 | MindVox: Encyclopedia II - MindVox - Voice: Waffle ][+ the NeXTSTEP
MindVox - 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.
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 its 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].
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]. 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]. DDIAL 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. 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 ]/=-
/\_-\
<((_))>
\- \/
/\_-\(:::::::::)/\_-\
<((_)) MindVox ((_))>
\- \/(:::::::::)\- \/
/\_-\
<((_))>
\- \/
-=/[ 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.
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. Instead of using php, perl or Active Server Pages, the entire site runs Apple's WebObjects [49].
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.
Other related archives14 February, 1991, 1992, 1994, ASCII art, Active Server Pages, Altered States, Apple Computer, Apple II, BBS, BBS: The Documentary, Billy Idol, Bruce Fancher, Californian, Charles Platt, Dead Lord, Douglas Rushkoff, Forbes, Golden Age, Hells Angels, IRC, Ibogaine, Internet Service Provider, Jim Morrison, John Perry Barlow, Kurt Cobain, Legion of Doom, Lord Digital, MTV, Mac OS X, Manhattan, NeXT, NeXTSTEP, New York City, New York Magazine, Patrick Kroupa, Phiber Optik, Robert Altman, Rolling Stone, Rotten.com, SSH, The Bonfire of the Vanities, The Great Gatsby, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Tom Higgins, Unix, Usenet, Viacom, WELL, Waffle, WebObjects, Wil Wheaton, William Gibson, Wired, World Wide Web, addict, cocaine, cyberpunk, cyberspace, dial-up, double entendre, ftp, grand jury, hacker, hallucinogenic drug, harm reduction, heroin, ibogaine, indictment, perl, php, psychedelic drugs, shell prompt, telnet, textfiles.com
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Voice: Waffle ][+ the NeXTSTEP", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
