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IP: end of an era
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 08:47:01 -0400
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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