Two comics on the Netflix/Qwikster split: one from The Oatmeal and one from The Joy of Tech.

Netflix is spinning off DVD-by-mail into a totally separate business called Qwikster. “Netflix” will carry on as a streaming-only company. The two companies will not be integrated (separate queues, reviews, etc.). Hard to imagine people will ever use Qwikster as a verb. “I Qwikstered it…” Yeah, doesn’t work.

While it’s a gamble, I can see why this might be good for Netflix, but it’s certainly bad for me. Alas.

This will only be handy for the feed-savvy, but there’s a great Yahoo! Pipe you can subscribe to, Rotten Tomatoes Certified Fresh to Netflix. So highly rated RT movies go into the feed and show up in your feed reader, and when you click through, it takes you to the Netflix listing for that movie so you can queue it.

Just got this e-mail, makes me happy:

Woo-hoo, Netflix streaming is coming to the Wii this spring! Hit this Netflix page to reserve the free disc you’ll need to insert to access the service.

I really liked Let the Right One In, even with the crappy subtitles. So you should see it, but wait for the fixed DVDs to hit the shelves. I wonder if Netflix will update their collection?

instantwatcher.com provides an excellent, minimalist directory of all the Netflix movies that are available for streaming. I’ve been a Netflix subscriber forever, but until now I didn’t realize how many great movies (drama, 4.0 rating or better) were available.

Netflix makes a nice adjustment to their shipping process:

Now, if your first choice is not available in your local shipping center, we immediately send the next locally available movie in your Queue. And whenever possible, we also send your first choice from another of our 55 shipping centers throughout the U.S. When this happens, you end up with a complimentary extra DVD rental.

UPDATE: Scratch that, just got an e-mail from Netflix saying they're heard the outcry, and they'll keep profiles. Hooray! So glad they were willing to listen.

Pisses me off: Netflix axing profiles. This is the feature that lets me maintain separate queues for me, my wife, and my kids. Now every time I send a disc back I'm going to have to remember to juggle my queue, and since they don't necessarily send stuff in order, even then the balance won't be as good as when Netflix supported this feature.

(Not a huge inconvenience in the great scheme of things, but a pretty big inconvenience in the little life niche that movies-by-mail encompasses.)

I've heard various excuses: the big one is that profiles present a programming obstacle that will prevent the development of new killer features. Hard to believe. With all the great, sophisticated features the Netflix team has implemented (recommendation engine, what has to be insanely complex demand allocation algorithms, etc.), PROFILES present an insurmountable challenge?! Isn't each account pretty much a profile? They have 8 million of those. When Netflix first launched, I doubt the engineers told the brass, "sorry, you can only sell one account."

Speaking of 8 million customers, the other excuse is that only a small percentage of the population uses that feature (and that therefore the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, since profiles are such a technological speedbump). But even if it's only 1%, that's 80,000 pissed off people. 2% would be 160,000. This is probably not a fun day on the job for Netflix support staff.

When you have a movie in your queue that is also for sale, Netflix links to it. While I don't object to this in principle, the manner in which they go about it his very distracting. Here's a fix, until they come up with something more unobtrusive (like a tiny dollar sign icon next to the title):

• Use Firefox, not IE.
• Install the Greasemonkey extension and restart Firefox.
• Click here to install my "Remove Sales From Netflix Queue" Greasemonkey script.

Should do the trick, unless Netflix changes the CSS definitions out from under me.

P.S. You might also like my script for queue reordering.

I wanted to be able to easily count up my Netflix returns (630 over the past 5+ years), so whipped up a quick solution. Here's what you do:

• Use Firefox, not IE.
• Install the Greasemonkey extension and restart Firefox.
• Click here to install my "Number Netflix History Rows" Greasemonkey script.
• Visit your "Returned Rentals" page at Netflix and enjoy the newly numbered rows.

Having dug myself into a hefty forty-pound hole, I had to find a way to climb out. I had long loathed running and other forms of standalone conditioning, so I had to find a way to make exercising a little more fun (I would later come to embrace exercise for its own sake, but that took a long friggin' time). Enter what I call "The Netflix Workout". It's simple:

1. Get an account at Netflix.
2. Pick a TV series you've been meaning to catch, and load it into your queue.
3. Hop on your favorite aerobic exercise machine of choice, and watch an episode. Your workout ends when the episode ends.

I'd workout at a moderate-to-hard pace (for reference, shoot for breaking a sweat about five minutes in and finished pretty soaked). I started with The Simpsons (~22 minutes per episode), then jumped to 24 (~42 minutes per episode). I'd probably do this around four days a week, and I also stopped having seconds at lunch and dinner (effectively eliminating 1.5 bonus meals from my day; I'm such a hobbit).

Less food and more exercise bought me a 20-pound drop over about four months. I started playing better, and was able to keep my shin splints in check (I'll save those details for another post). I kept at this for two seasons, but in hindsight I plateaued after the first few months. Even making the jump to The Sopranos (~55 minutes/episode) didn't bring much of an improvement. All it did was make my workouts longer (and the onscreen language more colorful). Then I went and pulled a hamstring on day two of Regionals, so decided the relatively mild aerobic stuff wasn't enough. It was time to ramp things up, and throw some strength and flexibility into the mix...