About a year ago I discovered DD-WRT. I got excited when I started discovering the features it promised. I read a number of different forums about how much of an improvement it was over the “stock” firmware provided by Linksys. I was also sharing the internet connection between three people and was seeing the horrible performance. So I installed it.
After installing DD-WRT, I immediately saw a huge improvement. That slowly faded as the days passed. I started having to reboot the router after a few days of it being up. I spent countless hours scrolling through various wiki entries and forums to get the configuration perfect. I wasn’t alone in my issues with DD-WRT. I noticed that a large number of people were having issues similar to mine. Many people said how they have to reboot it after a few days. Other people were having issues with the QoS configuration. The biggest problem with DD-WRT was the lack of updates. The last stable released was in mid September 2006. I kept using it though because, regardless of its shortcomings, it was a much better solution than the stock firmware.
Continue reading ‘DD-WRT vs. Tomato: Winner is Tomato’
I thought it would be interesting to focus the lesser known freeware applications that are available instead of just listing all the popular freeware applications (Firefox, SmartFTP, etc). I’ve tried to attach a screenshot with each program so you can get a feel about what the program does before downloading it.
Feel free to comment if you think I missed something and would like it added. Remember that the focus of this post is not to point out well known pieces of software but to focus on the lesser knowns.
Continue reading ‘Lesser Known Windows Freeware’
Recently, I started watching ‘From the Earth to the Moon’ and I have to say that it is really good. I know I’m about 9 years behind (was originally released in 1998) but I recently came across Apollo 13 on TV a few weeks ago which led me to read about it on Wikipedia, which lead me to the mini-series.
Both Tom Hanks and Ron Howard were part of the production team. The series is about the Apollo space program in the 60’s and 70’s. It mixes both historical footage with scripted footage. It really gives you a great breakdown of NASA at the time and the race to beat the communists to the Moon.
It is a 13 part series, with the first episode quickly going through all the events leading up to the start of the Apollo program. It can be hard to follow at times because of all the people involved with the program. Sometimes you forget who’s an astronaut and who is working within NASA as administrators, but that is just a minor detail.
Continue reading ‘From the Earth to the Moon’
Last week, the most anticipated cell phone of the year was release. The phone that cures cancer. The phone that cleans your house. The wonder, the glorious, the most sought after item ever .. the iPhone. Alright, I exaggerated somewhat to but some emphasis on the fan movement behind this phone.
The worst part about the iPhone for people like me, is that is actually lived up to most of the hype. It makes it hard to say, “see I told you it sucks!” Sure, a simple Google search will give you millions of pages on why the iPhone sucks or why it is the best phone to date, but overall it is a good phone (from what I’ve read) and does what is advertised to do. I’ll even admit that it is a pretty cool looking phone. Especially the UI.
What is my problem then?
Here, let me explain.
Continue reading ‘Why do people like the iPhone?’
If you haven’t had the chance to read Carl Sagan’s book called ‘Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space‘ then you’re really missing out on a good read (and if you know me, that means a lot). It isn’t just a book about the planets and the universe. In this book, Sagan mixes philosophy about the human place in the universe with a description of what was known about the solar system at the time the book was published. He also details a human vision for the future.
The image on the left is what inspired the book. This is the Earth seen from four billion miles away. The Earth is a dot suspended in a beam of sunlight (pinpointed by artificial blue circle). Check out Wikipedia’s article about the Pale Blue Dot.
Below is actually Carl Sagan reading from his book. This part of the book has become one of the famous passages from the book. Someone took it, and put it into a video with various movie clips following along with his passage. I promise you will get goosebumps and probably a tear or two.
Now, isn’t that just great?
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