Staggering Beauty fun JavaScript demo

Large "Staggering Beauty" is a fun JavaScript demo by George Michael Brower. Play with it for a while. "Those at risk of epileptic seizures should choose a different website." Staggering Beauty (via Chrome Experiments)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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Conan Librarian

I think that website gave me autism.
bumblebeeeeeee

JS? should be doing that in pure HTML5 these days.
- SamSam
  
  JS is normally considered to go hand-in-hand with HTML5. I’m pretty certain it would be impossible to recreate that (fairly bizzarre) demo without any scripting what-so-ever.
  
  Do you have an example that is similar and uses only HTML markup?
  - Ihavenofuckingname
    - bumblebeeeeeee
      
      you’ve slipped over one line of code. must try harder.
- http://twitter.com/AwesomeRobot AwesomeRobot
  
  You have no idea what you’re talking about.
  - bumblebeeeeeee
    
    shouts the guy with the broken tumblr-based portfolio site.
- http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
  
  Look ma, no CSS!
archanoid

For various definitions of the word “fun” I suppose.
http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch

Screw you, David. Just… screw you.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/TGZ75URQ6DKTCNXV3RV36ZKALQ Matthew

This reminds me of a certain scene shown to the “focus group” in the movie Brüno.
http://www.zachstronaut.com/ zachstronaut

Inverse kinematics noodle plus juiciness set to 11 plus crazy equals…
Ashen Victor

Shake vigorously?
Gruuuunnnnnghfffffffffffglaglagalagh!
/drops dead
DimeSpin

… uh, okay.
imag

Hly crp! That is awesome.
katkins

Probably my intended audience will not see this, but take the epileptic seizure warning seriously…
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=536012661 Maggie McGuire

ooooooh, please add a those-with-headphones warning! I am now deaf.
dolo54

A good example of the problems with developing for html5/javascript. Looks good in Chrome, crashes in Firefox, no background or sound in IE9, doesn’t work at all in IE8. And that’s for a demo of the type of ‘cool’ experiment being done in Flash 10 years ago (which would’ve worked the same on all browsers at the time). Thanks Adobe! Thanks Steve Jobs!
- http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
  
  Steve Jobs didn’t invent HTML5 or Javascript, and both are infinitely more appropriate for their purpose and are much nicer to develop with – no propriety languages in closed systems for a start.
  
  However I will concede that HTML5/JS can be troublesome in browsers other than Chrome if you’re building something specifically for Chrome, that’s intended for something other than Chrome.
  
  Outside of this scenario the most you’ll likely need to do to ensure total compatibility is to include an HTML5 tag fix for IE. Written in Javascript.
  - dolo54
    
    Most of the work I do these days is writing html5/js apps. It’s hardly that simple to get it to work across platforms. While AS3 may be proprietary is it at least open source, both the language and compiler, not a closed platform at all.
    
    The Steve Jobs comment referenced the fact that he basically killed Flash went he decided he didn’t want a technology to compete with his app market. Adobe in turn failed in their stewardship of the platform. While it’s a matter of opinion, I can’t agree that html5/js is nicer to develop with, in fact it’s way behind Flash’s capabilities, not to mention that AS3 is a true OOP, strongly-typed language.
    
    While having a non-proprietary language standard like html5 and js sounds nice, in fact it creates terrible stagnation. Look how long it takes to approve new standards, and then be adopted. How long do you think until browser penetration will fully support a robust interactive html5 app? How long until html6 is approved? These times are measured in decades not years. Flash added a great many new features every year or two. Now it has full 3d hardware acceleration. How long til html5 has 3d hardware acceleration on all major browsers? Right now it’s difficult to get sound synced properly on different browsers, a very basic requirement for any rich web experience.
    
    If you just develop for one browser, like Chrome, you are, in essence, replacing one proprietary platform for another.
    - http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
      
      I agree with most of your points, but it’s contextual. Striving for maximum comparability can often result in cutting off the nose to spite the face – especially when you’re trying to cater for a fringe audience. My point was that in the vast majority of circumstances there isn’t a compatibility issue, and it’s only when you’re doing quite advanced stuff (likely what youre referring to, sass and the like) that you run into problems – but even then they’re relatively minor IMO. Or if you’re trying to run something built for a specific browser in a different browser (like this experiment).
      
      I guess it’s a preference thing to some extent. I much prefer web markup to Flash. I started to really dislike using flash for common web stuff (slide shows etc) long before it became unfashionable. Although I never graduated from AS2.
      
      Incidentally I’ve been around the block with Flash, so even though I’m a UX guy, not a developer, I’m at least not your average Internet flash basher.
- bcsizemo
  
  I think you mean crashes in your Firefox install. Because it works fine in mine. (14.0.1)
- stygyan
  
  You know the best about HTML5/Javascript/CSS3? The fact that you can look behind the stage and take a look at how it is done.
  
  You can’t do that with flash.
- teapot
  
  Works OK for me in FF. Works fine in Safari. IE…. really?
  
  Why sarcastically thank Adobe? They still make and support flash for PC browsers. Steve Jobs might have disliked flash but his choices did not kill flash. I think your anger is misdirected. Put down the debugger and take a walk outside.
  
  Interesting tidbit: Fl CS6 can export work native to any device and html5. Flash (the filetpye) is on its way out but Flash (the development tool) is alive and kicking.
http://twitter.com/rebelwarrior David Acevedo

What the heck is this guy trying to start a seizure??
DO NOT look at this site. I got an immediate headache from it.
bobtato

That reminds me of a less distressing demo I made a while back ( http://www.bobhobbs.com/files/cloud3.html ).
- dolo54
  
  very cool!
- JProffitt71
  
  I feel fantastically dirty.
- GyroMagician
  
  A very happy mutant :-) I guess this is our unicorn chaser.
http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

By no means the best experiment I’ve seen, but definitely one of the weirdest!
optuser

…aaaand how is this not a penis toy?
- Cowicide
  
  I don’t know about you, but I saved the bookmark to the site as “Javascript Dildo-esque Plaything”
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    When all you have is a prostate, everything looks like a dildo.
    - awjt
      
      It’s so unfortunate, too, because all we have is a P-spot, and that means something else when you say it aloud. Ergh.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        Usually referred to as the sweet spot.
Nathan G

It’s a spaghatta nadle!
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kenahoo Ken Williams

That was fun – I always wondered whether I had epilepsy, and I guess I don’t!
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  The thing about seizures is that you don’t necessarily know that you had one.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=684587501 Suzanne Wednesday

Jeez, thanks for that. Scared the crap out of me.