I'm sitting down here in the campfire lying, with the most of old time joys.
It's 1900 hours, you're listening to WBAI New York, it's time once again for another
exciting edition of Off The Hook.
It's time once again for another exciting edition of Off The Hook.
It's time once again for another exciting edition of Off The Hook.
It's time once again for another exciting edition of Off The Hook.
It's time once again for another exciting edition of Off The Hook.
It's time once again for another exciting edition of Off The Hook.
It's time once again for another exciting edition of Off The Hook.
It's time once again for another exciting edition of Off The Hook.
It's time once again for another exciting edition of Off The Hook.
It's time once again for another exciting edition of Off The Hook.
It's time once again for another exciting edition of Off The Hook.
It's time once again for another exciting edition of Off The Hook.
It's time once again for another exciting edition of Off The Hook.
It's time once again for another exciting edition of Off The Hook.
It's time once again for another exciting edition of Off The Hook.
It's time once again for another exciting edition of Off The Hook.
It's time once again for another exciting edition of Off The Hook.
It's time once again for another exciting edition of Off The Hook.
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Interesting.
One of the things that's really impressing me as I'm looking through the book, John,
is that you really give a worldwide perspective.
You have spaces in Sweden and Australia and all around the United States,
and here's one in China.
You really get around with this book.
Yep, and there's one in Brazil, and I don't know if you got Tokyo as well.
And there are a whole bunch I missed.
I didn't include any from Germany, which is like the motherland of hackerspace.
Yes, indeed.
Have you been to all these hackerspaces?
Oh, no.
I've just been to a couple, but I blog for Make Magazine,
so I was exposed to a lot of projects of a similar event beforehand.
I knew kind of what was out there,
and so I was able to do a lot of research that way just through the Internet
and interviewing people and stuff.
Very interesting.
Now, Mike is going to pick a project at random, and we're going to focus on that.
Rob, did you have something first?
Yeah, I also wanted to mention that there's a great intro.
The book begins with a great intro on hackerspaces and what they're all about,
so if you're not necessarily sure what this whole hackerspace deal is,
even after listening to us, this book is a great sort of primer on the whole thing.
And after that, it leads you to notes from a bunch of these different hackerspaces
and the cool stuff they're working on.
So it really covers everything.
It's a beautiful book, very well illustrated, designed,
full of great photos and great pictures and stuff.
Okay, Mike, do you have a project?
Yeah, I mean, there's this one.
This is a pinball game, which is from the Garoa Hacker Clube, I guess, in Brazil.
It's a handmade pinball game out of mostly wood and other materials,
and it gives instructions.
Well, not step-by-step instructions for how to make it,
but it explains the parts that go into it and what it does.
And then in the same chapter, there's information about the space,
other smaller projects that they've done,
and this is just in four pages, is all that information.
And it goes on for, what is it, 26 of them.
So now somebody with this book would be able to use all the information in there
to do this themselves?
Yeah, there's a wheelchair robot from Noisebridge.
There's an Etch-a-Sketch projector from Hack Manchester,
and it just keeps going.
Is that Manchester, New Hampshire or Manchester, England?
Manchester, UK, yeah.
Okay, all right, good, good.
Nothing against Manchester, New Hampshire, but Manchester, England,
they've got a reputation.
That's amazing.
Okay, I guess I should mention now, at this point,
and by the way, Bernie, welcome back.
We're going to try to see if you cause any more feedback.
Are you there?
Sorry about that.
Yeah, I wanted to say something really quick about this book.
Go ahead.
This book is really, it's like a world tour of hacker spaces,
and it's also…
Yeah, I'm really sorry about this.
I don't know what's…
Sounds like a train whistle.
It does.
Maybe if we try calling him on a different line.
Bernie, we're going to get back to you on a different line.
How about that?
All right, I'm sorry.
We just can't subject our listeners to that.
Let me just use this time, though,
to say that as part of what we're giving away tonight,
for a pledge of $75,
you'll get an autographed copy of this book by John Batesell
with incredible hacker space projects
and a guide to hacker spaces all around the world.
You'll get a sense as to the magnitude of just what it is
that's going on in the world.
It's really kind of historic as far as development of technology,
development of hackers, and various things like that.
So you'll get that.
You'll get a signed copy of this brand-new book,
but you'll also get a couple of other really cool things.
You'll get some Hope DVDs focusing on hacker spaces
all the way back to 1997 at Beyond Hope.
We had a talk by people at a group called The Loft,
which was probably the most famous hacker space in Boston.
No longer around, but the people still are.
But back in 1997, yeah, and they were around before then as well.
There's a talk from H2K2,
How to Start an IMC in Your Town.
Now, Indymedia centers aren't really hacker spaces,
but they share a lot of common attributes with them,
and I thought that was something important to include here.
But The Fifth Hope, there's a talk on building hacker spaces
with many people back then who were part of hacker spaces
around the world taking part in a discussion.
That's back in 2004.
And I guess the modern era of hacker spaces
was more or less introduced around the time of The Last Hope, 2008.
We have a talk, Building Hacker Spaces Everywhere.
Altogether, we have, I believe, nine different DVDs
all about hacker spaces throughout the years.
Now, that's included for a pledge of $75 along with the book.
Oh, wait, we're not done yet. We're not done yet.
We also have something known as a hacker space passport.
Who would like to describe what a hacker space passport is?
Yeah, well, Redhack, this is your hacker space passport.
Yeah, I acquired this last summer at the, what was the name of the conference?
The CCC Camp?
Yes, CCC Camp.
And these were made by Mitch Altman originally.
I believe now another group has picked it up.
Hopefully, we'll have Mitch on in a little bit
if it doesn't cause a tremendous wall of sound.
But basically, the idea was that it would be a passport
that you could take with you to different hacker spaces,
to different events, and collect stamps as you visited these places.
It's kind of a record of where you've been.
You still need a regular passport to get into the country, though.
It's important to point that out.
We didn't do that in the past,
but this will not get you into the countries where the hacker spaces are.
It looks a lot like a passport,
but I don't think it would pass the TSA's requirements,
especially since you can put your own picture in.
Many people do.
But yeah, so the cover basically says diplomatic passport,
and it's got a soldering iron in the logo.
And it really looks like a passport.
And then the inside is printed beautifully in color,
and it's got different logos for different hacker spaces on the pages.
It's really something.
It's a badge of honor to have this.
Now, okay, let me just continue, though, with what we're offering.
So we have this hacker space passport,
in addition to the Hack This book, autographed by John Batesill,
and the DVDs, the nine DVDs from the various Hope conferences
having to do with hacker spaces.
And, Rob, what do you have over there?
You've got a package of something.
I have got a package of something.
I've got a package of stickers.
And this is a selection of stickers that were graciously donated to us
by a variety of hacker spaces all over the country.
Are they all, Rob, are they all from this country?
I do not know.
Let's crack it open and take a look.
I think he's asking you a loaded question
because you probably know the answer to that.
No, I don't know the answer to it.
Oh, okay.
Okay, well, you can investigate the answer to this question.
Actually, I think Bernie knows the answer.
Well, Bernie, if you promise not to cause more feedback,
we're going to let you speak some more.
Okay.
Am I causing train whistles again?
Not yet, you're not.
Not yet.
Hello?
Okay, good.
I hear you.
But there might be.
Yeah, I reached out.
Yeah, it's a higher pitch now.
Wow, man.
Okay, I think the problem,
maybe if both of you guys on the phone talk a little louder,
maybe I won't have to pot it up so loud.
I think that's what's causing the feedback.
How about that?
Loudly.
Can you hear me now?
I hear you now.
And, John, when you talk,
maybe if you could talk a little louder, that might help.
Might not, but.
There's about a dozen hacker spaces I reached out to,
most of which are in the book that John wrote.
And they were all really enthusiastic about this fundraising show
and supporting WBAI and Off The Hook.
And they offered to send us a bunch of tokens of appreciation.
Primarily these are stickers showing their hackerspace logo.
Some hackerspaces sent in buttons.
The hackerspace in Australia sent us some laser-cut keychains.
Really cool stuff.
And can I read the list really briefly?
Yeah.
Well, apparently not without causing a noise, you can't.
But let's read the list in just a moment.
But that answers Mike's question about different countries
because Australia obviously is not in our country.
So this is the kind of thing that you can put on your laptop.
You can stick stickers on your laptop.
You don't have to actually go to the hackerspaces in various parts of the world
to be able to do this.
You might be able to tell people that you did, though.
Same thing with buttons and whatever else is in that package.
So these four things for a pledge of $75.
Right now, the 212-209-2950, you'll get all of that.
212-209-2950.
You'll get the book.
You'll get the hacker passport.
You'll get the DVDs.
And you'll get the stickers and buttons from various hackerspaces all around the world.
That is a great deal for $75.
Now we have another deal for $125 we're going to get into in just a moment.
But you couldn't even get this.
Forget about it being a great deal.
It would be impossible to assemble this collection of the stickers in particular
without traveling all around the world and going to every hackerspace
and asking for a sticker there.
So not only is it a great deal, it's actually something that's possible
by calling 212-209-2950.
And the reason it's possible is because these hackerspaces
and John and his publisher and you with the DVDs want to support this station,
want us to stay on the air.
And so they're really incentivizing our listeners to show their support as well,
212-209-2950.
100% of your donation goes to the station.
We pay nothing for these premiums because people like John
and all these hackerspaces want you to pledge.
Okay, I'm told that I should give out the $125 level as well.
That way people know what they want to pledge, what they want to call in for.
Okay, fine. We'll do that.
Let me just reiterate again that we have four items for a pledge of $75
to 212-209-2950.
You got the amazing hackerspace book, Hack This by John Batesill
that is a full-color guide to hackerspaces around the world
as well as 24 projects that you can undertake yourself
and that you can inspire people in your neighborhood maybe
to start a hackerspace or join the one that already exists there.
You get that book autographed.
You also get nine DVDs with all kinds of information about hackerspaces
from 1997 up until the present.
You get the hackerspace passport which you can put all kinds of stamps.
You can show it around to your various friends.
You can go to hackerspaces and impress people with that as well.
It's really a cool thing to have.
And you get the collection of stickers and buttons.
And I think there's even a keychain in there somewhere.
That's all for a pledge of $75.
Try beating that deal on any public radio station.
I don't think you will.
212-209-2950.
Okay, but now in addition to all of that for $125,
you get something else.
What do you got there, RedHack?
Okay, that sounded ominous.
What do you have in your hand there?
I have a Kelvin 23 tool that was donated to us by ThinkGeek.
ThinkGeek.
Those guys are cool.
Yeah.
They think and they're geeks.
And it's a multipurpose tool.
It has screwdrivers.
It has a hammer built into it.
Wow.
Level, measuring tape, all kinds of stuff.
And it folds up into a nice little package.
It's so compact.
How many tools are in there?
23.
This is really funny because there's 24 projects in the book
and there's 23 tools in this thing.
Okay, and what else?
And it makes a nice click when you open the screwdriver part.
Yeah, that's really solid sounding.
Is that a flashlight too?
Oh, there's a flashlight on it as well.
Oh, my goodness.
Wow.
That's cool.
What's that?
Can you hear those photons?
Put it closer to the microphone.
Yeah.
There it is.
Okay, but that's not all.
We have that.
We're going to describe that a little bit more.
But you have something there, Rob.
What's that?
I have something else here too,
and it's something that makes a noise like this.
That's the noise we heard at the beginning of the show.
That is.
What in God's name is that thing?
In anyone's name, this is a multimeter, or a multimeter,
depending on how you like to pronounce it.
And a multimeter is something that electronics enthusiasts basically need.
It's very useful for working with various projects that involve electricity
because you can measure resistance, you can measure voltage,
you can test continuity, which is what the beep does.
If you touch two things that are electrically connected,
it will beep for you.
And you can do all of this in various levels of sensitivity.
So we can measure the resistance of my hand.
We can measure the resistance of Mike's hand.
Which is how much?
I'm not hearing anything.
Mike's hand doesn't make a noise unless he hits you with it.
But the resistance of Mike's hand is around about 2.65 megaohms.
All right.
So this is some heavy-duty stuff here.
These are real tools.
These are actual tools.
And I will tell you, I use a multimeter in my daily life,
in my day job, in my hobbies and everything.
And this is a good one.
There are bad ones out there, as techies know.
There are terrible ones out there.
And this is not one of them.
This is a good one.
And who makes this one?
This is made by SparkFun.
SparkFun.
Wow.
SparkFun.
Okay.
So now in addition to all the things we mentioned before,
you get these two hacker tools.
And they really are hacker tools because you can do all kinds of things with them.
For a pledge of 125.
So you get six separate items for a pledge of 125 only for the next just a little over half an hour.
212-209-2950.
The phone lines are completely open.
And we have a limited number of these things.
So make a call now.
This is what we're offering tonight.
It's really awesome.
A lot of people came together to make these packages possible.
And we'd like to see an enthusiastic response.
212-209-2950.
I should also mention something I'm really enthused about is this multimeter comes with a battery.
A lot of them don't.
And we actually used the multitool to put the battery in the multimeter, which was helpful.
So, yes, great multitool, pocket-sized package that has 23 tools in it.
And it's a solid piece of equipment made out of metal and hard plastic.
It's a hammer.
You can hammer something into the wall with this.
This is not something you can do with every pocket multitool.
Lots of an arrangement of screw heads, a level measuring tape, a flashlight or a torch for our European listeners.
And all of this, plus the book, plus the stickers, plus the DVDs, all of that can be yours for a $125 pledge at 212-209-2950.
It's almost too much to keep track of, but we are keeping track of it.
As we mentioned earlier, we've already delivered the premiums from two weeks ago.
So that means in a couple of weeks, these ones will be delivered to the radio station as well and very quickly sent out to you.
But only if you give a call now before 8 o'clock to 212-209-2950 and get all of these amazing items.
Six different items, all of which are really cool for a pledge of $125 and four of them for a pledge of $75.
212-209-2950, a couple of calls on the line.
But I know we have a lot more people down there ready to take phone calls.
I know there are a lot of people out there that should be really enthused by this.
Now, Bernie, I'm sorry we keep cutting you off.
It's because of the horrible noise that emanates whenever you speak.
Hopefully, we can fix that now.
And what would you like to add to this?
I wanted to say, can you hear me okay?
Yes, maybe that's the problem.
Don't ask.
Just assume we can hear you.
All right.
All right.
This book that John Bartel wrote...
I am so sorry.
I'll tell you what.
When Bernie is talking, can we put John on hold?
It seems to happen when we have two people on the phone at once.
These are advanced electronics here at the radio station.
All right.
We just have Bernie now?
All right, Bernie, talk as loud as you want now.
I think maybe it will work.
All right.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
You see, this is the problem.
Every time you ask, can I hear you, that's when the feedback starts.
So just launch right in.
Go ahead.
I should never say that, then.
Well, this book that John wrote is pretty amazing.
It's like a world tour of hackerspaces.
I kind of get the joy of reading it like I did when I was a kid,
reading Popular Science and Popular Mechanics and later Make Magazine.
You don't necessarily have to build all these things,
but it really gets your creative juices flowing,
reading these dozens of really creative projects
that were invented by people around the world in hackerspaces.
And some of the hackerspaces that were really enthusiastic
about this fundraising show and who donated items to give away
are Templab in Paris, Level One in Louisville, Kentucky,
Alpha One Labs in Brooklyn, Hack Pittsburgh,
which is surprisingly not in Pittsburgh.
They have a cool button featuring a raised fist with a soldering iron,
Pumping Station One in Chicago,
Xichang Jiang, I don't know if I pronounced that properly,
but it's the Beijing hackerspace.
They're sending some stickers.
The Perth Artifactory in Australia,
the Harford Hackerspace in Baltimore, Maryland,
Noisebridge in San Francisco,
and NYC Resistor in Brooklyn and the Hacktory in Philadelphia.
You're getting something tangible from every one of these hackerspaces,
most of which are featured in the book.
And the Digital Multimeter from SparkFun Electronics.
They also were generous enough to donate all these hackerspace passports.
They printed them to make sure that they're available.
That's an open-source project, by the way, this hackerspace passport.
So anybody can get one of these.
You can make your own,
but you can just search hackerspace passport online
and find out how to make your own if you want.
But these are really cool looking.
The multimeter is great.
The Kelvin 23 all-in-one tool from Geek Electronics.
This is an amazing package.
I think this sets a record for off-the-hook and maybe WBAI
for all the cool gear you get with pledging either $75 or $125
and calling 212-209-2950.
It's a great value.
It's a great way to support WBAI in this show.
You may very well be right as far as the number of different items
that we're offering at the same time for people calling in,
but it's not being matched by the number of calls coming in.
Unfortunately, at the moment, we only have one call,
and I know there are more people out there that would be interested in this,
and we need to bring in a whole lot more than that
if we're going to be able to continue in a couple of weeks
with something else on this radio station as well.
212-209-2950.
Bernie, maybe you can address why this might be something
that someone who is not part of a hackerspace right now
would be interested in getting.
It's inspiring.
This book and all the tools, basically this is a complete package
you can get to just start making stuff.
The book has all kinds of plans in it to make all kinds of things,
and it's sort of a tour of all these hackerspaces around the world,
and you get most of the tools you need to make some of the stuff
featured in the book.
You get this digital multimeter for Spark phone electronics.
You get this Kelvin 23 all-in-one tool, which is 23 tools from thinggeek.com.
Great people there, too.
And you're ready to go.
You're ready to start making stuff.
You're ready to start going around to different hackerspaces
with your hackerspace passport and being part of this community.
It's really an amazing way to get started,
and if you're already started in this world,
you're going to still love these toys and tools.
It's great stuff.
212-209-2950.
Just to give you another taste of what this book is like,
there's a section here about a project in a hackerspace near and dear to my heart.
It's at Pumping Station 1 in Chicago, where I had the pleasure to visit,
and it's a great place with some good friends of mine there.
They built a TARDIS photo booth.
The TARDIS is the time and space machine from the sci-fi series Doctor Who,
and they built a replica of one.
But it's not just that.
They figured they would make it functional,
not as a time and space machine, unfortunately, but as a photo booth.
This section in the book, it talks about PS1.
It talks about how that started.
It talks about this project.
It's not just a dry listing of tools and ingredients and instructions
on how to make this project.
They tell you the story behind it.
They tell you the people that came together to make it happen,
the inspiration behind it, what they wanted to accomplish with it,
great photos of the whole thing in process,
and just some really great stuff.
So even if you're not into building these projects,
you read about them and you learn about the whole mentality behind this,
behind the hackerspace, behind the hackerspace movement,
behind the hacker mentality that made all this happen.
So it's a real eye-opener, and you don't have to be a techno geek
to appreciate what's going on with these projects.
Now, Redhack, you're looking at the book right now.
Is there a particular project that is captivating your attention?
Oh, I was just looking at the project that he was talking about.
Really? Okay.
Let's talk a little more about these tools that you guys are playing with here.
Now, what are some other fun things that you can do
besides measuring people's fingers or whatnot?
It's like a laboratory in here with all this.
It is.
A multimeter is basically a tool used for electronics projects.
You're using it to check various voltages on your circuit
and resistances and things like that,
and also for the components that you're putting in.
You could read the value on the resistor, or you could just test it.
Yeah, so it's really essential for when you're putting things together
and making sure you've made the right connections
that you haven't missed anything, any solder joints or anything like that.
It's good for that kind of project work.
I'm having some difficulty here because I see dead phone lines.
I don't see any calls coming in.
Either this thing is broken,
and everything else needs to be broken so it's possible,
or the enthusiasm that we're showing here on this radio station
and throughout the whole hacker community
is not reflected in the general population.
I don't know.
I find that kind of hard to believe
because people are always asking me about hackerspaces
and the latest things that hackers are up to.
So I know there's people out there that have to be interested in this,
and we're offering you something that is really pretty incredible,
both at the $75 and $125 level.
Again, four different items,
ranging from an autographed book to a hackerspace passport
to a DVD set to stickers and buttons.
That's for a pledge of $75.
All that in addition to two really cool and professional tools
that you can use for all kinds of projects.
All you've got to do is call 212-209-2950,
pledge $125 or $75, and you get all this.
It's really cool.
You're part of the community.
You're part of the excitement of building and experimenting.
That's what it's all about.
That's what drives us.
So maybe the transmitter is not working or something,
but this enthusiasm is contagious everywhere I've gone.
So I'm trying to wrap my head around
why we're not getting a stronger response.
Bernie, maybe you have a theory?
Well, I don't have a theory.
I think something must be broken,
but I'm hoping people in the tally room are busy
and somebody can go down and check.
But this is, I think, one of the most amazing premium packages
we've ever offered on Off The Hook since 1988.
This is an incredible collection of thank-you gifts
that we're giving to everybody who calls in
and pledges support for this radio station,
which is really an invaluable resource.
212-209-2950.
The value of this stuff is really unparalleled
in the kinds of fundraising premiums we've offered in the past.
This is really some really tangible, useful, professional stuff.
You'd have to travel the hackerspaces around the world
to get all these stickers and buttons and keychains.
This is great stuff.
212-209-2950.
It's nice to have all the stickers and buttons and things like that
to show off and to wear as a badge of honor.
Same thing for the hackerspace passport.
But these tools, they're real.
Maybe if you guys built a robot or something by the end of the hour,
can you build something that maybe will impress people
and have them realize that we're not just making this up.
This is real.
These are real tools that would impress people.
I'm not a technical person myself.
I don't build things.
I can break things very easily, but I don't build things.
But this is what hackers and makers all around the world are doing.
They're playing with these bits of basic technology.
But what's amazing about these two things that you get for a pledge of 125
in addition to everything else is the versatility.
There's a tape measure in there.
There's a tape measure.
How did you pull the tape measure out of that, what do you call it?
The Urban Tool, is that what it is?
Yeah, the Kelvin 23, the Urban Tool.
Yeah, nodding on the radio doesn't work.
Urban Super Tool.
All right.
Very interesting.
Now we have two calls on the line.
That's great.
But we have space for something like eight.
We have a lot of people down there who are not doing anything,
and we want them to be busy.
We want to be able to bring calls in.
We need to bring in well over $1,000 during this hour,
and we only have 21 minutes of it left.
So, please, 212-209-2950.
Let me point out, even if we weren't giving away anything,
and there are stations that do this.
There are stations that just say, please support us because we're here.
We're on the FM dial.
It's expensive to run a transmitter and to pay the electric bill and all that.
Please support us if you want us to continue, and they get phone calls.
Look at all the stuff that we've gotten based on talking to people all over the world,
all of whom share the enthusiasm of WBAI.
John Batesell has donated copies of his book.
We have hackerspaces all over the place sending us things.
We've got ThinkGeek and what was the other one again?
SparkFun.
SparkFun, yes, sending us these items, really incredible items.
So they get it.
All we're asking is that you think for a moment about whether your life has been improved by WBAI,
by off the hook, and if so, consider calling 212-209-2950.
You wanted to know if we could build something.
I'll tell you what we're building right now.
We're building a future for this radio station and this community and this particular program
because that's something that we can't do just with a hand tool.
That's something that we can only do with our listeners, as I really like saying on these things
because it bears repeating.
This is the only way that the station stays on the air.
We don't have bake sales.
We don't do anything else.
We don't sell things to you.
The only thing that keeps us going is the direct support of our listeners,
and that's the only thing that has kept this station on the air for 50 years.
So it's you.
If you're hearing this, it's you.
212-209-2950.
We're going to go to a special guest in a moment, but I want to get one more phone call coming in.
We've got two on the line now.
That's good.
Thank you for those two people, but we should have a lot more.
Please, 212-209-2950.
And, Rob, I admire the way that you ducked my challenge to build something, but I mean it.
I mean you guys have some pretty impressive tools here.
If you can't build something, can you at least take something apart?
I mean that shouldn't be as hard, but you can do all kinds.
These things should concern anyone in authority.
If a school kid comes in with one of these.
Why?
Because they can do almost anything with them.
And what's the problem with that?
There's no problem with that in my view, but in the view of somebody in authority, they might have a different opinion.
But what Rob said is true.
WBAI, we're not selling you anything.
We're not selling.
Other radio stations are selling their listeners as the commodity to advertisers.
Right, exactly.
And here you are the sole source of support for the station.
You're not being sold by us to advertisers.
You are just supporting a station that's here that presents alternative viewpoints and alternative shows.
And things that you just don't hear on other radio stations because they're not interested in hosting those kinds of shows.
Even this would be considered too controversial.
We've talked about way controversial things where we're coming up against governments and police and things like that.
We're talking about building and creating.
But even that just doesn't work for commercial radio.
It doesn't bring in the advertising dollars.
Exactly.
Advertisers aren't interested in advertising on stations that they view as controversial.
Every time you listen to anything on a radio station, a commercial radio station, whether it be a newscast, whether it be a song, it's all to sell commercials.
That's what it's all about.
And you know what?
You wind up paying for those commercials.
Every time you buy something, you're paying for a commercial because it's factored into the product that you buy.
You don't get a choice there.
You're making the decision to call 212-209-2950 and pledge whatever you can afford but get some amazing things in return.
The most amazing thing, of course, is WBAI.
But we're just showing our enthusiasm by going around, making phone calls, and Bernie did a lot of the legwork here finding all this material.
And, yeah, that's what it's all about.
That's the enthusiasm that makes everything we do possible from conferences to magazines to radio shows to various campaigns, whether it's fighting SOPA or helping get somebody out of prison that should not be there.
All kinds of things that we're called upon to take action about in the hacker community.
That's what drives us, that level of enthusiasm.
Please join the people who are calling in now, 212-209-2950.
We have another special guest on the line.
Mitch Altman is here, I think.
Okay.
Hopefully, Mitch won't cause ghastly feedback.
But, Mitch, are you with us?
I am not going to cause ghastly feedback, just feedback of the positive sort.
Okay.
All right.
Well, this is good.
This is good.
Mitch, tell us something about the hackerspace passports.
I think those were your invention, right?
Yeah, yeah.
It was my creation with the help of Matthew Borgatti, who did the brilliant artwork in them.
I've had this idea for a while, and I decided for Chaos Congress, which was pretty much the birth of the hackerspace movement four and a half years ago in 2007, where there was a presentation on how to start your own hackerspace that really started it all off.
And now there's over 900 hackerspaces either existing or forming.
And I started Noisebridge with the help of my friend Jake, and a bunch of people started hackerspaces in other places.
And this served as an example all around the world that this stuff is way cool and it works.
So, yeah, it's really taken off.
And I thought it would be appropriate to have some kind of a gesture at the most recent Chaos camp, which was this summer, to commemorate that.
And I wanted to encourage people and make it fun to visit hackerspaces everywhere.
So when I travel outside of our illustrious land, I have to carry a passport with me.
And this is sort of an impediment to visiting other places rather than an encouragement.
And I wanted to turn that on its head.
So these passports, you don't need to fingerprint yourself to go into another land.
You don't need to get your photo taken in order to go to another hackerspace.
You just bring your hackerspace passport with you, and you can get it stamped with a visa, in quotes, anywhere you go.
And then you can show it off and see where you've been and compare notes with other hackers who go places.
I made 2,600 of them appropriately enough.
They went instantly.
And they're totally open source.
You can download them for free online.
Do whatever you want with them.
Print your own.
And that's what SparkFun did.
And I would have gladly donated more when Bernie called me to ask, but I'm totally out.
So that's why I suggested SparkFun, and they were gracious enough to do that to support the wonders of WBAI and OffTheHook,
where you can get incredible programming for us and not for advertisers.
That's right.
Now, again, you get the hackerspace passport.
You get the collection of nine hackerspace-related DVDs over the years.
You get the collection of stickers and buttons and keychains from hackerspaces all around the world.
And you get an autographed copy of Hack This, the amazing book by John Batesow that came out very recently concerning hackerspaces and hacker projects.
That's for a pledge of $75.
For $125, you get all that plus the two amazing hacker tools that are really heavy-duty, professional in quality.
You get a multimeter, and you get the – I keep forgetting what you call the other one.
The urban – I can't read that.
The Kelvin 23 – just tell me.
Oh, no.
That side's in French.
Urban super tool.
Urban super tool.
It really is a super tool because what you guys have been doing with it, it's like a cartoon thing where it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and does other things.
I expect it to come to life at any moment.
212-209-2950.
So you get all of that for a pledge of $125.
Again, we're only offering this tonight.
In 13 minutes, we're not going to be offering it anymore.
It's as simple as that.
I was just going to say there's 13 minutes left to get this premium package, 212-209-2950.
And it's really amazing to me that all these people came together to donate all these things.
Even if you have no interest in hackerspaces, if you think you'll never go to a hackerspace, you can look through the book.
Maybe it will change your mind.
But even if it doesn't, there's all these cool projects.
You get the tools to help you build these projects.
Even if you hate hackerspaces, it's a good deal.
And you get to keep us on the air.
You get to keep the station on the air, 212-209-2950.
And if you love hackerspaces, well, there's all the more reason to pledge.
You can use the stickers to pretend you've gone to all these hackerspaces.
You can use the passport.
When you actually go to all these hackerspaces, you can watch the DVD talks that will tell you how to form your own hackerspace.
And, you know, it's confusing.
I get that it's confusing for our listeners, all this stuff you get.
I had to make all kinds of notes.
It's simple because you get a lot of cool things if you give a call and you get a radio station, which is awesome.
And all you got to do is call 212-209-2950.
I mean, yeah, there's a lot of detail.
There are a lot of very interesting and intricate things that are a part of this world.
But the basic premise is quite simple.
Support us and we'll still be around.
That's what it's all about.
212-209-2950.
I was going to say that.
You were going to say that? Okay.
I just said it a little faster then.
You know, I talked to Kyle at HackerBot Labs in Seattle.
He's on the show frequently.
And every time I talk to him about what they're doing over there, I'm just blown away by the level of sophistication
and the various projects that they're embarking in.
Same thing when I talk to people at different hackerspaces.
It's like, wow, you can really do that.
You can build this kind of a thing.
The imagination is the only limit, and it's virtually no limit at all.
And that's the freedom that comes from something like this.
Now, you might be inspired by getting this book and going through it and seeing what people are doing around the world.
You might be inspired to start your own hackerspace or at least to look around and see if there are other people in your neighborhood that are part of it.
And then the things that you create can be historic, can be really liberating and just inspirational to so many people.
But you'll never know unless you take that first step and start investigating, start looking into it.
And one way to do that is to call 212-209-2950, show your support for this place so we can continue talking about this and many other topics in the years ahead.
212-209-2950.
We have two levels of support, 75 and 125, and all kinds of hackerspace-related items will be coming your way very quickly if you give a call.
212-209-2950.
Now, Mitch, something you mentioned I just want to touch upon because you talked about the proliferation of hackerspaces throughout the world.
And when you said that, it almost sounded scary.
It almost sounded like these things are popping up so quickly that the authorities simply have no way of controlling it and the level of enthusiasm is just going through the roof.
Is this something that people in control should be worried about?
No, absolutely not.
It's very positive for everybody.
This hackerspace movement is creating more opportunities for more people to explore and do what they love.
That's what happens at hackerspaces.
And, you know, it's not anything that, you know, I don't know, an authority figure, why would they care about people exploring and doing what they love?
You know, if someone cares about that, then they probably have some personal problems to look at.
Well, yeah, I'm sure that's possible.
Okay, we have five calls on the line.
That's great.
So we want to thank those people for calling in, and please keep the calls coming in.
We're only on for a few more minutes, but we do need to have a strong showing tonight as we're not on next week.
We weren't on last week, and usually we're on every week.
We want to continue that, but you can't run a radio station on magic alone.
There's lots of magic in this place, but we need to have listener support to continue going, and we need to know that the listener support, what it is we're doing, and it's great to know that you're out there.
And certainly if the listener support matches the support of people like John Batesill and ThinkGeek and SparkFun and Mitch and Bernie and everybody else out there, we'll be in great shape if listener support matches that level of support.
Let's say thanks to some of our listeners who have already called in.
Yes, we have a few listeners who we'd like to thank.
Rohan from Port Jefferson, New York.
Michael from Chicago, Illinois.
And Nalini from Fresh Meadows, New York.
And we'd also like to thank everyone who pledged and would rather not be thanked live on the air, and everyone who's pledging now who we don't have time to read, and everyone else, thank you so much.
Now I should point out that we take all credit cards and that a shipping and handling charge may be added to your pledge as well, just to cover those costs.
But what you're getting is simply an incredible deal and well worth the phone call, 212-209-2950.
We have five calls on the line.
That's really cool.
I think if we get another three, that will keep everybody in that room busy.
Now, John, we haven't heard from you in a while, and I apologize for that because we've just been so busy here playing with these toys and talking about all these things.
But is there something you'd like to add to all of this as far as just the proliferation of hacker spaces and the general feeling in the world about these things?
Well, I'm really excited about how the scene is just exploding, not to use that word again.
Four and a half years ago, the lecture that was given on how to start your own hacker spaces, it started this really cool movement.
And as Mitch said, we're looking at 900 spaces right now planned or in existence.
That's just really amazing.
It really is.
And Mitch, on that subject, you mentioned that this movement more or less started right around 2007, 2008.
But I'm looking here at our DVD collection.
I'm seeing talks by The Loft in 1997.
I'm seeing a talk about building hacker spaces in 2004.
There were hacker spaces around before then.
So what changed in the mid-2000s that made it all, again, to use the word, explode?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
It didn't happen.
The talk in 2007 didn't happen out of nowhere.
There's been a lot of work by a lot of people, including Loft and Hacker Halfway House and a bunch of others that laid the groundwork.
But the Make magazine started around 2005 because there was a huge proliferation of people sharing projects on the Internet and showing that there's really a huge number of people.
No one knew how many back then that are really interested in getting together and collaborating on projects and not just individual geeks at home alone, as was presumed all along before.
And the early hacker spaces were mostly incredible software geeks that were doing things with software only.
And there was a lot of suspicion on what they were doing.
So people were kind of secretive.
They didn't let just anybody in.
But when it was seen on the Internet that there was really a huge community of people wanting to get together to do a huge diversity of things, that started creeping itself into hacker spaces, mostly in Germany, which is why the German hackers presented How to Start Your Own Hacker Space in 2007.
And Nick Farr did Hackers on a Plane to Chaos Camp that summer for Chaos Camp, and a bunch of people from North America were there and were totally enthused with the idea of what life might be like if there was this kind of community in their own hometown all day and all night, all year round.
And we started hacker spaces.
And then, like I said, that was a model for other people to see it really does work.
And it's incredibly cool.
And we get to have community.
We get to express ourselves through our creativity.
And yeah.
It really is amazingly cool.
And what you're seeing here, you're seeing a movement.
It's beyond the birth.
It's really in the growing stage now.
It's a movement exploding.
I hate to keep using that word, but it really does match here.
It's spreading all over the world.
Even in totalitarian countries, you have hacker spaces, which is an incredible feat in and of itself.
And I just got to say, in the closing moments here, this is our home stretch.
We've been so distracted, RedHack, you particularly, because you've been reading the damn book the whole hour and playing with the tools that we have here.
So you haven't really said much.
But I think that level of enthusiasm that you're showing is exactly what we're talking about.
There's just a lot of cool projects in this book.
And beyond the projects, there's just little notes about various parts of the hacker space culture.
And I saw a little fact on Club Mate in there.
So there's just different things about different kinds of tools that are in use, et cetera.
I mean it's just a really, really interesting book.
212-209-2950 is our phone number.
We only have a couple of minutes left.
In fact, the personal computer people are already here breathing down my neck.
They really want to get on the air.
And what's going to happen is, at 8 o'clock, they're going to be offering their own unique, interesting premiums, because that's how radio works here.
We all do our own thing, and we work together and build a community.
But here, for this hour, we're running out of time.
We only have a couple of minutes left.
212-209-2950, two pledge levels, 75 and 125, for an amazing plethora of hacker tools.
So the takeaway is you have like two minutes, 20 seconds to get these premiums.
212-209-2950, and keep us on the air.
And you would not find this stuff all at once at any price, I don't think anywhere.
The stickers from all over the world, the book by John Baitola and Q Publishing, the great tool from SparkFun and the Hacker Space Passport, and the other great tool from ThinkGeek.
All these people came together to support our show, to support us, to support the station, and you can too.
And this can all be yours.
Even if you could find all of this, the amount of effort you would spend doing it probably would exceed the amount that you would pledge to get it here at WBAI.
212-209-2950, join the two people on the phone right now.
Last few minutes, please show your support for Off The Hook, show your support for WBAI, show your support for Hacker Spaces.
John Baitola, I want to thank you so much for writing the book, for donating the book, just for being a voice in this movement.
I think it makes a huge difference.
Yes, and thanks for having me on.
I'm a big fan of the show.
All right, it's great to talk to you again.
Hope we see you at the HOPE Conference this July.
Mitch, same for you.
Thanks so much for everything that you've done and are continuing to do in the community.
Yeah, you're very welcome.
It's been great being on the show again.
John's book is called Hack This, for people who are listening in the future and can't pledge.
Maybe if you're listening in the present and you can pledge, you should just talk to one of those people.
If you're listening in the present and you can pledge, please pledge.
Please pledge now.
That's hard to say.
All right, listen, we're going to get out of here because we're late.
Here's Lou Reed to help us out.
Good night.
I was sleeping, gently napping when I heard the phone.
Who is on the other end talking?
Am I even home?
Did you see what she did to him?
Did you hear what they said?
Just a New York conversation rattling in my head.
Oh my, and what shall we wear?
Oh my, and who really cares?
Just a New York conversation, gossip all of the time.
Did you hear who did what to whom happens all the time?
Who has touched and who has dabbled here in the city of shows?
Openings, closings, bed repartee, everybody knows.
All right, everybody knows.
This is WBAI New York 99.5 FM, also streaming on the web at WBAI.org.