Posted 7/09/2005 04:52:00 PM by Douglas

"Thank you for calling, good bye, and good luck."

TEX encouraged University of Texas students as it announced good grades; it dashed their hopes when a class was full; it even knew how much tuition students owed.

But TEX, the University of Texas' telephone registration system, will say "goodbye and good luck" for the last time when it's laid to rest July 15 at 5 p.m.

"An era has passed," said William Livingston, UT senior vice president and the voice of TEX, who can be heard reading the system's eulogy at the TEX number. "Something will have to replace old TEX."

That something is the Internet.

It was bound to happen, but I'm still a little sad to see it go.

But for alumni, saying goodbye to TEX, who was both a friend and a foe, is difficult.

"I remember that TEX had definitive kinds of tones," said Daron Roberts, who graduated in 2001. "If you were not going to get a course, there would be that definitive silence, and you'd just think, 'I hope TEX comes back with an upbeat voice.' "