by MICHAEL CITROME

There is a basic human need to customize things and make them your own. People add chrome and neon lights to their cars, stick pieces of metal through their flesh, and there's scarcely a wall in any urban area without a healthy coating of graffiti.

But for some reason, electronic devices, although ubiquitous in our lives, rarely get the DIY treatment. For most people, the arcane circuits inside our computers, phones and video games are just not something you want to poke around in. But for a few brave souls, the technology we use daily is fair game for some homebrew modifications. Not content to let corporations decide how they use their electronics, they take matters into their own hands. They are the modifiers.

Unlocking mobile phones

Even though the latest Jay-Z video features a fly cellie with a 2-way keyboard, speakerphone, video camera, MP3 player and possibly a Sony Playstation, and in Japan they have phones the size of a green pea that get 70 channels of satellite television that you actually swallow in order to use, you're still stuck with whatever lame-o models the Canadian cell phone monopolists can be bothered to offer you.

Well, mobile phone unlockers - people who hack into cell phones to change their settings - are rewriting the rules on who gets to use which phone where.

"When a cell phone is purchased from a cellular company like Rogers or Fido, they are ‘locked' by the service provider so that once the cell phone is purchased by a customer, it cannot be used on any other network apart from their own. Unlocking simply means to undo that lock so that the cell phone may be used on other networks," says Suleman, who got started unlocking cell phones when he moved from Quebec to Alberta and wanted to change networks to get better coverage. When he was told it would cost $200 to unlock his phone at a store, he took matters into his own hands, and bought a $10 cable to do the job himself.

Unlocking also means that you can modify phones bought in the U.S., Europe or Asia to work in Canada. As long as it uses GSM or one of the other communications standards used in Canada, it will work like any phone purchased here, as long as you have a valid account with a cell phone company. Don't expect to modify a phone for use for free.

According to Suleman, there are a few ways to unlock a phone. The most common is using a special data cable to hook your phone up to a computer and then unlocking it using software easily available on the Internet. He recommends checking eBay for the necessary cable.

"The more recent solution is to simply input the service provider unlock code directly into the phone. Unlock code calculators are freely available on the Internet," he says. Some newer phones support wireless communication via Bluetooth, which is another way to modify your phone without cables. You can also use the same software to backup your dialling directory and add ringtones and images to your phone without paying.

Modifying satellite TV

Stealing satellite television is a criminal act as bad as using KazAa or photocopying textbooks instead of buying them. It's even as bad as borrowing your friend's "Weird Al" Yankovic CDs and dubbing them onto tape back in eighth grade. Signal theft is stealing and it's wrong.

It's also hard to do. Satellite TV companies like Bell ExpressVu and StarChoice have been playing a cat-and-mouse game with hackers who are out for some free pay-per-view. ECM, or Electronic Counter Measure, is a signal the satellite company sends out that juices satellite receivers that use a hacked card and takes the receivers out of commission, even if you try to use a legitimate card in the future.

But the hackers have struck back. A piece of hardware called a "digital lock," available on the Internet at a minimal cost, can protect a receiver from ECMs. And installing one "is not illegal, because the machine is actually owned by the subscriber, not rented. It's comparable to painting the cover to match your wall paint, only far more technical," says Max, a local dish hacker.

Of course, if you want to break the law and steal programming, you still need a modified card. "In general, it costs anywhere from $50 to $75 to have a digital lock installed by a professional. Cards, depending on the type, can go from as cheap as $50 to as much as $200. Once programmed correctly, these cards will allow access to all channels and all Pay Per View movies and events," Max says.

Video game modchips

People have been hacking video game systems as far back as the '80s, when a 200-in-1 Nintendo cartridge was the ultimate Xmas gift, even if the games were crappy, and Super Nintendo copiers, which could back up games to 3.5" diskette were the stuff of urban legends. Since the late '90s, smart kids with soldering irons have been modifying their Playstations to use Japanese games and pirated software on CD-R.

Now, things have been kicked up a notch. You can use a modified Xbox to run the free operating system Linux or a PS2 to play DivX movies on a recordable CD, or Region 2 and 3 DVDs for some import movie action.

All you need is a modchip, a microchip that contains a new BIOS, the software that tells the video game system what it can and cannot do. But because of the soldering involved, unless you have experience with electronics you run a good chance of destroying your system.

"I don't like people to think that modchips are just for people to play backup (pirated) games. There are many other reasons people want to mod their consoles. It is all about the freedom to do what you wish on something that you pay good money for," says John G, who sells and installs mod chips locally through his Web site, Monster Modchip Service (www.geocities.com/modps2xbox/). Another popular reason to install a modchip is to play Japanese games, which typically come out months before a North American release and won't work on an out-of-the-box system.

It can cost between $80 and $140 to have your console modified by a professional, and, according to John G, the process is legal, but using pirated software is not.

"You would be wise not to deal with buying or selling of backup copies of any kind as that is totally not legal," he says.

PC case mods

If the last three DIY technologies are made slightly cool by their air of criminality, this one is strictly for the geeks. It responds to the human need to take something utilitarian, like a car or a running shoe, and dress it up until it becomes a work of art, or at least distinctive enough to call your own.

Case modders are people who modify their computer cases to look cool. This can include ultraviolet and neon lighting, transparent acrylic cutaways to reveal the machine's inner workings, customized fans that light up in multiple colours as they spin, and complex liquid cooling systems that glow in the dark.

It's a computer subculture that grew out of overclocking - modifying a chip to perform at a speed faster than what it's designed for, which can lead to overheating and burning out - hence the obsession with fans and cooling systems. But somewhere along the way it just became about aesthetics.

"I got fed up looking at a beige box all the time! Computers and gaming are my main hobbies so I spend a lot of time on my machine. My wife and I went to the trouble of making our place look the way we wanted it to, so looking at this big ugly beige thing all the time just got to me," says James Hogue, a local modder whose computer has been displayed on several Web sites.

His PC, dubbed "Switchmod," features a 24-port network switch built into its case, which is a big hit at LAN parties where gamers get together to link up for multi-player action. Being the guy who lets everyone connect together is kind of like showing up with the beer, or picking up the whole crew in your escalade.

But Hogue's mod is pretty austere compared to some of the off the wall custom jobs he's seen.

"One guy built a remote-controlled chassis into the bottom of his case so he could drive it around. I've seen an entire computer stuffed into a 1/8th-scale replica of a Nissan Skyline where the power LEDs lit the headlights. There was a guy who built a coffee maker into the front of his case. I've seen people build computers into their cars. Apple computers have been modded into PCs and vice versa. The list goes on," he says.