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Teleprompt inventor Hubert Schlafly (HEW-BERT SHLA-FLY) dead at 91 | News.com.au
HUBERT “Hub” Schlafly, a key member of the team that invented the teleprompter and rescued decades’ worth of soap opera actors, newsreaders and politicians from the embarrassment of stumbling over their words on live television, has died. He was 91.
Schlafly died on April 20 at Stamford Hospital after a brief illness, according the Leo P Gallagher & Son Funeral Home, which handled the arrangements.
A funeral was held yesterday at St Mary’s Parish in Greenwich, where he was a longtime resident.
He did not use a teleprompter himself until he was 88, while rehearsing his speech for induction into the Cable Television Hall of Fame, said Thomas Gallagher, a close friend.
Schlafly helped start the TelePrompTer Corp., eventually becoming its president and accepting an Emmy Award for the company in 1999 – a few years after winning one himself 1992 for his work in developing the first cable system permitting subscribers to order special programs.
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He held 16 patents, Mr Gallagher said.
“Hub Schlafly was the cable industry’s most innovative engineer and, at the same time, one of its ablest executives,” Charles Dolen, the chairman of Cablevision, said Tuesday.
“Whether you were his friend or competitor, he was always congenial and supportive and probably had more friends than anyone.”
Schlafly was born August 14, 1919, in St Louis.
He graduated from Notre Dame University, where he studied electrical engineering.
He worked for General Electric and the MIT Radiation Laboratory before joining 20th Century Fox in New York City in 1947.
Actor Fred Barton Jr wanted a way to remember his lines and approached his friend Schlafly, said Laurie Brown, author of the book The Teleprompter Manual.
Schafly conjured an idea and took it to Irving Berlin Kahn, nephew of composer Irving Berlin and vice president of radio and television at 20th Century Fox.
The result – a monitor facing the person appearing on screen and rolling a script at reading speed – was named the TelePrompTer, which made its debut in 1950 on the soap opera The First Hundred Years, Mr Brown said.
“It revolutionised television and improved the quality of on-air performers,” said Jim Dufek, a professor of mass media at Southeast Missouri State University.
“It also made the politicians look smarter because they were looking right into the camera.”
Herbert Hoover became the first politician to use a teleprompter in 1952, when the former US president gave the keynote speech at the Republican National Convention in Chicago.
Every US president since then has used the device – now also such a staple of television news that occasional technical glitches can turn a news report into unintentional comedy.
In the 1970s, TelePrompTer Corp owned cable franchises in 140 markets and served about 1.4 million customers.


YouTube move in on-demand movies may be end for DVD rentals | News.com.au

• YouTube to enter on-demand movie market
• Users able to stream DVD releases on web
• Release date for Aussie customers unknown

YOUTUBE is set to enter the on-demand movie market in a move that could ring the death-knell for DVD rentals in Australia.
The world’s largest video-sharing site is reported to be putting the final touches to a new service that will allow users to stream new DVD releases over the web.
Sony, Warner Bros and Universal have reportedly signed licensing rights to Youtube, while Paramount, Fox and Disney are believed to have passed on the offer.
YouTube has more than 130 million monthly users and the site will prove a major competitor to iTunes, which has offered new releases from all the major studios since 2008, and Foxtel’s on-demand services.
The new site could launch in the US as early as next week but it’s not known when it will be available to Australian customers.
Streaming movie sites in the US, including Netflix and iTunes, put a major dint in the DVD rental industry and the same is expected in Australia.
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Blockbuster in the US went bankrupt late last year and had to shut 1000 stores while in Australia several stores have either closed or downsized.
Alana Berney, 18, of Red Hill in Brisbane, said streaming movies online was more convenient and less expensive.
“Streaming online only costs between $2 and $3 and you don’t have the hassle of worrying about returning the DVD”,” she said.
Cheyne Honeyman, 25, said DVD stores were a dying fad while Samantha Colledge, 18, of Indooroopilly, said she would struggle to shake the habit of going to a local DVD store.
“I don’t really know how to download a movie online and love the sweet deals DVD’s stores offer,” she said. “It’s just what I have always done. I have to admit that I do get annoyed with the overdue fines that I always seem to rack up.”
Youtube began streaming a limited film selection last year for as little as $2 but its only major partner was independent studio Lionsgate.
It is believed Youtube is waiting to sign all the majors before officially announcing the new service.
For more on YouTube’s move into the on-demand movie market go to the Courier-Mail.


SETI shuts doors on Allen Telescope Array after failing to raise $5 million | News.com.au

• SETI institute hibernate Allen Telescope Array
• Scientists couldn’t raise $5 million to run the program
• More science & technology news

It’s a sad day for astronomers and space geeks everywhere.
As of last week, the world will have one less program in its infantry of high-tech devices and scientific experts devoted to discovering the existence of alien life and worlds outside of our own.
The SETI Institute has had to – we hope temporarily – retire the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) because it lacks the funding to run the group of radio satellite dishes that search the skies for signs of alien life.

The collaboration between the SETI Institute and the University of California at Berkeley was originally conceived of as a three-tier plan to build 350 radio-wave antennas that worked in concert with the Kepler space telescope to scan the heavens for signs of intelligent life.
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But as of last week, the ATA will no longer be performing its regular functions, as scientists were unable to raise the $5m needed to keep the project afloat.

The hibernation comes two months after the Kepler Space Project announced the discovery of 1235 potential new planets, several of which scientists believe contain the water and light needed to support life.
In a heartfelt letter to its supporters, CEO of the SETI Institute Tim Pierson listed the reasons for the ATA’s hibernation, and a game plan for what happens next.
“Unfortunately, today’s government budgetary environment is very difficult, and new solutions must be found,” Mr Pierson wrote.
“NSF university Radio Observatory funding for HCRO has been reduced to approximately one-tenth of its former level.
“This is compounded by growing State of California budget shortfalls that have severely reduced the amount of state funds available to the Radio Astronomy Lab.
“Combined, these factors have resulted in the current decision by UCB to reduce operations of the Hat Creek site to a hibernation mode, pending future funding or some alternative solution.
“Hibernation means that starting this week, the equipment is unavailable for normal observations and is being maintained in a safe state by significantly reduced staff.”
Mr Pierson is determined that SETI’s good work continues.

While the ATA may be in hibernation, the SETI institute will continue work on a software correlator, new detection algorythms, data storage capability direct to disk from individual antennas and a new feed and received system that can observe up to 15GHz.
They also plan to continue developing open source projects so that citizen scientists can continue to help SETI continue the search for alien planets.
SetiQuest Explorer is a citizen scientists program that allows volunteers to detect patterns in AtA data scientists may have missed.
Users can beta test the data to help discover alien planets and explore frequency bands that are so full of signals the detectors get confused.
SETI recently teamed up with Galaxy Zoo to create a more streamlined, enjoyable SETIQuest experience that runs in real time so that discoveries can be followed up immediately.

Never have the contributions of citizen scientists been as urgent, or needed as they are now.
You can sign up using your Facebook page or Google account to get involved in the project.


Is ‘3D Sex and Zen’ really a new dimension in porn? | News.com.au
IT smashed box office records in Hong Kong and it’s packing out theatres in Australia. But is the world’s first “IMAX 3D erotic film” any good?

!! Warning — this article contains mild spoilers !!

It’s a public holiday and raining and the Tuesday 5pm session of 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy at Hoyts Broadway is sold out but for a few spots in the first two rows.
Hoyts Broadway is one of three Sydney cinemas screening the film which broke the opening day ticket sale record in Hong Kong, taking the title from the $US237 million 3D blockbuster Avatar.
3D Sex and Zen, made in Hong Kong, cost just a fraction of James Cameron’s epic — about one seventy-fifth as much — and is shown in Cantonese with English subtitles.
Like Avatar, its goal is to take the viewer on a trip to “a world they’ve never seen before”, says director Christopher Sun.
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So, does it succeed? During the two-hour-plus screening, news.com.au learned quite a few things.
For example, that subtitles are really hard to read while wearing 3D glasses. Also, that the women of 15th Century China enjoyed spectacularly powerful orgasms.
But perhaps the most important revelation — and the one you are here to read about — is that “3D porn” is still a long way from a must-see.
Most of the 3D effects in Sex and Zen are reserved for computer-generated graphics, rather than the wonders of nature.
3D is only occasionally applied to the movie’s many — many — sex scenes, and when it is the results are hit and miss.
In one instance, when the entire screen is filled with a close-up shot of gigantic, jiggling body parts, it just looks ridiculous.
In others it makes the scene appear more “real” than usual, but also rather blurry.
In fact, Sex and Zen is a bit of a tease — it hints at the potential of porn in 3D without actually giving you much of it.
Viewers who only want to go for the sex scenes without worrying how many dimensions they have won’t be disappointed.
But be warned — the sex comes with quite a lot of blood and guts as well.
Sex and Zen is a film in two halves. The first half is a light-hearted erotic comedy with plenty of softcore porn.

Chinese porn coming to you in 3D

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Chinese porn: coming to you in 3D

Hundreds turn out for the premiere of Hong Kong’s first 3D porn film.
Reuters14 April 2011
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28 April 2011 1:39 NDM CP – TEN
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The second half is darker and more shocking. It’s the sort of thing Quentin Tarantino would love, and gives the phrase “torture porn” a more literal meaning than usual.

Plenty of boundaries are pushed and some Western viewers may find that it’s a little too “out there” for their tastes.
Need an example? The most memorable use of 3D in the film is when a dismembered animal body part covered in blood is flung at the camera.
And that’s in one of the comedy scenes.
Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy is rated R18+.


NBN complicates a Foxtel-Austar deal | The Australian
WHILE price has always been a hurdle to Foxtel’s long-mooted purchase of regional pay-television group Austar, the government’s $36 billion national broadband network is shaping up to be a “left field” stumbling block, say analysts.
The market remains on edge for a deal after Austar chief John Porter yesterday said he expected a resolution on the potential $2bn deal within the next two to six weeks, leading analysts to largely overlook its well-flagged weak first quarter result yesterday.
But Goldman Sachs analyst Adam Alexander said while price and terms have been a stumbling block since talk of the deal emerged as far back as 2005, the addition of the NBN has further complicated the crucial tick of approval required from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
He said while a combined Foxtel-Austar would unlikely be an issue given they already operate monopolies in their respective geographic markets in the pay TV market, the NBN has complicated matters on around broadband.
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Foxtel is owned by Telstra, News Limited (publisher of The Australian) and Consolidated Media, which Alexander said was also a stumbling block to Foxtel working out a price with willing Austar seller, Liberty Global which owns 54 per cent.

Royal Bank of Scotland’s Fraser McLeish agreed the ACCC could be the “main potential hurdle” to the deal occuring, outside of price.
The analysts concerns lie in whether Telstra owning an interest in Austar would make it difficult for broadband rivals to compete in regional areas which are opening up to competition under NBN.
Alexander estimates Telstra has 85 per cent to 95 per cent of the regional broadband market.

“This could be the ‘left field’ issue that the ACCC looks at – whether Telstra having a partial ownership of Austar and offering a triple play in regional markets would make it difficult for smaller broadband players to compete,” said McLeish, who has a target price of $1.50 on Austar, at the low end of RBS’s $1.50 to $1.70 range due to “ACCC risk”.
Others like Macquarie and Deutsche Bank today downgraded Austar to a hold given its recent rally on the back of the speculation, but still see merits in the deal.

“We believe that a deal makes sense given the substantial synergies that could be achieved from merging the companies, especially in the current low subscriber growth environment,” said Deutsche’s Andrew Anagnostellis, adding there could be $70m in cost synergies.
And despite no guarantees of a deal occuring, Credit Suisses’ Jolanta Masojada said the motivations of all parties are “substantially greater” than in the past.
By early afternoon, Austar shares were 2.7 per cent lower at $1.26.


Sony’s Norio Ohga, father of the CD, dies | The Australian
FORMER Sony president Norio Ohga, who helped transform the music industry with the development of the compact disc format, has died at the age of 81, the company said.
The music school graduate served as president from 1982 to 1995 and led the electronics manufacturer to become an entertainment empire with a portfolio encompassing music, movies and computer games.
During the development, Ohga, a passionate baritone singer, pushed for the 12-centimetre format with 75 minutes of recording capacity to fit Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony without interruption.
He died on Saturday of multiple organ failure, Sony said.
“By redefining Sony as a company encompassing both hardware and software, Ohga-san succeeded where other Japanese companies failed,” said Sir Howard Stringer, current Sony chairman, chief executive and president.
“It is no exaggeration to attribute Sony’s evolution beyond audio and video products into music, movies and game, and subsequent transformation into a global entertainment leader to Ohga-san’s foresight and vision.”
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Along with development of the CD format, Ohga led Sony’s negotiations in 1968 with CBS Corp, which resulted in the creation of CBS/Sony Records, now Sony Music Entertainment.
His decision to purchase Columbia Pictures in 1989 cemented Sony’s position as an entertainment conglomerate.
He also designed the Sony corporate logo and promoted PlayStation game console.
Ohga’s career with Sony began in 1953, when the company’s co-founders Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita made him a consultant while he was still studying music at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.
Under Ohga’s leadership, Sony revolutionised the music industry with the CD format in 1982, co-developed by Royal Philips Electronics.
Mindful of the importance of the brand image, he designed the Sony logo, and had always stressed that the “four letter word” was the company’s biggest asset.
Sony said it will conduct a corporate memorial, after a private ceremony.


Taxpayers to foot bill for broadband service double-up | The Australian
THOUSANDS of small housing estates will receive brand new temporary copper connections, which will be disconnected at a cost to taxpayers as the National Broadband Network is rolled out across the nation.
Telstra yesterday confirmed the telecommunications giant had been given responsibility to provide infrastructure for a basic telephone service in new housing estates with fewer than 100 premises.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has given Telstra scope to use fibre, high-speed wireless or copper networks to provide this service, which will become redundant when the $36 billion NBN is rolled out across the nation.
A Telstra spokesman confirmed the company expected to lay new copper connections in “the majority of cases”, while about 200 customers were currently making do with just a mobile telephone.
The government expects that about 1.9 million new premises will be built during the period the NBN is being rolled out.
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NBN Co has a responsibility to ensure all new developments with more than 100 premises receive fibre connections, but for estates with fewer than 100 units Telstra is allowed to install slower temporary copper cables, that will be shut down with the NBN rollout. The policy decision could mean NBN Co — funded with $27bn of taxpayers’ money — would have to pay Telstra to shut down several thousand new copper connections while simultaneously laying high-speed fibre connections.
Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull said it was the government’s, not NBN Co’s, fault that there would be a “double handling” of connections to smaller new estates. “It just underlines the poor planning in the NBN, that in these developments copper is going to be laid down, only to be decommissioned within the next few years all at public expense,” Mr Turnbull said.
The comments came after The Australian revealed yesterday that the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy was considering enlisting a dozen high-profile “NBN champions” to spruik the wholesale fibre network.
Mr Turnbull said with the huge public investment, the NBN should be “selling itself”.


Makers of TomTom navigator in Europe sold data to police for use in speed traps | The Australian
THE makers of the navigation device TomToms in Europe has gone into damage control after it emerged Dutch police had been using data collected from drivers who use the company’s products to set speed traps.
TomTom NV, Europe’s largest navigation device maker has apologised for the incident.
Earlier, the company reported weak first-quarter earnings in which it cut 2011 sales forecasts and said it was seeking to compensate for a decline in demand for personal navigation devices by growing service revenues – including selling traffic data to governments.
National newspaper Algemeen Dagblad reported that police had obtained the information from the government and used it to set targeted speed traps, prompting angry reactions from TomTom users.
In an emailed apology, Chief Executive Harold Goddijn said the company sold the anonymous data believing it would be used to improve safety or relieve traffic bottlenecks.
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“We never foresaw this kind of use and many of our clients are not happy about it,” he wrote.
He promised licensing agreements would “prevent this type of use in the future”.
TomTom is seeking to diversify its offerings away from the ailing market for its flagship product, dashboard-mounted portable devices. Around half of its revenues now come from automakers who incorporate TomTom products into their cars and from services, including companies – and governments – paying for map and traffic information.
TomTom is still recovering after it got into debt trouble with its acquisition of digital mapmaker Tele Atlas in 2008, and had to issue shares to stave off bankruptcy.


NBN unveils new broadband sites in Tasmania | The Australian
NBN Co has announced the next seven Tasmanian towns and suburbs in which the super-fast broadband network will be rolled out.
The Tasmanian towns of Smithton, Scottsdale and Midway Point last year became the first three locations in the country to be hooked up to the national broadband network.
A statement from NBN Co said 11,500 homes and businesses in Deloraine, Kingston Beach, George Town, Sorell, South Hobart, St Helens and Triabunna would be the next towns in the rollout, after contracts had been signed with construction company Conneq Infrastructure Services.
NBN Co acting head of construction Dan Flemming said construction in the towns would begin in May.
“Tasmania has been at the forefront of the development of the NBN in Australia, and we are very pleased to announce the next phase of construction is ready to commence,” he said.
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“NBN Co has chosen a staged network construction approach as it allows us to incorporate learnings from previous work in a process of continuous improvement.”
Under new state government laws following poor sign-up figures in the initial three towns, residents will have to opt out of the network.
Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings urged the federal government to push through to the next stage of the network’s development.
“The greatest opportunities of the NBN lie in connecting regional communities to metropolitan areas, overseas business markets and important services such as healthcare and education,” Ms Giddings said.
“I look forward to the federal government meeting its commitment to deliver the technology to a further 90,000 homes in stage 3, schools and businesses in Hobart, Launceston, Devonport and Burnie in the near future.”


Tiny New Zealand island Tokelau is at the centre of the cyber crime world | The Australian
IT has no capital, no airport and only 1400 people who call it home, but the tiny isle of Tokelau has become the cyber crime centre of the world.
A new report by an international group tackling internet scams has confirmed that Tokelau, a New Zealand territory, has more malicious registrations under its .tk domain name than any other domain except .com.
These fraudulent web addresses are used for phishing, where emails are sent to random web addresses in an attempt to steal banking information and other personal details.
Tokelau sold its domain name to a Dutch company BV Dot TK, which provides the domain free worldwide, making it an easy target for scammers.
“By offering free domain names, .tk has become the third largest country code top-level domain after Germany’s .de and Great Britain’s .uk,” the Anti-Phishing Working Group wrote in its latest global report, released at a technology conference in Malaysia this week.
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The report examined all phishing attacks in the second half of 2010 and found a “significant” number used the tropical nation’s domain.
“While there were phishing domains registered across 183 top-level domains, 89 per cent were concentrated in just four: .com, .tk, .net and .info,” the report stated.
About 80 per cent of Tokelau-registered names used for phishing were targeting Chinese institutions.
Tokelau itself is not responsible for the problem. The sale secured islanders free high speed broadband internet without the hassle of policing their domain.
Owner BV Dot TK appeared to be aware of the problem, admitting on its website: “we are used by fraudsters and we are very aware of this”.
The Anti-Phishing Working Group said the e-crime landscape was a constantly shifting battlefield, where phishers were always moving away from well-defended sites toward ripe targets.
“That makes free domains like .tk especially vulnerable to ongoing abuses,” it said.


PlayStation users’ personal data not encrypted: Sony | The Australian
SONY has admitted that it failed to encrypt the personal information of 77 million PlayStation Network users stolen by hackers a week ago.
The hacking has affected around 715,000 Australian consumers, in what has been described as the largest known security and privacy breach in Australia thus far.
It affects not only PlayStation users with network accounts but users of Qriocity, a Sony service that offers streamed movies and music.
In a post on its PlayStation blog, Sony said it had encrypted credit card details but didn’t extend the safeguard of encryption to its “personal data table”.
“The entire credit card table was encrypted and we have no evidence that credit card data was taken,” Sony said in its PlayStation blog.
“The personal data table, which is a separate data set, was not encrypted, but was, of course, behind a very sophisticated security system that was breached in a malicious attack.”
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Sony has not revealed what is contained in personal data tables but acknowledged that customer names, home address, billing addresses, email accounts, passwords, birth dates and other personal details were stolen by hackers in the security breach.
It has yet to clarify whether customer user IDs and passwords were housed in separate databases.
Sony said access to its data had been restricted both physically and through the perimeter and security of the network.
The company had begun emailing affected customers to notify them of the breach but has warned people to be wary of fake Sony emails requesting credit card numbers or other personally identifiable information.
Some users claim to be victims of illegal credit card transactions but Australia’s major banks said there has been no evidence that the PlayStation data breach has been linked to credit card or identity theft.
The banks said there hasn’t been any significant increase in the number of customers seeking to have their credit cards cancelled or reissued.
An ANZ Bank spokesman said there had been only a small spike in calls to its credit card call centre yesterday — an extra 300 calls in addition to about 30,000 calls it received daily.
However Australian Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim said the commission was already getting inquires from Sony customers.
“People are beginning to be concerned and ringing our line to get information,” Mr Pilgrim said.
Mr Pilgrim yesterday said he had begun an investigation into the data breach and would ask Sony to explain how this incident occurred, what security measures were in place to prevent it, and the extent of the breach.
In developments overseas, an Alabama man is reported to be the first person to lodge a lawsuit directly related to the PlayStation Network breach. He is claiming compensation and free credit card monitoring, and is seeking class action status.
Sony yesterday said it knew of the hacking a week ago, but it had been unaware of its severity and the theft of user account details until Monday.
“It was necessary to conduct several days of forensic analysis, and it took our experts until yesterday to understand the scope of the breach. We then shared that information with our consumers and announced it publicly this afternoon,” Sony said on its blog.
Local computer emergency response group AusCERT said users needed to change all passwords on accounts that used the same password as their PlayStation account.
Senior information security analyst Zane Jarvis said it was common for users to use the same account name and password for all types of accounts and their email address and PlayStation password had been linked by the theft.
PlayStation users particularly should be on the lookout for an increase in phishing emails, including possible fake emails from Sony. Cybercriminals would “go to a lot of effort to make them look real”.
Mr Jarvis said that through phishing, criminal gangs would seek sufficient personal information to open bank accounts in the names of victims to get credit, a driver’s licence or even a home loan. Or they might simply take over email addresses to distribute spam.
Australian security expert Bill Caelli said the PlayStation Network hacking would cause great anxiety among users as there was no closure and no way of knowing where or when a threat to personal security would occur.
“The fact you don’t know breeds uncertainty, you just don’t know where and when.”
Professor Caelli, from Queensland University of Technology’s Information Security Institute, echoed Mr Pilgrim’s call for Australian legislation requiring mandatory disclosure of privacy breaches.
He said the world should thank the “governator”, former Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, for California having legislation that requires companies such as Sony to come clean about hacking and data breach events.
“But in Australia we’re still arguing about it. This (case) gives new impetus for Australia having mandatory disclosure with criminal consequences for failure to comply.”
Professor Caelli described the breach as the largest security and privacy breach so far in Australia.
Sony’s PlayStation Network remains offline however the company expects to restore some services within a week.
“Our employees have been working day and night to restore operations as quickly as possible, and we expect to have some services up and running within a week from yesterday,” the blog said.
“However, we want to be very clear that we will only restore operations when we are confident that the network is secure.”
There are over 1.1 million PlayStation 3 devices in Australia — approximately 65 per cent are connected to the PlayStation Network, which gamers use to spar online and purchase services like movie downloads.