Isnt dithering neat?

I dont know much else to say other than that.

A while ago i attempted recreating certain dithereffects from modern detailed pictures. its finicky to get good results in Photoshop. To finicky and time consuming for my taste.

Since Dithering is essentially just mathing around with image data, we can just make it a website.

I could play around this for hours.

 

Spitballing working titles... "dithertool" is descriptive, but boring.

"dither this" ?

 

I mean, im pretty sure, the icon has to be this fella:

"Dither-rex" perhaps?

 

I will soon, eventually, probably have this publicly accessible at some point.

If you wanna test it out now ill send u a link if u ask kindly. - winnie@thepoodge.com

Desktopwidget for my AHK-Suite

Check this little widget im quite fond of. It displays and toggles parts of my AutoHotKey Suite. Its just a bunch of personalised AHK scripts that help me in my daily work.

Beforehand, i have restructured said AHK-Suite to be modular. It has become sort of an issue to make sure it all plays freindly with each other, so a quick and easy toggle seemed usefull. Also, i kept forgetting the hotkeys i wasnt using very frequently.

Im using Rainmeter to display a widget and a state file that saves the current state of each module.

Its so statisfying to create your own specialised tools. Yet, those doohickeys are often not very polished by nature. They gotta work and be productive, not eat up hours of overhead before they start saving time.

I took a bit more time than was probably justified for the time save on this one - But i feel like it was absolutely worth it. An unexpected advantage i didnt know i would appreciate that much is simply the visual confirmation that AHK-Suite is there and the scripts running - Something that is usually only displayed via a system tray icon.

Actually working on a game again.

More time put into it and tailored advice as well as coding assistance from AI has actually given me enough confidence that I will be able to finish a game in my lifetime and not give up before its done.

I have been consistently motivated to create and learn and thats a big win to me.

So please look at this tiny sneak preview of what i already achieved using Godot.

Its basically just a proof of concept for one mechanic that will tie into the game. Tuning the physics and getting it to a point where i was thinking: "huh? this is actually fun to play with. am i on to something?" is incredibly rewarding. The gameplay ideas just keep flooding in once a concept becomes playable.

In case one cant tell: the player either clicks and drags the ball with his mousecursor and flings it or uses a "vacuum" button (right click) that exerts force on the ball. Youre supposed to fling it against the rectangle repeatedly in order to slow the rectangles advance. You can only interact with the ball from the left side section of the screen.

cant wait to show off some sneak peaks of other fun projects i am currently working on.

 

Interaction Offloading

I have been thinking about a concept i want to put into words.

"Interaction Offloading"

It means taking certain digital actions - things that normally live inside your phone’s attention-economy loop - and relocating them into the physical world.

Take music, for example. Navigating the Spotify app is strangely draining when you compare it to your good old Winamp Music Library. Why not find the cover arts for the CD online, print them on cardboard and have NFC Chips and/or QR Codes directly link you to the Spotify Album/List/Song. No frontpage clutter, no popup add, no politically charged podcasts in your face.

Or another thing. "Focus Countdowns" that lock ur phone for a certain time. i found it strangely counterproductive that i literally have to pick up my phone, search and start the app and the timer just to put the phone away afterwards. On the way there my phone presents about 17 distractions and at least once i got distracted in the process of starting the timer... and did not start it at all.

I am now triggering the timers directly though the vicinity of an NFC chip in my phone holder. When my phone comes in contact with it, it runs an automation that starts a Countdown.

In both cases, its a subtle shift, but it changes the whole interaction: the action becomes physical again - less abstract, less mediated, and somehow less exhausting. Sure, i cant choose from the entire history of all music ever made before i even made my first cup of coffee...

..but maybe not being able to is the whole point.

HIWR #2: F2

Heres a hotkey i wanna remember (HIWR):

In windows, F2 is the short cut to rename a file.

I know, shocker. But i havent used it before and any time i can get around using the slow af context menu in win 11 im all up for it. So im writing this down.

Keyboard Shortcut

  • Windows / Linux:
    F2