For about as long as we can remember, folks have been talking about "the future," when there won't be any real difference between your TV and your computer. You'll be able to walk into the living room and read web pages or watch online videos on your flat panel display just as easily as you could in your office.

Well, we've got a secret for you: The future is already here. Kind of. It's surprisingly easy to hook your computer up to a television set these days, either with a video-out card or a Windows Media Extender. And if you've got Windows Vista, odds are you've got Windows Media Center, which is a 10-foot interface for accessing your audio, video, and picture collections. And now, thanks to a third party plugin you can even use Windows Media Center to watch streaming video from Netflix (assuming you have a Netflix account).

MyNetflix is a free plugin for Windows Vista Media Center that lets you manage your queue. And most importantly, it lets you browse and watch streaming video using the Netflix "watch now" service. Only a portion of the Netflix library is available for streaming, and good luck finding new releases. But we'd much rather watch old movies on our TV than new ones on our laptop.

[via Chris Lanier]