Bruce Fancher

Bruce Fancher (also known as Timberwolf) (born April 13, 1971) is a former computer hacker and member of the notable Legion of Doom hacker group. He co-founded MindVox in 1991 with Patrick K. Kroupa.

Bruce Fancher on Manhattan Rooftop in 1993

Early years

Bruce Fancher grew up in New York City. He is the son of Ed Fancher, who founded The Village Voice with Dan Wolf and Norman Mailer, in 1955.[1]

Much like Patrick Kroupa and other members of Legion of Doom, Bruce Fancher was part of the first generation to grow up with access to home computers and the networks that pre-dated the wide-scale adaptation of what became known as the internet.

Unlike most others, Fancher seems to have met most of the people who played major roles in his formative years, in person, at the YIPL/TAP meetings that were taking place on the Lower East Side of New York City. Fancher's peers included several hackers and phone phreaks of the day.[2]

The hacker publication Phrack is filled with out-of-character rants at the games Fancher was playing.[3][4][5][6] All of this culminated right around the time MindVox was first launched, with Phrack's first (and only) humor issue (Phrack #36) Phrack Magazine, also called "Diet Phrack", which was filled with LOD members stepping out from behind their usual handles and acting more like what the world had grown to expect from their rival gang, MOD (Masters of Deception).

Among other articles, such as Chris Goggans' "jive" version of the Book of MOD [7] that set off the Great Hacker War, Phrack 36 included the first and last, official publication of an article co-written by Fancher and Kroupa, called "Elite Access",[8] which was a cynical and funny expose of the "elite" and private hacker underground of the day. The article was apparently worked on and edited during a 5-year period, and there are at least 3 different versions of it that still remain online,[8][9][10] including a much earlier, hardcore technical revision which has most of the commands to control phone company computers, deleted out of it.[9]

Fancher and Kroupa's games with the "elite" made it into Kroupa's "Agr1ppa", a surreal parody of William Gibson's Agrippa, which had been leaked to the world from MindVox. The opening verses include a letter dated 1985, from the SysOp (System Operator) of a pirate Bulletin Board System which had apparently thrown both Fancher and Kroupa off the system, for uploading cracked software, which they then infected with a virus.[11]

Lunatics running the asylum

Neither Kroupa nor Fancher ever discussed the excess that was taking place behind the scenes until nearly a decade after the fact, but it was not a well kept secret. Although MindVox quickly became notorious for the escapades of its hard-partying clientele, there is little or no evidence that Fancher was involved personally in the wild lifestyles of its members. However, he was at least indirectly affected, in that by 1995 Kroupa's drug use was fast becoming legendary and his ability to function on a daily basis was diminishing. While the media's fascination with MindVox never ended, the development and growth of the system had slowed down and Phantom Access Technologies was taking on consulting positions to help other companies create their own online presence,[12] and Fancher gained growing acclaim as a software architect and member of the dot.com technocracy.[13][14][15][16][17]

21st century

While the last days of MindVox are more the stuff of mythology than recorded fact, and there are perpetual signs of MindVox coming back to life and opening again,[18][19] it appears likely that MindVox either went dark, or shut off public access, at some time in late 1997. The two main publications which covered the shutting of the gates, were The New York Times and Wired, who 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,[20] while Wired was still covering an apparently open and at least partially operational MindVox circa 1997, more than one year after the Times listed MindVox as being closed.[21]

By the late 1990s, Fancher seems to have gone through a series of start-ups where he was one of the initial founders, saw the company through the first few years, and promptly cashed out. The best-known of these appears to be DuoCash,[22] a micropayments company made infamous through a series of photographs posted on MindVox,[23] taken from the DuoCash office building, located across the street from where the World Trade Center had stood a few days before.[24][25]

As of 2005, Bruce Fancher is the vice president of Technology at Lagardere Active, North America.[26]

See also

References
  1. village voice > aboutus Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  2. MindVox: Last Exit For The Lost Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  3. http://www.phreak.org/archives/The_Hacker_Chronicles_II/phrk1/ph079.txt%5B%5D
  4. :: Phrack Magazine :: Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  5. :: Phrack Magazine :: Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  6. :: Phrack Magazine :: Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  7. :: Phrack Magazine :: Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  8. :: Phrack Magazine :: Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  9. Quot;Elite+Quot; Access A Tutorial By Lord Digital And Dead Lord Doom Of Legionsh Lords A Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  10. http://www.matarese.com/matarese-files/8902/elite-access-tutorial-lord-digitaldead-lord-doom-legions/index.html Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  11. https://www.eff.org/Misc/Publications/William_Gibson/agr1ppa.parody Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  12. http://kenkappel.com/Planet-Internet-Hires-Legion-of-Doom.pdf Archived August 1, 2003, at the Wayback Machine
  13. MindVox: Last Exit For The Lost Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  14. MindVox: Last Exit For The Lost Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  15. MindVox: Last Exit For The Lost Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  16. Hacking the corporate ladder - Forbes.com Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  17. MindVox: Last Exit For The Lost Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  18. MindVox: Last Exit For The Lost Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  19. mindvox
  20. MindVox: Last Exit For The Lost Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  21. MindVox: Last Exit For The Lost Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  22. MindVox: Last Exit For The Lost Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  23. MindVox: Last Exit For The Lost Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  24. http://www.phantom.com/images/About/BruceDuo1.jpg Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  25. http://www.phantom.com/images/About/BruceDuo2.jpg Archived January 31, 2011, at WebCite
  26. JIRA is a J2EE-based, issue tracking and project management application Archived March 25, 2007, at the Wayback Machine

Books
  • Rudy Rucker & R. U. Sirius, (1992) User's Guide to the New Edge (ISBN 0-06-096928-8)
  • Bruce Sterling, (1993) The Hacker Crackdown : Law And Disorder On The Electronic Frontier (ISBN 0-553-56370-X)
  • J C Herz, (1995) Surfing on the Internet (ISBN 0-316-36009-0)
  • St. Jude (Jude Milhon), (1995) The Real Cyberpunk Fakebook (ISBN 0-679-76230-2)
  • Charles Platt, (1997) Anarchy Online (ISBN 0-06-100990-3)
  • Melanie McGrath, (1998) Hard, Soft & Wet (ISBN 0-00-654849-0)
  • Stacy Horn, (2002) Waiting for My Cats to Die : A Memoir (ISBN 0-312-28744-5)

Magazines & Newspapers

Film

Television

Music
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