The Computer That Fits In A Mint Tin
Salim Benbouziyane crammed a working computer into an Altoids tin, keyboard included. Comfortable? He says no, the keys barely travel. I'll take a cramped keyboard I can carry in a…
From the archives
2026
109 formulae on file
Mizzou Investigates Its Own Sociology Chair
Mizzou flunked, and as an IT professional I know a rename job when one's described to me. In a hidden-camera video that Accuracy in Media says it shot in January…
Rogue Makers and Air Pirates
Now that's a theme name with some swagger to it. Clockwork Alchemy runs Rogue Makers and Air Pirates for three days in Redwood City, October 16 to 18, and I'd…
The Two Languages That Lost a Mars Probe
On 23 September 1999, a NASA orbiter arrived at Mars after nine months and 400 million miles. Nothing aboard it was broken. Everything worked. It fired its engine on schedule, behaved impeccably — and passed behind the planet forty-nine seconds early.
Steam Powered Giraffe: Meet Toast
The robots are hiring again. Steam Powered Giraffe, San Diego's resident troupe of singing Victorian automatons, has commissioned a new unit: Toast, built 1896, rebuilt 2026, circus-style, plays flute, carries…
Steampunk Rendezvous: Winthrop, Washington
A Wild West town. Steampunks. A gear swap and a potluck barbecue. This is not a convention, it is not a festival, it is a rendezvous, which is the correct…
Key City Steampunk: Worlds of Tomorrow
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Home of one of the bloodiest battles in American history, a hotel restaurant literally called the 1863, and, apparently, the East Coast's best excuse to put on goggles…
Boston’s Steampunk Gathering: Charlestown, September 18-20
This weekend, Charlestown, Massachusetts transforms into the Doctor's kind of town: gears on everything, corsets as far as the eye can see, and enough top hats to block out the…
Dieselpunk 1921
A free 125-page TTRPG rulebook just dropped on itch.io, and the Doctor is extremely here for it. Dieselpunk 1921 plants you in an alternate history where the shadow of the…
The Machine That Said It Was Impossible
Between 1985 and 1987, a machine built to treat cancer delivered massive radiation overdoses to six patients across North America. Three of them died.