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- |1-Teletext Introduces...
-
-
- |2-"Live" Adverts!
-
-
-
-
-
-
- by Freak of NFA
-
- Okay, so you own a phone but you don't own a modem, right? Or maybe you
- want to get in touch with someone who has neither of the above? If you
- know that the "other person" had access to Teletext (Tlx) you can now
- leave them a message on the "Live Ads" pages.
-
- There are five page numbers to look out for in all, they are all on ITV
- and are as follows (Current on 3rd June 1995), I'll put in the actual
- text from Tlx where applicable:
-
- |1-Page 388 - How to use...
-
-
-
- This new service gives you the exciting opportunity to place your own
- messages and advert live into Teletext simply by using your telephone
- keypad.
-
- Your ads will be broadcast in the relevent advertising section.
-
- * Articles for sale are broadcast in your regional area, for me in
- Cleethorpes this means the Yorkshire and Tyne Tees TV areas.
-
- * Greetings are broadcast nationally.
-
- All adverts and messages should be no more than 20 words, to enter them
- into Tlx you have to convert them to a special numeric code that can be
- keyed into a normal telephone keypad...
-
- |1-Page 389 - Alphanumeric Combinations
-
-
-
- First of all, write down your message and then use the table of values
- to convert your message to the relevent code, the values are:
-
- .------------------------------------------------------------------.
- | |
- | A=11 I=19 Q=27 Y=35 ,=41 &=46 0=0* 5=5* |
- | B=12 J=20 R=28 Z=36 ?=42 +=47 1=1* 6=6* |
- | C=13 K=21 S=29 !=43 ;=48 2=2* 7=7* |
- | D=14 L=22 T=30 "=44 .=49 3=3* 8=8* |
- | E=15 M=23 U=31 -=45 £=50 4=4* 9=9* |
- | F=16 N=24 V=32 |
- | G=17 O=25 W=33 DELETE=** SPACE=40 |
- | H=18 P=26 X=34 END=# |
- | |
- `------------------------------------------------------------------'
-
- So the line "FREAK IS ACE" would translate to:
-
- 16 28 15 11 21 40 19 29 40 11 13 15
- ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
- F R E A K I S A C E
-
- Next you have to dial the Teletext computer, which is on 0891 900 731,
- and as you'll notice straight away, it's 39p/min cheap rate and 49p/min
- at all other times, so you've either got to type quickly or (and this is
- where your Amiga comes in!) play the relevent tones through your
- loudspeaker and straight into the handset of your phone.
-
- There are already a couple of programs available that will generate the
- correct combinations of notes required to produce the tones, so it
- should be pretty straightforward to reproduce one in something like AMOS
- (Source Code to follow soon, heheheheh). In theory, if you don't have a
- phone you can record the tones from your computer and play them back
- from a tape recorder into any BT Payphone, kewl eh?
-
- I'm not sure how quickly you can actually dial your codes in though, not
- having a telephone makes it pretty difficult! You can watch what people
- are typing in on page 389 as well, as I'm speaking the message "JOANNE-
- LVS-MATTHEW 4 EVER" is crawling across the screen. There appears to be
- space for 10 phone lines, but I've only ever seen six of them active at
- any one time.
-
- I would assume that the text appears slowly because people are typing
- them in and reading the numbers off the screen at the same time, I'll
- confirm this when I can!
-
- |1-Page 395 - Cars for Sale
-
-
-
- Here's where you can get rid of that rusty old banger that's taking up
- room in the garden, there are never more than two pages of cars (yet!)
- so is doesn't take long to get through this one.
-
- |1-Page 396 - For Sale
-
-
-
- This is where you'll find things that are For Sale or To Rent, as I'm
- typing I can see the following...
-
- For Sale - 2 Bedsite Potcupbards - £65 each
- Wanted - Boys Cloths, 12 Months +
- For Sale - Star Trekking Collection
- For Sale - Mega CD with Mega Drive and 11 Games
-
- plus others! This section isn't the biggest yet because users are still
- having a laugh sending messages to each other, so by far the busiest
- slot at the moment must be...
-
- |1-Page 397 - Greetings
-
-
-
- Aside from several marriage proposals [sic], there are the following
- messages for all to read...
-
- Can I Kick it?
- Dawn W Get my dinner on Steve D.
- Sam and Andy, Hiya from Liz
- Jo & H Calling, anyone want a chat?
- R U Bored
- Hi Mom will you please get me that computer
- Hi Star Trek fans, Live long and prosper!
-
- and it goes on and on, there are (eeek!) 99 bloody pages of this sort of
- thing, with up to 4 messages on each page, plenty of room to get a few
- scene messages in don't you think? In case you're wondering (!) it'll
- take 33 minutes to read all 99 pages...
-
- |1-For the Scene...
-
-
-
- I propose (not the marrying kind, dummy!) that us scene'ers take over
- Tlx for ourselves and leave messages for each other, I think 8pm is a
- good time to start putting messages on, it's cheap rate and most people
- will be at home to see them, unfortunately it will clash somewhat with
- decent TV programs, but I'm sure we can live with that? If you leave
- Tlx on Mix (Colour 0 Genlocked) and stretch the top half to full screen
- you can watch TV easily enough and read the incoming messages.
-
- I generally read all the messages last thing at night as I'm drifting
- off to sleep, just stick the ol' TV on Timer and leave them going until
- either I fall asleep or the TV switches itself off. If you leave a
- message for me, I'll see it...
-
- ^27^^220
-
-
-