...or else take a shortcut and buy an aftermaket 2.2 set of tyres of something else. I had cut my stock nb tyres before to make them softer but still there is no comparison to other tyres...its not just how hard or soft they are, but the material makes a huge difference to grip.
I got a set of these from ebay and its the best mod i have done on my NB in terms of performance...and still these are the cheapest i could find.