=------------------------------------------------------------------= |Vol. 1 No. 3 Telephone Free Planet Issue 3| |Can't fight stains! tfp.nothing.org Will not cure acne!| |This issue is lame! November 27, 1997 Happy Thanksgiving!| =------------------------------------------------------------------= =---------"TFP bites more than Mike Tyson and Marv Albert combined."---------= =-------------------Active Ingredients-------------------= | Chopped pork shoulder meat with ham meat added, Salt, | | Water, Sugar, Sodium Nitrite (preservative) thx jrx! | =-------------------Crappy Ingredients-------------------= | Turkey Day fun...............................KungFuFox | | Anarchy Day............................Hatred on a Log | | So you're stupid.............................KungFuFox | | Numbers to have handy.........................shoelace | | Phreaking in School........................AgentOrange | | Teleconferences for the mentally deficient.........jlb | =----------TFP goodies for extra special phreaks---------= | Telco News...................................KungFuFox | | Land-o-Logs...............................You readers! | | Storytime with TFP..........Whoever bothered to submit | =--------------------------------------------------------= "Mary Kay LeTourneau has been branded a sex offender by the press, but is known to her students as 'the greatest teacher ever'." -Norm MacDonald "Everyone is an act." -Angela, MTV's "My So-Called Life" =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= =-------------------------------------------------------------------= | Telephone Free Planet - Contact information | | TFP Email: tfp@tfp.nothing.org - TFP Site: http://tfp.nothing.org | =-------------------------------------------------------------------= Alpha dog : KungFuFox, mazer@cycat.com <-head dumb guy Beta dog : Keystroke, keystroke@thepentagon.com <-he's lonely Omega dog : BC219, blindchicken@qtm.net <-new! Junkie : darc <-TFP's official junkie! Yay! Buncha names : digipimp, AlienPhreak, weatherman, REality, Scud-O, shoelace, Dublisk, ec|ipse, overdub, Allah7, Discore, Seizure, and shamr0ck Send us: articles, quotes, emails, logs, phonecalls, news articles, and crap. You get: 1) A warm fuzzy feeling 2) To help/entertain others 3) Our love! Telephone Free Planet is an edumacational public service. You can't blame us if something bad happens to you before/while/after reading this document. If you want to reprint any of our worthless crap ask us at tfp@tfp.nothing.org. =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= Happier than ever, it's your best buddy KungFuFox saying hello for another whopper of an issue. Yeah, so TFP didn't die yet. It'll happen eventually, I'm not going to make any promises on when though, just wild speculation. Maybe Nostradamus made a prediction about TFP's demise. Coinciding with a suicide bombing orchestrated by the president of AT&T at a shareholders' meeting? See, wild speculation. More evidence that I'm just full of crap. The HTML and graphics contest I announced in TFP02 wasn't won by anyone, basically because nobody entered. That's ok, I know you're just complimenting the stuff on the site right now. I guess I'll continue this contest indefinitely until I get tired of thinking about it or somebody sends in something that's halfway decent. Anyway, we've got a great issue lined up for you this um, this occasion. It's another holiday release, isn't that peculiar? We might just keep doing this for regularity. If you don't get it yet, I'm hinting at TFP04 coming out on or near Christmas. Crazy eh? So like, happy thanksgiving everyone. I kinda mixed this real short welcome message with the Turkey Day fun article, so until next time, hasta la somethin. _o/ diScOpHreAk sez... /< "play dem funky tonez!" =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= =-------------------------------= | Turkey Day fun - by KungFuFox | =-------------------------------= It's Thanksgiving. Nobody ever thinks about phreaking on Thanksgiving, do they? It's all about eating turkey and ham and steak and vegetables and gravy and all that other jolly good stuff. If you're obsessed with phreaking you shouldn't be neglecting the phone system, not even for a big holiday like this one. That's why I'm gonna help you to give thanks to something besides corn and turkey, lets give thanks for phones. I guess giving thanks for phones shouldn't take too long, just kiss all of the phones in your house, then we can get to the good stuff. Giving thanks to the phone company for hating phreaks. Ever used turkeys to vandalize stuff? Here's your chance. There are plenty of catering services trying to make money off this holiday. Just look in the phonebook, or the newspaper, and find an advertisement for turkey delivered to your door. If you don't have any working credit card numbers, you'll need to find a caterer that does cash on delivery. Order about five turkeys, and have them sent to your favorite neighbor's house. When the deliverer and your neighbor are busy fixing the mix-up, raid the turkey van and get those turkeys. A large duffel bag, with 5 double-bagged plastic bags in it will do just fine for transporting turkey. You might want to bring some oven mits incase the turkeys are still scalding hot. Five good sized premade turkeys are expensive, which means that catering delivery person doesn't want them stolen, so be quiet about it and be quick. Once you've acquired the turkeys, you get to the fun part: distributing the turkeys. For practicality bring some bolt cutters with you, to get through the locks on the telco cabinets (the tall green boxes). Stuff a turkey in each of five cabinets, and close 'em up. Being observant of the most popularly used cabinets in your town will aid in making this prank more effective. If you wanna get creative, get yourself a turkey, a container full of gravy (salted well), and find yourself a nice big telephone cable with a hundred or so pairs in it. You'll either have to dig one up near an access box or climb a pole, your pick. They're both a bitch. Anyway, once you get at the cable, just rip it in half with somethin. For better conductivity you might want to splice the hundreds of wires you're now looking at, but you don't have to. Put a hole the size of the cable through the head of the turkey, and stuff one side of the cable in it. Now pour the gravy through the other hole that was already in the ass end of the turkey. Jam the other side of the cable in there. If for some unknown reason any connections can be completed through this horribly shoddy splice, it's crosstalk city. If you're too lazy to get at a cable, just throw turkeys at linemen. That better be simple enough. For those of you uneasy about wasting turkeys, you could opt to take a few of them down to a local mission or soup kitchen or somethin, but make sure to at least paper the place with anti-homeless sentiments from the good people at . For example, write up an 'internal memo', seemingly stolen from the telco, that illustrates the telco's policy on not helping the homeless due to their "worthlessness and general stinkiness". Make sure there's a big fat company logo on the top of it. Sample memo: [ BIG FAT ] [FRIGGIN HUGE] [COMPANY LOGO] [ HERE. ] November 18, 1997 For immediate distribution to central office managers This memorandum is in regards to the upcoming holiday and humanitarian efforts you may wish to embark upon for the welfare of the 'less fortunate'. It is the policy of not to help the homeless in any way. They are not 'less fortunate', they are lazy, disgusting, vulgar people. By associating the name with the homeless, we not only ruin our company image, but call attention to these wastes of space. It is because of this opinion that we at headquarters request that no humanitarian programs such as turkey giveaways be implemented in association with . Thank you, and have a happy holiday. Yours Truly, Big Fat Millionaire =-----------------------------------------------------------= This should create an uprising at least, and at best it will get on the local news and unsettle the moral members of the community so much that there will be a boycot of the company you have stricken. So I couldn't think of anything real good to do on thanksgiving that's phone related. It's not my fault. It's the day's fault. Geez, what a crappy article. ,+*^^*+___+++_ ,*^^^^ ) _+* ^**+_ +^ _ _++*+_+++_, ) Thanksgiving _+^^*+_ ( ,+*^ ^ \+_ ) sucks! { ) ( ,( ,_+--+--, ^) ^\ \ { (@) } / ,( ,+-^ __*_*_ ^^\_ ^\ ) \ {:;-/ (_+*-+^^^^^+*+*<_ _++_)_ ) ) / \ ( / ( ( ,___ ^*+_+* ) < < \ U _/ ) *--< ) ^\-----++__) ) ) ) ( ) _(^)^^)) ) )\^^^^^))^*+/ / / ( / (_))_^)) ) ) ))^^^^^))^^^)__/ +^^ ( ,/ (^))^)) ) ) ))^^^^^^^))^^) _) *+__+* (_))^) ) ) ))^^^^^^))^^^^^)____*^ \ \_)^)_)) ))^^^^^^^^^^))^^^^) (_ ^\__^^^^^^^^^^^^))^^^^^^^) ^\___ ^\__^^^^^^))^^^^^^^^)\\ ^^^^^\uuu/^^\uuu/^^^^\^\^\^\^\^\^\^\ ___) >____) >___ ^\_\_\_\_\_\_\) ^^^//\\_^^//\\_^ ^(\_\_\_\) ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= =----------------------------------= | Anarchy Day - by Hatred on a Log | =----------------------------------= I have always wanted to get all the phreaks, hackers, anarchists, and old folks to rally against all that is accepted. My only problem was that I could never really get the old folks behind me, but now by cleverly exploiting TFP's insatiable desire for articles and absolutely nonexistent standards, I believe I can effectively manipulate you people to cause chaos and bad stuff like that. My friends and I have been celebrating Anarchy Day for about three years now. Successful every year, we always wanted more and more bad stuff to happen, but we with our meager resources could never seem to reach our goal of "breaking everything ever made", as a friend so eloquently put it. Hopefully with your help we can successfully break everything. We have had some limited success on our own though. Literally the first year we did it, we took out the power for an entire apartment building, killed the phones for a good chunk of the city, got our local McDonald's to make a bunch of food for our principal that he had to pay for, made a crossing guard piss his pants, stole 5 tricycles that we phatted out, and we were personally responsible for the heart attack deaths of half of a library staff. We live in a mid-sized city, so it wasn't easy. We originally wanted to call it Bell Day, but seeing as how we did all that other leet stuff besides phreaking the hell out of telco cans with our bats, we went for a more general name. When we go out we still target bell cans, payphones, and outgoing phone boxes, but now we also target power lines, cable lines, fat people, and pretty much everything we can break. Anyway, Anarchy Day is June 14. I recommend you get a good form of transportation, like a bike or a really fast skateboard. We let my mom drive us around one year, that really sucked. She took us to Chuck E. Cheese's, but we ended up phreaking the pit full of balls, so I guess it was ok. Get your dad or use one of the prementioned vehicles instead of your mom though, cuz you can get a lot more done without her. Make sure you don't put your name on whatever it is you're riding cuz if the cops catch you and you have to ditch it they'll track you down. You might want to pick up a nice steel bat, or sledge hammer, or something you can destroy stuff with easily (I've found that super soakers really get things wet!). If you drink a lot of water beforehand you can phreak some telco stuff pretty bad by pissing on it. You could save the piss in the super soaker if you don't like peeing in public like me. You might even try barfing on the telco stuff if you're good at barfing. I'm a lot better at eating than barfing, but one of my friends is bulemic and be barfs real good. Here are a few suggestions for things to do: Hate those stupid COCOTs outside your favorite gas station that you can't redbox off? Call the operator and say "FUCK YOU!" then start running like hell! This fat kid at my school did that one time and the operator came running around a corner like 5 seconds later, so watch out! If you're too scared to talk to the operator you could squeeze some mayonnaise packets into the coin return slot so people will get a nasty surprise when they try to reach for their change. For this one you're gonna need some devices which allow you to keep a phone off the hook, even after you've left. Get into a telco can and dial 900 #s and tell them you just want to listen, and attach the device. Do this on about 20 lines, and entire street will be pissed! *WARNGING* don't make the mistake of listening to those sex lines too long. I got real into it with this one chick that must've been real hot (I knew she wanted me) but then this cop pulls up and asks me what I'm doing. It was crazy! Bring some crayons along and color the bell cans red. Lineman use these special infrared glasses to find the cans and they only show up if they're colored green or grey. You can really fuck the telco up if you color them red! Writing mean stuff on the cans like "your mom is so fat she's already eaten everything!" to the linemen is good too. I did that once and I don't think anyone has touched the can since! Run amuck with spraypaint. Make sure you spray PLA and TFP all over, along with "Anarchy Day '". Torture your local 7-11. Make sure you go in while it is extremely busy, as the cashier can't watch everyone. I took most of these from "How to turn the life of a Local 7-11 employee into a living hell" by RedBoxChilliPepper. Poke holes in the condoms, right through the box. Put ex-lax in everything you can. Ask for $600 in money-orders and lotto tickets and then "realize" you don't have the money. Buy as many combination locks as there are gas pumps and lock the nozzles down. Pick things up and drop them in the garbage. Swipe some post-it notes, walk up to the counter and ask if you can borrow a pen (adds to the irony) or just swipe a pen too. Go back to the slurpy/soda fountains and look at the names of the flavors. Write new names on the post it notes, such as "cow blood" for hawaiin punch, "cat piss" for mountain dew, "frosty gerbil" for cherry slurpy, etc., and slap the notes on top of the old labels. Get in the managers office if you can, and steal the employees' applications, etc. Call the 7-11 and find out who the cashier is, then use the info from that employee's application to send a strip-o-gram courtesy of his/her address and phone number. Sending roses from a secret admirer of the same sex is especially confusing. Maybe that unlucky cashier is hungry? Order 'em a pizza, courtesy of themselves, of course. Use your body building physique to knock down some telephone and power poles. Make sure to rip the cables in half, preferably with your bare hands, so you can make it harder for the repair crew to fix it. Bite through phone and power lines going into people's houses too, so they can't call the police or turn on their outside lights if you decide to run around nekkid. Hang posters up everywhere saying something obscene with the phone number of somebody you don't like on them like "Willie Jenkins is a horse lover, call him for one on one at 777-333-4444". Bother lots of people. Harass them enough so they send the police to wherever you are beiging from, and leave. Make sure to chew through the victim's line! Go to the local animal shelter and let all the dogs and cats loose so they'll poop on people's lawns. Boy will that be a fiasco! Burn your name into your worst enemy's lawn so they know you stopped by. Make a rather long trail of gasoline down a street. Light one end and watch the line burn right up. Better yet, put about 7 m80s or something at the end of it and watch everyone wake up. Launch stinkbombs anywhere you feel necessary. Well, that's just a few ideas. The point is to create anarchy in the morning when everyone wakes up. Something else to try: For the entire week beforehand call up businesses and have every company you can think of go to a couple of houses on major roads. This will also block up a lot of traffic the next morning. Try to get everyone to show up around the same time, ie: 10:00am. That should really shake the town up a bit, and get on the local broadcast news, not to mention the front page of the paper. If you are successful with this and get a newspaper article all to yourselves, e-mail it to me at Hatredonalog@hotmail.com. That just about wraps up another great article from your friends at TFP. Have fun next June 14. =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= =---------------------------------= | So you're stupid - by KungFuFox | =---------------------------------= I know how basic and elementary this information is, but I'm writing because there is a demand. It's not my fault, it's somebody else's. See, I'm dodging this one like I'm actually above this article, which I'm not, but I've gotta posture. If you wanna 'get started' phreaking, and you don't know what the hell you're doing, follow my advice. If you're just too scared, have somebody beat the crap out of you a few times, or a few hundreds of times, to toughen you up. Phreaking isn't hard, and it's not something the phone company is gonna track you down for instantly if you do it. Don't let them scare you. Despite the fact that they make billions of dollars a year or something, they don't care enough to try and stop you from committing petty offenses unless their pathetic excuses for security just happen to put you in the wrong place at the wrong time, like if you get hard pressed for access terminals and end up beiging from a CO (central office (phone company building)) in the middle of the afternoon. Tools of the trade no child of the telephone should be without: 1) phone - $10 1 piece with hangup switch in handset, cheap plastic base 2) 7/16" socket and wrench - $15 (get craftsman, they last forever!) 3) screwdrivers - $10 flathead an philips (just incase) 4) soldering iron - $15 at radioshack, get the kit with the tools, good value 5) gator clips, spare wire - $5 6) flashlight - $10, don't go nuts and buy something fancy 7) access to the internet - home $15, office/school/library/friend $0 8) brain - expensive, you better have one already The phone has an obvious use in communicating over the telephone network. You can use it on any access point with 2 terminals, such as an rj11 outlet (the standard phone jack in your house), a telephone network interface (TNI) which is the box either in your basement or on a wall outside your house (near the electric meter) that your telephone company installs lines in your house through, from a suspended or underground cable, or from an access box (ie. binding post, cabinet). The socket and wrench are for opening binding posts. Binding posts are these green (or grey) metal boxes around the yard and near telephone poles with metal contacts called 'terminals' in them. The bolts on these things fit the 7/16" socket, and screw off easily, allowing access to the terminals inside. If you've attached gator clips to the 2 wires in your cheap phone, you may access these terminals much like a phone line in your own home, but most likely (unless you haven't left your yard) the line belongs to somebody else. The flashlight is good for illuminating the terminals since you'll want to be doing your experimenting at night. The flashlight is also good for looking through dumpsters for information and discarded electronics. Cabinets are like binding posts except they're bigger and often times they have locked handles used to open them. You have to hope for unlocked cabinets to use these unless you have bolt cutters or a pocket torch, which aren't that expensive. Inside these there are multiple terminals, sometimes hundreds, which may again be accessed with your phone should it have gator clips attached to the wires coming out of it. You may need a flathead screwdriver for opening TNIs, sorry I didn't mention that earlier. Sometimes there's a bolt on them too, which may require use of another socket or perhaps pliers, I dunno. My area uses flathead screws to hold the TNI closed. If there's a lock or something on the TNI cover you'll need to break that off. I've never seen one, but I've heard of them. Bring dykes or bolt cutters to cut any 'obstructions' off, and either clip your gator clips to the multiple screws inside the box until you get a dialtone, or plug your phone into the phone socket (this is known as beige boxing, along with the binding post access method). The soldering iron is for modifying your phone and building 'boxes' from the information you find on the internet. There is plenty of phreaking stuff out there for you to read about, including what you're reading right now. This information is invaluable, even the old stuff. Some techniques never die. I'm sure you've heard of the redbox, and are wondering why I didn't include it on my list of supplies. I guess it's because I didn't wanna have to start listing boxes. It is a nice toy though, but the only real use for it is making free calls, assuming you can even find a payphone that's redboxable anymore. There's plenty of information on redboxes, just look for it. Building one of these will be a lot more valuable to you than actually using it, though it's always fun to test out toys, right? It sure is expensive if all you plan to use it for is making free calls. Unless of course you make a lot of international calls, then it'll pay off pretty quick, but phreaking solely for the sake of saving money sucks. Since a tone dialer and crystal are gonna run you about $25, it'd be advisable for you to make a redbox out of something cheaper. There are a few different options in recording devices that are a worthy substitute for an actual tone generating device. Inorder for this idea to work, you'll need to find an audio file of a 'redbox tone' recording. The most common of these recordings available is the quarter tones recording, which as the name implies is the tones generated by a quarter (listen real close to a quarter in a quiet room, you can hear it). Keychain voice recorders are ok for recording this, though the speaker in them is of fairly low quality. Just make sure you don't record the tones too loud, or the sound will be distorted and you'll be talking to a real bitchy operator about a second after you try using it. Never fear though! You don't *have* to use a keychain recorder thingy. You could use a yakbak. It's a crappy pen recorder thingy. Same principal though. Or you could pay $20 for a 20 second recorder from RadioShack. Maybe you're a real cheapass and all you wanna pay for is a greeting card with a little recorder thingy in it. As far as I know this mythical little device isn't being sold by Hallmark anymore, but somebody may have had a sighting of one of these. If so let me know. I sure did type a lot about redboxing didn't I? Anyway back to the soldering thing. You'll wanna use that for building all the nifty box plans out there. I know you're dying to make some of them. The experience you get from making a WORKING model from the plans is invaluable. Don't try using the blackbox or the bluebox or any of those older 'crazy' boxes, they'll call the cops on you! Just build them and sell them at school to all the stupid kids who don't read TFP. If you wanna make a buncha tones (who doesn't?!) just make a pearl box. The plans are on TFP's site along with all those other boxes. If you get tired of single tones, build another pearl box and you can make dual tones, wow! Oh, in case you wanted to know all that crap about using a phone outside of your house is called 'field phreaking' by a few people, and since I dunno of anything better to call it I've told you this. I mentioned trashing earlier, but I didn't explain it. I called it 'looking through dumpsters', but it's most commonly called 'dumpster diving', but damn it's not as fun as it sounds. Rewarding though. Rather than me writing about dumpster diving again, I think it'd be best if you just read the bottom stuff in my article in TFP01 called "Finding Numbers". I haven't mentioned anything about the hacking aspect of phreaking, as in calling up switches and accessing/modifying the databases contained within. This isn't something you start phreaking by doing. It's something down the road quite a ways, assuming you aren't already proficient at breaking into systems and using unix variant operating systems. The stuff below this point is being included because it's somewhat relevant and I don't think I could put it in a stand-alone article, so here goes. http://www.hackershomepage.com/section1.htm is the biggest ripoff on phreak related supplies ever. I was just recently alerted to this site by overdub, and I have no choice but to inform you people who aren't yet informed about the actual cost of the goods they sell. All of the box plans, kits, and built models are 3 to 5 times as expensive as if you just bought the parts from RadioShack and used the plans you can find everywhere on the internet. Their redbox conversion stuff will cost you $95 from their site. Buy the tone dialer at RadioShack, get the crystal from mouser electronics (www.mouser.com), and you'll pay $25, including the $0 for the redbox plans available widely on the internet (on our site too). Their 'digital keychain recorder' is $28, but is available at RadioShack as well as most toy stores for about $15. That hold button will cost you about $4 including the gas money to drive to RS and get the parts, not the $50 that you have to pay on that stupid page. You can get a good quality dtmf decoder from JDR Microdevices (1800-538-5000, ask for a catalog) for $30, not the ridiculously high $170 that 'hackershomepage' sells it for. Their goldbox will run you $125, but you can get the plans online for free and the parts will cost you $15 tops at RadioShack. They don't even mention that the blast box doesn't work on the modern American phone system. It's $75 too, which is about $60 more than you need to pay. The 'highway box' they sell for $70 is nothing more than a tonedialer played before the autodialer feature in courtesy phones can dial. That'll run you $23 at radioshack. Just hold down a button on the dialer and lift the handset while holding the speaker of the dialer to the mic of the handset. Then dial away. =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= =-------------------------------------= | Numbers to have handy - by shoelace | =-------------------------------------= Hiya, it's shoelace.. these are just some numbers that I have come across in time that I feel like sharing with the rest of the world.. or at least TFP. You may ask, "What the hell am I gonna do with these?". Well, maybe you want to tell them your problems.. maybe you want to get suicide help.. maybe you wanna try to have phone sex with the operators, hell, I dunno. I just felt like giving you some fucking numbers. Well, here they are. Magazines: (800 #s) Companies: Playgirl Advisor 854-2878 Bowling Equipment 323-1812 T.V. Gruide 523-7933 Ed The Florist, Inc 247-1075 Ladie's Home Journal 327-8351 Golf Mail Order Co. 327-1760 Sports Illustrated 621-8200 Inflate-A-Bed 835-2246 Book Digest Magazine 228-9700 International Male 854-2795 Money Mail Order 621-8200 Porta Yoga 327-8912 Unique Products Co. 228-2049 Ski Resorts: Concord 431-2217 Car Rentals: Mt. Snow 258-0366 A-Aaron, Inc. 327-7513 Sku Us at Franconia 258-0366 Airlines Rent-A-Car 228-9650 Stevensville 431-2211 Dollar-A-Day 421-6868 Hertz 261-1311 Random shit: Sears Rent-A-Car 228-2800 Dann-Dee 621-3904 Thrifty Rent-A-Car 331-4200 Globe Gazette 392-6622 Christian Science Motor 225-7090 Wall Street Journal 257-0300 The National Observer 325-5990 US Coast Guard 424-8802 Bell South's ANI 221-222-2222 -shoelace (shoe@beer.com) (http://www.public.usit.net/sltaylor) -IRC: undernet - #terrorism, #deathmetal, #phreak [If you really hate somebody you might want to order, reserve, sign up for, rent, and subscribe to them everything you can off those lists. Imagine the frustration of getting 5 magazines in your mailbox that you didn't order, magnified by an enlistment in the Coast Guard, a few confirmation calls for rented cars (possibly delivered right to your door), a few ski resort reservations made in your name, a lot of flowers, strippers, and thousands of dollars in other stuff you didn't order. It's a recipe for fun!] =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= =---------------------------------------------------------------------------= | Phreaking in School (Phreakir en la Escuela, for amigos) - by AgentOrange | =---------------------------------------------------------------------------= Not to state the obvious, but school is boring as shit! You, the student, don't have to take it anymore! Even if you choose not to follow the anarchial messages of such sources as the school stoppers textbook, there are things you can do in school to benefit your phreaking life. Here is what I suggest you do to liven up your days... - Set up a line activated tap on one of the payphones. Students (especially if you go to a school that has both boarding and day students where you will find foreign kids) like to use pre-paid phone cards! Capture them entering their numbers and run it through a decoder later! To prevent maintenance and the administration from touching the recording box call the school saying you are from bell and you have set up a temporary line corrector on a few of the payphones until permanent changes to the line can be made. Make sure to stick an "official" bell logo on the box! - In the five minutes between class if you pass a payphone exchange scan 1 or 2 or even 3 numbers. Keep a tally sheet in your binder, and if anyone asks who you are calling tell 'em to fuck off...or if detention at your school sucks then tell them your calling your mom to let her know that the whatever club meeting had been cancelled and that you need to be picked up earlier. - One of the easiest (and most amusing) things you can do is to sketch comics of operators killing themselves because of the unrelenting prank callers, or lineman bloopers. This has kept me amused in class for months now! - Call a FREE 800 fax-back number and make EVERY phone in the school ring! EVERY office phone, pay phone, ALL of 'em! Make all your teachers home phones ring! - Attach the personal use phones in the teachers lounge to a radio transmitter and listen to the calls on small headphones during class. Make sure to have paper ready to take notes. I hope this keeps you busy during those neverending school days. Let me know what you find by mailing me at Phreak out! =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= =-----------------------------------------------------= | Teleconferences for the mentally deficient - by jlb | =-----------------------------------------------------= Setting up teleconferences is a good way to prove to all those mean people on IRC that you really are elite. "Why do I want a teleconference?" 1. Because they're neat. 2. Because you can prove to all those mean people on IRC that you really are elite. 3. It's not like you're doing anything worthwhile anyway, loser. 4. Because sometimes chicks come on and you can ask them those embarrassing questions you always wondered about but were afraid to ask. Experienced teleconferencers suggest asking about masturbation habits and feminine products. 5. It's free. Just go do it. "That's all well and good, but how do I get a teleconference?" 1. Some COCOTs aren't set up very well and you can bill teleconferences (among other things) to them. 2. The elite beige box techniques that KungFuFox outlined in TFP02 can again become useful. Use your beige box skills to make a teleconference. 3. See that Mcdonald's? Go get a job there, in a month or so you can pay for a *real* *legal* teleconference. "That operator is mean, how do I make her conf me?@#%" 1. Always think you're the trustworthy business person. She's the evil operator who isn't being helpful. 2. Remember -- Don't give your real name! Although she will ask for your name, you're doing bad stuff, remember? 3. If all else fails, hang up and call back to get a different operator. 4. Acting really stupid and confused (which shouldn't be hard for you, if you need this article) and asking lots of questions about the teleconferencing service is more convincing then spouting off "I need a dialin teleconf from 0800-1400PST with 15 ports, bitch." "Now that I've got this teleconference how do I become elite?" The best thing you can do is give it to all those mean people on IRC. While they will act condescending towards you and call you names and make fun of you on the teleconference, they really subconsciously respect you. Really. A few tips for while you're on the teleconference: 1. As much fun as it is, playing with the phone keys and playing songs with them is generally not appreciated. 2. Playing your redbox tones to the conference does not impress people. 3. Playing your elite collection of wav files for mIRC to the conference is yet another way to not impress people. 4. Damnit! Put the fucking redbox DOWN. 5. Talking about how drunk/stoned/wasted you are isn't interesting. Stop it. jlb (darc@w-link.net) (http://methlab.nothing.org/) =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= =---------------------------------------------= | Telco News - compiled & edited by KungFuFox | =---------------------------------------------= 1: Congress Plans To Revisit Telecom Act Next Year 2: AirTouch Cellular Assists St. Paul Police in Sting Operation 3: Seventh Successful Launch For Iridium LLC 4: The Disease of Images (not a telco related story, but read it anyway!) "Alpha Beta Gamma Delta Epsilon Zeta Eta Theta Iota Kappa Lambda... we need more dogs!" -Keystroke "You guys will never graduate." "You mean like, school ends?" -Beavis =-----------------------------------------------------------= Congress Plans To Revisit Telecom Act Next Year WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1997 NOV 7 (NB) -- By Bill Pietrucha, Newsbytes. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 II will be playing early next year at a Congress near you, with US Senators John McCain (R-Arizona) and Conrad Burns (R-Montana) playing major, if not leading, roles. McCain, chairman of the US Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Burns, chairman of the Committee's communications subcommittee, told reporters at a press briefing they would focus their attention early next year on the implementation of the Telecom Act. "Given the historic and encompassing nature of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, it is critical that the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) implementation of the Act be in accordance with the intent of Congress," Burns said. In a letter to McCain, Burns followed up on his concerns, offering his subcommittee "as the appropriate forum to hold a series of oversight hearings on the implementation of the Act" in the second session of the 105th Congress. Burns told McCain he is "particularly concerned that the actual distribution of universal service funds be done in an efficient manner as possible, so that funds are not mired in complex bureaucracies." The communications subcommittee chair said he is "very distressed" that the organizational structure of groups formed by the FCC to deal with universal service is "vague and overly complex, and may thwart the intent of Congress." McCain first voiced his interest in reexamining the Telecom Act last September, when he told a roundtable of the United States Telephone Association that he will do "whatever is necessary to fix the problems that currently exist." "The fundamental problem with Telecom Act implementation to date is that regulation just isn't in sync with reality," he said. "We must stop trying to federally micromanage the way to `fair' competition for the benefit of industry, and instead create a minimalist, federal/state blueprint for marketplace competition for the benefit of consumers," McCain said, noting that he looks forward "to hearing the views and suggestions of everyone who wants to work with me in achieving that goal." David Markey, BellSouth vice president governmental affairs, agreed with McCain and Burns that "it is time for a close look at the delay in bringing the benefits of the Telecom Act to consumers." "Congress needs to use its authority to bring Congressional intent into sharp focus as soon as possible," Markey said, "because the FCC and the Department of Justice are not reflecting what Congress intended when it passed the Act." Earlier this week, BellSouth Vice President Mark Feidler told a US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on antitrust enforcement activities that Congress should "aggressively assert its oversight jurisdiction to ensure straightforward and common sense implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996." At the hearing, Feidler accused the Justice Department of usurping the role of state public service commissions. "Instead of adhering to the Act, which gave most of the responsibility for dealing with local market issues to the state regulators, the FCC and the Justice Department have continually expanded their scope of authority and given little or no deference to the findings of state regulators," Feidler told the committee. Kelly Welsh, Ameritech executive vice president and general counsel, concurred with Feidler at the hearing, testifying that the Telecommunications Act "is a good law that has been thwarted by litigation, regulatory roadblocks, delays, and a lack of full competition." (c)1997 Newsbytes =-----------------------------------------------------------= AirTouch Cellular Assists St. Paul Police in Sting Operation ST. PAUL, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 14, 1997--Typically, buying a cellular phone won't land you in jail, but for 28 individuals using cloned cellular phones to conduct illegal drug sales, that was the result. The St. Paul Police Department today announced completion of a two-day sting operation, conducted with the cooperation of AirTouch Cellular, which culminated two months of police investigation. The sting operation centered around a simulated cellular storefront on Payne Avenue in St. Paul which was set up by the St. Paul Police and AirTouch Cellular in September. AirTouch provided signage, training, equipment and cellular airtime needed to run the storefront. Undercover officers sold cloned phones from the location, and in the process gathered evidence which led to the arrests. "AirTouch Cellular takes the theft of cellular service seriously, and we were glad to assist the St. Paul Police in this operation," said LeAnn Talbot, Vice President and Area General Manager for AirTouch Cellular in the Midwest area. "With this operation we were able to help eliminate two crimes: stealing cellular service and drug trafficking." Cloning fraud involves the practice of programming a stolen cellular phone number and electronic serial number into another cellular handset, thus creating a "clone" of the original cellular phone. Once a phone has been cloned, the cellular bandit is free to place unlimited calls which are billed to the original account. Nationally, fraud costs cellular carriers more than $600 million a year. AirTouch Cellular is the brand name for U S WEST NewVector Group, Inc. Based in Bellevue, Wash., NewVector has cellular operations in 12 midwestern, western and southwestern states and serves more than two million customers. The company is part of the U S WEST Media Group (NYSE: UMG), which is involved in domestic and international cable and wireless networks, directory publishing and interactive multimedia services. (c) Business Wire. =-----------------------------------------------------------= Seventh Successful Launch For Iridium LLC; Five Additional Satellites Now in Orbit WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Iridium LLC (Nasdaq: IRIDF) advanced its goal of becoming the first global wireless telephone company today when a Delta II rocket successfully carried five IRIDIUM satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Today's launch brings the total number of orbiting IRIDIUM satellites to thirty-nine, marking Iridium LLC's seventh launch in seven months. The five satellites are part of Indium LLC's 66-satellite wireless personal telecommunications network designed to offer full global coverage through a variety of communications services, including voice, data, fax and paging. These five satellites join the 34 that are now in orbit. "Today's launch brings us a step closer to achieving commercial service activation in September 1998. With more than half of the IRIDIUM constellation in orbit, we are confident that we are well on course to being the first company to provide global wireless communications services anytime and anywhere on Earth," Iridium LLC Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Edward F. Staiano, said. "We congratulate Boeing on its 250th launch and we are pleased to have such a reliable and constant partner for the deployment of the IRIDIUM constellation," said Motorola Chief Executive Officer Christopher Galvin. The Delta rocket lifted off the launch pad at 5:34:26 p.m. PST. Satellite separation occurred approximately 85 minutes after liftoff. The five satellites will be maneuvered into their respective positions, enabling significant testing of various aspects of the space system ranging from intersatellite links to communications with subscriber equipment. Iridium LLC is developing and commercializing a global wireless communications network that will combine the worldwide reach of 66 low-earth-orbit satellites with land-based wireless systems to enable subscribers to communicate using handheld telephones and pagers virtually anywhere in the world with service introduction planned for 1998. Iridium World Communications, Ltd., the public investment vehicle of Iridium LLC, completed an initial public offering of approximately $240 million in early June. Proceeds from the Offering were used by Iridium World Communications, Ltd. to purchase membership interests in Iridium LLC totaling approximately 8.5 percent of the Company. IRIDIUM is a registered trademark and service mark of Iridium LLC(C) 1997 (c)PR Newswire. =-----------------------------------------------------------= The Disease of Images by David Shenk 7.Nov.97 -- Was anyone else made uncomfortable by the cover of the October Wired? The headline "Capturing Eyeballs" - a reference to the grand ambition of the creators of RealVideo - struck a nerve with me. It's not that I find the phrase (or, for that matter, the image of giant, free-floating eyeballs) patently offensive. Rather, for me, the collage powerfully evokes a frightening truth that most of us would prefer not to think about: Our culture is increasingly saturated by a flurry of images created not so much for meaningful expression as for the temporary abduction of people's consciousness. German film director Wim Wenders calls this social condition "the disease of images." It is the paradoxical affliction in which "you have too many images around so that finally you don't see anything any more," Wenders explains. "I'm no better. I fall under the spell of MTV whenever I get into a hotel room.... We're living in a time right now when narrative disappears more and more. And as for images? The more there are, the emptier they seem to be." Wenders' 1991 movie Until the End of the World brilliantly conveys the danger of image saturation by taking it to its logical extreme. Setting: It is 1999, and a leading scientist has invented a camera that can record and replay not just images, but also the neurological recipe behind each image. It can enable the blind to see what the sighted see, and allow people to view images they have seen before - not on videotape, but in their own minds. When the inventor's adult son (played by William Hurt) and the son's companion (Solveig Dommartin) begin using the camera to record and view their own dreams, they become hopelessly addicted to, and strung out on, an endlessly intoxicating video montage. It's an elegant metaphor for contemporary postindustrial society: a fragmented, alienated collection of individuals who seem to continually shift their attentions between TV and alternative flickering images - Game Boy, flashing billboards, news and stock tickers, and now, of course, the Shockwave/Java-charged Web. Meanwhile, the TV itself never seems to get turned off, but is instead left on as animated wallpaper in bars, restaurants, lounges, offices. Wherever a TV appears, it sucks attention toward itself, as though it were emitting its own irresistible visual-gravitational pull. And that pull gets stronger and stronger as the years go by. These days, we tend to think of TV as a dowdy, time-worn technology, but in fact, television content has been radically transformed over the last 30 years; the hardware hasn't changed much, but the software has become a lot swifter, more dense, and more fragmented. Some call it the MTV-ization of television. Most commercials and many programs are now built around blindingly fast cuts, multiple perspectives, purposeful discombobulation - all of which can make television almost as thrilling as playing a videogame. Television has always had a hypnotic quality; but the recently emerging hyper-television is clearly more addictive than ever. Wenders' drug-addiction analogy only goes so far, of course. Never, to my knowledge, have EMTs had to resuscitate someone from too many HBO specials. My car windows don't keep getting smashed in by people hard up for another fix of Reebok commercials. But go to any TV-equipped bar or hotel lobby and watch the eyes of those who are exposed to the volumeless TV sets. If "capture" isn't the perfect word for TV's hold over these subjects, I don't know what is. Now the Web is becoming more like TV. Good news for industry stockholders, I suppose, but we consumers will have to work increasingly hard to distinguish between the moving images that are worthwhile and those that are merely trying to Capture Our Eyeballs (which is to say: Selling us something). I myself thought it a very dark day the first time I saw those rudimentary, Java-fueled, flickering images online. There is, after all, something to be said for the unspoiled, static page - be it online or offline. I'm not anti-video, by any means. What I'm against is gratuitousness - images that quiver simply for the sake of quivering. Hey you! Look at all the excitement up here! Slate is a great example of how flickering eyeball-lures can interfere with serious ideas. On virtually every page, insightful, thought-provoking prose is forced to do battle for the eye against the mightier, flashier advertisements up top. In the denouement of Until the End of the World, a writer (played by Sam Neil) rescues the woman hooked on images by having her read his recently finished book. "I didn't know the cure for the disease of images," says the writer, who also narrates the film. "All I knew was how to write. But I believed in the magic and the healing power of words and of stories." It's a cliché, of course, to say that television and the book are mortal enemies. But the truth is that prose and moving images can be powerful antagonists. Kurt Vonnegut, one of our great contemporary champions of prose, articulated this beautifully in an Inc. Technology magazine interview two years ago: I can remember when TV was going to teach my children Korean and trigonometry. Rural areas wouldn't even have to have very well-educated teachers; all they'd have to do is turn on the box. Well, we can see what TV really did.... We are not born with imagination. It has to be developed by teachers, by parents.... A book is an arrangement of 26 phonetic symbols, 10 numbers, and about 8 punctuation marks, and people can cast their eyes over these and envision the eruption of Mount Vesuvius or the Battle of Waterloo. But it's no longer necessary for teachers and parents to build these circuits. Now, there are professionally produced shows with great actors, very convincin g sets sound, music. And now there's the information superhighway. But not all great minds think alike. There's a terrific book coming out soon that will forcefully and brilliantly argue against this notion of a disease of images. In The Rise of the Image, the Fall of the Word, NYU journalism professor Mitchell Stephens (a friend and former colleague) proposes that hyper-video images are hurling us into a new cultural renaissance. "The moving image has the potential to help resolve [our] crisis of the spirit," he argues, "by providing the tools - intellectual and artistic tools - needed to construct new, more resilient understandings." "Video," Stephens says, "can follow the fitful wanderings of consciousness. It can grow surreal, even abstract, and all the while still engage. It moves easily, ineluctably to an ironic distance and might, therefore, lead us to whatever truths lie beyond ironic distance. It has the potential to open new perspectives on the world, as writing once did, as printing once did." I don't entirely disagree with Stephens' analysis of the transcendent power of moving images. But, all in all, I think he's dead wrong about where hyper-video is taking us as a society. If we allow the flickerers to Capture Our Eyeballs, I'm afraid our eyes will float freely and permanently away from our minds. (c)1993-97 Wired Ventures, Inc. =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= =-------------------------------------------------------= | [LoL] Land-o-Logs [LoL] | | Phonecalls and IRC logs courtesy of readers like you! | =-------------------------------------------------------= Triumverate Of Doom!!! Submitted by CountZ3R0 (Phreakr217@aol.com) While outside taking a cigarette break from work at TJ (motha-phuckin) Max, the payphone next to me started ringing. I automaticly picked it up, and here's how the conversation went... This is Marty Freeman, may I help you? Yes, is this SunnyDale Centre? (sunnydale is a old-folks home) Yes it is, how may I help you? Could you connect me with my sister Doris Hartman? Sure, hold on one moment while I transfer you... Alright, thanks. (At this point I covered the reciever and laughed so hard I almost cried... after regaining consciousness I answered in a gravely old lady voice...) Hello? Doris? Hi, sis, how are you? I'm fine. You sound tired, have you been sleeping well? Oh yea, I'm sleeping fine. They have me on some new medication, it makes me sleepy all the time. What are they giving you now? Did they stop giving you Darvoset (or some medication name)? Yea, they stopped giving me the (whatever it was), and now they give me straight heroine. Oh my, aren't they afraid of addiction? (I looked at my watch and saw I was supposed to be on the clock five minutes ago, so I cut it short) No, they think I'll die within the week, so they're not too worried. Shit, I gotta go have my daily ass-kickin' by Brutus, later. (I hung up and went back to work. I laughed for days) PS: I don't know what the Triumverate Of Doom is but it sounds like the million other psuedo-hacking groups. =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= =-------------------------------= | Storytime with TFP | | By whoever bothered to submit | =-------------------------------= Happy happy operators - by Fantomn --------------------- Last week I was sitting at the mall waiting for my ride (I can't get my license 'til I'm 18. Sucks huh?), and I see a payphone, so I say to myself "what the hell, might as well fuck with the operator". Bored as I was I decided that I didn't want to pay the full 35 cent fare for the call so just to fuck with her I decide to ask how much a call costs. She probably figuring that I was a phreak by then decided to play (or really was) dumb and ask "a call to where sir". After telling her the area code and number I wanted to call she told me to deposit 35 cents. I replied that that was an awful lot of money for only five minutes and that I would give her 15 cents for a minute. She being the bitch that all operators (and their supervisors for that matter) are, told me to please hold and transferred me to her supervisor, who with a cheerful (What makes operators so happy anyways? Do they tap into phone sex lines and listen to the goings-on all day?) voice answered the phone; "Supervisor Beckie how may I help you?" After telling her what I thought about her operator I decided that I still wanted to make that call so I did what came naturally (no not cuss her out), I started acting like I was sobbing, and guess what? No, she didn't hang up on me, she put my call through free of charge. Anyway, the moral of this story is that "A tear or two will save you 35 cents every once in a while." A wise man once said "huh" Long live the <>R<>H<>U<> =-----------------------------------------------------------= NBC says: "free money!" - by KungFuFox ----------------------- NBC Nightly News ran a story November 19 on dumpster diving and how valuable and street smart buying a shredder is. The story centered around this woman who had been victimized out of $50,000 because somebody rooted through her garbage and got her name, phone number, signature, ssn, stuff like that, all from pre-approved credit card mailers, receipts, and that kinda crap. It made me think (no, seriously). First off, why NBC was so darn thorough on explaining how you could do this yourself, and second, why it wasn't more popular than armed robbery. I guess they were being so verbose because they thought it'd scare people more if they showed how easy it was to do some much evil. Dumpster diving is allegedly responsible for "half a billion dollars in fraud per year", so I guess it's got its share of fans. Anyway, the point is, if you want free money, steal trash. NBC says so. =----------------------------------------------------------------------------= If you feel sorry for us you can still submit stuff. Less and less people just like you are doing it every day! Hop on the bandwagon quick, before all of its wheels break off! Hundreds of fellow phreaks will see your name in print! Oh yeah, don't forget to give thanks for phones and Clifford the big red dog. See you folks sometime around Christmas. Until then, keep your phones clean! Don't eat too many turkeys either. Turkeys are people too. =----------------------------------------------------------------------------=