Monday, October 26, 2009

Geocities - The End

Sometime in the next 24 hours, Geocities is expected to stop serving webpages forever. For those that don't know what a Geocities is, read on.

In the mid to late 90s, Geocities was the premier free web site service organized into communities. I used to own a Geocities account. Originally it was located at http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Cockpit/8423/index2.html, a part of the science and technology community. (Unfortunately this site no longer exists due to an account issue I had in the early 2000s, by no fault of Yahoo's.) I remember the e-mail I received telling me that my quota had been upgraded from 13 MB to 14 MB, and then a couple years later when Yahoo! purchased Geocities. Geocities was not only where I first played with a website over a 28.8k dial-up connection, but it was also the source of the first password I ever used (randomly generated but constructed in an easy-to-remember way), and is actually a password that I still use to this day, albeit usually with variations.

To commemorate the end of Geocities, XKCD modified their website layout to match one that might be seen on a Geocities page; it is also archived here.

We will miss your historical significance, Geocities.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Prosthetics 2.0

Or rather, optogenetics. It's been awhile since I've posted here since I've been busy with schoolwork. I'm still busy, so I haven't really written anything substantial despite my to-do list of things I want to write about. But I did want to share the following biotechnology article, which I found interesting:
Algae and Light Help Injured Mice Walk Again

Thursday, October 1, 2009

2009 Ig Nobel Prizes

No, not the real thing, but a fun read nonetheless:
BBC's coverage of the 2009 Ig Nobel Prizes