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Let's honor each other.
And this is WBAI New York.
The time is 7 o'clock.
Time once again for Off the Hook.
The telephone keeps ringing
So I ripped it off the wall
I cut myself while shaving
Now I can't make a call
We couldn't get much worse
But if they could they would
But if they could they would
I hope that's understood
I hope that's understood
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I've been going to conferences
where I've been hearing
journalism professors
and journalism
old silverback editors
all going
oh journalism
it's so tragic
that it's dying
and all of us
who are sort of my age
and have been through
this course of sort of
Noam Chomsky
sort of looking at the media
are going
what is it that you guys
like about this
because you told us
that they're taking
too much corporate money
you told us
they don't have the resources
to do good reporting anymore
you told us
that they're in competition
for advertising dollars
and all of these things
so what is it you want to save
so I think we need
to be a lot clearer
when we're talking
about newspapers
what is it that's different
about what they've been doing
than say the internet
even though it was never
perfect in the past
I think since like the 90s
when consolidation
really started
the level of badness
turned up to 11
and I think we had to like
go back to the past at least
but try to make it better perhaps
sorry
does anyone here
actually read a newspaper
I read reports from things
that are newspapers
in some other form
like posts
I think most people
just try to read Google News
sure
so you're reading it online
not actually reading the newspaper
pretending that's a newspaper
and they're simply getting things
from all different places
but yeah
it's obviously changing
and not always for the good
not always for the bad
a variety of news sources
is always I think
the best way to get
to the story
but you can't have it all
for free though
that's the thing
people seem to think
yes you can
I don't think that's true
if you have subsidies
that's what
that's not free
well then people need to be willing
to have another tax
put on them
to fund this subsidy
or tax corporations
or tax corporations
another big way
that would be nice
yeah I read about that
to take away some of their tax breaks
maybe as a way to fund it
but you know
unless people get the will
to do that
you're not going to see that happen
and what you have to remember
is what we're talking about
when we're talking about
free and open press
is we're talking about
organizations that will
provide accountability
to these big groups
and a lot of the people
who would be behind
you know
putting whatever legislation
we're talking about in place
don't want to be accountable
one of my favorite methods
I heard for
for raising revenues
for to distribute
to like journalism
is to have like a yearly tax
on like broadcast outlets
and like ABC, CBS
all the main networks
that use the public airwaves
and I guess Clear Channel too
and charge
since they're using
the public airwaves already
we can
we have the right to tax them
like a yearly fee
and use that
to reinvest
well that goes beyond
news reporting
that goes
that's all about
broadcasting, entertainment
making profits
off all kinds of programs
and things like that
yeah but it's going
through our airwaves
so we should be able
to tax them for that
the billion dollar subsidy
that GE receives
by not paying taxes
that we started this segment with
is the government
subsidizing NBC
so it's just a question
of which media
we want them to subsidize
if it's the ones
with the best accountants
or some other mechanism
but to pretend
that the government
is not currently subsidizing
the media
is patently false
right I don't think
that's a good point about GE
I'd forgotten that they
they do still own NBC
they haven't
you don't see people
complaining about that
nearly as much
as complaining about
the government funding NPR
which is kind of odd
the government funds
commercial entities
way more than
than any
any fledgling
non-commercial resources
out there
just it's
it's food for thought
as far as how
how we get our news
how accurate it is
and the variety of sources
and where it's all going
all right
what else do we have here
we have some letters
you have something else Mike
or
well I have this news story
from New Zealand
and it's really confusing
because there's an update
from Thursday at 920
which seems like
it's in the future
and it's going to confuse
us with this
but it already happened
because it's Thursday
it already is Thursday
it's already Thursday
and it's already past
920 a.m.
and what happened
at 920 a.m.
in New Zealand
is that an internet
sharing law
passed
which makes it
so that if you
get caught
sharing files
in New Zealand
you can have your
internet connection
turned off
and what's really
I mean this is the sort
of awful law
that's being passed
all around the globe
although not in the
United States yet
and what's really weird
about this case
is that the parliament
was in a special
session called
urgency
where they can't
debate so much
because they're in such
a hurry to get
legislation passed
that they called
to respond to
the earthquake
in Christchurch
that happened
some months ago
and what they're doing
I mean I guess
they're working
on that too
but somehow
they've managed
to attach this
internet file sharing law
to the earthquake
debate
so that no one
really gets a chance
to vote on it
and so it's passed
111 to 11
and there's
a couple
the Greens
and some independent
MPs
who voted against
the legislation
but this is a bill
that has failed
in New Zealand
in the past
because the people
of New Zealand
don't want it
but they found a way
to shove it down
the throats down there
it sounds like
the way laws
get passed
by shoving it down
people's throats
even when they don't want it
it's just exciting
to see different ways
of doing that
in the world
all right
moving on
we have letters
to the editor
letters to the editor
letters to the radio show
yes
I was reading
the letters to the editor
book before
and all kinds
of responses
to various things
that we've been
talking about
in the past
and hopefully
some inspiration
for things
to talk about
in the future
a reference
to last week's show
talking about
how much will fit
on a hard drive
there's a quote
from Marshall McLuhan
on CBC
back in 1967
an interesting fact
all the books
in the world
20 million books
can now be put open
every page
on a single desktop
by microfilm
that's right
microfilm
the forgotten hard drive
thanks Max Cohen
for sending that in to us
and yeah
who's looked at microfilm
recently
it was the wave
of the future
yeah it was
sound of crickets
pretty much
you can still go
to the New York
Public Library
and look at stuff
in microfilm
Bernie you
and microfiche
with these
I don't know
they were like
five by five
transparencies
that you put
into this machine
they were both
really interesting
teeny tiny
representations
of photograph
documents
that you would
blow up in this
not literally
blow up
but blow up
on a screen
and you could
read them
and it was
it was
data compression
in a way
but it was
using analog techniques
optical data compression
yeah yeah
yeah I mean
microfilm is still useful
I think for
digging out old news articles
and things like that
but even on that front
you know a lot of it's
if the paper
has resources
they digitize it
I know the New York Times
digitized most
of their archives
going back a long
long way
and it was actually
kind of funny
I had a friend
of my family
who was
in her 90s I guess
and had never
used the internet
but I looked up
her name online
and it showed up
in a letter she wrote
that's pretty cool
and yeah
well one day
everything will be digitized
and we'll be able
to just look up
everything ever
ever printed easily
that would be
that would be fun
okay guys
you were talking about
old phone recordings
on off the hook
there's a fantastic
website with several
old phone recordings
actually a lot more
than several
www.wideweb
slash
I'm sorry
wideweb.com
slash phone trips
I don't know how
they got that domain
wideweb.com
slash phone trips
if you haven't been
to this website
check it out
I can't believe
people actually
had the foresight
to record calls
going through
an old switching
the old switching
equipment and the
sounds it made
and this is from
back in the 60s
and 70s
it's really
pretty incredible
thanks B. Mitchell
for writing in
he says I enjoy
the radio shows
and the magazine
and also both books
keep up the good work
I suppose
this could also
be she
I'm not sure
exactly what name
I actually would
try to get it
worded anyway
last week
in our crowded
show about
the phone trips
website
you can just
you can just
search one of the
internet search engines
for phone trips
and there's just
an amazing
collection of
phone recordings
and social
engineering
of bell system
security guys
it's just
hilarious
and entertaining
stuff
even photographs
of some of the
recording methodologies
used back then
and calls
and signaling
sounds
great stuff
worth checking out
the only problem is
a lot of it is in
real audio format
and that makes it
rather hard to
listen to
but there are ways
of converting that
it can be a bit tricky
I've been to the
phone trips website
and I really like it
one of my friends
from the west coast
who actually
I met through
2600 meetings
he turned me
on to that
and it's pretty fun
to go and listen
to old phone sounds
but you do have to
find the right
decoding package
or library
or whatever
so that you can
actually read
the real audio stuff
and converting it
I think is also tricky
if anybody's got
some tips on
how to convert
old real audio streams
into mp3
that would be
like helpful
you can do it
with m encoder
is it
okay so as long as
it yeah
if that's possible
I think
can you spell that
m like
like mic
and then encoder
okay
yeah I tried
I tried to do
some in mp3
but I don't know
I had a little bit
of trouble
it was kind of tricky
so somebody should
really consider doing
that to get them
into like a more
modern format
because it's funny
how these formats
change and you know
nobody really has
the real audio
stuff on hand
you know it's easier
to do mp3s or
aug or something
right
and that site
that site is actually
very professionally
done the recordings
are very good
quality yeah it's
it's it's fun
by the way Kyle
thank you so much
but you got some
more calls
in the last couple
of weeks
yeah we've been
monitoring your phone
line and you have
all kinds of dead
beats apparently
that used to have
your phone number
and what that means
is you get calls
from computers
demanding money
let's we played a
few last week
here are a couple
more that yes
now tell me you
edited this in
some way or another
well you know
I'm just gonna play
all of my
my voicemail
well we might
have a few
I'm not sure
it was kind of
rushed today
I remember getting
you a copy but
yeah well if people
hear anything that
they shouldn't hear
just try and forget
it it shouldn't be
too hard in this
day and age
next message
sent yesterday
at 10 a.m.
hello
this is a message
for
LaDonna White
if you are not
LaDonna White
please hang up
and call
eight
seven
seven
eight
seven
seven
one
four
zero
seven
to remove this
phone number from
our records
if you continue to
listen to this
message
you are acknowledging
that you are
LaDonna White
this message
contains personal
and private
information
there will now be
a three second
pause
this is EOS
CCA
a collection agency
and this is an
attempt to collect
a debt
any information
obtained will be
used for that purpose
please contact us
about this important
business matter
at
eight
seven
seven
one
four
zero
seven
when calling
please reference
account number
three
five
four
again
the telephone
number is
eight
seven
seven
one
four
zero
seven
and the account
number that is
needed when calling
is
three
five
four
thank you
wow
end of message
erase
voicemail
kicking in there
so incredibly long
i mean
god
check out the pace
yeah
and that
that was very
considerate of us
to uh
to try and
protect their
privacy
now what i think
is fascinating
is how the
format for this
message
going down
to just
everything about it
is almost
identical going
back to the
first jacob r
harris messages
that he was
getting
let's not rewrite
all right
well that might be
why that might be
why it's it's it's
hard to find him
uh but uh
curtis did get a call
let's uh let's quickly
hear that call
next message
sent on thursday
march 17th
at
8 24
a.m
this is an
important message
for
curtis
harris
i'm calling you
from the office
of rash
curtis and
associates
this is not a
sales call
and requires your
immediate attention
due to the
sensitive nature
of this call
no further
information may be
given at this time
please call us
back immediately
at
one eight
six six
two seven
two two
again that
number is
one eight
six six
two seven
two two
and refer to
file number
zero
zero
seven
seven
how did he
make his voice
do that
i don't know
he pressed a button
or something
that was uh
the the
most poorly
cut and pasted
phone call
i think i've
ever heard
but wow
they're trying all
manner of of
approaches to get
to this guy
and none of
them are working
my my thought
was that the
tactic with that
one is that
he's calling
to appear
as an
automated
thing and
if somebody
uh is you
know to
i don't think
he was live
i think he was
a recording
he was a human
and he was
pressing a button
and i think
they just keep
sending that
generated that
message that
went home
it did sound
like a human
was talking
rather than a
computer was
talking but it
was all just
uh just a
recording
it was a cut
and paste
you had one
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
other automated
guy talking
then you had
a horrible
For Fios, press two, or for something else, press three.
Just one operator.
All right, but I want to transfer you to the right customer service department.
What service are you calling about?
I'm going to win this argument.
For cellular, press one.
For Fios, two.
Just an operator.
I'm sorry, but without telling us which service you are calling about, we don't know which
customer service department to transfer you to.
What service are you calling about?
For cellular, press one.
The thing is, you have to hold your ground.
For Fios, two.
Or for something else, three.
I'm going to press zero.
That's something else.
I need a little information to figure out which type of representative would best serve
you today.
Just keep trying, don't they?
If that's for your home, press one.
For your business, press two.
Ah, zero.
One moment, please.
You see?
That's what you have to do.
You just have to keep hitting zero or various other things, and eventually you'll get transferred.
I'll transfer you to someone who can help you.
Or try the word representative.
Well, they didn't ask for voice things.
During this call, we may ask permission to review your account to discuss Verizon products
and services.
Your response has no effect on services provided.
As always, privacy of your account is your right and our duty.
All representatives are currently assisting other customers.
Please stay on the line for the next available representative will assist you.
I'm on hold.
Visit us on the web at myverizon.com to add or change services, view and pay your bill,
or perform a variety of other account functions.
But eventually, when this stops, I'll get musical holds.
That's really what it was all about in the first place.
I'm pretty sure that was GLaDOS from Portal.
When she said duty, I was a little bit concerned that she was going to try to burn me.
Yeah, so Verizon is a real pain to work with.
But eventually you get human beings.
But there are a lot less of them than there used to be, so that's really sad.
While you were doing that, I went on gethuman.com, which is a website, and it gave some direct
phone numbers that allegedly at least go straight to humans.
Oh, yeah?
Give me the one for Verizon.
800-567-6789.
Really?
Okay.
All right.
I haven't tried it myself, but it says it on the web, so it must be true.
5-6-7.
6-7-8-9.
We'll see about this.
Thanks for calling Verizon, also on the web at Verizon.com.
I'm going to hit zero.
I can help you with your account or get you to someone who can help.
But first, I need to get some information.
To ensure quality service, this call may be monitored or recorded.
Yeah.
Nice, Mike.
Very nice.
Para español, marque el dos.
Operator.
I just don't think that's any different.
That's why you shouldn't believe everything you read on the web.
Exactly.
Yes.
Well, in their defense, they basically just pulled the main number,
which will get you to a human eventually.
But I think that that kind of service might be more useful for people
like eBay or PayPal, which make a point of not putting any phone numbers
on their website, but only having, you know, web forms.
And before sites like GetHuman.com were really big,
I remember coming across, like searching for a while,
finding really nice lists of that where they listed every phone number
that was ever found for every office.
So you could just blast everyone.
And a lot of tech companies, they just, I mean, people don't have phones.
I remember I was, you know, the one I was working at,
there were no phones on the desk.
It's actually been a while since I've worked at a place that had phones.
And you have to ask special permission and like, you know,
get it all wired up and things like that.
It's not like it used to be.
Yeah.
A lot of people still, you still can get email addresses
not for a lot of these places, but phones.
Hmm.
Everyone has cell phones now, I guess.
Well, that was a bit of fun.
We're going to take our own phone calls
from hopefully human beings, 212-209-2900,
if there's anything that you'd like to share with us.
What's our policy if a computer calls us?
We'll listen.
We'll listen to what they have to say.
And if they want to speak to a computer,
we'll transfer them right away.
Do we have a Turing test so we know?
We can devise one, I suppose.
Real quick.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I don't think we're quite ready for that yet.
Yeah.
Other letters, though.
You can write to us, oth at 2600.com.
And here's a letter from a listener.
This is the second time I've written in.
The first was several years ago
about the misnumbered clock at Red Square.
I remember that letter.
Red Square here in Manhattan.
Regarding the inability of the MTA tellers
to transfer the remaining balance
of an expired MetroCard to a new one.
This is what we talked about last week.
From the perspective of the executives in charge,
the system is probably looked upon
as profitable and therefore not broken.
It's a policy of attrition intended
to discourage riders from jumping
through hoops to get their money back.
This is just like prepaid Visa, MasterCard,
Amex gift cards which have
declining value after a year.
The cash value is not transferable
to another card either.
Additionally, many retailers do not accept
multiple cards per transaction
so you can't use the last few bucks
you have left on your gift card
toward most purchases.
The MTA is banking on the fact
that most people would take one look
at that prepaid envelope
and give up on the dollar
because it isn't worth the hassle.
Add up all those dollars
and you've got a pretty sizable
chunk of change forfeited
to the MTA every year.
Most folks won't want to go do it
even on principle, much less for a buck.
I would, but I'm in the minority.
If enough folks did mail in their cards,
the MTA would change
their procedures pretty quickly.
Signed very young, small, early P's
which is the oddest name
I've heard in a long time.
You know, I think
if enough people did it
they'd stop paying for the postage
and try and get us not to do it.
I just can't believe
they get away with making something
worth nothing that you've paid for.
Wait, when did this start?
Because I have actually
walked up to a teller
and gotten my,
oh no it wasn't a teller,
the machines.
The machine asked me
if I wanted,
my card was expired
and if I wanted my balance
put on a new card.
And it was done for free.
And it was done for me.
And it all was good.
And I've had two cards
that didn't have a full balance
I brought to the teller
and they put it on one card.
I've never heard anything about this.
I've never experienced this.
I've never heard of anybody
using an expired card
and getting money out of it.
I've gotten money
off an expired card.
The machine said to me
your card is expired
would you like a new card?
It ate my old card
and gave me a new card.
And I could tell
because it wasn't worn out anymore.
I have an expired card on me.
And then I took that
because I haven't mailed it in yet
believe it or not.
And I had two cards
that weren't a full balance
I walked to the teller
I've never had this issue before.
Well, I think you will.
I mean, is this new?
I think it's new.
No, I don't think it's new actually.
I think it's old.
I think it's something that
Well, why don't you try
with your expired card
and see what happens.
I already did.
That's how I got into
this mess in the first place.
I started with the machine
wound up with the human.
Jim's got a deck over
and he's got a whole deck
of metric cards he's shuffling out.
So I think at some point tonight
we're going to learn
something more about this system.
Are different stations
better for this?
I mean, like if so
then we should try mapping this out.
Different stations are different.
Well, because I could tell you
what stations I was able
to do this at.
How long ago?
I'd say within the past two years.
It may also depend
for how long your card
has been expired.
That was another question
I was wondering.
Is there a limit, say,
on how
Expired is expired.
There's no special expired.
Well, there might be.
In this case, you know,
expired cards I'm talking about
weren't expired for very long,
expired for less than a month.
Well, I think a bigger controversy
is the new policy
where commuter train tickets
are only good for two weeks
and then they get expired
and you can't get your money
back for those.
Maybe you send them in?
Can you send in
and get money for those?
You can't use it
on the train, though,
which is really ridiculous
and silly.
And again,
like this reader says
or listener says,
it's a way they pocket
a lot of cash
at our expense.
All right, let's take
some phone calls.
212-209-2900.
Good evening.
You're on Off the Hook.
Yes, hello.
Hi, what's on your mind?
Yes.
I'd like to say
you talked about frauds earlier.
Do you remember
the Canada fraud
where they said
that France
was going to forgive
Haiti's debts?
Yeah, that was
another one
of those types
of stories, yes.
Yeah, was it
the same people
that put that out?
Well, I don't know
if it's necessarily
the same people,
but certainly
the same thinking.
It was the same M.O.
Exactly, yeah,
and it's a very effective one.
Yeah, obviously so,
but it was more
to embarrass France
and it was more
to embarrass GE, right?
Yeah.
It was more
to embarrass France
and it was more
to embarrass GE, right?
Well, I,
you know,
who's to say
what the motives are,
but that was the result
for sure.
Yeah, to have
them embarrassed
probably by their
stockholders in China.
Yes.
More than likely
that was it.
I know the Yes Men,
when the Yes Men
have talked about it,
I think they've been
charged with people
who said,
oh, well,
you're just raising
people's hopes
and isn't that horrible
because they did
something like that
with Bhopal.
I think the,
was it Dow in Bhopal?
Was it something
in and of itself
if people's hopes
are suddenly raised
and then dashed?
Is that the Yes Men's fault
or should GE
have taken care
of that to begin with?
No, it's waking people up.
It's like electing Obama.
You get people's hopes up
and yeah,
they get dashed
to the ground,
but for that brief moment
there was hope
and maybe people see,
hey, you know,
things are possible.
Maybe not in this lifetime,
maybe not in the next
millennium,
but someday.
Also, it brings
more awareness
to something
that people might not
have heard about
before.
Hopefully,
it'll get covered
in the news media
and then people
who maybe don't know
about what's going on
will hear
and that's,
I think,
kind of the intention.
Okay,
let's take another phone call.
Good evening.
You're on Off The Hook.
TK, Upstate.
I turned down my radio.
Hello.
Yes, go ahead.
What's on your mind?
Oh, you're on already.
Yes.
Yeah, we're listening
to you on an Upstate
radio station.
I'm kind of disappointed
that Stuart didn't come on
this week
and give us
a little update
from him.
I have.
I don't have her
in front of me,
but I can get back
to it in a minute or so.
You say you're listening
to us on an Upstate
radio station.
What's that all about?
Well, I am
the radio station.
You've seen
one of the sister stations
at H2K
and I'd like
to offer,
Bernie S.
might be
in Target range.
He's welcome
to stay at the station
tonight if he doesn't
want to do a motel.
What's going on up there?
This is awfully fishy here.
What are the call letters
of the station?
Okay.
It's the Red Orchestra
clandestine to serve
you better.
Wow.
Walton, New York.
Momentarily paused
in Walton, New York
and it's a 30-watt,
hand-built,
special classroom
version of Veronica
radio that's been
on almost 11 years.
Wow.
How might people
listen to this
if they happen
to be in that area?
I have,
I would say
about 3,500
or 4,000
potential,
but probably
there's not
enough
potential
to get
people to listen
to this.
So,
but probably
there's two
or three people
listening right now,
but they're all
listening to
Off the Hook.
Uh-huh,
but how can
they find
your radio stations?
FM, AM,
shortwave?
FM,
it dials
anywhere I want,
but it's on
101.5 FM
and it's been
there for a long
time and
it's also
reachable by
FRS,
Family Radio
Service,
and it just
calls in
and the rest
of the town
will hear them.
It's called
Wireless Studio.
I don't know
if you remember
Wireless Studio,
but I've been
doing it for
11 years now
and the station
is temporarily
poised.
Sometimes it
packs up
and goes to
a demonstration
or something,
not like a
protest,
more like
school or
Cub Scouts
or something,
but it's been
pretty slovenly
By the way,
if you want
me to call
after the show,
Bernie S.
if he doesn't
want to stay
at Motel
is welcome.
You can email
me at
bernies
at 2600.com
I have that
information
from our
friend Stuart
in Japan.
Okay, go ahead.
Stuart contacted
us again
to fill us
in on things
going on
and I'd
asked him
if he thinks
the anti-nuclear
power movement
and the
nuclear
generation
technology
there
and asked
him how
he's holding
up there
and so forth.
He says
that he thinks
no,
that young
people there
are not
really
politically
motivated
until
he saw
some
artwork
there.
It's a
really
long
URL.
You can
find the
company
there.
But the
alternative
will be
a culture
that uses
a lot
less
electricity.
He says
it's amazing
to see
the bright
lights
of Tokyo
turned off.
It's actually
dark,
he says.
In some
places
where the
street signs
used to light
up the
streets
below,
he says
it's
amazing
to see
the
street
lights
of Tokyo
turned
off.
He says
it's
amazing
to see
the
street
lights
of Tokyo
turned
off.
He says
it's
amazing
to see
the
street
lights
of Tokyo
turned
off.
He says
it's
amazing
to see
the
street
lights
of Tokyo
turned
off.
He
says
it's
amazing
to see
the
street
lights
of Tokyo
turned
off.
He says
it's
amazing
to see
the
street
lights
of Tokyo
turned
off.
He says
it's
amazing
to see
the
street
lights
of Tokyo
turned
off.
He says
it's
amazing
to see
the
street
lights
of Tokyo
turned
off.
He says
it's
amazing
to see
the
street
lights
of Tokyo
turned
off.
He says
it's
amazing
to see
the
street
lights
of Tokyo
turned
off.
He says
it's
amazing
to see
the
street
lights
of Tokyo
turned
off.
He says
it's
amazing
to see
the
street
lights
of Tokyo
turned
off.
He says
it's
amazing
to see
the
street
lights
of Tokyo
turned
off.
He says
it's
amazing
to see
the
street
lights
of Tokyo
turned
off.
He says
it's
amazing
Did they spend probably more than the dollar, or it's approaching a dollar at least?
And if I was a real wise guy, I'd have five-cent metro cards out there, and I'd just keep getting
envelopes and sending it to them every day, and I'd single-handedly drive the MTA into
bankruptcy even further.
The last thing is, along those lines, the last thing is, didn't they pass legislation
that stopped cards from being depleted by service charges after a certain point in the
period?
They used to have a big deal where you had a $10 card and a $20 card, and if you didn't
use it for two or three years, you lost it, you ended up getting a zero balance of that
change.
Gift cards.
Some states have enacted legislation that were...
Enacted laws that make it illegal for gift card companies to do that, but not every state
has done that, and it doesn't apply to mass transit agencies.
You would...
Anyway, you'd also lose your privacy.
If you sent in a card with some remaining unused fares on it to have reinstated, then
they would know who you are and your address and where you've gone, wouldn't you?
Well, maybe.
There's nothing to say.
I've used those cards myself.
Maybe I'm simply collecting them, or people are donating to me because I've asked them
to do that.
Also, if you're purchasing them with a credit card, they have that information anyway.
That's true, too.
But if you're just buying...
Like putting a nickel on each card, they're not gonna know.
Well, no, you don't put a nickel on it, you just have a nickel left, and it's not hard
to do that if you use MetroCards, because nobody can ever figure out how to get it to
end in an even number anyway with all the bonuses they add.
There was a...
I can't remember the URL, but there was a website.
It was like MetroCard Calculator.
Yeah, and then they changed the fare, and that didn't work anymore.
Oh, really?
If anybody knows what the actual number is now, I'd like to know what it is.
The website is MetroCardBonusCalculator.com, and it will tell you the number.
Okay, how about one of us, one of us tech-savvy people here in the remaining minutes we have,
go to that website so we can tell our listeners what amount they can put on their MetroCards
so they don't have that annoying little balance left over, and they can actually use the thing
and wind up with zero.
You know, I would like to say that for some of us, this is a bit of a non-issue, because
if you, say, look at the price of some of these unlimited MetroCards, and you divide
it by the, you know, amount, well, but basically, you multiply the, you know, however many times
you use it over a regular commute for that period of time, and if you're basically...
Yeah, obviously, if you're unlimited, it's not gonna apply.
Well, yeah, and that's the whole point.
You know, I know that, you know, the number of fares that I would have to spend on my
normal commutes adds up to slightly more than the cost for an unlimited MetroCard monthly
that I can use, or weekly, I can use that, and, well, yeah, then it's not an issue anymore.
Okay, we have an answer.
Red Hat, go ahead.
Yeah, if you add $35.75 to it, you get a bonus of $2.50, and it makes a total of $38.25,
which is exactly $17.
You know, it used to be I only had to put about $15 on.
Now I gotta put $35 on in order to have it zeroed out?
You can split it up among two transactions, so you can do $20, and then whatever Red Hat
just said, minus $20.
Yeah, you could just, you could put $20 to start, and then later add...
Won't the bonus be different?
It'll still add up to the same thing?
It'll still add up.
As long as you put enough each time to get the bonus, there's some floor below which
you don't get any bonus, but as long as you get the bonus, you can split it up among multiple
transactions.
If you put in a starting balance, it will tell you how much you need to do to make an
equal.
So if you have something with, you know, $0.70 left on it, you can put that as your starting
balance, and it'll...
So the number again is how much?
$35.75.
So if you put $35.75 on an empty MetroCard, you'll wind up with a zero balance.
If you put $20, and then another $15.75 at some point...
That's if you're paying the regular fare, and it has options for if you have different
fares, you know, senior, et cetera, et cetera.
Well, let's not make it too complicated.
We only have a minute or so left to see if we can get through any more phone calls.
Good evening.
You're on off the hook.
Yes, real quick, and forgive me, I joined late.
So if you answer this question, I have two of them real quick.
The first is, how are plans going for the next HOPE conference?
And B, is there any way for your PBX there to signal the central office switch so that
when I've been ringing, why don't I get dropped from your queue?
Maybe to hold the circuit up.
Yeah, I don't know of a way to do that from within our PBX.
It's a routing issue, I believe.
The phone company has things timed out.
If you don't connect, it'll disconnect you after a while.
One way we could get around that is fielding calls, putting them on hold, then you'll just
be on hold for a while.
As for HOPE No. 9, which is our next conference being planned for summer of 2012, yeah, we're
planning it.
We're working on things.
We're talking to people.
In fact, the HOPE forums are back up rather quietly.
So if you meander over to talk.hope.net, you'll see a whole bunch of places where you can
start posting.
I don't think there's anything there yet.
We just sort of turned it on to see what would happen.
And within three seconds, somebody posted spam.
But we're going to have that all figured out, and hopefully a lot of good ideas and new
projects.
We also don't take the calls in the order that we get them, so it's not a huge advantage
to hold your position in the queue.
That's true.
One last call, very quickly.
Good evening.
You're on off the hook.
Oh, no, that's too quick.
Let's try this one.
Good evening.
You're on off the hook.
Speak up.
Yes, hello.
Yeah, I was going to say.
Yeah, but because if they expired more than a year, then they're not transferable.
You're saying they won't give you any money if you mail them in after a year?
Oh, no, no, in terms of transferring a car.
Oh, okay.
So you're saying you could transfer it for up to a year, and then you have to mail it
in?
Right.
Okay.
Okay.
That makes more sense, and that sort of validates what Dotrit was saying, too.
So thanks for that clarification.
As always, our listeners come through for us.
That's it for us this week.
We'll be back again next week with more fun.
Subscribe to us, othat2600.com.
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All right, you're listening to WBAI.
Hey!
They're going to catch that guy, that Craigslist guy, because the IP address is on file.