Oil Standard is a web browser plug-in that converts all prices from U.S. Dollars into the equivalent value in barrels of crude oil. When you load a web page, the script seamlessly inserts converted prices into the page. As the cost of oil fluctuates on the commodities exchange, prices rise and fall in real-time. Seeing the cost in oil of a new iPod on Amazon.com, or the balance in your bank account is startling. More than just a play on the concept of the ‘Gold Standard,’ or the old ‘Standard Oil’ company, this is a glimpse into the moment when oil will replace (or already replaced) gold as the standard by which we trade all other goods and currencies.
The script is written in Greasemonkey, an official extension for Mozilla Firefox that allows the user to change the look, content, or function of a webpage, by writing client side DHTML into a page. Greasemonkey has primarily been used for very functional tasks: nytimes.com ad blockers, Ebay.com auto-sign-in scripts, etc. Oil Standard adds some functional absurdity to the mix. Oil Standard Homepage: http://turbulence.org/Works/oilstandard/ Mirrored at the Greasemonkey UserScripts Archive: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/3501 Greasemonkey: http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org Mozilla Firefox: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ Oil Standard is a 2006 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from the Jerome Foundation and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.