I cloned the Codex keyboard, how to pick Claude tools, coffee is healthy

Plus, my latest preview video, Claude 5 is live, my RAM woes, easy box joints, too many Legos, and our cyclops ancestor.

Jul 27, 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 latest preview video

If you’ve been following my ZDNET articles, you know I’ve been working on a filament management tool called My Filament Stash. Here’s another sneak peek feature that will be in the upcoming release of the product. It’s being built for the Apple ecosystem and will run on iPhone, iPad, Watch, and Mac.

My articles

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

I recreated OpenAI’s Codex Micro for a lot less - and mine is more customizable: The $230 Codex Micro sold out before I could buy one, so I turned my Stream Deck+ into a surprisingly capable alternative.

I use Anthropic’s Claude AI tools for very different jobs: How to pick between models, Code, and Cowork: Here’s how Anthropic’s AI tools work, what they can accomplish, and why security, cost, and your oversight still matter.

Claude Opus 5 arrives with near Fable performance at half the price: Anthropic’s latest Claude upgrade targets developers and enterprises with stronger coding, better reasoning efficiency, prompt-cache-friendly tool changes, and near-Fable performance at Opus pricing.

So-this-happened of the week

I ran Windows’ memory test all the way through twice, before and after a power cycle. Windows reports that it’s a memory issue, so as soon as I dig out my workshop from the three active projects filling up all surfaces, I’ll dig in, open the machine up, and reseat the RAM.

I really hope it’s not a bad memory stick. When I purchased the G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series (Intel XMP) DDR4 RAM 32GB in 2023, I spent $74.99. That same exact product today is $240 with a 25% discount (normal price $319)! I really don’t want to have to replace RAM in today’s market.

Must-watch YouTube

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

Tom Scott has an interesting theory about why the first cast iron bridge ever built has a bit of a peak at its middle.
Admittedly, this guy does Lego for a living. Still, he has way more Legos than seems healthy.
Stumpy Nubs (James Hamilton) is back with a video about how to make easy box joints three separate ways.

Merch of the week

After a quiet hiatus, my Etsy merch store is back with a bunch of new geekerly sayings. I’ll be adding more each week. This week, though, I felt this one was the most appropriate given my blue screen above: Ninety percent of repair is reseating RAM. Here’s hoping it’s true.

Hey, and I have a favor to ask. In order to get the shop to rank, reviews are really important. After you decide you want one of the shirts (they come in lots of colors and sizes) and place your order, please leave a review. The more reviews, the better. Even if you don’t order, you can help kickstart the store by favoriting a shirt or two.

Note: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, but not this week.

Interesting reads

And now, some good stuff from around the Internet, well worth checking out.

I feel vindicated. According to science, five cups of coffee a day is fine for most adults.
Apparently, science thinks that we all share a one-eyed cyclops-like ancestor, because of course it does.
ZDNET’s Elyse Betters Picaro has a disturbing report about the rise of Flock AI-assisted law enforcement cameras. There are more than 90,000 operating today.

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.