Australian Talking Clock: Taken Offline by Telstra Put Back Online by a Fan
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Every once in a while, a big business decides to pull in the belt another notch, gird the waist tighter, and cut some services. So it is with the Talking Clock that had been available to Australians for 66 years. The service was slated to end on September 30th as part of a Telstra "network technology upgrade" and as part of a desire by Telstra to "transform ourselves into a simpler business".
In the last two hours of the service, Melbourne musician Ryan Monro learned of the imminent shutdown. Keen to retain the nostalgia of the service, Monro repeatedly called and recorded the sound of 'George, the talking clock' as voiced by now-deceased Richard Peach. His calls were auto-terminated after 60 seconds. Things got a bit frantic as Monro kept getting busy signals near the end and still had failed to record "13" and "14".
Persistence paid off and in true post-millennium style, Monro created an online version of the Australian Talking Clock for those who miss the original and to preserve the service for future generations. The main difference is the site, now located at http://1194online.com/ only speaks the time according to the user's computer clock. This means that people who have rung the service for decades to check on time changeovers around daylight saving will be out of luck if their computer doesn't sync time properly.
Here is the Wikipedia entry for the speaking clock, as the "Talking Clock" is otherwise known.
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