We enbiggen a Benchy, jailbreak a Kindle, and manage money using ChatGPT
Plus, a dog on a skateboard, my next video, coders on vibe coding, a disturbing FAA story, and the Bigger Luke Theory
I’m David Gewirtz. Welcome to this week’s Advanced Geekery newsletter. It’s been an exciting week. Let’s dive in.
My latest video
Here’s a 3D printing video. This time, I set up the ginormous Creality K2 Plus Combo. It went together quite smoothly and the first print was a success.
I am having some difficulty with a bigger project (see Project of the Week below), but I have high hopes for this machine. And I got a haircut.
My articles
Here’s a quick recap of the articles I published in the last week on ZDNET.
10 professional developers on the true promise and peril of vibe coding: Is vibe coding the future of software or a security nightmare in disguise? Here's what experienced developers think about the latest AI-fueled coding craze.
How to transform your old, obsolete Kindle into the ultimate open-source reader: Your old Kindle's not dead yet; it's just waiting for a jailbreak. Let me show you how it's done.
How to use ChatGPT to quickly analyze your credit card spending - and why you should: Trying to stick to a budget? These 15 powerful AI prompts can easily break down your expenses to help you find spending patterns, save money, and reach your financial goals faster in 2025.
Project of the week
Using the Creality K2 Plus in the video above, I scaled up a Benchy to supersize, and it printed. But as you can see from the picture above and this close-up, there are a lot of printing artifacts.
I’m running a second print as I write this. I reduced the temperature, slowed down the outer wall speed, and lowered the chamber temperature. I probably should also have adjusted my retraction settings, but I just thought of that as I wrote this now. So if the second test doesn’t work out, I’ll try that next.
Each one of these takes a full spool of filament. Fortunately, Creality was nice enough to send me a bunch of spools, so I feel fairly comfortable running these moderately expensive test prints.
Stay tuned. I’m sure I’ll have more to tell.
Must-watch YouTube
Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.
I’ve got another Facebook doggie video. Stay tuned to the end, where the little guy pushes the skateboard all by his lil’ self.
This is a fairly disturbing story from fellow maker, Xyla Foxlin. She’s a pilot who had a negative reaction when she went on birth control. The result: grounded by the FAA.
The always inspiring Thomas Sanladerer has a helpful explainer video on adding threads to 3D prints. I always learn so much from this guy.
Tool of the week
A few weeks ago, I showed you a flashing red light sensor that could tell you when your dust bucket was filled up. I seriously thought of buying it. But then I realized I could probably get away with this fairly inexpensive translucent bucket for my dust collection system.
I bought it, and it works. All I need to do is look at it to see if the dust has filled the chamber. No batteries, no power, no screaming po-po lights. Just a simple bucket, and it works. I wish there were buckets in this form factor that are more transparent, but this is workable.
And, hey, if you missed my dust collection video, you can check it out here.
Note: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Interesting reads
And now, some good stuff from around the Internet, well worth reading.
Did you know there’s a Bigger Luke Theory in Star Wars that postulates there are multiple Lukes of different sizes in Star Wars? No. Neither did I.
Apparently, chimps have tool-making skills similar to human engineers.
This is a really compelling story of someone willing to go to rather excessive lengths to scan in as many copies of the old Computer Shopper as he can find. It’s quite the tale. Now, that’s dedication!
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!