Qwikster? Really?

I guess we've all heard the news from Netflix. They are now all streaming, and the DVD-by-mail business will be handled by a new company called Qwikster. Just the name alone shows how much contempt they have for the whole old-fashioned business model.

Since everybody else's blog has already covered this to bits (even though the email was sent in the middle of the night on a Sunday), I don't have much else to say. I've already explained why I prefer a near infinite variety of crisp, clear disks to a limited selection of highly compressed streamed video. And Netflix has explained why it thinks I am wrong, and that they don't want me as a customer - although they never quite explain why.

I get that they think streaming is the future. Fine. I'll switch over in the future. For now, it is distinctly lower quality. This isn't dumping vinyl for CDs, this is dumping vinyl for 8-track. I'm not refusing to buy an iPhone, I'm refusing to buy a Newton.

So I should probably hold my nose and join Qwikster with the rest of the old media losers. As Netflix slowly starves it of resources, I can decide when to jump. Just because Netflix abandons a media that still has a couple of good years left in it, there's no reason that I have to.

Then Mrs. Spenser had a brilliant idea. Although I complain about Tallahassee a lot, there is a funky coffeeshop not too far from our place. It is shares a storefront with ... a video store! If DVDs are so danged old-fashioned, we might as well go all the way. Video 21 here we come!