Where's the pixel

February 3, 2012 4:57 AM

If you've been procrastinating on cleaning your monitor or laptop screen, the game Where's the Pixel just might be the encouragement you've been waiting for.
posted by Deathalicious (33 comments total)

this is dumb and addicting and awesome and dumb
posted by DU at 5:02 AM on February 3, 2012 [9 favorites]

I think this game is a troll.
posted by Malor at 5:02 AM on February 3, 2012

No leaderboards, no badges? Lame. I'm only going to keep playing this for another 15 minutes but that's it.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 5:07 AM on February 3, 2012 [5 favorites]

Neat idea. For me, this is kind of like "Where's the dirt? Oh there it is! And there, and there, and there ..."

Anyway I played it until I had a clean screen. Now I've got to do something about the keyboard.
posted by carter at 5:13 AM on February 3, 2012 [3 favorites]

Mental note - I need new glasses. Badly.
posted by plinth at 5:14 AM on February 3, 2012 [2 favorites]

Every year where I live we get a brief 'thunder bug' invasion that lasts a day or two. And every year a few of those tiny bastard thrips get inside both of my monitors, where they wander about and eventually die, forming semi-permanent pixel-like dots on the screen. I've lost count of how many times I've tried to delete one of them, thinking it was a stray pixel in a design or a redundant comma in a document.

So thanks. You've made me realise that I need to dimantle and clean out both monitors for about the fifth time.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 5:17 AM on February 3, 2012

Thanks to one bad smudge in the corner of my monitor I briefly played "Where's the Pointer". I'm pretty sure I'll never find that pixel.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 5:18 AM on February 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

Make window as small as posible. easy.
posted by Pendragon at 5:24 AM on February 3, 2012 [4 favorites]

A game for people who don't know what Ctrl-Plus and Ctrl-Minus do in a web browser.
posted by XMLicious at 5:33 AM on February 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

Bugs? Inside of? Monitors?
posted by DU at 5:37 AM on February 3, 2012

By combining Pendragon and XMLicious's tips, I know can "find the pixel" in under a second. I didn't need to clean my screen after all!
posted by Deathalicious at 5:39 AM on February 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is awesome but I only made it 20 seconds before I just did "view source" and found it.
posted by heathkit at 5:41 AM on February 3, 2012

.
posted by seanyboy at 5:41 AM on February 3, 2012 [2 favorites]

OK, seriously, I still can't find the pixel. This went from fun to maddening. Is there really a pixel?
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 5:42 AM on February 3, 2012 [3 favorites]

Scratch that - I found it. Mrs Agogo wasn't nearly as excited about that as I was.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 5:44 AM on February 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

Its much easier to find if you move the window around.
posted by sfred at 5:51 AM on February 3, 2012

Can we build this into every page of MetaFilter?
posted by oulipian at 5:56 AM on February 3, 2012

                                   .

posted by Deathalicious at 5:59 AM on February 3, 2012 [15 favorites]

I clicked on Deathalicious' pixel and it didn't score.
posted by MtDewd at 6:16 AM on February 3, 2012

I have one dead pixel on my iPad. Every once in a while, I notice it and it pisses me off.

This game reminds me of that, so it pisses me off by proxy.
posted by etc. at 6:39 AM on February 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

Naw, now I just know where all the dirt spots on the monitor are. The problem is, what happens if the pixel and the dirt spot align?
posted by Barry B. Palindromer at 7:08 AM on February 3, 2012

If I cheat by firing up my browser's inspector tools, can I make up for it by cleaning my screen?
posted by ubernostrum at 7:18 AM on February 3, 2012

Is the pixel always displayed right away?

Are you sure?
posted by ryanrs at 7:31 AM on February 3, 2012

Jeez, guys, spoilers!
posted by Nelson at 7:38 AM on February 3, 2012

A very soft cloth dipped in a little bit of 1/2 distilled water 1/2 distilled vinegar works surprisingly well.
posted by straight at 8:06 AM on February 3, 2012

A very soft cloth dipped in a little bit of 1/2 distilled water 1/2 distilled vinegar works surprisingly well.

Nope - the pixel is still there, I'm afraid.
posted by carter at 8:11 AM on February 3, 2012 [5 favorites]

Aah! Aah! Aah! I just played this a dozen times in a row, in spite of my woefully speckled monitor. Too addictive.
posted by Night_owl at 8:51 AM on February 3, 2012

I find it very amusing that this site takes more than .1 seconds to load. It's just a pixel!
posted by Four Flavors at 8:54 AM on February 3, 2012

Way to tempting for me cheat using ctrl-zoom.
posted by I've wasted my life at 12:20 PM on February 3, 2012

Alternative title for this game:
"Spend some time getting reacquainted with your eyeball floaters."
posted by ShutterBun at 1:11 PM on February 3, 2012 [3 favorites]

etc. I have one dead pixel on my iPad. Every once in a while, I notice it and it pisses me off.

I have one dead pixel on my iMac and this stimulated the same ire in me.
posted by looli at 2:29 PM on February 3, 2012

a) oh god I had no idea my screen was this dirty ahhhhh

b) and now I know I have a dead pixel.
posted by Auguris at 8:09 PM on February 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

var p = $('pixel');

var win = function() {
  var e = new jQuery.Event('click');
  e.pageX = p.position().left;
  e.pageY = p.position().top;
  $(window).trigger(e);
}

setInterval(win, 10);

:D
posted by yaymukund at 10:25 PM on February 3, 2012 [1 favorite]