Get Your QoS Going with the Tomato Firmware

The Tomato firmware is a feature rich replacement firmware for the extremely popular Linksys WRT54G/GL/GS and other Broadcom-based routers. If you weren’t aware, the WRT54GL runs a highly tuned and specialized version of Linux. Because of this, it is a popular device for hackers who enjoy adding new features or coercing a bit more performance [...]

Unlock Restrictions on PDF Documents

Have you ever come across a PDF document that has restrictions applied to it that limit the usefulness of the document itself? Without the appropriate password, these special PDF documents can prevent you from printing, copying, or editing. Now, there are certainly a few cumbersome ways around this limitation - you could take a screenshot [...]

Popping Those Notification Balloons in Vista

You know those balloon tips popups that appear down in your Vista tray? The idea behind them is to provide information that is important in an eye-catching way. The only problem is, the information they deliver is rarely of the utmost importance; but at least they are eye catching gouging. If you find them as [...]

Trim Down that Right Click Menu in Windows

Do me a favor, find a file in Explorer and right-click on it. If you are like most users, you’ll have at least a handful of 3rd party programs injected into the context sensitive right-click popup. I install a lot of different programs on my computer, some of which have a habit of polluting this [...]

Bits & Bytes

• Brendon Wilson has a fantastic write-up concerning the ramifications of Bill C-61, which has been tabled in the Canadian Parliament. This a topic that I hope will be hotly contested and all Canadians are encouraged to write their MPs to present their feelings. Brendon provides a rational fact based argument against the bill, which should prove to be much more effective than emotional rants that are commonplace when DMCA-like discussions take place. #
• Fresh off my participation in the 72h Podcast record set by KATG this past weekend, I'll also be doing my part tomorrow for Firefox's attempt at the Guiness Book entry for most downloads in a 24h period. #
• Caveat, I'm a huge fan of Metallica - even after getting booted from Napster by their representatives (ironically I own all their albums). Metallica held a listening party for a few journalists in London but was then taken back when they wrote about what they heard. As a result, management had the reviews yanked from the Internets. Guys, I can't continue to defend your lunacy! #
• Tomas Rokicki is at it again! If you recall, in March I wrote about his latest revelation that all Rubik's Cube are solvable in 25 moves. Like any good mathematician and computer enthusiast, when in doubt, throw more hardware at the problem. Using the same algorithm as before with a Quad Intel Core 2 and 8GB of memory, he has prooved that 23 is the new magic number. #
• Goosh is a "Google Shell" for your browser written by Stefan Grothkopp and it happens to  be fairly nifty. The shell like interface allows once to search Google and Wikipedia, returning information in a text only form sans ads. Goosh that's cool! #