[00:00.000 --> 00:06.500]  The Coca-Cola company still buys the coca leaf and uses it as an element of its flavoring.
[00:07.020 --> 00:12.020]  Lederberg also notes that if the goal is to eliminate narco-trafficking, the demand for cocaine in the U.S.
[00:12.020 --> 00:17.840]  and Europe must be reduced through education, treatment, and improving the social conditions that lead to cocaine addiction.
[00:18.480 --> 00:23.220]  For Free Speech Radio News, this is Juliette Beck and Aldo Oriana Lopez reporting from Bolivia.
[00:25.860 --> 00:30.040]  From Pacifica Station, KPFK in L.A., I'm Laura Bogado.
[00:33.140 --> 00:37.200]  And this is radio station WBAI in New York, where it's 7 o'clock.
[00:38.400 --> 00:39.520]  Time for Off the Hook.
[00:42.480 --> 00:46.960]  The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
[00:47.900 --> 00:52.500]  I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a cough.
[00:53.180 --> 00:55.280]  We couldn't get much worse.
[00:57.620 --> 01:00.720]  We would, from Billy Bump, but the best is back the worst.
[01:01.420 --> 01:04.260]  I hope that's understood, from Billy Bump!
[01:51.000 --> 01:52.260]  And a very good evening to everybody.
[01:52.380 --> 01:53.800]  The program is Off the Hook.
[01:54.200 --> 01:56.760]  Emmanuel Goldstein here with you on this Wednesday evening.
[01:57.560 --> 01:59.760]  Joined this evening by Mike.
[02:00.160 --> 02:00.580]  Hi.
[02:00.760 --> 02:01.280]  Redbird.
[02:01.580 --> 02:01.920]  Good evening.
[02:02.360 --> 02:03.660]  On the other side of the room is not Kevin.
[02:03.940 --> 02:04.260]  Hello.
[02:04.480 --> 02:05.920]  Down in Philadelphia is Barney S.
[02:06.340 --> 02:07.500]  Greetings from Philadelphia.
[02:08.340 --> 02:11.040]  And it's been another fun week, hasn't it?
[02:11.320 --> 02:13.380]  All sorts of interesting things been going on in the world.
[02:14.280 --> 02:15.220]  Including this.
[02:15.420 --> 02:17.660]  The Chinese hackers are on the warpath again.
[02:17.980 --> 02:21.600]  They operate from a bare apartment on a Chinese island.
[02:21.860 --> 02:22.680]  They are intelligent.
[02:23.060 --> 02:31.080]  Twenty-somethings who seem harmless, but they are hardcore hackers who claim to have gained access to the world's most sensitive sites, including the Pentagon.
[02:31.400 --> 02:35.020]  In fact, they say, they are sometimes paid secretly by the Chinese government.
[02:35.020 --> 02:37.680]  A claim the Beijing government denies.
[02:37.880 --> 02:40.460]  No website is 100% safe.
[02:40.680 --> 02:47.200]  There are websites with high-level security, but there is always a weakness, says Zhao Shen, the leader of the group.
[02:47.420 --> 02:49.120]  Now, Zhao Shen is his online name.
[02:49.220 --> 02:52.000]  Along with his two colleagues, he does not want to reveal his true identity.
[02:52.240 --> 03:02.300]  The three belong to what some Western experts say is a civilian cyber militia in China launching attacks on government and private websites around the world.
[03:02.300 --> 03:11.120]  If there is a profile of a cyber hacker, these three are straight from central casting, young and thin, with skin pale from spending too many long nights in front of a computer.
[03:12.080 --> 03:14.140]  One hacker says... I've got to get through this.
[03:14.340 --> 03:18.340]  One hacker says he is a former computer operator in the People's Liberation Army.
[03:18.560 --> 03:20.200]  Another is a marketing graduate.
[03:20.780 --> 03:24.520]  And Zhao Shen says he is a self-taught programmer.
[03:25.200 --> 03:27.780]  First, you must know about the website you want to attack.
[03:27.780 --> 03:29.600]  You must know what program it is written with.
[03:29.600 --> 03:35.400]  First, there is a saying, know about both yourself and the enemy, and you will be invincible.
[03:35.820 --> 03:37.040]  Did they steal that saying?
[03:37.240 --> 03:38.200]  Well, that was published in The Onion.
[03:38.440 --> 03:40.420]  I think they have a collection of quotes like that.
[03:40.620 --> 03:42.200]  So you think this whole story is fake?
[03:43.000 --> 03:43.360]  Well...
[03:43.360 --> 03:44.080]  It was in The Onion?
[03:44.300 --> 03:44.900]  It was, right?
[03:44.980 --> 03:45.300]  Wasn't it?
[03:45.380 --> 03:46.300]  No, this is from CNN.
[03:46.540 --> 03:46.800]  CNN?
[03:47.000 --> 03:47.180]  Yeah.
[03:47.400 --> 03:48.780]  That doesn't mean it's not fake.
[03:48.920 --> 03:49.660]  It's probably the same thing.
[03:49.900 --> 03:50.440]  That's true, too.
[03:51.500 --> 03:56.600]  Now, basically, they say CNN withheld the address of the hacker's website.
[03:56.920 --> 04:01.740]  But Zhao Shen says it has been operating for more than three years with 10,000 registered users.
[04:02.220 --> 04:07.780]  So it shouldn't be too hard for one of you out there to let us know what it is, and then we can look into it and see just how true this might be.
[04:08.100 --> 04:14.400]  But once again, you know, we see these stories about the cyber underground and hacker armies and all kinds of nonsense like that.
[04:14.400 --> 04:17.500]  It's really funny to see it hit the main media every now and then.
[04:19.140 --> 04:19.860]  No, it's not.
[04:20.820 --> 04:22.920]  I just thought it would be a fun thing to kick the show off with.
[04:23.760 --> 04:26.320]  Okay, so let's go on to more serious issues.
[04:27.500 --> 04:28.480]  How about this?
[04:28.580 --> 04:30.680]  This is something that has been making the rounds.
[04:32.000 --> 04:50.420]  Computer security analyst Babak Pazdar says that a major mobile telecommunications carrier has a built-in backdoor that provides an undisclosed third party with unfettered access to its internal technical infrastructure, including the ability to eavesdrop on all calls through its network.
[04:50.620 --> 05:03.260]  In an affidavit that describes the circumstances and basis for the allegations, Pazdar provides evidence which could indicate that the FBI is on the other side of the secret line engaging in warrantless surveillance of mobile communications.
[05:03.260 --> 05:07.200]  Now, it's been said that the carrier in question is Verizon Wireless.
[05:07.740 --> 05:17.940]  Now, Pazdar discovered evidence of the backdoor when he was part of a rapid deployment team that was brought in to facilitate a large-scale network security hardware migration for the mobile carrier.
[05:18.220 --> 05:29.040]  During the migration, he was instructed not to migrate the traffic for one particular DS3, which was referred to as the Quantico circuit by consultants who work closely with the carrier.
[05:29.040 --> 05:31.940]  Of course, the FBI Academy is based in Quantico, Virginia.
[05:32.400 --> 05:40.260]  Now, according to Pazdar, the consultants informed him that the Quantico circuit is supposed to have no firewalls of any kind and no access control.
[05:40.420 --> 05:47.080]  It's given complete access to everything in the carrier's internal network, and there is no way to tell conclusively what has been accessed through it.
[05:47.220 --> 06:00.500]  The consultants indicated they knew who was at the other end of the Quantico circuit, but they refused to divulge this information to Pazdar when he insisted that the Quantico circuit should at least have the minimum level of security access logging, if not access control,
[06:00.820 --> 06:10.360]  the consultants called the company's director of security, who threatened Pazdar, telling him that he would be replaced if he didn't forget about the circuit and continue with the migration.
[06:10.640 --> 06:26.660]  Now, in the affidavit, Pazdar says that the absence of access control systems and basic access logging for the Quantico circuit represents a deviation from industry acceptable use scenarios and notes that such a serious breach of security would generally be considered a breach of organizational policy.
[06:26.660 --> 06:35.460]  He also points out that even the internal offices and systems of the carrier don't have the same level of unfettered access to the network as the Quantico circuit.
[06:36.080 --> 06:36.520]  Incredible.
[06:36.980 --> 06:41.640]  Well, this is something that we've talked about a lot in the past, and one of the things that...
[06:41.640 --> 06:49.620]  One of the features, I guess, that they would tout this as would be over-the-air firmware upgrades for your phone.
[06:49.620 --> 06:56.980]  And once a provider has the ability to do that, they can change the software that's running on your phone to allow them to do whatever they want.
[06:57.120 --> 07:10.040]  So if they want to, you know, if they want to listen to whatever's being recorded by the microphone in your phone and, you know, send that over-the-air to whoever's listening, then it's not a problem if you modify the firmware to be able to do that.
[07:10.680 --> 07:16.400]  And one of the nice things that the GSM architecture...
[07:16.400 --> 07:23.080]  One of the nice things about the GSM architecture is that this ability isn't necessarily there in all of the handsets.
[07:23.120 --> 07:38.780]  So you can choose a GSM provider, switch in a SIM card, and not necessarily have the same back holes in the software as you would with a company like Verizon, where they issue all of the handsets and their spec to meet Verizon standards, which allows this ability.
[07:39.400 --> 07:39.640]  So...
[07:39.640 --> 07:42.180]  But my impression is that this is happening on their end.
[07:42.180 --> 07:45.120]  It's got nothing to do with the handsets or the equipment that you're holding.
[07:45.140 --> 07:50.700]  It's coming from them, and basically they're sort of like sending an extension over to Quantico.
[07:50.720 --> 07:55.520]  Well, if you're talking about eavesdropping on actual telephone calls, then, yeah, any carrier can do that.
[07:55.620 --> 07:56.940]  But if you're talking about...
[07:56.940 --> 07:57.980]  It's not the carrier doing it, though.
[07:58.100 --> 07:59.760]  It's the FBI doing it because they're sending it.
[07:59.780 --> 08:02.120]  Well, any carrier can give someone the ability to do that.
[08:02.420 --> 08:10.520]  So if you're talking about actually using the cell phone as a bug, then you would need to change the firmware of the phone to do that.
[08:10.600 --> 08:17.980]  What's particularly interesting about this story is that they're not just giving the information over to the FBI.
[08:18.120 --> 08:20.760]  In other words, it's not just saying, okay, you want to spy on this person.
[08:20.860 --> 08:21.520]  Here's the information.
[08:21.700 --> 08:24.580]  They're giving everything to them and letting them sort it out.
[08:24.580 --> 08:29.200]  In other words, they have the same access that Verizon Wireless, assuming it's them, has.
[08:29.960 --> 08:32.760]  And the FBI can simply pick and choose who they want to listen to.
[08:32.900 --> 08:35.360]  Without warrants, Verizon isn't getting involved.
[08:35.700 --> 08:37.680]  And that's really scary.
[08:37.780 --> 08:39.040]  And it's kind of inevitable, too.
[08:39.140 --> 08:48.680]  When you see the kind of pressure that phone companies are put under by the government to turn off all this information, I could see them saying, yeah, let's just give them everything and let them sort it out.
[08:49.320 --> 08:53.280]  And I think a lot of people are going to be okay with that, too, which really scares me.
[08:53.840 --> 09:11.700]  And apart from using the cell phone as an audio or video bug, of course, the triangulation data from the cell phone towers and if the phone is equipped with a GPS receiver, those coordinates can also be intercepted by the phone company, regardless of whether or not you authorize it.
[09:11.700 --> 09:24.280]  But for GSM, the best you can do is probably use a phone without a GPS receiver and then they would still have the triangulation data, but that's not nearly as accurate as a GPS data would be.
[09:24.540 --> 09:25.960]  Total information awareness.
[09:26.120 --> 09:26.660]  Yes, go ahead, Bernie.
[09:26.960 --> 09:39.980]  I just wanted to mention to our listeners that this was largely made possible legally by a law that was passed in late 1994 called CALEA, the Communications Assistance...
[09:39.980 --> 09:42.440]  Communications Act for Law Enforcement Assistance.
[09:42.740 --> 09:44.480]  Otherwise known as digital telephony.
[09:45.260 --> 09:46.760]  Yes, it was also called that.
[09:47.080 --> 09:53.460]  It was a big omnibus bill that was enacted with no deliberation or debate.
[09:53.460 --> 10:01.660]  It was unanimously enacted with Louis Freed, who was the director of the FBI at the time, insistence.
[10:01.660 --> 10:05.660]  And it changed the way our government performs wiretaps.
[10:06.460 --> 10:16.260]  It used to be they would have to go to a judge, get a wiretap warrant, take it to the telecommunications carrier, and say, we have a warrant for this phone number or this person.
[10:16.620 --> 10:26.080]  And then the phone company would then either provide a slave line where the FBI could monitor that line or they just would provide recorded data.
[10:26.080 --> 10:40.540]  But CALEA really built in wiretapping into... mandated under federal law, mandated this built-in access to law enforcement agencies to the actual switches, the systems of the phone company.
[10:40.760 --> 10:53.320]  So now you have to trust the FBI to only monitor those communications that they have a warrant for without the FBI ever having to provide the warrants to the phone company.
[10:53.640 --> 10:58.480]  Now, that's like, you know, it's like letting the fox into the henhouse, as far as I'm concerned.
[10:58.620 --> 11:08.080]  You just... you know, you can... the FBI has proven time and time again for decades that they can't be trusted with this... with anything like this.
[11:08.820 --> 11:18.580]  But we have no... because there's no logging with this particular circuit going to the Quantico base, we have no knowledge of what the FBI could have been monitoring.
[11:18.700 --> 11:23.860]  We could be monitoring and reporting everything through that switch or just selected wiretaps, but we'll never know.
[11:24.740 --> 11:31.440]  Now, since this story broke, there's been rumors floating around that most other major carriers have exact same DS3 set up.
[11:31.900 --> 11:33.180]  I mean, of course they do.
[11:33.180 --> 11:39.800]  So, is that not obvious that the carriers all equally kowtow to the government in this regard?
[11:39.980 --> 11:40.380]  Do they?
[11:40.480 --> 11:40.960]  Except Quest.
[11:41.360 --> 11:42.200]  Well, there you go.
[11:42.200 --> 11:42.620]  Except maybe Quest.
[11:42.760 --> 11:44.200]  Okay, so then it's not so obvious.
[11:44.320 --> 11:46.180]  Maybe there are some holdouts there.
[11:46.440 --> 11:52.180]  What is it that they hold over the phone company's heads that make them submit so easily to this?
[11:52.600 --> 12:02.840]  That's the real question, because these companies, time and time again, you know, say they're really afraid to do anything that would possibly be illegal.
[12:03.180 --> 12:05.440]  And then they give all the data to the government.
[12:05.500 --> 12:07.720]  This has been going on for a very long time.
[12:08.260 --> 12:19.700]  And that's why this grant of immunity that's being discussed in the Congress is so scary, because it would absolve the carriers of any responsibility whatsoever to follow the law.
[12:19.860 --> 12:22.120]  We already know the FBI doesn't follow the law.
[12:23.260 --> 12:26.620]  And the CIA and NSA don't even pretend to follow the law.
[12:26.860 --> 12:34.220]  But the telecommunications carriers, like, have lawyers on staff, and they are scared of lawsuits, although...
[12:35.100 --> 12:44.100]  So when they're granted immunity, as our dear elected representatives are considering giving them, then there's just no one responsible for this.
[12:44.980 --> 12:45.800]  That's right, yeah.
[12:45.880 --> 12:47.880]  And we have to make sure we stay on top of it.
[12:48.080 --> 12:55.140]  And it's because of brave people who work in the company, that come forward and let people know about this.
[12:55.140 --> 13:03.380]  It's because of them that we're able to even consider what's going on and find out realistically what the actual playing field consists of.
[13:03.680 --> 13:04.900]  So scary, scary times.
[13:04.920 --> 13:11.620]  The problem is that there are few alternatives, very few alternatives that are accessible to normal people, especially for something like a cell phone.
[13:11.620 --> 13:15.580]  You know, we mentioned the Cryptophone and stuff like that, but both ends have to have that.
[13:15.740 --> 13:18.360]  And it's not... it's an expensive technology and...
[13:18.360 --> 13:19.460]  What about VoIP?
[13:19.920 --> 13:21.460]  You can do that, but you can't carry...
[13:21.460 --> 13:26.540]  you usually can't carry a, you know, a VoIP client in your pocket like that to use over the cell phone networks.
[13:26.820 --> 13:28.120]  It's not as practical as having...
[13:28.120 --> 13:29.180]  Do you think one day we'll be able to?
[13:29.280 --> 13:29.460]  Sure.
[13:29.680 --> 13:31.300]  I mean, you can, you know, there...
[13:31.300 --> 13:36.920]  you can do it with some high-speed cell connections that aren't very latent, but it doesn't work very well.
[13:37.040 --> 13:38.780]  And it's tough.
[13:39.140 --> 13:39.700]  It's hard.
[13:39.860 --> 13:40.440]  It's hard to do.
[13:40.620 --> 13:40.980]  All right.
[13:40.980 --> 13:45.420]  Well, moving on here, this is also so that we don't get accused of...
[13:45.420 --> 13:48.420]  of kowtowing to the terrorists and giving them all kinds of protection.
[13:48.420 --> 13:50.000]  We also feel we should alert people.
[13:50.480 --> 14:03.240]  And this comes from a British advertisement, which has been passed around by the City of London Police, the Metropolitan Police, the British Transport Police, and everybody else whose last name is police in Britain.
[14:03.700 --> 14:06.780]  Thousands of people have mobiles, mobiles being cellular phones.
[14:06.920 --> 14:07.720]  That's how they say it over there.
[14:07.720 --> 14:11.960]  What if someone with several seems suspicious?
[14:12.480 --> 14:15.320]  In other words, someone with several mobile phones.
[14:15.580 --> 14:16.500]  What if someone was...
[14:16.500 --> 14:18.000]  I have two, so don't even start.
[14:18.220 --> 14:19.500]  But you seem suspicious.
[14:19.880 --> 14:20.880]  Yeah, but I only have two.
[14:21.040 --> 14:21.920]  It's a couple, not several.
[14:21.920 --> 14:22.720]  So you don't count.
[14:22.840 --> 14:24.060]  Well, not in this ad, I don't count.
[14:24.140 --> 14:25.040]  Maybe there's another ad.
[14:25.160 --> 14:26.400]  A couple seem suspicious.
[14:26.560 --> 14:27.680]  But no, this doesn't apply to me.
[14:28.260 --> 14:29.420]  Terrorists need communication.
[14:29.700 --> 14:36.580]  They often collect and use many anonymous pay-as-you-go phones, as well as swapping SIM cards and handsets.
[14:36.720 --> 14:40.580]  If you're suspicious of the number of phones someone has, we need to know.
[14:41.020 --> 14:43.280]  Let experienced officers decide what...
[14:43.280 --> 14:44.140]  I'm sorry.
[14:44.340 --> 14:45.640]  I really wanted to make it through that.
[14:46.020 --> 14:49.520]  Let experienced officers decide what action to take.
[14:50.380 --> 14:50.820]  Terrorism.
[14:51.000 --> 14:52.740]  If you suspect it, report it.
[14:52.900 --> 14:55.940]  I think that sounds better than if you see something, say something.
[14:56.100 --> 15:01.120]  But if you're in England, the confidential anti-terrorist hotline is 0800-789-321.
[15:01.480 --> 15:03.560]  That's a good number because it goes up and then it goes down.
[15:03.840 --> 15:05.400]  0800-789-321.
[15:05.600 --> 15:07.880]  If you're out of the country, you're out of luck because you can't call it.
[15:09.380 --> 15:12.000]  We see someone with suspiciously many mobile phones.
[15:12.080 --> 15:13.300]  I guess we've got to keep it to ourselves.
[15:14.100 --> 15:16.300]  Well, this is another misconception.
[15:16.660 --> 15:23.660]  Well, I mean, the cell phone networks are incredibly convenient because of the infrastructure that exists for facilitating communications.
[15:23.840 --> 15:40.680]  But if you're talking about some planned attack or something that you're looking to prevent against, which this presumably is, the terrorists that are actually going to be pulling off these things are pretty well trained and they think these things out.
[15:40.780 --> 15:56.200]  And you can provide communications using other RF frequencies, using just standard walkie-talkies that are operating on frequencies that, unless you're jamming the entire RF spectrum, which isn't really very feasible, you're not going to be able to prevent it.
[15:56.440 --> 15:59.380]  A terrorist act can be completely orchestrated using the U.S.
[15:59.500 --> 15:59.780]  mail.
[16:00.460 --> 16:09.340]  Even with its completely unreliable service, you could send a letter to somebody and say, you know what, on the next day after you get this lettered, blow something up and it will happen.
[16:09.340 --> 16:10.360]  And then what are you going to do?
[16:10.440 --> 16:10.700]  No, no, no.
[16:10.940 --> 16:11.980]  This is in the U.K.
[16:11.980 --> 16:13.240]  They cannot use the U.S.
[16:13.320 --> 16:15.180]  mail for communicating within the U.K.
[16:15.300 --> 16:16.100]  Get your facts straight.
[16:16.160 --> 16:19.560]  Well, you know, I did mail a letter to somebody in California and it went to London for some reason.
[16:19.700 --> 16:20.900]  But okay, that's a whole other issue.
[16:21.680 --> 16:24.520]  Okay, this from the, oh, hell yeah, department.
[16:25.260 --> 16:28.400]  Here's a project that will help you fight back against Big Brother.
[16:29.780 --> 16:32.320]  It seems that Big Brother is everywhere watching you.
[16:32.480 --> 16:36.600]  In places like the U.K., there are public surveillance cameras all over the place.
[16:36.880 --> 16:41.460]  Aside from covering your head completely, there is little one can do to stay off the radar in these areas.
[16:41.780 --> 16:49.600]  That, or with a little bit of effort and know-how, you can assemble a small device that will prevent your face from being seen on any video cameras.
[16:50.000 --> 16:51.820]  Most, most, most video cameras.
[16:51.860 --> 16:52.280]  Let me finish.
[16:52.400 --> 16:58.240]  Essentially, what you have here is a small device that you wear on your head that contains...
[16:58.240 --> 17:00.420]  Yeah, this is going to make you stand out, is it?
[17:00.720 --> 17:02.760]  It contains a group of infrared lights.
[17:03.860 --> 17:06.840]  So, if you're walking around with a group of infrared lights on your head, you're fine.
[17:07.240 --> 17:11.000]  When a video camera tries to record your face, all it will see is a white light.
[17:11.520 --> 17:16.800]  Now, the person writing this can't really think of many uses for this that won't make you seem suspicious as all hell.
[17:16.900 --> 17:20.740]  But if someone asks, you just tell them you're sticking it to the man.
[17:22.020 --> 17:23.920]  And apparently, this is from Make Magazine.
[17:24.100 --> 17:32.020]  And there's some pictures of it where you just see people and their heads are brilliant beams of light instead of actually the faces that you would expect.
[17:32.280 --> 17:34.040]  I think anything like this is a good thing.
[17:34.180 --> 17:34.960]  It's pretty neat.
[17:35.040 --> 17:36.580]  And the reason why I say most cameras...
[17:36.580 --> 17:42.240]  Well, first of all, the way that this works is that the CCDs in the camera are sensitive to infrared light in addition to visible light.
[17:42.400 --> 17:46.160]  And obviously, someone walking around with this, it wouldn't look like they had any lights on their head.
[17:46.280 --> 17:51.160]  It would be the same thing that you would see if you were looking into a television remote control while you were pushing a button.
[17:51.220 --> 17:52.260]  You don't actually see the light.
[17:52.380 --> 17:54.500]  But the CCDs on the camera are sensitive to it.
[17:54.540 --> 17:59.020]  So if you held it up to your cell phone camera or a digital camera, you would actually see a bright white light.
[17:59.100 --> 18:02.100]  And you could demonstrate this with a television remote control.
[18:02.180 --> 18:02.780]  I mean, it's a step.
[18:03.360 --> 18:03.960]  It's a step.
[18:04.040 --> 18:09.220]  But the reason why it doesn't work on all cameras is because some cameras do have infrared filters.
[18:09.420 --> 18:11.680]  And they filter out the infrared portion of the spectrum.
[18:11.820 --> 18:13.560]  And it's not going to be as sensitive to this.
[18:14.000 --> 18:28.040]  The reason why it works for most surveillance cameras is because they utilize the fact that the CCD is sensitive to infrared, and they themselves use infrared lights to... infrared LEDs to illuminate the area so that you still can see video at nighttime or in dim lighting,
[18:28.280 --> 18:28.480]  so...
[18:28.480 --> 18:35.100]  Well, my question is, is there a way for me to walk around with these infrared lights on my head without standing out like a sore thumb?
[18:35.220 --> 18:36.700]  Can they be hidden in some way?
[18:36.840 --> 18:42.360]  Well, the picture here that they have looks like they have the LEDs inside of a sweatband that you just kind of put over your head.
[18:42.900 --> 18:44.440]  You can make it look decorative.
[18:45.460 --> 18:46.580]  I don't want to look decorative.
[18:46.600 --> 18:49.660]  I don't want to look normal, you know, and not stand out too much.
[18:49.800 --> 18:50.860]  There are definitely ways to hide it.
[18:51.700 --> 18:57.140]  Think of all the ways that people have found to hide the TVB gun and infrared LEDs, and it's the exact same concept.
[18:57.280 --> 19:04.340]  I mean, just imagine the consternation of the people watching the videos and just seeing all these people that you can't see their faces.
[19:04.460 --> 19:06.200]  You just see beams of light instead.
[19:06.500 --> 19:08.900]  Even if they're not up to anything, they're just going to get so upset.
[19:10.200 --> 19:11.760]  They look like Cylons.
[19:12.220 --> 19:12.940]  Yeah, they do.
[19:13.180 --> 19:13.340]  They do.
[19:13.340 --> 19:14.200]  They do.
[19:14.380 --> 19:15.960]  Without the moving lights.
[19:16.480 --> 19:18.380]  It would be nice if you could put an image there, too.
[19:18.900 --> 19:20.340]  Well, that would be interesting.
[19:20.340 --> 19:22.000]  Or you could rapidly pulse it.
[19:22.120 --> 19:23.960]  That might freak them out even more.
[19:24.100 --> 19:34.020]  But you can conceal these bright LEDs in a cap, like a 2600 cap, or a pair of thick-rimmed eyeglasses.
[19:34.280 --> 19:41.800]  You're not suggesting, Bernie, that we sell an advanced 2600 cap that has these lights already installed in them, are you?
[19:42.740 --> 19:49.300]  I think we should create a commemorative version and make this available, at least demonstrate it at the HOPE conference.
[19:50.020 --> 19:58.860]  Another thing that people were doing with infrared LEDs and cameras were embedding them into their clothing and putting messages that you couldn't see unless you were looking at them through a camera.
[19:58.860 --> 20:04.360]  So, you know, you can write something clever and communicate it only with the people looking at the camera.
[20:04.360 --> 20:07.580]  So, it's another thing that, you know, people have been playing with.
[20:07.700 --> 20:11.000]  So, it's a secret way of passing messages to the people that don't want you to pass secret messages.
[20:11.160 --> 20:11.280]  Yep.
[20:11.480 --> 20:11.760]  All right.
[20:11.920 --> 20:12.200]  Great.
[20:12.980 --> 20:16.180]  Okay, this story hit the media last week, which is kind of funny.
[20:16.560 --> 20:30.800]  The Municipal Railway will not be using buses from its new hybrid fleet on one line that runs through the public housing projects in San Francisco's Hunter's Point neighborhood until officials can stop troublemakers there from turning off the buses' power switches.
[20:31.000 --> 20:41.160]  Muni drivers have reported over the last couple of weeks that people have been shutting down the power on their buses simply by flipping a switch that can be accessed easily through an unlocked panel on the outside of the bus.
[20:41.280 --> 20:48.240]  When that happens, the drivers can't accelerate, they lose radio contact with dispatchers, and the interior lights on the buses go out.
[20:48.620 --> 20:51.260]  The power loss, however, does not affect the brakes.
[20:51.980 --> 20:52.420]  Unbelievable.
[20:52.740 --> 20:54.260]  But this is just stupid vandalism.
[20:54.260 --> 20:54.480]  Oh, of course.
[20:54.480 --> 20:56.440]  I mean, it's a stupid design, don't get me wrong.
[20:56.560 --> 20:57.540]  It's a stupid design more than anything.
[20:57.700 --> 21:02.060]  But the people who are doing this, you can't credit them with anything more than vandalism.
[21:02.140 --> 21:02.460]  Well, no.
[21:02.460 --> 21:05.320]  And also, you know, we talked about this four years ago at the HOPE conference.
[21:05.480 --> 21:09.600]  Actually, no, two years ago, 2006, when we were talking about mayhem at the Republican convention.
[21:09.680 --> 21:14.080]  I remember this is one of the things that Shapeshifter brought up, saying that the buses have switches on the outside.
[21:14.080 --> 21:16.520]  They're very easy to just turn off, and they don't think to lock these things.
[21:16.840 --> 21:18.720]  So this news has been out for some time.
[21:19.000 --> 21:20.640]  I just can't believe they make these things.
[21:20.820 --> 21:21.700]  Why not have a key?
[21:21.980 --> 21:22.540]  Turn the key.
[21:22.680 --> 21:24.180]  Then you can turn off the bus from the outside.
[21:24.580 --> 21:27.740]  I think this was actually six years ago that Shapeshifter...
[21:27.740 --> 21:28.620]  Was it six years ago?
[21:28.620 --> 21:31.460]  It was the time just flies, because it was a...
[21:31.460 --> 21:31.860]  It was...
[21:31.860 --> 21:33.460]  We were just talking about...
[21:33.460 --> 21:34.480]  I think it was the...
[21:34.480 --> 21:41.020]  Was it the 2000 Philadelphia convention that Shapeshifter were talking about, or was it the 2004 convention in New York he was talking about?
[21:41.040 --> 21:41.420]  You know...
[21:41.420 --> 21:41.860]  Either way...
[21:41.860 --> 21:42.060]  Yeah.
[21:42.220 --> 21:44.620]  We've talked about so much mistreat and mayhem, so it's...
[21:44.620 --> 21:45.400]  Anything's possible.
[21:45.640 --> 21:46.620]  It might have been 2004.
[21:46.960 --> 21:47.220]  Okay.
[21:47.920 --> 21:49.220]  But it's still a long time ago.
[21:49.400 --> 21:53.900]  And, you know, devious minds are constantly working, so people have known about this for some time.
[21:54.480 --> 21:59.780]  The problem is you need to come up with a solution that anybody who...
[21:59.780 --> 22:03.440]  So anybody could shut off the engine in an emergency.
[22:04.000 --> 22:07.440]  And in an emergency, you don't want to be fumbling for the right key, whatever.
[22:08.580 --> 22:12.520]  On the other hand, it provides access to vandals so they can reach in and do it.
[22:12.580 --> 22:21.260]  So there's got to be a better way to allow people who should be authorized to shut off the engine to do it, and vandals can't.
[22:21.260 --> 22:24.760]  Well, Bernie, why does somebody need to shut off the engine of the bus from outside the bus?
[22:25.440 --> 22:27.120]  If, like, the engine was on fire?
[22:27.800 --> 22:28.860]  Well, what about my car?
[22:28.920 --> 22:29.640]  That could be on fire.
[22:29.720 --> 22:31.980]  Is nobody going to have the ability to shut that off from the outside?
[22:32.100 --> 22:33.540]  You're talking about public safety, though.
[22:33.560 --> 22:34.600]  There's a lot of people on the bus.
[22:36.120 --> 22:36.760]  Well, trains?
[22:37.200 --> 22:37.520]  Airplanes?
[22:37.620 --> 22:37.980]  I don't know.
[22:38.060 --> 22:38.820]  I've never seen this.
[22:38.860 --> 22:39.860]  Wait, if it's already on fire.
[22:40.660 --> 22:41.240]  Well, I...
[22:41.240 --> 22:41.720]  Yeah, okay.
[22:41.880 --> 22:42.540]  Yeah, there's that, too.
[22:42.600 --> 22:55.600]  But, I mean, the solution I like is what they do with, you know, fire alarms, is that you break a piece of glass, you pull it, and then it sprays UV dye onto you so that they, you know, they know who pulled it, if they catch you.
[22:55.840 --> 22:59.440]  Yeah, but what if you're a good Samaritan, then you got all this blue dye on your hands?
[22:59.500 --> 23:00.280]  You don't see it.
[23:00.280 --> 23:07.440]  But if you're questioned for, you know, pulling a fire alarm and there wasn't actually a fire and they have a UV light, they can see you actually...
[23:07.440 --> 23:14.180]  What if you're a good Samaritan that actually did that and then there's a false alarm the next day somewhere else and they see that on your hands, you know?
[23:14.180 --> 23:17.020]  Then they look at the surveillance camera tapes and resolve the situation.
[23:17.300 --> 23:18.760]  Well, thank God for surveillance cameras then.
[23:19.200 --> 23:24.620]  But if you go into a nightclub that night that has black lights, then you're going to shine out really well.
[23:24.700 --> 23:25.560]  That's very true.
[23:26.480 --> 23:28.120]  Okay, we have a bunch of letters we want to get to.
[23:28.160 --> 23:29.140]  We also want to get to some phone calls.
[23:29.260 --> 23:30.120]  We'll do that in just a little bit.
[23:30.120 --> 23:31.380]  But we have a lot of letters to catch up to.
[23:31.980 --> 23:34.100]  O-T-H at 2600.com.
[23:34.220 --> 23:35.320]  That is our email address.
[23:35.540 --> 23:38.640]  And we, of course, we welcome your letters, cards, whatnot.
[23:39.400 --> 23:40.980]  Should we give our mailing address?
[23:41.120 --> 23:41.860]  We like to get mail.
[23:42.120 --> 23:42.600]  Go ahead.
[23:42.940 --> 23:49.960]  It's WBAI, off the hook, 120 Wall Street, 10th floor, New York, New York, 10005.
[23:50.980 --> 23:53.260]  Yeah, we haven't been getting a lot of crazy mail lately.
[23:53.440 --> 23:56.740]  No, we enjoy the crazy mail, both email and regular mail.
[23:56.880 --> 23:58.440]  So please send as much as you can.
[23:58.620 --> 23:59.780]  Sane mail is also welcome.
[24:00.300 --> 24:01.200]  All right, fine.
[24:01.660 --> 24:02.120]  Sane mail is fine.
[24:02.120 --> 24:04.140]  I'm just saying, crazy mail is welcome, too.
[24:04.280 --> 24:04.940]  I'm just saying, you know.
[24:05.020 --> 24:08.520]  Well, let's decide which this is, the mail that we're about to read.
[24:09.180 --> 24:11.140]  Here's from a reader named Nico.
[24:39.720 --> 24:41.120]  Hi, since I'm not yet 18.
[24:41.120 --> 24:51.940]  First, I'm not yet 18.
[24:51.940 --> 24:57.320]  I'd be happy even with something I could make a toll-free call and then enter another phone number with.
[24:57.560 --> 25:04.800]  Services like Google 411, or Google 411, rather, and 800-CALL-411 are good for connecting you to businesses, but I'm not always calling businesses.
[25:05.180 --> 25:09.700]  You were mentioning a service that lets you make international calls from a local access number in New York or something.
[25:09.700 --> 25:11.640]  When I tried it, it did not work, so I forgot about it.
[25:11.700 --> 25:12.780]  Do you remember what that service was?
[25:13.220 --> 25:14.500]  Do we remember what that service was?
[25:14.660 --> 25:15.760]  There are a bunch of them out there.
[25:16.460 --> 25:17.380]  How did we find it?
[25:17.700 --> 25:19.960]  That was, I believe we were talking about the Magic Jack.
[25:20.640 --> 25:21.640]  The Magic Jack.
[25:21.760 --> 25:22.680]  Tell us about the Magic Jack.
[25:23.060 --> 25:39.300]  Well, it's a little device about the size of a box of Tic Tac mints that has a USB plug on it, and it has software in ROM, and it has audio circuitry and an A to D and D to A to converter, and it's got a telephone interface.
[25:39.600 --> 25:46.400]  So you plug this whole thing into a computer, it can be a laptop or a desktop computer, into the USB port, and you plug a regular telephone.
[25:46.920 --> 25:47.800]  Remember those things?
[25:47.800 --> 25:55.780]  You plug a regular telephone into the modular jack, and the software installs, runs automatically from the device.
[25:56.040 --> 26:04.240]  It only works on Windows machines, unfortunately, but it provides access, unlimited access, for North American calls, U.S.
[26:04.280 --> 26:04.720]  and Canada.
[26:04.980 --> 26:06.320]  I think it's about $30.
[26:06.920 --> 26:17.360]  You buy the initial kit for $40, $30 or $40, and the access is, I think it's extremely low.
[26:17.360 --> 26:21.640]  I think for the first year it's included, unlimited calls for a whole year.
[26:21.780 --> 26:25.400]  After that we don't know what they're going to charge, so I'm not really sure how their business model works.
[26:26.020 --> 26:28.280]  But it's in a little piece of hardware.
[26:28.720 --> 26:31.600]  A friend of mine bought one and called me with it, and he sounded just fine.
[26:32.060 --> 26:38.080]  And he hasn't gotten any bills, and he bought it with a money order, so there's no way they can bill them on his credit card.
[26:38.620 --> 26:45.220]  The folks at the personal computer show, which is on after us, have one of these devices, and I think they're not that thrilled with it.
[26:45.340 --> 26:46.660]  It seems to be pretty buggy.
[26:47.660 --> 26:52.780]  Well, I guess these things, when you're starting off, there's some kinks and some bumps in the road.
[26:53.600 --> 27:01.380]  Now, this caller, or this listener, also recommends us using 800-CALL-411, not Google-411.
[27:02.940 --> 27:08.040]  They basically don't throw it in your face that you're being recorded when you make the phone call.
[27:08.160 --> 27:09.540]  I'd rather have it thrown in my face.
[27:09.720 --> 27:11.040]  I mean, at least you know what you're getting into.
[27:11.040 --> 27:12.900]  Well, I guess that's true, if they're doing it.
[27:13.300 --> 27:15.360]  Let's test both of them out, all right?
[27:15.360 --> 27:17.480]  We're going to try and get the number for WBAI.
[27:17.860 --> 27:18.520]  All right.
[27:20.800 --> 27:23.620]  First, we're going to try Goog411.
[27:23.620 --> 27:24.880]  That's G-O-O-G.
[27:25.960 --> 27:26.460]  411.
[27:28.500 --> 27:30.140]  And this is all voice activated, right?
[27:30.360 --> 27:30.580]  Yeah.
[27:31.020 --> 27:32.120]  It works pretty well, actually.
[27:33.620 --> 27:34.600]  Call is recorded.
[27:34.900 --> 27:36.240]  For more info, press star.
[27:37.780 --> 27:38.280]  Goog411.
[27:38.280 --> 27:39.420]  What city and state?
[27:39.680 --> 27:40.360]  New York.
[27:40.640 --> 27:41.280]  New York.
[27:42.500 --> 27:43.300]  New York.
[27:43.500 --> 27:43.760]  New York.
[27:43.760 --> 27:43.880]  New York.
[27:44.000 --> 27:45.480]  What business name or category?
[27:46.520 --> 27:47.040]  WBAI.
[27:49.520 --> 27:50.040]  WestBAI.
[27:51.560 --> 27:52.080]  Searching.
[27:52.900 --> 27:53.780]  Top listing.
[27:54.560 --> 27:55.560]  Dubai on Wall Street.
[27:55.800 --> 27:56.460]  I'll connect you.
[27:56.700 --> 28:00.100]  You can also say more results, details, or go back.
[28:01.300 --> 28:01.820]  Okay.
[28:01.960 --> 28:03.680]  Well, you didn't tell me the number, though.
[28:03.840 --> 28:04.400]  I'd like the number.
[28:05.040 --> 28:06.160]  There's just one listing.
[28:07.000 --> 28:07.260]  Dubai.
[28:08.340 --> 28:09.280]  Top listing.
[28:09.560 --> 28:09.700]  Yeah.
[28:11.280 --> 28:11.960]  I'll connect you.
[28:12.280 --> 28:12.680]  Details.
[28:12.920 --> 28:13.920]  You can also say more details.
[28:14.260 --> 28:17.260]  You can also get the details by saying text message.
[28:17.780 --> 28:20.700]  Dubai 120 Wall Street, 1002 New York.
[28:20.920 --> 28:25.960]  Phone number 212-209-2800.
[28:26.700 --> 28:27.600]  Here it is again.
[28:28.380 --> 28:31.100]  Dubai 120 Wall Street, 1002 New York.
[28:31.500 --> 28:35.860]  Phone number 212-209-2800.
[28:36.860 --> 28:38.460]  Hang on, and I'll connect you.
[28:38.700 --> 28:39.940]  Or say go back.
[28:39.940 --> 28:41.180]  There's just one listing.
[28:42.000 --> 28:42.200]  Goodbye.
[28:42.560 --> 28:42.780]  Goodbye.
[28:44.140 --> 28:44.880]  Can I say that?
[28:45.580 --> 28:45.940]  No?
[28:46.100 --> 28:46.460]  Hold on.
[28:46.560 --> 28:48.260]  It's great how he keeps saying W-B-I.
[28:48.820 --> 28:49.180]  Dubai.
[28:49.360 --> 28:49.600]  Dubai.
[28:49.960 --> 28:50.140]  Dubai.
[28:50.480 --> 28:50.620]  Yeah.
[28:50.840 --> 28:52.160]  You really don't know W-B-A-I.
[28:52.260 --> 28:53.800]  You can't, like, say those letters, can you?
[28:55.200 --> 28:55.560]  Computer?
[28:56.900 --> 28:57.260]  Computer.
[28:57.440 --> 28:57.720]  Hold on.
[28:58.120 --> 28:58.920]  He's still there.
[28:59.160 --> 29:00.180]  Let's see how long we can keep him on.
[29:00.320 --> 29:00.340]  Going back.
[29:00.700 --> 29:01.240]  No, go back.
[29:01.240 --> 29:04.680]  To help on how to spell the name or category using your keypad, press 1.
[29:04.980 --> 29:06.300]  New York, New York.
[29:06.500 --> 29:07.000]  What business...
[29:07.000 --> 29:11.540]  To spell the business name or category using your keypad, just enter one number for each letter.
[29:11.900 --> 29:15.760]  For example, to spell taxi, you'd enter 8294.
[29:16.100 --> 29:18.580]  And just leave out spaces in punctuation.
[29:19.420 --> 29:21.160]  What business name or category?
[29:22.440 --> 29:23.560]  No, that's enough.
[29:23.700 --> 29:24.340]  Thank you very much.
[29:27.120 --> 29:27.920]  Try again.
[29:28.320 --> 29:30.040]  Or you can say go back anytime.
[29:30.900 --> 29:32.980]  How do you get rid of this guy if he can't hang up?
[29:33.180 --> 29:33.900]  Well, if he can't hang up.
[29:33.920 --> 29:34.340]  Do it now.
[29:36.700 --> 29:37.400]  No, I...
[29:37.400 --> 29:38.620]  You know, we can't get rid of him.
[29:39.040 --> 29:39.640]  He's stuck.
[29:39.820 --> 29:40.720]  Bernie, do you have any suggestions?
[29:42.060 --> 29:43.200]  Can you say hang up?
[29:44.680 --> 29:45.080]  Ikea.
[29:46.760 --> 29:47.160]  Searching.
[29:47.380 --> 29:48.380]  How did you do that?
[29:48.960 --> 29:50.040]  Top six results.
[29:50.220 --> 29:50.440]  Oh, boy.
[29:50.440 --> 29:50.940]  Number one.
[29:51.440 --> 29:52.740]  Ikea Elizabeth N.
[29:52.740 --> 29:54.160]  See, that I can understand.
[29:55.420 --> 29:59.220]  To select number one, you can press one or say number one.
[29:59.260 --> 30:00.060]  Now, there aren't people.
[30:00.120 --> 30:01.140]  You can't find people this way.
[30:01.220 --> 30:01.600]  Only businesses.
[30:01.860 --> 30:02.000]  Ikea.
[30:02.140 --> 30:03.100]  On Ikea Drive.
[30:03.740 --> 30:05.980]  But it connects you for free, so you can use it from the payphone.
[30:06.060 --> 30:09.240]  Ikea pickup and assembly on East 101 Street, Brooklyn.
[30:09.640 --> 30:09.920]  All right.
[30:10.020 --> 30:10.740]  How do I get rid of this?
[30:11.220 --> 30:11.380]  Ikea.
[30:11.540 --> 30:12.020]  All right.
[30:12.940 --> 30:15.340]  Let me get rid of him.
[30:15.340 --> 30:16.380]  And then we're going to...
[30:16.380 --> 30:16.520]  Okay.
[30:16.760 --> 30:17.540]  Start over anytime.
[30:17.700 --> 30:18.200]  Go away.
[30:18.500 --> 30:21.060]  Now, Bernie, you're still there?
[30:21.860 --> 30:22.720]  Bernie, you're there, right?
[30:22.740 --> 30:23.520]  I'm still here.
[30:23.660 --> 30:23.940]  Okay, good.
[30:24.000 --> 30:24.820]  Let's try the other one.
[30:24.940 --> 30:28.320]  Let's try the 1-800-CALL-411.
[30:30.200 --> 30:31.640]  See if that is, in fact, better.
[30:38.240 --> 30:39.000]  Live search.
[30:40.040 --> 30:44.200]  For a business, say a city and state, or say other services.
[30:44.660 --> 30:45.360]  New York.
[30:45.580 --> 30:46.180]  New York.
[30:46.180 --> 30:46.260]  New York.
[30:47.200 --> 30:47.760]  Okay.
[30:47.980 --> 30:50.620]  What business, or type of business, are you looking for?
[30:51.660 --> 30:52.220]  WBAI.
[30:55.820 --> 30:56.560]  All right.
[30:56.680 --> 30:58.600]  When you hear that when you want, just say the number.
[30:59.140 --> 30:59.680]  One.
[31:00.620 --> 31:01.180]  WBAI.
[31:01.940 --> 31:02.500]  Two.
[31:02.960 --> 31:04.640]  Dr. Manishabalwaini.
[31:04.880 --> 31:05.180]  What?
[31:06.280 --> 31:06.840]  Okay.
[31:07.580 --> 31:08.140]  WBAI.
[31:08.280 --> 31:08.420]  Yeah.
[31:08.420 --> 31:10.180]  At 120 Wall Street.
[31:10.540 --> 31:16.100]  The number is 212-209-2800.
[31:16.100 --> 31:17.280]  I like this one.
[31:17.360 --> 31:21.740]  You can say, text me the info, share this listing, or connect me.
[31:21.920 --> 31:23.180]  Text me the info.
[31:23.400 --> 31:23.980]  Repeat the info.
[31:24.820 --> 31:25.440]  All right.
[31:25.560 --> 31:26.680]  I'll text you that info.
[31:27.140 --> 31:32.220]  If you'd like, whenever you get a number, I can automatically text it to you so you won't need to write it down.
[31:32.540 --> 31:33.960]  Would you like me to do that?
[31:34.380 --> 31:34.640]  Nah.
[31:36.900 --> 31:37.400]  Okay.
[31:37.700 --> 31:38.460]  I won't do that.
[31:38.620 --> 31:38.720]  Good.
[31:38.760 --> 31:41.900]  Now you can say, share this listing, or connect me.
[31:42.180 --> 31:43.060]  Share this listing.
[31:43.240 --> 31:44.040]  You can also say, repeat the...
[31:44.040 --> 31:47.660]  Say or enter your friend's mobile number, or say, go back.
[31:52.920 --> 31:58.520]  That's 212-209-8900, right?
[31:59.300 --> 31:59.680]  No, no.
[32:01.420 --> 32:02.560]  My mistake.
[32:02.900 --> 32:06.220]  Please enter your friend's mobile number, or say, go back.
[32:08.280 --> 32:11.160]  212-209-2900.
[32:12.860 --> 32:17.160]  That's 212-209-2913.
[32:17.600 --> 32:18.260]  Oh, my God.
[32:18.260 --> 32:19.080]  What's wrong with you?
[32:19.280 --> 32:20.960]  I said it clearer the second time.
[32:22.620 --> 32:24.460]  You know, you've given me the information I need.
[32:24.600 --> 32:25.480]  Thank you very much.
[32:25.760 --> 32:26.520]  Have a good day.
[32:26.680 --> 32:28.060]  We're having technical difficulties.
[32:28.320 --> 32:28.380]  Yeah, we are.
[32:28.400 --> 32:30.500]  That'll prevent us from continuing this call.
[32:30.860 --> 32:32.120]  Please try again later.
[32:32.360 --> 32:32.820]  No, no.
[32:32.840 --> 32:34.020]  I'm hanging up on you.
[32:34.100 --> 32:34.920]  No, I'm hanging up on you.
[32:35.060 --> 32:35.260]  Oh.
[32:36.580 --> 32:37.560]  She beat you to it.
[32:37.600 --> 32:37.920]  She did.
[32:38.020 --> 32:38.400]  She did.
[32:38.560 --> 32:38.960]  All right.
[32:39.340 --> 32:40.060]  Let's get rid of her.
[32:40.720 --> 32:41.820]  And, Bernie, you're back.
[32:42.440 --> 32:42.800]  Wow.
[32:42.880 --> 32:43.360]  That was fun.
[32:43.480 --> 32:43.840]  That was fun.
[32:43.880 --> 32:44.860]  But I do like that system better.
[32:45.380 --> 32:47.260]  It does sound a little bit better.
[32:47.360 --> 32:47.500]  Yeah.
[32:48.280 --> 32:48.940]  More intuitive.
[32:49.200 --> 32:50.300]  She knows how to say WBAI.
[32:50.780 --> 32:51.140]  Okay.
[32:51.260 --> 32:55.320]  Continuing with more letters, and thanks, Nico, for suggesting we call those.
[32:57.240 --> 33:09.800]  This letter from someone signed P. When you gave out Jim's info, I wrote it down, put it aside, and then several days later, proceeded to spill tea all over the paper, rendering it into a sort of watercolor spin art.
[33:10.120 --> 33:20.380]  I tried to remember which show you had announced his info on, but over the last few months, I've had to reallocate the brain partition usually used for this type of info into a scratch partition for total recall experiments.
[33:20.380 --> 33:22.380]  I'd like to send Jim some things.
[33:22.540 --> 33:28.540]  I myself had a stroke in 1999 and have fully recovered, though it sounds like Jim's was more intense than my own.
[33:28.800 --> 33:40.580]  I do know how it is to have the border between internal perception and external motor functions become a barely translucent wall and the confused frustration it can bring when trying to communicate with the immediate environment.
[33:41.220 --> 33:42.160]  He is in there.
[33:42.260 --> 33:47.160]  The brain is plastic, and I'm sure someone as perceptive as Jim will eventually be able to retrain and reallocate.
[33:47.160 --> 33:49.280]  So please give out his info again on the show.
[33:49.420 --> 33:54.580]  It's unlikely I'm the only person in the audience who lost, spindled, or spilled tea on his contact info.
[33:55.180 --> 33:57.200]  And please also spell the name of the place he's at.
[33:57.300 --> 34:02.860]  I had to rewind and listen several times to get the full address down and wasn't certain I had the correct spelling afterwards.
[34:03.160 --> 34:04.620]  Well, we have the information here.
[34:05.420 --> 34:07.060]  Bernie, do you have it as well, or would you like me to give it out?
[34:07.060 --> 34:07.880]  Yes, I have it here.
[34:08.020 --> 34:12.520]  I emailed it to P, who emailed us, and I'll announce it on the air again.
[34:12.520 --> 34:22.700]  And you can send cards, letters, gifts, anything you think would help Jim recover or get over the situation he's in.
[34:23.240 --> 34:41.620]  The Caton Park Nursing Home, that's C-A-T-O-N, Caton Park Nursing Home, attention, Jim Vichensch, that's V-I-C-H-E-N-C-H, at 1312 Caton Avenue, room 312B, as in Bravo.
[34:42.520 --> 34:46.800]  Brooklyn, New York, 11226.
[34:46.980 --> 34:58.240]  Just a week ago, I sent Jim a cell phone and this cool ballpoint pen that has a red laser pointer in it and a blue LED flashlight.
[34:58.720 --> 35:05.300]  So I'm hoping those things will keep him busy, and I'm going to call his mother after the show to find out if he got that stuff yet.
[35:05.440 --> 35:10.140]  And we know that a number of listeners have actually been visiting Jim, and that really does make a big difference.
[35:10.140 --> 35:17.720]  And we want to thank him for taking the time to go out there and visit with him, speak to him, see how his progress is going.
[35:18.020 --> 35:22.580]  Every little bit counts, so by all means, do what you can.
[35:22.700 --> 35:26.860]  And certainly send him bits of information, mail, whatnot.
[35:26.860 --> 35:27.640]  It all helps.
[35:29.000 --> 35:29.500]  Okay.
[35:29.960 --> 35:31.160]  Some more mail here.
[35:31.400 --> 35:41.980]  Dear Manuel, the story about the cell phones for train workers that we reported on last week might sound silly, but I applaud their ability to roll out a test phase, no matter how silly or absurd it may be.
[35:42.220 --> 35:42.460]  Why?
[35:42.600 --> 35:53.460]  Because here in Massachusetts, we wasted $700,000 of taxpayer money when a controversial program went forward that equipped 4,500 snowplows with GPS-enabled cell phones.
[35:53.620 --> 35:55.940]  The software never worked properly and was inaccurate.
[35:55.940 --> 36:00.800]  They never tested the program and ended up dumping it all at the taxpayer's expense.
[36:01.000 --> 36:02.060]  Signed, David in Boston.
[36:02.060 --> 36:17.820]  And yes, according to a news story concerning this whole thing, the president of the Snow and Ice Contractors Association, yes, they have one of those, Matthew Fraser, said that the GPS system was effectively being discontinued.
[36:18.300 --> 36:20.520]  The phone technology was inaccurate.
[36:20.540 --> 36:24.580]  We'd have a reading on the screen that someone was in Somerville when they were actually in Arlington.
[36:24.840 --> 36:36.500]  The $700,000 program unveiled under the Romney administration was designed to cut down on fraud and to make sure the state's 4,500 snow contractors only got paid for roads that they plowed.
[36:36.940 --> 36:40.980]  It was no secret the drivers hated the program and they fought it, but they lost.
[36:41.180 --> 36:45.880]  Today, the state says GPS is not saving money and is, in fact, costing the state.
[36:46.120 --> 36:51.940]  We needed 60 men and women in front of computer screens watching a bunch of dots moving around the screen.
[36:52.160 --> 36:58.720]  I would much rather have 60 people out on the street plowing snow, said Frank Tramontosi, chief engineer of the State Highway Department.
[36:58.720 --> 37:03.020]  Some see this as a major concession to the union, which represents plow operators in the state.
[37:03.260 --> 37:05.200]  Their contract expires in late spring.
[37:05.380 --> 37:12.420]  The plow operators say it's not the GPS technology they disliked, but the way the program was implemented and the suggestion that they were trying to beat the system.
[37:13.420 --> 37:13.860]  Interesting.
[37:14.480 --> 37:15.100]  So, yeah.
[37:15.320 --> 37:20.920]  Of course, cell phones with text messaging capabilities for Long Island Railroad workers is a far cry from GPS technology.
[37:21.960 --> 37:24.240]  But hopefully they already know where the trains are.
[37:24.440 --> 37:25.320]  Yeah, it would be nice.
[37:25.320 --> 37:28.360]  But it would also be nice if they communicated with people every now and then.
[37:28.460 --> 37:30.400]  Every time the trains get stuck, they don't tell you why.
[37:30.580 --> 37:33.740]  This is also the Romney administration, which is kind of incompetent.
[37:34.380 --> 37:34.640]  Yeah.
[37:35.780 --> 37:37.980]  Okay, here's another report from a listener.
[37:38.100 --> 37:39.860]  I just got done listening to the March 5th show.
[37:40.040 --> 37:43.920]  Just wanted to start off by replying to the question of Windows XP Black.
[37:44.440 --> 37:48.900]  It's just a piece of software that installs a bunch of wares and open source applications.
[37:48.900 --> 37:52.500]  You can also bootleg a copy of XP with it already installed.
[37:52.680 --> 37:55.540]  Although I have never used it myself, I hear it is filled with malware.
[37:56.040 --> 38:00.360]  The real reason, though, I want it to write in is because of a new virus from Mac OS X.
[38:00.560 --> 38:01.520]  It is not malicious.
[38:01.940 --> 38:04.900]  It doesn't copy itself and it doesn't email itself to your friends.
[38:05.040 --> 38:06.940]  It strikes at random and it only strikes once.
[38:07.340 --> 38:09.880]  Also, it only works on MacBooks and MacBook Pros.
[38:10.040 --> 38:11.000]  The virus is called Newton.
[38:11.240 --> 38:14.320]  And its primary function is to turn on the gravity in your MacBook.
[38:14.320 --> 38:19.020]  Because MacBooks have built-in cameras, Apple thought they should have tilt sensitivity.
[38:19.020 --> 38:22.020]  They did this by putting in an accelerometer.
[38:22.300 --> 38:27.900]  So when Newton turns on the gravity, all your desktop applications and your menu bar come crashing to the bottom of the screen.
[38:28.620 --> 38:33.600]  Thanks to the tilt functionality, if you turn it sideways or upside down, all your applications and menu bar go with it.
[38:33.640 --> 38:35.020]  You can see videos of it on YouTube.
[38:35.720 --> 38:36.360]  Signed, Mike.
[38:36.580 --> 38:42.480]  Well, I don't think there's a thing inside your MacBook called gravity, but it is a cool concept.
[38:42.480 --> 38:46.720]  There is a thing in your MacBook called an accelerometer, which detects gravity.
[38:47.200 --> 38:47.600]  That is true.
[38:47.660 --> 38:48.840]  I just like the fact that it's called Newton.
[38:49.280 --> 38:50.680]  I think that's pretty cool.
[38:51.980 --> 38:52.660]  Other than that...
[38:52.660 --> 38:57.980]  We're going to get email of people claiming that anything that has mass, you know, contributes to gravity or whatever.
[38:57.980 --> 38:59.400]  We're not going to get into that, but...
[38:59.400 --> 39:00.420]  No, let's not get into that.
[39:00.800 --> 39:02.560]  You're confusing our audience with you.
[39:02.920 --> 39:06.920]  Here's another letter about that subject or the subject of Windows XP.
[39:06.920 --> 39:13.940]  I found that Windows XP Black Edition is a bootleg copy of WinXP with tons of open source software and even more wares that are usually put on by users.
[39:14.100 --> 39:16.240]  The problem is that we don't know if this is just a Trojan.
[39:16.300 --> 39:27.360]  It's easy to hide all sorts of backdoor rootkits and bots in such a bootleg and then use those that download it and install it as a proxy to hide one's true location when committing crimes over the net.
[39:27.540 --> 39:31.780]  I tell everyone if they want an OS for free, there are tons of Unix-based OSs that are free.
[39:31.960 --> 39:34.040]  If you want Windows, buy a copy and install it.
[39:34.160 --> 39:35.060]  Signed, Uriah C.
[39:35.680 --> 39:36.840]  I tend to agree.
[39:37.000 --> 39:42.440]  Is it not possible to put any kind of Trojan or rootkit into a Unix system?
[39:42.540 --> 39:43.740]  Well, yeah, of course it is.
[39:43.780 --> 39:44.020]  All right.
[39:44.080 --> 39:44.900]  Well, how do you protect yourself?
[39:47.760 --> 39:50.840]  The distribution maintainers do a very good job of...
[39:50.840 --> 40:02.460]  Well, there have been some breaches, but in general, they do a pretty good job of ensuring that things get cross-checked and packages are signed and you can check the keys and all this other stuff.
[40:02.460 --> 40:10.940]  There are ways to protect yourselves and it's usually an automated process that the user doesn't have to worry about unless they get an alert saying, hey, the signature doesn't match or something.
[40:11.180 --> 40:14.720]  But in general, a pretty good job is done to ensure that stuff doesn't happen.
[40:15.100 --> 40:19.060]  If you're really paranoid, you can compile everything from source and check each line of the code yourself.
[40:19.560 --> 40:20.420]  I'm really paranoid.
[40:20.580 --> 40:21.240]  No, then do that.
[40:21.380 --> 40:21.620]  All right.
[40:22.420 --> 40:25.720]  Dear team, thanks for the updates regarding the upcoming digital TV revolution.
[40:26.540 --> 40:29.900]  Revolution, is that the right word or is it just chaos, mayhem, and pandemonium?
[40:30.080 --> 40:31.360]  I still haven't got my voucher.
[40:31.840 --> 40:32.880]  Yeah, well, this person didn't either.
[40:32.960 --> 40:34.900]  I signed up for two vouchers, have not yet received them.
[40:35.240 --> 40:40.600]  One fear I have is that only one voucher will be usable per adapter, somewhat like a scheme to force multiple purchases.
[40:41.000 --> 40:47.720]  More importantly, my family's cable provider, Charter, will be discontinuing non-digital communications by the beginning of 2009.
[40:47.720 --> 40:53.440]  I wonder how many other providers will take similar strategies to increase the cost of their monthly service fees.
[40:53.560 --> 40:54.260]  Signed, Owen.
[40:54.700 --> 40:58.640]  Just to clarify, the converter boxes are not going to help you out.
[40:58.980 --> 41:05.340]  ATSC uses a different modulation technique than the cable providers that transmit digital signals over their cable lines.
[41:05.520 --> 41:07.140]  So they're two independent things.
[41:07.240 --> 41:13.920]  The ATSC over-the-air modulation and the digital television modulation aren't the same thing.
[41:14.040 --> 41:15.100]  They're totally different.
[41:15.780 --> 41:17.360]  So this is just for over-the-air.
[41:17.360 --> 41:18.300]  They're the converters.
[41:18.480 --> 41:18.940]  Yes.
[41:19.320 --> 41:19.660]  All right.
[41:20.400 --> 41:27.540]  Well, here's another letter in response to the person having trouble receiving channel 13 using digital transmissions.
[41:28.160 --> 41:30.640]  The answer you gave him was not correct.
[41:30.640 --> 41:31.920]  Here is some clarification.
[41:32.340 --> 41:38.980]  The new digital channel assignments will be current channels 7 through 12 VHF and 14 to 53 UHF.
[41:39.240 --> 41:45.880]  Frequencies corresponding to channels 2 through 6 and 54 to 68 will be auctioned, bringing billions of dollars to the government.
[41:45.880 --> 41:56.880]  WNET is currently using a temporary UHF frequency of channel 61 for their HD channel 12-1, which differs in contents from their analog channel 13.
[41:57.240 --> 42:02.200]  As most digital channels are in the UHF region, all one needs is a good UHF antenna.
[42:02.380 --> 42:04.360]  There is no such thing as a digital antenna.
[42:04.660 --> 42:08.600]  Now, in February 2009, analog over-the-air transmission is supposed to end.
[42:08.600 --> 42:14.960]  Cable companies claim they will continue analog transmission for the foreseeable future, except, of course, for charter communications, apparently.
[42:15.500 --> 42:19.880]  In other words, if you have an analog TV and an antenna, then you will need a digital-to-analog converter.
[42:19.960 --> 42:28.580]  As I understand, Walmart carries them for around $50, and one can apply for one or two $40 rebate coupons per household, which can be applied towards the cost of the converter.
[42:28.720 --> 42:29.300]  Signed, Cass.
[42:29.860 --> 42:30.420]  All right.
[42:32.660 --> 42:35.240]  He was only half right, but that's okay.
[42:35.400 --> 42:35.980]  He was only half?
[42:36.080 --> 42:39.140]  Well, he said we were totally wrong, so who's a quarter right?
[42:39.400 --> 42:45.780]  There's no such thing as a digital antenna, but there is an antenna that's designed for the newer frequencies used by over-the-air digital television.
[42:46.620 --> 42:55.900]  And also, he said that all the VHF TV channels are going to be moved to different frequencies.
[42:56.240 --> 43:02.800]  And I've found at least 30 TV stations that will continue broadcasting on the...
[43:02.800 --> 43:14.320]  I've found at least on the F2 website, I've found at least 30 TV stations that broadcast on the low VHF band, which is channels two through six, that will continue to be broadcast after 2009.
[43:15.120 --> 43:21.100]  So, apparently, those frequencies are not going to be sold right away, the low VHF frequencies.
[43:21.520 --> 43:25.820]  So, the guy wasn't exactly right, but you can go on the FCC website and look that up.
[43:26.040 --> 43:32.920]  In practice, though, most of the existing UHF, VHF antennas for NTSC reception will work fine with ATSC.
[43:32.960 --> 43:36.260]  I mean, they're pretty broad-banded, and they tend to cover most of the spectrum anyway.
[43:36.600 --> 43:41.860]  We didn't ask this caller last week if his antenna in his attic was only a VHF antenna.
[43:41.860 --> 43:49.740]  If it were, it would perform very poorly for his application, which is what I was saying last week on the air, that he could maybe try another antenna.
[43:49.900 --> 43:51.960]  We didn't really go into what type of antenna he had.
[43:52.100 --> 43:59.360]  But if it's a VHF-only antenna, he might want to get an antenna that's better resonant on UHF frequencies.
[43:59.660 --> 44:04.720]  This is going to cause all kinds of confusion for a whole lot of people next February, and it's going to be really interesting to see what happens.
[44:04.720 --> 44:10.540]  Well, we're trying to get the jump of it by confusing people early, and I think we fulfilled our mission as far as that goes.
[44:10.920 --> 44:11.180]  Yep.
[44:11.280 --> 44:12.640]  We'll continue to attempt to do that.
[44:13.160 --> 44:15.180]  Okay, one more letter, and then let's take some phone calls.
[44:15.280 --> 44:18.000]  212-209-2900 is our telephone number.
[44:18.340 --> 44:25.980]  While listening to your complaints concerning your cell phone driving law and the exemption of amateur radio operators, I had to laugh.
[44:26.180 --> 44:34.600]  While I agree, it's not fair, I have to say you never hear about a wreck being caused by people who are using their amateur radios, but you do with people using their phones.
[44:35.280 --> 44:39.760]  Also, maybe nobody's saying I was on the amateur radio when I caused the crash.
[44:39.840 --> 44:41.440]  Maybe they're simply saying I was on my phone.
[44:41.520 --> 44:41.860]  Who knows?
[44:42.420 --> 44:44.740]  Also, we do weather spotting using amateur radio.
[44:44.740 --> 44:52.360]  It's much easier to hear a group of people out chasing tornadoes and reporting on weather that are on the same frequency than on a phone talking to one person.
[44:53.080 --> 44:55.920]  They're going out chasing tornadoes, and they're not causing accidents?
[44:56.120 --> 44:57.560]  They're looking for trouble.
[44:57.700 --> 44:59.480]  There are communities of people that do this, yeah.
[44:59.520 --> 45:00.020]  I know that.
[45:00.020 --> 45:05.080]  It doesn't matter if you're on a cell phone or an amateur radio link at that point, if you're going out looking for tornadoes.
[45:05.220 --> 45:07.060]  Well, not just tornadoes, but...
[45:07.060 --> 45:07.460]  Well, what?
[45:07.560 --> 45:09.640]  Hurricanes, earthquakes, lightning strikes?
[45:09.920 --> 45:12.200]  Any natural weather phenomena, yeah, they report.
[45:12.440 --> 45:12.640]  All right.
[45:12.720 --> 45:14.900]  No, they do not go around looking for sunny, clear days.
[45:15.100 --> 45:15.780]  Apparently not.
[45:16.780 --> 45:20.480]  That's when they're inside their homes talking about their equipment over the amateur radio links.
[45:20.680 --> 45:21.560]  Oh, we're going to get nailed.
[45:21.620 --> 45:22.500]  Let's not going to that.
[45:22.600 --> 45:26.960]  Your mention that the radio operators have a powerful group that helped get this exemption in place is true.
[45:26.960 --> 45:33.680]  The ARRL is a very large group that fights for the radio operators' rights, and I do applaud them.
[45:33.740 --> 45:34.700]  I do applaud them for doing that.
[45:34.920 --> 45:37.360]  I just wish we had more groups like that fighting for other rights.
[45:37.920 --> 45:43.560]  While you could say it's not fair, yeah, well, many of these people are out trying to help save life and property.
[45:43.860 --> 45:45.780]  Hey, you don't know what I'm talking about on my cell phone.
[45:45.780 --> 45:47.860]  I could be trying to save somebody's life on the cell phone.
[45:47.940 --> 45:48.460]  You don't know that.
[45:48.720 --> 45:58.320]  As I understand the law, it is not a requirement that you are saving life and or property while on your amateur radio in order to get the exemption.
[45:58.520 --> 46:11.520]  No, but a lot of repeater groups and a lot of local emergency groups specifically employ amateur radio, and they have repeaters and backup repeaters and repeaters with power generation stations and battery backups.
[46:11.740 --> 46:17.180]  I mean, they have some pretty robust, impressive repeaters out there to allow for it.
[46:17.200 --> 46:21.640]  But that does not necessarily mean that every conversation going over amateur radio is for the betterment of mankind.
[46:21.640 --> 46:24.120]  I didn't say that every conversation would be.
[46:24.240 --> 46:28.240]  However, it is really a robust emergency communications infrastructure.
[46:28.240 --> 46:38.280]  Yeah, and I would even extend that to say that most conversations going over cellular phone calls are probably of a positive nature, where people are saying good things to each other as opposed to those where people are insulting each other and saying bad words.
[46:38.640 --> 46:40.640]  You haven't been listening to their cellular phone calls lately.
[46:40.900 --> 46:41.360]  You have not.
[46:41.540 --> 46:42.800]  I can't get them anymore.
[46:42.800 --> 46:44.140]  My scanner doesn't pick them up.
[46:44.140 --> 46:44.660]  What happened?
[46:44.780 --> 46:45.440]  They're all gone.
[46:46.040 --> 46:46.500]  All right.
[46:46.500 --> 46:48.180]  What's so great about property anyway?
[46:48.580 --> 46:48.980]  Yeah.
[46:49.180 --> 46:50.280]  What's so great about saving that?
[46:50.360 --> 46:50.940]  I love it.
[46:51.240 --> 46:51.580]  All right.
[46:51.900 --> 46:55.860]  Anyway, many of these people are out trying to help save life and property.
[46:55.860 --> 47:00.400]  I know I don't want to be pulled over while trying to get into a good spotter position during severe weather.
[47:01.080 --> 47:03.060]  It's probably one of the strangest statements I've ever heard.
[47:03.660 --> 47:04.640]  What am I talking about?
[47:04.700 --> 47:06.500]  Most of the cops are running away from the storms.
[47:06.500 --> 47:08.140]  Anyway, thanks for the laugh.
[47:08.320 --> 47:10.420]  Well, we're laughing too, but thanks.
[47:10.600 --> 47:14.060]  73 RC, which means something in the amateur radio world.
[47:14.260 --> 47:14.580]  Yes.
[47:14.860 --> 47:15.160]  73.
[47:15.480 --> 47:16.220]  We love these people.
[47:16.320 --> 47:16.780]  They love us.
[47:16.860 --> 47:17.500]  We all know this.
[47:17.740 --> 47:22.780]  Our phone number, 212-209-2900 is our landline to get to us.
[47:22.900 --> 47:24.460]  What's our amateur radio channel?
[47:24.840 --> 47:25.580]  Do we have one?
[47:26.720 --> 47:27.080]  No?
[47:27.880 --> 47:28.240]  Okay.
[47:28.680 --> 47:29.840]  Nobody wants to give out their call signs?
[47:31.100 --> 47:31.460]  K2BAT.
[47:32.060 --> 47:32.420]  K2BAT.
[47:32.620 --> 47:33.300]  Bernie, you want yours?
[47:34.960 --> 47:35.320]  N3KOW.
[47:35.720 --> 47:37.300]  You cleared off the phone lines by doing that.
[47:37.440 --> 47:39.580]  212-209-2900.
[47:39.720 --> 47:40.160]  There are a couple.
[47:40.880 --> 47:41.320]  All right.
[47:41.340 --> 47:42.080]  Let's take a phone call.
[47:42.940 --> 47:43.580]  And good evening.
[47:43.680 --> 47:44.280]  You're on Off the Hook.
[47:44.500 --> 47:44.800]  Yes.
[47:44.900 --> 47:46.160]  This is Jerry from NIAC.
[47:46.360 --> 47:46.840]  How are you doing?
[47:47.160 --> 47:47.580]  All right.
[47:47.720 --> 47:55.320]  And I just want to know if there's any difference in an HD radio antenna that makes it different than a normal FM antenna.
[47:55.320 --> 47:56.080]  Oh, man.
[47:56.180 --> 47:57.280]  Can I rant about HD radio?
[47:57.360 --> 47:58.540]  Well, rant for a couple of minutes.
[47:58.720 --> 47:59.520]  Answer his question first.
[47:59.720 --> 47:59.900]  Okay.
[48:00.000 --> 48:00.160]  Go ahead.
[48:00.440 --> 48:00.800]  No.
[48:00.860 --> 48:01.500]  There's no difference.
[48:01.700 --> 48:04.840]  They are using the same frequencies.
[48:04.860 --> 48:07.180]  However, they expand the bandwidth of each channel.
[48:09.060 --> 48:13.480]  One of the things that I hate about HD radio is the false advertisement that goes into it.
[48:13.620 --> 48:15.980]  And there are two classifications of this.
[48:16.080 --> 48:23.740]  One is the claim that HD radio is somehow higher quality than analog FM radio.
[48:24.020 --> 48:27.360]  And the second one is that it's free because neither of these are true.
[48:27.500 --> 48:33.660]  First of all, I'll address the free point because I think that's more of interest to the hacker community.
[48:36.860 --> 48:42.960]  The price or the cost of an HD radio is so much higher than the cost of regular radios.
[48:43.020 --> 48:44.340]  And that may come down in the future.
[48:44.480 --> 48:53.200]  However, there's something that I like to equate with the Microsoft tax, which is when you buy a new PC, it's very difficult to find one without Windows installed.
[48:54.080 --> 49:04.240]  And as is the case with HD radio, you need to purchase the HD decoder from Ubiquity, which is the company that's the proprietor of that technology.
[49:04.440 --> 49:05.920]  And there's no way around it.
[49:06.620 --> 49:07.640]  It's their technology.
[49:07.640 --> 49:08.940]  You have to purchase it from them.
[49:09.180 --> 49:11.140]  And there's no way around that.
[49:11.340 --> 49:15.460]  The radio stations pay hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
[49:15.760 --> 49:16.400]  So what's the advantage then?
[49:16.400 --> 49:21.380]  The advantage is you can cram more channels into your location.
[49:21.540 --> 49:24.560]  Okay, so we could put out, say, four channels instead of one.
[49:24.700 --> 49:27.240]  But if you did that, the quality is substantially lower.
[49:27.440 --> 49:32.420]  And even with the highest quality signal, it's still not necessarily better than the FM equivalent.
[49:32.500 --> 49:34.040]  Is it better than satellite radio, though?
[49:34.620 --> 49:36.200]  I know they do that on satellite radio.
[49:36.200 --> 49:37.280]  They're cramming all kinds of things.
[49:37.300 --> 49:38.400]  It's a different technology.
[49:38.740 --> 49:41.840]  It's not meant to be the same thing.
[49:41.840 --> 49:52.760]  A good analogy about HD radio would be it's kind of like listening to a streaming MP3 on the Internet that's kind of a low bit rate.
[49:53.460 --> 49:54.400]  It's not...
[49:54.400 --> 49:57.180]  You know, you're not listening to analog waveforms.
[49:57.200 --> 49:59.820]  You're listening to a digital waveform that's been converted to analog.
[50:00.140 --> 50:02.680]  And it's going to have some artifacts.
[50:02.720 --> 50:06.960]  It's just not as clear as a pure FM signal.
[50:06.960 --> 50:12.640]  And you have to pay at least a couple hundred dollars or more for an HD radio.
[50:13.020 --> 50:19.140]  And a good part of that cost goes to this Ibiquity Corporation, which has this proprietary technology.
[50:19.340 --> 50:20.180]  They've voiced it on the FCC.
[50:20.340 --> 50:26.700]  Well, is this the same kind of technology that's making digital TV, where you have four different channels, where you only had one before?
[50:27.440 --> 50:28.060]  Not the same.
[50:28.580 --> 50:31.860]  It's somewhat similar in that it's a different company and all that.
[50:31.860 --> 50:42.580]  But it's similar in that you can cram several channels, whether they're voice or video and voice, into a given unit of bandwidth.
[50:42.880 --> 50:44.600]  So that's what all they're trying to do.
[50:44.760 --> 50:45.700]  What about the antenna?
[50:46.040 --> 50:47.580]  Well, the antennas are going to be the same.
[50:47.660 --> 50:50.360]  For an HD radio, it's the same frequency band.
[50:50.560 --> 50:52.020]  There's no difference in the antennas.
[50:52.480 --> 50:57.620]  And is it true that you have to be, like, within 25 miles of the transmitter site?
[50:58.460 --> 50:59.640]  You have to be closer.
[50:59.640 --> 51:02.140]  It's a digital signal, so it's either there or it's not there.
[51:02.240 --> 51:03.220]  There's no fading, right?
[51:03.600 --> 51:11.240]  Yeah, you'll get the same kind of artifacts with that as you would if you had an intermittent connection while listening to an MP3.
[51:11.700 --> 51:12.600]  One of the things...
[51:12.600 --> 51:25.760]  I've got to say, one of the things about HD, which stands for hybrid digital, not high-definition radio, HD radio, when you're listening to an HD broadcast, and if you're some distance away from the transmitter, like 10, 20 miles, and the signal is weak,
[51:26.080 --> 51:31.320]  it'll flip down to analog mode automatically and receive the regular FM signal.
[51:31.480 --> 51:36.000]  And if you're on the borderline, it switches back and forth, and it's really annoying.
[51:36.300 --> 51:40.780]  I mean, it's still the same audio, but you'll hear the quality shift up and down and shift up and down.
[51:40.920 --> 51:42.060]  It's very distracting.
[51:42.220 --> 51:53.680]  Anybody who has an HD radio in their car can attest to this, because there's so much echoing and bouncing of signals in areas like Manhattan.
[51:53.680 --> 51:55.720]  And you're going to experience this, and it's very annoying.
[51:55.880 --> 51:58.880]  So I'm not clear, Bernie and Redbird, are you for it or against it?
[52:00.000 --> 52:00.680]  I'm against it.
[52:00.760 --> 52:01.440]  I'm against it, too.
[52:01.580 --> 52:02.000]  I'm joking.
[52:02.160 --> 52:06.800]  This technology, it could be a good technology, and there are open equivalents of it.
[52:06.880 --> 52:11.280]  If you look up DRM, and we're not going to go into it, it does not stand for digital rights management, but...
[52:11.980 --> 52:13.060]  A different DRM.
[52:13.140 --> 52:18.200]  It's a different DRM, but it's also a digital radio standard, and that's being used on short wave bands and stuff like that.
[52:18.280 --> 52:19.200]  And for that, it's great.
[52:19.940 --> 52:23.660]  As long as we're talking about what the acronyms are, HD does not stand for high-definition either.
[52:24.000 --> 52:28.380]  No, and Ubiquiti refuses to claim that it stands for anything at all, actually.
[52:28.540 --> 52:30.540]  They don't say it stands for anything.
[52:30.680 --> 52:41.500]  They just say, this is the name of our technology, it's HD radio, and they're playing off all of the hype of HD television, which actually is higher quality than NTSC, but HD radio is certainly not.
[52:42.540 --> 52:42.940]  Okay.
[52:43.400 --> 52:44.920]  At least in its current form.
[52:45.340 --> 52:45.560]  All right.
[52:45.600 --> 52:46.760]  I think we've confused that listener enough.
[52:46.940 --> 52:47.740]  I think we've confused that.
[52:47.980 --> 52:48.580]  We're trying.
[52:48.760 --> 52:49.500]  It's our goal.
[52:49.600 --> 52:51.220]  212-209-2900.
[52:51.400 --> 52:52.300]  Let's see who else is out there.
[52:52.300 --> 52:53.160]  And good evening.
[52:53.300 --> 52:53.880]  You're on Off the Hook.
[52:54.640 --> 52:54.960]  Hello?
[52:55.220 --> 52:55.400]  Yes.
[52:55.460 --> 52:55.940]  What's on your mind?
[52:57.480 --> 52:57.960]  Go ahead.
[52:58.060 --> 52:58.640]  Turn on your radio.
[52:59.280 --> 52:59.620]  Hold on.
[52:59.680 --> 53:00.280]  Let me turn it off.
[53:00.320 --> 53:00.520]  Yeah.
[53:00.560 --> 53:01.040]  Please do that.
[53:01.580 --> 53:01.800]  No.
[53:02.380 --> 53:04.000]  I'm calling about repeaters.
[53:04.300 --> 53:04.500]  Okay.
[53:05.140 --> 53:17.920]  I'm interested in, I have an office down in the basement, and what I'm trying to do is get cell phone reception in the basement, and somebody's recommended getting repeaters.
[53:18.220 --> 53:20.720]  You know, you find them on the internet or something like that?
[53:21.140 --> 53:21.560]  Yes.
[53:21.560 --> 53:23.420]  You guys are familiar with that?
[53:24.560 --> 53:24.960]  Yes.
[53:25.760 --> 53:26.140]  Okay.
[53:26.320 --> 53:29.080]  Could you tell me a little bit about it?
[53:30.460 --> 53:31.720]  You can buy them.
[53:31.840 --> 53:33.220]  They're at least a couple hundred dollars.
[53:33.420 --> 53:34.860]  They're usually sometimes more than that.
[53:34.960 --> 53:35.800]  They're a few hundred dollars.
[53:35.800 --> 53:38.900]  But they come in two parts.
[53:39.020 --> 53:52.680]  One part mounts where it has access, you know, upstairs where it has access to the cellular signal, and then there's a cable that goes to the area where you need to get cellular reception that you can't now.
[53:52.820 --> 53:59.880]  So it's sort of like a radio transmitter and a receiver for cellular tools from connected by a cable.
[54:00.200 --> 54:03.340]  And you install this, and you can have service down in your basement.
[54:03.340 --> 54:06.040]  But it may not be worth it if you've got to spend several hundred dollars for it.
[54:06.480 --> 54:07.060]  Yeah, you're right.
[54:07.700 --> 54:08.240]  You're right.
[54:08.300 --> 54:16.420]  For a business, for like an office building, where like everybody on the floor of the building needs to have use of their cell phones, and they can't because it's a metal building, it's a good idea.
[54:16.460 --> 54:20.620]  But for individuals, it's really not feasible to buy one of these cell phone repeaters.
[54:20.700 --> 54:23.360]  But you can go online and just Google like cell phone repeaters.
[54:23.680 --> 54:25.900]  You'll find a bunch of them for sale, but they're a few hundred bucks.
[54:26.480 --> 54:26.760]  Okay.
[54:27.020 --> 54:27.320]  All right.
[54:27.580 --> 54:28.660]  Thanks for your call.
[54:29.020 --> 54:29.600]  Thanks a lot.
[54:29.780 --> 54:30.140]  All right.
[54:30.220 --> 54:31.800]  Let's move on to this call over here.
[54:31.960 --> 54:32.440]  Good evening.
[54:32.660 --> 54:33.180]  You're on Off the Hook.
[54:35.300 --> 54:37.300]  Hey, that's us in the past.
[54:38.040 --> 54:38.880]  What's on your mind?
[54:39.820 --> 54:40.680]  Is anybody there?
[54:40.920 --> 54:41.220]  Go ahead.
[54:43.080 --> 54:43.720]  Hello, hello.
[54:45.680 --> 54:46.100]  Okay.
[54:46.220 --> 54:47.420]  You know, we don't communicate that way.
[54:47.480 --> 54:48.720]  We communicate using our voices.
[54:49.420 --> 54:50.060]  Good evening.
[54:50.200 --> 54:50.920]  You're on Off the Hook.
[54:51.340 --> 54:51.840]  Good evening.
[54:52.000 --> 55:03.120]  I hope this is not off the subject, but do you have any recommendations for hardware used to transfer LPs to digital?
[55:03.320 --> 55:04.220]  Oh, good question.
[55:04.680 --> 55:08.060]  There are some what's known as USB turntables.
[55:08.240 --> 55:11.160]  Basically, it uses a USB connector.
[55:11.160 --> 55:15.640]  You plug it into your computer, and you have a turntable on the other end.
[55:15.720 --> 55:20.760]  You can encode your phonograph records as MP3s or whatever digital standard you wish.
[55:20.760 --> 55:22.680]  Well, a big investment for a starving artist.
[55:22.880 --> 55:27.600]  How about using an existing analog turntable?
[55:27.940 --> 55:29.980]  Well, you need a way of connecting it to your computer.
[55:30.140 --> 55:32.000]  These aren't that expensive from what I've heard.
[55:32.220 --> 55:35.220]  You can just patch it into your sound card if you have a decent quality sound card.
[55:35.220 --> 55:40.840]  Yeah, just do that and use an audio recording application and then convert it to MP3.
[55:42.900 --> 55:49.200]  There's an application I saw that I used a few years ago for this called the Easy CD Creator, and it had a function in it.
[55:49.340 --> 55:50.020]  I forget what it was called.
[55:50.380 --> 56:04.380]  It actually was designed for recording LPs onto CD-ROMs, our audio CDs, and it listened for the pause between the music tracks and encoded them to separate tracks on the audio CD.
[56:04.380 --> 56:05.320]  Wow, that's hard.
[56:05.340 --> 56:10.480]  But there's probably other software out there that does that, and you can do it with very little additional hardware.
[56:10.800 --> 56:19.940]  You might need to get what's called a preamplifier to take your phono outputs from your phonograph and erase them up to the 1-volt level needed by your sound card inputs.
[56:20.080 --> 56:25.600]  But it's doable, and you might want to save your record collection that way, and that way you don't have to scratch it anymore.
[56:25.640 --> 56:30.720]  And that way you don't have to buy it again from the record companies when they come out with a different format.
[56:31.540 --> 56:34.080]  That's going to just about do it for us here tonight.
[56:34.520 --> 56:35.840]  This has been Off the Hook.
[56:35.900 --> 56:36.780]  Emmanuel Goldstein with you.
[56:37.280 --> 56:39.320]  Thanks to everybody else who called in and was part of the show.
[56:39.420 --> 56:41.120]  OTH at 2600.com.
[56:41.240 --> 56:43.460]  We'll be back again next week with another exciting show.
[56:43.800 --> 56:47.220]  In the meantime, stay tuned for the Personal Computer Show.
[56:47.420 --> 56:47.740]  Good night.
[56:47.740 --> 57:16.380]  Everyone was looking for a little entertainment So they probably put his hands up when they find out his name And then they shut down the power all along the line And we got stuck in a tunnel with no light shining Got that touching all the girls who were too scared to call out And nobody was saying anything at all We were waiting through the end of the world.
[57:17.600 --> 57:20.540]  Waiting through the end of the world.
[57:21.760 --> 57:24.520]  Waiting through the end of the world.
[57:24.780 --> 57:30.460]  Dear Lord, I sincerely hope you're coming, cause you really started something.
[57:38.590 --> 57:42.970]  Things got back to normal as the train began to roll again.
[57:43.190 --> 57:46.830]  We got to the station about twenty minutes later.
[57:51.160 --> 57:55.320]  The legendary hitchhiker says that he knows where it's at.
[57:55.560 --> 57:59.420]  Now he'd like to go to Spain or somewhere like that.
[57:59.780 --> 58:03.560]  With a two-tone Bible and his funny cigarettes.
[58:04.040 --> 58:08.160]  His suntan lotion and his cacastin as a watch.
[58:08.440 --> 58:11.000]  Waiting through the end of the world.
[58:12.320 --> 58:15.220]  Waiting through the end of the world.
[58:16.460 --> 58:19.320]  Waiting through the end of the world.
[58:19.480 --> 58:25.120]  Dear Lord, I sincerely hope you're coming, cause you really started something.
[58:26.440 --> 58:27.080]  And
[58:33.430 --> 58:41.410]  the bride, the groom, the congregation, and the priest all got out to the train when we were three stations east.
[58:41.690 --> 58:41.810]  Yeah!
[58:50.130 --> 58:53.570]  Hiding from a scandal in the national press.
[58:53.750 --> 58:58.090]  They have been trying to get married since they stole a wedding dress.
[58:58.090 --> 59:02.090]  You may see them drowning as you stroll on the beach.
[59:02.230 --> 59:07.170]  But don't roll out the lifeline till they're clean out of reach.
[59:07.330 --> 59:09.870]  Waiting through the end of the world.
[59:11.130 --> 59:14.030]  Waiting through the end of the world.
[59:15.350 --> 59:18.290]  Waiting through the end of the world.
[59:19.510 --> 59:22.450]  Waiting through the end of the world.
[59:23.710 --> 59:26.410]  Waiting through the end of the world.
[59:44.520 --> 59:46.120]  All right, all right.
[59:46.280 --> 59:46.920]  Hey, Cat.
[59:47.280 --> 59:48.020]  All right.
[59:48.220 --> 59:49.040]  Cat's out the hospital.
[59:49.300 --> 59:52.120]  Hey, I need somebody to lend me $5,500.
[59:52.680 --> 59:53.740]  Can't tell you what it's for.