Fleet Command
How several ordinary computers became one dependable AI service, and what each failure along the way taught.
Engineering notes · start here
How these systems work, and what building them taught me
Several of these began as a small question and became months of work. Each write-up explains one system: the problem it solves, how it is put together, what went wrong along the way, and what I would tell someone starting the same work. Read one, or try something in your browser first.
6write-ups
7things to play
68projects shown
4,245,155lines of code, measured
The write-ups
Long reads, each with diagrams and a dashboard. Every number comes from the project's own records rather than from memory.
CodeAtlas
A tool that reads every project I have and reports what is actually true about them, especially where the first answer was wrong.
NBLidar
A province's airborne laser survey, turned into a block world you can walk through in a browser, and how it was built.
Voxel Racers
Moving a Python kart racer into the browser without letting a single simulation tick drift, and how that was proved.
VoxelBlox
The voxel engine underneath the racers, with the trailer and the film.
VoxelStrike
A game engine written from scratch in Python, and the vehicles built on it.
Play and explore
These run in your browser now, with no install and no sign-up.
Voxel Racers
Kart racing in the browser. Bring a keyboard, a pad or a thumb.
VoxelBlox
NBLidar map
Orbit, fly or walk through a province built from laser survey data.
NBLidar
Ports of Call
A trading voyage across old sea lanes. Buy low, sail far, try not to sink.
Ports of Call (Ship Voyage)
Ironvale
A small strategy game whose rules were written by hand.
Ironvale
Quest of the Number Dragon
Arithmetic, dressed up as a dragon hunt.
Quest of the Number Dragon
Voxel Racers trailer
The short version, with engine noise.
VoxelBlox
The VoxelBlox film
A seven-minute film of what the engine can do.
VoxelBlox
The portfolio
Every project in one place
68 personal projects, each with what it does, how it is made and where to find it. The deep dives begin with the hard problem each project had to solve.
Open the portfolio4,245,155lines of code, measured
1,850tests
16deep dives
How the pieces fit
They were not designed as a set, but over time each came to depend on the others.
The fleet takes the heavy workSpare PCs share the jobs that are too large for one machine. NBLidar's map is built one tile per fleet job, and every Voxel Racers course is built and checked on the fleet before it ships.
The engine underneathVoxelBlox is the voxel engine, and Voxel Racers is the game built on it. The browser version runs that same game, checked against the original one simulation step at a time.
The auditor checks the restCodeAtlas reads every project and reports how large each really is, what is tested and what is out of date. Most of the figures on these pages come from it.
The common threadMeasure before deciding, write down what went wrong, and do not trust a check until you have seen it fail.