tigert.com | my life and stuff um, what do I write here?

Free Software for Designers

So yeah. Inkscape is pretty cool. The user interface, while still needs some work, has come a long way. It is a pretty neat, capable design tool for a variety of things. Like desktop icons, or, maybe airplane paintjobs?

This is something I did for our aviation club recently. The base photo is a "blank" side view of the airplane, a Cessna Skyhawk - the same type we have on the club. I loaded it into Inkscape, and sketched the paint scheme over it with Inkscape's great bezier tool. Inkscape has layers so it was easy to "lock" the photo on the background without accidentally moving it while sketching on top.

This is definitely one of the interesting graphics applications to keep your eyes on.

If you have done print design yourself, you know the feeling when you see the first printouts of the job you worked on, sweating to get it all right and correct.. to see it on paper, in physical form. I dont know if I am weird, but it feels warm and fuzzy (given the print company did not botch it completely )

Now, to see your design, applied by a painter guy, with masking tape, and having it turn out pretty much like you originally intended, and seeing it in real life, 3D for the first time.. that is pretty cool too!

Cool things you can do with free software..

Category fun

So, I think this might be my first chance to post something that goes on both category "Aviation" and "Linux"

A battery-propelled self-starting sailplane (glider) with embedded linux controlling the lithium-ion battery pack and engine system

"The advantages" (of Linux) "are obvious -- we can modify or adapt anything we want. And we are starting to know the system well."

Pretty cool! Wish I had one of those.. Some day when I have a lot of free time (hah) I want to design graphics and usability stuff for airplane cockpit displays. On Linux.