Movies

I’ve been spending some time revisiting GTD and Inbox Zero. Several of the themes are important and in particular, the idea that your time is finite is probably most important. As I get older, my time becomes even more limited. I’m not sure how to explain this, but there it is. As this is the case, the content you consume needs to match your limits. Trying to consume more than you have time for simply frustrates you and leaves you less time to consume the content you actually enjoy. ...

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. ...

It’s official. I have way too many movies in my queue. I tried to add Suspiria to my Netflix queue, only to get the following response. If you wish to add this movie to your Queue, you must first remove some movies. I’m going to trim it a little, but I fear I may be forced to spawn a new queue (just for TV shows). Boo to Netflix for its artificial 500 movie queue limit. Split it into multiple pages if necessary. I don’t care how they handle it. It’s an inconvenience to me.

Someone please tell me that someone is screwing with IMDB. Topher Grace is supposed to play Venom in the upcoming Spider-Man 3 according to IMDB. Didn’t someone already play Eddie Brock in the earlier Spider-Man movies? I might be wrong, but I remember pointing it out to someone. Let’s ignore that because actors are regularly replaced. Topher Grace though? Venom is a powerful, violent killer. He inspires terror in people. Does this this face scare you? Really? ...

Was making the movie Zathura necessary? Really? It’s about a couple boys who find a board game that propels their house into a space adventure. Does that sound familiar? That’s Jumanji, except in space instead of the jungle. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. There’s no Robin Williams, or even young, hot, Kirsten Dunst. Instead, we have Dax Shepard (I’ve never heard of him either) and two young boys. Oh, and Tim Robbins. I can understand the younger actors getting involved, but Tim Robbins. I should send this, if I had his address. ...

I came across this article recently, which includes an Excel spreadsheet for analyzing your own Netflix usage. The problem is that Excel v.X for Mac likes to paste tab delimited data into multiple columns (as it well should). The original sheet was written to parse the data out of a single column based upon character position. That’s clever if you don’t have it separated. It’s a lot more work though. I made my own clone for Mac users. There are far fewer instructions built into the sheet though because I’m lazy. The first three values in the analysis section can be set as seen fit. To input your data, select the cell just below “Shipped” and paste after copying out of the email you get from Netflix when you request the full history. Make sure that the fourth column is filled in with the formula as far down as your data goes. ...

I’m not surprised at all by this. In fact, I expected it ever since Blockbuster started their strong-arm, undercutting price competition with Netflix. From CNET: The price of Blockbuster’s three-movies-out-at-once rental plan will now be $17.99 per month, up from $14.99, the company said Tuesday. The new rate is the same that Netflix charges for three movies–the most it allows customers to have at a time. … The new prices go into effect Aug. 19. ...

Hacking Netflix had an article on “the worst movie ever”. The article mentioned that Netflix carried the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version. I never thought of the possibility that Netflix had MST3K. But they do! In fact, they have a large selection (27 by my count) and they’re all in my queue now (which has reached triple digits in size). Does anyone else have the same desire to watch them all?

I swear I’m not getting paid for this. At any rate, Netflix just added two very cool features to their service. Profiling The first is profiles. This is going to catch like wildfire. I’d wager a guess that most Netflix subscriptions are shared by multiple people. Just think about families, roommates, and couples. The original implementation of Netflix didn’t really take this into account. Everyone had to share the same queue, same ratings, and same recommendations. Having the same queue meant constant manipulation so that everyone got their movies instead of just one person. The downfalls of the other two are self-explanatory. ...

Little known fact about Netflix, they have multiple plans (beyond their $17.99 3 at a time plan). In fact, they also have a 5-at-a-time for $29.99 and a 8-at-a-time for $47.99. Like the normal plan, that also includes unlimited rentals. For the frugal user, they also have a 2-at-a-time plan. However, that comes with a caveat. You only get 4 movies a month total. However, at $11.99 it may still be worth it to some users.