It's been a looooong time since I've done anything resembling serious web design, so my initial reaction was an iframe-induced panic—what black magic is this, etc—but a quick View Source painted a neat, tidy picture of CSS and Javascript, working together to shatter our basic intuitions about How Things Move, on the internet.

And while it may be a decade late, this is the first truly compelling use for Windows' old Active Desktop feature I've ever seen. This one's for you, inexplicably extant Windows ME users. [Scroll Clock—Thanks, Marco!]

The new, much sleeker MyXbox page offers quicker access to achievements, recently viewed friends, recently played games, and the like, through a nice highlighted menu. Basically, it's looking more and more like the Xbox's Dashboard, which we're sure is intentional. Go check it out if you're an Xbox Live user. [Thanks, Shiron!, image from Co-Optimus]

If you're like me, you may be surprised to hear that GeoCities still existed in any form—but it does, apparently, hosting flat HTML pages and dithered GIFs for free just like it's been doing since '94, before anyone knew anything about the word blog, or Google, or much of anything. Yahoo just quietly pulled the plug; no new accounts can be registered, and those with pages still being hosted will receive further instructions on how to save them from the fire this summer.

I was debating on whether or not to show you my original Geocities page, but it's kind of late, so what the fuck. Here it is. Like my first phone number I still remember its awkward, faux-geography-based URL by heart.

Yes, revel in my hilariously precious high school writings on Magnolia, seeing REM and other bands I worshipped play around the Midwest, and trading concert tapes. Yeah, concert tapes. You kids today may not remember, but back in the old days it took like 45 minutes to download a single 96kbps MP3 on a 28.8 modem over Napster. And Lord knows I couldn't tie up the phone lines that long. Also note my overuse of the semi-colon; I love it to this day! I must say though I was kind of way ahead of the curve in terms of the mixed-typography-size, minimalist-web-design tip. And boy was I funny.

I'll miss you GeoCities, you were my first. Now that I've shown mine, commenters, show me yours! This will be the first and last time I ever ask anything resembling that question ever. [TechCrunch]

Comparing the two makes it perfectly clear just how much has changed since 2001, and what we hope will come tomorrow: Flash, blogs, bigger monitors and broadband internet.

Oh wait. Well, you know, some such optimism about our first-ever connected president, technology and the future, yadda yadda. [White House, Wayback Machine via PatrickMcConnel via 10000Words via Editorialiste]

From one of Netanyahu's top advisors:

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. We’re all in the same business, so we took a close look at a guy who has been the most successful and tried to learn from him.

I never doubted that Obama's successful technological campaign would be imitated by others in the future, but never did I expect it so soon...let alone in a semi-literal mirror image. [NYTimes via The Raw Feed]

We are not going to parade nuns in bathing suits. But being ugly is not a requirement for becoming a nun. External beauty is gift from God, and we mustn't hide it.

While most of us are having a good-hearted chuckle, beware. There are a handful of people—some of whom you may actually know—who are taking the news with great, sweaty anticipation. [CNN]

First, there's a 90-second time limit on all uploads. Needless to say, that's extremely low. Flickr acknowledges that it "might seem arbitrary." And it is. Whether or not it supports tighter editing or cleaner presentation, why 90? Why not 89? 60? The time limit might not be a bad thing, but it's certainly arbitrary.

And also to note: not everyone can upload videos. Pro users have the option, but standard users will need to spend some dough for the privilege.

A quick test finds that the service is no more difficult than uploading photos, and it's pretty quick to boot. Also, advanced embedding functions allow for users to choose their preferred width or height for the video and the service will calculate the dimensions and update the code accordingly. That sounds like a small touch. It is, but it's also a pretty good one lacking in just about all video on the web. [flickr video]

Sounds like that Internet bubble is expanding again. There's got to be a catch. – Charlie White

divShare Site [Diversion Web Publishing, LLC]

OK, commenters, your turn: how would you label a cassette featuring your intrepid Giz editors? – Charlie White

Cassette Generator [SaysIt, via Boing Boing]

If America isn't about the small startup company, then it's about fast food and monster trucks. We're going with small startup. IpodNames.com is a new site where you can register the name of your iPod for a dollar, along with its location and music preference.

For instance, my iPod is named Unicorn Princess. She's a feisty Virgo from Chicago who enjoys rocking out to soft country rock and Beethoven's Greatest Hits. Once in a while she'll relax in a tub with some smooth jazz, munching on bonbons while crying about the ticking time bomb that is her biological clock. All she really wants is a Nano - or even a Shuffle to call her own. Look, I just don't want kids....not right now. They are just too much responsibility and I really want to hit up Rome and Tokyo without the screaming strollers and formula, ok? And let's face it; neither of us are going to want a Nano five years from now. There, I said it. It's out there and we both have to deal with it. – Mark Wilson

iPodNames

Notice the graphic above, showing a Gizmodo post I wrote yesterday that was accompanied by a rather erotic photo of a muddied-up babe, which some readers said earned them dirty looks from prudish colleagues. Looks pretty tame now, doesn't it? Now you're getting it. There's even a Boss Key that substitutes corporate-looking text for whatever it was you were reading that might've been objectionable. Great way to read the Giz on the sly. – Charlie White

Enter URL Here [work Friendly, via Fleshbot (NSFW)]

The site is only been online officially for just a few hours, yet there are already thousands of videos available. The company has made deals with program producers to sell ads between each video, which it will share with the owners of that content. The site runs a crazy-fast Flash-based video player, starting the videos immediately after you click on them, and letting you easily build up your own playlists. The quality of the video playback is damn good, too—smooth and clean. Plus, there's internal bookmarking within the clips, letting you skip from one section to the next.

Let's see what happens to the site's performance as soon as the rest of the world finds out about it. Can it scale or not? Either way, this is one to watch. – Charlie White

Gotuit [via TechCrunch]

Website [ChannelGuide360]

Anyway, here's an entire website dedicated to hating DRM. We encourage you to blow this site up with your rants and haterage. And then purchase the next iPod Pepto with uber-ninja DRM++.

The marketing and PR companies want you to believe that they are combating piracy of their content. This is completely untrue. Every DRM scheme out there can be easily defeated by a person with the will, time, and money (aka pirates). So what is DRM really designed to do?

Well, someone had to say it!

Website [IHateDRM]