1. How do I make sure its manual for my manual car?
1.1 If I only use it for normal driving and keep the original as a spare, does it really matter if it's auto? I think the CEL being on all the time is sorta bad but I dunno any other disadvantages.

what do I do now? I got it from an electrical engineer, a friend of mine, and he wants to help me solder it and stuff. I just need to learn what I'm doing with the whole; buying the right parts (I care about cost vs benefit most of all), and also properly tuning it.

I was considering the cheaper Hondata because its an emulator and their business has good reviews, but I was also considering buying a socket to solder on so I can mess around with multiple chips while I'm learning