Ave Joost

I'm running the Joost client as my flu takes a grip. I'm not sentimental at all about software, its plastic and whilst it doesn't rust if the infrastructure behind it disappears then so does the service.

It so happens that I prefer the experience of the client as I can have it whereever I want on the desktop without the encumbrance of a browser.

But c'est la vie, it gets turned off today, probably about midday CEST.

But I can almost get the same experience as the client with a desktop widget undocked and if my flu continues tomorrow I might just finish it as that's about all I'll be able to manage.

Vista Gadget for Joost

Joost has just released the embed code for the Joost Flash player and I've been waiting for that so that I can show people the example Vista Gadget that I've been running for the past month.

Its a very simple Gadget if not entirely crude but it does demonstrate how to use the Joost API to get information about what people are playing and then play it using the embedded Joost player.

The current Gadget will pick up my (SimonL's) friend's playing of shows and display the most recent one, click the text and the player will fly out; click the (link) and it will open the Joost site at that show.

I'll post a Gadget later with a settings form so the list can be changed along with some commentary as to how to amend it.

Download Joost Gadget

If you have enabled the Sidebar then you should get an installation from just downloading the .gadget, which is just a zip file of the whole set of files.

No more to Leiden

No more to Leiden will I travel.
No more the KLM commute from BHX to AMS.
No more the mangling of Dutch directions
To Taxi drivers in torrential rain.
No more the 45 to Schipolwek.

The coffee grinder is back home.
The Italian leather bag is beneath the bed.
All the gaily coloured mugs are now
In one single kitchen cupboard, resting.
The passport sleeps under the knickers.

No more Skyping and cajoling.
No more meetings of indefinable intent.
No more joyous carousing to all
Hours, celebrating the birth of new
Soft children being battered each second.

Friday was my last day in Leiden, my last day at Joost. I've said farewell so many times over the past week that I won't repeat it here. The future is a more interesting place to travel to than the past. But the past will always be a warm place to visit.

The Joost Juke box

One of the little gizmos we have on the new site is something called a Zapper, kind of like a remote control cum mini epg. Kind of...

Anyway, as I tend to watch a lot of the content we have (in a slightly not taking much notice kind of way I admit), I use the Random tab in the Zapper. At first it was just entirely random from the entire set of content we have and that was mostly good enough for me, I could pick and choose from a different list as to what to watch/listen to.

For a lot of people though its the music library we have that makes us different from the rest and now the Zapper lets you roll the dice (we really need a dice animation in there), and play Music or Film as well as the generic Shows, and if you want you can just randomise Jazz or Action Films if that's your thing.

So those of us that like running the music randomly all day (something we could do in the Desktop player), can now do the same using the web site.

Columbus touching a New World

Its known I guess that I work for Joost and recently I've been shepherding the delivery of the new Joost website, front end and middleware and this morning we delivered part 2 of the new website which includes the Flash player.

At Joost we're now bringing more of the social features that we started in a small way on the original desktop player (which still works its idiosyncratic magic by the way).

Those social features are most obviously about seeing what other people are watching and doing on the site but you can befriend people (which is kind of following them) and see what they watch and favourite.

A step beyond Friends is Groups which you can create and anyone can join. Groups aggregate the behaviour of their members and they form part of the social commentary on what those members do as you can add comments to the Group as well as on individual Shows.

All of the activities on the site can be subscribed to as RSS/Atom feeds so to see what it is that I've been watching recently subscribe to:

http://www.joost.com/api/events/get/simonl?fmt=atom

Oh and the reference to Columbus in the title of this is an obscure in joke, Monday was Columbus Day and the project name of the Website is an explorer, it wasn't Columbus though.