By request, I am making “Lifetime Subscriptions” to The Lunduke Journal once again available… but only until end of day tomorrow (Friday, December 30th). So, if you want one, chop chop.
The “Lifetime Subscription” (which runs $300) has the same benefits as the “Founding Member” subscription… with the added bonus of lasting forever. Meaning you get absolutely every perk The Lunduke Journal offers… and you never need to pay again. For life. Which is pretty cool.
Worth noting: If you are a current Monthly, Yearly, or Founding Member subscriber — you can apply the total amount you have already paid during 2022 towards your Lifetime Subscription. Good way to save some bucks. If you need assistance in figuring out how much you’ve paid for your current subscription, feel free to ask and Lunduke can look it up.
How to snag a Lifetime Subscription:
Go to the Lunduke.Locals.com subscription page. Select the “Annual” option, and select “Card”. Then enter the amount for a Lifetime Subscription ($300 minus anything you’ve already paid in 2022).
You will then be contacted by Lunduke to finalize setting up your account (it’s super easy).
Just be sure to do it before end of day on Friday. Because, on Friday night, I’m putting the “Lifetime Subscription” option back in the vault and it will no longer be available for folks to purchase.
This is the first and last note you’ll see about this. No reminders.
Ubuntu VP Says: "Stop Writing Python", Wants Devs "All Day Writing Rust"
Ubuntu's Vice President on re-writing everything in Rust: "do it by default with no apology", despite acknowledging that users will "see some breakage".
MidnightBSD Responds to California's Age Verification Law by Excluding California
"Until we have a better plan, we modified our license to exclude residents of California from using MidnightBSD for desktop use, effective January 1, 2027."
Reddit Fined $19 Million USD by UK for "Not Checking the Age of Users"
In related news: The GRANITE Act (which would provide a legal framework for protecting against foreign censorship), has passed the Wyoming House of Representatives.
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.
A colleague just dropped this video in our Slack, and honestly – “finally some good decisions from a tech company.”
The video is about Lenovo making what looks like a major shift toward Linux as the default operating system on a big portion of their laptops instead of Windows.
I really hope this is true and that we see more open, user-friendly moves like this from big tech. 😄
My OpenClaw, Betsy, I Put Her Down - Bullet to the Head
My third attempt at working with OpenClaw was the best so far. I had her (I named mine Betsy) doing autonomous research and development. Every hour she would wake up, and for each project ask “what would make this better”. Then she’d add the ideas to the backlog, prioritize and pick one item to execute. Every hour. Pretty cool actually.
Then I upgraded her and did a security hardening. That destroyed her. It took a LOT to undo all the damage from the security hardening. The one line installer is a huge improvement. But she developed an inability to execute a command. And she didn’t know she hadn’t executed it. I’d ask “did you do it”? No, I should have but I didn’t.
This went on for HOURS. I backed her up, and reinstalled from scratch. But I could not get her past this behavior. She bacame useless after having been so cool. So I put her out of my misery. I’ll try again after they mature this project more.
#mainframe-week was great! I'll have to redo my Markdown notes as HTML and put them on my website, with pics, and share links here and on the other site.
I watched cool history videos
I got MVS-TK4- (not a typo) running
I learned to navigate ISPF, create data sets, and write code. This, to me, was the highlight - not just getting the emulator up and running, but actually using it. Actually getting to see a little of what mainframes were really like in their heyday.
I... almost, compiled and ran JCL. Almost. But apparently, the terminal emulator I was using decided it didn't like me using CapsLock and adding "non-printable control characters" into my code, so it was like... yeah, my left Shift key is already being a flake, I'm not gonna go thru this again only to find it didn't like Backspace, or Home/End or whatever. But it was still kinda cool to see what the compiler of the day looked like - a language that was originally done on ...
If you are already a Lifetime Subscriber and want to be added to the 4th (or the start of the 5th) wall, email me (bryan at lunduke.com). There are only a couple of spots left on Wall 4.
The new Lifetime Wall designs are locked and loaded, and will make their grand debut at the end of all new shows starting either Friday or Monday.
I also wanted to take a moment to thank all of the non-Lifetime Subscribers. The Lifetime Subs may get a little extra attention at the end of the shows… but every subscriber (Monthly & Yearly) helps to make this work possible.
79 Million Views in 6 Months for The Lunduke Journal
Welcome to February, all of you amazing nerds!
January was a fun month for The Lunduke Journal (thanks to all of you). For those interested in a little Inside Baseball, I’ve pulled together some stats and charts below.
The short version: Great month. Crazy news stories. Solid growth. Can’t complain!
Revamped Lifetime Wall
Oh! And the “Lifetime Subscriber Wall” is getting a “retro” facelift.
This is what the four Lifetime Walls currently look like:
Once that 4th Wall is filled (a little over 75% of the way there as of this morning), I’ll be introducing the new designs (for all the walls) along with the starting of Wall Number 5.
Each Wall now has its own, distinct look and theme. Very Retro Computer-y. You’re going to dig it.
To make that “Wall Number 5” get here as fast as possible, I’ve gone ahead an reinstated the “$89 Lifetime Subscriber” deal. But only until Wall Number 4 is full.
Want to be on the Wall? If you don’t have a Lifetime Subscription, grab one. If you already have one, email me (bryan at lunduke.com) to let me know how you want your name to be displayed.
A huge thank you to everyone who has signed up during this crazy deal. We are this close to filling up the 4th Lifetime Subscriber Wall (there’s a possibility it might fill up in the next few hours).
Far beyond anything I was expecting. All of you are absolutely amazing. The Lunduke Journal would not be possible without you.
If you were on contemplating grabbing that Lifetime Sub, I’d jump on it right now. The price goes back up to normal ($300) in about 12 hours or so.
There are some options. For both subscribing and donating. They're all on this page.
Bonus: At the bottom of this page you will find the invite link to the super-secret Lunduke Journal Discord Chat Server. This is only available for full subscribers, which makes it a nice place to hang out. No riff-raff.
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