Netscape Meteors post

content/blog/2023/netscape-meteors/index.md

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+---
+title: "Netscape Meteors"
+date: 2023-08-01T18:23:33-07:00
+resources:
+    - name: netscape60
+      title: Netscape Meteor Loading Animation
+      src: netscape-meteors.gif
+    - name: netscape-modified60
+      title: Modified Netscape Meteor Loading Animation, Small
+      src: netscape-meteors-modified-60.gif
+    - name: netscape-modified240
+      title: Modified Netscape Meteor Loading Animation, Large
+      src: netscape-meteors-modified-240.gif
+    - name: rectangular-pixels
+      title: Rectangular Pixels
+      src: rectangular-pixels.png
+      alt: "A zoomed in screenshot of an animation frame with pixel grid enabled, 
+            showing rectangular pixels"
+categories: Tech
+tags: ["Netscape", "History", "Web Browsers", "Web"]
+---
+
+I went on a small journey the last couple days to find the original Netscape
+Navigator "meteors" animation. This one has a special place in my head and
+heart because it is so clearly connected to my memories of discovering the
+web as a kid. Here it is in its original 60×60 px glory:
+
+{{< figures/image name=netscape60 shouldShowTitle=false >}}
+
+I started out doing some web searches that turned up several versions. One was
+promising but far too big: 400&times;400 px. Worse, after some shoddy resize
+attempts, the "pixels" had become rectangular.
+
+{{< figures/image name=rectangular-pixels shouldShowTitle=false >}}
+
+This would not do.
+
+I continued searching, hoping to find the original animations. I found someone's
+[mirror of Netscape 5.0 on Github][gh-netscape]. Then I found some [very old
+versions of Mozilla][moz-netscape] on a Mozilla FTP server. Sadly, the
+animations had been stripped out of these archives. :(
+
+Frustrated with hitting several deadends, I complained to {{< tess >}} and
+wondered aloud if anyone might have the original images stashed away somewhere.
+She quipped that if anyone did, it would be Jamie Zawinski.
+
+A little later, I posted about it on Mastodon.
+
+<iframe
+    src="https://mastodon.social/@erynofwales/110817133916254596/embed"
+    class="mastodon-embed"
+    style="max-width: 100%; border: 0"
+    width="400"
+    allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen">
+</iframe>
+
+And wouldn't you know it, a friend tagged [`@jwz`][masto-jwz] asking if he had
+it, and a few moments later I got a reply from [Jamie][jwz] himself.
+
+<iframe
+    src="https://mastodon.social/@jwz/110817331045294426/embed"
+    class="mastodon-embed"
+    style="max-width: 100%; border: 0"
+    width="400"
+    allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen">
+</iframe>
+
+If you don't know, Jamie Zawinski is well-know for working on several important
+software projects in the '90s. He worked on Netscape Navigator, built and
+maintains [Xscreensaver][xscreensaver], and several other things. Nowadays, he
+owns and runs [DNA Lounge][dna] in San Francisco.
+
+There are a lot of neat bits of web browser history on the page he linked --
+totally worth a quick look over -- but most important to the quest at hand, it
+had that Netscape meteors loading animation.
+
+The original one has some small artifacts on the left side of frame 10 that
+render as red and orange pixels. These bothered me enough that I made a version
+that replaces those pixels with ones that match the surrounding pixels. Here's
+the modified 60&times;60 one and a bigger 240&times;240 px one, for good
+measure:
+
+{{< figures/image names="netscape-modified60,netscape-modified240" shouldShowTitle=false >}}
+
+<script src="https://mastodon.social/embed.js" async="async"></script>
+
+[gh-netscape]: https://github.com/zii/netscape
+[moz-netscape]: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla/source/
+[masto-jwz]: https://mastodon.social/@jwz
+[jwz]: https://www.jwz.org
+[xscreensaver]: https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/
+[dna]: https://www.jwz.org
+[about-jwz]: https://www.jwz.org/doc/about-jwz.html