Ceefax is dead...

Wow, and just like that, Ceefax is dead...

I had thought that this had all come to an end with terrestrial switch off back in 2012, but actually a couple of little bits kept on pinging out content - it's still not (quite) the end...

Back in the day, when teletext (with a small "t") launched, you needed a set-top box to decode it from the terrestrial signal waving around over our heads - I remember hopping into (probably) our Renault 4 with my Dad, with it's lovely creaky campsite style seats and heading somewhere into suburban London to find an independent retailer who actually had one of these strange new decoder boxes (you could also buy a decoder box for the BBC A I seem to remember)...

Anyway, even though this was in the days before tape-based video recorders became established in the mainstream (so I couldn't at the time have drawn the comparison) it was roughly the size of a VHS player. The RF/Coax cable went in the back from the aerial on the roof and another one hooked you up to the TV.  The "remote" control was on a 2 or 3 meter wire that plugged in at the back, so it almost reached all the way to the sofa.  Press a combination of 2 magic buttons and slide a big buff slider or two into "teletext mode" and suddenly words appeared out of thin air...!

I can only really liken it to a very, very early version of the internet (but all done with UDGs in migraine inducing primary colours held in a rigid format)...you could interact with the content in two marvellous ways - either type in a new page number, or hit "Reveal" to make invisible content appear. Amazing! There was one very nice feature though, pick a channel, invoke the decoder, then going to page 888 would "minimise" the "browser" window and display subtitles (where available)...

Even back then though I remember finding it such a pain to browse, if you wanted to go and visit, say, page 800 on Teletext to get some funny jokes or hidden pictures behind a riddle you had to wait while it ticked through *every* *other* *page* of the 999 available on the way before it would (hopefully) load...

Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, it's not quite the end...a few cable channels are still (apparently) keeping up text pages (Channel 5, Nickelodian, Syfy channel to name but a couple), and some bright spark has figured out that the teletext signals got recorded on VHS tapes and has worked out how to decode them from old recordings of It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Benny Hill. There is also the teletext archive here...if you are feeling particularly sentimental...bye bye teletext, gone, but not forgotten...  ;)

London Traffic Light Timer

Such a simple and useful idea, just outside the office in Wapping we are lucky enough to have some of the new-ish (I believe they started to be rolled out in the run up to the 2012 Olympics) traffic light timers installed (next to the green man) that give an indication of how long you have to scramble across the road before the millions of speeding trucks will mercilessly crush your broken (jay walking) body into the road surface for daring to venture onto "The Highway"...we could do with some of these on King William Street, Tooley Street and Borough High Street traffic lights (to save everyone taking their life in their hands each day)!

London 2012 - Olympic Stadium light testing

...(links later, if I get a chance)...for now (and unfortunately I only had my Android camera with me) check out, far off in the distance, the Olympic stadium site, for the first time they are testing out all the flood lights, which are amazingly bright (even here, viewed from the 20th floor of One Canada Square)! I know it doesn't look like it in the thumbnail, but if you click the picture and zoom right in you can see quite clearly...if they are still playing with them next week I'll bring in the big camera and take a proper picture... ;)

Olympic Stadium Update - April 2009

Okay, so time for a little update on the stadium for the London 2012 Olympics, this, again what a lovely day (not), is my view across East London from One Canada Square, and here is a view at the absolute limit of the zoom on my camera -

- and you can see, since my last look on the 2nd of March, quite a lot of activity has actually taken place...the main white structure is now almost complete, and the seating areas appear to be completely finished...everyone here in the office is making comments about how small it appears to be, but I can't begin to imagine that it's some sort of Spinal Tap napkin incident taking place down there (although that would be hilarious), it has to be the perspective... ;)

Olympic Stadium - London 2012

Here we go, this is the view out of the window just behind my desk (with which you are perhaps already familiar) that peers out over where the Olympic Park is being constructed (up until now just appearing to be 40-odd cranes and hundreds of flashing yellow lights in the distance)...however, excitingly, if I zoom *aaaaaall* the way in, you can start to pick out some rather significant signs of construction, including the beginnings of the (rather impressive looking) main stadium -

- the black part at the back would appear to be the interior seating, and the white section at the front looks like it's going to hold whatever is going to enclose the whole thing (you can click to see bigger versions of the pictures if you like)...Anyway, I'll keep my eyes on it (and the rest of the work), and update you as they continue to build (for the next few years)!  One thing is for sure, we are going to have a great view of the opening ceremony fireworks from here!

Update - Don't miss the webcam they have peering at the work close up!

Great Britain is trying very hard...

...to be in the running to host the 2012 Olympics, there is an advertising campaign running all over London, trying to convince everyone that it is a good idea...just check out the Northern line at London Bridge if you don't believe me... ;)

I for one, don't think it is a good idea, because I have been on the London Underground and a number of other modes of public transport in our nations capital, and to be perfectly honest, it is already rather too crowded *without* bringing the worlds althletic sports fans and participants to join us, thank you very much. And do we really want the same kind of economic ruin that Greece suffered after the last one? I was amused, therefore, to spot the following bit of graffiti on a wall in Farringdon the other day (hehe) -

- although quite why Anarchists want to help keep public transport ticking over nicely is a bit of a mystery...*shrug*