Google
 

Aardvark Daily

New Zealand's longest-running online daily news and commentary publication, now in its 18th year. The opinion pieces presented here are not purported to be fact but reasonable effort is made to ensure accuracy.

Content copyright © 1995 - 2013 to Bruce Simpson (aka Aardvark), the logo was kindly created for Aardvark Daily by the folks at aardvark.co.uk



Please visit the sponsor!
Please visit the sponsor!

What is/was a Minitel?

29 June 2012

I suspect that many people these days would ask "what's the Minitel?" if you mentioned the word in polite conversation.

Those of us who have been in this technology game for two or three decades however, will be able to answer them. I suspect many of the "don't knows" will be surprised to find out just how revolutionary this device was in its day.

Back in the 1980s, when the rest of the world was thumbing through huge, heavy cumbersome wads of dead-tree flesh and ink, whenever they wanted to look up a telephone number -- the French had this information available at the press of a button.

Yes, they had an national online network that reached almost every home -- long before the Net was even on the horizon.

And the device that made this all possible was the Minitel -- a small terminal consisting of a keyboard and screen which hooked up to your phone and phoneline.

Perhaps even more astounding than the fact that the French were so visionary in the first place, is the fact that these devices have still been in use, up to 30 years later.

However, this weekend, the French will be pulling the plug on this magnificent and forward-thinking use of technology.

The Minitel network will fall silent -- effectively replaced by the Net that we all know and use today.

The idea for the Minitel was first mooted way back in the 1970s -- when I was first playing around with these new-fangled microprocessor things and many of Aardvark's readers were probably still in short-pants.

The first actual device was commissioned in 1982 and acted solely as a telephone directory service -- but plenty of companies saw the potential and started delivering other information and entertainment services through the network.

In fact, the growth of the Minitel was nothing short of amazing!

By the mid 1990s, the network boasted over 9 million Minitel terminals and there were over 20,000 different services available from its keyboard.

While NZ might think it's riding the sharp end of communications technology with its UFB plans -- they are nothing compared to the huge step forward that Minitel represented some 30 years ago.

I wonder if the UFB will be as long-lived as the Minitel network?

What do readers think?

Has anyone here actually *used* a Minitel or seen one in the flesh I wonder?

Please visit the sponsor!
Please visit the sponsor!

Have your say on this...

PERMALINK to this column

Oh, and don't forget today's sci/tech news headlines


Rank This Aardvark Page

 

Change Font

Sci-Tech headlines

 


Apart from the kind support of the sponsor, Aardvark Daily is largely a labour of love that involves many hours of hard work each month. If you appreciate the content you find here (or even if you don't) then please visit the sponsor and also feel free to gift me a donation using the button above.

Remember, this is purely a gift, you'll get nothing other than a warm fuzzy feeling in return.


Features:

Beware The Alternative Energy Scammers

The Great "Run Your Car On Water" Scam

 

The Missile Man The Missile Man book

Previous Columns

(3D printed) guns don't kill people...
A few weeks ago we saw the first successful firing of a pistol made entirely from 3D printed parts (firing pin excepted)...

A transistor for (almost) everyone
Microsoft has announced a new version of the XBox games console...

Yahoo - money can't buy you love
This week, Yahoo announced that it had bought the blogging platform Tumblr for a whopping US $1.1bn...

Hard work(shop)
Today I call on my readers to share some of their brilliance and insight...

Google: Do as we say, not as we do (again)
What's Google's motto again? "Don't be evil"?...

Yes, they're banning lasers here
After you've watched how bureaucrats and regulators work, some things are very easy to foresee...

Let's tax the Internet!
Ah, the French!...

A whiff of stupidity in the air
Damn, another column about me! I wish something interesting would happen to someone else...

Drone saves a life
Regular readers will recall that many months ago, I started an initiative to create an "Amateur Drone Register"...

One man's crime is another's...
Imagine if Google decided to make the entire inventory of recorded music and movies available for download from its websites -- without the permission of the copyright owners...