When I was eight or nine, I had aspirations of being a hacker. I had just seen the movie WarGames, which gave the impression that hacking into top-secret government computers required little more than a computer, a phone line, and an idle afternoon. If Matthew Broderick could come this close to igniting global thermonuclear war, then surely I could cause some mischief with the Apple IIe in my parents’ basement. Maybe people would finally take me seriously if they learned that I was the one responsible for bringing down the entire Northeastern Wisconsin power grid.

My criminal ambitions were frustrated by the fact that my parents wouldn’t let me have a modem until several years later. But I always wondered what might have happened if I had gained notoriety as a hacker. Would my disability have softened any legal consequences that I might have faced? That strategy doesn’t seem to have worked out for Li’l Hacker, a teenaged phone phreaker who happens to be blind. The kid has made prank hostage calls to the police and has harassed hundreds of people across the country. He’s the target of an FBI investigation and may be prosecuted. Let this be a lesson to all of us gimps. We can get away with a lot, but we shouldn’t push our luck.

Wired Magazine is running a feature on Amanda Baggs, author of the Ballastexistenz blog. Amanda has autism and, through her writings and short videos, is working to change popular perceptions of people like herself. Here’s how Amanda sums up the message she hopes to spread:

We’re here. We’re weird. Get used to it.

The article goes on to suggest that our current view of autism as a disease might one day seem as misguided as the scientific community’s historical classification of homosexuality as a mental illness.

Without the Internet, Amanda would never have been able to spread that message and gain the attention of researchers and journalists. The disability activists of past decades could only dream of having that kind of metaphorical loudspeaker. Twenty years from now, someone should write a book about digital culture and its influence on the disability rights movement.

The Minnesota Legislature demonstrated uncommon good sense and overrode Governor Pawlenty’s veto of a comprehensive and long-overdue transportation bill. Overrides of gubernatorial vetoes are a rare thing and the six House Republicans who voted with the majority deserve special recognition. Their collective act of political courage has put Minnesota on the path to a more sustainable and prosperous future. The state’s roads and bridges will now receive the attention they so badly need and the metro area could finally get a modern public transit system.

Minnesota has long had a reputation as a state that understood the need to invest in public services to maintain a high quality of life. Over the last few years, our political leadership succumbed to the influence of anti-tax forces that showed nothing but contempt for the kind of public stewardship that has served Minnesota so well over the last several decades. It’s too soon to tell, but I like to think that this veto override serves as a rebuke to those who value having a few more dollars in their pockets rather than any kind of vision for the future.

If you have no other plans this weekend, you have the option of sitting in front of your computer and streaming every episode of the original Star Trek. CBS has also made the first couple seasons of The Twilight Zone and Hawaii Five-Oh available. Before long, I may not have a reason to ever get away from my computer again. The Internet: creating a nation of shut-ins since 1993.

A company called Emotiv will be releasing a headset that allows games to be played with only the brain as the interface. It will cost around $200, which leads me to believe that this will be little more than a biofeedback device with a USB connection. Until products like these include marketing language that says something like “100% compatible with Bioshock”, I’m not opening my wallet. Still, I hope the company sells enough of them to demonstrate market potential and warrant future R&D investments. And while you’re at it, please create me a brain interface that lets me bang out these blog entries even when my fingers are still thawing out. On the plus side, my current setup lets me give my neck muscles a daily workout. Women love a well-defined neck.