i have the same card, if you want to modify it to use an external antenna (like i have) then that extra room does help, if you want to make it thinner you can pop off that plastic wave bit as there is nothing in there, however the pcb extends right to the end of the card
an attena makes a huge diffrence for reception with that card, trust me. however i am going off topic
to remove the plastic wave insert a knife between the seam around the wave part until you hear a crack, this is a good thing and nothing has broken, once you have worked you way around the case put the knife in between the coner situated between the metal and plastic path (theseem feeds into it) and try and pry it up
it should just pop off, makes it a much thinner device and you can remove that metal peice sticking up inside if you want to but i belve it reduces the signal more (its an antenna?) but if you put an external jack on it and get an antenna from a wifi acess point then ou end up with a much more pocaktable device
even if i did go off topic a bit i hope this helps
