today at 2:09 PM
This is cool - but…
It’s an app, not a system-integrated[1] screensaver?
> Installation
> Drag FakeDOS.app into /Applications.
> Double-click to launch. It installs itself as a menu-bar icon.
> Click the menu-bar icon to configure or start manually.
> After the configured idle time (default: 5 min), FakeDOS takes over fullscreen.
> Type EXIT to return to your real desktop.
> Cmd + , opens six pages of pure control: idle time, warp speed, the ghost writer, sound and more. The PC speaker can be silenced. Your co-workers cannot.
[1]: ScreenSaver.framework: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/screensaver
today at 3:12 PM
If they had made it as a website, anybody could use it.
today at 2:52 PM
I'm surprised that the LLM that was used to vibecode this didn't point it out
today at 1:55 PM
Maybe I'm blind, but is this closed source?
today at 2:36 PM
Yup. OP wants you to download a sketchy closed source screensaver from an obnoxiously vibecoded website that looks identical to the scourge of phishing pages currently going after random open source projects in a fully automated way.
today at 2:59 PM
Things aren't always what they seem. Sometimes it's just for fun.
today at 3:56 PM
Yup, totally worth rolling the die and possibly getting your identity stolen. it's just fun guys!
today at 2:53 PM
Finally some comment that actually makes sense here! :)
today at 1:48 PM
Reminds me of the 'BSOD' module from Xscreensaver.
today at 3:54 PM
I used to run that at work, but I'd invariably get calls or emails that "your computer is crashing over and over" so I stopped.
today at 4:01 PM
I'm giving a presentation, stuck on this slide for Q&A, xscreensaver kiks in: Gaaa your computer ate a spark! Audible gasp from audience. Tap trakcpad, back to slide. Afterwards I got more questions about that than vesting schedules.
today at 2:20 PM
Still my screensaver of choice after two decades. Even after it's tricked me into a forced reboot two or three times...
today at 3:21 PM
https://man.archlinux.org/man/extra/xscreensaver/decayscreen...
Decay Screen for X11. Written by David Wald, Vivek Khera, Jamie Zawinski, and Vince Levey; 1993.
today at 3:17 PM
What exactly is this? Site doesn't work for me (ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR). Gathering from the other comments, some screensaver that shows a DOS prompt?
today at 3:40 PM
> "Gathering from the other comments, some screensaver that shows a DOS prompt?"
Kinda worse. Some Mac application that acts as a screensaver and shows a DOS-prompt when idle...
Either way, I like the idea of getting people to install and configure fun apps which then know exactly when a PC is not in use.
Could be a useful swarm of devices...
today at 2:39 PM
Way back I hacked together a VB6 application (don't remember what it did) but after a while it popped up a new window that faked a DOS prompt formatting the c drive. Then I send it to my best bud on April 1st with a message "Hey, check out this new program I made!" :-)
today at 12:12 PM
gives me SSL_ERROR_INTERNAL_ERROR_ALERT on Firefox
today at 12:18 PM
same on Chrome, maybe it's real DOS
today at 2:25 PM
Doesn't work for me either.
today at 1:11 PM
DOS has been DoS'd
today at 1:07 PM
The quantum fireball was a nice touch.
today at 12:20 PM
I was site visitor 0001101 (hit return).
I will get back until counter reaches 01000110 01010010 01001101 01000001 01010100 00100000 01000011 00111010
today at 3:47 PM
I think you mean 01000110 01001111 01010010 01001101 01000001 01010100 00100000 01000011 00111010
today at 10:32 AM
today at 3:44 PM
[flagged]
today at 2:42 PM
Things not on my bingo card: Watching Hacker News denizens download, install, and run vibecoded Mac apps from sketchy vibecoded websites with TLS issues.
today at 3:06 PM
There is also something about this being Mac-only that feels really dumb or really fitting, I can't quite put my finger on it.
today at 3:08 PM
The delicious irony is that it's written for a platform that never ran MS-DOS.
today at 2:50 PM
It's time to vibedesign a new bingo card!
today at 3:17 PM
Anyone else append something like this to AUTOEXEC.BAT as a kid at school? We were a right bunch of bastards.
@echo off
echo FORMAT /Q C:
echo ALL FILES REMOVED
SET DIRCMD=0
today at 3:36 PM
This would be more trustworthy (and portable) as a website (Would have maybe also needed less tokens to produce)
Instead it's a somewhat sketchy app that by design happens to know exactly when my PC is not in use...
today at 12:52 PM
You couldn’t run a format command when within the disk you were trying to format. You’d need to (for example) cd A: and then format c:.
Deltree, on the other hand…
today at 1:06 PM
There was a secret option at one point 'FORMAT C: /AUTOTEST'
today at 1:31 PM
The favourite of naughty kids in computer shops with Windows 95
today at 2:03 PM
Yup.
today at 2:28 PM
I'll stick with 86Box and DOSBox and try not to run FORMAT C: without backups.
today at 12:27 PM
32768MB of ram?
Yeah, that’s wrong.
today at 12:59 PM
Thanks for the hint, and very old bug from the beginning, forgotten in space and time....
Fixed!
today at 12:58 PM
FP4 vs FP8 strikes again…
today at 2:04 PM
today at 2:23 PM
It amusing how Mac users yearn for the PC experience. They know they're missing out on something great, but they can't or won't leave their cult.
today at 2:27 PM
Except dos isn't the PC experience. It was back in the 90s when you'd edit your config.sys and autoexec.bat to shift your himem settings so you could run a given game with your soundblaster
That world doesn't exist any more, whether you're on a mac, linux, or any other OS.