jonlee.ca

Although only a couple days after its initial release, people have already discovered an Easter egg embedded in Firefox 3.  (Note: This was actually discovered in the beta versions).  The about:mozilla Easter egg has been around for a while.  This is something new.

Robots!
You can see the Easter egg yourself by typing about:robots into the address bar.  You’ll get something that looks like the screenshot on the right.  Don’t get all the robotic references? Don’t worry, I’ll explain them.

Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!

The title of the page is a reference to “one of the most famous commands in science fiction” (Wikipedia).  It is a quote taken from the 1951 film “The Day the Earth Stood Still” — here is the scene:

We have come to visit you in peace and with goodwill!

This quote is also taken from the same movie, “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and is spoken by Klaatu when he first exits his spacecraft.  Here’s the clip, skip to about 4:10 to hear the actual quote.

Robots may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

This statement is the first of the Three Laws of Robotics by the famous science fiction author Issac Asimov.

Robots have seen things you people wouldn’t believe.

Taken from the ending of the movie Blade Runner.  Clip here:

Robots are Your Plastic Pal Who’s Fun To Be With.

This is a quote taken from Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  It is how the fictional company Sirius Cybernetics Corporation defines a “robot”.

Robots have shiny metal posteriors which should not be bitten.

I’m pretty sure this is a reference to Futurama’s Bender.  He is often quoted saying “Bite my shiny metal ass!”

And they have a plan.

This is a pretty generic statement but it’s most likely a reference to the sci-fi TV show Battlestar Galactica referring to the Cylons.

There is also the standard “Try Again” button that appears on Firefox error pages when a page cannot load.  If you click it, it turns into a mocking “Please do not press this button again.”  Of course, how can you resist right?  Pressing it again will turn make it disappear.

Looking at the source code, this button in fact does absolutely nothing.  It is also interesting to note that the source code contains a link to a Mozilla page which contains the words

THERE IS NO DATA.
THERE IS ONLY XUL.

and a link to the XUL project.

Finally, the picture of the robot (as well as the favicon — its animated!) is the Firefox robot mascot.

Also, a little technical detail.  The animated favicon for the page is referenced inline using the data: URI scheme and the markup is in base64 encoding.  Try it, you can copy and paste the following to see the little robot appear entirely locally.

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Popularity: 21% [?]

This entry was posted on Friday, June 20th, 2008 at 6:39 pm and is filed under Entertainment, Web Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.