Today is Star Wars Day, which means tonight is Star Wars Movie Marathon Monday! Also, Star Wars Weekend is approaching!

Why I love the internets this week:
• Tweenbots
• Deep Fried Cadbury Egg
• 773 Free MP3s from Amazon.com
• 14 Add-ons that make Gmail more awesome(ly productive)
• BA-K-47 - AK47 Made out of Bacon!
• Surgeons Find TREE Growing in Man’s Lungs!
• SoCuteUrl.com Make an ugly URL a so cute URL
• Why Can’t I Use My Cellphone on an Airplane?
• Genuine NASA/Space items for auction
• Number of Pirates Killed by Each President
• The 100 Most Iconic Internet Videos
• Maniac Fashion: Day Of The Tentacle Shoes
• Carrier Pigeon Caught Trying to Smuggle Cell Phone Parts into Jail
• 17 More Images You Won’t Believe Aren’t Photoshopped
• FriendFeed 10 Cool Things We’ll Be Able To Do Once IE6 Is Dead; And A Few We Can’t
• Super Mario Online - Play Super Mario Games Online
• 94 Percent of CNN’s Audience Doesn’t Use Twitter
• Slumdog Millionaire actress Rubina Ali “offered for sale” by her father
• Scottish police say their religion is Jedi

My project for this weekend was to soft-mod my Wii in order to install and run Homebrew applications. Why mod your Wii? The homebrew scene offers tons of useful and fun games and applications for free! Also, once you soft-mod your Wii with the Twilight hack, you can run back-ups and even play DVD movies on your Wii. (If you choose to do that!)

This isn’t a tutorial, this is just to get you pointed in the right direction. Hopefully, save you a few hours of pain and all the time spent surfing the internets for directions, etc. Mostly, I put this stuff up here to refresh my memory when I have to mod my next Wii.

In order to run homebrew and install the Twilight hack, you will need a copy of Zelda: The Twilight Princess and you have to be running version 3.3 or 3.4 firmware on your Wii. You can check this by going into settings, it will show you the version number on the top right of the screen.

I can’t say for sure if you will be able to run it or not, depending on your firmware. If it doesn’t work for you then you may need to downgrade your firmware. Which is very risky and could brick your Wii, rendering it a pretty little paper weight.

In my case, I had to downgrade my firmware, but all went well. You can find the software to do this on the internets. I found a great and reliable source on PirateBay.

The Soft-Mod

And that’s it! The Homebrew channel also has a Homebrew browser, similar to the Wii shop, you can download everything right from your Wii.

If you want to run back-ups on your Wii, here is another great tutorial at instructables, How to Play Back-ups on Your Wii and another great tutorial here.

Anything you do to your Wii, you do so at your OWN RISK. Modifying anything on your console will void the warranty! Good luck!

I’ve tried Google’s browser, Chrome, although it seemed a bit faster than most browsers, it wasn’t enough for me to part with Firefox. Chrome doesn’t offer extensions or plug-in capabilities as of right now, however, Google plans to change this in May.

I have entirely too many plug-ins that I rely on in Firefox to switch browsers, but I will definitely give Chrome another try when plug-ins/extensions are made available for it. Until then, Firefox and I will not be breaking up.

Chrome does offer some great features that aren’t available in Firefox natively, however, with the power of plug-ins and extensions you can add a few of Chrome’s features to Firefox.

Chrome’s Features in Firefox Via Extensions:

• Download Statusbar - Get rid of that separate download window and put your downloads in the status bar
• Locationbar - Highlights the root domain of the website you are on (helps reduce spoofing risks)
• Stealther - Leaves no trace of your browsing session
• CyberSearch - Adds advanced Google Search capabilities to the address bar
• Chromifox - Chrome theme for Firefox

Now I have some of Chrome’s features in Firefox to tie me over until Chrome adds extension capability. Until then, Firefox will remain my default browser.

Have an old thumbdrive just taking up space on your desk or maybe you got a new one over the holidays, portable apps are a great way to maximize the usage of your portable drives, both new and old.

• PortableApps.com Suite - An all-in-one suite that features a complete collection of portable apps including a web browser, email client, office suite, calendar/scheduler, instant messaging client, antivirus, audio player, sudoku game, password manager, PDF reader, minesweeper clone, backup utility and integrated menu, all preconfigured to work portably. Just drop it on your portable device and you’re ready to go. This is by far the most featured suite available and is extremely easy to use.
  
• TinyApps.org - A catalog of portable apps for Windows, Palm, and OS X
• Portable Freeware Collection - A massive list of freeware for your portable device.

Never be without access to your favorite software, favorite games, & bookmarks again.

Amaze.fm allows artists to upload their music where it will be listened to, rated, reviewed, and tagged by the community.

Each week the highest rated song will get played on a nationally-syndicated radio station. Very cool for aspiring musicians who want to get their music out there!

On January 9th, Microsoft will be releasing Windows 7 Beta to the public. Windows 7 will only be available to the first 2.5 million people and the software will also expire August 1st, 2009.

Even if you aren’t one of the 2.5 million to get the download, at least you know the torrents will have more seeders now.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) was a cult television comedy series based on a man and his robot sidekicks trapped on a satellite in space and forced to watch terrible movies, especially science fiction B-movies. In order to stay sane while watching some of the most terrible movies ever made, Joel (later replaced by Mike) would make running commentary on the film, making fun of every second of it (riffing).

Unfortunately, MST3K was canceled in 1999. However, RiffTrax has been born on the web! Although, you don’t get your favorite silhouettes of the crew, you still get all the great hilarious commentary from Mike Nelson and various other guests to make it through some legendary great films like Mariah Carey’s “Glitter” or “Roadhouse” and even newer movies such as “Casino Royale” and dozens of others.

RiffTrax offers you to download an MP3 of their commentary and you can sync it up with your DVD and they also offer some pay-to-play videos on demand.

Long live MST3K!

Ever wanted all of your favorite Google features all in your Gmail? Now you can essentially turn your Gmail inbox into your start page with the Firefox add-on, Integrated Gmail.

With the Integrated Gmail extension for Firefox, you can seamlessly add various Google apps into your Gmail, like my personal favorite, Google Reader. Google already allows you to add gadgets to your sidebar, but this plug-in will give you full access to your favorite Google apps in collapsible groups.

To get started you must have Firefox installed. If for some bizarre reason you do not have Firefox installed, it’s imperative that you install this web browser now, use it, and never, ever look back.

Then grab a copy of Integrated Gmail. And fall in love with your Gmail all over again.

Yes, more space talk. Starchaser Industries is working to make those of us who dream of space flight a reality. Well, semi-reality, but they are hoping to offer a trip to space at a cost of roughly $200,000. Not exactly spare change but much less than $25 million. This description from Starchaser gives me chill bumps:

When you launch with Starchaser you’ll have the Experience of a true Astronaut.

• Outfitted in an authentic spacesuit you’ll head down the access ramp toward the Starchaser rocket, as clouds of vaporizing LOX shroud the launch pad.
• You’ll climb into the capsule and be strapped securely into your seat to wait for the action to start.
• The dramatic countdown will begin, filling your mind and body with anticipation.
• As you hear the roar of engines coming to life, the rocket propels you upwards with a kick.
• Your body becomes one with the vibration of the rocket as it accelerates, quickly breaking the sound barrier and beyond.
• You’ll be pushed back into your seat and feel the awesome power within every fiber of your being.
• The rocket engines shut down and everything will go silent.
• Coasting silently upward you’ll feel a slight jolt as the capsule separates from the booster.
• And as you look out of the porthole and see the Earth below… you will know that you have achieved your dream…

Yes, I would totally spend $200,000 for a sub-orbital space flight. Wouldn’t you? Eh, we can dream, right?