Filed under: Humor, OS, Odds and ends
Spot the SPOD: Mac OS X rainbow cursor shows up in Pixar's "Up"
Being the Disney-Pixar fanatics that we are, my wife and I went to see Up Saturday night (in Disney Digital 3D, of course) at our local theater. Remembering the appearance of the Mac startup sound as Wall-E's waking noise in last year's Pixar epic, and the brief shot of an Apple-themed racer in Cars, I decided to look for Apple-themed Easter eggs in the movie. By the time we were at the end of the film, I was beginning to think that there weren't going to be any love letters to Apple in Up. The credits, featuring Russell's Wilderness Explorer merit badges floating by on a typed page, began to look somewhat promising. Sure enough, I spied a stylized and stationary "Spinning Pizza of Death," the dreaded Mac OS X wait cursor, on a merit badge just about at the end of the credits.
Update: Slashfilm has a photo of the SPOD (BBOD, MOD, take your pick...) merit badge in a detailed post about all of the Easter Eggs in Up.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Kevin said 11:46AM on 5-31-2009
I've only ever heard this called the Mac Beachball.
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Michael Rose said 12:50PM on 5-31-2009
http://www.google.com/search?q=spinning+pizza+of+death
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_wait_cursor
You say Tomato...
Kevin said 12:57PM on 5-31-2009
Michael,
Your Google link returns 135,000 hits. Searching "Spinning Mac Beach Ball of Death" returns 1,330,000.
Also, the Wiki link you pasted clearly includes: "the beach ball of hell"[3], "spinning beach ball of death",[4] "Spinning beach ball of impending doom" as other names for the spinning wait cursor. Even the history in that piece shows that it originally came from a Hypercard animated beach ball cursor.
I think it's safe to say that "Beach Ball" is much more commonly used than "Pizza" when referring to it. Especially because if that's meant to be pizza, then I have to wonder what the hell flavor it is.
Michael Rose said 3:20PM on 5-31-2009
I acknowledge your Google-waving, certainly "beach ball" is common and prevalent usage. Doesn't make the other names invalid or inappropriate, and the only "official" name is Spinning Wait Cursor.
Your point was "I've only ever heard this called the Mac beachball" and I responded with other names for it. Steve chose SPOD because that's what he uses; the post now includes several alternatives.
Aaron said 6:54PM on 6-02-2009
Clearly the people who refer to it as a beach ball are not as commonly long-time Mac users. The pizza reference comes from the past when it looked more like a pizza.
dave said 4:22AM on 6-03-2009
"Clearly the people who refer to it as a beach ball are not as commonly long-time Mac users. The pizza reference comes from the past when it looked more like a pizza."
er... no 15 years a mac user and it's still the beach ball of death.
dave said 11:48AM on 5-31-2009
beachball of death
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cuteSAVAGE said 11:47AM on 5-31-2009
Haven't heard either of those terms before. Always been "Spinning Beach Ball of Death" here.
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Unpainted Huffhines said 12:02PM on 5-31-2009
Always been SPoD here.
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Tom said 12:04PM on 5-31-2009
Agreed, It's definitely a beachball ;)
Will have to keep an eye out for it in that film though!
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Andres said 12:18PM on 5-31-2009
Spinning Beach Ball of Death (SBBoD) +1!
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alex keeny said 12:24PM on 5-31-2009
I agree, since when has it ever been a pizza? Always been a beachball to me and everywhere else I've seen it mentioned.
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Michael Rose said 12:40PM on 5-31-2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_wait_cursor
Galley said 12:31PM on 5-31-2009
I've never, ever heard it described as a pizza before.
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PSM said 12:34PM on 5-31-2009
If that's a pizza you guys eat some very strangely-colored pizza!
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lbchs22 said 12:42PM on 5-31-2009
Who goes to a Pixar movie just to see some Apple related easter egg? Wait, nevermind, I'm on Tuaw.com...
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oliver hart said 2:37PM on 5-31-2009
This is an apple specific site, what the hell do you expect?
I LOVE how people are shocked by all the apple news on THE UNOFFICIAL APPLE WEBLOG.
lbchs22 said 4:31PM on 5-31-2009
Jesus Christ it was a joke. I love how fanboys get so pissed so fast at everything against Apple. Get a life buddy.
Jack said 1:02PM on 5-31-2009
i swear to god, my heart skipped a beat when i saw that giant beach ball of death... i don't really think it matters what we call it though, it's just a way to label it. He was just giving some people background of it.
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Stephen.4 said 1:16PM on 5-31-2009
I actually just got the spinning beach ball of death viewing this page. (I also had just opened the marbleofdeath.com website in another tab). Couldn't grab a screenshot though.
Pretty ironic.
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