IP: end of an era

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> X-Sender: mom () mail netmom com
> Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 08:37:36 -0400
> To: farber () central cis upenn edu (David Farber)
> From: Jean Armour Polly <mom () netmom com>
> Subject: end of an era
>
> Dave, the coffee pot on the Net passes into oblivion, and gets sold as a 
> collectible on eBay...
> http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20010813/wr/internet_coffeepot_dc_1.html
>
> Monday August 13 10:31 PM ET
>
> Cult Coffee Pot Gets New Internet Owners
>
> By Michelle Green
>
> LONDON (Reuters) - After nearly a decade, the Internet's most famous 
> coffee pot has finally given up brewing to become a showpiece.
>
> Surfers trying to view the coffee pot, which gained cult status after 
> being displayed on the Web by students at England's Cambridge University, 
> now find a ``Sold'' sign propped in front of it.
>
> The now broken coffee pot was bought in an online auction for $4,771 by 
> news magazine Spiegel Online, according to the German Web site's editors. 
> It will occupy pride of place in the magazine's Hamburg offices and on its 
> Web site.
>
> The coffee pot was originally bought by computer students at Cambridge 10 
> years ago. They got so fed up finding it empty that they set up one of the 
> world's first webcams -- a small camera broadcasting pictures on the 
> Internet -- so they could check its status without leaving their desks.
>
> Word of the site, which showed nothing more than the coffee pot slowly 
> filling up, soon got out and surfers flocked to it in droves.
>
> Dan Gordon, a scientist at the university, said the site, which he 
> acknowledged was only marginally more exciting than watching paint dry, 
> had attracted more than two million viewers since 1993.
>
> ``Once, some American tourists called into the tourist information center 
> (in Cambridge) and asked where (the coffee pot) was so they could visit 
> it,'' Gordon told Reuters.
>
> ``They took lots of photos. It's not really very impressive though, it's 
> just a coffee pot.''
>
> Now the university's computer students are moving to a new laboratory and 
> the pot is being retired.
>
> ``Time moves on and we want to buy a shiny new espresso machine,'' the 
> students wrote in their offering on auction site eBay.
>
> If Spiegel Online's staff were hoping for a fresh brew they may be 
> disappointed with their purchase.
>
> ``We must warn you that the machine is broken possibly beyond repair. It 
> leaks water, and we've cut off the mains plug,'' the students wrote.
> The last picture of the coffee pot in its Cambridge University home can be 
> seen at www.cl.cam.ac.uk/coffee/coffee.html.



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