Tanked Up

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?

I’ve added a simplified bump map tutorial on the main site. The previous one was really for watermarking images, but this one is probably more useful for most types of bump maps. There are also the base layers included for download, so that you can get up and running quickly.

The tutorial can be found at simple bump map tutorial

A warning to anyone who enjoys the effects of nitrogen narcosis.

The GIMP bump mapping tutorial has proved a bit of a hit, with other imaging sites now linking into it.
As it has proved so successful, I have revamped it to incorporate some improvements and reduced the image sizes, to speed up page load times. Continue to the bump mapping tutorial …

Does anyone click on the bloody stuff? Do spammers live worth while fulfilling lives? Do they sleep well at night knowing that I’ve spent most of the day loading anti spam filters, deleting email addresses we’ve used for years, because they are now inundated with 200 emails a day full of complete shite!! Probably.
For some reason the last two days have brought it all to a head with the comments and emails both becoming unusable AND my web host being hit with a DDOS which has crippled it. Why can’t these half wits be prosecuted. It’s getting to the stage where most of your time is spent deleting or finding ways of blocking these fuckers.
I can sympathize completely with Simon Collison of Colly Logic, who coincidently posted this rather amusing rant on the same subject today. And he actually gets legitimate comments sent to him, so it must be infuriating. We’ve had very little feedback so it’s not really a problem to disable comments. If my glass was half empty I’d be depressed at the lack of interest in the posts, but my glass is half full, so it’s no real problem to ditch comments
Unless something can be invented to stop spammers, I give it five years and the internet bandwidth will be mostly taken up by these sad bastards, if it isn’t already.
If anyone knows a good way of preventing spam, please share. Well until this post gets hit too and I have to disable comments again! I’m not even sure if this will post due to the dodgy nature of my web hosting at the moment …

It seems like most weeks nowadays there is a new report of global warming/damage. There appears to be little or no real effort to do anything about it. Whenever environmental issues come up and they effect 4×4/SUV use or how much it puts us out, people ring in and complain about the price of petrol.

I read this report on the BBC news site today and I would recommend you read it too and then vote in a government that will :
1. Acknowledge there is a problem

2. Act now, rather than them saying what they think you want to hear, so that they can get into power

I’ve added an interactive map of Tottenham Hotspur’s full history in Europe, just because I can really. I’ll be adding a similar map for Pompey just as soon as I can find a map of the Isle of Wight

Continue to Spurs in Europe map …

IE7 is out at last and I’ve had a good look at it this evening. Errrr what’s new?

I mean really, what’s new, not copied, but really new? I can’t see any Firefox converts changing back. IE7 is better than IE6, what isn’t, but I get the feeling M$ are only playing catch up now. Would be nice to see them innovate a bit wouldn’t it?

And Firefox 2.0 is out now too, no major visual differences, but more secure. I hope both of them take up Opera 9’s page preview on tab idea. If you don’t know what I mean download and check it out, it’s the best feature I’ve seen on a browser for a while.

So Jermaine Defoe has a comedy nibble on Mascherano eh?

It’s only the start of Martin Jol’s cunning plan to convert Spurs to the dark side. Thursday, 14th December 2006, Dinamo Bucuresti (Romania), White Hart Lane. The secret weapon is primed and ready to go …