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Burger King is running a promotion with the Simpsons Movie and has release the Simpsonize Me webiste. This site allows you to upload a photo and it will be rendered as a Simpsons character. Unlike the feature on the Simpsons Movie site, this is supposedly an automated process. Notice I say supposedly, as I couldn’t get it to work. Having said that, the results that Michael Calore of Wired Blog Network achieved were pretty accurate. I’ll keep trying and see what it produces.

There’s no denying the appeal of the Simpsons. Although some would argue the show has faded from its glory days, anyone that’s ever been a fan of the show could likely recite a few favorite quites. Everyone knows “D’oh” and it was honored by being included in the Oxford English Dictionary. An interesting side note about D’oh – it’s always written in the scripts as “annoyed grunt.”

Head on over and read Blogzarro’s 101 Greatest Simpsons Quotes and see if your favorite is on there. Mine is #7 – Homer: Oh, so they have Internet on computers now!

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The tragic death of five New York teens in a car accident–believed to have been caused by the driver sending/receiving text messages on her cell phone–has prompted lawmakers to propose a bill banning text messaging while driving.

ALBANY – The horrific deaths of five upstate teens when the SUV they were riding in slammed into a truck has pumped momentum into a measure that would prohibit New Yorkers from sending text messages when they’re behind the wheel.

“The recent tragedy in Canandaigua highlights how deadly the combination of texting and driver inexperience can be,” said Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Oyster Bay), who is co-sponsoring the proposal with Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn).

Using cell phone records, police determined the 17-year-old driver who caused the deadly wreck last month was sending and receiving text messages before the SUV she was driving rammed a tractor-trailer, killing her and four girls who had just graduated from high school.

Tests conducted on the driver after the fiery crash showed the primary cause of the accident was driver inattention due to the apparent text messaging. Alcohol was not a factor.

A recent poll of people 18 to 24 years old showed that two out of three admit to sending text messages when they drive.

Ortiz, the author of the trail-blazing New York prohibition against drivers using hand-held cell phones when they’re behind the wheel, said, “It’s a shame that it may take a tragedy like this for this bill to move forward.”

Under the proposal, those nabbed texting while driving could be hit with fines of up to $100 – the same penalty that applies now when police catch drivers gabbing on cell phones.

Does anyone besides me think this is pointless. Nearly impossible to enforce and just as hard to catch someone doing it (especially in New York), I don’t see how it could be very effective. A better approach would be to use this tragedy to educate teens on the dangers of such activity. However, the “old” person in me wonders why anyone would need educating to this fact, but that’s a rant for another day.

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Sure, I’d like to have an iPhone. However, since I don’t have $600 to drop on a new phone (and I’m indentured to Sprint for at least another year – or more). I’ll settle for playing with the Leaflets web based demo.

To get the full effect, you’ll need to be running Safari 3 on a Mac or PC. The idea of Leaflets is a great one. Provide a portal that formats a lot of the popular RSS based services for iPhone viewing. The RSS / Feeds view is very efficient and all the demos read very well on the small screen of the iPhone.

Still, the negatives on the iPhone (no MS Exchange, no high-speed data, etc.) make me want to wait for a later version anyway.

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Drap and Drop to Add Markers and Change Routes in Google Maps

We’ve all used Google Maps to get directions. Most of us have probably even said to ourself “why is it going that way?”

Now you can change all that. For any Google Map Route, you can drag and drop to add route markers. This will let you adjust or completely change that route that Google planned. Each new custom point is added as a yellow pause “||” symbol so it’s easy to tell what changes you’ve made.

The most interesting thing to me is the ability to compare routes. I can map 2 or the paths to the same location (from the same starting point) and see which is the shortest. Could help you find your way around that traffic jam you always run into on the way home.