61 lines
3.6 KiB
Plaintext
61 lines
3.6 KiB
Plaintext
Bell Trashing by the Jolly Roger
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The Phone Co. will go to extreams on occasions. In fact, unless
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you really know what to expect from them, they will suprise the heck
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out of you with their "unpublished tarriffs". Recently, a situation
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was brought to my attention that up till then I had been totaly
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unaware of, least to mention, had any concern about. It involved gar-
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bage! The phone co. will go as far as to prosecute anyone who rumages
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through their garbage and helps himself to some
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Of course, they have their reasons for this, and no doubt benefit
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from such action. But, why should they be so picky about garbage? The
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answer soon became clear to me: those huge metal bins are filled up
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with more than waste old food and refuse... Although it is Pacific
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Tele. policy to recycle paper waste products, sometimes employees do
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overlook this sacred operation when sorting the garbage. Thus
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top-secret confidential Phone Co. records go to the garbage bins
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instead of the paper shredders. Since it is constantly being updated
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with "company memorandums, and supplied with extensive reference
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material, the Phone co. must continualy dispose of the outdated
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materials. Some phone companies are supplied each year with the
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complete "System Practices" guide. This publication is an over 40
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foot long library of reference material about everything to do with
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telephones. As the new edition arrives each year, the old version of
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"System Practices" must also be thrown out.
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I very quickly figured out where some local phone phreaks were
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getting their material. They crawl into the garbage bins and remove
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selected items that are of particular interest to them and their
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fellow phreaks. One phone phreak in the Los Angeles area has salvaged
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the complete 1972 edition of "Bell System Practices". It is so large
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and was out of order (the binders had been removed) that it took him
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over a year to sort it out and create enough shelving for it in his
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garage.
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Much of this "Top Secret" information is so secret that most phone
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companies have no idea what is in their files. They have their hands
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full simply replacing everything each time a change in wording
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requires a new revision. It seems they waste more paper than they can
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read!
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It took quite a while for Hollywood Cal traffic manager to figure
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out how all of the local phone phreaks constantly discovered the
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switchroom test numbers
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Whenever someone wanted to use the testboard, they found the local
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phone phreaks on the lines talking to all points all over the world.
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It got to the point where the local garbage buffs knew more about the
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office operations than the employees themselves. One phreak went so
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far as to call in and tell a switchman what his next daily assignment
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would be. This, however, proved to be too much. The switchman
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traced the call and one phone phreak was denied the tool of his trade.
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In another rather humorous incident, a fellow phreak was rumaging
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through the trash bin when he heard somone apraoching. He pressed up
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against the side of the bin and silently waited for the goodies to
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come. You can imagine his surprise when the garbage from the lunchroom
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landed on his head. Most people find evenings best for checking out
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their local telco trash piles. The only thing necessary is a
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flashlight and, in the case mentioned above, possibly a rain coat. A
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word of warning though, before you rush out and dive into the trash
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heap. It is probably illegal, but no matter where you live, you
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certainly won't get the local policeman to hold your flashlight for
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you.
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--------------------Jolly Roger
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