Just got Joost!

I registered for the Joost beta a few weeks ago and today I got an e-mail saying I’d been invited to the beta. Yay!

I downloaded the client, registered, and started watching. Wow. As soon as the network gets up and running, I think this could be huge. They’ve got a good amount of content right now and the interface and experience is pretty amazing. Basically, you start the program and you just start watching TV. You can change channels and pick any show on the channel – kinda like a TiVo that you never had to setup.

Here’s what it looks like to choose a channel:

And here’s what a show looks like (looks pretty much like regular TV 🙂 ):

The interface is super cool and allows you to do quite a bit. Here’s a screen where you can see how they are looking to turn watching TV into a social experience. It looks like you’ll be able to chat with other people who are watching the same show in real time.

The only thing I’m missing is even more great content. If users could upload their own content and stream it over the network it would be insane. I know typically episodes of 24 are available on bittorrent less than an hour after they are aired and if I could get it in Joost, I’d never bother with my Media Center again!

Tahoe and Revenge?

This past weekend Rose and I went up to Tahoe with our grx small group, Immersion. The trip was mostly uneventful except for two things: a clever plot on Saturday night that demanded payback and the weather Sunday morning on our way back to the Bay Area.

First, the weather.

I checked the weather report for this weekend on Friday before we left and it said that there would be a little snow Saturday night through Sunday morning. Sounded perfect, snow overnight and fresh powder during the day. Turns out that instead of a few inches of fresh, we got dumped on! Here are a few shots Rose took from the car while we were driving Sunday morning.

So turns out that we got outta there just in time. After we got past the summit on 50 eastbound, they closed the freeway for avalanche control. We decided to hightail it outta there and it took us about 8 hours to get home. Today, we heard that it took some people 12 hours to get back yesterday, so it looks like we were actually lucky 🙂

Ok, now for the more interesting part: revenge?

On our first night up at Tahoe, Friday, we had two rooms. One for guys and one for the ladies. Since we had 6 guys, the guys room was larger – a two story unit with a bed on the top floor and a couch on the first floor. Huy, Eddie and I slept on the first floor and Alan, Jimmy, and Hugh slept on the top floor. The next morning, Alan and Jimmy complained of not getting a good night’s sleep, but didn’t really say why. We figured it was an uncomfortable mattress or something.

Then on Saturday night, Alan, Jimmy, and Hugh tried to drive home after the day up at Kirkwood. By the time they started to head out, the storm was already coming in, so they turned back around and stayed another night at Tahoe. At this point, we only had one hotel room (we checked out of the other room) and I figured we could probably all jam up in there for a night. However, Jimmy and Alan insisted on getting another hotel room. We figured they just didn’t want to cram 9 people in a standard small hotel room.

They found a room at a motel down the street and got ready to move over there. Now comes the clever part, they left Hugh behind in our room, and said they’d come pick him up in the morning. Odd, we thought, but whatever.

As most people can probably guess by now, Hugh is an awfully suspicious character in the story. Turns out, Hugh has a serious case of sleep apnea, and it was exceptionally loud. He was choking and coughing all night, basically preventing everyone but me from sleeping (I’m always passed out cold). Rose is a very light sleeper so she ended up getting basically no sleep all night! 😦

Well, needless to say, this was a deliberate act of war. So that night after we got back, after Alan had gone to bed, we took my old foam mattress and did this:

Then we added these:

And lastly, here’s the scene this morning:

Bwahahaha! Watch out Jimmy, you’re next! 😀

Sweet Web 2.0 videos (Plaxo included)

A bunch of people here at the office have been shooting a “superbowl” ad over the past few days and they’ve just been uploaded to YouTube. HEre’s ours (I think it’s hilarious, but then again, I’m probably biased):

Check out all of the videos over there. Meebo, RockYou, Technorati, and other companies have submitted videos too.