Places to get hurricane updates:

• Tropical Storm and Hurricane Watch Information and Preparedness Material [FEMA]
• Floyd-specific updates [FEMA]

Interesting map tracking the progress and severity of both Floyd and Gert:

• Tropical Storm Tracking Map [FEMA]
  

The map's originating site (listed on the map) isn't answering as I write this; maybe their server's overloaded. I remember reading a disclaimer last night that the data isn't necessarily accurate enough to make life-or-death decisions based upon it; pay attention to official advisories instead.

• CNN's top stories
• CNN Storm Center
• Yahoo! Storm Center (hey, the resource is there, I'll use it)

Followup #1: .com vs. .org... Feedback I received ran about 4-to-1 against using .org for a store. Though it's true that some sites are diluting the meaning of the namespace by their actions, it's no reason to jump on the evil bandwagon. .org still equals "nonprofit" in the surfer subconscious.

I feel that way too, I just wanted to see what y'all thought without saying too much about my own opinion.

A less-than-perfect .com address is what I will continue to recommend.

Followup #2: Oh, the joys of being misunderstood... Multiple folks wrote asking why exactly the example of poll art I liked led me to question free will. Uh... I was being flippant, sarcastic, silly. "Humor, aar-aar-aar." I had hoped that would come through without me putting a tiresome little wink-smiley ;) next to it.

My bad. I shall endeavour to write more clearly in the future.

Congrats to Jorn Barger of RobotWisdom for the mention on the Brill's Content site as a site they really like (near the bottom of the page). It's a shame they stuck a space in the URL and broke it!

• Wave of Cow Crime Rocks Windy City [GettingIt]
  Far from basking in Chicago's hip urbanity, one cow instantly fell victim to a crime its country cousins know all too much about: cow tipping. And that was just the beginning.

More Hotmail trouble: Not as bad as the hole a couple of weeks ago, but still:

• New Hotmail breach reported [CNN]
  The new hole is more complex to execute but allows savvy users to send a message to Hotmail users which displays a false login screen. Once the Hotmail user enters his or her password, it's stolen and delivered to the other user...
  
  Users could execute the breach by inserting a bit of JavaScript into an HTML "STYLE" tag into an e-mail message.

More reason to distrust JavaScript, I say.

I usually have JavaScript turned off when I surf (and I certainly don't run Java). If a site makes me turn it on in order to navigate their site well, that's a big minus in their column.

Trying to make embedded code work for all surfers on all devices is a fool's errand (in 1999, at least), and limiting your audience to only those who use the Right Browser configured the Right Way on the Right Platform is a poor long-term strategy. In my opinion.

Next update: Friday.