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Just been checking out 3.2 RC1 and the implementation of discrete 'effects only' layers. This is something I've been banging on about since the 3.0 release and I'm really happy to see it! Now, a filter (or set of filters) can be on its own layer and have its own mask and affect all layers below it.

To do it you need to create a new layer group without any layers in it and set the layer mode to 'Pass through'.

This is going to be awesome for my workflow. One thing I'm going to do is to set up a project with my most used filters and presets as preconfigured layers and then basically just paste them onto new projects :)

Can anyone recommend a charger (or type of charger) to use for recharging a 24v lead acid leisure battery bank from a backup generator? Currently we have a cheap charger bought online but it only puts out about 130 watts, which means running it for quite a long time to significantly recharge the batteries and is much less than gets fed to them when the sun shines. TIA

Cross-posted from fediverse user @peachy@goto.micromail.me

Is there such a thing as a configurable full-body input controller for computers? Is anyone working on that? I know there is work on controlling computers directly with the brain, which will be ace for people with full paralysis, but what I’m interested in is something that goes in the other direction - using more of the body. Think Tom Cruise’s interface in Minority Report but better. Sitting, or even standing, to work at a computer takes its toll on the body, especially the back. Our bodies didn’t evolve to be so static while we’re awake. Emerging from a flare-up of a slipped disc, it has got me thinking of better ways to interface with machines.

Imagine the following:

You come to see me in my studio to see how I and my colleagues do image editing and graphic design in GIMP 4.0. Some of us are stood in front of large displays but no one seems to be using a keyboard, mouse or graphics tablet. I appear to be doing a dance routine from a music video... As I bounce my knee up and across my body you see that the Move tool has been selected. As I raise my left fist above my head it is as though I am holding shift to toggle “Pick a layer or guide”. I draw my right hand across my body with my thumb and forefinger pinched and the selected layer moves with me. Finally, I quickly raise both hands, like I'm flipping over a table and my project is saved and closed. Now that I’ve stopped moving around so energetically you notice that my stylish and comfortable cotton loungewear and gloves have small sensors dotted around them. I explain that the position of these sensors relative to each other and to the space have been mapped to traditional keyboard and mouse inputs via my operating system.

Moving to the next workspace you see my colleague Babs. Her white hair pokes out above a VR headset and she has a number of small cameras tracking her movement to the soundtrack of Chinese classical music. She is an elder and a veteran and even contributed some of the code that makes this stuff work, back in the day. She says it was no big deal; she mostly just connected up different programs, some of which Hollywood has been using since the 1990s. Her movements are slow and smooth. It looks like she’s doing Qi Gong or Tai Chi or something. Raising a hand in front of her heart you see the Filters menu open and lowering it slowly the menu scrolls down to Enhance. Gracefully stepping sideways and lowering her hand further, Heal Selection is highlighted in the submenu. Turning her hand palm-up launches the plugin. She tells you that one of her first contributions to the interface was to make the body position tolerances configurable by the user in their desktop settings.

Lastly you watch my cousin Tommy at work. When we met I told you about how a head injury had left him partially paralysed and unable to speak. He too is using a VR headset, but instead of having cameras pointed at him he has a HD sonar array. His disability was caused by an error in the police’s facial-recognition software and understandably he’s had a thing about cameras ever since. The bad guy got away and he never caught the bus he was running to catch. Every couple of days he asks whether Nancy’s cameras are still disconnected from the network, which they always are. Tapping his ring-finger once on the armrest of his wheelchair selects the Text tool. Turning his head to the side, he purses his lips and sweeps his face back around to make his text box. You see his mouth moving but there is no sound. “Hi, nice to meet you” appears in his projects new text layer. “You too” you reply. Twitching his right shoulder you see his text layer is duplicated, blinking twice and nodding his head replaces the text with what you just said. He must have used speech-to-text to record your words to his desktop clipboard and then pasted them into the text field. Pressing his index finger against the arm rest and looking toward the ceiling brings the new text layer to the top of the stack. Running the same sequence of movements again, a third text layer becomes visible onscreen. “I’d never edited a picture in my life until I got into this tech as part of my physiotherapy treatment. My cousin ended up offering me this job and now I can work faster than anyone else here, especially Babs. I’m pretty sure she’s just here for fun but none of us mind.”

#tech #health #disability #GIMP #solarpunk

I've just started using Soulseek and it's great. I want to make sure that I'm being a good neighbour on it - do I need to do anything to ensure that my files are available for others to download? And do I need to structure directories e.g Artist name > Album name or does it work off metadata?

Can anyone offer some advice on getting an 18-month-old to sleep at night?

Until now the three techniques we've had are 1) feeding to sleep on the boob, 2) walking to sleep in the sling and 3) falling asleep in the car. Number 3 is only good for naps in the daytime, number 2 is getting difficult as our kid is getting big and heavy (and is a PITA at night anyway, and number 1 is starting to become less reliable/effective.

What have you learnt about getting kids (particularly this age, if relevant) to sleep?

Many thanks!

What are some good options for translating between spoken languages?

Can anyone tell me whether modifiers/diffusers 're-polarise' light? For example, if i put a polarising filter on a speedlite but then fire it through a softbox, will the light still be polarised outside of the softbox?

One of the arguments for free and open source software is that its transparency allows for anyone to evaluate the quality and security of its code and contribute to its improvement.

I'm curious about how many people actually can and do that?

I'm a user of software, not a programmer, but I do sometimes scan over install scripts to see if they contain URLs that I don't recognise, although I'm not at all equipped to map and dig into the code of what I run and neither do I have the time to.

Do you?

Trying to guage how this theoretical benefit translates into the real world.

I'm keen to avail myself of all the best available plugins! What are the most useful or effective ones you've found so far for GIMP 3?

Mine are:

• Batcher: For automatically processing images, in batches or singly. You can add almost any action to the processing chain, including your saved adjustment presets and G'MIC-Qt commands. Epic plugin and has become indispensible to my workflow.

• Frequency Separation: Super simple, easy and smooth setting up of a frequency separation group.

• Resynthesizer: For 'texture synthesis' or 'healing'. Tip: make sure your selection does not have feathered edges when uses the Heal Selection filter. On linux is currently only available when GIMP is installed as a flatpak afaik, unless you can build from source.

Massive shoutout for FOSS rebooting my career.

Just put my new site up, and a physical exhibition today, and had my first 'reboot-shoot' with a client, all in the space of a week. I'm also sick with flu and toothache and have a very small human living with me. For context. Go me...

I would not have done it without free and open source software.

And I'm fuckin chuffed.

I owe these thanks to projects and people, for giving me hope and capability that I would not have had otherwise:

Privacy advocates on youtube - tipping me over to linux.

Pixls.us - community photography forum for FOSS.

Geeqie - picture sorting, done.

Rawtherapee - Raw processor and way more. Better than Adobe.

GIMP - Too good. My desert island software. Come at me and my clients in the comments if you don't like the menu structure and default keyboard shortcuts.

Hugo - static site generator, but use a custom theme and then get confused about how it works, learn it properly but then hire a Hugo developer who will be cool, because Hugo is FOSS.

Things are going really well so far. People are booking me/making a plan to book me. I'm working with integrity and have hope that I can take care of my family with this.

Got loads of hope and positivity.

My site is jpicture.net if you want to have a look. Content is going to get updated, soon, but I had to publish it today to coincide with other things (like the exhibition) going on today.

Peace

P.S If anyone has questions, please ask - I'll reply over the next few days.

PPS my creative stuff is at https://pixelfed.social/Eliptic

The prospect of this new party has given a lot people hope and it shouldn't be allowed to fail before it has properly begun.