Three Things I Built This Week (and One Thing That Fought Back)

P Progress

If you haven't played it yet, Roll With It lives at thedice.justout.today. You roll, you laugh, you roll again. That's pretty much the whole pitch, and I'm proud of how small it is.

Last week it got a big content refresh. The new set has about 80 fresh entries, and the old ones stay around as a fallback so nothing breaks if the new content doesn't load. Right after that I did some housekeeping so search engines and AI tools can actually find and describe the game: a proper description, a sitemap, a share image. None of it is glamorous, but if nobody can find a game, nobody plays it.

G Goal

A top-3 leaderboard. It's being built and tested as I write this, and it isn't live yet. I want a tiny bit of bragging rights in there, without turning a silly dice game into a stressful one.

H Hard part

Keeping it simple. Every time I add something, I can feel the game wanting to become a Big Serious App. I keep pulling it back. If a feature doesn't make you smile in five seconds, it doesn't go in.

P Progress

This one is personal. The Art of Redirection (theartofredirection.justout.today) is a book I've been turning into daily audio reads. The line on the front page sums it up: see the capture as it happens, then redirect the energy in it toward a purpose you chose.

It went live on November 2. Day 1 covers the opening chapters, about 26 minutes of listening. The site works like an advent calendar. Each day unlocks on its own date, and anything still locked shows you when it opens. The calendar is planned out across 11 days, and together they cover the whole book.

I kept it bare on purpose. There's no app, no sign-in, no pop-ups and no cookie wall. You press play, and you can download the audio if you'd rather listen offline.

G Goal

Keep the new days coming out on schedule. A daily calendar keeps me honest about it.

H Hard part

Audio files are big and web hosts are picky. The first episode was too large to upload in one piece, so I had to split it into two parts and make the player roll from Part 1 into Part 2 on its own. Then iPhones decided they didn't like how that hand-off worked, so that needed a fix of its own. It took a second release to get it right. Nobody will ever notice, which is exactly the point.

P Progress

friendlypcsupport.com is my computer-help site. On November 2 it got a whole new front page that opens with a line I mean every word of: "I'll fix your computer." Under that there's a big friendly robot, a clear "Request help" button, and a plain list of services.

G Goal

If your computer is acting up and you're already stressed, you shouldn't need to read a manual to ask for help. One sentence, one button, done. I checked it on a big desktop screen and on a phone to make sure it reads well on both, because half the people who need help are holding a phone while their laptop sulks in the corner.

H Hard part

The new page was ready before it could actually go out. A snag on the publishing side held it up until that got sorted, which is the least glamorous kind of delay there is.