More free AI courses, Microsoft's big AI announcements, and Harbor Freight secrets
Plus, Winston Churchill, Central Park architecture, military UFOs, the true story of Captain Janeway's coffee, and a super-secret Waterworld cut.
I’m David Gewirtz. Welcome to this week’s Advanced Geekery newsletter. This is an exciting issue. Let’s dive in.
Happy Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday!
The Advanced Geekery newsletter will be taking Thanksgiving week off, but will be back with an exciting new issue for December 1.
My articles
Let’s kick it off with a quick recap of the articles I published in the last week on ZDNET:
I spent a weekend with Amazon's free AI courses, and highly recommend you do too: Want to learn more about AI but don't know where to start? Check out these free AI training courses from AWS. There's something here for everyone, from beginners to more advanced, and it won't cost you anything (but time).
Boosting cybersecurity: Microsoft's AI-driven Security Copilot unveiled at Ignite 2023: Microsoft's Security Copilot merges AI and defense to tackle evolving threats. Learn how this innovation redefines network security.
Microsoft's latest AI offerings for developers revealed at Ignite 2023: Microsoft's Ignite 2023 spotlighted an array of developer advancements from Azure AI innovations and confidential computing enhancements to integrative data solutions.
Azure AI Studio takes the stage at Ignite 2023: Unlock the potential of Azure AI Studio's AI toolkit: Microsoft is introducing its all-in-one AI toolkit. From data analysis to custom model building, discover how this powerful platform can transform your business into an AI-driven success story.
Must-watch YouTube
Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.
Central Park in New York City is an amazing place, but many of us don't give its architectural underpinning much thought. It's just a place we go. It's been a while since I've been there since I live on the West Coast now, but this video by Architectural Digest provides a really interesting insight into some of the park’s design features.
Did you ever wonder how Winston Churchill could have played such a pivotal role in World War II, and then shortly after the Allies won, got voted out of office? What went wrong?
With Black Friday coming up, every business is after your hard earned dollars. If you're looking for tools or other hardware this season, you might be heading over to Harbor Freight. This video shows some inside secrets about buying at Harbor Freight. I've equipped much of my workshop with their gear, and I've been quite satisfied with a lot of it, but here's my tip: avoid buying saw blades or grinding wheels from them. Those have never really held up. Of course, I'm not an expert, so you should probably decide for yourself.
Interesting reads
Here’s some good stuff from around the Internet, well worth reading.
This is the first time I am using this newsletter for an actual call for help, but here we go. One of my favorite movies of all time is Waterworld. Don't judge me. Now I find out that there is something called the Ulysses Cut. There is mention of this on YouTube but no full video. If you know where I can find the Ulysses Cut, please let me know. I definitely gotta see this thing.
Ever wonder why Captain Janeway enjoyed coffee so much? It makes you sharp. But it's also because it was Kate Mulgrew’s preferred drink.
Do you believe in UFOs? According to this story in The Hill (a fairly credible source of government and politics news), some in the Pentagon do. Do with that what you will.
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!