@Auster@thebrainbin.org Bookwyrm and NeoDB are both awesome alternatives to GoodReads, with NeoDB offering far more than just books.

The only downside is that Kindle directly integrates with GoodReads, I'm not sure there's been any independent efforts to integrate alternatives into e-readers.

I'm reading about a Word "clone", apparently made by the same people who recreated "clones" of Adobe's software suite.

I don't know how legal any of this is, and I'm not going to get into that. But I can't help smiling at the reactions.

When they started pushing AI, they told us we would lose our jobs, whether we liked it or not. That AI would replace us, whether we liked it or not.

Now that someone has decided to apply the very same principle to their products, suddenly they don't like it anymore.

"You can create new games, but you can't recreate existing ones."

Hurts, doesn't it?

And that's the point. The problem isn't the technology itself, but the way certain sharks use it at other people's expense. When they're the ones on the receiving end, and only then, ethics suddenly becomes a concern again.

I've re-written this post four times, because I can't work out how to say the thing I want to say. I've given up and I'm just going to ramble until I think I'm done.

While learning #Blender sometimes I'd get stuck with a particular aspect of the project I'm working on. When this happens, I’d look for some kind of guide or tutorial by searching for "(thing I'm having trouble with) Blender Tutorial". I found this sometimes limited my progress, because often the "thing I'm having trouble with" is actually unrelated to Blender entirely.

With Blender you're often able to apply the skills and knowledge from disciplines you have learned in the real world. If you have some experience in Film or Television, then you have a head start in knowing how to frame a camera and properly light a scene. If you have experience in architecture, you might have a much easier time when designing a house or building in a Blender scene. If you have a background in animation, a lot of the animating tools will make sense to you. If you can code, then the nodes system might be easier for you than it is for me.

So when you're stuck, try looking up a guide on the discipline without specifically looking for a "Blender Tutorial" on that subject. If you're struggling with animation, look up "How to Animate" or "The 12 Principles of Animation", because that base knowledge will transfer to the tools in Blender.

The things that took me the most time when making my Space Pop music video, which was my first major Blender project, were sculpting a face, and styling hair. I have never done anything with sculpting or hairdressing, but the most helpful learning materials were the ones that were made by sculptors who make physical sculptures, and real-life hairdressers. I lost weeks trying to make hair that didn't look awful. Actually, that probably had more to do with the particle simulation system that my inexperience with hair-dressing, but they both played a part!

Because once you have the hang of basic 3d modelling, you end up being drawn into these simulation systems. They promise to make things easier. Want a field of grass where every blade waves slightly in the breeze? Well, you can hand place each piece of grass in the field, and then animate each one by hand - or you can use a particle simulation to scatter the grass across the whole field in one step, and then simulate a breeze blowing them all. Well, simulations sound like a great idea!! Unfortunately, it's a whole new level of complexity with confusing attributes and settings, and if you get anything wrong, nothing works. What should have saved you time, ends up costing days of banging your head on a wall. Perhaps hand placement and individual animation of each blade wan't so bad after all...

I recommend learning Blender. It's amazingly powerful, and completely free. Be warned though, it has a reputation for breaking people. If you can persevere though, it's totally worth it.

Ramble ends. 🫶

Space Pop
~ #Dgar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztqPhHmA2YY

#B3D #music

@lightweight I suspect part of the problem in your communications with CCPL may be that you're looking at it as a software problem, when software is only a small part of the problem.

And/or - tbh when you suggested in this thread that maybe we need a wee conference about this, my instant reaction was ... mate, we have conferences all the time. We talk about this stuff. We are not ignorant of libre and its benefits. We've been known to develop our own libre tools and software. But we're also very aware of its resource requirements (free as in kittens!) and dependencies and... you give the impression that you're not as familiar conversely with the complexities of the library environment (technical and beyond).

For example, again, Koha is an ILS. Kotui provides both an ILS and a discovery layer among other systems. (See https://natlib.govt.nz/librarians/kotui/what-kotui-offers) It is quite plausible to me that it could be cheaper overall to get a proprietary ILS and proprietary discovery layer from the same vendor, compared to supporting a libre ILS and a proprietary discovery layer, because it dramatically simplifies the integrations between them.

In the long run, sure, it'd be great for libraries to develop a libre discovery layer too. I've been thinking "how hard could it be?" for at least 15 years -- and then immediately going "Oh wait. Yeah. Oh no." Because this is where "software is only part of the problem" comes in and also where I get weary of trying to explain in a social media thread.

Lots of library conference papers and journal articles get published open access if you do want to learn more about what libraries are doing in the tech/open/sovereignty spaces.

Whenever I start a home improvement or DIY project, I immediately contact my best friend for advice knowing full well that within the hour, he will be at my door ready to take control while I make tea and pass him tools.