Networking No comments yet

US Netflix in Canada on the PS3

By on August 2nd, 2012

Update: This method no longer works as Tunlr.net has stopped offering Netflix with their service, however, it can still be used for other services.

If you subscribe to Netflix in Canada, you undoubtedly know that the Canadian library pales in comparison to the US.  Its because of this that many people in Canada make attempts to circumvent the geo-location restrictions placed by Netflix to ensure that Canadians can only use the Canadian Netflix site.

Getting around these restrictions is fairly easy, if you know how to do it.  I will not get into how to get a US Netflix account in Canada (there are plenty of guides online for this already).  When you have a US Netflix account and live in Canada, you need a method to make yourself appear that you’re coming from the US when attempting to use Netflix.  The most popular method is by using a US-based VPN service.  This works great, on most devices.  However, on devices like the PS3, there is no available VPN client to connect to a VPN service, so when you login to your Netflix account on a PS3, you are presented with the Canadian library.

Continue reading US Netflix in Canada on the PS3 →

Ubuntu 18 comments

Update: Installing ZumoDrive on Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty)

By on May 25th, 2011

Due to a few requests from the original post , I decided to look into why people are having trouble with installing ZumoDrive in Ubuntu 11.04.  While I don’t use this program anymore, I thought that seeing people were still visiting this site and take the time to comment and ask a question, I would try the best I could to help out.

Note: I’m using Ubuntu 11.04 32bit, clean install inside of VirtualBox.  So, your mileage may vary, if this doesn’t work for you, please post.

Update: According to commenter “Eduardo”, this method worked on 64bit as well

Read more to continue…

Continue reading Update: Installing ZumoDrive on Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty) →

HTPC No comments yet

Flash Update Brings Linux Goodness

By on December 2nd, 2010

Update: Check out this article from Phoronix which runs benchmarks and compares Flash 10.1 with 10.2 on similar hardware (Atom 330 Ion system).

While I don’t really want this site to be about reporting new releases of software, I believe this is a special case because it directly affects the performance of Linux-based HTPC’s.  Believe me, I hate flash as much as the next person.  Its proprietary nature has left many platforms out in the cold over the years as we wait, and wait, and wait for Adobe to finally getting around to making a release.  Besides its traditional sub-par performance on the Linux platform, its lack of support on the mobile platform has infuriated many.  My Palm Pre, for example, was supposed to have flash support last year sometime, but as of right now, there is not even as much as a beta release, leaving many customers bitter.

Well, one piece of good news dropped yesterday.  Adobe has churned out release 10.2 p2 pre-release of the flash platform for Windows, Linux and OS X.  The one thing it brings to Linux that has been sorrowley missed is hardware acceleration support.  What this has meant in the past is that when watching high definition flash video on my HTPC in Chrome/Firefox has caused video to be choppy and laggy due to it using the CPU for video decoding.  Now, the decoding will be done in the GPU, leaving the CPU to do the rest of the usual work.  That means smoother video.

After making the install on my HTPC, I tested it with a website that I use to watch high definition hockey games.  In the past, the video has been so unwatchable, that I had resulted to plugging my Windows 7 laptop into my TV to watch the games.  Now, with the latest version of flash, the videos are smooth in window and full screen.  Finally I can say that Adobe has finally done something right, albeit slowly.  To upgrade flash is pretty easy, so SSH (or open up a terminal) to your HTPC and do the following:

htpc@XBMCLive: sudo aptitude remove flashplugin-installer

htpc@XBMCLive: wget http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashplayer10/flashplayer10_2_p2_32bit_linux_111710.tar.gz

htpc@XBMCLive: tar zxvf flashplayer10_2_p2_32bit_linux_111710.tar.gz
libflashplayer.so

htpc@XBMCLive: cp libflashplayer.so /usr/share/ubufox/plugins

So, first we remove the currently installed flash, and then download and install the latest from Adobe.  Keep in mind that Flash will not be upgraded automatically now, so you should try and keep track of available updates when needed.

With regards to Boxee, I have been searching around and trying to find whether Boxee uses a built-in version of Flash instead of the system-installed Flash, and so far I can’t find a straight forward answer.  It may be that older versions of Boxee used a built-in version while newer versions have been using the system flash, which is hopefully the case.

Security No comments yet

Open WIFI is Now More Dangerous Than Ever

By on November 25th, 2010

There’s nothing better than going somewhere with your laptop and discovering an open wifi access point.  You open up your computer, do a quick scan and think to yourself “wohoo! Free internet!”.  Most people know that being on an open wifi access point can be potentially dangerous, but think what are the odds that someone around them is advanced enough in computers to do all that hacking stuff.  Well, that has changed.

There is now a plugin for Firefox (I’m not going to name it) that will allow someone to hijack any authenticated web session on an unencrypted (read: unsecured) network that is not using using ssl communication.  What does all that technical jargon mean?  If you’re Facebooking on an open wifi, someone can login as you from another computer with the click of a button. Yeah, its that easy.  Some stranger can immediately have access to every bit of information you have on Facebook, along with a picture of you to see who you are.  This will work for any online service that doesn’t use and maintain ssl communication (https:) when you use the website.  This is not to be taken lightly, this is a very serious breach of security.

What can you do about it?  Well, first off, you should never use open wifi for any authenticated web services.  Meaning, anything you got to give a password for, don’t do it.  If all you’re doing is browsing some news sites, you may not have much to worry about.  Next, if the open wifi is in a public place where you can talk to the owner, ask them to enable encryption.  If they don’t want to do that, see if they can enable AP Isolation which isolates each wireless client from the rest of the network so that they can’t connect to each other, which all open wifi access points should have enabled.

There are 2 other, more complicated solutions.  The first one I would highly recommend for people who tend to use the Internet on the go a lot, and that is private VPN.  A private VPN encrypts all data coming out of your computer no matter where you are, which makes it impossible for other devices on the network to access any of your data.  VPN’s are generally not free, the one I use is from AceVPN. Which simply puts an icon on your desktop that you double click and run before you do anything on an open network. The last option is SSH tunneling, if you don’t know what SSH is, you can safely ignore this. You can check out my article on my tech blog about Private Web Browsing with SSH Tunneling and Putty, if you want to check out information on that.

So, to summarize, it is now ridiculously easy to “hack” users on an open wifi network.  With that in mind, you should avoid any and all activity on unsecured networks that is personal at all (email, facebook, etc).  While some websites protect against this sort of hack (by using encryption), not all do, and its safer to avoid than take the chance.

HTPC 1 comment

Fixing Overscan on Ion-based HTPC’s

By on November 22nd, 2010

If you’re plugging your HTPC into your HDTV Television, one of the things you might have noticed is overscan issues, that is, things not quite fitting on the screen correctly.  Programs like Boxee and XBMC have their own ways of dealing with overscan from inside their programs.  This, however, is not very useful if you do more on your HTPC than just watch Boxee and XBMC.  Luckily, its quite easy to fix the overscan issue using NVidia’s own built-in utility.

If you followed my guide Nvidia ION Media Centre with Boxee, XBMC, Chrome and More!, then you have an HTPC setup to run multiple programs inside of your desktop, that’s good. This guide is based off of that foundation.

Continue reading Fixing Overscan on Ion-based HTPC’s →