Goodbye Ceefax

This week see the last analouge television broadcast in the United Kingdom and after a little over 38 years the death of the Ceefax service. The first digital information service broadcast to the public in the world.

 

I know it is something a lot of people have grown up with and used over the years despite its slowness it had it uses for looking up what was on, the news and the weather before the dawn of the internet. We lost the service here a few years ago when we went digital and to be honest I find the freeview replacement sub-standard in terms of content. I guess it doesn't need to be as good, but then again it doesn't need to be with the internet and multichannel TV, however bad the later seems at times.

I work in the technology field and it still amazes me how far we have come in the time Ceefax came into our homes. Who could have predicted where we would be today in terms of the power at our finger tips as they glide across the screen of our tablets or smart phones. I do wonder how long it will be, before computers just become an extension of being.

That's is an aside, this post is about saying goodbye to an old friend, so goodbye Ceefax, you served us well over the years and despite your slowness you gave us more information than your replacement.