This is a few months old, apparently, but I just heard the about:robots song this morning and it totally made my day. I really can’t explain how happy it makes me when people take our stuff and put their own creative twists on it.

Check it out:
about:robots

(via Justin Dolske)

It’s been well-documented that this year’s Mozilla Summit was a fairly eventful week, what with a highway-blocking rock slide, bear sightings and a half-day power outage on top of the talks, sessions, ping pong games, dinners, etc.

At the suggestion of Deb Richardson, we decided to immortalize the various dramas by turning them into a laptop sticker. Tim Hogan from the Royal Order was there to experience it all firsthand and was kind enough to translate the excitement into the artwork below (based, of course, on the original design by Nobox).

So, if you did indeed survive the Summit you should be getting one of these in the mail sometime in the next few weeks:

Readers of this blog will probably recognize the name Mike Beltzner as one of the key figures behind the creation of Firefox 3, not to mention a proud Canadian and contributor of some really good ideas to our little robot saga.

But, although Mike is closely associated with Firefox 3, I’d like to take this opportunity to make it clear that he is not, in fact, a robot. Just in case there was any confusion on that…

After the beta 5 release, it felt like we needed one final piece of robot artwork to really wrap up the entire Firefox 3 saga…something suitably epic and triumphant. So, in honor of today’s announcement that we have an official release date, I present to you:

(Click here for a bigger version.)

When I initially pitched the idea to Nobox, my concept was something like a triptych (quadtych?) that showed all the previous beta pages. Fortunately, they had the much better idea of combining the existing art with something new and even more grandiose, in the style of the classic Drew Struzan movie posters. From there, we ran with the movie poster concept, right down to the “Rated O for Open Source” tag at the bottom.

Big thanks to Jay, Hector and everyone at Nobox for all the creativity and expertise they’ve brought to this entire process. Finally, here are a few more random notes about the robot and what happens next:

* If you’re a fan of this art, we’ll soon be adding it to the Mozilla Store as a limited edition 18×24″ poster. More details on that to come…
* For a behind-the-scenes look at the early stages of the poster, check out the initial concept sketch.
* Currently the www.firefoxvictory.com URL points to the main Firefox download page, but I have a few ideas for turning it into a more participatory robot-related site. Stay tuned!
* Lastly, here’s a Flickr set of the entire series of Firefox 3 robot art.

(Digg this)

Asa tipped me off to this interesting post by Isriya Paireepairit in which Isriya notes certain similarities between the Firefox 3 robot and one featured in Coldplay’s “Talk” video. Funny stuff.

I’ll go on record, though, as saying that our badass open source robot could beat up Coldplay’s wimpy soft rock robot any day. Chris Martin, if you’re up for the challenge you know where to find me.

It’s been quite an adventure since his flying saucer-battling origin, but now that the final Firefox 3 beta has been released everyone’s favorite open source robot has retired to a comfortable and triumphant life of adoration from a grateful populace:

As it turns out, a lot of the action has been taking place around the (fictional, of course) city of Gran Paradiso. Although it’s nice to see it rebuilt after the carnage, it does change the context a bit knowing that there’s a gleaming modern urban area right around the corner from that quaint seaside village:

This entire robot series has been immensely fun, and huge thanks are due to Nobox for their concepts and creativity throughout. Also, props to Mr. Mike Beltzner for figuring out how to tie it all back in to Gran Paradiso in the end.

Coming up next: a variety of robotless designs related to the Firefox 3 launch.

Admittedly the Firefox 3 betas offer a bit more than just cool robot art, but I have to mention that the first run page in tonight’s Beta 4 release brings us the latest chapter in the ongoing robot saga. Now that the scene has shifted to a final battle in space, it’s all building to a big finish…stay tuned!

There are still many unsolved mysteries, but his return for the Firefox 3 Beta 3 brings a few more clues about his origins and mission. You guys had some truly excellent theories about the beta 2 page, so I’d love to hear your take on his newest adventures…please leave your thoughts in the comments section (alas, no contest this time though).

Where does he go from here? That remains to be seen…

Once again, thanks to Nobox for the very cool illustration.

Last month I announced an impromptu contest to see who could come up with the best interpretation of the Firefox 3 Beta 2 ‘robot’ artwork. I have to say, I was both surprised by and impressed with the volume and creativity of your comments. There were certainly a lot of great ones.

It took me a little longer than planned to determine the winners, but I’m pleased to report that after much careful deliberation, I have the results. Before I go any further, though, let me make it clear that these are not the “right” answers. There is no single “right” answer…it’s all just a matter of highly subjective interpretation, and these were the three that struck me the most (and won the t-shirts).

The “Extremely Thorough Analysis” award goes to Lim Chee Aun:
“The robot doesn’t seem like a bad guy. It’s actually a good guy! It’s beaming up the Firefox logo in the sky, just like in the Batman movies! It’ll fight off all the bad guys with its powerful boxing gloves and could run super fast like Flash (notice the Flash superhero symbol on the ears?). It’s built to be tough against any attacks, bugs and even evil UFO’s that shoot down buildings. ‘The world needs Firefox 3!’ The robot’s antenna (on the head) shall spread the news through all forms of telecommunication. Though it’s getting dark (notice the dark background and the sun sets), the robot shall not rest and will always fight till the end! Firefox rules!”

The “Should Have Been the Sequel to ‘the Matrix’” award goes to Lachlan:
“This is of course a picture taken at the mighty Firefox take over in 2011, Giant Robots will be built from rival software developers to destroy the Mozilla headquarters, but of course, the robots discover the power of their programs and preach holograms of Firefox and Thunderbird logos! Reminding the world to switch.”

The “Abstract Art Interpretation” award goes to Veekay:
“Well, here goes my thoughts… The robot is FF3 ! And the buildings are actually IE - look at the three buildings that look prominently - thats the ‘E’ lying down and the ‘I’ had already fled the place fearing the UFO’s that are the bugs that hit you hard due to non-standard HTML done by ‘IE’ gurus”

Thanks to everybody who participated…this was a lot of fun. And will we see the robot again in the future? Stay tuned!

Goal: Create a first run page for the latest Firefox 3 beta that would be eye-catching enough to make people stop and explore ways they can provide feedback.

Solution: A giant robot, of course.

Your Challenge: Answer the unanswered questions…who is behind this rampaging robot? Are the UFO’s in the background working with or against it? What’s the significance of it all? Post your theories in the comments section - the best one gets a Firefox t-shirt.

Thanks to Nobox for getting in touch with their inner sci-fi geeks and creating the very cool art for this page.

**Update**
The informal contest is now over (details here)…thanks to everyone who submitted their theories. I’ve been really blown away by all your ideas!