After realizing that the Wii had been sitting under the TV for half a year without being touched, I decided that I would try and give console a bit of live by soft-modding the Wii. This would give it the ability to run homebrew apps and some other things. I borrowed a copy of Zelda and used the Twilight Hack to install the Homebrew channel, the gateway to most homebrew apps for the Wii. Here is a tutorial to get you going and giving your Wii a second life.

For the hack, you require a SD card formatted in FAT (16 or 32,) a copy of The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess and SD card reader (or a device that can give you access to the SD card via a computer.) You will also need The Homebrew Channel and the appropriate Twilight Hack for your disc version. If you want to keep your Zelda game save, back it up and keep it somewhere safe.

1. If your System Menu is 3.4, download this Twilight Hack. If it is 3.3 or earlier, download this Twilight Hack.
2. Download the Homebrew Channel.
3. Copy the “private” directory from the Twilight Hack download to your SD card.
4. Navigate to /private/wii/title/. If you are using a USA disc, keep the rzde directory. If you are using a JAP disc, keep the rzdj directory. If you are using a PAL disc, keep the rzdp directory.
5. Copy the boot.dol file from the Homebrew Channel download to the root of the SD card.
6. Put your SD card in your Wii and turn it on.
7. Go into Wii Options > Data Management > Save Data > Wii.
8. Find the Zelda save and delete it.
9. Open the SD card and select the “Twilight Hack” save and copy it. Exit to the menu.
10. If you are using a USA disc, check the serial on the inner disc circle. If it is RVL-RZDE-0A-2 USA, you will be using “TwilightHack2″.
11. Insert The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess game disc and run the game.
12. If you have the RVL-RZDE-0A-2 USA version of the game load the “TwilightHack2″ otherwise load “TwilightHack0.”
13. Once in the game, either walk backwards or talk to the man standing in front of you.
14. Follow the instructions listed on the screen.

After you’ve followed the instructions and rebooted your Wii, you should now see a new channel on your system called The Homebrew Channel. This is where you will access all your homebrew apps. You can now delete the Twilight Hack and the Homebrew Channel files from your SD card. You can download homebrew apps for the Homebrew Channel on the internet. These will go in the /apps/ directory so they can be seen by the Homebrew Channel. Now you have a soft-modded Wii that is capable of running homebrew applications.

For everyone’s homebrew needs, I recommend a application called Homebrew Browser. What this app does it provides an easy graphical user interface for downloading, installing,  uninstalling and updating homebrew applications in it’s database. They have a huge selection in their database so there will be plenty of apps you’ll want. To get this, download the Homebrew Browser and copy the homebrew_browser directory to the app directory on your SD card. From there, just launch the app from The Homebrew Channel and you’re good to go. This will make it extremely simple for you to get apps on and off your Wii, without having to use a computer.

With the announcement last week of a few big titles coming to the PlayStation Portable over the next 12 month, including Little Big Planet, Motorstorm, Assassins Creed and Rock Band, it will soon be time to dust off the old PSP living at the bottom of your closet. If it’s been there for a while, the firmware may be out of date. Like most PSP owners I know, you’re probably running custom firmware like Dark_AleX’s OE or M33 firmwares. Here is a short tutorial on updating your PSP to the most recent custom firmware release.

1. Turn on your PSP and navigate to Settings >System Settings > System Information.
2. If your System Software is 3.52 M33-3 or higher, skip to step 13.
3. First you have to update your firmware to 3.52 M33. This will allow you to update to any of the later M33 releases.
4. Download the 1.50 Official Firmware, 3.52 Official Firmware and 3.52 M33.
5. Rename the 1.50 and 3.52 Official Firmwares to 150.pbp and 3.52.pbp if they aren’t already.
6. Copy the M33CREATOR directory from the 3.52 M33 zip to the PSP/GAME directory of your Memory Stick.
7. Put the 2 Official Firmware files onto the M33CREATOR directory on the Memory Stick.
8. On your PSP navigate to Game > Memory Stick and launch 3.52 M33 CREATOR.
9. Accept any prompts that appear. Once the program is finished, it will return to the XMB.
10. Navigate to Game > Memory Stick and launch 3.52 M33 UPDATE.
11. Accept any prompts that appear. Once the program is finished, it will prompt you to press ‘x’ to shut down PSP.
12. Start up your PSP.
13. Download the 3.52 M33-3 update.
14. Copy the M33Update3 directory from the m33-333.zip to the PSP/GAME directory of your Memory Stick.
15. On your PSP navigate to Game > Memory Stick and launch 3.52 M33-3 UPDATE.
16. Go to dark-alex.org and download the latest M33 release. Also download the associated Official Firmware. (As of writing this, the most current M33 release is 5.00 M33-6 so download that along with 5.00 Official Firmware.)
17. Rename the Official Firmware to <versionnumber>.pbp (eg. 500.pbp) if they aren’t already.
18. Copy the M33CREATOR directory from the M33 zip to the PSP/GAME directory of your Memory Stick.
19. Put the Official Firmware file onto the M33CREATOR directory on the Memory Stick.
20. On your PSP navigate to Game > Memory Stick and launch M33 CREATOR.
21. Accept any prompts that appear. Once the program is finished, it will return to the XMB.
22. Navigate to Game > Memory Stick and launch M33 UPDATE.
23. Accept any prompts that appear. Once the program is finished, it will prompt you to press ‘x’ to shut down PSP.
24. Start up your PSP.

Now you will have a fully updated, custom firmware PlayStation Portable. Luckily, they have made the updating process in the most recent M33 custom firmware much simpler and can be done from the Network Update menu under Settings so you should have no issues keeping up with new custom firmware now and have no trouble installing it. I hope this helps all my PSP friends with outdated systems who cannot wait for some Little Big Planet PSP action. This is especially for you!

Last month, I rediscovered a website I had been on quite a while ago called iminlikewithyou. This website has a bunch of little multiplayer flash games such. A lot of these resemble other games you made have seen or played before, for example Bomberman. These games are a lot of fun to play together with friends but you can also play them with random strangers. I find it to be much more fun with friends because there are not people to ruin some games, like draw my thing.

I can’t describe the games well enough so you have to check them all out for yourself. My favourite games on the site are Dinglepop, Draw My Thing and Balloono. The library is slowly increasing but ever game they release is of a very high standard. I strongly recommend you try out this site, it is loads of fun. Hit me up if you ever wanna play together, especially if it is one of my favourites.

I’d been waiting a while to finally get my hands on a Mac. I had decided that a MacBook would be my next laptop shortly after I got my last one. I was really considering getting one at the end of 2008 or start of 2009. Then as that time approached Apple came along and updated them with nice new models. This was a great time to pick one up. Finally the day came at the end of 2008 when I finally acquired my very own Aluminium MacBook.

To start off, the packaging is pretty small. When I was looking at the box, I was thinking to myself that maybe getting a 13″ notebook wasn’t such a good idea since it’s really small. The box width was a similar size to my current laptop which did worry me. But when opening it for the first time, the size of the thing wasn’t an issue. The computer fills most of the box right up to the edges. Most other computers have about a good 10-20cm from the edge of the box but this left only a few centimeters. The rest of the the parts like the power adapter and cord as well as a few booklets and discs took up the rest of the box but the packaging itself is pretty amazing.

When you first pick up the it’s quite light compared to other laptops and also remarkably thin, especially compared to my old 14″, which is about twice the size and weight of my beautiful MacBook. The unibody aluminium design makes it look really clean and polished. It also makes it seem more durable and stronger than most plastic notebooks. They also make it easy to get into this thing with a simple latch to open the door to access the hard drive and battery. The whole thing looks quite nice, even the base of the thing.

One of the complaints people had with this model was that it was no available in matte. This didn’t impact my decision at all to get this thing. My last computer had a glossy screen and I never had any issues with it. It was usable in all conditions, even outside. It wasn’t as easy to see but it was never bad enough that it wasn’t usable. The glass screen on this is another really nice finishing touch on this laptop which fill up the edges of the case making it really clean like the rest of this thing. The screen was a little bit smaller than my old 14″ (obviously) but I got use to the small size difference pretty quick and it is a non issue now. I am pretty happy which the size and if it makes this thing smaller, lighter and more portable, that is an easy compromise.

Probably the BEST thing about this laptop is the multitouch trackpad. It is much larger than most traditional trackpads, probably twice as big as most, but that gives you a lot of room to work with, which is more than welcome for the gestures. There are no buttons on the trackpad, instead it is one big button. I personally think its horrible, it take a bit of force to push it down and it makes quite a sound when you press it. Luckily the software has touch to click, something which I have been using on trackpads since I started using them, which makes the button problem a non issue. The trackpad also comes with a variety of gestures which make using the software so much easier to interact with. It doesn’t take long to learn either. I myself got it pretty much figured out with a few hours of playing, and now these have become second nature for me. Whenever using another laptop, I do miss the big touchpad and the multitouch. It really does add to the Mac experience.

One of the reasons that I decided to get the higher end model was for the backlit keyboard. The keyboard on it is great. The keys are nicely spaced out which makes it harder for my sloppy fingers to accidentally catch the edge of another key, something that I am thankful for. The backlight is amazing too. It makes the keyboard so much easier to see and use in the dark. Not having to use the light from the screen is great. Also the ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the screen brightness and keyboard backlight brightness to levels that suit the conditions of the lighting in the room. That is a great feature in a computer and not having to worry about the levels myself is great.

Now just to mention some of the other things. The system does seem to get pretty hot for me. That is because I run a lot of applications at one time and a few CPU intensive ones. My friends MacBook of the same model gets no where near as hot as mine and he has a couple of apps open so depending on how you use it will definitely impact how hot this computer gets. One of the things the MacBook’s have had for a while at the Magsafe adaptors. I love these things. Not having it physically plugged onto the system makes it easier to use and also give you that added security if someone trips over the cord as it’s not going to send your laptop flying. It comes with 2 heads in the box, one with a long cord and one that plugs straight into the power brick. On the subject of power, the battery life in this thing is really good. I get about 3 hours of normal use “for me” but I can also push that to 4 to 4.5 hours with light use. That is a huge improvement from the 45 to 60 minutes of my last laptop.

I’ve been using the smaller one as I don’t need the added length which is something I’ve come to appreciate about the power adapter. The lack of firewire doesn’t really bother me as I’ve never had firewire to begin with. Maybe if I had used it and had firewire peripherals would have been an issue. The lack of USB ports hasn’t been a big issue yet but I can see how it can be a problem. I would certainly welcome another USB port or two. I haven’t had a chance to use the Mini DisplayPort, mostly because of the huge price just to get an adapter for the thing. Hopefully this standard becomes more widely adopted so prices go down. I think it would have been nice if they actually included an adapter with the thing but Apple being Apple, that would never happen.

The MacBook I got was the 2.4Ghz model which was a bit extra but I think it was worth it for the little extras it includes. It will also mean it won’t need upgrades for quite a while and will also last a long time. I’ve only really used one other laptop but this is far the best laptop I’ve ever used. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a laptop computer that doesn’t need to be Windows. Yes, I’m sure it does make a great Windows computer but for the premium price point of this hardware, I couldn’t justify to anyone getting it since for the same price you could get a much better Windows based PC. Now, for my next laptop… I’m thinking maybe a 15″ MacBook Pro.

You may have noticed that this blog hasn’t been updated in a couple of weeks. The reason is because I have found some work which is what I have been doing for the past week. That is also the explanation for my disappearance from the internet during the day time. A lot of you wouldn’t have noticed due to going back to school or being at work or uni or whatever. So that is the reason for the lack of blog updates and why I haven’t been spending as much time on the internet.

It has become much harder to manage time that I am doing things, especially when there are some other things I want to be doing and other responsibilities taking up my time too. I may have to drop half a dozen to a dozen TV shows from my weekly schedule just so I don’t have such a huge backlog of things to watch over the weekend. I have also gotten back into gaming on the Wii after finding some cool games to that make me want to go back and keep playing. I’m sure you will hear more about that on this blog. Not necessarily game reviews or such (unless you want that) but I may mention a few games here and there.

So this blog doesn’t completely die, I have a few blog post in the queue, some completed and some nearly there which will be able to be finished off and posted in a few minutes which will hopefully keep this blog updated over the next little while while I’m working and then when University starts. I do have a handful of other ideas in line for posting here too so really all I need is time and motivation to get some of these things put out there. So that explains where I’ve been, what I am doing and what is happening in terms of this blog.

I have been using Windows for about 7 years now am over that time, I have used many different apps. Some I’ve only been using for a couple of years, some I have been using for many more. I have seen the evolution of my most favourite pieces of software for Windows right from when they first arrived on Windows up until now where they’ve really matured and become feature rich. These are the applications I use on Windows, my favourite applications, my must have applications.

To start off this list, if I was to only have one application on my computer and I couldn’t have anything else, what would it be. The answer is pretty simple and it would be the same for a lot of people. That application is the best web browser, Mozilla Firefox. I spend about 90% of my computer time inside the Firefox browser which is why it is the most important app on my computer. There are many other browsers to choose from but none is as great, fast, extensible and feature rich as this browser. I have been using this browser since 1.0 and with ever version it just keeps getting better and better and its huge database of extensions allow this browser to do pretty much anything.

Sometimes it can be hard to shuffle through the news on the web and keep up with everyone’s websites and blogs. This is where Feedreader helps out. This is a good RSS reader where you can just import or add your feeds into the app and then it will update so you can quickly go through and read the news from your favourite sites without having to continually visiting websites seeing if they’ve updated yet. Unfortunately this RSS reader is far from perfect with it’s unusual “smart” updating of feeds and its freezing up when loading it with 300 or so different feeds. What makes this my favourite RSS reader is the interface. It’s not trying to do anything different, it’s pretty generic actually, but that is what I like. This application is an important one as it allows me to be updated very quickly.

When it comes to media, the included software in Windows is not that great. This is why I use iTunes for my music and VLC Media Player for my videos. I like the way iTunes displays the music in my library and gives me lost of ways to sort them. It also has good playlist support and now Genius which makes a playlist of related music to one of choosing. It also has a nice album grid way of displaying albums which I find very appealing to browse through. Also it does have iPod and iPhone syncing if that’s not reason enough to use iTunes, although I used it way before I got either of those devices. If you want a player that is like a swiss army knife for media, VLC is it. It plays a massive variety of media codecs, pretty much anything you throw at it. It is also very lightweight and does exactly what you would expect it to do. It is my player of choice for all my movies and TV shows.

Another thing I use my computer for is communication. For instant messaging I use Windows Live Messenger with Messenger Plus! Live. I have been using WLM ever since it was called MSN Messenger and I have always loves getting my hands on future versions of this client to see what features are coming in the future. Unfortunately in most cases, your IM client of choice can either be the official client of the service your friends use or a multi-messaging client, but I feel that most of those aren’t as nice looking or sometimes lack features of the official clients, especially for WLM. The MP!L add-on for WLM brings a lot of extra features to the client. Some of the bigger ones are better chat logs, polygamy mode for multiple clients open and tabbed conversations. There are plenty of other features but those are the I take advantage of.

Another way I communicate with people online is with IRC. There is a large variety of clients for Windows, but my most preferred one would have to be mIRC. The main reason why I choose this one is because it is the one I am most use to. I haven’t really used many of the other ones for an extended period of time but none of them had anything that would make me even consider switching. I like the tree view of the servers and channels and the basicness of the text chat. I also think that having windows inside the main IRC window is pretty cool as not many applications that I’ve used do that.

The last one of my must have apps for Windows is Internet Download Manager, or IDM for short. This is a lightweight download manager that has many features such as queues and synchronization. It also has a really good download accelerator which makes download files so much faster than with the download manager that comes with your browser. This app has definitely saved me many hours where I could quickly watch my TV shows instead of waiting for them to download. I have used a few different ones in the past and this by far is the best and easiest one of them to use.

There are two more that are not essential apps that you need but I do think they deserve a mention. The first one is a paint replacement, Paint.Net. This is pretty much paint advanced with extra features that makes quickly cropping or editing pictures and photos easy. It’s no where near as powerful as a proper photo editor such like Photoshop but it is definitely a must have alternative to paint. The second app is Ashampoo Burning Suite. There is a lot of disc burning software for Windows. Some free and some you have to pay for. This is unfortunately one you have to pay for, but I do think it is worth it. It’s basic interface makes burning any type of media very simple and it can burn all sorts. It is much lighter than Nero and overall a better disc burning software.

Those were all of the software I use daily on Windows. Some of them I use a lot more than others but those are the first pieces of software I install on a new Windows installation. That is not all the software I use those. There are some I just download when I first need them and other I just have installed for fun. These are apps like Chrome, Flickr Uploadr, Last.fm, Skype, Twhirl, uTorrent, Wakoopa, WinRAR, WinSCP, and Whatpulse. I do recommend you try any of the software I’ve mentioned in this post, if you don’t already, and maybe you too will be able to add some new software to your must haves or even find a nifty app that blows you away and changes how you do certain tasks on Windows.

This morning when i was digging through the internet, I found a link on Digg to a Lifehacker post. The post was about there being a way to turn your PlayStation Portable into a monitor for your Windows PC. They also had a video of this in action. Not only can it mirror your computer onto the PSP, it can also use your computer as a display for your PSP in mirror mode. You may wonder why would would want to do this. Because we can. This was fun to play with but I personally wouldn’t use it on a regular basis but its nice to know I can do it and it gave me something to play with.

The requirements for PSPdisp are a PSP with Custom Firmware which allows it to run homebrew, and a Windows PC. To get this going, you first download an installer from the website. It is very small weighing in at about 700kb. Then it’s as simple as clicking the installer and letting it install all the software and drivers or this. You will also be prompted to plug in your PSP so it can transfer a program which allows you to view the screen. After it’s done, you’re all ready to go. Down in the notification taskbar will be the program icon. This allows you to access the setting for the PSP display.

To launch it, you navigate to the Memory Stick icon under game and launch PSPdisp. You will be greeted with a screen asking you if you want to do it over USB or Wifi. I would recommend USB. If this is the first time launching it, it will install the right drivers but after that it will work pretty much straight away. You will see part of your monitor on the PSP screen. By default the quality is medium but you can adjust it to a higher quality, but this will result in a little bit of lag, but its not too bad. You can also change how much of the screen is viewed, fit to screen will show the whole computer screen on the PSP and 2 follow mouse modes which show the resolution up to 4 times that of the PSP’s native resolution.

I haven’t played with any of the other things and I probably won’t. It is a cool thing to play around with for an hour or so. I had it working in on Windows XP in VMware Fusion and on Windows 7 Beta. Both worked perfectly fine as a monitor. I myself couldn’t think of a useful application to use this in but if you wanted it to be static on a stats screen or something in a game, I could see where this would be useful there. If you have a PSP, you should definitely check this out. It’s really cool.