Friday, June 03, 2005
Voodoo Chat
Voodoo Chat is a graphical, 2-D avatar based chat for Windows systems, modeled after earlier popular chat systems such as The Palace and IBM's Virtual Places.
Created in 2001 by Mike Parniak, it touts a level of security previously unheard of for a free chat system, including transparent encryption of the protocol and utilisation of unique cryptographic hashes of hard to change system information (such as hardware serial numbers) to ensure that troublemakers are banned by computer instead of username or IP address, making it difficult for them to return, short of reinstalling their operating system or switching to another computer.
The network, itself, is comprised of a set of distributed servers coordinated by a central hub which stores all information on its userbase. Under this model, anyone is free to download and run a chat server, with administrative tools provided to regulate the chatting environment on their server.
Created in 2001 by Mike Parniak, it touts a level of security previously unheard of for a free chat system, including transparent encryption of the protocol and utilisation of unique cryptographic hashes of hard to change system information (such as hardware serial numbers) to ensure that troublemakers are banned by computer instead of username or IP address, making it difficult for them to return, short of reinstalling their operating system or switching to another computer.
The network, itself, is comprised of a set of distributed servers coordinated by a central hub which stores all information on its userbase. Under this model, anyone is free to download and run a chat server, with administrative tools provided to regulate the chatting environment on their server.
