Sonnet blasts my AI tests, a 3D printed neighborhood, and testing Ethernet connectors
Plus, dino footprints, a giant USS Enterprise, AI transformation, ChatGPT Codex for $20, and AT&T loses it (to the tune of millions of records)
I’m David Gewirtz. Welcome to this week’s Advanced Geekery newsletter. It’s been an exciting week. Let’s dive in.
My articles
Here’s a quick recap of the articles I published in the last week on ZDNET.
Anthropic's free Claude 4 Sonnet aced my coding tests - but its paid Opus model somehow didn't: The $20/month Claude 4 Opus failed to beat its free sibling, Claude 4 Sonnet, in head-to-head testing. Here's how Sonnet quietly crushed expectations with smarter, safer code.
You can use OpenAI's super powerful AI coding agent Codex for just $20 now: OpenAI just dropped Codex into ChatGPT Plus, giving developers powerful coding tools for just $20 a month. But should you trust it with your codebase and internet access?
The hidden data crisis threatening your AI transformation plans: Most organizations struggle to make AI useful. Here's how data fragmentation, outdated platforms, and unstructured information are holding your AI efforts back, and what you can do about it.
Must-watch YouTube
Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.
Lewis Black on ChatGPT. Need I say more?
Interesting story on a developer who is using 3D printing to churn out an entire neighborhood.
It takes about 36 seconds for dude to get to the point, but he’s building a very cool and very big Star Trek NCC-1701 Enterprise model.
Tool of the week
This tool comes in a variety of kits, depending on how many attachments you want. At its core is its ability to not only test Ethernet cable connections, but show which wire routes to which connector.
If the display shows all eight connections lining up on top of each other, you know your cable is good. I’m running hundred-plus-foot cable runs. It’s really nice to be able to know whether or not the cable works before going down the diagnostic rabbit hole trying to figure out why something isn’t working.
I bought the full kit because running Ethernet is always something I’m dealing with. I know that probably says something sad about my life and my relationship with technology, but at some point you just have to say, “Okay, this is who I am.” And I appear to be a guy who deals with a lot of Ethernet. I guess I have to be okay with that.
Note: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Interesting reads
And now, some good stuff from around the Internet, well worth checking out.
CNN has an article about dino footprints found in Africa and South America that are virtually identical, providing more details about how the two land masses were connected back in the day.
An old iron age ornament was found to contain “meteorite iron,” according to The Independent. Makes sense, because depending on when it was used, that ore might have been easier to find on the surface than by mining.
ZDNET’s Lance Whitney reports that there’s even more reason to love being an AT&T customer: millions of AT&T customer records previously breached are now for sale on a Russian cybercrime forum. Gives that old AT&T catchphrase, “Your world. Delivered,” an entirely new meaning. Special.
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!
OH this was the cable -- https://a.co/d/1fL7Doh
I have been using the Ethernet test tool for quite a while now, It's fantastic. I make up a lot of cables out here on the farm.
People can say what they want about Wifi. But for cameras, nothing beats using good Cat 6 UTP UV-resistant cable - this is what I used, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0058TZDGY?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_4
I highly recommend it! I like their crimp tool, too.
The thing to remember is to buy the pass through RJ-45 connectors. And yes, the razor cutter gets dull after a while. I just wish someone had made a device to help line up the wires a little better when feeding into the connectors.