iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 21/08/2026

Caught my #breakfast on the front porch today. Living a bit in the forest, #mushroom season basically knocks on the door when they are around.

A ceramic bowl filled with young ceps, sitting on some wooden steps in front of flowers and a lawn.

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 08/06/2026

Look up! It's Monday! Makes me wonder if it's prey, predators or posture that warrant this eye placement. #setzkasten #hymenoptera #ichneumonidae

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 03/06/2026

A long snout for #WeevilWednesday - actually the whole beetle is just 2mm long. There are several candidates which are all very fond of clover, I'm leaning towards #protapion apricans because of the characteristic half-dark-half-yellow front tibia, but the […] [Original post on flipping.rocks]

Side view of a "pear shaped" weevil of the genus protapion. It has a shiny dark abdomen with strong structures, and distinctly yellow and black legs. It also has a long snout, which is why we are here today.

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 20/05/2026

I would say I was able to salvage most of the scan. The artefacts from the large step size are too visible for my taste - there's a blurry sheen between in-focus features - but it would be a pity not to keep the result. At least I learned. I'll do another […] [Original post on flipping.rocks]

The head of a sawfly, with extremely large compound eyes, antennas and a complex mouthpiece.

Two pairs of claw from the legs of a sawfly.

The abdomen of a sawfly. Several shiny structured scales overlap in a geometric pattern, and the saw-like ovipositor which gives the flies their name. It's for cutting plant material.

Zoom on what I believe must be retinacula, structures that allow to connect the fore and rear wings during flight.

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 20/05/2026

Trying a new stitch... and since I may have been a bit too optimistic about how low I can go with the settings, automatic feature detection is struggling - At 80x I usually scan with a step size of 0.3mm and lots of overlap, but then I would be in for ten days […] [Original post on flipping.rocks]

A compound view of the latest microscope run, showing a regular grid of about 24x15 smaller images forming a mosaic pattern that shows the body of a wasp. Features are not aligned, so the lines are glitching where the tiles overlap.

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 27/04/2026

So, while I am not a big fan of home automation, gadget automation is another thing entirely. Yesterday night, both a telescope and a microscope were scanning and stacking, while I could catch a good night's sleep. Maybe I should look into mothing automation next 🤪

Nighttime sky view centeted around Messier 101 aka the Pinwheel Galaxy.

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 23/04/2026

I may have gone slightly overboard with the #focusstacking, but it worked. Improved the lighting a bit, and returned the #frankenscope to the photo tent. Still more to be done. The long legs made me miss a few corners, so in the end that's ~250 stacks with a […] [Original post on flipping.rocks]

A screenshot of the stitching progress in PTGui, showing how the ~250 individual image stacks are stitched together to a panorama.

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 01/04/2026

It reminds me of something. I can't quite put my finger on it.

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 30/03/2026

Ready for the next night train journey.

Checkin gate at Beijingxi station showing train departures towards Xiong'an and Kunmingnan.

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 22/03/2026

[insect, magnified] Gnatting there. The entire run was successful. #setzkasten

The entire gnat, assembled from about 75 individual image stacks - a screenshot from #ptgui showing the image numbers and stitch lines.

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 21/03/2026

[insect, magnified] This is why I love #focusstacking. Look at the wrinkles on the neck of that gnat. The hairy compound eyes. The little ..erm... grey...thingy next to it. Anyone good with gnat anatomy? #setzkasten I think I fixed the focus runoff issues on […] [Original post on flipping.rocks]

A circular, vignetted high resolution image of a fungus gnat or similar species. You can make out the neck portion where the head attaches to their distinct hunchback. There are small wrinkles below the neck. Bristles everywhere, including between the ommatidia of the compound eyes. And a grey round structure next to the eye, which does not look like an occellus to me, but who am I to judge.

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 20/03/2026

Progress on the #frankenscope. Since all the software is networked, I just moved the scanning stack onto a NUC. The NUC is connected via one of our edge routers to 5G, and sits in a #tailscale/#headscale network. That turns it into a fully remote operated […] [Original post on flipping.rocks]

A screenshot of two windows on a grey desktop background. To the left, scrcpy mirroring an android phone, running opencamera, the camera showing a microscopic view of a fungus gnat. To the right, a control panel with various settings.

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 12/03/2026

Ok, this is both sad and funny. This post mastodon.social/@relet/111494635877… is now three years old, and it describes a piece of bricolage that has been on my desk for at least as long. About once a year I manage to come up with a new idea […] [Original post on flipping.rocks]

On a table sits a Prusa 3D printer. On the printer sits a microscope. On the microscope sits a phone holder and a phone. Attached to the microscope is a construction made of wood and thread, holding a NEMA17 stepper motor, which turns a big wheel on the side of the scope. More cables in the background bear witness of a breadboarded arduino motor controller.

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 03/01/2026

Travel mode activated. Berlin-Oslo by train, via Stockholm or wherever we are in the morning. So far one wagon is replaced by bus service, and a 2.5h delay estimated with one additional train change. But we are not in a hurry, what counts is the journey.

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 01/12/2025

The result of a recent experiment. After noticing the fungal patterns during section felling, I cut some rounds off a fresh beech . I dried one in the oven and oiled it after. I tried deep frying another at low temperature, on the theory that this might not […] [Original post on flipping.rocks]

Two transverse discs cut from the same tree, on a wooden workbench. A dark fungal pattern is present around the heartwood on both of them. The left one has a dark cambium layer around the sapwood, and a light even coloration. The right one has starker contrasts: the inner cambium is still white, the heartwood turned white and seems drier, and the dark fungal pattern seeps into a reddish colour. The sapwood however seems more saturated.

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 29/05/2025

The starlings brought their starlinglings this evening. Sturnus vulgaris #inaturalist #norway #wildlife

Two starlings searching the grass for food. They are medium sized black birds with striking purple-green shimmering collars and a sea of stars on their backs.

A large starling young, dull brown colour, sitting in the grass waiting for the outcome of the foraging operation.

A large starling young, dull brown colour and a darker mark visible next to the eye.

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 18/05/2025

I admit to stacking the occasional pig. Today was a good day. #styscraper #volewtf

A screenshot from the pig stacking game styscraper - everything is tumbling down, but the topmost pig manages to proudly raise its snout above a 20.05m mark before losing its footing.

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 20/03/2025

Time is stretching the motivation a bit, so there are fewer updates. I'm also still supposed to add the crows, and the flying fortresses, and, and... But we now got a bit of an intro, badges, settings, and a first draft for an itch.io page […] [Original post on flipping.rocks]

A handmade drawing of a pirate looking through his spyglass at the horizon. They command to Hoist the sails! Their companion parrot only shrugs their wings, maybe asking "On which boat?". It is an otherwise glorious day with the sun peeking out of the clouds.

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 14/03/2025

Things that are surprisingly easy to explain: gradients and the sobel operator. Not so intuitive: dot and cross products. In other words, there is now some terrain shading. I still kind of like the voxel-ish 2d look - porting the terrain to Babylon.js or […] [Original post on flipping.rocks]

Another screenshot from the game, still with voxel-ish 2d graphics that like to pretend they are 3d. Now with gradient shading, casting steep slopes into shadow if the angle is not facing the direction of the light.

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 10/03/2025

So, recently, when my kids again asked about "learning to program", we came across the amazing #microstudio IDE¹. You develop your games online, collaboratively, in Microstudio script (or Lua or Python), and it can export to web, desktop or mobile. They were […] [Original post on flipping.rocks]

The pixelated title screen of a game with the experimental title "Hoist the sails!" (this month's topic). You see a pirate, a parrot and a loading bar.

A screenshot from the game, top-down view. The pirate is flying in a paraglider, with the parrot in the vicinity. There is some terrain and an overview map of the landscape.

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relet @relet.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 09/02/2025

Ooh, are we doing #superbOwl ? Here's the pink eyeshadow of a Verreaux Eagle-Owl, Kruger National Park, ZA. And, of course, a twig. Ketupa lactea #wildlife #southafrica #inaturalist #owls #superb

A large brown owl sits on a large branch. The eyes are half-closed, showing the pink colour of it's eyelids. It is looking towards the viewer.

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