Joost

Joost, the first in true Internet TV. Maybe not the first, but the first worth noticing, in my opinion. There is a lot to like about this program, but there is a lot to hate also.

Opinion: Well it is about time. Someone finaly harness P2P technology and merged it with televission content to make a distrubited Internet Television Broadcast. It is pretty cool that is it all on-demand, but there are some problems that still need to be ironed out.
The advertising is a touch annoying. The program chooses what seems like random times to put the commercials in, rather then using the time when the commercial was meant. This can lead to very awkward pauses in a show. The utter lack of number of advertisers can also be annoying. They need to learn to mix up there ads, cause when I see the exact same ad for the same company 6 times in a row (mixed in with different programs) it is a real turn off.

Tech Review: Pretty solid program. There are a few bugs here and there, but I have been with this beta for a while and have seen considerable improvement since the beginning. They finally added a Mac client, but I would have really liked to see a Linux client also.

Pros/Cons:
Pros:

• Very nice interface.
• Joost is growing very quickly.
• All the shows are On-demand.
• All content is free.
  

Cons:

• Needs an Auto Updater for how often they release new versions. (may possibly see this in a final version)
• Very limited content, but this is changing.
• Needs more advertisers. (Note: Not advertisements, advertisers)
• Commercials could have better timing.

Rating: 4/5 The program is awesome and so is the idea, but the advertisement issues are really a drag.

Random Thought: How long would it take to count to the largest prime number?

Team Fortress 2

Well its about time. After something like 10 years, they finally got this game into beta. The guts that Valve had when they said it would be released by Tuesday night and it did not come out until Wednesday morning. Team Fortress was an amazing game and a lot of people have high hopes for the sequel.

Opinion: I love this game. The classes are very balanced, except the pryo, which they have been very proactive about fixing. The maps are wonderful. Even though the graphics are of a cell shaded type, I don't feel like they have wasted the power of my graphics card. This game is going to consume mass amounts of your time and with the interesting tags when you die, you will probably laugh pretty hard the first few times you die.

Tech Review: This game has its ducks in a row. There are some minor glitches like the ability to get under levels. It also has a few mapping problems that allow for kills before the start of the round. There are no glaring glitches, even though some users report "swimming" bodies when people die or people falling though the map when they die, I have not noticed this and these are not crucial to game play.

Pros/Cons:
Pros:

• Well balanced classes and maps
  
• Requires team play, a single player can not throw the whole game
• Pretty graphics
• Stats tracking

Cons:

• Pryo could use some tweaking
• Needs a SDK
• Takes up a lot of resources to run it
  
• Team work is a requirement
  
• I am already addicted to this game

Rating: 5/5 Team Fortress 2 lives up to the hype that it has created and I don't regret staying up all night to play.

Random Thought: Has Jim Carrey ever been a character that is not insane?