What is that thing?

Discussion of general topics about Mozilla Firefox
Post Reply
Bennyd
Posts: 193
Joined: April 23rd, 2005, 6:53 am

What is that thing?

Post by Bennyd »

I got a page from Firefox that said "Hmm. We’re having trouble finding that site."

On that page was a blue line drawing of some sort of creature holding a road map of Arizona. Looks sort of like a potato, but it's probably something else. What is it?
User avatar
Frank Lion
Posts: 21173
Joined: April 23rd, 2004, 6:59 pm
Location: ... The Exorcist....United Kingdom
Contact:

Re: What is that thing?

Post by Frank Lion »

Bennyd wrote: Looks sort of like a potato, but it's probably something else. What is it?
CEO of Mozilla probably.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
.
User avatar
therube
Posts: 21698
Joined: March 10th, 2004, 9:59 pm
Location: Maryland USA

Re: What is that thing?

Post by therube »

LOL.
Fire 750, bring back 250.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.19) Gecko/20110420 SeaMonkey/2.0.14 Pinball CopyURL+ FetchTextURL FlashGot NoScript
User avatar
Gingerbread Man
Posts: 7735
Joined: January 30th, 2007, 10:55 am

Re: What is that thing?

Post by Gingerbread Man »

It's probably a dinosaur, in reference to Mozilla's old logo. Though it could just as easily be a made-up fantasy creature like this unicorn:

Code: Select all

resource://onboarding/img/figure_customize.svg
Bennyd
Posts: 193
Joined: April 23rd, 2005, 6:53 am

Re: What is that thing?

Post by Bennyd »

Here's what the creature looks like:

Image
User avatar
Frank Lion
Posts: 21173
Joined: April 23rd, 2004, 6:59 pm
Location: ... The Exorcist....United Kingdom
Contact:

Re: What is that thing?

Post by Frank Lion »

Bennyd wrote:Here's what the creature looks like:
Yeah, we know.

What do you want people to say? The UI and Mozilla webpages are stuffed with silly cartoon characters, who knows what they are or why they are there? Just something for people to look at while Mozilla 'We Protect Your Privacy' Firefox endlessly uploads telemetry data from their browser, probably.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
.
Bennyd
Posts: 193
Joined: April 23rd, 2005, 6:53 am

Re: What is that thing?

Post by Bennyd »

I wondered if Mozilla had an entire cartoon character menagerie and perhaps a planning a cartoon based on the characters - maybe a Mozilla superhero meeting internet dragons and doing battle?
Brummelchen
Posts: 4480
Joined: March 19th, 2005, 10:51 am

Re: What is that thing?

Post by Brummelchen »

you did not see the figures in the past when v57 rising on mozilla pages.
but malwarebytes aint better with its robots and other drawings.

although it do not concern firefox functionality it seems unsual for a "professional" product mozilla wants to point out.
not really helpful and convincing.
User avatar
Grumpus
Posts: 13236
Joined: October 19th, 2007, 4:23 am
Location: ... Da' Swamp

Re: What is that thing?

Post by Grumpus »

Seems to be similar to the fiasco HP tried a decade plus ago where they had the Monopoly looking characters waving Hi and showing you where everything is and giving explanations. It was no more than a shell which overloaded the actual system. Tech support for HP used to help remove it over the phone and it improved performance 10 fold.
Best guess these were kept simple to keep from reducing performance though it's probably not a factor with today's systems.
I think they're cute and pudgy.
Doesn't matter what you say, it's wrong for a toaster to walk around the house and talk to you
User avatar
Gingerbread Man
Posts: 7735
Joined: January 30th, 2007, 10:55 am

Re: What is that thing?

Post by Gingerbread Man »

Bennyd wrote:I wondered if Mozilla had an entire cartoon character menagerie
Yes: http://design.firefox.com/photon/visual ... ation.html
Grumpus wrote:Seems to be similar to the fiasco HP tried a decade plus ago
Not every company can create a character as universally adored as Clippy.
Grumpus wrote:I think they're cute and pudgy.
I'm not a fan, but I don't particularly mind them, apart from the vomiting unicorn.
User avatar
Grumpus
Posts: 13236
Joined: October 19th, 2007, 4:23 am
Location: ... Da' Swamp

Re: What is that thing?

Post by Grumpus »

Probably ought to be sensitive as they may have come from children, but the Unicorn is suspect.
Doesn't matter what you say, it's wrong for a toaster to walk around the house and talk to you
User avatar
lovemyfoxy
Posts: 2337
Joined: December 11th, 2009, 11:23 am
Location: USA

Re: What is that thing?

Post by lovemyfoxy »

Bennyd wrote:I wondered if Mozilla had an entire cartoon character menagerie and perhaps a planning a cartoon based on the characters - maybe a Mozilla superhero meeting internet dragons and doing battle?
The old Mz had only one, doing various activities. I made this collage from them:

https://get.google.com/albumarchive/104 ... qPS-eLviQE
2 Desktops--Win 7 Ult.SP1 x64/6GB RAM /Firefox 52.9ESR/Waterfox64 2022.11/Thunderbird 52.9ESR/BitWarden PW Manager/Verizon FIOS wired network
User avatar
lovemyfoxy
Posts: 2337
Joined: December 11th, 2009, 11:23 am
Location: USA

Re: What is that thing?

Post by lovemyfoxy »

Gingerbread Man wrote:
Bennyd wrote:I wondered if Mozilla had an entire cartoon character menagerie
Yes: http://design.firefox.com/photon/visual ... ation.html
Grumpus wrote:Seems to be similar to the fiasco HP tried a decade plus ago
Not every company can create a character as universally adored as Clippy.
Grumpus wrote:I think they're cute and pudgy.
I'm not a fan, but I don't particularly mind them, apart from the vomiting unicorn.
They look like they were designed by a 7-year-old. I thought the first one was a potato wearing a scarf. At least Clippy was well done. And the old Moz was clever.
2 Desktops--Win 7 Ult.SP1 x64/6GB RAM /Firefox 52.9ESR/Waterfox64 2022.11/Thunderbird 52.9ESR/BitWarden PW Manager/Verizon FIOS wired network
User avatar
Frank Lion
Posts: 21173
Joined: April 23rd, 2004, 6:59 pm
Location: ... The Exorcist....United Kingdom
Contact:

Re: What is that thing?

Post by Frank Lion »

For those of you aged over the age of 10, you might want to put this is the addressbar of 57 - chrome://browser/skin/customizableui/empty-overflow-panel.png

It is that they are referring to as the 'drop dragon' in the internal code, here -

Code: Select all

/**
 * We create a ::before pseudoelement that contains a background image to show the
 * drop dragon. This element fades in and out depending on whether the containing
 * panel list is empty and unhovered, or not.
 */
#customization-panelHolder > #widget-overflow-fixed-list:not(:empty) {
  padding-bottom: 50px; /* Make sure there's always space to drop stuff. */
  border-top: 1px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.1);
}

#customization-panelHolder > #widget-overflow-fixed-list::before {
  display: block;
  content: "";
  background-image: url("chrome://browser/skin/customizableui/empty-overflow-panel.png");
  background-position: center bottom 10px;
  background-size: 218px 134px;
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  opacity: 0;
  transition: opacity 300ms ease-out;
  padding-bottom: 154px; /* 154 = 134 for the image, 10px space on either side. */
  margin-bottom: -154px; /* don't affect positioning of the actual contents */
  pointer-events: none;
}
Of course, that also means you now know how to get rid of the damn ugly thing as well, doesn't it? ;)
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
.
User avatar
lovemyfoxy
Posts: 2337
Joined: December 11th, 2009, 11:23 am
Location: USA

Re: What is that thing?

Post by lovemyfoxy »

I don't get those cartoons.
2 Desktops--Win 7 Ult.SP1 x64/6GB RAM /Firefox 52.9ESR/Waterfox64 2022.11/Thunderbird 52.9ESR/BitWarden PW Manager/Verizon FIOS wired network
Post Reply