How AI will fool voters, 2FA at Temu, revolving doors at OpenAI, and my camera robots
Plus, how Meta patches Linux at hyperscale, more dancin' Walken, my little robot factory, and a missing continent that's been found
I’m David Gewirtz. Welcome to this week’s Advanced Geekery newsletter. We’re back after a short Thanksgiving hiatus. For what was supposed to be a quiet time, a lot’s been going on. Let’s dive in.
My articles
Let’s kick it off with a quick recap of the articles I published in the last two weeks on ZDNET:
Elections 2024: How AI will fool voters if we don't do something now: As generative AI redefines political propaganda, it threatens to amplify misinformation and voter manipulation. Prof. Robert Crossler and I discuss the digital challenges facing our upcoming election cycles.
Is Temu safe? Its single-layer security should be a red flag to savvy online shoppers: This is all about how Temu
doesn’t(didn’t) have 2-factor authentication. Within days after I posted this article, a Temu PR rep told me that they were working on adding 2FA. Then, shortly after, I was told by the Temu PR folks that 2FA was now available. Was this due to my article or a very fortuitous coinkydink? They’re not saying.What Sam Altman's move to Microsoft means for ChatGPT's future: 3 possible paths forward: You all know about this because I blasted out a special bulletin. And then things started to get crazy. Altman is now back at OpenAI, the board has been replaced, and the palace coup seems to be over. For now?
ZDNET Special Feature: Automation: Robots, Machine Learning, and AI (another article)
ZDNET is still running its newest Special Feature, Automation: Robots, Machine Learning, and AI. Here’s a second article I wrote on the topic:
A backyard factory: How robots empower you to create your own products: Forget mass manufacturing -- the next big product could be made in your garage with the help of tiny robots.
Cool demand management business tactic
Some of you may be aware of Edelkrone. The company makes precision-engineered camera robots at a fairly affordable price. I rely on their gear for some of my product review videos.
Well, this Black Friday, they had a sale on. But they had a different deal than most companies. Their discount was contingent upon how long you were willing to wait for delivery. If you were willing to give them 15 days to ship, you could take 10% off the bill. If you were willing to wait 30 days, you could take 20% off the bill.
When it comes to products costing a thousand bucks or more, a 20% savings is a big number that I definitely availed myself of.
But it’s the tactic that’s interesting. By giving a discount, Edelkrone bought themselves some shipping time. Perhaps that gave them time to build products once they had payment, or just reduce the load on a shipping team, I don’t know. But the next time you expect a surge and want some way to manage it, consider using Edelkrone’s tactic of giving a discount in return for getting more time to get the job done.
There’s not that much risk for consumers, even with the added time. By law, US credit card customers are allowed to file a claim for at least 60 days after placing an order. Besides, Edelkrone is a serious company with solid support, and I’ve been buying from them for a few years now, with no complaints.
Must-watch YouTube
Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.
Virtual production is becoming more and more real. In this video, see how the creators at Nerdforge were able to drop themselves inside their own world. It’s a very good hands-on view of the entire process.
The video game world of Fallout is coming to streaming video, and it looks pretty impressive. Here’s a teaser trailer.
Back in the middle of November, I spotlighted what must be the best Christopher Walken video ever. If you, like me, can’t get enough Walken dancin’, here’s a countdown of his top ten dance moments. Yes, this newsletter is eclectic. You know you love it!
Interesting reads
Here’s some good stuff from around the Internet, well worth reading.
I am always fascinated by the unique challenges of doing tech at scale. In this informative article, SJVN looks at how Meta (aka Facebook) patches Linux millions of Linux servers.
Scientists report on Argoland, a continent that disappeared 165 million years ago. Apparently, it’s been found.
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!