How to buy a used laptop, a giant cardboard TIE Fighter, the US Marines and 3D printing, a gorgeous ship, and more
It's Advanced Geekery for the week ending July 28, 2023
Welcome to this week’s Advanced Geekery newsletter. This is an exciting issue.
My articles
Let’s kick it off with a quick recap of the articles I published in the last week on ZDNET:
How UPS workers' big contract win could impact Amazon: We explore the ripple effect of UPS's union activities and their potential impact on Amazon.
How I used ChatGPT to write a custom JavaScript bookmarklet: This weekend, I used AI to build a very cool little writing helper that will definitely save me time and mouse clicks every day. Here's my coding diary.
Adobe Generative Expand adds to Photoshop's AI arsenal: As new features go, it's not a huge lift. But it may save you some steps, and it's cool.
I also substantially updated a very helpful article from a few years ago. If you’re in the market for a used machine, definitely give this a read first:
Buying a used Mac laptop: How to avoid scams and find the best deals: You can save money with a refurbished Mac laptop. Here's a guide on how to buy used machines, and how to avoid getting swindled.
A plugin reunion
Eight years ago, I adopted a set of WordPress plugins from a developer who suddenly found himself in a caregiver role and wasn’t able to maintain them. I adopted them to keep them alive, secure, and supported for the tens of thousands of users who relied on them (and still do). There are two big plugins, to which I added a lot of features over the years, and six supporting plugins that are just genuinely useful to web builders.
That developer’s family health situation has improved and he now has the bandwidth to re-adopt the six supporting plugins. So after eight years in my care, I’m incredibly pleased to be able to send those helpful little tools back home. We did the transfer this week and they’re now back in their creator’s care.
I’m still improving, supporting, and maintaining the big three (Seamless Donations, My Private Site, and Multiple Themes), plus one more helper plugin from another developer. That’s all done on the ZATZ Labs site.
Must-watch YouTube
Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.
Amazon has taken a couple of runs at creating an Alexa with a screen. I even did a video about one that follows you around. But Amazon hasn’t come close to this melding of an old tube monitor, 3D printed eyeballs, and an Echo Dot. To say I want one is an understatement. Plus, the guy has a great build patter.
There are times when I find myself truly curious about the why of a project. This guy, for example. He builds a full-size TIE Fighter out of cardboard. I have no idea what got this guy started, but it’s mesmerizing to watch.
What, exactly, is nuclear fusion? In this fascinating video, an MIT professor explains it all in five levels of difficulty. How far did you get before it started to sound like blah-blah-blah-boom?
Interesting reads
Here’s some good stuff from around the Internet, well worth reading.
The Atlantic shares some backstory on what the original iPhone might have looked like. It’s a fun, quick, informative read.
Insider is running a scathing piece on the venture capital business in Silicon Valley. It’s the dirty little secret that could bring down Big Tech and it’s definitely troubling.
The United States Marines are pushing the bounds of in-air care by using 3D printers on VTOL aircraft to print medical casts. Fascinating stuff.
Merch of the week
Every so often, I’ll be spotlighting some fun merch from my MorleySpace Etsy store. This week, we present a saying that I’m guessing maybe…maybe… three of you will find amusing. But since it amuses me greatly, I’m sharing it:
It comes in a wide variety of sizes and every color that is black. If you’re interested, click here to find out the deets and get one for yourself.
Also: How I used ChatGPT and AI art tools to launch my Etsy business fast
Reader projects
I am thrilled to be able to kick off our first reader project with Greg Nichols’ Onward Industries project. Many of you may know Greg because of his work back in the day on ZDNET, but this is so much more.
Greg tells us, “Some excellent collaborators and I launched a nonprofit called Onward Industries a year or so ago. We take people in storytelling media (journalists, film & TV folks, documentary filmmakers, podcasters, marketing peeps) on retreats aboard a WWII minesweeper converted into a mobile story lab.
“It’s part creative retreat and part ocean conservation based. We connect our storytelling peeps with front line conservation projects. The outcome is you have top level communicators figuring out ways to use their skills to build meaningful messaging around ocean conservation, projects that have a real impact.”
I asked him to tell us more about the ship. He reports, “Lindy was built by the British Admiralty, part of a class called MFVs, which were modeled after North Atlantic fishing vessels and built to serve a variety of functions, from minesweeping to light cargo and transport to serving as tenders for much larger ships.
“The ships did originally have masts but they were much smaller than what’s on there now and the sails they flew were mostly designed to steady the motion of the boat in big seas (if there’s any wind the sails will hold the boat over and decrease roll). In a pinch the small sails could help a ship that had lost power sail downwind to a port of refuge, which was important because some of the boats crossed oceans.
“Our boat was converted to pleasure in the 1990s after a long post-war career as a herring fishing vessel. During the conversion a bigger rig was put on her to make her more of a sailing ship. Since then two rigs (each bigger than the last) have been fitted to her, so now she’s a proper gaffer (gaff-rigged ketch) capable of actually sailing.
“She crossed the Atlantic in the late 1990s, was left to rot in South Carolina, and then was rescued by a marine electrician who took her to Honduras for a near-total rebuild. She then transited the Panama Canal and went north up the west coast to Alaska, where she served as a support boat for big electrical installs in remote villages.”
Greg says, “We sailed her down to California last summer and she’s now an expedition-ready story lab taking people in media and storytelling professions to front line conservation and ocean rehabilitation sites.”
Follow Greg and his amazing project on Instagram at @onward_story.
Send in your projects
I’d like to regularly spotlight a reader project or two here. Your project doesn’t have to be as big as a whole ship. In fact, it doesn’t even have to be as big as a roll of filament. 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.
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!