On March 24, 1980, El Salvador's most illustrious spokesperson for peace and economic justice,
Archbishop Oscar Romero, was gunned down at his altar in San Salvador.
On March 24, 2002, George W. Bush and Colin Powell will travel to El Salvador on Romero
Day to announce plans for a NAFTA-style free trade agreement for Central America, CAFTA.
If it passes, CAFTA will lower wages, bust unions, increase unemployment, devastate environments
and increase military repression.
CAFTA dishonors the Archbishop's legacy.
Now is the time to say, no mas, no more.
During the committee in solidarity with the people of El Salvador, WBAR's Amy Goodman,
Rev. Lucius Walker, and numerous community organizations and musicians as we commit ourselves
to defeating NAFTA and to commemorate the true legacy of Oscar Romero.
Sunday, March 24 from 5 till 9 p.m. at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 521 West 126th Street
in Manhattan.
For more information, please call 212-760-0333.
That's 212-760-0333.
And it's just after 8 o'clock, time once again for Off The Hook.
I hope that's understood.
Funding me, no!
Fuck!
Fuck!
Fuck!
And a very good evening to everybody.
The program is Off The Hook.
Daniel Goldstein here with you for the next hour or so, talking about the latest developments
in the hacker community, high technology, that kind of thing.
And we're joined with the usual cast here.
Mike, how you doing?
I'm all right.
Artur Cech.
Hi.
How are you?
And Jim.
Hello.
How you doing?
Yeah.
Well, if you're not in a cheerful mood, this is not the place to be.
I'm in a cheerful mood.
You have to be in a cheerful mood.
None of this ass stuff.
I'm in a cheerful mood.
All right.
We have to be happy.
I don't know why.
We have to make them happy.
There's all this bad news going on out there, and, you know, this might be the highlight
for some people, this one hour of refuge.
Oh, I thought I was representing the miserable people out there, but I guess not.
Okay, I'll try to...
We'll let the callers do that, because they have tales of woe to give us.
We can have happy callers, too.
We can try to have happy callers, but they never seem to get through, because they don't
dial as fast as the miserable callers.
We do have one happy caller who always gets through, but makes us miserable.
Nothing travels faster than bad news.
So you have some good news for us now?
I have some good news.
It's going to take me a while to say it, probably, but some good news, yeah, a small bit, and
that's that Freedom Downtime is showing once again at the...
I'm not quite sure how this works.
It's called the New York Film and Video Festival, New York Independent Film and Video.
I believe that's the full title of it.
I'm not sure.
It's www.nyfilmvideo.com, and they have a show in Las Vegas.
Las Vegas, Nevada.
Yeah, I don't quite know how that works, but it will be showing on Monday, April 8th at
4 p.m., and the best thing is, it's totally free.
Yeah, totally free.
So I guess ticket sales was such a success last time that they're going to give it away
for nothing this time.
Although, we did practically fill up the theater, so I'm saying that in sarcasm.
But you can get more information as to just where...
Who's waving?
People are waving at me.
I see silhouettes waving.
We can't see you.
It's just shadows in there.
Anyway, www.nyfilmvideo.com slash Las Vegas will have all the information on Las Vegas,
but if you just go to the main page there, they'll give you information about all kinds
of things.
So that's Monday, April 8th at 4 p.m.
It's a good time to see a film, don't you think?
Yeah.
Not really.
Freedom Downtime.
Well, maybe not for you.
But for this film, it's worth it.
I mean, you had nothing else to do, you know, maybe that would be something to do.
I don't know.
I thought it would be fun.
All right.
We have...
Do you see this?
This is the funny story that's been making the rounds today about this guy, an alleged
hacker that's getting the judge really angry with his defense.
Have you heard this one?
Okay.
He's an accused eBay hacker.
I'm not quite sure what that means, but that's what he's defined as.
An accused eBay hacker, his name is Jerome Heckenkamp, and he's back behind bars in San
Jose after his first solo court appearance in front of his trial judge, which took an
odd turn.
During what was to be a routine proceeding to set future court dates, Heckenkamp challenged
the indictment against him on the grounds that it spells his name, Jerome T. Heckenkamp,
in all capital letters, while he...
You've heard this one.
I've heard of this sort of thing.
So you want me to stop?
No, no, no.
Keep going.
Maybe the people out there haven't heard it.
In all capital letters, while he spells it with the first letter capitalized, and subsequent
letters in lowercase.
Last week, the 22-year-old Heckenkamp fired attorney Jennifer Granick, which I think is
a very foolish thing to do.
Jennifer is an amazing attorney, she's in our film, in fact.
And co-counsel Marjorie Allard, in order to personally defend himself against two federal
grand jury indictments, charging that he cracked computers at eBay, Lycos, Exodus Communications,
and other companies in 1999.
It was the second time he fired his lawyers.
In January, he had a federal magistrate appoint him as his own counsel, only to change his
mind the same day.
At Monday's appearance, Judge James Ware, more than an appropriate name for a judge
trying someone on charges of hacking or computer trespass or something, James Ware, W-A-R-E,
seemed initially perplexed by Heckenkamp's challenge and spent some time explaining the
nature of the proceedings.
Finally, he advised Heckenkamp to take it up in front of a jury when he goes to trial.
I cannot help but comment that you have substituted out a capable attorney, the judge added.
That's what I would have said.
Heckenkamp went on to demand that he be immediately allowed to take the stand and testify, and
was again rebuffed by Ware, who noted that the appearance was not a hearing or a trial.
The computer whiz then asked the court to identify the plaintiff in the case.
Ware explained that the United States was the plaintiff and was represented by Assistant
U.S. Attorney Ross Nadel.
Heckenkamp said he wanted to subpoena Nadel's client to appear in court.
And Ware asked him who exactly he wanted to bring into the courtroom when Heckenkamp replied
the United States of America, Ware ordered him taken into custody.
It's a good way to fight these battles and a funny way to fight these battles, and I
guess this is the funny way.
The comments that you were making to the court lead me to suspect that either you were playing
games with the court or you're experiencing a serious lack of judgment, said Ware.
The judge added that he was no longer satisfied that Heckenkamp would make his future court
appearances.
He had been free on $50,000 bail and living under electronic monitoring.
Before two deputy U.S. Marshals hauled Heckenkamp away, he threatened legal action against the
judge.
I will hold you personally liable, he said.
I will seek damages for every hour that I'm in custody.
And the next scheduled shenanigans are April 23rd in a related case in San Diego.
That should be all kinds of fireworks there.
What did he allegedly do?
Well, you see, that's the thing.
They never get around to telling you that.
They say he hacked eBay.
Well, I don't know what that means.
And he hacked, you know, a couple of other, you know, maybe a web page or something.
Big deal.
You know, it's literally a federal case now.
You can see some people just aren't meant to be in court, you know, and they shouldn't
be in court in the first place.
He's a computer whiz.
You know, he could apply that kind of logic to making computer programs and have all kinds
of interesting things come out of that.
I don't know.
We have this coming from New York One, which you might have heard about.
New red light cameras, except they're not really red light cameras, they're dummy red
light cameras.
Yeah.
The next time you think you've been caught running a red light, you may be wrong.
The city Department of Transportation is asking for bids to get 200 fake traffic light cameras.
They have to get bids to get the fake ones.
I mean, you know, you can imagine how much the real ones are if they have to send out
for bids for the fake ones.
Now, there are 50 real cameras.
They automatically take a snapshot of the license plate numbers of light runners, and
they're already set up around the city.
The fake ones will look the same and theoretically still make drivers more cautious about running
a light, but cost considerably less.
I wonder if the fake ones are going to flash when somebody goes through them.
I mean, how could they?
If they could do that, they'd be a camera, right?
They'd be able to take the pictures.
So what's the expensive part of this?
The expensive part of this must be the flash mechanism, must be the camera mechanism.
So they're going to have a box there with a little thing on it, then, you know, it's
going to look like it's a camera, but obviously it's not going to be a camera.
So won't it be obvious that it's fake?
Anyway, the DLT would like to see the dummy cameras installed by next year.
The department is also asking the state legislature to allow 25 more real cameras.
A request for 50 real cameras was denied last year in part due to privacy concerns.
I don't get that.
It's privacy concerns apply to 50 cameras, but not 25.
You know, that's not a privacy invasion, but 50 is.
I don't get that.
It seems like, you know, if you're going to say one is a privacy concern, you should say
they're all privacy concerns.
New York City was the first in the country to install red light cameras, and they have
resulted in more than a million traffic violation summonses.
Yeah, I don't know how many actually wound up being proven, because you don't know who's
driving the car.
You know, there's no way to prove that.
But I don't know, I guess we could just print a list of all the fake cameras, of where they
are.
You know, that would be kind of, kind of defeat their purpose.
It would probably be illegal, too, to do that.
No cameras?
You're all in stunned silence here?
Yes, I'm stunned over here.
It's pretty stunning news.
All right, well, then you might be stunned by this news.
There have been rumors of this, and apparently there's been some confirmation.
GSM is coming to AT&T.
If you do a little exploring on their web pages, which I did, you'll see that there's
a section called three steps to 3G.
The explosion of wireless phone use over the last decade has taught us that people don't
want to be tied to their home or desk to make phone calls, blah, blah, blah.
They go into this whole spiel about the new technology and how they're going to be adding
an entirely new platform to their network.
Much like we upgraded our analog network to TDMA digital, the new platform will operate
alongside our current TDMA slash CDPD network.
The customer will have the option to continue enjoying our robust TDMA networks or migrating
to our high-speed wireless data and voice service that is compatible with many wireless
systems around the world.
This new overlay that America is finally getting into after about 20 years overseas, it's called
GSM, Global System for Mobile Communications.
So are they going to be competing with other GSM companies now?
I believe so.
I mean, that's what it seems like.
It's also called slash GPRS, General Packet Radio Service.
It seems like they will be competing with VoiceStream and PackBell and all the other
GSM, the handful of GSM providers that we have throughout our entire nation.
And it's really good because that's what GSM allows you to do, pick a phone company on
your phone.
AT&T Wireless offers GSM slash GPRS service in the following markets, Seattle, Portland,
Oregon.
Oh, they really didn't do this well.
Seattle, Portland, Oregon, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Detroit, Flint, Ann Arbor, and Lansing, all
of Michigan.
Toledo and Orlando, Tampa, St. Petersburg, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami,
and Chicago, Indianapolis, and Kansas City are up next.
They don't say anything about New York.
In keeping with our phased approach, we will continue to launch more markets across the
country and we'll deploy the GSM slash GPRS platform in markets representing 40% of our
served population by year end.
I wonder why New York isn't in there.
They might be going to those places that don't have a strong GSM market already and
I hope they don't sign the same agreement that all the GSM providers signed in years
past where they basically agreed not to compete with each other.
So that should be interesting, AT&T GSM service, we want to keep an eye out for that and see
if there's actually a possibility for competition in this country would be a really nice thing
to have.
I mean, overseas, when you turn on the phone, you have four different companies you can
choose from immediately, and more if you have a dual band phone.
Speaking of AT&T, and this is something that has been the cause of a lot of confusion,
everybody's asking about this AT&T unlimited plan.
You see ads for it every place.
The new AT&T unlimited plan gives you unlimited state to state, in state and local toll calls
direct dialed from home, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, costs $19.95 a month.
A lot of people are saying, that sounds like a great idea, so why wouldn't I want to take
something like that?
Well, there's a little catch, little tiny catch, and that is that you have to call other
AT&T residential long distance subscribers.
If you call someone who doesn't subscribe to AT&T, you don't get the unlimited plan,
you get seven cents a minute.
It's weird.
I don't know how you're supposed to know that the people you're calling are AT&T subscribers.
I guess, this is what happens, it becomes a topic of conversation, so that all the people
you talk to, you talk to them about AT&T.
You say, well, do you have AT&T?
Because if you don't have AT&T, I don't think I can talk to you anymore, and if I mean anything
to you, you will switch to AT&T so that I can continue talking to you, and you can talk
to me, and the whole conversation is about AT&T, and they love this.
Are you on AT&T?
You see?
And then people on the bus start talking about it, and before you know it, it's on the internet.
Guerrilla marketing.
So yeah, I guess that's what it is.
And then you have to also wonder, how many people actually spend $19.95 a month on long
distance?
Some people just walk away from a phone line, they go someplace, but it still racks up a
bill for calls you don't make.
So that's something that you might want to consider as well.
So the conditions are this.
You must be subscribed to AT&T local toll service for your local toll calls to qualify
for the unlimited calls.
I think there's an option where you don't have to be part of that, but in that case,
you still have to pay $19.95, I believe.
This is a real crazy thing here.
Calls to many AT&T broadband telephony customers are not included in the unlimited calls and
will be rated at $0.07 a minute.
And the offer is not compatible with any other offer.
No call detail will be provided for unlimited calls.
So you won't get a list of the people you talk to if it's unlimited.
So that's a great way to not have to argue about anything.
I don't know, I guess you have to decide if $19.95 is an acceptable figure for you.
But also I'm told that there are many places that this is not available.
So what you might want to do is give AT&T a call and ask them, actually, we can try
that.
But you know how this is going to work.
You know what's going to happen.
It's going to wind up talking to some robot and not, oh, there's a person in that line.
Well, that's no good.
Why is there a person in that line?
Maybe it was a robot.
Okay, let's try this again.
Okay.
I don't know why a person was over there.
Okay.
People don't call in because it just adds to the confusion, you know.
All right.
Now we're calling AT&T.
The right choice.
I'll bet we won't get anywhere.
AT&T.
Thank you for calling AT&T Consumer Services.
Oh, you're welcome.
If you would prefer to continue in English, press 1.
Si prefiere continuar en Español...
Whatever.
This call may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance.
To sign up for a calling plan or for service information, press 1.
That's the one.
That's the one.
Please hold while I connect your call.
Oh, that's the way to get there fast.
Two touch tones.
I wonder what they were.
Welcome to the AT&T information line, providing easy, automated access to information on AT&T's
most popular products and services.
Uh-oh.
If you're calling from your home phone number, press 1.
If not, press 2.
Well, I'm not at home, so I guess I'll press 2.
For faster service, please enter your home area code and telephone number.
But I'm not calling about my...
Oh, for God's sake.
Uh, what should I enter here?
The call-in number.
Zero.
I want an operator.
I want to talk to a human being about this.
For faster service, please enter your home area code and telephone number.
You see, we're just going to have this standoff here.
I'm not going to say anything.
I'm not going to...
Well, I'll say things, but I'm not going to hit any more buttons.
That's it.
It's over.
I'm happy with slower service.
Yeah, it's over.
I mean, if you want to talk to me...
Please hold while I connect your call.
That's what you have to do.
You have to...
You have to be stubborn.
Uh-oh.
Touch tones again.
AT&T.com slash click online.
This may be the last time you call about your AT&T account.
Oh, yes.
It's more true than you know.
www.att.com slash click online.
That's C-L-I-C-K-O-N-T.
Why are we giving them free advertising?
This is very festive music.
It is, isn't it?
And I kind of like it.
Thank you for calling AT&T.
I apologize.
We have to wait.
Yes, hi.
How may I help you?
I'm just curious if the unlimited long distance is available in New York.
Okay.
I'd be more than happy to verify that.
Is it the new calling plan that you're questioning?
Yeah, that new calling plan.
If you could just tell me what that's all about.
Sure.
I'd be more than happy to confirm it.
Basically, the plan is $19.95 a month.
Mm-hmm.
It provides unlimited calling to your friends and family
who also have AT&T as their provider.
And what if they're not my friends?
If I call somebody that...
That does not have AT&T,
it gives you a flat rate of $0.07 a minute,
whether it's applied within your state or outside your state.
Well, I met somebody who wasn't my friend but who had AT&T.
What about them?
Do they have to be my friends or my family?
Oh, no, no.
Okay.
Absolutely not.
So they can be complete strangers as long as they have AT&T.
Absolutely.
All right.
And the whole thing is included in $19.95.
That's correct.
How do you know if somebody has AT&T or not?
Basically, a lot of times you will not know
until your first billing comes out.
And basically, it'll come, like, show you the breakdown.
Uh-huh.
It'll show...
It'll list the number of the person you call
and it'll show included.
It means that the person does have AT&T.
If it shows that it's being billed to you at $0.07 a minute,
then that person does not have the calling plan
or have the service.
I see.
Okay.
Like, businesses would be one.
Now, is this available throughout the United States?
Yes, it is.
So any place I am,
because I have differing locations,
I'm just wondering if wherever I go,
I'll be able to get this service.
Absolutely.
Okay.
Well, that's good to know.
And this is only available for residences, not businesses?
No, it's only available for residents.
Okay.
Are you wanting to set up that service today?
Well, first, I have to get my phone installed,
so I'm gonna...
I just wanted to see if it was even worthwhile,
but this makes it sound like...
Oh, I see.
Do you currently have the phone number already established?
No, no, I haven't made the phone call yet.
That's gonna be the next call.
All right?
Okay, that's not a problem, sir.
Thanks.
Thanks for the info.
Well, no problem.
Thank you for calling.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
That's how, uh...
That's how you get rid of people,
is to say you don't have a phone.
Well, any questions?
She was surprisingly upfront.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, there was, uh...
As far as I know, there's no hidden things here,
but, uh, you know, having...
It's kind of bizarre
you can only call people that are AT&T customers.
I mean, why does that make a difference to them?
You know?
It's exactly what you said.
It's that, um...
That whole, like, uh, gorilla marketing thing
or whatever, you know...
He said that, yeah.
Yeah, he said that.
I said that.
Yes, Jim said that.
All right, well,
now that we know who said it,
let's, uh, move on to, uh,
the next phone company on our list,
which, uh, is Sprint.
Yeah, Sprint.
Sprint PCS, actually.
There's some talk
as to whether Sprint PCS
is actually the same as Sprint.
Uh, I think they are.
Wait, is this when you're gonna call my voicemail?
No, no, no.
Actually, no, I should call your voicemail.
Let me do that right now.
Let me do that right now
because, um, uh,
you got a pretty good, uh,
a pretty good message.
Yeah.
From Sprint.
Now, this is what happens
when you don't pay your, uh,
your Sprint bill.
I am not a crook.
No, you're not.
You're not, but you don't pay
your Sprint bill on time,
lots of times.
Um, and, uh...
All right, we're gonna...
You've given me your password.
Right.
I have to enter a special code there.
All right, and then I have to enter, uh...
You have reached the Sprint PCS board.
Okay, and now I hit this.
All right, and it's gonna say...
Please enter your passcode.
Okay, and I'm gonna enter your passcode.
And this should be a message.
From Sprint.
Crystal clear quality.
Two new messages.
Twenty-three saved messages.
First new message.
Received yesterday at 6-16 p.m.
This-this should be it.
1-336.
Yes.
Or by pressing star 2
on your Sprint PCS handset.
We are available 24 hours a day,
seven days a week
for your convenience.
Anyone who answers
may assist you.
Again, that number is
1-800-808-1336
or star 2
on your Sprint PCS handset.
Thank you for choosing Sprint PCS.
It sounds like she's talking
through the wrong end
of the phone.
Erase. Press 7.
Let's see if we can
call them back.
Sorry.
The voicemail callback feature
is not available right now.
Oh, well.
The callback number is
8-0-0-8-0-8-1-3-3-6.
Wow.
Erase. Press 7.
So they call you
from an 800 number
and it shows up on your phone.
That's kind of cool.
What's with the bad quality audio?
The phone company
should sound good at least.
They send that
whenever you don't pay your bill.
I think it's
some kind of method
for you not to pay them
so they'll be able
to charge you more.
If you can't understand
what they're saying,
then you won't have
to pay them, right?
That's true.
Let's call the other
Sprint number
that I was about to call.
This is something
that Mike found.
You want to tell us
what this is, Mike?
This is a telephone number
that you can dial.
It's a substitute
for dialing star 2
which connects you
to customer service
from the phone
but your phone
doesn't work
and you want...
This is a voice activated
system that Sprint
offers to their customers.
I hesitate to call it
customer service though
because you don't
get much service.
But it's got a name.
It's got a name.
Let's see what happens.
Welcome to Sprint PCS.
For English, press 1.
Para Español, pulse 2.
Okay, we'll press 1.
Did you know
you can get
instant access
to your account information,
frequently asked questions,
and make changes
to your account
by accessing
our website
at www.sprintpcs.com.
To use our
automated system...
You know, people
without...
Please remain on the line.
Without internet access.
Enter your PCS
telephone number
including area code.
Can I enter
any number here?
I don't know.
I haven't tried.
I enter my...
The number
of the radio station.
The number you entered
is 2-1-2-2-0-9-2-9-0-0.
If this is correct,
press 1.
Please hold
while we connect
your call.
Okay, let's see
what happens.
It's not supposed
to do this, is it?
Should have picked
up by now, right?
I think so.
Hi, this is Claire,
your virtual assistant.
I'm calling
to ask you
if you have
any questions
regarding
your PCS
telephone number.
I don't know
if you have
any questions
regarding
your PCS
telephone number.
I don't know
if you have
any questions
regarding
your PCS
telephone number.
I'm calling
to ask
Claire,
your virtual
service representative.
I'm here
to help you
with your
customer service needs.
Please speak naturally
and feel free
to interrupt me
at anytime.
You can say
things like,
I have a question
about my bills.
I need to make
a payment.
Or,
how many minutes
have I used?
So,
what can
I help you with?
Uh,
how many minutes
have I used?
First, I need to find out who you are, so I can access your account.
Help!
I think Claire's a bit slow tonight.
It took her four rings to pick up and I'm sorry, I interrupted.
What?
Claire?
Hello?
I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.
I'm trying to identify you so that we can access your account.
You can say your response or enter it on your keypad.
Why?
I'm going to break her.
Okay, but first, to help us better serve you, I'd like to know which area you have a question
about.
Just say the one that best describes your need.
Billing and payments, technical difficulties, plans and services, minutes used, features,
activate service, or disconnect service.
I think I'd like information on plans and services.
Billing information.
No, no.
That's not what I said.
I said plans and services.
What's wrong with you?
Claire?
Sorry, I didn't get that.
Well, that's because you're not listening.
Plans and services.
I can't spell it out any clearer than that.
I'm trying to identify you so that we can access your account.
I thought we were past that.
Look, I want information on plans and services.
I'm sorry, but I still didn't understand.
I can't verify your information successfully.
Let me get someone to help you.
No, no, no.
That's not necessary.
We appreciate your business.
Yeah, I know.
Please stay on the line for the next available Sprint PCS specialist.
Please, just let me go.
Goodbye.
You can say goodbye to them and they'll say goodbye.
All right.
Well, that's...
All of our specialists are currently assisting other customers.
Please hold and your call will be answered...
All of your specialists are currently being automated.
...to ensure the highest level of quality service.
Your call...
There, I just did something to ensure the highest level of quality.
Okay, so that's Sprint PCS, Claire.
You can hear by dialing, was it star two on your Sprint phone?
Or dialing 1-888-211-4727.
How did you find that number?
It's on the website somewhere, but hiding.
Yeah, you know, I really like those websites where they hide the numbers.
You know, they...
I had a nightmare with Amazon.
Oh, boy.
It's not over yet either.
But just try calling those people.
Their phone numbers are nowhere to be found.
Basically, what happened was I ordered something
and then I wanted to make it come quicker
because it hadn't yet been dispatched.
I wanted to change it to FedEx from U.S. Postal Service
and they said there was no record of me ordering this.
And I was like, of course there's a record.
You even sent me a confirmation with an order number.
There's no way you can enter that order number
if they say that there's no record of you having an order.
So then the order goes out and I get the thing in the mail.
But I get it too late because I needed it FedExed.
So I'm trying to return it and they won't let me return it
because I didn't order it.
There's no record of me ordering it.
They say I don't have any record of ordering this thing
so I couldn't return it.
So finally I sent them an email
and I actually got a human response saying that
they detected multiple sign-ins with my email address
and that I needed to merge them together
and that they would do this if I gave them permission to do this.
So I gave them permission and they said,
well you have to tell us an order that you placed
on each one of these accounts.
And I said, how am I supposed to know the difference
between the accounts if they all have the same email address
and all have the same password?
I still don't understand how they got this multiple account thing
because I've only used one.
So I said, look, here's the last five digits
of all the possible cards I could use
and this is some email that I got from you guys
saying that I ordered something in the past.
And they sent me an email back saying that
they couldn't verify I was who I was
and they couldn't help me.
So that's when I got mad and I sent them another email
and then they sent me an email back with their phone number on it,
which I haven't called them yet.
But I intend to do that
and have a nice little conversation with them about their system
and how it works and doesn't work.
We got a lot of mail about the BBC World theme
and about BBC World in general.
For those of you who don't know,
BBC World is that all news station
that the rest of the world gets that we don't
that comes out of England.
And we were playing the BBC World theme,
which has become very popular.
A lot of people wanted us to cut them MP3s
and send them pirated copies,
but we're not going to do that.
Instead we're going to tell you how to get your own CD.
Just go to bbcworld.com
and follow the link that takes you to the BBC World theme.
More importantly though,
you should call your cable company
and call your satellite provider
and demand, don't ask politely,
those days are over,
demand that they start covering world events
and you can see the news from a different perspective.
BBC World is the name of the channel.
And I get it through Canadian satellite,
but nobody in this country can get it
through commercial means that I know of.
I don't think there's a single cable company that carries it.
It's not BBC America,
though four times a day I think BBC America
shows you BBC World
and you see BBC World on Channel 21
and on a couple of other PBS stations,
but it's good to be able to turn on your TV set anytime
and see what's going on.
Okay, now we had an experiment last week
with the new Verizon rate structure
that involved AutoJack here.
Let's sum this up.
We sent you outside.
In the cold.
In the cold.
It wasn't that bad.
It's a lot colder tonight.
I think it's colder tonight.
It's colder, yeah.
But we sent you out to make a phone call
from the pay phone to us
to determine if in fact
the unlimited time period was in effect.
If you recall, Verizon last week doubled its rates
so that actually they started the transitional period.
Some phones are $0.25.
Some phones are $0.50 right now.
They say that when they cut over to $0.50,
they're going to make it up to us
by making the local calls unlimited in length
so you can stay on there until the next century or whatever
and they're not going to cut you off.
So what we sent you out to do last week
was to go to a phone and see,
first of all, if it was $0.50
and see if there was a three-minute limit
or if there was an unlimited limit.
But what did we find out?
We found out, well, we thought we found out
that you put in $0.25, right?
You put in $0.25?
I put in $0.25.
And you weren't asked to leave the phone.
Right.
So we thought that that meant
that there are phones out there
that cost $0.25 right now that are unlimited.
Now, we could have just left it at that,
but when we went out to investigate the phone later,
we discovered something.
And remember, that phone had horrible sound to it.
It had a big hum.
Apparently, there was something really wrong with that phone.
Yeah.
Where it would let you make free phone calls
without putting $0.25 in at all.
So we realized that the experiment was kind of tainted
because you had, in fact,
put in $0.25 to a phone that didn't need it.
And you could have made that phone call
without putting in anything.
There were a lot of strange things about that phone.
There were quite a few strange things.
We experimented with it for a good half hour after the show
and discovered it had all kinds of weird capabilities.
But it's disconnected now.
Somebody ratted us out.
And so we can't use that phone.
But we're going to send you outside again
to redo the experiment.
Well, we have to.
It's cold out there.
I know it's cold out there.
Look, I'm not in charge of the weather.
I'm sorry.
So if you go out there again...
I'm not staying out there the entire show.
Well, this is what we're going to do.
There's a three-minute limit.
There's a three-minute limit on the old phones anyway.
Right.
So go out there, see if it's a quarter, see if it's $0.50,
make a phone call to us,
and we'll see if it cuts you off after three minutes.
And if it does,
we'll hear that noise for the last time probably.
And if it doesn't,
then we'll know that out there there are phones that are cut over.
So is this my cue?
Yeah, be on your way.
Okay.
Make sure you bring the special number with you.
Yeah, I have the special number.
Okay.
Make sure it's a Verizon phone.
Yeah, make sure it's a Verizon phone.
Make sure it's a Verizon phone.
There is a bank that's closer to the station actually
where there are phones.
And let's read a couple of pieces of listener email.
Hey, I'm a long-term reader slash listener and supporter.
But two things came up in this broadcast
that sort of bugged me, one minor, one major.
First, the minor one.
No U.S. security or military force uses an Uzi machine gun,
to my knowledge, outside of the movies.
It's primarily used by Israeli forces.
Perhaps the weapon you saw was a Mach 10
or even a good old-fashioned M16.
You know, I got to say right here,
I'm a bit disturbed.
Maybe, Mike, you might understand this.
People seem to know way too much about guns and weapons and airplanes.
I mean, you know, it's a good hobby to have.
But I just noticed that people around, in general,
I've noticed this since grade school,
they don't know how to find states on a map.
They can't find states within their own country.
But you point out an airplane or a gun or something like that
and they know everything about it,
not only, you know, what kind of gun it is,
but, you know, how many rounds per minute it gets
and, you know, what it's capable of doing.
And again, you know, it's fun to have interest,
but they just seem to, you know, to mean way too much.
Do you get that?
I don't understand.
Tom Whisker understands.
Well, Tom Whisker should understand
because he does a program about weaponry.
It's a great show and I listen to it a lot.
And it's on tonight at 1 o'clock,
right after the Morris Orthodox Radio Crusade.
Is it 1 o'clock or 1.30?
It's around that area.
So, okay, yeah, 1.30.
That's, you know, and that's something.
But I just think too many people get obsessed with it.
And, you know, people equate computers and guns.
I don't get that either because computers are, you know,
there's all kinds of things you can shape them
to do all kinds of different things.
I haven't seen people shape artillery to do very many things.
There's the occasional art project that involves melting guns.
Okay, that's something.
That's one thing.
But I just, you know, pay attention to the things
that really matter, you know, like knowledge,
like moving ahead, and history too,
because, you know, how else do you repeat the same mistakes?
Okay, but anyway, yeah, okay, that person is probably right.
I spoke out of ignorance.
It wasn't an Uzi that the National Guard guy was holding.
I wasn't trying to be accurate with the kind of weapon he had.
I was just saying he had a machine gun, you know,
and that's what was scary.
I think that's what we were talking about.
Okay, second, while I sometimes, not always,
but sometimes agree with the views of protesters,
and quote, I don't know why,
I see the activity at this point as useless.
In the general public view, if you're peaceful,
no one pays any attention.
If you're violent, you're dismissed as crazy and violent.
It's a complete waste of the protester's time.
Give it up and come up with something else.
This worked in the 60s, but it doesn't work anymore.
I'm open to suggestions.
Yeah, you know, I sense this a lot.
I get this a lot from people saying that, you know,
protesting worked in the 60s.
It worked because people were paying attention,
because people were educated,
because people had something to say.
And I think that's the number one rule of any protesters,
to know what it is they're talking about
and to be able to communicate to people who aren't protesting.
And if it's an issue that matters,
then yeah, it's going to make a difference.
I mean, what this guy is saying,
and I don't want to put this person down at all
because it would take the time to write to us,
and these are valid points,
but what this person is saying is what they did.
What this person is saying is what they want him to say.
I mean, you know, the people in the establishment,
people in charge,
the people who don't want the masses to be protesting anything,
they're very, very happy.
They're very happy when people say protesting doesn't do any good.
You know, and that's...
I just don't think that's a very good way to approach things.
I think we have AutoJack on the phone.
AutoJack, are you there?
Yes, I'm here.
Oh, you have a really good quality phone today.
Is it bad quality?
You kind of muffled a little bit, but no, you're fine, you're fine.
Okay, at least there's no hum.
All right, so let's start the timer here.
All right, so you're at a Verizon phone right now.
Yes, it is a Verizon phone.
And how much did you put in?
I put in 25 cents.
You put in 25 cents.
Okay, so that phone has not been cut over yet.
And so what we're going to do now is keep the timer going
and see if after three minutes they cut you off.
We'll keep you out there for six minutes, all right?
Okay.
Just to make absolutely sure.
We're reading some listener mail right now,
and I guess we're coming to the end of it.
Is there anything else that you want to say about the important?
Talk to people who have never protested before.
All right, he's right in a certain sense that there have been a lot of protests
and some more effective than others.
But it is oftentimes an effective way to get the attention of the people in power
and to force them to change things.
And there are other ways.
Maybe this person should get involved and offer his wisdom and suggestions.
Well, you have to believe in what you're protesting against.
Of course.
Or protesting for.
I protest for things.
You know what I mean, yeah.
The World Economic Forum was the most recent example here in New York City.
I think that was a fantastic success with over 10,000 people.
The forum or the protest?
The protest.
Well, that's why we say the forum was too.
But the people showed up here, over 10,000 of them, peacefully protested.
One nincompoop smashed a window someplace.
Of course, that makes it onto the news every place.
It tells you where they're coming from.
They just want to show something bad happening.
And if you can have over 10,000 people come here and have only one window break,
that's pretty good for any crowd, any crowd of people.
Did you know, Emanuel, that about a third of a million people in Barcelona, Spain,
protested the EU this week?
I saw that.
Try telling 300,000 people in Barcelona that protesting doesn't do any good.
Of course it does good.
You get your point across.
If you do it intelligently, you'll actually have something happen as a result.
Case in point, when we protested against the making of the Kevin Mitnick film,
not the one we made but the one that Miramax was making, it had an effect.
We only had two dozen people out there, but they paid attention.
They took our concerns seriously.
And to their credit, they changed some things in the film.
Not enough things to suit me, but they changed a lot of things.
And it does matter.
It does matter.
If you reach the right people and if your protest is phrased in a somewhat intelligent way,
people will listen.
Anyway, finish this letter.
That was all that I really needed and wanted to say.
Besides the fact I sincerely hope you guys keep up the amazing work that you all do.
And if there is any way a humble man such as yourself can aid you,
please don't hesitate to ask.
Signed, Adam.
Adam, thanks for bringing up the points because they do need to be discussed.
And I appreciate the writing.
Artochek, are you still there?
Yes.
Has it been six minutes yet?
No, it's been only two minutes and 40 seconds.
Okay.
It's really windy.
Is it windy?
That's good.
That way the phone will definitely, you know, cold weather is better for that kind of equipment.
Right.
All right.
Let's read some other.
We'll read the letters about the pay phones.
That way you'll feel a part of things.
Okay.
All right.
In central United States, Wisconsin pay phone prices went from the easy 35 cents to 50 cents since about the summer of 2000.
I was outraged even the high school pay phones are 50 cents.
I just think it's BS when cell phones can be cheaper.
Too bad it's illegal to make free phone calls.
Well, it's not really illegal.
I mean, you know, what AT&T is doing, that's kind of free, although you do pay $19.95.
And, you know, I guess free overtime is what we're going into right now.
Yes, Jim.
I have a suggestion for people who are aggravated by the increase in prices, and it's not exactly advocating free phone calls or anything, but it's worth a try.
The largest coin, well, let's rephrase that.
For its size, the coin that's the largest size for the smallest amount is the nickel, and nickels work in pay phones.
Ten of them will get you a 50 cent call.
You plug up the phone with nickels.
Some phones in the old days, I know this for a fact, used to, you would fill it with nickels, and the nickel at the top would essentially complete the circuit.
And at that point, every coin thereon would simply go through to the reject cup, and you could make free phone calls.
I suggest we try that.
You know, from now on, if you make a call to a pay phone, try to use nickels.
I could have used nickels down here.
But you didn't.
You put a quarter in.
But the idea is that you use nickels, and hopefully in the future, somebody else will be able to make a free phone call for it, or vice versa.
Other people will use nickels, and you will benefit from this.
Maybe that's what happened to the other phone.
Hmm?
Maybe that's what happened to the other phone.
Yeah, maybe.
Interesting phone.
I think that other phone got confused somehow, but let's continue with these letters.
I just thought I'd point out that I noticed at the last 2600 meeting at Citigroup, one of the two pay phones in the food court had a $0.35 label on it, while the one next to it had a $0.25 label.
I used the $0.35 one with a quarter.
The weird thing is, I think I know what that was all about.
The rates were $0.35 and $0.25 in many places, so they would flip the little plastic things over.
And probably what happened was some wiseacre at the 2600 meeting figured I had to flip it and put the wrong rate on there.
New Jersey was $0.35 for a while, as well as many other places.
And here's an explanation as to why this is from our good friend Danny B.
Verizon Communications raised the price of a local pay phone call to $0.50, up from $0.35 for no public hearings, since they're now unregulated and competitive.
Basically, Bell Atlantic, a few years ago, signed off on an agreement with the New York State Public Service Commission to hold the pay phone rate to $0.25 for a certain amount of years.
So Verizon couldn't raise them in New York State so easily, but when that expired, they were able to do as they pleased.
Also, Verizon pay phones are all COCOD-type rather than CO-based.
FCC regulations required the ILEX, which is what they call those companies, to provide the same CO control to competitors that they themselves were using.
They decided to drop it completely.
Regarding the five minutes, in the late 1980s or early 1990s, NYNEX made a tradeoff.
All coin calls in New York City would be the same $0.25 instead of some being more, but the initial drop-down went to three minutes.
Remember, it was five minutes. I was mistaken about that last week.
And finally, there was an official complaint filed by someone about the pay phones not giving change or at least more time for overtime when you put in a quarter instead of a nickel.
He lost.
And by the way, many COCODs do, in fact, measure the money you put in and adjust accordingly.
Something's happening here.
What is that noise?
They're driving a truck, like, right onto the sidewalk where the phone is.
I guess this is the new method of getting overtime.
Right.
Actually going to you and getting it.
Is it a Verizon truck?
No, it's not a Verizon truck.
I'm not sure what it is.
It's got some kind of...
It's a garbage truck or something.
Okay.
Well, the important thing is you haven't been asked for any...
It's been seven minutes now, and you have not been asked for any additional money.
That's correct.
All right.
I'd like to do an experiment before we send you back in here.
Okay.
You haven't heard your coin actually leave.
I don't know.
Okay.
What I'd like you to do is put another quarter in.
Put another quarter in.
And the reason I'm doing this, the reason I'm asking this,
I want to see if it makes the red box tones,
and I also want to see if you get that quarter back.
Do you think you'll be able to hear the red box tones over this truck?
Well, I have in the past.
Okay.
Yeah.
Well, are you ready?
Go right ahead.
Should I give a countdown or anything?
Just 3-2-1 will be fine.
Okay.
3-2-1.
Did you hear that?
I think we picked something up, yes.
Those were red box tones.
No question about it.
Okay.
Well, now hang up the phone, see what money comes out,
and run like the wind back into the studio.
Okay.
And thank you for your hard work here.
Yes.
Okay.
I'll be back.
All right.
All right.
That's the sound of the phone hanging up downstairs on Wall Street.
This is all coming to you very live here at WBAI.
I'm going to take phone calls.
2-1-2-2-0-9-2-9-100.
Yes.
Someone else wanted us to repost the URL for BBC World as well,
which I don't have with me,
but I can tell the person if you just listened to last week's show,
since I said it there, and obviously you have Internet access,
the shows are archived, www.2600.com off the hook,
then you'll hear me say it then too.
Even though you missed it the first time, you can catch it the next time.
What else?
Okay.
We read that one already.
Here's a mystery.
Maybe we can help this person figure out their mystery.
I'm a resident of Salem, Oregon.
That's no mystery, but the mystery is this.
Recently I had a strange run-in with what I believe was ESS,
electronic switching.
My friend and I were on the phone,
and my friend attempted to make a three-way call.
The three-way call didn't work at my friend's end.
What happened to me in the meantime was quite interesting.
I heard some clicks and was presented with a title-less phone menu.
The options were something to the effect of
press 1, start a new recording,
press 2, play back current recording,
press 3, erase and start new recording,
press 4, continue recording.
Being a cautious individual, I pressed 2
and heard the last half of my own conversation,
up to the attempted three-way call.
After that, I was sent back to the menu
where I chose the three option and hung up.
I then attempted to call my friend back,
but when I picked up the phone, he was already there.
According to my friend, the phone rang at his end,
and he picked up.
Remember, I didn't get to actually dialing the number,
and the phone on my end was on the hook
long enough to reset the three-way call.
Any comments and or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Signed, Jack the Ripper.
And welcome back, AutoJack.
That to me sounds kind of wacky.
His friend was the one making the three-way call.
I mean, obviously they got tied into a voicemail system somehow.
So he could not...
He said the phone at my end was on the hook
long enough to reset the three-way call,
so that meant when he hung up,
the three-way call on his friend's end
should have been reset.
But that does not explain
how the voicemail recording got there.
I would say the person probably dialed the wrong number
and connected him to a voicemail system.
That's the only thing I can think of.
There's a flaw with that argument.
What's the flaw?
The flaw is that they're on the phone with each other
and the friend says,
let's make it a three-way call.
And you hear the conversation up until then.
You hear the conversation...
Exactly, you hear the conversation
before he dials another number.
Yeah, I was hoping to sort of not focus on that
because that doesn't make sense.
You're right.
But maybe either they got that wrong or...
Possibly.
Or somebody's up to some hanky-panky
and recording another phone conversation on the line
because obviously the person was three-way to it.
Obviously the person was able to control it
so it wasn't something that was, you know, external.
I don't know.
It's kind of weird.
But it does sound exactly like a voicemail recording of some sort.
Somebody three-wayed him into a voicemail recording.
Since somebody was playing with three-way,
I would guess it was the person
who was trying to make a three-way call.
Maybe the person made a three-way call beforehand
without realizing it
and then tried to make a three-way call again,
which should have disconnected it,
but maybe it didn't for some reason.
That's possible.
You also have the possibility of crossed wires
to another nearby line
where somebody else is calling into a voicemail system.
That could be, too.
Maybe he has four-way.
That's also possible.
All right.
Let's take some phone calls.
212-209-2900 is our phone number.
We only have a few minutes.
Yes?
Are you interested to find out what the phone did?
Oh, yes.
I'm sorry.
What happened?
Okay, Mike.
What do I have in my hand?
You have two quarters.
You have two quarters.
You're not Mike.
I'm sorry.
The phone gave me back two quarters.
It's not taking quarters at all.
Right.
We should try another phone later.
All right.
We're going to go on.
We'll pass the point when there are any phone calls.
Speaking of going around the city,
look what I found
on probably one of the best websites in the world
called nycsubway.org
where they have pictures of old subway trains
and all kinds of historical maps and things like that.
A picture of an evil L train.
That's right.
The L trains are now turning into evil trains.
You know about this, Jim?
Yes.
You know about that.
You kept quiet about it.
Well, I figured that, you know,
when the end of the world comes, I'll tell you,
but when it works up to that, I won't.
Well, we're going to go out hunting for an evil L later.
No, no.
Yes, we are.
We have to.
We have to.
It's very important.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Yes, good morning or good afternoon or good evening.
How you doing?
Listen, I just want to let you know
that Gary Knoll doesn't care
whether the phone company tells you it's 209.
All right, enough of this.
For God's sake.
First of all, I don't want to talk about other radio hosts.
Second of all, I don't care if you say 209 or 209.
I mean, for God's sake,
this guy really thinks that's an important issue.
He calls all the radio shows and talks about this all the time.
Do you think Rebel's still in Nebraska?
Whichever one you don't like me to say
is the one I'm going to start saying,
so just keep talking about it.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Speak up, please.
Hey!
You've got to speak faster.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
See, I already hit the button.
Oh, boy.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Again, you've got to speak faster.
Come on, we're running out of time here.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Yeah, hi.
How are you doing?
Hi.
I listened with delight to your ripping into Amazon.com
because a couple months back the same thing happened to me.
Really?
Well, I mean, I needed to talk to them,
and they disappeared their phone numbers from the website,
and it got me furious,
and I thought I'd read you a letter I wrote to them.
It's very quick, unless you don't want me to.
Well, just give us the gist of it,
because we really don't have very much time.
What happened in the end?
I just really tried to let them have it,
and it was the second e-mail I wrote,
and I finally got a response saying,
we pride ourselves in convenience and efficiency,
and I'm truly sorry your impression of doing business with Amazon.com
has been so negative.
Below are the phone numbers you requested.
But it took me a couple of days to get that.
Do you have those phone numbers with you?
Yes, I do.
Well, why don't you tell the whole world?
Let's hear them.
Okay.
U.S. and Canada, 1-800-201-7575.
Okay.
And then there's an international number.
I don't know if you want that.
Go ahead.
1-206-266-2992.
Okay.
And even a fax number.
But I did try to tell the customer service person who I talked to
that it was really bad business to make it impossible for customers,
even of an online service like Amazon,
not to be able to reach somebody by telephone.
We still do like to use telephones.
Yeah, and that's the best way to reach somebody.
Yeah, when you want something, you want to talk to a live person.
Anyway, thanks for bringing it up.
Thanks.
Thanks for the information.
Yes, Jim.
I think every listener should really call that 800 number
and tell them to put the 800 number back on the website.
Or we'll put it on all the other websites in the world.
That's a good idea.
Or, you know, it doesn't have to be an 800 number.
I was perfectly happy to call, you know, a regular phone number.
No problem.
206, Seattle.
As long as it's not a 900 number, you know.
All right, let's take another phone call.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hi.
How are you doing?
This is Tom from New Jersey.
How are you doing, Tom?
Good.
Great.
Thanks for that Amazon.com phone number.
Well, thank our listener for that.
The other thing is telephone related also.
I was using one of these services where you punch in the number
and then make your call, like 10-10-636 or whatever, about a year ago.
And they were originally something like $0.06 a minute.
And then while I was, you know, in the middle of the month sometime,
they switched it to $0.25 a minute.
Oh, how nice.
Without informing anybody, of course.
What company was this again?
I'm afraid I don't remember,
but I just wonder how much money they made off of that.
Probably quite a bit.
Probably more than they got sued for.
The other thing is I'm here in New Jersey.
When we try to call into New York after, say, 6 minutes or 5 minutes waiting,
they cut you off.
They say, I'm sorry, your party is not answering.
Any insight on how to get them to stop doing that?
Because, you know, it handicaps us from calling.
Yeah, I realize that,
and that's something that's been upsetting us for quite some time.
Basically what happens is people that don't call from inside the local area,
their ring times out,
and they say your party is not answering.
There really is no solution I know of other than to call from a local area
or maybe try using a different phone company,
a different long-distance company.
There might be a couple that are more tolerant.
Other than that, though, I don't really have a solution
because we don't have control over the network.
Okay, thanks, Emmanuel.
Thanks for all your good work.
Thanks.
Sprint cell phones cut you off after 1 minute.
They cut you off after 1 minute when what?
When you're trying to ring someone.
Really?
Yeah.
They cut you off?
What do you mean they cut you off?
They say the same thing, except after only 1 minute instead of 5.
Really? I'll have to try that.
Well, in any event, we're out of time, unfortunately.
We had a lot to talk about tonight,
and we'll have more to talk about next week as well.
So I want to thank everybody for…
Oh, Jack, you're turning blue.
Am I turning blue?
It was cold outside, I guess.
You should have brought a jacket.
Why didn't you bring a jacket?
You're wearing a short-sleeved shirt and everything.
Oh, man.
I'll bring my bathing suit next time.
Well, I mean, I just think this is New York.
You've got to dress appropriately.
All right, well, we'll keep you indoors next time.
Right.
All right.
That's the wrong song.
I don't know why.
This is what happens when they mislabel CDs.
Hang on.
I'm going to get this right,
because it's just so annoying when the wrong CD plays.
I think this is the right one.
No, that's wrong too.
I think you're just going to have to live with it.
Yeah, you know, I'm going to try one more thing, though.
And then, yeah, you're right.
I will live with it after that.
Hang on.
The program is off the hook,
where technical things work just unbelievably.
Okay, you know what?
We're just going to leave it with this.
See you next week.
See you next week.
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No, shite for Hickey´s!
Hey, what's up, man?
What's up?
Hey, this is Geoffrey Wright.
This is Mose Dove.
Listening to listener-sponsored radio, WBAI.
New York, New York 99.5 FM.
This is Valerie Van Ness, the general manager of WBAI.
We did it.
With your help, we made our goal for the Wynton membership drive by raising over $1 million.
This is the highest amount in years.