A quick update about the mirror painting feature in GIMP. I have regularly people reminding me, and you are right about doing so! But know that It is not forgotten. Simply my life has been a little going on many directions lately, with moving back to my home country after about 5 years on the road (and still not fully stable), trying to manage a non-profit for Libre Art in Paris (you’ll hear very soon about it!), and various projects.
Yet the mirror-painting project is not dead. I simply know that GIMP 2.10 is not to be out just yet, so there is no need to hurry right now, while there are much more pressing things for me to do. Also be assured, with the platform I used, I don’t get the money until it is done, which I think is a good thing.
Anyway I’ll give more news about it soon, I hope. But you’ll likely hear about other projects before.
See you soon!
A small news about a project I have been following for quite some time, and even participating a little, though not as much as I would have wanted unfortunately. Have you heard about the apertus° project? Well that’s an OpenHardware project, whose goal is to make a real and professional cinema camera.
Apertus° is running a crowdfunding campaign right now, just a few days to close in, and we really hope everyone interested would make this story happen!
To know more about the project, read below. Apertus AXIOM beta concept art
Apertus° was born from a community of hardware hackers around the Elphel Cameras. Elphel cameras are themselves OpenHardware, and using Free Software, which makes them awesome already by definition. But they are clearly rather made for technical projects: science projects, and such. One of the most famous projects based on an Elphel Camera is their usage for Google Street View.
Several people in the cinema business liked the idea and hacked something from these, but that was not enough. After all, why wouldn’t it be possible to have a real professional-quality cinema camera fully OpenHardware? This is how the apertus° project, community, non-profit entity and even small company came to life. Notice the ° in the title? This is for “openness”, where usually companies and people would set a ™ for Trademark, a clear position taken against all the restrictions most companies would like to set on everything and everyone.
We know about small scale OpenHardware projects (well they may be high scale in diffusion, but the hardware itself is small), like the now-famous Raspberry Pi or the ColorHug. But this is another level.
Of course you will say there are a lot of other huge and awesome hardware crowdfunded nowaydays, but you are basically funding for people to make proprietary product and a company without real control of what will happen after. You get your perks, but then what? OpenHardware is a complete different story. You are building a future where you have the control. This is not just about this specific object, a camera or whatever this is. This is also about sharing and spreading knowledge, not being considered as a walking wallet and an idiot. Because now it is a camera. Later it can be your fridge, your whole computer, from the motherboard to graphics card, your car maybe even, and why not your whole house! In a world where we are renting more and more, where every object is now a black box that you are forbidden to open (or your warranty is told to “expire” prematurely), where even car dealers can’t fix your car, with proprietary electronics, anymore, this could be a refreshing change of pace.
Let’s take back what we were supposed to own, one object at a time!
So now, if you are not interested at all about filming yourself, I understand you wouldn’t fund the bigger perks, but what about stickers or a t-shirt to show your support for the project?
And if you are interested into filming, well, consider funding for your own OpenHardware camera! I can tell you, I reserved my own camera by funding long ago. 🙂
