Posts Tagged ‘efficiency’

Moving Pictures, the Netflix Way

January 20th, 2010

Saturday I mailed a dvd  back to Netflix.

Since Monday was a federal holiday, I expected to Netflix to receive the returned DVD on Tuesday, then ship the next dvd in my queue to arrive on Wednesday.

But – no.

Netflix emailed me Monday morning they received the dvd I mailed them on Saturday.

Later that day my updated dvd queue noted the next dvd would ship on Tuesday and arrive on Wednesday.

Instead, it arrived TUESDAY.

Netflix gets a lot of things right – which is in line with its entertainment product offerings – but even better, sometimes its efficiency is magic, too. <G

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 …

Comcast Takes on Hulu in the Battle for TV to be Everywhere

Via CNN.com today: Comcast rolled out a Web-based on-demand television and movie service on Tuesday that gives customers access to more than 2,000 hours of television and movies. – more – The service, named Fancast XFINITY TV (formerly TV Everywhere),  is getting mixed reviews on Twitter,  and is in beta, with limited …

Dead Like Me.

I’ve been broadcast/cable tv free for about a month now, with only mild withdrawal symptoms (having really re-run episodes of NCIS makes great white noise for me when I work from home; so now I have to improvise….). Even so – the combination of watching/running Netflix offerings in the background is …

Hello, Roku HD…!

When I still had cable tv, I loved my Tivo, even though I never upgraded my Tivo 2 box the Tivo HD. Why not?  Pricing.  I had a lifetime (of the Tivo 2 box) subscription, so upgrading would have been very expensive for me – first because of Tivo’s high pricing …

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow; or Redundancy, x 2

Last week a “minority” of T-Mobile Sidekick users learned the “Rule of Data Redundancy” the long, slow, hard way – and through no fault of their own. Sidekick users who stored their data locally (on the device) or backed up their data on a PC through a sync still have their …

How the Netflix Prize Was Won…

Not surprisingly <G>, Wired has an interesting follow up story on how the Netflix prize was won – and notes real progress was made in the contest’s goal to improve the Netflix movie recommendation algorithm by 10 percent only after the leaders joined forces with members of some of the also-ran teams. The …

Hulu-baloo.

According to Silicon Alley Insider, with data partly from Comscore, 38 million people watched Hulu at least once in July - a viewership which easily topped Time Warner Cable’s July viewership of 34 million. That same month, only DirecTV (47 million viewers) and Comcast (62 million) pulled larger audiences: While impressive, Hulu.com has a long way to go before reaching the cable companies’ …

Tags: efficiency, moving pictures, queue, product offerings, entertainment product, netflix, federal holiday, monday morning
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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.

Tags: netflix queue, red envelope, netflix envelope, netflix warehouse, confessions of a shopaholic, slumdog millionaire
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