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Plus, foolery and tomfoolery, hobby spending is up, Star Trek’s puppet episode, a thought piece on Claude’s watermarking, and an adorbs Pixel pic

Aug 24, 2026

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 articles

Here’s a quick recap of the articles I published in the last week on ZDNET.

Google's AI can see your business data by default in Workspace - unless you disable it: In Google Workspace, Gemini has access to Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Chat, and more by default. Here’s why it matters, and how administrators can disable it today.

You can earn your Google Al Professional Certificate for free - and I highly recommend it: From AI fundamentals to data analysis and app building, Google’s certificate covers quite a lot. And there’s a way to avoid paying anything to earn your credential.

Must-watch YouTube

Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.

Apparently hobby spending is way up, according to Bloomberg.
This video provides an interesting deep dive into how Goodwill makes its money.
This guy (who’s usually a Trek fanboi) really didn’t like Strange New Worlds’ puppet episode. I thought it was fun. What did you think?

Tool of the week

I just bought a new set of contour gauges from Amazon after taking mine out and discovering all the tines were fused together. To be fair, I’ve had that gauge for at least 20 years, and my dad had it since before the days of the dinosaurs. This is the first time since he gave it to me that I tried to use it, and, well, it has seen better days.

It came from the 60s (or 50s, maybe 40s). Image: David Gewirtz

The Amazon set is plastic, so it won’t scratch as much as sharp metal will. That’s really the main reason I didn’t try to disassemble my dad’s tool and try to clean it up.

Plus, Amazon’s kit is inexpensive and comes with a smaller tool and a bigger tool. Not at all bad for the price. Stay tuned for an upcoming ZDNET article where I put this to the most unlikely of uses.

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.

I’m still thinking about that puppet episode. First, behind the scenes of the episode’s production.
Next, how many different ways can you say “hijinks”? Did you know there’s “foolery” and “tomfoolery”?
And now for something completely different, ZDNET’s Radhika Rajkumar wrote a really excellent piece on the concerns about Claude (and all the other AIs) watermarking your content.

Pixel pic of the week

I always wonder what the little one is dreaming about. What a cozy little bear-bear.

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.