

Netflix is Down and I Just Released My Netflix App - stitchy
http://stitchyapp.posterous.com/netflix-is-down-and-i-just-released-my-netfli

======
27182818284
The Netflix API feels like a ghetto. I'm surprised people are still developing
apps for it. When you read through comments on its various pages, there isn't
a lot of activity.

------
overshard
It's a problem that services like Netflix and Last.fm never consider could
happen and when it does they are scrambling everywhere and don't know how to
deal with the flames properly, stuff just looks broken. What I have been doing
the past year is creating basic html pages for every service I release as an
emergency landing page that I easily put up at the press of a button.

~~~
arithmetic
Actually the other comment from b0b0b0b is pretty accurate - Netflix tries to
gracefully degrade functionality when 'stuff goes down', so that people can
still get the basic streaming service. Netflix also uses Chaos Monkey
([http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2010/12/chaos-monkey-
how-n...](http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2010/12/chaos-monkey-how-netflix-
uses.php))

P.S. I work there.

------
b0b0b0b
Streaming Netflix still works from MAC/PC, but personalized recommendations
are absent from the front page.

So I think this is a win in terms of decoupled services and degraded mode
functionality.

I expect they probably pushed out some code too hastily due to the recent
licensing hoo-hah with the media companies (and can't just roll back because
of said hoo-hah).

~~~
smackfu
OTOH, on the Apple TV it just said "Netflix is unavailable" when you picked
that option. And it didn't work at all in the iOS app, just a white screen on
app launch. So decoupling / degrading only works great if you apply it to
every platform.

------
wccrawford
Yesterday, a friend called me and wanted my help. Apparently NetFlix wasn't
working on his 360, and it kept rejected his password on the PC, even right
after he set it. He was in a panic and refused to listen to me that their
service was probably having problems.

I wonder how long he spent messing with it instead of contacting them, or just
listening to me. :D

------
xtacy
Off topic, but why are all posterous websites so sluggish when I try to
scroll? I am running Chrome 12. Is it just me?

~~~
chime
Can't say about others but this one has background-attachment fixed, which
always slows scrolling.

~~~
catshirt
box-shadows are also surprisingly suspect.

------
robjohnson
Success is the intersection of luck and opportunity. Unfortunately, in this
case, luck was not on your side. That being said, genius is merely persistence
in disguise. Your app very well may recover, but if it doesn't, keep at it and
start the next one.

------
mlntn
Way to break Netflix... I was just going to watch something. ;)

------
tantalor
Is it possible the DVD + USPS delivery method is more reliable than streaming?
Too bad I cancelled that account for streaming only.

~~~
pavel_lishin
The uptime is better, but the bandwidth isn't great. And the latency? Forget
about it.

