Hacking NetFlix

Thanks for a Wonderful Year

Happy New Year! I can't believe that I've been working on HackingNetflix for more than 4 years now, and I've really enjoyed the experience. Thanks for reading, commenting, e-mailing, chatting, and in many cases, becoming my friend. Best wishes to everyone. - Mike

TypeKey Registration No Longer Required on HackingNetflix

Due to numerous complaints, I've removed the requirement to use TypeKey to comment on HackingNetflix.

I just hope that people can behave themselves. ;-)

Back from the Adobe Max Conference

Sorry about the lack of posts, but I've been at the excellent Adobe Max Conference. Lots of great stuff coming from Adobe, including an online version of Photoshop (I use Photoshop almost daily).

How To Suggest A Story for Hacking Netflix

If you have a question, idea, suggestion or story idea, please send me an e-mail: hackingnetflix [at] gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you, and I do try to respond to every e-mail personally. Sometimes life gets in the way (kids, a consulting job, vacation, travel, etc.), but I do try to respond within in a reasonable amount of time. If I didn't respond to one of your e-mails in the past, I apologize. Please send it again.

I do read throught the comments (I get a copy of each one in my e-mail), but keep in mind that people are still commenting on stories I wrote years ago (there are close to 30,000 comments on 2,800 stories). I can't always read through the comments before posting stories, so it's not a good way to suggest a topic.

I rarely participate in the comments, mostly because I got burned out in the early days. There were some serious trolls, and I wasted a lot of time arguing with people that love to argue. I'd rather work on digging up stories and responding to your e-mails, and I sleep a lot better at night.

The best way to get my attention is to send me an e-mail. I really do care what you have to say.

HackingNetflix @ Gnomedex

I'm at the blogging, podcasting and new media conference Gnomedex in Seattle, and I hope to run into Michael Rubin, the Netflix community blogger, who is also at the conference.

Michael is looking for a software engineer to work on Netflix community, "I'm looking for an experienced software systems leader who has successfully led teams to design and code software for an online business, and one hopes, an online social network. If we were a start-up, this might be the CTO-type of position, but here you would be a manager or director of engineering, depending on your experience. .

HackingNetflix at Siggraph 2007 This Week

I'm at the Siggraph 2007 computer graphics conference in San Diego this week, so if you're going send me an e-mail if you want to say "hi" (hackingnetflix [at] gmail.com).

Back from Vacation...

I guess I enjoyed vacation so much that it wound up lasting more than a few days. This is a first real vacation I've taken in the 3.5+ years I've been doing this, and my only regret is not lining up a guest blogger during my absence. We had a wonderful time at a wedding, DisneyWorld and the beach, and I hope you get a chance to take some time off this summer and spend it with people you care about.

It's going to take me a few days to get caught up on my e-mail, so if you sent in a story idea or question please be patient.

I was going to take another day or so off, but I checked the comments and figured I better give you some new stuff to argue about. ;-)

HackingNetflix Vacation

I'm taking a few days off to spend some time with my family. In January I started a new consulting job for a graphics software company, and the job involves travel and is keeping me very busy. I really need to unplug for a few days and recharge.

Here are some great sites to read while I'm at the beach: The Netflix Community Blog, Netflix Fan Blog, Movie Marketing Madness, Cinematech, Cinematical, Davis Freeberg's Digital Connection and Zatz Not Funny.

See you in a few days! - Mike

Rough Week at HackingNetflix

It's been a rough week. I've been traveling a lot for a consulting job, and came back from a week in California only to head out to Atlanta for a conference. Then my MacBook has serious issues for the third time (!), but the Danbury Apple store fixed it less than one day (thanks, Hugh!).

Things should return to normal next week, but I apologize if I didn't respond to your e-mail yet. I hope to catch up over the weekend. - Mike

Netflix Reads HackingNetflix

I rarely write about myself or link to places where I'm quoted in the press because this blog is about Netflix, not me. However, I wanted you to know that Netflix does read this site and the comments, so you do have a voice. Mike Moran's Biznology blog interviewed Netflix spokesperson Steve Swasey:

Netflix has over six million members, some of them bloggers, and the company pays close attention to what they write. Mike Kaltschnee, the blogger behind the Hacking Netflix, has the company’s attention, according to Steve. “We have people dedicated to reading Hacking Netflix every day. We treat him with equal importance to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times because he knows more about Netflix than anyone else.”

I try to post every question, complaint or suggestion that you send in (but I'm human, so bug me again if I miss your e-mail). Please feel free to contact me by e-mail: hackingnetflix [at] gmail.com.