This is Masti Skeshevaes, spokesperson for United for Peace and Justice.
Today, the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of United for Peace and Justice,
the organizers of the February 15th anti-war mobilization in the United States.
The lawsuit charges that the city of New York is violating the First Amendment by denying a permit for the march.
We are seeking an injunction to order the city to let the march proceed.
The hearing is set for Friday at 3 p.m. before Federal District Court Judge Barbara Jones in Manhattan.
In the meantime, we are going full steam ahead with plans for a massive march and rally on February 15th.
We have been getting an overwhelming response from people all around the country and around the world
where marches are also planned on February 15th.
To make your opinion heard, please call Mayor Bloomberg's office at 212-788-3040
or 212-788-3210 and tell him to let the march proceed.
For more information, please visit our website at www.unitedforpeace.org.
Thank you.
It's 7.03. You're listening to 99.5 FM WBAI.
Off the Hook is next.
The telephone keeps ringing, so I rip it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a call.
They turned me at my twerp, but if they could they would.
Funded me both, but the best is paid for worse.
I hope that's understood. Funded me both.
Good evening. Is Emmanuel there?
Continue on the current road 16 miles.
Are you there?
Yeah, it's this GPS computer. It won't shut up.
I'm going to have to... OK.
I told you to get the boy.
I turned the car off because, well, after about 12,000 miles with this thing,
I think we're starting to get on each other's nerves,
and it's barking out orders to me that I have no intention of following,
and I've done some things to sabotage its systems as well.
So this trip is coming to an end.
We've been on the road since January 6, and right now I'm just outside of Buffalo,
which means I'm in the right state, just the wrong city.
I'll be back tomorrow. I'll be there at the meeting at Citigroup on Friday for the 2600 meeting.
I really wanted to get the show tonight. I tried. I really did.
But, you know, this is a really big country, and it takes a long time to get places.
There's a lot to see.
There's a lot to see. There's just a lot of roads to go over,
and we've also had a lot of snow because we've been going back in the northern part of the country,
and I guess, you know, we kind of expect to see a lot of snow.
It just seems to always hit at night when you're driving,
and when you're on an interstate and you don't even know where exactly the lanes are,
an 18-wheel truck goes up and by at 70 miles an hour and completely blinds you.
It gets a little nerve-wracking.
And when we last spoke to you, you were in California.
How exactly? What was your route to come back?
Well, basically, when I talked to you last time, I was in San Francisco,
and since then I've driven through the Redwood Forest, which is pretty spectacular, I must say.
I've never seen those before, through Portland, Seattle, and then the tip of Idaho.
We took that Route 2, you know, the very northerly road in the United States,
and that got a little slow and tiny, so we went back down to the interstate around Montana.
Montana took two days to cross at full speed,
and then to North Dakota and Wisconsin, yesterday Chicago,
and now we're in Buffalo, about to loop around and head down to the city.
While you were in Chicago, did you get a chance to see the illegal art show?
No, I did not get a chance to see that. We got in a little too late for that.
I did meet up with a bunch of people, though, from the 20th Attorney Meeting there,
and we had a lot of fun doing all kinds of interesting things.
I'll talk about that a little bit later.
I've seen a lot of interesting sites. I've visited a lot of cool people.
Of course, this is all having to do with Kevin Mitnick's, I guess, ascension into freedom,
where he no longer has his supervised release to worry about.
And it's funny, because, you know, traveling around, you turn on the radio,
and you listen to various stations, and twice I've come across Kevin X
talking on the radio on some call-in show.
It's pretty neat to actually hear people that you know on the radio.
Yeah, I know he's been busy.
He's been very busy, yeah.
It's quite a kick to hear him on the radio, talking to various people,
answering questions on the phone.
So, yeah, it's been great for him.
We're getting more and more footage, and now he gets to work on the DVD
and various other projects that we're working on.
Among which, I should point out, we have a fundraiser at WBAI that's coming up.
I believe it begins next week.
We're not going to be on next week.
Next week at this time, we will not be there.
But in two weeks, we have a special expanded show that begins at 7 o'clock,
and we'll be doing all kinds of fun things there.
But one thing I wanted to ask listeners, if people could write in for this,
mail us at oth2600.com with suggestions as to things,
2600 things that you would like to see.
We've been talking to people across the country about this,
and getting all kinds of suggestions.
Some people want us to come out with hooded sweatshirts.
Some people want us to come out with coffee mugs.
There's all kinds of merchandising things,
and we don't always think rationally as to what people actually want.
So if there's something you think we should have out there,
we can do this in conjunction with the fundraiser in a couple of weeks,
because we'll have some of those things hopefully available pretty soon.
But we'd like to know what people are actually in the mood for.
I know over in Germany, the hooded sweatshirts for Chaos Computer Club are very popular,
but I'm not sure if such a thing would work here,
a particular type of cowboy hat or something.
I don't know.
They're very hard to ship.
They have the CCC jackets as well, which are very nice.
Yes, yes.
Something along those lines.
CCC jackets, which look like FBI jackets, that kind of thing.
There's a world of possibilities out there.
When you talk to people all around the country,
you get inspired to do all kinds of things.
You know, there's always one person that gets their cell phone off.
No, no, no, that's not a cell phone.
That's the phone you called in on earlier.
Oh, really?
That has to be in here, yeah.
That phone has to be in there now.
That phone usually lives in a different room.
I know, I know.
Wow, things have really changed.
Oh, you wouldn't believe the changes here.
Since you've been gone, we've got hardwood floors.
We've got curtains on the windows.
Really?
Oh, well, not all the windows.
Some of them have mini blinds.
Oh, we didn't have windows last time I was there, so that's a revelation too.
Sure.
I hear, though, that they're taking it out in the coming weeks, so you won't get to see it.
Oh, that's a shame.
Well, you know, I'll drive like crazy tomorrow and get there late at night and run in and take one last look at it.
Yeah, but don't leave Buffalo without trying the wings.
Well, okay, yeah, you know, we had talked a little bit before the show about this,
and I didn't really get to talk in detail about it with you,
but you were telling me that the wings are different than they are in any place else,
and I, you know, obviously I know that they, you know, it's not quite as hot as it is in other places,
so we're going to ask for the, you know, the hottest possible wings, you know, ones I think they call Suicide Plus.
Yeah, I think you should do that.
Yeah, you think I should do that?
Yeah, yeah.
That's, you know.
I spoke to you before.
I warned you.
You want to keep playing, go ahead.
That's where they started Buffalo Wings.
You can tell when someone's being tongue-in-cheek, and I'm very good at that.
Okay, okay.
Obviously, I'll, you know, I'll take you at your word.
I had them at the same place that you're going to.
Which is the, what was the name of the place again?
The Anchor Bar.
The Anchor Bar.
Yeah, so if anyone wants to meet us after this radio show, and they happen to be in Buffalo,
but don't do it if you're not in Buffalo.
It's not worth all the time and expense of trying to get there quickly.
That's where we're going to be shortly after the show.
Maybe a half hour, hour after the show, we'll be at the Anchor Bar,
and I don't know how you'll be able to tell who we are.
There'll probably be paramedics around us.
Yeah, with the paddles.
We'll see, but anyway, as far as changes go,
one very major change has to do with New York City and the phone company,
and I understand that you now have to dial the area code.
Is that right?
Yeah, Mike can tell you about that.
I can?
Mike, tell me about that.
Yes, apparently now in New York, you have to dial one, the area code, and the number.
So that's 11 digits to dial anybody, anywhere in the country or across the street, 11 digits you have to dial.
Has it been tested thoroughly that you cannot dial 10 digits, leaving out the one?
Well, what happened is that they tested the system when it was still turned on,
and they messed it all up.
So now, last time I checked, you could dial both 7 digits and get through,
and 11 digits and still get through.
So now it works both ways.
Before, if you dialed 11 digits,
you'd get a message saying you do not need to dial an area code with this number.
Okay, well, officially, does anyone know if it works without OnePlus,
like from a home phone or office phone or anything like that?
I tried it two days ago, so it works without the one.
Uh-huh, and that was from where?
That's from my home, that's from St. Alan's in Brooklyn.
Okay, has anyone else tried it?
No, I haven't had a chance.
Well, you live in New Jersey.
That's right, yeah.
Mike, you have a cell phone, right?
I have a cell phone.
Okay, now, one of the joys of having a cell phone
is that you can call other cell phones without putting in the area code.
Has that changed?
I don't know very many people who have the same area code of cell phone as I do,
so I don't take advantage of that feature.
Oh, do you dial people randomly on your area code?
Yep, I don't.
Oh, that's why you don't know anybody.
That's how you meet people, dial randomly.
I'll have to look into that.
Okay, well, what we'd like to find out from our listeners in New York City and Byron's,
you know, 718 as well,
if certain things work for you, is it only OnePlus that works for you,
OnePlus area code, or can you dial area code plus number?
Can you dial seven digits?
Can you dial OnePlus seven digits?
Try everything.
And those people with cell phones, too, in the area,
let us know if you're now required to dial an area code for phone calls.
It's really ridiculous.
It's really silly and completely unnecessary.
But that's the way they've designed the system.
Mike's got his phone here.
We can put him to work.
Uh-huh.
Well, does he have somebody to call?
You know, I really don't.
Well, you know, that other phone,
the phone that wandered into the studio from the other room,
you could also put that to work.
We could.
That goes out to a regular 212 number.
And, well, people can experiment with that quietly while we talk.
That would be certainly appreciated.
But what I'd like to know is, has this caused anyone on our staff,
has it caused them any problems so far?
Apparently not.
Jim, did it cause you any problems?
I don't know.
My problems are totally unrelated to this.
Okay.
Okay.
I just got a note here.
One of the people working here got to call the station
without dialing the area code first for New York.
Really?
Yeah.
And they were somewhere else outside the station?
Yeah, I believe.
Yeah.
As of February 1st, it was supposed to be mandatory,
so maybe it's not so mandatory anymore.
Last time I heard it was in the news
that they moved the whole program back for, like, four weeks.
So it's next month now it's going to hit.
Wait, hold on a second.
It didn't take effect on February 1st?
It was supposed to take effect, but the system messed up
and allowed you to call both 7 and 11 digits and still get through.
So they decided to fix the system, whatever that means by fixing it.
And so the new official date is somewhere like in four weeks.
Has anyone else heard this?
No, I haven't.
Apparently not.
Okay.
Well, that's interesting.
I trust Leo.
I'm sorry?
I trust Leo, though.
Oh, yeah.
It's just you'd think that the word would get out a little bit more.
It's working out well for the institution of dialing the 11 digits,
so I'm not surprised that delaying it has not gone out.
Well, I've been around, so I don't know what kind of push there was in the final weeks,
but I know that it's been announced, like, months in advance.
I don't know if that would have done much good for most people,
but it doesn't really affect anything I do very much.
You have to dial as much as you did sometimes.
But there are people with all kinds of speed dialing and fax machines and modems
and things like that.
They get awfully confused and things don't go through.
Everything has to be reprogrammed.
Yeah, everything has to be reprogrammed.
That's why I'm looking for any kind of story of people that have really, you know,
maybe died from something or just been terribly inconvenienced, you know, whatever.
Whatever comes up.
So if you have a story like that, please let us know.
We did receive some e-mail before February 1st from our friends at Panics,
who were, I guess, in a panic because they were worried that they were going to have
customers unable to, you know, figure out how to reprogram their modems
to reach their Internet providers.
And all this change happened on a weekend when they were, you know, short-staffed anyway.
But apparently, I don't know, we haven't heard from them since.
Well, that's because they can't dial out, so no one's heard from them since.
All I know is here in Philadelphia we can still dial 10-number numbers.
Oh, Bernie, I forgot you were on the line.
Welcome, welcome to the show.
Good evening.
10-number numbers.
In fact, we can still use the infamously named 10-number numbers here in Philadelphia.
As featured in Down Time.
We have a little excerpt for you there explaining the 10-number numbers.
It's Bill Atlantic at the time had decided to call there when they switched over to 10-
or 11-digit dialing.
They dubbed them with a big publicity campaign as 10-number numbers.
Not 10-digit numbers, but 10-number numbers.
And we can still use them here in Philadelphia.
So, now, you don't have to dial 1-plus to dial another 215 number from 215.
You can just dial 215-plus.
That's right.
Now, what if you put the 1 in anyway?
It works, too.
It works, too.
Now, when you dial, say, 212 from 215, you have to put the 1.
You have to have the 1.
And if you don't put the 1, you get scolded.
Yes.
My question is, if they know to scold you, they know how to route the call.
Yes.
So, that's pretty weird.
It's a strange system, and I think it's just because they have very bad programming,
which is why this happened in the first place.
Who would we blame?
Would you blame that on the former Bellcore company, Telcordia,
or is it just from the local exchange carriers that are to blame for this?
I personally blame the people that planned out how to deal with number exhaustion.
They had some options that would have resulted in retaining the geographical nature of area codes,
namely adding a digit to the area code or even adding a digit to the phone number.
Yes, it would have required a lot of reprogramming of switches,
but we're going to have to do that anyway.
It's just a question of putting it off.
And now, when we do run out of the expanded area codes,
there's not going to be any rhyme or reason to the numbering scheme.
Do you know where area code 773 is?
Do you know where 585 is?
I think I'm near 585, actually.
But nobody knows where these are.
Use some sort of domain name system where we can just all have names for our phone numbers.
Or maybe, as someone suggested, just use our social security numbers.
Might as well at this point.
Okay, so that's the main story coming out of New York that we've even heard about as far away as California.
When I was in Chicago yesterday, I hung out with a bunch of 2600-type people.
And, of course, you always wind up playing with technology and talking about technology and things like that.
That's what makes it so much fun.
I found out something from one of the people there, which I thought was really pretty amazing.
And, Mike, maybe you'd be interested in this.
Did you know it's now possible to send SMS messages from a T-Mobile phone to a Sprint phone?
I did not know that.
Well, I just sent you a message from my T-Mobile phone to your Sprint phone.
Well, I didn't receive it.
Well, I just clicked the button during that sentence, so I don't think you'll receive it right away.
But it takes a few minutes.
The problem is I haven't found anybody yet who can figure out how to read the message.
So your phone will beep, and you may be the first person who can figure out how to actually get the message.
And then we can take it from there.
Okay.
How about replying to those messages?
That would be totally beyond us.
I don't know.
I'm going to turn the ringer on so everyone will know when I received this message.
Okay.
Please, nobody call Mike during this because, obviously, that will go out over the air as well.
Oh, I have an alert from short mail.
That's me.
That's me.
Short mail.
Okay.
Can you read the message?
I pressed okay to view it now, and it is now connecting.
Yeah, it connects to something.
And I always get like a web service problem, please contact provider.
And the reason I don't want to contact the provider, I'm convinced that they don't like the username I picked out,
which is an obscenity followed by the word Sprint.
And I picked that because I was so frustrated in trying to pick a username.
They wouldn't let me have anything else.
And I fear they might have turned it off, and it will be embarrassing to have that conversation with them.
It says hi.
That's me.
I said that.
And it has your phone number and the time and date.
But not his username?
No, no username.
We crossed from one network to another.
Okay, Mike, can you reply to that?
I have chosen reply.
All right.
Well, type a secret message.
Okay.
And I'll see if I get that particular message.
All right.
This is very exciting.
Why don't we talk about something else while I'm figuring out how to use this stupid thing?
Okay, well, you can devote all your attention to that, and we'll find something else to talk about.
Emmanuel?
Yeah, I'm sorry, Bernie, yes.
Yeah, when you were traveling around the country, did you bring your ICOM R3 scanner
or any other scanner type radio with you?
I did bring my ICOM R3 scanner.
Unfortunately, it's been in my bag the whole time because I've just been so busy with everything else.
I would have loved to have used it in Mexico and all kinds of other places,
but, you know, there's just so much to play with, so much technology to, you know, experiment with.
I found out if you'd run into many local, state, and federal agencies
that had switched from analog FM two-way radio to digital radio.
Here in Philadelphia, earlier this week, they switched over to a new $52 million digital two-way radio system,
which cannot be heard by conventional analog scanner radios
like every other kind of three-scanner radio most people are familiar with.
So, basically, people are out of the loop unless they want to spend nearly $1,000
for a special kind of digital receiver that was just released by Uniden.
I do know a lot of people are playing around with such receivers and spying on video cameras,
which is always a lot of fun.
People transmit security signals.
In fact, there's talk of a great, frank idea, you know, when you call somebody on the phone
and you have a little fun at their expense by, you know, telling them the refrigerator is running
or some such thing like that.
Well, there are many offices that have security cameras in various places,
and in some of them you can see people at their desks.
Now, these cameras can be spied upon using various scanning equipment.
It's all very out in the open and easy to do.
But imagine the fun you could have by making a frank call to that person
and actually watching their reaction live and maybe even taping it.
Hmm.
Yeah.
It could be a whole new realm of frank phone calls.
I got a message, and the message says,
This is a secret message.
You're not supposed to say such things over the air.
Oh, I'm sorry, but I know these times of national, you know, paranoia and all that kind of thing,
but I'm not saying anything else.
I'm just saying this is a secret message with an exclamation point.
Was that you, Mike?
Yeah, that's what I wrote.
And we have successfully crossed both ways, from Sprint to T-Mobile, both ways,
sending SMS messages.
That's pretty good.
Go ahead.
I was saying, that's pretty good.
You know, SMS has been around for years, and they're finally getting it working.
Yeah.
Now, Bernie, I'm going to send you a message now since you have a Sprint phone as well.
Ooh.
Now, I'm on that phone right now.
Well, let's see what happens when I send it to you while you're on it.
But, Mike, can you figure out how to actually initiate an SMS message?
I'll work on that.
Okay, you work on that, and I'll work on sending a message to Bernie now.
I should point out that I have a brand-new Sprint PCS phone,
because they apparently don't repair phones when little parts of them break.
I had a little part of my phone break yesterday.
I was standing out in the sub-zero temperature in Wisconsin,
and there's a part of my LCD screen that now has nonsense on it that won't go away,
and I think it might be broken.
But I don't think I can get it on a Sprint phone,
because they'll charge me not only for the phone, but to activate it.
They only charged me for the phone, which was a rip-off in and of itself, but no activation fee.
And you've got to see this one.
Really?
This is pretty.
Yeah, it's silvery and orange.
The one with the camera in it?
No, no, I do not want any cameras in my phone.
Am I sending this to you?
What are you sending?
You asked me to send an SMS message.
Yeah, if you could send an SMS, yeah, you could send it to me,
but send a different message, otherwise, you know, it might be confusing.
Yes, of course.
All right.
And I'm sending a message to Bernie S. right now.
And, Emmanuel, since you've been traveling and away all this time,
I just have one big question.
What'd you get me?
Well, I got you a lot of memories of things that I've done and seen.
Of course, a lot of digital photos that we've been taking.
No cheese from Wisconsin?
I saw some cheese from Wisconsin, and it was in an omelet, actually, and it was okay.
It was great.
But I don't want to think about cheese again for a while.
No bottled Mexican water?
No, I didn't bring any of that.
I forgot to get bottled Mexican water.
Okay.
Well, my handset has still not received your message, Emmanuel.
Okay, well, your message was just sent, so it might take a little while.
Oh, okay.
And you've got, you know, an older version of the file, so that could take a while as well.
So this is something that I think is a lot of fun to play with.
That's the way a lot of people will be doing it.
I don't know if we get charged every time we send a message between two companies.
I think you can count on that.
Well, back to my question earlier, Emmanuel,
with the advent of some local state and federal agencies
just switching over from analog to digital two-way radio systems.
It's caused quite a controversy here in Philadelphia
and in other municipalities where this has happened
because people, taxpayers, feel shut out
by not being able to hear their public servants doing their jobs anymore.
And it's ruffled a lot of feathers here in Philadelphia.
And the reason that the city council here says that they switched over to this system
is to prevent criminals and other people from listening to the police,
you know, getting dispatched for calls, that sort of thing.
And there's been virtually no recorded instances of that being a problem here in Philadelphia,
but they still felt it was worth spending $52 million to shut the public out.
I personally feel that makes the police less accountable when they can't be listened to.
Of course, but my question is, is it completely impossible for the public to listen in?
Bernie, we're going to have to wait until May before we can pick up some stuff to listen.
The date and hamvention.
That's right.
Uniden has just released a scanner that is about $700 that will decode these digital transmissions.
However, they can also be encrypted.
And if they're encrypted, then you're out of luck.
That would also be a crime to decrypt an encrypted message over the air.
So the Philadelphia police has chosen to encrypt the sensitive communications
and some of the other communications they're not encrypting.
For some reason, they are encrypting the fire ground communications for the police,
for the fire department, too.
You know, at the scene of a fire where they're putting out a fire that's two-way radius.
For some reason, they're encrypting those transmissions, which seems to make no sense
because it's not like, you know, where it's a drug task force or something
where you have to sneak up on the drug dealers or something like that.
If there's a fire, it's a life or death thing.
Especially neighbors in the area would want to know where the fire is
so if it's close to them, they can get the heck out of there or get away from harm's way.
So anyhow, it's kind of interesting what Philadelphia has chosen to encrypt
and not encrypt on this new digital radio system.
You mentioned that it would be illegal to decrypt this.
It brings to mind what people do with satellite television and cable companies
and they figure out ways of decrypting whatever encryption standard,
however weak they might be using,
and occasionally they get raided by people usually for selling equipment
to do various things like that.
But what I'm wondering is how strong an encryption standard will they be using
for these police communications
and will they be treating anybody who dares to decrypt them as some kind of a terrorist?
It's a good question.
We'll probably see because the key links are pretty long.
It uses something called DESXL
and it's probably not as robust an encryption as the satellite television companies are using.
And the satellite TV stuff I think is more of a cloning thing
where an existing account is just cloned into a lot of cards, isn't it?
I believe there's some actual decryption going on.
I'm not really involved in that world so I don't know for sure,
but I don't think it's just cloning.
Well, I'm sure it will happen eventually.
Either a key will be leaked or someone will stumble upon it
and if they open their mouth and get slapped,
we'll find out how hard they get slapped.
We'll keep an eye on that issue.
I think it's an important issue that the citizens who pay their local state
and federal law enforcement agencies to do a job
and also pay for the equipment that they use to communicate
should have some sort of oversight
and being able to hear them in action is one way of doing that.
I'm curious if you know, Bernie, how much money this brand new system costs?
The initial contract was $52 million,
but supposedly it's gone well over budget.
So it was well over $52 million.
Seems like a lot of money to exclude people.
I thought it was a tremendous amount of money.
Philadelphia has the highest city wage tax of virtually any city in the United States.
So that's where the money's going.
What happens if, say, you find a radio at a hamvention, for instance,
that is an old radio that is able to receive these encrypted communications?
Are they able to simply turn off particular radios
or once you get one are you able to listen to everything all over again?
The radios do support something called OTAR,
which stands for over-the-air re-keying.
So if a radio is lost, the dispatcher can immediately disable that radio
so it can't be used to receive or transmit.
Fascinating.
And they can change the keys.
They can re-key all the radios quickly as well.
They can just disable a radio or they can re-key all of them to prevent others from,
like if the key got out, they could just change the key
and then whoever had a previous key would be out of luck.
This is something we should watch, both in Philadelphia and throughout the nation
and throughout the world, in fact.
If people out there know their local police department,
what kind of system they're using, we'd like to hear about that as well.
We'd like to know if you've gone to a system that is possible to listen to
or more difficult to listen to.
I think people have the right to know this.
It's very disturbing when such things simply get taken away.
There's a website where you can get more information about this,
and the URL is strongsignals.net.
So www.strongsignals.net, all one word.
And a lot of these systems have a lot of glitches and problems too,
and there's a lot of dead spots for these new digital systems
where police and firefighters are saying that their radios don't work in certain places.
So there's a lot of growing pains with this technology,
not the least of which is shutting the citizens out from hearing their public servants in action.
And at the same time, while they're getting more privacy for the police,
there's less privacy for people trying to talk on their phones.
While we're speaking of public servants in action,
you're listening to 99.5 WBAI-FM in New York.
That's right. Where else could you hear things like this?
Exactly.
But basically there's all kinds of issues involving locations of cell phones
where they will know where you're calling from at a particular time geographically,
where your phone number is transmitted regardless of whether or not you want it to be,
and your phone calls are listened in on by various entities.
And these are all technologies that are being actively developed.
They want you not to listen to what they are doing,
but those very same people want to be able to listen to what you're doing.
How about that?
Yeah. Let me just point out, I received a message from Mike.
Let me make sure this is your message.
It started with an open parentheses, a colon, and two closed parentheses,
which I believe is sort of a smiley face.
And then it says, a different message.
Was that in fact your message?
Yeah, that's what I wrote.
That's what you wrote.
Okay, so I received that message.
You initiated that message.
So you figured out how to send that message.
I'm going to reply to that message,
just to make sure the reply function works as well.
Bernie, have you not received the message yet?
I have not, but it could be because my handset is a rather old one.
It's about three years old.
It does have some features that I like,
but I need to update the firmware, the software on it.
So it could be that this software upgrade I need
will then give me the ability to receive these messages.
So I'll do that this coming week, and we'll give it another try.
Okay, well, it's fun with cell phones and new technology and things like that.
Has there been any developments with various issues?
Oh, yeah.
We have, as you know, Jim sitting here.
He's got some news.
Okay, let's hear it, Jim.
Well, I've joined the ranks of the, well, I'm now a felon.
Let's put it that way.
Wow.
Yeah.
Join the club.
I can't talk to you about it, unfortunately.
If you're a felon, you can't talk to Bernie S. anymore.
All right, Bernie, from now on, direct your comments away from Jim.
All right.
Face the other way, I guess.
And, Jim, I don't know if you can respond to things that Bernie says to us,
or if we have to repeat everything for you.
Oh, I think I can probably respond to things.
I don't think we can direct things at each other.
That's the thing.
Okay.
Well, then, you two are no longer speaking.
I'm sorry.
And how long will Jim and myself be on non-speaking terms, I wonder?
Jim, I wonder how long this will last.
Well, already it's way too long for the show.
Well, I get sentenced towards the end of March.
I'm going to do five years probation, no jail time.
I have a question, though.
Are you not a felon until you're sentenced?
I've already pled.
Yeah, but...
Oh, that's a good question.
Does somebody know?
I mean, are you considered a felon after the sentencing date or before this?
Not a convicted felon.
He's pre-felon?
Felon to be.
Oh, gee.
If you haven't been sentenced, then I don't think you're convicted yet.
Oh, okay.
Then we can talk.
We're going to get five years' worth in real quick.
Since I'm a felon to be, I wonder if I can get a registry someplace like Bloomingdale's.
Oh, that's bride to be.
Oh.
Yes.
Well, anything else that this has been?
Let's see.
I got some new stories.
I was asking Jim if you have anything else.
No, no, it's just the same old deal.
No financial problems as far as, like, having to pay restitution?
No, just the financial problem of, you know, having no job.
So if anybody would like to hire a soon-to-be felon, I'll do anything.
And if there are any other subway systems in town?
Well, yeah, but I can do other things.
That's true.
I was an award-winning web designer for a short period of time.
Speaking of subways, though, just a brief mention of this because I think you'd be interested.
We were in the Chicago subway system, which uses the exact same MetroCard system.
You know, the cards, you know, work the same way.
One big difference, though, their turnstiles suck in the card, like if you're on a bus.
You simply put the card in, and it, you know, it sucks it in.
And if it doesn't work, it tells you why.
By the way, if you put a New York City MetroCard in there, you get an error of 14.
Did you get the card back?
You get the card back. I did not see the attendant.
You should have because the Chicago cards in the New York system would read like normal cards except with outrageous information,
like $500 worth of rides on them, and the last use place would be a code that I didn't recognize,
and last use time would be something impossible.
Like, you know, the year 3945.
Did it actually open the turnstile?
No.
Okay.
Well, we've got a couple of cards we're going to bring back just to see what they do over in New York as well.
We had a caller call in and say that technically I am a felon, so I'm not talking to Bernie.
Okay, so let's impose the silence, and this would be for what, three years, five years?
Five.
Five years?
Wow, so in 2008.
It gets even more interesting.
They've already told me what I cannot carry, and I can't imagine them ever having enforced this previously in New York,
but this is what the law says.
I can't carry a lighter, matches, a box cutter, spray paint.
There's some other absurd things.
Next time I'm at the probation office, I'll copy it down.
You have to surrender.
It's fortunate you don't smoke because if you did, I'd wonder how you'd light up.
That's what I'm wondering.
I guess you have to sit in your car and smoke and just use the lighter at the car.
Or maybe they're trying to break all felons of the smoking habit.
Well, that would be good.
You're not going to be able to smoke in New York jails pretty soon.
He can carry flint and steel, though.
Oh, I guess I could.
Yeah, so you could still smoke.
Unless it's a blade that you're striking a steel with.
Oh, yes, your blades must be under four inches.
What about the sword?
You can't carry that anymore?
No, no, but I had given up the sword.
I had gone for the two-headed axe.
Leo, you had a story.
Let's take some break after we hear from you.
Okay, there's a few of them, but I'll mention only a couple.
There's one about a Japanese scientist who invents a quote-unquote invisibility cloak.
Basically, a Japanese scientist has developed a coat which appears to make the wearer invisible.
The illusion was part of a demonstration of optical camouflage technology at Tokyo University.
It's the brainchild of Professor Susumu Tachi,
who was in the early stage of research he hopes will eventually make camouflaged objects virtually transparent.
Does anybody have any video of this?
I have a photograph.
I'm going to say how it works first.
Wait a second, Leo.
I want to go back up to your first comment.
You said this appears to make the wearer invisible.
Is that sort of a contradiction in terms?
It's not really all that good, the technology.
There's a photo here that he printed off the Web page.
The guy is wearing a shirt, and it looks like you can see through him,
but because of the technicalities involved, there's a camera on the back,
the perspective is a bit off,
and it's obvious that it's a guy wearing a shirt that is essentially a TV screen.
Well, it's a step.
It's a step towards being invisible, and that's what we've all yearned for for many years.
Is there a picture online we can look at?
Yeah, I can give you the news story.
You're actually noting me way too long.
It's at ananova.com, and basically do a search for S-U-S-U-M-U space T-A-C-H-I.
Or just look for invisible cloak on the net.
One more time.
One more time.
What is that?
It's ananova.com.
That's the Web site.
And look for the name S-U-S-U-M-U space T-A-C-H-I.
Or how about people just e-mail you and get that from you directly?
Okay, but my mailbox is going to fill up really fast.
Actually, I'll give it out.
It's Leo at ananova.com.
That's Leo, L-E-O, at E-N-A-M-O-N.com.
All right, our phone number, 212-209-2900, for people out there that want to call in,
share some information with us.
Jeff, do we have a full switchboard?
Oh, yeah.
You ready?
Don't pick Rebel first.
Please don't do that.
I'd like to have one show that was just Rebel free, and we're going to try it tonight.
I'm using the very scientific E-M-M-M technique.
It's the proper name Rebel for those that might be listening for the first time.
We like Rebels in general, but the proper name with a capital R, let's just give people a chance.
Go ahead.
Hello, you're on the air.
Okay, I don't want to talk about the magic system again.
I just want to mention Manuel Goldstein.
Manuel Goldstein, you may not know this, but he's a New Yorker,
fairly close to the front of the book about Kevin Mitnick.
I had heard that, yes.
There's a story in the current New Yorker.
I think it's still on the stands about Kevin Mitnick.
Yeah, it's the current.
You and Wozniak showed him how the world is.
Yeah, we told him what was up.
And you said, don't be freaked out by advertising.
Okay, that's your quote.
That's all I wanted to say.
I did say that, and I said it to a lot of people.
Fight advertising, but don't be freaked out by it because it's everywhere,
and you've got to do something about it.
Ignoring it.
So it's a good idea.
All right.
Thank you very much.
Hello, you're on the air.
Yeah, I'd like to mention that.
Number two.
How does it feel, Rebels, to be mentioned by name like that?
I think it's ironic he's number two, but anyway.
Rebel, you have a good sentence.
Make it a good sentence.
I'd like to mention that everybody wants a toll-free number now.
Even local numbers like, say, the New York City Department of Health,
they change their phone number.
That was a period, so that's a second sentence.
They change their phone number to a toll-free number.
And what it is, it's like one of those toll-free numbers where it's an 888
or 877 or whatever.
And you know why they're having those toll-free numbers like that?
Why?
Well, guess what you get when you call a toll-free number?
Call the talk line at 800-400-TALK for exciting people nationwide.
800-400-TALK.
Okay, okay, okay.
That's what you get when you call an 800 number now.
All that like 800, if you wanted to call like 800 Healthcare or something.
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
That wasn't specifically that talk line that you called.
You called another number and got that?
Yes, he did.
Wow, that's wild.
Whatever it is, it can't be as bad as what we get when we pick up the phone sometimes.
Okay, somehow that call dropped out.
It was not me.
Hello, you're on the air.
Hi.
Hello.
Yeah, so I had problems with the 1212 thing.
My modem wouldn't connect to Earthlink.
Oh, boy.
And so I had to reset everything to 1212 plus the numbers.
But it's working now?
Yeah.
Okay.
It's working now.
And the Adenova thing, that's a little bogus.
The picture that they show there, it's actually, what's happening is they've got a projector
at the position of the camera.
And the person wearing the cloak, it's like a self-reflecting back.
They have a camera behind the person and a projector at the position of the camera.
And it's the same technology that reflects like your car headlights back at you off street signs.
So it's really, you know, it's almost a fake picture, or at least the Adenova story really just doesn't know what they're talking about.
Even with all this, it doesn't look very convincing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's just a demonstration of possible technology.
It's really not even there at all.
All right.
Thank you very much.
Okay.
Hello.
You're on the air.
Okay.
Yeah.
What I'm going to also mention is that...
All right.
That's it.
That's it.
You may not use the phone anymore.
Okay.
I'm echoing.
Hello.
You're on the air.
Yeah.
Hi.
I've been noticing with the 11-digit dialing that there are certain numbers that I can dial
and I can't, and they seem to depend on what the first number of the phone number is.
Ah.
In what way?
Well, if it starts with a 2 or with a 3, I don't have to dial the 11 digits or the 10 digits.
And if it starts with a 6 or a 9, which, you know, higher numbers, it seems to be that I have to.
Yeah.
But this depends on your area code.
Someone else in a different area code may have different numbers that they're close to.
Oh, sure.
Okay.
Or in a different exchange.
You know, I have no idea.
I'm just, you know, pointing out what happened on my phone.
Yeah.
No, no.
Can you tell us your area code and exchange?
Oh, yeah.
It's 212-473.
Okay.
So that's, like, downtown Manhattan, right?
Yep.
Okay.
So people there, you're saying you were able to dial us with 7 digits?
Right.
I can dial, like, the 674 exchange or the 966 exchange, which are not as close to me as, like, the 253 exchange.
Uh-huh.
But with the 253 exchange, I have to dial the entire 11 digits.
Or I get that punishment tone.
Yeah.
Did you have to dial these 11 digits to get to us?
Yeah, I did.
I had to dial the whole thing.
You guys start with the 2.
Have you tried dialing without the 1?
You mean just dialing the 212?
And the 2, yeah.
No, I haven't.
Okay.
I'd be curious to know if that works, if you're able to dial 10 digits instead of 11.
Yeah, my theory is they just did a crappy job putting this thing together, and it just doesn't work right.
That's true.
It's not part of any, like, real, you know, approach to anything.
You think?
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Thanks.
Thank you very much.
Okay.
Take care.
Hello.
You're on the air.
Yes.
Hi.
Two things.
One for me.
Kevin Metnick, DefensiveThinking.com?
Yes.
And the other thing, while in Buffalo, go to, for Emanuel, go to La Nova.
What's that?
That's the biggest, best pizza and wings and so and so on.
Ferry Street or Main Street?
Well, you know, I will be there tomorrow for breakfast, so I think I can do that on the way out.
Don't forget to bring the guys something.
We'll bring a whole bag of wings, yeah.
I didn't put her up to that.
I promise.
No, no, no.
But listen, if it's good enough for Clinton and his lady, it may be good enough for you.
I don't know.
They had it delivered on the plane.
Let me just ask the caller a question.
You're not a native of this country, are you?
What does that have to do?
Well, I'm just curious.
Buffalo, I mean, my mother's family comes from Chautauqua County, which is 40 miles west of Buffalo.
Yes, yes.
And Buffalo is not one of those cities that's really an internationally urban center as far as I know.
And I'm just amazed that you managed to get there.
I'm very pleased with that.
I don't mean anything.
Well, I might tell you off the air how I know.
And the phone number to the anchor bar is 716-884-4083.
Okay, well, we've already contacted them.
Emmanuel, if you forget to bring the sauces, you may make it up by buying them at Walmart.
Okay.
Walmart.
Thank you very much.
Bye.
Thanks.
In the cleansing department.
I would love to know where she was from and how she got the buffalo.
That's just amazing.
I'll call you on the private line after the show is over.
And, Emmanuel, we would accept wings on Friday night if you were able to bring some hot stuff back.
Yeah, get a party pack for, what, $200?
Let's see if I make it out of there first.
All right.
All right.
Hello.
You're on the air.
Hi.
I'm in the 718 area code.
And from my house, I can call my mother, who's in the next building,
and I just dial her number without the 1 and the 718.
Okay.
And from my office, I have to dial 9 to get an outside line,
and then I have to dial 1 in whatever area you call them down, even if it's the same area code.
So I'm just wondering how, you know.
Have you tried it without the 1?
Yeah, I tried dialing 9 to get the outside line and dialing my mother's number, just the number,
because my work is in the 718 area code, too.
Uh-huh.
And I keep getting, you know, the busy signals.
Well, have you tried 9 and the area code without the 1?
Oh, no, no.
That I haven't tried.
Okay.
That's what I want people to try, because I think there might be, like, you know,
some might work, some might not work.
Sure.
Apparently, people who own PBXs can do something to play with the dialing rules.
So, for example, the telephone system I live behind,
they left me a message in advance saying you wouldn't have to dial the 1212 where I live,
which is kind of strange.
Well, here's another secret.
If you own a PBX, you can actually control the caller ID that gets sent out from it.
So you could have any number you want basically be sent out when people make phone calls
if you can control a PBX.
We learned about that this summer.
Yep, yep.
Hello, you're on the air.
Hello?
Hello?
You're on the air.
Oh, very good.
I was going to ask you guys if you had heard, well, first of all,
I was going to say that I'm actually from Atlanta,
and we did this 10-digit dialing thing quite a few years ago.
And currently, anywhere in Atlanta, there's three area codes,
and you do not have to dial this one.
So I'm not exactly sure what kind of craziness your exchange carrier is doing up there.
And if I may, one other thing.
Have any of you guys heard of a company called Vonage?
Yeah.
Has anybody had any experience with them, positive or negative?
Not us in the studio.
Okay, because here's an interesting thing.
I recently had to move to another area.
My friends and family are still in Atlanta.
And from what I understand, I've ordered this box from them,
and when I receive it, I can have any of a number of area codes as my local dialing number.
So I've moved out of the state of Georgia, and I can have a 404 number
that will be local dialing inbound and outbound.
Is this a cell phone or a regular landline?
It goes over your cable modem or DSL.
Oh.
And it supposedly claims that you can vary the bandwidth between, like, 56K and 90K.
And I just spoke to one of their customer service reps this week,
and they said they're going to have something called virtual numbering,
which I guess is something like what Southern Bell calls Ringmaster,
where you can have multiple numbers on the same line.
But here's the twist.
For, like, $5 or $10 or whatever they decide to charge, you can have numbers in each area code,
like up to three area codes you can have numbers in.
That's pretty fascinating.
And it can be spread out all throughout the country?
Yeah.
I'm not even in an area where they provide service right now,
and I'm adding that line to my standard telephone line.
Well, we should find out if anybody else has used this company.
How do you spell the name?
V-I-T-O-N-A-G-E dot com.
Sorry if you guys can hear the call waiting there.
Yeah, do that one more time.
You broke up.
V-I-T-O-N-A-G-E dot com.
Okay.
And what I'll try to do is supposedly I'm supposed to get the box on Friday.
So, like, if you guys want me to call back in and know your experiences and stuff.
You can email O-T-H at 2600 dot com.
Okay, and I'll put, like, Vonage as the subject or something so you guys look for it?
Sure.
Okay, cool.
I'll let you guys know how it sounds and stuff.
It seems pretty cool.
The only thing I'm scared about is, you know, with all these technology companies going under,
it would really suck if your home number stops working.
But it's got lots of cool stuff like forwarding.
It will forward to your number.
They have a plan where it's unlimited long distance for, like, $40 a month.
There's my girlfriend trying to reach me on the cell phone.
$25.99.
I'm looking at a website now.
$25.99 a month for unlimited.
I'm sorry, that's unlimited local.
You're right.
It's like $40 a month for long distance.
Yeah, and you get 500 minutes, but it will forward within, you know, banks against your minutes.
Like, for me, I'm getting the $25.99 thing, and it banks against my minutes.
But you can set it, like, after a certain number of rings, it will forward.
And if your Internet connection's dropped, then it will forward to another number
and lots of different features and stuff.
So this box basically has a bunch of RJ11 jacks that emulate a regular analog telephone jack.
Yeah.
And then the other end of it has, like, an Ethernet port that you plug into your hub or router.
Yeah, they say with a cable modem you can put it outside, and it will DHCP its own address.
But if you – they'll also tell you the ports that it will, you know, to forward through your router or whatever.
I'm going to plug it in as a second line on my phone switch.
I have a phone switch in my house.
I have a legend, my house.
Okay.
Are we out of time?
Yeah.
We're going to have to wrap it up.
We're going to have to let people know.
My phone's about to run out of battery anyway.
Okay.
I'll let everyone know that we're not going to be here next week.
They're going to have the fundraiser.
We'll be here the following week.
For an expanded show.
The 19th.
That's right, the 19th expanded show, right.
Folks, email us, oth2600.com, if you have any suggestions as to additional material that we can offer for 2600,
whether it's put a sweatshirt, coffee mugs, or whatever.
Just email us and let us get some suggestions.
We're going to be at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo after the show.
If anyone out there wants to meet us, it's in the Buffalo area.
Otherwise, we'll see you at the 2600 meeting.
Good.
See you Friday.
Good night.
Good night, everyone.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.