This wizard will put a purple gorilla on your desktop. He tells jokes, follows your cursor with his eyes, gives tongue-in-cheek HCI and cyber security tips (each with a real source), and can chat through an LLM gateway that you control.
Unlike the 1999 original he collects nothing, shows no ads, and has an honest Quit button. He is a parody, built for a university unit on security and HCI, with no affiliation to BONZI Software.
Counting the brave…
Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. The file is not code-signed, so SmartScreen will warn you. That is exactly what a hobby .exe from a stranger's website looks like, and the whole point of this project is to notice. Read first.
BonziBUDDY Revival - README.TXT
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WHAT IS THIS?
A parody revival of the 1999 purple gorilla, built as a case
study for a security and HCI unit. He sits on your desktop,
follows your cursor, tells jokes, gives HCI and cyber
security tips with sources, and can chat through an LLM
gateway you configure: Azure API Management, Azure OpenAI,
OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenRouter, Groq, or a local Ollama.
WHAT IT DOES NOT DO
- No data collection. No ads. No homepage hijack. No toolbar.
- AI mode is off by default. While it is off the app has no
network access at all; the only code that can talk to the
internet is one Rust module behind an on/off switch.
- With AI mode on, only the messages you type are sent, to
the one gateway you chose, after PII redaction. A Privacy
ledger inside the app shows the exact bytes.
- The only thing it remembers is how many times you patted
him. "Forget everything" erases even that.
BUILT WITH
Tauri 2 (Rust) and a WebView. The fur is three.js shell fur.
REQUIREMENTS
Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. The WebView2 runtime, which is
already on Windows 11. The installer fetches it if needed.
THE SMARTSCREEN THING
The .exe is not code-signed (certificates cost money and
this is a hobby). Windows will say "Windows protected your
PC". Click "More info", then "Run anyway", IF you trust a
purple gorilla from the internet. Think about that sentence.
It is the whole project in one line.
INSIDE
Right-click Buddy for: HCI tip, Security tip, jokes, gorilla
facts, wave, dance, a labelled parody pop-up, the Privacy
ledger, and the Security & HCI notes (a short case study of
what the original was reported to do, and sources).
CREDITS
Made by Jim, late at night. Part of https://jimhasadhd.fyi
If it made you smile: https://buymeacoffee.com/unit92
THIS PAGE Sets no cookies. Loads no third-party scripts. Runs no analytics. It is hosted on Cloudflare Workers, which sees requests the way any web host does. THE COUNTER The site stores exactly two numbers: how many times the .exe link and the installer link have been clicked. No IP addresses, no timestamps, no user agents, no "unique visitors". Click twice and you are two insane people. THE APP See README.TXT. In short: nothing leaves your computer unless you switch AI mode on and type something, and even then it goes only to the gateway you configured, with emails, phone numbers and key-shaped strings removed first. THE PARODY POP-UP The "visitor #1,000,000" dialog on this page is a demonstration of a dark pattern, labelled as such. Both buttons do nothing. In 1999 both would have opened an ad.
🎉 CONGRATULATIONS! You are visitor #1,000,000! Click YES to claim your FREE prize!*
Parody: fake urgency and a false reward. The original's banner ads looked like system alerts.
It's now safe to turn off your computer.
(Click anywhere to turn it back on. Nothing was installed.)