How Cold Was It Last Night? Cold.

Also, nerds can be scary people. I tried not to make eye contact, which was easy since my eyeballs never stopped shivering in the 45 minutes I stood in a parking lot waiting to buy something that -- yes -- I could have bought the next day with no waiting.

Anyway.

"Netflix early today (Tuesday) took the wraps off its long-rumored online movie service, saying that it had struck deals with Universal, Sony, MGM, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Warner Bros., New Line and Lionsgate. (Conspicuously missing was Disney, which currently has a deal with Apple.) The service, called Watch Now, uses a delivery system that appears to be a kind of hybrid of online streaming and downloading. A movie of DVD-like quality is actually downloaded to a home PC over broadband connections, and it can be viewed beginning 10-15 seconds after the download starts if the PC owner has a fast Internet connection. The movie can be shown once and is free to Netflix's subscribers. Those who subscribe to the $18.00 monthly plan may download up to 18 hours of movies per month; those on the $6.00 plan, 6 hours. Netflix's online service is expected to launch nationwide in June, following a phased roll-out involving a small number of viewers that is set to begin at once. The service requires a computer running the Windows operating system."

How cool is this? Cool. We get the movie rentals we're already getting, PLUS another 9 movies delivered to us instantly every month. Justin might just catch up on his queue!