Watching March Madness action on your PC

Got your brackets all set? Good. Now it’s time to prep for Thursday’s flood of first-round games—and yes, you can watch ‘em all from your desktop. Your boss is gonna love this.Lifehacker has the scoop on two ways to catch all the action from your cubicle, and luckily, it looks like CBS and the NCAA are making it easy on us this year. Turns out that every game of this year’s tournament—including the Final Four and the championship—will be streamed online, for free. There are some caveats, however.

First off, you may have to wait several minutes to watch an in-progress game, depending on Web traffic. You can always jump to the head of the line by registering for a “VIP” pass, but you’ll have to cough up your e-mail address to do so. I signed up last year, and I’ve been getting CBS Sports.com spam ever since, so be warned.

You’ll also probably have to sit through some ads during time-outs; then again, you’ll have to watch them on TV, too.

Another possibility this year for online March Madness viewing is Joost, the free P2P video program that’s just begun to test live video.

NewTeeVee reports that a new, live video-ready Joost app is now available for download (versions for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux are available). However, Joost reps are warning users that service could still be spotty, so don’t be surprised if the video conks out before the final buzzer.

Don’t want your boss to catch you watching the action? You can always get real-time scores over the Web from CBS’s Sportsline.com, ESPN.com, or the Sports Illustrated site; Yahoo! Sports also has an extensive March Madness section, including brackets.

So, you planning on watching any March Madness over the Web? And who’s in your final four?