Thankfully, we’ll always have that wonderful Paul Simon song by which to remember it.

Kodachrome was on the market for 74 years–all those birthday parties and National Geographic covers. But you can’t stop progress, as Steve McCurry, who snapped what may well be the most famous Kodachrome photo ever (above), notes.

“The early part of my career was dominated by Kodachrome, and I reached for that film to shoot some of my most memorable images,” said McCurry. “While Kodachrome Film was very good to me, I have since moved on to other films and digital to create my images. In fact, when I returned to shoot the ‘Afghan Girl’ 17 years later, I used Kodak’s E100VS film to create that image, rather than Kodachrome Film as with the original.”

[Image credit: Steve McCurry via Wikipedia]

The policy–which covers “any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form” as well as “written materials commonly referred to as ‘pocket trash’ or ‘pocket litter’”–applies to anyone entering this country, including U.S. citizens.

Anyone who wants to, that is.

If only we could keep our right to privacy safely up in “the cloud: along with our data …

Yesterday, the Commerce Department began accepting applications for $40 coupons to defray the cost of a basic digital-to-analog converter box (expected to sell for between $50 and $70) that will allow older TVs to receive digital broadcast signals. “There is a big change in television coming on Feb. 18, 2009, and people who have old televisions who receive free over-the-air broadcasting, which means they are not hooked up to cable or satellite or another pay-TV service, have to make a decision,” Meredith Atwell Baker, deputy assistant secretary of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, told Broadcast Newsroom. “They have three choices. They can buy a new TV that’s digital, they can subscribe to cable or satellite or another service, or they can buy a converter box. Otherwise, their television won’t work.”

The coupons are available on a first-come, first-served basis at www.ntia.doc.gov/dtvcoupon/index.html. And there are about 33 million of them available. Great news for the estimated 26 million households in the United States that have yet to make the jump to digital TV.

“This item, at its core, is about the consumer,” FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said in remarks before the vote. “It is about ensuring that all Americans with cable–regardless of whether they are analog or digital subscribers–are able to watch the same broadcast stations the day after the digital transition that they were watching the day before the transition. If the cable companies had their way, you, your mother and father, or your next-door neighbor could go to sleep one night after watching their favorite channel and wake up the next morning to a dark fuzzy screen. This is because the cable operators believe that it is appropriate for them to choose which stations analog cable customers should be able to watch. It is not acceptable as a policy matter or as a legal matter. The 1992 Cable Act is very clear. Cable operators must ensure that all local broadcast stations carried pursuant to this act are “viewable” by all cable subscribers. Thus, they may not simply cut off the signals of these must-carry broadcast stations after the digital transition. The order we adopt today prevents the cable operators from doing just that.”

Cable companies must now either ensure that all subscribers have the equipment necessary to view a digital signal, or convert it to analog format for those who cannot. And so the era of analog television broadcasts will officially end on Feb. 17, 2012, and not the same day in 2009, when U.S. broadcasters make the switch to digital TV.