440 --> 14:29.020]  Well, maybe that's why they're safe over there.
[14:29.460 --> 14:29.780]  Ah.
[14:30.160 --> 14:32.200]  They don't want to be in a place where people know who they are.
[14:33.720 --> 14:34.360]  Um, okay.
[14:34.660 --> 14:37.940]  I understand you are making a DVD version of your movie Freedom Downtime.
[14:38.340 --> 14:40.620]  Um, this is, this is one of these letters that goes on a journey.
[14:40.920 --> 14:42.000]  Uh, but I'm just curious, though.
[14:42.060 --> 14:49.300]  Are you going to not encrypt the DVD so we can all easily make legal backups of it, or are you going to be hypocrites and encrypt the damn thing so we have to go through the trouble of using DECSS?
[14:49.300 --> 14:54.200]  DECSS, it's great how these people go on a tirade when we don't even answer, you know?
[14:54.360 --> 14:57.000]  It's, uh, no, we're not going to encrypt it.
[14:57.400 --> 14:59.740]  I mean, you know, I don't think we even know how.
[15:01.100 --> 15:08.600]  No, it's going to be, uh, interesting, um, uh, people with a DVD player, that's really the only requirement, uh, will be able to see it no matter what planet they're on.
[15:09.240 --> 15:12.620]  And, uh, from the looks of this letter, it will, uh, qualify them.
[15:13.200 --> 15:16.580]  Um, and that should be ready in a, I don't know, sometime.
[15:17.660 --> 15:18.020]  Sometime.
[15:18.020 --> 15:22.680]  Yeah, we're, we're still working on the VCDs from H2K2, so, uh, a lot of projects going on.
[15:22.860 --> 15:24.940]  Oh, by the way, the, uh, the IRC server is back.
[15:24.940 --> 15:28.500]  Welcome to all those people who are, uh, on there right now and listening to the radio show.
[15:28.640 --> 15:35.480]  IRC.2600.net, uh, returned to the, um, uh, internet waves, I guess, uh, a couple of days ago.
[15:35.560 --> 15:37.560]  And it's amazing how everybody just suddenly came back.
[15:37.700 --> 15:38.780]  You know, it's like everyone was just waiting.
[15:38.920 --> 15:40.400]  Almost a year this thing's been down.
[15:40.600 --> 15:45.880]  But thanks to the efforts of, uh, of many people throughout the nation, uh, we've, uh, we've got the thing back up.
[15:45.880 --> 15:48.940]  And it's, uh, it's really in, uh, in, in good hands, I think.
[15:49.040 --> 15:50.280]  And it's great to see everybody again.
[15:50.420 --> 15:53.100]  You did have the information up on the website, too, so...
[15:53.100 --> 15:53.600]  Yes, yes.
[15:53.600 --> 15:54.740]  It was easy enough to find out.
[15:54.820 --> 15:57.860]  But it's amazing how everybody just sort of, like, just came back, you know.
[15:57.860 --> 16:02.800]  And, um, and since, uh, we have, uh, NIC registration, there are a lot of people, you know, we saved all that information.
[16:02.880 --> 16:06.600]  So if you registered your nickname, uh, a year ago, it's still there.
[16:06.680 --> 16:07.920]  But a lot of people remember their passwords.
[16:08.180 --> 16:10.080]  I mean, I didn't remember my password, that's for sure.
[16:12.460 --> 16:13.860]  Of course, I don't write it down, either.
[16:13.940 --> 16:14.940]  I just have it in my head.
[16:15.920 --> 16:17.240]  Um, let's see.
[16:17.340 --> 16:21.500]  This person writes in, saying, I'm currently in the process of buying a new vehicle from a Saturn dealership.
[16:21.560 --> 16:23.000]  And I found something quite interesting.
[16:23.160 --> 16:25.340]  We were starting to write up the preliminary paperwork.
[16:25.560 --> 16:29.660]  And the salesman showed me a new system that they are being mandated to start using.
[16:29.860 --> 16:31.660]  Uh, it's mandated by the Patriot Act.
[16:31.840 --> 16:34.380]  The system basically scans in your driver's license.
[16:34.540 --> 16:38.520]  And then it asks the sales rep to put the customer's home phone number in.
[16:38.520 --> 16:44.160]  Uh, there is, uh, then a check that it does through FBI databases and like.
[16:44.500 --> 16:47.140]  Uh, I was able to, uh, to watch him doing this.
[16:47.280 --> 16:48.520]  He was nice enough to show the system to me.
[16:48.620 --> 16:49.540]  He's people always very nice.
[16:50.000 --> 16:53.400]  Um, and then it, uh, came back with a report that has driving records.
[16:53.480 --> 16:59.140]  And if you have any terrorism flags, uh, that's the salesman's term, uh, on your record.
[16:59.140 --> 17:02.060]  I noticed that the application running was written using Java.
[17:02.380 --> 17:05.180]  A little Java logo on the upper left-hand corner of the application window.
[17:05.660 --> 17:07.860]  Uh, I am going back tomorrow to pick my car up.
[17:07.860 --> 17:09.740]  And we'll try to get more info on this system.
[17:10.160 --> 17:11.360]  He's not been heard from since.
[17:13.160 --> 17:14.120]  Signed, Acid Jaws.
[17:14.260 --> 17:16.780]  And, uh, maybe he'll need them to get out of that situation.
[17:17.000 --> 17:19.140]  I wonder what color the terrorist flags are.
[17:19.960 --> 17:20.920]  Probably all different colors.
[17:21.020 --> 17:22.500]  I mean, they don't want to confuse people, you know?
[17:23.340 --> 17:23.960]  But that's something.
[17:24.080 --> 17:26.240]  If you're buying a car out there, see if that's something that they...
[17:26.240 --> 17:27.720]  Can you buy a car without having a license?
[17:27.880 --> 17:29.120]  Do you have to have a license to buy a car?
[17:29.300 --> 17:30.700]  I mean, to drive it away, you certainly do.
[17:30.800 --> 17:32.540]  But try buying a car without having a license.
[17:32.880 --> 17:35.020]  You know, you kids out there with a lot of money, do that, you know?
[17:35.480 --> 17:37.680]  And then just say, uh, I'll just leave it here for a little while.
[17:37.680 --> 17:39.660]  And don't tell them who's going to be driving it away.
[17:39.780 --> 17:41.660]  And see if they... see if they ask for an ID.
[17:43.640 --> 17:43.960]  Amazing.
[17:44.760 --> 17:46.540]  Um, this is an interesting theory.
[17:46.740 --> 17:51.820]  As some of you know, we had some phone problems here at the radio station, uh, a few weeks ago during our pledge drive.
[17:51.900 --> 17:55.240]  And as a result, our... our pledge drive fell short of its goal.
[17:55.300 --> 17:58.900]  We're going to have to, uh, uh, have a little mini drive in a couple of weeks.
[17:59.160 --> 18:03.340]  And, uh, and we're also asking people to, uh, uh, to, uh, call us.
[18:03.500 --> 18:05.040]  And, and actually, I don't have the information.
[18:05.180 --> 18:10.320]  If anyone has the information as to what number to call or where to go on the website to, uh, to pledge, uh, please bring it to me.
[18:10.940 --> 18:15.880]  Um, but, uh, information can be found on www.wbai.org.
[18:16.140 --> 18:32.400]  Anyway, this person writes in, listening to the show you had during the money drive, you played excerpts from the H2K2 conference where you attempted to social engineer an AT&T employee and, uh, mentioned the plethora of problems Verizon had setting up the lines for the conference and the lack of ability to dial 800 numbers,
[18:32.520 --> 18:32.960]  among other things.
[18:32.960 --> 18:45.960]  Uh, it seems to me that the fact that you played that specific panel during a fundraiser, AT&T or your local provider may have decided it would be a great way to silence your voice if funds didn't come in for WBAI.
[18:46.080 --> 18:49.080]  Well, thanks, uh, Jim, for that, uh, for that, uh, letter.
[18:50.260 --> 18:53.760]  Um, that's, uh, you know, it's possible, I guess, but, uh...
[18:53.760 --> 18:54.740]  But it was days later.
[18:54.840 --> 18:55.140]  It was days later.
[18:55.200 --> 18:57.220]  Well, it takes them time to figure out their own network, I imagine.
[18:57.900 --> 19:08.760]  Um, but, um, I mean, sure, you know, we have lots of enemies out there, not simply off the hook, but WBAI in general, and cutting us off in the middle of a fundraiser certainly would hurt us, um, but they should know better by now.
[19:08.960 --> 19:10.760]  You know, we always bounce back from things like that.
[19:10.880 --> 19:13.620]  So, yeah, it's possible, but it doesn't really matter at this point how it happened.
[19:13.620 --> 19:18.780]  The fact is it happened, and we need to make up for it, and that's where, uh, listeners like you come in.
[19:19.260 --> 19:24.740]  So, uh, stay tuned to the station and keep listening and, um, help out as much as you can.
[19:24.820 --> 19:26.020]  And thanks to all those people who did help out.
[19:26.480 --> 19:33.560]  Uh, uh, a note to the people who pledged during the, um, the February pledge drive, uh, who have not gotten their premiums yet.
[19:33.580 --> 19:36.040]  Uh, there's, uh, an important thing going on here.
[19:36.200 --> 19:37.720]  See, we have the sweatshirts.
[19:37.840 --> 19:38.620]  The sweatshirts are in.
[19:38.800 --> 19:39.680]  Uh, they look great.
[19:39.860 --> 19:43.260]  People are already being complimented for, uh, you know, test driving them down streets.
[19:43.840 --> 19:47.940]  Um, but, uh, you may not have gotten yours yet if you pledged during the February drive.
[19:48.020 --> 19:50.000]  I'm not talking about the drive that just ended in, uh, in May.
[19:50.220 --> 19:51.580]  Uh, I'm talking about the one in February.
[19:52.220 --> 19:56.220]  Uh, now the reason for that is that we neglected to get your size.
[19:56.680 --> 19:57.060]  All right?
[19:57.100 --> 19:58.460]  And we want to get you the right size.
[19:58.820 --> 20:06.320]  Now, for us to do that, we have to call you, and we're trying to get the phone numbers from the radio station, but the radio station won't give us the phone numbers because they're trying to protect your privacy.
[20:06.680 --> 20:11.960]  So we're at this big impasse here where we can't get the phone number to call you to ask you what your size is.
[20:11.960 --> 20:27.120]  So if you pledged, and if you're listening right now, call us, all right, with your information, uh, at the, uh, at the 2600 office, uh, which is area code 631-751-2600, and just hit a zero, and you'll be transferred to a person.
[20:27.320 --> 20:28.420]  Make sure to hit that zero, though.
[20:28.420 --> 20:30.380]  Otherwise, uh, you might wind up in the wrong place.
[20:30.720 --> 20:31.940]  I want mine to be extra large.
[20:32.320 --> 20:34.300]  Uh, you're going to have to do what everyone else does, Bernie.
[20:34.860 --> 20:36.320]  It's not going to stay in my head, all right?
[20:36.400 --> 20:37.940]  I did pledge for one, though, back in February.
[20:38.000 --> 20:38.820]  Well, we appreciate that.
[20:38.900 --> 20:39.480]  Thank you very much.
[20:39.580 --> 20:40.520]  And you always do pledge.
[20:40.680 --> 20:42.800]  It's, uh, it's very, uh, commendable.
[20:43.160 --> 20:44.560]  That's the least I could do a manual.
[20:44.760 --> 20:45.760]  Yeah, well, it's a good sweatshirt.
[20:45.860 --> 20:46.800]  You'll be very happy with it.
[20:46.960 --> 20:49.020]  And it's, uh, it's gotten rave reviews so far.
[20:49.720 --> 20:58.660]  Um, so, and that also goes, if you haven't gotten any other premiums from the February drive, call us at that number, 631-751-2600, extension zero, and leave a message.
[20:58.840 --> 20:59.740]  You'll most likely get a machine.
[21:00.500 --> 21:02.140]  Um, I thought you said you would reach a person.
[21:02.300 --> 21:04.380]  Well, we consider the machine to be a person.
[21:04.500 --> 21:05.280]  In fact, we've named it.
[21:06.060 --> 21:09.700]  But it's, it's something that a person looks at all the time, you know?
[21:09.740 --> 21:10.580]  You in corporate America.
[21:10.700 --> 21:11.800]  Either a person is there.
[21:11.880 --> 21:13.500]  Well, it's not, it's not a voicemail system.
[21:13.600 --> 21:14.340]  It's an answering machine.
[21:14.480 --> 21:15.740]  So it's, it's, you know, it's different.
[21:16.220 --> 21:17.300]  What's the name of the machine?
[21:17.500 --> 21:18.400]  I'm not going to tell you that.
[21:18.980 --> 21:19.660]  Monkey Park.
[21:20.000 --> 21:20.340]  No.
[21:21.280 --> 21:21.640]  No.
[21:22.000 --> 21:24.520]  Um, this person writes in with a very interesting story.
[21:24.640 --> 21:26.700]  And I'd like our listeners to investigate this a little further.
[21:27.160 --> 21:29.160]  Concerns MTV, our favorite people over there.
[21:29.940 --> 21:33.480]  Uh, yeah, I signed up for an account on MTV.com.
[21:34.340 --> 21:38.000]  I don't know you could do that, but apparently you can, uh, to, uh, check it out.
[21:38.120 --> 21:42.220]  And, uh, in the scoop section, they ask for things that you were into.
[21:42.480 --> 21:45.300]  So I made a, a URL list of the sites I liked.
[21:45.300 --> 21:47.600]  And, uh, this is straight from, from his profile.
[21:49.380 --> 21:52.320]  www.warprecords.com, bands that need more support.
[21:52.700 --> 21:57.060]  www.highiqsociety.com, IQ tests.
[21:57.540 --> 22:01.820]  www.homestarrunner.com, cartoon.
[22:02.660 --> 22:03.640]  Good site.
[22:04.040 --> 22:04.280]  Thank you.
[22:04.640 --> 22:08.040]  www.onion.com, parody news.
[22:08.560 --> 22:12.560]  www.2600.com, mind expansion.
[22:12.960 --> 22:13.400]  Ooh.
[22:14.120 --> 22:15.340]  What are you smirking for?
[22:15.560 --> 22:16.680]  Mind expansion, yes.
[22:16.680 --> 22:17.360]  All right.
[22:17.460 --> 22:22.200]  www.tigerbeat6.com, more bands, more bands to get behind.
[22:22.940 --> 22:23.840]  Bernie, was that a comment?
[22:24.620 --> 22:29.100]  Well, I, I just thought it was interesting that the last, that had a last two were juxtaposed.
[22:29.380 --> 22:29.760]  All right.
[22:30.220 --> 22:32.620]  Uh, and in return, I got this message from MTV.
[22:33.060 --> 22:36.940]  Dear blank, thanks for creating a profile on MTV.com.
[22:37.100 --> 22:44.400]  A moderator has reviewed it and found that either the scoop or interest section is not in line with MTV.com's community guidelines.
[22:44.680 --> 22:49.540]  Until you edit the non-compliant sections, that part of your profile will be hidden from other site visitors.
[22:49.540 --> 22:59.980]  Please review the community guidelines at www.mtv.com slash site-wide slash mtvinfo slash guidelines dot j html.
[23:00.140 --> 23:06.860]  Then come back and fix your profile at http colon slash slash www.mtv.com slash community.
[23:07.520 --> 23:08.360]  We look forward.
[23:08.440 --> 23:11.380]  We look forward to seeing your full profile completed.
[23:11.540 --> 23:12.740]  Thanks, mtv.com.
[23:13.160 --> 23:21.820]  Uh, the only guidelines I found relating to the material I posted were, don't use language or make statements and endorse drug abuse, alcohol abuse, illegal activities, or hatred.
[23:22.560 --> 23:29.360]  Um, and, uh, the only thing this guy can figure is that, uh, 2600 somehow is seen as endorsing illegal activities.
[23:30.000 --> 23:32.380]  And that, that is, uh, somewhat slanderous.
[23:33.840 --> 23:40.520]  MTV, uh, apparently decides in its sole discretion that, this kind of thing is inappropriate for its site.
[23:41.320 --> 23:46.220]  Um, now I know they didn't come right out and say remove the 2600 URL, but I think, we all know.
[23:46.660 --> 23:55.160]  And the irony is when they ask for age, where you're from and all that, uh, there is a species section where you can put things like human, angel, devil, geek, freak, which is what I used.
[23:55.300 --> 23:58.100]  And you can even use the word hacker to describe yourself.
[23:58.300 --> 24:04.100]  So what I like our listeners to do is, uh, go to this site and try the same thing yourself and let us know what you find out.
[24:04.680 --> 24:07.040]  It's possible that MTV is just simplistic.
[24:07.240 --> 24:11.600]  Red 2600.com didn't know what it was, saw mind expansion and figured it was drug.
[24:11.780 --> 24:14.320]  Now, how could people at MTV not know what 2600 is?
[24:14.340 --> 24:16.040]  They're supposed to be in touch with the youth of today.
[24:16.220 --> 24:17.540]  You know, maybe one or two of them.
[24:18.100 --> 24:19.680]  That's it's really, it's really silly.
[24:19.920 --> 24:21.280]  but try, try doing the same thing.
[24:21.440 --> 24:27.120]  I don't know if that mind expansion thing after MTV was a choice that you click on or a space that you fill out.
[24:27.220 --> 24:31.840]  But if it's something that you fill out, change it to say hot new bands and see if it works.
[24:31.840 --> 24:33.900]  When did mind expansion turn into something evil?
[24:34.180 --> 24:35.580]  It's something that I thought was good.
[24:35.760 --> 24:40.280]  It's been a code as far as I know since the late 60s at least for drug use.
[24:41.360 --> 24:45.260]  Well, maybe if they can print all the codes, then people won't use them by accident.
[24:46.300 --> 24:46.780]  Let's see.
[24:46.920 --> 24:49.200]  But thanks for that letter and we'll certainly investigate.
[24:49.200 --> 24:50.800]  Wasn't that the DCS defense?
[24:51.580 --> 24:53.780]  If they print all the codes, they won't use them by accident?
[24:54.080 --> 24:54.300]  Yeah.
[24:54.640 --> 24:54.720]  Yeah.
[24:56.520 --> 24:57.520]  Bernie, I want you to hear something.
[24:58.420 --> 24:59.500]  Actually, I want you all to hear this.
[24:59.620 --> 25:03.980]  I got this really, really, really weird message on my voicemail.
[25:04.260 --> 25:05.520]  Let me get a dial tone here.
[25:06.760 --> 25:07.120]  Okay.
[25:07.820 --> 25:12.240]  And, uh, I'm going to, uh, call, I don't know if that one clicked.
[25:12.380 --> 25:12.660]  Hang on.
[25:12.740 --> 25:14.000]  I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to start over.
[25:14.500 --> 25:14.860]  Okay.
[25:15.980 --> 25:17.320]  This, this phone is ridiculous.
[25:18.560 --> 25:19.120]  You know what?
[25:19.320 --> 25:20.240]  I dialed the wrong number.
[25:21.080 --> 25:21.440]  Okay.
[25:21.560 --> 25:22.060]  One more time.
[25:23.560 --> 25:26.520]  You have to listen for the, uh, audible click each time.
[25:30.740 --> 25:31.100]  Okay.
[25:32.920 --> 25:37.760]  And now we'll be connecting to, uh, to my, uh, uh, voicemail.
[25:38.740 --> 25:42.300]  Which, uh, she was probably going to ring first.
[25:42.420 --> 25:42.760]  Oh, you know what?
[25:42.760 --> 25:44.240]  I didn't turn, uh, turn this phone off.
[25:45.620 --> 25:45.980]  Okay.
[25:47.260 --> 25:48.060]  But it's not ringing.
[25:48.180 --> 25:48.800]  This is a Sprint phone.
[25:49.180 --> 25:49.540]  Okay.
[25:49.820 --> 25:50.880]  It didn't ring at all.
[25:51.460 --> 25:52.900]  Please enter your passcode.
[25:52.920 --> 25:53.160]  Okay.
[25:53.240 --> 25:54.120]  Then press pound.
[25:54.220 --> 25:54.440]  All right.
[25:54.500 --> 25:55.300]  I'm going to turn this down.
[25:59.010 --> 26:00.470]  I have a very long passcode.
[26:05.860 --> 26:06.700]  Well, that was it.
[26:06.860 --> 26:07.840]  Two new messages.
[26:08.660 --> 26:09.880]  Six saved messages.
[26:11.280 --> 26:18.500]  First new message from phone number 555-555-555-555.
[26:19.220 --> 26:23.620]  Received June 4th at 6 59 PM.
[26:23.840 --> 26:25.140]  Please, you can call me there.
[26:25.260 --> 26:25.420]  Okay.
[26:25.540 --> 26:28.780]  This, this voice, uh, this is the voice of somebody who left me a message.
[26:28.780 --> 26:30.360]  I'll see what the number here is.
[26:30.840 --> 26:32.020]  A few weeks earlier.
[26:32.240 --> 26:32.980]  Well, I get that way.
[26:33.200 --> 26:34.840]  I'll tell you what I'm going to mention you.
[26:35.180 --> 26:38.220]  If you want to get this stuff done in two weeks, um, I don't know.
[26:38.220 --> 26:43.840]  So what happened was this message, this message came back to me with that phone number just out of the blue.
[26:44.460 --> 26:46.520]  Has anyone else ever experienced anything like this?
[26:46.680 --> 26:48.020]  Did this happen to you last night, Emmanuel?
[26:48.160 --> 26:52.060]  No, this happened to me, uh, uh, late last week, I think on Thursday or Friday.
[26:52.620 --> 26:58.680]  Last night, I got a whole bunch of old voicemail messages suddenly deposited in my Spring PCS mailbox.
[26:58.680 --> 26:59.960]  Some of them were weeks old.
[27:00.180 --> 27:00.380]  Really?
[27:00.520 --> 27:01.500]  And they just showed up.
[27:01.620 --> 27:02.140]  Several of them.
[27:02.280 --> 27:02.700]  It's never happened.
[27:03.000 --> 27:05.180]  Sometimes it happens, but this was like a whole bunch.
[27:05.640 --> 27:05.940]  Uh-huh.
[27:06.800 --> 27:07.120]  Wow.
[27:07.320 --> 27:09.660]  And, and, uh, what phone numbers did they have, uh, in return?
[27:09.760 --> 27:11.660]  Oh, they were normal, you know, normal messages.
[27:11.960 --> 27:14.620]  And, uh, you know, I could do the callback thing to find out what number they were.
[27:14.660 --> 27:23.660]  There was nothing unusual about the, the numbers, but what was unusual was that some, some voicemail messages with people who had deposited weeks ago are now showing up last night.
[27:23.960 --> 27:24.600]  Several of them.
[27:24.740 --> 27:25.940]  You had never heard them before?
[27:26.960 --> 27:28.120]  No, I'd never heard them before.
[27:28.120 --> 27:32.380]  They were new messages that were deposited, but they had been left, some of them weeks ago.
[27:33.120 --> 27:36.100]  And did they start at the beginning of the message, or in the middle like this one did?
[27:36.460 --> 27:37.560]  Well, they started at the beginning.
[27:38.260 --> 27:42.580]  Well, you know, this one thing that I've noticed, uh, you, you know about the Sprint pocket calls, right?
[27:43.240 --> 27:43.660]  Oh, yeah.
[27:43.740 --> 27:44.020]  That's where...
[27:44.040 --> 27:46.560]  I got one, uh, I got one, uh, very early this morning.
[27:47.080 --> 27:53.580]  For those who don't know, the Sprint phones are, are notorious for making calls on their own when they're in people's pockets.
[27:54.100 --> 27:59.280]  Uh, you'll get a phone call, uh, or you just get voicemail, and you'll hear the sound of somebody walking around.
[27:59.300 --> 28:04.820]  Sometimes it's some of a phone number you recognize because you're in the speed dial or the last redial, uh, position on their phone.
[28:05.260 --> 28:11.920]  And the person is unaware that they've called you and they're just going about their business meanwhile they're connected to you as they, as they walk around and do whatever.
[28:12.100 --> 28:13.640]  Sometimes you hear incriminating things, sometimes not.
[28:14.580 --> 28:22.020]  Now, Sprint has a couple of other annoying problems, one of which is when you call somebody, sometimes they don't hear you.
[28:22.380 --> 28:24.240]  Sometimes you hear them, they don't hear you.
[28:24.700 --> 28:28.180]  Now, I've noticed this, and I just recently figured out what was going on.
[28:28.360 --> 28:31.200]  I get a voicemail that's blank.
[28:31.500 --> 28:33.160]  You know, from somebody I know, it's blank.
[28:33.220 --> 28:35.520]  And I listen to it, and it doesn't cut off right away.
[28:35.720 --> 28:40.720]  It cuts off after maybe a minute and 30 seconds, and then all of a sudden it ends after that amount of time of blankness.
[28:40.720 --> 28:48.820]  What I realize is happening is the person is leaving a message, thinking they're connected to me, hearing the voicemail, and hanging up.
[28:48.920 --> 28:51.480]  And that's the length of the message, but I'm not hearing the audio.
[28:51.480 --> 28:55.160]  So the message is there, but it's being translated to blankness.
[28:55.300 --> 29:01.620]  So I'm thinking all these times I've gotten blank messages from people, they think they've left me a message, and I think that they've just called me by accident.
[29:01.620 --> 29:05.540]  So all this communication has not been passed, and probably there's a lot of hard feelings as a result.
[29:05.540 --> 29:20.440]  So not only is it like half, you know, normal phone conversations over wirelines were full duplex, and now that we've got the pleasure of digital cellular and PCS, which is practically half duplex, we can call this like one quarter duplex, I guess.
[29:21.280 --> 29:30.220]  Yeah, it's pretty... I mean, I'm looking at my phone right now, I see that somehow, you know those pieces of spam that you get that contain graphic characters in the title?
[29:31.180 --> 29:33.420]  You know, they come from Korea or China or something like that.
[29:33.720 --> 29:36.480]  I have, as a last dial number, one of those.
[29:36.700 --> 29:43.420]  My phone somehow has been converted to graphics mode, and I'm getting like a reverse L and a comma, followed by another reverse L and a comma all the way across the screen.
[29:43.560 --> 29:47.280]  And apparently that's somebody who called me, and I'm going to have to call them back and find out who they are.
[29:47.640 --> 29:48.120]  Check it out.
[29:48.380 --> 29:52.620]  These wireless carriers have got their panties in a bunch right now.
[29:52.880 --> 29:55.400]  Oh, yeah, because of the portability.
[29:55.900 --> 29:56.100]  Yeah.
[29:56.460 --> 29:58.740]  Well, we've got a story about that, but what have you heard recently?
[29:58.740 --> 30:20.740]  Well, that's the story that a few days ago, a federal appeals court declined to block the cellular and PCS carriers' umpteenth appeal to prevent the rollout of number portability, which would allow you to take your cellular or PCS number to another wireless carrier.
[30:20.740 --> 30:30.980]  And they've been collecting huge amounts of money for this service, and at the same time, paying lobbyists to fight ever having to do it.
[30:30.980 --> 30:37.620]  I know in my sprint PCS bill, there's a 47-cent-a-month charge for this number portability thing.
[30:37.780 --> 30:39.260]  And I did the math.
[30:39.260 --> 30:44.540]  According to Wall Street Journal, they've got about 18 million subscribers in North America.
[30:44.540 --> 30:47.920]  So you multiply that by 12 times how many they got.
[30:47.980 --> 30:50.140]  It's over $100 million a year.
[30:50.320 --> 30:55.960]  They're charging people for number portability, and behind the back, they've been fighting in federal court.
[30:56.080 --> 30:57.380]  Well, finally, a federal judge said, enough.
[30:57.640 --> 30:59.980]  And you've got to do it by November.
[31:00.420 --> 31:02.680]  They're probably using the money to fight it, you know?
[31:03.460 --> 31:05.680]  You're paying their legal fees by paying the fee.
[31:06.620 --> 31:07.020]  Amazing.
[31:07.160 --> 31:07.720]  Mike, what do you have there?
[31:07.720 --> 31:16.080]  I got a bill from Sprint the other day, and I have a fee for federal telephone number pooling.
[31:16.200 --> 31:16.920]  That's it.
[31:17.120 --> 31:33.100]  But no, but I have a notice in my invoice saying that beginning with my next invoice, the current charge titled federal telephone number pooling will be replaced with federal wireless number pooling and portability.
[31:33.340 --> 31:35.600]  So they're trying to differentiate pooling and portability.
[31:38.620 --> 31:46.460]  So I'm currently being charged for pooling, which is a federally mandated method of conserving telephone numbering resources, according to them.
[31:46.660 --> 31:51.040]  And then they're going to charge me again for portability, which I actually want so I can get rid of Sprint.
[31:53.600 --> 32:04.740]  I called the national press spokesperson for Sprint PCS several weeks ago, and he said portability was part of the federal number pooling project, which stands to reason.
[32:04.740 --> 32:12.560]  I mean, if you're trying to conserve phone numbers, one way to do that would be to be able to move phone numbers from one carrier to another.
[32:12.740 --> 32:15.660]  And he said it was part of that, but it was just so expensive.
[32:15.660 --> 32:17.380]  They were still trying to figure out how to do it.
[32:17.540 --> 32:21.020]  But what he didn't say was that they were fighting it in federal court having to do with it all.
[32:21.320 --> 32:24.280]  And now they got beat, and they've got to finally do it.
[32:24.280 --> 32:24.860]  I can't wait.
[32:24.860 --> 32:29.200]  Because it's really going to bring competition to the wireless phone marketplace, finally.
[32:29.560 --> 32:34.640]  Well, November 24th is the deadline for... the newest deadline for portability to be in place.
[32:34.780 --> 32:44.000]  And, of course, consumer advocates are saying that not being able to retain your phone number is one of the biggest barriers keeping cell phone users from switching in search of better service and prices.
[32:44.140 --> 32:47.380]  And, Mike, that's the reason you haven't switched, because you can't take your phone number with you, right?
[32:47.860 --> 32:49.420]  That's among the reasons, yes.
[32:50.580 --> 32:54.420]  Well, okay, other phone company news.
[32:54.420 --> 32:56.060]  Of course, we heard the bad news.
[32:56.240 --> 33:05.000]  Verizon lost their case concerning protecting the privacy of the individual accused of trading songs on the Internet.
[33:05.500 --> 33:17.000]  Verizon Communications reluctantly surrendered to the music industry on Thursday the names of four Internet subscribers suspected of illegally offering free song downloads, but vowed to keep fighting the law that forced its hand.
[33:17.000 --> 33:20.180]  And Verizon was compelled to give up the names on Wednesday by the U.S.
[33:20.280 --> 33:29.620]  Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C., which rejected the telecom giant's request for a stay while it appeals a lower court decision won by the Recording Industry Association of America.
[33:30.120 --> 33:34.060]  The RIA has not decided what action to take against the four Verizon customers.
[33:34.700 --> 33:36.480]  I'm sure we'll find out.
[33:38.920 --> 33:42.940]  And Verizon says, We are committing to pursuing the case, if necessary, to the Supreme Court.
[33:43.120 --> 33:45.520]  The real harm here, of course, is to the consumer.
[33:46.780 --> 33:48.900]  So, that's a bit of bad news there.
[33:49.080 --> 33:51.920]  And, of course, the RIA is up to their old tricks.
[33:52.220 --> 33:54.520]  You know you're in trouble when Verizon is on your side.
[33:54.600 --> 33:55.180]  Yeah, yeah.
[33:55.300 --> 33:56.020]  Well, you know it happens.
[33:56.780 --> 34:10.880]  They've also struck out at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, where 19-year-old Jesse Jordan got a phone call learning he was being sued by the Recording Industry Association of America.
[34:11.300 --> 34:13.120]  He's an information technology major.
[34:13.120 --> 34:19.180]  He created a program called ChewPlastic.com, which is the second most popular search directory on the RPI campus.
[34:19.200 --> 34:22.580]  You go to the site, you type in a search term, and it finds files on the network.
[34:23.600 --> 34:26.740]  He compares his site to Google, the popular internet search engine.
[34:26.900 --> 34:33.600]  But the RIAA likens Jordan's site to Napster, the now-defunct song swap service that revolutionized the distribution of music.
[34:34.060 --> 34:38.620]  The service was no different than Napster, said Amy Weiss, Senior Vice President of Communications.
[34:39.200 --> 34:41.340]  With one click of a mouse, you can get music.
[34:41.460 --> 34:42.600]  You can get anything you wanted.
[34:42.940 --> 34:49.740]  The people who run these Napster networks know full well what they're doing, operating a sophisticated network designed to enable widespread music thievery.
[34:50.000 --> 34:52.740]  That's according to the RIA president, Kerry Sherman.
[34:55.080 --> 34:57.720]  And Jordan says, I didn't tell people what to share.
[34:57.720 --> 34:59.440]  I never promoted piracy.
[35:00.320 --> 35:03.200]  Basically, Napster set out to create its own network specifically for music.
[35:03.320 --> 35:05.540]  What I did was ran a search engine.
[35:06.760 --> 35:07.600]  It's going to college.
[35:07.760 --> 35:09.020]  You should be able to talk better than that, don't you think?
[35:09.600 --> 35:11.200]  What I did was ran a search engine.
[35:11.380 --> 35:13.400]  I mean, I don't mean to be petty here, but that's...
[35:13.400 --> 35:14.280]  I mean, that's...
[35:14.720 --> 35:16.400]  They should have corrected it in the story, too.
[35:16.420 --> 35:18.320]  Maybe he was, you know, just speaking informally.
[35:19.380 --> 35:19.700]  All right.
[35:19.800 --> 35:25.100]  Well, what I did was run a search engine on a campus network where the network already existed.
[35:26.180 --> 35:30.800]  But Jordan did agree to pony up $12,000, his entire savings account, to the RIAA.
[35:31.100 --> 35:31.600]  Isn't that something?
[35:32.600 --> 35:33.000]  And...
[35:33.000 --> 35:33.280]  Fool.
[35:33.520 --> 35:34.320]  Jordan and his...
[35:34.320 --> 35:35.680]  Well, I mean, try it, you know.
[35:36.000 --> 35:36.360]  Try it.
[35:36.400 --> 35:36.840]  Who said fool?
[35:37.180 --> 35:37.980]  You said fool.
[35:38.180 --> 35:38.580]  Well...
[35:38.580 --> 35:39.160]  Yeah, I know.
[35:39.400 --> 35:41.280]  Brave words from a guy who took a plea bargain.
[35:41.380 --> 35:41.640]  But anyway.
[35:42.620 --> 35:45.960]  I mean, when you're up against this kind of thing, it's, you know...
[35:45.960 --> 35:47.720]  What does the RIAA need with the money?
[35:47.920 --> 35:48.220]  They don't.
[35:48.340 --> 35:49.440]  It's a symbolic thing, you know?
[35:49.440 --> 35:50.520]  They're making an example.
[35:50.720 --> 35:50.940]  Yeah.
[35:50.940 --> 35:52.480]  But he didn't break the law.
[35:52.640 --> 35:54.340]  He wasn't swapping the files.
[35:54.360 --> 35:58.180]  He basically was kind of like the example of a gun manufacturer.
[35:58.380 --> 35:59.180]  He didn't pull the trigger.
[35:59.320 --> 36:00.120]  He was the enabler.
[36:00.240 --> 36:03.080]  He was like a pimp, according to the RIAA's philosophy.
[36:04.400 --> 36:08.260]  Well, he and his father, Andy Jordan, felt the settlement was their best option.
[36:08.800 --> 36:11.080]  They agreed to allow Jesse to deny their allegations.
[36:11.300 --> 36:14.040]  They agreed to dismiss the case and all allegations against him, his father said.
[36:14.160 --> 36:17.200]  Basically, they agreed that he didn't do anything wrong, but they're taking his $12,000.
[36:19.180 --> 36:19.980]  So, uh...
[36:19.980 --> 36:22.760]  It's been more than that just in the lawyer fees if it went to trial.
[36:23.520 --> 36:24.320]  Yeah, that's true.
[36:24.440 --> 36:25.100]  That's absolutely true.
[36:25.500 --> 36:25.960]  Good idea.
[36:26.220 --> 36:33.160]  And victory, you know, as a lot of us know, victory is not necessarily victory as far as, you know, getting everything back.
[36:33.760 --> 36:34.260]  You know?
[36:36.260 --> 36:37.100]  So, uh...
[36:37.100 --> 36:44.080]  In this announcement, the Federal Communications Commission announced today that it has agreed to be acquired by Clear Channel Communications of San Antonio, Texas.
[36:45.080 --> 36:45.400]  Uh, yeah.
[36:45.460 --> 36:53.420]  In announcing the deal, FCC Chairman Michael Powell said this transaction will greatly expedite the demise of the antiquated concept of local ownership of media outlets.
[36:53.960 --> 36:59.220]  Critics of deals such as this need to understand that Clear Channel embodies all that is good and decent in the broadcast industry.
[36:59.220 --> 37:02.400]  Anyone that believes otherwise clearly isn't listening to the news.
[37:02.860 --> 37:09.440]  In a statement issued today, Clear Channel CEO Lowry Mays said, This acquisition is a perfect strategic fit for Clear Channel.
[37:09.560 --> 37:15.000]  The FCC has been a wonderful business partner for the past several years and has carried out our directions with great enthusiasm.
[37:15.000 --> 37:18.580]  We are proud to welcome the FCC into the Clear Channel family of companies.
[37:19.160 --> 37:29.340]  Although terms of the deal were not immediately available, it is said that the acquisition will include all components, operating units, and assets of the FCC, except for its sole, which was sold in a prior transaction to Satan, Inc.
[37:29.380 --> 37:30.080]  in 1996.
[37:31.560 --> 37:32.440]  Yes, 1996.
[37:32.780 --> 37:35.280]  The, uh, great telecommunications, uh, rewrite there.
[37:36.140 --> 37:48.920]  Clear Channel, which owns broadcast facilities, shopping malls, billboard advertising, and concert promotion units all across North America, has been on an acquisition binge for the past several years and has recently broadened the scope of its acquisitions to include government entities.
[37:49.360 --> 37:52.680]  In a recent deal, CCU purchased a 50% interest in the U.S.
[37:52.800 --> 37:55.840]  Congress and is reportedly close to striking a deal to purchase the White House.
[37:56.920 --> 38:02.600]  Clear Channel's stock stood at $42.09 at the close of Monday's trading, up $1.39 or 3.42%.
[38:03.140 --> 38:08.440]  And that comes to us, uh, from WFMT Radio, from the Midnight Special and Folk Stage.
[38:08.640 --> 38:10.800]  I think somehow we're able to put this together.
[38:11.100 --> 38:12.880]  Thanks very much for that, uh, that bit of news.
[38:13.860 --> 38:15.840]  Um, okay, what else do we have here?
[38:15.840 --> 38:23.620]  We have a letter from, uh, our friend Stormbringer, uh, sitting in prison, hopefully listening to us right now, uh, who has, uh, news on Nextel.
[38:23.760 --> 38:25.140]  We had talked about Nextel a few weeks ago.
[38:25.300 --> 38:26.380]  And he has this information.
[38:26.680 --> 38:33.760]  Uh, it is, uh, pretty easy to, uh, to monitor the audio of, uh, of a call or walkie-talkie communications.
[38:34.480 --> 38:41.920]  Theoretically, Nextel is not a cellular phone, but a trunked radio that uses digital audio encoding and has a phone interconnect.
[38:42.340 --> 38:45.340]  Try arguing that to a non-technical judge or jury.
[38:45.340 --> 39:00.480]  Nextel uses, uh, VSEIP digital encoding, uh, which is Motorola's older, uh, Astro digital standard, and I believe only used in the, um, um, in the statewide, uh, trunking system.
[39:00.820 --> 39:08.700]  Uh, the, uh, the new Astro standard uses IMBE digital encoding, which is known as APCO P25 standard.
[39:09.020 --> 39:19.840]  Uh, and older Astro radio, such as, uh, Motorola Astro Sabre, uh, uses VSEIP and can hear and decode Nextel transmissions by merely programming the channels in the radio.
[39:20.180 --> 39:23.460]  A call or unit-to-unit transmission will be decoded passively.
[39:23.960 --> 39:30.560]  Program in the transmit frequency, 45 MHz down, and you can be heard by both parties and jump into the conversation.
[39:30.940 --> 39:33.880]  That's a classic Stormbringer cellular stunt.
[39:34.400 --> 39:42.180]  Uh, the problem is that you can only hear a call that is in progress on that channel until they terminate or move to another cell site and are reassigned at another frequency.
[39:42.820 --> 39:52.660]  I was in the process of finding a, uh, coder who could write code for the 60-HCII Motorola microprocessor, uh, to rewrite the code in the EEPROM.
[39:52.840 --> 39:58.320]  Uh, that would have allowed us to follow calls, get the Nextel number, called number, ESN, and other control channel data.
[39:58.800 --> 40:00.260]  But I wound up here.
[40:01.080 --> 40:05.460]  Um, and short, it is very easy to monitor Nextel with exception of channel hops.
[40:05.560 --> 40:08.840]  Its digital transmissions, uh, are just encoded and not encrypted.
[40:08.840 --> 40:12.280]  All you need is the radio, which is easy to get and program in the channels.
[40:12.540 --> 40:16.660]  I had the programming software for Nextel, but never looked at it since I never had an Nextel phone.
[40:16.900 --> 40:18.680]  Oh, excuse me, trunking radio.
[40:19.320 --> 40:26.660]  Uh, so, uh, thanks very much, uh, Stormbringer, for, for writing to us from federal prison there.
[40:26.660 --> 40:31.840]  If this is possible, it would, uh, really scare a lot of federal law enforcement agencies.
[40:32.040 --> 40:45.020]  I know for a fact the DEA, uh, and other, and the, uh, Federal Park Police and some other federal law enforcement agencies use, uh, a lot of Nextel, uh, trunked radios, or phones, if you want to call them that.
[40:45.220 --> 40:57.820]  Uh, I was standing in the post office a couple years ago, and some guy was standing in line behind me, um, and, uh, his package in his hand, I happened to notice, had a return address, uh, uh, Drug Enforcement Administration.
[40:58.280 --> 41:06.960]  And he had a Nextel phone on his, uh, on his belt, and I turned and I said, hey, is a DEA using a, uh, is that, is that a DEA unit or is that your personal unit?
[41:07.000 --> 41:09.920]  And he looked at me really paranoid, just like, how'd you know it was DEA?
[41:10.080 --> 41:12.780]  And I said, well, your package under your arm says DEA.
[41:13.180 --> 41:17.280]  You know, every time you address somebody in public, they look at you like, you know, they're very paranoid.
[41:17.420 --> 41:17.840]  Do you notice that?
[41:18.560 --> 41:19.620]  I noticed that, yeah.
[41:19.620 --> 41:22.420]  Yeah, but people react with alarm when you, when you talk to them.
[41:23.280 --> 41:27.840]  Um, but that's, uh, you know, not only do the feds use these phones, but activists use these phones a lot.
[41:28.080 --> 41:33.860]  Uh, Nextel, uh, you know, back and forth, uh, phone-to-phone communication, uh, at, at all kinds of, uh, events.
[41:34.280 --> 41:35.660]  And they get arrested for having them, too.
[41:35.680 --> 41:42.060]  And they get arrested for having them, and I imagine if, uh, if it's this easy to listen in on them, then, uh, you know, their communications are monitored, too.
[41:42.300 --> 41:45.800]  And maybe that's another reason why, uh, they wouldn't want this information to get out.
[41:46.420 --> 41:48.240]  But, um, that's, uh, that's gonna be something.
[41:48.380 --> 41:49.540]  You know, I was just thinking about this, too.
[41:49.540 --> 41:52.920]  I was looking ahead at the schedule of what's coming to this city.
[41:53.040 --> 41:55.420]  And you guys all know that there's going to be another...
[41:55.420 --> 41:57.780]  The next Republican National Convention is going to be in New York City.
[41:58.260 --> 41:58.700]  Ground zero.
[41:59.260 --> 42:01.280]  Well, I don't think it's going to be at ground zero.
[42:01.400 --> 42:11.180]  But, you know, what they've done, what the Republicans have done, is basically orchestrate this so that they can make as much over that event as they possibly can.
[42:11.340 --> 42:14.140]  It's going to happen in September in New York City.
[42:14.640 --> 42:20.980]  You know, September of 2004, I imagine they're going to be, you know, milking that for all it's worth.
[42:21.100 --> 42:25.380]  But I was thinking, you know, what is the city going to turn into at that particular point?
[42:25.520 --> 42:27.080]  Imagine, you know, how things are right now.
[42:27.160 --> 42:28.400]  It's going to turn into a police state.
[42:28.500 --> 42:29.380]  Oh, wait, where are they?
[42:29.820 --> 42:31.300]  It's going to be a police state plus.
[42:31.960 --> 42:38.260]  In fact, when the Republican Convention was in Philadelphia, Philadelphia was truly a police state.
[42:38.400 --> 42:48.280]  I mean, there was, you know, literally hundreds of people were arrested without, you know, any kind of charges that had any merit and they had to be released, like our own shapeshifter.
[42:48.560 --> 42:48.680]  Yeah.
[42:48.820 --> 42:54.580]  And, you know, multiply that by about tenfold and you can figure what it's going to be like in New York.
[42:55.200 --> 43:04.420]  Now, I was over at the Indy Media Center, which isn't far away from where the convention is going to be held, and we were speculating as to what's going to happen during that week.
[43:04.600 --> 43:15.500]  You know, we're preparing for all kinds of overreactions by authorities, and all we really want to do is get the story out and get things, you know, get things to the public.
[43:16.280 --> 43:19.220]  On that note, we're also looking...
[43:19.220 --> 43:23.180]  You know the plastic news things that are on the street corners, the free newspapers?
[43:23.400 --> 43:26.760]  We want to distribute the Indy Media newspaper that way.
[43:26.820 --> 43:41.020]  But if anyone out there knows how to get those plastic boxes, legally, not by taking them from other people, there must be some place that makes them, or maybe a newspaper that went out of business, you know, it would be great to get information out.
[43:41.620 --> 43:42.960]  Do you need a permit to set one up?
[43:43.000 --> 43:46.140]  Apparently you don't need a permit if the newspaper or magazine is free.
[43:46.580 --> 43:46.900]  Really?
[43:47.040 --> 43:48.760]  Which is why you see Village Voice ones everywhere.
[43:49.800 --> 43:53.940]  You know, the New York Times ones, yeah, you do need a permit for that because they sell those, and that's considered commercial.
[43:55.000 --> 44:02.980]  So it's a great way to get alternative news out there, right there on the street corner, you know, put the alternative newspapers, but you need the official plastic box.
[44:03.280 --> 44:08.880]  And I don't know who makes them, I don't know where to get them, so anyone who has information like that, write to us, OTH at 2600.com.
[44:09.040 --> 44:21.420]  Also, we're doing a lot of remodeling, refurbishing at the Indy Media Center office, if there are people there that are especially in need of an electrician, or people who just have knowledge about that kind of thing, and contractors, that kind of thing,
[44:21.500 --> 44:23.760]  write to us, OTH at 2600.com.
[44:24.540 --> 44:27.040]  Or you can call the Indy Media Center, whose number I don't have in my head.
[44:27.140 --> 44:27.800]  Do you have it in your head, Mark?
[44:27.800 --> 44:30.240]  212-684-something.
[44:30.600 --> 44:32.480]  Is it 8-1-1-2?
[44:32.760 --> 44:33.600]  I believe so.
[44:33.640 --> 44:34.200]  I will check.
[44:34.320 --> 44:36.480]  I sure hope it is, because I don't want to give out the wrong number.
[44:37.180 --> 44:38.080]  Yeah, it's in our phones.
[44:38.640 --> 44:39.860]  God help us if we lose our phones.
[44:39.940 --> 44:41.800]  212-684-8-1-1-2.
[44:41.960 --> 44:51.020]  Okay, so if you want to help with setting up newspaper distribution, helping to renovate the place, so that we can be ready for all the things that are going to happen.
[44:51.540 --> 44:53.960]  Imagine another year of what's going on now.
[44:53.960 --> 44:56.180]  How bad can things possibly be a year from now?
[44:56.300 --> 44:57.640]  We could go to two more wars.
[44:57.640 --> 45:00.320]  Maybe three, you know, if we're really vigilant.
[45:01.640 --> 45:02.960]  It's going to be mayhem.
[45:03.520 --> 45:04.940]  Um, let's see.
[45:05.420 --> 45:06.600]  What else do we have here?
[45:07.140 --> 45:08.120]  Uh, transit news.
[45:08.600 --> 45:18.800]  Um, this person writes in and says, while city-owned bus routes in Queens charge the new $2 fare, the privately-owned local bus routes still charge the old $1.50 fare with the MetroCard.
[45:19.220 --> 45:24.740]  Better yet, if you pay with coins during non-rush hour, you only have to put $1 in, but you don't get a free transfer.
[45:25.580 --> 45:31.800]  I was told by the bus company that if you use a MetroCard and if you transfer it to a subway, only $0.50 will be deducted from the card at the subway station.
[45:32.160 --> 45:35.440]  I was also told they don't know if and when that will change.
[45:35.560 --> 45:46.580]  And, of course, the big controversy here in New York is if and when the fares will be rolled back to what they were before this latest transit hike, which caught a lot of people, uh, by, um, by surprise.
[45:46.860 --> 45:47.880]  More transit news.
[45:48.380 --> 45:49.000]  Uh, yes, Bernie.
[45:49.700 --> 46:04.160]  Uh, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the engineer of a Burlington Northern Santa Fe coal train was distracted by a cell phone call when he was supposed to be stopping his train and caused a head-on collision with an intermodal train.
[46:04.680 --> 46:07.560]  The engineer of the intermodal train was killed in the collision.
[46:07.880 --> 46:10.680]  Damages to the trains and track exceeded $8 million.
[46:10.680 --> 46:14.040]  Wow, and the guy who was killed wasn't even on the phone, was he?
[46:14.440 --> 46:15.040]  Probably not.
[46:15.220 --> 46:15.360]  Yeah.
[46:16.300 --> 46:23.460]  Well, uh, I, you know, I, I tend to agree that people that are operating trains shouldn't be on the phone at this time they're operating trains.
[46:23.600 --> 46:27.460]  That, uh, you know, that's kind of the thing that you have to focus on very much.
[46:29.540 --> 46:33.200]  Well, now they've passed laws so that, uh, you pretty much have...
[46:33.200 --> 46:34.240]  You know, it's sort of common sense.
[46:34.460 --> 46:34.880]  It is, it is.
[46:35.140 --> 46:39.280]  Laws to, like, you know, make, make all kinds of laws saying what this person cannot do.
[46:39.280 --> 46:42.900]  This person cannot be facing the opposite direction while he's driving a train.
[46:43.180 --> 46:44.220]  He's been facing forward.
[46:44.220 --> 46:47.020]  But they're not going to have, uh, putting on your makeup while you're, while you're driving the train.
[46:47.680 --> 46:48.440]  Right, okay.
[46:48.840 --> 46:53.100]  Um, I asked this evening about when the rollback could occur or would occur.
[46:53.400 --> 46:54.880]  Not only did he not know...
[46:54.880 --> 46:55.620]  Who, who did you ask?
[46:55.700 --> 46:56.620]  Right at the turnstile.
[46:56.840 --> 46:56.920]  Oh, okay.
[46:56.920 --> 46:58.200]  I was getting my, uh, my card.
[46:58.580 --> 47:01.920]  And he, uh, he didn't even know which direction to point me in.
[47:02.320 --> 47:02.460]  Mm-hmm.
[47:02.460 --> 47:03.800]  He had absolutely no idea.
[47:04.100 --> 47:04.600]  Couldn't help me.
[47:04.760 --> 47:04.980]  Sorry.
[47:09.280 --> 47:09.740]  You know.
[47:10.740 --> 47:24.980]  Well, it's, um, I've, I've actually been spending less money since the fare increase for a number of reasons, um, uh, that, that, the bus transfer, like, if I come down here to the radio station and if I run out the door immediately after the closing theme ends and downstairs and,
[47:25.020 --> 47:29.320]  and hop onto a bus as it's going by, it's a free transfer because it's within two hours.
[47:29.740 --> 47:30.600]  So that's a good thing.
[47:30.660 --> 47:34.840]  And I also discovered something really amazing, um, where we have the meetings at the Citigroup Center.
[47:34.840 --> 47:38.180]  You're, that's one of, what is it, Mike, two subway stations in New York City?
[47:38.300 --> 47:40.720]  Well, actually three, but there's, there's two right there.
[47:41.120 --> 47:46.080]  59th and Lexington and, uh, 53rd slash 51st and Lexington.
[47:46.240 --> 47:51.660]  And if you, if you go into that station within two hours of being in another station, you get a free transfer.
[47:51.820 --> 47:54.420]  It doesn't work train to train except there and a couple other places.
[47:54.600 --> 47:54.880]  Well, okay.
[47:54.880 --> 47:56.940]  The theory behind it is as follows.
[47:57.880 --> 48:06.080]  It's tough to get where you're going between the six, five, and four, the N and the R, the W.
[48:06.420 --> 48:09.480]  And on the other hand, the E, the V, the F.
[48:10.020 --> 48:18.840]  So there's supposedly a free transfer between the stations at 59th and Lexington and at 51st slash 53rd in Lexington.
[48:18.840 --> 48:25.820]  But in order to do that, you need a MetroCard and to do that, they don't know, you don't swipe it on the way out.
[48:25.980 --> 48:31.100]  So since you've swiped it on the way in, they have to treat it as if it was a transfer from a bus.
[48:31.360 --> 48:36.920]  You swipe it on the way in wherever, you have two hours later to use it at either one of those two stations.
[48:37.680 --> 48:45.580]  So if you're going from anywhere else on the subway to those stations, not staying long and leaving from those two stations, hey, it's only one fare.
[48:45.580 --> 48:54.860]  Yeah, so basically what that means is if you're on the subway anywhere in the city and can get to that station within two hours, you can get back on the subway for free, for a free transfer.
[48:55.100 --> 48:57.480]  I have a slight gripe with the free transfer system, though.
[48:57.680 --> 49:00.420]  Let's say you're with, like, three people, okay?
[49:01.540 --> 49:04.960]  And you're on a bus and you pay for those other three people.
[49:05.300 --> 49:10.020]  You go into the subway station and you want to transfer all those people with you.
[49:10.260 --> 49:10.980]  What do you do?
[49:10.980 --> 49:11.620]  You can do it.
[49:11.640 --> 49:12.480]  You swipe once.
[49:12.580 --> 49:13.240]  You swipe once.
[49:13.320 --> 49:15.000]  But many people swipe four times.
[49:15.160 --> 49:15.300]  Right.
[49:15.540 --> 49:17.880]  And they don't realize that they're actually paying three full fares.
[49:18.000 --> 49:22.160]  Or what if two people want to go one place and, you know, two people want to go with you?
[49:22.160 --> 49:24.060]  You better split up the initial payment.
[49:24.200 --> 49:24.860]  You've got to be careful.
[49:25.080 --> 49:25.660]  Yes, I know.
[49:25.680 --> 49:28.280]  I've seen horror stories happen over in the past.
[49:28.560 --> 49:28.640]  Yeah.
[49:29.460 --> 49:31.720]  212-209-2900 is our phone number.
[49:31.880 --> 49:33.620]  We're going to take a few phone calls.
[49:33.800 --> 49:36.960]  Actually, here's... I don't know if you want to identify yourself.
[49:37.320 --> 49:40.960]  Let's keep you secret because you're going to tell us something about the theory of this.
[49:40.980 --> 49:43.020]  This particular type of hacking.
[49:43.240 --> 49:48.620]  We've all seen the signs on the road that tell you, you know, right lane, closed ahead.
[49:48.900 --> 49:50.240]  They're not the kind that are up in the air.
[49:50.320 --> 49:51.060]  They're the kind that are portable.
[49:51.060 --> 49:52.680]  They're sitting in the street.
[49:53.600 --> 49:56.500]  Apparently, it's very easy to change the messages on those things.
[49:56.580 --> 49:57.100]  Am I right?
[49:57.740 --> 50:00.880]  Well, how would you do something like that, theoretically?
[50:01.680 --> 50:02.820]  It's very easy.
[50:03.100 --> 50:03.600]  Hang on.
[50:03.680 --> 50:04.220]  Your mic is not on.
[50:04.280 --> 50:04.500]  There you go.
[50:04.760 --> 50:06.980]  It's very easy, in theory, at least.
[50:07.200 --> 50:07.300]  Okay.
[50:08.100 --> 50:14.860]  A lot of these road signs that you see on the highways and wherever else are made by this company called ADCO.
[50:16.040 --> 50:24.880]  And a lot of the time, the way that you change the signs or the road workers or whoever else change the sign is that there's usually a control panel.
[50:24.880 --> 50:30.260]  Although there are different models, they all use basically this controller unit.
[50:30.880 --> 50:35.900]  And a lot of the times, the signs themselves aren't locked.
[50:36.260 --> 50:40.580]  You open up a panel or something like that, and there's a controller in there.
[50:40.640 --> 50:42.340]  And all you need to know is the password.
[50:43.840 --> 50:44.840]  How do you know the password?
[50:45.880 --> 50:46.420]  Wait, wait.
[50:46.560 --> 50:47.280]  One, two, three, four.
[50:47.520 --> 50:48.280]  One, two, three, four, five.
[50:48.280 --> 50:49.400]  No, no, no, no.
[50:49.520 --> 51:08.700]  There was actually a previous article in 2600, in 1803, I believe, about where the author, I forget who he is, discovered that the default password was whatever it was because someone had scribbled it on the inside of the sign.
[51:08.880 --> 51:13.020]  And apparently that's the default password for all of these multitudes of highway signs.
[51:13.180 --> 51:16.500]  And even if they change the default password, then it's pretty easy to reset it.
[51:16.500 --> 51:22.740]  And from there, there's a simple menu that you can just navigate to change the sign to whatever you want.
[51:22.900 --> 51:28.400]  Now, of course, though, you have to be crouched by the side of the road by changing what the thing says while all the traffic goes by.
[51:28.480 --> 51:32.280]  It must be kind of difficult to do and not be seen doing that.
[51:32.560 --> 51:39.820]  Also, there's a safety issue for, you know, those signs that say things like caution, you know, two-way traffic ahead or something like that.
[51:40.680 --> 51:43.080]  Obviously, people shouldn't mess with that.
[51:43.080 --> 51:46.980]  But, you know, the ones that are kind of like... I've seen ones that say have a nice day.
[51:47.140 --> 51:49.540]  You know, those are ripe for the picking as far as I'm concerned.
[51:50.260 --> 51:51.920]  Now, you said there was a default password.
[51:52.140 --> 51:53.640]  Do you not want to give out the default password?
[51:53.700 --> 51:54.780]  Do you not know the default password?
[51:54.780 --> 51:58.280]  The default password is .1DOT1.
[51:59.000 --> 51:59.320]  Okay.
[51:59.480 --> 52:00.500]  Like Department of Transportation.
[52:00.840 --> 52:01.080]  Mm-hmm.
[52:01.540 --> 52:01.960]  Wow.
[52:02.500 --> 52:04.580]  Now, Bernie, are you aware of this particular type of sign?
[52:06.420 --> 52:15.200]  On Route 95, Interstate 95, heading down from Philadelphia to Baltimore, there's several such signs that said it was going down there a few weeks ago.
[52:16.400 --> 52:17.900]  Red or, what was it, orange alert?
[52:18.060 --> 52:22.500]  It said orange alert reports suspicious activity with a toll-free number.
[52:23.080 --> 52:23.400]  Really?
[52:23.480 --> 52:25.140]  So you could actually change the alert status.
[52:25.220 --> 52:26.560]  So that would make you a terrorist, wouldn't it?
[52:26.920 --> 52:27.100]  Mm-hmm.
[52:27.100 --> 52:37.360]  Well, actually, somebody, I'm proud to say, and I'm not going to say I know who did this or when they did this or how they did this, but on the Williamsburg Bridge, you approached the Williamsburg Bridge on the...
[52:38.420 --> 52:39.140]  Brooklyn side?
[52:39.480 --> 52:45.340]  Yeah, it was on the Brooklyn, on the BQE, heading southbound towards the Williamsburg Bridge.
[52:46.360 --> 52:56.280]  When the war started, they thought it would be safe to close off a lane, one of the lanes approaching the Williamsburg Bridge on the BQE.
[52:56.280 --> 53:00.600]  So what that meant was everybody had to shift to the right and then shift to the left again.
[53:00.920 --> 53:06.480]  All that it accomplished, it was like having somebody parked in one lane in a particular part of the highway.
[53:06.540 --> 53:09.040]  So it just caused traffic and didn't do anything.
[53:09.180 --> 53:15.800]  And for a few days, there were a couple of bored cops there that were just sitting there, not even looking at the cars, just sitting there causing a traffic pileup.
[53:15.800 --> 53:22.240]  Well, the cops disappeared soon after that and were replaced by those big orange things that simply blocked the lane.
[53:23.280 --> 53:34.300]  And no doubt that would still be the case today if it were not for some conscientious people that one day, when there wasn't very much traffic, simply moved the cones, moved them to the side of the road.
[53:34.300 --> 53:38.500]  And all of a sudden, the traffic opened up again and the paranoid alert was over.
[53:38.700 --> 53:41.280]  So that's what you have to do sometimes is take matters into your own hands.
[53:42.140 --> 53:43.880]  Of course, you may pay dearly for that.
[53:44.280 --> 53:44.760]  All right.
[53:44.800 --> 53:45.820]  Let's take a phone call.
[53:45.940 --> 53:48.300]  212-209-2900.
[53:48.820 --> 53:49.780]  And good evening, Yaron.
[53:49.940 --> 53:50.400]  Off the hook.
[53:52.060 --> 53:52.460]  Hello.
[53:52.680 --> 53:52.960]  Go ahead.
[53:53.100 --> 53:53.300]  Yaron.
[53:54.460 --> 53:54.860]  Hi.
[53:55.100 --> 53:55.460]  How are you doing?
[53:55.620 --> 53:55.780]  Good morning.
[53:56.340 --> 53:58.100]  I'm calling you guys from China.
[53:58.360 --> 53:58.760]  China.
[53:58.940 --> 53:59.220]  Whoa.
[53:59.720 --> 54:00.120]  Wow.
[54:00.420 --> 54:01.680]  That's got to be a record.
[54:01.800 --> 54:02.380]  What part of China?
[54:04.300 --> 54:08.140]  About 300 kilometers south of Shanghai.
[54:08.740 --> 54:09.120]  Nice.
[54:09.220 --> 54:10.820]  Now, are you actually able to listen to us there?
[54:10.820 --> 54:10.820]  Sure.
[54:11.800 --> 54:12.160]  Yeah.
[54:12.640 --> 54:16.880]  I'm listening to you guys right now.
[54:17.060 --> 54:17.620]  That's great.
[54:17.700 --> 54:18.620]  Well, there must be some delay.
[54:18.800 --> 54:20.900]  So you'll get confused if you have it up at the same time.
[54:21.140 --> 54:21.760]  That's what you said.
[54:21.780 --> 54:22.140]  Yeah.
[54:22.280 --> 54:26.780]  I'm listening to, I think, Bernie with the signs, the highway signs.
[54:27.220 --> 54:27.520]  Mm-hmm.
[54:27.860 --> 54:30.160]  Bernie and the unidentified person that has intelligence.
[54:30.940 --> 54:31.480]  I see.
[54:31.480 --> 54:31.480]  Okay.
[54:32.040 --> 54:33.920]  I have a quick question.
[54:34.400 --> 54:34.760]  Uh-oh.
[54:36.080 --> 54:45.220]  Is there such a phone or such technology possible with GSM that I could have two SIM cards activated in the same phone at the same time?
[54:45.660 --> 54:46.940]  I've never heard of that.
[54:47.000 --> 54:47.920]  That would be great if you could.
[54:48.100 --> 54:49.540]  You mean have, like, two different phone numbers?
[54:50.080 --> 54:51.100]  Like a two-line phone?
[54:51.100 --> 55:03.900]  Because right now, right now I'm carrying four phones between the two of us, one for the local SIM card and one from the T-Mobile.
[55:04.060 --> 55:04.360]  Uh-huh.
[55:05.020 --> 55:09.780]  Be able to receive phone calls both from here and from the U.S.
[55:09.780 --> 55:11.120]  That's a great idea.
[55:11.840 --> 55:16.800]  You used to be able to do that with all the analog cellular phones, the AMPS phones.
[55:16.940 --> 55:23.140]  Many of them had what's called a dual NOM feature, where you could have, you know, two different phone numbers in there.
[55:23.280 --> 55:24.820]  You could even have them on different carriers.
[55:25.100 --> 55:28.360]  But that was all done away with with the digital juggernaut.
[55:29.620 --> 55:31.560]  What's GSM coverage like there in China?
[55:32.780 --> 55:34.160]  Actually, they're everywhere.
[55:34.160 --> 55:36.540]  Um, it's really good coverage.
[55:36.540 --> 55:39.420]  Even in the rural area, you're able to get phone calls.
[55:39.720 --> 55:39.920]  Wow.
[55:40.140 --> 55:50.980]  Um, because I know there's such a, like, you could get some type of battery cover that you could have two SIM cards in there, but not activated at the same time, right?
[55:51.720 --> 55:53.100]  Is this such a thing possible?
[55:53.540 --> 55:56.460]  Is the GSM technology allowed that?
[55:56.900 --> 55:58.880]  Well, I'm sure it's possible.
[55:59.180 --> 56:01.400]  The question is, has somebody built something like that?
[56:01.400 --> 56:05.100]  And, uh, certainly, you know, if there's a demand for it, I'm sure somebody will design it.
[56:05.280 --> 56:09.580]  And, uh, you know, we can, we'll send the question out to, uh, all the GSM experts out there.
[56:09.660 --> 56:13.300]  And hopefully somebody will write back in or call us and tell us something more about this.
[56:13.380 --> 56:14.560]  But, yeah, it sounds great to me.
[56:14.640 --> 56:15.620]  I'd certainly make use of that.
[56:16.140 --> 56:16.420]  Oh.
[56:16.560 --> 56:19.440]  Because you have, you have, I guess, a prepaid phone, uh, for local?
[56:19.820 --> 56:20.400]  Is that what you have?
[56:20.500 --> 56:20.780]  Right.
[56:21.080 --> 56:21.260]  Right.
[56:21.780 --> 56:23.140]  Uh, they're everywhere.
[56:23.320 --> 56:28.780]  You could pick, pick up a SIM card for relatively cheap, um, yeah.
[56:29.040 --> 56:31.020]  And you just, you just don't want to miss a call.
[56:31.840 --> 56:32.640]  Uh, no.
[56:32.980 --> 56:37.380]  Because otherwise you could put one card in when you wanted to go local and one when you wanted to go...
[56:37.380 --> 56:41.960]  Yeah, if somebody calls you on the local phone, they don't, uh, you don't have to pay for that, right?
[56:43.020 --> 56:46.200]  Uh, on this particular SIM card you do.
[56:46.520 --> 56:50.940]  Uh, on the, on the month-to-month, uh, subscriber, you don't.
[56:51.020 --> 56:53.740]  So, on some cards, on some, uh, carriers.
[56:54.480 --> 56:54.820]  I see.
[56:54.940 --> 56:56.900]  Um, all right, keep up the good work.
[56:56.980 --> 56:58.320]  All right, well, uh, have fun there in China.
[56:58.520 --> 56:59.760]  And, uh, thanks, uh, thanks for the call.
[56:59.760 --> 57:00.680]  Oh, thanks.
[57:00.840 --> 57:01.020]  Bye.
[57:01.220 --> 57:01.480]  All right.
[57:02.040 --> 57:02.320]  Wow.
[57:02.700 --> 57:04.520]  Yeah, I want to hear the noises when he hangs up.
[57:05.480 --> 57:06.040]  No, no noises.
[57:06.460 --> 57:07.580]  All right, bad noise.
[57:08.100 --> 57:11.280]  Remember when people hung up, you used to hear all kinds of tweets and beeps and things like that?
[57:11.340 --> 57:11.400]  Oh, it was great.
[57:11.680 --> 57:11.860]  Yeah.
[57:11.860 --> 57:15.100]  Uh, unfortunately, it's the only call we're going to have time for tonight because we talk so much.
[57:15.420 --> 57:24.260]  But we'll be back next week with, uh, with another, uh, action-packed edition of, um, of Off the Hook with all kinds of other, uh, important pieces of news.
[57:24.800 --> 57:25.580]  We'll talk to you then.
[57:25.680 --> 57:26.400]  Stay tuned for Computer Show.
[57:26.500 --> 57:26.680]  Good night.
[58:35.180 --> 58:39.220]  Hi, this is Isaiah Shepard, Artistic Director of Symphony Space.
[58:39.220 --> 58:42.420]  Join us on Monday, June 16th at 7 p.m.
[58:42.680 --> 58:52.480]  for our 22nd annual Bloomsday on Broadway, a marathon celebration of politics, passions, language, love, and life in James Joyce's Ulysses.
[58:52.700 --> 59:03.360]  A cast of 50, headed by Frank and Malachi McCourt, with Terry Donnelly as Molly Bloom, read scenes from Ulysses, culminating, as always, in Molly Bloom's vivid nighttime thoughts.
[59:03.360 --> 59:12.520]  Don't miss Bloomsday on Broadway, Monday, June 16th at 7, right here on WBAI and WBAI.org.