The thing is I like the content, but not being the product. I got upset with Netflix when they announced Quickster and canceled streaming. Then reasoned that I prefer them to Cable companies (I hate the STB and all they tactics, and all the commercials) and signed back. Another way to vote is not buying anything. But that's more like not voting, as in I don't care. I do care and voted for no ads, and no cheats (Cable)

I once decided to start an adventure and live one year in a foreign country I knew nothing about. I was looking for a job, and have every disadvantage: didn't know the culture, the geography, the local brands, companies, uses, names for many things, didn't have friends, a place to live, relatives nor an understanding of the uses and customs. I had visas that expired every year, and that my employer would have to sponsor. But I got a nice job. The deciding factor? I had calculated the CAGR of a revenue series using division and exponentiation as opposed to using the Excel formula.

Why? I once realized I was acting mechanically, and forgetting formulas. So I got a bunch of formulas and asked why was it exactly so, reasoning every angle until I felt I could explain what was going on with natural language. After that, I realized I could think up formulas very easily, including more complicated stuff like combinatorials, statistical series, etc. Of course, I chose to avoid the calculator this one time...one never knows what one will learn :-)

It's like a 10 mile run and the instructions saying you can use a bicycle. Yes, but that's no challenge. So maybe it took it for the challenge? The bicycle ride would have been a waste of time, and protecting the ego (abeit VERY small, it is vs running because I don't risk failing). But I don't care one shit about impressing a professor, and my ego is better knowing that running is the best choice. This is a spirit I learned when I no longer cared about others opinions, scores, or even my own fears. Who cares? I like doing it mentally because it's the right challenge, and I learn something that way. Of course, if the exercise said answer the following 12 questions in 100 seconds, or from the analogy, it said 100 mile run (you can use a bicycle)...I would have picked the bicycle.

The challenge in the USA is that the scores are used to determine which university you can go to, and which job you can get. So pleasing the processor, hijacking tests with logic, etc, becomes a survival skill that, as everyone plays it, just makes the tests more important that education itself. That's why I like old classical books such as Plato's dialogs (and these guys where great at *reasoning* math), because they explain several different trains of thoughts, and what are the flaws, etc. They train the patterns and though processes, and then you have a universal tool instead of one more formula to forget forever right after the next test is passed with perfect score.

He completely changed how video rentals work with by-mail Netlifx. Never a late fee, no need to go anywhere, not traveling to a store to find the movie you want is not there and you need something else. Now they are changing how TV and shows are distributed, altering how we consume content instantly. You sound to me like the people that wanted Steve Jobs to go in the 90s. Obviously, you don't understand that Netflix is his creation, and that it's the most successful video rental company in the world worth about $4,000 million dollars today.

I haven't verified your claims, but for me Dora is important because it's my son's favorite and I need all individual chapters. He likes the variety, and I like that program for him as well vs watching TV that include all kind of dangerous programs and dangerous advertisements, including supposedly dying babies, services for people on debt or charged and many other worrying stuff.

>I'll be lucky to get one delivery per week.

It only means a little more capital for Netflix (buy more movies), and to change everyone with 2 at a time to three at a time. And three for four. That will compensate the lower frequency with the only impact being a slightly lower wait, but the same movies per month than what you have today. They could even alter the DVD envelope to allow more than 1 DVD in a single envelope, and do 4 deliveries per month. That would lover costs of shipping significantly. I would keep BD delivery for sure, the streaming version is nice, but some movies must be seen in BD.

You don't understand. The reason Cable companies make billions and why Netflix has gone down to about $70 from $300 is that the content is the bait, not the product. Cable companies are good at selling YOU to advertisers, not selling content to YOU. It's so much profitable to to sell you, and share a part of that with content creators, that trying to make you the customer. If you are the customer, they can get $20-100 from you. If you are the product, they can sell your attention to offer crap for an unlimited amount, be it a mortgage, loan, school, product, etc.

You were doing great until ...

>actually this describes the state of the internet too

I couldn't disagree more. What content is missing from internet? Movies? No Newspapers? No. Personal opinions/blogs? No. Social reactions? No. Journals of any kind? No TV? No. Research? No. technical articles? No. Documentation? Dictionaries? No? Images? No. Photography? No. Just about anything you can think of can be assessable in a myriad of ways, from paid content that's just "buy and access", to 100% free, to high quality but with ads, to just about any other possible method. There are even full university courses by prestigious universities. I don't know why I felt like explaining this, it's just self evident.

>It overtook because it is a better browser.

What evidence do you have? I know I tried to not have Chrome, and had to be vigilant about it. It will self install if you update Flash (or would do that, if that is no longer so). Same with other apps. It's also advertized by the largest advertising agency in the world, namely, Google itself. If Firefox had all that exposure, and bundling deals (a la Flash) I guess we'll be seeing the opposite than today.

I also don't trust Google for everything, and the browser is not something I would like to give to Google. They already have my email, search history and what not. The browser is better of with someone not vested in how to browse the web, what info to collect, what functionality to expose to plugins, etc.

Yes, and if a better potential wife comes along and shows interest, ditch your wife. I am exaggerating on purpose. You can't know how things will play out in the long term. I adopted Firefox when it was worst than IE, but much more "right" than IE. Now, I want ditch it for Chrome just because the other browser is 5% faster, or invented the quick sprints and fast paced release cycles. Why should I? Obviously, Chrome grows faster because it's advertised by the largest advertising agency in the world - namely Google. And because that network uses their funding of Firefox to advertise their product directly within the Firefox and other competing communities.

I Firefox loses funding, well then, I am going to stick to it until it's clearly inferior in a significant way. Right now, i couldn't acre less about Chrome. I go to great length to revert back to Firefox when the ugly flash or other bundled software "gets into Google's pockets" and install their crap on my hardware.

I started doing IM in 1996 with the first ICQ. It worked great for a while, especially the first versions. The status was respected. People knew a BRB or Away. I was kind of like email, but you could switch to real-time chat anytime. You could easily be invisible to people of your choice. The next logical group was being invisible to groups. Eg. When working, you could be invisible to family. That's the same as turning it into email.

Then MSN appeared, and the market was fragmented. Status was not codified, but more like text message. No more invisible. I typically opened messages all over the place instead of marking it in the ICQ bar. Much less selective invisibility. Then they added the functioality to write to people that wheren't online. Huge mistake: like an additional channel for email. They should have kept routing the conversation to email as ICQ did at some point (or maby integrate the funcionality in a meaningful way separating Presence vs Batch). I used MSN for a while and then deemed it a complete waste of time with some benefits but huge drawbacks and a general time waster. Then MSN evolved a bit, but adding so many things I didn't need (same with ICQ), not all people would be in the same net. For a "Presence" app, ICQ was fantastic. That's what it was, a Presence app (when and how you are present at what times). It complemented email as I needed it. ICQ even had a corporate version that was amazingly easy to install, you could have just your coworkers, managed centrally. There sure are this things now, but in such a way (from what I've seen) that I just wish MSN never appeared in the first place.

With that said, I fell back to mostly email for most anything, phone for urgent things (I cannot cancel my voicemail, which is why it's always "Full", I don't want a Voice Recorder to replace email) and selective MSN when talking isn't an option (eg. you are in a conference, or you are using it as a backchannel in a phone conference with many people, to interact with your team in realtime over the backchannel).

Anything else doesn't get my attention. Gmail is for personal stuff and eventually the large attach or even YouSend it (with password protected .zip) for still larger stuff. Anything that isn't communications can be done over a proper platform (CRM, collab tool, etc).

Try instantwatcher.com It uses NYC Times Picks, RottenTomatoes and Popularity. Has many other filters. A godsend to me, found great things that way. By Actor is also great. Sometimes Actors can spot good movies, and while some aren't great, some ended up being great movies that for some reason many people unlike myself didn't like.

Reminder to Myself: Mod Up if I get Mod Points Later On

My kid watches Dora now. He will move to something else in a year. I only need one hour a day of content I want to carefully feed to my children. I don't like the TV. Just the commercials are a risk, and not being available exactly were I want the content (tablet? phone?), and when I want it, is also a downside for the cable companies. For me the comparison is more like:

Cable:
- Pay $50 or more in cash
- Bundle with Internet and phone so switching cost is higher
- Try to lock me into something that will pike next year
- Make $20 more on ads that cost me $300 for what my time is worth (if i where a coach potato)

Netflix
- Pay $22 (2+Streaming)
- Get 10-12 movies a month blu ray to watch on 120" screen/projector
- Get enough good content for kids / 1 hour a day at most
- Instant Play lesser know movies that I would have never bought, experience on cinema or rented (and that in many cases where great finds)
- Instant Play movies I wanted to watch, maybe 15% of what I would like but for $8 a month who cares (I would pay more for better movies, even if no blockbusters are to be found, just get the underdogs in)
- Avoid buying DRMs movies locked to 1 software (like Vudu)

Now, I do see problems because there's no throttle like the mail service has. There should be. people consuming more, contribute less per movie or show. And the studios do not like the prospect of a Netflix that is growing and cannot command more rates per view. I say By Mail worked because (among other things) it had a limit. If I could have 5,000,000 at a time at $8 a month (say having all movies released on DVD/BR that Netflix has by Mail), as a studio, I would say this is not sutainable and Netflix is a dead end for me content creator. But at options like 8, 15, 22 and 30 a month for $8, $15, $22 and $30 a month, then as a studio, I would say then maybe this model is viable. And if Netflix shares a % of that, some studios will see more value, and more content avaiable. After all, it's better to have 5x the sales at 50% the price to the user, than 1x at 100%.

Will the 22 million users that Netflix has buy that model? I would if they have a very generous selection to pick from. Many would not. But it would be the equivalent of the Mail service that I like so much. They could charge me more for HD streaming as well (like Blu ray costs a bit more). Some people do not use it, so why charge them more? All in all, I hope Netflix does well AND does the right thing. The alternative is the "good" old $3 per movie rental, $12-25 per movie (with incompatible DRM systems that may disappear tomorrow) or the proven "channel" approach full of ads by the cable companies. If would prefer the Netflix 2.0 I described.

Anyway, for now, Netflix is the best option for me and ...Verizon, I am sending the DVR back in about a month and may look at switching internet provider if not offered something reasonable.

It's very convenient, you coould charge at night and be done. No need to find a plug anywhere, or stop working becausevthe plane doesn't have a charger. One less thing to carry, or forget. Freedom to know where you work or play or whatever is where yiu want. Having no tiesvto a wall. This is why the ipad changes use patterns. You assume correctly it will last a full long day of normal use.

I speach from my point of view which means I work from home, travel often, need to find quiet places often, forgetting a charger is a real problem, depend on my notebook for teleconference and many other critical services. I bought a notebook with 7 hours battery and changed my quality of life significantly for the best.