Do you get a bit confused with all the different GIMP dialogue boxes that are open when you use the program? For all the GIMP tutorials on the site I’ve left the interface like that, to save screenshot sizes and space. But for everyday use, it’s much easier to have it all in one easy package. I’ve added an instruction page on the site to help streamline the GIMP interface.
Follow the link for the GIMP interface streamlining
As the MLS is about to be concluded on Sunday with the MLS Cup, I was checking the MLS site and found this statement by the MLS Commissioner Don Garber.
“We are proud to award our 15th team to Seattle, a world-class city and tremendous soccer market, Seattle’s rich tradition of support for major soccer events combined with the ownership group of Joe Roth, Adrian Hanauer, Drew Carey and Vulcan Sports and Entertainment were the driving factors in our decision to award this expansion team. Additionally, the inclusion of Seattle in MLS provides us with a true gateway to Asia for a sport that is at the forefront of today’s globalization. We look forward to Major League Soccer’s debut in the Emerald City in 2009.”
I have to say I’ve not thought of football being a front runner in the rapid globalisation of the world! Somehow McDonald’s or Star Buck’s seemed more apt for that role. Unfortunately, in the long term, I think maybe he’s right. The American model isn’t at present embraced by the world. The fact that there is no promotion or relegation, is the biggest problem as it hardly inspires a spirit of competition.
For example, if a team lies at the bottom of their conference (with no chance of making the playoffs) plays a team vying for the MLS Supporters’ Shield, how much of a fight are they going to put up? If there was the threat of relegation to a lower league, I could guarantee the game would be more competitive.
Football in Europe, especially the Premier League, has increasingly become about money and branding. There are now three high profile American owners in the Premier League, along with many more foreign owners. I’d have no problem with that at all generally. After all most of the major UK companies are foreign owned now! The problem is the real ambition of all the club owners now.
How many of them really want to win trophies? The Carling Cup is worthless apparently, the FA Cup gets in the way of chasing a Premier League spot that will guarantee lots of cash. The UEFA Cup is an unwanted distraction. If that is the case, why the hell bother trying to get a high league position? Just finish 10th every year and rake the money in from just staying in the Premier League. I should know all about that mid table thing, being a Spurs fan!
So that leaves the Champions League or nothing. And do they want to win the Champions League? Well of course, but mostly it’s about getting through the group stages and bumping up the piggy bank.
Why do Chelsea want to win the Champions League? Well according to Peter Kenyon they have to win the Champions League a couple of times (run before you can walk?!), to establish themselves as a global brand. A global brand? Not to be remembered as a fantastic football team like the Chelsea of the early 70’s then.
Liverpool were referred to as a franchise by George Gillett at his first press conference after taking over. Manchester United were bought on borrowed money, obviously because they are a ‘global brand’ already. Tottenham’s board undermine and then sack the best manager they’ve had in years for not getting into the Champions League. And their reason for getting into the Champions League? To boost the club profile and sell it on for a nice fat profit.
Winning the Champions League comes a distant second to raising the clubs profile and therefore selling more shirts and taking the TV cash.
The Premier League is constantly hyped as the best League in the world. The formation of the Premier League coincided with the start of the Champions League, so it bears some comparisons.
The number of times a Premier League team has won the Champions League, which has now run for 15 seasons. Twice. This compares to the so called lesser leagues of La Liga & Serie A winning it four times each.
The previous 15 seasons, when the old First Division was operating, English teams won the European Cup six times. And they were banned from competing for a third of those!! The next best league was Serie A with three European Cup wins.
With the amount of money now swilling around the upper echelons of the Premier League, there is only one outcome. The Champions League will almost certainly be won by a Premier League team every year. I predict 10 of the next 15.
The top teams will by that time have split from their national leagues and formed their own Coca Cola European League. All their stadiums will be named after a company, it’s happening already and much as I now laugh at the FC Dallas & Colorado Rapids stadium names (Pizza Hut Park & Dick’s Sporting Goods Park respectively), that’s the future.
There will be no promotion or relegation from the European League, you’ll have to buy your way in.
At least one of the current major teams will be a real franchise and not be located in their original city/country.
Don’t believe it? Bookmark this and come back in 15 years. All the above will have happened, although the European League may have a different sponsor 
There is now another addition to the European football history pages. I have now added a page for Turkish Süper Lig and Fortis Türkiye Kupasi (Turkish Cup) winners.
The new page can be found at Turkish League & Cup
A new league history has been added to the already extensive European football pages on the site. This is the full history of the Belgian League and Cup. It can be found on the main site at Belgian League & Cup
It’s probably the most basic of image graphic questions, but also one of the most important. Once you’ve got a good understanding of layers and how they can be manipulated to effect other layers, other more complex tasks become a lot simpler to grasp.
So, I’ve added a very basic tutorial on the main site to help complete novices to understand layers and hopefully get past the first hurdle in creating wonderful images
Follow the Layers Explained link to start your understanding Obi-Wan Kenobi
Sorry about the absence of a site over the last two weeks. It was partly my fault, but mostly my incredibly slow web host.
I hope all is now working correctly and there will be no more interruptions to service.
Tankedup
As a Spurs fan, I can’t really drum up any sympathy for Arsenal being dumped out of the Champions League by PSV tonight.
But I have to say I did feel a little sorry for the team, when The Emirates virtually emptied after PSV had scored their equaliser. I mean there was still 7 mins plus injury time (3 mins as it turned out) for Arsenal to score 2 goals and go through. Isn’t that the time to get behind the team and try and roar them into action? Don’t tell me it was an impossible task as Man Utd managed to do it in the 1999 final.
It’s all very well having a 60,000 stadium, but if half of them are going to piss off when the team needs them most, what’s the point?! Better to have a packed noisy Highbury with 10 mins left, than a half empty soulless stadium isn’t it?
I suppose Arsenal fans can do what Spurs fans have had to do for the last 10 years and watch us in the hope we’ll get knocked out! Nice to see Spurs are STILL the most successful London club in Europe (see this page for details), 1 Cup Winners’ Cup, 2 UEFA Cups and another one on the way
So Tottenham have got SC Braga and a nice trip to Portugal in the UEFA Cup Round of 16. The Estádio Municipal de Braga is one of the most memorable stadiums from Euro 2004, with one side of the ground being carved out of the surrounding rock face and the other overlooking the city of Braga.
It’s a pity Spurs couldn’t play Feyenoord in the last round, as they have a great European tradition with them and the record (won 2, lost 2) might have been improved.
Apparently SC Braga are known as Arsenal do Minho, ever since one of their coaches saw Arsenal in the 30’s and made them change their strip to Arsenal’s red and white. Maybe Spurs finally have a chance to beat Arsenal this season, well a version of them anyway If it’s anything like their last meeting in 1984/85 UEFA Cup it should be good, the aggregate score was 9-0 to Spurs! See the Spurs in Europe page for full European details.
Having a half hour free last night I decided to update my GIMP development version 2.3.9 to the latest installer version 2.3.12 from sourceforge.net.
A simple task I thought and a constructive way to fill a half hour. It never works that way with software does it?!
Having followed all the instruction to the letter, I started the new version to be confronted with numerous messages telling me that all the plugins could not be found and when it eventually started there were no filters and no script-fu menu.
After a few uninstalls and reboots it got worse and GIMP just crashed every time I tried to open it.
So for anyone else out there I’ll save you hours of frustration and searching internet forums by supplying the fix.
1. If you have a previous version of GIMP loaded go to the GIMP menu and uninstall it.
2. THE IMPORTANT BIT: If you did have a previous development version of GIMP loaded, go to your C:\Documents and Settings\user\.gimp-2.3\ directory and find a configuration file called ‘pluginrc’. Delete this file. The new version will create its own pluginrc file, I found this fix on a GIMP chat forum. I’m not sure if this is a bug in only the 2.3.12 version installer, but it will save you a lot of time and frustration.
3. Now click on the GIMP 2.3 executable (which includes the GTK+ Runtime Environment) and load this to your system.
The developement version 2.3 should now work perfectly. Well, as perfectly as a development package can anyway.
I hope this has saved you as much time and frustration as I wasted, if so feel free to leave a comment. There is a detailed tutorial for loading the stable V2.2 and development V2.3 GIMP on our main site.
Can anyone explain to me why GIMP V2.3.9 saves gif’s at a quarter the size of GIMP V2.2.11? I’ve noticed it while saving screenshots for one of the tutorials on the site. Not only are they 25% of the old file size, but the image is far better too!
I have gone through all the gif save settings for the two versions and I can’t find any difference at all.
I’ve attached the same screenshot taken with both versions. The first is V2.2.11 and as you can see it’s not very good and it’s also 38Kb big.
The second is V2.3.9 and is perfectly clear and 9Kb in size.
What gives? I’m really curious to know. Have I missed something obvious?
