

Ceefax service to end after 38 years on BBC - davedevelopment
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20032882

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jaffathecake
The initial path part of BBC urls (<http://bbc.co.uk/this-bit/etc/etc>)
weren't allowed to contain an underscore, because they can't be displayed on
Ceefax.

Lovely bit of legacy.

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TapaJob
For those interested, Prestel was a great service too. Early days of investing
and retriving historical data on companies via 4tel's Shares 3000 pages was
the only way for private investors to get data freely. Investing could be done
by dial-up using the prestel platform.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmjKAM1NVWE>

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huskyr
I will wonder what happens with subtitles. Watching shows on the beeb with
subtitles on was a lifesaver for me when learning English.

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jgrahamc
Subtitles continue to be available as part of the new digital TV service and
the BBC continues to aim to subtitle all its output:
[http://faq.external.bbc.co.uk/questions/help_receiving/TV_su...](http://faq.external.bbc.co.uk/questions/help_receiving/TV_subtitles)

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jgrahamc
One of the nice things about Ceefax was that it managed to combine instant and
delayed gratification. You knew you could get certain information by punching
in the page number but at the same time you had to wait a short while for it
to appear as the pages (and sub-pages) were transmitted in a certain order. I
think it was this combination of access to information and a small price to
pay in getting it that made it so addictive.

And the limited screen real-estate meant that the writing had to be short,
simple and clear. The screen format was 24 x 40 and once headers and footers
are taking into account a typical story might have 17 x 40 = 680 characters.
Assuming an average English word length of 5 characters that's roughly 110
words. Add in blank lines for paragraph breaks and the format is very
constrained.

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emillon
You can actually consult ceefax online :

[http://www.ceefax.tv/txtmaster.php?page=199&channel=bbc1...](http://www.ceefax.tv/txtmaster.php?page=199&channel=bbc1&search_string=&all_subs=off&textmode=&fontsize=2)

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alexkus
Bit out of date that though (i.e. Sport on 302 has RVP still playing for
Arsenal.)

I'll miss it, I used to watch football scores updating on Teletext for many
many years...

And this reminds me of Mikefax on the BBC Micro that could be used to make
your own teletext style pages. Control code 141 for double height Mode 7
chars?

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finne
Here's a lovely audio slideshow that captures the essence of Ceefax, complete
with that cheesy music that accompanied everything:
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19996372>

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gabemart
When I was young, I would sneak downstairs in the early morning on weekends to
watch cartoons. If I was too early, nothing would be on apart from ceefax. I
must have listened to that music for hundreds of hours.

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wouterinho
The Ceefax-like service in the Netherlands is actually a much-installed
iPhone/Android app. The limitation in information you can provide provides for
a short, to the point, "curated" overview of things happening.

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drsim
Teletext (Ceefax on Channel 4) had some games you could play 'through your
TV!' :)

Bamboozle was a general knowledge, multiple choice quiz. A hacker at heart I
noticed the correct choice (red/green/yellow/blue) went to a different page
number to the rest. So if you quickly flicked through all the colours until
you found the different one you could blaze through with 100% correct.

My sister was amazed when I could get every question right first time.

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olgeni
> Teletext (Ceefax on Channel 4) had some games you could play 'through your
> TV!' :)

Some broadcasters even had "apps" that you could "run" through an assigned
Teletext page and your phone (using DTMF), including home banking and silly
games.

If you picked up a random page in a certain interval you would actually see
anonymized account data being broadcast around...

(also check ETS 300 706 and 708 for more fun stuff about teletext)

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Evbn
BBC has been an underrated vanguard in advancing communications technology.

