All around the world, people are celebrating Blue Screen of Death Day.
This year's festivities, proudly sponsored by Crowdstrike and Microsoft, kicked off in the wee hours of the morning -- people from all corners of the globe simply could not wait to ring in BSOD Day 2024!
Below are pictures -- from airports and offices... to Times Square -- of how people chose to comemorate the day.
We are witnessing a new "Computer Myth" being created before our eyes, as several "Tech News" outlets repeat a false statement about Facebook & Linux.
What do you get when you train your Al on an existing (error-filled) Al, censor it on behalf of a Communist government, and data mine your users? You get DeepSeek.
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
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
DeepSeek Next Step in Gen Ai Taking Over
I’ve been holding off commenting as the hype cycle surrounding DeepSeek R1 is intense. It’s very hard to separate signal from noise. Here are some thoughts.
NVIDIA took a $600 Billion dollar hit to their market cap in one day in response to DeepSeek. This is hype. The skyrocketing NVIDIA market cap was Gen AI hype driven to begin with. So, this is a huge data point but is likely more noise than signal.
I can’t yet comment personally on how good R1 is. There is no way I'm using their hosted service. It’s clearly a data mining op for the Chinese government.
I have downloaded one of the smaller versions and I can indeed run it on my M4 Mac mini. More later.
It’s. OPEN SOURCE. Whatever these Chinese researches have done, they have shared it with the world for anybody to use, change, learn from. I’ve already been writing that the local LLMs have gotten good enough for lots of uses and can run on reasonable hardware like the $600 Mac mini.
I ...
Holy guacamole, Batman! We are now over 80% of the way to our funding goal… for the end of February. And it’s not even half way through January! I am absolutely gobsmacked.
Want to help push us over the 100% line — and directly fund the truly independent Tech Journalism of The Lunduke Journal?
Lots of options. Big and small (and all amazingly helpful). Scroll down & choose whatever works best for you.
For the next 24-sh hours (through Tuesday, January 14th), in addition to regular subscriptions, you can grab two limited discounts:
Discounted Lifetime Subscriptions (details below)
DRM-Free, MP4 Downloads for 2024 & 2025 (combined) for 55% off.
There many ways to support The Lunduke Journal. Choose the option that makes you smile. It’s all listed below.
Pay once, full subscription for life (on Locals, Substack, or both).
Available only through Tuesday, January 14th. Then the Lifetime Subscription option goes “back in the vault”.
Can be purchased via Locals, Substack, or with Bitcoin. Scroll down for steps.
Want to be able to download every show The Lunduke Journal releases (and watch them on whatever device you like)? Yeah. You can do that.
All 2024 Lunduke Journal Episodes (226 total videos)
All 2025 Lunduke Journal Episodes (added throughout the year)
The "World Famous Lunduke Journal Lifetime Subscription" is exactly what it sounds like. Pay once and get full access to The Lunduke Journal (with all the perks of subscription on Locals). For life.
New Lifetime Subscriptions are available, for $200, from now through January 14th. Then this option goes "back into the vault".
Here's how to grab one of these coveted bad boys for yourself:
Go to Lunduke.Locals.com/support.
Select "Give Once".
Enter "200" into the amount field.
After checking out, Lunduke will toss you an email once your account is set to full lifetime status. (This usually happens within a few hours.)
You can also snag a Lifetime Subscription via Substack:
Select the “Lifetime Subscription” option.
After checking out, Lunduke will toss you an email once your account is set to full lifetime status. (This usually happens within a few hours.)
If you would like full, Lifetime access to Lunduke.Locals.com (which is included):
Make a free account on Lunduke.Locals.com.
Email “bryan at lunduke.com” with the email address you use on both Substack and Locals (can be different email addresses).
Lunduke will toss you an email once your account is set to full lifetime status on Locals.
And, finally, you can obtain a Lifetime Subscription via Bitcoin. Save a few bucks with this option, as Bitcoin processing has fewer fees associated with it.
Make sure you have a Lunduke.Locals.com account (a free account works just fine).
Send $190 worth of Bitcoin (or more) to the following address:
bc1qyjakve8fywm8pz2v99v57yhjj0vzr2vjze6fcq
Email "bryan at lunduke.com" with the following information: What time you made the transaction, how much was sent (in Bitcoin), and the email address you use (or plan to use) on Locals.com.
Nice and easy. Lots of options.
Once again, thank you. The Lunduke Journal would not be possible without your support.
You rule.
-Lunduke
The Lunduke Journal remains 100% free from advertising… and, even more importantly, 100% free from all Big Tech influence.
And, because we never take a penny from any company, this is only possible thanks to you.
All of you amazing nerds showed tremendous support for The Lunduke Journal last month — grabbing Lifetime and standard subscriptions — meeting our necessary funding requirements for January… before January even started.
Mind. Blown.
This allows me to focus on new reporting — without needing to worry so much about funding and “business stuff” during the month. Which means more shows & more investigations. A massive win for all of us.
That also means that, this month, we don’t need to do a big “fundraiser”. Instead, we’re going to just send out this quick reminder of how absolutely critical your support is for the continued success The Lunduke Journal — the last bastion of truly independent Tech Journalism.
Seriously. Couldn’t do this without you.
Scroll down and take a look at the options. See if any jump out at you. Then give yourself a high five for making Tech Journalism that much more awesome.
For the next 2 days (through Wednesday, January 15th), in addition to regular subscriptions, you can grab two limited discounts:
Discounted Lifetime Subscriptions (details below)
DRM-Free, MP4 Downloads for 2024 & 2025 (combined) for 55% off.
There many ways to support The Lunduke Journal. Choose the option that makes you smile. It’s all listed below.
Pay once, full subscription for life (on Locals, Substack, or both).
Available only until Wednesday, January 15th. Then the Lifetime Subscription option goes “back in the vault”.
Can be purchased via Locals, Substack, or with Bitcoin. Scroll down for steps.
Want to be able to download every show The Lunduke Journal releases (and watch them on whatever device you like)? Yeah. You can do that.
All 2024 Lunduke Journal Episodes (226 total videos)
All 2025 Lunduke Journal Episodes (added throughout the year)
The "World Famous Lunduke Journal Lifetime Subscription" is exactly what it sounds like. Pay once and get full access to The Lunduke Journal (with all the perks of subscription on Locals). For life.
New Lifetime Subscriptions are available, for $200, from now through January 15th. Then this option goes "back into the vault".
Here's how to grab one of these coveted bad boys for yourself:
Go to Lunduke.Locals.com/support.
Select "Give Once".
Enter "200" into the amount field.
After checking out, Lunduke will toss you an email once your account is set to full lifetime status. (This usually happens within a few hours.)
You can also snag a Lifetime Subscription via Substack:
Select the “Lifetime Subscription” option.
After checking out, Lunduke will toss you an email once your account is set to full lifetime status. (This usually happens within a few hours.)
If you would like full, Lifetime access to Lunduke.Locals.com (which is included):
Make a free account on Lunduke.Locals.com.
Email “bryan at lunduke.com” with the email address you use on both Substack and Locals (can be different email addresses).
Lunduke will toss you an email once your account is set to full lifetime status on Locals.
And, finally, you can obtain a Lifetime Subscription via Bitcoin. Save a few bucks with this option, as Bitcoin processing has fewer fees associated with it.
Make sure you have a Lunduke.Locals.com account (a free account works just fine).
Send $190 worth of Bitcoin (or more) to the following address:
bc1qyjakve8fywm8pz2v99v57yhjj0vzr2vjze6fcq
Email "bryan at lunduke.com" with the following information: What time you made the transaction, how much was sent (in Bitcoin), and the email address you use (or plan to use) on Locals.com.
Nice and easy.
Once again, thank you. The Lunduke Journal would not be possible without your support.
You rule.
-Lunduke
The House of Lunduke BBS is a 20 node, Telnet BBS (bbs.lunduke.com) focused on the golden age of DOS BBS gaming -- including TradeWars 2002 and Legend of the Red Dragon.
The BBS is free to use, & creating an account takes only a moment. All new users are granted 2 hours of access to all games on the system (more than enough to get in your daily turns of every one of these classic games).
Current games on the BBS:
Accessing The House of Lunduke BBS is incredibly easy. Simply point any Telnet client at "bbs.lunduke.com" on port 23 (the default Telnet port).
This means, on many systems, a simple:
telnet bbs.lunduke.com
Will, technically, work.
However, if you want to have the absolute best experience -- and see what BBSing was truly like back in the 1980s and 1990s -- you'll want to use a Telnet client capable of displaying ANSI color... specifically one tuned for BBSes.
The following Telnet clients are all recommended and work well with The House of Lunduke:
Once you have chosen your Telnet client, simply add "bbs.lunduke.com" to your address book and connect. Or, from within some Telnet clients, you can also type "atdtbbs.lunduke.com" (no spaces).
Fun fact: "ATDT" is a command which tells an old-school modem to "tone dial this number". The "AT" stands for "Attention", "D" stands for "Dial", and ending T stands for "Tone". In the old days ATDT would be followed by a phone number... but, since we're connecting via Telnet, we now use a domain.
Or, if you want to get really old-school, it is possible to utilize DOSBox and an era appropriate terminal client (such as Telemate).
Q: What software does The House of Lunduke BBS run?
A: The core BBS software is known as Virtual Advanced (a successor to VBBS), a DOS-based BBS package that acheived some popularity during the early 1990s. All of the games on the system (known as "Door games" in BBS terminology) also run on DOS -- and each is the most popular version (or the last version) of each. A Telnet server handles incoming telnet connections -- which then interfaces with the DOS-based BBS software, using what is known as a FOSSIL driver.
Fun Fact: A FOSSIL driver is a serial interface driver -- which makes it easier to use a standard interface to multiple different communication devices (such as a type of dial-up modem or a Telnet connection). FOSSIL stands for "Fido Opus SEAdog Standard Interface Layer". Which is a fun name.
Q: What does "20 node" mean?
A: In "ye olden times", BBSes used modems and phone lines. One person, at a time, could call a BBS on each phone line. Each of these is a "node". We are now living in the future -- and using Telnet instead of phone lines -- which means that, in theory, we could have a small mountain of people connecting at the same time. However. Since we are using 1980s and 1990s DOS software, jury-rigged to work with the modern Internet, some of those old limitations still apply. 20 nodes were chosen as that makes for an incredibly large BBS system... but not too difficult to manage.
Q: Why not use a more modern BBS server?
A: There are several "modern" BBS servers -- with many fancy benefits. MysticBBS, Synchronet, and others. The House of Lunduke BBS is not about being modern. Or fancy. It is about preserving a snapshot of a high-point in BBS gaming history.
