Jack Valenti Dies

The man who has literally been the face of the MPAA for as long as I have been alive has passed away at age 85.
A longtime Washington lobbyist and confidant to presidents, he was responsible for instituting the voluntary movie rating system still in use today.
Long considered by many as an enemy of innovation is famously quoted for saying before congress "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."

Sony Blinks, Issues DVD Recall

In a surprise move, Sony has (somewhat quietly) announced the discovery of a "problem" with some of their recent DVD releases that prevents them from being played on some DVD players.
They are offering to replace anyone's discs that has experienced problems with playback.
Strangely, a search of Sony's own website reveals nothing about this.
Apparently, it is being reported only in the trade publications like Video Business.
In an official statement, the company said,

“Recently, an update that was installed on approximately 20 titles was found to cause an incompatibility issue with a very small number of DVD players (Sony has received complaints on less than one thousandth of one percent of affected discs shipped). “Since then, the ARccOS system has once again been updated, and there are no longer any playability problems.”

Anyone who had purchased one of the discs and has experienced problems playing it may receive a replacement disk free of charge by phoning 800-860-2878.

I am continuing to read with interest, Mick B's blog about his ongoing discussion with Sony over this.

Red Square in Space Found

Astronomers Obtain Highly Detailed Image of the 'Red Square' from PhysOrg.com

I've always had an interest in astronomy. I had a telescope when I was a kid and read astronomy magazines. This is just too cool.
Astronomers today announced the arrival of a new member in the pantheon of exotically beautiful celestial objects. Christened the "Red Square" by Peter Tuthill, leader of the team, the image was compiled with data from the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory, owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology, and the Keck-2 Telescope atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

Sony Does It Again

Well I was wondering why customers were bringing back copies of Casino Royale that wouldn't play. First rootkits, now this.

It is being reported that Sony is starting to add additional copy protection to regular DVDs, making them partially or totally unplayable on current DVD players. Even Sony DVD players.

To quote Vesper from the movie, "Arrogance and self-awareness seldom go hand in hand."
Time to do some self-examination, Sony?

Read to become even more outraged at Sony.

Have You Ever Shopped at TJ Maxx? Uh-oh!

In what is reported as the biggest breach of personal data ever, at least 45.7 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen by hackers who accessed the computer systems at the TJX Cos. at its headquarters in Framingham and in the United Kingdom over a period of several years.
TJX operates 826 T.J. Maxx, 751 Marshalls, 271 HomeGoods, and 162 A.J. Wright stores, as well as 36 Bob's Stores, in the United States. In Canada, the company runs 184 Winners and 68 HomeSense stores, and in Europe, 212 T.K. Maxx stores.
Holy Cow.
Oh, and by the way, this was discovered before Christmas 2006. Lovely.
But wait, theres more!
TJX now believes portions of the credit and debit card transactions at its U.S., Puerto Rican, and Canadian stores -- excluding debit card transactions with cards issued by Canadian banks -- from January 2003 through June 2004 were compromised.
Oh, but notice the small tidbit in this article from Information Week.
"TJX has also likely run afoul of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard created by Visa and MasterCard, as a number of documents sent by Visa to financial institutions that issue cards and manage Visa transactions indicate TJX was storing credit and debit card data in violation of the standard."
You see, companies are supposed to comply with the industry standard for retaining this data and it seems our friends at TJMaxx have been keeping transaction and other data for far longer than they are supposed to. But other companies may be doing the same thing.
If you have used a credit/debit card at any of the above stores in the last 4 years, call the helpline TJX has set up at 866-484-6978.

DVD is 10 Years Old

Believe it or not, the DVD format quietly turned 10 years old this month. Who knew that it would become the fastest adopted product in history with 125 million players sold in the US in these last 10 years? I never dreamed it would become so ubiquitous, so ingrained in our culture. Now a DVD is considered the definitive version of a film, the way most people will experience it.
It seems like forever ago that I bought my first DVD player, a Toshiba SD-2107, off eBay in November of 1997.
The format was launched in March, however, primarily backed by Warner Brothers initially with a wave of titles released to test markets in seven cities. Anyone wanting a movie on DVD in these early days had to mail order them or get someone in a test market to buy them and send it to you. Among the first titles to be released included Blade Runner, The Fugitive, Batman, Eraser, Twister, The Exorcist, Interview with the Vampire, Se7en, Goldeneye, and The Wizard of Oz.