CED Digest Vol. 7 No. 50

CED Digest Vol. 7 No. 50 • 12/14/2002
20 Years Ago In CED History:

December 15, 1982:
* Teamsters Union President Roy L. Williams is found guilty by a federal jury
of conspiring to bribe U.S. Senator Howard W. Cannon and of defrauding the
union's pension fund.

December 16, 1982:
* Anne Gorsuch, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) becomes
the first cabinet-level officer ever to be held in contempt of Congress for
refusing to submit documents requested by a House committee.
* An antigovernment rally in Buenos Aires, Argentina, organized by five of
Argentina's largest political parties and sanctioned by the government, turns
violent despite the precautions that had been taken to avoid confrontations
with the police.

December 17, 1982:
* The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) publishes a report on unexplained
immunodeficiency and opportunistic infections in infants born to IV drug users.
* Future CED title in widespread theatrical release: The Dark Crystal.

December 18, 1982:
* The recently completed space shuttle Challenger is given a 20 second Flight
Readiness Firing (FRF) of its main engines in preparation for a January 20,
1983 initial flight. The discovery of a hydrogen leak during the firing
postpones the date of the first flight.
* "Maneater" (CED) by Daryl Hall and John Oates becomes the No. 1 U.S. single.

December 19, 1982:
* Poland's Council of State announces that martial law will be suspended on
December 31.
* Two oil and gas storage tanks explode near Caracas, Venezuela, killing at
least 129 persons and injuring 500.

December 20, 1982:
* The EPA issues its "national priority list" of the 418 most hazardous toxic
waste sites to be cleaned up under a federal law.
* Italian Defense Minister Lelio Lagorio tells a special session of the Chamber
of Deputies that the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in May 1981
by the Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca was "an act of war" perpetrated by
Bulgaria. The Bulgarians, he indicated, acted as puppets of the Soviet Union,
which wanted the Pope killed because he had supported solidarity, the Polish
labor federation.
* Artur Rubinstein, the American pianist, dies at age 95. Rubinstein, who was
born in Poland, began playing the piano at the age of 3 and made his debut
shortly thereafter. He became a widely acclaimed virtuoso, best known for his
interpretations of Chopin.

December 21, 1982:
* Soviet Communist Party leader Yuri Andropov offers a proposal for the
reduction of medium-range missiles in Europe. The United States, Great Britain,
and France reject the plan.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2002 16:02:37 -0800
To: digest@cedmagic.com
From: Tom Howe <tom@cedmagic.com>
Subject: First "Making Of" Documentary Included With Video Itself

Hello All:

You may be aware that one of the titles in the current Featured CED is
"Mickey's Christmas Carol" which has the unusual characteristic of including a
documentary on the making of this 1983 featurette on the same disc as the
program itself. Today, it's become almost expected that a "Making Of" video
will be included on DVD releases of new movies, with some actors demanding
extra pay to participate in such projects, and some DVD's even including audio
commentary tracks on the documentary itself.

Although these "Making Of" features pre-date the CED era, in those days the
material, if made available on video at all, was generally in a separately sold
package. The CED titles including the "Making of Star Wars" and "Making of
Raiders of the Lost Ark" documentaries come to mind. The "Mickey's Christmas
Carol" disc from November 1984 is not the first CED title to include the
documentary on the disc. The first would be "Making Michael Jackson's Thriller"
from December 1983. But I'm wondering if anyone is aware of any other video
titles on either tape or LaserDisc that predate this inclusion.

--Tom

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 23:50:17 -0500
From: Peter Goldberg <prg>
To: digest@cedmagic.com
Subject: CED SGT-250 Problem

Hello

Just wanted to ask if anyone could help with a problem i am having

The Player is a SGT-250

1The player powers up amd the disc door opens and loads a disc with not
problems

2. The disc stats to spin

3, The player will not respond the search or rapid access comands on the
remote or player

4. The arm(where the stylus) is will not move at all. Even if I try to
push it with my hand, it stays all the way to the back of the player

5. If I take the disc out the arm will move back on forrth with no
problem(using my hand)

Thank you for your help

Peter

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 19:24:51 -0800
To: digest@cedmagic.com
From: Tom Howe <tom@cedmagic.com>
Subject: CED-related Holiday Gifts

Hello All:

Yesterday I participated in a seminar called "Techno Gadgets for Holiday Gift
Giving" and realized that subconsciously or not, I had picked a couple items
with a CED tie-in, albeit an obscure one. Here they are, in case anyone on the
list has an interest in a somewhat CED-related gift.


Forever Flashlight, about $30 on the web from various sites
http://foreverflashlight.com

The CED tie-in with this flashlight is that it uses a capacitor to store
electric energy, much like a CED uses a tiny varying capacitance to encode the
video signal. Unlike chemical batteries, capacitors have the disadvantage of
not being able to store electric charge for a prolonged period of time. The
Forever Flashlight overcomes this by using Faraday's Principle of
Electromagnetic Energy to charge up the capacitor just prior to use of the
flashlight. This is accomplished by simply shaking the light, with each shake
moving a powerful magnet through a copper coil, and generating a tiny bit of
electricity. About 15-30 seconds of shaking provides 5 minutes of light. Since
the "bulb" is a super-bright LED, it essentially never burns out, and this
flashlight could sit unused for years and still be ready for use after a half
minute of shaking.


RCA RCU1000B Universal Touchscreen Learning Remote Control
about $60 from eBay.com by searching for RCU1000B
http://www.rca.com/product/viewdetail/0,2588,PI700123,00.html?

This remote, with its large touchscreen and auto-backlighting, looks more like
an oversized PDA than a TV remote. The CED tie-in is its ability to learn the
program codes from an SJT/SKT 400 CED player remote control. The remote has
function buttons for nine different devices and on-screen prompts to guide you
through programming. It also has macro capability to control multiple devices
with a single button press. For instance, I have mine programmed so that a
macro button press turns on the the satellite receiver, turns on the amplifier,
switches the amplifier to the satellite input, turns on the TV, and switches
the TV video to the satellite input.


Philips DVD580M DVD Player, $149.99 from Target
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=1-7/qid=1040029577/ref=sr_1_7/
602-7938931-6162246?asin=B00006HI4H

This DVD player is analogous to a CED player in that it uses slot-loading
rather than the pop-out tray method. It's the most compact full-featured DVD
player I've seen and handles just about any format including MP3 discs. The
slot-loading design means the player can be installed vertically in about 2" of
space (but don't try vertical positioning with your CED player, it does rely
upon gravity). If you happen to have a Philips receiver with a MULTI-5.1 jack,
this DVD player has a similar jack for enhanced functionality. There are scant
sources for the DVD580M player on the web, but Target department stores do
carry it.

--Tom
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