She's fully Alive!
Got number crunching going on now. Good times.
New discoveries today:
-ADT Pro is the best written Java program in the world. It just works. You can use serial, Apple Talk, A printer cable, basically any way to get 2-way communications with the Apple II. As you go through it tells you what to do. It is dummy simple.
-Both drives work! Well, something is wrong with the eject spring on the Apple drive. I need to figure that one out. But it works. And the Laser drive has calmed down sounding a lot better the more I use it.
-Somehow drive 2 is drive 1 and vice versa? I don't get it, but its working, I don't care.
-Apple drives actually use that stupid little hole next to the spindle whole for track alignment which means I can't flip my disks over and use side B without figuring out how to punch another hole through it without going through the disk itself.
-Although the manual talks about the write protect Notch, neither the Apple drive, or the Laser drive have a sensor for that. So, um, no write protect?
I've got one more thing I want to do to make this setup perfect. I'm not gonna say, but I'm hoping it works. Let's just say, the VCR in the photos might have to do with it.
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.
Check out the red circled areas in this picture of King Charles. You can tell it's AI generated because of the artifacts in those circles areas. Especially the top left one.
The Lunduke Journal Week-in-Review: March 24th, 2024
Hard-hitting news, nerdy goofines, & a dash of controversy. You know. A normal week.
It’s been a heck of a fun week at The Lunduke Journal. Just shy of a dozen new shows — across a wide range of topics.
Just to make sure you don’t miss out on any of the good times, here are all of the shows (and a few other odds and ends) from the last week alone — across all three sites in The Lunduke Journal Universe.
Hot diggity, that’s a lot of nerdy shows! A combination of “You’ll only hear about this on The Lunduke Journal” hard-hitting news topics… and more than a little happy, goofy nerdiness.
YouTube has a long history of making things difficult for The Lunduke Journal.
In the early days, The Lunduke Journal published all shows exclusively to YouTube (yeah, I know... a mistake). And, for over a year of that time, YouTube demonetized every single video with the word "Linux" in the title.
Seriously. They really did that.
If a video said "Linux is nifty" it was instantly demonetized. As you can imagine, for someone who talks about Linux a great deal, this made earning a living from those videos incredibly difficult.
Now, in 2024, YouTube has kicked things up a notch.
The Lunduke Journal is no longer allowed to upload any videos to YouTube. Not even allowed to post comments or text posts. No communication with the YouTube subscribers, whatsoever, is allowed.
Why? Because I speak my mind... I report the truth. And that is not allowed on YouTube. (I go into further details elswhere -- as it is a very serious, political topic -- but that, as simple and ridiculous as it sounds, is truly the gist of it.)
Luckily, this has very little impact on The Lunduke Journal.
The good news is that this was always inevitable... and I planned for it.
Any "YouTuber" who speaks their mind will eventually get banned or heavily censored on YouTube. It's simply going to happen. We all know that.
For that reason, over the last few years, I have encouraged people (rather strongly) to migrate their viewing (and reading) habbits to non-YouTube (and non-Google) platforms. And that has been successful.
As such, in 2024, YouTube is not the primary way most people get my shows. There may be roughly 60,000-some-odd subscribers on The Lunduke Journal's YouTube channel... but those viewers represent a small portion of the overall audience.
Losing 60,000 subscribers is a bummer. But The Lunduke Journal will survive.
To those who have clung to YouTube: It's time to subscribe elsewhere.
There are lots of amazing ways to get videos from The Lunduke Journal. Here they are... in order from "most recommended" to "still good, but not as awesome":
If you subscribe at one place: Lunduke.Locals.com is it. That will ensure you see everything -- including the exclusive stuff. But free videos (including free live streams) are also available on Rumble and X going forward.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go fight the urge to begin writing a "YouTube Sucks" show...
The Lunduke Journal has a priviate, invite-only Discord server. Only for subscribers (keeps the trolls out). You can find the invite link at the bottom of Lunduke.com.
There's some... uh... political stuff over at ConservativeNerds.Locals.com. A few articles and shows this week. Pretty darn good ones, too. Nerdy. But, you know, very political.
A quick reminder to check out the Content page (or Content Tab on the Locals iOS/Android App). All videos and articles are there. Searchable and sortable. It exists on each Locals site and it's really handy to make sure you don't miss any of the big stuff.
There's now a small (permanent) discount when picking up a Lifetime Subscription with Bitcoin. Since there's less total processing fees with Bitcoin, I'm just passing the difference on to you. No biggy. But if you use Bitcoin already, and you are looking at a Lifetime Sub... worth going that way to save a few bucks. Of course picking a subscription up straight through Locals is pretty sweet too. 😉
Have any issues? Have a Triple Pass but missing access somewhere? Email bryan at lunduke.com. I can usually sort out any issues pretty doggone quickly. 😎
That's it for now. Just a few odds & ends to make sure nobody misses out on some of the fun stuff.
The Lunduke Triple Pass (details right below here)
or you can pick up discounted, individual subscriptions to NerdyEntertainment and ConservativeNerds (only available to existing Lunduke.Locals.com subscribers, with links at the bottom of this page).
Lunduke will then grant you full access across all three sites (may take a couple hours depending on time of day).
The Lifetime Triple Pass
What if you want to pay once... and never again? You can get all three sites (Lunduke, ConservativeNerds, & NerdyEntertainment) -- for life -- for $335. Pay once. No recurring payment necessary.
Want to give the gift of The Lunduke Journal to nerd in your life? Easy peasy. You can gift a full, Lifetime Subscription to anyone you like (which includes all three sites -- Lunduke, ConservativeNerds, & NerdyEntertainment) for $335.
Go to this page for details and instructions. (Including on how to have a custom, pixel art, digital gift card sent with the gift.)
Individual Site Discounts
If you are already a subscriber to Lunduke.Locals.com, you can also get discount codes for both ConservativeNerds and NerdyEntertainment below. The individual discounts aren't quite as good as the Triple Pass. But still a good way to save some scratch ($15 off for each).
Bonus: Below you will also 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.
Only for Supporters
To read the rest of this article and access other paid content, you must be a supporter