Pixel Collector: Collecting Pixels and Payments

Tired of working on a project and not getting paid after completion? Me too. So I built PixelCollector (with the help of Claude Code), a Windows service that sits quietly on a client's server, waiting patiently, like a very patient debt collector who doesn't need to eat or sleep.

Here's how it works: PixelCollector checks a Notion database every minute to see if the license is active and the expiry date hasn't passed. If both check out — great, it does absolutely nothing. If your client decides the invoice is more of a “suggestion”, PixelCollector plasters an unskippable watermark across every single monitor on the server. The watermark cannot be closed. The process cannot be killed from Task Manager. You can click through it, which is very generous of me.

The best part is activating it requires zero effort on your end. Flip the status in Notion, and within 60 seconds their server starts looking like a Windows XP activation screen. Flip it back when they pay, and it's gone just as fast. No site visits. No awkward calls. Just the quiet, dignified power of software doing exactly what you told it to do.

Is this the professional, mature way to handle client relationships? Absolutely not. Does it work? I'll let you know after I send my next invoice.