The Graphics Muse

1. v; to become absorbed in thought 
2. n; [ fr. Any of the nine sister goddesses of learning and the arts in Greek Mythology ]: a source of inspiration

Instead, I'd like to announce a new Web site:  Graphics-Muse.com.  I realized the time was right to consolidate all my online writings into a single site, to put them into databases and provide some control over when I could make my work available.  Basically, trying to write this column, with all the news stories, reader mail, and so forth just takes too long each month.  I needed something more automated, and searchable.  I needed databases.  That also meant I needed CGI and I couldn't get that with the Gazette due to the way it gets distributed.

At the same time, I'm moving TheGimp.com under the same roof.  This means I can use pretty much the same tools to write on just about any topic.  Plus I'll have (eventually) all my reader mail and Q And A style stuff in searchable databases. And my old tools database has been updated and migrated to a much friendlier format! 

All of the old Muse issues from the Gazette, plus all the issues of TheGimp.com are available from this new site.  All of the old Gimp resources (including Tutorials) are also there.  I'll update the site once or twice a day, so you don't need to check it every 15 minutes like LinuxToday or Slashdot, but you will want to stop by daily.  

The new site, which should be online by October 1st if all goes well, is DHTML (i.e. CSS and Javascript) based, so you'll need a browser that can handle that.  Netscape handles it pretty well, but you'll want version 4.5 or later (preferably 4.61, which is what I used to test the site).  I haven't tried IE since I don't have access (nor do I want access) to any Microsoft systems.  I tried Lynx and it appears to work moderately well, but I make no promises on supporting text based browsers.  I'm not even exactly sure how to use Lynx.

The new site is designed to work on 800 pixels wide displays.  It should work ok in larger displays, but you'll have to scroll horizontally on smaller ones.

I'm using DHTML to provide simplified management of articles and their summaries.  It just works better this way.  Since themes.org, Slashdot and freshmeat use it, I thought it would be ok.  I just may not have done it as well as they have.  We'll see.

My thanks to Margie Richardson and Mike Orr for helping me make the Muse a useful resource.  I've enjoyed my time working on the Gazette version of the Muse.  And I'm not abandoning the Gazette completely - I hope to encourage a few new writers to step forward with their own columns. 

Anyway, bookmark the new site and visit often!  And thanks for 3 wonderful years in the Gazette!
 

General Web Sites 
Linux Graphics
Linux Sound/Midi Page
Linux Artist.org

Some of the Mailing Lists and Newsgroups I keep an eye on and where I get much of the information in this column 
The Gimp User and Gimp Developer Mailing Lists. 
The IRTC-L discussion list
comp.graphics.rendering.raytracing
comp.graphics.rendering.renderman
comp.graphics.api.opengl
comp.os.linux.announce