Saturday shipping

Today is the first Saturday I have ever seen Netflix acknowledge receipt of a movie I returned on a Friday, and it's the first Saturday Netflix told me they are shipping a title which is due to arrive Monday.

Fun with IMDb

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) should be a familiar destination for all movie fans, because they are the only place online where you can find out about nearly every movie ever made. Even Netflix doesn't do that.

You can go year-by-year to find the top movies by boxoffice or MOVIEMeter(tm) rating, which is how I look for movies to put in my Netlfix queue, sometimes.

IMDb maintains a constantly-updated list of the top 250 movies by MOVIEMeter(tm). I would like to brag about how many I've seen of them. How do I keep track? I use 250films.net. 250films.net is a well-made site where you can actually check off the films you've seen. Click on this button to see which ones I've seen:




Here is another cool site for looking at the IMDb Top 250, where you can see monthly snapshots of the list going back to 1997, as well as do month-to-month comparisons to see which titles have been added or moved up or down.

Can you join Netflix without a computer?

Do you know anyone who uses Netflix, but doesn't have a personal computer? You have to be able to go online at least once to join Netflix, but you don't really need a personal computer or to access the Internet more than a few times a year. Because of how the queue* works, you can get online once when you join, and go a very long time without seeing your queue again. If you can get online at a friend's house, or the public library, or at work, all you need to do is fill your queue with 26 movies, and you can go six months without seeing your queue again, if you watch just one a week. This works only if you're OK with watching whatever is in your queue in random order. If you're the type who has to be in the mood for a specific movie, this won't work. If you have a phone that connects to the Internet, you should be able to change your queue that way.

If you're OK with watching streaming movies only, and not DVDs, you can get a "Netflix-ready device." I have an iPod Touch, with the Netflix app, so I can see my Instant queue any time I have WiFi. There are Blu-Ray players, game consoles, TVs, and streaming players that allow you to see your instant Netflix without needing a computer.


*Q:
What is the Queue? How do I use it?
A:
Your Queue is the list of the movies you want to see, in the order you want to receive them. You may add, delete or change the order of movies in your Queue at any time.
To add a movie to your Queue, just click the Add button next to any movie. We'll send you as many available movies from your Queue as your plan allows.
Once you've finished viewing a DVD, simply return it in the prepaid return envelope and we'll send the next available selection from your Queue as soon as possible.
To change the order in which movies are delivered from your Queue, you can change the number in the Priority column, use the 'move to top' button, or simply drag and drop the movie to where you want it in the list.
To remove movies from your Queue, click on the 'X' under the column labeled 'Remove'.