Blog chronicles mistaken identity of crash victims

Two strikingly beautiful young blonde college women are involved in a horrible, fiery crash when a semitruck crosses the median and broadsides the college van they are riding in.

One dies and is buried in a small Michigan town.

The other, critically injured and swathed in bandages and casts and on a ventilator and hurt so badly she is all but unrecognizable, is being treated in another small Michigan town.

A Web site kept by loving parents chronicles her slow day-by-day recovery and slow emergence from a coma… until this week’s stunning realization that the woman in the coma was the woman they thought died and the woman buried is actually their daughter, who they thought survived.

It’s a story of unspeakable grief… and amazing faith.

Microsoft learns a lesson from the mob

It reminds me of a mob shakedown… the protection racket.

Microsoft, whose leaky, insecure, patched-together mess of an operating system has allowed spyware, malware, junkware and untold viruses, worms and trojans to ruin the computing lives of millions, now wants you to pay them $49 a year to provide security for your PC.

It’s a service called Windows Live OneCare that officially goes on sale this week, offering anti-virus and automatic security updates. The company also says it will automatically do special PC “tune-ups,” whatever that means.

Bottom line is they’re asking you to pay to shore up the vulnerabilities of their products. It just doesn’t seem right, does it? For the more vulnerable their software, the more they can make selling you protection for it.

Most popular downloads from V CAST

Verizon has been heavily promoting its V CAST music download service with cell phones. Here’s the list of the most poplar songs downloaded since the service began Jan. 27.
Rank Title Artist
1 Unpredictable Jamie Foxx featuring Ludacris
2 My Humps Black Eyed Peas
3 Be Without You Mary J. Blige
4 What You Know (Amended Version) T.I.
5 Temperature Sean Paul
6 Ridin’ Chamillionaire
7 Pump It Black Eyed Peas
8 Lights And Sounds Yellowcard
9 Laffy Taffy D4L
10 I’m N Luv (Wit A Dancer) [Featuring Mike Jones] T-Pain
11 We Belong Together Mariah Carey
12 Wake Me Up When September Ends (Live at Foxboro, MA 9/3/05) Green Day

Dell to offer Apple OS?

Well… why not? Over at Endadget, they’re showing a screen grab from a driver download support area on Dell’s Web site that seems to indicate somebody there at least sees it as a distinct possibility. Unless its an error. Whatever, Apple heads worldwide are all atwitter.

Useful traffic site

Stuck in traffic and want instant conditions? My NBC-TV "High Tech Talk" segment this week is about a service that let's you call 866-698-7232 and get live traffic reports for roads in 40 different metro areas around the country.

You need to register your mobile phone and route at the traffic.com Website. Then you’ll get a Pin number to punch in. The free hotline is supplemented by a great online service that lets you set special routes you want monitored. It will even e-mail you congestion reports at specific times.

Below is the video of my report.

Internet to soon beat print newspapers in ad spending

At least that’s what this UK-based report says will happen by year’s end. But if so, what happens to serious, issue-oriented reporting? What happens to the traditional watchdog role played by newspapers? The question that worries many journos the most, though, is in a news-on-demand world, will only fluff and celebrity “news” rule?

Intel Macs need more Universal Apps

My frustration with my new MacBook Pro Intel Mac is growing by the day. Not so much with the machines but with the lack of Universal apps that work with them.

For that reason, I recommend that before you buy, you seriously examine your software needs to make sure you can do without major programs like Adobe Photoshop and the many personal small apps that individual users tend to collect and rely on. There are cumbersome work arounds for some, Rosetta works for others but there are many that just don’t work at all.

I still can’t get Windows Media Player Web videos to reliably work, even with Rosetta. WireTap Pro isn’t Universal yet. And the smaller, more efficient ExpressCard slot on the MacBook Pro just isn’t - namely because there are no ExpressCards available for anything useful like wireless access.

The third party developers are way, way slow in switching to Universal and I’m finding my MacBook Pro a luxury I wish I had waited to indulge.

Those considering the purchase of an Intel Mac, consider yourself warned. Check your software to see what works and what doesn’t.

Recyling an old study

Here’s one that shows how PR types find ways to recycle old info as new.

The University of Michigan’s PR machine sent out a news release today citying a “new study” from its Institute for Social Research that reportedly shows some 65% of the public (two-thirds) believe that state governments should pass laws banning driving and cell phone use. Only 29 percent said they did not want such a law.

That’s pretty interesting and timely, given the spate of cell phone bans in the news in recent weeks. Right?

Wrong. Turns out the findings come from telephone interviews conducted March 3-10 2005 among a sample of 849 American adults.

I was convinced that 2005 was a typo. It wasn’t.

This “new study” touted in the news release was done 14 months ago. I called and a spokeswoman explained that the institute just got around to printing the “full report.”

Which makes it so old that it’s basically meaningless.

Just what have those social scientis been doing all year that it takes them 14 months to print their findings?

NBC offers more iTunes video

NBC News announced this morning that it will offer a collection of video news and documentary programming for purchase and download from Apple’ iTunes Music Store. Programming will include new programs produced especially for iTunes, much of which seems tailored to promote NBC personalities and their books or old documentaries. For several months, the network has been distributing an audio version of NBC News that gets about a half million downloads a month,

Has satellite radio peaked?

I’m beginning to wonder after XM cut its growth projections and rival Sirius has seen shares drop by 45% this year.

iPod-talking running shoes

Now your running shoes can talk to your iPod.
Apple and Nike announced today a soon-to-be available Nike+iPod $29 kit that will register with the iPod just how much distance the runner has covered. as well as time, pace and calories burned. A sensor buried in the shoes will transmit the info wirelessly to the nano version of the iPod, which will display it in real time on the iPod screen.
Is this smart, or what?
The market sure thinks so. Nike’s stock price went up more than $3 on the news. Apple shares jumped 59-cents.

Get a cyber secretary

Starting at $69 a month, you can how hire your own cyber secretary… an Electronic Digital Assistant.
Click below to see my NBC-TV "High Tech Talk" report on this new service.

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