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.

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.

Crestock.com held a photoshop contest, the winner won a MacBook Pro. I wish I happened upon this in the beginning, not that my photoshop skills would have gotten me very far but I do love photoshopping. Check out the breath-taking creations. The one pictured on the left was the winner of the MacBook Pro.

An article on Wikipedia lists locations of satellite images that are censored on Google Maps. It also includes links for the coordinates to be viewed in Google Maps. Some of these locations are concealed for obvious reasons, being military related. Interesting, nonetheless.

Here are some of my favorite Google Maps Mash-ups for this week:

A World of Nirvana! This is awesome! Combining YouTube videos and Google Maps, you can revisit the journey of Nirvana from 1987 to 1994.

Who Is Sick - Keep track of colds, the flu, and other ailments in your city. This came in handy, since I caught a cold this week. I thought I was the only weirdo with a cold in Spring. As it turns out, there are other weirdos with colds in Spring.

Health Map - The common cold can be a little boring. Here’s a map keeping track of diseases, globally. I no longer feel weird about my cold in spring. I mean, I could have Dysentery in Spring. (Not safe for hypochondriacs)

Hotspotr - Find wi-fi hotspots in your area. You can view rate each listing for things such as wireless quality, food, outlet availability, etc.

US Incident Map - This map displays recent incidents involving police, highway patrol, etc. You can view right down to your local zip.

When it comes to keeping comments and conversations going, every weblog is different. Some reply through e-mail, others reply on the post, and some do both. I usually do the latter. But keeping track of all those conversations can be a pain.

I think I have finally found a solution to keep track of all the blog posts I’m commenting on. I came across co.mments today and thought I’d give that a try. Using the bookmarklet, Co.mments will bookmark the posts you want to keep track of and keeps tabs on any new comments that get posted. You can keep track of your posts by subscribing to your RSS feed, visiting your public page on the web, or you can choose to receive an e-mail notification when someone has posted a new comment. You can also add your tracking list to your blog so others can see where else your chatting.

I remember the days when 2 junk emails was enough to make me create a new email address.. Then over time, 10 junk emails in my inbox became, “Not that bad.” I complain about spam so much, it’s a wonder I even allow comments or have an email address any more. For years I’ve been relying on Spam Assassin and Thunderbird to help annihilate my spam problems with my domain email address, which has been effective for quite some time, but it just hasn’t been enough lately. I came to the conclusion that I would just have to create a new email address and merge. Fortunately, Gmail announces it’s ability to fetch mail from other accounts, so I decided this would be my last resort before starting new again.

I loaded up my Gmail account to fetch mail from my domain account. Within a 24 hour period, Gmail caught 485 messages in spam with 3 stragglers that made it through to my inbox, and 0 false positives. In that 24 hour period, using my regular method, I would have had to pilfer through at least 20 or so that would have made it into my inbox in Thunderbird. Now all I need is for CellTop to hurry up and release their Gmail widget for my phone and I’ll be set.