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“GeoCities will close later this year.” That’s the stark announcement at the top of Yahoo’s GeoCities Help page.

The company goes on to say it is shutting down the ability of new customers to sign up for the free Web-hosting service and will close the service. “We’ll provide more details about closing GeoCities and how to save your site data this summer,” Yahoo says, “and we will update the help center with more details at that time.”

The announcement marks an ignominious end for one of the pioneering Web-hosting services. Originally founded in 1994 as Beverly Hills Internet, the service was purchased five years later by Yahoo for $3.57 billion.

Bursting Bubbles and Bad Management

Unfortunately for Yahoo — one of the many contributing factors to the company’s current fiscal dilemma — it purchased GeoCities at what proved to be the height of the dot-com boom. The bubble collapsed soon afterward and took the GeoCities share price with it.

The service’s financial problems were exacerbated by some questionable operational decisions by Yahoo.

The company sparked a mass exodus by issuing new terms of service that said, among other things, that the company owned all content posted to GeoCities Web pages (sound familiar, Facebook?). Other users left when Yahoo capped data-transfer rates in an effort to encourage site owners to upgrade to paid hosting accounts.

In a conference call to discuss Yahoo’s first-quarter earnings, CEO Carla Bartz didn’t make a specific reference to the fact that Yahoo was about to electronically bulldoze GeoCities. However, she did make it clear that the company is trying to better prioritize aspects of its corporate structure most likely to be profitable.

Bartz told reporters that her conversations as a new CEO convinced her that the most important step for Yahoo is to create “a ‘wow’ experience for all of our users around the…

A sudden surge in celebrity tweeters has given a huge boost to Twitter, the micro-blogging service that offers up the world in 140-character chunks.

Last Friday, after media maven Oprah Winfrey sent her first tweet during a live broadcast, Twitter saw its share of U.S. Internet visits increase by a remarkable 24 percent, according to the industry analyst firm Hitwise. The company also found that visits to the Twitter site were up 43 percent over the previous Friday.

Oprah’s decision to join the Twitterati follows on the heels of (and may have been inspired by) a well-publicized contest between actor Ashton Kutcher and CNN to see which could be the first to cross the million-follower mark. Much to the chagrin of the media outlet, Kutcher prevailed, but most observers expect Oprah to rapidly sail past that mark.

Boon or Bane?

Among the many questions currently unanswered is the effect that such high-profile micro-bloggers will have on the young site. Currently, Twitter has about 14 million members, less than 10 percent of the total claimed by social-networking leader Facebook, which boasts more than 200 million members.

“There’s been much debate among loyal Twitter users,” Hitwise senior online analyst Heather Hopkins said in a blog post, “about whether this spells the end for Twitter’s coolness, as soccer moms sign up in droves.”

And the soccer moms are clearly interested: The service has picked up a cool one million new users in the five days since the first Oprah tweet, and there is widespread speculation that many more Oprah fans will follow her lead. It could be, as actor Humphrey Bogart said in Casablanca, the start of a beautiful friendship.

But Twitter has wrestled with service issues over the past several months, growing pains associated with the challenges of handling millions of tweets from around the world. Members are often…

San Diego, CA, April 20, 2009 — Equilibrium Enterprises, Inc. has unveiled its latest iPhone application, Virtues for the iPhone, which is designed to help users, step by step, follow in the footsteps of Benjamin Franklin’s time-honored self-improvement system, updated for a digital age.

The Virtues app is based upon Benjamin Franklin’s own system of tracking how well he displayed virtues in his character daily for a period of one week. He focused exclusively on tracking one virtue per week.

With 13 virtues — temperance, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, silence, order, resolution and humility — he surmised he could cycle through the process four times over the course of one year.

He wrote about this daily practice in his autobiography at the age of 79, and attributed much of his success to it, saying, “I was, by the endeavor, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it.” He also wrote, “I hope, therefore, that my descendants will follow this example and reap the benefits.”

Character Equals Success

With the Virtues app, you have the option to select from Franklin’s original 13 virtues “starter set” or create your own custom virtues. If you’re not sure which virtue to focus upon, let the universe decide for you with the apps unique “Select Random” feature.

To put the app into action, identify a virtue, tap it, select a focus period start date and monitor your progress/score daily. Scoring is subjective – grade yourself up to 5.0 for how well you achieved the virtue you are working on. You can give yourself a negative score for days that didn’t go so well. Track your success in demonstrating virtues in your character — and see how well your overall well being improves.

Benjamin Franklin recognized early on the…

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So called due to their ability to run down their prey, wolf spiders depend on their eyesight to hunt. Their sense of touch is acute. A bite may cause some itching to a human, but nothing deadly or major…

Sydney funnel-web spider (Atrax robustus)

Funnel-webs are one of the three most dangerous spiders in the world and are regarded by some to be the most dangerous. Wandering males are thought to be responsible for the majority of fatal bites to humans, however this has not been proven. Males are aggressive and tend to wander looking for receptive females of their kind for mating.

Goliath bird eating spider (Theraphosa blondi)

The goliath bird eating spider is an arachnid belonging to the tarantula family and is the largest spider in the world. The spider was named by explorers from the Victorian era, who reported the sighting to the Western world after witnessing the spider devouring a hummingbird.

Redback spider (Latrodectus hasselti)

Resembling the black widow spider, the redback is a member of the genus Latrodectus (widow family) found throughout the world. Females measure about a centimetre in length while the male is only 3 to 4 milimetres long. The redback spider is one of few animals which display sexual cannibalism while mating.

Crab spider (Ozyptila praticola)

Most often found on flowers, lying in ambush for prey, crab spiders do not build webs to trap prey but are active hunters much like jumping spiders. Like crabs, these spiders move sideways and backwards more easily than forwards.

Camel spiders (Solifugae)

These terrifying creatures became infamous when American soldiers who had returned home from Iraq told of cat size spiders that could bite chunks out of human flesh. Solifugae are not actually true spiders but belong to a distinct arachnid order.

Black Widow (Latrodectus)

This sinister creature posseses venom 15 times more potent than that of a rattlesnake. Due to the great geographical range of the black widow, the highest number of deaths world-wide are caused by members of their genus.

Brown recluse spider (Loxosceles reclusa)

Brown recluse bites produce severe dermonecrotic lesions and severe systemic symptoms, including organ damage and even fatalities. Bites have been known to form a necrotizing ulcer that destroys soft tissue and may take months to heal, leaving deep scars. The damaged tissue will become gangrenous and eventually slough away.

Argiope aetherea

This large orb-web is often referred to as the St Andrew’s Cross spider due to it’s characteristic cross-shaped web. This species displays sexual size dimorphism, with females being many times larger than males.

Nephila clavata (Joro spider)

This colorful arachnid is a golden orb-web spider. Researchers in Japan have created a silk thread that is stronger, softer and more durable than conventional silk by genetically modifying silkworms with Nephilia drag line genes. Spider socks, stockings and fishing lines are expected to appear on the market within years.

Chilean rose tarantula (Grammostola rosea)

Although they look fightening, these tarantulas make brilliant pets. Females have been known to live as long as 20 years with the possibility that they may live considerably longer.

Wolf spider (Hogna helluo)

So called due to their ability to run down their prey, wolf spiders depend on their eyesight to hunt. Their sense of touch is acute. A bite may cause some itching to a human, but nothing deadly or major.

Goldenrod crab spider (Misumena vatia)

Goldenrod spiders are mainly found in North America and have the ability to change colour from white to yellow and back again. The colour change is made possible by the spider secreting a liquid yellow pigment into the outer cell layer of the body.

Zebra spider (Salticus scenicus)

Zebra spiders are often noted for their ‘curiosity’ when observed, many seem aware of their audience and seem to respond by raising their head and looking back at the person. This spider uses its four pairs of large eyes to locate prey and it’s jumping ability to pounce and capture it.

Huntsman spider (Sparassidae)

Huntsman spiders can grow up to a legspan of 12 inches and will bite if provoked. Huntsman spiders are not deadly to humans though, the victim will suffer only minor swelling and localised pain, recovering in a day or two.

Mexican redknee tarantula (Brachypelma Smithi)

In the wild, the redknee will consume almost any kind of arthropod, small lizard, or small rodent that they can overpower and immobilize with their venom. After moulting, it will emerge from its exoskeleton leaving the old skin behind, looking like a second spider.

Barn spider (Araneus cavaticus)

This spider was made famous by the book, Charlotte’s Web. The book’s spider was called Charlotte A. Cavatica, and the barn spider’s scientific name is Araneus cavaticus.

More than 500 high-definition TV shows and movies will be available on demand from Amazon, the Seattle-based company announced Tuesday. Titles from Warner Bros. Entertainment, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, MGM, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, and Showtime Networks include recent releases such as Frost/Nixon, Twilight, Yes Man, Californication, The Tudors, Smallville and Gossip Girl.

Blu-Ray ‘Quaking in Its Boots’?

The videos are available through several compatible devices — the Roku digital video player, several TiVo DVRs, the Sony Bravia Video Link, and Panasonic VIERA CAST-enabled HDTVs.

Rental prices are $3.99 to $4.99. HD TV shows can also be purchased and watched on Macs or PCs through compatible devices or downloaded for offline viewing for $2.99.

Some observers have contended that online delivery of HD is a major competitor to the still-growing Blu-ray Disc format. But Ross Rubin, director of analysis for consumer technology at the NPD Group, said that Blu-ray is still the preferred medium for HD purchases.

Josh Martin, an analyst at Yankee Group, agreed, saying that he doesn’t “think Blu-ray is quaking in its boots quite yet.” He added that Amazon is still a relative niche player in this market, with only Apple’s iTunes Store the “800-pound gorilla.”

Good-Enough Quality

But James McQuivey at Forrester pointed out that there’s HD, and then there’s HD. “HD streamed over the Web,” he noted, “is usually lower quality than HD in Blu-ray.” The issue for Blu-ray, he said, is that the quality is good enough for most people, just as up-converted regular DVDs can be good enough.

McQuivey said this is one reason Blu-ray prices are falling, because “fewer people are willing to pay a premium to get hold of Blu-ray content when other experiences are good enough.”

Rubin said the on-demand impulse might be awakened by Amazon and others like it, but it would currently be…