Ah Kansas City (Overland Park, really, but whatever). I have but one real friend here. I work all the time – at least 9 hour days, usually a little more. After dinner and maybe a trip to the gym, I’m usually reading a book on Access Programming. I guess that would make time for work or work-related things increase to around 12 hours. Nonetheless, with the little amount of free-time I do have, I don’t really do much. This coming weekend I’m going to Manhattan and Wichita, for picking up my mail and to a wedding, respectively. Odds are, I’ll be venturing back to KC on Sunday. So that leaves me one day to get little stuff done, like go to Wal-Mart, Target, etc. So, what can I do to during my down-time?
Oh, you had to ask, didn’t you? 😉 The answer is two-fold: NEC ND-3500A and Netflix.
I’ll briefly detail why I made the choices that I did.
First, the NEC ND-3500A. This is, arguably, the best DVD burner on the market today. Really, it was a toss up between this one, which is featured in Ars Technica’s November 2004 God Box and the Sony DRU-710A, featured in Maximum PC‘s Best of the Best. It should be noted, however, that Ars Technica tends to make recommendations for hardware prior to it being widely available. Also, Maximum PC is a magazine, so things are a little slow. The only difference that I can see between the two is that the Sony has an 8x write speed for DVD-R, whereas the NEC has a 16x write speed. Everything else is the same. Oh, I guess the NEC is also $26.00 cheaper.
Now, Netflix. This was a toss-up between Blockbuster and Netflix. If I were still in Manhattan, I’d have gone the Digital Shelf or Hastings maybe route. But, I’m in KC and I don’t have much free time. You may have heard about the little battle / price war / whatever between Netflix and Blockbuster. As far as I know, it ended and the result is that Blockbuster’s monthly rate is $15.00/month and Netflix is $18.00/month. Not a big difference. Also, I should note that Blockbuster also gives you two free in-store movie or game rentals each month.
So why did I choose the more expensive one? Well, Netflix has been in this business a lot longer than Blockbuster. And by this business I mean the DVD through the internet/mail thing. Netflix is known across the board for getting you movies very quickly. As in, usually one day. Plus, I’ve heard from people who’ve used both and are going back to Netflix. They cited a bigger catalogue of movies. So that’s nice. Plus, Blockbuster just seems very Corporate and I’m very not. Well, when I can be.
And that’s about it. Pretty soon my DVD collection will rival that of Barrett and even, dare I say it, Collin. W00t.
