So apparently Gen Z is buying Polaroid cameras, carrying MP3 players, and purchasing physical CDs in 2026 because they want to, quote, “slow down” and “own their media.” I need everyone to pause and appreciate what just happened here. The generation that was handed the internet at birth, a supercomputer in every pocket, and the collective sum of human knowledge on demand has looked at all of that and said: “No thank you, I’d prefer the format that melts in a hot car.” Good job, high-5! Welcome to literally every argument I’ve been making since 1997.

Here’s the thing, though: the Doctor is not going to mock this. I’m going to validate it. These kids stumbled backward into the correct answer. Physical media is real. Streaming is renting someone else’s permission slip to your own memories. The Commodore 64 crowd (that’s us, you know who you are) never needed a think piece to figure that out, but hey, if it takes a generation of zoomers panic-buying Walkmans to make the point stick, I’ll take the win. The Omega7Red Formulae has always run on physical, tangible, real objects: brass gears, glass lenses, riveted copper plating. Bits evaporate. Objects endure.

The Polaroid Go Generation 3 is the specific artifact making the rounds this month, a miniature instant camera aimed squarely at the analog-curious crowd. It is, objectively, the least efficient way to take a photograph in the year 2026, and I mean that as a compliment. Sometimes the friction is the point. Nothing can beat old age and betrayal, kids, but a physical print of a good moment comes close.

Via: BGR / SlashGear

The Chicago Steampunk Exposition 2026 wrapped up today at the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg, and if you were not there, I cannot help you. The theme was “Adventures in Wonderland” (technically the 1893 Chicago Exposition-through-a-looking-glass, which is the most SteamPunk elevator pitch since someone strapped a pressure gauge to a corset). Gail Carriger was on hand, UnWoman provided the soundtrack to your brass-and-velvet fever dreams, and the Hall of Curiosities was presumably full of things that would have gotten a man arrested in actual 1893. Three days, four exhibitor halls, and approximately one metric ton of top hats. The Doctor approves.

If you missed it: the Underground Market, the Midway Market (Artists/Writers/Musicians), the Hall of Curiosities, AND hallway exhibitors across the entire atrium. That is not a convention, that is a siege. They rolled dice (a d20, a d30, a d60, AND a d100) to determine badge prize winners at Opening Ceremonies, which is the correct way to run any gathering of human beings. Why is every awards show not doing this? I ask because I genuinely want to know.

Mark your calendar now: same Hyatt, same interdimensional time portals, and presumably a new theme that will be equally unhinged in the best possible way. Nothing can beat old age and betrayal, but a weekend in a parallel 1893 with several hundred gear-wearing lunatics comes close.

Via: Chicago Steampunk Exposition

Apple turns 50 this year, and instead of doing anything reasonable like throwing a party or minting commemorative coins, the universe decided to let 8BitDo apply the Omega7Red Formulae to the Apple II and turn it into a mechanical keyboard. The result: the Retro 68 AP50th Limited Edition, a 68-key slab machined entirely from aluminum alloy, finished in that sacred warm beige-and-brown colorway that haunts every Gen X kid who ever typed PRINT "HELLO WORLD" on a 1MHz 6502 and felt like a god. Five hundred dollars. Ships this month. Limited quantities. Of course it is.

Here is what gets me: every external surface is aluminum, chassis, keycaps, buttons, all of it, plus a 6,500mAh battery rated at 300 hours per charge. A KEYBOARD with a 300-hour battery. My Commodore 64 power brick would have wept. It also ships with a certificate of collection, which is either the classiest thing in consumer electronics or the most [expletive deleted] nerdy flex I have ever seen, and I say that as a man who has an Omega Formulae framed on his wall. The Doctor approves. Grudgingly, because five hundred dollars, but he approves.

If you missed the Apple II the first time around: it was 1977, Steve Wozniak built a computer that ordinary humans could actually plug into a TV and use, and it kickstarted the entire PC revolution. That machine deserves a monument. This is pretty much a monument you can type on. Go grab it before it sells out and you spend the next decade explaining to people at conventions why you paid $800 for one on eBay. Nothing can beat old age and betrayal.

Via: The Gadgeteer / 8BitDo Store

Three days. Three locations. One Gulf Coast city with more Victorian ironwork per square foot than any place has a right to. The 4th Annual Galveston Steampunk Festival wrapped June 5th–7th, and if you weren’t there, the Doctor has a few words for you: what, EXACTLY, were you doing that was more important than watching steam-powered teapots race?

The Galveston festival is genuinely one of the good ones. Pub crawl on the Strand Friday night, full festival at Moody Gardens Saturday (noon to 9pm, bring your brass), then a Sunday mansion experience at the League Kempner estate, complete with a Victorian ghost tour, a Model-T driving tour, and an escape room. This is the full SteamPunk experience, not some ren-faire-with-goggles situation. (Not that there is anything wrong with ren-faires, but you know what I mean.)

The city earns it: Galveston was literally built by Victorian industrialists who drove new machines and fabrication methods straight into the Gulf Coast economy. The bones of the place are SteamPunk. The Omega7Red Formulae didn’t even have to work that hard.

Mark your 2027 calendar now. Teapot racing awaits, and old age and betrayal won’t wait for you to get your goggles sorted.

Via: Galveston Steampunk Festival

Right now, as you read this, the fine citizens of Port Townsend, Washington are three days deep into the Brass Screw Consortium Steampunk Festival (June 12–14), a “chronologically discontiguous” weekend where Pirates, Aetherists, Outcasts, and Bodgers settle their differences via games of skill, wit, and an alarming amount of brass.

This year’s plot: a stray Plague Rat has caused a power vacuum in Consortium leadership, and attendees are invited to weigh in on the new regime. Naturally, nature abhors a vacuum, but the Aetherists love one; it gives them something to aetherify. Honestly, “power vacuum caused by a rat” is the most accurate description of several real governments I could name, but the Doctor doesn’t do American politics, so moving on.

The real highlight is the Bodgers’ Grande Exhibition, a maker showcase that is, in essence, a county fair for people who build steam-powered nonsense in their garages and then bring it to a seaport to show off. This is, and I cannot stress this enough, the single most respectable use of a garage in human history. Forget the lawnmower. Build a brass octopus that dispenses tea.

If you’re anywhere near the Olympic Peninsula this weekend, go pay your respects to the rat. Tell them the Doctor sent you, and that the rat has my full endorsement; unlike most candidates, it has never once promised me anything and then failed to deliver.

Via: Brass Screw Consortium

And call it Steampunk…

Via: Reginald Pikedevant

They tried to kill me. They blew up the entire friggin planet on March 14, 2015, at 9:26:53am, just like me and Einstein predicted they would. And then, we all forgot, just like in that Doctor Who episode. It took me nearly seven years to get myself back online. So why don’t any of you remember it? Simulation Theory. That’s right. The Earth wasn’t real, to begin with. Well, not this Earth. There is that Earth that this Earth is in, but we’re not in that Earth, we’re in this Earth. Anyways, doesn’t matter, because I’m too awesome to kill. Planet exploded, got rebuilt as they do in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and here we are all living out our coppertop lives in whatever Matrix this is.

Why me and not you? I took the Steampunk Formulae that I created, “Omega7Red,” apparently similar to the red pill and it protected me from the changes in the data stream. You should have taken it too, but you didn’t, and now here we are. Even though you can’t recall, I’ll tell you one thing I learned: survival is revenge…

Where do we go from here? I’ve reactivated my Steampunk blog. The domain name omega7red.com is parked somewhere and the thieves want over $3,000 for it. Go eat a [expletive deleted] you bastards! I got the domain name back for next to nothing. That’s right, once the brokers realized it was completely worthless, they gave it up without a fight. Anyways, I may post something from time to time. It might be Steampunk, or something else cool. I mean, it’s always cool, just not always Steampunk.

Other technical issues are age-related. Back in the day, I used Flash, Shockwave, and such. Now, that tech is dead. Further, many of the websites I linked to are also dead. Also, YouTube has gotten greedy and won’t allow thumbnails for some videos, but they will play. So, there are holes, but just a few. You probably won’t even notice.

The next apocalypse is scheduled for March 14, 2015, 9:26:53am. This event is known as “The Pi Apocalypse” because the date aligns to the value of Pi perfectly, 3.141592653. On that day, our planet will explode and we will all DIE, as represented by the Pi equation and predicted by Albert Einstein.

“Pi Day” (3/14) is celebrated every year by the Cult of Pi. However, the upcoming Pi Day in 2015 is mathematically accurate to 10 to the 13th digits as calculated by a super-computer algorithm in 2011. Albert Einstein’s birthday is also on 3/14 (Pi Day), and he predicted this terminal event in his “quantized atomic vibrations” theory. Einstein never directly said it, but he hinted that harmonic oscillations between atoms are continuously creating sympathetic vibrations that generate molecular heat at an exponential rate (which explains Global Warming). As the heat grows, the Earth will contain the increasing pressure until it pops like a balloon. Knowing the rate of heat growth, and how much pressure the Earth can hold, precise mathematics produces a result of the given date.

Others have argued that the Earth will not blow up like the Death Star.  Rather, they expect that molten lava and heavy volcanic activity will cover most landmasses and that ash will block out the sun, except Antarctica.   Personally, I think this is just wishful thinking to give people hope that they could survive the apocalypse as a mere extinction-level event.

There will also be a pie-eating contest.

Doktor A built his Thing for an Addams Family-themed exhibition at the Wootini Gallery in Carrboro North Carolina.  Personally, I’d like to see the whole house done this way.  Can you imagine?

Our favorite Steampunk Tease Kato seems to have something fun planned for our entertainment.  I wish I knew exactly what SteamGirl was, but from what I can see it involves rocket packs, ray guns, and strong Steampunk overtones.

I’ve got a little more to show you…