You know what the solution Netflix came up with? Pretend DVDs dont exist and hope you dont notice.

Starting October 14th, 2011 if you’re using the Netflix API to manage your queue all the responses you will get are for the streaming library. Seriously.

If you want to manage your DVDs you will have to log on to the Netflix website and manage it, completely inconvenient and just the way Netflix wants it to be.

You see, shipping physical discs is expensive. You have to have the disc put in an envelope, the disc needs to be mailed, which involves postage costs, and then once you’re done they also pay for the return postage, at which time somebody in the Netflix distribution center near you needs to open the envelope and make sure the correct disc is inside. Even while automating most of this process it still consumes power and time which Netflix’s streaming catalogue does not.

With all of this said however, its the customer’s fault. People have not seemed to be too bothered by their lack of new titles, and have also seemed to pay happily the $7 for Hulu’s library which contains way less content (although, has many TV shows the day after).

The endgame here is the following:

Feature streaming on the Netflix homepage.
Feature streaming in the packages, push for the streaming-only package.
Have all convenient ways of using Netflix only feature streaming.

The user will slowly, but surely, forget about the “DVDs by Mail” deal and keep on streaming. Which in turn:

Saves Netflix money on running distribution centers.
Saves Netflix money on phone support for scratched discs.
Saves Netflix money on replacement discs.
Saves Netflix money on less API calls for data to their servers.
Allows Netflix to spend more money to better their streaming catalogue.

This is exactly what I want Netflix to do, after most of their catalogue is streamed. It really seems premature and will just inconvenience a lot of developers because of all of the confusion that it will cause to the end users, even if they do the right thing and send out an email letting the end users know beforehand.

I wish they reconsidered, but I’m sure this was a decision they’re banking a lot of green on. It couldn’t have been a easy decision and it shows that they’re trying to be ahead of the curve in the digital revolution as well.

Actually, I guess I should start at the beginning. As I was learning to code, when I had nothing to do, I built a framework.

One was called Andr0, it was my first attempt. It was amateurish, used output buffering all over and was just plain silly. The idea was that it would take some root files and create “blog” posts out of them (they were not called blogs yet.) I still own this domain.

I abandoned all of this when I became better aquainted with MySQL. The next framework I started calling a “site engine” and called it Solution Nine. It was going to be the one framework to run all my nine site ideas. This one had everything that ran it in the database. Everything was a database call. I could create pages without touching the file system, I thought that was awesome. Thank the stars we’ve all moved on from there. I still do freelance work under the Solution Nine name.

At this point I knew better. I started working with others. The engine was now called Maquinas. It was a real modern engine. Files in the file system, youd specify blocks in the database. It was a good version of PHP Nuke. Without all the bloat and useless module blocks. My friend got called to help with a bigger project, later they brought me in. We decided to open source Maquinas, that never happened. We have since lost my friend to the Dark Side, Ruby on Rails.

Which brings me to working with James. He is always working on the latest version of his framework. It is super robust, super complex and has error reporting that will blow your mind. He uses it every day. He doesnt realize how big the learning curve is for it. In fact neither do I, since Ive used it a lot.
While he perfects his frameworks I’ve taken my favorite parts off of his and built the foundation for my own.

To be continued…

The invites are not automatic, I’ll just be putting your name on the nomination box and you’ll get an invite soon after that (a day or two most likely). If you get a invite, and get more invites from them, please post here so we can start a chain going!

Just a small note, If you switch the Facebook API Key and Secret from Wordbook’s to your own personal applications’. You can select what icon the post will show.

You also need to update the template_id. Here is how I did it:

Primary One Line Template

{*actor*} updated <a href=”http://Feli.pe”>Feli.pe</a>

Primary Short Story Template Title

<a href=”http://feli.pe”>Feli.pe</a> : <a href=”{*post_link*}”>{*post_title*}</a>

Primary Short Story Template Body

{*post_excerpt*}

Action Links

read more – {*post_link*}

Drawback from this for the Wordbook guys is that they loose control of their app analytics and they cant track how many users are using it so make sure you make a donation to the guys for their efforts. Just a FYI though. It’s what I did

Since there is no native iPhone application yet and the one I have seen only offers half the functionality I opted for managing it on my Mac since Im at work most of the time anyways.

I created a new Fluid App by pointing it to:

https://google.com/voice/

For the icon I used this flickr link:

Then you just follow these steps to add notifications:

1. Download the script here.
2. Open up the application you created.
3. Select open scripts directory from the scripts menu.
4. Drop my script into that folder.
5. Select Refresh Scripts from the scripts menu.
6. Click on Notifications in thr scripts menu so theres a checkmark next to it.
7. Quit and Re-launch the Google Voice app

You can get the script here: userscripts.org

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please post a comment!

Legal:
Im distributing this piece of code as is and I am not responsible for any damage it causes to your system. But lets face it, its a few lines of javascript, youd need to mess up pretty bad for it to do anything other than to fail to execute.

I’m releasing this under the Creative Commons Free, Attribution, Share-Alike license.

Update (09/03/09):

Google changed its code and the script stopped working. This has been fixed. I have not had time to really work on this as I’d like but I figured I owed you guys this quick fix. The new version is on userscripts now.

I’ve read the novel about three times. I don’t consider myself a ‘fanboy’ but I really enjoyed it and its themes and it is everything I want in a super hero story. How do these new powers affect your sense of humanity? If you don’t have powers how do you justify your ‘caped crusader’ persona and once you’ve been doing it for a while, how do you deal with not being able to do it anymore?

All this being said. The book has a lot of time to really show desperation. The book has a lot of time to develop the characters. The killing of Hollis Mason was very important in my view of showing who the Night Owl II is and then there’s the glaring omission was Rorschach’s monologue when he becomes Rorschach.

These scenes made the book for me. I, however, read the book. I know and like many of these characters already.

While having some conversations with some people that have not had this priviledge before it has come to my attention that it just doesn’t translate well into any other medium. Something Alan Moore has been saying all along. You don’t need to tell the origin story of any of these characters but you have to tell us enough so that we know what they are fighting for, this is the most important part when coming to the `twist` at  the end.

I felt like none of this was there. The characters were presented, some backstory was given. They were each given a simple motivation and then they continued with the movie.

All this being said, this is my review of Watchmen:

Zack Snyder’s Watchmen is the closest thing to Alan Moore’s Watchmen you will ever get. I believe it gives you enough insight into the Watchmen universe that if you like the film and you see the book (which is like $20 on amazon right now) you can get it and be amazed all over with how complex these characters really are. It is also a piece that stand’s on its own as a violent (perhaps too violent?), dirty, and morally ambiguous portrayal of super heroes. This is a trend that is developing and is something The Dark Knight started doing as well.

Knowing Hollywood we were lucky it was Zack Snyder who ended up doing this. We could have ended up with a half-baked story that kept nothing from the original manuscript (Tonight He Comes -> Hancock , I’m looking at you). What we ended up with was so close to the source material most of the complaints are that all of the source material isn’t there.

I personally enjoyed the movie quite a lot. The people I went with that had not read the trade liked it even more than I did. I will be going back to see it in IMAX sometime this week, and if you are on the fence about the movie, just go see it.

The reviews are mixed because it is such a loved source material, and sadly, everybody is right. It is not as great as some would want you to believe and it is not as bad as others would like you to believer. If you haven’t read the source material, you should have no reservations on goign to see the film. If you have read it, only by seeing it can you formulate your own opinion.

Final review 4/5, will see again, can’t wait for the Blu-Ray with The Black Freighter in it.

One final note: After talking to many people, the new ending was required. I don’t disagree with it as much as I thought I would. I’d love for the original ending to have been filmed and added to the Blu-Ray, however. So if you’re afraid of the new ending. It’s really not that bad… it just isnt as ‘shocking’.

• Shorten Links
  I love knowing when my links get clicked on, therefore I want all my links to be shortened by Bit.ly.
• Backup My Images
  I want all my picture uploads to Twitter, to have a small preview on the site as part of my Live Feed, this would also be a great opportunity for it to be uploaded to my Flickr account. So I want it to do that.
• Reduce Redundant Linking
  I need my Live Feed to know when not to post a Twitter update, so the Live Feed widget will also be the one to post to Twitter when I create a new blog post.
• Integrate with Lightwindow
  If I have a link coming in from YouTube I want to show a little screenshot of the video and if you click on it I want it to open a lightwindow box to play the video. I don’t want to lose my traffic to YouTube, they already get enough of that. I’ll include a link under the image to go to the YouTube page.
• Help Me Monetize
  My blog is a work of love. I get nothing for running the blog and it costs me a few bucks a year to maintain it. If I link to an item I’d love for my widget to automatically update the link to my affiliate link on those sites. I’m pretty sure others would appreciate it too once the widget is public.

If you have any other ideas for the widget please let me know. I’m pretty sure those features I’ve listed cover my wish-list in a plugin, but probably not everybody’s. The widget will obviously be open-source and available through the WordPress website once it is released. I just wanted to jot my thoughts down and hopefully get some feedback. This project still does not have a name.

I’m going to be self sufficient this year.

In this economy you can never have too much work and to be honest to a freelancer this is a goldmine. This might sound difficult to believe but its I’ll share with you a few tips about freelancing today.

What can I expect?

Expect competition. Furious competition. Maybe you still have your job, maybe you don’t but I can assure you many of your comrades are out on the streets and just like you would have fierce competition for a full-time job right now, expect a lot of competition for contract jobs. You’re going to need to be faster, cheaper (I’ll explain in a minute), and better than all of them. You achieve this by picking your battles and by befriending as many people as you can. Most of my gigs come from friends I’ve made along the way that can’t take a project for some reason or that need assistance with a project they have already taken on.

Where are the Jobs?

Everywhere. While going into past workplaces and recommending they update their Point of Service systems with one that I can custom build for them, has not gone well. (I swear I will change that video store’s cataloguing system if its the last thing I do! ) I don’t think it was a waste of time, if I see a system that I can make better I immediately talk to whoever is in charge and leave my card. These are mainly just practice for when you really need to pitch your work to somebody since they will mostly be happy with their current system, but if they do decide to change it they’ll think of you.

Talk to your friends, let them know that you have some extra time now that your WoW character is in hiatus and you would like some extra work. Maybe they’ll hear something and they’ll pass it along, its better if you have a whole bunch of people with their eyes open than just you. One point I’d like to stress however, talk to your friends, do not whine to your friends. We want good leads, not somebody who has no idea what he/she is talking about that mentioned something about a website. We are trying to make more with our time, not waste it.

Finally, scouring Craigslist and other job boards will be where the bulk comes from, with all the people looking at job boards these days a well constructed, resume will go a long way. Lots of companies cut in-house staff and are looking for contractors to pickup the slack. This is where most of the opportunity lies if you are not friends with many people or would rather not discuss your job search.

How do I choose a Project for Myself?

This is going to be the most important part of your new solo career. Picking your projects is important because if you pick too big of a project you might end up losing money in other, smaller, opportunities. What has worked for me personally is making sure all the projects I take are about 10-20 hours of work.

This is because I have a day-job and I have weeklong projects there. I really prefer to just have projects that take a weekend or two of part-time work rather than slave over it for weeks and weeks. If you are looking for work and you have the time, the longer projects pay more. Try and find projects that require a specific rare skill that you possess process automation, bug-testing and flash games come to mind as things I always see demand but not enough supply.

I try to take projects that do not require me to build a whole CMS from scratch and, in the interest of full disclosure, I preach WordPress and Joomla. These open-source CMS are very coder-friendly. I can do band websites and small community sites in no time I just have to get the theme together and build custom plugins for the user the whole permalinks system and back-end editing, publishing, comments and user system is provided for me. This is something I tell the client beforehand of course. I explain that if he wanted me to build a completely custom solution that were nearly as polished the price would go up (a lot). Most of the time, they really have no problems with this.

A few points about this:

• Do not be afraid to tell the client how much a project will cost if you build him a whole CMS.

• Do not promise a completely custom solution and come back to him with a WordPress implementation.

• Do not just install WordPress/Joomla. You need to harden these installations so that they are technically bullet-proof. This means changing the permissions of some key files and installing a caching system so that if they get dugg the website can survive the hit amongst other things.

Everything else

Once you are doing freelance projects you have to watch your own back. This means you need to stay on top of projects, and clients. It is your responsibility to have a concise list of deliverables that you can check-off as you go along so that you understand when the project has officially ended. Don’t get dragged into endless projects that don’t pay you what you are worth.

Also, please, enjoy your work!

I am also going to start a ‘projects’ page, so that people can see what it is that I am talking about instead of me having to explain it to them one by one. The promised coding tutorials are also on the way. I’ll update you guys soon on the progress.

Let me remind you, the report I was asked to write was completely made up.
I wear various hats here at the office and today I had to wear my “I wonder what they could possibly be running on their side and how can we ask them to fix it with minimum amount of impact to their development resources” hat.

The information I had was quite limited:

1. Medium size company
2. Their products that need to be shipped
3. They take orders online
4. Approval of orders may take up to 48 hours

The problems we were facing were quite simple:

1. Reporting is cumulative ( x orders yesterday, no details or timestamps)
2. No way to differentiate between orders
3. They seem to be having a hard time to make these reports

I immediately started thinking how I would make this system work if I had to build it from scratch. There has to be a way that you can identify the users because you need to know who to ship the product to, and there also needs to be a way to contact the users who’s credit cards didn’t work so you can re-market to them.For their purposes they needed a reporting system that allowed at least for these three things:

1. Clean order data for marketing purposes ( x products sold in the last y hours!)
2. Detailed order data for advertising partners ( sale x at this time was prompted by y partner with parameters z)
3. Sales only data for fulfillment ( ship x product to y address)

They were missing a way to give detailed information to the advertising partners in a way that did not give personal information to the advertising partner and also allowed the advertising partner to see if their campaigns were working or not. There also seems to be no way to add this functionality anytime soon which makes things quite complicated.

In my report I expressed the lack of these flexibilities would essentially make their system a Straw Shuttle, an idea, that while makes sense if you don’t see the whole picture, is fundamentally flawed.

Now we have a lot to work with them on, to get this reporting working for everyone, or had, since somebody forwarded the email and they didn’t quite care for my comparison of their ‘technology’ to a Straw Shuttle.

No more linking to The Onion stories on my email reports, understood.