I actually have tried both for about a month. Netflix has been flawless. Blockbuster has consistently sent DVDs out of order (per my queue) even when the top items were available immediately. Also, Netflix appears to have a slightly more comprehensive selection of independent films.
If you view 100 DVDs/year, you might consider renting from Netflix.com instead of buying so many of them. Buying 100 $10 DVDs per year: $1000. Joining Netflix.com at $18/month: $216. I like saving $784/year.
The true disconnect is that capitalism assumes that consumers make near-optimal personal economic decisions daily, when such is clearly not the case. A brief look at the short-sighted emphasis of most modern advertising illustrates this point. Each of us shortchanges ourselves -- steals from ourselves, if you will -- each time we make a suboptimal purchase.
Software (operating systems, office suites, etc.) is becoming more and more a commodity. The future of the commercial industry is in consulting: efficiently providing a custom information management and processing solution for each company, using commodity software.
For example, with IBM's (and others') ongoing support of open source, it's only a matter of time before there'll be an open-source office suite that is a sufficient replacement for Microsoft Office, including being sufficiently compatible with it.
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I actually have tried both for about a month. Netflix has been flawless. Blockbuster has consistently sent DVDs out of order (per my queue) even when the top items were available immediately. Also, Netflix appears to have a slightly more comprehensive selection of independent films.
If you view 100 DVDs/year, you might consider renting from Netflix.com instead of buying so many of them. Buying 100 $10 DVDs per year: $1000. Joining Netflix.com at $18/month: $216. I like saving $784/year.
The true disconnect is that capitalism assumes that consumers make near-optimal personal economic decisions daily, when such is clearly not the case. A brief look at the short-sighted emphasis of most modern advertising illustrates this point. Each of us shortchanges ourselves -- steals from ourselves, if you will -- each time we make a suboptimal purchase.
Software (operating systems, office suites, etc.) is becoming more and more a commodity. The future of the commercial industry is in consulting: efficiently providing a custom information management and processing solution for each company, using commodity software. For example, with IBM's (and others') ongoing support of open source, it's only a matter of time before there'll be an open-source office suite that is a sufficient replacement for Microsoft Office, including being sufficiently compatible with it.