Joost Accepts Blame For Outages

Comcast this week denied message board rumors that it was blocking access to Internet-based TV service Joost, claiming that issues faced by consumers were likely the result of a Joost service upgrade.

Earlier this month, perplexed Internet users reported on Joost's message boards that they were unable to view video content. The exchange led some to speculate that telecom provider Comcast was at fault, as a majority of those affected were Comcast subscribers.

The issue found its way to community-based Web site Digg, where several other Comcast users complained about lost service before subscribers who had not lost service came out of the woodwork to downplay the accusations.

Comcast denied a Joost intervention. "Comcast is not blocking access to Joost in any way, and our customers should have no problem accessing the beta application on its site," said Jennifer Khoury, a Comcast spokeswoman.

Users who experienced a service interruption were likely operating with a previous version of Joost, according to Joost chief technology officer Dirk-Willem van Gulik.

In an e-mail to users, van Gulik said "we've got a new Joost version 0.9.2 ready for you, as your old 0.9.1 is no longer working."

Joost uses SSL technology and "once every other year or so, these certificates need to be renewed," said van Gulik. When that time came, "we did not realize that we had a copy hardwired into the 0.9.1 client by accident. Our apologies for this, but this is all part of being a beta."

In an April 11 blog post , Joost also said it had encountered problems mixing its P2P and traditional HTTP traffic. The company is working to improve "the interaction with the other back-end services," the post said. "This means that some viewers will get errors when trying to view some shows, which is regrettable, but … that now means that we can work on fixing it, which we are doing."

Copyright 2007 by Ziff Davis Media, Distributed by United Press International

Related stories:

Intel and Yahoo! to Bring the Internet to Television
Intel Corporation and Yahoo! Inc. today previewed plans for the Widget Channel, a television (TV) application framework optimized for TV and related consumer electronics (CE) devices that use the Intel Architecture. The Widget Channel will allow consumers to enjoy rich Internet applications designed for the TV while watching their favorite TV programs.
Internet television service Joost enters China
Internet television service provider Joost said it launched a Chinese service Wednesday with local portal TOM Online to tap the world's largest online market.
Top-Tier Ad Companies Betting on Joost
Online television service Joost announced on Thursday it has signed on a group of 32 big name advertisers — including Intel, Coca-Cola, Nike, General Motors, and Visa — as launch partners.
Physicists Investigate Controversy over Room-Temperature Ice
(PhysOrg.com) -- By confining water in nano-sized spaces, physicists from Leiden University in the Netherlands have turned water into ice at room temperature. While it’s not the first time scientists have created room-temperature ice, Dutch physicists K. B. Jinesh and Joost Frenken hope that their findings will put the controversial subject of water under nanoscale confinement in a new light.
Simple insulation could combat heat, cold and noise
Around the world, an estimated one billion people--mostly in rural villages and the shanty towns surrounding developing-world cities--live in houses whose roofs are nothing more than thin sheets of corrugated metal. These houses become unbearably hot in the summer, freezing in the winter (especially in high-altitude regions), and deafeningly noisy when heavy rains pound on the bare metal.
Clicking synthetic and biological molecules together
Dutch researcher Joost Opsteen has developed a method to click polymers together in a controlled manner. Using this method, he can even attach proteins to nanoballs. For instance, this approach could be used to transport medicines in the body.
Lipids in the brain an important factor for Alzheimer's disease?
As the most common form of dementia in the Western world, Alzheimer's disease carries enormous implications for our ageing society. It is generally accepted that the disease is caused by Alzheimer peptide (A -peptide) protofibrils. Until now, the conditions under which this type of protofibril is formed and leads to the disease remained unknown. VIB researchers have now discovered that certain lipids, present also in our brains, promote the formation of this protofibril.

News discussion:

Technology news