My app sneak preview, more on Fable, and an AI search engine
Plus, a goat-powered AI in Age of Empires, how to know if you're being monitored, my wire shelf drawer project continues, and Siri AI might not suck.
I’m David Gewirtz. Welcome to this week’s Advanced Geekery newsletter. It’s been an exciting week. Let’s dive in.
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My latest video
If you’ve been following my ZDNET articles, you know I’ve been working on a filament management tool called My Filament Stash. This video is the first of a series that will provide sneak peeks of individual capabilities 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.
Why Anthropic suddenly pulled Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for everyone: Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 are gone. The reason? A US government directive.
AI agents are getting their own search engine: AI agents may soon search for and use their own tools at runtime, thanks to a new open standard backed by Microsoft and Google.
Project of the week
Last week, I told you about the wire shelf drawers I’m putting up in the workshop. This week, I designed and started to 3D print plastic base plates to make those drawers solid.
Each shelf requires two rows of four thin strips and two rows of four wider strips. All told, I need to print 40 thin strips and 40 wide strips, for a total of 80 prints. I’m printing them at the maximum size of my biggest printer, so the Creality K2 Plus is getting a real run for its money. It’s hanging in there like a champ.
I’m using the same XFasten double-sided sticky tape I use for my CNC, which holds very well, leaves no residue, and releases (with effort) on demand. So far, the strips have been holding well.
Must-watch YouTube
Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.
This guy uses AI to make 50s retro style trailers of popular movies. In this video, he shows all the tools he uses. Even though he’s using a lot of AI (and arguably producing AI slop), there’s still a lot of work involved.
Joanna Stern spent a week testing out the new Siri AI. She didn’t hate it.
My Internet Press Guild colleague Tristan Louis did a TED talk about the challenges of protecting free speech.
Gadget of the week
I am really intrigued by this thing. It’s a power strip under the desk and a charging hub on top of the desk, with a clamp that holds the two parts in place. I haven’t bought it yet, but I’m definitely thinking about it. Might just tidy up the underside of my desk a bit.
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.
A Microsoft researcher built a goat-powered LLM in Age of Empires II to prove it’s not sentient. That’s the actual headline. That article alone makes it worth subscribing to this newsletter, and you know it. And yes, I both downloaded and read the entire academic paper it references because I’m that much of an advanced geek.
Apparently, fish oil makes folks less aggressive. Our vet told us to give the pup fish oil. It doesn’t make him yap any less. Want me to be less aggressive? Feed me some crab-stuffed lobster. That’ll do it every time.
ZDNET’s Charlie Osborne just put out an important article about the 10 signs that someone is monitoring or accessing your accounts. She also shows you how to stop them.
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.
Both my EPs are now streaming
Available on all your favorite streaming services.
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!