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There is also a SpiNNaker computer platform [1]

[1] http://apt.cs.manchester.ac.uk/projects/SpiNNaker/

A Spinnaker is a type sail first and foremost.

And also the first and foremost sail. :-)

Indeed. It's not a good sign that Netflix weren't aware of this very high-profile long-standing project with the same name. It suggests that they aren't much in touch with the academic CS community.

Should names be globally unique? Spinnaker Software [0] was around in the early 1980s and can claim the throne for longest use of the name in the computer space.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinnaker_Software

> Should names be globally unique?

I didn't say that.

I just think it's unlikely they would have chosen the name if they were aware of Manchester's project, which means they didn't know about it, which means they don't read much about CS research.