Don’t get me wrong, I still like Blockbuster online, but I’m curious about the logistics of their warehousing operations. I’ll try to keep this simple…
When I ship two movies back to Blockbuster, from the same mailbox, they arrive on different days. Say I send both out Tuesday morning. Wednesday morning they will notify me that they have received one of the films. Later that day, they’ll ship out a new one. But what about the other one I mailed? Well, apparently they don’t receive that one until the next day, or even later.
The first time this happened I chalked it up to random effects of the postal service. It’s happened 4 or 5 times since then, however, and it doesn’t seem very random any more. I’m curious if Blockbuster is starting to implement the same type of throttling feature Netflix likes to torture their hard-core customers with.
Anyway, I’d love to learn about their processes and operations. Interesting stuff. If they are having logistic problems, maybe my dad can help them out.
[1] | 
posted 01/31/2006 05:29 PM
Just found out that Microsoft has released a beta 2 preview of Internet Explorer 7. Perusing the feature table, it looks like it will have pretty much what you’d expect: tabbed browsing, increased security (ActiveX off by default), RSS feeds, CSS improvements…sounds like everything I get with Firefox.
I probably won’t download and install this at this point. But, I will consider it when they release the final version. A few months ago I could not have cared less if Microsoft updated IE. Now, I’m slightly intrigued. Why? Well, Firefox, at least the 1.5 version I’m currently using, is turning out to be a massive CPU and memory hog. Googling the issue, I’ve found many others with the same problem but I have not found a solution. Just to give an example, sometimes my computer will slow to a crawl. I’ll check the Task Manager and see Firefox pegging the CPU at 99% and taking up 250 MB of memory. What’s up with that???
InformationWeek has an article about Firefox 1.5 issues where roughly 450 people contributed info about their problems. Interesting stuff. There is also a Firefox 1.5 support forum topic that is collecting information and offers some suggestions on how to possibly correct the problem. It didn’t work for me, but maybe it will for you. Finally, it sounds like Firefox will release the 1.5.0.1 upgrade that addresses the memory issue soon.
Update: I just received the 1.5.0.1 update on 2/2/06. We’ll see if that helps…
Getting back to the main point of this rambling post…if you try out the IE7 beta, let us (all 6 readers) know!
[1] | posted 01/31/2006 04:08 PM
I woke up this morning to find out the Lions hired Rod Marinelli as their new coach. I’m glad to see Millen stuck with his overriding requirement of head coaches having a last name starting with the letter ‘M’. This bodes well for the future.
I don’t have much to say about the hiring. I think most would agree the pool of available applicants didn’t blow anyone away. Other options were Jim Haslett and Russ Grimm, but neither of them do much for me, either.
I’ll be honest, I have no idea who will and who won’t make a good head football coach. I was excited when Mariucci was hired, and we saw how well that went. No matter what anyone tells me, there is no “super coach” that can win anywhere at any time with any team. Everyone’s idea of a coaching genius, Bill Belichick, was pretty bad when he was leading Cleveland. Bill Parcells has made the playoffs once in his three years at Dallas. And New England’s whipping boy, Pete Carroll, was horrible with the Patriots and can now (almost) do no wrong at USC.
So, with that being said, I had to laugh when I listened to the callers on 1130 today complaining about the hire, or the articles by Rob Parker and Drew Sharp in the Detroit News and Free Press blasting the selection. Was there anyone available that stood out, head and shoulders, above anyone else? I don’t think so. Marinelli sounds like a very interesting guy and I’m all for his ideas on accountability. I also like the lineage from Tony Dungy, which also includes Herm Edwards and Lovie Smith.
We’ll see what happens come September.
| posted 01/19/2006 11:25 PM
I found a great way to add tunes to my music collection that doesn’t include the possibility of jail time. The solution? emusic!
emusic is a digital music service that is similar to iTunes/rhapsody/musicmatch, but in a way, it’s fundamentally different, as well. I’ll try to explain.
Like iTunes and other music services, emusic lets you purchase songs/albums over the internet so they can be played on your PC/iPod/mp3 player. And that’s where the similarities pretty much end. Here are the big differences:
- emusic lets you download music in good ol’ mp3 format, not some proprietary format like AAC or protected WMA. The benefit here is that I can do whatever I want with the music – burn it to a cd, play it on my Squeezebox, stream it over Jinzora, play it on my imaginary mp3 player, etc. No limitations. In addition, the quality is very high – VBR, usually at least 192 kbps.
- emusic is way cheaper. The plan I’m on is $10/mo and that gets me 40 downloads. $20/mo gets you 90 tracks. So, compare roughly .25/track to the 99 cents you pay on iTunes. It’s a month-to-month deal so I can quit whenever I want. Sweet!
So, this sounds pretty good, right? Well, there’s a big caveat that will turn most folks off. If you’re looking for the latest music from recent American Idol winners, 50 cent (or is it fiddycent?), or [insert latest pop-sensation here], you’re outta luck. In fact, if you listen to music that is commonly played on FM radio, you probably won’t like emusic’s selection. That’s because it’s almost entirely indie.
For me, emusic is heaven. For others, it’s a joke and there’s not much middle ground. I think it’s fantastic, however, and I highly recommend it if the indie scene is what you’re in to. It’s recharged my musical interests and exposed me to tons of new stuff.
As a quick example, here are some bands that I’ve downloaded from emusic or will download when my credits recharge: New Pornographers, Matthew Sweet, Pavement, Stephen Malkmus, Sufjan Stevens, Grandaddy, Quasi, Paul Westerberg, Interpol, Mitch Hedberg, Ambulance LTD, and Teenage Fanclub. There is also a lot of jazz, classical, rap, you name it. Even Johnny Cash!
If you’re interested, you can click the link in this article and that will give you a free trial that will let you download 50 songs. Whether you sign up after the trial or not, you get to keep the tracks so you don’t have anything to lose. Enjoy!
[Disclaimer: I get $$$ if you do the trial, whether or not you stay with emusic. Even if I didn’t get paid, I’d still recommend it. And no, I won’t get rich promoting emusic…unless 1,000,000 people click that link and sign up…that would be sweet! If my 6 readers sign up, I’ll get enough for a free month at emusic! ;-)]
| posted 01/17/2006 11:21 PM
I’ll bet you didn’t know that tidbit, didya? I’ve learned this and many other fascinating facts over at the Chuck Norris Facts website. An excellent time killer if you haven’t seen it already.
One last fascinating bit of info before I go:
Chuck Norris does not hunt because the word hunting implies
the probability of failure. Chuck Norris goes killing.
| posted 01/17/2006 10:38 PM
We’ve been using Blockbuster Online for our movie rental service for close to a year now. Overall, we like it but I’ve got two major gripes:
- We have received a lot of damaged discs since we started. They do a good job of shipping out a replacement as soon as I report the problem, but the number of damaged discs we receive is still too many, in my opinion. I’ve emailed them about this and their response is it’s the USPS’s fault. I’m not sure I buy that. If all the discs were cracked, then I’d blame the USPS. Most of the problems we run into are with scratches and for that I blame careless users and poor quality control at Blockbuster.
- The other issue is the recommendations I get. I was bored one day so I went through and rated some of the movies I have seen to bolster my recs. After doing a few I took a look to see what Blockbuster thought I would like to see. Most of the suggestions were good, but more than a couple of the recommended films were things I had just finished rating. They stand out because films you have rated show your rating with yellow stars. Films you haven’t seen show everyone’s average rating in blue stars. I have no idea why movies I’ve rated are showing up in my recommended list. I emailed them about this and they didn’t have an explanation. They said they would fix it, and they did, but now it’s acting up again. This to me seems like an easy one to fix but it’s something that should never happen to begin with.
Other than those two minor issues, I don’t have any complaints about the service. They raised the price on us a couple months ago but it’s still a good deal when you factor in the 2 free in-store rentals you get every month. The selection is improving and the turnaround time is pretty good. No throttling like I’ve read Netflix does.
One thing I wish Blockbuster would add that Netflix offers is the ability for every person in your family to have their own queue. Then they just rotate through the queues when it is time to ship a new one. As it stands now, I have to keep adjusting the queue to keep everyone happy.
| posted 01/06/2006 06:01 PM
Happy New Year to all six of my regular readers. The whole house is sick so finding time to write anything has been a bit tough lately. Plus, I have little to write about so that hasn’t helped, either.
But, while I was enjoying a few pops at my friend Joe’s house watiting for the ball to drop at midnight, there appeared before me two images that sent a shiver down my spine.
The first of these images was that of Dick Clark on the Rockin’ New Years-whatever-fest on ABC. Now, I like Dick Clark and I have a HUGE amount of respect for him. But I’ll admit it, I was a little creeped out by him on TV. I understand that he had a stroke, and I give him credit for going out there despite his limitations, but it was still tough to watch. At least it was for me. I haven’t read too much about the reaction to his hosting the show so I might be in a tiny minority that thinks this way (or at least the tiny minority that admits it). It was just tough seeing him like that after watching him do the show for years and years. I read somewhere that he was an inspiration for stroke sufferers, so I guess that’s good. Those are my thoughts on that. [Despite his condition, he’s still better than that Ryan Seacrest goof and whatever chick-of-the-year they brought out this year.]
The next image that both frightens and amazes me is that of Iggy Pop. Iggy Pop was born in April, 1947. That means he’s getting close to 60 freakin’ years old (only 4 years younger than Mick Jagger). And Iggy ROCKS (unlike Jagger)! Some station (VH1? VH1E? MTV? MTV2? MTV33?) showed an Iggy Pop concert well after midnight on New Years Eve/Day and it was amazing. The man is a dynamo. I don’t know how he does it, and really, I’m not sure I want to know. If you don’t know who I’m talking about, here’s a picture:
| posted 01/05/2006 11:22 PM
I came across an article today that proclaimed Plummeting 2005 box office sparks Hollywood crisis. There’s nothing too surprising in it – they’ve been saying the same thing since the summer returns started coming in. The Yahoo article mentions the usual factors – no good movies, rise of people watching DVDs and playing video games as reasons behind the decline.
There is one reason for the decline that the article did not mention that I think is primarily responsible, however. My highly scientific poll of friends and co-workers came up with the same reason – going to the movies sucks!
Going to see a movie at the theatre used to be a pretty neat event. I enjoyed it when I was little, even when I was in high school and college. Lately, though, I’d rather get my teeth cleaned at the dentist than sit in a theatre and watch a movie. Why do I hate the experience so much?
- Expensive tickets – $8.50 and up for a ticket? I can own the DVD when it comes out for the same amount it will cost my wife and I to attend.
- 15 minutes of commercials before the movie – OK…so I just paid $17 to watch a movie…now you’re going to make me sit through a bunch of commercials for paper towels and soft drinks? Seriously? Previews I like. Commercials I hate.
- Moronic viewer behavior – I’ll chalk this one up to grumpy old man syndrome, but I don’t think I’m alone in this. People don’t seem to feel the need to be silent during a movie anymore. There are always conversations taking place and there is usually somebody on their cell-phone. It’s incredible. Combine that with laser pointers, and some funny-guy’s need to talk back to the screen and my couch looks better and better.
- Rip-off concession stand prices – This one isn’t new. It’s always been bad, at least as long as I can remember. I, along with many others, fill up with goodies purchased from a store instead of from the theatres. The only thing you can’t sneak in is popcorn, the rest is easy. I’m sure (at least I’d like to think) that theatre operators have run some pretty complex supply/demand/pricing models to maximize profits and determined that, yes, $3.50 is a great price for a bag of Skittles that can be purchased outside the theatre for less than $1.
- Poor theatre technology – This one won’t apply to everyone but it will sooner than later. My home theatre setup is just as good, if not better, than most cinema’s. As long as I can watch the DVD version and the theatre shows the film version, complete with pops, scratches and the squiggley hair thingys, I’ll take my setup over theirs.
Ahhhhhh…I feel better now. I might have missed one or two but those are my big complaints. If the big movie chains can fix these issues, or if a new player can come in and mix things up, I’ll give attending the movies another shot. Until then, I’ll just keep adding to my Blockbuster queue.
[Also, is it theater or theatre? Or either?]
[1] | posted 12/27/2005 06:55 PM
I finally got around to watching Shaun of the Dead this past weekend and I have to say I loved it.
I won’t go into the plot a great deal as there are tons of sites that can explain it much better than I can. My wife wasn’t interested in watching it with me, but I think she’d would have liked it if she did. It’s a very funny movie, but not in a slapstick kind of way (which is what DeAnne was expecting, I think). It’s also a bit of a romantic comedy, which I didn’t expect. I guess I should have read the bit on the cover that states, “A smash hit romantic comedy. With zombies.” I think that sums it up perfectly.
If you haven’t seen it already, I highly recommend checking it out or adding it to your Blockbuster/Netflix queue.
[1] | posted 12/12/2005 03:08 PM
I received my Squeezebox3 network music player in the mail the other day and I’ve been so busy playing with it, I haven’t had time to write about it until now.
What is it? At a basic level, it’s a device the plugs into your stereo and plays music you have stored on a computer somewhere. I have around 450 cd’s that I’ve ripped to mp3 and flac formats. These files are stored on a server that is running in my basement. In the past, I used Jinzora to play them in my house, but the sound always had to come through one of our computers. This meant the music had to be played through a cheap set of PC speakers instead of my home stereo.
I’ve been looking into getting a player like this for a long time. A few years ago there was a device called the Audiotron by Turtle Beach. I never got around to purchasing it and now the device is no longer manufactured. Recently I discovered the Roku Soundbridge line of devices. These are pretty cool, and I was close to pulling the trigger, but there were a few things I didn’t like about it, including the proprietary nature of the system. So, I kept looking and found the Squeezebox v3 from SlimDevices. As usual, I did a ton of research on it and eventually determined it was my best bet.
The Squeezebox v3 is the same as the v2 on the inside, it’s just the outside that has been given a major overhaul. It looks nice. Really nice. My wife even agrees, which is a major bonus. Looks are nice, but it’s the sound and ease of use that really matter and that’s where the Squeezebox really shines.
Setup was a snap. Slimdevices offers two versions of the device – a wired and a wireless version. The wireless version costs $299 while the wired costs $250. I went with the wired version because I had planned on moving a router upstairs, anyway. Since a port would be nearby, I decided to save the extra $50. I connected the device to my stereo via a toslink optical cable, plugged in the cat5 cable from the router, pushed a few buttons on the remote and I was in business. That was it. I couldn’t believe how easy it was. [Keep in mind that I already installed the opensource slimserver software on my server and had ripped all of my cd’s a few years ago – if you haven’t done this already, you’re in for some long hours of work! But, there are services that will rip CD’s for you, including SlimDevices.]
Now that the Squeezebox was plugged in and working what does it do? Well:
- Plays mp3, wma, flac, aac, wav and Ogg Vorbis
- Has a built in Burr-Brown DAC
- Plays internet radio stations like Live365 and SHOUTcast
- Has an alarm clock
- Can use playlists
- Plays nature sounds
- Can synchronize with other Squeezeboxes or play independently
- Browse and search for music by using the remote control and player or via SlimServer
- Even play games!
- There’s more…these are just the highlights
I could type for a long time about how much I love this thing but my fingers are starting to cramp up. Bottom line, it was easy to set up, looks good, sounds great, and is very easy to use. My wife was able to figure it out in no time, and she had never seen one before. If you’re at all interested in digitizing your music and ditching your CDs and CD player get a Squeezebox.
[1] | posted 12/09/2005 11:43 AM
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