'C:\> FORMAT C:' – relax, it's just a screen saver

(fakedos.com)

52 points | by TheIncredibleCh 5 hours ago

19 comments

jrmg 1 hour ago

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

[-]
- kmoser 38 minutes ago
  
  If they had made it as a website, anybody could use it.
- bowsamic 58 minutes ago
  
  I'm surprised that the LLM that was used to vibecode this didn't point it out
Tsarbomb 1 hour ago

Maybe I'm blind, but is this closed source?

[-]
- creatonez 1 hour ago
  
  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.
  
  [-]
  - TheIncredibleCh 52 minutes ago
    
    Things aren't always what they seem. Sometimes it's just for fun.
  - hollowonepl 57 minutes ago
    
    Finally some comment that actually makes sense here! :)
RedShift1 33 minutes ago

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?

[-]
- rickdeckard 10 minutes ago
  
  > "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...
Gormo 2 hours ago

Reminds me of the 'BSOD' module from Xscreensaver.

[-]
- teddyh 8 minutes ago
  
  Video: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIqbMCfR3r0>
- owenmarshall 1 hour ago
  
  Still my screensaver of choice after two decades. Even after it's tricked me into a forced reboot two or three times...
- ButlerianJihad 29 minutes ago
  
  https://man.archlinux.org/man/extra/xscreensaver/decayscreen...
  Decay Screen for X11. Written by David Wald, Vivek Khera, Jamie Zawinski, and Vince Levey; 1993.
rlv-dan 1 hour ago

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!" :-)
numpad0 3 hours ago

gives me SSL_ERROR_INTERNAL_ERROR_ALERT on Firefox

[-]
- thehamkercat 3 hours ago
  
  same on Chrome, maybe it's real DOS
  
  [-]
  - RedShift1 1 hour ago
    
    Doesn't work for me either.
  - tosti 2 hours ago
    
    DOS has been DoS'd
1970-01-01 2 hours ago

The quantum fireball was a nice touch.
Bengalilol 3 hours ago

I was site visitor 0001101 (hit return).
I will get back until counter reaches 01000110 01010010 01001101 01000001 01010100 00100000 01000011 00111010

[-]
- teddyh 3 minutes ago
  
  I think you mean 01000110 01001111 01010010 01001101 01000001 01010100 00100000 01000011 00111010
Piedpiper18 6 minutes ago

[flagged]
breakwaterlabs 1 hour ago

Things not on my bingo card: Watching Hacker News denizens download, install, and run vibecoded Mac apps from sketchy vibecoded websites with TLS issues.

[-]
- Boxxed 44 minutes ago
  
  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.
  
  [-]
  - kmoser 43 minutes ago
    
    The delicious irony is that it's written for a platform that never ran MS-DOS.
- nathanaldensr 1 hour ago
  
  It's time to vibedesign a new bingo card!
vunderba 34 minutes ago
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
```
I think a lot about my poor teachers and this Calvin quote comes to mind.
https://imgur.com/a/eX4UKLk
rickdeckard 15 minutes ago

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...
qubex 2 hours ago

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…

[-]
- foobarian 2 hours ago
  
  There was a secret option at one point 'FORMAT C: /AUTOTEST'
- stuaxo 2 hours ago
  
  The favourite of naughty kids in computer shops with Windows 95
  
  [-]
  - qubex 1 hour ago
    
    Yup.
jasomill 1 hour ago

I'll stick with 86Box and DOSBox and try not to run FORMAT C: without backups.
hdgvhicv 3 hours ago

32768MB of ram?
Yeah, that’s wrong.

[-]
- TheIncredibleCh 2 hours ago
  
  Thanks for the hint, and very old bug from the beginning, forgotten in space and time....
  Fixed!
- trollbridge 2 hours ago
  
  FP4 vs FP8 strikes again…
snvzz 2 hours ago

Ah. Again[0].
0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROQSw6jqJO8
fortran77 1 hour ago

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.

[-]
- wtch98 1 hour ago
  
  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.