please empty your brain below
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And don't forget pages 630 to 635 on BBC2, which I don't think are there anymore, but used to carry the Education programme listings.
*Cough*
Happy Birthday Ceefax. Although such a pleasant sentiment makes no difference to the fact that I f***ing hated writing some of your pages.
Vaughan | Homepage | 23.09.04 - 8:41 a.m. | #
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Ceefax is excellent for getting the landing times of flights into the UK, and details of delays.
And don't bank on Ceefax not getting to 40. I have good inside info about the analogue switch-off date 
Blue Witch | Homepage | 23.09.04 - 8:43 a.m. | #
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Many "I, for one"s in that post, DG. Doesn't that make you two?
Vanessa | Homepage | 23.09.04 - 9:05 a.m. | #
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And on "the other side" let us not forget Digitiser on channel 4 - Mr Biffo - the original writer, continues the madness here: http://www.mrbiffo.com
Scaryduck | Homepage | 23.09.04 - 10:06 a.m. | #
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The first time I used Ceefax was Xmas 1979, when my Dad installed it in the family home. I remember being thrilled beyond belief at the full-screen "digital photo" of that Trevor Horn out of the Buggles, with his trendy big spectacles clearly discernible.
Page 150 rocked my world. Briefly.
mike | Homepage | 23.09.04 - 12:26 p.m. | #
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Telesoftware was a brilliant idea which, in my experience, totally failed to deliver code which worked, or was worth the trouble once I had spent hours debugging it. Normally the result was somthing which also used those chunky character and block graphics whereas the screen was capable of so much more.
The BBC Microcomputer, on the other hand, was one of those ideas which was totally brilliant, could only have been concieved and executed by the BBC, and was cruelly starved of commercial oxygen by the inevitable rise of the Wintel/IBM PC.
Back in the days of Telesoftware the BBC also broadcast a Radio Programme on R4 as part of their MicroLive season. The final 30 seconds of each broadcast was an audio stream of the bits and bytes which could be recorded on analogue tape and then "loaded" into the BBC Micro. Had I been in posession of a cable connection I am sure the software would have been equally valuable (and bugfree) as the Ceefax stuff. However, all I has in those days was a lapel microphone which I waved hopefully, and fruitlessly, in the direction of my tranny.
Peter | Homepage | 23.09.04 - 12:49 p.m. | #
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Ceefax was a staple in our house from the 1980s- my dad was a teletext junkie, and still is. When he comes to someone's house (especially after a long journey) the first thing he will try and do is get the Ceefax on, 'to check the roads'. And if you go to his house, he will find out the names of the roads near where you live, and check them out for you as well, whether you like it or not. If there is a lane blockage on the A639 outside of Shrewsbury, my dad will be the first to tell you.
And he has to do that 'Bamboozle' quiz every day as well- the one with the chunky graphic of Mr Bamboozle the Ceefax quizmaster, who looks uncannily like Jack Lemmon- or is it Walter Matthau?
Mind you I do agree it is a fantastic service- the football news for instance is right up to date, and many is the time my dad has been the first to inform me, via the magic of Ceefax, of some shocking news from Newcastle United. Most recently it was 'get page 302 on- they've sacked Bobby!'
jonathan | Homepage | 23.09.04 - 1:36 p.m. | #
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My father is the same as Jonathan's. If you so much as glance away from the screen for a nanosecond, he's got Ceefax on and you've lost your chance of watching anything.
Does anyone remember the Teletext soap? I got quite addicted to it...
dg writes: hmm, you and me both...
Elsie | Homepage | 23.09.04 - 2:02 p.m. | #
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Park Avenue? I know the bloke who invented it.
Inspector Sands | Homepage | 23.09.04 - 3:58 p.m. | #
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('twas on Oracle, mind)
Inspector Sands | Homepage | 23.09.04 - 3:58 p.m. | #
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Wow 30 years old.
See http://www.allankelly.net/Person...al/
history.html
for details of my input (real name Dave Halligan)
poons | Homepage | 23.09.04 - 4:29 p.m. | #
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The new fangled BBCi text on my new fangled DTT TV has very pretty pages. Unfortunately, as you point out, they don't have page number access, and, quite brilliantly, the regional weather forecast is often the story of yesterday's weather.
Channel 4's DTT text service, on the other hand, has pretty pages \\_and\\_ three digit access. BBCi learn from this please.
Tim | 23.09.04 - 6:23 p.m. | #
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I'm sure the entire archive of Park Avenue was online at one point, but I've googled and can't find it now.
Mark | 23.09.04 - 8:21 p.m. | #
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Page 119 - Charivari.
Matt | Homepage | 23.09.04 - 8:37 p.m. | #
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I'd forgotten all about Page 150. You've brought back happy memories, DG.
When we first got a set with Teletext(when I must have been about 12) I spent more time looking at Ceefax than watching progammes.
ionicus | Homepage | 23.09.04 - 11:16 p.m. | #
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See, I told you everyone loved Ceefax 
diamond geezer | Homepage | 24.09.04 - 12:00 a.m. | #
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