AI meets the junk drawer, a coding with AI story, and iPhone 17 thoughts
Plus, an ill-considered filament holder, how Robert Patrick did his Terminator run, aftermarket vacuum bags, and new questions at Giza
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.
My articles
Here’s a quick recap of the articles I published in the last week on ZDNET.
I used Google Lens to identify my weirdest junk drawer items - here's how it did: Think Google Lens is just for IDing flowers and landmarks? I tried it on random 3D printed parts, medical thingamajigs, and one oddly familiar object that almost tricked it.
I did 24 days of coding in 12 hours with a $20 AI tool - but there's one big pitfall: Professional coders pay hundreds monthly for AI assistance. Can a $20 ChatGPT Plus plan with Codex access rival these premium tools? I decided to find out, and 16x'ed my programming output in the process.
Older Apple Watches are getting a major health-tracking feature thought to be exclusive to the Series 11: Hypertension detection seemed like a feature exclusive to Watch Series 11, but Apple's fine print says otherwise.
Must-watch YouTube
Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.
Ooh. This is cool. Remember the T-1000 silver Terminator in T-2? Robert Patrick, who has been in absolutely everything, deconstructs what it took to do that uniquely signature run of the T-1000.
This guy has an interesting take on why resin 3D printer users lose interest. I have to agree. As much as I like 3D printing with filament, I dislike resin printing. Plus, we’ve had some disasters.
Troubling analysis of aftermarket robot vacuum bags. I’m still thinking I might buy them, because the OEM ones are 10x the price. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
Speaking of the comments, we seem to have hit a critical mass where there are enough readers to fuel some good conversations in the comments. Feel free to post on anything in the newsletter. I always read them (and usually answer).
Product of the week
Remember those over-door shoe holders that everyone’s mom had? Heck, you might even have one somewhere right now. Well, apparently these folks decided you can hang filament from a door as well.
Is it an efficient use of space? Can it even store enough filament to be useful? You be the judge. Look, I never promised that my product of the week pick would be something you absolutely should buy, or that it would be a great deal. I just promised it would be interesting.
This is…interesting, in a morbidly fascinating kind of way. And hey, if it turns out that it’s perfect for you and you decide to buy one, I get a few pennies. Maybe three.
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.
I’ve got two Jason Perlow pieces for you. The first is Jason’s explainer about how to think about upgrading to the iPhone 17 series. If you’re on the fence, read this.
The second is Jason’s updated piece on why Apple Intelligence hasn’t been the win Apple hoped it would be.
Radar scans at Giza uncovered a sharp L-shaped anomaly and deeper resistive voids, hinting at hidden chambers that may lead to more questions than answers.
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!