Alamo Drafthouse movie theaters suffers outage on New Year's Eve due to IT stupidity

Alamo suffered outages at four theaters, two in the NYC area, plus Denver and San Francisco They blamed Sony projectors, which is curious as Sony exited the movie theater projector business in 2020: you'd think that Alamo would have phased them out and replaced them since they would have represented a severe service liability if they were to break.

At any rate, the problem seemed to be computer security/encryption certificates tied to the movies they were showing. Not all movies were affected. The distributor was scrambling to recreate certificates with longer expiration dates and - however they go about it - 'reprint' and re-issue the movies to the theaters.

The movies are shipped as encrypted files, then the certificates are needed to decrypt them. The certificate ties into the projector so the file decrypts as it is being played. DVDs and Bluray players do the same things, that's why you sometimes need to do an update to your Bluray player to play the latest titles: certificates have been updated and your old certs won't decrypt the newest stuff.

Apparently all was well on New Year's Day.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/1/24021915/alamo-drafthouse-outage-sony-projector

Stage actor stopped Hamlet's 'To Be' soliloquy because audience member pulled out laptop!

In 2017, the actor, Andrew Scott - known as the Hot Priest from the Brit show Fleabag - was performing Hamlet on-stage when someone in the audience pulled out a laptop to send off some emails.

Yeah. Just a little bit not cool.

So Scott stopped performing. The stage director was motioning him to get on with it, Scott was 'fuck it', not gonna do it. Laptop Guy's girlfriend realized what was going on and was finally able to convince the guy to shut it down and the play finally resumed.

Who would take a laptop to a performance of HAMLET?!

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/jan/02/andrew-scott-halted-hamlet-performance-after-theatregoer-opened-laptop

SpaceX loses an historic booster during recovery

The booster, B1058, had two historic high-points in its life. It was the first private space flight to launch people to the International Space Station, which is quite an achievement in and of itself. But the thing that has really made SpaceX's name is the reusability of its boosters: 1058 has made NINETEEN LAUNCHES!

Sadly, its nineteenth recovery was not 100% successful.

It landed on its landing craft, as it was designed to do, but a combination of very rough seas and high winds did it in. It ultimately toppled and broke in half, the top half of the booster falling into the sea.

Part of the problem is that it is an old booster, and the recovery ships are unmanned. A manned ship they could have chained down the landing struts and better secured it, but then you're risking human lives if there's problems in the landing. The other problem with the booster's age is that the new boosters have auto-leveling features in the landing struts: in heavy seas and winds, they can compensate for the booster shifting and rebalance it, at least to a certain degree. And 1058 did not have those features retrofitted.

The recovered parts of 1058 will still be of value as the engines will be recovered and everything else will be studied to see how well it held up over 19 launches. Ultimately it will probably be put on display somewhere.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/01/a-commanders-lament-on-the-loss-of-a-historic-spacex-rocket/

Apple gets a reprieve on its Watch ban, at least temporarily

A Federal appeals court blocked the import ban of Apple Watches on December 27 following an appeal by Apple to the court and to the ITC, allowing Apple to temporarily resume sales of the Watches on its web site until at least January 10 when presumably the ITC might be able to hear Apple's appeal. President Biden did not act on the appeal on his desk before his deadline, allowing the ban to go into effect.

What happens now is anyone's guess. I think Apple was pretty blatant in stealing the tech for monitoring blood oxygen and should be punished, whether it rates a ban or a whomping huge fine, I don't know.

https://www.engadget.com/the-apple-watch-import-ban-is-paused--for-now-183332952.html

BBC is FLOODED with complains re trans character in Doctor Who!

FLOODED, I say!

SOOOO many complaints!

How dare they pollute Doctor Who with including a trans character in one of the Specials, specifically the Star Beast, the first episode with David Tenant returning!

Yep, twelve dozen complaints rolled in!

144.

Out of a viewership of some 7.6 million people.

Approximately 0.002 percent. Not two tenths of a percent, two THOUSANDTHS of a percent.

BBC naturally had to be respond, and it was classic BBC:
Summary of complaint
We have received complaints from viewers who object to the inclusion of a transgender character in the programme and from others who feel there are too few transgender people represented.

Our response
As regular viewers of Doctor Who will be aware, the show has and will always continue to proudly celebrate diversity and reflect the world we live in. We are always mindful of the content within our episodes."

Love it!

https://gizmodo.com/bbc-doctor-who-transgender-complaints-response-disney-1851136244