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By: Cleotis
Date: 7/19/98 12:20:25 PM
# Replies: 41
This is great. I've had SO much fun with this, and I only started last night.
Okay, so it's illegal. So what?
Go down to your local Radio Shack or Wal Mart or Service Merchandise or whatever, and get yourself a scanner radio. Most people call them "police scanners", but the fun goes much further than that.
Here's where the fun is: I've programmed in the 25 base frequencies for cordless phones. These are all in the 46-49 MHz range. It works even better if you live in an apartment complex or a bunch of condos (as I do). Anywhere people are all bunched up on top of each other is great.
It's not been incredibly riveting yet, but I did learn that my next door neighbor tapes "My So Called Life" for her daughter, and I learned that another of my neighbors had a great time on his trip to Arkansas (?).
Oh, and I was also reminded how great it is to be married and to not be a teenager anymore. This fact came after listening to a guy and a girl talk for 6 hours last night about absolutely nothing ("You like milk? I love milk. WHAT? I can't believe you don't like milk!").
So, go drop $100 or so on a little radio, string a 20 foot wire up around the room, and just let it scan while you sit here online. Oh what fun!
Yeah, right. This dude up the street think's he's gonna get a tee-time for himself on a beautiful day like today. HA!
Oh, this is great!
Response #1
By: rorschach
Date: 7/19/98 2:45:26 PM
hehe... baby monitors are in that range too.... you just NEVER know what you'll pick up on those things......
Response #2
By: Capt. Spastic
Date: 7/19/98 10:04:06 PM
Geesh, you guys are slow sometime. But yeah, ya gotta admit, it is fun. When I use to work nights, I would come home after taking the kids to day care for the day, and right before I'd lay down to go to sleep, I'd turn the transmitter side of the baby monitor off, and turn on just the reciever on. There was aneighbor that lived next door, and every monring after her husband left for work, she would either be tlaking to her friend about the guy she was sleeping with, or the guy she was sleeping with. I had my own soap opera working there for awhile. he-he.
Response #3
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 7/20/98 4:03:50 AM
I was once listening to a scanner and heard half of a cell phone conversation that was someone I knew. I told her about it later, and she thought it was amusing, both that it happened, and that I actually told her.
Response #4
By: rorschach
Date: 7/20/98 12:37:39 PM
you can't buy scanners that will recieve cell phone freq.s directly anymore, they are illegal, but you can buy downconverters that will shift the freq.s down to a lower range....
Response #5
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 7/20/98 4:03:00 PM
I know this, ror.
:-)
Response #6
By: Da Sissop
Date: 7/20/98 10:38:30 PM
Hehe.. in the 80's my mom got her scanner, and that *was* before the cell phone boom and subsequent restriction on frequencies.
In those days, most mobile phone calls were made by contacting a mobile phone operator, telling her the number you wanted to call, and then she'd dial it for you. As a young bored kid, I occasionally amused myself by listening to these folks tell the operator the number, and then I'd quickly dial the number myself so the mobile caller would get a busy signal. "Whoops, sorry, wrong number!"
Big fun.
Response #7
By: rorschach
Date: 8/22/98 4:48:51 PM
recently, I have found TWO handsets from cordless phones, I DF'd and figured out the approximate location of the base station and returned them. at least four people that I know of on my block have these things.... I think I WILL break out the old scanner and fire it up....
Response #8
By: Cleotis
Date: 9/3/98 11:25:54 PM
Scanner update 9/4/98:
The girl next door has been on her monthly for 8 days and she's worried.
The mom of the kid who my son likes to play with all the time is a refferhead who weekly searches for a place to "excape from reality and smoke like big chief"
The russians several doors down still speak russian
And there's a guy behind us who's a sucker for telemarketing.
Still no kinky phone action yet. I'm staying tuned.
Response #9
By: Ralf
Date: 9/4/98 7:38:51 AM
Can you WAV any of them? And is that legal?
Response #10
By: Cleotis
Date: 9/4/98 2:58:21 PM
Oh, you did have to ask the LEGAL question.
Damn. I was going to plead ignorance if I ever got caught.
Response #11
By: rorschach
Date: 9/4/98 9:54:15 PM
just so's you KNOW....hehe.... no, its bad enough that he's listening in... repeating or using what is heard in any fashion without a court order is also a nono....
but who gives a damn? I keep telling becky to stop using the cordless to check on the checking balance and she just doesn't listen.... all ya gotta do is buy a DTMF decoder (hams use em for phone patches and access to repeaters) and anybody could get the account number AND her social security no.
Response #12
By: sooz
Date: 9/5/98 12:12:59 PM
Ok, I know I sound like a nut-case militant, but I just flat refuse to give my SS# when it's not necessary. Legally, the only people that have the right to have your SS# is the guvment and your employer. I suppose the IRS could fall under the umbrella of the guvment.
However, when my son signs up to go on a field trip and it asks for his SS#... no way. What, are they gonna do some withholding on his earnings? I don't think so.
From being in the medical field, I know that a "unique identifier" isn't a bad thing, since common names (Jim Porter, Michael Wilson, etc.) are easy to confuse, and it'd be bad if an unconscious dude's medical record got mixed up with someone elses. So, for medical reasons, I don't mind so bad. I think our TDL's or state ID number would work just as well, though.
So yeah, that's me in line at the grocery store, writing a check, and refusing to give a SS#.
Response #13
By: Cleotis
Date: 9/7/98 12:29:32 AM
SS#'s don't spook me as much as those signature capture thingies at Service Merchandise.
Since this is the scanner thread and all, it's kind of come full circle.
I bought my first scanner at Service Merchandise, which requires a captured signature on any transaction. I *never* sign my real signature on those. I just kinda scribble a little and they let me go. I don't want my signature being stored on any computer that's run by a $4.75 an hour high school senior. Banks and credit cards are one thing, but I shouldn't have to electronically give my signature away when I'm buying something at the store.
When I went to buy this scanner, my credit card wouldn't authorize. The guy told me that "it says that this isn't your actual signature". I told him "that's because it's not. THIS is my real signature" and I signed a piece of scratch paper on the counter. He looked at me funny, typed in a bunch of stuff on the register, and let me go home with my scanner.
Since my little scribble has stopped working because the signature verification stuff has gotten more sophisticated, I've decided to just stop shopping at Service Merchandise altogether.
That creeps me out bigtime.
Response #14
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 9/7/98 1:03:40 AM
I, as many of us, work with high technology on a daily basis.
There are many things that I personally do on a daily basis that are fairly dangerous to an individual's privacy. I get passwords, login names, personal files, personnel files, etc etc on most of the computers I work on.
I use the Internet every day. I check my bank balances, I check credit card balances, I buy products and I send more email than humans should be allowed to send.
I sign my name to those electronic signature things at Best Buy. I sign my name to those electronic signature things that the UPS and FedEx drivers carry. I write down my SS# left and right.
Why do I do this? Because it's convienient. Because, if someone wants to BE me or SCAM me or mess with my credit or whatever badly enough, they're going to do it whether I do these things or not.
I could get really paranoid and buy Watchdog products and a shredder and refuse to sign things and give numbers and put extra characters (or take characters out) of my email address to keep from getting spam.
It's not worth my time. Yeah, this stuff happens. But why should I lower my quality of life? Sure, I'm not gonna leave my credit card receipts or bank book just lying around, but there's a point where I'm not willing to compromise the way I live my life because of the things that MIGHT happen.
(Was that coherent at all? Did I make my point? I hope so.)
Response #15
By: Ralf
Date: 9/7/98 8:21:27 AM
Yikes. I feel my frontal lobes splitting with the force of your two compelling, yet opposite arguments.
I dunno HOW to feel. I used to do everything I could to gum up The Machine: overpay bills by .02, write in sections of the form where it said "office use only", sign my signature "Richard X. Nimon", string together random numbers when asked for a social...
But I gradually stopped doing all that, and it doesn't seem to make any difference. Either you're IN the machine, or you're not. I was in the day they inked my day-old-foot and slapped it onto a government form. I've had a SSN since I was seven. My parents willfully entered my real stats in big brother's databases before I could understand the ramifications.
So for me it's too late. When the goon squads come, they'll come RIGHT to my door, and even tell me what channel I'm watching before they tell me to "come along quietly". They will share little inside jokes about my credit history, the web sites I've visited, and the way my dick points a little bit to the left -- all courtesy of their networked PalmPilots.
So I'm living free! Signing my real name, giving out my real stats when asked. Who cares? The folks the DO already have it. The folks who DON'T won't know what to do with it. We've already come thru the stolen credit card number ordeal and survived to tell the tale -- the fact is, it happens so often nowadays that credit companies EXPECT it and deal with it gracefully, so long as you've really been victimized. I'm convinced there's NO WAY to avoid entry in the databases, short of a zillion bucks and some illegal attourney activity.
So I guess I agree with Gowan: if criminals want your stuff badly enough, they will get it.
Also, as Sorc will confirm, while those UPS signature thingies are GREAT for proving that packages were delivered to -- somebody -- but they're not used (or even useful?) for comparing signatures over time to prove identity. They're stored in DB/2 databases blobs as raster images. The resolution isn't high enough to do what the Service Mechandise devices apprently do.
Did I get that right, Sorc?
Response #16
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 9/7/98 11:38:28 AM
Clinton gives his digital John Hancock
U.S. President Bill Clinton and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern made some twenty-first century-style history Friday when they signed a United States-Ireland communique digitally, according to a report from Reuters. "This is the first time two heads of government have used this technology to sign a joint document," Paddy Holahan, vice president of business development at Dublin-based Baltimore Technologies, told the news service. "It represents a significant moment in e-commerce history." Baltimore Technologies developed the digital-signature system that was used by the world leaders. Reuters reported that the communique was signed at a Dublin assembly plant of the United States-based personal computer manufacturer Gateway (GTW), one of Ireland's largest employers.
Response #17
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 9/7/98 1:03:54 PM
Ralf Sez:
------------------
Also, as Sorc will confirm, while those UPS signature thingies are GREAT for proving that packages were delivered to --
somebody -- but they're not used (or even useful?) for comparing signatures over time to prove identity. They're stored in DB/2
databases blobs as raster images. The resolution isn't high enough to do what the Service Mechandise devices apprently do.
Did I get that right, Sorc?
-------------------
Yup, last I heard. The DIAD II had a higher resolution than the DIAD I, but it's still useless. It's good enough only for CYA purposes, which is all UPS was interested in.
Sorc'(Rev)
Response #18
By: rorschach
Date: 9/7/98 4:56:22 PM
I too am a little paranoid about using the signature scanners at the stores anymore. but lets face it. it IS virtually impossible to live in this society and not give out potentially devastating personal ID info. But on the other hand I have also seen the news reports of people stealing people's identities and performing all kinds of thefts and larcenys and using the stolen info to implicate the innocent victim in the robber's stead. the credit card companies DO treat it as a normal workaday thing but the cops are an entirely different matter....THEY have absolutely NO sense of humor..... here's a scenario for you... a pedofile steals enough personal info to impersonate you online, (not that hard, just call a persons ISP and say your system crashed and you don't know what your system and email passwords are and give em a social and a mother's maiden to go with the name. they will even walk you through inserting the new info....) he gets his jollies trading dirty pictures of four year olds all over the net and doesn't bother to really try to hide his online identity.... next thing you know, you are typing away on the net when the door goes flying across the room and you are dragged in front of a judge and trying to explain that you were just talking to your buddies on 50k nunz and have no idea what they are talking about........
Response #19
By: sooz
Date: 9/7/98 10:25:30 PM
I think Ror* has a really valid point. He especially hit with the pedophile example.
Also, the mentality of "if someone wants it bad enough, they're gonna get it" is a little lame. Why not leave your house and car doors unlocked, too? Leave your wallet laying about at work? Let your purse swing open while shopping?
Theyer's a difference between being rationally careful and being careless.
But on the other hand, dammit, there shoulda been a signature scanner thingy at the pizza place tonight. See, Jimmy and I went for a pizza at one of those pizza-n-games places. While we played games and waited for our number to be called, someone slipped by our table, took our ticket off our tray, and collected our pizza fresh out of the oven before the number could be called.
We found the culprits, sitting in the corner with the pizza hidden under some dirty napkins. The manager gave us another pizza, and told us that over the weekend, someone stole a kid's birthday presents from the party table while the kid was up playing games.
People frighten me more than technology does.
Response #20
By: Da Sissop
Date: 9/7/98 10:28:10 PM
"Psst.. Bailiff... see what you can dig up on this nun pornography ring...."
Response #21
By: Ralf
Date: 9/8/98 7:35:28 AM
Sooz, I'm assuming people here (on this board) have common sense enough to take the basic precautions. Like, locking your front door, not leaving your wallet on your porch... that kind of thing.
But beyond the steps to keep honest people honest (I hate that phrase) anything more is silly. IMHO.
I went thru a phase where I *DIDN'T* lock my car doors, ever. I reasoned that a brick thru the window was more traumatic than replacing stolen stuff, besides which, I made it a point never to leave anything I wanted to keep in the car. Over the course of seven years, my car was "broken into" twice, both times by opening the door. The only thing taken was a cigarette lighter.
Since then, I've become able to afford cars that require comprehensive insurance, and I've started locking them -- because I'd like to be able to tell the insurance agency I did so.
I can't live my life constantly worried somebody will take my stuff.
Response #22
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 9/8/98 3:04:45 PM
The county prosecutor lives across the street and one house down.
There's no crime in this neighborhood. (At least, not the kind that anyone ever finds out about.)
Response #23
By: sooz
Date: 9/9/98 7:26:22 AM
I used to never lock my apartment door. Got broken into once. Richie locks everything, all the time, sets alarms, the whole shebang. He's been broken into twice.
My mother used to reason that if one walked about downtown Detroit clutching her purse tightly to her bosom that it was obvious she had something to steal. My mother, on the other hand, would wander about with a clueless look and her purse dangling open, receipts falling out hither and yon.
I dunno, I can see both sides of it. I think, like most issues, balance is the answer. Be reasonably careful, but try to avoid the paranoid trap (not to be confused with the parent trap).
Response #24
By: Da Sissop
Date: 9/9/98 8:01:40 PM
I think my last Brush With Crime was at least 6 years ago, when I was living in Clear Lake. I accidentally left my car unlocked one night, and in the morning I discovered that someone had been in my car.
The cool part was that they didn't find anything worth stealing. I had a couple of cases full of home-recorded tapes, but I guess the burglar didn't appreciate my taste in music. I halfway expected to find that he had left *me* a new stereo out of pity.
In some strange way it kinda renewed my faith in humanity....
Response #25
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 9/11/98 2:19:46 AM
Same thing happened to me about 8 months ago. The car got broken into, and nothing was missing. They had obviously gone through the glovebox, tho.
And before that, the passenger window got smashed. I went to my car the next day to find little bits of glass everywhere, and lo and behold my neighbor came out and said the following words: "You know, things like that won't happen if you get a car alarm. I sell them, you know..."
Response #26
By: Ralf
Date: 9/11/98 8:56:18 AM
If you'd had a car alarm, you would've experienced the theft, the broken glass, *AND* you would've been forfeit a good nights sleep when the hooting started...
A car alarm STICKER on the window is nearly as effective and oh, so cheaper & easier to install. And doesn't go off by accident when a truck rumbles past.
Response #27
By: rorschach
Date: 9/11/98 9:58:54 AM
go down to radio shack, buy a flashing red LED and a 1kohn 1/4 watt resistor, solder the resistor to the anode (the shorter lead usually) and a red wire to the resistor and a black wire to the cathode (make sure you don't get em reversed or it will fry the led probably). and mount it in the dashboard. connect the black wire to a good chassis ground and the red wire to a source of +12 volts that is on all the time (cigarette lighters or the power lead for the clock in your car radio is usually good sources although some cars switch power of the cigarette lighter off when the key is off beware). cheaper than an alarm and more convincing than a sticker......
Response #28
By: sooz
Date: 9/11/98 2:29:40 PM
Dang, Ror, you don't gotta do all that. Radio Shack SELLS little red falashy lights, just for this purpose, that you just push whenever you want them to be flashy.
Much easier than all that howiring and voltage nonsense.
I think they call them "theft deterrent devices." We have one in the truck.
Response #29
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 9/13/98 11:44:24 AM
Sooz Sez:
----------------------
I think Ror* has a really valid point. He especially hit with the pedophile example.
----------------------
The pedophile example wouldn't work (i.e. someone stealing your INet ID and swapping kiddie porn). The telephone company records (which you could subpoena) linked with the ISP records (which the Guvment would have to have) would show who was actually doing the kiddie porn trading.
Sorc'(Rev)
Response #30
By: rorschach
Date: 9/13/98 10:34:39 PM
not necesarrily, it becomes a matter of proving my innocence instead of the other guy's guilt, which is never an easy thing to do. whats to prove i didn't call from work? or from a pedofile friend's house?
as long as the guy called the same access number that I do (there's only two in houston for my ISP) then as far as the ISP's records show, SOMEONE using MY ID and PASSWORD called the ISP's local access number in houston and downloaded a bunch of kitty porn. meanwhile I'm suing to get my computer and all my files back.
then the FBI takes a good hard look at my machine and decides that not every peice of software on the machine is legal and now I got MORE problems.....
then they find the invoices for the small odd design jobs i do on the side, and they start wondering why I'm not reporting that income....(really piddlin and not WORTH reporting but thats beside the point....)and then the IRS starts poking around...
you just don't REALISE how sensitive the stuff on your 'puter is until you start thinking about whats on it that could cause you grief if somebody really wanted to cause you grief. just remember Steve Jackson and Project Sundevil...
Response #31
By: Ralf
Date: 9/14/98 12:43:12 AM
Yes, it'd really suck if somebody impersonated you and did something awful for which you were blamed.
However, it's been happening since the beginning of time, long before telephones and computers. Modern technology does make identity theft easier, but security is better than before too. It's an escalating war between us & the criminals.
I'm simply not going to waste precious cycles worrying about it.
Response #32
By: sooz
Date: 9/15/98 7:50:25 AM
Washing machine cycles?
Response #33
By: rorschach
Date: 9/16/98 12:37:01 PM
cpu cycles...
Response #34
By: Cleotis
Date: 9/16/98 10:09:59 PM
A menstrual cycle is a terrible thing to waste.
(Tell me YOU weren't thinking that - I DARE you to look me in the face and tell me you weren't!)
Response #35
By: Ralf
Date: 9/17/98 4:50:23 PM
I came THIS CLOSE to clicking "Edit" and changing that "w" to a "t"...
Response #36
By: rorschach
Date: 9/17/98 7:39:43 PM
GROAN!... actually I hate to admit it Cleo, but I SWEAR I wasn't.... I'm turning into and old (I mean REALLY OLD) fart....
Response #37
By: Cleotis
Date: 9/22/98 10:27:31 PM
Hey, pal. You go editing my posts, and I'll... I'll...
I won't do much since I don't have the mega-eeleet aksess that you do. I can only edit my own posts.
Be nice to Ralf, lest he flaunt his edit powers!!!
Response #38
By: Ralf
Date: 9/23/98 11:48:47 AM
See, I thought EVERYONE could do that. Jim gave me sooper-elleete status when he was beta testing, and I guess it just got left on.
Honestly, I've never edited anyone else's posts, except to add capitalization, punctuation & formatting to Ror's.
:-)
Response #39
By: Cleotis
Date: 9/24/98 9:06:07 PM
He's the king of eleet!
OKAY EVERYONE!
REMOVE YOUR PANTS IMMEDIATELY, OR I WILL BE FORCED TO EDIT ALL OF YOUR POSTS.
INSUBORDINATION IN REGARDS TO THIS DIRECTIVE WILL BE DEALT WITH SWIFTLY AND WITHOUT MERCY!
Response #40
By: Ralf
Date: 9/25/98 8:22:49 AM
...and... and... email me $1 now in small bills!
Response #41
By: Da Sissop
Date: 9/26/98 4:21:37 PM
You rascals.