Archive for August, 2011

12th August
2011
written by bob

Despite now living in France, I continue to read daily news from my home country of Canada. I like to try to stay in touch with what is happening even if I don’t live there anymore. My site of preference? The Globe and Mail. Earlier today I was reading an article that made a statement that Canadians are still waiting for Hulu to come to Canada. Really? Let me tell you…you don’t have to wait! The article sparked my interest to write a blog and share a bit of information (software program) that we have recently discovered. For the record…you can get any US service: Hulu.com, Netflix.com, MLB.com, US TV station (ABC, NBC, FOX, etc) playbacks, Spotify.com, and whatever other service you fancy regardless of where you are located! Read on and I’ll tell you all about it.

<< "techie/geek" hat now on >>
Most of you probably know that these US services block you from viewing them based upon your IP (Internet Protocol) address. Every country has a unique set of addresses and company websites can filter to be sure that only IP address within their own country are able to view their content (Also don’t forget…the international laws that probably prohibit such transmissions).
<< "techie/geek" hat now off >>

We were recently introduced to a service that allows you to watch any US service from any country in the world! (Special shout out…”Thank you” to a good friend & amazing WordPress developer, Andrew Ryno!) What’s the service you may ask? –> HideMyAss.com – “a free web proxy is a secure service that allows you to surf anonymously online in complete privacy. For more advanced features our Pro VPN service adds increased security and anonymity on to your existing internet connection”.

HideMyAss VPN Software

I can tell you first hand, this service is AWESOME! We pay for the HMA! Pro service HMA! Pro. HMA allows us to watch Hulu along with other sites like ABC.com, NBC.com, & FOX.com without any issue. On top of this…we can surf the internet completely anonymous and all our communication is encrypted! This part comes in handy particularly if we happen to be at an internet cafe where their network isn’t secured. Fire up HMA and surf away! For a 1-year subscription of the service, the cost is $79 ($6.55/month). Now…that is “smoking” cheap to be able to enjoy all this programming from anywhere in the world and have all my internet communications encrypted. HMA literally has 154 servers in 31 countries and you have the ability to choose what country you would like an IP address from. You can literally hide behind 17,500+ IP’s. Good luck on tracking me down now, Mr. Bad Guy! Pretty sweet!

Obviously we always choose to have an IP from the USA and then fire up Hulu and voila! Within 5 mins we are watching the latest episode of Cougartown, House, you name it! Best of all? After 12 years of missing the World Junior Championships every Christmas, this year I will get to watch them on TSN.ca! My IP address on December 26 will be from Canada. I will be cheering from our couch here in France with my Team Canada jersey on and watching our boys compete for GOLD once again! Go Team Canada!

To all our friends in Canada and abroad…enjoy HMA! Watch what you want from your laptop on your own terms!

Au revoir, mon amis!

1st August
2011
written by bob

Yesterday Katherine, Guilliana and I took a walk down to the marina, Port Vauban. We have heard from some of the locals here in Antibes that Port Vauban is the largest leisure port in the World. I have to say…it is quite spectacular! There are some amazing boats, errr YACHTS, that are docked here.

Billionaires Row

Quoted from Wikipedia:
 

    Port Vauban is a French yachting harbor located in Antibes on the French Riviera. Originally a natural harbor in use since before the Roman Empire, the port was fortified by Sébastien Le Prestre, Seigneur de Vauban, later Marquis de Vauban, King Louis XIV’s military engineer.

    Port Vauban now serves as the home of the Yacht Club d’Antibes and is the largest marina (in terms of total tonnage of the boats and yachts moored there) in the Mediterranean Sea. Some of the world’s largest and most lavishly appointed yachts have Port Vauban as their home port, including Russian oil businessman Roman Abramovich’s 86 m Ecstasea and his gift to fellow Russian businessman Eugene Shvidler (Le Grand Bleu). Co-founder of Microsoft Paul Allen’s yacht Octopus is a regular visitor to the harbor.

To view the slideshow, click the “yacht” below!

Click for slideshow

Click for slideshow