The system, which cost forty million dollars to develop, is designed to adjust the picture’s resolution based on the bandwidth so the movie doesn’t freeze during play. Online distribution could save Netflix the costs of distributing DVDs by mail. Netflix has contracted for additional movie and television programming that will add to its offerings.
Category: Lifestyle
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Netflix Launches Online Movie Feature
Netflix is unveiling an online movie delivery service, which will allow subscribers to watch about 1000 DVD-quality movies and television shows on their computers at no additional charge. It is not the first organization to offer online videos, but Netflix has six million or so subscribers to patronize the service.
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Free International Phone Calls by Calling Iowa
AllFreeCalls.net offers free calls if you call a number in Iowa. As Techcrunch reports, the founder created his own telephone company in Iowa under an FCC kickback scheme that gives telephone companies a portion of the fees generated from every inbound call to an Iowa number. So, when you call them, a portion of the fees go to the company, and they use it to cover the international calling fees.
They offer service to Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil (Rio De Janerio), Canada, China, Christmas & Coco’s Island, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland (Warsaw), Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, UK and USA, with more coming soon.
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Seven New Year's Resolutions for Your PC
Lifehacker recently came up with its New Year’s Resolutions…things people should do but don’t for their computers.
- Regularly back up your hard drive – We know we should…but we don’t. Admittedly, we store our data on a mirroring RAID array, but that doesn’t make us any safer if disaster comes
- Set up a self-repairing hard drive – Schedule your computer to run repair programs regularly, including things liek defragment, drive checks, etc.
- Clean out your hard drive – Over time your hard drive becomes full of programs and files you don’t use…get rid of them. If you aren’t using it, delete it or back it up to optical media.
- Organize your virtual filing cabinet – Now that you’ve cleaned things up…time to organize what you have into a good and easy to work with hierarchy.
- Keep your hard drive clean – You just did all this work…you had better work to keep it that way.
- Encrypt your private data – Protecting your important information from prying eyes is important…especially if you have a laptop.
- Securely Track Your Passwords – First…make sure your passwords are not easy to crack…and then secure them somehow. A password program, such as KeePass, among others, can create a secure password vault.
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Metering for Fun and Savings
The New York Times has a fascinating article on energy metering in today’s paper. Many groups are installing smart power meters that provide energy pricing hour by hour instead of a set monthly rate.
Since energy prices can fluctuate rapidly based on demand, a frugal individual can lower their electric bills and help the environment at the same time. Win-win situation.
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Software for Starving Students
We’re always on the hunt for free stuff. Lifehacker was nice enough to point us to a site which has put together a package of free software with an installer on a CD. Software for Starving Students.
It includes some games, utilities, productivity…etc. Some of the programs we may be reviewing later.
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Anonymous and Free Phone Numbers
Some say that with the prevalence of cell phones and internet telephony, that landlines are dead. We aren’t quite sure about that…but technology is continuing to enhance the old system.
Craigsnumber, apparently created with the goal of allowing those posting on popular site Craigslist to provide a phone number that will keep them anonymous, offers a temporary extension, although with limited area codes, that will be forwarded to your real line. You can specify the length of activation. Certainly a simple and uncomplicated service. Lifehacker has more details.
There are alternatives, of course. Freedigits.com offers a free VoIP phone line with a random US number. Their goal is to encourage you to go with them for paid service, but there are no strings attached to their free offer.
Another option is Grandcentral.com, which also offers both a free and a paid service. Their philosophy is one phone number…for life. Their free service offers three phones, caller ID, the ability to switch phones in the middle of a call, custom ringtones while waiting for you to pick up, the ability to record any call with a single button press, as well as SPAM blocking. The free service has a limitation of 100 minutes a month of calls received through them. It doesn’t offer any service not offered elsewhere as add-ons to other paid services, but it is a good option for some. Lifehacker reviews it here.
If none of these options work for you…you can always just pay for VoIP service. Just remember, despite our skepticism about customer service…if you give them money, they are supposed to help you. If you don’t…they have an excuse not to.
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Why do our electronics Break?
We thought we would point our readers toward this CNET discussion about Why Our Gadgets Break? It seems illogical that older electronics were built to better quality standards, while the new ones are built cheaply and designed to fail within a shorter period of time in order to encourage upgrading, but that is the truth with many things.
Engineers have designed objects designed to fail for years. Otherwise, how will they sell electronics to people satisfied with their old reliable pieces? Even if they themselves are not designing this way…the push to make the cost less expensive forces them to use cheaper materials…integrate components…The only positive side is that it forces engineers to find clever and often better ways to do things with less.
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Consumer Electronics Customer Service Contacts
The Consumerist has links to lists of Consumer Electronics companies and how to contact them. Not much to say…except…useful. For the entry, click here.
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Ten Minute Mail
Sometimes, simple ideas are the best. Take 10minutemail.com for a temporary email address that expires in ten minutes. The best use is to receive emails for organizations that require sending you informtion by email to verify yourself, but follow up with spam.
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Backup Your Windows Notebook Now or Face Dire Consequences!
We like the title of this article from the Mobility Guru a great deal. Backup is something we save for the last minute too often…and ultimately forget, dooming us in an emergency. It is not a matter of IF you need to back up your data, it is WHEN.
For the frugal individual, try an old hard drive. For a minimal fee, you can convert it to USB operation and use it as backup. There is also the CD/DVD option, which will definitely work for some data. For the average person remember…your media files will not change, and thus can be backed up on a few DVDs rather efficient. For frequently updated information, such as application data, a copy of your registry, and your documents, you can use the old hard drive, supplemented with regular optical disc backups to back that drive up.