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.

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.