Well in the first volume, we briefly discussed all of the new inovations and
some other tidy tidbits in monor detail.
In this volume we will develop on PictureFone, Ma Bell and all her abilities
last but not least "The Basics Of LD Phreaking".
Now first PictureFone. Picturefone is a television-video hookup in your
office home etc. which will enable you to speak and communicate at the same
time, anotherwords, you can see who you are talking to. This is a very very
new ISDN innovation. Now lets dicuss it in both the fundamentals and the
disadvantages.
Of course a definate plus would be the video, but is this really desirable?
Well lets see, if you call you buddy on the phone and you just got outa the
shower and you wanna get changed or your girlfriend os on the phone and she has
one of those masks on? or you call your wife and see in the backround another
man? It can be very detramentle. Well basically the system works on a
microwave station just as a TV station except you access these waves by use of
the special telephone line designed by Ma Bell. The system is Keyed by what
else, a 2600hz tone to activate the voice dialing system, then when a
connection is established, instantaniously the camera on yur end activates and
transmits back to ma bell swithcing and is then routed on the correct video
line corresponding to your phone number. When the connection is broken, the ma
bell swithing office automatically shuts off the video output and the line
voltage returns to normal. There is no option as of yet to shut on and off the
video display, this would be very complicated because the reciveing screen is
not a typical TV screen but a monitor and does not use typical transistors, it
has to work in co-op with the Bell system and therefore cannot just be
"Shut-off".
A test system of picture phone as mentioned in volume #1, is in operation in
Germany. With this new system will also be available that nifty little option
to see the originating phone number flash when a person-to-person direct call
is placed. This will be optional for about $1000 more. Available with
PictureFone is a system called PrivCode. This awesome little innovation is a
handy privacy feature. It's simple, when the unit is on, No-one can get
through unless they enter a 3 digit access #, callers are greeted by a
sythesized voice (female) and asked for their ID#. At all times you can see
who is trying to access your phone. If the right code is entered, it will page
you asking you if you want to talk to xxxx.
All in all, picturephone should be a very nice change from the boredom of
regular phones.
