That would be cheating!

March 31, 2010 11:18 PM

Open source April 1st: Lunixkcd.
posted by Monday, stony Monday (65 comments total)

It'll even sudo make you a sandwich if you ask it to.
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 11:30 PM on March 31, 2010 [2 favorites]

guest@xkcd:/$ look
You are at a computer using unixkcd.
Exits: west, south

Awesome.

I'm also tickled by attempts to invoke certain text editors.
posted by weston at 11:42 PM on March 31, 2010

Okay, after having gone west twice, I'm actually laughing out loud.
posted by weston at 11:43 PM on March 31, 2010 [6 favorites]

Damn, can't find my 10 foot pole to touch this with.
posted by telstar at 11:46 PM on March 31, 2010

It's a bit of a disappointment that you can't do rm -rf * though.
posted by daniel_charms at 11:48 PM on March 31, 2010 [1 favorite]

weston, whatever you do, don't go south.
posted by daniel_charms at 11:50 PM on March 31, 2010

Too late.
posted by weston at 11:53 PM on March 31, 2010

Is there really a playable Miegakure demo released anywhere? I googled, but couldn't find one.
posted by surenoproblem at 11:59 PM on March 31, 2010

The "random" command works, but typing in 'man' just brings up "Oh, I'm sure you can figure it out"
posted by Grimgrin at 12:03 AM on April 1, 2010

Trying to load emacs and vim is fun, too.
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 12:08 AM on April 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

You can go south without incident if you're properly prepared.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 12:08 AM on April 1, 2010

guest@xkcd:/$ make me a sandwich
What? Make it yourself.
guest@xkcd:/$ sudo make me a sandwich
Okay.
guest@xkcd:/$

Okay, I figured that one out on my own. I cheated for the rest and read the sourcecode.
posted by Netzapper at 12:16 AM on April 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

guest@xkcd:/$ cat
You're a kitty!

I was disappointed that it didn't have su or even uname, but this made it ok.
posted by vanar sena at 12:36 AM on April 1, 2010

guest@xkcd:/$ apt-get
This APT has Super Cow Powers.

Hmm...
posted by daniel_charms at 12:47 AM on April 1, 2010

guest@xkcd:/$ date

March 32nd
posted by idiopath at 12:56 AM on April 1, 2010

guest@xkcd:/$ xyzzy
Nothing happens.
posted by Marla Singer at 12:57 AM on April 1, 2010

guest@xkcd:/$ find kitten
posted by daniel_charms at 1:02 AM on April 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

typing in 'man' just brings up "Oh, I'm sure you can figure it out"

actually, it does a few more things:

TerminalShell.commands['man'] = function(terminal, what) {
	pages = {
		'last': 'Man, last night was AWESOME.',
		'help': 'Man, help me out here.',
		'next': 'Request confirmed; you will be reincarnated as a man next.',
		'cat':  'You are now riding a half-man half-cat.'
	};
	if (!oneLiner(terminal, what, pages)) {
		terminal.print('Oh, I\'m sure you can figure it out.');
	}
};

posted by finite at 1:06 AM on April 1, 2010

Note that xkcd.com is not currently running the code found on github.com. The help command in the (obfuscated) javascript on xkcd.com right now says "That would be cheating!", while the unobfuscated source on github has it saying "You can do this." with the comment "No peeking!" above it.
posted by finite at 1:31 AM on April 1, 2010

i didn't think that site could get any better.
posted by aprilfangs at 1:43 AM on April 1, 2010

oh, God. I'm in love. I've just been giggling maniacally and typing for, oh, twenty minutes or so...
posted by kalimac at 1:59 AM on April 1, 2010

guest@xkcd:/$ pwd

You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike.

Hah!
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:09 AM on April 1, 2010

guest@xkcd:/$ vi
You should really use emacs.
guest@xkcd:/$ emacs
You should really use vim.

posted by knave at 2:49 AM on April 1, 2010

Aw, I was hoping for a vaguely smutty response to finger. But trying lpr made up for it.
posted by Spatch at 2:51 AM on April 1, 2010

The command "reddit" produces a little reddit command panel. A little disappointed I haven't found a "your mom" joke yet. (Not reading the source, just playing with it.)
posted by knave at 2:54 AM on April 1, 2010

shutdown -h now
posted by Mwongozi at 3:39 AM on April 1, 2010

ls for subdirs and then cd into one to navigate the browser there. Wow.
posted by DU at 4:40 AM on April 1, 2010

sudo shutdown -h now
posted by leotrotsky at 4:49 AM on April 1, 2010

guest@xkcd:/$ hello, sailor
Unrecognized command. Type "help" for assistance.

Darn.
posted by octothorpe at 5:25 AM on April 1, 2010

this is very cute.
posted by The Whelk at 5:42 AM on April 1, 2010

Mwongozi: sudo shutdown -h now
posted by natalinha at 5:45 AM on April 1, 2010

wget google.com

Whoa.
posted by DU at 5:51 AM on April 1, 2010

Actually, wget http://google.com.

wget http://xkcd.com seems to get stuck in an infinite loop...
posted by DU at 5:52 AM on April 1, 2010

This is so awesome. I want this for metafilter.
posted by smackfu at 6:12 AM on April 1, 2010

Is it not working anymore? It was fine this morning at home on Safari/OS X. Now at the office on Firefox/XP, I just get the normal xkcd.
posted by emelenjr at 6:22 AM on April 1, 2010

Still works for me on Firefox at "the" office.
posted by DU at 6:31 AM on April 1, 2010

> ping
There is another submarine three miles ahead, bearing 225, forty fathoms down.

> sudo reboot
works ;)

> find
What do you want to find? Kitten would be nice.

For the love of god, type "find kitten"!
posted by mister-o at 7:15 AM on April 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

What, no tab completion??

I want my money back!
posted by Arandia at 7:20 AM on April 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

omg it's a mini rougelike omg
posted by The Whelk at 7:23 AM on April 1, 2010

ssh, wget, echo, clear
west/south work, but you have to "go west" and "go south"
posted by mister-o at 7:23 AM on April 1, 2010

guest@xkcd:/$ nano

Seriously? Why don't you just use Notepad.exe? Or MS Paint?

Heh, my thoughts exactly.
posted by kmz at 7:31 AM on April 1, 2010 [3 favorites]

guest@xkcd:/$ ssh
ssh, this is a library.

:D
posted by zarq at 8:08 AM on April 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

guest@xkcd:/$ uname
Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator

also...

guest@xkcd:/$ xkcd
Yes?

posted by zarq at 8:19 AM on April 1, 2010

HA!

guest@xkcd:/$ asl
2/AMD64/Server Rack

posted by zarq at 8:30 AM on April 1, 2010

OK, IRC works. That's awesome.
posted by zarq at 8:31 AM on April 1, 2010

Aw, python -c "import antigravity" doesn't do anything.
posted by signal at 8:33 AM on April 1, 2010

I like that the up arrow works.
posted by lysdexic at 8:37 AM on April 1, 2010

guest@xkcd:/$ cheat
*** FREE SHIPPING ENABLED ***

posted by zarq at 8:38 AM on April 1, 2010

Try entering with javascript disabled...
posted by Arandia at 8:42 AM on April 1, 2010

The Randall bot in the IRC gives this link, to all the commands that have been found so far.
posted by zarq at 8:45 AM on April 1, 2010

guest@xkcd:/$ asl
2/AMD64/Server Rack

Whereas I get

guest@xkcd:/$ asl
Exactly your age/A gender you're attracted to/Far far away.

which seems more xkcd's speed.

Also, lame that ssh works, but ssh some-server gets "unrecognized command". No, you do recognize the command! You just did! Aren't you parsing this input at all?
posted by kenko at 8:49 AM on April 1, 2010

Also it doesn't matter what you run ls on, you always get the same directory listing. ls = ls fora/. :(
posted by kenko at 8:51 AM on April 1, 2010

guest@xkcd:/$ make love
Unrecognized command.
guest@xkcd:/$ make
Unrecognized command.
guest@xkcd:/$ gcc
Unrecognized command.
guest@xkcd:/$ nethack
Unrecognized command.

*sigh*
posted by suetanvil at 8:54 AM on April 1, 2010

This is actually a superior way of reading the strips than the normal navigation. No jacking around with the mouse (normally required because the panels aren't all the same size), seems to load faster, and you can see multiple strips at a time.
posted by Mitheral at 8:57 AM on April 1, 2010

Too bad the output of date doesn't change depending on the date of the most recently viewed strip.
posted by kenko at 9:25 AM on April 1, 2010

Here's the XKCD forum post, with more fun commands.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:15 AM on April 1, 2010

guest@xkcd:/$ next
display: unable to open image "404": No such file or directory.
guest@xkcd:/$ next
display: unable to open image "404": No such file or directory.
guest@xkcd:/$
posted by lysdexic at 10:15 AM on April 1, 2010

lysdexic, that's because you're at the last comic. Do "prev" once and then "next" works.
posted by octothorpe at 11:03 AM on April 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

Every command stops working after you run "sudo rm -rf /".
posted by Goblindegook at 12:39 PM on April 1, 2010

guest@xkcd:/$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
You are already running Linux.
guest@xkcd:/$ su
God mode activated. Remember, with great power comes great ... aw, screw it, go have fun.

posted by robertc at 1:51 PM on April 1, 2010

I'd like to point out that the Konami code works.
posted by interim_descriptor at 6:28 PM on April 1, 2010

I'd like to point out that the Konami code works.

More than once.
posted by Khalad at 7:06 PM on April 1, 2010

For some reason, the first command I entered into the shell was 'whoami'. The response took me aback.

The 'next', 'prev', 'display', ... commands for navigating xkcd's history are great. I hope this interface remains up somewhere on the site.
posted by lasagnaboy at 8:30 PM on April 1, 2010

It's now off their front page, but it now seems to be permanently up at:

http://xkcd.com/unixkcd/
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:22 AM on April 2, 2010

guest@xkcd:/$ go up

You cannot go up.

guest@xkcd:/$ go down

On our first date?
guest@xkcd:/$

HAH!
posted by PROD_TPSL at 9:55 AM on April 2, 2010