Main Dish:

- Blockbuster launched their competitor-to-Netflix yesterday. $20 a month, about $3 cheaper than Netflix... I'm gonna give Netflix a chance to lower their prices to match before I try out the Blockbuster service. But at any rate, while I am happy with Netflix, it's all the price providing the service and selection is equal. BTW, Netflix stock has really taken a beating the last couple of weeks, but the market is just correcting itself with regard to value... I took notice at $20, today it's 15 1/2, I might be a buyer when it goes to 10.
http://arstechnica.com/news/posts/20040811-4093.html

- one thing that Blockbuster is doing that Netflix isn't (yet) is to offer downloadable movies.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20040812/0159240.shtml

- a look at some of the technology behind the scenes at the Olympics in Athens. No wireless stuff, surprisingly given that a lot of the interference issues have been worked out.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3555842.stm

- but this report about the GPS system the security folks in Athens are using is interesting. It's not clear whether it is plain ol GPS (POGS, I just invented that acronym) or if it's the ESA's own satellites.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3552626.stm

- rounding out my Olympic coverage is this tidbit about specatators being refused access or having their goods confiscated if they are not products from official Olympics sponsors. If it's true, I just decided I'm going out an buying a truckload of Pepsi, then sending a pic to Coke telling them why. One more reason why the X-Games rocks and the Olympics sucks.
http://www.boingboing.net/2004/08/12/olympic_brandwhoring.html

- Intel is rumored to be working on a no-cache cheap CPU. Interesting, because just yesterday Rajesh Jain came by my office and explained to me about how entire sections of the market in India see nonconsumption as the only alternative to buying an expensive (by local standards) PC. When it comes to CPU manufacturing costs, Intel/AMD have pretty much hit a plateau with regard to actual mfg costs, it's pretty much an issue of what they are going to take out in order to reduce the cost and cache memory is an obvious choice. I also read somewhere else that M$oft is looking at ways to dramatically reduce the cost of Windows and Office in India and Southeast Asia in order to combat piracy, the primary competitive choice in software for those countries.
http://arstechnica.com/news/posts/20040811-4091.html

- Students are saying no to computer science as an undergrad major and this is a huge longterm problem for the industry. I think a big part of the problem is that students see career opportunities limited to the "computer industry" if they pursue a CS degree. We, as an industry, need to turn that around and point out the diverse set of options that are available to CS majors. If we don't, the movement of jobs to China/India will only increase...
http://news.com.com/Students+saying+no+to+computer+science/2100-1022_3-5306096.html?part=rss&tag=5306096&subj=news.1022.20

- really good post titled "when a technology lead doesn't matter". Tim provides a detailed look at why technology advantages don't always translate into business advantages.
http://www.pacificavc.com/blog/2004/08/10.html#a658

- so you think you are really getting over on "the man" when you download that cracked version of your favorite game for your Symbian phone... only to discover that it has a trojan horse that uses your phone to send SMS to a premium number that charges $1.50 per message. Bummer for you.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996273

- bwahahahaha, the above link about a game taking over your phone and sending out premium messages turns out to not be a trojan horse at all. No, it's actually an anti-piracy feature that the game developer put in.
http://www.thefeature.com/article?articleid=100969

- CommerceOne... let me count the ways they screwed the pooch
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/08/12/commerce_one_fights/

- Cable tv means the SETI project is just a big waste of time.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/08/10/alien_hunt_wrong_freq/

- how much can your company *really* save by implementing an RFID solution. I think I might of linked the original eweek article a few days ago, but this post offers good commentary.
http://www.rfid-weblog.com/archives/how_much_can_your_company_really_benefit_by_implementing_rfid.html

Comments

[Roddy MacFarquhar]

Signed up for this a week ago. It's working well so far. I was never a NetFlix customer so I can't compare. The return address for me (NY) is Flushing NY but I don't know if the DVD's get sent from there - they seem to take a little too long to get to me. The thing that decided it for me (and I was about to sign up with NetFlix after giving up on a cheaper clone) was the two free rentals per month from Blockbuster stores - if you can use these it's a good package.

[jeff]

yeah, I just signed up for it this morning as well. As long as the turnaround time on the dvds is fast, and the selection is the same as Netflix (have no idea why it would be any different) I'll go with Blockbuster... unless Netflix takes their price down to match BB. The 2 free rentals is a nice bonus, although I don't even know where a Blockbuster retail outlet is (although, this could be good while you are traveling, plus blockbuster has games).