2600 | Off The Hook January 2008

Emmanuel is using his cell phone from Germany for only nine cents a minute, how Mike discovered Ortel, reviewing the Chaos Communication Congress, the demonstration against data retention that took place outside the convention, the high tech nature of some of the protest signs, the relevance of a talk on global warming, Emmanuel describes how he was able to activate his SIM card without giving any personal information, Redbird explains how the phone could still be used to track a customer, it's the 20th year of the show, Bicycle Mark joins the discussion from Amsterdam using a VoIP connection in Philadelphia, the battle for a melting piece of the Arctic, why social issues have a place at a hacker conference, rating the sound quality of all of tonight's phone connections, impressions of New Year's in Berlin, Emmanuel explains how he accidentally shelled a building with fireworks, the incredible mess in the streets the day after, the absence of cops and how that affected the mood, the new smoking ban in Germany, Emmanuel describes his quest for missing tracks at the central train station and how he wasn't interrogated, Mitch Altman joins the discussion from a pirate radio station in a place called Bootlab in Berlin, how the signal is able to get out to the entire city, Mitch describes the commotion caused by a TV-B-Gone in a giant Berlin store, Johannes from Mikro FM describes the operation, Mike explains the significance of the outgoing theme by the EuroCats.

The entire theme is played, updating where everyone has been lately, problems playing a promo, an appeal for shortwave listeners, hackers are blamed for a Pennsylvania government website attack, dissecting the story, Mike discusses a case of bad security at Sears, a scandal involving Network Solutions, looking ahead to next year's digital television cutover, a hostile website to obtain coupons for converter boxes, a terror network now permits downloading video directly to cell phones, expressions are now being monitored in airports, Mike describes the various screening processes he went through at Heathrow, Emmanuel notices blatant racial profiling at the same airport, a special LP that has an old telephone company commercial from the 1950s on it, misleading words about a cell phone blocking device, information about Emmanuel's Smart car, a report of a pirate radio station interfering with WBAI, the death of Liam O'Gallagher.

- Special Shortwave Recording -

We uncovered an old tape that was sent to us from a listener who recorded this show off of shortwave station WBCQ when we were being broadcast there. We thought it would be interesting for other listeners to hear what that sounded like, so we've posted it here, along with an excerpt from this faithful listener:

On the "Off The Hook" program of January 9, 2008, you wanted to hear from the people who listen to the show on shortwave radio station WBCQ in Monticello, Maine. I'm one of them. As proof, I'm sending you a recording of that program as monitored in Cincinnati, Ohio.

You should know a bit about how and why it was recorded. I can't always be home when "Off The Hook" is presented. However, I leave my digitally-tuned shortwave radio on and tuned to WBCQ's frequency of 7415 kHz. And I have my stereo hi-fi VHS VCR, plugged into the radio, tape the program. (Instead of a TV channel, the audio/video input is selected.)

There is purpose to sending you the tape. One is to simply let you know how "Off The Hook" sounds over shortwave. Another is to let you know that I especially appreciate "Off The Hook" and other WBCQ programs enough to record them and make sure I won't miss them even though I might have to listen to them days later.

Just one "Off The Hook" fan,

Bradley

Download It Now!

January 9
16k mp3
128k mp3

A trick involving the opening theme, Mitch Altman is back from Europe, trouble at a consumer electronics show involving TV-B-Gones, an update on premiums, news from CCC, remote control of utilities, a TV remote control causes a tram crash in Poland, a serious privacy breach involving Wisconsin citizens, how the remedies for such breaches are insufficient, an instance of severe TSA security holes, the threat of Internet access tying into the navigational systems of planes, Bernie and Mitch discuss the rising prevalence of new hacker spaces throughout the world, how to help such spaces come into being, Mitch talks about the incident involving a TV-B-Gone arrest in Berlin, an update on the WBAI pirate, some good words about hackers.

Data Loss of the Week, Bernie talks about his year of free credit reporting because of his private info being compromised, the sixfold increase in the number of data loss reports within the last year, the benefits of looking carefully at your phone bill, what "Call Waiting ID 2" is, the fraudulent charge on Emmanuel's bill, a judge in North Dakota concludes that zone transfers are illegal, what a zone transfer is, an attack on Scientology by an "anonymous" entity, Time Warner intends to charge Internet users by usage, "cybersecurity standards" are approved to protect electric companies from hackers, a Homeland Security video with simulated hackers exists somewhere, a cocaine vaccine, the hidden charges in phone bills, a new movie appears to target net neutrality, MP3 players with AM radios.

Next week will be Bernie's last week where he can use analog cell service, the importance of the Super Bowl, Emmanuel is frustrated with the amount of sports knowledge he's retained, today is International Delete Your MySpace Account Day, Redbird is interrogated on his MySpace usage, ideas for alternate types of sites, Charter Communications deletes 14,000 customer email accounts with no possibility of recovery, a Bermuda Triangle of sorts near the Empire State Building, a recorded phone conversation from a jail influences the sentencing, Bernie explains how prison calls can be accessed, why phone companies go along with illegal monitoring of its customers, last year's denial of service attack in Estonia that had been blamed on Russia is found to have been caused by a single Estonian student, an update on the Anonymous attack on Scientology, trying to figure out how the Anonymous system works, Bernie's experience with Scientologists, how Google bombing works, taxis with cameras, an update on Jim's condition, feedback from listeners who are over 80 years old, possible legal threats against programs like wget, coming up with a decree involving Google bombing.