202 DEAR HACKER

202 DEAR HACKER

I had noticed that you can reach the operator for free (normal calls require a credit card transaction). Having already forgotten about that encouraging message over the PA at the airport, I told the guy next to me it would be funny to dial up the operator and tap out SOS in Morse code. He said you had to pay to reach the operator. I showed him differently, and once I was connected to the operator I typed out SOS three times. Then I held the phone up to my ear. To my horror,

I heard “Stay on the line for 20 seconds and we’ll land the plane.” I hung up and freaked out for the next 45 minutes.

I know sending out an SOS in a post 9/11 world was stupid and im- mature, but this system seems incredibly ludicrous to me. I’m guessing this “ feature” was implemented after 9/11 since many of the passen- gers were smart enough to call home using the same type of phones. It must have been created under the guise of safety, but I doubt it could ever protect anyone since I don’t know many people that can translate SOS into Morse code, and I haven’t found anyone else that knows about this setup. One final concern: How did Verizon come to control which planes stay in the air and which ones are grounded? Aside from incompetence and virtual bribery, why would our government entrust our safety to a phone company?

Dr. Apocalypse

There’s really nothing new about the joke thing. But by “inappropriate,” they mean jokes about security, hijacking, etc. that might make people really nervous if there’s the perception that you may not be kidding. This has been the policy for decades.

As to what you heard, you didn’t mention if it was a recording or a human. We’ll assume it was the latter in which case we’d bet it was an operator attempting to ascertain whether or not this was a true emergency. By giving you that warning, it sure got you to stop in a hurry. Verizon obviously doesn’t have the power to land planes but after receiving an SOS signal from an aircraft, they’re certainly in a posi- tion to pass that along to the relevant authorities. We trust you learned a valuable lesson here and hopefully kept many others from venturing down this path.

TECHNOLOGY

Dear 2600: First keep up the awesome publication. I read it to stay sane.

I was frequenting one of my favorite forums when I happened upon

a link to http://www.privatephone.com . This intrigued me beyond belief. The way it seems to work is that you choose a state, an area code, and then a city. It’ll generate a number for those specifications and then all you need to do is provide a valid email address for this messaging service to work. This seems extremely interesting and looks like a lot of fun could ensue, especially along the lines of remaining anonymous in this day and age when that’s becoming increasingly harder.

I wouldn’t mind some more information on this service if anyone out there knows anything about it. And I certainly hope I’m not poking at something that has already been discussed. Though I don’t believe that I am.

Crapinaple These services are popping up all over. The result is a phone network that has

almost no similarity to the one where geography actually meant something. Now we can each have dozens of phone numbers from all parts of the country and con- fuse the hell out of people who want to know where we really are.