about:internets
This is what you see when you visit about:internets. This is freaking awesome.
Years ago there was an idea to include the kitchen sink in Mozilla (you can view it here, not sure if that works in IE). It was a good idea considering it had everything else at the time.
I initially thought it was written using <canvas/>. I tried the typical view-source:, but in this case it doesn’t seem to work. The performance was really smooth with minimal CPU, more than <canvas/> typically allows. Now I was curious.
Then looking at the source it became obvious in about 0.1 seconds:
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PathService::Get(base::DIR_SYSTEM, &path);
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file_util::AppendToPath(&path, L"sspipes.scr");
It’s using the actual Windows screensaver (which is why it doesn’t work in Vista I presume). I hope for the Mac and Linux port they bundle jwz’s excellent XScreenSaver. Due to jwz’s impact in browsers and open source, I think there would be even better easter egg. From a quick look at the code it seems it’s not hard to do since every tab is it’s own process, it’s essentially just running the process inside the view.
For those who don’t understand why this is all so amusing, read this Wikipedia article about the “Series of Tubes“. It will only kill a small percentage of brain cells since it’s just the Wikipedia article explaining it. There are other Tubes references as I mentioned last night.
Thanks to those who left a comment in my last post for pointing this out.
By the way, check out Brendan’s post on TraceMonkey performance. He did a better comparison at actual JS performance. I only looked at selectors really quick.
Tags: chrome, Google, Mozilla, ted-stevens
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:34 pm
about:internets | Robert Accettura’s Fun With Wordage…
This is what you see when you visit about:internets. This is freaking awesome (και λίγα λες) It’s using the actual Windows screensaver (which is why it doesn’t work in Vista I presume)….
September 3rd, 2008 at 3:53 pm
[...] Accettura worked out how this was implemented by exploring the Chrome source code. All Chrome does is to call the Windows [...]
September 3rd, 2008 at 5:36 pm
[...] Chrome I thought you guys might find this interesting. Here are his initial thoughts on Chrome, and the easter egg he discovered. External link: [...]
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Yeh, it really doesn’t work with vista.
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Doesn’t work here either, in Vista. Tab has a different text “The Tubes are … ” something, but no screensaver.
September 3rd, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Correct. Vista doesn’t include the screensaver so it doesn’t work. Technically if you put another screensaver in the Windows Screen Saver directory with the name
sspipes.scrit should run that. This is a known issue (even referenced in the code).September 4th, 2008 at 6:41 am
[...] - Curiosità: prova a scrivere nella barra degli indirizzi “about:internets“. [...]
September 4th, 2008 at 10:02 am
[...] a fun thing to do with Google Chrome. If you type about:internets in the Omnibar, you get this. I tried it while connected to my PC [...]
September 4th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
[...] Cute meme-geeky easter egg in Google’s new webbrowser Chrome: This is what you see when you visit about:internets. This is freaking awesome. [...]
September 4th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
[...] — адрес “about:internets” в новом браузере выглядит просто замечательно (this references two popular Internet memes: Internets and Series of tubes, ага). совсем [...]
September 4th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
No one in their right mind would be using Vista.
Use XP noobs!
September 5th, 2008 at 3:12 am
about:internets…
Laut Robert Accettura sieht man genau das, wenn man about:internets IM neuen Google Ding eingibt. Wenn es tatsächlich so ist, dann ist es das Einzige, was ich irgendwie toll finde, an diesem ne…
September 5th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
this has got to be one of the funniest easter eggs i have seen in a LONG time. f u ted stevens
September 6th, 2008 at 1:12 am
[...] Yes. The easter egg (or perhaps one of the easter eggs, not sure) appears when you type about:internets in the address bar. Note however this only works on Windows XP, not on Vista. If you can’t see it, take a look at this screenshot… [...]
September 6th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I tested this before on VMWare on the Mac for Windows XP SP3 and nothing happened, but sure shows off Google’s awesome sense of humor!
Cheers.
September 7th, 2008 at 3:30 am
[...] Accettura and Waxy.org] « Terminator Season 2 premieres on Monday with extra gadgety [...]
September 7th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
[...] "about:internets" Easter egg in Google Chrome (tags: totag) [...]
September 16th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
there are so many advantages and features with Chrome, such as it’s speed, for example; now if only they would take care it’s quirky cookie management…
September 21st, 2008 at 9:34 am
[...] premier trouvé par Robert Accetura est l’image ci-dessous qui apparaît est l’image ci-dessous qui apparaît quand on tape [...]
December 13th, 2008 at 7:02 am
The Kitchen Sink ‘hack’ in Mozilla is actually just a google search using the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ option.