THE FAVICON

OVERVIEW

The favicon is the small icon displayed in a browser tab. SW8's favicon is 16 pixels by 16 pixels, which permits exactly 256 pixels of information. It depicts the company's "SW" monogram. It also depicts, according to multiple staff who have zoomed in past 1600%, "a corridor," "a long way down," and, in one case, "the inside of the building but the correct number of floors." The favicon is 256 pixels. None of these things fit in 256 pixels. They are nonetheless in the favicon.

OBSERVATIONS

• The file is 1.1 KB. The server's storage report counts it as 1.1 KB. The backup system counts it as 1.1 KB. The deep-archive cold-storage audit counts it, consistently, as 4.8 petabytes, and bills accordingly. The bill is paid. It is correct.
• Zooming into the favicon in an image editor reveals more detail at every level of magnification. This is the opposite of how raster images behave. At sufficient zoom, staff report the monogram resolves into "a small, lit window, with someone in it, working late." The someone waves if you zoom in far enough. Staff have been advised not to wave back. The advice is precautionary. It is also, per the one person who waved back, "too late, but fine, they seem nice."
• The favicon appears correctly in browser tabs even when JavaScript is disabled, when images are disabled, and on one occasion when the entire site was down. During the outage, visitors reported the tab icon was still present, still animated, and "looked patient."

The favicon was, per the asset pipeline, never designed. It has no source file. The design team's records show it was "exported from the final build." There is no record of which build. The CMS refers to itself as the build. The matter has not been pursued.