The dark world of web scraping, more reliable 3D printing, QuickBooks tips
Plus, Formula One tech secrets, Star Trek goes bluegrass, Doom on a charging station, and the etymology of nerd
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 video
You know what sucks? When you wait hours or days for a 3D print to finish, only to run out of filament. Sure, you can replace filament mid-print, but that sometimes leads to failures, too. In this video, I show you a gadget that will help you know exactly how much filament you have on a spool before you kick off a print.
My articles
Here’s a quick recap of the articles I published in the last week on ZDNET.
How web scraping actually works - and why AI changes everything: AI's appetite for scraped content, without returning readers, is leaving site owners and content creators fighting for survival.
How to undo a reconciliation in QuickBooks Online - the easy way: Undoing reconciliations in QuickBooks isn't obvious, but a hidden accountant-only path makes it possible. It can save you hours of frustration.
How to print checks in QuickBooks Online: We'll teach you how to print paper checks in QuickBooks Online, from entering payment details to aligning your printer, so your business transactions stay accurate, professional, and frustration-free.
Must-watch YouTube
Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.
Last week, I shared a video on why hobbies are vanishing. This guy has another take on the grindification of hobbies.
Here’s a look at engineering the H.E.R.B.I.E. robot from the new Fantastic Four movie.
Someone did a bluegrassification of the Star Trek theme. It works.
Product of the week
This is the filament scale I spotlighted in the video above. It’s made by Creality and meant to attach to Creality printers, but making some kind of holder with a little bit of creative 3D printing should enable it to work with just about any other 3D printer.
It definitely saved me a lot of frustration and probably a few bucks as well. It certainly paid for itself by helping me to waste a lot less filament on failed prints.
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.
NPR has an article on how the word “nerd” went from insult to mainstream. Now, all they have to do is “geek”. Own it, kids. Own it.
Who doesn’t want to run Doom on a charging station? These wacky implementations just make me so happy.
ZDNET’s Mark Samuels has a fascinating deep dive into how the Formula One team uses data and technology to help win races.
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!