Build Date: Thu Mar 28 11:10:09 2024 UTC
Man! I didn't even know they _had_ retarded monkey whorehouses. Cool!
-- Mr. Bad
Skins! For Browsers!
2000-04-11 02:10:14
"Welcome to Fruity Gum," it says above the web browser's address bar. The "back" and "forward" buttons are red and white squares that look like Chiclets. And the icon loading the bookmark file is an orange circle with yellow arrows pointing in all directions, over a purple-and-red honeycomb pattern.
They're skins, ladies and gentlemen. Skins! The preview version of Netscape 6 and various versions of Mozilla now includes the ability to change around the color scheme, icons, and other attributes on the interface -- just like the countless skins for mp3 players! (Their design strategy is simple: Why just have an mp3 player when you can have an mp3 player that displays a picture of Christina Aguilera or the Mountain Dew logo while it endlessly scrolls the titles of your mp3s.)
The browser skin I've tested most is "Fruity Gum," based on an earlier skin called Aphrodite that Open Source coders developed. It's the browser of the future -- fulfilling that long-standing wish to replace the standard-issue green with -- something else! The thing I like is when you hold your mouse over the buttons, grey vertical bars move across them. And at the bottom of the menus, Alphanumerica's developers put pictures of dragons holding office supplies. Just because they could.
The people behind "Fruity Gum" call it a design that "might not make your surfing experience any more useful, but it will certainly make it more fun." (For some reason, the page announcing the skin even linked to "CareBearDragon.com.") Right now it's nearly impossible to use if you want to do anything other than marvel at the interface -- all your bookmarks become illegible. But no matter how stupid it may seem, the novelty is there.
Soon we'll see browsers with anime and headshop psychedilia, as "browser skin authoring tools" let everyone try their hand at design toolbars. Browser designers will find themselves competing with the authors of GeoCities web pages about Knight Rider desktop themes. And everyone will be yapping about how the user interface is finally more DIY. Some people are saying this is a bad thing that will destroy user interface design as we know it -- but the ability to switch skins is already being coded into future versions of Mozilla. For better or worse, they're here.
I've seen the future, and it's skins.
T O P S T O R I E S
Mozart to be inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame
Joining such hard-rocking inductees as Abba, Chet Atkins, Nat King Cole, and Neil Diamond, the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame is proud to induct Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. (More...)
Gary Busey definitely involved in a hit and run accident
Gary Busey was definitely involved in a hit-and-run accident, but won't face any charges because he's rich and famous. (More...)
Gary Busey allegedly involved in Malibu hit-and-run
"Sir! You hit my car! I need your information!" the woman yelled at Gary Busey driving a battered Volvo station wagon before he sped off. (More...)
Health and Human Services officials spend a year on pot
After a yearlong, comprehensive, thorough, complete investigation into the effects of marijuana usage, Health and Human Services (HHS) officials recommended that it be moved from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act to Schedule III, meaning that the HHS no longer considers cannabis to be a drug with high abuse potential and no medical value. (More...)
If you've ever wondered what actual bullshit looks like, just check the back side of Lee Meyers' decommissioned police cruiser. Lee chopped the top of the passenger side of the car off so he could take his full-grown Watusi bull, named Howdy Doody, for joy rides around his home town of Neligh, Nebraska. Since the car doesn't have bathroom facilities Howdy Doody just craps all over the back and side of the car whenever he feels the need to let one go. (More...)
Self-righteous assholes block highway to Burning Man
A group of self-righteous assholes converted exactly zero people to their cause by blocking the highway to Burning Man this week. The group, which used a flimsy trailer, some lengths of chain, and a few folding chairs to block the road, put up signs including "Burners of the World Unite," but none of the burners stopped in traffic wanted to unite with them for anything. (More...)
C L A S S I C P I G D O G
A Day in the Life of a Beverotologist
It was starting to look like a very boring Saturday, trapped as I was in the suburban wastelands of the outer Bay Area, so I called my Able Assistant (AA) and proposed that we perform some Spocktail field tests. For some time I've been working on creating the quintessential cinematic beverage and even tho' SMRL does most of its testing during nocturnal hours, this seemed an opportune time to roll up the sleeves of our labcoats and get some science done. While the beverotology creation tested this day (The Neurotoxin) must be deemed a success, this article focuses more the journey of the experimenters, rather then the science of beverotology. (More...)
The Ancient and Correct Sake Ceremony
Many Americans have learned to appreciate the delicate, sophisticated flavors of Japanese food and drink, along with the beautifully refined rituals of Japanese dining. San Francisco, as a gateway between East and West, has especially benefited from the flowering of Eastern consciousness in America. It is hardly possible to walk down the street without stepping on somebody's sushi. (More...)
Spock Went, Spock Wrote, Spock Kicked Ass
Every Labor Day weekend a large portion of the PDJ staff joins 30,000 other freaks at one of the biggest and strangest art festivals in the world - Burning Man - somewhere on the edge of the Black Rock Desert. Our base of operations is always the ultra swank Spock Mountain Research Labs - the World Leaders in Beverage Science and Leisure Technology. This year, we hauled up our computers, printers and a massive digital duplicator, determined to become Black Rock City's third daily newspaper. Even Spock was surprised by our success - news will never be viewed the same on the playa. Read all seven issues of the 2002 Spock Science Monitor for yourself and see why. (More...)
Patient Joab's scientifick editorial discusses aspect of the space-time-beer continuum never before processed by sub-bush-robot minds!!! Too fabulantastic to contempulate! (More...)
The end of summer is near and sirens call of Black Rock City are beginning to summons Pigdoggers from all of the world to Burning Man. Spock Mountain Research Labs (SMRL), the world leader in beverage science and leisure technology will be at our second home for a week at 5:00 and Infant (how fitting) as we enjoy the liberated lifestyle of a temporary community 200 miles from nowhere... (More...)
Brother Wayne Lays Down the Truth
Flesh interviews Wayne Kramer of MC5. (More...)