Monday, April 14, 2003

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http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/movies/article/0,1651,TCP_1162_1881100,00.html The biggest drawback to the service, Docter said, has been the turnaround time between returning a video and receiving the next one on his list. But Netflix's founder and chief executive officer, Reed Hastings, said the company is committed to reducing that time. Last month, the company opened a distribution center in Fort Lauderdale, the company's 17th nationwide, to give South Florida customers better service. Until now, Netflix's Florida customers have been served by a distribution center in Georgia. For Treasure Coast customers, the company's new South Florida presence could mean a two-day turnaround period between returning and receiving a video, Hastings said. Before the new distribution center opened, Docter said the waiting period was about five or six days. Walmart.com currently sends all its online DVD rentals from one location, but the company has plans to increase distribution centers also, Lin said, though she did not have specifics. Netflix plans to have 25 distribution centers throughout the country before the end of 2003, Hastings said. 12:33:14 PM    comment []

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http://www.paulgraham.com/hundred.html Paul Graham: It's not true that those who can't do, teach (some of the best hackers I know are professors), but it is true that there are a lot of things that those who teach can't do. Research imposes constraining caste restrictions. In any academic field there are topics that are ok to work on and others that aren't. Unfortunately the distinction between acceptable and forbidden topics is usually based on how intellectual the work sounds when described in research papers, rather than how important it is for getting good results. The extreme case is probably literature; people studying literature rarely say anything that would be of the slightest use to those producing it. 10:31:24 AM    comment []