Patrick Beja is on our last live show of the year and we’ll try to avoid talking about Sony too much but The Interview IS coming out after all. Plus the dangers of ignoring 2FA rear their ugly head. And Len Peralta will illustrate the show!
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Show Notes
Today’s guest: Patrick Beja and the DTNS Holiday All Stars!
Headlines
Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton says The Interview will show in a a number of theaters on Dec. 25 and that company is trying, “to secure more platforms and more theaters so that this movie reaches the largest possible audience.” Sources tell Hollywood Reporter Sony will offer the movie as video on demand the same day it is in theaters. The Plaza Theater in Atlanta and The Alamo Drafthouse in Dallas/Fort Worth have both stated that they will show the film.
In related news, chubby_cheese submitted a link to the subreddit advertising for a new job at Sony Corporation of America in Washington DC called Director of Vulnerability Management.
Recode reports North Korea’s Internet connection suffered a second day of trouble. DYN Research reported the country experienced another outage for an hour earlier today. North Korea’s four links to the Internet are supplied by a joint venture called Star JV with connectivity supplied by China Unicom.
habichuelacondulce submitted the NYTimes post that the attack against JPMOrgan Chase’s network earlier this year was a result of a misconfigured server. People who have been briefed on internal and outside investigations into the attack, say one network server had not been upgraded to require two-factor authentication. Attackers had stolen an employee’s login credentials but a second-factor scheme would have thwarted that approach.
OS X users were greeted with a new kind of security update yesterday. Apple pushed out its first automatic security update which does not require any interaction from the users. The patch fixed a vulnerability in the network time protocol common to all Unix-based systems. Apple added the ability to do automatic patches two years ago— but this is the first time the company has used it.
Mac Rumors points out patent consortium Rockstar has sold more than 4,000 telecommunicatiosn patents to RPX. An RPX subsidiary, RPX Clearinghouse will license the patents to a syndicate of tech companies including Cisco and Google. Rockstar had been suing companies, including Google and Cisco, prior to selling the patents to RPX. Google and Cisco recently settled their disputes. Rockstar has agreed to drop its existing suits against Samsung, LG and HTC.RPX will license the patents on FRAND terms.
CNET reports that that Anouk Wipprecht has updated her personal space defensice Spider Dress with Intel Edison processors and some new 3D printed elements. The dress features spider-legg-like epaulettes connected to sensors. When respiration increases or proximity sensors detect a nearby body, the legs react.
PC Mag reports the FCC has paused the process for consideration of a proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner Communications. Time Warner had withheld 7,000 requested documents and another 31,000 allegedly went missing. The FCC wants the extra time to review the new material. The pause will last until Jan. 12.
News From You
diggsalot submitted the Phandroid article letting us know that Disney World is activating Apple Pay Wednesday Dec. 24th which has the side benefit of supporting Google Wallet as well. Restaurants and shops will get it first with portable payment terminals to be upgraded later. DisneyLAND expects to get Apple Pay sometime in 2015.
And habichuelcondulce pointed out the Business Insider story that Global Music Rights is demanding YouTube remove thousands of songs for not having performance rights. YouTube is covered by ASCAP/BMI licenses for many musical performances but Global Music Rights performers are not covered under those forganizations any longer. Google claims YouTube does have license covering the performance rights and that Global Music Rights can file DMCA claims if they disagree. Artists like Pharrell, the Eagles Chris Cornell and Smokey Robinson are part of Global Music Rights.
Discussion Links: Who are all these holiday people?!?
Happy Holidays and New Years! We’ll be back on Sunday January 4th, 2015 (!) with a live CES Preview Show