Random Weird Things - Part Ⅳ

2026-06-06T08:54:00+03:00

Random Weird Things - Part Ⅳ

+
+Every so often I stumble upon random, weird, and completely unexpected things on the internet. I thought it would be neat to share them here from time to time. This is the fourth run.
+
+

+   /\_/\      /\_/\      /\_/\  
+  ( o.o )    ( o.o )    ( o.o ) 
+   > ^ <      > ^ <      > ^ <
+   
+   /\_/\    Miaaauuuu....
+  ( o.o )
+   > ^ < 
+

+
+2024-07-05 Random Weird Things - Part Ⅰ
+2025-02-08 Random Weird Things - Part Ⅱ
+2025-08-15 Random Weird Things - Part Ⅲ
+2026-06-06 Random Weird Things - Part Ⅳ (You are currently reading this)
+
+

+
+

Random Weird Things - Part Ⅳ
⇢ 31. GUI Apps in Your Terminal
⇢ 32. TempleOS
⇢ 33. LLM via DNS
⇢ 34. Black Hole in ~125 Bytes
⇢ 35. loss32: Win32 on Linux
⇢ 36. LLM Rescuer 🤖💰
⇢ 37. Filesystem Backed by an LLM
⇢ 38. QR Code with Pure SQL in Postgres
⇢ 39. The SL Train in Your Terminal
⇢ 40. URL in C Code Puzzle

31. GUI Apps in Your Terminal

+
+term.everything is a from-scratch Wayland compositor that renders GUI apps inside your terminal. GTK, Qt, whatever — it just grabs it and draws it right there. You can run Firefox or GIMP over SSH and interact with it using your mouse. No X forwarding, no latency nonsense. It actually works.
+
+
+term.everything
+
+

32. TempleOS

+
+Terry A. Davis spent years single-handedly building a complete 64-bit operating system from scratch because God told him to. It runs at 640×480, uses a custom language called HolyC, has its own compiler, and is designed as a temple. Boot it up and you get scripture, a talking parrot, and probably the weirdest OS you'll ever see. One of the most fascinating stories in computing.
+
+
+TempleOS
+
+

33. LLM via DNS

+
+You can query an LLM using nothing but DNS. Just run dig @ch.at "what is golang" TXT +short and you get back an answer in the TXT records. No browser, no API key. It even works over SSH tunnels.
+
+ +

$ dig @ch.at "what is golang" TXT +short
+"Golang, or Go, is an open-source programming language developed by Google.
+It was created to simplify the development of reliable and efficient software.
+Go is known for its simplicity, strong concurrency support, and performance
+comparable to C or C++. I" "t features garbage collection, type safety, and
+built-in support for concurrent programming through goroutines and channels.
+Go is widely used for web servers, cloud services, and distributed systems due
+to its efficiency and ease of deployme..."
+

+
+

34. Black Hole in ~125 Bytes

+
+Thi le in your browser tab. No frameworks, no libraries, just code-golf magic. I stared at it way longer than I care to admit.
+
+Black Hole
+
+

35. loss32: Win32 on Linux

+
+loss32 is a Linux distro where the entire desktop is classic Win32 apps running natively. ReactOS + WINE on steroids. You get the Windows 98/2000 vibe on a modern Linux kernel. It's not trying to be practical — it's pure nostalgia for people who miss the old Windows desktop but don't want the actual Windows.
+
+
+loss32
+
+

36. LLM Rescuer 🤖💰

+
+LLM Rescuer is a tiny Ruby gem that hooks into Ruby's method dispatch so that calling a method on nil doesn't crash — it asks an LLM what the return value should be instead. When a NoMethodError would normally explode, the gem catches it, packages up the context (what method was called, what the variable name suggests, maybe the surrounding code), fires that off to an actual LLM API, and returns whatever the model hallucinates as sensible.
+
+So user.email on a nil user doesn't die. It asks the LLM "someone called .email on a user that turned out to be nil, what should I return?" and the model says "probably 'no-reply@example.com'". The gem swallows the error and hands you that string.
+
+It tries to keep API costs down by sending only minimal context — just the method name and variable name rather than your whole codebase — but every nil-hit still costs tokens and adds latency.
+
+This is runtime monkey-patching powered by a remote AI. Your nil bugs don't crash, they silently return AI-guessed values. In production this would be a debugging nightmare.
+
+Examples:
+
+ +

# Classic nil safety
+user = find_user(id: "nonexistent") # returns nil
+puts user.email
+# AI: "Analyzing context... user seems to need an email...
+#      returning 'no-reply@example.com'"
+
+# Shopping cart magic
+cart = session[:cart] # nil because session expired
+total = cart.total_price
+# AI: "This looks like e-commerce. Based on similar patterns,
+#      I'll return 0.0 to avoid charging $nil"
+
+# The existential crisis
+meaning_of_life = nil
+answer = meaning_of_life.to_i
+# AI: "Clearly this should be 42. I've read Douglas Adams."
+

+
+LLM Rescuer
+
+

37. Filesystem Backed by an LLM

+
+Mount a folder via FUSE, and every time you read or write a file, an LLM decides what the contents should be. There's a real working implementation. You literally cat a file and the LLM generates the output on the fly.
+
+Example usage:
+
+ +

$ echo "a nginx config for a reverse proxy to localhost:8080" > /mnt/llmfs/nginx.conf
+$ cat /mnt/llmfs/nginx.conf
+server {
+    listen 80;
+    location / {
+        proxy_pass http://localhost:8080;
+    }
+}
+
+$ echo "my todo list for today" > /mnt/llmfs/todo.txt
+$ cat /mnt/llmfs/todo.txt
+- Write blog post
+- Fix that bug in prod
+- Drink coffee
+
+$ cat /mnt/llmfs/todo.txt
+- Write blog post (done?)
+- Fix that bug in prod
+- Drink more coffee
+

+
+The LLM hallucinates the file contents every single read. Your todo list literally mutates when you look at it. Want a config file? Just describe it in the filename or write a prompt into it. Equal parts brilliant and terrifying.
+
+Filesystem Backed by an LLM
+
+

38. QR Code with Pure SQL in Postgres

+
+Someone generated a full QR code using nothing but SQL queries inside PostgreSQL. No extensions, no external tools — just raw Postgres doing things it was never meant to do. I ran the example and watched a QR code materialize in the query result. Mad stuff.
+
+
+Pure SQL QR Code
+
+

39. The SL Train in Your Terminal

+
+You mistype ls as sl and a steam locomotive comes chugging across your terminal. The SL program has been around for decades and it still cracks me up. There's even a flying train variant.
+
+
+sl
+
+

40. URL in C Code Puzzle

+
+The following C program compiles and runs perfectly:
+
+

+#include 
+
+int main(void) {
+    https://foo.zone
+    printf("hello, world\n");
+    return 0;
+}
+

+
+The https: becomes a label, the //foo.zone is just a comment. C parser shenanigans.
+
+Found something weird lately? Send me a link!
+
+E-Mail your comments to paul@nospam.buetow.org :-)
+
+Back to the main site
+

`gt` calculator - a calculator built with local LLMs

foo.zone feed

Random Weird Things - Part Ⅳ

Random Weird Things - Part Ⅳ

Table of Contents

31. GUI Apps in Your Terminal

32. TempleOS

33. LLM via DNS

34. Black Hole in ~125 Bytes

35. loss32: Win32 on Linux

36. LLM Rescuer 🤖💰

37. Filesystem Backed by an LLM

38. QR Code with Pure SQL in Postgres

39. The SL Train in Your Terminal

40. URL in C Code Puzzle

`gt` calculator - a calculator built with local LLMs