Say Goodbye to the World's Oldest Webcam

Dewy-eyed tech lovers, we're sorry: The FogCam is coming down. After 25 years, the world's oldest-known webcam will be removed from its perch at San Francisco State University campus, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Jeff Schwartz and Dan Wong set it up in 1994 while studying computer science there. "We felt it was time to let it go," says Schwartz, who plans to take it down this month. "The bottom line is that we no longer have a really good view or place to put the camera. The university tolerates us, but they don't really endorse us and so we have to find secure locations on our own."

"It was just a little pet project that developed a life of its own," he explains. "People liked it so we kept it going." The site was also an early adopter of social media, offering a live chat room with the webcam. Seems it also inspired a call from MTV's Adam Curry, who modeled it for his own website and gave Schwartz and Wong credit. Cambridge University's Trojan Room Coffee Pot cam—which showed how much coffee was in the pot there—actually predates the FogCam by a year but was removed in 2001, per the Verge. Maybe webcam lovers can redirect their attention to London's Abbey Road cam, where Beatles fans often stop traffic to mimic a certain iconic image. (More webcam stories.)