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.
It solves a problem nobody had and makes everything worse. And those in power demand that you use it.
NeXTStep, Emacs, Desqview/X, & TRS-80 Model 100 Walls:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/8056105/trs-80-model-100-joins-the-lunduke-journal-lifetime-wall-party
Get on The Wall with a Massively Discounted Lifetime Sub:
https://lunduke.substack.com/p/50-off-yearly-and-massively-discounted
More from The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.com/
"We worked really hard on Wayland"... "and the experience is almost on par with X11."
NeXTStep, Emacs, Desqview/X, & TRS-80 Model 100 Walls:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/8056105/trs-80-model-100-joins-the-lunduke-journal-lifetime-wall-party
Get on The Wall with a Massively Discounted Lifetime Sub:
https://lunduke.substack.com/p/50-off-yearly-and-massively-discounted
More from The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.com/
A disgruntled former Linux distro contributor. Deleted desktop packages. Accusations of (potentially criminal) sabotage. Lunduke speaks to everyone to sort it out.
NeXTStep, Emacs, Desqview/X, & TRS-80 Model 100 Walls:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/8056105/trs-80-model-100-joins-the-lunduke-journal-lifetime-wall-party
Get on The Wall with a Massively Discounted Lifetime Sub:
https://lunduke.substack.com/p/50-off-yearly-and-massively-discounted
More from The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.com/
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
AI Automation Helping My Job Search
Codex can now work with Outlook. I have a LinkedIn Job Board bot that's been running since I've been unemployed. Today I could ask:
go through my outlook email today and look for all the LinkedIn and Ladders job emails, evaluate and curate a list I should be applying to. Prepare to do the applications for me.
And off it goes, combing through all the email today, evaluating the jobs for suitability (is this work I do at the pay I need).
The applying for me has been a mixed bag so far. Still, it is definitely saving me time.
I've also had bots evaluating prospective clients within commuting distance from home and give me a prospecting list. After identifying companies, it found humans for me to contact, then wrote the opening pitch. After my review and approval, sent out the emails.
High End and Workhorse Models Appear: GPT 5.6 Sol and Grok 4.5
OpenAI released their Mythos/Fable competitor GPT 5.6 Sol. Word is that it’s not quite AS good at the most difficult tasks as Anthropic’s Fable 5, but for almost all tasks it’s just as good and 70% cheaper to run and faster. xAI released Grok 4.5 that is now in the hunt for the top. It’s not QUITE there, but it’s allegedly very good and a LOT cheaper. Cheaper per token and more efficient in getting work done using less tokens.
We are well into the “labor pyramid” of AI models. You have your expensive human solutions architect, supported by a cheaper project manager, then a set of mid level workers and some cheap newbies. Nobody staffs a project with just the highest priced most capable humans. Likewise with AI these days.
I wanted to make significant refactor of my personal website. I used GPT 5.6-Sol to take my long list of changes I wanted to my website and asked it to evaluate it’s use as a public portfolio and my own personal ...
Buckle up, Buttercup. Because The Lunduke Journal is about to blow your mind.
The “BeOS” Wall Lifetime Subscriber Wall is now full (see all of them on Lunduke.com)!
We’ve added a new “TRS-80 Model 100” Wall (because we can)! That’s the 19th Lifetime Subscriber Wall! 19!
The discounted Lifetime Lunduke Journal Subscriptions are still available through to the end of this month (July).
Which means there are, as of this exact moment, 4 Walls with space available (see Lunduke.com for the full list of Walls). But these fill up wicked fast.
Emacs (only a few spots left)
Desqview/X (a little less than 2/3rd’s full)
NeXTStep (still plenty of space)
TRS-80 Model 100 (just launched)
Nice, right?
Worth noting: The “TRS-80 Model 100” has very limited screen resolution (240 x 64), which means only a small number of names can fit on that wall. If you want on it, I’d let me know right away.
Grab a discounted Lifetime Subscription (if you don’t already have one), then let me know (email “bryan at lunduke.com”) which Wall you’d like to see your name on.
Huge high five to everyone who has already added their name to a Wall. At the current rate, we’ll have over 20 retro computer themed walls, filled with all of your names, by the end of the month.
And, doggone it, that’s amazing.
-Lunduke
Well, we’ve done it.
We’ve answered the eternal question: “Which Lunduke Journal Lifetime Subscriber Wall would fill with names quicker? Emacs or Vim?”
The answer, it turns out, is “Vim”. And it takes just 8 days.
A hearty “Thank You” to everyone who supports The Lunduke Journal by getting Lifetime Subscriptions (massively discounted throughout July) and getting on these walls! You make all of this possible!
Now. How long will it take for Emacs to fill up (matching the same number of names as the Vim Wall)?
Well, right now the Emacs Wall is a hair over 2/3rds of the way full. So we’ll find out!
With the closing of the “Vim” Wall (and the BeOS Wall only having the space for 1 name left), now seemed like a good time to add a new retro computer wall: The NeXTStep 1.0 Wall.
Right now, there are 4 Walls available to add your name to (*cough* massive discount *cough*).
NeXTStep (just opened)
Emacs (about 2/3rds full)
BeOS R5 (1 spot left)
Desqview/X (1/2 full)
Once again, huge thanks to everyone who supports The Lunduke Journal!
-Lunduke
Yesterday was the 4th of July.
As such, time that I normally would have spent writing up some thoughts on the Tech News of the Week (tm) was, instead, spent eating hamburgers, watching fireworks, and generally goofing off with my kids.
So allow me to briefly summarize my thoughts using as little effort as possible:
Rust is weird, Sony sucks, and America is awesome.
… Yup. That just about covers it.
I hope all of my fellow Americans had a truly splendid Independence Day.
Here are the major stories from the last week, with direct links to X and Substack.
See Lunduke.com for all other platforms (Rumble, RSS Audio Podcast, etc.).
Git Takes Another Step Towards Making Rust Mandatory (X, Substack)
74 Million User Accounts Exposed in Breaches During June (X, Substack)
BCacheFS Adding Rust Dependency Even Though “Rust doesn’t have a stable ABI” (X, Substack)
Huge thank you to all of The Lunduke Journal’s subscribers. You make all of this possible.
-Lunduke
