Hacking NetFlix

Freakomendations: Freaky Recommendations Site

Sun Researcher Paul Lamere collects unusual recommendations from Netflix, Amazon, Last.fm, and other companies.

Have you had a "freakomentation" from Netflix?

via Netflix Fan.

Ever Wonder What They Watch on The Space Station?

A reader discovered a list of the movies and books available to the staff of the International Space Station. A few of the more interesting movies include 2010: The Year We Make Contact, Apollo 13, Armageddon, National Lampoon's Animal House, Harold & Kumar, So I Married an Axe Murderer, The Goonies, and the X-Men.

PSA: Alicia Keys in Africa (Aids Charity)

Alicia Keys and Keep a Child Alive put together a film to help raise awareness of the plight of people in Africa with Aids. You can watch the film for free, learn more about this cause, and donate at the Alicia in Africa website.

When Independent Video Stores Fight Back

I found this photo on Flickr:

Image courtesy Cory Schwartz Photography.

Typography Used to Recreate Movie Scenes

I'm a huge fan of movies and typography, so I was happy to see that AlwaysWatching has put together a collection of movie scenes that were recreated using only type and the original soundtrack. The following example is from Ocean's Eleven, but they also have scenes from Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, The Office, and more.

Art Student Creates Alternate Netflix Website, Logo & Ads

Flickr user OhJustinBear is apparently an art student and created a mockup of the Netflix website, logo treatments, and even a few interesting posters.

Video Rant About DVD Commercials

Commercials I Hate posted a video rant on YouTube about the commercials he hates, and it features an interesting analysis of the MPAA piracy video, one of the most annoying commercials of all time. Warning: It features some strong language (cussing) and more, so don't watch it if you're bugged out anything PG13 or higher.

Thanks to John A. for sending this in.

Review: Sumo Omni Beanbag Chair

I know a big, red $130 beanbag chair is not the typical beat I cover here at HackingNetflix, but I spend a lot of time watching movies, so I figured it was okay to review something that could be used to watch DVDs.

When the huge box arrived, my wife was aghast that I was going to bring this huge, red chair into our already crowded family room, but she quickly changed her mind after trying it. The Sumo Onmi is 4.5' by 5.5' and is made of a thick, seemingly rip-proof nylon. To test the strength of the bag, I had my children jumped on it repeatedly, even running across the room and leaping onto it. The beanbag withstood the punishment without a single tear or loose thread.

The Sumo is seriously over-engineered. The nylon is much thicker than it needs to be, the stitching is high-quality, and they claim that it's stain-proof (we haven't had to test that yet). Here's a close-up of the stitching.

Happy Holidays to the People That Process our DVDs

Ian had a great idea: include a note with your Netflix or Blockbuster DVD to thank the people that process millions of DVDs every day for us, and wish them "Happy Holidays."

Queue Up Your Holiday, Birthday, and Greeting Cards

GreetQ is a service that enables you to create a queue of upcoming events and send personalized cards that are automatically mailed at the appropriate time. Card prices range from $3.00 to $6.00, with personalization adding $1.99 (postage is an additional 41 cents).

The company name, GreetQ, comes from the company’s unique greeting card queuing service. Shoppers can enter their contacts with addresses online once, choose a greeting card, write a personal note then schedule a date (birthday, anniversary, holiday, etc.) for the card to be mailed. GreetQ will then mail the card to whomever the customer wants whenever they want. The shopper’s list of scheduled cards can then be easily managed online in a “card queue,” similar to the Netflix queue for managing DVDs.

In a time where you can have a steady stream of DVDs delivered through the mail or have a pair of fashionable shoes delivered to your doorstep overnight, greeting cards are one of the last bastions of online shopping convenience. Using GreetQ, shoppers can choose all the cards they’ll need for the entire year in one sitting, and then forget about it; at a glance they can easily manage upcoming events from their queue and schedule additional cards to be sent as needed.