Charging tower design progress, Perplexity.ai coding tests,and 4 key AI principles
Plus, a new way to fly RC planes, the evolution of car chase scenes, how to get early access to Vision Pro apps, and a flying saucer car gets stopped by police.
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.
I put the free version of Perplexity.ai through my coding tests - here's what happened: Who knew Perplexity.ai would beat so many other AI chatbots on coding prowess?
ServiceNow's 4 key AI principles and why they matter to your business: How is ServiceNow empowering enterprise management with AI? Learn from user experience expert Amy Lokey (who has served as UX VP at Google) about ethical AI, inclusivity, and productivity-boosting features transforming the workplace.
Get early access to Apple Vision Pro apps using TestFlight - here's how: Stay ahead of the curve with the latest updates and beta-test new apps effortlessly. Follow my step-by-step walkthrough for installing and using TestFlight on Apple's XR headset.
Ultimate Charging Tower: Core design
I’ve made a lot of progress on the Ultimate Charging Tower project. It will consist of two metal rolling carts, each with four 18-inch cubes of space. Inside each cube will be a base structure consisting of Multiboard based hanging zones, each of which is easily reconfigurable. Here’s the front view of my first prototype:
You can see how various items can be hung off the inner tower. These can be adjusted depending on what needs to be charged. The items being charged will be on the front of the tower, with cable and power management on the back side:
I wound up designing a whole bunch of custom brackets to hold the pieces together. The standard brackets in the Multiboard collection were too large, and also didn’t have the robust corner and connector brackets shown in this picture. Once the project is done, I’ll upload all of my customizations to Thingiverse or one of the other 3D sites.
And, lest you wonder whether this thing can hold a bunch of electronic devices, here’s a five pound weight hanging off the top of the inner tower.
Stay tuned. Next up, I’m building custom holders for all the camera batteries that need to be charged.
Must-watch YouTube
Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.
My Internet Press Guild colleague Phil Shapiro recommended this video. It’s a new way to fly RC planes. It looks like a ton of fun.
We’ve been rewatching the Beverly Hills Cop movies in preparation for watching Axel F on Netflix. Car chases are big in these movies. That’s why this video on how car chase scenes have evolved is so interesting to me right now.
Here’s a flashback to a time before David Letterman looked like Kris Kringle. It’s the top ten things never before said by a Star Wars character. Dated, but fun.
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Interesting reads
And now, some good stuff from around the Internet, well worth reading.
A flying-saucer car drove to a UFO festival and was stopped four times.
Prime Day(s) is coming this week. Here’s ZDNET’s always-updated guide to the best 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!