.::REALITYRECALL::.

Ever since the age of four, Ben Michaels has suffered from amblyopia, or severe lazy eye syndrome, in his right eye. The condition gradually weakened the eye’s vision, and when Ben was at the tender age of six, was at risk of permanent blindness. Desperate, Ben’s mother Maxine sought the advice of Ken Nischal, a consultant at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. Nischal’s professional recommendation? A steady diet of Nintendo DS.

Following the consultant’s strange advice, Ben’s mom “forced” her son to spend two hours a day playing ‘Mario Kart,’ and made sure that he did so while wearing an eyepatch over his left (and healthy) eye, in order to better train his right. Traditional medicine it’s not, but, according to Maxine, her son’s vision “improved 250-percent” in just the first week of heavy gaming. “When he started, he could not identify our faces with his weak eye,” she told the Daily Mail. “Now he can read with it although he is still a way off where he ought to be.”

Continue reading Six-Year-Old Boy Uses Nintendo DS to Regain Eyesight

Filed under: Video Games, Summer Fun

Six-Year-Old Boy Uses Nintendo DS to Regain Eyesight originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BP has increased the amount it says it’s spent on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to $2.65 billion US since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20.

Ah, menstruation. That wonderfully cyclical occurrence that women always discuss with knowing nods, and that men do their best to not think about. But thanks to designer Hiromi Ozaki, formerly clueless guys can now experience the menstrual experience first hand, in all its splendor. Cheers all around.

Ozaki, you see, has designed something called the ‘Menstruation Machine,’ which consists of a device that dispenses blood and simulates lower abdomen cramping — all in an attempt, as Ozaki explains, to mimic “the pain and bleeding of an average five-day menstruation process of a human.” Ozaki even created a demo/music video (after the jump) about a guy named Takashi, who uses the machine in an effort “to fulfill his desire to understand what it might feel like to be a truely kawaii (cute) girl [sic].” Takashi manages to stick with it for a while, and then things get pretty ugly. So, what did Takashi learn about being a woman? We’re not really sure. But it definitely looks like he won’t need to buy a Childbirth Machine for at least nine months. [From: DesignInteractions, via: Wired]

Continue reading Men Can Try the ‘Menstruation Machine’ to Feel ‘Bleeding Down There’

Filed under: Computers

Men Can Try the ‘Menstruation Machine’ to Feel ‘Bleeding Down There’ originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Canada’s population now exceeds 34 million, with British Columbia showing the strongest growth rate of all provinces, according to Statistics Canada.

According to StatCounter, Chrome just edged out Safari to become the third most widely used browser in the United States, claiming 8.97% of the market share to Safari’s 8.88%. I guess people really responded to that potato gun speed test. More »









Safari – Google Chrome – Browser – Web browser – Apple

Judging by a patent filed in March, Google looks set to be changing the UI of Maps and Street View, making the images larger and bringing the navigational controls on top of the image (and to the right.) More »









Google – Google Maps – Searching – Search Engines – StreetView

A trio in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, N.L., has come forward to claim half of the Friday Lotto Max main prize, with the other half of the jackpot going to an as yet unknown winner who bought a ticket in Saskatchewan.

June 24, 2010 – The 2011 Ford Mustang, which made history when it became the first car ever to deliver more than 30 mpg and 305 horsepower, has set a new record by running 1,457 laps at Bristol Motor Speedway while averaging 48.5 mpg.

Calling all counterfeiters, identity thieves and extortionists! The pen-makers over at Pilot have recently launched a free Web app that converts your handwriting (or, we suppose, anyone else’s) into a typeface. Check out the video demo after the break. It makes the process seem simpler than it really is, but we have to say that, whether you’d use it to compose a thoughtful digital missive or to blackmail your boss with a letter he didn’t actually write, we’re fairly impressed.

Simply hop over to PilotHandwriting.com and print out the alphabet template. Once you’ve drawn your letters, you can scan or photograph the paper to upload to the site — or, better still, you can use your computer’s webcam to take an instant snapshot. The demo makes this look deceptively simple, and we had some trouble getting all of our letters to render correctly. (It took a good half-dozen attempts to get it nearly perfect.) Some letters didn’t even show up at all, but that’s okay. The app includes some (rather primitive) editing tools to help you sharpen your script.

Continue reading Turn Your Garbage Handwriting Into a Personal Font

Filed under: Web

Turn Your Garbage Handwriting Into a Personal Font originally appeared on Switched on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 18:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The highly anticipated Windows 7 SP1 has leaked to the web.  The new service pack provides many updates to the platform but does not introduce any drastic changes or new features.  The impact of the service pack is expected to be minimal as the service pack is relatively light compared…

We’re only holding it in the way that you showed us.

Hey Apple, you’re holding it wrong originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows only: Microsoft just released the beta version of Windows Live Essentials, a suite of free desktop applications including Windows Live Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Mail, and several more useful apps you may just want to download. More »









Windows Live Essential – Microsoft – Microsoft Windows – Operating Systems – Movie Maker

If you receive Microsoft® Word files as attachments in Gmail, you can now view them with a single click — no need to download, save, and open files with a desktop application when all you want to do is have a peek. The Google Docs viewer that allows you to view .pdf, .ppt, and .tiff files in your browser now supports .doc and .docx formats too. Just click the “View” link at the bottom of a Gmail message and the viewer will take it from there.

If you decide you want to edit the file, clicking “Edit online” will open it in Google Docs, or you can download it to your desktop from there.

Posted by: Marc Miller, Software Engineer

Google’s adapted the aesthetics of Chrome OS slightly, making it even less-cluttered and easier-looking to use, as some screengrabs found in the Chromium OS code page show. More »









Google – Google Chrome OS – Searching – Search Engines – Operating system

Chicago blue-liner Duncan Keith capped off a wonderful season by receiving the Norris Trophy as the top defenceman in the NHL, but his spirit was somewhat subdued because hours before the awards ceremony, the breakup of the Blackhawks had begun.

A Quebec town near the epicentre of a 5.0-magnitude earthquake is calling for emergency help after tremors felled the steeple of its church and damaged several other buildings, including the town hall.

Apple’s latest gadget, the iPhone 4, is due to go on sale on Thursday, but early adopters are reporting display discolourisation bands or spots and major reception issues.

Gadget blog Gizmodo has two stories regarding early issues. The first is that some iPhone 4 Displays have yellow discoloration bands and spots across their…

If Steve Ballmer’s still pumped eight months later, there’s a good reason — Windows 7 has reportedly sold its 150 millionth copy, just two months after crossing the 100 million mark. If you run the numbers — and we have — that translates to roughly seven licenses sold per second since launch, a very convenient number for Microsoft to tout in their marketing communications from here on out. Perhaps execs can celebrate with a nice Windows 7 Whopper, topped with a fresh .dll pickle.

Windows 7 hits 150 million licenses: that’s seven copies a second originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Heritage Minister James Moore has stirred a hornet’s nest by saying that opponents of his proposed copyright reform bill are “radical extremists.”