My parents just got a new TV and so I thought I would show them Netflix streaming on the fancy new TV by using my account. Unfortunately there was no way to log out of the application. If you’re looking at switching to another user account, also equally difficult.

I even went via the website to deactivate all linked devices from my account which I assumed wouldn’t work since the Samsung Smart Hub software doesn’t hook up to Netflix the same way as some of the other Netflix approved devices do like an Xbox or Roku etc.

I was right on that front it definitely doesn’t deactivate the link.  After some digging around the net I found this little gem that finally worked. For those familiar with the Konami Code you’d think it was a total joke. Turns out it actually is the way to deactivate the link and apparently works for other similar devices like smart TVs and devices that use a simple web login interface.

Simply on your remote control put in: up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, up, up, up, up. (I am dead serious)

On the Samsung a grey settings screen will popup with your account information and an option to deactivate.

EDIT - Thanks to Hovati, added in the additional final “up”.

Luckily the trick I used last time served me well once again. It’s pretty much a problem that will plague anyone who’s moved from one country to another while taking their Xbox with them.

If you’ve read my previous post you’ll pretty much be able to figure out how I managed to get the application.

So first you log in with a US Silver account and once you get to the music section you’ll be able to download the Last.fm application. No need to connect it here, although when I first downloaded it allowed 180 minutes or 3hrs worth of trial listening on a Silver account.

Just sign back out of the silver US account and sign back in with the Gold Canadian account and via the Quicklaunch you should be able to see the last.fm either in the all downloads as well as the “recent” tab.

Log in to your last.fm account from there and you’re set to stream your favorite music through your tv or sound system. Hope that helps someone out there.

I wonder if it’s growing up with Canadian content, but something about this video/music that just stands out to be so identifiable.

Anyways, with all the people focusing their attention on Vancouver now that the Olympics are just under a week away I’m finding more and more interesting Vancouver tidbits scattered about the web.

Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
There’s nothing you can’t do,
Now you’re in New York!
These streets will make you feel brand new,
the lights will inspire you…

And in true NY fashion check out the PS22 chorus rendition of this song:

These kids are pretty awesome.

I’m pretty bad at keeping resolutions, so unlike other years I don’t think I’ll be making a specific list this year.  Doesn’t mean I don’t have goals for this year, but I think the key is to keep in motion and stay active. It’s just too easy to get bogged down with this so called “life”, that we end up procrastinating and delaying our passions.

The only thing I’ll consciously attempt to do differently this year, is basically what Jim Carrey’s character does in Yes Man.  I know how silly that sounds but sometimes I find myself just using “being tired” as that tiny bit of reason to not do something.  I’m obviously not going to be saying yes to everything, but that tiny simple word is such a powerful catalyst for encountering new things, giving yourself those pleasant surprises and of course getting things done.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover

- Mark Twain

It’s become so easy to find a comfortable routine and find reasons to say no.  2010 is going to be the year of Yes.

2009 wasn’t a bad year by any means. I rung in 2009 with eating a giant pork butt at Momofuku Ssam bar, got a great new job that provided far more stability and got to get back to Vancouver a ton more times.  It did feel like I didn’t quite accomplish or learn as much as I had wanted to though.

So with the new year, hopefully comes making more time for picking up new things and just expanding and living out every ounce possible.

All the best everyone with another year!

One thing I miss immediately after stepping foot into my parents’ home? Heat and hot water. WTF?! Other than that..ready to get some eggnog!

This so called “busy-ness” and exhuastion has led me to offload more and more things I would typically do myself.  Of course this all comes at a premium, but I always justify it with the time I end up saving.  Time, after all is money right?

What makes it even easier is just how convenient everything is in New York City.  There’s literally a service for everything you can imagine. Big or small someone will cater to your need and has probably made a business of doing so.

One of my splurges is definitely delivery.  Those magic words “delivery please” that cause someone else to take on the burdens of some of the most simplistic things and provide for you.  The ability to pick up the phone and within minutes have your desires fulfilled and delivered to your door.  In fact there’s often the ability to not even need to pick up the phone, as there are online ordering options for everything.

In New York, I’ve found that I can practically get anything delivered. Things I would have never thought of ever getting someone else to do and deliver.

First it started with some necessities, like furniture delivery and the sorts. Getting furniture delivered though is nothing out of the ordinary.   From there it progressed to ordering food and with so many options you can pretty much get any food you are craving delivered pronto. Even simple things like bubble tea (yes, I’ve had an order of bubble tea delivered to the office before.)

Now there are numerous sites that make it so you don’t even need to interact with a person. Just point, click, punch in a few vital credit card numbers and voila. Food is at your door.

Convenience is everywhere. I barely carry cash anymore. Even all the cabs now are outfitted with credit card machines. A short ride and a quick swipe later you’re at your destination and ready to go.

I’ve even gotten a bit lazy with doing laundry. I really miss having a washer/dryer in the home.  You never realize what a nuisance it is until you have to lug all your washings to a laundromat.  Where you fight with others for machines and hope the powerhouse industrial strength machines don’t tear apart your clothing.

Here’s my lazy comes in, I started getting laundry service.  Where for $0.75/lb I get my laundry picked up, washed, folded and delivered back to me all spiffy clean.  That’s not bad, most of the time it comes out to around $15 – $20 for my 2 or 3 bags of laundry.  If I account for the costs for me to wash and dry at the laundromat and factor in the 2 hours of time (minimum) it takes for me to wash, dry and fold and multiply that by minimum wage…it comes out to be about the same.  See that’s how I started justifying paying someone to do my laundry.  In return I have that time I would have spent doing laundry to work on other things.

In my case it’s typically just being lazy, I wish I could say I was using that vital time for more productive things.  After a long week though, I think it’s deserved.

What next convenience item will I discover next? I’m not sure, but pretty soon I’m sure it’ll have me sucked in and I’ll be parting with my money unnecessarily for another boost in convenience.

I was upgrading from the Blackberry Curve 8320 and had decided to switch devices by using the *surprise* *surprise* Switch Device Wizard that is part of the Blackberry Desktop Manager.  Unfortunately I’m on a Mac and the relatively newly released OSX version of the desktop manager program doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the Windows version.

So I ended up having to drop into Windows and run the desktop manager from there.  Luckily you don’t have to go through a full sync process, you can pretty much use the Device Switch Wizard from any Windows Desktop Manager installation.  In fact I think this is pretty much what they’ll do for you if you got your phone in a T-Mobile store.

Anyways, you’ll want to plug in your original device and what it’ll do is essentially back everything up and then it’ll prompt you to plug in your new berry.  After it finishes loading everything onto your new device it’ll give you the option to wipe all your info from the old.

That part was easy enough.  However after doing the switch my data services weren’t quite working properly. It’s a quick and easy fix which can be done by logging into the T-Mobile BIS site and resending the service books.

For the less jargon savvy, just log into your account on t-mobile.com and click on “Blackberry Internet E-Mail” link. It’ll only be on there if you have a Blackberry plan in existence.  From that screen you should see a link on the left that says “Service Books” that’s where you can request that they be resent. It’ll get your data going.

The other issue I had was my Facebook app no longer worked. It would constantly say something like “A connection could not be established to the Facebook servers” or something to that effect.  Apparently some people were also having issues being able to use certain data services like Blackberry Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, but not others.

After some scouring I discovered that the fix was changing the APN setting.  You see some of the newer smart phone devices are set to use the APN: epc.tmobile.com by using one of the other APNs either: wap.voicestream.com or internet2.voicestream.com it seemed to give the Facebook app access to connect to the servers again.

From what I’ve read epc.tmobile.com is the newer access point name that should be used, but until it starts working with all my apps I’ll make due with one of the others.

There are people who report internet2.voicestream.com or epc.voicestream.com are faster than wap.voicestream.com that’s something I’ll leave up to you to decide.  Apparently the way epc.voicestream.com proxies images makes it appear faster?

Anyways hope this info helps someone.

To set the APN go to:

Settings > Options > Advanced Options > TCP/IP

From there you should see the APN specified. Hope that helps anyone else out there with issues getting Facebook, UberTwitter or any other random app working properly on their new Blackberry 9700.

Some of the images after the jump might be a bit graphic for some, but it just goes to show how loyal dogs are.

Check out these stories of dogs that walked miles to return to their owners. There’s the two famous ones: Hachiko and Grefriars Bobby.

More after the jump.

This one is more humorous than anything. One dog helping another out.

Here’s where it can get a bit graphic. The loyalty shown is just not found in cats.  If there is you certainly don’t hear about it.

One dog saving another.

You know amateur camcorder stuff from a guy fully zoomed in at the very back of a performance venue, shaky and full of ambient chit chat and noise.

They got a huge boost in popularity with their appearance on So You Think You Can Dance and I was reminded of how awesome their stuff is.

In case you don’t watch SYTYCD they were nominated for a 2009 Emmy for their choreography on that show and even credited with the creation of a genre of dance known as lyrical hip hop.

Here’s the Emmy nominated performance:

and some more of their crazy work on SYTYCD:

and something from a little while back in ’07: