Election week, M4 Mac Mini notes, and Claude ain't no ChatGPT
Plus, the history of drywall, how insurers screw you out of benefits, and Robert Picardo does technobabble
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.
How Claude's new AI data analysis tool compares to ChatGPT's version (hint: it doesn't): I tested Claude's new free data-crunching AI tool. Unfortunately, it rejects even moderately sized datasets - and the paid version isn't much better.
4 reasons why a maxed-out M4 Mac Mini can't replace my Mac Studio: The compact design and powerful chip make Apple's new Mac Mini ideal for mainstream users who already have a keyboard, monitor, and mouse. But for me, the cons outweigh the pros. Here's why.
Election in America
It’s election time in America. On Tuesday, many Americans will go to their local polling place and cast a ballot for their candidates. Elections aren’t just about the top tier candidates. We elect local officials and approve or deny policy proposals as well.
I live in Oregon, where we all mail in our ballots. It’s certainly more convenient than going to a polling place, but it also somehow seems to reduce that feeling of having done one’s civic duty.
When I was younger, I remember going into an actual polling booth, closing the curtain behind me, and pulling a level. Now that felt like real voting. Later, when I lived in Florida, we used little desk areas barely isolated from voters next to us and filled in scannable forms.
I have a vivid memory of heading up to the dropbox in the town where I lived, and being required to hand the form to an official, who glanced at my form before scowling and then dropping it into the voting box. I never made a fuss about handing my form to a local official instead of being allowed to preserve my privacy, but it was a far cry from the voting booths of yore.
I guess, given the choice between mailing in a ballot or going to a traditional voting booth, I’d probably choose the voting booth for the feels. But given the choice between those little desks with their scannable forms and scowling officials or mailing in my ballot, I’d definitely opt for mailing in my vote.
No matter how your community votes, I feel that voting is both a sacred responsibility and an incredible privilege. Despite all the fuss and politics that accompanies every election, the simple practice of casting a vote is still very special and important.
Must-watch YouTube
Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.
Remember the Gameboy? For the time, it required some seriously insane engineering to make it all work.
Walls back in the 1920s were built with plaster and lath. But now we use drywall. How did we get here? This video has the fascinating details.
Robert Picardo (The Doctor from Voyager) has a lot of fun with technobable. Everyone needs a hobby.
Interesting reads
And now, some good stuff from around the Internet, well worth reading.
Best headline of the month: AI digests repetitive scatological document into profound “poop” podcast.
ProPublica has a piece about a company that does its best to help insurance companies deny treatment. Expletive deleted.
Last week, I showed you how I use Apple Watch to record and transcribe notes for articles. ZDNET’s Matthew Miller found a similar solution for Android users.
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!