On Netflix and machine intelligence...

I don't know if you've heard of Netflix, the online movie store that has 100,000 movies and shows, with probably 8 million monthly subscribers now.

I used to like strolling down the street to the neighborhood movie rental store and check out the DVDs. I have since stopped doing that after we moved to the suburb (albeit close enough to the city). It's a big hassle to have to drive out at night to rent and return the DVDs. I could only do so after the kids went to bed. And then there was the late fees.

I discovered Netflix back in 2005 and have stayed with it since then. I was impressed by its extensive library of movies, including so many of the old TV shows and movies that I saw when I was growing up. I have pretty much rated all the movies, TV shows and documentaries that I can remember watching, in a way to remind myself of what I have liked and disliked over the years. I can keep a queue (list) of the movies that I like, and have the DVD mailed to me. I can keep it as long as I want, or return it as soon as possible (in order to get the next movie in my queue in a hurry). There's no late fees to speak of, and I don't need to rush. Everything's under control, which is cool. Quite recently, they've added the Watch Instantly feature, in which they provide video streaming over the web as long (although there's no Extra Features from DVD, and I can't control the speed of the video stream, and the quality is usually not too good). But then, the Watch Instantly feature is free. I can't complain much. Netflix has some newer features to allow streaming piped to PC or over the set-top box too, I heard. But I don't watch TV, so I don't care about it.

Netflix has had a programming competition, with a prize of $1 million, to improve their recommendation engine CineMatch by 10%. I read this interesting article in NYTimes about it. It's been open since 2006, but so far, no one won yet. I'm glad that Netflix values customer features and academic pursuit equally. I like it. I'll most likely stay with Netflix for the long haul.