Monthly Archives: September 2017

Pulling free and open weather data

posted on 22 September, 2017 with tags , , , , ,

When I decided to add realtime weather effects to @choochoobot, I knew there were a few qualities I wanted to find in a data source. Ideally I would find something free and reliable that didn’t require me to agree to many developer terms or sign up for an API token. Google shuttered its undocumented Weather […]

“A Mind At Play” and Claude Shannon’s grave

posted on 20 September, 2017 with tags , , ,

As the “father of information theory,” Claude Shannon’s contributions to the development of modern digital technology are hard to overstate. That work puts him in the ranks of the Einsteins, Turings, and Feynmans of the world; somehow, though, he never seemed to get the credit and public recognition that those scientists received. A great new […]

Which states hated Wesley?

posted on 8 September, 2017 with tags , , , , , ,

One of my goals while at Recurse Center has been to improve my ability to manipulate and visualize data sets. To that end, I’ve been toying around with the Social Security Administration’s baby name dataset, which records the number of babies born with each given name every year, both federally and at the state level. […]