However cliche it might be to compare the most recent hurricane to Andrew (1992). I believe Katrina (2005)’s size and intensity to be startling in comparison. See for yourself via either infrared or satellite imagery.

Note: click on the links for a larger view.

I successfully tried out for the UCF Programming Team today, placing #13 of 36 (#17 was the cut-off point this year). I was surprised that I qualified. In October, I will be going to the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest Regionals. With a little luck, I might get to go to the International Finals. UCF has a great standing record, so I am excited to be a part of the group!

The 5th version of VeganBob.com is now available! New design in the weblog. Added several new sections: veganism, about me, projects, partners, and simple C examples.

Let me know what you think here!

As I’ve previously predicted guessed, I still think Google is slowly moving towards a “gLogin,” where you’d only need to use your Google Account ™ to log into various services and possbily other websites. Well, the next installment of this unified login is here: Google Talk.

I wonder what the ads will be like in this service. Will they change while you converse with your friends? How deep will the privacy fears go as result?

Last month, CNET posted a highly speculative (and largely unfounded) article about Google. In response, Google will not respond to questioning by CNET for a year. CNET has now started posting the following excerpt in EVERY article and blogroll entry it publishes.

Google representatives in the U.S. have instituted a policy of not talking with CNET News.com reporters until July 2006 in response to privacy issues raised by a previous story.

I posted the following reply to one of the articles on CNET. Chances are, it will be removed from the website. They are pretty strict on which comments they allow versus censoring. Pretty hypocritical for a website that seems to be screaming “free speech!”

Is it really necessary to mention this situation every time CNET posts a story about Google? It speaks poorly of CNET, as it shows a lack of civilized discourse. When you post an article critically criticizing and outlining a company’s business strategies, there’s a good chance they will not respond by sending fruit baskets and warm words. Instead, Google chose the high road by quietly resigning to not offer any additional information to CNET for a year, rather than overly criticizing CNET’s policies.

Note: In the original quote, a link to the previous story that offended Google was provided. I have removed it, because I believe CNET is being severely childish in their reoccurring decision to link that article.

EDIT (8/23/2005): I always find it funny when people reply anonymously to my weblog. It speaks volumes of them. Why voice an opinion and then leave no room to reply? Why call me an idiot and then be afraid that I might invalidate your argument?

Also, insignificant arguments are logical fallacies. Learn how to debate.

Discovery just landed at Edwards Airforce Base in California! Everything went great! From Mission Control: “Discovery is home.”

Daylight-Saving Time is being extended by 4 weeks, thanks to Bush’s recently signed bill. Someone needs to remind the president of the power to make a logical veto. Wikipedia has a great summary of the DST debate (conversation of power, productivity loss/gain, maintaining high-morality, etc). In related news, Indiana is going to start observing DST in 2006.

In the article Top 10 Tech We Miss, Rafe Needleman cites manned space exploration as being the the #1 technology that America misses. He is absolutely right.

From the article:

It’s been 33 years since humans have set foot on the moon or journeyed beyond the close orbit of the Earth. In other words, we’ve stopped exploring. Sure, robotic spaceships and Mars rovers are adding to our knowledge of the universe, but the last people to explore the final frontier are past retirement age–and so are the engineers who put them there. In other words, next time we go into space, we’re going to have to retrain people from scratch. There may be no firsthand knowledge of what it’s like to be in space or to build a space vehicle. This is progress?