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Telephone Free Planet Issue 05
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|Vol. 1 No. 5 Telephone Free Planet Issue 5|
|TFP.nothing.org WARNING: TFP may cause herpes I like IKE!|
|Happy new year! January 1, 1998 Does a body good!|
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=---------"Where do I want to go today? Outside. Fuck the computer."---------=
=-------A delightful medley of tastes and textures-------=
| Introducing the beebox.......................KungFuFox |
| Memoirs of a redboxer.........................IO Wrath |
| The discbox.................................Napalmoliv |
| The UltraBeige box.........................AgentOrange |
=---------TFP's leftovers from Christmas dinner----------=
| Storytime with TFP..........Whoever bothered to submit |
=--------------------------------------------------------=
"I know we all wish we had a supermodel, but often times this isn't
possible. That's why God invented the skank." -Tim Meadows
"Earlier this week hackers broke into Yahoo, the most popular internet
search engine. The hackers threatened to unleash a devistating virus
if a fellow hacker was not released from prison. Security experts
believe that tracking down the hackers will be difficult, because it
will require the help of both nerds AND geeks." -Norm MacDonald
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| Telephone Free Planet - Contact information |
| TFP Email: tfp@tfp.nothing.org - TFP Site: http://tfp.nothing.org |
=-------------------------------------------------------------------=
Alpha dog : KungFuFox, mazer@cycat.com <-meany, the 8th dwarf
Beta dog : Keystroke, keystroke@thepentagon.com <-not the mama
TFP 98 STyL3! : digipimp, AlienPhreak, weatherman, REality, Scud-O,
shoelace, Dublisk, ec|ipse, overdub, Allah7, Discore, Seizure, and shamr0ck
Due to an overwhelming amount of interest, we're extending last months offer!
If you send us articles, quotes, emails, logs, phonecalls, news articles, and
any other crap you come across, WE will give you absolutely nothing!
Hey, this stuff we talk about in here isn't right. It's evil! Pure evil! Go
to church and confess! Then go ahead and read it. But don't do anything you
read about in here. We wouldn't, why should you? Leave good enough alone.
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If you didn't notice this issue is almost entirely about boxing. We got a lot
of boxing material and I figured why the hell shouldn't we throw it all in
one issue and call it the boxing issue. Well this is it. Sure you won't learn
nothin, but it's still kinda worth reading. Oh, and happy new year everyone.
KungFuFox
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| Introducing the beebox - yet another KungFuFox article |
=--------------------------------------------------------=
Do you live in the south like me? Are you tired of opening cans (no, not
cans of SPAM(c), telco cans stupid) and TNIs only to find that they've been
infested with hornets, wasps, and various other creatures? Ever thought to
yourself "if only there were an electronic toll fraud (ETF) device ('box' for
you real dumbs) that could kill these creatures AND get me free phonecalls,
I'd be happy, give to charity, and go line dancing with grandma more often"?
Well your wish might be coming true, or I might just be making up a bunch of
crap to fill the space of what could be a legitimate article.
Ok first off, you're gonna have to find yourself a can of bug spray. So you
don't have it, who gives a damn... just go hack into your neighbor's garage
and get some. Now if you don't already have a beigebox, make one. If you
don't even know how to make one, you didn't read my spiffy article called
"Zero to phreak in 5 minutes" in TFP02. I sure do write a lot don't I?
Anyway, read that article if you didn't already, then come back here.
Welcome back... now to the complicated stuff, you'll probably want to use
packing tape for this. Take the can of Bug Assassin(r) that you hacked into
that neighbor's garage for, and tape it to the back of the handset of your
beigebox. It looks and operates better if the spraying end is facing outward
from the speaker end of the handset, but do whatever you like, just don't
blame me if you get sprayed in the face with this thing and end up puking
your guts out while you get stung to death by a bunch of hornets standing
outside that old folk's home at 2AM.
Simple enough right? As crazy as it may seem you're already done with the
construction part, unless you screwed up and the can isn't attached to the
handset yet, in which case you'll need to read the last paragraph again, and
I hope that Insect Serial Killer(r) tastes good. Here's a schematic if you
still can't figure it out:
./--\ ___
spray nozel-----> => c | / \
| a ||phone|
| n || __/
/-> ##########
tape----|--> ##########
\-> ##########-\
|____|| |
@\___/
@
To use this handy device, just waltz up to that forbidden creaturebox you
never touched again after the 'incident' and kick the cover off. Needless to
say those bugs aren't gonna want you bothering them no matter how bored they
are, so start spraying with your new 'beebox' or whatever you wanna call it,
yeah beebox is good, or maybe pukebox or poisonbox, get creative, there are
too damn many colored box names already.
See how good it works? Even though the terminals are now covered in poison,
they'll still work as good, just don't start sucking on your fingers after
you clamp on those gatorclips or after you plug in to the socket, whatever it
is you do. I should've mentioned this earlier, but if you don't have a button
on your phone labelled "beigebox" you'll need to sand off the label on one of
the buttons and write beigebox on it before you can use it. Have fun!
One last neato burrito thing this beebox is good for is people. If you're
deep in thought and suddenly find a person standing behind you asking what
the hell you're doing, just turn this baby towards their face and let'r rip.
Sure, the spray won't kill anyone but the smallest of midgets, but it's an
excellent temporary deterrant, and will prove invaluable in aiding your
escape. That brings to mind an interesting idea, beiging at midgets' houses
for safety. If you're packing a beebox you're practically invincible beiging
at a midget's house.
This box may be easily converted to the 'macebox' for use on bell security
personnel. These people are evil in that they'd rather work for a giant,
heartless corporation and get paid to make your life difficult than work at
a respectable company doing something far more phreak friendly, so it's
perfectly alright for you to teach them a lesson on manners. Construction of
the macebox is remarkably similar to that of the beebox, and should prove
even more effective on humans than bug spray. I think that's quite enough for
this article, so byebye for now, and good luck not poisoning yourself!
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=-------------------------------------=
| Memoirs of a redboxer - by IO Wrath |
=-------------------------------------=
The way I got my tones was by building a special phone tap/line hold device
and had krewl call me up from a payphone and insert two quarters after
calling and connecting with me. I then made a tape from the master containing
$3.50 (good enough for most tasks) by editing/dubbing/etc using a standard
dual tape deck. I've used a RadioShack tone dialer type redbox once or
twice, but I prefer to use a recording (it's never been opposed by a
suspecting operator in my experience, for one thing).
A few things I learned when I first began to redbox in earnest:
Making a local call with a redbox is really a bad idea. For one thing, if
you're calling friends, the suspicious operator (who, BTW, is listening for
some time after connecting you. Afterall, who's to say that your coin tones
registered anyhow? She may have connected you for the sole purpose of
identifying you!) is slowly charting out your activities and forming a list
of suspects. Here are a few ways to place a local call, just if you're
curious or perhaps in serious need:
1. Call the operator. BS her into thinking you are unable to dial from the
number pad due to factors out of your control. (Noc Sage suggested saying the
number pad is vandalized in some way, such as grafiti or even gum. It works
suprisingly well (I've made calls to time & temperature several times this
way). I've also succeded in convincing her I was sight-impared (which I am to
a very small extent, but still feeling guilty from that one). She will then
ask you for the number to be connected to. After this she will ask you to
deposit coins. Play your tones CAREFULLY.
2. Dial 10288 + area code + number (Noc Sage's suggestion).. The only
disadvantage here is having to insert money now and then for a local call.
Do not hold the recorder too close to the microphone. Have the speaker
pointing directly at the earpiece (not at an angle). Also, do not play it too
loud. It is a good idea not to play it too quietly either. Needless to say,
your redbox will require some tuning. One way you will know that you've
screwed up (either it's too loud or you have just plain crappy tones) is that
an operator will come online immediately after you play the tones.
If the recording keeps asking for money, it's too quiet. RadioShack dialers
are much better than recorders in only one respect; It's VERY VERY VERY VERY
VERY easy to use. Just place it's coupler directly on the mouthpiece and fire
away. BTW, even though I've seen Krewl obtain moderate success with a
micro-cassette, I prefer the much improved sound quality of a bigger model
such as a radio shack CTR-101. The only disadvantage to mine is size, hence
visibility.
If an operator says the coins are not registering and says she has/will
return(ed) them, BE CAREFUL. Sometimes she will try to trick you by saying
she's done so, when in reality she has not. Just listen for a loud click or
interruption of sound in the earpiece. If you screw up and fall for this
simple yet obscure ploy, she will lock up the phone and become very rude (not
nessesarily in that order. The rudeness is a constant. You can always expect
that).
Just for the record, I have never fallen for that ploy. In fact, the first
time I discovered that ploy was when an operator tried it on me. I knew that
if indeed she did return coins, the earpiece would have muted. It didn't, so
I insisted that no money was returned. In fact, one time I started shouting
"What the fuck do you mean real money?!?! You think I put in slugs or
something? Damnit! I put over $3 in and I want it back now!! Damn it, forget
it!! <SLAM>". My friend NocSage was there, too.
The reason we figured out that the operator would become very short and rude
if you were fooled by their ploy was because one time NocSage mistakenly
thought he heard the earpiece mute (there was VERY noisy traffic outside). He
said the change was returned and he'd put it back in for her. Ooooooops! She
suddenly went into her bitch mode. Oh well. The phone was temporarily locked,
and later we saw a couple police cars staking it out from a motel parking
lot.
BTW, I still am unsure of how to respond when an operator suggests I try the
coin return. I don't think the machine will return coins when in use, but I
could be wrong. I just keep insisting nothing comes out. I can't help but
laugh at the confusion that the operators display when I'm not falling for
their lame tricks. They actually seem to have doubts about whether I'm a
boxer or not. The second you get an operator online on a long-distance call
is the second you've become suspicious. Just feed quarter tones to the
automated coin thingy. They're much more polite than an operator.
It would have been much easier for me to redbox had I certain segments of the
above information (mainly dealing with actually using and timing the
recording properly), but I had a lot of fun figuring it out myself. I hope I
have not spoiled things for everyone else.
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=---------------------------------------------------------=
| The Discbox, yet another type of redbox - by Napalmoliv |
=---------------------------------------------------------=
(This suggestion was also posted to the PLA message board, so you may
have already heard this from me...)
This is only an idea, but it should, in theory, work. If someone could
get the proper equipment and get this together...go right ahead.
Much of the paranoia involved in using the so-called red box is not just
exaggeration; as of late it seems that every few months or so, someone is
caught (or nearly caught) defrauding Ma Bell's public telephones. And when
Mr. Officer comes strolling up to you, what are you gonna do about it, eh?
Run? Ditch your box? Explain that you're conducting a science experiment? I
think not. So he turns you around, pats you down, and discovers your little
pride n' joy, the Rat Shack 43-146. Well, provided your local establishment
doesn't know shit, and provided that you're a smooth talker, you might just
make a clean getaway. But what if there was a reliable, digital,
INCONSPICUOUS way of red boxing? Well, it just might be possible.
This would be by FAR the most expensive (see, getting better already) red box
yet. It requires the following:
1. A decent computer.
2. A Recordable CD drive (CD-R).
3. Software to produce audio files, and software to convert and write them to
the cd.
4. A blank recordable compact disc. (About $6-10 each.)
5. Electronically produced coin tones. (Preferably NOT from a Radio Shack
tone dialer...)
6. Portable CD player (i.e. discman) and headphones. But if you already have
most of the above, it will be one of the cheapest.
"What the hell?!" Well, if you haven't figured it out, the idea is to create
a CD with DIGITAL redbox tones for you to carry around. Just pop it in, head
down to your local pay telephone, dial, hold one of your headphone speakers
up to the mouthpiece, and hit PLAY. The advantages? Well, when the cops pull
up, they'll never suspect your Discman, will they? (Don't write
"SuPeR-31337-HAx0R-pHReAk-mA5cH1N3" all over it, and you shouldn't have any
problems...) "Well, what's the advantage over a mini-cassette recorder?" It's
DIGITAL, so you will have less distortion and loss and therefore get less
ops. Provided you used the genuine tones, (produced digitally by programs
such as Blue Beep and the like, or the QUARTER.VOC file) you will also get
less ops than when using the Radio Shack dialers. And, of course, if you
already have access to the aforementioned devices, what's your cost? About $7
for the blank CD-R disc, as opposed to about $10 for a Hallmark card or $30
for a modified Rat Shack dialer.
First, of course, you would convert the tones (widely available on the
internet) into CD tracks, using a program such as Deck II for Macintosh.
(Just look around on Hotline warez sites to find this or other shit for
Windows.) Some layout suggestions:
1. Leave a few seconds of silence after each series of tones, to allow the
user to stop the CD player before the next tones.
2. Record a variety of amounts, including one, five, and maybe even ten
dollar tracks.
3. Some of the longer series of tones could be recorded in two different
methods, such as rapid-fire "speed-dollars" for use on automated ops, and
then the same series of tones, but with longer, random intervals, for safer
use with live ops.
4. You would have to use the REAL tones, not the ones produced by Rat Shack's
tone dialers, which are actually longer in duration than the true bell tones.
Now that you've gotten all the tracks sorted out, you'd want to use a
program such as Toast to write them all onto the disc. (Check out what
software your CD-R drive came with...)
Play around with the volume settings to get it to work.
Well, that's about it. I haven't been able to try this, mainly due to the
fact that I don't have access to a CD-R at the time being, but I still wanted
everyone who does to be able to do this for themselves (in case you haven't
thought of it already). This just seems like a whole lot safer way to do your
boxing than the traditional methods. Good luck.
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
=-------------------------------------=
| The UltraBeige Box - by AgentOrange |
=-------------------------------------=
Are you a cheapskate, or just a phreak who likes to talk with his fifth
cousin in the wilds of Australia? Who better to charge all your LD calls to
than an annoying neighbor! Having your "borrowed" Bell lineman's handset is a
good idea, but really could use some nifty features. Now personally I have
never gotten my grubby hands on one of these little toys, but from what I
hear their uses are limited. So I was thinking one day, "What features would
I want included in my beige box?" well here it is...
On your trip to radio shack, you will be picking up (sorry this isn't
specific I don't have recent parts catalog)...
* A telephone - the kind where the handset has the hangup switch, keypad, and
other goodies. You will probably want one with stuff like a mute button and
speed dial. The base of the phone should just be a weighted piece of plastic.
Another thing you could get would be a headset phone to hook up to it.
* A coily phone cord - 1 or 2 feet should do
* A straight phone cord - You'll need 2 or 3 feet on this one
* A phone line splitter - One of those things that spits 1 phone jack into 2
* Some alligator clips - Rubber coated for safety! Red and Green are useful
* a 2 conductor, 1/8" phono jack - like those on walkmans for headphone jacks
* a wire that has 1/8" plugs on both sides - 'nuff said
* Some wire - of gauge used in phones (thin)
Now take the phone and plug the line splitter into the handset. Connect the
coily phone cord to one of the 2 sockets. Next take the straight cord and
strip one end off exposing the 4 wires. Connect the red(ring) wire to the red
alligator clip, and the green(tip) wire to the green alligator clip. With the
phone jack, cut into the handset and wire the terminals of the phono jack to
one of the speaker leads so they are in parallel. Now you can hook a tape
recorder with a microphone jack up to the phone and record your silly or
harassing calls!
Now you've got the option to cut into a line or to plug into someone else's
jack. Also you can mute so you don't have to put your hand over the
microphone while you snicker at the the stupid shit people say. Also you
might have a phone with speed dial which'll let you call your favorite 900
numbers at night when the nieghbors don't use their phone! Speed dial is also
usefull for exchange scanning because you can program the area code, prefix,
and if you're following the PLA method, you can also include the first 2
digits of the suffix. If you do that then scaning telco suffixes (e.g. - 99,
00, 55) is easier and the only numbers you need to dial are the last two!
While going through some of my box schematics I thought of a couple of other
neat things to add. Before I go on though, I guess I'd better mention that
this phone you're gonna get better be fuckin' huge to add all this shit to!
Anyway if you're familiar with box schematics at all you will get the
signifigance of all this stuff you can add. I figure a light box would would
be nice to have so when you hook up your phone you can see whether or not
someone is on the line. You could hook up something like a brown or party box
if the people you're beiging have two phone lines. You could hook up a silver
box if your into fuckin' with the army's system.
Also (THIS IS THE BEST PART) two of the best things you could do would be to
get a Redbox crystal and a small two way switch from the shak and rig the
preeexhisting crystal in the phone with the Redbox crytal and the switch so
you can use the switch to flip to-and-fro between a regular phone and a
Redbox, and if you have a fast redial button or speed dial then more power to
ya, it only makes your life easier!
"Hey dingus, why the hell would I want a Redbox in my Beige box unless I know
a telco box that has a set of wires leading to a bell payphone?!?" Hear me
out. On your outing to Rat Shak you WILL get a connector for a 9 volt
battery. Take it home and hook up the 2 wires coming from it to the yellow
and black wires coming from the stripped phone line on your beige box. BAM!
Now you have power running to the phone so you can switch between tone dialer
and Redbox tones when you goto payphones!
Well now that you needed to buy a trailer for your car to haul around your
Beige box, let me just add for all the phreaks out there with the I.Q. of a
pubic hair that the only things you need to add are the things that will make
Beiging easier for you in your particular settings. There is no need to be a
boy scout and be prepared for all situations unless you want to throw all
the extra shit in the trunk of your car or in a big ass back pack.
Good luck, let me know what you find by mailing me at
<AgentOrange301@yahoo.com> Phreak out!
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
=-------------------------------=
| Storytime with TFP |
| By whoever bothered to submit |
=-------------------------------=
A redbox tragedy - by KungFuFox
----------------
I don't know what the hell was with me, I was kinda frustrated from twelve
unsuccessful redboxing attempts in a row. I'm pretty sure the operator
knew it was me after the third or fourth one. Maybe I should've tried a
different phone. They were laughing at me when I finally gave up and stuffed
the yakbak in my pocket that I'd sent in fifteen apple jacks boxtops for.
It just wasn't working like I'd hoped it would. Maybe the phones were getting
smarter or something. Maybe this phone was just deaf. It was a dumb looking
phone anyway. I stabbed a pen through its lcd display to get back at it for
not giving me a free call. Seems as soon as I did that this motorized cart
with a bell symbol on the front turned the corner and started speeding
towards me at about three miles an hour. I didn't really care though, I was
mad at that phone.
I decided to just go someplace else, since I wasn't gonna give up 'til I got
to cheat a telco out of a quarter. That cart was on the opposite side of the
street from me, and it kept speeding along in my direction, like it was after
me or something. This fat guy with sweat stains expanding from his armpits
was driving it. Looked like there was a secret service guy in the passenger
seat. He had a wire coming out of his ear and those black sunglasses and a
dark suit like all feds wear.
Like I said I didn't really care, so I'm walking down the sidewalk to the
next payphone and this cart is racing along at three miles per hour across
the street from me, blocking traffic and generally creating a nuisance. That
SS guy was just staring at me, like he was in a daze or something. I got to
the next phone in my path. I picked up the receiver, called the operator, and
told her I wanted to call my friend. The standard vandalized keypad bit. She
asked me to put in my money, and like before I pushed the yak button on my
yakbak, and listened to its sweet yaking sound. "Yaaaak" it said. Five times
it yaked, then my friend picked up.
"Woowoo!" I thought. It worked! I was so excited I just had to tell my friend
all about it. I told him how many bowls of cereal I'd eaten in that one
afternoon when I skipped school, and how the yakbak only took seven and
one-half months to get here, and how I'd used it to call him without having
to pay the quarter. He asked me why I ate $50 worth of cereal just to save a
quarter on a phonecall, but I knew he was just jealous. Almost as soon as I'd
stopped hyperventilating the operator lady came on! She said I was gonna die
and that I had to stay right there and wait for the security to get there! I
knew the bell cart I'd seen before must be the security people, so I dropped
the receiver and started running in the opposite direction of the cart, but
then I stopped dead in my tracks.
"I can't abandon that phone!" I thought. "It could be the last redboxable
phone on the face of the Earth!". So I ran back to the phone and started
kicking at it, to try and knock it off the pedistal it was on. I wasn't in
that big of a hurry, the cart was still going like three miles per hour and
there were a buncha hispanics out of their taxis screaming at the fat guy for
holding up traffic. Kick after kick I threw, and finally after like 5 seconds
the pedistal gave way and the phone fell off.
After I chewed through all the wires at the bottom of the phone I picked it
up and started running in the same direction as before. That security guy
wasn't gonna get me! Hahahahaha! And I had the last redboxable phone on
Earth! Thinking back, I must've looked kinda weird running down the street
with a payphone. Anyway, after I'd run a few blocks, which gave me about an
hour of free time to rest before that cart would catch up to me, I decided to
catch a bus and get this thing home so nobody would steal it from me. I took
a seat on a bench at the bus stop, and waited. A couple guys asked me whose
payphone it was, since it was sitting next to me, and I just told 'em it was
a friend's and I was waiting with it until he got back.
Needless to say, I got it home without any trouble, cuz the telco people
never ride busses, and I slid it under my bed so my parents wouldn't find it.
They'd wig out, I know it. I started thinking about what I'd done like as
soon as I'd slid it under there, and I thought "I better quit riding the bus,
it's too expensive". I couldn't phreak the bus fare anyway. I got kinda
excited when I remembered that I had a payphone so I pulled it back out and
started looking at it. There were a few wires coming out the bottom, so I
figured those must be for the phone line. I twisted them all together and
jammed them into the phone socket thing in my wall.
I couldn't wait to call my friend to tell him that I stole the phone I was
talking to him on before. I picked up the receiver to see if it would work
and surprise surprise, that operator came on immediately! She said "hello"
and I got so scared a slammed the phone down! "This is nuts, she must be
stalking me or something", I thought. The only thing a could think to do was
lock my door and close the curtains. Damn I was freaked. That's when the
payphone rang. Damn I knew who it was gonna be, that operator was gonna read
me my rights or something. What was I gonna do though, act like I wasn't
here? I picked it up. "Stay where you are" a man's voice said. "Eek!", I hung
up the phone.
Almost immediately a heard a familiar roaring sound close by, but outside. I
peeked through my curtains. It was a helicopter. A bell helicopter. There was
this bell logo on the side with the words "bill collection agency" next to
it. This had to be the end. I'd never phreak again. I was going to jail. In
a panic I picked the phone back up; it was the operator this time. I said
"Hey, bitch, I'm dictating the terms now. I've got your phone, and I'm armed,
and if I don't see an icecream truck sitting in my driveway in fifteen
minutes or less, I'm gonna waste your phone". She knew I meant business. I
was desperate, and I'd do anything to get out of there.
The helicopter got called off. They got me the icecream truck in less than
ten minutes. A little too convenient, I'll say. I was too nervous and anxious
to care though. I grabbed my BB gun and the phone, and I made a run for the
icecream truck. I used the phone like a body shield, so the bell sharp
shooters I knew were surrounding my house wouldn't get a clean shot at me
without risking damage to the phone. It worked. They didn't fire, but
somebody threw a rock at the back of my head. I think that was this neighbor
kid. So they had turned the neighborhood against me too, had they? No matter
though, I had to get the hell out of there.
Phone in hand, I dove into the open sliding door of the icecream truck. The
keys were in the ignition. So those bell collection agency people weren't
messing around. They really did know I meant business. Since there aren't any
passenger seats in an icecream truck, a major oversight on my part, I had to
drive with the payphone in my lap, gun to the side of the logic box. Why they
were so excessively concerned with the payphone's welfare is a mystery to me,
but they were, and I used it to my advantage. Damn cheap icecream truck
company couldn't even pay for an automatic transmission. I slipped it into
first and floored it.
The helicopter reappeared instantly. Seems it was going to follow me. As I
sped off I was suddenly roadblocked by the same motorized bell cart that had
been following me before, and it was the same fat guy and SS guy riding in
it! I became quickly overwhelmed at the hopelessness of my flight, so I
stopped. I threw the gun out of the truck, went back and got myself a
chocolate covered banana, and took a seat on the floor to enjoy my few
remaining moments of freedom. I'd only the time to peel the wrapper off my
last treat before the bell swat team stormed the truck.
They pulled the phone to safety, and were gone as quickly as they had
appeared. That's when the fat guy and the SS guy came in. The fat guy laughed
triumphantly as he stole my banana, "gotcha!" he said. I was then escorted to
the helicopter by the unspeaking SS guy. As he boarded and securely fastened
me into a locking seatbelt, I noticed that the payphone was there too.
Seems to me I was getting the executive treatment for being a payphone theif
and a wanted phreak. A helicopter ride was much more than I had expected. I
figured they were gonna execute me there in that icecream truck, but they
gave me a helicopter ride instead. Wherever I was going couldn't be that bad,
I thought. I was wrong. They took me to the most highly protected and
secretive installation in the entire BOC world. The phreak testing and
research facility, it was called. It looked more like a country club from the
outside, but it wasn't, I assure you.
After stripping me of my yakbak and searching me VERY thoroughly for any
other possible phreaking utensils (including money), I was brought to my
holding cell, a brightly lit room wallpapered with telco propaganda. Phrases
like "Building the community through teamwork!" and "Do business with the
people you know the most, your local phone company." adorned the walls. It
was terrifying. I wanted to call a lawyer (that's what I said, but really I
was gonna call my friend again), so I asked for a phone. They obliged my
request, but they gave me a payphone and I had no money. It was like a sick
joke, all I needed was a yakbak and I could've called anyone, but I had no
such thing.
Daily life at this institution is horrible. For hours a day I and the many
other phreaks confined here are forced to watch tapes about the value of
complying with laws, the benevolence of the phone companies to the community,
and the evil that is phreaking. There's a live feed from Kevin Mitnick's cell
to the array of televisions in the cafeteria that we are forced to watch
while we eat. We spend the better part of our day taking calls to BOC
customer service numbers. Sometimes we go to workshops to learn about the
latest methods of thwarting the efforts of phreaks across the country.
It is from this place that I have written this text, and I can only hope that
it reaches the outside world. My only method of delivery was fooling the mail
censorship people into thinking my letter was in regards to my progress in
being rehabilitated and steered away from my evil phreaking ways. I wrote
"Telecom Digest" as the receiving party but the address was to Happy Phreak
Magazine. Please, those of you reading this, you must help to free us from
the confines of this horrific place. We're desperate. We need tones! Tones I
say! Muah! Muahahaha! Muahahahahahahaha! All the world for some tones!
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I've got nothing to say. This is the end of the issue. GOTO top of file.
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