Hacking NetFlix

No Mail on Tuesday to Honor Former President Ford

The U.S. Postal Service issued the following press release:

NO REGULAR MAIL DELIVERY OR RETAIL SERVICE ON TUESDAY, JANUARY 2
Federal agencies will honor the memory of former President Ford

WASHINGTON, DC – There will be no regular mail delivery or retail services at Post Offices on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2007, as the Postal Service is closing to observe the national day of mourning for President Gerald R. Ford. The decision follows an Executive Order issued by President Bush that independent federal agencies close as a mark of respect for the former president who died Dec. 26. Express Mail deliveries will be made on Jan. 2. Regular retail and delivery service will resume Wednesday, Jan. 3.

Thanks to Noah for sending this in.

Blockbuster Game Pass

Pete received this e-mail about Blockbuster Game Pass:

BLOCKBUSTER Game Pass® is the perfect way to keep the game going – even after the holidays. Join BLOCKBUSTER Game Pass at this special introductory rate of $14.99 for the first month, and just $21.99 per month after that. Rent all the games you want, one out at a time, with no due dates. It's unlimited gaming for one low price.

Visit your neighborhood store and get your BLOCKBUSTER Game Pass today!

Has anyone tried Blockbuster Game Pass? I'm not a "gamer," but I'm still thinking about getting an Xbox 360 (purely for testing the Microsoft Live movie download service and to use as a Media Center extender, of course).

Looong Wait

JJ writes: "I have a movie in my queue that has been listed as "Very Long Wait" for at least three months! I am not being throttled, as other movies, including New Releases have been consistently available. I want to know if any Netflix users have experienced similar waits and for which movies (The film is George Roy Hill's Slaughterhouse Five)."

I added Slaughterhouse Five to my queue, and it says "This movie has a very long wait." Do you know of any other movies that have been on long wait for months?

DVD Sales Expected to Decline in 2007

Video Business is reporting that DVD sales are expected to decline in 2007.

The analysts expect home video sales to slow to $23.4 billion next year, down 1% from $23.6 billion in spending expected this year. The analysts expect the downturn to come on the sell-through side of the business, particularly in catalog DVDs.

The analysts base their conclusion on declines in disc sales at the two largest electronics retailers over the past four quarters. Best Buy has reported DVD declines in three of the last four quarters and Circuit City has reported DVD declines in two of the last four quarters.

The good news is that slow sales might force the studios to lower retail prices. It'll be interesting to see if high-def DVD or digital downloads take off in 2007, but I think we have a few years to go before they impact DVD sales.

Thanks to Eric for sending this in.

NBC Posts Heroes Online Free

NBC has posted all 11 episodes from the new series Heroes online for a limited time, instead of posting only one episode per week. The studios are getting smart, and are using the web site to help readers catch up on hot new shows (and I'm sure they're making good money on the ads, too). Since the online version is lower resolution than DVD, it shouldn't impact the DVD release of the full season.

Netflix also has a special Heroes Season Summary DVD that will be available on January 9th. It also includes the pilot episode of The Black Donnellys.

Thanks to Brian for sending this in.

Blockbuster Promotions Push Them Over 2 Million?

Eric wonders if the Blockbuster promotions will push them over the 2 million subscriber mark: "I wonder…did Blockbuster really give each corporate employee a friends/family pass? Assuming employees widely distributed their individual codes, there are a lot of free month long trials sloshing around that potentially come off in the Jan/Feb 2007 timeframe after their fiscal year ends.

Given this pretty significant promotional activity, launch of Totoal Access, plus the Netflix mailer deal, expanding coupon use to games, etc, etc, I bet Blockbuster beats their 2m year end sub number. But look out later in 2007 if they don’t stick.."

We had a bunch of Blockbuster employees spam the comments here with their personal codes, and I've seen them posted on several other sites, so I know they've been pushing hard to make their numbers. I hope they break out free trials and paying subscribers when they announce Q4 numbers.

iTunes Movies To Go

Richard sent in a USA Today story about new toys to let you watch movies from the video iPod in your car. I'm sure that we'll be seeing lots of new video gadgets during CES in early January.

Can A Philosopher Win the Netflix Prize?

Jeff Larche thinks a philosopher might be able to solve the Netflix Prize:

With an additional 3.87 percentage points yet to be racked up, the road to victory is long – possibly impassable. If I understand my statistical modeling correctly, every unit of progress to 10 percent will be a far tougher slog than the one before it. There clearly needs to be a breakthrough in how the problem is approached if anyone has a chance of winning. A couple of days ago, it occurred to me that the source of this breakthrough might be a better ontology.

Ontology is the study of logically structured categorical models. It helps us understand a particular domain of reality by looking at its essential elements, and especially, how they are interconnected. Because ontology proposes to explain big complicated things, this discipline was honed first by philosophers.

The Wikipedia has an article about Ontology.

HD DVD Encryption Broken?

There is an interesting video on YouTube that claims to prove that AACS, the encryption used by HD DVD, has been broken.

The only people inconvenienced by encryption are paying customers. When will the studios stop treating them like thieves?

via Engadget.

Netflix Tops Online Retail Satisfaction Index

PC World: Netflix once again tops the Forsee Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index, with a score of 86%, beating Amazon, LLBean, QVC, Apple, and others.

The 40 sites covered by the survey were those with the top sales volume in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide. Larry Freed, president and chief executive of ForeSee Results, said the customer satisfaction scores are based on responses from 10,500 people surveyed between Thanksgiving and December 19. Specifically, the scores were determined by respondents' answers to three questions about eligible sites they had visited (whether or not they actually bought something): How satisfied they were overall, how well the site met their expectations, and how well it compared to what they thought an ideal site would be.

How satisfied are you with Netflix?