Cutting cloud storage costs, GPT-5 coding gets weird, waterproof electronics
Plus, the doodle craze, Gartner on agentic AI, using a VAX for home lighting, and a Facebook setting you'll want to change
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 latest video
In this video, I continue my ongoing project of revamping our outdoor security camera setup. This time, I’m building two waterproof power-over-Ethernet distribution boxes. I’ve included both step-by-step instructions and a parts guide if you want to use the same gear.
My articles
Here’s a quick recap of the articles I published in the last week on ZDNET.
How I cut my monthly cloud storage bill in half - with 5 tough decisions: I was storing 60TB in the cloud, but endless support battles and rising costs forced me to rethink everything. These five changes cut my bill dramatically.
I retested GPT-5's coding skills using OpenAI's guidance - and now I trust it even less: I used OpenAI's best practices and optimizer to rerun my GPT-5 tests. The results were strange, inconsistent, and sometimes bizarre, raising real concerns about how much developers can trust this AI for coding.
Gartner says add AI agents ASAP - or else. Oh, and they're also overhyped: Gartner contradicts its own messaging on AI agents, so what's a company to do? For one thing, don't be pressured into risky, rash decisions by crazy talk.
Must-watch YouTube
Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.
Fascinating piece on how the Sears Catalog outsmarted Jim Crow.
This guy has a great tutorial on using CA glue for model makers.
Dude bought a VAX on eBay and set it up to run his smart lights. For those who don’t know, VAX was the supermini computer to beat back in the 1980s. I love this in a way that, if you understand, you truly understand. This, kids, is truly advanced geekery.
Product of the week
This is the waterproof outdoor box I spotlighted in the video above. They come in a ton of different sizes. I found that the plastic box was way less heavy than the equivalent metal boxes and won’t rust.
For a no-name random find on Amazon, I was impressed. Bought three. One has been installed for months, and the other two will be put into service this month.
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.
ZDNET’s Elyse Betters Picaro has an important warning: turn off this setting to keep Facebook from scanning your camera roll. Mine was turned on without my permission. Yours might be as well.
We have a wonderful Yorkie-poo (also known as a Yorkie Doodle). In this article, Bloomberg (might be behind pay wall) talks about Doodlemania, how the doggie doodle craze has taken over America and become a billion dollar business.
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!
great video, thx.. I really like these outdoor boxes. I used them in my chicken coop controller and the outdoor internet (https://www.vinthewrench.com/p/rural-internet ). I found that the trapped heat can be a bit excessive in our summers, so I added a fan and thermostat (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FBTC2BR?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3). . I put a piece of screening on the vent, because every dammed insect thinks that this is a good place to nest.. One more tip, I used a metal deburring tool to ream those openings a bit more, driving them with a hammer just bogged the threads.