Posts Tagged ‘dvd’

Upping Your Netflix Geek Factor

August 11th, 2009

Worried you’re not getting your money’s worth from your $8.99 a month, 1 physical DVD at a time but also unlimited “Instant Watch” membership?

Want easy to digest, visualized data updated ever 24 hours about:

FeedFliks is an independent website created by Netflix members for other Netflix members, and utilizes the Netflix API to visualize yours – and other’s – rental and instant watch habits.

Worried about Privacy? (and really, who but bloggers isn’t these days? <G>) The site’s privacy policy is here; highlights include:

  • New  users by default only have their Netflix Reviews shared
  • All other data, their Queues, their Recommendations etc are private
  • Users’ Rental and Streaming Histories have *always* been private – as have been their statistics, graphs and calculations
  • By default, FeedFliks members share only their Reviews shared (unless they’ve made that section also private already)
  • User who prefer to share more can set their sharing preferences via their Sharing page.

Even better – it’s FREE.  (And at least for now, the website is almost advertising free too; the only banner ad is to join Netflix).

Related Content:

A Netflix Stream in Hand…

… would be a killer app – and in more ways than one; streaming more than one movie would easily eat up most people‘s iPhone minutes package on AT&amp;T without making *any* calls… Today, from TechCrunch, via Hacking Netflix: Rumor: Netflix Streaming Coming To The iPhone by MG Siegler on August 3, 2009 One big story …

Netflix and the Speed of Light.

Yesterday around 1pm the US Postal Service picked up my red Netflix envelope with Slumdog Millionaire inside, preaddressed for the PO Box of their Tacoma, WA warehouse. This morning at 6:36 am, Netflix emailed me my shipment with Slumdog Millionaire was received; and the next dvd in my queue would be …

Netflix, its Algorithm, My Neighbors, and Me.

I still haven’t quite figured out how Netflix‘s business model keeps it profitable - even with a paid subscriber base of 10,000,000, there are a lot of operational costs behind Netflix.com, from software engineering to shipping costs to and from that paid subscriber base; each queued title shipped as a DVD …

Rescue Me

Each economic downturn brings some cultural shift or change; during this one I realized I’d pretty much given up on network TV. I’ve never watched even one “Survivor,” “Dancing with the Stars,” “American Idol” or “The Apprentice.”  I’m going to keep it that way. Other than some of the original series on cable …

Free is Sometimes Free: The Future of a Radical Price

For those not able to make the Seattle Chamber of Commerce breakfast tomorrow, featuring Chris Anderson talking about his book Free: The Future of a Radical Price, his presentation at Wired’s “Disruptive Business Conference” is available online, for free: Related content: Free is Not Always Free. So – the featured speaker at …

For Whom The Bell Tolls… or, Another Business Model for $0.00

From Techcrunch, last week: At first this announcement appeared to be a good candidate for “News of the Weird:” Microsoft Officially Retires Soapbox, The Poor Man’s YouTube by Leena Rao on July 21, 2009 Microsoft’s YouTube clone Soapbox is officially shutting its doors, according to reports today. Soapbox, which was launched in 2006 as a hub for downloading …

  • Share/Bookmark

Netflix and the Speed of Light.

August 5th, 2009

Yesterday around 1pm the US Postal Service picked up my red Netflix envelope with Slumdog Millionaire inside, preaddressed for the PO Box of their Tacoma, WA warehouse.

This morning at 6:36 am, Netflix emailed me my shipment with Slumdog Millionaire was received; and the next dvd in my queue would be shipped as soon as possible.

As soon as possible was today at 12:47 pm.  My new dvd will be here tomorrow.

Wow.

The Red Envelope

The Red Envelope

Today the Chicago Tribune posted a story about the magical, mystical Netflix shipping and receiving team for greater Chicagoland; and it’s quite fascinating:

How Netflix gets your movies to your mailbox so fast

Out of sight in Carol Stream, 42 people move 60,000 discs daily with quiet efficiency. But don’t drop off your flicks there.

By Christopher BorrelliTribune reporter

August 4, 2009

The Netflix warehouse in Carol Stream does not appear on any map. Your odds of finding it are slightly better than your odds of stumbling upon a rare insect in a field of weeds.

One could drive to Carol Stream, stop in a random office park, climb from one’s car and scream, “Reveal thyself, Netflix!” This is not advisable. But the temptation remains.

If you subscribe to the DVD-rental service, the Netflix warehouse, which you know must exist somewhere; which a P.O. Box on every Netflix envelope suggests does exist; which processes your Netflix queue with alarming efficiency; which you bet will be as magical as you imagined if you ever stumble on it, overrun with dancing Oompa Loompas in matching jumpsuits of Netflix red, is one of those mythical New Economy temples.

Like an Amazon warehouse. Or an Apple warehouse. One imagines miles of pop ephemera between its brick-and-mortar walls — one imagines that limitless building from “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” but with 15,000 copies of “ Confessions of a Shopaholic.”

The truth is stranger.

MORE

I hope Netflix decides to tackle our economy next; that way we’d be buzzing again in no time.

  • Share/Bookmark