Apologies for the bad quality. I really was installing DD-WRT whilst recording, for the first time! I tried to tidy it up but it’s still fairly rough!
- Go the the DD-WRT website.
- Go to Router Database.
- Search for your Router (or one you might want to buy), in my case the Linksys WRT54GL from NewEgg (note: NOT a sponsored link and other shops are available).
- Read this stuff: http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=51486
- Notes: Initial flashing ‘Mini Generic’ via web interface. Give it at least 2 mins after reboot!
- Installation guide: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Installation
- Lifehacker article: http://lifehacker.com/178132/hack-attack-turn-your-60-router-into-a-600-router
- Short version:
- Plug in the router
- Install the mini-generic DD-WRT firmware
- Reboot the router if it doesn’t restart itself
- Install the full DD-WRT firmware. It should restart
- Enjoy the shininess of the new firmware!
- Reset the password and username!
Thoughts.
The router restarts itself when you flash the firmware, which is nice.
If you change the IP of the router you may have to disconnect and reconnect the network through linux to force it to update the new IP address. Don’t forget like I did!
To set up a Wii via Wi-Fi you need to set the router up as ‘Ad-Hoc’ else it doesn’t seem to show in the Wii menu.
I had problems with my previous router being 192.168.1.1 and the DSL being 192.168.0.1 making me hard reset and set the details back up. Might be unrelated to this, however changing the IP to 192.168.10.1 for the router and keeping 192.168.0.1 for the DSL resolved this problem.
It was pretty damn simple! At least a lot simple and faster then installing windows!
Total time isn’t too long, but I’d recommend having a second router on hand (if you can) to keep internet access in case things go hairy!
I have been playing around with Chromium recently. There are a few sites that seem to run better with it (a couple of free online-games for example). If you don’t know, Chromium is basically the ‘unbranded’ version of Chrome, and is usually a fraction ahead. Think of it a bit like a stable beta. Bad analogy I know, but it’s sort of like that.
There are various ways to get the Chromium version, but there is a PPA set up for Ubuntu with the daily stable builds (and for daily unstable builds). To install the daily stable:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chromium-daily/stable
Just like Firefox, you can add plugins and some of the ones I like are:
- Adblock – not quite as good as the Firefox version, but good
- Button for Adblock – gives a button for the above plugin
- Ghostery – blocks websites from tracking you
- Google Voice – notifies you when you get a call and lets you make calls
- Day Hiker – Google calendar button / reminder
There is no proper noscript yet that I have found though, but these are a good start 
So I had to update my work machine’s copy of Open Office. Yes I do have Microsoft Office on there, and it is an XP box, but I try to avoid that as much as I can. You don’t get to choose your OS though really. I can’t be the Windows Admin guy completely from Linux (yet).
The first screen I got when trying to update was the standard ‘let us put silly toolbars on your machine’. Except instead of getting Google like I thought I would, I got this:
Microsoft are advertising with Open Office?
So Microsoft are asking you to use their Bing toolbar, whilst you are installing Open Office instead of paying them for Microsoft Office. Specifically they are paying people who are not using one of their programs to use a different one.
I guess they think they will make more on the advertising, but I find it interesting they are willing to basically give money to a competitor in the hopes of getting the advertising money back. I wonder if it is a sign of where they wish to go. If they believe that the future is purely becoming a ‘Google’, i.e. being a search engine first and the rest later. I’ll let people argue over it in the comments if they wish
Oh, I of course unchecked the option, before anyone asks!
