Saturday, March 29, 2008
Hulu, but not so easy.
Hah, if all the episodes of SouthPark is not enough for you, you're (almost) in luck.Introducing hulu.com, an online video on demand service similar to youtube offering streaming video of TV shows and movies (yes, full feature length movies), primarily from NBC and FOX and their cable networks. Yes, that means cool stuff like The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Saturday Night Live!
The catch is, it is only available to American residents only. The site actually does well filtering non American internet users, but all hope is not lost.
There is a nice thing known as a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Without going through all the details, it allows one to connect multiple computers over the internet as if they are within a local network. This also means that one can use it to connect to the internet from a remote computer or server residing in another country.
Now, there's no such thing as a free lunch and nobody offers such a service for free. Fortunately, there are ad supported services out there (aka you see ads when you surf the net). One particular service recommended (not by me) is Hotspot Shield.
Download it here (you may have problems getting it, just keep trying): http://hotspotshield.com/hotspot-shield-download.php
Install it but DO NOTE THAT IT TRIES TO INSTALL AN OPTIONAL INTERNET TOOLBAR, so be sure to uncheck that option when installing.
Now, run it, when it connects, navigate to hula.com and enjoy!
[Subnote]
I cannot guarantee that the Hotspot Shield software is safe as I have yet to fully analyse it. Initial tests shows that it runs a pre-packaged version of OpenVPN, which is safe and I am very accustomed to, but I cannot guarantee that it hasn't been evil-ly modified. I am in the process of reverse engineering the software so that I do not need to rely on it.
It should also be noted that the software will redirect all your internet surfing through their servers, so internet experience will differ (as sites such as Google and Yahoo will think that you are from America), and private data may be compromised.
Also note that as with all man in the middle situations, any data sent out may be compromised, so practice safe habits when using the application. I cannot be responsible for any loss or damage due to this.
Have fun!
