Joost has now opened the beta up to friends in the early beta test.  Basically, those who are beta testers can now send as many invites as they want to "friends".  So far I have invited 46 new Joosters.

Joost is a video service that allows you to watch TV shows--mostly older shows that Joost could get the rights to show.

It requires a broadband connection to view content and features "widgets" that allow for live chat while watching a show, clocks, and other potential experience wideners.  The widget part of the system is open to allow third parties to extend the function of the viewing experience.

I take at least one photo a day and send it to Flickr.  Often that picture is taken from my cell phone, a Treo 650, and soon after sent to flickr via a special email address set up to accept photos and plop them into my photo stream.  Flickr then automatically adds my preset tags making them findable.  It is pretty slick and works very well with an Internet enabled phone.

The problem is that you end up being relegated to using whatever camera you have in your phone and while some phones with cameras take stellar pictures, you have very little control over the settings in the camera.  You sacrifice control for convenience/instant gratification.

Today I updated our ReplayTVs for the new daylight savings times. It comprises a rather convoluted process of erasing the ZIP code on the unit and then putting the ZIP back. This got me thinking about the insanity of Daylight Savings.

Part of the 2005 energy bill in the US was to add an extra four weeks to DST. Millions of dollars have been allocated to see if it saves energy. This very kind of study has been done several times before and it has been proven that it doesn't conserve energy. Add to that when there is an hour more of sunshine, folks are more likely to head out in the car to do things in the evening, well it undermines the whole concept of energy savings. Retailers love it, because folks tend to go out shopping more during DST.

The creators of Kazaa and Skype have announced a partnership to create a Internet TV service called Joost.

Viacom had forced YouTube to remove all of its copyright content from the YouTube.  It has announced that it will deliver content from its various interests like MTV, VH1 and Paramount.

Joost has announced a beta program to test the Interface.  They have also announced that while it currently is Windows only, 250 Intel MacOS testers are in the process of working through a Mac version.

Last night Flickr had a caching meltdown.  Basically when one opened up an image page the wrong image was displayed.  What was supposed to be a fish from the aquarium opened up as a fashion model.  It was a sort of strange experience.  Then BLAM a splash page went up that read "Flickr is Getting a Massage" with a link to the Flickr Blog with updates.

Flickr made a good decision keeping folks abreast of exactly what was going on.  They then followed up with a full explanation.  Note that the node is called "crappola.html".  It gave me a chuckle.

Once again, the cable and telecom industry are quietly trying to do away with open-ness, fairness, and equality on the Internet. We were successful at scuttling Ted Steven's wacky plan to allow the big guys throttle through put based on what ever criteria they deemed fit.

That's the good news. Thanks to all who emailed, faxed, or called a congress person.

The phone and cable companies have started lobbying congress again to try and topple the idea of Net Neutrality.

Why is Net Neutrality SO important to the Arts and to the non-profit industry as a whole? Any of our organizations that rely on the Internet for marketing, if you sell products or online services, if you use the Net in any way to further your agenda then it is critical to keep it flat. The telecoms and cable companies want to dictate HOW FAST content is served up based on criteria that has never been explained. Personally I think that they plan on charging a surcharge--protection money--for you to ensure your content is served in a timely way.