Whenever there is a trend, there will always be somebody to spoof it. Such has been one of the mantras of culture jamming: Use parody as a form of critique. Abbie Hoffman went to his trial dressed up in judicial robes to poke fun at the judge. Sub Pop sales rep Megan Jasper once fed eager reporters from the New York Times the scoop on "Grunge Speak," that was only revealed as hoax after the newspaper printed an entire column on the topic. Or Trent Reznor's Strobe Light, a not-so-subtle critical take on Chris Cornell's latest solo album disaster with Timbaland. Well, Steal This Computer Book is kinda like that.

Quietly slipped into the section at your bookstore where they place all the "For Dummies" computer manuals and security books, Steal This Computer Book is, on the surface, a parody of the internet security frenzy, which, if you catch the hype-driven stories of "rogue computer hackers and e-terrorism" on the mainstream news media, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Steal This Computer Book delves not only into real-world security issues, but into the hacker mentality in general. Presented in the form of a technical manual, the book is divided into chapters, each discussing a specific topic, ranging from viruses and malware to filesharing to identity theft to con artists and much more. However, rather than approach these topics with a particular point of view, Wang describes them objectively in plain english so even some of the most novice users can get an idea of how things work. For example, when talking about trojan horses, Wang explains the basics of how they operate and how they get into your system, followed up with how they are created.

As many of you are probably aware, this past Monday marks the quiet, whimpering death of GeoCities. At one point the "go to" place for free web hosting, it has since succumbed to corporate overlords Yahoo!, who closed registration in April, and unceremoniously cut its life support on the 26th of this month.

For a service that essentially popularized the concept of "web sites for everybody," it is almost sad to see it go. Long before MySpace and LiveJournal hit the scene, GeoCities was one of the first places on the internet where, for free, one could setup a personal web site with minimal technical proficiency. However, since being bought by the Yahoo! juggernaut in 1999, the service stagnated as the rest of the web moved on.

Yahoo!'s failure to capitalize on GeoCities' potential has left the service steadily losing its userbase and traffic throughout the new millennium, leaving behind a massive archive of what was the origins of today's internet. Many of today's biggest tech and gaming websites started off as free pages on GeoCities. (Zangaroa's predecessor, VGRC, originated on their biggest rival, Tripod.com, who still continues today under the ownership of Lycos.) If you wanted an example of "90's Internet," all you had to do was point someone towards GeoCities. Animated gif backgrounds, road signs that were edited to say "Under Construction" and frameset-based layouts; GeoCities was an example of an internet that still hadn't reached maturity.

But after years of losing traffic, all-around general stagnation, and failing to make any real profit for Yahoo!, maybe it's for the best. Most sites on GeoCities have been near-impossible to browse anyways, having been plastered with millions of Yahoo! ads that drove most of the userbase away. Still, it's a shame to see it go, as Eliot said, "not with a bang, but with a whimper." No last huzzahs, no parties, nothing. Just pull the plug and move on. Kinda makes sense though; no sense getting attached now.

But the least we can do is salute the old dog, as Yahoo! takes it to the backwoods to plant a bullet in its skull. But it's OK kids, GeoCities is old and tired, it won't feel a thing...