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Maybe you heard that Netflix had some server breakdowns earlier this week that took their site and entire operations offline for 11 hours (and just six days after their stock hit an all time high). There's still no official explanation of what caused the outage though it seems fairly reminiscent of when a jilted employee knocked out all the power at 365 Main a popular datacenter and half the internet was down for a day.
Netflix's subscribers ranted, pontificated and hatched conspiracy theories but Motley Fool gamely reports that not only did the stock price hold solid throughout but that users totally love outages. Because "[a]s long as the outage is brief, the downtime is often a model-affirming event, as users realize how much they rely on the befallen services."
And this morning I received this message:
Which reminded me of the spate of new stories a few years ago about medical malpractice lawsuits being reduced by some 30% when doctors simply apologized and owned up to mistakes.
But no such worries, Netflix, an extra day between me and Jennifer Lopez's turn as a lady detective in Bordertown probably isn't hurting anyone.
Starting December 10th until March 10th PBS's Online Short Film Festival (hosted by P.O.V.) will be streaming free online Andy Blubaugh's film Scaredycat. The 15-minute experimental documentary, examining the role fear plays in our daily lives, starts out as somewhat precious picture of the film-maker's OCD. But when Blubaugh delves into his recent mugging and assault as a point of departure (illustrated with animation and his 911 phone call) to look at PTSD, mandatory sentencing laws and emotional closure the film reaches surprising depth.
I caught the film when P.O.V. bumpered it with Frieda Lee Mock's wonderful Tony Kushner documentary Wrestling with Angels and highly recommend them both.
In this week's issue of Entertainment Weekly CBS and Cadillac have a partnered ad that includes a thumbnail flash drive containing a flash-based presentation of CBS's new fall line-up and Cadillac's new sedan that apparently CSI: Miami's Adam Rodriguez enjoys leaning up against.
The tv shows were a massive snooze fest (Johnny Galecki in a laugh-tracked sitcom, why?!) and the video ran extremely poorly on my computer so I re-formatted the device and am now the happy owner of a snazzy new 130 mb drive. Thank you, CBS and Cadillac!
Also this week, after a much publicized fallout with Apple iTunes, NBC has rushed into a partnership with Amazon's Unbox to make their new fall line-up available online. You might remember Unbox from what had to be the most negative review CNet's Tom Merritt has ever written and it doesn't look as though the service has made much progress (although it does now allow itself to be uninstalled, which I suppose is technically an improvement).
NBC choosing to partner with Amazon was a good enough start. Amazon receives much credit for getting many casual computer users to feel comfortable putting their credit card information online, but tech and innovation have never been their strong suit (their patented 1-click technology has not exactly setting the woods on fire nor has their online grocery store).
NBC is offering many of their new shows' pilot episodes two weeks before their broadcast dates and free on Unbox, plus Amazon is throwing in a $1.99 credit. This can be used to download another episode of a show you're more familar with to try out the service. But Unbox is still an unmitigated disaster and I can summarize why in one word: JANK!!!
Unbox still gets an F- in the "Could my mom install this?" department and not just because my mom has an iMac and Unbox has zero-Apple compatibility, zero useability and extremely intrusive DRM. Simply put, this app sucks and should've been scrapped and re-built from the ground up the day after it was released to universal jeers.
But even though these shows all look terrible to me I appreciate that television networks are finally wrapping their heads around the idea of putting the first few episodes (or in ABC's case, all episodes) online to give their new shows a fighting chance at finding an audience. Fox is still failing big-time at this. With 75% of its season already shot and in the can they cancelled Anchorwoman after airing one episode. And then in an extremely baffling move, made all the discarded episodes available online.
Sigh, and yet Arrested Development was not permitted to live? When it was just earlier this year that the Nielsen's ratings board decided to start counting what DVR users are watching and realized that the Office and House are two of the most popular shows in the country when previous data placed them in the gutters?
I've said it before and I'll say it again, if these corporate wanks put half as much time, money and resources into innovation as they did prosecuting bullshit lawsuits and squabbling with each other over ego and parent company encroachments there might actually be something worth watching on their schedules delivered in a way that kept up with the public's enthusiasm for emerging technologies.
But don't listen to me, listen to Conan!
Update: Vindication! Buzz Out Loud's opening story today, NBC ruins "free".
I'm glad to see Netflix's recommendation system has a sense of humor, and it's very similar to my own!
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