Big double issue: 25 AI tips for programming, 3D printing with hot glue, best Black Friday deals
Plus, lots of new articles, another video, and a project update
I’m David Gewirtz. Welcome to this week’s Advanced Geekery newsletter. It’s been an exciting week. Let’s dive in.
Happy Thanksgiving
This week, we celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States. I hope you all have a fine holiday.
As a quick scheduling note, we will not be publishing next week. The next Advanced Geekery newsletter will be out the week of December 9.
My articles
Let’s kick it off with a quick recap of the articles I published in the last week on ZDNET.
How to use AI for research the right way - responsibly and effectively: If you're using AI for research, here are five ways to catch its lies and fact-check its outputs before you rely on them.
Ignite 2024 introduces new AI agents and more for Microsoft 365 Copilot: Discover how Microsoft Ignite 2024 unveils powerful AI-powered agents and tools in Microsoft 365 Copilot, improving productivity, automation, and collaboration for hybrid work environments.
Meta Quest absolutely dominates Steam VR - just look: New research shows how Meta, Valve, and HTC stack up on Steam - and how Meta's offerings leave other products in the dust.
The hidden challenges of AI development no one talks about: DigitalOcean's VP of AI reveals how startups can build AI solutions faster and cheaper to break down barriers in a field dominated by large corporations and hyperscalers.
25 AI tips to boost your programming productivity with ChatGPT: With ChatGPT in your toolkit, coding can be faster and smoother. I share the best ways of using AI to overcome common coding challenges, so you can streamline your development projects.
We loved our Alexa-enabled microwave so much, we bought another (and it's $50 off): When we first bought an Alexa-enabled microwave, I mocked the whole idea. But now we can't live without one. Here's why.
My latest video
My latest video is out. It shows the unboxing of the latest 3D printer in the Fab Lab, the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon.
Stay tuned for a full review.
Charging tower project update
I’ve reached a big milestone. All the main structural components for the charging tower have been printed. I’m now printing the USB Keystone adapter holders, and I have a few more cabling-related prints to go.
After that, it will be time to try assembling the whole thing. It’s getting close, folks. It’s getting close.
Stay tuned.
Must-watch YouTube
Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.
This guy built a 3D printer using a hot glue gun as the extruder. Very cool.
Ever play a video game, lose interest, and wonder why you can’t get back into it? So did this person, with a little help from science.
Interesting reads
And now, some good stuff from around the Internet, well worth reading.
Here’s a chart of empty office space in the US. It’s kind of startling.
Dude wrote an article about switching from iPhone to Android. Apparently the switch is easy. Living with it is not.
ZDNET’s editors are collating the best Black Friday deals.
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!