Seven years of Netflix

This month marks my seventh anniversary in Netflix, the online DVD rental site. In that time, I've seen them go through quite a few changes. In the beginning they actually used an honor system where you told them you returned the movie and they'd send you a new one. Of course, this process was required since the DVDs were being shipped from California and took around three days to get to Wisconsin (so a week for the round-trip). They've since opened up shipping facilities around the country--including one here in Madison allowing me to get my movies turned around in three days.

Also during this period, I've seen the amount of time I have to watch movies deteriorate. I have, however, added to the amount of people who can enjoy my subscription by creating queues for my wife and daughter. However, I do miss the days where I could watch 12 movies/month for around $20.

Now, Netflix Inc. faces some pretty steep competition. Blockbuster, who they almost single-handedly put out of business a couple of years ago, is back with a complete copycat service. I don't really know much of the details of their service, but I do know that many people are drawn to the option of being able to go to the store to exchange movies. The last time I set foot in a Blockbuster was over seven years ago (something I am very proud of). If it is still anything like it was, good luck getting the movie you actually want to see. My advice is to always keep your queue stocked with the movies you want to see. Also, make sure your plan fits your habits where you always have enough movies to watch at home.

Netflix is also criticized that they are late into the movie download game. I like to watch movies on a very large screen with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. I'm not aware of a download service that delivers that kind of quality today (with the huge selection of Netflix). In the future, I'm sure downloading will become easier to do, easier to watch on a screen that is meant for longer viewings, and become a higher quality experience. And, I'm sure the smart folks at Netflix will be part of the mix. But for now, why not stick with the ease of just popping a disk into your DVD player from one of those nice red envelopes?

DVRs--not just for skipping commercials anymore

We've been using DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) in my family for over five years now. I started out with a ReplayTV 5000 series unit that essentially deleted commercials for you. Currently, we use the DirecTV HR20 HD DVR (which despite a few stability issues, I really like). Through using both of these units, we've regained control of our TV lives. Despite busy schedules and a child, we see all the shows we want to, when we want to and never watch a commercial.

However, today, I was watching live TV (something I do rarely unless it is a sporting event) and happened to catch something strange during a GE commercial. I noticed a number of frames flash by with what appeared to be subliminal messages. Immediately, I was reminded of something I had read a while back talking about some innovative advertisers putting things into their commercials for DVR owners. What I saw was one example--GE's One Second Theater.

Putting an entire sub-commercial into one second of video that can only be watched by pausing your DVR and going frame by frame is brilliant. It makes me feel like I am part of some really clever club that gets some inside information the masses miss. I've always been very in tune with advertising and branding (my friends call me the "ultimate consumer"). However, over the last few years I've wondered how traditional ads could evolve to fit into the new world of television controlled by the viewers instead of the networks. This is definitely a step in the right direction.

Better late than never

Since I am new to blogging, I missed the opportunity to hype my cover appearance on Information Security Magazine last month.

While I don't usually like how I look in photos, both the cover and inside shot turned out well. Unfortunately, the article doesn't have any detail about what we did at UW Credit Union that was unique and defined how to properly roll out multi-factor authentication for a large online banking site. If you Google "eric bangerter" security, you'll see many other articles about our implementation. I don't really understand why I am on the cover only to make a brief appearance in the actual article.

I took quite a bit of ribbing at work about the photos, but it was really all in good fun as I think everyone was pretty impressed with the fact that I had made the cover. The common perception of my coworkers was that they were looking for a "good-looking" geek for the cover. I don't think of myself as a true geek (although some of the traits are there) and you'll have to form your own opinion about the good looking part. The funny thing is I don't think they knew what I looked like before they came to shoot the cover. Apparently, one blogger thinks I look like Tom Hanks and discusses why there aren't more stars supporting the security industry.

In any case, it is cool to have made a cover of a magazine.

This is my first post

I am posting this just to get things going with my domain name and to see how everything works. I will be using this to post things about me and things that interest me.

I am very new to blogging and will likely be doing a blog for work regarding Web Branch at UW Credit Union. I hope to learn a bit here so I can better appear to know what I am doing. I am leading the effort to bring blogging to UW Credit Union and need to understand how it works better. My hope is that we will launch our first blog in March 2007 (regarding Web Branch) and add a few others throughout the year. Blogging is a pretty new concept for financial institutions, but I think it will be a great way to communicate with our members.

We'll see if I really end up having the time and dedication to post much here. I do have a trip to New Zealand coming up in about a week. Minimally, I'd like to post photos here for my family and friends to see. We'll see where it goes from there.