Article Spud Server
Potatoes: the secret power source that fuels the internet Getting a potato to power a clock is the stuff of high school chemistry. Spud Server purported to take the concept a step further by using potatoes to power an internet server.
Visitors to the site (which loaded agonizingly slowly) could marvel at their interactive participation in such a technological feat. The site reached the peak of its popularity in March 2000 when both USA Today and the BBC, among others, ran stories about it. A few days later the media had to admit that they had been taken for a ride.
Spud Server was a joke created by the fertile minds of Temple ov Thee Lemur, a nonprofit net company. But Steve Harris, one of the hoaxers behind Spud Server, noted that while their site was a sham, the concept itself was technically feasible.
Of course, whenever someone dreams up a crazy idea like this, it’s only a matter of time before someone else actually tries to make it work. In this case, Fredric White was the mad genius who rounded up a bunch of spuds and put together a real, working potato-powered web server. However, he soon abandoned his experiment in potato-powered computing after growing sick of the smell of rotting potatoes.
Steve Harris also theorized that it might be possible to build a beer-powered web site.