"The Discbox"
Yet another variation on the red box....
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 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 from NOT 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. And of course, 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 a whole lot safer way of boxing than the traditional methods...

Good luck....

-Napalmoliv
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napalmoliv@hotmail.com
http://members.tripod.com/~eight88/index.html
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