Weary Traveler

I am also a weary traveler. I've always wanted to capture biz travel pics with my camera phone (Treo) and collect them. Of particular interests are hotels I stay in. Somehow I feel this strong urge to take photos of the rooms, maybe as a reminder for next time I'm in the same city, i know which dumpy hotel I should be avoiding. Luckily, I have yet to stay in one.

Here's my first pic on this blog. From my trip to CHicago about two weeks ago. I stayed at the Hyatt in downtown Chicago just off of Michigan ave. I rate it, as most travel sites do, a four-star.

i stayed on the 4th floor, so i didn't have much of a view. but the room was nice and clean. It also had a clockradio with an built ipod dock. Cool.

I'm all Joost up

I had been hearing about Joost for a while and am signed up to be a beta user. Recently received word from the company that the beta version is Joost around the corner.

I'm not yet convinced it has amassed enough content critical mass. It'll get there eventually but how soon and how much remain to be seen. They did sign up Viacom (MTV, Comedy Central, Paramount Pictures) recently so that's a big baby step. Another niche media player followed yesterday (sorry, can't find the link). Again, no question in my mind that more will follow. They better hurry as more players are jumping into the fray. NBC and Fox recently jumped into the online video fray with their announcement today.

Still fragmentation ultimately leads to consolidation/aggregation and I think Joost and their model are well-positioned for that. Consumers end up winners here. Big business? Not so sure. Tivo, Netflix and other new age content distributors must be shaking in their boots. I also happen to think it makes DMAs and DMA related devices like the Apple TV and Media Center PCs obsolete or at least redundant. All a person really needs from fully enabled Joost ecosystem is a PC. Make it an all-in-one PC with a 40 inch monitor (not there yet) and you've got essentially a web-enabled TV with access to all the content in Joost's servers.

Which brings us back to the importance of content. Personally, I'm happy they have Comedy Central. When I finally get my access, I can finally catch up to all the The Daily Show and The Colbert Report episodes I've missed. But I do look forward to the day when I can just plant my ass on the couch after a hard day's work, fire up my computer with 42 inch monitor, then navigate to "My Joost" with my own show listing, then watch my shows on my own time.

Can't wait.

It's begun...

I just set up this account. I've been wanting to for a long time. No direction yet. it'll be dynamic and organic for sure. So wish me luck...