Hacking My Child's Brain: Part 6
128473
Caleb achieves two significant motor-control breakthroughs following his neurotechnology therapy. Plus: A podcast. In Bodyhack.
87414
A few of my previous columns discussed my vision of creating a more secure Internet. It involved replacing the Internet's default anonymity with pervasive authentication, from the hardware initialization, through the OS and all applications, the user, and ending with a verifiable network stream. It is my strong belief that without a complete overhaul of default authentication, malicious hacking is going to continue indefinitely.
150840
Backdoor drafts, security moms and up-armoring
360148
Tycho:  I should have all the science lined up by the end of the week, ready to stuff into the piano black lozenge I've obtained to celebrate my return to personal computing.  Wish me luck; I've never before had the opportunity to fry four processors at once.       I know things.  Specifically, things that may be of interest to you.  For example, I know if playing Eye of Judgment online is an onerous as it might seem.  It is not!  I cannot express my relief.    Well, let's try.  In my last, vast expose, I broke down a card's unique language and expressed some misgivings about online play - ultimately just accepting it, because what they're trying to do is so weird that there's no prior art.  Essentially, you "register" your thirty card deck with the system itself, where it is stored and named for future use.  This process is extremely straightforward:  it is simply a matter of you laying your cards anywhere on the mat, a few at a time.  It will probably take two minutes if you really keep on it.  Then, you jump online, choose what nation you want to play for, and track down a partner.  At this point, the game will "draw" you your five card hand by showing you the card art onscreen.  You get one Mulligan (or redraw), but if you like your hand you move into the game proper.  We laid out our deck by element, face up, and this smoothed the turn to turn process considerably.      In the build we have, and I hope this is changed for release, it shows you these cards in a single file line without their name or text - just the art.  Once you got familiar with these images, slightly modified from their card format, it's pretty quick - but the names should be displayed on this screen.  You can use the controller to pull up the names, but let's be serious - at no point should the player be forced to interact with a mundane controller once the game is underway.     You should know that the game really wants a well-lit environment.  You don't need a flare gun or anything, but we didn't have what we needed before and certain squares would slow down the game flow with partial reads that would only resolve after several attempts and minute card adjustments.  I should state that here in the office, we removed all the overhead lights, installing a single track of illumination that we point at the ceiling, where lights used to be.  We tend to transform any place we live into a cave.  So, our scenario might be somewhat atypical.    Also, I know if playing Rock Band with all the instruments off of a USB hub is onerous.  You will be happy to know that it is not - we played said instruments spread out on an actual stage, and found it more than satifactory.  The reality is that the drum kit already needs its own wire, so it isn't as though the future had actually arrived anyway.  Plus, the mic isn't wireless either. This makes the contrived brouhaha over wired guitars a fairly transparent traffic ploy.    This is a matter quite apart from Microsoft's reticence to play ball with unique, third party hardware.  And when I say "play ball," I'm taking about the shakedown operation they've got going licensing their wireless technology, which either makes products for their system more expensive or (in the salient case of Rock Band) results in them bundling a wired controller for the same price as a wireless one on a competitor's system.  This is the last holiday they can get away with this sort of thing...  right?
120280
Also: The sound of hacked dolls' heads. Read these stories and more from around the Web on News.com Extra.
339041
How advances in neuroscience could transform our legal system.
739439
Tycho:  I uploaded the comic early, as many of you noticed.  I entered the wrong number in the update field.  You may also have noticed that the spelling in these posts has really gone to hell.  So, that's numbers and letters.  I hope to one day discover a set of pictograms with which I can manage some baseline fucking proficiency.
275084
US researchers show that a computer can be controlled by the brain without the need for implants.
633136
By C.S. Lee  DEAR Editor,  THE other day, I read an interesting interview with Microsoft's Bill Gates.  One of the things he mentioned was the introduction of a light- weight computer that children can bring to school to replace heavy textbooks.
134421
When my daughter turned 3, my in-laws bought her a cute, brightly colored laptop called a LeapPad to help with her growing vocabulary.
463975
This kind of sibling relationship is different. But how? A case study.
116501
An elite group of researchers wants to create a map of how your brain is wired. To do it, they've built a custom robot that peels 3-D brains like an apple, and pushes the resulting brain "tape" through an electron microscope.
35767
My daughter, Rebecca, is resilient, but we need more research and treatment for the epilepsy that plagues her.
250363
A mutant gene triggers mental retardation by changing the way brain cells communicate, research shows.
299531
Gabe: Joystiq had some interesting articles up over the weekend about introducing your family to the Wii. I actually had a similar experience. We had a house full of friends and family for Thanksgiving and the Wii was really the star of the show. Kara and I both had parents over and we actually had a hard time getting them off of Wii sports. I can"t even count how many rounds of bowling I must have played. It was amazing to watch how easily they picked it up and how much fun they had. What was great was watching Kara"s Dad who loves to bowl but can"t anymore because of his knees. I wouldn"t be surprised if he goes home this week and tries to pick one up.
331359
Daniel Kerner's parents knew the experimental brain surgery was risky, but without it the 6-year-old surely would die. Last month in Portland, Ore., doctors for the first time transplanted stem cells from aborted fetuses into his head in a desperate bid to reverse, or at least slow, a rare genetic disorder called Batten disease. The so-far incurable condition normally results in blindness and paralysis before death.
172920
Proof that there still is more to do. On Saturday I got an email from Sylvia saying that a friend of mine had bought her first iPod. It took me a few minutes to figure out that she was talking about herself. Funny, I had never thought about whether she had an iPod or not, but I have been on her case to get a digital camera. So she brought her iPod over, it's one of the new "fatty" nanos with video. It was so funny to see it through her eyes, and even cooler to read her story. I didn't realize that there was a reason she had never gotten an iPod. Sylvia: Sliding into song. I seek out experiences like this. Stones I can turn over that reveal a rich experience, an eye-opener, a bright horizon that doesn't take much time or effort to achieve.