Umbral Echoes Blog

LifeHacker.com recently had an article on using the open-source custom firmware called Tomato. Basically, this replaces your router’s firmware and give you a lot more control over it. The main thing that most people find useful is the ability to increase the wireless signal. I had to stretch the router way across the loft to position it so that I got WiFi reception in the basement, but using this hack I can put the router right by the cable modem and still get great reception.

It also has some nifty features like a real-time bandwidth graph (that updates as you’re watching it), and also a lot of advanced features. Want World of Warcraft to have higher priority than other Internet traffic? Want to make it so that certain websites can only be visited certain times of the day? Want to turn off the wireless during certain times of the day? You can do all that and more.

Me, I just like the neat bandwidth graph (below), and the ability to boost the WiFi signal.  It was also hella easy to install, and use, though the advanced features could have used some better documentation.

I’ve had a few discussions with people over the past few weeks concerning friendship. If a friend disagrees with you on something, does a “real friend” tell you, or do they keep their mouth shut? Or do they bite it down, and agree with whatever you’re saying?

Personally, I’ve always told friends when I disagree with something they say, or do. I don’t (or at least, try not to) do it in an in-your-face manner, but strongly enough to let them know that there might be another way of looking at things. Then again, I’ve always played the devil’s advocate — and not just after I played the part of Satan in a church play when I was 16.  I hate the “yes-man” type of friend, who always agrees with you, and never challenges anything you do or say.

On the other hand, friends should always be supportive of one another, even if they don’t agree with each other.  I guess it’s the same sort of mentality as, “I don’t support the war, but I support our troops.”  That isn’t to say that if your friend is getting hooked on heroin, you should support that.  Which I guess is another dimension — if you think a friend is doing something detrimental, how far do you go to try to stop them?  At what point do you say, “It’s their life, and they’ve made their decision?”