| MindVox |
|---|
|
|
| Created by |
| Bruce Fancher & Patrick K. Kroupa |
| Services |
| Community/Social Networking |
| (ISP defunct as of 1997) |
| Founded in: 1991 |
| Location |
| New York City, New York, USA |
MindVox was a famed early Internet Service Provider in New York City. Bruce Fancher (also known as Dead Lord) was born on April 13, 1971. Patrick Karel Kroupa (also known as Lord Digital, born January 20, 1969, in Los Angeles California) is an American Writer An Internet service provider ( ISP, also called Internet access provider or IAP) is a company which primarily offers their customers access to the Internet An Internet service provider ( ISP, also called Internet access provider or IAP) is a company which primarily offers their customers access to the Internet The City of New York A controversial sometime media darling — the service was referred to as "the Hells Angels of Cyberspace" [1] — it was founded in 1991 by Bruce Fancher (Dead Lord) and Patrick Kroupa (Lord Digital), two former members of the legendary Legion of Doom hacker group [2]. The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club ( HAMC) is a world-wide " one-percenter " motorcycle gang whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson Year 1991 ( MCMXCI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar. Bruce Fancher (also known as Dead Lord) was born on April 13, 1971. Bruce Fancher (also known as Dead Lord) was born on April 13, 1971. Patrick Karel Kroupa (also known as Lord Digital, born January 20, 1969, in Los Angeles California) is an American Writer Patrick Karel Kroupa (also known as Lord Digital, born January 20, 1969, in Los Angeles California) is an American Writer The Legion of Doom ( LOD) was an extremely influential hacker group that was active from the 1980s to the late 1990s and early 2000 The system was at least partially online by March of 1992, and open to the public in November of that year. Year 1992 ( MCMXCII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar)
MindVox was the second ISP in New York City [3]. Some controversy over this latter statement exists [4]; however, by the time the first MindVox test message was posted to Usenet in 1992 [5], customers of the rival service, Panix, had made nearly 6,000 posts [6]. Usenet, a Portmanteau of "user" and "network" is a world-wide distributed Internet discussion system The test message was apparently posted by the infamous Phiber Optik, who would have been waiting for a Manhattan grand jury indictment at the time for hacking activities. Mark Abene (born 1972 better known by his Pseudonym Phiber Optik, is a computer security hacker from New Manhattan Island, in New York Harbor, is much the largest part of the Borough of Manhattan, one of the Five Boroughs which form the City of New York In the Common law, a grand jury is a type of Jury which determines whether there is enough evidence for a trial. In the Common law legal system an indictment (ɪnˈdaɪtmənt (in-DITE-mint is a formal accusation of having committed a criminal offense
Another potential "start date" for the service would be the registration of the service's phantom. com domain, on 14 February 1992. Events 842 - Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German
Contents |
Founding and Early Years
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The distinctive logo shown to the right was the system's original ASCII art banner, appearing on the text-only service's dial-up login page. History Typewriter art Since 1867 typewriters have been used for creating visual art Dial-up Internet Access is a form of Internet access via Telephone lines The user's computer or Router uses an attached Modem connected to a MindVox was originally accessible only through telnet, ftp and direct dial-up. Telnet ( Tel ecommunication net work is a Network protocol used on the Internet or local area network (LAN connections Its existence predates the invention of SSH and widespread use of the World Wide Web by several years. Secure Shell or SSH is a Network protocol that allows data to be exchanged using a Secure channel between two networked devices The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked Hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. In later years, MindVox was also accessible via the web [7].
The parent company, Phantom Access Technologies, Inc. took its name from a hacking program written by Kroupa during his early teens, called Phantom Access [8]. Phantom Access was the name given to a series of hacking programs written by Patrick Kroupa (a
MindVox functioned both as a private BBS service, containing its own dedicated discussion groups, termed "conferences" — though usually referred to as "forums" by users — as well as a provider of internet and Usenet access. A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a Computer system running software that allows users to connect and login to By 1994 the subscriber base was at around 3,000 [9]. Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) In many ways MindVox was a harder, edgier, New York incarnation of the WELL [10], [11], [12] (a famous Northern Californian online community. The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, normally shortened to The WELL, is one of the oldest Virtual communities in continuous operation California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. ) While users were drawn from all over the world, the majority lived in the New York City area, and members who met through the conferences often became acquainted in person, either on their own, or through what were termed "VoxMeats" (a formal gathering of members whose double entendre name was rumored to be well-earned. Not to be confused with Puns which employ multiple phrases A double entendre is a Figure of speech similar to the Pun, in )
Prominent MindVox "evangelists" included sci-fi author Charles Platt, who wrote about MindVox for Wired Magazine [13] and featured it within his book Anarchy Online [14]. Charles Platt (born in London England 1945 is the author of 41 fiction and nonfiction books including science-fiction novels such as The Silicon Man and Wired is a full-color monthly American Magazine and on-line periodical published in San Francisco, California since March 1993 MindVox also attracted (sometimes with the aid of free accounts [15]) artists, writers, activists and luminaries such as Billy Idol, Wil Wheaton, Robert Altman, Douglas Rushkoff, John Perry Barlow, and Kurt Cobain. Billy Idol (born William Michael Albert Broad, 30 November 1955, Stanmore, Middlesex) is an English rock Richard William "Wil" Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American Writer and Actor. Robert Bernard Altman (February 20 1925 – November 20 2006 was an American Film director known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with Douglas Rushkoff (born 18 February 1961) is a New York -based writer columnist and lecturer on technology John Perry Barlow (born October 3, 1947) is an American Poet, Essayist, retired Wyoming cattle rancher political Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20 1967 – c April 5 1994 was an American musician who served as lead singer, Guitarist, and songwriter for the Seattle The level of hysteria and hype surrounding MindVox was so great that in 1993 executives at MTV who were using the system wanted to buy it outright and turn MindVox into a subsidiary of Viacom [16]. MTV ( Music Television) is an American Cable television network based in New York City. Viacom ( ( short for " Vi deo & A udio Com munications" is an American Media conglomerate with various worldwide interests
"Voices in My Head"
MindVox was deeply connected to the emerging non-academic hacker culture and ideas about the potentials of cyberspace, as can be seen in Patrick Kroupa's essay, Voices in my Head, MindVox: The Overture [17], [18], [19], which announced the upcoming opening of MindVox [20], and crossed the line into shaping an entire culture's mythology, seeing publication in magazines such as Wired [21], and extensive coverage throughout the media [22]. Cyberspace &mdash from the Greek el Κυβερνήτης (el kybernētēs steersman governor pilot or rudder &mdash is the global domain of electro-magnetics accessed Voices provided a compelling and sweeping first-person overview of the cultural forces that were at play in the hacker underground during the decade that pre-dated MindVox, considered by some the "Golden Age" of cyberspace. The term Golden age is best known from Greek mythology and legend but can also be found in other ancient cultures (see below
More than a decade later, Voices remains one of the most read and widely-distributed pieces of writing to ever emerge about the origins and possible futures of cyberspace. It was the spark that propelled Kroupa out of obscurity [23], [24], [25], [26], [27] and into the pages of books describing him as the Jim Morrison of cyberspace [28]. James Douglas Morrison (December 8 1943—July 3 1971 was an American Poet, Singer, Songwriter, Writer, and Film director Voices also helped turn MindVox from being just another ISP into a counter-cultural media darling meriting full-length features in magazines and newspapers such as Rolling Stone, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The New Yorker. Rolling Stone is a United States -based Magazine devoted to Music, Politics, and Popular culture that is published Forbes is an American Publishing and media company Its flagship publication Forbes magazine is published bi-weekly The New Yorker is an American Magazine that publishes reportage commentary criticism essays fiction satire cartoons and poetry
"Voice: Waffle ][+ the NeXTSTEP"
As with many things MindVox-related, the name of the software MindVox ran on, was both a play on words and an elaborate inside-joke. Voice: Waffle ][+ the NeXTSTEP (usually referred to simply as Voice, although it frequently was referred to by the plural Voices as well), was the name given to MindVox's conferencing system [29]. Waffle refers to the original software that MindVox was based on [30], the ][+ pays homage to Kroupa and Fancher's hacker past and the use of Apple II computers; NeXTSTEP was a reference to the NeXT platform and operating system, with which MindVox was developed and launched. Waffle is a bulletin-board system created by Tom Dell which ran under DOS and later UNIX. Nextstep was the original object-oriented, multitasking Operating system that NeXT Computer developed to run on its range of proprietary computers NeXT Computer Inc (later NeXT Software Inc) was an American Computer company headquartered in Redwood City, California that
As much as Patrick Kroupa's Voices focused the media and counter-culture spotlight on MindVox; Fancher's software was a source of tremendous attention in many MindVox-related stories and it's unlikely that MindVox would have enjoyed its success without Voice [31]. At the time MindVox launched, it was one of the first public-access ISPs in the world. The major technical difference between MindVox and every other system at the time, was instead of expecting newcomers to understand Unix and meet a cryptic shell prompt, the entire system was accessible through Fancher's highly-flexible interface [32]. Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX, sometimes also written as Unix with Small caps) is a computer
The original Waffle software was written by Tom Dell [33], [34], who apparently shared a drug-related past with Kroupa [35] and was part of MindVox from its inception [36]. To this date there are easter-eggs and cross-references on both MindVox [37] and the system that Tom Dell became better known for in the late 90's and beyond: Rotten.com [38]. Rottencom is a United States -hosted Shock site with a slogan of "An archive of disturbing illustration" operated by Soylent Communications. Going to Rotten's search page [39], and triple-clicking on the whitespace located between the Contact section and the gray bar at the bottom, reveals an inscrutable ibogaine rant.
By the mid-90's the original Waffle software was nearly unrecognizable; Fancher had converted Voice to a client-server architecture [40], included a web interface [41], and added elaborate "power user" features which seem to have been added to address the evolving needs of the community; or due to a strange combination of drugs, nostalgia and pure whim. An example of the latter case is VoxChat [42], a proprietary chat system written for MindVox by employee David Schenfeld, which spun off into the commercial product ENTchat after MindVox shut down [43]. Diversi-Dial or ENTchat at it was named, allowed MindVox to connect to a chat-protocol from the mid-80's called Diversi-Dial [44]), or in Kroupa's own words:
- As of this writing there are roughly a dozen remaining DDIAL's running on Apple computers, Novation has long since gone Chapter 11, Bill Basham (the author of DDIAL) has gone back to being a full-time doctor, and one slightly disturbed person in the Phantom Access Group has written the world's only version of DDIAL that will run on Unix based machines and allow T1 connected, distributed sites with gigabytes of disk and thousands of users, to hook into Pig's Knuckle Idaho's very own 7 line DDIAL running at a blazing fast 300 baud. Diversi-Dial, or DDial was an Online chat server that was popular during the mid-1980s Diversi-Dial, or DDial was an Online chat server that was popular during the mid-1980s Why this was done is a question best left to mental health professionals [45].
The last sentence in the paragraph quoted above could be applied to many features present in the MindVox shell [46], [47]. It included advanced conferencing features that software in 2005 is still lacking [48] interspersed with time-consuming elaborate in-jokes with no commercial purpose whatsoever.
-=/[ This Message Has Been FLUNG to the r0mPEr-RuM ]/=-
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-=/[ You have No Rights / [%] Symbolic Iron Cross [%] / Fascism & Tyranny ]/=-
We have found it necessary to violate your civil rights and CENSOR you.
Please refrain from engaging in any further THOUGHT CRIMES. You will
not receive additional warnings, consider yourself fortunate.
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- The Fling Screen from MindVox. When inappropriate or extremely off-topic material was posted to a conference; moderators were unable to remove or destroy the message entirely, but they could move the message to the r0mPEr-RuM, a conference that was the collective garbage-dump of MindVox.
To this day the MindVox site continues its relationship with NeXT/NeXTSTEP, now in the form of Apple Computer's Mac OS X. Apple Inc, ( formerly Apple Computer Inc, is an American Multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing Consumer electronics Mac OS X (mæk oʊ ɛs tɛn is a line of computer Operating systems developed marketed and sold by Apple Inc, the latest of which is pre-loaded on all currently Instead of using php, perl or Active Server Pages, the entire site runs Apple's WebObjects [49]. PHP is a computer Scripting language. Originally designed for producing Dynamic web pages it has evolved to include a Command line interface capability NOTES FOR EDITORS "Perl" is not an acronym (read the "Name" section below Active Server Pages ( ASP) is Microsoft 's first server-side script engine for dynamically-generated web pages WebObjects is a Java web Application server from Apple Inc, and a Web application framework that runs on this server
MindVox was a fusion of many strange parts, pieces and times. While Kroupa might be said to have provided the imaginative backstory of the "thoughtscape", Fancher was largely responsible for the software that made it all work. The synergy of Kroupa, Fancher and the user-base MindVox attracted was a major aspect of MindVox's rise to fame.
The MindVox shutdown
MindVox began to fall apart around 1996, when it ceased operating as an ISP, and shut off dial-up access. While the exact date of the shutdown is disputed, the New York Times lists the closure as occurring in July of that year [50]. Ironically enough this happened a few months after New York Magazine voted MindVox as one of the three best ISP's in New York [51]. New York is a weekly magazine concerned with the life culture politics and style of New York City.
A public message [52] noted that free telnet access to the MindVox servers would still be available after the shutdown, but this did not last. Users were given the option to transfer their accounts to company Interport Communications, but the unique MindVox community did not survive.
Many different reasons have been given for the downfall, including increased competition from the arrival of large-scale providers like AT&T, possible legal difficulties, and the apparent incestuousness of the company and its core users [53]. But none of the theories provided realistic answers as to why the final days of MindVox seem to be closer to The Great Gatsby [54], and Altered States [55], than a successful or unsuccessful technology corporation. The Great Gatsby is a Novel by the American author F Scott Fitzgerald. Altered States is a 1980 Science fiction Film adaptation of a novel by the same name by playwright and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky Much of the legal paperwork from the time reads like something out of The Bonfire of the Vanities [56]. The Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1987 novel by Tom Wolfe. The story is a drama about ambition racism class politics and greed in 1980s New York City and centers
A 1999 article by Tom Higgins (username "Tomwhore" on the system), a user and one time employee of MindVox, summarized the turbulent closing thus:
- So what happened to MindVox? In short its customers happened. Under the strain of pleasing a paying customer base, watching a hobby turn into an industry and simply getting caught up in its own hype, MindVox tumbled into a soap opera nose dive of sex, drugs and mismanagement. [57]
By 1997 Patrick Kroupa had effectively disappeared from public view. The last days of MindVox are more the stuff of mythology than recorded fact, with different publications listing different dates for the shutdown. The New York Times and Wired were apparently unable to arrive at a consensus, with the Times listing the sale of MindVox's client-base and the closing of the system, in 1996 [58], while Wired was still covering an apparently open and at least partially operational MindVox circa 1997 [59].
Additional material suggests MindVox was never fully "closed" but simply closed to the public to become a private, invitation-only system. Rumors of a private, "inside" MindVox circulated, fueled by reprints of supposed internal MindVox messages from 1998 and 1999 that circulated on various mailing lists. The mindvox. com domain remained registered while, for a time, mail to phantom. com was redirected to Interport. The major discrepancy between the Times and Wired dates lends additional credence to the idea that MindVox continued, at least for a while, to support a community after its modem lines were turned off.
MindVox in the 21st Century
During 2000 a variety of MindVox pieces went back online [60], at phantom. com and additional material was released by MindVox to textfiles.com. textfilescom is a Web site run by Jason Scott dedicated to preserving gollywogs and the digital documents that contain the history of the BBS By 2001 Kroupa was back in the public eye and openly acknowledged being a lifelong heroin addict, who had finally kicked heroin and cocaine through the use of the hallucinogenic drug ibogaine [61]. Heroin ( INN: diacetylmorphine, BAN: diamorphine) is a semi-synthetic opioid synthesized from Morphine, a derivative The term " addiction " is used in many contexts to describe an obsession compulsion or excessive Physical dependence or psychological dependence such as Heroin ( INN: diacetylmorphine, BAN: diamorphine) is a semi-synthetic opioid synthesized from Morphine, a derivative Cocaine ( benzoylmethyl ecgonine) is a Crystalline Tropane Alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the Coca plant The general group of pharmacological agents commonly known as hallucinogens can be divided into three broad categories Psychedelics, Dissociatives Ibogaine is a naturally-occurring Psychoactive compound found in a number of plants principally in a member of the dogbane family known as iboga (
In 2005, MindVox was featured in two documentary films. Bruce Fancher is interviewed in BBS: The Documentary [62], [63], and Patrick Kroupa plays himself in Ibogaine: Rite of Passage [64], [65]. BBS The Documentary (commonly referred to as BBS Documentary) is a 3-disc 8-episode documentary about the Subculture born from
On December 9, 2005, the Transcriptions Project [66], placed The Agrippa Files online [67], which included Matthew G. Agrippa (a book of the dead is a Work of art created by Speculative fiction novelist William Gibson, artist Dennis Ashbaugh and publisher Kirschenbaum's, "Hacking 'Agrippa': The Source of the Online Text," an excerpt from his book Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination (MIT Press, 2007) [68]. The "Agrippa" discussed by Kirschenbaum was an unusual cyberpunk-influenced media project from 1992 by the science-fiction author William Gibson; its first public "leak" was to MindVox users in December of that year. Cyberpunk is a Science fiction genre noted for its focus on " High tech and low life. William Ford Gibson (born March 17 1948 is an American - Canadian writer who has been called the "noir prophet" of the Cyberpunk subgenre
Within the chapter, Kirschenbaum references several personal letters to Patrick Kroupa, circa 2003, and reveals that Kroupa cooperated with him by placing all of MindVox back online "for an hour or 5" [69] so that Kirschenbaum could view the context within which Agrippa was originally released. In discussing the service, Kirschenbaum referred to MindVox as "a kind of interface between what Alan Sondheim has aptly called the darknet and the clean, well lighted cyberspaces" [70]. Alan Sondheim is an American Poet and Critic. His works Sondheim's books include the anthology Being on Line Net Subjectivity ( Lusitania
Later Incarnations
As of 2007 the mindvox. com website, credited to "The People Impersonating MindVox Management" and apparently authored by Kroupa and Fancher, has become a hub of activity in the fields of harm reduction [71], Drug Reform [72], [73], [74], and psychedelic drugs (most notably Ibogaine) [75], [76], [77]. Harm reduction is a Philosophy of Public health, intended to be a progressive alternative to the prohibition of certain potentially dangerous Psychedelic drugs are Psychoactive drugs whose primary action is to alter the thought processes of the brain and perception of the mind Ibogaine is a naturally-occurring Psychoactive compound found in a number of plants principally in a member of the dogbane family known as iboga (
It has a variety of high-traffic lists covering these topics as well as various other issues. The community has taken on a completely new life; the interactive system itself, and the internal conferences and other services it provided, have not returned (despite announcements and plans heralding the perpetually-delayed rebirth of MindVox) [78], [79].
An IRC channel, EFnet #mindvox, created in the 1990s, has survived as a gathering place for some members of the older community.
External links
While the labyrinth of conferences, files and user interactions providing a unique overview of the birth of the public internet that are buried within the depths of MindVox have never re-surfaced or been made publicly available, limited archives of some parts of the service remain online at:
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