After reading a few reviews (and partly because I was in the mood for some change {lame, I know}), I decided to ditch BlockBuster Online and switch to Netflix for my movie fix. I’ve been with BBO almost since they started (Sep ’04?) so this was a pretty drastic move! In a few hours of playing around, I’ve found a few things I like about NFLX:

• Multiple profiles: Now, the wife & I can both have our own queue without one of us hogging the movie queue.
• Stream to PC: This is the one thing I’m most exited about – not because I want to go from watching movies from my couch on a 40″ screen to sitting at a computer chair watching movies on a 19″ screen, but because I’m fairly certain that this is just a pre-cursor for Netflix providing movie downloads on the XBox.

I’m not too impressed by Netflix’s UI yet – a couple of things that annoy me  – for one, why doesn’t the search box just take to me the movie I’m searching for when it offers me suggestions:

It offered me the right movie in the dropdown, but when I select it, it does a search on the term rather than take me to the movie directly. All that AJAXy autocomplete goodness wasted!

The other annoyance: Why is this popup displayed for every movie I add to my queue?

BBO used to let me bulk-add movies to my queue without any annoying popups! I’ll probably also miss the occasional game rental and in-store exchange from Blockbuster, but I’m hoping the larger selection and stream to PC features make up for it!

Here’s wishing everyone who sees this entry a happy new year 2008. In the spirit of a light and lively new year, here’s a new year greeting in legalese I got from someone at work:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all…and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make this country great (not to imply that this country is necessarily  greater than any other country), and without regard to the race, creed,  color, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual orientation of  the wishee.

This wish is limited to the customary and usual good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first. “Holiday” is not intended to, nor shall it be considered, limited to the usual Judeo-Christian celebrations or servances, or to such activities of any organized or ad hoc religious community, group, individual or belief (or lack thereof).

Note: By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher at any time, for any reason or for no reason at all. This greeting is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. This greeting implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for the wishee her/himself or others, or responsibility for the consequences which may arise from the implementation or non-implementation of same. This greeting is void where prohibited by law.