The Secrets Of Vancouver BC, Canada

Whoo Hoo! I Have Hulu

One of my great frustrations when I moved from the US to Vancouver was not getting access to US websites as a US resident.

In some cases, like iTunes, I want to be seen as Canadian. (It costs less with the dollar plummeting.)

Being seen as a Canadian resident means losing access sites like to Hulu. Hulu can’t be watched in Canada as it’s network sensitive. The TV powers don’t want us watching it, so they’ve blacked it out.

Hulu has a lot of the top shows and HD programming – all for free. With a HDMI link from my Mac to my flatscreen, I can now watch all the shows I like, when I want. It’s almost like TIVO on demand.

I found a work-around called Hide My Ass. Hulu hasn’t blocked this proxy yet.

Happy Hulu’ing. Get it and then check out my favourite show (Not available in Canada):

The Modern Day Christmas Story

If Jesus was born today.

Just for Techies

Another funny German meme…

What Happens When You Have Way Too Much Time On Your Hands

At the same time, I’d like one of these.

Smoke ‘em If You Got ‘em

Great inventions and a way to beat the taxman:

In a US ruling, a judge ruled the Food and Drug Administration may not block the importation of “electronic cigarettes,” battery-powered versions of conventional smokes.

If yu are a smoker and haven’t heard of this yet, check out this site…

After your initial investment, it costs about $5-10 per equivalent carton of smokes.. leaving the taxman with nothing.

As the e-cigarette is essentially a nicotine patch, with the joyous mechanics of smoking, this is the way it should be.

Watch for Ottawa to make a move once this catches on. Canadians paying $10-a-pack will love this. Plus you can smoke in bars and planes again without annoying anyone.

A blurb from the esmoker mag:

Electronic Cigarettes (a.k.a E-Cigarettes or E-Cigs) are quite literally the next wave of recreational smoking. While tobacco cigarettes deliver a whole host of carcinogens as they are burned and inhaled, toxicological studies on e-cigs show it to be a much safer means of delivering nicotine while still resembling typical smoking behavior.

E-Cigarettes do not produce tar so your lungs are not polluted, your teeth and fingers will not stain, your clothes and skin will not stink while those around you will not be offended.

Whereas in most developed countries a smoker is required to step outside for a smoke, e-cig smokers can smoke anywhere because the ’second-hand smoke’ contains nothing dangerous to those around you. Being an electronic smoker means not having to leave your friends and loved ones for a smoke, it means you get to enjoy a smoke like you normally would but in a more comfortable location. Not only will you not harm those around you, your walls will not turn yellow and your room or car will not stink.

Imagine having an electronic cigarette and relaxing while traveling on a plane or at the bar without having to leave your seat or your drink. Circumstances like this can be frustrating to the modern tobacco smoker but the e-cig smoker experiences none of these difficulties. The modern tobacco smoker faces a whole host of health problems related to smoking while the e-cig smoker enjoys a much more measured, controlled and safer smoking experience.

Electronic cigarettes are the future of smoking and it is time for all smokers to evolve and leave tobacco with all its dangers and annoyances behind. Electronic cigarettes are the new, safer and more enjoyable way to smoke.

He Forgot To Say Flash Sucks

Steve Jobs released a great article on why Apple doesn’t allow flash to play on its iPhone, Ipod and iPads.I have long disliked flash on the web, not only because it does nothing to help your website get found, but also because it is so proprietary. As a Mac user from the beginning, I couldn’t agree with him more.

Thanks Steve for clearing the air:

Thoughts On Flash

Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers–Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products–but beyond that there are few joint interests.

I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven–they say we want to protect our App Store–but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain. More »

Hitler Gets The News Of The Hitler Parodies Being Removed From YouTube

Ironic that the Hitler parodies have been taken down by YouTube. The video meme, which has run its course, has now found new life. This video parodies actually have made the movie a huge success.

Constantin Film AG is having YouTube remove re-subtitled clips of Hitler’s outburst scene in their film Downfall, even though they have no right to do so. Probably everyone on the planet has watched at least one parody based on Hitler in the bunker from the German film Downfall. The joke is to replace the subtitles with your chosen text.

There’s no doubt these parodies have sold more DVD copies of Downfall than any amount of marketing could have come even remotely close to. And it’s cost Constantin Film AG absolutely nothing. Someone over at Constantin apparently doesn’t get it.

So What Would Happen If China Cracked Google?

Wondering just how badly Google has been compromised? And if I should be worried as a user of a ton of Google apps.

Always more to the story …

… losses included one of Google’s crown jewels, a password system that controls access by millions of users worldwide to almost all of the company’s web services, including e-mail and business applications.

The program, code named Gaia for the Greek goddess of the earth, was attacked in a lightning raid taking less than two days last December, the person said. Described publicly only once at a technical conference four years ago, the software is intended to enable users and employees to sign in with their password just once to operate a range of services.

The intruders do not appear to have stolen passwords of Gmail users, and the company quickly started making significant changes to the security of its networks after the intrusions. But the theft leaves open the possibility, however faint, that the intruders may find weaknesses that Google might not even be aware of, independent computer experts said.

The new details seem likely to increase the debate about the security and privacy of vast computing systems such as Google’s that now centralize the personal information of millions of individuals and businesses. Because vast amounts of digital information are stored in one place, a single breach can lead to disastrous losses.

The theft began with a single instant message sent to a Google employee in China, according to the person with knowledge of the inquiry, who spoke on the condition he not be identified. By clicking on a link and connecting to a “poisoned” Web site, the employee inadvertently permitted the intruders to gain access to his (or her) personal computer and then to the computers of a critical group of software developers at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Ultimately, the intruders were able to gain control of a software repository used by the development team.

The details surrounding the theft of the software have been a closely guarded secret by the company. Google first publicly disclosed the theft in a Jan. 12 posting on the company’s Web site, which stated that the company was changing its policy toward China in the wake of the theft of unidentified “intellectual property” and the apparent compromise of the e-mail accounts of two human rights activists.

Rest here.

What’s interesting is that this morning there were a rash of stories on US web security. Here’s a sample of the warning.

Another One Bites The Dust – Texas Stadium

Great video for those that love watching things explode. From Texas.

What better way to end a Sunday than watching something being blown up? The Dallas Cowboys finally demolished Texas Stadium early this morning.