Doom entirely from DNS records

(github.com)

153 points | by Venn1 3 days ago

20 comments

  • ktpsns 3 hours ago
    To clarify, a good title would be "Loading Doom entirely from DNS records"

    Neither one plays Doom over DNS nor is the first paragraph in the README correct, because DNS is only abused for storage, not for computing/processing/executing instructions:

    > At some point, a reasonable person asked "DNS resolves names to IP addresses, what else can it do?" The answer, apparently, is run DOOM.

    • drob518 3 hours ago
      Yup. A better title might be “Author discovers data can be stored in DNS TXT records which were created to store data.”
      • deathanatos 10 minutes ago
        Data can be stored in A records, too, just less efficiently.

        (Or AAAA, or CNAME, or…)

    • akdev1l 3 hours ago
      Also we could probably achieve this by using dnsfs and regular doom install

      https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/dns-filesystem-true-cloud-st...

    • b112 3 hours ago
      You make me wonder if it is possible. All you need to do is to programmatically change bits, and you have compute. Some cache monkeying or somethong.

      Of course, I imagine it would be incredibly slow.

      • testaccount28 2 hours ago
        > All you need to do is to programmatically change bits, and you have compute.

        all you need is to rapidly push off one foot and land on the other, and you have running.

  • LetsGetTechnicl 3 hours ago
    This novel form of data storage reminds of me of this classic YouTube video, Harder Drive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcJSW7Rprio
  • kgeist 1 hour ago
    I once had this silly idea to create distributed storage of arbitrary data by exploiting a range of completely unrelated sites. Say, when you want to upload your file to the System, it may store one encrypted chunk as an image on a free image hosting site, another chunk as an encoded blog post on a random forum about farming (or in the user profile?), another chunk as a youtube video, etc. Imagine having something like hundreds or thousands of such "backends". Every chunk would be stored in 3 places for high durability of course. Free storage, hidden in plain sight :) Although, I didn't think through how to store the index reliably, and, because a moderator on a random farmers' site may delete our record(s), there needs to be a system which continously validates the integrity and reuploads the chunks.

    Maybe such a silly project already exists?

    • noman-land 23 minutes ago
      I've had this exact idea. Would need to be error encoded to account for chubks disappearing. There would be a rot rate as sites die or change.
    • naultic 41 minutes ago
      lol now I wanna build this. It's like the dark web but without user or in this case, site consent. This could be a fun few weekend project
  • nasretdinov 3 hours ago
    Waiting for Doom over https://github.com/yarrick/pingfs next
  • Sajarin 40 minutes ago
  • kaitari 2 hours ago
    I never stop being impressed by these "<something-crazy> running Doom" posts. AFAIC, whenever we get to Mars, we won't truly have arrived until someone is playing Doom on Mars, and without wasting valuable resources by doing so. Running Doom, the canonical measurement of truly mastering a thing's capabilities.
  • nimbius 18 minutes ago
    blech...too much windows. bring me the Linux version and i might care ;)
  • thestackfox 2 hours ago
    Respect. But also ... WHY????

    Now let's do

    (1) A DNS file drop: Split small files into TXT records and rebuild them client-side. Useless for big files, perfect for config blobs, tiny payloads, and cursed demos. Also someone can write an S3-compatible client.

    (2) Redis DNS:

    - GET foo.cache.example.com -> TXT record returns value chunks

    - TTL is the eviction policy

    - Cache invalidation becomes even more of a hate crime.

  • hhh 2 hours ago
    very cool, i did something similar but turning the doom frame running on a server into ascii (with colour) and then a small shim to give inputs via subdomains

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoPWuJR6Npc

    without the colour i did it in a worse way for bad apple

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ2Q12vYojY

  • lxgr 2 hours ago
    A database storing data? Now I’ve seen everything!
  • ge96 1 hour ago
    Tangent, harder drives by suckerpinch
  • tombert 3 hours ago
    Gotta admit that it didn't occur to me that "can it run DOOM?" would stretch all the way to DNS.

    At this point I am wondering if people will somehow port DOOM over to the MONIAC.

    • FartyMcFarter 2 hours ago
      You were right to assume that in this case. DNS is not running doom here, it's just storing it.
      • tombert 55 minutes ago
        That's fair. I guess "can it store DOOM?" is still an interesting question though.
        • antonvs 47 minutes ago
          Is it? DNS has an explicit mechanism for storing data.
          • tombert 41 minutes ago
            Ok well it was new to me ok!
    • bigwheels 3 hours ago
      Which is more ambitious, targeting the MONIAC platform or ENIAC?

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_Machine (MONIAC)

      I'd say both are looking increasingly doable.

    • sssilver 3 hours ago
      “Run” is doing a lot of heavy lifting at this point.
      • mistyvales 3 hours ago
        I remember the pregnancy test Doom. Wasn't it "running" on the display only?
        • deathanatos 7 minutes ago
          Yes, I think it was, but that was also b/c, IIRC, the pregnancy tester had a CPU, too. A CPU can actually run things.

          DNS … cannot, and that's why the person upthread is criticizing the use of the word "run" here. DNS ran nothing.

    • TZubiri 3 hours ago
      Coming up: playing doom on Ping-as-Storage
  • hun3 2 hours ago
    Finally, a DOOM download that bypasses captive portals
  • nullbyte808 2 hours ago
    Malware could still use DNS records for storage and access to bootstrapped payloads correct?
    • thesuitonym 2 hours ago
      Yes, but it's not a problem, any more than downloading any arbitrary text is. You'd still have to have something execute the binary.
    • k4rnaj1k 2 hours ago
      [dead]
  • vicapow 1 hour ago
    that SVG wow how?!
  • kuberwastaken 1 hour ago
    This is so peak
  • cat-turner 3 hours ago
    Super cool. Never thought of this. Would this be useful for seeding LLMs?
    • FartyMcFarter 2 hours ago
      This is a data storage system, so I guess yes, data is useful to train LLMs?

      Why does everything get turned into an LLM discussion?

  • ethin 1 hour ago
    I read this title, did a double-take, then had to go look at the git hub because it still didn't click for me. Because this sounds absolutely amazing, and absurd, and weird, all at the same time. Like..... Wow? Talk about turning protocols into pretzels...
    • Sohcahtoa82 34 minutes ago
      > had to go look at the git hub because it still didn't click for me

      Obviously it still didn't click for you or you're lying about looking at the GitHub, because if you did, you'd have learned that it's not using DNS to run DOOM, only to store it. Which...shouldn't really be a surprise to anybody who knows that DNS TXT records exist.

      • ethin 3 minutes ago
        And obviously your forgetting that doing this is from my perspective a very novel idea and I didn't consider a TXT record as a data storage system. Good grief.