My Nephew at his Greatest
September 3rd, 2008 -- Posted in >8] | Comments Off
The epitome of being a kid.
The epitome of being a kid.
So I guess I get a free Flickr Pro account since I subscribe to AT&T Yahoo DSL service. I’m pretty excited about it. Even though I’ve had Gallery setup on my own website to manage photos, I’ve always had a bit of a love affair with Flickr. I could never justify paying for a Pro account since I pay for space on my website. But, hey, if they’ll give it to me for free, then I’ll take it!
I’ve been exploring a bit and I guess Flickr is getting into video. It’s a bit of a crowded market but they have the community so I’m pretty excited to see what they’ll do with it. Meanwhile, I’ll be staring at cool videos like this:
Everytime I see a video of Michelle Obama speaking (of which there are only a few), I find that she is even more inspiring than Barack. Despite describing herself as the “cynic of the family”, her command of oratory is absolutely amazing.
When I find a product that is just so awesome, I love to rave about it. Of course I get nothing out of it but the simple enjoyment of passing along my feelings about something that has really satisfied me.
I like Netflix a lot. At any given time, I have 3 DVDs I can watch. Typically I try to mix up my selection with something that Em would like (romantic comedy, something artsy or girly or general heart-warming), something that’s a TV show (currently Heroes) for smaller consumption and something different (indie, foreign). For the past 2 years or so I’ve had this product, I’ve been pretty satisfied. I get a bad DVD about 1% of the time and they are quick to send me a replacement. 98% of the titles I’ve searched for, I’ve found (there was this one time I tried to find something truly obscure). And their selection is great.
Netflix currently went from good to great. I heard about this feature where you can watch certain titles streaming. The idea is that you don’t even have to wait. I didn’t try it out until one night when I finished my Heroes DVD and I just could NOT wait the few days it would take to return the DVD and for the next one to arrive. So I went to the website and watched it streaming. Awesome!
Today, Netflix went from great to awesome. I was perusing around and found a Preview feature under their Browse. It’s a pretty straight-forward concept. They show you previews based on a certain genre. The default genre is “Movies We Think You’ll Like.” I don’t know if they’ve hired a roomful of PhDs or maybe I’m totally predictable, but of the 6 previews I’ve watched, 4 of them seem very, very interesting.
Some of the titles suggested:
Jhumpa Lahiri’s – The Namesake: Seems to have been a popular book.
Paprika – A psychedelic-looking anime that reminds me of Miyazaki
The Wind That Shakes the Barley – A story of 2 brothers in 1920’s Ireland fighting against the British. Winner of Palme d’Or 2006.
Exiled – A Hong Kong movie that looks like yet another mafia/mob, shoot ‘em up, drama
Not only has Netflix provided great service but they are doing an awesome job and customer retention. I have to say that it’s quite rare to receive a product that’s this good without having to pay for it with an arm, leg and gall bladder. Thank you Netflix!