Happy .xxx day!

AVN/AEE 2007 (JJ on right)

The Web-powers-that-be opened .xxx domain names yesterday. As of this writing, juliejacobson.xxx is still available but I hesitate to drop $129 on it.

Even so, I thought we'd celebrate the day with a look back on the most memorable porn moments in my professional career. For years, our most highly-trafficked stories on CEPro.com involved xxx-related musings, mostly of a technological (i.e., relevant) nature.

For several of those years, if you Googled blu-ray+porn, my stories topped the list. Those were proud moments indeed.

It is true, the porn industry has driven the adoption and/or selection of key technologies related to my field, including video formats, interactivity, streaming and 3D. I thank them for that. So does my husband Duane Paulson, who served as my photographer for several AVN/AEE expos.

Here are some of the top articles and choice quotes over the years (Pictures here).

Top Porn Publisher Changes Mind on Blu-ray, Ships 4 HD DVD Titles
They say Betamax lost to VHS because VHS had more porn titles. Will the adult video industry hold similar sway in the high-def DVD battle?

"It's so much fun to play with technology," Joone says. "It's almost like an R&D place, where you can try new things and not really be worried."

One of those new things was "interactive sex," which Joone pioneered in the early 1990s with CD ROM-based videos that put you in the middle of the action.

"You have this girl, and you can put her in any position, change camera angles, change demeanor," he says. "She can be innocent or nasty. You can record what you're doing and play it back."

Wither Blu-ray? Porn Industry Backs HD DVD
If you thought all the Blu-ray and HD DVD action was at CES, then obviously you didn’t visit the show-next-door, the Adult Entertainment Expo.

"Most replication services are either owned by Sony or have ties to Disney," producer Tom Funk says. Neither organization, it seems, wants to tarnish its family-friendly reputation by cranking out dirty movies.

Reader favorite:  
High Definition Doesn’t Scare Porn Stars
"People, especially who have never seen high definition, are blown away by it." said Joone (that's the whole name), founder of Digital Playground, a producer of some of the more cinematically rich adult entertainment titles. 

"You have to be a little more self-conscious. You see every little flaw. ... I think it makes women more comfortable because they can see that nobody's perfect. ... We don't necessarily wear more makeup, but we make sure to drink lots of water to keep skin clear."- - Jesse Jane, Digital Playground

What the Bleep?! - News Article
Smut filters gone wild on CEPro.com 

Until we changed the smut filter, my bio boasted that I had graduated magna ### laude from the University of Michigan.

Porn Industry Warms Up to Blu-ray
Leading video producer Digital Playground to ship first XXX title in Blu-ray format, after year-long success with HD DVD.

Digital Playground claims to be the first shop to release a dual-layer adult video. The company’s Island Fever 4 originally shipped in a multidisc set. “To fit it all in there, you needed three discs,” Joone laments. “We’re the first company to do dual layer, so it all fits on one disc. It makes for a better user experience because now they don’t have to change the disc in the middle of the video.”

CE Companies Ambivalent About Targeting the Porn Industry
Video conferencing, digital media adapters, 3D screens debut at Adult Entertainment Expo.

One exhibitor, demonstrating a digital media adapter, begged us not to use the company's "real" name or the names of the booth personnel. At AEE the exhibitor called itself PCtoTV, but the corporation actually is a prominent silicon vendor whose technology can be found in digital media adapters from name-brand CE vendors.

A woman at the booth said that top company officials had religious inclinations that were not consistent with the porn industry.

Will Adult Entertainment Influence 3D TV Movement? - CE Pro Blog
Porn industry may hasten the adoption of 3D TV in the home, but probably won't influence the direction of 3D technology

"We feel our content and delivery system creates a virtual voyeuristic and participatory reaction from viewers. ... We are aiming to create an intriguing immersive reality for all of our customers,” -- Lance Johnson, Bad Girls in 3D

JJ & the porn industry: photo album here