If you are like most folks who don’t know about DD-WRT and your Linksys router is dying on you, it’s time to switch your OS to DD-WRT.

DD-WRT also works on over 80 other routers, so be sure to check the supported devices list here.

DD-WRT is basically an aftermarket linux firmware for your Linksys router. It’s like putting an aftermarket turbo system on your hot import car, except this one is open-source and free to download.

There are many instructions floating on the internet but the most important thing is to identify what type of Linksys router you have.

You can refer to the instructions on the DD-WRT website wiki here. It might look a little hairy but usually it takes 3 simple steps of uploading a new firmware via the web GUI admin interface, TFTPing another file, then simple rebooting and wala you have a .

Check the back of your Linksys router to see what model it is. I have several different Linksys routers ranging from Linksys WRT-G V8, WRT-GS V5, and WRT-GS V7.

I’ve successfully installed the DD-WRT on my WRT-GS V5 and my WRT-G V8, but have bricked my WRT-GS V7.

If you have WRT-G V8 or WRT-GS V7, you can try this guide here. I’ve successfully installed the WRT-G V8 but bricked my WRT-GS V7, so be careful.

If you have one of the newer models or thinking about buying one, I highly suggest trying to get an old one off eBay or get the WRT-G models. Although WRT-GS V8 is supported, sometimes, it can brick your router just like it happened to me.

Bricked your router while trying to upgrade to DD-WRT?

Well, normally this doesn’t happen, but here’s resources just in case you do brick your router.

The only choice I have is to make a hairydairymaid JTAG cable which allows you to directly program and erase the flash and the Broadcom chip inside the router.

If you ever brick your router, you can always refer to the WRT54G revival guide before trying the hairy dairy method.

Click below for on the rest of the guide to tweak the settings and make the router go 10 times faster!

Continue reading ‘DIY Linksys HACK - HOWTO tweak your router to go 10 times faster!’

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Okay, here’s a funny DIY where you can make your own sound activated party lights.

If you want the non-adult version, you can check out our Christmas Voice Activated Party Lights too. (And yes, you have to use a Magnum for this one)

This project shows you how to make a music light out of inflated condoms and LEDs wired up to the sound out of your computer.

via Make

Check out this great blog post on how to maximize the use of your Firefox tabs. I personally use Tab Mix Plus on one of my (crappy) Vista computers and it helps Vista from crashing Firefox. (although it still crashes)

Every Firefox user spends a lot of time dealing with tabs. Thus, improving the tabs directly adds to the browsing experience. You can make them better, faster, beautiful and lot less ovewhelming. So here you go, 7 powerful addons to improve your tabbed browsing.

via makeuseof

Wow, check out this Yahoo news that microfiber fabric might produce electricity. We might just be able to start generating electricity everytime we move a finger!

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. scientists have developed a microfiber fabric that generates its own electricity, making enough current to recharge a cell phone or ensure that a small MP3 music player never runs out of power.

via Yahoo

Well, I have never used these methods before, but I hopped onto it the other day so I might as well share it with the world.

There are 2 stumblebot sites, stumblebot.com and stumblebot.net.

Stumblebot.com is actually a software they sell for like $147, it’s sorta like those Craigslist automators.

It looks like it’d work pretty good. But I wouldn’t pay for it, I think StumbleUpon itself is becoming a big scam where people are making a lot of money from it.

The seconds site, I found while trying to sell my site on SitePoint. It seems like they listed this site right after I listed my sites. So, that’s how I found about these two.

I believe there’s even more sites out there where you can buy stumbles and reviews. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Anything that can be hacked will be hacked and you can only blame on the developers who didn’t think through everything beforehand. Anything that can not be hacked on the other hand, deserves a pat on the back.

If you ever try these sites, let me know if they work. Not that I’d use it, I rather go SiteHoppin w/o installing a toolbar.

Oh yeah, I just found StumblePorn too.  I tried it but it’s way too slow and sucks…

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Ever thought of turning electrical waves floating in the air into electricity? Well, here a guide if you need it.

This is btw, similar to the new “wireless” batteries that Phillips is working on.  (i think it’s phillips…)

via HighT3ch

Here’s a good one on how to build your own in-car PC! Although I wouldn’t recommended as people woud probably rob you as quickly as you install it.

As a marine electrician I’ve installed a few desktops in yachts to avoid the above mentioned problems so when I bought a used Grand Caravan in July and it had this empty space between the front seats I thought, why not? The first task was to measure the distance between the seats and see if anyone made a case that could fit there.

via HackNMod

Okay, I’ve been running dedicated servers for couple years now and I used to mess around with Linux boxes back in college.

Here’s an essential automatic script and a cron job you will need in order to keep your backup automatic.

Yes, if you get a dedicated server, don’t get their stupid extra $15/month for backing up your database.  (All they do is make scripts like this one and charge you for it)

You can follow this example and go spend that money on junk food.

So all you have to do is FTP your backup files.

This is way better than going into your phpMyAdmin and downloading from the web interface since the file is already ready for you to download.

Here’s how you do it:

1) Make a new file called backup.sh in your home directory. 2) Use the following syntax:

mysqldump -u[USERNAME] -p[PASSWORD] --opt [DATABASE NAME] > /root/backup/DATABASE1.sql

Here’s an example backup.sh file if you had 2 databases:

mysqldump -uUser1 -pPassword1 --opt Database1 > /root/backup/Database1.sql
mysqldump -uUser2 -pPassword2 --opt Database2 > /root/backup/Database2.sql
tar cvf /root/backup/sqlbackup.tar /root/backup/*

You can test your script by typing this:

sh backup.sh

(The mysqldump will overwrite the older file if you run this more than once)

3) If everything is working good, now you can put that script to be run once a day in your cron job.

For Fedora Core, you can edit this file /etc/cron.d/sa-update

Add the following line:

10 3 * * * root sh /root/backup/backup.sh

This will execute the script once a day at 3:10AM.

Now simply download one tar ball file whenever you feel like backing up your database.

You can probably change this a little bit and use it for many other things like backing up all your files too. (which I do)

If you have multiple servers like me, you can also automate your scripts to download backup databases to each server. That keeps things real redundant in case of server failure.

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Here’s something you can make to torture your neighbors. Well…j.k.

Imagine there is a famine and you are back to the hunter-gatherer times. If worst comes to worst and you need to catch a rabbit, a rat or anything that is digestable or anything that has to be hunted, you will need a weapon to serve you under those harsh conditions.

via High T3ch