S t U p i D   H T m l   T R i C K s


As someone who appreciates experimentation and discovery, I've been dabbling in the more obscure aspects of html and I've come up with some pretty neat stuff. This is a collection of stupid, interesting, and otherwise anomalous html tricks. There are also several ways to either crash or seriously meddle with your Browser.

For the sake of consistency, I'm using the 32-bit version (Windows 95) of Netscape 3.0. Which means that things will only look exactly right on this particular browser. However, much of it will probably work on other browsers, including but not limited to future versions of Netscape.

Also note that I am being very liberal and considering JavaScript to be an extension of html, and so quite a few of these tricks will use JavaScript to achieve their effects.

(1)

This is a button which acts the same as a link. It can be used to disguise the destination of a link or just as an alternate way to do links. Here's how you do it:
<form action="../index.html"><input type=submit value="Click Me."></form>

(2)

By using JavaScript, you can have links say stuff other than their destination in the status window: (The following link really just points back to this file, html.html)

Click here to access secret FBI data files!

To do this, just add an onMouseOver and onMouseOut attribute to the <a href> tag:
<a href="realplace.html" onMouseOver="window.status='fakeplace.html';return true" onMouseOut="window.status='Document: Done';return true">Link Text</a>

JavaScript is dumb, so you want to keep everything inside the quotes on the same line in the html file, or else you will get error messages.

(3)

Okay, this one is really spectacular if you have a version less than Netscape 3.0. 3.0 will catch it and stop it before it gets really bad. But, if you're running an older version, like 2.02, check this out:

[Crash your browser with method #1:100s of JavaScript windows!]

If you have version 3.0 or want to see a slightly different way of doing it, look at this page (in some cases the results are even more spectacular):

[Crash your browser with method #2:100s of JavaScript windows for newer Netscapes!]

Note: These are harmless. The worst thing they will do is use up all your memory and bring your computer to a halt; there is no reason why they'd damage files or data on your computer (it'd be a good idea to close other applications if you intend on letting it run its course and crash the computer).

(4)

Your own personal drawing thingie! Click here to get the form-driven drawing thingie!

(5)

Another way to crash your browser; it's the JavaScript Overpopulation Simulation! This script causes the browser windows to reproduce asexually, which gives a geometric growth in population. How many browsers can your operating system hold? Find out!

[Crash your browser with method #3:Asexual Browser Windows!]

(6)

JavaScript can be used to change the background color of the page, so you can give the viewer a choice. Click the buttons below to change the background of this page:

The code for these buttons looks like this: 

<input type=button
       value="Blue"
       onClick='document.bgColor="#AAAAFF"'>

If your browser isn't crashed yet,

(And if that didn't work, just click here. =)

[]

Last update: 18 January 1997 22:42:20 EST