If you are a user of MapQuest you may want to take a look at the new Google Maps. It is still in beta but works beautifully.

The page holds an iframe with the map inside of it. That iframe is constantly being updated and redrawn. The real beauty is the fact that you can drag the map around and follow a road. The directions functionality leaves something to be desired (much like MapQuest). I entered my address in Houston and tried to get directions to Lubbock and it gave me a route through DFW which is about 3 hrs. out of the way. I am guessing that it tries to stick to the major highways when giving directions but I really wish there was an option to get quicker directions.

The last thing I noticed was the fact that the maps are a little outdated. There are some streets and landmarks in Lubbock that are missing or are no longer here. Once they get that done then they will have an unstoppable service…. Can you say “Goodbye MapQuest”?

A flaw has been announced by Secunia. The flaw affects Mozilla 1.7.x, Firefox 0.x, and Firefox 1.x.

The flaw is really in the IDN implementation. It allows a URL to be spoofed, as well as the SSL certificate and status bar. How do we remedy this problem? For right now you need to type in or copy and paste URLs from sites that you do not “trust”. I have not found anything from the folks at Mozilla about when a fix will be released.

John Vernon, ‘Animal House’ Dean Wormer, passed away on Friday from complications with heart surgery.

His most famous role was Dean Wormer in Animal House but he also played in Dirty Harry and Topaz.

I’ll be honest, I watched maybe 10 minutes of the Superbowl. I have lost interest in it. I have lost interest in pro sports altogether. When did this happen? Somewhere in high school I realized that getting paid a bunch of money to play a sport, not cure cancer or the like was ludicrous. Why don’t we pay teachers more? Their service is much more needed and worth the money than some guy throwing a ball down field farther than anyone else.

I am tired of the showing off after every single play (something that made me switch the channel during the Superbowl). Yay, you got a tackle, stop flapping your arms and play the game. Now, don’t get me wrong, celebrating a huge play is fine but it is when you celebrate every single event in the game it becomes annoying.

Even the commercials during the Superbowl were dissappointing. The only funny one I saw was the convertible Ford Mustang one where it looked like the opening scene of ‘Fargo’.

Ok, I’m off my soapbox.

Texas Tech defeated #16 Oklahoma tonight 88-81. Tech never lost their halftime lead and Jarrius Jackson had an amazing 34 points.

In other news, Iowa State upset #18 Texas. Bad for them, good for us.

The finalists for the 2005 SXSW Web Awards were announced yesterday and ISAR is a finalist in the CSS category.

ISAR was created by Segars Communications, my employer. Josh did all of the CSS work and his work on this site is as clean as it gets.

The other sites that are finalists are very nice as well, my favorite being the Ride4Ever.org site. It has great colors, flows nicely, and it’s about motorcycles.

The competition looks tough but I think ISAR has a good chance.

We all know that doctors have the ability to make us feel better (or sometimes worse) and the power to prescribe powerful drugs to get over ailments, well, they also have the power to ruin your day.

I usually show up to the doctor 15-20 minutes before the appointment is scheduled just in case there is any paperwork or problems. Today was no different. My appointment was for 10:30am for a “progress” checkup. I sat in the waiting room until 11:15am when the doctor finally called me in and basically took 7 minutes to ask me a few routine questions run a quick eye coordination test and walk me out. I missed class for that!? A class that I had homework due in. Had the doctor got me into his office when my appointment was scheduled for I could have easily made it to my class, no sweat.

All doctors do this, I don’t think I’ve been to a single one that has actually been timely in getting me in and out. It’s just frustrating.

The NWS has XML feeds available to display current conditions for a given area (or a set of given areas). Weather.com offers a feed as well but you have to sign up for the service and sometimes the updates are iffy. I have been playing with both and while the NWS feed is nice the document is somewhat sloppy. I want to try their web service and will probably end up doing so when I have a chance.

The Weather.com feed is nice but I have noticed that sometimes it fails to update or gives incomplete information. I am going to keep playing with it and see if I can get it to perform a little better. I am going to be implementing one of the options here soon, I just need to decide which one I like better.

Speaking of weather, the temperature has dropped into the 20’s and we are getting pretty heavy flurries… Strangest weather, ever.

I really wish my home computer wasn’t so crappy so that I could play Ghost Recon at high enough settings so that it looked good (but didn’t lag). The game seems very intense and is kind of a mix between FPS and strategy game. I like it so far but it runs horribly on my machine…