It's official: Sony f'ed up

[Mike Oxlong]

Guy can't get no, satisfaction...

Sony,

I hope you can help me. Back in Oct 2013 I sent my Vaio SVS1511BFXB into your Laredo repair center for repairs. (Service Notification *****2217) It was returned to me with a downgraded motherboard and CPU. Should have an i7-3612QM CPU, but it was "repaired" with an i5-3210M CPU.

The repair center acknowledged this mistake and asked me to send my laptop back in. This takes time since I live overseas. 3 -4 weeks each way as a matter of fact.

I finally got my laptop back after a month wait, but this time they've sent me the wrong power adapter. I can't even power my laptop on to check the CPU version. This mistake felt almost intentional. Very upsetting to say the least.

I've now been waiting over a month for a response to my power adapter problem.

Yesterday I opened a ticket with Sony general support hoping to get a response. Still nothing...

I've not had a laptop to use for over 6 months. I'm beginning to think that I’m being blown off. I really expect a highly level of support from a company as reputable as Sony.

Please let me know what I need to do to get this resolved.

Thank you & best regards,
Larry

[wuchan]

PS4 support has been, well.... shit.

"region free"....LOL NA region games connect with North American players in North America. FIFA 2014 is nearly unplayable unless you happen to live in europe and bought a EU game. North America FIFA? LOfuckingL.

Want to play COD? Better live in the US or UK. Activision says all OK but Japanese players get bounced off four or more servers before finding a game plagued by lag even though psn is peer hosted.




Sony is circling the shitter...

[Coligny]

four or more servers before finding a game plagued by lag even though psn is peer hosted.

ain't those 2 things a bit mutually exclusive ?

[Mike Oxlong]

Sony developing live-action Barbie comedy

Barbie is coming alive.

Sony Pictures, Mattel and Parkes+MacDonald/Image Nation have partnered to create a live-action movie focused on the iconic doll.

The companies said the comedy will be written by Jenny Bicks (“What a Girl Wants”) and produced by husband-and-wife team Walter F Parkes and Laurie MacDonald (“Men in Black 3”).

Executive producers will be Parkes+MacDonald president Marc Resteghini and Julia Pistor for Mattel’s Playground Productions.

Sony sees the film as a global franchise and plans to go into production by the end of the year.

It’s the second collaboration for Mattel and Sony. The companies are developing the film adaptation of “Masters of the Universe,” based on Mattel action figures.

[Mike Oxlong]

Sony develops tech for 185TB tapes: 3,700 times more storage than a Blu-ray disc

[yanpa]

How many live action Barbie comedies will fit onto one of those?

[matsuki]

Sony develops tech for 185TB tapes: 3,700 times more storage than a Blu-ray disc

Just think, 185TB of data lost because your lemur's vibrator got too close to your backup cassette

[Coligny]

According to slashdot math, It takes around 178 h at current SATA speeds to fill them tapez...

Also, invest in copper plated dildo's, or at least brass... might tame the magnetic field a bit...

Or go coal / steam power...

steam dildo.jpg

[IparryU]

No bonus for Sony execs again after another bad year

Struggling electronics giant Sony will not pay bonuses to senior executives for the third straight year, the Japanese company said Tuesday, as it braces for another disastrous earnings showing.

The move means that company president Kazuo Hirai will not have received any bonuses since he became chief executive officer in 2012, a Sony spokeswoman said.

Several top executives will follow suit, while dozens of other senior officials—including those in charge of the troubled electronics divisions—are expected to be left out of the bonus round for the second straight year, she said.

“Our top management proposed to return their bonuses and that was accepted in the company’s compensation committee as appropriate,” the spokeswoman said.

Japanese reports said bonuses typically make up between 35 and 50% of an executive’s remuneration, with the Nikkei business daily saying the total value of the bonuses that will not be paid this year could be up to one billion yen.

The comments came a day before the firm is due to announce its full-year earnings report.

Sony said earlier this month it would report a bigger than expected annual loss, blaming costs tied to its exit from the personal computer business, as the once-mighty company undergoes painful reforms.

Hirai has led a sweeping restructuring, including plans to cut 5,000 jobs and asset liquidisation that saw the $1 billion sale of Sony’s Manhattan headquarters.

But he has repeatedly shrugged off pleas to abandon the ailing television unit, which he insists remains central to Sony’s core business.

Sony was once king of consumer electronics and a byword for cool.

But the company that revolutionised the way people listen to music with its Walkman portable cassette player has lost its footing since the sure-fire successes of the 1980s, and been overtaken by nimbler foreign competitors like Apple and Samsung.

The electronics that built the brand are now an albatross around its neck, weighing on the profits that other arms of the huge company generate, such as those in music publishing and movies.

Earlier this month, Sony said it expected to book a 130 billion yen net loss in the fiscal year to March, while it slashed its operating earnings outlook.

The figure is worse than a 110 billion yen net loss forecast just three months ago, when it said it would cut 5,000 jobs in its struggling computer and television units.

The move came after Moody’s downgraded its credit rating on Sony to junk, saying the maker of Bravia televisions and PlayStation game consoles must do more to repair its battered balance sheet.

Sony’s earnings, due on Wednesday, will offer a depressing comparison with sector stablemates Panasonic and Sharp, both of which have reported profits following on from huge losses the previous year.

But a Tokyo-based analyst at a major brokerage firm said while the headlines might be bad, the company was making progress.

“What Sony has done in the past—such as positioning itself for the high end of the TV business and restructuring its PC business—is having an impact,” said the analyst who was not authorised to speak to the press on the subject.

“If its smartphone and electronic device businesses don’t encounter major problems, it’s possible that the business could reach break-even.”

But, the analyst cautioned, even its repositioned TV business was facing headwinds.

“Other Japanese electronics makers such as Sharp and Panasonic are looking at the same market, or the high-end niche market in the developed world.”

A Kyodo News report Tuesday that the company will suspend the development of OLED (organic light-emitting diode) televisions was denied by a Sony spokesman.

Earlier this year Sony said it was selling its Vaio-brand PC division to a Japanese investment fund as it plans to concentrate on its lineup of smartphones and tablets.

By Kyoko Hasegawa

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/business/view/no-bonus-for-sony-execs-again-after-another-bad-year

[Taro Toporific]

How Japan Lost Its Electronics Crown
---Sony is giving up on the e-reader business, one that it helped to create. Here's how it got away from them---
Wall Street Journal Online / Aug. 15, 2012
During a business trip to Japan in 2004, technology analyst Michael Gartenberg caught a glimpse of Sony Corp.’s Librie, the first e-book reader with an electronic ink display.Mr. Gartenberg was impressed. He saw it as a harbinger of a new wave of products that would hit the U.S. But there were problems. The software was in Japanese. It required a computer to download a book and selection was limited.
Today, Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle dominates the e-reader business and the Librie is little remembered. Sony is playing catch-up with a successor device, which ranks a distant third in the global market.
It is a story that has played out repeatedly over the past 20 years for Japan’s once-world-dominant electronics firms.
Read the rest behind some kind of fucked paywall, grr



Samsung Now Bigger Than Nine of Japan’s Major Electronics Companies
Marmot Hole (Korean blog)
And you thought Samsung was big enough already since it accounted for more than a fifth of Korea’s GDP.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Samsung Electronics’ operating profit, at $3.14 billion, is more than two times larger than the combined operating profit of nine of Japan’s largest consumer electronic companies. Samsung now has a $7.4 billion war chest to spend on growth and R&D where many of the Japanese companies are at an operating loss (Sony) or in huge debt (Hitachi).
More...

[Russell]

Opportunity to practise your Chinese...

During a business trip to Japan in 2004, technology analyst Michael Gartenberg caught a glimpse of Sony Corp.'s Librie, the first e-reader to use electronic ink displays now common in today's devices.
2004年，科技分析师迈克尔•加滕伯格(Michael Gartenberg)在日本出差时偶然看到索尼公司(Sony Corp.)的电子阅读器Librie。它是第一款采用电子墨水显示屏的电子阅读器，如今这种显示屏已被普遍应用于电子阅读器。
Mr. Gartenberg was impressed with the lightweight design and long battery life and brought it back to the U.S., seeing it as a harbinger of a new wave of products.
Librie机身轻盈，而且电池续航时间长，给加滕伯格留下了深刻印象，于是他把这部阅读器带回了美国，把它视为新一波电子产品的前兆。
But there were problems with the Librie. The software was in Japanese. It required a computer to download a book. The selection was limited, and books were only available for 60-day rental.
但是，Librie也存在一些问题，比如说它的软件是日文的，下载电子书还得用电脑，而且它提供的选择非常少，电子书只能租看60天时间。
Sony stopped selling the Librie in 2007 -- the same year that Amazon.com Inc. sparked the e-reader boom with the Kindle, a wireless device with a large selection of e-books and an easy-to-use download service. Now Sony is playing catch-up with its successor device, the Reader, which ranked a distant third in the global market, with just 5% share in 2011, according to research firm IDC.
后来，索尼在2007年停售Librie，也就是在这一年，亚马逊公司(Amazon.com Inc.)凭借Kindle引发了电子阅读器热潮。Kindle具有无线上网功能，有一大批电子书可供选择，而且其下载服务也简便易用。如今，索尼正凭借其电子阅读器Reader追赶竞争对手。据国际数据公司(IDC)统计, Reader在全球市场的份额位列第三，远远落后于前两名，其在2011年的全球市场份额只有5%。
'Even though the first device definitely pointed the way to the future, it's a market that got away from Sony,' said Mr. Gartenberg, research director at technology research firm Gartner Inc. 'Others have far more successfully capitalized.'
身为科技行业研究公司Gartner研究总监的加滕伯格称，尽管（索尼的）第一部电子书阅读器明确指明了通向未来的发展道路，但如今这个市场却不是由索尼主导，其他企业从中所获得的利益已经远远超过了它。
It is a story that has played out repeatedly over the last 20 years for Japan's once-world-dominant electronics firms. During that period, Japanese companies have beaten rivals to the market with hardware breakthroughs -- from flat-panel televisions to advanced mobile phones. But in each case, foreign rivals have cashed in by delivering faster improvements, integrating the products with intuitive software and online services, cutting costs more deftly, and delivering a smarter marketing message.
过去20年来，这样的故事不断地在日本曾经称霸于世的电子产品公司身上上演。在这期间，日本企业在硬件方面的突破胜过了竞争对手，从平板电视到高端手机均是如此。然而，在这两项业务中，它们的海外竞争对手通过实现更快速的技术改进、在产品中集成直观简便的软件和在线服务、更巧妙地削减成本和推出更灵活的营销信息而大赚特赚。
That is a contrast with the glory days of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when Japan started to dominate the world of consumer electronics. As the Japanese economy surged, its electronics conglomerates ruled the market for memory chips, color televisions, and videocassette recorders, while their research labs gave birth to gadgets that would define an era: the Walkman, CD and DVD players.
这与上世纪70年代末和80年代初的情况形成了鲜明对比，当时日本开始垄断世界消费电子产品市场。随着日本经济飞速发展，该国的电子业巨头也开始统治内存芯片、彩色电视和盒式磁带录像机市场，它们的研发实验室开发出了一批定义了一个时代的产品，例如随身听、CD和DVD播放机。
Now Japan's device makers are an afterthought to Amazon, Apple Inc., Google Inc., and Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. No longer the kings of electronics, Sony, Panasonic Corp. and Sharp Corp. combined to lose about $20 billion in the past fiscal year. Compare that to the $6.4 billion in record profits those firms delivered only four years earlier.
如今，日本的电子产品生产商落后于亚马逊、苹果(Apple Inc.)、谷歌(Google Inc.)和韩国的三星电子(Samsung Electronics Co.)。它们不再是电子行业的王者，在上一财年，索尼、松下(Panasonic Corp.)和夏普(Sharp Corp.)共计亏损了约200亿美元。就在四年前，这些企业取得了64亿美元的创纪录利润。
Japan's current weakness is rooted in its traditional strength: a fixation with 'monozukuri,' or the art of making things, focused on hardware advances.
日本当前的疲弱根植于其传统优势──专守“monozukuri”（即制造的艺术），专注于硬件的改进。这一理念是日本民族自豪感的来源，它推动该国的电子公司竭力生产常常是世界上最薄最小的产品或是推出其他渐进的技术进步，但是它们忽视了人们真正关心的因素，例如产品的设计和使用的便利度。
This concept, a source of national pride, pushed Japan's electronics firms to strive for products that were often the world's thinnest, smallest, or delivered other incremental improvement -- while losing sight of factors that really mattered to people such as design and ease of use.
以电子阅读器业务为例，索尼专注于销售设备，而亚马逊则专注于销售电子书。结果是，Kindle更加符合人们购买电子阅读器的根本理由──买书、看书。剩下的事情大家都知道了。
In the case of the e-reader, Sony was focused on selling devices, while Amazon was focused on selling books. As a result, the Kindle was more in tune with the raison d'etre for purchasing the device: to buy and read books. And the rest was history.
今年6月份，津贺一宏(Kazuhiro Tsuga)在接任松下总裁的新闻发布会上说道：“日本企业对自己的技术和制造技能太自信了，我们忽略了要从消费者的角度看待产品。”在此之前，松下出现了公司94年历史上最严重的年度亏损。
'Japanese firms were too confident about our technology and manufacturing prowess. We lost sight of the products from the consumer's point of view,' said Panasonic President Kazuhiro Tsuga at a news conference in June upon taking over as the company's new president after it posted the biggest annual loss in its 94-year history.
火上浇油的是，在日圆走强的形势下，日本企业跟上创新技术、同时又要进行必要的成本削减以吸引普通大众变得更困难。在尖端技术产品方面，日本企业常常依赖于在国内生产，然后把产品销往海外。然而，由于日圆汇率上升到接近历史高位的水平，日本在海外销售的商品的利润空间缩窄，但韩国制造商因为韩圆相对疲软而避开了这个问题。此外，利润受到侵蚀也使企业难以对未来产品和技术进行投资。
To compound matters, the strong yen has made it more difficult to follow up new innovations with the requisite cost reductions to appeal to the mass market. For cutting-edge products, Japanese firms often rely on domestic production and then sell the goods abroad. The strong yen, near record levels, has narrowed the profit margin of Japanese goods sold abroad -- a problem that Korean manufacturers have avoided with the relatively weaker won. The erosion in earnings has also made it difficult to invest in future products and technologies.
日本丧失行业领先地位的最新例证是，在开发有可能成为下一代电视的主导性技术标准──有机发光二极管（OLED）的竞争中，该国企业又处于落后境地。这种新型显示器更薄而且能耗更低。
In the latest example of the country's lose-the-lead affliction, Japanese companies are falling behind in the race to develop what is likely to become the dominant technology format for next-generation televisions: OLEDs, or organic light emitting diodes. The new displays are thinner and require less energy.
韩国顶级电视制造商三星已经在小型OLED显示屏市场占据主导地位，这种屏幕常用于智能手机和其他移动设备中。如今，三星及其本土竞争对手LG Electronics均计划在今年晚些时候推出55英寸的OLED电视。
Samsung, Korea's top TV maker, already dominates the market for smaller-size OLED displays featured in smartphones and other mobile devices. Now Samsung and domestic rival LG Electronics Co. each plans to launch a 55-inch OLED television later this year.
与索尼、松下、夏普和东芝(Toshiba Corp.)这些日本企业相比，这是一个很大的进步，这些公司花费了多年时间研发这一技术，同时也在苦苦思索如何将其商业化。为了试着缩小与韩国竞争对手的差距，索尼和松下这两个宿怨已久的对手史无前例地在6月同意结成联盟，共同开发OLED生产技术。
It is a major step forward compared to the Japanese firms -- Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, and Toshiba Corp. -- that have spent years developing the technology while struggling with how to commercialize it. In an attempt to close the gap on their Korean rivals, Sony and Panasonic, once bitter rivals, agreed to an unprecedented alliance in June to develop OLED production technology together.
这是索尼的悲惨衰落，索尼五年前就已成为首家销售OLED电视的制造商。当时索尼的高管大赞它是“索尼复兴的标志”。这个11英寸机型的屏幕大概只有1/10英寸厚，是一个技术上的奇迹。然而，高达2,500美元的价格使这款OLED电视在财务收益方面大败。
That is a poignant comedown for Sony, which five years ago became the first manufacturer to sell an OLED television. At the time, company executives hailed it a 'symbol of Sony's comeback.' The 11-inch model -- with a screen about one-tenth of an inch thick -- was a technological marvel. But at $2,500 a pop, the OLED television was a financial flop.
索尼在OLED电视业务的失败距其在上一代电视技术方面遭遇的相同挫折仅隔了数年时间。2004年，索尼成为首家推出液晶电视的公司，该类电视以亮度更高、也更节能的发光二极管(LED)取代了荧光背光源。此外，索尼还在2008年率先推出第一台在四周的边框配备LED的电视，从而使屏幕变得更薄。
The OLED stumble came just a few years after a similar setback in the last generation of TV technology. In 2004, Sony was the first company to introduce LCD televisions that replaced the TV's fluorescent backlight with brighter and more energy efficient light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. It also introduced the first TV that arranged the LEDs around the edges in 2008 to allow the screens to be thinner.
三星在一年之后推出了其生产的机型，并把它们称为LED电视，以把这种新型电视与当时已有的LCD电视区别开来。这个营销战略获得了成功，三星让消费者花高价购买这种新型LED电视，从而帮助延缓了电视价格的急剧下跌。据市场研究公司NPD统计，在2012年上半年，三星在北美的LED电视市场占据了近半的市场份额，而索尼的排名还没有进入前五。
When Samsung came out with its models a year later, the company called them 'LED TVs,' a moniker to distinguish the new TVs from existing LCD models. The marketing strategy was a success and Samsung was able to get consumers to pay a premium for the new LED models, helping to slow the sharp decline in TV prices. According to research firm NPD, Samsung accounts for nearly half of all the LED televisions sold in North America while Sony did not rank among the top five sellers in the first half of 2012.
在多年都错失机会之后，索尼正式改变了发展方向，认为让三星和其他公司在开发新技术上担任领头羊实际上更加合理。索尼在率先推出突破性技术方面吃尽了苦头，该公司高管得出结论，他们这么做只是让竞争对手有了追赶的目标，并可能以更低的成本进行模仿。
After years of missed chances, Sony has officially shifted gears, deciding that it actually makes more sense to let Samsung and others take the lead in developing new innovations. For all its pains of delivering groundbreaking technologies first, Sony executives concluded they were only creating targets for competitors to pursue and possibly imitate at a cheaper cost.
在今年4月份接掌索尼首席战略长一职的齐藤正(Tadashi Saito)说，领跑者得顶着风，有时候在后面跑会更容易。另一位熟悉索尼想法的高管称，索尼在电视业务上的亏损使其更难在OLED业务上大赌一把。
'The first runner has to face the wind -- sometimes, it's easier to run from behind,' said Tadashi Saito, who took over in April as Sony's chief strategy officer. Another official familiar with Sony's thinking said the losses at its television business made it harder to take a 'gamble' on aggressively pursuing OLED.
这与索尼创建初期的情况存在很大差距，当时创始人盛田昭夫(Akio Morita)和井深大(Masaru Ibuka)为了生产一种新型彩电几乎使公司破产。在1964年发布原型机后，由于资金耗尽，索尼开始努力开发量产技术。索尼花了四年时间进行研发，然后才推出了奠定该公司后来30年成功基础的彩色显像管“特丽珑”。
That is a far cry from the early days of Sony when founders Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka nearly bankrupted the company in order to build a new type of color television. After unveiling prototypes in 1964, Sony struggled to develop the technology for mass production as the company burned through money. It took four years of development before Sony unveiled the Trinitron, a product that would underpin the company's success for the next three decades.
巴克莱(Barclays)驻东京的电子行业分析师藤森裕司(Yuji Fujimori)说，如今的感觉是“从财务来看，这些日本企业无法冒这些风险”。
These days, the feeling is: 'Financially, the Japanese firms can't take the risks,' said Yuji Fujimori, a Tokyo-based electronics analyst for Barclays.

[Coligny]

They killed their PRS ereader lineup this month too...

Awesome hardware, murderous software...

[Taro Toporific]

Opportunity to practise your Chinese...

THANKS for that link!

Damn, at first thought that was best Asian-language machine translation in history. Then, I saw that particular part of the bigear.cn website is for learning engrish and that it was meant to a model translation for advanced learners.

[matsuki]

After years of missed chances, Sony has officially shifted gears, deciding that it actually makes more sense to let Samsung and others take the lead in developing new innovations. For all its pains of delivering groundbreaking technologies first, Sony executives concluded they were only creating targets for competitors to pursue and possibly imitate at a cheaper cost.

'The first runner has to face the wind -- sometimes, it's easier to run from behind,' said Tadashi Saito, who took over in April as Sony's chief strategy officer. Another official familiar with Sony's thinking said the losses at its television business made it harder to take a 'gamble' on aggressively pursuing OLED.

While I do hate blatent knockoffs and there is truth that it's easier to make a profit off other's R&D, taking a "run from behind" mentality? Really? Price is one area where the J-companies completely fail (how about cost cutting and increasing workforce performance?) but the biggest problem I see is mentioned here:

This concept, a source of national pride, pushed Japan's electronics firms to strive for products that were often the world's thinnest, smallest, or delivered other incremental improvement -- while losing sight of factors that really mattered to people such as design and ease of use. 'Japanese firms were too confident about our technology and manufacturing prowess. We lost sight of the products from the consumer's point of view,' said Panasonic President Kazuhiro Tsuga

....and compounded by the lack of support after new versions of the products have been released. For a cuntry still eeking by on WIN95, they sure love to drop most support for older devices and expect everyone to go out and get the latest and greatest.

[Taro Toporific]

newsflicks.com : SONY'S SUICIDE

sonyrevised_99e4005de1b58962c5cbcf33424a58bf.jpg

Click to play infographic....

[Taro Toporific]

Cringe at Sony's new Playstation Vita ad
http://boingboing.net/2014/11/21/vringe.html
http://creativecriminals.com/playstatio ... both-sides

sony-tits-upJ.jpg

EDIT:
Oops. The above appears to be part of an old French ad campaign from 2012---Not really news. Sorry.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012- ... ur-breasts

And, in the same "theme" are these grotesque playstation ads.
http://kotaku.com/youll-never-unsee-thi ... 1554417734

errehbmkoub6e3ntnunf.jpg

3607f5599e_690x439.jpg

[Russell]

Just like in real life...

Warning: NSFW

[Russell]

Hacked by Best Korea

Sony Corp.’s film and TV studio may have had several films stolen, including two that have yet to be released, in a Tuesday cyberattack that may be linked to North Korea, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

The recent picture “Fury,” a Brad Pitt war movie, and the yet-to-be-released “Annie” and “Still Alice” have appeared on file-sharing sites, said the source, who sought anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter. The website TorrentFreak, a news site on file-sharing, said “Fury” was the No. 2 most-downloaded film at one site.

The hacking incident at Sony Pictures Entertainment, which continues to cripple its computer systems, began when a picture of a skull appeared on company computer screens. The image was accompanied by a message that read Sony had been hacked by #GOP, believed to stand for “Guardians of Peace,” and that private data would be released if undisclosed demands weren’t met.

Some systems at the entertainment division of Tokyo-based Sony have been brought back online, according to the source. Email and some other systems remain down. The studio’s home entertainment division was able to fulfill Black Friday orders, the person added.

Sony is continuing to investigate the breach, including the possibility it may involve North Korea, the source said. The website Re/code said Saturday that the studio was looking into whether the attack coincides with the release of “The Interview,” a comedy about a CIA plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

More

I doubted whether to post this in our Best-Korea thread, but decided to post it here.

Reason: it is a bigger accomplishment of Sony to get hacked by Best Korea than it is of Best Korea to hack Sony.

[Mike Oxlong]

Sony hires Mandiant after cyberattack; FBI starts probe

Sony Pictures Entertainment has hired FireEye Inc’s Mandiant forensics unit to clean up a massive cyber attack that knocked out the studio’s computer network nearly a week ago, three people with knowledge of the matter said on Monday.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is also investigating the incident, said one of the people, who were not authorized to publicly discuss efforts to deal with the attack.

The computer systems at the Sony Corp unit went down last Monday after displaying a red skull and the phrase “Hacked By #GOP,” which reportedly stands for Guardians of Peace, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Technicians are making headway in repairing damage caused by the attack and expected to have the email systems back online late Monday, said the source who commented on the FBI investigation.

Sony executives have declined to comment on the scope of the attack, though emails have been bouncing back with messages asking senders to call employees because the system was “experiencing a disruption.”

Representatives with FireEye and the FBI declined comment.

Mandiant is an incident response firm that helps victims of breaches identify the extent of attacks, clean up networks and restore systems. The firm has handled some of the largest breaches uncovered to date, including the 2013 holiday attack on Target Corp.

Technology news website Re/code reported on Friday that Sony was investigating to determine whether hackers working on behalf of North Korea have launched the attack in retribution for the studio’s backing of the film “The Interview,” which is to be released on Dec 25 in the United States and Canada.

The movie is a comedy about a CIA attempt to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The Pyongyang government denounced the film as “undisguised sponsoring of terrorism, as well as an act of war” in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/crim ... arts-probe

[matsuki]

[IparryU]

http://www.japantoday.com/category/busi ... gher-wages

Struggling Sony to cut pay despite Abe's calls for higher wages
Sony Corp is likely to cut average pay next year in a rare move for a big Japanese company, and one that goes against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push for higher wages to get the economy moving.

For a second year, Abe is pressuring major companies to raise base pay in the fiscal year from April, and boost investment, to kick-start a positive cycle of higher wages, profits and prices to end 15 years of deflation.

Japan’s main union of electronics workers is likely to demand a hike of over 2 percent in base pay, and companies are widely expected to comply. Most Sony workers, however, don’t belong to the Japanese Electrical Electronic & Information Union, and the company’s average pay of 8.85 million yen is among the industry’s highest.

Sony is going through a painful restructuring after cutting its earnings forecasts six times in two years, and the once-storied electronics maker said earlier this year it will overhaul its salary structure for the first time in a decade, without elaborating on expected changes in pay.

“We are at this time studying various issues as Sony overall is in a difficult situation,” spokeswoman Yo Kikuchi told Reuters. “The current human resources system was put in place around 10 years ago, so it was also time for a review.”

[matsuki]

[IparryU]

\Who the fuck is James Franco? I know the other guy... he was the guy from Knocked Up and Green Lantern...

[wagyl]

IPU, taking his first steps towards oyajidom. Next you will be watching morning TV geino reports and saying "I have no idea who either of the people in this dengeki kekkon are. And I don't care."

Come on in, the water's fine!

(Unless I am being whooshed ... nope, not being whooshed, it is just The Green Hornet)

[IparryU]

IPU, taking his first steps towards oyajidom. Next you will be watching morning TV geino reports and saying "I have no idea who either of the people in this dengeki kekkon are. And I don't care."

Come on in, the water's fine!

(Unless I am being whooshed ... nope, not being whooshed, it is just The Green Hornet)

I just dont watch people tv... More of background shit that i can space off to. That and sentimental stuff that reminds me of my kids. Adventure Time and what not.

[kurogane]

Yeah, he is definitely movie star flavour of the year but I haven't seen anything by him that makes me want to care. He strikes me as a real Cat Lady Killer type. He was horrid as the caring, sensitive male in the Planet of the Apes. I don't even like Seth Rogen or any of that Judd Apatow crowd that much. Not much out there for me these days.

[wagyl]

All you need to know.

[matsuki]

[Samurai_Jerk]

IPU, taking his first steps towards oyajidom. Next you will be watching morning TV geino reports and saying "I have no idea who either of the people in this dengeki kekkon are. And I don't care."

Come on in, the water's fine!

(Unless I am being whooshed ... nope, not being whooshed, it is just The Green Hornet)

I just dont watch people tv...

Apparently you don't watch movies either.

[kurogane]

hehehe. To be fair to James Franco, he is a legitimate movie star and perhaps even an actor, not a Paris Hilton famous for being famous type.