
Ceefax Final Broadcast: 'Goodbye, cruel world.' - laumars
http://h4ck.in/g/a/14/Ceefax-Final-Broadcast%3A-%27Goodbye%2C-cruel-world.%27#.UIcBm60drmg.hackernews
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ashleyblackmore
This is what I would play around with before I had a computer. You could only
use it with a certain remote (with coloured buttons) and my folks didn't have
one so I couldn't use it at home. It infuriated me knowing it was nevertheless
coming across the air. I could only use it at my grandparents' place. I think
they were pretty baffled that I wanted to spend so much time clicking around
on a gaudy screen, but there were games and live news streams. Also kids shows
would announce Ceefax pages at the end of shows so you could get more
information. So much like the internet but years before I would have access.
QQ.

So long, Ceefax

~~~
scrumper
All you really needed was a "Text" button on your remote. The coloured buttons
were for Fastext, a later innovation found on more expensive tellies. You posh
nob with your posh grandparents. :)

I'm sad it's going, but I don't think I've looked at it in over twenty years.
Do you remember BBC2 announcing "And now, some pages from Ceefax," in the
afternoon? My cue to go outside and play...

Oh, and you talk about frustration: our first TV was a giant old brown-cased
Grundig. No text, but the remote that came with it had all the buttons! Now
that was a slap in the face.

~~~
ashleyblackmore
No text button! :,( But yeah my posh grandparents had a pretty posh telly!

>> "And now, some pages from Ceefax," in the afternoon? My cue to go outside
and play...

Kinda reminds me of this: <http://imgur.com/AlzRd>

Weather on Ceefax: [http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02196/map-
ceefax...](http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02196/map-
ceefax_2196470b.jpg)

Turner the Worm: <http://www.yoursinclair.co.uk/pics/anims/dinosaurplanet.gif>

~~~
scrumper
Hah! Fantastic stuff! And of course Your Sinclair is a prime nostalgia trigger
all of its own. Do you remember Bamboozle (I think it was on C4 rather than
Ceefax.)

What about this then? <http://www.grangehill.net/bbc1_clock_offair.jpg>

I remember being blown away when they changed to this:
<http://625.uk.com/tv_logos/logos/bbc1_85.jpg>

Funny to think about how little media we had back then, when today I can pull
a slab out of my pocket and access a significant fraction of the world's
movies, songs and books instantly. Reckon I had more fun then though, but that
might be because I didn't have a hellish job and a family to feed. Ah well.

Cheers for the memories. Better stop now or we'll end up talking about Bagpuss
and the bloody Clangers like a pair of students.

~~~
nicholassmith
My aunt and uncle used to look after me and my sister when we'd finished
school before my mum finished work, highlight was group playing Bamboozle. It
was awesome, then occasionally the signal would die and it'd ruin your game.

------
halvsjur
Still going strong on most Norwegian channels. It's very good for a fast
news/weather/stock etc. update, the interface is much faster to use compared
to what you get with the web.

Modern TVs cache all 999 possible pages, so flipping between pages is
instantaneous. With old sets you could end up waiting for about a minute in
the worst case.

NRK (the Norwegian equivalent to the BBC) have a web based interface:

<http://nrk.no/tekst-tv/190/>

~~~
mongol
It's the same in Sweden (at least for public service broadcasting SVT). There
is an Android app that I use regularly that gives the same user interface as
the television screen. Text-TV as it is called here is still very fast in
breaking news, as well for relevant though brief news headlines. It is one of
the best medium for news still.

For example, the news that Sweden was on its way to turn around from 0-4 to
4-4 against Germany in WC qualifiers reached me by the means of Text-TV (the
start page said so at 3-4), so I could tune it in and see the 4-4 goal.

<http://www.svt.se/svttext/web/pages/100.html>

------
josephlord
It's quite possible to broadcast teletext on digital services and that is done
widely at least through Europe. The UK went for MHEG as a replacement. I found
teletext faster and often fuller in detail than the equivalent digital
services although the pictures are better on MHEG and it has the ability to
embed broadcast streams (sometimes loops and sometimes live).

At least the TVs I worked on received MHEG if they were set to UK and teletext
in other settings.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Huh. I thought we used one of the HTML subsets for our interactive services.
Guess not.

~~~
pa676767
That's coming. MHEG is going be replaced with hbbtv (a html sub-set). MHEG is
too difficult to write and has a small number of people who understand the
weird syntax.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Ah, that's good to hear :)

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venti
The German system, called "Teletext" is still alive and kicking. See for
example <http://ardtext.de/> and <http://zdftext.de/> of the first and second
TV channel in Germany. Even in times of the Web it's often faster to get the
latest sports results through teletext (if you just want the results and no
clutter).

~~~
waqf
Small point: Teletext is not the "German" system, it's the generic name for
the service. The UK had several Teletext services, such as Ceefax (BBC
channels) and Oracle (independent channel). Similarly ARDText and ZDFtext are
German Teletext services.

~~~
kleiba
The German name for the service is "Videotext", although this might just be
colloquial.

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Tycho
The travesty is, it's still better than the Red Button service you get with
brand new digital TVs (as far as reading text goes, anyway).

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wronskian
Just to be clear, the 'final screen' shown in that article is a mock-up that's
been doing the rounds; it wasn't shown on the actual BBC Ceefax service.

~~~
makomk
Yeah, the BBC News article at <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20032882> has what
were apparently the actual final moments of Ceefax (top video on the page) -
they're a lot more impresssive.

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aj700
To ease the pain, hasn't somebody made a user style sheet that makes BBC News
web pages look like Ceefax? White on black. Fixedsys?

------
gnu8
"BBC ageism"? How dramatic can we get? I'm sure there are more efficient and
effective ways of providing people with information today. Memories are
wonderful but let's not let our sentiment turn into outrage over turning off
an outdated service that is no longer needed.

~~~
iamjustlooking
It's a tongue in cheek joke based on a number of BBC ageism scandals that have
erupted over the past couple of years.

<https://www.google.com/search?q=bbc+ageism+tribunal>

~~~
gnu8
Thanks, that puts it into perspective for me.

~~~
corin_
I think even without that context it ought to have been clear that the entire
message is written to be humourous - not having a dig at you, maybe English
isn't your first language or maybe you just have a different sense of humour
to me, just saying that this was designed to be funny to all, not to those who
spot the in-joke.

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k-mcgrady
This was how I got 'niche' news before we had the internet. Every morning
before school I would hit text, type in the page number and get the latest F1
news. If I remember correctly when there were multiple pages it would cycle
through them automatically which meant that if you didn't read quick enough
you had to wait for it to cycle back around so you could finish the page. It
used to stay on each page for about 30 seconds so this was a real pain on 4/5
page stories.

And, similar to browsing multiple websites to read different sources, I would
use the BBC's Ceefax and then switch to ITV to read their teletext service.

~~~
jameshart
I guess it's a little late to let you into the secret now, but: that was what
the 'hold' button on the remote was for - it would prevent the page reloading
the next time the page number was transmitted. Of course, when you finish
reading page 1, and 'unhold' it, the next version of the page to load might
not be page 2, perhaps, but say, page 8. So you have to wait for 2 to come
round again....

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TomGullen
RIP Ceefax "Now and Next"! The most useful page on it!

I will always remember the way that if you are on page 643 and you type 641 it
will go 644, 645, 646.. and other times randomly just straight to it.

~~~
anigbrowl
That brings back memories - I had so many three-digit numbers into muscle
memory for checking news, TV listings and so on, and used to be able to flip
around really fast because I had a feel for the page timing. I guess Ceefax
was long past its use-by date, but I'm sad to see it go. every time I use the
Cable TV guide here in the US I wish I could call up Ceefax instead.

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zizee
This story reminds me of the story of the recent closure of the venerable
Minitel network in France.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2733106>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4170531>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4175141>

------
handelaar
Ireland's (<http://rte.ie/aertel>) goes off air in 6 hours.

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gadders
Uh oh. Where is my Dad going to get his horse racing results now? NB: He
doesn't have a computer.

~~~
user24
Where I work, <http://gg.com>, we offer text message based alerts for running
horses.

