Meet the Gimp by Rolf Steinort features video tutorials on the GIMP, an alternative to software like PhotoShop and Fireworks.

screencasters.heathenx.org by HeathenX and Richard Querin features video tutorials on Inkscape, a vector graphics program similar to Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, or Freehand.

Both programs are free software and run on Linux, Mac, Windows and BSD.

Addicted to Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce or other microblogging platforms? Check out Identi.ca, an open source microblogging platform.

Identi.ca is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License, which pleases Free Software nuts like me. It also supports OpenID.

I don’t spend a lot of time microblogging and can’t imagine why people would care what I have to say, but you can find me at: http://identi.ca/sewmyheadon.

My wife and I have two DreamHost accounts that we’re closing because of miserable downtime and no uptime guarantees. (Read more…)

Congrats to the Automattic team and all of the contributors for the release of WordPress 2.6!

There are a host of new features, enhancements and bug fixes. Some of my favorites so far:

• Version control
• Better plugin management
• Enhanced security including full SSL support
• Better handling of very large numbers of categories and pages.

There’s plenty more, so check out WordPress 2.6 for yourself!

Join us at the Gig Harbor Web Design Meetup this Wednesday, July 16th at 7pm at the Peninsula Library.

We’ll have our usual bit of discussion and a few presentations on installing and configuring Content Management Systems including:

• WordPress
• Drupal

Look forward to seeing you there!