Studio Two on Creativity Hacker

FloodBoard - Learn to See the Game-Board Like a Computer

jeff@smithicus.com (Jefferson Smith) — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 12:11:20 +0000

I like puzzle games, and one that I’ve always played in a rather mindless way, just to kill time, is the one called Flood It. Or Color Flood. But whatever you call it, it’s the one with a grid of random-colored squares where you start in one corner and keep flood-filling from there in different colors until you’ve flooded the entire board. The fewer moves you make, the higher your score.

But the more I’ve played it, the more curious I’ve become. What is the optimal strategy? Should you always flood as many squares as possible, or is it sometimes better to choose a smaller move to set up a bigger play? And if so, when?

Well, I don’t like just wondering about these things - I want to know. So I wrote a version of the game to help me find out. I call it FloodBoard.

The Little Bird

jeff@smithicus.com (Jefferson Smith) — Sun, 07 Sep 2025 17:01:09 +0000

If you know who Varys is, you’ll know he’s nothing without his “little birds.” They’re the ones who listen to the whispers of power and then tell him all about it.

Well, my varys needs some listeners too.

Varys - The Power Spy

jeff@smithicus.com (Jefferson Smith) — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 22:18:41 +0000

For years I’ve protected my office server from the harsh indignities of sudden power failures by shielding it behind a traditional UPS battery backup. For more than a decade, this arrangement has kept my pixels glowing through half a dozen actual power outages, and any number of brown-outs and glitches. Over that same period, the internal battery has eventually died and been replaced twice. I don’t begrudge the battery for failing - it’s an ancient battery tech that has more in common with the battery in your car than the one in your cell phone - but the replacements are expensive.

So when the battery failed again this week, I decided it was time to re-evaluate.

Shelf Sketch

jeff@smithicus.com (Jefferson Smith) — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 19:43:39 +0000

After a couple of unsatisfactory attempts, I’ve landed on this design. (Shown in place on one of the carts, which are already built.) The idea is that there will be slots in the workstation top to receive the shelf legs, giving a secure fit, but also allowing the shelf to be easily removed when the workstation is needed for other duty.

SunPucks

jeff@smithicus.com (Jefferson Smith) — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 04:02:54 +0000

The reading lights above our bed burned out long ago, but since they were hardwired into the cabinetry, replacing them was a complicated chore that I put off for years. So when I finally decided to tackle it as a Christmas present for my wife, I wanted to do more than just restore the lights - I wanted to turn them into an experience to remember.

Reconfigurable and Flexible

jeff@smithicus.com (Jefferson Smith) — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 20:21:35 +0000

Since the studio needs to be both flexible (in terms of the project types it supports) and easily reconfigurable (in terms of its layout) there’s no way a single workbench is going to cut it. Instead, I need a collection of mobile stations that can be combined into different physical configurations as needed, plus be modified easily to support different kinds of tools and media. Oh, and I also want high-density yet easily moveable storage. And I think I’ve got a solution…