AI scams hitting crafters and hobbyists, Alexa privacy settings you need to know
Plus, AI PCs bring security risks, ET kids meet Star Wars, and playing in the street
I’m David Gewirtz. Welcome to this week’s Advanced Geekery newsletter. It’s been an exciting week. Let’s dive in.
My articles
Let’s kick it off with a quick recap of the articles I published in the last week on ZDNET.
The AI scams infiltrating the knitting and crochet world - and how to spot them: AI can create unexpected problems for makers. Here's what to watch out for, and why all creators, hobbyists, crafters, and bakers should pay attention.
5 Amazon Alexa privacy settings you should change right away: Learn five crucial steps to reduce Alexa's privacy intrusions without sacrificing convenience in our latest how-to guide.
AI PCs bring new security protections and risks. Here's what users need to know: Trend Micro's Kevin Simzer shares exclusive insights about securing AI PCs against the unique threats of this new computing era.
Perplexity Pro's AI absolutely aced my coding tests - but there's a catch: Is Perplexity Pro worth the subscription fee? That may depend on what you use it for, but it should do a good job of helping you program. Here's why.
Must-watch YouTube
Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.
Luke Miani takes an old G4 Mac (the one that looks like it jumped right out of a Pixar short) and modded it into an external display. Very cool project.
Okay, so work with me here. Imagine the ET kids, but living in suburbia somewhere in the Mandalorian’s Star Wars universe. They find a ship. Adventure ensues. That seems to be the premise for an upcoming Disney+ series. I’m definitely going to watch this one.
Here’s a good tutorial on fully-constrained sketches in Fusion 360.
Interesting reads
And now, some good stuff from around the Internet, well worth reading.
ZDNET’s Jason Perlow is back with a fascinating read on how to run dozens of AI models on your own PC or Mac, without needing a third-party cloud.
When I was a kid, we always played in the street. Of course, we didn’t have video games or computers. But now, play streets are becoming the new thing.
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!
Really useful stuff