[Eugene Volokh, February 3, 2007 at 5:01pm] Trackbacks
Funny Effect:

Go to google.com, clear out the address bar, copy and paste the following, and hit enter:

javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.images; DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5; DIS.top=Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5}R++}setInterval('A()',5); void(0);

Thanks to Google Blogoscoped, and to the indispensable GeekPress for the pointer.

David Matthews (mail):
Doesn't have to be Google. Try the same script at, for example: http://news.bbc.co.uk/
2.3.2007 6:08pm
Eugene Volokh (www):
Yup, just the effect with google.com's graphic looks especially amusing.
2.3.2007 6:24pm
SimonD (www):
Uh.... It doesn't do anything, at least not in Firefox running on OSX. Unless "No standard web pages containing all your search terms were found" is the punchline?
2.3.2007 6:26pm
DeezRightWingNutz:
You're not entering the text in the address bar, you're entering it in the search bar, SimonD.
2.3.2007 6:39pm
stinkoman:
I think it looks even better on the Drudge Report
2.3.2007 6:40pm
Beem:
Running the script for a Google image search is also amusing :)

P.S. Works with Firefox on WinXP. Make sure its the address bar and not the text field for Google's webpage.
2.3.2007 6:43pm
PlankReader (mail) (www):
Check it out at TNR's The Plank--trippy!
2.3.2007 6:58pm
Nathan Hall (mail):
Also amusing, enter the same command in the address bar again while it is running.
2.3.2007 7:42pm
SimonD (www):
DeezRightWingNutz - Ohhhhh... LOL. I get it.
2.3.2007 7:51pm
Zach Foreman (mail):
I tried it on GoogleNews the first time and it truly startled me.
2.3.2007 7:59pm
kita:
Also cool -- experiment with changing the numbers to see the speed change and the direction change. Best viewed on pages with colorful images. Works well on this site too!
2.3.2007 8:51pm
PatatAsininitydotcom (mail) (www):
That's nothing. Check out this amazing self-referential formula that plots itself. Scroll down past the dog stuff.
2.3.2007 10:31pm
Syd (mail):
Go here
http://www.abcgallery.com/
and choose your favorite artist.
2.3.2007 11:07pm
Manny Klausner (mail):
It doesn't work on all websites with Safari running on OSX, but it gives a good show on threemotenorsontour.com
2.4.2007 1:30am
Rick Wilcox (www):
Prof. Volokh:
So when I bomb my Physics exam tomorrow morning, who holds the liability for the lost time I could have spent playing video games studying?
2.4.2007 2:07am
E:
Rick, this IS physics!
2.4.2007 3:25pm
Bruce Hayden (mail) (www):
I wondered what the big deal was when I ran it under Firefox (1.5.0.7). But then I ran it with IE, and got the desired result. My initial thought was that the problem revolved around what preferences you have enabled in Firefox. But I couldn't find any that I had set that seemed to do this.

My next thought was that it may revolve around the difference between how IE and Firefox operate. Running Firefox's Javascript Console, I noted that it was flagging the DIS.left and DIS.top assignments as errors.

But that doesn't make sense, since those properties are apparently now both in the W3C standard and supported by Firefox. And, worse, the javascript works just fine in Mozilla (1.7.11).

Too late tonight to figure out why it doesn't work with the level of Firefox I am running, including all the myriad of Extensions I have installed, etc.

Nevertheless, I thought it quite clever.
2.5.2007 12:02am
Rick Wilcox (www):
E:
I could make that claim if I were taking Mechanics. I'm in eMag this semester. Hopefully I won't be taking re-mag or three-mag.
2.5.2007 5:13am
John M. Perkins (mail):
Not bad results at www.volokh.com

Maybe next weekend someone will blog the lyrics to Tommy Roe's greatest hit and favorite during minor league bat races.
2.5.2007 12:10pm
dsn:
Actually, the javascript causes large numbers of electromagnetic effects to happen ... currents flowing in transistors, photons being emitted from the screen as the google logo dances, and maybe even magnetic fields if something gets cached to disk ... all of which perfectly obey Maxwell's equations

Best of luck on your emag test. Remember, everything is really a capacitor, if you wave your hands enough.
2.6.2007 1:03am