d00dism

A little while back, Google announced it was hosting San Jose City College’s email. Prior to that, rumors started circulating that Google would be licensing its Gmail technology to others due to clues in the code.

Honestly, I could not see a downside to this arrangement (paranoid delusions are not considered). Most college students don’t want to fiddle with email client configuration. A webmail interface is perfect for campus wide availability. The over 2 gigabytes of storage space works great for students to send files back and forth on a regular basis. Because it’s maintained by Google, it also means it’ll be available to students even after they graduate. And yes, I am still a little bitter that U-Mass is too damn cheap to give lifetime email addresses to graduates.

Apparently, this arrangement is a beta test of sorts. Google followed that announcement up with a small testing program for others to host the email for a domain. Not only do they supply Gmail accounts, but they supply an administrative interface for the owner of that domain. That’s pretty slick and considering the apparent price (free), a pretty good deal.

I’m going to try it out for the domain I set up for my family as ideally, I’d like them all using Gmail because otherwise, I have a feeling they’ll constantly change email address as well as lose their emails. Should I get picked, I’ll share my experiences, but I expect they’ll be positive.

Like any hardcore Netflix user, I read Hacking Netflix. One of the more repetitive, annoying themes is the dissatisfaction of Manuel. If you thought I was obsessive about Macs, well, it’s nothing compared to this guy and Netflix. And it has to be bad. In fact, he takes this quest so seriously that it has shades of a Don Quixote syndrome. Netflix is one mighty windmill. He’s pulled the AP in as his Sancho Panza. It even has a picture of him. Lovely.

Now, that’s not to say that Netflix is perfect. I’ve had a few broken/scratched discs and sometimes they can’t find discs I’ve returned until I report them missing (then they turn up that afternoon). Overall, I’m a very satisfied customer and I don’t feel like they’re restricting my use. Rather, I tend “throttle” (slow usage) myself because I’m too busy to watch that many movies. I’ve done the analysis and I’m getting good value out of my account.

For some real Netflix analysis though, I’d check out Mike’s Netflix analysis though it hasn’t been updated in a little while. Update: Look at the power I yield, Mike updated his graph. It’s far more complete than Manuel’s anecdotal account of Netflix quality. On an up note, if our society has progressed to the point where this becomes the main concern for someone, we’re doing pretty good.