Pi Tau Zeta Webcams in the Press

The Pi Tau Zeta webcam has been running since December of 1996. We believe that this is the oldest webcam on the internet that is still operating and features human subjects (as opposed to fish or coffeepots).

Here are excerpts from when the Basha lounge webcam (www.mitwebcam.com) and the kitchen webcam (http://www.collegecoedsgonewildinthekitchen.com) have been featured in the news:

Yahoo! Internet Life Magazine - May, 1999

An article about R.I.T.'s Computer Science House included a sidebar on "college campus gadgets," featuring a screenshot and description of the PTZ webcam (text below). It also included a description of Random Hall's laundry server. Earlier in this issue is an article about a strange new search engine called "Google!" (yes, it was spelled with an exclamation point back then).

Speaker of the House
The Pi Tau Zeta Basha Lounge Webcam Web page [theghetto.mit.edu/webcam.htm] lets site visitors talk to M.I.T. Pi Tau Zeta fraternity brothers [sic] via the Net. Type a comment into the page's "Message to say" field and hit Return, and the frat's computer will speak your typed words to anyone passing through the house lounge. You even have a few voice options: American male, American female, or "Roger," a saucy Brit.

ZDTV - 1999

The webcam was featured on ZDTV's "Internet Tonight" in 1999.

Improper Bostonian - December, 2003

Both webcams were featured in Improper Bostonian's "the Word" in the December 3-16, 2003 issue:

Take a closer look inside the lounge at the MIT Pi Tau Zeta residence hall [sic] (second photo from the bottom) at www.mitwebcam.com to see old computers being made into fish tanks. Or see what's cookin' in the dorm's kitchen at www.collegecoedsgonewildinthekitchen.com (bottom photo). If you come across a blank screen, it's because the coeds aren't hungry. But they'll be back.

A larger scan of the story