[00:00.340 --> 00:06.860]  You're listening to WBAI New York, 99.5 FM in New York City.
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[03:06.440 --> 03:07.560]  All right.
[03:07.780 --> 03:10.100]  It is Wednesday, the 24th of December.
[03:10.620 --> 03:12.780]  Off the hook here on WBAI FM.
[03:13.120 --> 03:14.220]  Emmanuel, are you there?
[03:14.540 --> 03:15.000]  I'm here.
[03:15.180 --> 03:15.620]  I don't know.
[03:16.280 --> 03:18.620]  I heard about two minutes of dead air.
[03:18.860 --> 03:20.340]  I hope the listeners didn't hear that.
[03:20.540 --> 03:22.020]  Well, we in the station heard the theme.
[03:22.040 --> 03:23.860]  I hope our listeners did, too.
[03:24.180 --> 03:30.460]  I also heard somebody whispering record or something, too, so I don't know what was going on.
[03:31.460 --> 03:32.700]  That means the mics are working.
[03:33.200 --> 03:33.780]  Well, that's good.
[03:33.940 --> 03:34.380]  That's good.
[03:34.840 --> 03:36.460]  Why don't you tell us where there is?
[03:36.460 --> 03:40.420]  Well, there right now is where I am now, which is here, and that's Amsterdam.
[03:41.240 --> 03:42.860]  I just arrived here today, actually.
[03:42.860 --> 03:48.300]  I was in London yesterday for just a brief stopover, and that's always a lot of fun.
[03:48.600 --> 03:56.900]  Just to bring everybody up to speed, I'm on my way slowly but steadily to the Chaos Communications Congress, which is the annual hacker gathering in Berlin.
[03:57.500 --> 04:03.100]  It's been going on in various cities in Germany since 1984, the longest-standing hacker gathering.
[04:03.500 --> 04:05.460]  And it's quite fascinating.
[04:06.560 --> 04:16.140]  It brings people from all over the world together and meet a lot of people that we've seen at the Hope Conferences and always meet a few new faces and learn some new tricks and things like that.
[04:16.340 --> 04:24.440]  It's in a new location this year, right smack in the middle of Alexanderplatz, which is a major hub of Eastern Berlin.
[04:25.240 --> 04:34.740]  So that starts on the 27th of December, runs on the 27th, 28th, and 29th, always on the same dates, which means it's always on different days every year.
[04:35.860 --> 04:38.580]  So that's going to be taking place in just a few days.
[04:39.520 --> 04:42.720]  Plus, it's good to get out of the States during all this crazy hysteria.
[04:42.900 --> 04:44.680]  Mike, I understand we're at Orange again, is that right?
[04:44.860 --> 04:45.560]  We are at Orange.
[04:46.220 --> 04:46.660]  Oh, boy.
[04:46.740 --> 04:48.500]  And this time, they seem to really mean it.
[04:48.620 --> 04:52.180]  This time, they're really enforcing paranoia everywhere you go.
[04:52.280 --> 04:53.260]  I hear flights from L.A.
[04:53.320 --> 04:55.120]  are being canceled because people are afraid.
[04:55.420 --> 04:57.080]  We're not letting the French in.
[04:57.860 --> 04:59.520]  We're not letting French people into the country?
[04:59.640 --> 05:00.880]  Well, no, not exactly.
[05:00.880 --> 05:03.300]  We're not letting certain Air France flights in.
[05:03.500 --> 05:08.100]  There's very little hard news out there, but that's what's going on.
[05:08.220 --> 05:09.960]  For security concerns, they've canceled.
[05:09.960 --> 05:16.020]  Last I heard, six different Air France flights, Paris to Los Angeles.
[05:16.280 --> 05:20.340]  Mike, I have some information here because, ironically, when I'm away, I can be online.
[05:20.540 --> 05:24.620]  When I'm in the studio, I can't be online, but when I'm away, I can look at a computer screen.
[05:24.840 --> 05:33.060]  And right now, I'm reading that Air France flights 68 and 70 from Paris to Los Angeles and Thursday flight 68 also to Los Angeles were grounded.
[05:33.700 --> 05:35.660]  It came up to consultation between U.S.
[05:35.680 --> 05:36.680]  and French authorities.
[05:36.680 --> 05:38.560]  And then three other L.A.
[05:38.580 --> 05:42.860]  flights were canceled because the planes remain in Paris and can't continue to their final destinations.
[05:42.860 --> 05:44.680]  They also canceled the flight to Cincinnati.
[05:46.560 --> 05:49.360]  And these all involved Boeing 747s.
[05:50.980 --> 05:53.380]  There's no real news as to why this happened.
[05:54.720 --> 06:01.440]  I guess, okay, the Pentagon official said Wednesday the possibility of an attack using an airliner remains a constant concern.
[06:02.440 --> 06:06.420]  But I don't have any real news here as to why those ones were affected.
[06:06.420 --> 06:09.240]  If they told you the reason, then there couldn't be nearly so much paranoia.
[06:09.800 --> 06:12.200]  There's a lot of background, but no real reasons here.
[06:12.300 --> 06:16.440]  Yeah, I know we're at Orange, and, you know, that means all kinds of crazy things.
[06:16.500 --> 06:17.260]  And I was in the airport.
[06:17.440 --> 06:18.320]  I left out of Newark.
[06:19.880 --> 06:26.960]  And basically, they were making announcements every 20 seconds or so, saying, because the nation is now at Orange, we must do things differently.
[06:27.500 --> 06:30.420]  And I was just, you know, it was hitting me at the time.
[06:30.620 --> 06:36.180]  How ridiculous is this, that we're now going around saying, on official announcements, the nation is now at Orange Alert.
[06:36.940 --> 06:38.280]  We must take this seriously.
[06:38.560 --> 06:39.920]  People have stopped laughing at it.
[06:40.020 --> 06:41.020]  They're taking it seriously now.
[06:41.280 --> 06:48.020]  We moved to Orange, Condition Orange, and people seem to take it seriously and act in a different way.
[06:48.240 --> 06:51.980]  And I just don't see how that in any way can help.
[06:51.980 --> 07:00.680]  They're telling us that, yeah, you know, we have information that something is going to happen, but we can't tell you what, we can't tell you why, and if it doesn't, well, that means we succeeded.
[07:01.680 --> 07:02.220]  You know?
[07:02.900 --> 07:03.600]  Of course.
[07:03.820 --> 07:05.100]  I mean, it's the perfect plan.
[07:05.100 --> 07:13.020]  If something should happen, they can say they warned us, and if nothing happens, they can take credit for having stopped whatever it was they didn't happen.
[07:13.460 --> 07:13.820]  Mm-hmm.
[07:14.640 --> 07:33.760]  And meanwhile, when people like Dean go around saying that we're not any safer for Saddam Hussein being captured, and he's basically criticized by Republican wannabes like Lieberman who claim that he's not speaking the truth when he says that we're not safer,
[07:33.780 --> 07:40.940]  well, here we are at Orange Alert, and, you know, I don't think we're any safer, at least not in the mind of the people running the country.
[07:42.800 --> 07:46.200]  The whole thing, of course, makes no sense, but it's kind of amusing.
[07:46.720 --> 07:47.200]  Yeah, it is.
[07:47.260 --> 07:48.120]  It's very amusing.
[07:48.340 --> 07:48.980]  It really is.
[07:49.920 --> 07:56.440]  Speaking of airports, though, I think we should relate to the little saga we had last week after the show because I think that would be of interest to some people.
[07:56.620 --> 08:00.060]  We talked about this new thing that they introduced in New York City called the Air Train.
[08:00.700 --> 08:09.660]  Now, there's an air train that goes to Newark Airport that leads from a stop off the Northeast Corridor.
[08:09.840 --> 08:17.080]  You hop onto this monorail system that's called the Air Train, and that takes you from station to station or from terminal to terminal.
[08:17.300 --> 08:26.880]  They just opened a system also called Air Train that goes to JFK Airport, goes from two different locations, Howard Beach Train Station and also Jamaica Train Station.
[08:27.620 --> 08:28.900]  It's not a monorail.
[08:29.080 --> 08:33.840]  It's a regular two-rail system, and it debuted last week, last Wednesday.
[08:34.780 --> 08:36.860]  And we went down there after the show.
[08:37.700 --> 08:42.360]  Actually, we went out to have food first and the usual festivities, you know, the night of dancing and all that kind of thing.
[08:42.500 --> 08:49.320]  But after that was over, we decided to go on down to Kennedy Airport and try out the new Air Train.
[08:49.580 --> 08:54.660]  And the reason we wanted to do it right then and there, not only because it was the first day, but it was also the only day that was going to be free.
[08:55.140 --> 08:59.060]  You may recall last week I referred to this as a... what was it?
[08:59.060 --> 08:59.920]  A rip-off, yes.
[09:00.120 --> 09:11.780]  A rip-off to the people of New York City because they're basically taking something that used to be free and charging $5 for it now, meaning being able to get from Howard Beach Train Station to a terminal at JFK.
[09:11.940 --> 09:16.240]  So it's an example of an improvement being actually a disadvantage.
[09:16.700 --> 09:18.580]  You no longer have bus drivers anymore.
[09:18.580 --> 09:20.500]  You have driverless trains.
[09:20.760 --> 09:23.480]  Well, we found out that's not totally true.
[09:24.680 --> 09:25.240]  I'm sorry.
[09:25.300 --> 09:25.760]  I didn't hear you, Jim.
[09:25.920 --> 09:27.720]  We found out that that's not totally true.
[09:29.060 --> 09:29.520]  Bus drivers.
[09:30.180 --> 09:31.860]  Well, why don't you let me tell the story?
[09:32.000 --> 09:32.240]  Okay.
[09:32.640 --> 09:33.240]  Thank you.
[09:33.460 --> 09:33.740]  You're welcome.
[09:35.180 --> 09:47.580]  So basically, we went all the way down to Howard Beach, and we discovered that the Air Train, which was free up until midnight, was broken.
[09:48.200 --> 09:49.860]  Yeah, the Air Train was broken.
[09:50.120 --> 09:50.760]  On the first day.
[09:50.780 --> 09:53.040]  Nobody knew exactly what the problem was.
[09:53.560 --> 09:54.980]  They just knew that it was broken.
[09:55.200 --> 10:01.080]  And there are all these people, very nice people in uniforms, they were all telling us the same thing, that, sorry, the Air Train is broken.
[10:01.100 --> 10:02.280]  We don't know what the problem is.
[10:02.320 --> 10:03.400]  We don't know how long it's going to be.
[10:03.880 --> 10:07.720]  But we suggest that you take a shuttle bus, which had miraculously reappeared.
[10:08.260 --> 10:14.260]  I guess they were on their way out of the airport when they were called back and called back into service.
[10:15.120 --> 10:17.900]  And they suggested we take one of those to the terminal.
[10:17.900 --> 10:20.060]  The thing is that we tried to impress upon them.
[10:20.140 --> 10:25.400]  We came all the way down there to Howard Beach train station, which is a good hour-long ride on the Air Train.
[10:26.620 --> 10:29.620]  We went all the way out there to take the Air Train in the first place.
[10:29.740 --> 10:31.240]  We didn't want to take a shuttle bus.
[10:31.360 --> 10:32.060]  That was no fun.
[10:32.060 --> 10:33.420]  We went out to take the Air Train.
[10:33.520 --> 10:37.280]  And we had to take the Air Train by midnight, because after midnight, it would cost five bucks.
[10:38.440 --> 10:40.760]  So we tried to impress upon them.
[10:40.840 --> 10:45.320]  And, of course, they had no control over it, because there's no real human interaction with these machines.
[10:45.320 --> 10:47.300]  The machines just kind of do the work on their own.
[10:47.400 --> 10:48.360]  The doors open and close.
[10:48.460 --> 10:49.180]  They don't know why.
[10:49.460 --> 10:50.720]  But that's the problem they were having.
[10:50.840 --> 10:52.480]  The doors weren't opening in certain places.
[10:52.500 --> 10:54.220]  People were being trapped inside the things.
[10:54.960 --> 10:59.800]  And, you know, there were people trying to invoke the spirits of the Air Train, but they weren't responding.
[10:59.800 --> 11:03.040]  And they just kept opening and closing their doors and refusing to cooperate.
[11:04.580 --> 11:13.320]  We took the shuttle bus to one of the terminals, figured that maybe we'd get on the loop that goes around JFK Airport, and we could at least ride that a little bit.
[11:13.440 --> 11:18.280]  It didn't go to Howard Beach, it didn't go to Jamaica, but we could at least try that a little bit and see what it was like.
[11:18.580 --> 11:28.300]  And we were able to actually beg, we had to beg, one of the people there to let us ride the Air Train for one stop, just to see what it was like, you know, on the loop.
[11:28.320 --> 11:31.300]  And they let us do that, and they kicked us off as we got to the next stop.
[11:33.200 --> 11:42.000]  We were getting worried at this point that we were going to miss the 12 o'clock deadline, so we figured we should try to find a bus just to get back and just label the whole thing a complete failure.
[11:42.720 --> 11:46.980]  And that's when we noticed that there were people getting on the actual two-car Air Train.
[11:47.080 --> 11:53.160]  The two-car Air Trains are the ones that go to either Howard Beach or Jamaica, as opposed to the one-car ones, which just go around in the circle at the terminals.
[11:54.000 --> 11:55.320]  So we ran onto this thing.
[11:55.420 --> 11:58.220]  We knew it was going to be close because it was a quarter to 12 at that point.
[11:58.800 --> 12:02.560]  And we jumped onto the thing, and I started heading to Jamaica.
[12:03.020 --> 12:04.360]  And it was really pretty cool.
[12:04.500 --> 12:09.280]  It was really pretty cool riding on this thing and going at pretty good speeds, too.
[12:09.640 --> 12:16.100]  And I remember one thing that I really enjoyed saying in a very loud voice was, my God, there's nobody driving the train.
[12:16.260 --> 12:27.180]  And, of course, if you've watched the taking of Pelham 123, which is one of my favorite films, that's one of the classic lines from the film, when they realize that the, I think, number six train they're taking downtown has no driver, and it's just going really fast.
[12:27.400 --> 12:28.620]  This thing was going really fast.
[12:28.740 --> 12:30.980]  Jim, how fast would you say that train was going on the Van Wick?
[12:31.300 --> 12:34.260]  My guess is 30 miles an hour or more.
[12:34.660 --> 12:37.080]  Yeah, it felt like a good 40, maybe even 45.
[12:37.980 --> 12:40.600]  It's hard to tell without frames of reference.
[12:40.600 --> 12:46.440]  It was dark, and we're not too sure of the distances on the Van Wick, so I'd rather err conservatively.
[12:46.660 --> 12:51.320]  Well, it's the fastest I think I've ever gone on a vehicle that has nobody in control of it.
[12:51.640 --> 12:52.940]  Well, I wouldn't go that far.
[12:52.940 --> 12:54.440]  I think somebody's in control of it.
[12:54.440 --> 13:03.320]  Well, maybe a roller coaster has gone faster, but, you know, there's nobody in the cab in control because there is no cab.
[13:04.360 --> 13:04.840]  Yeah.
[13:05.600 --> 13:07.180]  So it's computerized.
[13:07.320 --> 13:09.820]  And, you know, sometimes computerized systems work, sometimes they don't.
[13:10.220 --> 13:13.520]  And we saw a mixture of the two that night when we went out there.
[13:13.660 --> 13:21.220]  Well, the irony of the thing is, apparently, according to news articles the next day and thereafter, the train worked fine.
[13:21.620 --> 13:23.680]  The doors on the train worked fine.
[13:23.680 --> 13:26.140]  It was the doors and the terminals that were screwing up.
[13:26.460 --> 13:27.080]  Oh, really?
[13:27.260 --> 13:27.460]  Okay.
[13:28.380 --> 13:31.160]  Well, they're all part of the same mechanism, I think, right?
[13:31.200 --> 13:32.440]  They're all controlled by the same computers.
[13:32.720 --> 13:44.500]  That also explains why one of the early supervisors that we ran into, or one of the supervisors we ran into early on in our sojourn there, suggested that we might be able to take the inner loop once we got to a terminal.
[13:45.640 --> 13:48.940]  Obviously, a different set of door circuits than the outer loop.
[13:49.060 --> 13:53.960]  The outer loop being the ones that go to and from the train and subway stations.
[13:54.180 --> 13:56.180]  The inner loop going only between terminals.
[13:56.440 --> 14:00.160]  They still kicked us off, though, once we got to the inner loop.
[14:00.600 --> 14:01.760]  Let's ride one stop.
[14:01.760 --> 14:05.920]  I think that was just because it looked bad having people on any train.
[14:06.420 --> 14:10.260]  You get people who want the outer loop saying, well, they're riding the inner loop.
[14:10.320 --> 14:11.840]  Why can't we ride the outer loop?
[14:12.300 --> 14:13.320]  And you got to explain to them.
[14:13.700 --> 14:17.560]  This is a taste of what to expect from this new service in the future.
[14:17.640 --> 14:22.980]  And, you know, I was thinking about this, too, afterwards, that, well, we managed to make it just in time.
[14:23.100 --> 14:24.360]  They didn't charge us getting off.
[14:24.360 --> 14:26.300]  I think maybe they might have kept it open a little longer.
[14:26.660 --> 14:30.080]  But this thing really, you don't pay on the inner loop.
[14:30.160 --> 14:31.360]  You pay as you get on.
[14:31.780 --> 14:35.340]  And if you get in at one of the terminals, you pay when you get off.
[14:36.000 --> 14:36.800]  No, no, no, no.
[14:37.500 --> 14:37.980]  Go ahead.
[14:38.700 --> 14:40.760]  No, you don't pay when you get off at one of the terminals.
[14:40.920 --> 14:45.220]  You pay when you enter from either the subway or train stations.
[14:45.260 --> 14:48.760]  And you pay when you exit at either of the subway or train stations.
[14:49.100 --> 14:50.180]  That's what I meant.
[14:50.280 --> 14:51.000]  Maybe I didn't say it right.
[14:51.000 --> 14:55.580]  But when you get on at a terminal and you go to Jamaica or Howard Beach, you pay when you get off there.
[14:55.960 --> 14:59.360]  Now, if you plan this right, you could get onto the thing.
[14:59.980 --> 15:08.920]  If you want to ride the air train, you can go to Howard Beach, get on the air train, ride it around the circle, and then either return to Howard Beach or Jamaica, and you'll wind up paying $10 for that.
[15:09.720 --> 15:11.780]  Because you pay when you get on and when you get off.
[15:12.740 --> 15:13.400]  Well, then.
[15:14.680 --> 15:15.360]  Don't do it.
[15:15.880 --> 15:18.900]  Like I said, it's a giant rip-off, but it is fun to ride when it's free.
[15:19.660 --> 15:20.880]  And we also have Bernie S.
[15:20.980 --> 15:21.380]  on the line.
[15:21.980 --> 15:23.460]  Oh, Merry Christmas from Philadelphia.
[15:24.280 --> 15:26.080]  Yes, well, season's greetings to you as well.
[15:26.420 --> 15:33.040]  And I'll have you know that the theme song was broadcast properly without any whispering about recording and stuff.
[15:33.420 --> 15:34.920]  I wonder why I heard it differently.
[15:35.060 --> 15:36.360]  I heard nothing and I heard whispering.
[15:36.700 --> 15:42.380]  Well, on my phone, I heard no music and I heard the whispering and someone saying, Are you recording?
[15:43.440 --> 15:47.960]  But on the air, I was listening on a radio here in Philadelphia with a giant antenna.
[15:47.960 --> 15:54.240]  And I was picking up WBAI and it started right on the hour perfectly with a theme song and everything was perfect.
[15:54.880 --> 15:57.120]  Well, Ken Gale is the master technician at work tonight.
[15:57.460 --> 16:04.500]  And I suspect, Ken, that maybe there's one of those buttons that's pressed in a magical part of the board that does something weird.
[16:04.980 --> 16:08.880]  And it's your job to figure out what button that is and make it not do that anymore.
[16:09.680 --> 16:14.980]  But as long as the show goes over the air, that's their number one responsibility.
[16:15.220 --> 16:18.500]  Let's not press any random buttons that we don't know what they do.
[16:18.660 --> 16:19.500]  What does this one do?
[16:20.500 --> 16:22.120]  The red candy-like button.
[16:22.320 --> 16:25.600]  Let's just think of it as a Christmas miracle for off the hook.
[16:26.460 --> 16:26.700]  Yeah.
[16:27.000 --> 16:29.300]  Hey, we also have Rob here from Amsterdam.
[16:30.320 --> 16:33.460]  He's busy trying to figure out how to conference two phones together here.
[16:33.460 --> 16:35.120]  In his own house, right?
[16:35.740 --> 16:39.200]  Okay, we're going to try to patch Rob in now, live from across the room.
[16:40.420 --> 16:45.500]  You realize this is the sort of technology that most people have just by picking up the phone, you know, across the room.
[16:45.760 --> 16:50.020]  But Rob has a fancy phone system that doesn't make life that easy.
[16:50.560 --> 16:53.300]  He used to be able to pick up the phone, I know, and just pick up two extensions.
[16:53.580 --> 16:55.100]  But we're beyond that now.
[16:55.320 --> 17:03.440]  We're in a time of high-tech where we have driverless trains and phones that you have to program and write a small program to pick up two lines at the same time.
[17:03.460 --> 17:05.320]  But I think Rob has completed that task now.
[17:05.680 --> 17:09.040]  And the next voice you hear will be Rob from Amsterdam.
[17:11.500 --> 17:12.400]  What do you mean, R21?
[17:12.640 --> 17:13.720]  I have to press R21?
[17:14.120 --> 17:15.540]  I don't hear Rob from Amsterdam.
[17:15.640 --> 17:16.020]  Well, hold on.
[17:16.100 --> 17:17.020]  I have instructions now.
[17:17.220 --> 17:17.660]  R21?
[17:17.780 --> 17:19.120]  There's no R on his phone.
[17:19.640 --> 17:20.840]  What do you mean, R21?
[17:22.420 --> 17:23.120]  Oh, R.
[17:23.220 --> 17:23.600]  There's R.
[17:24.000 --> 17:24.860]  I have R on R21.
[17:24.860 --> 17:25.440]  Of course.
[17:27.720 --> 17:28.680]  I'm going to go away.
[17:29.020 --> 17:30.180]  Don't press D17.
[17:32.300 --> 17:33.380]  There he goes.
[17:33.460 --> 17:34.440]  Yes, he did go away.
[17:34.460 --> 17:36.900]  You know, you can understand with the air train.
[17:37.300 --> 17:39.620]  But, Rob, Rob, I always thought knew better.
[17:39.720 --> 17:40.800]  Oh, here we are.
[17:40.940 --> 17:41.200]  Okay.
[17:42.120 --> 17:43.240]  That was scary.
[17:43.340 --> 17:45.120]  I had to press buttons and I went away for a while.
[17:45.560 --> 17:46.940]  You're back and Rob's there.
[17:47.420 --> 17:47.860]  Hey there.
[17:48.100 --> 17:48.480]  Hi, Rob.
[17:48.660 --> 17:49.220]  Happy Christmas.
[17:49.720 --> 17:50.300]  You too.
[17:51.000 --> 17:52.220]  Is Bernie Yes still with us?
[17:52.500 --> 17:52.900]  Yes.
[17:53.000 --> 17:54.300]  We haven't lost me either.
[17:54.480 --> 17:54.940]  Oh, that's good.
[17:55.260 --> 17:58.120]  We can just keep tying people in until we've tied everybody together.
[18:00.020 --> 18:01.580]  So what's new in the Netherlands, Rob?
[18:03.060 --> 18:04.160]  What's new in the Netherlands?
[18:04.820 --> 18:11.940]  We're working really hard on this crypto phone project that you've heard about before, trying to create secure phone calls.
[18:12.680 --> 18:19.740]  We're getting ready to go to the Chaos Congress and, yeah, having a good time celebrating Christmas.
[18:20.540 --> 18:21.400]  Well, not really.
[18:21.520 --> 18:24.640]  I mean, we're just kind of listening to church bells ringing in the neighborhood.
[18:25.020 --> 18:31.120]  Rob was near a maddening church that decides to ring the bells straight for half an hour at 11 o'clock at night.
[18:31.840 --> 18:34.580]  And I imagine they're going to have more of that planned for tomorrow.
[18:35.360 --> 18:41.000]  But other than that, it's not quite as fanatical as in the United States with, you know, all the consumerism going on.
[18:41.100 --> 18:41.960]  It's a lot more laid back.
[18:42.620 --> 18:49.620]  It's kind of crazy in London, too, people just running around buying their Christmas puddings and all kinds of things like that.
[18:49.760 --> 18:50.560]  But it is fun.
[18:50.640 --> 18:51.800]  It's fun to walk down the streets.
[18:51.820 --> 18:53.660]  And I've forgotten how much I like that place.
[18:54.280 --> 19:02.340]  And I'll be going back there again, too, right after New Year's on that meeting, right after the 2600 meeting, the day after.
[19:02.740 --> 19:08.520]  So if there's anybody in London that would like to meet up or something like that, send an email over and maybe we can work something out.
[19:09.520 --> 19:10.120]  Wait a minute.
[19:10.380 --> 19:14.420]  So for the January 2600 meeting, you're going to be in what city, what country?
[19:14.700 --> 19:15.800]  I think I'll be in Amsterdam.
[19:15.880 --> 19:20.280]  I won't be at a meeting, that's for sure, because ironically enough, there is no 2600 meeting in Amsterdam.
[19:21.780 --> 19:30.280]  But either we can organize one by January 2nd, or I can just meet up with some people in London the following weekend.
[19:31.500 --> 19:34.400]  But everyone else should go to their meetings as pre-scheduled.
[19:35.960 --> 19:36.880]  You could do both.
[19:36.880 --> 19:40.920]  You could organize one in Amsterdam and have a special one in London one week later.
[19:41.880 --> 19:43.160]  Well, I won't be there one week later.
[19:43.200 --> 19:45.100]  I'll only be there a couple of days afterwards.
[19:45.340 --> 19:45.760]  Oh, okay.
[19:45.840 --> 19:46.600]  So skip that idea.
[19:47.060 --> 19:47.240]  Yeah.
[19:49.200 --> 19:50.860]  I'm going to do something I've never done on the air before.
[19:51.000 --> 19:51.680]  I'm going to open a beer.
[19:53.100 --> 19:56.220]  You can't do that in the studio, but you can do that when you're away.
[19:56.600 --> 19:57.200]  Can you really?
[19:57.580 --> 19:57.800]  Yeah.
[19:57.880 --> 19:58.380]  Hang on a second.
[20:00.660 --> 20:02.900]  Yeah, I'm not sure if that sound came across well.
[20:03.100 --> 20:03.760]  It came across.
[20:03.760 --> 20:04.500]  I don't know about well.
[20:04.940 --> 20:05.140]  Yeah.
[20:05.320 --> 20:05.660]  Well, I...
[20:05.660 --> 20:06.580]  Don't mention the brand name.
[20:06.680 --> 20:07.700]  This is non-commercial radio.
[20:08.080 --> 20:08.880]  Helps me to relax.
[20:09.060 --> 20:12.800]  And also, let me send another sound across the transatlantic cable here.
[20:13.440 --> 20:14.900]  This is the...
[20:14.900 --> 20:17.440]  I'm not sure if you'll hear this, but you usually do.
[20:18.100 --> 20:20.780]  Here in Europe, you hear this sound a lot more than in the United States.
[20:20.800 --> 20:26.040]  It's the sound of a GSM phone either making a call or receiving a message or sending a message.
[20:26.180 --> 20:26.540]  I'm going to...
[20:26.540 --> 20:28.600]  Mike, I'm going to send you a message right now on your phone.
[20:29.240 --> 20:31.560]  And you might hear some weird beeps and tones.
[20:31.760 --> 20:32.980]  Let's see if this actually comes across.
[20:33.800 --> 20:34.300]  All right.
[20:37.740 --> 20:39.240]  You realize, of course, that...
[20:39.240 --> 20:40.460]  Did you hear that sound?
[20:40.680 --> 20:42.000]  I didn't hear any sound, no.
[20:42.080 --> 20:42.780]  You didn't hear any sound?
[20:42.780 --> 20:45.460]  Okay, that's strange because you heard it last time I did it, and...
[20:45.460 --> 20:46.000]  Oh, well.
[20:46.400 --> 20:47.220]  I sent a message.
[20:47.220 --> 20:48.180]  I heard it on my end.
[20:48.320 --> 20:50.720]  You probably have to press R or something or anything.
[20:50.780 --> 20:52.680]  I didn't have to press R or anything last time.
[20:52.880 --> 20:55.740]  But it's kind of like a repeating, beeping sound.
[20:55.840 --> 20:56.940]  Rob, you're familiar with that sound, right?
[20:59.240 --> 21:00.780]  Yeah, that's exactly what it sounds like.
[21:01.160 --> 21:01.600]  That's it.
[21:02.500 --> 21:03.900]  We don't need the sound we have, Rob.
[21:04.480 --> 21:06.220]  Off the hook is just turned into car talk.
[21:08.060 --> 21:10.240]  All right, well, that's what the sound sounds like.
[21:10.280 --> 21:17.460]  So if you've heard that sound, and you can hear that over your television, headset, you can hear that over your telephone, you can hear it over any electronic device virtually.
[21:18.020 --> 21:20.580]  Whoa, you mean it bleeds through to your television?
[21:20.920 --> 21:21.320]  Exactly.
[21:21.560 --> 21:26.560]  In fact, I was on a train today, and I heard that sound over the PA system when someone was making an announcement.
[21:26.620 --> 21:29.140]  So it bleeds over anything and everything.
[21:29.140 --> 21:35.020]  So what you're hearing is not like the phone ringing, it's interference.
[21:35.560 --> 21:38.600]  It's the pulsing of the RF.
[21:39.640 --> 21:45.480]  As you may know, GSM channels are only used one-eighth of the time by a telephone.
[21:46.020 --> 21:47.660]  It's time-domain multiplexing.
[21:47.740 --> 21:50.360]  So you hear the pulsing on and off of the transmit part.
[21:51.260 --> 21:53.540]  I wonder if there's a practical application.
[21:54.000 --> 21:58.780]  You remember some years back at Knotwork, that little toy flying saucer we had on wheels?
[21:59.340 --> 22:01.900]  Oh yeah, the cab drivers kept interfering with it.
[22:02.040 --> 22:02.180]  Right.
[22:02.320 --> 22:07.620]  The CBs of the cab drivers would turn this saucer on for a few seconds.
[22:07.620 --> 22:11.020]  It would move a couple inches and stop and start up again.
[22:11.140 --> 22:15.820]  And of course, we were across the street from a mosque, so there were a lot of them at all sorts of hours.
[22:16.340 --> 22:23.560]  Yeah, and it was pretty freaky having a little moving toy on your desk, and suddenly it moves on its own.
[22:24.580 --> 22:26.840]  So yeah, radio waves can do all kinds of fun things.
[22:27.000 --> 22:27.960]  You have to be very careful.
[22:28.560 --> 22:29.220]  Hello, Rob.
[22:30.180 --> 22:30.740]  Hey there.
[22:31.160 --> 22:31.580]  Hey, Rob.
[22:31.700 --> 22:32.180]  It's Bernie S.
[22:32.320 --> 22:34.780]  Question about this pulsed RF.
[22:35.980 --> 22:42.560]  Does the user have any control over the pulsing, or is it just going to be the same every time you use the phone?
[22:43.660 --> 22:46.400]  What do you mean, does the user have anything control over it?
[22:46.720 --> 22:51.760]  Well, can you alter how often the pulses are sent?
[22:51.860 --> 22:59.320]  I remember back in the 70s, during the early days of microcomputers, you could write a program that would generate RF harmonics.
[22:59.720 --> 23:09.380]  You could write four next loops and things like that, and you could actually generate music with a harmonics that would play through a nearby medium wave or AM radio.
[23:09.380 --> 23:13.920]  So unintentionally, that wasn't what the computer was designed to do, but is there any way you could actually...
[23:13.920 --> 23:18.100]  Or some people play musical music notes using touch tones.
[23:18.280 --> 23:18.880]  They play songs.
[23:19.000 --> 23:20.400]  Is there a way to do that with a GSM?
[23:20.560 --> 23:22.760]  I also know music for certain printers.
[23:23.360 --> 23:23.800]  Yes.
[23:24.040 --> 23:27.380]  Moving the needles in certain rhythms and playing tones that way.
[23:27.800 --> 23:28.000]  Right.
[23:28.500 --> 23:42.220]  No, I don't think you have an influence over it, because it's always going to be the same, at least the same pitch, because it's always, I think the... I'm not sure what the pulse rate is, actually, but it's one-eighth of the time of pulsing.
[23:44.220 --> 23:44.620]  There.
[23:45.200 --> 23:46.200]  Now we hear it.
[23:46.560 --> 23:47.880]  Yeah, that's pretty clear.
[23:48.380 --> 23:49.220]  Could they hear it that time?
[23:49.340 --> 23:49.500]  Yeah.
[23:49.700 --> 23:50.140]  Okay, good.
[23:50.160 --> 23:50.680]  I did it again.
[23:51.720 --> 24:00.620]  Now, you also hear that sound sometimes when your phone is about to ring, or when you're about to receive an SMS message, or virtually any time your phone is going to do something.
[24:00.840 --> 24:05.600]  Or when your phone is handed over to another cell, you also hear it.
[24:07.720 --> 24:10.360]  It's a little bit of GSM lore over here.
[24:10.500 --> 24:20.300]  I'm not sure if that's a big hit in the States, but there's these little stickers that you can put on the phone, and they have a little receiver loop and some LEDs, and you can see when your phone is transmitting.
[24:21.100 --> 24:21.940]  That's interesting.
[24:22.640 --> 24:24.480]  That's not a hit over there.
[24:24.480 --> 24:25.700]  It's a big thing in Europe.
[24:25.720 --> 24:26.920]  I've never even heard of it here.
[24:27.700 --> 24:28.600]  Okay, but it's a big thing.
[24:28.600 --> 24:29.080]  Yeah, they have them here.
[24:29.400 --> 24:29.580]  Ah.
[24:30.500 --> 24:36.120]  Anyway, those are really nice, because you can see when your phone is transmitting when you're not actually doing anything.
[24:37.100 --> 24:38.200]  Now, here's something interesting.
[24:38.200 --> 24:41.720]  I'm about to turn my phone off, and you might hear a sound after I turn it off.
[24:42.700 --> 24:43.620]  I've just turned it off.
[24:44.180 --> 24:45.340]  The light has gone out.
[24:46.480 --> 24:47.660]  Yeah, I heard a little sputter.
[24:49.240 --> 24:49.680]  Yeah, it did.
[24:49.680 --> 24:49.920]  Okay.
[24:50.660 --> 24:51.940]  I didn't hear anything, actually.
[24:52.280 --> 24:53.680]  That was a tiny little sputter, yeah.
[24:53.800 --> 24:54.000]  Okay.
[24:54.480 --> 24:58.880]  Sometimes I've heard things a good two seconds after the power has gone out, so that means something is being transmitted.
[25:01.340 --> 25:01.880]  You know...
[25:01.880 --> 25:05.480]  Yeah, if you want to just silently disappear from the network, you just unplug your battery.
[25:06.340 --> 25:08.040]  And smash your phone into smithereens.
[25:09.380 --> 25:10.180]  Works for me.
[25:10.780 --> 25:11.480]  You know...
[25:11.480 --> 25:13.520]  We have some interesting news, actually.
[25:13.740 --> 25:22.560]  Many people probably already heard this, that the appeals court in Norway upheld the verdict that cleared John Johansson of DVD piracy charges.
[25:22.740 --> 25:23.600]  That happened on Monday.
[25:24.620 --> 25:25.480]  Now, interesting.
[25:25.720 --> 25:26.740]  Mike has a story on this.
[25:26.740 --> 25:27.740]  I have a story on this, too.
[25:28.000 --> 25:28.460]  And so do I.
[25:28.460 --> 25:29.040]  It's kind of different.
[25:30.180 --> 25:40.740]  One says that John Johansson broke no law by helping to unlock a code and distribute a computer program on the Internet, enabling unauthorized copying of DVD movies.
[25:41.300 --> 25:56.300]  Now, of course, the whole point of the case that we fought back in 2000 was that the ECSS was not used for copying movies, was used to enable the playing of DVDs on different platforms, such as Linux-powered computers.
[25:57.060 --> 26:00.060]  Here are some quotes from the judge.
[26:00.440 --> 26:01.400]  When she...
[26:02.860 --> 26:03.320]  Shegestad...
[26:03.320 --> 26:05.580]  Although his name really isn't that important, if I've butchered it.
[26:05.580 --> 26:05.960]  I'm sorry.
[26:06.540 --> 26:08.000]  The appeal is rejected.
[26:09.500 --> 26:12.500]  Actually, that's the only quote that he has in the whole story.
[26:12.640 --> 26:13.700]  You have the Reuters story.
[26:13.900 --> 26:15.180]  I have the Reuters story, yeah.
[26:15.260 --> 26:17.960]  That's why I'm reading this particular story, because Mike has a much better one.
[26:18.600 --> 26:20.680]  Well, I don't have any quotes from the judge, though.
[26:21.360 --> 26:23.980]  Well, I guess Reuters got a quote from the judge, but they didn't...
[26:23.980 --> 26:25.160]  It wasn't enough to salvage the story.
[26:26.160 --> 26:30.460]  John's lawyer, Halvor Manshaw, said, John has now been cleared twice.
[26:30.460 --> 26:31.180]  We're delighted.
[26:32.160 --> 26:42.080]  Johansson, known as DVD John by fans worldwide, who see him as a hero for free speech, this is the best part, was on a holiday in France and did not reply to phone and email messages from his lawyer.
[26:43.100 --> 26:45.760]  Now, I think there's several things here that we can learn.
[26:45.760 --> 26:52.660]  Number one is that Norway courts are a lot more reasonable and open-minded and can actually listen to the arguments that are being presented.
[26:53.500 --> 27:02.740]  It's great that he could actually appeal the case and have the case in the first place where a legal body would listen to what he had to say.
[27:02.740 --> 27:04.980]  That was not the case in the United States with us.
[27:05.300 --> 27:13.460]  They simply listened to what the tabloid TV and newspaper people had to say and that we were internet pirates and were out to destroy the movie industry.
[27:13.680 --> 27:18.980]  And the second thing is that John is on vacation in France and isn't even replying to his lawyer.
[27:19.480 --> 27:27.240]  And basically, I understand that feeling completely, that you don't affect your life based on other people's stupidity.
[27:27.240 --> 27:36.840]  You don't have to cancel all your plans, dress up in a suit and tie and sit in a courtroom day after day and wait to see how your future is going to be decided by people who don't have a clue.
[27:36.860 --> 27:42.400]  He was confident enough to just live out his life regardless of what these people did.
[27:42.700 --> 27:44.120]  And hats off to him.
[27:44.260 --> 27:46.980]  Now, Mike, you have a story from a Norway paper, right?
[27:46.980 --> 27:56.680]  I have a story from Oftenposten, which is, I'm sure, also being mispronounced, but it's a Norwegian newspaper, which translates a lot of its articles, at least on its website, into English.
[27:57.640 --> 28:01.800]  And they don't accuse John of DVD piracy.
[28:02.400 --> 28:11.820]  In fact, they say he became an instant hero to those who finally could watch DVD films on their computers instead of being forced to buy expensive DVD players.
[28:11.980 --> 28:16.020]  But he incurred the fury of some of the biggest players in the entertainment industry.
[28:16.020 --> 28:24.500]  It all turned into a classic David and Goliath situation, with Johansson ultimately facing prosecution by Norway's white-collar crime unit.
[28:25.240 --> 28:31.740]  And so that is a completely correct paragraph, unlike the Reuters article.
[28:31.980 --> 28:37.980]  There was a good article in the International Herald Tribune, which is a pretty good paper, which you get their answer down, don't you, Emmanuel?
[28:38.620 --> 28:41.740]  Well, you know, Bernie, can I just chip in for a second?
[28:41.960 --> 28:49.760]  It's funny you should say that, because this Reuters story that I read came from the International Herald Tribune on Tuesday, December 23rd.
[28:50.640 --> 28:55.440]  That article said, and it made me think of what you were saying, that in the U.S.
[28:55.660 --> 29:00.820]  they handle things differently in the courts as far as how they look at technology versus in Norway.
[29:01.080 --> 29:12.940]  And that is, in the International Herald Tribune article, it said that it was a panel of judges that made a decision, and that two of the judge advisors, who were judges themselves, were technically trained judges.
[29:13.140 --> 29:18.880]  In other words, they had technical backgrounds, two judges that were assisting with this panel.
[29:19.080 --> 29:21.960]  And that did not exist in our case back in 2000.
[29:22.980 --> 29:25.220]  It does not exist at all in this country.
[29:26.140 --> 29:31.060]  And apparently that's a requirement, or at least it's a common-sense approach that they take in Norway.
[29:31.060 --> 29:35.660]  Unfortunately, this decision in Norway only affects people in Norway.
[29:35.820 --> 29:41.420]  It doesn't affect people here in the rest of the world that want to use DVDs as a purchase for their own money.
[29:41.520 --> 29:46.040]  But we could say that Jan Johansson is out of the Norwegian woods.
[29:47.020 --> 29:47.540]  Ooh.
[29:49.200 --> 29:50.100]  Isn't it good?
[29:52.440 --> 30:01.260]  Well, it's good news anyway, and I'm happy that this case is finally over for him, because I know he was going through it for quite a long time, a number of years.
[30:02.520 --> 30:10.080]  And it just goes to show how the rest of the world looks differently on certain things than the hysterical legal system in our country.
[30:10.600 --> 30:25.160]  And of course, the MPAA had to weigh in and said, while the ruling does not affect laws outside of Norway, we believe this decision encourages circumvention of copyright that threatens consumer choice and employment in the film and television industries.
[30:25.500 --> 30:36.120]  And my reply to that is, I think filming in Vancouver affects employment a hell of a lot more, and I think that this ruling actually contributes to consumer choice.
[30:36.320 --> 30:38.960]  So, Jack Valenti, please, go fishing.
[30:40.320 --> 30:43.560]  Well, Jack Valenti is far from the only person saying these things.
[30:43.560 --> 30:56.500]  And unfortunately, I think a lot of people are just kind of taking these words that they say seriously enough to let it affect how they live their lives.
[30:56.920 --> 31:00.660]  And people aren't writing programs because of the MCAA.
[31:00.800 --> 31:05.500]  They aren't doing certain things that they should have every right to do because they're afraid they might be prosecuted for it.
[31:05.940 --> 31:10.340]  And sometimes you just have to challenge these laws because they're so unjust.
[31:10.740 --> 31:13.400]  And if you don't, they're simply going to become the way of life.
[31:13.560 --> 31:15.960]  And then there won't be any choice at all.
[31:16.200 --> 31:18.940]  Well, I came across something interesting that relates to this.
[31:18.940 --> 31:23.880]  I will admit that this is a slight tangent, but I think it's intriguing enough that I should mention it here.
[31:24.120 --> 31:33.300]  This past Sunday's Times, December 21st, in the Arts and Leisure section, in an article entitled, A DVD Face-Off, The Official vs.
[31:33.420 --> 31:38.160]  The Homemade, they're talking about various series that have cult followings.
[31:38.400 --> 31:45.440]  And this is the equivalent of fan fiction on Usenet or filk songs, as they're called.
[31:46.380 --> 31:47.840]  I'll read one paragraph.
[31:47.840 --> 31:53.200]  Online fans jumped to the tracks of alternative song tracks for existing DVDs.
[31:53.700 --> 32:03.420]  On DVDtracks.com, contributors post links to MP3s on films ranging from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Mulholland Drive.
[32:03.720 --> 32:15.720]  Software like Movie Mask, a controversial program best known for allowing sensors to camouflage movies' naughty bits, allows viewers to add their own tracks by breaking the DVD code.
[32:16.140 --> 32:22.800]  And I read this and I said, wait a moment, I have to ask, does anybody know anything about this thing called Movie Mask?
[32:23.460 --> 32:24.880]  Breaking the DVD code?
[32:25.060 --> 32:26.080]  It has DECS in it?
[32:26.100 --> 32:26.380]  What?
[32:26.520 --> 32:27.120]  What is this?
[32:29.120 --> 32:29.520]  Hello?
[32:30.600 --> 32:32.960]  Yeah, well, I'm not going to have an answer for you.
[32:33.140 --> 32:47.040]  Well, I just threw this up here because I thought of this, I'm saying, oh, wait a minute, what's all the controversy about DECS, which is, you know, a piece of hacker code in the purest sense of the word.
[32:47.540 --> 32:53.540]  As far as I know, no one has ever sold it, at least not in a mainstream product.
[32:53.540 --> 32:59.820]  You can't, like, dial up your local software house and say, oh, yeah, and give me the DECS for $14.
[33:00.520 --> 33:04.660]  But apparently Movie Mask has something that does something equivalent.
[33:05.080 --> 33:08.100]  And yet I don't see Movie Mask being sued anywhere.
[33:08.260 --> 33:14.200]  So if anyone knows anything, email us here at OTH at 2600.com or call in.
[33:14.600 --> 33:15.280]  Something else.
[33:15.440 --> 33:17.200]  Yeah, we'll be trying to take phone calls later.
[33:17.320 --> 33:24.900]  We have so many people online right now that we might be challenged, but we're certainly going to give it a shot if there's people out there listening on Christmas Eve.
[33:25.180 --> 33:29.040]  What is the record for the number of people on the phone on and off the hook show?
[33:29.400 --> 33:30.480]  I don't know what the record is.
[33:30.540 --> 33:31.560]  I don't think this is it, though.
[33:31.700 --> 33:33.740]  I think we've had more than this in the past.
[33:33.920 --> 33:35.500]  But right now, roll call.
[33:35.660 --> 33:36.660]  It's Emmanuel in Amsterdam.
[33:37.140 --> 33:37.900]  Who else is on?
[33:38.720 --> 33:40.120]  This is Mike in the studio.
[33:40.360 --> 33:41.380]  And Jim in the studio.
[33:42.120 --> 33:42.760]  Bernie S.
[33:42.840 --> 33:43.240]  in Philadelphia.
[33:44.540 --> 33:50.340]  And this is Ken Gale Engineering, Off the Hook, WBAI, New York, 99.5 FM.
[33:51.060 --> 33:52.360]  And this is Rob in Amsterdam.
[33:53.060 --> 33:53.580]  All right.
[33:53.680 --> 33:54.320]  So that's everybody.
[33:54.580 --> 34:00.560]  And soon you may be on the phone with us, caller or listener, if you dial 212-209-2900.
[34:00.820 --> 34:04.820]  But I noticed one thing in the article I was just looking at from Reuters.
[34:05.820 --> 34:08.160]  And this is interesting if the court actually said this.
[34:08.240 --> 34:18.340]  The court also ruled it was more reasonable to make a personal copy of a DVD than a book under copyright laws, for instance, because a scratch could make a DVD unusable.
[34:19.080 --> 34:23.060]  Now, there's no quote, actually, to say the court said that.
[34:23.060 --> 34:36.740]  If they did say that, they're basically buying into the whole thing that the ECSS is used for copying, when actually the ECSS is used to enable you to run a DVD player on a Linux machine or other platforms of your choice.
[34:37.260 --> 34:43.820]  But it also is a very interesting point to make, that copying a DVD is not necessarily a bad thing.
[34:44.480 --> 34:46.120]  And in most cases, it's probably a good thing.
[34:46.120 --> 34:50.540]  In fact, there's commercial software out now that advertises exactly that feature.
[34:50.780 --> 34:54.920]  So it makes the whole thing, the whole prosecution in this country seem very strange.
[34:55.540 --> 34:56.860]  It's a little different, though.
[34:58.320 --> 35:04.540]  The DVD, the commercial DVD copying software makes a copy of a DVD.
[35:04.820 --> 35:13.240]  And ECSS unencrypts the bitstream, so you can take a sample of it and use it in an instructional piece or whatever.
[35:13.240 --> 35:17.720]  And you could not do that with the commercial DVD copying programs.
[35:20.120 --> 35:21.580]  So it gives you more flexibility.
[35:22.560 --> 35:35.500]  DCSS and tools like it give you the flexibility to use that intellectual property that you've gone out and purchased, whereas the commercial copying programs just make an actual brute force copy and do not unencrypt the bitstream.
[35:35.700 --> 35:37.660]  So you don't have the flexibility anymore.
[35:38.420 --> 35:41.240]  And I should tell you that they're not really concerned about the copying.
[35:41.240 --> 35:44.680]  You know, the commercial companies can go and make the copies.
[35:44.940 --> 35:48.620]  There are ways of making copies before DCSS was even invented.
[35:50.340 --> 35:52.740]  And what they don't want you to do is have control.
[35:52.940 --> 35:57.120]  They don't want you to be able to, for instance, play something from a different country.
[35:57.320 --> 35:59.600]  In fact, when I was in England, I was watching...
[35:59.600 --> 36:00.280]  This is interesting.
[36:00.400 --> 36:01.800]  I was watching a program on BBC.
[36:02.920 --> 36:07.220]  I love watching BBC when I'm over there, and there's always something interesting on.
[36:07.220 --> 36:11.740]  They had this documentary series, It's Around the World in 80 Days, with Michael Palin.
[36:11.820 --> 36:12.380]  Have you ever seen that?
[36:13.580 --> 36:15.900]  Basically, he tries to get around the world in 80 days.
[36:16.760 --> 36:18.140]  Please don't tell me if he succeeds or not.
[36:18.140 --> 36:19.680]  I don't know, and I intend to find out.
[36:20.240 --> 36:22.160]  But I don't think you can get that in this country.
[36:22.280 --> 36:22.480]  Can you?
[36:22.540 --> 36:23.740]  Can you get that in the United States on DVD?
[36:23.960 --> 36:24.820]  It was on PBS.
[36:25.120 --> 36:26.480]  I don't know if you can buy it.
[36:26.480 --> 36:38.480]  Maybe you can, but there are a lot of programs that are on in Europe that you may happen to see that you will never find in the United States, because they're not aired on American television and they're not available in DVD Region 1.
[36:38.640 --> 36:40.520]  You can only get them in DVD Region 2.
[36:40.720 --> 36:42.380]  How do you play DVD Region 2?
[36:42.500 --> 36:45.320]  Well, you can't, because the United States is in Region 1.
[36:45.400 --> 36:55.100]  You have to go out and buy a region-free DVD player, which organizations like the MPAA do not want you to do, because you're taking control into your own hands.
[36:55.100 --> 37:01.620]  They want to be able to tell you what DVDs you are allowed to see and which ones you simply have to wait for them to release in your country.
[37:02.840 --> 37:05.400]  That's what they want as far as control goes.
[37:05.520 --> 37:14.380]  And when you take matters into your own hands and look at the things you want to look at, when you want to look at them, and see them on the platforms that you want to see them on, that's considered a real threat to them.
[37:14.600 --> 37:17.500]  Copying, no, not necessarily, but control, definitely.
[37:18.600 --> 37:30.500]  Despite the MPAA's rambling about consumer choice and what a wonderful thing it is, Yeah, well, just a choice of how you want to be prosecuted.
[37:30.620 --> 37:32.580]  That's basically what we have here.
[37:34.460 --> 37:36.900]  I can give an example of that sort of thing.
[37:38.020 --> 37:46.300]  American TV shows that are played in England are released on DVD right away because they feel while the interest is high, let's sell the copies.
[37:46.540 --> 37:52.280]  In the U.S., they release them a couple years later so that they can sell syndication rights and things like that.
[37:52.280 --> 37:58.140]  So, for example, your friends in England can get the latest Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
[37:58.300 --> 38:00.100]  Your friends in America cannot.
[38:00.880 --> 38:02.000]  That's correct, yes.
[38:02.320 --> 38:08.600]  I think American firms are starting to realize that there is a lot of potential in DVD sales.
[38:08.800 --> 38:16.820]  Witness the case of the TV show Family Guy, which I believe has been resurrected from cancellation because of DVD sales.
[38:17.300 --> 38:21.280]  Now, Family Guy was available on DVD in England years ago.
[38:21.880 --> 38:28.680]  But when it was released in the United States, all of a sudden the sales went through the roof and people realized, hey, you know, we were idiots for canceling that program in the first place.
[38:28.680 --> 38:29.740]  Maybe we should bring it back.
[38:30.780 --> 38:36.540]  And it's interesting how long it takes them to realize that, you know, this is not a bad thing.
[38:36.540 --> 38:37.640]  This is something good.
[38:37.640 --> 38:43.020]  And when we sell something at a reasonable price, you might notice this, DVDs are sold at a much more reasonable price than CDs.
[38:43.420 --> 38:51.440]  When I got into England, I saw a sign on a billboard that said, two CDs for 20 pounds, as if that was some kind of a good deal.
[38:52.400 --> 38:55.300]  The 20 pounds, that's like 40 bucks, you know?
[38:55.500 --> 38:57.940]  And they're advertising this like it's a good deal.
[38:58.880 --> 39:00.740]  CDs are so incredibly overpriced.
[39:00.860 --> 39:06.220]  Nobody should be surprised why people are copying them and trying to get away with anything but buying them.
[39:06.220 --> 39:09.680]  And DVDs, however, don't seem to have that problem because they're priced much lower.
[39:10.060 --> 39:12.400]  So I think, you know, you can learn from this kind of a thing.
[39:13.520 --> 39:16.760]  You know, it's Christmas Eve, Emmanuel.
[39:17.380 --> 39:18.140]  Yes, I've heard.
[39:18.280 --> 39:26.500]  A time when we should, I guess, forgive people and we should praise Verizon this Christmas Eve, which is something we very rarely do.
[39:26.960 --> 39:30.240]  Are we going to praise them for any reason or just because we feel generous today?
[39:30.460 --> 39:33.940]  Verizon was on our side for once.
[39:33.940 --> 39:39.040]  And this Monday, this Friday, sorry, this past Friday, they won their appeal.
[39:39.440 --> 39:41.920]  They were against the recording industry of America.
[39:42.260 --> 39:46.340]  The recording industry had tried to subpoena some Verizon.
[39:46.740 --> 39:55.200]  Verizon and the RIAAA wanted to know who exactly on the Verizon network was copying files.
[39:55.460 --> 39:57.800]  Verizon said, no, you can't subpoena this.
[39:57.800 --> 40:02.320]  They lost in the district court and appealed to the U.S.
[40:02.460 --> 40:04.280]  Court of Appeals for the D.C.
[40:04.380 --> 40:04.700]  Circuit.
[40:05.440 --> 40:06.340]  And the D.C.
[40:06.460 --> 40:10.000]  Circuit said, no, you cannot subpoena just random.
[40:10.140 --> 40:15.500]  You can't just ask Verizon, give us a list of all your customers who have this IP at this certain time.
[40:17.180 --> 40:22.520]  So, it looks like, thanks to Verizon, we now have a bit more freedom online.
[40:22.820 --> 40:24.640]  Well, I have a question about this.
[40:26.020 --> 40:29.160]  Didn't they already give out the name of that person that they were trying to protect?
[40:29.600 --> 40:30.980]  You know, that I don't know.
[40:31.220 --> 40:31.680]  Yes.
[40:32.040 --> 40:32.500]  They did?
[40:32.700 --> 40:33.480]  Yes, they did.
[40:33.640 --> 40:37.160]  Okay, but the point remains that they can't keep doing this.
[40:37.540 --> 40:37.800]  Okay.
[40:38.180 --> 40:43.740]  But we should note that Verizon did not fight this for the reasons that we think it's a good reason to fight this.
[40:43.740 --> 40:56.240]  They fought it because they didn't want to incur the expense of having to honor all these subpoenas, and they didn't want their own subscribers to choose other means of getting this information.
[40:56.520 --> 40:59.060]  They wanted to keep their customers happy.
[40:59.220 --> 41:07.220]  So, in a way, it was the right way, but from a pure hacker sense, they weren't on the same side as us.
[41:07.800 --> 41:12.640]  Well, I guess this is one of these occasions where Verizon inadvertently did something good for us.
[41:12.860 --> 41:13.180]  Yep.
[41:14.540 --> 41:16.480]  I guess that's worthy of praise.
[41:17.000 --> 41:19.860]  I want to read a couple quotes from the core decision.
[41:20.040 --> 41:21.440]  Mike, what does R.I.A.
[41:21.680 --> 41:21.960]  stand for?
[41:22.000 --> 41:22.460]  Oh, I'm sorry.
[41:22.520 --> 41:25.660]  They're the Recording Industry Association of America.
[41:26.540 --> 41:37.320]  And they are a conglomeration of all the big music labels pay their dues to this group, which then uses the money, apparently, mainly to harass people.
[41:37.700 --> 41:39.100]  They may have other business.
[41:39.140 --> 41:39.800]  I don't really know.
[41:39.840 --> 41:42.540]  It's amazing how they have a non-ending supply of money to do that, too.
[41:42.540 --> 41:46.540]  Well, the music labels, as you said, 10 pounds for a CD.
[41:48.420 --> 41:50.820]  The labels get a big chunk of that.
[41:54.300 --> 41:58.460]  Anyway, the decision says that the R.I.A.A.
[41:58.640 --> 42:05.440]  argues that the definition of Internet service provider is applicable, blah, blah, blah, a lot of legal jargon.
[42:05.440 --> 42:10.020]  And then the judge says that this argument, the R.I.A.'s argument, borders on the silly.
[42:12.440 --> 42:14.720]  It's good to hear a judge say that, frankly.
[42:15.200 --> 42:19.520]  And then they basically say, we don't even want to go into why it's silly.
[42:19.680 --> 42:26.160]  It's just so obviously silly that we don't even have to tell you, which is not something one sees often in legal tax.
[42:26.160 --> 42:32.900]  I just visited the R.I.A.A.'s site, and they have a comment on the Verizon Appeals Court decision.
[42:33.200 --> 42:38.520]  This is from the president of the Recording Industry Association of America, Carrie Sherman.
[42:38.520 --> 42:45.000]  This is a disappointing procedural decision, but it only changes the process by which we will file lawsuits against online infringers.
[42:45.180 --> 42:52.720]  This decision in no way changes our right to sue or the fact that those who upload or download copyrighted music without authorization are engaging in illegal activity.
[42:52.920 --> 42:57.380]  We can and will continue to file copyright infringement lawsuits against illegal file sharers.
[42:57.680 --> 43:01.820]  This decision is inconsistent with both the views of Congress and the findings of the district court.
[43:01.980 --> 43:09.680]  It unfortunately means we can no longer notify illegal file sharers before we file lawsuits against them to offer the opportunity to settle outside of litigation.
[43:10.180 --> 43:17.740]  Verizon is solely responsible for a legal process that will now be less sensitive to the interest of its subscribers who engage in illegal activity.
[43:18.200 --> 43:19.020]  Oh, boy.
[43:20.360 --> 43:23.440]  They're mad, and they're going to make us pay for this, aren't they, somehow?
[43:23.800 --> 43:30.500]  Well, we can always do our best to correct this and even, in a way, to make the R.I.A.
[43:30.680 --> 43:31.060]  pay for it.
[43:31.620 --> 43:39.440]  Their phone number is 1-800-BAD-BEAT, and it costs them 25 cents every time they or their answering machine picks up.
[43:39.860 --> 43:47.820]  So, you know, feel free if you're doing absolutely nothing, but don't do this from home, to call them and leave a message for them telling them that they are so, so wrong.
[43:48.140 --> 43:50.200]  1-800-BAD-BEAT.
[43:51.040 --> 43:51.620]  Thank you.
[43:52.400 --> 43:52.680]  Okay.
[43:53.040 --> 43:54.340]  B-E-A-T or B-E-E-T?
[43:54.500 --> 43:55.100]  B-E-A-T.
[43:56.440 --> 44:05.600]  And also, on this note, the Justice Department, on Tuesday, ended its two-year-old antitrust investigation into the music industry's online ventures.
[44:05.880 --> 44:09.560]  They say ample competition exists in today's world of digital music.
[44:10.380 --> 44:13.180]  The investigation was begun in 2001.
[44:13.660 --> 44:20.320]  It involved joint ventures put together by major record labels, Press Play, and MusicNet to distribute music over the Internet.
[44:21.080 --> 44:26.260]  Before that, the labels had authorized no Internet businesses to provide consumers a way of researching and downloading songs.
[44:28.180 --> 44:33.500]  The Justice Department said it could find no evidence that the record labels had used the ventures to suppress Internet distribution of music.
[44:33.640 --> 44:38.340]  In fact, the labels now license songs to several other online ventures that offer them to consumers.
[44:38.520 --> 44:41.100]  So, looks like the record labels are off the hook on that one.
[44:43.140 --> 44:44.060]  What a surprise.
[44:44.360 --> 44:50.760]  Speaking of off the hook and speaking of Christmas, why don't we do something nice for our listeners, is, like, let them call in and we'll take the calls.
[44:51.860 --> 44:56.880]  Okay, 212-209-2900 is still our phone number, correct?
[44:57.420 --> 44:59.900]  It is indeed, and we have someone on the line right now.
[45:00.580 --> 45:01.020]  Hello.
[45:01.420 --> 45:08.700]  I'm not into all the technical stuff with these issues, but I think nationalizing a lot of this would solve a lot of problems.
[45:08.700 --> 45:23.940]  In relation to DVDs and movies, if the government, the panel or something, democratically elected, would just decide what kind of movies are out there by taxpayer money, just let everybody get what they want out of it without worrying about the...
[45:24.460 --> 45:26.420]  Just take it once it comes out.
[45:26.560 --> 45:32.460]  You make a movie for artistic and commercial reasons, or you take the commerce out of it.
[45:33.180 --> 45:35.660]  I don't know about music, maybe the individual artists would.
[45:35.660 --> 45:36.680]  Hollywood people might have a problem with that.
[45:36.860 --> 45:37.180]  Oh, yeah.
[45:37.360 --> 45:40.980]  That's what I'd love to see, a bureaucracy deciding what sort of movies to make.
[45:40.980 --> 45:43.400]  Well, it could be a democratic bureaucracy, you know?
[45:43.580 --> 45:45.880]  People that give feedback and et cetera, et cetera.
[45:46.020 --> 45:46.820]  They don't like the movies.
[45:46.940 --> 45:50.780]  Right now, you've got five guys in Hollywood deciding every movie, and Hollywood is just a crap product.
[45:50.780 --> 45:52.260]  Not every movie comes out of Hollywood.
[45:52.560 --> 45:52.800]  Huh?
[45:52.880 --> 45:54.820]  Well, you know, you touched upon an interesting point, though.
[45:54.840 --> 45:59.560]  I'd like to know about those people who make decisions as to what kind of rating a film is going to get.
[45:59.660 --> 46:01.240]  I wonder who these people are.
[46:01.580 --> 46:03.940]  I wonder, do they get the films in the mail or something?
[46:03.980 --> 46:12.760]  Do they all get together and go to the movie theater and watch these films and decide, now they're just going to get an R, this is too much sex, not enough violence?
[46:13.380 --> 46:14.880]  You know, how do they do this?
[46:14.880 --> 46:16.540]  How do these people have so much control?
[46:17.920 --> 46:21.860]  And the product coming out is just pure garbage, as far as I'm concerned.
[46:22.060 --> 46:28.400]  I mean, coming out of Hollywood is like, what do you got, maybe one movie a year that's any way decent?
[46:28.580 --> 46:29.320]  And I don't know.
[46:30.080 --> 46:44.760]  I'm saying anything could be better than this, and you wouldn't have to worry about, you know, you got $400 billion being spent on munitions, so if you spent $10 billion on running movies and let the people democratically decide what the movie is going to be.
[46:44.760 --> 46:44.880]  They do.
[46:45.100 --> 46:46.900]  That's called buying movie tickets.
[46:47.100 --> 46:52.640]  That's called visiting the Angelica as opposed to Lowe's Cineplex 45 or whatever.
[46:52.900 --> 46:53.180]  Yeah, come on.
[46:53.300 --> 46:55.860]  You know, the Angelica was playing the Matrix, too.
[46:56.040 --> 46:58.860]  You know, so it's like, Hollywood is getting into everywhere.
[46:59.240 --> 47:06.300]  I think the answer is to just have as many opportunities as possible for people to see independent film and to see alternatives.
[47:06.760 --> 47:11.040]  Yeah, but when they use the term independent You'll be surprised by how successful it turns out to be.
[47:11.280 --> 47:15.280]  Okay, what government committee would have ever funded Freedom Downtime, huh?
[47:15.360 --> 47:18.120]  I don't think a government entity is the answer at all.
[47:18.120 --> 47:19.280]  My argument is proved.
[47:19.500 --> 47:21.520]  I mean, the Russians made a couple of good movies.
[47:21.680 --> 47:25.660]  All governments, you know, the cranes are flying, this and that.
[47:25.920 --> 47:28.140]  I mean, I always look forward to movies coming out of Russia.
[47:28.300 --> 47:29.140]  They were anti-war.
[47:29.700 --> 47:30.100]  Whatever.
[47:30.500 --> 47:31.900]  They make, like, human movies.
[47:32.020 --> 47:33.960]  A lot of countries make human movies.
[47:34.580 --> 47:36.820]  Hollywood doesn't make human movies anymore.
[47:37.180 --> 47:38.020]  That's my point.
[47:38.340 --> 47:39.960]  I think we need less bureaucracy, not more.
[47:40.420 --> 47:42.340]  And, you know, it doesn't mean throw the government into it.
[47:42.420 --> 47:47.620]  It means throw these businesses out of it and let people have the freedom to decide on their own.
[47:47.720 --> 47:51.120]  Meaning, have the freedom to say, this is a film I want to take my kids to.
[47:51.300 --> 47:53.220]  This is a film that I want to see on DVD.
[47:53.480 --> 47:54.740]  That I want to be able to watch in my house.
[47:54.820 --> 47:57.480]  That I want to be able to watch on my wristwatch or whatever.
[47:57.660 --> 47:58.820]  Let people do what they want.
[47:58.820 --> 48:01.700]  You've got to have a lot of capital to put across a movie these days.
[48:01.700 --> 48:02.680]  They're millions of dollars.
[48:02.800 --> 48:06.640]  So you've got to have somebody with a lot of money to produce a movie.
[48:06.920 --> 48:08.240]  Well, you know, it doesn't have to be.
[48:08.360 --> 48:16.980]  We made Freedom Down Time for much less than that using equipment that was, you know, that started to become available to average everyday people.
[48:17.320 --> 48:24.800]  And I think there are a lot of people out there that don't have access to millions of dollars, that don't have access to the whole Hollywood community of fundraising and that kind of thing.
[48:24.860 --> 48:27.920]  But yet they still have stories to tell and a lot of interesting ways of telling them.
[48:27.920 --> 48:32.320]  And I think we need to do everything possible to encourage that.
[48:33.080 --> 48:36.900]  Oh, you mean with modern, with like videos and stuff, you don't need all that money to make a movie anyway.
[48:36.940 --> 48:37.240]  Absolutely.
[48:37.360 --> 48:37.760]  There should be...
[48:37.760 --> 48:43.780]  I think there should be theaters that just show those kinds of movies, that just show things that are made on mini-DV cameras.
[48:44.520 --> 48:48.020]  There should be TV programs that just have those particular submissions.
[48:48.240 --> 48:48.840]  There's two cameras.
[48:49.000 --> 48:49.920]  That's how you reach people.
[48:49.960 --> 48:55.160]  That's how you get people to see that there's other things out there besides what Hollywood comes up with.
[48:55.320 --> 48:56.120]  Let me give you an example.
[48:56.120 --> 48:57.720]  I took a different airline.
[48:57.940 --> 48:59.020]  And this is not a commercial.
[48:59.220 --> 49:00.020]  It's just an experience.
[49:00.320 --> 49:02.640]  I took Virgin Atlantic for the first time in my life.
[49:02.760 --> 49:06.040]  And these are the people that have the little video consoles at every seat.
[49:06.160 --> 49:07.520]  And you can take movies.
[49:07.580 --> 49:09.160]  You can see your own film.
[49:09.260 --> 49:16.960]  You don't have to watch the stupid Julia Roberts film of the week that they always show on the airplanes that has all these things cut and limited for time.
[49:18.300 --> 49:23.560]  These little seat screens had films that were uncut.
[49:24.180 --> 49:27.260]  They were R-rated films if you so chose to watch one of them.
[49:27.420 --> 49:32.640]  For the first time in my life, I saw a nipple on an airplane on a movie.
[49:33.160 --> 49:34.460]  I heard the F word.
[49:34.720 --> 49:35.140]  I heard...
[49:35.140 --> 49:37.280]  I wasn't, you know, seeking it out, but I heard it.
[49:37.500 --> 49:37.880]  You know?
[49:38.020 --> 49:38.900]  I saw a nipple.
[49:39.000 --> 49:39.460]  I heard the F word.
[49:39.560 --> 49:42.960]  Even male genitalia they showed on this film that I happened to see.
[49:43.060 --> 49:43.940]  I was surprised.
[49:44.000 --> 49:44.500]  I really was.
[49:44.640 --> 49:48.360]  But my point is that, you know, I survived.
[49:48.600 --> 49:50.060]  The people next to me survived.
[49:50.240 --> 49:53.160]  All the other people watching the same film or different films survived.
[49:53.500 --> 49:54.440]  We're mature people.
[49:54.520 --> 49:55.520]  We can make up our own minds.
[49:55.560 --> 49:56.720]  We don't have to be protected.
[49:56.960 --> 50:00.940]  And I think this is a good example of how, you know, you can see something decent.
[50:01.160 --> 50:06.180]  You don't have to be protected from those nasty words and the things that kids might not like.
[50:06.300 --> 50:09.600]  Kids don't have to watch them, but we need more choice.
[50:09.720 --> 50:12.760]  We need to be able to see things that don't insult their intelligence.
[50:13.380 --> 50:17.600]  And Emmanuel, there are two cable networks that are dedicated to independent films.
[50:17.720 --> 50:18.200]  Maybe more.
[50:19.540 --> 50:20.520]  Yes, there are.
[50:20.580 --> 50:23.680]  But I've noticed that they tend to show a lot of the same things more often.
[50:23.740 --> 50:23.900]  Yep.
[50:25.060 --> 50:26.280]  And that's unfortunate.
[50:26.780 --> 50:27.140]  All right.
[50:27.180 --> 50:28.160]  Let's take another call.
[50:28.640 --> 50:29.440]  Thank that caller.
[50:29.560 --> 50:32.440]  Our number again, 212-209-2950.
[50:32.780 --> 50:33.640]  And we have someone here.
[50:33.820 --> 50:33.860]  2-900.
[50:34.060 --> 50:34.540]  2-900.
[50:35.060 --> 50:35.460]  Sorry.
[50:35.880 --> 50:36.660]  Yeah, we're not taking funds.
[50:36.900 --> 50:37.600]  No, no.
[50:37.680 --> 50:38.640]  I've said that number.
[50:38.820 --> 50:40.100]  Anyway, we have someone on the air.
[50:40.640 --> 50:41.000]  Yes.
[50:41.200 --> 50:42.920]  Monroe is a schizophrenic cake.
[50:43.860 --> 50:44.340]  Okay.
[50:45.060 --> 50:45.960]  That was nasty.
[50:46.200 --> 50:49.140]  We're going to ignore that and maybe and move up here.
[50:49.300 --> 50:49.680]  Put your finger there.
[50:50.220 --> 50:51.540]  He's much older than a type.
[50:51.760 --> 50:52.980]  This call is from a federal prison.
[50:53.220 --> 50:53.420]  Ah.
[50:53.560 --> 50:55.020]  This is a prepaid call.
[50:55.180 --> 50:57.080]  You will not be charged for this call.
[50:57.400 --> 50:58.780]  This call is from...
[50:58.780 --> 50:59.200]  Bill.
[51:00.420 --> 51:00.660]  Bill.
[51:00.660 --> 51:03.680]  Hang up to decline the call or to accept the call.
[51:03.880 --> 51:05.100]  Dial 5 now.
[51:05.560 --> 51:05.840]  All right.
[51:05.980 --> 51:06.700]  We'll press 5.
[51:06.960 --> 51:08.860]  Future prepaid calls from this person.
[51:09.060 --> 51:10.180]  Dial 7-7.
[51:12.680 --> 51:13.200]  Hello?
[51:13.840 --> 51:14.440]  Hey, Bill.
[51:14.980 --> 51:15.620]  Is it Stormbringer?
[51:17.220 --> 51:18.360]  I pressed 5.
[51:18.840 --> 51:19.520]  Bill, you there?
[51:19.780 --> 51:20.740]  Press 5 again.
[51:22.740 --> 51:23.260]  Hello?
[51:23.640 --> 51:23.860]  Hello.
[51:24.060 --> 51:24.740]  Ah, there he is.
[51:24.860 --> 51:25.120]  Hey, guys.
[51:25.500 --> 51:26.520]  I had a question.
[51:26.640 --> 51:29.260]  You still got the guy bridged on from the Netherlands?
[51:29.920 --> 51:30.420]  Yeah.
[51:31.180 --> 51:32.120]  I'm right here.
[51:32.440 --> 51:32.780]  Okay.
[51:33.000 --> 51:33.640]  I have a question.
[51:33.640 --> 51:40.220]  Are you using quadrature phase shift keying across the voice band in your encryption device?
[51:40.840 --> 51:41.960]  Are we using what?
[51:42.240 --> 51:49.240]  Are you using quadrature phase shift keying to send the encrypted voice across the voice band on the GSM phone?
[51:49.720 --> 51:51.680]  No, we're not using the voice band.
[51:51.800 --> 51:54.780]  We're using what's called the CSD, circuit switch data.
[51:55.120 --> 51:55.660]  Okay.
[51:55.720 --> 52:02.400]  Which is the only mode that is common on all GSM systems, which only supplies 9,600 BPS, unfortunately.
[52:02.400 --> 52:06.280]  So we use the Kelp codec to get the speech across.
[52:07.100 --> 52:10.100]  Now, how is the encryption?
[52:10.260 --> 52:15.820]  Does the encryption start getting really bad in the vocoders when you start getting into a marginal signal area?
[52:16.980 --> 52:21.500]  No, the voice actually is remarkably good for 4,800 BPS.
[52:21.900 --> 52:25.120]  You can perfectly understand what the other person is saying.
[52:25.560 --> 52:27.980]  It's GSM-like quality, almost.
[52:28.240 --> 52:28.680]  Okay.
[52:29.880 --> 52:35.520]  And the encryption and the voice codec parts are really split up.
[52:35.660 --> 52:39.740]  The encryption doesn't take any cycles, almost, compared to the encryption.
[52:40.120 --> 52:52.320]  Yeah, I'm familiar with DES encryption over radio, and sometimes when you get in a marginal signal area, you start having a lot of problems with the encoders dropping out, and you start getting real marginal voice quality.
[52:53.400 --> 52:55.020]  Okay, that's all the questions I have.
[52:55.200 --> 52:56.120]  Merry Christmas, guys.
[52:56.620 --> 52:57.880]  All right, you hang in there over there.
[52:58.120 --> 52:58.860]  All righty, will do.
[52:59.040 --> 52:59.920]  Thanks for the card, Ernie.
[53:00.720 --> 53:01.060]  Sure thing.
[53:02.000 --> 53:04.180]  That was Stormbringer, a client from the federal prison.
[53:04.480 --> 53:04.840]  Yes.
[53:05.000 --> 53:06.680]  He thanked me for a card he received in the mail.
[53:06.820 --> 53:10.720]  So that was mailed on Monday, and he...
[53:10.720 --> 53:15.240]  No, it was actually mailed Friday, and I'm surprised they processed it that quickly.
[53:16.060 --> 53:23.920]  That guy's a real inspiration, really, to be able to, you know, keep your head and keep up on technology, just like, you know, you did Bernie and Kevin did when they were...
[53:24.880 --> 53:26.740]  when you guys were in bad straits.
[53:27.080 --> 53:34.500]  I think that's so essential for anybody going through a crisis in their lives is to just not let it get to you and continue to be interested in the things that matter to you.
[53:36.320 --> 53:36.760]  Got it.
[53:36.820 --> 53:38.720]  You've got to stay seen in a situation like that.
[53:38.880 --> 53:39.200]  Absolutely.
[53:39.200 --> 53:39.960]  It sounds like you're doing it.
[53:40.340 --> 53:44.880]  You know, in a sense, we're all going through that in the country right now with all the craziness happening.
[53:45.900 --> 53:51.400]  We just have to keep our eyes focused on what really matters to us and not let ourselves be detracted.
[53:52.820 --> 53:53.460]  All right.
[53:53.580 --> 53:55.280]  We're going to take another phone call here.
[53:55.600 --> 53:55.800]  Hello.
[53:56.760 --> 53:57.160]  Hello.
[53:57.700 --> 53:58.440]  Happy holidays.
[53:58.660 --> 53:59.300]  How are you guys doing?
[54:00.120 --> 54:00.740]  I'm doing good.
[54:01.980 --> 54:14.220]  Caught the tail end of a previous caller calling in regards to the content or the subject matter of movies, music, so on and so forth.
[54:14.220 --> 54:25.340]  And it seems like an open market and a free market economy, the consumers have the ultimate power of the dollars.
[54:25.640 --> 54:35.980]  If we're spending our money collectively on certain types of products, then the producers of these products, they're going to go, oh, well, we have the formula.
[54:36.200 --> 54:37.940]  This is what they buy.
[54:38.120 --> 54:40.300]  So this is what we're going to continue to make.
[54:40.740 --> 54:41.140]  Right.
[54:41.380 --> 54:43.540]  Like what just happened with the Family Guy DVDs.
[54:43.620 --> 54:44.200]  People bought it.
[54:44.280 --> 54:46.180]  They said, oh, my God, we have a hit here.
[54:46.260 --> 54:47.060]  Why did we cancel it?
[54:47.320 --> 54:47.980]  There you go.
[54:48.120 --> 54:49.220]  And there's enough...
[54:49.220 --> 54:54.040]  Now, people like me, you, or maybe a few other people will vote with our dollar.
[54:54.160 --> 54:58.000]  We'll put it in our pocket and we'll spend it on what we deem is acceptable.
[54:58.360 --> 55:13.320]  But there's enough millions of people out there who will spend money on what these investors and bankers sit around and come up with their formulas and they'll just keep putting it out there.
[55:13.980 --> 55:25.580]  So until, you know, independent people pool their money together and put a product out there that other like-minded people are going to consume, it's just going to keep going.
[55:25.580 --> 55:30.880]  You see, the thing is, it has to be on the radar screen for people to know it's even there in the first place.
[55:31.040 --> 55:34.180]  You're never going to stop people from buying movies or going to movies.
[55:34.360 --> 55:46.860]  That's why I always thought that the, when we were going on trial for DCSS, those people who were saying boycott the MPAA, I thought that was a recipe for disaster because there's no way we could ever get enough people together to make a sizable impact.
[55:47.040 --> 55:53.260]  And by not making a sizable impact after saying that we would, that kind of just makes it look like we lost.
[55:53.520 --> 55:57.340]  You know, we weren't able to succeed and that, if so facto, makes us wrong.
[55:57.520 --> 56:00.540]  I know I don't agree with that, but that's what a lot of people would interpret that as.
[56:00.820 --> 56:12.100]  But if you're able to somehow get something different, an alternative, into the sights of people that are looking just for something interesting, then you've achieved something.
[56:12.260 --> 56:21.500]  You've fought against the mainstream and provided an alternative without having to resort to, you know, boycotts and things that are really hard to pull off.
[56:22.080 --> 56:24.560]  It's good to provide something different, something better.
[56:25.220 --> 56:33.300]  The hard part now is getting past the monopolistic way that Hollywood and all the big major industries of all the...
[56:33.300 --> 56:34.900]  Emmanuel, we're running out of time here.
[56:35.420 --> 56:35.820]  Oh, okay.
[56:35.900 --> 56:36.180]  I'm sorry.
[56:36.240 --> 56:37.440]  I didn't mean to go on a sermon there.
[56:38.820 --> 56:39.500]  Thank you guys.
[56:40.080 --> 56:40.320]  All right.
[56:40.460 --> 56:41.260]  Well, thanks for calling.
[56:41.680 --> 56:43.240]  I assume we found the next show, right?
[56:43.240 --> 56:43.720]  It was missing.
[56:44.160 --> 56:44.340]  Yeah.
[56:44.880 --> 56:46.060]  Not that I know of.
[56:46.400 --> 56:46.680]  No.
[56:46.820 --> 56:47.940]  But then why are we out of time then?
[56:48.260 --> 56:49.340]  Well, I guess we're not...
[56:49.340 --> 56:50.080]  Ah, you want to keep going?
[56:50.480 --> 56:55.960]  Well, I mean, actually, we should have said this earlier, but the personal computer show is on tape tonight.
[56:56.160 --> 56:58.400]  However, we don't know where the tape is.
[56:59.300 --> 57:03.680]  So, without knowing where the tape is, it's kind of hard for us to put it on.
[57:03.860 --> 57:09.140]  So, maybe if anyone associated with the personal computer show can call the hotline number.
[57:10.600 --> 57:12.220]  That hotline number is...
[57:12.220 --> 57:13.560]  Wait a minute.
[57:13.980 --> 57:14.560]  Should I?
[57:15.080 --> 57:16.340]  It starts with 212.
[57:16.600 --> 57:17.520]  We'll go that far.
[57:17.780 --> 57:21.700]  Yeah, just call that number and tell us where the damn tape is and then we'll put it on.
[57:21.860 --> 57:23.720]  But you guys want to keep going for a while?
[57:24.000 --> 57:26.640]  Well, we'll keep going until they tell us where the tape is.
[57:26.900 --> 57:27.920]  Okay, why don't we keep going?
[57:27.920 --> 57:32.880]  And whoever's in charge of the cassette tape, just keep an eye on it because when it hits 8 o'clock it needs to be flipped.
[57:33.100 --> 57:34.560]  I have another one just in case.
[57:35.020 --> 57:35.260]  Okay.
[57:36.560 --> 57:38.180]  Assuming that's the one that can be flipped.
[57:38.320 --> 57:38.980]  There might be one that...
[57:38.980 --> 57:40.160]  No, that one's...
[57:40.540 --> 57:42.280]  I just took it out of the packaging today.
[57:42.540 --> 57:43.120]  Okay, good.
[57:44.720 --> 57:50.740]  If the computer computer show is not on tonight, there's a warning message that should go out to our listeners.
[57:51.340 --> 58:11.120]  And that is, everybody who gets a computer for Christmas that's loaded with Microsoft Windows XP, which almost all of them are, do not connect it to the internet without applying all the patches that you need to to prevent it from being infected with worms and viruses because XP is full of those holes.
[58:11.120 --> 58:24.260]  If you go to www.sans.org, that's S-A-N-S, do a search for Windows XP surviving the first day.
[58:24.740 --> 58:39.660]  It will instruct you on how to get connected to the internet with your Windows XP computer and avoid getting the blaster worm and a lot of other bad things that you will certainly get if you connect your new computer to the internet for even a few hours.
[58:39.660 --> 58:44.860]  We inform our listeners that the personal computer show has in fact just been located.
[58:45.360 --> 58:48.040]  Okay, well I'm happy to hear that because I've put a lot of work into the program.
[58:48.300 --> 58:51.520]  It is ready to go and so I guess we better tie up here.
[58:51.780 --> 58:53.360]  Okay, well we'll be back next week.
[58:53.820 --> 58:55.500]  Next week is going to be a very interesting show.
[58:56.260 --> 59:01.940]  I'm going to be in the middle of the New Year's celebrations in Amsterdam, which I've described now for two years in a row.
[59:02.440 --> 59:06.200]  I've always wanted to do a show that pretty much happens during that period.
[59:06.380 --> 59:13.940]  We'll be on at 1 o'clock in the morning here, 7 o'clock in New York, and people will still be shooting off fireworks in the crowd and that kind of thing.
[59:14.080 --> 59:15.060]  It'll be something to hear.
[59:16.500 --> 59:21.280]  So that'll be next Wednesday, December 31st.
[59:21.540 --> 59:22.100]  31st, yeah.
[59:22.100 --> 59:23.140]  7 p.m.
[59:23.700 --> 59:27.420]  This is WBAI New York 99.5 FM.
[59:27.980 --> 59:29.780]  And we've been listening to...
[59:29.780 --> 59:38.920]  We've been listening to Off the Hook with Mike and we have Jim there and Emmanuel and Rob in Amsterdam and Bernie S.
[59:39.080 --> 59:39.560]  in Philadelphia.
[59:40.540 --> 59:41.720]  And you are listeners.
[59:42.240 --> 59:42.900]  Very Christmas.
[59:42.900 --> 59:47.020]  And again, a special thanks to Ken Gale for coming in and engineering.
[59:47.560 --> 59:48.020]  Great job.
[59:48.580 --> 59:49.860]  And you'll be here next week, Ken, right?
[59:50.060 --> 59:53.200]  I'll be here next week and this is you, Blumenfeld, that I'm going out with.
[59:54.400 --> 59:58.500]  The only song I can think of that is both a Christmas and a Hanukkah song at the same time.
[59:59.180 --> 01:00:02.600]  And from all of us here, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
[01:00:02.720 --> 01:00:04.540]  The long-haired radical socialist Jew
[01:00:07.990 --> 01:00:32.130]  Oh, he healed the blind and made them see He brought the lame to their feet Yeah, rich and poor anytime, anywhere just pioneering that free health care So let's all sing out praises to that long-haired radical socialist Jew
[01:00:35.320 --> 01:00:55.460]  Well, now Jesus hung with a low-life crowd Those working stiffs sure did Him proud Yeah, some were murderers, thieves, and whores Democracy has come to WBAI and you, the listener play a very important part.
[01:00:55.900 --> 01:01:09.680]  This is Joy Williams election supervisor for WBAI For the first time in WBAI's history you have a unique opportunity to help both your community and your favorite community radio station in a special way Want to know how?
[01:01:09.840 --> 01:01:43.820]  Make sure you're a WBAI member in good standing and make it a point to vote in the upcoming election for the WBAI local station board To find out how your vote will help strengthen and preserve WBAI visit our website at www.wbai.org or call 212-209-2976 Do it now You'll be glad you did Once again that's www.wbai.org or call 212-209-2976 www .wbai .org 112-209-2976 www.wbai.org