Feline hero. Columbus, Ohio, police credit a cat named Tommy with saving his handicapped owner by hitting the 911 speed dial button on a nearby phone after the man fell from his wheelchair and was too badly hurt to reach his emergency call button. The owner recovered from his fall, and Tommy the cat has since opened up a consulting business programming VCRs and setting up home computers.

Baggage track. Airlines are starting to use radio identification chips to reduce the number of passenger bags they lose every year – 30 million at last count, according to transportation technology company SITA Inc. So now, when you’re going to Chicago and your suitcase ends up in Manitoba, you know where to address the post card.

Healthy grunge. A growing number of doctors think exposing kids to germs, allergies, viruses and worms can make them stronger by programming their immune systems. Think that could work for laptops?

Defense rests. A U.S. Congressional committee recently gave the federal government a D+ in computer security, with the departments of Defense, Energy (i.e. nuclear power) and Homeland Security all notching “F's.” I feel safer already, how about you?

Not personal, just business. A new computer video game based on the “Godfather” films debuted this quarter, using a computerized Marlon Brando in the title role as pitch man. Deluxe editions include a prosthetic horse head, an untraceable handgun and a box of cannolis.

Real supercomputing. Sun Microsystems is going live with a service that offers supercomputing processing power on a public grid of leased processors. Users pay for time on the grid with their credit cards through the PayPal online payment service. Then they use the processing power to delete the resulting spam that hits their inboxes.

On the horizon. Microsoft this quarter announced that its Vista operating system will not be ready for the ’06 holiday season. They’ve delayed it so many times I’ve run out of nasty things to say.

Speaking of Microsoft … To win a piece of the growing market for Internet-based software development, the Redmond-based giant is releasing a Web development toolkit that enables users to build applications from Web services. The toolkit will work with other companies’ browsers and operating systems, a Microsoft spokesman said with a straight face.

– Mike McGrail, Director, Writing Program