the Earth on the Secret Museum of the Air.
Visiting hours, every Saturday from 9 to 10 p.m.
Remember, knowledge is power, thoughts have wings, and the Secret Museum is open this
Saturday at 9 p.m.
That's Saturday, 9 p.m., the Secret Museum of the Air.
9 p.m.
Saturday.
9 p.m.
Saturday.
It's not 9 p.m. on Saturday now, it's 10 o'clock on Wednesday, time for Off the Hook.
The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a cuff, it couldn't get much worse, but if
they could, they would.
Bum-diddly-bum for the best, expect the worst.
Good evening, it's another edition of Off the Hook here on WBAI in New York, this is
Emanuel Goldstein, we have a fun-packed hour planned for you tonight, and we'll be taking
phone calls again, as we always do, at 212-279-3400.
First some rather interesting news, the new edition of 2600 has just hit the stands, or
actually it hasn't really hit the stands yet, it's hit the first step towards getting to
the stands, but I'm authorized to tell you that there are some very interesting articles
in here, including the day-by-day account of the Steve Jackson trial, a very in-depth
article on cellular phones and how they can be monitored, listened to, altered, all kinds
of mean, nasty, ugly things.
An article on descrambling cable, a list of acronyms, people are always wondering what
acronyms mean.
For instance, you will learn that ADN means Abbreviated Dialing Number.
You'll learn that caret, C-A-R-O-T, means Centralized Automatic Reporting on Trunks.
How many of you really knew that?
Did you know that?
FiberOptic is here, and all right, Fiber, you just asked for trouble because I'm going
to test you on these now.
Okay, how about this, DOV.
DOV, Data Over Voice.
That's right, he's right.
Okay, that's very good.
Okay, I'm going to give you three random ones and we'll see how you do.
E-T-N.
I don't know.
E-T-N.
You want to take a wild stab at it?
I don't know.
It sounds too simple.
I don't know what it is.
It means, hold on, I lost my place, E-T-N, yes, Electronic Tandem Network.
All right, well, you won one, you lost one, let's see if you can come out with a winning
percentage here.
G-O-D.
Well, it sounds like God.
Yeah, it sounds like God, but it's not God.
I don't think we should tamper with that one.
Okay, maybe we'll skip that one now.
We'll skip that one for religious purposes or whatever.
I'll tell you, though, it means global outdial, but we'll have another one in its place.
That's not a real acronym.
Well, that's what, look, this came from, you know, from the phone company here.
Okay, D-P-E.
D-P-E.
See, even though it's not a real acronym, it's a real acronym.
Okay, D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
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D-P-E.
D-P-E.
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D-P-E.
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D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
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D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
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D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
D-P-E.
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D-P-E.
But the second mechanism, ah, the second mechanism.
Each copier embeds a code into the copied image which is impossible to see.
A special scanner extracts the code, and a computer program then furnishes the copier's
serial number, allowing identification of the registered purchaser of the machine.
Now I'm sure we don't have to tell you that that's a good idea for counterfeiting, but
that little code is going to be embedded on every single copy you make.
So if one day somebody wants to find who copied a particular leaflet that got passed around
and caused a lot of problems, they'll be able to do it.
I wonder if, ah, if you make copies of the copy, if the code continues to be copied along
with that.
Only time will tell.
Keep sending our, those clippings in, keep sending us, ah, news items, forwarding information
to us.
The number is off the hook, Kariv WBAI, 505 8th Avenue, New York, New York, 10018.
And we do, ah, appreciate those cards and letters and all kinds of other things.
So we have, ah, an interesting phone number to call now.
This is something that I think, ah, a lot of us will, will have fun with.
Let's, ah, get our friend the dial tone here.
There we are.
Let's, ah, give this a call.
OK.
Some of you may recognize this number.
Thank you for calling New York Telephone.
To reach the Annoyance Call Bureau, press 1.
Let's press 1.
For calling from a rotary dial telephone, please stay on the line.
If this is your first call to our bureau, press 1.
If you have filed a police report and were advised to contact us, press 2.
For information about Phone Smart Call Trace or Call ID, press 3.
If you have been instructed by this office to report dates and times for an active investigation,
press 4.
If you are returning a call to a representative, press 5.
If you're calling from a police agency, press 6.
To repeat these options, press 9.
OK.
We're going to press 1 and receive a fabulous tip.
For information about obscene, abusive, or silent calls, press 1.
For information about hang-up calls, press 2.
If your calls are life-threatening, press 3.
If you are receiving wrong number or collect calls, press 4.
If you hear a beep sound or a tone on your incoming calls, press 5.
If you are calling to request a change of telephone number, press 6.
Let's press 1.
If you are receiving obscene, abusive, or silent calls, you may find the following suggestion to be helpful.
While the caller is on your line, press the number 6 button on your touchtone telephone.
Hold the button down for just a moment, release it, and say,
Operator, this is the call I want to check for the police.
You may also dial the number 6 and make the same statement when the dialing stops.
This action will normally discourage a caller.
Hang up immediately and be sure to write down the date and the exact time of the annoying call.
OK. I'm hanging up immediately, and let's write down the date and time of that call.
I don't know who would be silly enough to believe that.
That's the tone that's supposed to strike fear into an obscene caller.
They say 6. Do you have any idea why?
Maybe they did some sort of psychological testing on people, and 6 scares people more than others.
What gets me is that they say if you have a rotary phone, you can just dial 6, too.
It has to be 6 both times, as if there's some sort of scientific method here that 6 is going to do it.
Operator, that's the number I want to trace.
I don't know. I want to report to the police. That's what it is.
I don't know. This is an interesting one.
By the way, I can't help but notice that our phone is only coming through one ear.
I don't know why that is.
There's an engineer in the house that knows how to make it come through both ears.
Please come in and help us.
Otherwise, we're going to have the callers in one ear and everything else in both ears.
I guess that's just the way things are.
Our number is 212-279-3400.
By the way, in case some of you want to call the Annoyance Call Bureau and play with that automatic menu,
you won't get a person this hour of the night.
If you have a rotary phone, you won't get anything.
If you have a touch-tone phone, you can have all kinds of fun wandering around their system
and getting who knows what other kinds of tips for things to dial to prevent people from calling you.
That's one of the numbers somebody passed along this week.
Keep passing those numbers along. Keep exploring.
You never know what's out there.
All right. Let's go to the phones.
Good evening.
Hello. Can I ask you a question on the air?
Well, you're on the air.
Actually, you already have asked me a question on the air, which I haven't answered yet.
But go ahead.
All right. The question is, which boxes currently work?
I assume you mean boxes that phone freaks use.
Mm-hmm.
Well, all boxes work.
I mean, which will work the best right now?
Well, it depends. What is your goal?
Pretty much to make free calls, to be passed on as a long-distance operator.
Uh-huh.
Well, Fiber, I'll give you this one.
Only because, I don't know, I'll just give it to you.
Okay. I'll keep this really general, and I'm not encouraging anyone to do this,
but since there's only two boxes that are actually real,
and you can pretty much forget any other stupidity you might have picked up on a bulletin board system,
both of these boxes, which I'll leave nameless, currently work,
and I think I should just leave it at that.
Okay. Well, I mean, I don't know why we have to leave it nameless.
I mean, everybody knows red boxes work.
Okay. Yeah.
Red boxes simply play the tones into a payphone, and they work.
That's something New York Telephone and all the phone companies are very upset about,
and I don't know how long it's going to take them to fix it,
and it's worked for all time as far as those payphones have had the current technology.
It's always worked.
I have one more question.
Yeah.
I currently run a BBS, a bulletin board system.
Yeah.
Do you know how I can get in touch with Kevin Mitnick?
Well, Kevin Mitnick, being the dark hacker of Las Vegas and California,
I don't know how you'd get a hold of him, actually.
You might send a letter to 2600, and maybe it'll get printed, and maybe he'll be able to—
Maybe you just think evil thoughts.
Yeah, he might just appear.
We're kidding. Kevin's actually a good person.
I've talked to him a couple of times, and I don't know a way to get a hold of him, though.
That's hard.
Yeah.
But he's out there.
Yeah.
He's out there, and actually I hear he's a private investigator now.
He's doing some private eye work.
Yeah.
So you'll run into him.
Thanks a lot.
Okay.
Okay, bye.
And we should stress that we're talking about boxes.
We don't think people should go out there and make free phone calls just for the sake of making free phone calls.
Go out there and explore the phone system by all means.
That's what exploring is all about.
But if you're just out to get something for nothing, I don't know, there's something kind of sleazy about that in my book.
I mean, when I was exploring the phone system back in my real active days, that's what I was doing.
I was looking at internal mechanisms of the system, calling inward operators and things like that.
And, yeah, occasionally you make some free calls and get connected to people all over the world,
but that's just kind of like a side benefit to the knowledge that you pick up.
But if you're just out there, I mean, you might as well just go to the port authority and, you know, look over people's shoulders as they punch in calling cards.
It's no better than that.
All right.
Enough moral preaching here.
Let's go back to the phones.
Good evening.
Yes.
I enjoy your program very much.
Thank you.
I just wanted to respond to the story that you read about from England.
It was obviously the juxtaposition, the wrong placement of the buttons that was at fault in calling the nurse and self-medicating buttons.
Just like to point out that it has been proved that most people in hospital or at home suffer from useless pain that enough medication could prevent,
and that people use much less medication when they are in control of it, which is why that person could access the painkiller.
Obviously, there was a terrible mix-up in where it was placed or how it was separated.
But the fault is not in giving people painkillers that are under their control.
They use much less painkiller when they have control over it.
Well, this is in general, though.
You wouldn't say this of every person, would you?
Well, the studies are very, very conclusive that most people are under-medicated.
They are allowed to suffer too often and for too prolonged a time because people are so afraid of narcotics or morphine that they don't prescribe enough.
And when people are in hospital, say, recovering from something, that it has also been proved that when they are in control of their own painkillers,
they use far less than waiting in agony for the hours to pass until when the doctor ordered it.
So I'm just trying to tell you that it's not the painkiller. That's not a funny thing.
What is dreadful, obviously, is the idiotic placement of the buttons.
Right. Well, maybe the buttons should be, you know, drastically different.
Right. That's my point.
Right.
Yes. Okay.
All right. Thanks very much.
Okay. Interesting point.
And, I don't know, maybe a voice-activated, you know, painkiller system instead of a button where you just say, you know, pain or something like that.
Although that can lead to problems too.
If you're talking in your sleep.
Yeah. If you're talking in your sleep, you get injected with all kinds of things.
I don't know. It's a tough solution.
I don't envy the people that have to solve that problem.
Good evening. You're on Off the Hook.
Hello.
How are you doing?
Yeah. With the problem in the Soviet Union, which isn't their name anymore, but I think they're going back to the old name.
Are you guys ready to hack Russia? The universities?
Well, I'm not sure what you mean by hack Russia.
Well, get back in. In other words, when they had the big debacle there about two years ago.
Uh-huh.
Are you, uh...
Are you talking about the Internet?
Yeah.
Well, they're on the Internet.
And also any other illegal, you know, international things.
Because, like, you know, you can get away with it on the sense that if they're not a country anymore, for that time being, they can't...
Well, they are a country. They're Russia.
I mean, when they have a coup d'etat like they did before.
Actually, 15 countries.
Yeah, well, they're heading towards some kind of, I don't know, problem.
But it'll be interesting to see how high technology deals with any instability in Russia.
After all, if that country goes to civil war, it's going to affect a lot more people than the Yugoslavian mess.
Will there be faxes sent into Russia to tell people the truth?
Yeah, yeah, like two years ago.
Yeah, that was with China, though.
That was during the Tiananmen Square uprising.
I don't know. I don't know how that's going to...
Everybody except people on BAI and 13 seem to be, and CNN seem to be just taking this problem recently as, like, nothing's going on.
Yeah, well, eventually...
About any superpower, really, yeah.
Eventually, you know, this American attitude of, you know, it doesn't affect me, so it's not going to matter.
Phone starts to click, makes a couple clicks while it's on the hook.
Do you have any idea what that might be?
Oh, yeah.
Okay, you want to answer that one?
Yeah, there's a system that the phone company uses called Predictor.
And just about every night, it goes and tests everyone's phone within a certain area.
And there's a couple of the systems throughout the city.
And all they're doing is pretty much daily checks on your phone during a time when you're least likely to be using it so as not to disturb you.
And if your phone is making noises, it's most likely that either you have a cheap phone or there's something wrong with the ringer.
Normally, it wouldn't make any noise at all on the hook, but that's the reason if it's doing that.
I don't know if it's necessarily a sign of a cheap phone.
I kind of like that feature that tells you whenever somebody's picking up an extension.
Yeah, maybe so.
It's a pretty cheap phone.
Okay.
Cheap phones tend to have that.
I don't know.
This is more sensitive in some way.
Yeah.
But there's nothing to worry about.
In fact, they're doing it for you.
Well, thanks.
Hey, you guys got me interested in worms and viruses and all sorts of hackers.
I'm reading a very interesting book about it called exactly that, Computers, Worms, and Hackers.
I don't know that one.
It's pretty good.
It's put out by ACM.
Yeah?
Yeah.
It talks about, you know, the Berkeley thing, the guy in Germany who broke into Internet.
And all those wild military things he was picking up through Internet.
Yeah.
It sounds like the Clifford Stoll story.
Yeah.
That's the book.
Yeah.
Okay.
Thanks a lot.
All right.
Thanks for calling.
Okay.
Bye-bye.
Now, you know, it's still possible that there's somebody skulking about in his basement, you know, tapping lines,
tapping a handset into his lines, and it would still make that same noise.
Well, you should point that out, that people, you know, still can be paranoid.
We're not saying that they don't have to be paranoid.
Well, the fact that it's happening on a regular schedule.
If it's happening on a regular schedule, either the person is very methodical in the basement or it is, as you say, the phone coming up.
Is that something that is endemic to a 5ESS?
No, it's not.
Every switch is tested by a predictor, and every phone line is tested every night.
Not a crossbar.
Oh, yes, it is.
My crossbar wasn't.
In fact, that didn't start happening until they cut over to the 5ESS.
Maybe so.
Maybe your phone wasn't sensitive or I don't know what, but it's typical that they do that.
You say that there's other systems as well?
Well, there's more than one predictor system, is what I'm saying.
There's maybe a little more than half a dozen, and they pretty much cover the entire city,
and they test everyone's phone just about every night or every couple of nights.
That's an incredible number of lines to go through.
I mean, how quickly do they get through this?
Considering that each line is only tested in just about a second, they can test a lot of them.
Well, you see, I've noticed I have a light in one of my phones that goes on when something like this happens,
and occasionally I see that light go on, but then it goes off, but then it goes on again.
It does it about 10 times, and then finally it goes away.
Now, do they do that for everybody's line, or are they just waiting around on my line for some reason?
No, it probably is.
One of the tests that they do is the polarity check.
The polarity check, you might recall from older test numbers in electromechanical exchanges,
it's a test number you'd call, and then you'd just hear a series of clicks over and over,
about maybe 10 or so, and then usually it'll cut off.
That sort of test is done just to test the voltage on the line.
I see.
That's among one of the typical tests that a predictor does.
Okay, let's go back to the telephone.
Good evening. You're on off the hook.
Yes, hi.
I recently had an experience with a consolidated Edison.
I feel sorry for you, whatever that experience was.
Sorry.
We had received a very large bill, so we had them send a guy out to check to see if somebody was siphoning
electricity off of our meter or something along those lines.
Well, he came out, he looked, he came in the apartment, he looked at our heaters, he looked in the basement,
and then I guess a few days later we got a note from consolidated Edison telling us that we had been charged
at the incorrect rate.
There was a residential rate, and then there was a residential with electric heat rate,
and we have electric heaters, so they had been charging us at a higher rate.
Uh-huh.
But anyway, I had called them just to figure out what exactly they meant by everything,
and while I was talking to the woman who answered my call,
she basically read off a list of all the electronic equipment that I had in my apartment.
I was talking to her, and she goes, you know, like a 50,000 BTU heat pump, I don't know exactly what number,
a couple of space heaters, which I thought was fine, but then she goes, a TV, a VCR, a stereo, two PCs,
a humidifier, and basically told us all the electronic equipment that we basically owned.
I see. Now, did you ask her how she knew this?
Well, I was kind of shocked when I first heard this, because I was not expecting the electric company
to keep records on, you know, what kind of equipment we have.
I can sort of understand that they would like to know that, but at the same time,
I feel that it's just one more case where there's a company that is keeping tabs on people.
Yes, a very big case of that, but did they explain it to you?
No, I wasn't even sure who to call. This was just a few days ago when I talked to her last Friday, actually.
Did you ask her how do you know that?
Well, I figure it was when the guy came out to check the meter, and he was in the apartment.
I mean, I guess maybe he just made a quick note of everything we had, and then they put it in their computer.
Well, that's something I think some of our more activist-minded friends out there should look into,
see if Congress doesn't.
I never even imagined that the phone company, the electric company, would be keeping those records.
I don't see why they would need to know anything along those lines. That's incredible.
But if you really want to mess up their records, get these big imitation microwave ovens
and just load your house with all this equipment you don't have, and then they won't know what to do.
Yeah, I wanted to know if, like, any hackers, or, I mean, it's just one more target,
but the target may be that somebody should be investigating their computer,
because, I mean, I don't imagine anybody's really tried to see what they have.
Well, better yet, I know there are some employees of Con Edison that listen to this program.
Why don't you check it out and get back to us, send us some information, and we'll pursue it from there.
Do you have any idea who, like, what agency I might try to contact?
I believe Con Edison is answerable to the PSC, Public Service Commission.
Okay.
They're in Albany, and I don't have their number, but if you call, either call 800-INFORMATION
and ask for the PSC in New York, or call Albany Information, 518-AREACODE,
and they should be able to help you.
If not, they can certainly guide you to the right people.
Okay.
All right?
Thank you very much.
Let us know what you find out.
Yes, I will.
Okay.
That's a frightening thing, the electric company knowing, I mean, you have the cable company knowing what you watch.
You have the video store knowing what tapes you take out.
You've got the phone company knowing who you talk to.
You've got the credit companies knowing what you buy.
Now you've got the electric companies knowing what your appliances are.
Is there no shame anywhere?
No privacy?
Man.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hello?
Yes.
Hi.
You know, I'd like to say that when people call in, they really ought to have very important things to say.
Are you on tape?
I'm what?
No, this is real.
No, it sounded like you were on tape for a second.
No, I'm dead real.
Okay.
Or live real.
I just wanted to make sure.
No, no, this is straight stuff.
Now, listen to what I'm saying.
Somebody says, that's a good question, or says, I have a simple question.
Every question is important, you know what I mean, by that token.
Now, the next thing.
That's a good point.
To verify my significance of this call, I will show you.
I just was looking at Mount Rushmore, and they have Jefferson, Lincoln, Washington, you know that.
You must live in a very high apartment.
Teddy Roosevelt, you know what I mean?
Yeah.
Now, what I'm saying is, is there a woman there?
No.
There has to be a movement in this country, and it's totally out of the minds of any of the people.
Now, the reason I brought this up is, that I'm concerned, even now that I was thinking about this Saturday,
a list of people that we have.
We go from Jim Foyd, who has a very good program in science fiction,
to Simon Lokely, who is a wonderful scholar of literature and current day scene.
Indeed.
And then we go to David Rothenberg, who is quite interesting, even though he gives me a hard time.
And then we go to Paul Gorman.
And I feel that the station should have a woman in there at least,
if not a youngster also doing a program.
Now, what am I saying?
We have to have sexual equality on Saturday morning,
because people generally have worked all week, and they need it.
Now, then we have people calling in and saying that they hate to hear me talk.
They demean me.
They never bring up anything I've said that's wrong.
I think you have to admit that a movement to get a woman,
like I was thinking of Statue of Liberty, Miss Liberty,
could be in the space there that's between two of their heads.
You see what I mean?
Yeah.
Thanks so much for sharing that with us.
But, yeah, yeah, very pertinent points there.
Okay, now let's get back to the subject.
That's the end of the break.
Good evening.
Hey, Lou, can I ask you a question?
It's not for Miss Yukaku, is it?
Okay.
How do I get in contact with that kid who called before that ran over to us?
This is Condor.
Call the Secret Service.
I'm sure they'll know.
Good evening.
Hello.
How are you doing?
Hi.
I just want to say that the information on the ATM breakdown
was on the front page of the Times on Saturday, and I'd like to quote.
It says, although only 6% of the nation's 87,000 ATMs were affected by this incident,
an industry official says it underscored the need of fail-safe backup systems,
especially since more consumers are using ATMs and becoming increasingly dependent on them.
It also says about 1,800 ATMs were down in California,
and an estimated 90% of the ATMs in rural Illinois were not working.
A lot of this information was taken from the Bank Network News,
which is a newsletter based in Chicago dealing with ATMs.
Right. The only problem is they're very expensive.
I mean, if they don't have the money, nobody does.
Yeah, I understand.
But thanks for sharing that with us.
It was in Saturday's Times, page 1, eh?
Page 1.
Okay. Thanks for calling.
I should read the Saturday Times more.
That's the one day I don't read the Times because, you know, it's my day off.
But, yeah, think of all the vital systems out there.
You know, we just had the bombing at the World Trade Center,
and all the TV stations except one went off the air because they didn't believe in keeping backups.
Now, that's so silly.
They're TV stations.
You know, state of emergency.
What do you have?
You have TV stations.
Now, don't you think in a state of emergency maybe you might have an emergency
and maybe your, you know, transmitters will go down?
If all the transmitters are in the same place and they don't have any backups,
that could lead to quite a few troubles.
And the same thing with the phone company.
You need backups if something goes wrong with the switching systems.
You need backups for the ATMs, you know?
And translate this down to the individual level.
Back up your hard drive.
Back up your computer systems.
Keep printouts so that in case, you know, the whole world gets demagnetized,
you'll at least know what was on your disks.
Common sense.
Good evening.
Yes, gentlemen.
Yes.
How to get rid of a marketing call.
When I answer them, I usually say, I thought it was the collection agency calling them.
Uh-huh.
And they hang up on me right away.
That gets rid of them right away, huh?
It's better than the telephone when you're right in front and take me off the marketing list.
Well, did you ever try dialing the number six?
What?
Did you ever try dialing the number six?
It still doesn't help.
Well, we're told that's very effective.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thanks for sharing that with us.
Okay.
Nothing like a few tips from our listeners.
Good evening.
Hello.
How are you doing?
How are you?
What can we do for you?
Okay.
Can I ask a question?
Yeah, go ahead.
All right.
Essentially, a couple things.
One, is there any place on southern Long Island where you can pick up $2,600 so you don't have to go into the city to buy it?
It's funny.
You know, you'd think that we'd know where to pick it up, but we don't because our distributors don't tell us where they sell it.
So it could be.
I know it's in Barnes & Noble in some places.
I know it's in Walden's and other places.
But I don't know where on Long Island you can find it.
In New York, it's all over the place.
Yeah, the bookstore in St. Mark's Place generally has it.
Uh-huh.
Secondly, are there any bulletin boards in 516 anymore that carry all the frack issues and the, you know, the fun and the LOD tech journals?
Well, you know, I don't even know any bulletin boards in the 516 area because, you know, I'm on the Internet now.
And when you're on the Internet, you just sort of get away from bulletin boards for a little bit, which I don't think is entirely the right thing to do.
But it's just so many hours in a day.
There are bulletin boards out there.
I'm sure you can find it.
You know, just ask around.
And if anybody passes it on to us, we'll, you know, mention it here.
There are a couple of good ones around here, but they've since went down.
Yeah, it's hard.
It's a pain to run a bulletin board.
I don't know if you realize that.
But you've got to deal with all these people calling up and, you know, misbehaving themselves.
And you've got to keep the hardware running.
And nobody gives you any thanks for it.
Well, I guess that happens.
And lastly, do you know where you can get 6.5 flat megahertz crystals?
Uh, where can you get them?
Do you know, Farmer?
Any electronics distributor.
Just to name a couple.
DigiKey and Mouser both carry them.
I had 6.553 megahertz crystals that I was able to get through JDR Micro Electronics or something.
Well, I'm guessing that you want 6.5.
Yeah, I wanted the 6.5 flats because the timing is a little better.
Yep, and in fact, it's a lot better.
You can call 1-800-DIGI-KEY, and you can call 1-800-34-MOUSER.
Or 1-800-34-MOUSER.
Mouser, yep.
And I believe the Mouser prices were probably a little bit more expensive than DigiKey.
But ask for their catalog, and you can compare and contrast.
What are they, like three bucks or something like that?
No, they're about a buck and change, two bucks.
They're cheap.
But you have to buy a certain amount?
No, that's for one.
If you buy them in bulk, they'll be closer to a dollar.
Hmm.
Yeah, I bought like 15 of them, and they ended up costing me like two bucks for the other place.
But, alright.
Yeah.
Alright, thanks for the call.
Let's see if we can squeeze in a few more.
Good evening.
Hello?
How are you doing?
Is this WBAI?
Yes, this is off the hook.
Is this WBAI?
You should turn down your radio because we are on delay.
Okay, I will just a minute.
Okay.
I would like to know how you stay on the air.
I have been out of the country for five years.
I am here visiting a friend, and we have been listening to this station for the last half an hour,
and I think it's all crap.
Well, do you care to elaborate on that?
You tell nothing.
Tell nothing?
Is this supposed to be a source of information, or what?
Well, what would you like us to tell you?
What the hell is going on in the world?
I've been in the Soviet Union and heard better broadcast than you have.
Well, I'm not sure.
If you could be a little more specific with your criticism, we might be able to address it.
You want us to tell you what's going on in the world?
Is that what you want?
Yeah, basically that, but what is this radio station?
What is this?
I want to know how you stay on the air.
Okay, wait.
Have you ever listened to this radio station before?
I never did.
Okay.
Well, okay.
I'll start there.
This is a noncommercial alternative radio station.
We don't have commercials.
We don't play music 24 hours a day, and we don't repeat ourselves very often.
We have all kinds of alternative news programs, alternative views, call-in programs, information of various sorts.
What are you listening to now?
All I've heard is nothing but crap.
Well, you know, you can say that as many times as you want, but you're going to have to define your terms a little bit.
What do you mean it's nothing but crap?
I mean crap?
What exactly do you expect to hear on this station?
I don't know.
I just turned it on.
Like I said, I just got back into the country today, and my friend is listening to this,
and he is saying how wonderful it is, and I said, okay, you know, I don't know.
Like I said, five years.
Okay.
Tell me what you—
To this?
I want to hear news.
Is that what you want?
No, I want to hear anything that's got anything pertinent to do with anything.
Well, this has got pertinent things to do with telecommunications and computers and technology and hackers and things like that.
Now, if that's not your game, then you wouldn't be interested by it.
But if you listen to another program—
I'm wondering how you stay on the air.
Well, how do we stay on the air?
Our listeners keep us on the air.
Okay, we're a listener-supported radio station.
We couldn't possibly have commercials because we wouldn't be able to put on this kind of programming if we did have commercials
because we offend too many corporate people, you see.
Uh-huh.
All right.
You understand the basic concept of the station?
I don't know what to say either.
I guarantee you I won't listen to it.
Okay, well—
I'm not going to say if it's on the air or if it is off the air, but—
Well, I invite you not to listen, but at the same time—
Thank you.
At the same time, you might want to try listening to another program.
For instance, in 10 minutes, we've got the World News, which is different than any other news program.
I know about the news.
I can watch that on television.
No, you can't watch this on television.
This is different news.
It's alternative news.
What kind of news is this?
Put it this way.
You can turn on every single TV station in New York City and see the same news over and over again with no difference.
Exactly.
Okay.
If that's all you want, then this is not the station for you.
But if you want alternatives—
What kind of news do you have that's so different?
Well, let's put it this way.
We live in a huge country in an extremely exciting world.
There's all kinds of stories going on throughout the world that you don't hear about, things from various countries you probably never even heard of.
This station—
Turn around.
This station was instrumental in uncovering the Contragate scandal and various other happenings in Latin America, various things in Eastern Europe and Africa.
Okay, this is fine.
But what I'm saying, what is the rest of your programming?
I mean, it sounds like nothing.
Well, it's actually a great deal of something.
It's just I can't possibly wrap it all up.
I don't mean to insult you.
I know it sounds very insulting, but I'm trying to figure out what your program is all about or what this station is all about.
Well, you see, the program is a microcosm of the station.
The station is actually several hundred people that get together and do all kinds of alternative programming from Irish music to gay issues to technology.
You know, it's virtually any type of philosophy or lifestyle you can think of is represented at some point on this station.
And you can't find another station like this anywhere.
You really can't.
You really can't.
And that's why we're here, because, you know, we're the alternative.
I see.
I really can't phrase it any better than that.
You'll just have to listen and see the diversity.
I mean, you've only been in this country for one day.
No.
No, I'm from this country.
I was gone for five years.
I'm saying I just came back today.
Are you from New York?
No.
Well, New York has had a history of alternative radio, at least with WBAI.
And, you know, we hope to stay here forever providing alternatives to New Yorkers and people in New Jersey and things like that.
I'm not sure if you ever heard alternative radio before where you were, but it's a very important concept.
And, unfortunately, there's not too much alternative TV.
Hopefully one day there will be.
Yeah, well, if I get cable, I guess that's alternative to the regular stations too, isn't it?
Yeah, to a degree.
Not very much of a degree though.
I understand that.
Yeah.
But, you know, the basic premise is we don't have commercials.
I'm just trying to figure out your whole line of programming.
That's all.
All right.
Well, keep listening.
That's the best way.
And, you know, don't listen too intently.
I didn't like it.
All right.
Well, you know, there's something on this station everybody will hate, but there's also something everybody will like.
Mm-hmm.
Now, do me a favor, okay?
Yes, John.
Are you going to be here for a week?
Yeah, I'll be here for a couple of months.
Okay.
I'll be here for a week.
And don't, you know, take this too seriously, but just try to do it over the next week.
Tune in occasionally to BAI, all right?
All right.
And just in another week, tell me if you haven't found something on this radio station that you like.
All right.
All right?
Just give it a try.
And, excuse me, what's your name again?
This is Emanuel Goldstein.
Are you?
Emanuel Goldstein, and the program is off the hook.
Okay.
And you are on when?
We're on Wednesday nights from 10 to 11.
Okay, 10 to 11.
And since it's 5 to 11 now, I want to get back to the phones, okay?
Yeah, okay.
I'm sorry.
Okay.
Well, thanks for calling.
All right.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Well, you know, it's interesting.
I'd like to see what she finds in another week.
Maybe, you know, maybe she'll wind up being a supporter someday.
Who knows?
Whew.
If she is, I wind up with a gold star, that's for sure.
Good evening.
Hey there.
I was just calling to say that I love your program,
and I'm calling to congratulate FiberOptic.
You did real well in PC computing against Don Parker.
I did?
That was about a year ago, wasn't it?
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, that wasn't his picture, by the way.
That wasn't me, and those weren't my words.
So if you like it.
Well, I still think that you're representative of a much hipper viewpoint than Mr. Parker.
Well, I hope so.
Well, some of those were my words.
Now, you already said it.
You can't take it back now.
Very many of them were not, and that was certainly not my picture.
Yeah, the fact is they used a model to portray FiberOptic
without ever telling anybody that they were doing this,
either in the magazine or they never even told him.
Is it a flattering portrayal?
No, in fact, I'm much better looking in real life than the picture.
I see.
Okay.
My technical question is,
do you know of a way to invoke a callback feature remotely from a digital PBX?
Ooh, that's a loaded question.
Invoke a callback?
You want to describe a little bit what you're asking?
I'm sure there is some sort of a callback feature in digital PBXs
that can find the last number that called in and call it back.
I just want to see if it's possible to invoke that feature remotely.
Invoke that feature remotely?
Oh, you're saying if you dial into an outside line, for instance?
Yeah.
Well, I mean, a digital PBX,
that's a pretty wide variety of PBXs you're talking about.
I don't know enough about specific model numbers yet.
I'd like to see if there's any.
Well, I mean, there's literally dozens and dozens of different kinds of digital PBXs,
and if it's something that's going to…
Are the higher-end ones equipped with a callback feature of any kind?
If it's something that's going to interface with the outside world,
the only way it can call back the number that just called it,
in fact, the only way it'll know the number that just called it,
if it was a local number, it would have to be connected through a signaling system 7
to receive caller ID data,
or if it's, say, for instance, a PBX with the Watt service, an 800 number,
then it would have to be connected with ANI equipment.
ANI? I'm sorry, what's ANI?
Automatic Number Identification.
Uh-huh.
It's, for instance…
The caller ID?
No.
Well, it identifies the number that the person is calling from.
It's a different technology.
It's not the same as caller ID.
You're going to have to wrap this up.
We're running out of time.
We're running out of time.
But that's a lot more feasible than someone connecting to the SS7 network.
I think you're saying that it's damn likely, if it hasn't happened already,
that this is going to be the case in the future.
All they have to do is program into the PBX to give some feature
that'll allow them to call back the person that just came in on ANI.
It's not impossible.
That would be on a Watts number, though.
It's probably desirable for this to happen, right, on a PBX.
I mean, integration into the real telephone system is something I would think a PBX would want.
Yeah, I'm sure that the capability exists.
Does that answer your question?
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, listen, thanks for calling.
Bye-bye.
All right.
That's going to just about do it for us here tonight.
The program is off the hook.
This is Emanuel Goldstein along with FiberOptic,
and we'll be back again next week, next Wednesday night from 10 to 11 o'clock.
Stay tuned next for the rebroadcast of the WBAI Evening News.
The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a call.
It couldn't get much worse.
But if they could, they would.
Von Willebaum for the best, expect the worst.
I hope that's understood. Von Willebaum!
And this is WBAI New York.
Let me also pay my respects to the coalition of commanders that I just met
and to the members of the armed forces that are here side by side with the United States,
armed forces from other countries, shoulder to shoulder,
and we are very grateful that this is a multilateral, not simply a unilateral, mission.
Our U.S. presence, of course, is the dominant one.
Weaponry, America's only international defense affairs, military hardware, and history talk shows
heard every Tuesday night at 1.30 a.m.
Tune in for in-depth, often scholarly, multifaceted analysis of the ongoing crises in Somalia,
the Middle East, what used to be Yugoslavia,
and some other places you haven't heard of yet except here.
International security policy, electronic warfare, the next generation of Navy carrier fighters,
DOD-wide force reductions, Wilkins Watch with David Isby, documentaries, interviews,
technical analysis, oral history, and more, every Tuesday night at 1.30,
only on WBAI Pacifica Radio in New York.
Good evening and the news tonight.
Lawmakers push to give the homeless a place on the Clinton agenda.
Can the White House ease longtime hostilities between labor and management?
The slime update four years after the grounding of the Exxon Valdez.
And in New York, the State Court of Appeals says the New York Constitution
guarantees poor women the right to funding for abortions.
With these and other stories, I'm Laura Seidel in New York with Verna Avery-Brown in Washington,
and this is the news for Wednesday, March 24, 1993.
First to Verna Avery-Brown with the news headlines and some national news.
In Russia, tensions remain high as an attempted compromise between reformist President Boris Yeltsin
and the conservative-led parliament fell through.
Details from Vladimir Klamenko in Moscow.
The two warring sides failed to reach a compromise this afternoon
as Yeltsin met with the chairman of parliament and the head of the constitutional court.
Reformers hope that Yeltsin can hold on until April 25.
The president has scheduled a plebiscite for that date
in order to determine whether or not he has the support of the Russian people.
Meanwhile, workers throughout Russia's coal mining regions announced that they will go on strike
if the legislature tries to impeach Yeltsin or block the plebiscite.
Over the past four years, Russia's militant coal miners have repeatedly gone on strike
in support of political and economic reform.
If no agreement between the president and parliament is reached
by the time the Congress gathers on Friday,
Yeltsin will be faced with his greatest political challenge since the August 1991 coup attempt.
For Pacifica Network News, this is Vladimir Klamenko in Moscow.
Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev met with President Clinton.
At a White House photo session, Kozyrev told reporters...
It is for Russians and Russian people to pass final judgment
and the president calls for vote, popular vote.
And I think this will be the decisive event.
Earlier in the day, Kozyrev called for the West to undertake a series of steps to help Russia.
Among the measures, the Russian Foreign Minister outlined in his American University speech,
reschedule Russia's debt and unfreeze a $6 billion fund for stabilizing the ruble.
Today's New York Times reports, Clinton is considering working with G7,
the seven leading industrialized nations, to reschedule Russia's $80 billion in foreign debt.
This would relieve the former communist power of some $15 billion owed on interest and principal.
The suspect described as the mastermind of last month's World Trade Center bombing is in FBI custody.
34-year-old Mahmoud Abou Halima had been arrested by Egyptian authorities several days ago.
Today he's being arraigned in a U.S. court.
Abou Halima's brother has denied that Mahmoud had any role in the bombing
or ever worked as a driver for Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman.
South African President F.W. de Klerk announced details of his country's nuclear weapons program.
In an address to a special meeting of Parliament,
de Klerk revealed the beginnings of a security crackdown on a black opposition group.
James Lorimer reports from Durban.
President de Klerk confirmed what many in South Africa and in the outside world have long suspected.
He revealed South Africa had a nuclear weapons program
and built six nuclear fission devices throughout the 1970s and 80s.
But he said South Africa had never carried out any nuclear tests
nor had it shared its nuclear technology with any other country.
He said the end of the Cold War persuaded the government to end the nuclear weapons program
and to decommission its bombs.
De Klerk said in terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,
to which South Africa was now a signatory,
he did not have to disclose details of the past nuclear program
but had done so as an act of good faith.
If that was the sweetener, it was followed by a harder message.
The President said Parliament would soon vote on lifting the suspension of the death penalty.
That follows recent political killings in which a number of children have been shot to death.
Saying peace should be the priority of all political parties,
de Klerk castigated the militant Pan-Africanist Congress, the PAC,
for continuing its armed campaign.
He said 18 members of the PAC's military wing had already been arrested.
He announced a partial military mobilization which will launch a more extensive clampdown
but he gave no more details.
For Pacifica Radio News, I'm James Lorimer in Durban.
Over 400 people took to the streets of Fort Worth, Texas today.
They're protesting the sentence given to a white teenage skinhead
for the fatal drive-by shooting of a black man.
This week, an all-white jury sentenced 18-year-old...