View blocked websites

To circumvent internet filters you must use a web proxy.

The best way to do this is to use the tor network.
tor, is free, opensource and developed by the EFF, so it's trustworthy and safe to use.
http://tor.eff.org/index.html.en

tor on its own is tricky to setup so i recommend a very easy to use package called vidalia which installs tor and other necessary apps.

http://www.vidalia-project.net/download.php

this will installed tor, privoxy, and the tor button for firefox.

once installed, filter-free surfing is as simple as clicking the'Tor Enable' text button in the bottom right corner of firefox.

if you dont already surf with firefox, download it here

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

if you need to install the tor button then download it here

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2275

Get IE running under WINE

To get IE running under WINE, everyone links to the script on the ies4linux site. Problem is the site is down and there is no mirror! The solution is to use the Way Back Machine's link to tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/downloads/
Also, ies4linux leaves ~/.wine alone. So you have to reinstall your windows apps using ies4linux's ~/bin/ie[6|5] or move ~/.ies4linux to your old wine directory.

How to move Picasa photos to another partition

To free up some space, I wanted to move my Picasa photos from one drive to another. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to do this within Picasa and if you do it manually you'll loose your Albums and the metadata that links each photo with its backup in the Originals directory.

So in Windows Explorer, create an empty folder on the new drive. In Picasa, mark it "Scan Always" in Tools > Folder Manager. Then in Windows Explorer, copy an image [preferably one that has not been modified] from the old folder to the new one. Picasa will automagically add this photo and the new directory with show up under Folders on the left sidebar. Now in Picasa, you can select all the remaining photos in the old folder and move them to the new one. Thus preserving Albums and precious metadata!