Linux sucks, I love it
Or more accurately, how I learned to love Gentoo
About Me
I'm Phillip. Online, I go by 9lbw, an alias derived from a pretentious Japanese visual novel about mages and historical figures. I figured the name truly radiates "professional at work."
My first foray into this world was as "thatrtxdude," a username that was both unfortunate and inaccurate after I switched to AMD. I became a Source Engine modder for games like Garry's Mod and Left 4 Dead 2, a career that met a spectacular end when my primary dependency imploded. Its creator had a meltdown of biblical proportions, rage-quit the internet, and vaporized his addons, turning my Steam Workshop into a mass grave overnight.
It turns out that tying your legacy to a man who writes fanfiction about his own overpowered OCs is a poor long-term strategy. It was, however, a fantastic lesson in dependency stability and choosing your dependencies wisely. After that humbling experience, my interests shifted toward building my own tools from scratch, turning a hobby fueled by community chaos into a passion for real engineering.
Projects
DNS Video Streamer
Streams the "Bad Apple!!" music video over DNS A record queries. A fun exploration of protocol abuse and creative problem-solving. Probably not recommended for production networks.
Tech: Python, Brotli, DNSLib
My .dotfiles
My personal development environment configuration. A carefully maintained collection of scripts and settings that make my workflow more efficient. Always evolving as I discover new tools and techniques.
Tech: Bash, JSON
Tarkov Texture Converter
A specialized texture converter for Tarkov game assets. Originally built in Python, later rewritten in C# with OpenCV for better performance. Includes utilities for working with .gltf files and their underlying JSON structure.
Tech: C#, OpenCV
zbox
A learning project implementing GNU coreutils from scratch in Zig, inspired by BusyBox. Not intended for production use, but a great way to understand both the Zig language and the fundamentals of command-line utilities.
Tech: Zig
Blog
Streaming Bad Apple Over DNS
Streaming the classic 'Bad Apple!!' music video through DNS queries, because apparently I have too much time and not enough sense.