In my house there's this light switch that doesn't do anything. Every so often I would flick it on and off just to check. Yesterday, I got a call from a woman in Madagascar. She said, "Cut it out." -- Steven Wright
Our lives are filled with small mysteries, such as a light-switch that seems to do nothing...only to invoke irate calls from overseas when we meddle with it too much.
I myself have been perplexed recently with something that Netflix does with their DVD envelopes. If you're a customer (as we all are) go grab one of your disks and follow along at home. For those of you that are either Blockbuster or VHS users, here's a photo:
Fact 1: Each disk sleeve has a bar code on one side.
Fact 2: Each return envelope has a die-cut hole on one side
Fact 3: The die-cut hole *exactly* matches the positioning of the DVD's sleeve when inserted "correctly" into the return envelope.
Fact 4: There are no instructions or hints indicating a "correct" way to re-insert the sleeve when returning the DVD.
Fact 5: There are 8 possible ways of inserting the sleeve into the envelope: four turns at 90 degrees, plus front/back.
Musings:
Since there are no instructions for inserting the sleeve, we must assume that whatever information the bar code holds must only be important to Netflix about 1/8th of the time someone returns a DVD.
It's also worth noting that there are ample ways that Netflix could significantly raise the chances of the bar code displaying if they were to cut an identical hole at a 180 degree turn in the envelope and/or print the bar code on the back of the sleeve as well. Neither of these would interfere with the return address or other printed material on the envelope and sleeve.
So what data or data-driven event would be useful based off ~10% hit rate?
Conclusions:
1) The bar code is tied to your account, and when it is read through the die-cut hole *and* the DVD has been out for an extended period of time, it fires a "When did you return Porky's 3?" mail to your spam account. This of course helps them tune their shipping algos to make sure you're not getting your next movie too quickly.
*or*
2) It routes your DVD through the Madagascar processing center, via the junk drawer in your kitchen.