AI coding tricks, AI and jobs, my Bitcoin profits, troubleshooting Ethernet
Plus, giant pre-dino monsters, ultrasonic cutter shootout, pirate Christopher Walken, a new filming rig, a precious Pixel pic, and understanding lumber
I’m David Gewirtz. Welcome to this week’s Advanced Geekery newsletter. It’s been an exciting week. Let’s dive in.
Advanced Geekery is published weekly on Substack and LinkedIn. Same content. Choose your favorite delivery method. Back Issues.
BREAKING NEWS: ChatGPT Agent review
Stay tuned to ZDNET Monday morning. I’ll be posting a comprehensive hands-on look at OpenAI’s new hotness, ChatGPT Agent. The results are unexpected.
My latest video
I bought two popular ultrasonic cutters to see which one is actually worth the $250 price tag. In a head-to-head hands-on comparison, I test both tools on real-world 3D print cleanup jobs, stubborn plastic supports, and a laser cut wooden model kit.
My articles
Here’s a quick recap of the articles I published in the last week on ZDNET.
Coding with AI? My 5 go-to tricks for vetting output - and avoiding trouble: AI tools are revolutionizing coding and IT work, but are they making developers faster? One study says no. Here's why AI sometimes slows experts down and speeds up mistakes.
5 entry-level tech jobs AI is already augmenting, according to Amazon: Amazon's research says there's an increasing rate of growth for people qualified for these jobs.
How I started my own LinkedIn newsletter - in 5 easy steps: LinkedIn is the social network platform of choice among professionals. Here’s how to publish a LinkedIn newsletter to your followers.
I invested $50 in Bitcoin in 2022 - here's what it's worth now after an eye-popping rally: Bitcoin dropped, crashed, and burned - and then it skyrocketed. I’m glad I held on. Updated.
This week’s project: troubleshooting Ethernet cables
Here’s an Ethernet troubleshooting story with an unexpected result. We’re running PoE cables around our yard to upgrade our security system. We are making a lot of custom cables.
We used up our first 500-foot box of cable and switched to a new 1,000-foot box.
Denise is a maestro at attaching cable ends. But as soon as we moved to the new box, the test cable she made reported failure on two pins.
She repeated the test with a second test cable. We thought the new cable box was bad. For completionism’s sake, we made a test cable from the old box. Same results!
So either both boxes of cable are suddenly bad (unlikely), or the tester has gone bad, or the crimping tool is now bad, or some of the pass-thru cable ends are duds. Why?
We tested a known-good Ethernet cable. It passed, so the cable tester probably wasn’t failing. We didn’t think the RJ-45 cable ends were bad, because the ends used on the failed cables came from the same batch as our working cables.
That left the crimping tool. To make a cable, Denise makes sure a cable end is oriented according to the slot and diagram on the tool, exercises admirable patience to get the little inside wire strands lined up perfectly, slides that wire array into the clear plastic end, double-checks with a magnifying glass, and crimps the cable end.
We were out of ideas. We thought of buying another crimping tool. But Denise noticed a tiny little circle near the tool’s blade, where it cuts off the excess wire.
It’s a slice of wire coating. She also found a sliver of clear plastic inside the crimper. The tool had sliced a bit of plastic off a cable end. It blocked pins 4 and 5 and prevented a proper crimp. She cleaned out that small area. Our next cable run worked.
Don’t forget to clean your tools. And now you know.
Must-watch YouTube
Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.
Interesting TED Talk take on what we’d have lost if the 1811 Luddites had won, and why we can’t be Luddites about 21st century AI.
Ever wonder about the different types of lumber in the local home center? This guy provides a clear explanation about how to navigate the lumber aisle.
My Christopher Walken obsession continues. He’s a tap-dancing Captain Hook. Because, of course he is.
Filming rig of the week
The top-down shots in this week’s video done with my iPhone 16 Pro Max and the Glide Gear gantry Denise uses for unboxings.
I’ve been struggling to get good video quality at the Fab Lab workbench. I had tippy arm mechanism for the camera that took up too much workspace.
The gantry’s a bit narrow for my space, but did a great job of holding the camera above. By combining it with Blackmagic Camera remote viewing multicam functionality and my iPad Pro, I could adjust what the hanging iPhone saw while filming.
I’m not sure this is a long term solution, but it’s a win for now.
Note: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Interesting reads
And now, some good stuff from around the Internet, well worth checking out.
ZDNET’s Radhika Rajkumar deconstructs the news that Microsoft is saving millions with AI and laying off thousands. She takes a hard look at where we go from here.
BBC has a fascinating story about sabre-toothed proto-mammals called Inostrancevia that ruled the planet long before dinosaurs. I’m looking forward to watching Permian Park.
Dude writes a clear explanation of how to code lists in Python.
Pixel pup pic of the week
It’s been a while since our good boy’s been featured in the pages of Advanced Geekery. He looks cozy.
Send in your projects
I’d like to regularly spotlight a reader project or two here. Your project doesn’t have to be a big Kickstarter launch. If you’ve built something cool, it has some pretty pictures, and you’re proud of it, I might be able to share it here.
If you have a photogenic reader project, send an email to me at david@zatz.com with the subject “READER PROJECT,” a few pictures, and a short one-paragraph description. If you have a social media link or a link to the project, include that, too.
Both my EPs are now streaming
Available on all your favorite streaming services.
More clicky
I’ve got a lot happening all over the web. Here are links to my various stuff:
House of the Head: home for my published music
ZATZ Labs: where I host my published software projects
Feel free to dig around, visit, and say hey!
Leave some comments
Substack supports comments, so feel free to leave some. I promise to read them. Just, please, let’s keep our personal politics out of any discussion.
That should do it for this week. This newsletter is really starting to pick up subscribers. Please help it out by sharing links on all your socials.
Have a great week!