And since a few people asked for it, I’ve taken the slides from my presentation and uploaded them to the Hand Turkey website (in PDF format). Have fun!

Speaking of websites, to go with the book, I’ve prepared a companion website with a whole heap of content – including images, GIMP files, and at least one python script – that you can use while going through the book. In the coming weeks, I’ll also be producing some video tutorials to accompany the book as well. You find all of that stuff on the companion site at www.gimpbible.com. Also, if you happen to stumble across an error in the book, send me a message and I’ll update an errata page for that chapter so everyone can stay up-to-date.

That’s about it… I’m pretty excited. This is my second book and it’s almost twice as long as my first. It was an intense project and I’m eager to find out what other folks think about it. Oh… also, I have to put out some big thanks on this book. Rob Shimonski, my co-author for GIMP Bible, did an incredible amount of work in a short period of time. I’m also honored that Melody Smith and Chris Hoyer provided me with a veritable library of photographs to use in my example figures throughout the book. Although you can see some of it on gimpbible.com, you really should check out their websites for examples of their excellent work. I also need to thank David Revoy, Tina Keller, and Rennett Stowe for the images of theirs that I also used in the book. Happy reading. Feedback welcome!

Also… if this doesn’t syndicate properly, here a direct link to the video on YouTube.

Of course, it’s a growing spiral. I’ve also managed to be contacted by all kinds of people I’d never expected to hear from: people from places I used to live, old friends, and former classmates. And, of course, by being involved with one network, there’s the natural tendency to get pulled into other ones. At the invitation of others, I’ve also found myself a part of a few more of these:

• FilmRunner.net - A community site for people involved with all the facets of independent film and television production. This site is still young, but it’s quite a good idea. It networks those of us in production and it also provides a small non-exclusive distribution channel.
• LinkedIn - A site for professional networking. I haven’t really explored this one all that extensively, but I could definitely see the benefits it might bring in… especially from a business perspective.
• Facebook - The site most-compared with MySpace. It started as something with registration limited to just students but has since opened its doors to other users. Particularly of interest (to me at least) is that they’ve made their API available so other people could write Facebook applications. Imagine a ‘Lie of the Day’ application. Whoo!
• Mugshot - My recent interactions with Red Hat folks has introduced me to this interesting little concept. Think of it as an aggregator of social networks. With the understandable exception of FilmRunner.net (because it’s still fairly young), all of the major social networking sites are here. You can pull feeds and data from all of them. I need to play with it more, but it seems neat.

So yeah.. there’s a good chance I’ll post more about some of these sites in the future. I’m still not particularly fond of social networking sites in general… especially for hosting content like sounds, images, and video. I have personal and company websites for that where I can control the quality and distribution of the content a lot better. That said, I’m kind of warming up to the people-interaction aspects that they have.

I mean, in a way, I’ve been parts of social networks for years. In many ways, these sites aren’t much more than a message board on crack. I’ve been a on Blender Artists (formerly Elysiun) for 5+ years, part of TIC for longer than that, and on an uncountable number of more niche (and short-lived) forums, mailing lists, newsgroups and bulletin boards since I first got on the interwebbernet. So in some ways, I suppose that this is a natural progression.

We’ll hafta see…

Human Pixel Perform Huge Real-Time Animation - That’s right, this Samsung-sponsored dance troupe of [some large number of] people actually perform like a live LCD screen.  Incredible stuff.

Darpa’s Better Bionic Arm - I found this particularly incredible.  It’s a bionic arm that gives the wearer tactile feedback so that they’re able to do precise movements and have greater control.  Also, this means that the world is one step closer to the possibility of me actually getting to have a bionic prehensile tail.  Sweet!

Plastic Duck Armada Heads for Britain - Another neatly bizarre article.  Apparently there’s been this swarm of 30,000 plastic ducks floating in the ocean for the past 15 years.  They were released in the Pacific Ocean when a cargo ship lost their container and now they’ve managed to travel and find their way to be on approach to the coastlines of Britain.

How’s them for crazy stuffs?