Recently, I needed to pick up a Nintendo DS Lite for a project I’m working on. It’s a great little machine. The PSP dominates it graphically, but the DS touch screen makes for a fun, innovative interface.

On a similar note, I embarked on a hunt for the Nintendo Wii. After a few days of searching, my pal Jason Blair tipped me off to a page on the Target website that gives in-stock information for stores near you. Using this, I found stock in Rockford, Illinois, only a half-hour drive from my house. Unfortunately, when I called to check on this, the people at the store denied they had any Wiis around.

I little more surfing found a comment that revealed that Target likes to hold on to its Wednesday stock until the evening. I called the same place on Thursday morning and discovered they had 15 units. After taking Patrick to the doctor for a previously scheduled appointment, he and I raced down and picked up one of the last three.

So far, we only have Wii Sports and Wii Play, but the kids just love it. The motion-sensing controllers are every bit as amazing as you might hope. Unfortunately, one of the controllers stopped sensing swings, which made playing baseball a bit one sided.

Fortunately, a Google search saved the day. It turns out the solution for dealing with an obstinate Wii controller is to turn it over and spank it with a sharp smack.

I wondered if this might be a gag to get people to break their remotes, but since ours was already broken, I figured I’d give it a shot. The first time I was too gentle, it seems, so I took a deep breath and whacked it good.

Viola! It worked!