CED Digest Vol. 6 No. 51

CED Digest Vol. 6 No. 51 • 12/22/2001
20 Years Ago In CED History:

December 23, 1981:
* NASA approves a plan to continue the Voyager II spacecraft on a
trajectory that will take it within 66,000 miles of the planet Uranus on July
24, 1986.
* A federal judge rules that Congress acted unconstitutionally in 1978
when it extended the deadline for ratifying the proposed Equal Rights
Amendment until June 30, 1982.

December 24, 1981:
* The Soviet Union performs a nuclear test at Eastern
Kazakh/Semipalitinsk.

December 25, 1981:
* "For Those About to Rock" by AC/DC becomes the No. 1 U.S. album.
* Future CED titles in widespread theatrical release: Sharky's Machine,
Taps.

December 26, 1981:
* Saudi Arabia and Iraq sign an agreement in Baghdad ending their
60-year-old border dispute.

December 27, 1981:
* Researchers at the NIH announce that Vasopressin, a human hormone that
normally helps regulate blood pressure, can be used as a drug to improve
memory.

December 28, 1981:
* Elizabeth Carr, the first U.S. test-tube baby, is born to Judith and
Roger Carr.

December 29, 1981:
* President Reagan announces a series of sanctions against the Soviet
Union, saying that it "bears a heavy and direct responsibility for the
repression in Poland."

------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: digest@cedmagic.com
Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2001 02:24:09 -0800
From: "Tom Howe" <tom@cedmagic.com>
Subject: Usenet Archives Back to 1981

Hello All:

Last week Google expanded their Usenet news archive so that it goes back
all the way to May 11, 1981 (previously you could only search back to
1995).

I've been hoping they would do this for a long time to see if there was
much discussion of CED when it was on the market, but alas, CED is
hardly mentioned in the net.video group until RCA announced the end of
player production in 1984. This isn't too much of a surprise, as there
were so few people on the Internet in the early 1980's, and they were
mostly government or university personnel.

The group net.video was the only video related newsgroup from 1982 to
1986 and during that period had a total of 2270 threads. By comparison,
the current rec.video.dvd.* hierarchy has had 139,000 threads over a
similar length of time. You can view the complete net.video archive from
1986 to 1982 (in reverse) by going to this URL:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?B63C21F3

There's quite a bit of discussion of Beta vs. VHS in this archive, and
LaserDisc is mentioned more often than CED. One interesting anomaly is
audio CD's sometimes begin mistakenly called CED's in the 1982 time
frame just prior to their market introduction. Net.video was replaced by
rec.video in 1987 which remained the primary video newsgroup until the
Internet explosion of the early 1990's expanded it into a lot more
groups.

Google also put up an interesting list of Usenet "firsts" such as the
first mention of the IBM-PC, Macintosh, MTV, Biff, Osama bin Laden, etc.
at this URL:

http://www.google.com/googlegroups/archive_announce_20.html

--Tom

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 00:58:11 -0500
To: digest@cedmagic.com
From: Michael Dunn <mdunn>
Subject: SJT400 restoration & remote

   I just finished fixing up an SJT400.  It's only problem was one
identical to one of my SJT100's problems: The lifter rod that raises the
disc for ejection had a broken plastic cap.  Obviously this is a common
failure.  I hope it didn't damage any discs.  I recommend that anyone
with a motorized-eject player check this!

   Is anyone in possession of a compatible remote for this player they
are willing to sell at a reasonable price?

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Dunn     | Surround Sound Decoder & Stereo Enhancer
Cantares         | Self-Amplified Speakers, Test Equipment
74 George St.    | Ambisonic Surround Sound CDs and Recording
Waterloo, Ont.   | (519) 744-9395 (fax: 744-7129)
N2J 1K7          | mdunn@cantares.on.ca
Canada           | http://www.cantares.on.ca/
-----------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 01:28:43 -0500
From: Gerrit Ryon <g.gerrit>
To: digest@cedmagic.com
Subject: ced's

I am curious if any of these videos were produced in widescreen.  thank
you

------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: digest@cedmagic.com
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2001 22:18:37 -0800
From: "Tom Howe" <tom@cedmagic.com>
Subject: Happy Holiday

Season's greetings to everyone! If you're looking for a video-related
holiday item, the Grinch Interactive Playset DVD is one possibility.
This is the 2000 Grinch movie the folds out to a 360-degree holiday
scene with the DVD stashed inside. It's the most impressive DVD
packaging I've seen to date:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005LOUR/

Another item to look for is the Sega Dreamcast video game console which
is on blow-out clearance sale at various stores for $49.99. Even if
you're not interested in video games, this console can be used as a CD
player or web browsing appliance with the included Browser 2.0 CD-ROM
and built-in 56K modem.
The console can use your existing Internet account, and although not as
good as a regular computer, cruising the web on a large-screen TV is an
interesting alternative experience.

--Tom

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                                                   | ================= *| 
                                                   +--------------------+
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