Prodigy's Final Days

By Owen Thomas Friday, Sept. 03, 1999
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The patients lie in a cooled room on a raised floor in a warehouse-like building in New York City's northern suburbs. At the stroke of midnight on Oct. 1, Ray Santelises and his crew will pull the plug, though they have nursed their patients lovingly for years.

Santelises runs the data center of the now humbled Prodigy online service. His patients are a bank of outmoded minicomputers and mainframes that are host to what is called Prodigy Classic — the first great online service, newly aged beyond usefulness, that is giving way to its younger sibling, Prodigy Internet. MORE >>