Neflix to lay off 50 techs after Silverlight move
updated 04:55 pm EST, Mon December 8, 2008
Netflix announces job cuts
Online video rental company Netflix announced over the weekend that it will be laying off 50 of its technical specialists after the holidays, according to a Monday CNET report. The jobs involve helping customers with setting up their Netflix set-top boxes or services for PCs and Macs. A spokesman for Netflix says Microsoft's Silverlight plugin made the jobs redundant, as the software made it easy enough for customers to install without having to call for help.
At the same time, 15 technical specialists will join Netflix' approximate 300 customer service employees and the company will add 50 customer service representatives early on in 2009, albeit in different capacities than the technical specialists that are being laid off. Netflix says the recent streaming quality and long buffering issues its customers had to endure are not in any way related to the announced lay-offs.
duh...
12/08, 05:27pm reply
...the long buffering and quality issues aren't related to the techs, except in that they are both related to silverlight. silverlight made the techs redundant, and caused the S***** video.
yay MS!
rtbarry
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
silverdark
12/08, 11:08pm reply
Yea, and this is why I don't stream from Netflix (or anyone else who uses or intends to use Silverlight).
It may actually be possible for MS to make a piece of software that will work right one day, but the biggest problem is they have proven they simply can't be trusted.
They're about 10 years late to the party, who knows what type of control/DRM/eavesdropping tech they're going to roll into this 'product' and like typical fashion, they'll support Mac early on, but then allow it to feature lag, and finally drop it when they've saturated the market. They do this repeatedly.
No, thanks I'll stick with Flash, and definitely H.264 anything. Flash also works on more than just Mac & Windows too - that's a plus in my book.
mytdave
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2000
Not Bad at all
12/09, 08:10am reply
I really disagree. I am not a big MS fan. I like three products of theirs,
Visual Studio, SQL Server....well two products.
Regarding Netflix and Silverlight... never had any problem streaming or buffering. It has worked flawlessly. Sound is decent too. It is not Blue-Ray quality, but some items are almost DVD quality... and many are not.
My daughter and I watch Family ties (she likes Michael J. Fox) and we both cringe at the quality of the image.
Law and Order CI is much better.
Movies vary greatly too. Meet the Robinsons and 2010 were good, but James and the Giant Peach was distractingly bad.
It seems as though they are inconsistent with the bitrates of the source material.
dynsight
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: May 2005