Jim Rowe builds things for the web from Guernsey. Personal projects, and two decades of archive.https://jimcode.org/en-gbhttps://jimcode.org/2026/09/why-another-soccer-game/https://jimcode.org/2026/09/why-another-soccer-game/The football games I used to play with friends have quietly turned into a different genre. LOWBLOCK is my attempt to build the one that went missing.Tue, 01 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTmy gamesgamesoccerdesignhttps://jimcode.org/2026/04/the-thing-everyone-is-looking-at/https://jimcode.org/2026/04/the-thing-everyone-is-looking-at/Group chat gives everyone a different scroll position and no shared referent. Covert Mission puts one thing in the middle instead — and the threads turned out to write themselves.Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTmy projectsdesignrealtimechathttps://jimcode.org/2022/07/ignore-the-chaos-britains-system-is-working/https://jimcode.org/2022/07/ignore-the-chaos-britains-system-is-working/In times of crisis, Britain's arcane constitution seems absurd-often because it is absurd. Questions emerge to which no one ever seems entirely sure of the answer. What if, for example, Boris Johnson had not resigned last week but instead sought to cling to power by asking the Queen to dissolve Parliament to hold new elections?Fri, 15 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMTeconomicspoliticshttps://jimcode.org/2022/03/what-wordle-is-leaning-on/https://jimcode.org/2022/03/what-wordle-is-leaning-on/My daily dungeon game failed because the paper got too busy. Underneath that was something I hadn't seen: the simplicity of Wordle, crosswords and sudoku is borrowed, and a dungeon has nothing to borrow it from.Fri, 04 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMTmy gamesgamedesignboard gamehttps://jimcode.org/2021/07/when-hyperlinks-go-bad/https://jimcode.org/2021/07/when-hyperlinks-go-bad/This troubles me. It feels like the tip of an iceberg that somebody needs to start thinking seriously about.Thu, 08 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMTbusinesseconomicsinformationinternettechnologywebhttps://jimcode.org/2020/08/a-dungeon-a-day/https://jimcode.org/2020/08/a-dungeon-a-day/In 2020 I tried to build the RPG version of Wordle — a solo dungeon crawl on one printable page, published daily, with no dice and nothing to set up.Fri, 14 Aug 2020 00:00:00 GMTmy gamesgamedesignboard gamehttps://jimcode.org/2020/07/how-a-great-power-falls-apart/https://jimcode.org/2020/07/how-a-great-power-falls-apart/To know how great powers end, one could do worse than study the last one that actually did.Tue, 28 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMTpoliticsrussiasoviet unionhttps://jimcode.org/2020/07/the-prescient-power-of-anime/https://jimcode.org/2020/07/the-prescient-power-of-anime/Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira, one of the most groundbreaking and influential animated films of all time, opens with an iconic motorcycle chase through the neon streets of Neo-Tokyo, a beautiful cyberpunk Metropolis built on the ruins of old Tokyo.Tue, 21 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMT2020animeentertainmentfilmsciencetvhttps://jimcode.org/2020/07/code-generation-with-openai/https://jimcode.org/2020/07/code-generation-with-openai/Ever since its release last month, OpenAI's GPT-3 has been in the news for a variety of reasons. From being the largest language model ever trained to outranking state of the art models on tasks such as translation and question-answering, GPT-3 has set new benchmarks for natural language processing.Mon, 20 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMTaibusinesscodeprogrammingtechnologyhttps://jimcode.org/2016/06/immigration-brexit-wwii/https://jimcode.org/2016/06/immigration-brexit-wwii/What this was supposed to be was a blog entry about Britain (really, mostly England) voting on leaving the European Union. Like a lot of things I write, it had been simmering somewhere inside me for quite a long time. The angle I was going to take was based around World War II.Thu, 23 Jun 2016 00:00:00 GMTbrexitimmigrationmoviesopinionpoliticsukhttps://jimcode.org/2016/04/rogue-one-official-teaser/https://jimcode.org/2016/04/rogue-one-official-teaser/Thu, 07 Apr 2016 00:00:00 GMTculturemoviesrogue onestar warshttps://jimcode.org/2016/03/20th-anniversary-of-the-original-pokemon-rpgs-and-an-election-year-it-had-to-happen/https://jimcode.org/2016/03/20th-anniversary-of-the-original-pokemon-rpgs-and-an-election-year-it-had-to-happen/Creator of the Disney animated series Gravity Falls, Alex Hirsch, has reimagined several of the presidential candidates as Pokémon and they're awesome!Tue, 22 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMTbernie sandersdonald trumpelection 2016hillary clintonhumorpokémontvhttps://jimcode.org/2016/01/earnings-threshold-of-35000-for-non-eu-migrants-is-way-above-the-average-salary/https://jimcode.org/2016/01/earnings-threshold-of-35000-for-non-eu-migrants-is-way-above-the-average-salary/With the following average annual income for some pretty useful and important jobs falling well below the threshold, what does this say for May's regard for UK citizens in these…Mon, 18 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTearnings thresholdeconomicsmigrantsopinionpoliticsukhttps://jimcode.org/2015/12/weve-become-so-disillusioned-with-politics-over-the/https://jimcode.org/2015/12/weve-become-so-disillusioned-with-politics-over-the/Child protection officials been criticised after warning parents that young people who take issue with government policy or question what they are told in the media may have been radicalised by extremists. A leaflet drawn up by an inner-city child safeguarding board warns that "appearing angry about government policies, especially foreign policies" is a sign "specific to radicalisation".Thu, 03 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMTdemocracydisenteconomicsfreedom of speechpoliticsradicalisationhttps://jimcode.org/2015/10/need-help-finding-a-unique-halloween-costume-this-year/https://jimcode.org/2015/10/need-help-finding-a-unique-halloween-costume-this-year/Costumes so good it's scary. Check out Frightgeist, a GoogleTrends experiment.Wed, 28 Oct 2015 00:00:00 GMTculturehalloweenlifestylehttps://jimcode.org/2015/06/lets-consider-something-new-yuccies-young-urban-creatives/https://jimcode.org/2015/06/lets-consider-something-new-yuccies-young-urban-creatives/What do we call me? I'm a 26-year-old writer who lives in a gentrifying neighborhood in Brooklyn. I'm a straight white man with a single-speed bike and a mustache. I studied liberal arts in college, and I have ideas about stuff, you guys. Millennial? Hipster? Yuppie? All of these, or none?Tue, 09 Jun 2015 00:00:00 GMTculturehipstersmusicyuccieshttps://jimcode.org/2015/01/mr-deity-on-the-popes-comments/https://jimcode.org/2015/01/mr-deity-on-the-popes-comments/Mon, 19 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMTcharile hebdofree speechfreedom of speechmr.deitypoliticspopereligionhttps://jimcode.org/2015/01/turkey-will-ban-twitter-unless-it-blocks-a-newspapers-account/https://jimcode.org/2015/01/turkey-will-ban-twitter-unless-it-blocks-a-newspapers-account/The Turkish government's love/hate relationship with Twitter is once again turning sour. A court in the country's Adana province is threatening to ban Twitter unless it blocks the account of a newspaper ( BirGun) posting leaked documents that expose the truth behind a raid on an Intelligence agency convoy.Mon, 19 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMTcensorshippoliticstechnologyturkeytwitterhttps://jimcode.org/2015/01/razer-unveils-its-100-android-powered-gaming-console-razer-forge-tv/https://jimcode.org/2015/01/razer-unveils-its-100-android-powered-gaming-console-razer-forge-tv/Earlier this year, high-end gaming tech company Razer announced at Google I/O that it would be soon be making its first foray into Android-based gaming consoles. Today at CES, that device made its public debut.Tue, 06 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMTcesconsolegamingrazertechnologyhttps://jimcode.org/2015/01/robots-are-starting-to-break-the-law-and-nobody-knows-what-to-do-about-it/https://jimcode.org/2015/01/robots-are-starting-to-break-the-law-and-nobody-knows-what-to-do-about-it/Maybe it's a sign that robots are growing up, and thus hitting the rebellious stage. The Random Darknet Shopper, an automated online shopping bot with a budget of $100 a week in Bitcoin, is programmed to do a very specific task: go to one particular marketplace on the Deep Web and make one random purchase a week with the provided allowance.Sat, 03 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMTartbitcoinbusinessdarknetlawrobotstechnologyhttps://jimcode.org/2015/01/stan-by-your-land/https://jimcode.org/2015/01/stan-by-your-land/Central Asia is full of lands whose names end in -stan. A certain powerful North American country has a related name. How? It's not your standard explanation.Sat, 03 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMTetymologylanguagelinguisticspoliticstravelhttps://jimcode.org/2014/12/parable-of-the-polygons-a-playable-post-on-game-theory-diversity-an-the-cutest-bigots/https://jimcode.org/2014/12/parable-of-the-polygons-a-playable-post-on-game-theory-diversity-an-the-cutest-bigots/This is a story of how harmless choices can make a harmful world and arrives at some interesting and not so obvious conclusions...Tue, 09 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMTculturediversityequalitygame theorypoliticshttps://jimcode.org/2014/12/you-cant-detox-your-body-its-a-myth/https://jimcode.org/2014/12/you-cant-detox-your-body-its-a-myth/Whether it's cucumbers splashing into water or models sitting smugly next to a pile of vegetables, it's tough not to be sucked in by the detox industry. The idea that you can wash…Tue, 09 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMTdetoxfoodhealthhealth & fitnesslifestylehttps://jimcode.org/2014/12/tremr-blogging-rebooted/https://jimcode.org/2014/12/tremr-blogging-rebooted/Well, it’s been a busy year working on tremr, I finally found the time to write a little bit about it here (as a way of avoiding working on version 2!).Wed, 03 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMTbloggingcmscontenttremrhttps://jimcode.org/2014/11/star-wars-the-force-awakens-teaser/https://jimcode.org/2014/11/star-wars-the-force-awakens-teaser/No Jar Jar in sight, have Disney done what Lucas couldn't... let's hope so!Fri, 28 Nov 2014 00:00:00 GMTdisneyentertainmentlucasfilmmoviesstar warstrailerhttps://jimcode.org/2014/11/the-case-against-early-cancer-detection/https://jimcode.org/2014/11/the-case-against-early-cancer-detection/South Korea has a thyroid cancer problem. Incidence of the disease there has climbed 15-fold over the past 20 years - faster than any other cancer worldwide. South Korea also has a thyroid cancer diagnosis problem. In a study published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers identified the cause of the country's alarming epidemic: South Korea's high-tech health care system.Tue, 25 Nov 2014 00:00:00 GMTcancercancer detectionhealthhealth & fitnessmedicalsciencestatisticshttps://jimcode.org/2014/10/looks-like-an-expensive-way-of-playing-wipeout-to-me/https://jimcode.org/2014/10/looks-like-an-expensive-way-of-playing-wipeout-to-me/Either that or Disney are taking seriously the idea of using models instead of CGI for the new star wars films!Mon, 20 Oct 2014 00:00:00 GMTdronesendormoviespod racingstar warstechnologywipeouthttps://jimcode.org/2014/10/how-unequal-is-your-pay/https://jimcode.org/2014/10/how-unequal-is-your-pay/As part of the crowd sourced documentary on the gap between rich and poor and where capitalism has gone wrong they have released this trailer and this little microsite that gives…Wed, 01 Oct 2014 00:00:00 GMTbusinesscapitalismeconomicsglobalizationinequalitymoviespoliticsrich poor gaphttps://jimcode.org/2014/10/lucy-talks-with-mr-deity-about-all-the/https://jimcode.org/2014/10/lucy-talks-with-mr-deity-about-all-the/Wed, 01 Oct 2014 00:00:00 GMTatheismscience & naturehttps://jimcode.org/2014/10/u-s-law-enforcement-seeks-to-halt-apple-google/https://jimcode.org/2014/10/u-s-law-enforcement-seeks-to-halt-apple-google/Sadly this was the predictable response from the people we can't trust not to spy on us.Wed, 01 Oct 2014 00:00:00 GMTapplebusinessencryptiongooglepoliticsprivacysnowdontechnology