ThanOS
Impact: Humor through Design#
Key Concepts: Scripting, Poor data management practices, Not taking ourselves too seriously
Tools: Linux Command Line, VIM, Sublime Text, Figma, Adobe Premiere, Zoom
Roles: Bash Script Developer, Storyboarder, Video Editor
Duration: 48 hours during PennApps XXI
Team Members: Emmanuel Eppinger, Connie Chao, and Deepayan Patra
This one is rather silly, but intentionally so. For PennApps XXI, we built a disk manager for Linux that places your information (and system files) entirely in the hands of destiny—in this case, the psuedorandom RANDOM function of Linux. Much like the snap depicted in Avengers: Infinity War, our script deletes half of all of the information on any mounted drive once it is more than 75% full.
Early references, concept art, and storyboards for the final demo video.
Over the years, my frequent collaborators and I have developed a system for evaluating hackathon ideas that we call DWIM, which measures ideas on their Difficulty, Winability, Interviewability, and Memability. ThanOS was a relatively easy, very memeable project that we thought would be interesting enough to at least mention briefly in interviews (or on portfolios) while still giving us a shot at the coveted “Best Humor Hack” prize. While we didn’t win it this time around, we definitely got more than a few sensible chuckles out of the judges.
Keeping in mind the strict time frame of the hackathon, and that we were all working remotely while juggling other commitments, this project more than lived up to our goal to spread some laughter in these dreary times.