iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 01/10/2026

Of course I have to squeeze some #education into my AI apocalypse single-webpage #game - there are now 58 reference links for the various advancements that improve your situation. Now you can waste four hours of your life while learning more about AI in an interactive manner. singularvalue.org

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 01/10/2026

singularvalue.org One webpage resource allocation game (works on mobile or desktop). Guide AI to superintelligence without messing up the world. Or focus on profit only. It's your choice. Link to Substack article about it in the first comment.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 22/07/2026

Geometry dash-style game on a $3 ESP32 C3 super mini board. 72x40 pixel screen, one button, 16 levels. Written in no_std Rust, MIT licensed. github.com/kf106/esp32-... #esp32 #rustlang #embedded #retrogaming #diyelectronics

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 07/06/2026

My wife asked me to sort the "lost souls" (our basket of mismatched socks). Instead I spent an hour building an LLM-powered sock-matcher. Camera, image piping, slick UI. She was so impressed. Then we tried it. Spent the next hour sorting socks manually.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 29/05/2026

ZX Spectrum emulator on a $10 CYD (cheap yellow display) using the touch screen as a keyboard. So no extra hardware or peripherals required. github.com/kf106/cyd-zx...

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 20/05/2026

I'm going to wish that a fantasy writer I read voraciously and whose work I love will write a book (or 3) in a world based on the Finnish mythology of the Kalevala (which has shamefully been overlooked compared to Norse or Greek mythology). And then I'm going to tag @aptshadow.bsky.social and wait.

Head of Väinämöinen by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1895, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A4in%C3%A4m%C3%B6inen

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 27/04/2026

@amalelmohtar.com - is this a decent opening to a novel on time travel?

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 08/04/2026

Short shameless self-promotion post. My publications look pretty cool when laid out on the floor. mybook.to/kf106

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 04/04/2026

My new book on blockchain innovation, smart contracts, the risk of quantum computing, and a whole bunch of other stuff is now available as an eBook. Check mybook.to/sci

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 30/03/2026

For the next 10 days my newest book is still available in hardback at the upcoming paperback price. mybook.to/sci

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 09/03/2026

Exciting news: all the previous problems with the launch of my new book have been resolved! It will finally be available in print on 25 March, as a hardback, at paperback prices for the first two weeks. Leave a comment if you want me to send you a personal reminder.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 08/03/2026

Got an old ZTE MF286 Tele2 router flashed with OpenWRT. The trick was to set the serial port baud rate to 118000 for the u-boot part of the device boot-up, which made ath> visible Only took four hours to work that out.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 01/12/2025

Fun pop quiz: identify the blockchain by the MetaMask ETH icon for its native cryptocurrency.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 01/11/2025

One of the most useful things I've bought in the last half year is a little 1920x400 resolution screen that I keep a Linux terminal active in at all times. #linux #productivityhacks #terminal

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 15/10/2025

I decided to bite the bullet and get a second-hand iphone, and sign up as an Apple Developer. It was surprisingly painless to get my Android Expo app working on iOS. Once again, I'm waiting for an app store to approve the results. #gamedev

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 13/10/2025

I thought the whole point of going with #Apple was that the expense is offset by being able to avoid crap like this:

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 20/09/2025

The week when you're waiting for Google Play to approve your app on the store passes so sloooowly. Fortunately, this time I have a server component as well, so I'm spending the time improving it and automating some of the update processes. Still, tick-tock, tick-tock #gamedev

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 03/09/2025

Oh, look, I got an email from Morgan Stanley about my ages-old stock option account from a previous employer. Because I am holding no stock, I got a dividend worth “not a number” dollars. What a shame it wasn’t an integer overflow bug.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 16/08/2025

A new CursorAI experiment: write a game, but don't look at the code. Six hours later, I have a passable Sokoban clone that I call Muse It seems vibe coding works, but only if you have a mental model of what the AI produces and test it I'll write an article about it when the game is done #gamedev

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 08/08/2025

Instant bash art deco: for i in $(seq 1 $((LINES * COLUMNS))); do case $((RANDOM % 3)) in 0) echo -n '╱' ;; 1) echo -n '╲' ;; 2) echo -n '╳' ;; esac done; read -n 1 -s -r

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 05/07/2025

In this article, I present a possible method for the #centralbanks to wipe out #stablecoins at almost no cost. blockchaingandalf.substack.com/p/stablecoin...

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 27/06/2025

I said cereal, not cigarettes! Other than that, the Substack transcription was surprisingly accurate. Better than YouTube. blockchaingandalf.substack.com/p/quantum-co...

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 10/06/2025

I didn't realize that the pane with the "game optimization" stuff appears automatically if you submit an app to the Google Play store in the category of games... #gamedev #indygames

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 03/06/2025

Apologies for the lack of updates. A lot of electrical devices failed in my home over the weekend. Computer hard disks, USB drives, car lights, and even a pizza oven. Even my backup drive is now toast. It's all rather difficult.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 31/05/2025

Another new Google Play Console development experience: I found a bug (that's not new), and so for the first time, I'm rolling out a new version on the app store (that's new). I also made one of the levels easier on "basic", so it's not impossible on "fiendishly hard". #gamedev #indiegames

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 31/05/2025

How exciting - I'm at 10+ downloads of my game on Google Play. Console says the accurate number is 16. That's 15 more downloads than any other game I've written has achieved. #gamedev #indygames

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 27/05/2025

If the economic stability of your regime is threatened by crypto assets, then it wasn't that stable to begin with. Mind you, "substantial contagion channels" do sound really scary.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 23/05/2025

Well, I finished the first cut of the game in about 25 hours. And then today I spent 8 hours working out how to build a production release, and how to navigate Google Play Console. Caves of Steel is in review. Should take about a week... #gamedev

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 22/05/2025

Look at that! I've solved the background image scaling issue and the block scaling issue. And I've found three more issues that need dealing with. Fix a bug, find three more that need fixing. Isn't that always the way? #gamedev

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 22/05/2025

Time to get to work on Caves of Steel screen size handling. I have an Android 7 device (an Honor 8) that just about manages to run the game, but as you can see, my scaling code isn't working. Lucky for me that the aspect ratios and canvas pixels are different!

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 20/05/2025

Today, I have been mostly looking at prime numbers and semiprimes. Primes and factors are weird, when you think about them long enough.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 10/05/2025

I missed a trick with this diagram:

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 10/05/2025

Today's discussion with my youngest son about the natural world was hijacked by my wife and youngest daughter due to a misunderstanding of the topic, as illustrated by this simple Venn diagram.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 09/05/2025

Those values are so close, I can't help wondering if my clumsy screenshot is the reason why they don't match perfectly.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 08/05/2025

This only works because my rocket ship is shaped like a bullet...

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 08/05/2025

Fun with radians. I'm hoping that pixelation means a simple trick I've come up with for small angle tilts (<pi/16) allows me to use skewing plus a "sticking out at the end" adjustment of 3 pixels to keep the current collision algorithm accurate enough for it to seem convincing to users. #gamedev

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 07/05/2025

Tonight's #expo #gamedev takes the effort to 10 hours exactly. I now have eight levels, and everything seems to be working. Need to: * add tilt to ship and collision detection * scale screen for different Android devices Then final testing and getting the kids to check level difficulties.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 06/05/2025

And here, ladles and jellyspoons, you have the problem with modern computing. Seven hours of #gamedev to make a plausible demo of a Scrambler clone. And one hour to get the bloody icons right. 8 hours of developing. I dread to think how long changing cave-of-steel to Caves of Steel will take.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 06/05/2025

If you've started following me from LinkedIn because of my post there, please do send a message to say "Hi, I'm <name>" - I will respond and we can start talking. If you've not followed me from LinkedIn, the same applies. Putting your name as <name> will not be funny because of this sentence.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 06/05/2025

Who needs a level editor for their #gamedev when a text editor and a short script can create the required data for you?

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 05/05/2025

I don't think I've ever experienced such a weirdly complex and unexpectedly tearful response on reading a poem before. Amazingly complex in its emotional structure and imagery, despite the simple language. (The poet was also a nurse, which probably goes some way to explain its origins.)

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 05/05/2025

Houston, we have sound! With an extra half hour of #gamedev (total now 7.5 hours) I got CursorAI to add sound files to the game. Background music for the various screens, a collision explosion, and a completion fanfare. Watch with sound on!

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 05/05/2025

Got fed up with work, so put my 1 hr #gamedev time in early. I tackled tasks that CursorAI is especially suited to: * saving progress * adding extra screens * making templates for extra levels * detecting reaching the end. Soon I'm going to need to write a level designer.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 04/05/2025

Got collision detection working in today's 1 hour of #gamedev You can get pixel close to the wall, but no closer. Which means my rapid collision detection method works. I also added the traditional three lives, and a life display icon. Who says you can't write an arcade game in React Native?

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 03/05/2025

I think my favorite decade so far was the 90s. It was an elegant decade from a more civilized age. This decade? Well, it's the worst I've experienced so far. Mind you, I wasn't alive in the 1940s, or any time in the 14th century. And of course, YMMV.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 03/05/2025

And here's a demo of fast scrolling with ship tilt enabled (and the broken collision detection turned off). It's pretty fast, I think. I do like the way the ship tilts as you move. It has a "moving through water" feel to it. Tilt should allow for some tricky levels that require skill. #gamedev

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