How ChatGPT helped find a mechanic, 3D printed velcro, secrets of CTRL-ALT-DEL, my latest video, more
How ChatGPT helped find a mechanic, 3D printed velcro, secrets of CTRL-ALT-DEL, my latest video, more
It's Advanced Geekery for the week ending September 2, 2023
I’m David Gewirtz, your host here for all things geeky fun. Welcome to this week’s Advanced Geekery newsletter.
My latest video
It’s been a minute since I’ve put out one of my review videos. So here you go: Fast, cheap, and good: The budget 3D printer that could. It’s a fun review and a pretty darned good 3D printer.
My articles
Next up, let’s run down a quick recap of the articles I published in the last week on ZDNET:
I needed a mechanic. Here's how ChatGPT Plus helped me skip reading online reviews: You'll need your advanced prompt writing skills and patience for this one but, if you're someone who gets lost in online reviews, it's worth it.
Google Cloud expands developer tools and data analytics capabilities with generative AI: Google announced a number of very helpful capabilities for developers and those building data-centric applications at Google Next '23. We take a look at those likely to prove the most game-changing.
House of the Head continues to gain traction
My EP album seems to still be gaining some nice traction. It’s been picked up by quite a few playlists. I’m spotlighting five here, and I’ll share more in the future. Thanks to everyone for listening and sharing.
Learn more at the official House of the Head website.
Must-watch YouTube
Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.
Direct from one of the Microsoft guys who was there at the time, CTRL-ALT-DEL: The Secret History of the Three Finger Salute. If you’re at all a geek, this is a worthy watch.
As a kid, I was fascinating by Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Time Tunnel, two campy but wonderful science fiction shows of the time. Now, we have a behind the scenes video about Time Tunnel, and Irwin Allen, the producer who made it all happen. Enjoy. I sure did.
Did you know you can 3D print Velcro? Well, not exactly, since Velcro is a branded product. But here’s a video showing how to reproduce Velcro’s functionality in a 3D print. Coolness.
Important dates to add to your calendar
You know I’m watching out for you, right?
This last Friday: Season 2 of The Wheel of Time hit Amazon Prime
September 7: Season 4 of Star Trek: Lower Decks takes off on Paramount+
September 8: Star Trek Day, such as it is, on Paramount+
September 12: Apple’s announcing new phones, etc.
October 4: Season 2 of the Quantum Leap reboot hits NBC. That means it’ll probably hit Peacock streaming on October 5
October 24: The sequel to the incredible city-building game Cities: Skylines will be released
Interesting reads
Here’s some good stuff from around the Internet, well worth reading.
This one’s fun. Apparently, if you’ve seen a UFO, the Pentagon wants to know.
It’s not your imagination. People are really more messed up, nastier, and more rude. Just try not to engage, okay? Nobody needs that kind of stress. But here’s a story about what some scientists think is happening.
So, it seems humans almost went extinct 900,000 years ago.
Reader projects
I’d like to regularly spotlight a reader project or two 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.
Pixel pic of the week
It’s been a while since the baby boy was featured here in the pages of the Advanced Geekery substack. Feast your eyes on the little fella.
Leave some comments
Substack supports comments, so feel free to leave some. I promise to read them. Did you listen to my tunes? What did you think? What about that coffee warmer? Do you consider it as life-changing as I do? And did you read that piece on generative AI and elections? If you want to share thoughts on that, please comment as well.
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!