ChatGPT charts, Rickrolling (updated), Temu, Kurt Russell, John Goodman, Godzilla, and aliens in a suitcase
ChatGPT charts, Rickrolling (updated), Temu, Kurt Russell, John Goodman, Godzilla, and aliens in a suitcase
It's Advanced Geekery for the week ending September 8, 2023
Welcome to this week’s Advanced Geekery newsletter. I’ve been head-down all week working on some Special Feature articles you’ll be seeing in ZDNET in late September, October, and November. As such, don’t expect an over-arching theme for this issue. Instead, I’m just going to share some completely random, but fairly cool stuff. Enjoy!
My articles
Let’s kick it off with a quick recap of the articles I published in the last week on ZDNET:
ChatGPT and I played a game of 20 Questions and then this happened: I tested out how GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 can handle object relationships. The short answer: surprisingly well.
How to use ChatGPT to make charts and tables: ChatGPT has some great chart-making tools. From histograms and heatmaps to word clouds and network diagrams, here's how to take full advantage of this powerful capability.
Chrome is (obviously) the top browser, but you won't believe what's (a distant) second: Chrome is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the browser world. There is another, down in the number two slot. And then, there are all the rest.
David in the news
My stuff does sometimes get picked up in other media. I don’t usually spotlight it, because it’s just regular coverage on tech topics. But here are two that showed up this week that are kind of fun.
So, my recent Temu piece got picked up by the Courier Journal. Not some thinky piece I agonized over, but the article on fake Legos I bought. We're all going to hell. I’m planning another Temu “stunt article” in a few weeks about retro gaming. Maybe that’ll be picked up by the New York Times. Sigh.
One of my undergrad college buddies sent this to me. Apparently EduRank ranked the 36 Notable Alumni of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where I got my engineering degree. I came in #16 after Dean Kamen (Segway), Robert Goddard (who blew up part of the school inventing rocketry) and J. Geils (yes, the J. Geils band was started at WPI. Geils was a mechanical engineering major).
Must-watch YouTube
Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.
Apple is due to do another one of its iPhone events on Tuesday. They’re usually chock full of cool video effects. YouTube film guy Adam Grasso decided to deconstruct some of the coolness. He may or may not be right on everything, but it’s a worthwhile look anyway.
For whatever reason, the twisted little Internet practice of Rickrolling amuses the heck out of me. Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up was released 35 years ago. But now, wait for it… Astley is back with Never Gonna Stop, thereby ensuring we’re never gonna give him up. Oh, go ahead and watch it once. You know you want to.
There’s a new series coming out on Apple TV+ in November called Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. Doesn’t sound like much, until you realize it’s a Godzilla-ish series with John Goodman and Snake Plissken himself, Kurt Russell. It’s on my must-watch list.
Interesting reads
Here’s some good stuff from around the Internet, well worth reading.
This technically belongs in the video block, but since the clip isn’t on YouTube, I’m sending you to the original article. If you watched Picard Season 3, you did not see this very poignant interlude between Riker and Worf. That’s a full 90 seconds of “Awww, poor Worf,” right there.
The Harvard Business Review makes a case for why your messy desk is messing with your mind. Give The Case for Finally Cleaning Your Desk a quick read.
Reader projects
I’d like to regularly spotlight a reader project or two 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.
A completely random Midjourney picture
Finally, let’s wrap up with a Midjourney rendering. I’ve been having fun prompting the AI with whatever phrase pops into my head. This time, it was:
/imagine photorealistic image, 35mm adorable space aliens packed into an open suitcase sitting on a bed
Leave some comments
Substack supports comments, so feel free to leave some. I promise to read them. Did you listen to my tunes? What did you think? What about that coffee warmer? Do you consider it as life-changing as I do? And did you read that piece on generative AI and elections? If you want to share thoughts on that, please comment as well.
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!