The Names of Grex

Nov 13 17:43 UTC 1994

     Welcome to

         **
       ******
    ************

     THE HEARTH

    ************
       ******
         **

A Home Away from Home
   and Yet at Home,

Where the Elite Meet
         to
 Put Up Their Feet
         and
   Modemly Greet

         **

 Your Genial Hosts:

   STeve Andre
   Misti Anslin
   Valerie Mates
   John Remmers
   Mary Remmers
   Mike Smerza
   Marc Unangst
   Marcus Watts
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Does the above look familiar?  Probably not, unless you're a Grex
founder.  "The Hearth" was one of the earliest names proposed for the
system when it was in the planning stages during January to June of
1991, and the above is my mock-up of what the login screen for the
"hearth" general conference might look like.  The list of "genial
hosts" isn't a complete list of the founders, but rather the active
core group when planning efforts first seriously got underway.
(Apologies in advance to anyone I might be forgetting.)

In the process of cleaning and reorganizing my study, I found the above
mock-up in a folder that turned out to be full of founders meeting
notes and other documents from the first half of 1991 when Grex was in
the planning stages.  I came across a lot of fascinating stuff --
organizational ideas that were tossed around, checklists of hardware
and software work to be done, email from people whom I'd forgotten
were even involved, a receipts from U of M Property Disposition for
the desk on which the Grex console now sits, and so on.  Being in a
somewhat systematic mood, I went through all this material, sifting
and labeling it, putting it in chronological order.

Some interesting tidbits:  

Notes from my initial phone contact with Ken Ascher, when the system
was looking for a place to live, indicate that he estimated that
electricity costs might be around $15 per month.  Har har har.  Neither
he nor I were aware at the time of the kind of dinosaur-era
power-hungry equipment on which Grex would be running.

There's an early draft of the Articles of Incorporation, in which the
corporation name is given as "Cooperative Computer Conferencing."
In retrospect, changing to "Cyberspace Communications" was a real
good move.

And then there was the "FOG Meeting".  A lot of notes about that.  FOG
stood for "Friends of Grex"; the meeting was an open forum held in June
1991 at Island Park, a few weeks' prior to opening Grex up to the
public, to explain what we were about and solicit input.  A lot of
folks showed up.

One thing that blew me away was the sheer number of names that were
proposed for the new system -- close to 50 in all!  Not all of them
were meant seriously, but a lot were.  We had a lot of trouble coming
to a decision on it.  The winning name -- "Grex", as you very well
know -- was Marcus Watts' idea.  He actually proposed it in January,
but it wasn't until May and a lot of other names had been suggested
that we finally came to a decision on it.  I didn't like it much at
first, but in retrospect, I think it was a wonderful choice.

The next response is an alphabetized list of all the name suggestions
I could find.  It's amazing what people came up with.  My notes
contain explanations for a few of them, and I've included those.
I thought they should be entered somewhere for the historical record.

response 2 of 28:

Nov 13 17:50 UTC 1994

   I love it!  A blast from the past.  I've recently gone over some of
my notes, too.  Perhaps we should create a archives box for some of
this?  I have the list of people who attended the FOG meeting of 6/30/91.
There really were a bunch of folks there.

response 4 of 28:

Nov 13 21:19 UTC 1994

I entered it, not STeve.

Dunno who made the "bagels" suggestion; my notes don't say.  Probably
not me, as I wasn't into bagels at the time.

response 6 of 28:

Nov 14 02:22 UTC 1994

The "Where the elite meet to put up their feet" was ripped off, er inspired by
Matt groening's "AKbar&Jeff" from is pre-simpson comic strip "life in Hell"
Akbar and jeff's airport snack bar: "Where the elite meet to eat re-heated
meaty tre ats. or "Akbar and Jeff's treatment center": where the elite meet to
get back on their feet" or even "Akbar and Jeff"s Liposuction Hut" : where the
elite meet after they eat so they can stay petite. Just glad to see there are
more "life in hell" fans (Akbar& Jeff are the two non-rabbits who where fezes)

response 8 of 28:

Nov 14 03:50 UTC 1994

Wheat Grex, Rice Grex, and Corn Grex.

response 10 of 28:

Nov 15 01:31 UTC 1994

Cattle Grex, Sheep Grex, and Goats Grex.  Also Grex Party Mix.

response 14 of 28:

Nov 15 08:54 UTC 1994

And the name coop is now a conference ....
  
Neat stuff to read and remember, like Island Park ....

response 16 of 28:

Nov 15 11:01 UTC 1994

A blast from the past!! <sniff> But I was left off the list! Oh well,
out of sight [in NC], out of mind...!  But hey, that's the way it is!
  :-)

response 20 of 28:

Nov 16 11:05 UTC 1994

grex (greks). Biol. [a. L. grex flock.] A clump of myxamoebae formed during a
phase of the life cycle of cellular slime moulds, the Acrasina or
Acrasiomycetes.  Also attrib.
  1962 B. M. SHAFFER in M. Abercrombie Adv. Morphogenesis II. 112 In the second
phase, the aggregate has a fairly definite shape, whatever its origin, and
reactions that are foreign to those of the component cells: it has become the
individual.  As no existing words connoting `many-in-oneness' seem to be
available, the name grex-the classical product of ad-gregation-is put forward
for it. 1962 B. M. SHAFFER in M. Abercrombie Adv. Morphogenesis 162 If the
grex cells move like stream cells, we must again consider to what extent they
are guided by acrasin. 1971 Nature 4 June 329/2 Although the aggregate can
differentiate directly into a fruiting body it usually migrates as a
coordinated irritable whole in the form of a tapered cylinder called the grex.


   That wonderful little quote is something I picked up over on M-Net. ;-)

response 22 of 28:

Nov 16 14:11 UTC 1994

Definitely. We *are* planning to "migrate... as a coordinated irritable
whole", when the wiring is done.

response 24 of 28:

Nov 16 15:26 UTC 1994

Tubular! err...cylindrical!