Now I can finally play Japanese Wii games like Bleach. Although there are several different modchips out there, such as DC2Key, CycloWiz, Wiinja, and Yowii, I chose to go with the WiiKey because canadamods.ca was (and still is, at the time of this post) selling it for a really cheap price compared to other chips I’ve been seeing elsewhere.

The longest part of the install process was waiting for my tri-wing screwdriver to arrive in the mail. Why does Nintendo insist on using tri-wing screws in their devices? Anyway, once my $4 screwdriver ($5 shipping) arrived from Florida, I was able to finally take apart my Wii and isolate the DVD drive, which is where the WiiKey needs to be installed.

I used a 15 Watt soldering iron with rosin-core solder and 30 AWG kynar wires. I’m too cheap to buy flux, so the soldering itself took longer than expected. I haven’t soldered in quite a while, and modchip jobs make the soldering from Princeton’s ELE 302 look like toy LEGO projects (no disrespect to LEGOs; they’re awesome). I found it useful to cover up the area around the soldering points with electric tape. At least this was easier than the soldering for my PS2 modchip– that one was just insane. There are more pictures in my photo gallery.

After I finished soldering, testing connectivity with a multimeter, and putting the Wii back together, I popped in my Jap Bleach game and… nothing. It couldn’t read the disc. My first thought was, “Crap!” Then I popped in a normal US game, and it played, so I thought, “Whew! But still…” So, I moseyed on over to the Internets and asked my friend Google what was up, and found out that by default the WiiKey doesn’t have region unlocking enabled (I assume because of the danger of bricking a Wii with automatic foreign firmware updates). I then downloaded the WiiKey configuration ISO from mininova, burned it, used it to enable region unlocking, popped my Jap Bleach game into my Wii again, saw it play, and shouted, “Yatta!”

… is this thing.

The WSJ published a behind the scenes look at the type of negotiations and tactics employed by Apple’s Steve Jobs prior to the iPhone launch. Here’s a snippet from the article.

Mr. Jobs once referred to telecom operators as “orifices” that other companies, including phone makers, must go through to reach consumers. While meeting with Cingular and other wireless operators he often reminded them of his view, dismissing them as commodities and telling them that they would never understand the Web and entertainment industry the way Apple did, a person familiar with the talks says.

Despite how much I dislike Apple’s marketing, most of their products, and hybrid pda phones in general, it looks like I’ll be quite tempted to get one of the new iPhones later in June this year. That is, as long as there are no battery problems running a full blown OS with a 3.5 inch touchscreen, and the device doesn’t try to force me to use Apple’s lame DRM-crippled-iTunes service. (Sure, it’s easy to work around or hack DRM, but it’s also a waste of time.) Otherwise, the iPhone’s features, size, and look are all very appealing.

Update: I hear the iPhone is not going to be 3G, and if the rumors about the iPhone exclusively running proprietary Apple software turn out to be true, then this will be one gadget I’ll definitely not be getting.

Update2: Cisco sues Apple over iPhone trademark infringement. Mmm, juicy. :)

Update3: Okay, so with no expandable memory, no removable battery, no third party software support, and no outlook or exchange support, the iPhone is officially on my not-to-buy list. It doesn’t help, either, that Apple’s premature release of RDF for their touchscreen interface looks especially silly in light of the Synaptics touchscreen demoed at CES 2007.

That’s the first thing that comes to mind when I think about the Sennheiser HD595 headphones I recently purchased and am now using at work to help drown out the noise and get through the daily deluge of ennui. A vast improvement over my old pair of Sony MDR-V500s, these Senns sound a lot sweeter and clearer– I’m able to hear harmonies and subtleties in texture that I’ve never heard before with other headphones– and they are oh-so-much-more comfortable. I can actually wear these headphones for hours without my ears aching. It’s cliché, I know, but I can honestly say I’m rediscovering my music collection with these babies. Work has been really stressful and downright aggravating lately, so I’m just glad I have something to help get me through the workday.

So, the new Microsoft XBOX 360 is going to be sold as two versions: one for $299 USD and another for $399 USD. Ponju thinks this is a bad idea, and I agree with him. If you want to know why, read his story.

I’ve been staring at this series of words from a Cisco document for the last three minutes and still can’t see any complete, valid sentence in it:

Cisco QoS technology within Cisco IOS® Software allows complex networks control and predictably service a variety of networked applications and traffic types.

Can anyone else make sense of this?