Fact checking AI, get a free IBM AI certification, VisionOS AR design, and a pro tip
Plus, Spotify's stats for my music, the Crazy Eddie's story, why drone delivery isn't a thing, monster fossils, and a smart Windows 11 install tip
I’m David Gewirtz. Welcome to this week’s Advanced Geekery newsletter.
We had a huge surge in new subscribers this week. I hope you all enjoy this and future issues. 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 fact-checked ChatGPT with Bard, Claude, and Copilot - and this AI was the most confidently incorrect: To err is human and apparently AI as well.
7 best practices Apple recommends when designing for VisionOS: Read how Apple's VisionOS design guidelines provide a blueprint for creating grounded, user-friendly mixed reality apps.
Have 10 hours? IBM will train you in AI fundamentals - for free: I already took IBM's AI ethics class and plan to complete the rest to earn my digital credential in AI over the holiday break.
NEXT WEEK: My 2023 Year in Review plus the usual goodies
Pro tip
In addition to rebooting, slapping a device on the side, or using profanity, sitting and waiting just see if it decides to start working all on its own is also a valid troubleshooting technique.
Must-watch YouTube
Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.
Remember drone delivery? It was supposed to be the next big thing? I’ve always been a bit doubtful. This interesting video from Wendover Productions does a deeper dive into what went wrong, and the special cases where drone delivery actually works quite well.
If you’re from the Northeast US and from a time, you’ll remember Crazy Eddie’s. I almost bought a cassette player from their Paramus store, but I never went back because their sales folks were both too pushy and showed a jaw-dropping lack of product knowledge. Here’s the full story of the incredible scam they were running.
Archeologists have unearthed a a pliosaur head off the coast of the UK. This was a huge marine reptile from about 150 million years ago. Think of it as a dino-shark and you’d be pretty much on track.
Do you remember Crazy Eddie’s? Let us know in the comments.
Spotify’s House of the Head year-end wrap-up
Spotify was kind enough to provide a year-end wrap-up for my debut three-track EP album, House of the Head.
It's available for purchase on iTunes and to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, Tidal, and about 150 additional services right now.
It’s kind of weird realizing that folks are listening that much. But it’s also cool
Back when I was in engineering school, I did that trip three or four times a year. But by car driving my hand-me-down Ford Pinto and then a much loved, but very beat-up old Jeep Wagoneer. We didn’t have Spotify (or even the Internet) then, so I bought one new tape per trip, which was about all I could afford. That one tape cost more than a few months of Spotify.
This kind of surprised me, because all the promotion was for the House of the Head track. But Pursuit of Happiness does swing, so I can see why some folks liked to replay it.
For direct links to the tracks, visit HouseOfTheHead.com. Please give it a listen. Comment below to tell me what you think. And check article below for the complete back story about making this album:
How AI helped get my music on all the major streaming services: If I can launch an album onto Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, iTunes, and the rest, so can you. Here are all the ways that AI tools did and did not help. For the record, no AI was used in the creation or mixing of this music
Oh, and there’s more to come. Sometime late in February, I’ll be releasing my second EP with three more all-new original songs.
Interesting reads
Here’s some good stuff from around the Internet, well worth reading.
While we’re on the subject of weird discoveries, how about a dolphin with thumbs? Here’s the story of what scientists found off the coast of Greece.
If you haven’t seen the NASA alternate history show For All Mankind running on Apple TV+. It starts very sloooow, but rockets after a few episodes. If you haven’t seen it, I strongly recommend it. WIRED also recommends the show, making the case that it should run for seven seasons. I totally agree. This is the best of TV.
Are you setting up a new Windows 11 machine. Ed Bott has a must-read overview on the six things you must do after setting up the PC.
Reader 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.
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!