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trigglux@trigglux
September 19, 2022

I got a mad idea, and I blame DOS week for. The background for this is special_snowflake, the FOSH computer I've been building/writing for the last 5 years. Without going into all the details (because then I'll be here for two days), its new CPU is registerless and directly reads and writes into main memory for all instructions. To make it performant, the "main memory" is 0.5-8 KiB is size and treats the actual RAM as expanded memory, copying bits of it in and out. Like a disk. Now, that leaves me with the question of organization of this expanded memory. I decided I won't go the normal route and I won't implement a virtual memory system. Which leaves me with the question of what to do.

And then it occured to me yesterday. What IF you treated your expanded memory as a literral disk and put FAT on it? To allocate memory, processes create a file of some size. Processes can pass memory objects to each other by passing filesystems paths around. All memory objects are dynamically sized. Some implementations of FAT (DR-DOS 6.0 and others) track user&group ID as well as access permissions for them. You could literally implement the well-understood-by-sysadmins Unix filesystem permissions model for all memory! Super important: a single categorization unites ALL of memory which means ALL of memory is always accounted for. Modern systems have all kinds of weird kinks. Inodes, sysfs, procfs, netlink, ioctl, device nodes, semaphores, muliple kinds of sockets, multiple namespaces for all those kinds of sockets, acl, quotas, memory maps, process trees, uids and guids, mounts, etc, etc... If you put all of those into a filesystem, you suddenly make them all observable and manipulable. Another benefit: it's now possible to dump the entire contents of memory to real disks and examine them or change them. Messing with system internals is now easier than ever! And the best part? Both the running memory and the disk image of it can be manipulated with normal filesystem tools!

This can be made to play real nice in a microkernel design with lots of system daemons offering services. I already checked the extensive Wikipedia article on FAT and I found that it practically nativelly supports being used for this purpose. You would need to repurpose some fields from what Microsoft uses them for, but this is a long and time-honoured tradition. The article (linked below) lists several mutually incompatible standards for various data structures that were all used in parallel by several operating systems from several vendors.

Besides breaking the Microsoft's non-standard on FAT, there are two other problems I can see. The first is that my CPU is big-endian and FAT is used on little-endian machines which means the multi-octet fields will be messed up. That can be lived with - this will only come into effect if somebody attempted to mount the memory image on a little-endian machine, but that can be fixed by the appropriate filesystem driver.

The much bigger problem - and the only serious problem I've so far seen - is that FAT keeps track of file contents in a singly linked list. That's.... inapropriate for quick access. :) Since the use of this scheme implies there is only one daemon which manages the memory filesystem for all other applications, and since this is the only place where file handles (or whatever) is handed out, this limitation can be worked around. The filesystem daemon could keep a special structure for all open files/assigned file handles which has a map to all clusters that are part of the file. So if you want to randomly access parts of a large file, the FS daemon doesn't have to read the entire FAT from the start, it can just read from its map. But the problem is that, since this is a memory management scheme, most files can be expected to be open. Which would mean most files would have an associated fast-access map. But then the question is why have the FAT, if most access is going through the map?

Another mitigation strategy is to take care to have the memory defragmented, and then try to assign memory in large contiguous blocks of clusters. That way, if the random access happens inside such a large block, working out the sector (=page) that is to be accessed should be straightforward. The access map cache from the previous paragraph then only needs to keep track of starts and lenghts of blocks. The scheme is simpler, requires less overhead, and should benefit from the last four decades (!) of improvements to FAT drivers and algorithms.

This manage-memory-as-a-filesystem idea can BTW also be implemented on normal registered CPUs, by having some pages (in the reserved section between the sector 0 and the first FAT table xD ) function as faux main memory for currently running processes and the rest used in the FAT.

Wikipedia page on FAT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_of_the_FAT_file_system

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Bryan Lunduke@Lunduke
6 hours ago
The Apache Software Foundation Drops the "Apache"

“As a non-Indigenous entity, we acknowledge that it is inappropriate for the Foundation to use Indigenous themes or language.”

And, yes. It says “1985” in the date. But, do not be fooled. For it is not actually 1985.

More from The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.com/

00:09:38
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Bryan Lunduke@Lunduke
September 14, 2025
Microsoft & Red Hat Employees Celebrating Charlie Kirk's Murder

At Microsoft & Red Hat -- and across Big Tech -- many employees are celebrating and encouraging murder. Microsoft has responded... but not Red Hat.

And, yes. The date on the video says 1985. But, no. It's not actually 1985.

More from The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.com/

00:15:26
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Bryan Lunduke@Lunduke
September 13, 2025
Open Source & Big Tech Leftists Lost Their Minds This Week

Open Source Leftists Celebrate Murder, Censor Conservatives, and say "Free Software is White Supremacy". It's been one of those weeks in the Tech world.

Lunduke's Week in Tech - Sep 13, 2025:
https://lunduke.substack.com/p/lundukes-week-in-tech-sep-13-2025

More from The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.com/

00:21:48
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Bryan Lunduke@Lunduke
November 22, 2023
The futility of Ad-Blockers

Ads are filling the entirety of the Web -- websites, podcasts, YouTube videos, etc. -- at an increasing rate. Prices for those ad placements are plummeting. Consumers are desperate to use ad-blockers to make the web palatable. Google (and others) are desperate to break and block ad-blockers. All of which results in... more ads and lower pay for creators.

It's a fascinatingly annoying cycle. And there's only one viable way out of it.

Looking for the Podcast RSS feed or other links? Check here:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4619051/lunduke-journal-link-central-tm

Give the gift of The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4898317/give-the-gift-of-the-lunduke-journal

The futility of Ad-Blockers
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Bryan Lunduke@Lunduke
November 21, 2023
openSUSE says "No Lunduke allowed!"

Those in power with openSUSE make it clear they will not allow me anywhere near anything related to the openSUSE project. Ever. For any reason.

Well, that settles that, then! Guess I won't be contributing to openSUSE! 🤣

Looking for the Podcast RSS feed or other links?
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4619051/lunduke-journal-link-central-tm

Give the gift of The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4898317/give-the-gift-of-the-lunduke-journal

openSUSE says "No Lunduke allowed!"
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Bryan Lunduke@Lunduke
September 13, 2023
"Andreas Kling creator of Serenity OS & Ladybird Web Browser" - Lunduke’s Big Tech Show - September 13th, 2023 - Ep 044

This episode is free for all to enjoy and share.

Be sure to subscribe here at Lunduke.Locals.com to get all shows & articles (including interviews with other amazing nerds).

"Andreas Kling creator of Serenity OS & Ladybird Web Browser" - Lunduke’s Big Tech Show - September 13th, 2023 - Ep 044
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George@makedigital5
2 hours ago

Car navigation in 1986 from the BBC. Some of the comments are funny.

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dirt@Dirt2901
September 13, 2025

The Power of Pascal!!!

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dirt@Dirt2901
September 13, 2025

Is this legal??

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Bryan Lunduke@Lunduke
14 hours ago
New Lunduke Journal Sub Perks, Lifetime Price Increase Next Week

A quick update: There are some new perks for Lunduke Journal subscribers, and an upcoming price increase for new Lifetime Subscriptions (if you want one of those at the lower price, you have a couple days).

All the details below.

Lifetime Subscription Price Increase

This coming Friday (September 19th), the price of a new Lifetime Subscription to The Lunduke Journal will be increasing from $200 to $300. I wanted to give all of you a few days notice so you could grab one at the lower rate.

If you want to pick up a Lifetime Subscription for the lower price, simply grab one (via Locals, Substack, or Bitcoin) by Thursday night (Sep 18th).

The prices for new Yearly and Monthly subscriptions will remain the same. No changes.

Reminder: The Lunduke Journal has phased out sales and discount promotions. The current price of a subscription is the best price.

New Perks for Lunduke Journal Subscribers

I am working on adding a few new perks for Lunduke Journal subscribers — a way of saying “Thank You” for making this work possible (while still keeping all of the articles and shows free for the world).

Here are the perks as of today.

Perks for all Subscribers (Monthly, Yearly, and Lifetime):

Note: The eBooks & Games are currently only available on Locals & Substack (due to platform features). Those perks will also become available to subscribers on X, YouTube, & Patreon next week. Stay tuned for access details.

Additional (Optional) Perks only for Lifetime Subscribers:

  • The Lunduke Journal will follow your account on X.

  • Your name (real, or internet handle) listed in a special thanks slide at the end of new Lunduke Journal videos.

Both of these perks are 100% optional.

If you are a Lifetime Subscriber, and would like to take advantage of either (or both), simply email “bryan at lunduke.com” with the subject line “Lifetime Perk” (that part is important, I get so many emails this will help me see yours) and include a link to your X profile and/or the way you want your name to appear at the end of videos.

One of the nice parts of having Lunduke Journal follow your X account… is it will make it far easier (and more likely) for me to see your comments.

Thank You

I am working to expand all of the regular perks (books, etc.) to subscribers across all platforms (which was a little tricky, considering the differences in each platform, but I managed to figure out how to do it) — while adding a few new ones as well.

Nothing crazy, just a way of saying “Thank You”.

Seriously.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your support. The Lunduke Journal is only possible thanks to each and every one of you.

-Lunduke

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Bryan Lunduke@Lunduke
September 13, 2025
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Lunduke's Week in Tech - Sep 13, 2025
Open Source Leftists Celebrate Murder, Censor Conservatives, and say "Free Software is White Supremacy".

So many stories this week about Leftist Activists, within Open Source and Big Tech, going absolutely insane.

From celebrating the murder of Charlie Kirk to censoring Conservatives and even equating Free and Open Source Software with White Supremacy. And there’s more.

What’s truly crazy to me, is that most of these cases of Leftist insanity are from leaders within Open Source. These are the people running projects and representing companies.

Seriously. It’s wild.

Here are the stories of the week, presented in reverse chronological order.

All of these links are to Substack (where you can watch the video or listen to the audio podcast) — but all of these stories are available for free on every platform which The Lunduke Journal publishes to. Use whichever platform works for you.

Only The Lunduke Journal Told These Stories

This week I am reminded why The Lunduke Journal is important.

Over the last 7 days, we published 13 stories.

Of those 13 stories only 2 were covered by any other Tech News outlet. Two.

And, in both of those 2 stories, The Lunduke Journal is the only Tech News outlet that covered them accurately — and without a pro-Big-Tech, Left Wing bias.

If we didn’t exist, the other 11 stories wouldn’t get told at all. How crazy is that?

Thankfully the stories are spreading — with people seeing them over 9 million times last month alone.

If you want to be part of making The Lunduke Journal possible, consider becoming a subscriber. Lots of options, big and small. And all go directly towards daily operations.

Might I make a suggestion?

The Lifetime Subscription (which counts towards both Substack and Locals — and last for life) is a marvelous, one time, way to show support. And it comes with all of the perks (access to the Locals community as well as the official Lunduke Journal forum, & DRM-free eBooks).

You can snag a Lifetime Subscription via Locals, Substack, or with Bitcoin.

But, heck, any type of subscription (via any platform) is appreciated! Choose whichever works best for you!

Then be sure to go to Lunduke.com and choose the platforms which are the most convenient for you to use — The Lunduke Journal publishes all over the Inter-Tubes!

And, once again, thank you to every subscriber. This work is only possible because of you. You rule.

-Lunduke

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Bryan Lunduke@Lunduke
September 11, 2025
Keep The Lunduke Journal Free!

So far, in 2025, The Lunduke Journal has published 246 shows — being the only Tech News outlet covering the vast majority of those stories.

All without even the slightest influence from Big Tech. No sponsorships, no ad reads, not a penny taken from any company.

And every single story — every article, podcast, & video — is free to share far and wide.

In order for The Lunduke Journal to continue doing this unique work — to keep the lights on well into the future — we need your help.

If you haven’t yet become a subscriber to The Lunduke Journal, doing so today makes a big impact. Pick one of the options below. Big or small. Monthly, Yearly, or Lifetime subscriptions — or even simply one-time donations — all make a huge difference.

Support The Lunduke Journal

Monthly or Yearly Subscriptions:
Locals, Substack, X, YouTube, or Patreon

Lifetime Subscriptions:
Pay Once, For Life (Locals & Substack)

One-Time Donations:
Locals or Bitcoin

You Make The Lunduke Journal Possible

Seriously. This is all possible because of you.

We are able to make all of this free to share with the world because of you.

Might I make a suggestion?

The Lifetime Subscription (which counts towards both Substack and Locals) is a marvelous, one time, way to show support. And it comes with all of the perks (access to the Locals community as well as the official Lunduke Journal forum, & DRM-free eBooks).

You can snag a Lifetime Subscription via Locals, Substack, or with Bitcoin. Lots of options.

But, heck, any type of subscription (via any platform) is appreciated! Choose whichever works best for you!

Then be sure to go to Lunduke.com and choose the platforms which are the most convenient for you to use — The Lunduke Journal publishes all over!

And, once again, thank you for making The Lunduke Journal possible.

-Lunduke

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