Adult Film Industry May be the Deciding Factor in the HD Blu-ray Tussle

The adult industry has played a huge part in the way home video content reaches the market -- and our homes. Over thirty years ago the adult industry pushed the VHS format over the Betamax technology. Pornography helped get DVD-Video as a format upwards of 91 percent market penetration in the U.S. Now adult content is shaping the way high definition (HD) content comes to us via Blu-ray and ultimately via HD downloads (even though Toshiba did admit defeat to the former high def technology) .

An excerpt from We Make Money, Not Art,
"VHS vs Betamax. An urban legend wants that the format war was won by VHS because of porn. It fact the battle might have been won by something as simple as the length of the tape (2 hours for VHS and 1 hour for Betamax.) Porn adopted VHS to lower production costs. In its quest to go mainstream, the porn industry wanted to make feature films and thuus needed longer tapes. VHS allowed people to watch porn at home. They didn't have to face the humiliation of buying tickets to see a smut movie."

Leading home theater and consumer electronics news and review site, HomeTheaterReview.com, is out with a lead story that sheds light on the often seedy world of pornography and how that industry once again is leading the way with home video content - now with high definition video for Blu-ray and HD downloads. This time the adult entertainment industry may not just reshape the lucrative world of mainstream home video, they could redefine the mainstream Hollywood theatrical business model.

"People forget that without the support of the adult industry that VHS was unlikely to beat out Beta as a leading home video format a generation ago, and that without VHS there wouldn't be a home theater market like we know today," says HomeTheaterReview.com publisher Jerry Del Colliano.
"Adult content was key in DVD-Video getting over 91 percent U.S. household market penetration and is now helping Blu-ray get over 15 percent penetration just one year after the Blu-Friday format war victory at CES 2008. Beyond Blu-ray as the current HD home video format, the adult industry is pushing limits for HD video downloads from the Internet which represents the future of Hollywood, not just the San Fernando Valley."

Today, over 500,000 people pay U.S. $1 extra per month to get high definition content on Blu-ray discs from leading online rental house Netflix. Netflix doesn't rent adult content, sticking with more traditional and less "blue" content for its subscribers.

Dr. Ken Taraszka's full article on the future of HD content with respect to the adult industry can be read at HomeTheaterReviews.com
Here is a Wiki on the VHS vs. Betamax war.

Microsoft Fixes SMB Vulnerability, Leaves Out SQL Bug and Still Suffers "Conficker" Worm's Effects

Microsoft has released three patches for vulnerabilities in the Server Message Block (SMB) file-sharing protocol in Windows, including two that could bring enterprise networks to its knees.
The Remond-based company has rated two of the bugs as "critical" and the third as "moderate." The critical bugs are reported to be extremely dangerous because attackers can exploit them by simply sending malformed data to vulnerable/unpatched machines.
(The vulnerability is rated "critical" for Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, and "moderate" for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 are not affected by the SMB Buffer Overflow Remote Code Execution vulnerability.)

The latest bugs were found by researchers using information disclosed in SMB fixes Microsoft released in October and November. Microsoft also issued the first patch for the Windows 7 operating system (Beta), which was made available for download last week. That update fixes a flaw that removes several seconds of audio from any edited MP3 file (weird flaw).
Apparently the fix for the SMB vulnerability will in Windows 7 will be fixed in the next public release for Windows 7.

To read about the vulnerability report, visit the Microsoft Security Bulletin.

The latest update did not include an SQL Server patch — one that was expected by some researchers. Microsoft had announced last month that older versions of its SQL Server database contained a critical vulnerability — one that could be exploited and allow an attacked to execute code.

On another development — on a Microsoft vulnerability, again — many anti-virus companies like F-Secure, Symantec, Panda Security have stated that the variants of the Conficker/Rido/Downadup worm are spreading through networks infecting more than a million PCs. The vulnerability, which was detailed in a report on the Microsoft Security Center with a subsequent patch release, does not seem to have been plugged by users and system administrators. This lack of urgency has led to the proliferation of the worm, which now can infect networked machines via flash storage as well.

MailerMailer Gets Best E-mail Website Award

MailerMailer has been recognized as the "Best E-mail Website" in the Web Marketing Association's 12th annual WebAward competition, which recognizes excellence and outstanding achievement in Web development.

Judges from various disciplines and from all around the world named MailerMailer as the "Best of Industry E-mail Website" based on design, ease of use, copywriting, interactivity, use of technology, innovation and content. MailerMailer was one of more than 2,400 sites across 45 countries reviewed in the 96 industry categories during this year's competition.

Featuring numerous navigation changes that resulted from in-depth client testing, MailerMailer's winning site contains in-depth charts and graphs with live message statistics.

MailerMailer wanted a 'place' where customers could be connected with easy tools and obtain accurate information to create successful e-mail campaigns. MailerMailer's CEO Raj Khera said the company leveraged information from their bi-annual e-mail marketing metrics report, along with comprehensive e-mail statistics. As a result clients are able to gain an insight to test and fine tune the effectiveness of their e-mail marketing.

MailerMailer is a leading do-it-yourself e-mail list management provider. It is equipped with the latest e-mail marketing technology, such as zip code radius targeting, image hosting and the fetch HTML from website feature, MailerMailer allows easy creation of professional email newsletters and campaigns. MailerMailer is part of a series of sites run by Khera Communications, which includes discussion group management tool, DiscussThis, and small business resource site, MoreBusiness.com. A free trial of this e-mail marketing service is available at www.mailermailer.com

The MailerMailer website also includes free e-mail marketing resources, including their e-mail marketing metrics report, e-mail marketing eBook, helpful articles and tutorial videos to assist clients in getting started with their campaigns. Marketers can take advantage of these tools and resources and create a free trial e-mail marketing account.

A little about the Web Marketing Association
The Web Marketing Association strives to create a high standard of excellence for website development and marketing on the Internet. Staffed by volunteers, it is made up of Internet marketing, advertising, PR and design professionals who share an interest in improving the quality of website development and marketing on the Internet. Since 1997, the Web Marketing Association's annual WebAward Competition has been helping interactive professionals promote themselves, their companies, and their best work to the outside world. Now in its 12th year, the WebAward Competition has become the premier award event for Web developers and marketers worldwide.

WinRAR Warns Users of Fake Download Site

Win.rar, the official publisher of the WinRAR compression program, and RARLAB products has issued a warning to users of fake Google AdWords. It seems Win.rar had been informed that someone has fraudulently placed Google AdWords in the company's name, directing users to a faked Download.com page. This page offers a 'modified' WinRAR installation file (winrar.exe). The motive, according to Win.rar's officials is to offer an anti-spyware solution, after infecting the victim's PC with malware, through a another link.

The modified WinRAR setup file contains malware, which when installed is executed and opens a pop-up every minute with the content 'intervalhehehe'. The user will instinctively try to Google this text, and find forum entries which confirm the problem and through a manipulation of the local host file (LMHOSTS), the user will be directed to a counterfeit page of the 'Microsoft Security Center'. This page offers a free scan. The free scan will reveal an attack by "intervalhehehe" — since this whole process is manipulated — and offer an anti-spyware solution for Euro 39.95 from the fake IT security firm.

You can find more details on the scam on Websense with screenshots

This is quite a long, drawn out 'attack', which pre-empts a user's actions on getting infected. The problem, according to Win.rar Gmbh is that anyone can place Google Adwords for other companies which are usually not checked for accuracy or authenticity. When a site is blocked, another one will appear and take its place.

Apple is Interested in NVIDIA's Ion Platform

According to report on Tom's Hardware Guide the next generation of Mac Mini computers will be based on Nvidia's Ion platform.

It is believed that Apple was the first to receive samples of Nvidia's Ion platform, including prototype units before NVIDIA partners who opted to work on Ion.

Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro 'unibody' notebooks already use NVIDIA's 9400M GPU — same as the Ion. The GPU is capable of HD video decoding and supports NVIDIA's CUDA technology for general purpose computing.

It is purported that Apple's Ion-based platform will be powered by the Intel Atom 330 processor. The Atom 330 is a 1.6 GHz processor with a 533 MHz front side bus (FSB) and has twice the execution resources and L2 cache as the Atom 230.

Since the Ion platform is based on a pico-ITX form factor, one can even expect the new Mac Mini to be smaller than the current generation. The new Mac Mini may launch in March 2009 — probably CeBIT time.

Pricing has understandably not been revealed but could be in the range of $600 to $700 range. NVIDIA itself stated previously that it expected Ion products to start at roughly $400.

There is speculation the Ion platform might be used for the Apple TV. However, it seems quite certain that the Ion platform will show up within the Mac Mini.
Can't wait for further updates on this!