Once, when the web was young...

The Trojan Room Coffee Pot
The coffee pot became a hugely popular Internet attraction
March 7, 2001
Web posted at: 1:20 PM EST (18:20 GMT) by CNN
CAMBRIDGE, England -- The world's most famous coffee pot is finally going to ground after 10 years in the spotlight on the Internet. The coffee percolator is used by computer scientists at Cambridge University who in 1991 decided they would be best served if they could see it in action so they would always know when it was full.
The machine is located in a room known as the Trojan Room, some distance away from many of the coffee drinkers, who at the time were becoming increasingly frustrated at having to navigate several flights of stairs only to find it empty.
The researchers hit upon the idea of relaying images of the filter machine direct to their computer screens, so they set up a camcorder, pointed it towards the pot, and wrote a special programme so they could keep a constant check on the coffee.
Quentin Stafford-Fraser, the man behind the Web site, said initially the image was only updated about three times a minute, but that was fine because the pot filled rather slowly.
With the arrival of the Internet soon afterwards, the coffee pot became the world's first Web cam, attracting some 2.5 million visitors over the next decade. It even achieved cult status, with one couple from America reportedly travelling to Cambridge to get a closer look.
But the university's computer department is moving to a new building later this year and the Web cam is being turned off because there is no more need for it.
Research scientist Dan Gordon told CNN the Web site had created a lot of interest but was never really intended to last a long time.
Other webcams are still online (live from Time Square):