The Betacantrips Travelogue

I found this fascinating site for the GRIB API:

The ECMWF GRIB API is an application program interface accessible from C and FORTRAN programs developed for encoding and decoding WMO FM-92 GRIB edition 1 and edition 2 messages. A useful set of command line tools is also provided to give quick access to grib messages.

Being as ignorant as I am, I had never heard of GRIB (WP: from "GRIdded Binary", "a mathematically concise data format commonly used in meteorology to store historical and forecast weather data"). For the first ten minutes I was staring at this page trying to figure out if it was an elaborate hoax — that someone had invented a funny-sounding acronym for a technology and pretended to develop APIs for interacting with it. It sounds wrong in just the right way! Especially convincing is the mention of the older, now deprecated GRIBEX package.

Related work: HORG, the Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group; SCIgen and their video Near Science, and Dresden Codak’s Dungeons and Discourse.

On Tor.com, an interview with Whisper Merlot, who "doesn’t just dress up, or create steampunk accessories, or attend cons. Whisper actually lives in an RV, travelling from place to place bringing steampunk into other people’s lives." (Emphasis mine.)

For me, the steampunk mindset is about following the adventure whatever it may be. I am more true to myself and my goals, weirdly. Going to cons, doing panels, making a comic, dressing up, dressing down, making an alter-ego, throwing parties, watching movies, reading books, organizing photoshoots, ditching the creature comforts, jumping into a van, and bringing steampunk wherever I can go. Over time, my steampunk has become less about what props and costumes I’m showing off, and more about helping other people find this subculture so that they can start enjoying it too.

A neat review of the Pleco iPhone App on Sinosplice.

This is a big one. Pleco for iPhone has very impressive handwriting recognition. You really need to watch the video to see how it works, but the two-finger swipe is genius. Pleco has definitely improved upon Apple’s handwriting input, and it’s at least as good as nciku’s, as well.

There are also images of "having fun with it":

Tor.com has an interview with James Ng, who explains some of the inspiration for his steampunk art.

Night Patrol: Assassins and thieves that dare to enter the forbidden palace would be wise to avoid the night patrol. Stepping into the circle of light generated by the patrol robot will not only cause the guard dog to attack, but will also set off the gong and baton alarm that summons more guards to deal with any intruders swiftly.