Html5, pfft :) Many years ago I wrote a version of the Game of Life where the html to display a step of the game was both html and c code that could be compiled and run - the output being the duel html/c code for the next iteration. It involved the horrendous of abuse of what netscape (this was 1996 or so) would accept as html, and lots of #defines for the c code. This was for the international obfuscated c code competition - I thought it was pretty badass, but it didn't win. When I dug up the code many years later, I don't think I could ever really get another browser to accept the "html" so maybe it was a better idea than implementation.
Here's something I've been meaning to ask someone: are there patterns that can "survive" in some degree of random static in a GoL board? As in, are there spaceships which can fly through other patterns on the board (either leaving behind other patterns, or acting as an "eraser")? Note that they don't necessarily have to "survive" in emptiness.
<p><pre><code> "Bill Gosper discovered the first glider gun
(and, so far, the smallest one found) in 1970,
earning $50 from Conway. The discovery of the
glider gun eventually led to the proof that
Conway's Game of Life could function as a
Turing machine."
</code></pre>
fascinated by this quote ~ <a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Gun_%28cellular_automaton%29" rel="nofollow">https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Gun_%28cellul...</a>
Somehow, even after programming my own version of the game of life, I can still sit there watching it evolve. It never ceases to amaze me how such a set of simple rules can cause such interesting behavior.